Stenciled birthdays

I love the different things you can do with stencils and ink blending, but I seem to use my stencils more often with texture paste or for gel printing. So a few weeks ago I decided to pull out some stencils and my Taylored Expressions inks and create a collection of backgrounds to use for birthday cards.

Here are the completed backgrounds. I tried to use stencils that I either hadn’t used yet or hadn’t used in awhile. The only stencil I used for more than one background was a layering tie dye stencil because I wanted to try a couple of different color combinations. And one of the backgrounds — the multi-colored floral in the bottom row — uses more than one stencil. Before I stenciled the flowers, which I knew would leave a lot of white space, I used a script stencil with Crumb Cake ink to add light text.

I decided to focus on my Taylored Expressions inks for a couple of reasons. First, I only have about two dozen colors, so I wouldn’t be so overwhelmed trying to decide on color combinations. And second, all those ink pads live in one storage basket, so it was easy to bring the basket to the table and have them all right at my fingertips.

My initial goal with these backgrounds was simply to adhere them to card bases and then add die-cut birthday sentiments for quick cards. That worked out for a couple of the cards, and then, of course, I started to make things more involved. But ultimately, I was pleased with all of the cards. Here they are:

When I finished turning the stenciled backgrounds into cards, I had a couple of leftover birthday die cuts I hadn’t used. So I pulled out some patterned paper and created two more cards.

I’ll just have to do this a few more times, and I’ll have a good stash of birthday cards!

Thanks for stopping by!

Summer postcard art

This year my local art supply store, Wet Paint, is doing their 13th annual Summer Postcard Project. All you have to do to participate (from anywhere!) is make a postcard and mail it to the store (postmarked by Aug. 15, 2026). Today I made two postcards for the project.

I absolutely love how this one turned out. I started with a watercolor postcard, glued a gel print to the front, and trimmed the edges. Using bits and pieces from other gel prints, I cut out petals, leaves, and a center for a flower. I played around with the layout for awhile; the flower was too big to add a second one, but too small to be the only thing on the front of the card. I finally settled on adding a quote, and this one — “Where flowers bloom, so does hope” — was the perfect length and the perfect sentiment. Using a Micron pen, I drew a border around the postcard and all the flower pieces. Then I held my breath and started the lettering for the quote. A few places were a little tricky because the paint on the gel print was bumpy, but I did it! I used a ruler to help with spacing and keeping the words straight. I added a few little hearts and covered the postcard with Mod Podge to help protect it in the mail.

For my second postcard (which I actually made first), I created something in the style of neurographic art. I started with a watercolor postcard and used a Sharpie permanent marker to trace different-sized circles. I let the circles overlap and go off the edge. Then I rounded off every place where two lines intersected (so the V shapes look more like U shapes). Then I started filling in the shapes. First I did the doodles, three different styles and four shapes for each style. Then I used ZIG Clean Color brush markers to add the color. Working one shape at a time, I “painted” water on the shape with a water brush, outlined the shape with the color, and then used the water brush to pull the color into the middle of the shape. And since I like to do things evenly, I filled in nine shapes for each color. :)

I’m ready to drop these in the mail tomorrow. The store displays all the postcards they receive in their front windows, so I’m looking forward to stopping by in the coming weeks to admire all the summer postcard art. Thanks for stopping by!

A banner day

Since I have some time off this summer, I want to work on some art/craft projects other than card making. Today I decided to make a banner for our kitchen. We have banners that we use during the fall and for Christmas, but I’ve been wanting to make something for the spring and summer. Here it is:

I apologize that these aren’t great photos. I should have taken pictures before I hung it up, but I was excited to put it up, and then I didn’t feel like taking it back down. Just ignore all the kitchen clutter. :)

The canvas banner pieces and the pompoms are from a couple of old kits from Stampin’ Up! I’d used parts of the kits for other things over the years, but I’d saved the pompoms specifically because I loved the colors. So I used those colors as the palette for the banner.

I rummaged through my crafting supplies and found a variety of buttons, brads, ribbons, and flowers in green, coral, aqua, and a few neutrals. I used linen thread to sew the buttons on to the narrow canvas pieces and to attach trinket keys in the heart cut-outs of the rounded pieces. I used hot glue to the adhere the other pieces to the pennants.

I added large eyelets to the banners and strung them with a thick twine. Using a needle, I strung the pompoms on linen thread, grouping them in pairs between the banner pieces. I finished with pieces of ribbon tied around the twine in several places along the banner.

Thanks for stopping by!

June Christmas cards: Nature sings

Earlier this month I was thinking about what to do for my June Christmas cards. I asked my sister for a suggestion, and she said “purple.” It wasn’t much to go on, but I liked the idea because I haven’t made any purple holiday cards yet this year. So I went with it, and decided to combine the themes of nature and music with purple. Here are my finished cards:

I made a total of ten cards with this design. Well, technically I suppose it’s eight cards of this design and two with slight modifications. If you look carefully at the photo, you might notice two cards that are just a tiny bit different. Here they are by themselves:

The card on the left was the first prototype. I liked the way it looked, but I really wanted to add the sentiment “Let heaven and nature sing.” Unfortunately, I only have that saying on one stamp (how?!?), and it wasn’t the right shape to fit anywhere on that layout. So instead I held my breath and hand wrote it around the edges of the focal layer. The result was okay, but I didn’t really want to hand write on all the cards (too much pressure). I decided to make a new prototype with all the same elements but in a portrait orientation instead. Then I added the sentiment on a small tag in the lower right corner. It was okay, but I didn’t love it. Back to the drawing board. And with a couple of tweaks — and an overnight break — I finally had a layout I was really happy with.

First off, I moved down the sheet music just a little. That gave me enough room to stamp the sentiment in the upper left corner of the card base. The second change was to use a lighter shade of purple for the card base so you can actually see the stamped sentiment.Yay! And I love the results.

Here are a few more details: The sheet music is vintage choir music I got when a church was clearing out some old things. I splattered the card bases with gold watercolor. I colored the birds with alcohol makers and blended Toffee ink (Taylored Expressions) along the scalloped edges to age that layer a little bit.

I think these might be my favorite Christmas cards so far this year. Thanks for stopping by!

Simple joys for Father’s Day

Today I’m sharing the card I made my dad for Father’s Day. I know Father’s Day was last weekend, but really this is a great masculine card that could work for a variety of occasions (birthday, retirement, anniversary, etc.) just by changing the sentiment on the front. And here is the front of the card:

To make this card, I used the Cabin Circlet Mini Tryfold stamp and die set (Art Impressions). I posted a similar card several years ago in my 1,000th blog post. I started out making this card the same as the previous version — plain white card base and even similar coloring on the images. But I wanted to step this card up a little.

Choosing what to add to the card was tricky. I wanted the layered focal image to remain the star, so I didn’t want to use additional stamps or patterned paper. That left me with texture. I looked through my paper stash and came across some crinkly, textured paper, and this tan color seemed perfect. I cut two pieces slightly smaller than the card base (one for inside the card), determined where to die cut the circular opening, and glued down the layers.

To finish off the card front, I stamped “Happy Father’s Day” on a strip of white card stock, trimmed the ends into Vs, and used foam tape to adhere it below the focal image. I also added a hemp twine bow and three clear droplets.

Here is the card with the first flap opened. After I added the textured paper to this panel, it still seemed too blah. I finally settled on adding a die-cut white Adirondack chair in the lower right corner and two die-cut bird silhouettes in the upper left corner. I like how the die cuts enhance the serene feeling of the image (and the birds look similar to the ones in the background).

Finally, here is the inside of the card, with both panels open. I didn’t add anything here since this is where I wrote a message.

As a side note, I really wish I was in this scene, at a cabin sitting by the water. I’m on my summer break from school, and while I’m definitely enjoying the time off — crafting, relaxing, and reading a lot — I have an urge to “get away.” When I was growing up, my family spent a week at a resort “Up North” (aka Northern Minnesota) every summer. There weren’t any mountains, like this scene, but the feeling was similar. We’d fish, swim, play games, and visit the small nearby towns to buy souvenirs and do fun touristy things (one town had turtle races). I’d love to have a few days like that this summer. I don’t think it’s likely, but who knows. Anything can happen, right?

Thanks for stopping by!