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!

Snarky birthday cats

Recently I did a card sketch challenge with the theme of Polaroid photos. I had an idea for a birthday card Tim Holtz’s Snarky Cats stamps, so I went with it:

Ha ha ha! These cats crack me up. For this card I started by stamping the cat on a piece of a piece of white card stock, making sure I had enough space around the image to add the frame. I also stamped the bow tie, party hat, and balloon on scraps of card stock. I roughly colored in the images, not worrying about blending or leaving little white spots. (The sketchy style of the stamps lends itself well to this type of quick coloring.) It’s hard to tell in the photo, but I also colored around the cat with a very light blue so the background wasn’t just white. I fussy cut the three accessories and set them aside.

To make the Polaroid frame, I simply took a rectangular piece of black card stock and used a square die to cut out the middle part. I embossed “happy birthday” in white along the bottom of the frame and then glued it on to the panel with the cat image. I glued on the accessories (letting the hat and balloon go over the edge of the frame), drew a line from the balloon to the cat’s tail, and set the completed panel aside.

I chose a card base to coordinate with the color of the bow tie and then stamped balloons all over the card front. I finished the background with a splatter of Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof White. When that was dry I used foam tape to adhere the focal panel to the card base at an angle. I added a few blue sequins for a little bling.

But what really brings the card together is the inside. I used a panel of white card stock and stamped the sentiment “Look, I’m not saying that you’re old, but if you were milk I’d sniff you first.” Ha ha! Of course I had to stamp a little milk bottle in the corner, and for fun I added a few more balloons around the sentiment.

I really liked how this card turned out, and since I already had the stamps out I decided to make one more Snarky Cat birthday card:

I used the same images for this card, but I skipped the Polaroid frame this time. Instead I used an old gel print for the background. I trimmed the gel print to the size I wanted and then stamped the cat near the middle. This was just for placement and to make sure I didn’t lose the details of the cat’s fur sticking out. I also stamped the balloon string on the gel print, as well as multiple “happy birthday”s. Finally I spritzed the background with some turquoise Dina Wakley Media Gloss Spray and set it aside to dry.

Meanwhile I stamped the cat, hat, bowtie, and balloon on white card stock and colored them using alcohol markers. I did a little more blending this time, but my coloring was still pretty casual. Then I fussy cut all the pieces and adhered them to the card front, placing the cat over the image I stamped earlier. (I guess I didn’t wait until the spray was completely dry because I got a little smudge on the cat’s face.) I glued the panel to a black card base and added three pink sequins. Inside this card I stamped “Get your party on!” It’s not really snarky, but it seemed to fit the colorful card front (although I’m not too sure this cat is ready to party).

Thanks for stopping by!

Doodled flowers

Today I have a short post to share a card that I made without any stamps, dies, or even stencils. Crazy, right? Instead, I created a couple of doodle-y flowers with a pen and paints.

When I started this little project I wasn’t thinking about making a card; I just wanted to try drawing something and painting it. So I used a Micron pen to doodle a couple of flowers on watercolor paper. I don’t consider myself an artist, and I certainly don’t do realistic drawing, but I think these flowers turned out pretty well. I’ve found that if I keep the pen on the paper and draw as much as I can in a continuous line —  redrawing over lines multiple times in a loose style — I’m usually happy with the results.

Once I was done with the drawing, I painted the flowers with Daniel Smith watercolors. You can’t really tell in the picture, but the blue I used for the background has just a little shimmer, which is fun. When the paint was dry, I added some details and shading with colored pencils. I also added a little white splatter using Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof White.

I decided the finished panel would look good as a card, so I adhered it to a kraft card base and added a handful of clear droplets. For the finishing touch I wrapped hemp twine twice around the left side of the card front and tied it off in a bow.

I’m excited to try more little projects like this to improve my watercolor skills. Thanks for stopping by!

A new chapter

At the end of May my best crafty friend, Lisa, retired from her job. I’m a little jealous but mostly excited for her to have so much time for crafting, reading, and whatever else her heart desires. To celebrate this new chapter, I made Lisa a book-themed retirement card.

I started by using the Layered Books dies and the Shelves dies (Waffle Flower) to die cut a whole mess of book pieces, three shelves,  and a few accessories. I used two shades of purple card stock, two shades of green, a neutral stone color, and white for the books and accessories and woodgrain paper for the shelves. I glued together all the layered pieces and then started playing around with a layout.

I had planned to make an A2 card, but I quickly realized that I needed more space for all the books. So I looked through my stash of envelopes for a long one and then cut a white card base to fit the envelope (it’s approximately the size of a slimline card).

I sprayed the card front with Antique Linen Distressed Spritz (Ranger, Tim Holtz) to add some shimmer. It got a little splotchy it places, but that adds to the charm, right? Once that was dry, I started arranging and gluing down all the pieces.

It was a lot of fun creating all the piles of books (I have quite a few piles of books in real life, so I consider myself a bit of an expert). And the plant, teacup, and pencil holder are the perfect accessories. I stamped the sentiment “starting a new chapter” under the bottom shelf and finished the card with a few purple sequins.

Once I was done with the card front I had a bunch of books left over so I decided to add some inside the card. (I also liked that it took up some of the extra writing space.) For the sentiment I die cut the word “happy” and then stamped a few words to make the phrase “incredibly happy for you.”

I love the way this card turned out, and I know Lisa appreciated it. It was fun to finally use these dies. And believe it or not, I still had several die-cut books left at the end of the project — I guess I went a little overboard. But I’d rather have extra than have to stop in the middle of a project to cut more pieces. I may have to use a similar design to make a book-themed card set.

Thanks for stopping by!