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 card front.

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!

May Christmas cards: Fa la la

I’m back with my May Christmas cards, and I made it before the last day of the month. Amazing! I had an idea of what I wanted to make this month, but once I got out the stamps and started planning, of course it morphed into something else. Here is the end result:

Since it was a fairly simple design, I ended up making eleven cards (an odd number, I know, but it was ten plus my practice one). While I’m not a fan of mass producing cards, this design worked pretty well for an assembly line. I did all the stamping, die cutting, embossing, and spritzing, and then I just needed to assemble the pieces and embellish the cards.

The background of the cards is Toffee card stock (Taylored Expressions) embossed with the Pinewood Planks embossing folder (Stampin’ Up!). But before I embossed each panel I rubbed the Toffee ink pad over the raised side of the folder. The ink really helps the woodgrain texture stand out. I also spritzed each panel with Peeled Paint Distress Spritz (Ranger) to add a little shimmer. When they were dry I adhered each panel to a white card base.

For the focal image, I stamped “fa la la” from Big on Christmas (Concord & 9th) with Pear ink (Taylored Expressions) on white card stock. I die cut it with an Elongated Oval Blanket Stitched die (Pinkfresh), which was the perfect size and shape. Using foam tape I attached the ovals to the card bases.

To embellish each card I added a snippet of burlap trim and green velvet trim in the upper left corner. I used my Tiny Attacher (Tim Holtz) to staple the trims. I love the extra texture and detail from the trims and even the staple. I wanted a little pop of another color, so I added three red sequins on each card.

I didn’t take a picture, but inside the card is stamped “… la la, la la la la” and “merry Christmas.” I’m happy with how these cards turned out even though it’s completely different from what I had in mind. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Graduation cards

This year I have three cousins graduating from high school, so I needed to make a few graduation cards. With the exception of a sentiment set I bought not too long ago, I don’t really have any grad-specific stamps. That meant it was time to be creative!

For the first two cards, I chose a travel/adventure motif and focused on using some prints from an old pack of patterned paper from Stampin’ Up! For the card on the left I chose two Very Vanilla and Sahara Sand patterns. On one of the pieces I stamped images from the Traveler stamp set (Stampin’ Up!) using dark brown ink, cut it out with a deckle-edge die, and adhered it to an Early Espresso card base. I used a strip of the second pattern to stamp the sentiment, matted it with brown card stock, added some twine, and used foam tape to attach it to the card. I finished with a few metallic enamel dots.

For the card on the right, I didn’t stamp any images. Instead I arranged three pieces of patterned paper in a modified grid on a Sahara Sand card base. To break up the largest blue piece (which is printed with airplane schematics, though it’s hard to see in the picture), I added a small strip that looks like a city map. I stamped the sentiment on a fifth piece of patterned paper, matted it with black card stock, and added a blue card stock triangle at the upper left and lower right corners to look like photo corners. I finished the card with a light splatter of Distress Spritz in Antique Linen and a few enamel dots.

For the third card, I wanted to do something book- or reading-themed. I had the perfect stamp set from a My Monthly Hero kit (Hero Arts) from last year. I love this tree image, with all the books and other images worked into the leaves and branches, and I think it works well for a graduation.

I stamped the tree using Toffee ink on a panel of Toffee card stock (Taylored Expressions). I wanted to stamp the sentiment over the tree, but I had to play around a bit to figure out the best way to do that. I finally realized that embossing the sentiment gave it enough “oomph” to help it stand out. (I used VersaFine Onyx Black ink and clear embossing powder.) I did stamp the sentiment a little too far to the left, so to help the balance I added the image of the stacked books at the bottom.

I debated adding color to the tree but eventually decided I liked the neutral look. Instead I lightly splattered some Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleedproof White and added a few sequins. I rounded the corners of the Toffee panels and adhered it to a sheet of shimmery black paper. Finally I attached the whole piece to a white card base.

Thanks for stopping by!