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.

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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. 

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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!

April Christmas cards: Honk for the Holidays

I know we’re a few days into May, but I still need to share my April Christmas cards. (I finished making them over the weekend, but most of the work was done in April, so I’m still considering them my April cards.) This is a fun batch of cards featuring some festive geese from the Honk for the Holidays stamp set (Unity Stamps).

Aren’t they fun? I wanted this set (and the coordinating Halloween set) as soon as I saw it. I don’t buy a ton of Christmas products because I already have so much, but I didn’t have anything like this, and I’m a sucker for cute animal stamps.

Since I started making these cards at these cards at the end of the month, I didn’t have time for anything too elaborate. So I started by stamping each goose twice on white card stock and cutting them out with a stitched oval die. I did quick and easy coloring with alcohol markers and used a gel pen to add a little sparkle to each image (the Christmas lights, the star on the tree, Santa’s buttons and belt buckle, and the reindeer antlers).

I wanted to give the focal image a little more “oomph” so I matted the white ovals with scalloped black ovals. They still feel a little blah to me, though. Maybe I should have added a bit of shimmer mist or something.

For the card bases I used Toffee card stock (Taylored Expressions’s version of Kraft). I adhered a 2” x 4” piece of red patterned paper to the bottom of each card base. Above the patterned paper I repeatedly stamped a couple of the punny sentiments from the stamp set.(My favorite is “ Ho-ho-honk.”) I filled in the open spaces with a little snowflake stamp from my stash.

Using foam tape I attached each oval to a card base. I wrapped hemp twine twice around the card front (below the oval) and tied it off in a bow. Finally, I finished each card with a few gold sequins. 

I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the cards, but I added a white panel stamped with “Waddling in a winter wonderland.” 

Now that I’ve finally shared my April Christmas cards, I’d better get my act together and work on my May cards so they’re not late, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday cards for kids

I am in serious need of rebuilding my birthday card stash so I’ve been trying to make a few birthday cards whenever I don’t have another card project to work on. Today I’m sharing some birthday cards that would be great for kids (or kids at heart!).

Bright colors and fun patterned papers always make great birthday cards. On the left card I added a die-cut sentiment and a few punched balloons. On the right card, the focal image is from the pack of patterned paper; I just cut it out and matted it with black card stock. I added a strip of yellow polka dot ribbon to both cards.

Last Christmas I received my first House-Mouse Designs stamp set, and it’s sized perfectly for an easy birthday card. I stamped the image twice on white card stock and colored them with colored pencils and Gamsol. Then I die cut the images into panels for two cards — one more boyish (above), and one more girly (below).

The last two cards aren’t necessarily for kids, but the colors and style of these cards fit well in this post. And they’d be great cards for older kids, tweens or teens.

When I made these cards I wanted to use up some leftover paper from making valentines. For the card on the left I die cut the word “celebrate” and two shadow layers from two of the paper patterns. I embossed an aqua card base with the Bursting Dots embossing folder (Taylored Expressions) and added the layered sentiment with foam tape. I finished the card with a few pink pearls and a strip of silver glitter card stock along the bottom edge. For the right card I die cut several balloons out of the patterned and coordinating solid papers. I adhered them across a lime green panel and used a black marker to add the strings. I added a die-cut sentiment and several dew drops, matted the panel with back card stock, and attached it to a white card base.

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Cards to share

I’ve been getting back my crafting mojo little by little, but now I’m behind on my blog posts. I just can’t seem to get everything together. Oh, well. Today I’m going to share a bunch of cards I brought to work to share with my coworkers. I wanted to celebrate spring, so there are lots of flowers, and some rainbows and unicorns for good measure.

I used patterned paper for many of the cards to make the process a little faster (at least in theory; I still spent plenty of time deciding on just the right layout or paper combination). Then I just added a little embellishment — ribbon, twine, and/or sequins — and a stamped or die-cut sentiment.

I tried to use as much of each patterned paper as I could, so I made several cards with leftover strips or small shapes. Using packs of patterned paper makes it easy to coordinate colors and patterns.

This is a layout I’ve used before that I really like. It’s a great way to use different patterns and/or textures because the repeated shape ties everything together. You just want to use a shape that’s kind of “chunky” and not too detailed — hearts for Valentine’s Day, leaves for autumn, trees for Christmas. The colors on these cards are a little fall-ish, but they are still some of may favorite cards in the bunch.

I focused on making cards for a variety of occasions/needs, so I used lots of different word dies and greeting stamps. I also made some cards with no sentiment on the front so they could be used for anything. (I might make more of those next time.) All of the cards are blank inside.

A rainbow die is an easy way to get focal images for multiple cards — just cut the shape out of multiple colors of card stock and then mix and match the pieces. (The die I used is from Taylored Expressions.) I combined the rainbows with fun patterned papers and several “colorful” sentiments. And I have some fun unicorn sentiments, so I had to include a few of those, too.

These are actually the cards that started this project for me. I had an old card kit that had been my mom’s, and when I was struggling to find some creativity I decided to work on the kit. I used the kit directions as a guide and changed up most of the designs at least a little, including using additional sentiments. I liked how the cards turned out, but they didn’t feel like they were quite my style, so instead I decided to share them at work.

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March Christmas cards: Postage collage

For my Christmas cards this year, I'm going to try to focus on using products that I haven't used before. That wasn't necessarily my intention at the beginning of the year, but as it happens my January and February cards fit that criteria, so I'll just keep going. This month I made eight postage-themed cards (four each of two colorways).

To make the postage images, I used the Postage Collage Christmas Stencils from Waffle Flower. The layering stencils, together with the coordinating die, create a panel of six "stamps." I used six ink colors: Sandstone, Cocoa, Robin's Egg, Lime Green and Forest from Hero Arts and Hollyhock from Close to My Heart. I also used gold paste to add a little sparkle and texture. After the ink blending was done, I stamped details, like postmarks and values, with the Postage Collage stamps.

With the ink colors I used, the postage images naturally divided themselves into two color groups. So I cut the stamps apart and created four cards with a blue card base and four with a green card base. I used a text background stamp on each card (A Little Christmas Carol (Unity) for the blue and Christmas Story (Penny Black) for the green), added a bit of white splatter, and stamped some of the detail images around the middle of the card base. Then I added the postage images with foam tape. I finished each card with a few clear droplets and a sentiment in the lower right corner.

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Friendship Stamp Along cards

Earlier this month I participated in the Friendship Stamp Along virtual event from Hero Arts. It was five live online cardmaking classes featuring different techniques. I had purchased the product bundle, so I had the main products for the projects, but I did substitute inks and some other basic dies. I didn't create all the cards during the event, thanks to a cat who was determined to lie in my craft space. But I did go back and finish them later (with a few changes here and there), and I’m excited to share them.

The first card we made has three panels. It’s typically called a trifold card, but that phrase has always bugged me because it has two folds, not three. (Just like bifold wallets and doors only have one fold. Who started this naming convention, anyway? I’d like to have a few words …). Anyway, this card is basically two A2 card bases facing opposite directions (one has the fold on the left, the other on the right) with the backs layered over each other and glued together. I hope that makes sense.

We used arch dies and acetate to create a window in the card front, and the floral panel on the inside flap is made with layering stencils and a coordinating cover plate die. We used the die to emboss the flowers instead of cutting them out.

For the second class, the new technique was splattering texture paste. We mixed a little water and paste and then used a paint brush to splatter it on the card base. I tried the technique, but I couldn't quite get it right — and then I dropped my paint brush and got paste on my pants and it turned into a whole thing — so I used Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof White medium for the splatter instead. I love the bright spring colors on this card.

In the third class we actually made three cards. We started with a small piece (I think 2" x 4") of six colors of card stock then created a faux embossed look with stamping. We arranged several solid-style stamps on a stamp positioner and stamped them on one of the pieces of card stock using coordinating ink. Then we moved the card stock just slightly up and to the right and stamped the images again using white pigment ink. We followed the same steps with the rest of the card stock colors and then cut the panels into pieces to use on three cards.

For the fourth class we used an acetate card base and applied texture paste through a stencil to the front of the card. The back of the card has a panel of card stock on the inside and the outside (so the acetate is sandwiched between pieces of card stock).

The instructor pointed out that if you write  your message in the card with a black pen it would look cool peeking through the acetate. I agree — sort of like an extra script-style background. But if you don’t like that look you could write on the back of the card instead.

In the last class we created an ombre effect on solid stamps using a stamp positioner and a blending brush. Basically we stamped an image once then applied darker ink (or another layer of the same color) to part of the stamp, used the blending brush to tap the stamp and soften the edge of the darker ink, and stamped it again over the original image.

I haven't done a virtual stamping class or event in quite a while; in general, I don't love doing things virtually. But I really liked the product bundle for this event, and I'm very happy with how my cards turned out. Maybe best of all, it helped me get back some of my crafting mojo.

Thanks for stopping by!

February Christmas cards: Vintage postcard

I managed to sneak in a few Christmas cards just before the end of February — whew! I tried to keep the supplies to a minimum, and I only made six cards, but I think they turned out pretty cute.

I paired together a sheet of paper from the Toile Tidings Designer Series Paper pack and images from the Winter Post stamp set (both retired from Stampin’ Up!) for a vintage look. I die cut the postcard shapes out of Very Vanilla card stock using the Mini Postcard die (Honey Bee Stamps). I used a blending brush to apply Crumb Cake ink around the edges of the patterned paper and the edges of the postcard to add to the aged feel.

Here is a close-up so you can see the debossed details in the die-cut postcards. Brushing on the Crumb Cake ink also helped make those details more visible. The “cheer” sentiment is from another old Stampin’ Up! Set, Endless Wishes. To embellish the cards I used some hemp twine and a few sparkly green enamel dots.

Hopefully I will be better prepared for making March Christmas cards. I also really need to replenish my birthday card stash. I’d better get busy!

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Valentines from a kit

I’m back to share a few more valentines — this time the cards I mailed out myself. For the first group of cards I used an old card kit. I didn’t care for the card designs in the kit, so I decided to use it to create valentines instead.

The tropical colors are not the usual color palette for valentines, but I needed something bright and cheerful, so this was perfect. I started by applying white rub-on transfers to the card bases in a random manner to add some interest to the backgrounds. Then I used the papers from the kit to cut layers and hearts. I pierced a border on each heart and distressed the edges.

For the greeting on each card I used a sentiment strip. And I finished them off with a few black or white clay hearts.

To finish my valentines this year I made a few mini slim cards:

I used the Love Letters stamp and die combo (Taylored Expressions), and it was so fun to make those little  envelopes and sheets of lined paper. The background is the Weather Words stamp, also from Taylored Expressions. They’re simple cards, but I really like how they turned out.

That’s it for this year’s valentines. I just realized this weekend that I still need to make my February Christmas cards. Oops. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that this week!

Thanks for stopping by!