Sweet Havana

A few weeks ago I needed to make a sympathy card. I decided to use the Sweet Havana stamp set and the coordinating dies (Mama Elephant). It’s an older set that I haven’t used a lot, but I love the style of the flowers and the jug/vase. Using the Spa Collection - Zen Garden set of mini ink pads (Catherine Pooler), I stamped and then die cut a bunch of pieces and began assembling the bouquets.

The first two cards I made were both sympathy cards (I figured I might as well make more than one while I was at it). I created two simple bouquets in blue jugs and added a banner that said “sending love and hugs”to each. Using foam tape I adhered each bouquet to a die-cut stitched white oval.

For the card bases, I chose blue card stock to coordinate with the color of the jug. I embossed the front of each card base with an embossing folder and then added one of the completed focal layers. Inside each card I added a white panel stamped with a sympathy sentiment.

I had enough pieces left to make a couple more cards, so I created two more bouquets. For the first card (left) I used a white card base and embossed the front with a floral frame embossing folder. Inside the embossed frame I stamped “thinking of you.” I added a banner that said “and smiling just because” to the jug of one of the bouquets and then used foam tape to place it below the stamped sentiment.

For the second card (right) I used the same embossing folder, but this time with a light purple card base. I used liquid glue to adhere the bouquet near the top of the open area within the embossed frame. I found a die-cut “hello” in the tray on my desk that coordinated with the flower colors, and I glued that below the bouquet. I finished this card with a small linen thread bow on the handle of the jug.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sparkle and shine

While I was making one of my alcohol ink cards I ended up with some leftover die-cut letters, specifically the letters of the word shine. I really wanted to use those letters on a card, and this was what I came up with:

I love how this card turned out! I covered the letters with Glossy Accents so they look shiny, and I found the die-cut sparkle in a tray of random unused die-cuts. I didn’t have a small enough alphabet die set for the word and, so I searched through my word dies for a size and font I liked and created the word myself. The end of the phrase, on your special day, was from a stamp set.

I put the elements together on a white card base and added a gold die-cut crown at the top and some scallops at the bottom. I didn’t think the card needed any embellishments, but I did finish it with a wavy white frame for a little tone-on-tone texture.

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Alcohol ink cards, Part 2

As promised in my last post, I’m back with the second batch of cards I made with my alcohol ink backgrounds. These cards have a loose nature theme — plants, flowers, animals, etc. — but I still turned many of them into birthday cards to add to my stash. Again, I’m only including the photos, so if you have a question, please leave me a comment.

I think the first two cards are my favorite, but I really like the Christmas card, too.

Thanks for stopping by!

Alcohol ink cards, Part 1

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m back to share the cards I made with the alcohol ink panels I created. I ended up with quite a few cards, so I’m dividing them into two batches. Today’s cards feature rainbows, hearts, and some bright birthday cards. There are a lot of photos, so I’ll keep the details to a minimum. If you have any questions, just leave me a comment.

I like how all the cards turned out, but my favorites are definitely the rainbow cards.

Stay tuned for the second batch of cards in my next post. Thanks for stopping by!

Alcohol ink backgrounds

I just realized that I’m behind on my blog posting (I know, shocking, right?). Back in July I spent a day playing around with my alcohol inks and making a bunch of different backgrounds. I thought I had already posted them, but I guess not. So here they are, better late than never:

I used a few different kinds of paper — glossy white card stock, white and translucent YUPO paper, and Tim Holtz silver sparkle alcohol ink card stock — and I have two different brands of alcohol inks: Tim Holtz/Ranger and Jaquard.

I can’t give you the specifics on how I made any piece in particular since it’s been awhile, but in general I played around with the inks, alcohol blending solution, and rubbing alcohol. For tools, I used the Tim Holtz alcohol ink applicator with felt pads and an ink blower. My ink blower is an old one designed to hold a felt-tip marker and create colored splatter. I might get a new one someday, but for now it’s good enough.

It had been awhile since I used my alcohol inks, so I looked through a little instruction/idea booklet I have and also watched a couple of short YouTube videos to get started. There are some really amazing artistic things you can do with alcohol ink, but I just like to make these colorful panels for cards.

I ended up using some of these pieces for card backgrounds and some for die-cut pieces. I’ll shore those cards In my next couple of posts.

Thanks for stopping by!

Crafty road trip

In my last two posts I shared the cards I made while I was in Ankeny, Iowa, with my aunt Terry and friend Lisa. Now I want to share some photos from our crafty road trip. This will be a long post, but there are a lot of pictures, so you can scroll through.

Ready to hit the road! We had a beautiful day for the drive. And Lisa put together little goodie bags for us. The bags say “I’m a craftaholic on the road to recovery. Just kidding. I’m on the road to the craft store.” Ha ha! 

We stopped at a rest stop for lunch. I had bought some fun containers and made us lunch: tuna salad, crackers, veggies and ranch, a clementine, a peanut butter packet, and a couple pieces of chocolate. Lisa brought a jug of iced tea that lasted us all four days.

After we checked into the hotel and had a few minutes to rest, we headed over to the Taylored Expressions (TE) Studio. We got to see Taylor, complete a make-and-take project, and of course do some shopping. I focused on expanding my TE color collection with several packs of card stock and coordinating ink pads. When we were done we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some dinner (Hy-Vee has really good store-made pizza!) and then headed back to the hotel to relax for the evening.

On Friday we had breakfast at the hotel and then drove to the scrapbook/papercraft store Memory Bound. Lisa loves this store, regularly watches their videos, and often does their online/virtual classes. She was excited to meet the staff in person. I bought a few packs of the Tim Holtz Palette Paper Collection, a Tim Holtz stamp set, a Distress Oxide Spray, and a few other things. When we were all shopped out, we went back to the hotel to eat lunch (leftovers) and do some crafting in the lobby. (Check out my previous posts if you want to see the Christmas cards or Halloween cards I created.)

For dinner that night we had yummy Mexican food at a local restaurant called Fiesta Jalapeños. Back at the hotel after dinner, I wanted some reading time so I relaxed in a nice comfy lounger in the courtyard area.

Saturday morning was the big TE sidewalk sale. The sale started at 10:00, so we made sure we ate breakfast early and left the hotel by 9:30 (it was only a few minutes’ drive to the store). When we got there, there was already a huge line outside. Thankfully the weather cooperated and we were able to wait in the shade. The sale was in their new classroom area, and at 10:00, they started by letting in 25 people. As people finished, more shoppers were let in. I didn’t get a picture of the sale are because I was busy just trying to see everything and get through the crowd. From the sale area, everyone moved to the Studio to either shop more or head to the checkout. The second photo above is the line of people waiting to check out. They had extra people working so it actually went pretty quickly. The third photo is everything I got at the sidewalk sale. I hoped to keep my total under $75, and it was $74.99. :)

After the sale we headed back to the hotel for lunch and more crafting. For dinner we went out to a restaurant called 30hop. I had delicious fish tacos and a fun mocktail. Then we got fancy cinnamon rolls from Cinnaholic — I ordered a maple pecan cinnamon roll but saved it to eat later in the hotel room. (I forgot to take pictures that evening.)

It was time for more reading after dinner. There was a dragonfly flitting around me, and several times it decided to land on my book. I’m glad I got a couple of photos.

After breakfast on Sunday morning it was time to pack up and head home, each of us with a bag or two more than when we came. Ha ha! I always have mixed feelings at the end of a trip; it’s fun to get away, but it’s also nice to be back home. 

Thanks for stopping by — and thanks for making it to the end of this post!

Halloween cards with collage cutouts

As I mentioned in my last post, I made some Halloween while on a recent crafty road trip. I didn’t have anything planned out, unlike my Christmas cards, so I brought a few coordinating supplies to play with: card bases, twine, sequins, two small ink pads, and a package of Photoplay Collage Cutouts for Halloween.

Here are all the pieces I cut out. I love the variety of images in the pack, as well as words and accents like banners and strips. The package had sixteen sheets — two each of eight designs — so I cut up one sheet of each design. Now, I don’t mind fussy cutting, and the images had cutting lines to follow, but my fingers were definitely sore by the time I was done!

With all that work finished, it was time to start creating. In addition to the supplies I brought from home, I also used the 8” x 8” Charcoal Palette Collection papers (Tim Holtz Idea-ology). I’d wanted to get some of Palette Collection papers, so when we hit the scrapbook store during our trip, I couldn’t resist. I picked up a few packs, and the Charcoal one worked perfectly with these images.

Here are the cards I created:

I’m pretty pleased with how these cards turned out. I only brought eight card bases with me, but I probably could have made another eight with all the collage cutouts I had left. Not to mention the rest of the package that I haven’t cut out yet. I guess that means more Halloween cards to come!

Thanks for stopping by!

August Christmas cards: Holiday cheer

Last week I took a crafty road trip with my aunt Terry and my friend Lisa to visit Taylored Expressions and Memory Bound scrapbook store in Ankeny, Iowa. We knew we would have some down time for crafting, but I didn’t want to pack a bunch of random stamping supplies. Instead I planned ahead, designed my August Christmas cards, and did a lot of the prep work at home.

Here is the card layout I designed for August. It’s a different layout for me because I was also working with a sketch challenge. When I saw the sketch, with the space for three images along the right edge, I knew this snowman would be perfect. (This is actually one wood-block stamp with the right-facing snowman on one side and the left-facing one on the other side.) I used some patterned papers for an easy background and coordinating alcohol markers to color the images. I added the sentiment on a white strip above the images and finished the card with silver sequins. It’s hard to see in the photo, but I also used a gel pen to add sparkle to the white parts of the hats.

To prep for the trip, I cut, scored, and folded eight white card bases and stamped the sentiment inside them; stamped and punched out 26 snowmen (enough for eight cards and a couple extra); cut two pieces of patterned paper for each card (background panel and strip) and tucked the pieces inside the card bases; and stamped the sentiment on strips of white card stock. I packed all the pieces, as well as the coordinating alcohol markers, the sparkle gel pen, and the sequins, in a small plastic box (an old Stampin’ Up! stamp case). The other supplies, like glue, foam tape, and scissors, went in a zippered pouch. Here is a look at my paper-crafting supplies all packed up:

I also decided to bring a few things to make some Halloween cards, which is the box on the left. (I’ll share those cards in my next post.)

Once we sat down in the hotel lobby to craft, all I had to do for my Christmas cards was color the images, trim the sentiment strips, adhere everything to the card bases, and add sequins. I did make one change from the original card: I decided to use foam tape to adhere the snowmen and then tuck one of the sequins behind the image instead of gluing it on top. Here are the nine finished cards:

I think they turned out pretty cute! If/when I go on another craft retreat, I might consider prepping some cards like this. It was nice to just sit down and get to work without having to think about what I wanted to make. It was much easier to pack, too! I don’t typically make multiples of card designs (except for holiday cards), but I could plan out some card sets or something like that.

We definitely had a good time on our trip, and I came home with waaaay more crafting supplies than I left with! After I share the Halloween cards I made, I’ll do a post with some pictures of the trip. Until then, thanks for stopping by!