For a fun-gi

I love mushrooms and a good pun, so this card was a lot of fun to make:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Tree Rings, Punny Man 2 (Taylored Expressions), Snailed It (Essentials by Ellen)
Paper: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, textured Soft Suede card stock
Ink: Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Poppy Parade, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Clear Droplets (Pretty Pink Posh), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter)

I love how this card turned out - the neutral color pallet with a pop of color, the nature images, and of course, the witty sentiment. (I wish I had noticed that the card stand was covering up the sentiment before I took the picture, though.)

Everything is pretty straightforward with this card, but I will point out how I made the two-tone mushroom caps. I inked the whole stamp with Pumpkin Pie ink and then rolled the edges of the stamp in Poppy Parade ink before stamping it on the card stock. I got a little more red ink than I originally intended, but I think it works.

Thanks for stopping by!

A birthday brew

Guess what? We had another blizzard yesterday. Sigh. I don't know how much snow we got this time; it doesn't really seem to matter at this point. There is just snow everywhere, and I am done shoveling. Done. I'm running out of places to throw the snow.

This winter may just drive me to drink, so here is a fitting card:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Bubble Over, Itty Bitty Birthdays
Paper: Thick Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Crushed Curry card stock; gold foil sheets
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Bottles & Bubbles Framelits dies, Paper coaster (Hero Arts), Itty Bitty Accents punch pack, Brights enamel shapes, sponge, Dimensionals

I actually prefer fruity, tropical drinks over beer, but this birthday card was perfect for my cousin's husband. Although if I were making this card today, I might have found a way to stamp "Have a blizzard brew."

I think my favorite part of the card is the paper coaster. Ages ago I bought a kit (on clearance!) that included twenty paper coasters, a few stamps, and a mini stamp pad. The idea of the kit is to make personalized coasters for a party. Now I'm not a big party-er, but I thought the coasters would be great for making cards, banners, or other projects. I'm glad I thought to add one to this card!

I did sponge Chocolate Chip ink around the edge of the coaster, as well as the bottles, to add some depth. And I built on the circle theme by stamping overlapping circle images on the background and adding three enamel dots in the top left corner.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Bubble Over, Itty Bitty Birthdays
Paper: Soft Sky, Whisper White, Gorgeous Grape, Call Me Clover, Poppy Parade, Lemon Lime Twist card stock; silver foil sheets
Ink: Soft Sky, Gorgeous Grape, Call Me Clover, Poppy Parade, Lemon Lime Twist, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Bottles & Bubbles Framelits dies, clear droplets (Pretty Pink Posh), Dimensionals, Corner Chomper (We R memory Keepers)

Here is a fun card for the younger set or, really, anyone who prefers soda over beer. I chose a few bright colors, die cut the pop bottles -- think Tahitian Treat, Grape Crush, and Mountain Dew -- and created a matching label for each bottle. I added silver caps on two of the bottles and die-cut straws to the other two.

I used Soft Sky for the card base and added a strip of silver foil paper along the bottom to create the look of a metal counter top. I played around with the position of the bottles, and once I was happy with it, I glued down the two outer bottles. Then I stamped the bubbles on the card base before attaching the other two bottles with Dimensionals. A few clear droplets add to the fizzy effect, and to finish the card, I added a narrow white banner stamped with a sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by today! I'll just be sitting over here crossing my fingers that we don't get any more snow. At least not in February ...

February Christmas card: Festive wreath

Since it definitely looks like Christmas around here, it seemed like a good weekend to make my February Christmas cards. And as a bonus, it gave me a chance to try out one of my new stamp sets.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Wreath Turnabout (Concord & 9th), Stitched with Cheer
Paper: Lucky Limeade, Very Vanilla card stock; Candlelight Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper (DSP); gold foil sheets
Ink: Lucky Limeade, Tip Top Taupe, Early Espresso, Real Red
Accessories: Bunch of Banners Framelits dies, gold sequins (Craft Medley), stamp positioner (Tim Holtz), Mini Turnabout Jig (Concord & 9th), Dimensionals, Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter)

The inspiration for this card was a sample card on the Concord & 9th site that featured a autumn-colored wreath on a striped card base. I love florals or leaves with stripes, so I ran with it.

The first step was to look through my paper stash to find a colors that would work with a wreath. This sheet from the Candlelight Christmas DSP was perfect. It has four colors: Early Espresso, Real Red, Lucky Limeade and Primrose Petals. For my first attempt at stamping the wreath, I tried using all those colors, but Primrose Petals was too close to Real Red, and it didn't look right. So I took that one out of the mix and substituted in a light neutral, Tip Top Taupe.

The most time-consuming part of this design was definitely the stamping. The Turnabout stamps are really fun and not hard to do with a stamp positioner. But since I was making six cards of this design, and I had to stamp each complete focal panel before moving on to the next one, I had to keep cleaning off the stamp to switch ink colors.

Once the stamping was done, the rest of the card came together pretty easily. I adhered a 3-3/4" x 5-1/2" piece of DSP to an A2-sized Lucky Limeade card base, leaving a 1/4" border on each side of the DSP. I added a strip of gold foil to the top and bottom of the focal panel and adhered that over the DSP. Using Dimensionals I attached a banner with a sentiment in the middle of the wreath, and three gold sequins are the finishing touch.

Thanks for stopping by!

Watercolor valentines

Happy Valentine's Day! A handmade card is a great way to show your love on Valentine's Day -- or any day! -- and this year I had fun making valentines with new watercolor paints and fun heart dies.

Supplies:
Paper: Poppy Parade card stock (Stampin' Up!), gold foil sheets (Stampin' Up!), watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Gansai Tambi watercolor paints: 30, 33, 37, 42, 139 (Kuretake)
Accessories: Hearts Entwined die (My Favorite Things), sparkling clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter), Scor-Tape (Scor-Pal)

I've tried making watercolor wash backgrounds before, and I was never really happy with the results. The last set of paints I tried -- a cheap set -- left a chalky residue that would smear across the card, even when it was dry. But I got a set of Gansai Tambi watercolor paints for Christmas, and so far I love them. They are beautiful and creamy and didn't make me frustrated -- always a good thing with my craft supplies.

Most of these cards have a very similar layout -- this first one is my favorite; it makes me so happy! -- so I'll just explain my overall approach. I cut a piece of watercolor paper to 3-3/4" x 5". With a brush I applied a light layer of water in the middle of the paper, stopping about 1/2" from the edges. That creates a space for the paint to flow.

Supplies:
Paper: Purely Pomegranate card stock (Stampin' Up!), gold foil sheets (Stampin' Up!), watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Gansai Tambi watercolor paints: 30, 33, 37, 42 (Kuretake)
Accessories: Hearts Entwined die (My Favorite Things), sparkling clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter), Scor-Tape (Scor-Pal), Artist-tac adhesive (Grafix)

Once the paper was wet, I picked up the first color of paint and applied it in either a horizontal or diagonal stripe. Then I added the rest of the colors, rinsing the brush between colors. Once all the colors were on the paper, I used my paintbrush and a little water to blend the colors. I started with the darker colors at the top, lightly brushing back and forth (in the same direction of the colors), and moved down to the light colors at the bottom. A couple of times I had too much water on the paper, so I blotted it with a paper towel and, if needed, added a bit more paint. Then the hard part -- waiting for the paint to dry. I'm impatient, so I used my heat gun to help the process along a bit.

Supplies:
Paper: Purely Pomegranate card stock (Stampin' Up!), copper foil sheets (Stampin' Up!), watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Gansai Tambi watercolor paints: 30, 33, 37, 42 (Kuretake)
Accessories: Hearts Entwined die (My Favorite Things), Sentimental dies (Avery Elle), All Year Cheer washi tape (Stampin' Up!), sparkling clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter), foam sheets (Taylored Expressions)

Once everything was dry, I die-cut hearts from foil sheets, adhered them to the watercolor paper and added a few clear sequins.

For this card, I trimmed down the panel of watercolor paper and adhered it across the card. I used copper foil instead of gold for the die-cut shapes (I trimmed out two of the hearts from the full die cut) and added a strip of copper washi tape across the top and bottom edges of the watercolor paper.

Supplies:
Paper: Berry Burst card stock (Stampin' Up!), gold foil sheets (Stampin' Up!), watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Gansai Tambi watercolor paints: 30, 33, 37, 42 (Kuretake)
Accessories: Hearts dies (Little B), sparkling clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter), Scor-Tape (Scor-Pal), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

For this card and the next one, I switched to a single large gold heart. This is actually made with three dies from the set: one to cut the outside edge, one to cut out the inside, and one to add the faux stitching. Before doing any die cutting, I set the three dies on the table, nested inside each other, and gently shifted them until they were lined up. Then I used a couple of small pieces of washi tape to hold the dies together. With the dies taped together, I could cut out multiple hearts without having to rearrange the dies each time I used them.

Supplies:
Paper: Poppy Parade card stock (Stampin' Up!), gold foil sheets (Stampin' Up!), watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Gansai Tambi watercolor paints: 30, 33, 37, 42, 91, 139 (Kuretake)
Accessories: Hearts dies (Little B), sparkling clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter), Scor-Tape (Scor-Pal)

For the background panel on this card I added gold watercolor paint to the color palette. It has more shine in real life than it does in this photo, but if I were to make this one again I would leave it off. I think it makes the card seem unbalanced and bottom-heavy; that was the reason I positioned the heart a little higher on this card. Or I could have had gold paint in the upper left and lower right corners and worked through the colors to the purple in the middle (so gold, yellow, orange, red, purple, red, orange, yellow, gold). Maybe I'll try that next time.

And now for a card that's completely different ...

Supplies:
Paper: Thick Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!), gold foil sheets (Stampin' Up!), water color paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Black journaling pen, gold paint pen (Sharpie), Gansai Tambi watercolor paints: 30, 33, 37, 42, 139 (Kuretake)
Accessories: Hearts dies (Little B), vintage newsprint washi tape (unknown), Scripty Hello die (Lawn Fawn), Brights sequin assortment (Stampin' Up!), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter)

While I was practicing with the watercolor paints, I used a scrap of watercolor paper for test swatches of the colors I wanted to use. The scrap ended up looking really cool and I didn't want to waste it, so I die cut it into the word "hello." I combined that with a piece of newsprint-style washi tape and a gold heart (the center of one of the hearts from the previous two cards) on a white card base. I doodled a black border with a few gold dots and added three bright sequins to finish the card. It's definitely a non-traditional valentine, but it was perfect for one of my friends.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope your Valentine's Day is filled with love and friendship -- and a little chocolate!

Bright colors needed

I am ready for winter to be over. For the past week it's been snowing, and snowing, and snowing. Sure, it can be pretty. But when you have to go out and shovel every day of the week, often multiple times a day, and the snow just blows back in your face, the beauty kind of wears off. So as I sit at my craft table and look out at the expanse of white, I decided I needed to share a card with some bright colors.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Hip Hip Hooray (Echo Park)
Paper: Thick Whisper White, Melon Mambo card stock
Ink: Melon Mambo, Lemon Lime Twist, Flirty Flamingo, Stardust Gelly Roll pen (Sakura)
Accessories: Lemon Lime Twist ombre ribbon, glitter enamel dots, Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers), foam tape (3M)

This color combo is a little out of my comfort zone, but I love the way this card turned out. It makes me think of flowers or berries -- summery sorts of things. Sigh.

When I started stamping the balloons on the card base I realized that it was the perfect image for a repetitive tile effect. And since it's a clear stamp, it was easy to eyeball the placement of the images. I did clean off the stamp and switch colors every few images, working down the card base, rather than trying to stamp all of the balloons in one color before switching to the next color.

For the focal image, I stamped the sentiment in the darkest color, Melon Mambo, and matted it with coordinating card stock. Along the bottom edge of the focal piece I added Lemon Lime Twist ribbon, adhering it to make a series of loops. I used foam tape to adhere the panel to the card base.

You can't have a birthday card without a little sparkle, so I added three green glitter enamel dots and colored in the white dots on the word "super" with a glitter pen.

I hope your day is filled with all kinds of color. Thanks for stopping by!