Three card sets

I'm back to squeeze in one more blog post for July, and today I'm sharing three card sets (two of which I made quite awhile ago). Card sets are a fun way to try a card layout in different color combos or with different sentiments -- and they're a great item to have on hand for gift giving.

For this first set of cards, I used a rainbow-themed kit from Taylored Expressions. I know the kit is no longer available, but some of the individual products still may be around. I've also noticed that several stamp companies have similar rainbow stamps, dies, and/or stencils, so there are lots of options out there.

I started with light blue card bases and added a subtle background using a cloud stencil and the same color ink as the card stock. (I believe it's the retired Soft Sky from Stampin' Up!, which is one of my all-time favorite colors. It really is the perfect soft color for a sky, and I wish it was still available.) Then I die cut the rainbow out of six colors of card stock; I chose bright colors rather than the more traditional rainbow colors. I sorted out the different pieces, arranged them into six rainbows, and glued each rainbow to a card base.

I die-cut the clouds from white card stock and adhered one to each end of the rainbow using foam tape. Some of the clouds have a pierced border because the kit came with two different style cloud dies. I used both dies to cut my die-cutting time in half.

The sentiment stamps were shaped to fit over the top of the rainbow, so I just picked one sentiment for each card and stamped it in black ink. The final touch for each card was three clear droplets, which were perfect since they look like little drops of rain.

 

If you're looking for something a little more all-occasion, check out the second set of cards:

The starting point for this set was actually the washi tape (the colorful strips on the focal panels), which you could easily substitute with strips of card stock or patterned paper. I made this set for a friend who really likes washi tape, so I wanted to include it on these cards. I chose three styles of washi tape: a wide, colorful pattern; a narrow solid color; and a medium-width gold polka dot. For each focal panel, I placed a strip of each tape on a piece of white card stock and wrapped the ends around to the back. I stamped a sentiment above the strips and then tore off the top and bottom edges of the card stock.

For the card bases, I used thick white card stock and added splatters with gold watercolor paint. The paint does need a little time to dry, so you may want to create the bases first then set them aside and make the panels.

Using foam tape, I attached a focal panel to each card base near the right edge and slightly lower than center. To bring in one more metallic element, I finished off with a few gold sequins on each card.

 

The third card set I made on a when I was playing with watercolor paints this spring:

The colorful butterfly background on these cards was made with a watercolor resist pad from Brea Reese. It's an 8" x 8" pad of watercolor paper preprinted with white designs. When you apply paint to the paper, the design resists the paint and stays white. It's a fun and easy way to play with watercolor. You could even make your own resist paper by embossing a design on watercolor paper using embossing or watermark ink and white or clear embossing powder.

I used three colors of liquid watercolor and applied them very loosely, letting the colors do their thing and blend together in some spots. I blotted up the excess water and paint, and when the paper was dry I cut it into four 4" x 4" pieces and mounted each on a bright yellow card base. (The finished cards are about 4-1/4" square.) I added black die-cut butterflies (Stampin' Up!), a small strip sentiment (Simon Says Stamp), and a few sparkly sequins (Gina K Designs) to finish off each card.

 

 I used to make card sets often, and I always seemed to have a few on hand. I need to get back to making them regularly so I can replenish my stash.

Thanks for stopping by!

July Christmas cards: Pine cones and berries

I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that for my July Christmas cards I was going to use the stamp set I got with my card-contest winnings at the stamp show in June. As promised, here they are!

I used the Winter Bouquet stamp set and three sets of the Color Fuse inks (sets 3, 4, and 10) from Rubbernecker Stamps. It did take a little time to play around with lining up the stamps and finding a layout I liked for the images, but once I had that, the rest of the stamping went faster than I expected.

I did all my stamping on white card stock panels die cut with a stitched rectangle die. I couldn't decide on a color for the card bases, so I went with a few different ones. For the green and red cards, I used the colored card stock for the whole card base, and I used a quilt-style embossing folder on the card front. (I actually used the de-bossed side of the embossing folder because I wanted the pattern but not the raised texture.) For the third group, I die-cut panels of printed kraft card stock with an A2-sized stitched rectangle die and then adhered the panels to white card bases.

After I attached the focal panels to the card bases, I adhered a piece of gold ribbon diagonally across the upper right corner of each card. The final touch was three gold glimmer dots in the center of each pine cone cluster. I like the subtle gold touches, but looking at the cards now, the white panels seem a bit too stark; I think maybe I should have added a bit of gold paint splatter. Something to keep in mind for next time. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

A little pet parade

 I've got a quick post today with a few cards featuring some cute pets - cats, dogs, and even a little parrot.

I used the April 2021 My Monthly Hero kit from Hero Arts to make this card. The kit included a stamp set and a few geometric stencils, and I used one of the stencils to make the background. The stencil has rows of quarter circles, and you can rotate the stencils to add more. I ink blended two colors (orange and kraft) for the first pass, alternating the color for each row of quarter circles. Then I rotated the stencil and ink blended with navy and olive, again alternating the color for each row. I trimmed the panel and added it to a white card base.

I added a die-cut wood-style frame (also Hero Arts, but not part of the kit) and two stamped and die-cut images. I debated the sentiment on this card because I wanted to use it as a Father's Day card for my uncle. But I thought the "hello" worked well since the cat and dog are looking at each other, so I just wrote a happy Father's Day message on the inside of the card.

I made this card ages ago but never got around to posting it. Better late than never! I stamped and embossed the images (from the Oh My Whiskers set by Honey Bee Stamps) on watercolor paper, colored them with, I think, ZIG Clean Color Real Brush watercolor markers, and then cut them out with the coordinating dies.

For the card base, I lightly ink blended a polka dot background using the same color ink and drew a simple border. I added the images with foam tape, glued on a little twine bow, and stamped the sentiment along the bottom of the card. (The sentiment is from the Purrrfect Sentiments set, also by Honey Bee Stamps.)

Here's another older card that's been waiting to be posted. Oops! For this card I started by die cutting a card stock panel with the Speech Bubble Backdrop die from Lawn Fawn. I used an embossing mat, so the speech bubbles were embossed instead of being cut out. Then I used the Critter Chatter stamp set to stamp a word in each bubble, using the same color ink as the card stock. (I need to try this die for a birthday card. It would be fun to fill the speech bubbles with all different birthday sentiments.) I attached the panel to a white card base.

The little critters and focal speech bubble are from the Say What? Pets stamp set (both stamp sets are also from Lawn Fawn). I stamped the images on white card stock, colored them with alcohol markers, and cut them out with the coordinating dies. I used foam tape to attach the images near the bottom of the card base.

Thanks for stopping by!

June Christmas cards: Winter shaker

I had my June Christmas cards made and this post started two weeks ago. Now here I am finally getting them posted on the last day of the month. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! Without further ado, here are my Christmas cards for this month:

I don't make many shaker cards because they can get a little fussy and time consuming. But these were pretty easy because I used a pack of self-adhesive shaker pouches and pre-cut card stock frames. The hardest part was deciding what to stamp on the white panel behind the shaker!

I used the Winter Wishes stamp set (Stampin' Up!) and stamped the images using Real Red, Soft Suede, Pool Party, Crumb Cake and Shaded Spruce inks on panels of white card stock. I made eight cards total, and at first I was just going to stamp two full sheets of white card stock and then cut them into panels. But it was hard to plan what would actually be visible in the shaker that way. So instead I cut the white card stock first and then stamped the images. I also stamped the shaker frames with the Wood Plank Background (Taylored Expressions) in Pool Party and added the sentiment Warm Wishes in Soft Suede along the bottom edge.

To create the shaker portion for each card I first set a shake pouch on a stamped white panel (without removing the adhesive backing) to find the right placement, and then I lightly traced around the pouch with a pencil. (When I think of a pouch, I picture some kind of bag or envelope. These are more like shallow plastic dishes with a lip that has adhesive on it. But they're called pouches on the packaging, so that's what I'll use.) I placed a little pile of the fillers in the center of the area I traced. I used several fillers: a sequin mix with silver circles and white snowflakes, little clay snowflakes, Buffalo Snow (those little iridescent pieces that fly everywhere), and glass glitter. Then I removed the adhesive backing on the shaker pouch and adhered it to the white card stock, lining it up with the traced pencil line. I adhered a frame around the pouch and glued the whole piece to a Soft Suede card base.

I wanted one simple embellishment outside of the shaker pouches, so I added a red-and-white twine bow in the upper left corner of each frame.

I was excited to finish these because I used up the package of shaker pouches as well as the frames. Yay! I'm really trying to use up some of the consumable items I have, like embellishments and papers, because I have soo many of them. Sometimes it's hard because I'm tempted to save something for the "perfect" project. But I try to remind myself that the more stuff I use up, the more room I have for new goodies. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

The return of the stamp show and a winning card

It's been three years, but last weekend we finally had a stamp show back in Minnesota. Yay! It was small -- only seven vendors, I think -- but everyone had large booths and lots of product and samples to see. Honestly, the smaller size kept it from becoming too overwhelming -- and I still found plenty of stuff to buy! The crowd was smaller, too, which was nice for shoppers -- plenty of space to spread out, and you didn't feel like you had to fight your way through the booths. I just hope the vendors made enough that it was worthwhile for them so they'll come back next year. But the best part for me was that I won first place in one of the card contests!

I entered two cards for the card contest on Saturday, and the theme was "Squirrel Away." Of course, my first thought was to use squirrel stamps. I only have a couple stamp sets with squirrel images, but they're small images, and I wanted something larger. So I decided to switch course and, after a little brainstorming with a friend, I decided to go with the idea of saving, or squirreling away, little treasures. So here is my first card:

Sorry it's not a great shot; I got a late start on my cards, and I was rushing to create and mail them so they had enough time to arrive before the deadline. Consequently, I didn't have time to take better photos.

I used an old My Monthly Hero kit from Hero Arts, and it worked perfectly. I decided to go with a monotone color scheme to create a vintage feel -- and so I didn't have to color everything. I stamped the curio cabinet on Crumb Cake card stock using Early Espresso ink (both Stampin' Up! colors). Then I played around with where to stamp all the little images. I stamped "you are a" in one of the cubbies near the top and made sure to leave space for the die-cut sentiment just below.

I colored the shelves/dividers of the cabinet with a Crumb Cake marker and the little joints with a gold Sharpie to add a metallic element. The panel still seemed a bit plain, so I decided to mask off and ink blend inside each little cubby to add some dimension. (About halfway through the process, I questioned the wisdom of that decision. But I do think it adds a lot to the card.) I die-cut the word treasure from Crumb Cake and gold card stock, layered them together, and glued them to the card front below the stamped portion of the sentiment. To finish off the card, I added three gold sequins.

And this is the card that won first place! They always announce the card contest winners about half-way through the day. I wasn't able to go on Saturday when they announced the winners for this contest (there are separate categories for each day), so when we got to the show on Sunday, I made a beeline for the contest boards and found out that I had won!

I was a little nervous about entering this card because it doesn't have a squirrel on it. (I've even seen a couple comments on the stamp show's Facebook page asking how this card won since there's no squirrel.) So for my second card I decided to go a little "safer" and went with a squirrel collecting acorns.

I created a tree trunk on a Crumb Cake card base by embossing a piece of Early Espresso card stock with a woodgrain embossing folder and then punching three circle openings. I put a punch-art squirrel peeking out of the bottom hole and stamped a sentiment in the top hole. In the larger middle hole I created a shaker element with a few sequins and acorns. Some of the acorns were stamped, colored, and die cut, and some were punched out of copper card stock. I also added a few of the acorns to the front of the card, and for a little more color, I finished off with some leaves punched out of a couple different green card stocks.

 

 

My prize for winning was $100 to spend at the show. Yippee! Here is what I picked out from Rubbernecker Stamps. The little flowery cupcake stamp was a free gift. (And in case you're wondering, I already had the set of green ink cubes that goes with that pack of reinkers, so that's why I chose the orange ink cubes. There was a deal if you got six.:) ) I'm planning to use the stamp set for my July Christmas cards, so hopefully you'll get to see that one in action soon. 

I also bought plenty of other goodies, and I'm looking forward to playing with them. I'm going to try to focus on card-making this weekend because I need to replenish my stash!

 

 

 Thanks for stopping by!