Soft Sympathy

I needed a sympathy card a little bit ago for a sentiment, and went to this wood-mounted set from Stampin' Up! While I had it out, I decided to use the images from it, also. I used markers to color the images and then "huffed" on them before stamping. I added some tiny stickers to the flower centers. The background is shimmery cardstock that I embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.

This one is softer, because I didn't re-color the image. I just breathed on it again and there was enough ink left for this card. This one has a slight texture to the matting layer.

The other image in this set - done the same way. I embossed the background with a Cuttlebug/Anna Griffin embossed folder. I have SO SO many wood-mounted Stampin' Up! sets and I don't want to get rid of most of them. I would sell them if I could, but they are even hard to GIVE away! LOL!

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Patterned Paper

I came across this patterned paper that I've had forever, and made it into these two cards. (I had two sheets of it.) It came from Archiver's, so that says how old it is. LOL! The sentiment on each card is from Gina K and the metallic butterflies were already die cut and in my parts.

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Another Strawberry Card

I had this left-over piece of embossed paper and decided to make it into this card. I also had the die-cut, embossed and stenciled strawberry piece that I added on top. Everything is from Gina K.

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Patterned Paper Embossed and Sanded

Gina K did a video on this older technique a while back and I made these four cards. They all use the same embossing folder. They are mostly embossed on patterned paper, except the one that I messed up. :-) For this one, I embossed, sanded, added white ink lightly, and then gold ink on top of that. The sentiment is gold embossed, also.

These next two Just have the white ink on top of the sanded image.

This one is patterned paper on the back. LOL! I used an ink pad to lightly go over the whole panel. I made this one into a gate-fold card.

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Wedding for Our Nephew

My nephew got married out in Oregon at the end of July. We weren't able to attend the wedding, but we wish them well!! Here is the card that I made for them. It's a book-binder card with a surprise inside. The sentiment doesn't show up very well, but it's die cut (and many-layered!) from gold textured foil. The patterned paper had plain flowers (which you can see on the inside) but I colored the front ones with Copic markers.

The left side is blank for me to add our message to them.

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Strawberry Birthday and Anniversary

Two more cards made with Gina K's strawberries folder, stencils and dies. This sentiment is die-cut from gold.

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Warm Wishes

I made two cards almost identical to this one (one had a different sentiment) and two cards just like the second one. The stencil and the stamps and dies are all from Gina K. I colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. The image and sentiment are popped up, of course. :-)

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Elegant Birthday

Can you tell that I brought almost exclusively Gina K products with me on my retreat. :-) The elegant frame (die-cut from gold metallic cardstock), the flower and leaf (from the newest kit) and the sentiment are all Gina K. The sentiment is embossed in gold.

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Sunny Days

I made this card on my retreat, but colored it after I came home so that I could use my Copic markers. The flip-flops and hat are mounted on foam squares. The stamps are all from one set from Gina K's newest kit. (The colors look much better together in person!)

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Bird Birthdays in Black and White

Well, here are the bird die-cuts and embossed vellum on colored cardstock that I was talking about the other day - made into cards. I think the dies are from Spellbinders. The sentiments on each card are from the new card kit from Gina K. I love them both! I added black nail heads to each bird. This bird is popped up on foam squares.

I used an ancient tool on this one. I'm guessing no one would spot it. I cut the small square of black cardstock and then I used a decorative scissors on it! This bird is attached directly to the black square and then I popped up the square.

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Four Christmas Cards

I have several things going on in my stamping room. I was playing with crinkled and ironed wax paper. I also played with vellum over cardstock and then embossed. And I dug out some bird dies that I had. (Thanks, Leslie, for two of those!) I also got a new kit from Gina K and I really want to get started on using all the new stuff! Lucky for me I'm going away for a few days with a friend and her friends on a scrapbooking retreat. But, I will be making cards instead. Hopefully it will be very productive. I've also been messing around with rearranging my stamping room a bit. It's always something. :-)

Anyway, here are four cards I've made. I'm going to save my ironed, wrinkled wax paper for another time. I have eight card fronts that I've used that technique on, just waiting to be used.

This first card uses a Sizzix embossing folder. I used white mulberry paper over cardstock for the base for this embossed and die-cut bird, which I believe is from Spellbinders. The sentiment is from Impression Obsession.

This one also uses a Spellbinders die. The sentiment is from Hero Arts. The background is vellum over a mottled light green cardstock and then embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, I believe.

The dies for these ornaments are from Spellbinders. I used one to cut the bottom of the cardfront, too, so the bottom of the card that you see is actually on the inside.

The texture on this card is the wax paper that was left over from the pieces that I used as a resist on my as-yet-unused card panels.

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Birthday and Sympathy

Here are two more cards that I made using marker-to-rubber-stamp method. I used gold on this first birthday card, and black on the sympathy card.  The sentiment is five layers of die-cuts.

The sentiment on this card is from Papertrey Ink.

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More Marker-to Rubber Stamp

Marker on rubber stamp, then mist and stamp. The sentiment on this one is from Gina K.

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

Sentiment from Papertrey Ink.

Sentiment from Papertrey Ink.

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More Paint Samples

I love the color of this patterned paper, and it matched so nicely with some of our paint samples. I have four more backgrounds ready to finish into cards, but this is what I have for now. This first one features a die-cut paint sample and a Gina K stamp.

The butterfly is another paint sample die-cut. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things.

These last two are nearly identical - just different flower dies and slightly different color paint samples. The sentiment is from Gina K. I also added a few sequins.

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Watercolor - Then Stencil

I watched a video that Mindy Eggen did using watercolor over an embossed image. I thought it was pretty cool, and this is my versions. Her video can be seen here.  Mine is not so impressive, but it was fun and I do like the way it turned out.  The embossing folder, stencils, sentiment with die  are all from Gina K. The sentiment is embossed with gold powder and popped up.

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Blooming Branches - Part Two

The embossing folder from Gina K that I'm using is called Blooming Branches. Here are a couple more cards I've made using it.

For this first one, I brayered a very light lavender ink onto the embossing folder before embossing. Then I embossed and used the coordinating stencils to color the image. I left the flowers white, with just the little bit of coloration from the ink on the folder. I matted the panel. I realize I forgot to add a sentiment, but I can do that later.

FOr this one, I was experimenting with just using the stencils. After I finished adding the colors, I decided I'd like it better if I embossed it, so I did. I added some black spatters, which dried looking gray, so I used gray to mat the panel and added the stamped and die-cut sentiment.

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Debossed and Wood-Grained Birthday

The first two of five new cards done with a Gina K 3D embossing folder. This is from the kit from last month. I love this folder. It also comes with dies, which I did not use. For these two cards, I first lightly dragged a light-color ink pad across the panels, then embossed them. After embossing, I dragged a couple darker ink pads over the debossed side - slightly looking like wood graining. Then I matted them and popped up a Gina K sentiment.

I used light browns for this card, ending with a light turquoise-y color.

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Completed Card Bases - Installment #2

Four more card bases made into completed cards. The sentiments on this card are from Gina K. The "wishes" is gold-embossed to match the die-cut butterflies.

Simply added a gold die cut, layered "thank you."

Bottom panel embossed with a Darice folder and lightly inked. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and is gold-embossed.

More gold die-cut butterflies and gold embossing on the sentiment from Gina K. There is a die to cut out the two-stamp sentiment.

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Birthday Balloons

Finally, another card. And when I had a chance to spend some time in my stamping room, did I use some of my new items? Nope! I went through more of my cards parts and started organizing them. I think at some point in the not-too-distant future, I'm going to just throw some of them out. I'm down to small things. I actually emptied my book and put them in little storage containers.

Anyway, here is my card. I had, at some point, added thin strips to cardstock and die-cut this sentiment out of it. Now I cut two more of the same sentiment from really thick cardstock and glued them all together. Then I added it to layers of coordinating cardstock. I punched out the balloons and popped them up and drew the strings before adding the sentiment panel. It really needed something else, so I brought out my Itty Bitty Background stamp set from Stampin' Up! and used it to fill in a little bit around the balloons. That helped. 

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Simple Birthday Wishes

I had this frame left over from another card, so I die-cut the flowers to go with it. Then I used the same die to cut the patterned paper panel. The sentiment is two stamps and a die from Gina K's newest kit. The "wishes" is gold-embossed.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!