Birthday, Birthday

Both of these cards use images from Gina K. I colored them with Prismacolor pencils and blended with Gamsol. I then used the coordinating dies to cut them out. I mounted the flower and the outer edges of the leaves on foam squares. The sentiment on this first one is a Mrs. Grossman's sticker. I embossed the background with a Darice embossing folder. The finished size is 6.5 x 3.5. I have seven envelopes in the size that this will fit into, so I will be making more cards of this size.

The sentiment on this card is from the same Gina K set as the images. The flower is mounted on foam squares. The patterned paper is from Gina K, also. I added a thin strip of black above the gingham.

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August Calendar Page

For this page, I used Repeat Impressions stamps - both the ice cream cone and the sentiment. I stamped the images on "mottled" paper and cut them all out. The patterned paper is from a Recollections matstack. I cut the circle out of the patterned paper and stamped the sentiment directly on the calendar page, to save layers.

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Sunshine

Looking through my dies led me to this one. I cut it twice out of different color cardstock and layered them. I added two enamel dots for the eyes and drew the smile on it. The sentiment is from an old My Sentiments Exactly set. I added a thin black strip at the top of the image panel.

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Road Trip

I guess I will send this to the first person I know that will be heading out on a road trip:) I came across a few tags and thought I would use one. I had also come across this stamp set from Tim Holtz when I was looking for a specific stamp. All the stamps are from the same set. I added some twine at the top, through the hole. I sponged a bit of the brown ink along the edges, also.

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Washi Tape Thank You

I've had this washi tape for a while and have barely used any of it. I simply used some of each of the rolls. The solid pink and turquoise are glitter tape and the gold is shiny. I used a die to cut the sentiment. It consists of two layers of white and one layer of shiny gold cardstock.

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Critter Birthdays

Last year when we were at Taylored Expressions, I bought a stamp and die set. I used the "critter face" stamps and the dies right away and could never figure out what to do with the finished pieces. The other stamps in the set are all sentiments and none of them seemed to go with the dies at all. (They are nice sentiments - they just don't coordinate with the animals.) There is a fox, a pig, an owl and a cow. The stamps are just the face and the dies cut the shape. I will toss or give away the other two animals that I had made. For this first one, I used a previously die-cut frame. I popped the cow up with foam squares. The sentiment is from a very old Stampin' Up! set.

How is this for retro? I used an old Stampin' Up! corner punch. :) I embossed the green piece with a Darice embossing folder. I matted with white and placed them in the corner-punched piece. The sentiment on this one is from an old SU! set, also.

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Birdhouse Birthday

A very simple card using up more die-cuts. The "birthday" is four stacked die-cuts. The "happy" stamp and the birdhouse stamp are both from My Favorite Things. I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. I matted with black and called it done.

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Die-Cut Sympathy

Four more "card parts" used up on these cards. Well, actually more, since the sentiments are layered and are two pieces each. The parts on this first card are the sentiment, the die-cut flowers and the background. I sprayed Distress Spray Stain on the flower die-cut because it was done in white and was too stark. Luckily one of my three colors of spray stain matched. The sentiment was cut from a kind of shimmery coppery cardstock. I made the background last year or the year before at our Group Gathering. It's done with alcohol inks and a vellum paper and gold foil.

This one is simply patterned paper (from The Paper Studio) and the stacked die cuts.

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Washi Paper Birthday

The beautiful paper on this card was given to me by my daughter several years ago. She got it when she was in Japan. (Gosh, I guess that means it's about eleven years old!) It's hand-made Washi paper. There is one sheet each of eight designs, and each sheet is shiny/shimmery gold on the backside. I had to try to figure out how to show it off. I simply folded up one corner just a little bit and secured it with a brad. (Yes, I used two brads on this card!) I used a strip that I had cut off and stamped it with a Papertrey Ink stamp, embossed with black.

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Corner Happy Birthday

I have a tall stack of small squares of paper/cardstock that I got MANY years ago from, I'm pretty sure, a former Stampin' Up! demonstrator. (She was a co-worker of my son's and gave me three boxes of very miscellaneous stuff.) I sorted them out the other day and realized there was some patterned paper included. I used two of these pieces, along with two solid pieces, on these cards. I also used two die-cut pieces that I've had in my stash for a few years. Each panel is mounted on foam squares.

This one also uses an embossed background piece from my stash.

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Nine Cards - Penny Black Stickers

I sorted through my "sticker drawer" and tossed a few things and set aside some for a friend to use or toss. I left these two sheets (one full and one partially used) out to use up. They are just finished very simply and I won't go into much detail. This first one used a pre-embossed background and a pre-stamped sentiment. I popped up the sentiment after I cut the ends to form a banner.

For this second one, I used a pre-printed background from Gina K that I had foiled with turquoise foil. The image is matted and mounted on foam squares and the sentiment is one that I did at Taylor's (Taylored Expressions) last summer.

The sentiment is from Gina K. For the background, I used another pre-done background. I think I made this one a long time ago by cleaning my brayer off on it! it matched so nicely.

Another pre-embossed background. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

 For these last five, I used ivory cardstock and the sentiments are all from Gina K. I forgot to use pre-made backgrounds, though!

 

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Four-Step Roses

I love these roses and leaves by Sunny Studio. I made several of them in different colors, since I had the stamps in place on my MISTI. The orange one is mounted on foam squares. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

This is the one I made for our color swap. The colors were honey and purple.

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Die-Cut Flowers

These flower sprigs were all cut from a die and then watercolored. For this first one, I added thin strips of cardstock along the edges. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

EDITED TO ADD: I don't own this die - I cut these at our Group Gathering several years ago. The die is from Memory Box and it's called Bloomington Border.

For this one, I embossed the background with an Anna Griffin Cuttlebug folder and added a die-cut sentiment.

For this one, I simply added the sentiment.

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Die-Cut Birthday

I stamped this background at a friend's house in February. I'm pretty sure it's from Taylored Expressions. I added a strip of white cardstock across the bottom and then added the green ribbon. The flowers and the sentiment are die-cut.

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Holly Christmas

I happened across this brass stencil one day and had to use it. It's from Lasting Impressions. I used some nice holly stickers in five of the six squares. I added the sentiment (from Papertrey Ink) in the sixth square. I matted with red and mounted on foam tape.

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Another Reverse Stencil

Here is the other card I made using the reverse stencil technique. Again, I brushed Gina K inks onto a piece of cardstock. Then I placed a stencil over that and covered with black ink. It's hard to tell, but there are two colors of blue ink here, along with the purple. I matted the panel with black. The sentiment is from an old Stampin' Up! set. I cut it and the scalloped matting layer with Nestabilities and added three tiny gems. I mounted on foam squares. I also added a thin strip of black.

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Reverse Stencil

I often watch Gina K videos on YouTube while I walk on the treadmill in the morning. That is where I learned this technique - this time from Gina's daughter, Rina. It's pretty cool. First, you cover a piece of cardstock with ink. I used brushes and Gina K inks. I think the cardstock I used for this one is even Gina K. After covering the cardstock, place a stencil over the inked piece and then use black ink. This is what you get. I'll have another card done with this technique on tomorrow's blog post. I matted with black. The sentiment (also from Gina K) is matted with black and mounted on foam squares. The butterfly is die-cut. I think it's from Memory Box. I cut a piece of vellum to place underneath it and glued it to the sentiment panel. 

This card was done with the same stencil, but just the typical way. I stamped the sentiment on vellum and embossed. I folded the edges of the vellum around the panel before matting and then I added thin black strips of cardstock to the top and bottom edges.

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Thanksgiving in July

The card part on this card is the pumpkin. I'm pretty sure it was cut with a QuicKutz/Lifestyle Crafts die many years ago. I had cut the pieces and then sponged a bit of ink on the edges before gluing them together. I mounted on foam squares. The patterned paper is from a Recollections matstack and is matted with my favorite brown cardstock - Soft Suede from Stampin' Up! The sentiment is from Inkadinkado.

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Fruity Cards

Two more card parts cards for you today. I found these bananas already stamped, die-cut and colored in with my parts. I mounted them on foam squares and added them to a previously-die-cut rectangle. I matted with black and added the sentiment. These are from a Recollections set.

Also in with my parts was this pear - stamped and glued together. (It consists of three pieces - the pear, the leaf and the stem.) They are from Technique Tuesday. I added the pear with foam squares to the stitched rectangle die-cut and matted with black. I added the sentiment, which is from the same Technique Tuesday set.

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Wreathy Birthday

Back to card parts for today's card. I die-cut this a few years ago. I had added the green piece back into the negative space on the white card. I added a piece of vellum to the backside and stamped a flower with Versamark on the back of the vellum and embossed with white. The panel is mounted on foam squares. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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