Golden Birthday Card

Today’s card is for a very special neighbor. (I did daycare for him and his sister for many years.) He is turning eleven on the eleventh – hence, his “Golden Birthday.” He actually saves all the cards I give him – that is so awesome!

I started with the JustRite Stamper. I stamped with Versamark and embossed with Detail Gold embossing powder, then cut it out with a Marvy circle punch. I cut out the gold scalloped circle with a Marvy punch, also, and added white dots with a Signo gel pen. Hmmm … what next? I brayered with Versamark on a Diamonds in the Rough Cuttlebug embossing folder, used it to emboss white cardstock, then sprinkled it with the gold embossing powder. It was really hard not to get Versamark where it didn’t belong, so I had to brush off a lot of it from between the diamonds. But, I think it worked all right. (This technique is called “Negative Effect” on SplitCoastStampers and here is a link to a former Technique Lover’s Challenge with instructions.) I did nearly a full page, but it was just too much gold for a birthday card for an eleven-year-old! So, I thought and thought. Then I remembered some really awesome textured paper that I had gotten over a month ago. I’m not actually sure it’s paper – it feels more like VERY thin plastic. I thought red would look great with the gold. So, I cut the diamond piece in half, matted it with gold shimmery paper, then added the red texture to the card base. Of course, the round part needed some red then, too, so I cut a circle out with a Nestability – just the right amount of red, I think. The circle medallion is mounted on Pop Dots.

Sorry there are so many pictures. I wanted you to see the shiny gold, the true color of the red, and the portion stamped with the JustRite Stamper.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Two More Sarah Kay Cards

How about two more Sarah Kay cards? I’m still using the stamp-offs I got from Harriet.

I colored one of the images with SU! markers and one with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. They are both very simple cards, because the focus is on the images. Not too much explanation is necessary! I used Nestabilities to cut them both out, and in both cases, I trimmed part of the shape off. For one I used Long Rectangles, and for the other I used Labels One. I usually start with a larger mat than I will need, and trim small strips off until I get the size mat I want. That leaves me with the thin strips. On the purple card, I used a couple of the strips in place of ribbon. Sometimes I will put a really thin strip on top of a piece of ribbon – I like that effect, too. The sentiments on both cards are from Inkadinkado sets.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Picket Fence Birthday

I guess I didn’t upload this card yet, so I will do that today. I made it last week.

I saw Martha Stewart’s Picket Fence punch on a couple blogs, so of course I had to have it! I realize the flowers are a bit large for the fence, but it’s just a card, right??? I punched the fence, chose my ribbon, and scored the lines around the ribbon. I stamped the flowers (from Stampin’ Up!’s Sweet Stems) with Versafine Onyx Black. I colored them with SU! markers in Cameo Coral and Old Olive. I colored the bases of the flowers several times to make them darker. I used a Signo Gel pen to highlight the spots in the flowers. The fence layer is mounted on Pop Dots for dimension. I would have liked to have moved the fence border higher on the card, but I managed to smear a little bit of black ink on the bottom so I had to cover it up. Oh well! I also only wanted one “happy birthday” on the card, but I didn’t like the placement of the first one, so I added a couple more. They kind of look like birds flying overhead, so that works for me.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

"Peek-a-Boo" Card

My card for today is a case of another of Leslie Miller’s cards. You can find the card here.
I have made cards like this in the past, but this card reminded me to do it again!

I started by cutting my mats – the gray and the white. I positioned them right where I wanted them on the card front, then cut the smallest hole with an Oval Nestability – all three layers at once. The base layer didn’t cut quite all the way through, but I could see exactly where it should go, so I ran that layer through again. Then I took the top white layer and used the next size bigger Nestability to cut the whole larger, allowing the gray to show though. I decided to use the Dotted Swiss embossing folder on the white, also. I added some silver ribbon, a Stampin’ Up! ribbon slider, and then I thought a white scalloped border would be nice around the gray, too. I had to sponge it with gray, too, of course! The cat is a stamp from Inkadinkado. I stamped it with SU! Going Gray and cut it out with an Oval Nestability and matted it on a little bit larger oval cut out of the gray paper. The cat is on the inside of the card. I think I will put “Best Wishes” on the outside of the card, and then put “for a purr-fect birthday” on the inside.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

February Calendar Page

I remembered! (I’m going to try to remember to post my calendar page for the month on the First of each month.)

Here is my calendar page for the month of February. The stamp I used is a trio of hearts by PSX. I stamped it on white for the background, and then again on red and on pink. I cut out the pink and red hearts and adhered them to the white, leaving the lacy edge showing on the white. (Two reasons – I love the lace, and it sure made cutting them out MUCH easier!) The pink is a very thin shimmery paper which I embossed with my Dotted Swiss Cuttlebug embossing folder. I stamped the sentiment with red and also sponged red around the edges.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Limited Supplies Challenge - CAS

Yesterday’s Limited Supplies Challenge on SplitCoastStampers was to make a Clean and Simple card. Gosh, every card I make fits that challenge!

This is the card I uploaded for the challenge. I used my Stampin’ Up! Sweet Stems set again, since it was still out on my desk. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils and smoothed them out with Gamsol. I thought adding a little bit of red would be a nice touch. The Happy Birthday is from a Studio G set from Michaels – I trimmed around the box. The ribbon slider is a Cuttlebug die, and I trimmed off the top and bottom for better proportions for the card. The ribbon is from a dollar spool from JoAnn’s. I used my Scor-Pal to score the grid for the background and for a little added interest to the image, too.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Shadow Stamp Thank You

I really like shadow stamps, have several of them, and rarely use them! For today’s card, I decided to use one.

The shadow stamp is by Hero Arts. I stamped it in Memories Soft Leaf ink. I stamped the flower – from a new set by Stampin’ Up! called Sweet Stems – with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I colored it with Mellow Moss and More Mustard. I used a Signo Gel pen for the white dots in the center. The border within the shadow stamp is a stamp from Studio G. I put scratch paper on each side of the shadow-stamped area to keep the stamping only on the green. The embossed button border is made with a Cuttlebug border embossing folder. The “Thank You” is also from a new Stampin’ Up! set called Thank You Kindly.

I wasn't going to share this one, but what the heck! It's another card along the same lines. I used the Scor-Pal for the background.

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

Magnolia Meets Labels One

Another Magnolia card. I would like to have shared something different with you, but I have nothing else!

I colored this Magnolia stampoff on Monday, worked on it just a little bit Tuesday and Wednesday and finally finished it up today. Not that it’s that complicated, I just haven’t had much time! It is colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. What IS a little bit different about it, is how I cut it and matted it. I used my new Labels One set of Nestabilities. Do you recognize it? I put her in it diagonally, then trimmed off the other two “points.” I punched the corners of the teal mat, and also the corners of the background paper, with a Fiskars Lace corner punch. The tag is a Sizzix die cut. The sentiment is from Inkadinkado. The ribbon is from JoAnn’s.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Butterfly Anniversary

Today’s card was made for yesterday’s Color Challenge (#203) on SplitCoastStampers. The colors are Stampin’ Up!’s Baja Breeze, Pacific Point and Garden Green.

I went with a layout similar to cards I’ve made before. Hey – it works! The stamp set I used is from Stampin’ Up! It’s called Flight of the Butterfly. I stamped the base of the blue butterflies with Baja Breeze and used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the dotted portion and body of the butterfly with Pacific Point. (There are also two more patterns for the butterfly, as well as other sentiments and a little flower.) I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig again to stamp the sentiment right where I wanted it. The smaller butterflies are stamped with Garden Green. I sponged the edges of the panel with Baja Breeze, then mounted it on Garden Green and Pacific Point. The Happy Anniversary stamp is by Hero Arts. I added a double score line above and below the stamped strip.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

A Bookmark Thank You

Well, we’re back home. We went down to Chicago to visit our daughter, son-in-law and grandson for a few days. We took Amtrak and it was marvelous. So was our visit! LOL!!

I needed something to do on the train. I had just finished reading the first book in the Twilight series, but didn’t have the second one yet. We had given it to our fourteen-year-old neighbor girl for Christmas. Shame on me – I asked her if I could borrow it! Turns out she hadn’t even had a chance to read it yet, but she had no time to read over the weekend and let me bring it with me. (I was able to finish it while I was away.) So, I made her a thank you card and a bookmark. I made the bookmark first. I thought it would be an appropriate – but tiny – gift. The card was made with part of my experimental bookmark.

I printed the words on my computer. Then I brayered over them with a Spectrum pad. I stamped with Versafine Onyx Black over that using stamps from Inkadinkado, then sprinkled the whole bookmark with clear embossing powder. The brayering was still wet enough to be embossed, even though it was dye ink. I trimmed the corners of the top, cut the bottom with a mini-scallop scissors, then added an eyelet at the top and some fibers.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Another Sarah Kay

How about another Sarah Kay card today? I still have several stampoffs from Harriet to color and use, so I’ve got lots of fun ahead of me!

This one was colored with Stampin’ Up! markers. The image panel and matting are cut and embossed with Rectangle Nestabilities. The background paper is from Sizzix. The sentiment is from Inkadinkado. I thought it was so pretty and delicate.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Lots of Magnolias!

I thought I’d share several cards with Magnolias with you today, rather than spread them out! Thanks again, Andrea, for the stampoffs!

Some are colored with markers. Some are colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. Some use Nestabilities. Some use Cuttlebug folders. Several have Stickles. None are complicated! I hope you like them!

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Suzy's Zoo Revisited

Today’s card uses another stampoff of a Suzy’s Zoo stamp.

This card was colored with Stampin’ Up! markers. The smart thing to do is to choose your background papers and then color the image to match. I just totally lucked out and found paper to match my already-colored image! Whew! The paper is from Sizzix. The image and mat are cut using Long Oval Nestabilities. I placed an eyelet within the image panel to thread the ribbon through. The sentiment is from Studio G.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Navy and Olive Color Challenge

Another card for my Yahoo! group’s swap. This time it’s for the Color Challenge, which is olive green and navy blue this month.

You know I’m a huge fan of Clean and Simple, but this can’t get much simpler! The butterfly stamps are from Inkadinkado, as is the flowery swirl under the Hello. They are stamped in Old Olive ink. The butterflies and their mats are cut using square Nestabilities. The Hello is stamped in Not Quite Navy and is a dollar stamp from Michael’s.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Anything But a Square!

Today’s card is for a swap in my Yahoo! group. The theme is “Anything But a Square” card.

I just received my Labels One Nestabilities (thanks to Anne! And Vicki!) and that’s what I used for my shape. I folded my cardstock in half, and then used the largest one – placing it so that the fold was just inside the cutting edge of the die. The stamps I used I just received yesterday, too. They are from There She Goes, and the set is called “Crafty Taglines.” I sponged a little ink around the edge of the die before I removed it from cutting the image. The image is colored with markers, and has Stickles on the computer screen. The paper is from Stampin’ Up!

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Sketch Challenge Anniversary

I hadn’t done a SplitCoastStampers challenge for a while, so it was about time.

I did the SCS Sketch Challenge #212, found here. I used three different Cuttlebug folders on white, sponging the edges with Stampin’ Up!’s Mellow Moss ink and matting them with Mellow Moss cardstock. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink’s Mixed Messages set. The flower and fern/leaf were given to me. Not much more to say!

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Magnolia Birthday

How about a Magnolia card today? I received several Magnolia stampoffs from a friend – thanks, Andrea! I colored up five of them over the weekend, and I have made them all into cards now. You may be seeing a lot of them!

Today’s card is supposed to be for Christmas, I think. I had originally colored it that way, but decided I wanted to use it now. So I colored over the holly leaves in her hair, and changed the colors of the presents! I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. I added Stickles to her wing. I cut her, and the matting, with Long Oval Nestabilities. Hmmm, what to do with her now? I found the small piece of pink (the same color!) already embossed with the Dotted Swiss folder and laying on my table. I held it underneath, and thought it looked good. Now, where to put the sentiment? I thought it would look nice above the image and have seen on other blogs to bend the stamps to print in a curve. However, I knew I didn’t have a stamp that long. So, it popped into my head to print it on the computer. Wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull it off, but it worked!

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

My First Sarah Kay Card

A quick post today. I received some Sarah Kay stampoffs from my great friend, Harriet. (Thanks, Harriet!) I colored several of them over the weekend. I am sharing one of the cards I made with you today.

This card is larger than “normal.” It is five inches by six and a half inches. I colored the image with Stampin’ Up! markers. Oh, except for her jeans – they were colored with my ONE Copic marker. I used my Long Oval Nestabilities to cut out the image and also the sentiment, which is from a Studio G set. The background paper (which just happened to match her painting smock perfectly!) is from Die Cuts With a View – Summer matstack.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

One Stamp - Six Cards

I had a lot of fun yesterday! My husband left Friday night to go ice fishing, and won't be home until this afternoon. Stamping time!!

Yesterday I uploaded one card I made with a stamp by Jeanne Streiff for Rubbernecker. Today I'm sharing six more I made with that same stamp. All are colored with markers. Some are just direct to paper, some are misted and stamped on misted watercolor paper, and some are misted and stamped on dry cardstock. Please feel free to ask questions via email or a comment.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you come back and visit again soon!

Wonderful Friend

Ahhh, stamping time!

Last night I “played around” a bit. I took this image (Rubbernecker – Jeanne Streiff Collection) and colored it with markers. For the first stamping with it, I just breathed on it (to re-moisten it) and then stamped. For the second stamping, I used watercolor paper and misted both the stamp and the paper. For the third stamping, I misted the stamp and stamped on normal cardstock once again. This card is made using the third stamping. I thought it would make a nice background for a sentiment. I remembered I had this great stamp (thanks, Vicki!) from Hero Arts that would work perfectly. I stamped over the flowers, using Onyx Black Versafine ink and embossed it with clear detail embossing powder. The rest is very standard for me! I cut out the image and embossed it with a Long Rectangle Nestability, then used a scalloped one to cut the mat using Stampin’ Up!’s Glorious Green cardstock. The background is embossed with Dotted Swiss and Diamonds in the Rough Cuttlebug embossing folders, separated by Scor-Pal double lines and mounted on more Glorious Green.

I just assume that anyone reading my blog is a stamper, but if there is anyone out there who is interested in purchasing my cards, I would happily sell them! My email address is in the “About Me” section on the left, and also there is a link in my Profile page.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!