Embossed Christmas

Two more card parts used up on this card. The embossed image was one of them. I matted it with red and mounted it on foam squares. I believe it was done with a Cuttlebug folder. The embossed background was another piece from my stash. I'm not sure how it was embossed, but it was done about eight years ago. It was probably either a Sizzix/Stampin' Up! folder or a texture plate.

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Birthday Wishes

I got Gina K's new Stamp TV kit, and this is the first card I've made with it. I used watercolor paper and stamped the image and embossed it with black powder. I used watercolors for the flower and leaves. The sentiment is from the kit, too. The butterfly is one I made a couple weeks ago using a die for the black part. I glued it to an orange piece for the bottom layer. I mounted the butterfly using a foam square under the body. 

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Puppy Birthday

Well, not really a "puppy," but "dog birthday" didn't sound as cute:) Another image I've had in my stash for many, many years. It could very well be from Penny Black, but I really don't know. I colored it with Copics and matted. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and I cut it as a banner and mounted it on foam squares. The background was from my stash, also. I embossed it last fall. It was done with something I've never seen before, courtesy of a friend. It was almost a wire-like mesh, as I recall. But I could be wrong! (Thanks, Bonnie.)

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Baby Boy

We had a drive-by baby shower last Saturday, and this is the card I made for it. The cute little teddy bear is from Inkadinkado. I paper-pieced his onesie and colored with Copics. The sentiment is from a Studio G dollar stamp set from a LONG time ago. The sentiment and the image panel are both mounted on foam squares. The background paper is from Die Cuts With a View.

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Wispy Flower Birthday

Yet another stamp-off. I'm pretty sure the flower is from Penny Black, but I'm not 100% sure. I had stamped it with Versamark and embossed it with white embossing powder. I colored the panel with distress inks and cut it down and matted it with white. I added the sentiment, from my new Gina K Stamp TV kit, in white embossing. I often threaten to put the images at an angle but rarely follow through. For this card I actually did it! :)

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Simple Hello

Another stamp-off used. I do not know who made the stamps. I colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. I matted and mounted on foam squares. The patterned paper background is from Gina K. 

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Button Flowers

More "card parts" stamp-offs. I'm pretty sure these flowers are from Papertrey Ink. I had two of these pieces. The set is made to use with buttons. For this first one, I covered the card front with patterned paper from Gina K.

For this second one, I added thin strips of patterned paper near the edges of the panel. I used another card part for the bottom layer. I embossed it many, many years ago at one of our Group Gatherings. 

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Twelve Cards - One Layout

I've had these stamped images in my "card parts" pile/box for many years. I've really been working to get rid of them! I actually made a dent in it recently:) ALL of my card parts are either in a three-ring binder or in a box in card sleeves. Eventually I would like to put them all in the binder. That would make me feel great.

I had three stamp-offs of each of these, so twelve cards total. I'm pretty sure that they are all from a Stampin' Up! set. I finished nearly all of them exactly the same. I colored them with Copics and matted. On this first one, I added some Liquid Pearls for the tiny flower centers.

For this second one, I added shimmer to all of the hearts with a Wink of Stella pen.

I added Wink of Stella to the dragonfly wings and this one is mounted on foam squares.

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Christmas Joy

One more Christmas card for the stack. I've had this part of a snowflake die cut sitting on my table for a few weeks. It was cut from Gina K Masking Magic. I placed it on the white cardstock. I cut a circle mask over the snowflake and sponged ink on it. I matted with matching cardstock and mounted on a white card base. I believe that the die that I used to cut the "joy" is from Taylored Expressions. I got it free when we visited there last June at our Group Gathering. I cut it four times and layered it. I also added Wink of Stella sparkle to the snowflake and Diamond Glaze to the sentiment.

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Purple Sparkle Anniversary

I got this punch out recently for a "punch" challenge and thought I should use it again. It's an "anywhere" punch from Martha Stewart. I punched it three times in a row - easy to line up. I matted it with purple glitter cardstock. The sentiment stamps are from Papertrey Ink.

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Six by Six One-Sheet Wonder

I was inspired by my friend, Vicki, to do a six by six inch One-Sheet Wonder. Here are my cards. I used a sheet of Gina K patterned paper, my favorite brown cardstock (Soft Suede, retired Stampin' Up!) and dies for these cards. I don't think any more description is needed.

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Fall-ish Birthday

 As I've said in previous posts, I never know where my cards will be headed when I get in my stamping room. I often start out by trying to make things even more organized and then I run across things. In this case, I came across a piece of cardstock with the oval cut in it that had been used for sponging. I thought I would use it again. I also came across this bit of ribbon (I have more for another card) so I used the ribbon to help me choose my ink color. I used a blending brush for the color. The silhouette stamp is from Inkadinkado. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I matted the image panel with black and put it on a white cardbase.

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Classic Layouts - with Shimmer

Here are two more cards with some beautiful, shimmery/shiny cardstock. They are both done with one sheet of the paper and use some classic layouts. The sentiments (as usual!) are from Papertrey Ink.

Can you believe I actually added a bow! :) It's been sitting around my craft area for years. It's a little crooked in the picture - it actually has two nice loops.

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An Old Technique - Bleach

I've watched a few Gina K videos while walking on my treadmill in the morning, and she recently did one using bleach. So, I thought I would do that. One of the colors of cardstock she used was her "Faded Brick," so I knew that it would turn yellow. (It's amazing the colors that various cardstocks turn when bleached!) The stamps I used (the flower sprig, the butterfly, and the sentiment) are all from Inkadinkado. I matted with black and placed it on a white cardfront.

I made the first card for the monthly swap in my stamping group. But, I liked it so much, I made four more after I mailed it out! Here are the others. I made another one from the Faded Brick cardstock, two from the green and one from the aqua. The colors don't come through so well in the photos, but they are quite pretty in real life.

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June Color Swap - Patriotic Colors

Here is the card I made for the color swap in our stamping group. The colors this month are "patriotic." I didn't want to make a Fourth of July card, though, so I went this way instead. The frame, the flowers and the "hello" are all die-cut. The dotted paper is from the very first matstack I ever bought! I added slightly glittery enamel dots to the larger flower centers and Nuvo glitter drops to the smaller ones.

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Anniversary Heart

As I visited a few blogs last week, I took a couple notes of what I wanted to do. I haven't done a challenge for quite a while and there were a couple that seemed interesting to me. So, here is my card for those challenges. The first challenge is: Let's Craft and Create Challenge #160. This challenge is to use a punch. My punch is an "anywhere" punch from Martha Stewart. It's been so long since I've used it, I had to look on-line and see how to do it! :) The second challenge is CAS mixup. It is to use embossed vellum and stamping. I embossed my vellum with a Darice folder. My sentiment is popped up on foam squares and is from Hero Arts. I added a bit of twine, too.

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Butterfly Special Day

Another sheet of the gorgeous paper I got from a friend - very shiny and shimmery. I added some dies - the butterfly and the sentiment with shadow. The shadow was cut from vellum, as was the top layer of the butterfly. I cut the sentiment and the bottom layer of the butterfly from a light pink cardstock, but I decided I wanted it darker, so I colored them with a Copic marker. I added some Martha Stewart gems to the body of the butterfly. I'm pretty sure the butterfly die is from Memory Box.

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Rose Heart Anniversary

I think it was last year at our Group Gathering (more about our Gathering later in the post) that I got some sheets of gorgeous paper/cardstock from a friend. I've been hoarding them and it's time to use them! (Or at least some of them.) So for this card, I simply cut down the sheet (which is very shimmery), matted it with purple and black cardstocks and mounted on an ivory card base, and added the sentiment (my favorite, as you can tell since I use it a LOT!) from Papertrey Ink, embossed in black.

Our annual Group Gathering has been cancelled for this year. 😕 So sad - we've been meeting every year in June since (I think!) 2007. We were to meet tomorrow in Ankeny, IA, but obviously it's not possible this year. We will be meeting by Zoom, though!

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Embossing Paste Snowflakes

This snowflake panel has been on my stamping table for while. Not any more! :) I had made it using a stencil, embossing paste and silver embossing powder. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink, is embossed with silver embossing powder, is matted with shimmery silver paper and mounted on foam squares.

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Watercolored Anniversary

I felt like doing a little bit of simple watercoloring, so this I what I made. The flowers stamp is from Gina K. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I love to watercolor. :) The image panel is matted with black,and the cardbase is ivory.

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Masculine Birthday and Anniversary

I saw this technique on one of Gina K's videos. She used stencils for her embossing, but I used Cuttlebug folders. First I did the embossing. Then I used my Scor-Pal to make lines every half inch. For this first card, I dragged ink pads over the back of the embossing. I matted with black and added the die-cut sentiment, which is three layers thick plus shadow. I also brushed a bit of ink on the sentiment piece. This card will be used as an anniversary card for friends.

For this second card, I used the front of the embossing.

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Christmas Snowflake

Another Christmas card for the pile. I die cut the snowflake from masking paper and placed it on white cardstock. I brushed the blue ink around it. Then I mixed some white Perfect Pearls with water and spritzed it on for some pretty sparkle. I wasn't sure what to do with it, so I let it sit for a couple days. I decided to just cut it in a circle and then I cut a scalloped circle to mat it with. I felt it needed a little more, so I added the white dots. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I found some Gina K patterned paper for the background. For some reason, I thought it needed some red! So I used some red and white twine. I've had it for quite a while and I don't know if I've ever used it. (I have a pack of about six colors.) I mounted the circle on foam squares.

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Anniversary Roses

I rarely know what I will end up making when I head down to my stamping room. For my latest session, here is one of the cards that resulted. I used a die to cut four flowers - two from white, one from pink and one from green. I layered the two white die cuts and the green. Then I cut the flowers off of the pink piece and added them to the green stems and leaves. I mounted the flower on some textured, shimmery white cardstock and matted with matching green. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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Friends Christmas

I have SO much patterned paper, but I don't use it very often. I left the two boxes of smaller patterned paper pads out on my table so I could TRY to remember to use some! I even sat it on empty boxes to make it higher on my table and easier to see! I grabbed a pad and it happened to be a Christmas stack, so I made four cards just like this one. The patterned paper is from The Paper Studio. I matted it with matching blue. The sentiment strip is part of what was cut off to make it card-sized. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I believe I counted 36 Christmas cards done for this year.

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Monoprinting

I'm not exactly sure what monoprinting is, but here is my card from the Spring On-line Card Classes for that lesson. It calls for either a gel plate (don't know what that is, and I don't have one) or a large, background clear stamp. I don't have a large clear background stamp, either. So, I used my embossing mat for my BIGkick. It worked OK. (Except, see below.) I added ink to the mat randomly and then used a brayer to make it cover the mat. Then I used a leaf stamp from Sunny Studio. I tapped the stamp onto the ink and then stamped it onto a piece of white cardstock. I did that repeatedly, wiping the stamp off between stampings, until the cardstock was covered. Then I put another piece of cardstock onto the mat covered with ink, and brayered over that to remove the ink from the mat to the cardstock. There was a section in the middle that I didn't want on this first card so I cut it out. I mounted the top and bottom pieces on foam squares. I added thin strips of black. Then I added the die-cut hello, which is four layers thick.

Here is the cardstock that I stamped with the colored ink. And this card uses the piece that I cut out of the first card. I had tried using some sort of embossing plate with the mat quite a while ago, and I guess it left a permanent indentation on the mat. You can see the design in the sentiment piece. I thought it was okay for this card, though. I stamped a sentiment from Papertrey Ink on it, matted with black and added to the card front.

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Happy Birthday, Jonah!

Saturday was our grandson, Jonah's, birthday. He turned seven. Here is the card I made for him. I asked his cousin (one of our local grandsons) what video game Jonah likes, and he said "Roblox." So that what I used. Pretty simple, as I needed to get it out in the mail! (It did arrive just on time. Whew!) I found the picture on-line and printed it on the inside of the card. Then I cut an oval in the front of the card that was just the right size for the middle character to show through to the front. Then I cut another oval in some blue cardstock slightly larger than the first oval. I embossed the blue layer with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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June Calendar Page

My June calendar page. The strawberry stamps are from Technique Tuesday I used masking to stamp them. The sentiment is from Repeat Impressions. I cut the panel with a stitched rectangle die.

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