Perfect Pearls

A very simple card for today. I saw this in a Jennifer McGuire video. I simply took a piece of black cardstock and covered it with Versamark ink. Then I covered it with Perfect Pearls - in gold and copper. Then I used my MISTI to stamp the flower image and the sentiment in Versamark ink over the Perfect Pearls. That removes the Perfect Pearls and you are left with black images. I matted with another piece of black cardstock and mounted it on a dark green card base that I've had around for years.

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Kids Teddy Bear Birthday

I made thirteen of these cards. They will all be donated somewhere. The stamps are from Penny Black. These are for a second, third, fourth or fifth birthday. Each of them has an identical layout, but have different colored bears and patterned papers. I embossed the left side of the image panel with a Darice embossing folder and added scored lines with my Scor-Buddy. The bears are popped up on foam squares.

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Another Die-Cut Birthday

Here is the other die-cut I got from my friend, Cheryl, last week. It's from In Love Art Shop. i used my blender brushes to color the die-cut and then I added Star Dust Stickles to the flowers. I matted with green, popped it up on foam squares, and added it at an angle to the card front which I had covered with patterned paper. The sentiment is from Penny Black. You will see it again tomorrow.

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

Another Black Magic Rose

Here is another of the "Black Magic" roses that I made a few weeks ago. It is made by stamping the rose with white pigment ink on black cardstock and coloring over it with Prismacolor pencils. I then cut the black panel with an oval Nestability and matted it with a scalloped oval. I mounted the image panel on foam squares. The sentiment is from Gina K. The rose is from Paper Inspirations. The die-cut heart is one that came from my card parts. The bottom layer is patterned paper from a very old matstack from The Paper Studio.

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Honeycomb Tulips in Three Colors

I made six of these cards in a few colors, so I thought I would show an example of each. The stamps are all from a set by Inky Antics. The honeycomb paper on the inside is from Inky Antics, also. I did the coloring with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. My MISTI made it easier to do all the stamping.

Sorry!! I just can't put the photos where I want them, so here is what I've got! :-)

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Watercolor Technique Birthday

When I'm walking on my treadmill each morning, I often watch stamping videos. I usually forget to try out what I've watched, but this time I actually did. It was by Jill Foster, I believe, and it was the first time I'd heard of her. She used Arteza markers, but I used Zig Clean Color markers. I used the Zig markers directly on the stamp and then stamped on watercolor paper. Then I took a small watercolor brush and water and went over the image. I really like how it turned out. If I were artistic, I would have added something more, especially in the flower centers, but I didn't want to take a chance of ending up not liking it. The image and the sentiment are both from Gina K. I used patterned paper for the bottom layer.

This was my first trial. Before wasting a piece of watercolor cardstock, I wanted to make sure it would work! So, this is just regular cardstock. Not nearly as effective, but it sort of worked and of course I wasn't going to throw it out. After doing the stamping and "painting" I added some color to the flower centers. And then I stamped over it with a light gray ink. A different effect, but fine.

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Black and White Birthday

A friend gave me a couple of these die cuts (from In Love Art Shop) when I met her for lunch on Wednesday. Thanks, Cheryl! I used one right away, and will hopefully use the other quite soon. Otherwise I'll have to file it away with my other card parts. :-) I had this black and white patterned paper already on a card base and thought it would work well. I decided to mat the die-cut piece with black, and then added a splash of red. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and was already stamped and cut out and in my card parts.

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

Mother's Day

I met a friend for lunch on Wednesday (Cheryl) and gave her about seventy cards for the thrift store she volunteers at. I don't usually make Mother's Day cards anymore, but I thought I should add a couple of those. Should have been more, but our meeting came up very suddenly and I didn't have time for more. Here is what I came up with. Both used patterned paper from Die Cuts With a View. You can't see it in the photos, but each pattern has parts that look heat-embossed. The sentiment on each is from Verve. I made two of the second one.

For this first one, I stamped the sentiment on vellum and embossed with silver. I wrapped the vellum around the patterned piece before attaching to the card front. I also added thin shimmery silver strips to each edge of the vellum.

For this one, I stamped the sentiment on slightly textured ivory cardstock and embossed with gold. I colored the tiny flower with an orange marker. I added a piece of gold tape between the patterned layers.

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Stair-Step Anniversary

A few years ago, I cut several stair-step cards to send to a friend. I also cut a few for me. I have finally used the last one. I do like them, but I am not good about figuring out what to put on the all spots, since I am such a "clean and simple" card-maker. I basically just covered this one with patterned paper. The papers were all from the same matstack from Lasting Impressions, I think. I had gotten them from a friend several years ago at one of our Group Gatherings and I had promised to use them. I'm still working on them, Vicki! The main piece had the heart already on it. I had another piece with the same heart in a square, so I cut the second one out and mounted it on foam squares over the first one. I cut thin strips of the stripes and added to the sides by the heart. You can't even see the center step, but that one is covered with a printed ivory piece. I added the same dotted pattern to the furthest-back panel. I used a piece of textured ivory cardstock for the sentiment panel and added matching stripes to that. The sentiment is from Inky Antics.

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

Another Shadow Box Card

Here is another shadow box card I made, following the instructions of Jennifer McGuire. I just lent the stamps to a friend and I don't remember who made the birds. I'm sure they are long-retired, though, as are most of my stamps. The branch in the background is from a Hero Arts set and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I used Nestabilities to cut the ovals and I sponged the background in the inside. The card front was embossed with a large Cuttlebug folder.

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Yellow and Light Blue Color Swap

The image and the sentiment for this card are from the same Gina K set. I colored with Copic markers. I added the yellow strips on each side and also added thin strips of black. This is for our monthly color swap in my stamping group. The colors this month are blue and light yellow. Oops - I just found out that I had forgotten to sign up for this one. Oh well, I posted it on the group as "virtual."

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Celebrate!

Another stenciled background. I had several pieces left from the technique that didn't work for me. I think I have a couple pieces where the technique actually worked, and hopefully I will use them up soon to share. :) They aren't perfect, but at least you can tell what I did on them. At any rate, I added the stenciled part to an ivory card base and added a thin black strip across the bottom of it. Then I added the "Celebrate!" stamp.

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

Multiple Sympathy

A friend in my on-line stamping group recently lost her mother. This is the card that I made for her. I had made the background while trying out a technique that really didn't work for me, but I did love the resulting piece, nonetheless. I stamped in black and added black matting. The image stamps are from a set from Inkadinkado and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

As I said previously, most non-stampers don't even realize that we make our own backgrounds, so why not use patterned paper. So, I put the stamps back on my MISTI a few days after I made the original card and made these six cards using patterned paper.

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Fancy Gratitude Flowers

I rarely use my old Papertrey Ink stamp sets, but I was looking for something in them recently and pulled out this set to use. I was interested in the fancy flowers. Here is the card I ended up making. Pretty straight-forward, for sure! Stamping and matting and voila! :) I also added Star Dust Stickles to some places in the flowers. That ended up being pretty cool because the clear sparkly Stickles took on the dark turquoise of the flowers.

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Another "Holographic" Card

After making a few cards using these papers from a Paper Studio matstack, I took the scraps and added them to a card base. Three of the patterns had a "holographic" design element. I then die-cut the sentiment from a patterned holographic cardstock and three pieces of white cardstock. I had the black oval sitting on my table from a previous card (which I don't think I've shared yet). I trimmed down the oval so that it wasn't oval anymore and added the sentiment to it. I mounted that panel on foam squares.

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

Stenciled and Embossed Birthday

Another simple birthday card again for today. Really, there is no need for me to say "simple," since nearly all of my cards are simple!

I was going through my stencils last week and putting them in "sleeves" like my stamps. Didn't really take very long, as I don't have a ton, but it's nice to have them organized that way, also. Anyway, I came across this die-cut piece that I made many years ago at a Group Gathering that I had used as a stencil a few times. I used it to do the green part across this card. Then I used a large Cuttlebug folder to do the embossing and also my Scor-Buddy to add scored lines above and below the stenciling. I added the sentiment, from Papertrey Ink, and matted on black.

I am having a couple doubly-vaccinated friends over to play today. I am SO excited!! Another step toward "normalcy!"

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Black Magic Birthday

This technique has been around for a long time, but Gina K did it fairly recently and I tried it again. It's called "Black Magic." You stamp a solid image with white pigment ink on a black/dark cardstock and then color it with colored pencils. My image is from Paper Inspirations. I used Prismacolor pencils. I cut the ovals with Nestabilities and mounted on foam squares. I did the background with a stencil from Memory Box, first doing the leaves in green with the stencil and then adding blue over that. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things.

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

Fishy Shadow Box Birthday

I have watched Jennifer McGuire do so many technique videos and I usually plan on making a similar card, but I mostly forget about doing them! Finally I followed through. This is actually a very simple style card to make. It took me a while because I had to fussy-cut all the pieces, but it still didn't take all that long. All of the stamps that I used are from an old Hero Arts set. I stamped them, colored them and cut them out. I made the inside of the shadow box by brushing ink on a piece of cardstock and adding it inside. I used Nestabilities to cut the circles.

 

Here are a couple more angles of the card.

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Super-Simple Birthday

I've seen Gina K make many very pretty backgrounds with her ink-blending, and I do love them. But, so many non-crafters don't even realize that the background was hand-made! So, I simply used up some patterned paper from The Paper Studio and made a couple of these cards. The image is from a Paper Inspirations set. I matted with black. I don't remember which set the sentiment came from, but it's likely retired anyway.

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

Perfect Pearl Rose Anniversary

Every once in a while I dig out my Perfect Pearls and make something using them. Here is my latest. I used the rose stamp from a Paper Inspirations stamp set. I stamped it with Versamark ink and then used pink and green Perfect Pearls on top. I matted with a deep red cardstock. I mounted that panel on foam squares. The background was made with a stencil. I tried a technique with my stencils a few weeks ago that didn't work out for me, so I have several stenciled backgrounds to use up. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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

Holographic Birthday

A simple birthday card again for today. The background paper is from a recent purchase of mine from The Paper Studio. I cut an oval in it and some white cardstock. I added the patterned paper to the cardstock and popped it up on the card front after placing black paper behind the hole. The sentiment was die-cut using holographic cardstock. It is also mounted on foam squares. 

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Birthday Stripes

A simple birthday card for a guy - actually for one of my brothers-in-law. I had the thin black border piece laying around for a while. (The others have been filed.) I used the same die to cut the bottom edge of my patterned paper from The Paper Studio. The stripes are actually black and silver, kind of holographic. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I think I'll make a few more of this one.

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Happy Easter

Happy Easter to those who celebrate. What a joyous day!

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More Birthday Balloons

I cut these balloons a short time ago for another recent card, but decided there were just too many. So I made this card to use them up. The black oval was also on my table. I cut a slightly smaller oval to put over the black one. The balloons were popped up on foam squares. The sentiment is from a Gina K set, I think. I used a background die for the background.

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Shimmery Snowflakes

The snowflakes have been sitting on my stamping table for a few months, but are now gone from there. I spritzed them with some Perfect Pearls mixed with water for some shimmer. The blue snowflake paper is from Gina K. I used a die (perhaps Impression Obsession, but I really don't know) to cut the sentiment four times, with the top two layers being some ancient holographic cardstock I had. I also added a thin white strip across the top of it.

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April Calendar Page ... and an Updated Card

My April calendar page. The image is some clip art I found on-line. I paper-pieced the umbrella and did a tiny bit of coloring with Copic markers. I added a line around the edge of the image panel, also with a Copic marker.

I shared this card a few days ago (Wednesday, March 24), but I have updated it. We are going to give it to our granddaughter, Amelia. She turned eleven on Monday. I added doodles to each of the letters and I like it a lot better! :)

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