Happy Birthday with Alcohol Inks

When a friend was over a couple weeks ago, I quickly showed her my alcohol inks. I just totally randomly picked out two bottles and dropped some ink on the cardstock, just to show her how they worked. After she left, I ended up using the same two inks to cover the entire piece. I thought it was pretty cool, and so I made it into a card. I matted it with a matching cardstock. The sentiment was already stamped and on my table. It's from Avery Elle and is embossed in black and double matted and mounted on foam squares.

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More Sunflowers for Ukraine

When I printed out my digital images from Gina K (in support of Ukraine) I printed two sheets of two images. I have shown one earlier, and here are two more. I gave the fourth printed image to a friend. For today's first one, I used Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol for the coloring. I matted with black. I used a die to cut the sentiment and layered it up, with the top layer being gold glitter cardstock. I also added Wink of Stella to the flower and leaves.

For this second one, I used Copic markers. I used thin, metallic bronze sticker strips on each side of the image panel. The sentiment was from the digital image set. I mounted it on foam squares after adding decorative bronze stickers on that, also.

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Super Simple Thank You

I made this card after making my little note card sets. I had experimented a little bit with my small embossing folders, but ended up not using them. I did, however, use one of my test pieces on this super-simple card. I used the small embossing folder for the sentiment, then I used my Scor-Pal to emboss the lines around the edges for a little added interest. I matted that piece with black. I used some patterned paper for the background and matted that with black, also.

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You are Loved

Finally, another blog post from me. After posting every day in January and February, I have been MIA. Just too much stuff going on. I'm not really back, but I do have five cards to share with you.

For this card, I used a small set from Gina K that I either had not used at all, or had only used a tiny bit. At any rate, all of the images on this card are from the same set, and I think the sentiment was, also. I used Gina's wreath builder for the stamping. I used dies for the sentiment.

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Note Card Sets

I came across a package of Martha Stewart blank notecards with envelopes in my "stash." There were originally 48 and I still had 47 of them. So, I decided to make up a few card sets for the thrift store that my friend, Cheryl, volunteers at. These notecards are 4 3/4 x 3 1/4 inches. They are all super-simple. I did five sets of eight and one set of five. I messed up a couple of them while I was working things out.

This first one uses stamps from Papertrey Ink.

This one uses a stamp from My Favorite Things and a multicolor ink pad, along with a Thank You stamp.

Both of the stamps on this card are from Gina K, and I added Liquid Pearls to the flower centers.

The leafy stamp is from Gina K and the sentiment is from Stampin' Up!

And two more sets the same as the third card, but different colors.

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Pastel Christmas

I bought a 12 x 12 Recollections patterned paper matstack from Michael's awhile back, and I recently started making cards with it. I loved it for its pastel colors. I figured I could make LOTS of cards from it and then donate them to the thrift store that my friend, Cheryl, volunteers at. I've added some solid color cardstock and stamping and foam squares and a few die cuts and some embellishments. I have MANY more to go! I made two of each of these cards.

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Patterned Paper Strips

I decided to use up some of my strips of leftover patterned paper and came up with these cards. Not much to say about any them - just strips of paper with a sentiment on top! This sentiment is matted and mounted on foam squares.

The strips on the next three cards are placed directly on the card front. The sentiment with shadow is from Gina K. It's mounted on foam squares on the blue card.

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Hello and Thank You with Baby Wipes and Stencils

I tried a technique that I had tried quite a while ago but with no success. It worked a little bit better for me this time. I ink-blended ink onto cardstock, then ran it through my BIGkick with a stencil and a baby wipe. (From bottom to top: rubber mat, ink-blended cardstock, stencil, baby wipe.) On this card, I used regular cardstock and Gina K inks. The sentiment is a few layers of white, topped with a layer of metallic pinkish-purplish. I also spritzed each one with a bit of water, but that mostly doesn't show up.

For this one, I used distress inks and a super-super-cheap watercolor paper.

This one uses Gina K ink and the super-super-cheap watercolor paper. I stamped the sentiment (from Avery Elle) with Versamark and embossed with clear powder. Then I used foil on it. That technique does not work well for me, and I don't think I'll try it again. I mounted the matted sentiment on foam squares.

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In Support of Ukraine

In support of Ukraine, Gina K has produced this digital image and sentiments. They are available here. The full $3.99 price will be donated to the Global Empowerment Mission. The colors of Ukraine's flag are blue and yellow. Their national flower is the sunflower.

I printed mine on a laser printer and used a specialty gold foil on it. I colored with light Copic markers and matted with black. The sentiment is mounted on foam squares. The background was done with a cover plate die.

I used the "negative" piece of the foil with a toner sheet to produce this shiny gold piece. I know it's very hard to see the black-lined image, but it's there. I matted this one with black, also, and again popped up the sentiment. I hope you all will consider getting your own image, or helping, even just a little bit, in some way.

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Celebrate!

I'm surprised that I'm still making card parts, but it happens. LOL! I had taken this Washi tape and placed it on the strip of turquoise cardstock a few weeks ago and it had been sitting on my table ever since. I finally decided to combine it with the scrap of patterned paper, since I thought it went together quite nicely. I embossed the "Celebrate" from Impression Obsession with detail silver powder and called it done.

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Wishing You a Speedy Recovery

A speedy recovery card for a friend having hip surgery. The image panel is an alcohol inked background - one of my first attempts. It was made after I had my blowing tool, but before I had better special paper. I still like it a lot, though. You can see the "wispiness" better in person. The "wishing you" stamp is by Verve and the silhouette stamp is Gina K. I added thin holographic strips on each side of the panel.The inside says, "a very speedy recovery."

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March Calendar Page

And we have flown into another month! Here is my page for March. The kite was printed using clip art and paper pieced. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things. I sponged a little ink around the edges for more defintion of the panel. Happy March to you all!

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Daisies Edgeabilities in Blue

And the last of my Edgeabilities cards, at least for quite a while. For this card, I just used the die to cut off the bottom of the front of the card. I colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. I added blue panels to the top of the front and to the bottom of the inside of the card. I embossed the front blue panel with an embossing folder from Cuttlebug. The sentiment was stamped on a strip of white cardstock and I added scored lines with my ScorPal. 

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Calla Lily in (Mostly) White

Well, here is the Calla Lily Edgeabilities card that I promised. I decided to try one without any coloring. I think it works okay, but the colored ones are probably a better choice. The sentiment is from Avery Elle and I embossed the yellow piece with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder.

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Daisy Edgeabilities Card #2

And here is my second Edgeabilities card. I have three like this. I still have two more cut out, ready to make into cards - one more in a different style with daisies and one with calla lilies. Hopefully they will be coming soon, but we do have plans for today so we'll see if I can get them done. I colored this one with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. As with yesterday's card, I embossed the backing piece with a Darice folder.

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Daisy Edgeabilities Birthday

I haven't used my Edgeabilities dies for years!!! I thought it was about time, so here is my first recent card. I have cut out a few more, so hopefully I will get a chance to finish them up and post them for you soon. I had made this intending for it to be a top-flap card, but I ended up turning it on its side. I did the cutting and embossing and then I colored slightly with Copics markers. I embossed the pink piece with a Darice folder. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. A while back, I bought some teeny circular magnets and I finally used a couple of them on this card to hold it closed. To cover the backside of the flap, I traced around the edge and carefully cut it out. However, upon searching for and looking at my previous Edgeabilities cards, I had a "Duh!" moment realizing that I could have used the die! That would have been so much easier. Oh well - this worked. The magnets are between layers of cardstock, just in case you were wondering.

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Stenciled and Stamped Butterflies

These cards "happened" because I had four pre-cut squares leftover from something. They were in my white cardstock stack and I was going through and getting rid of pieces that were just too small to use. I used a relatively newer-to-me stamp set from Gina K. I have stamps, dies and stencils with this set. I matted each square with black and added them to the card front. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things. I added a few black sequins.

Then I used the last square for this card. I had actually started with this one and stenciled the background shape of the butterfly. However, I got some extra ink in the upper right-hand corner. I later decided to keep it and make it usable by ink-blending some more ink around the edges. I matted this one with black, also, and finished it very simply with just a sentiment. I added a few teeny, tiny black gems to the image and the sentiment.

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Lovely Birthday Flowers

I woke up early this morning and remembered that I didn't have a post scheduled for today, and I really wanted to keep up my streak so I headed to my stamping room and put this card together. I had already stenciled the spiral design. I had made the black frame with two Waffle Flower dies, so I combined those pieces and added them to a card front. The flowers were on my table, waiting to be used. I had made them a few days ago when I was playing with an unused Gina K set. So I added them. The sentiment is from a My Favorite Things set. Poof! I hope you all have a lovely day!

Edited to add: This stencil is from a set I purchased on Amazon. You can find it here.

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Gel Press - Three Times

I asked for (and received!) a set of acrylic paints for Christmas. I wanted to use them with my gel press. I finally did, but I had kind of forgotten how to use them and I put quite a bit paint on the gel plate. Oh well - I still used the pieces. Can't toss them, you know! So here are the cards I made with them. I had used some ivory-colored, lightish paper. For this first one, I used glitter paper and dies to cut out the scene and the thanks. I also matted the panel with black.

All of my panels were cut with my Waffle Flower rectangle dies.

I used a die to cut the sentiment and then some off-white paper for the backing for it. I matted this one with black, also.

I used Altenew dies for this sentiment, and also some ferns. The die-cuts are all three layers thick and the top layer is glitter cardstock again. The card base on this one is white - the others were ivory.

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Alcohol Ink Flower

My first attempt at a flower with alcohol inks. I like the way it turned out. I made it a mini-slim line card. The piece I started with was 4 x 6 inches, so I just added a quarter inch strip of black on each side of it. I stamped the sentiment directly on the panel, but I didn't realize that it hadn't dried and I smeared it. I stamped the sentiment again, matted it and added it over the smeared stamping. I also used white and black Posca pens in the flower center.

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