Category: cardmaking

Penny Black Patterned Paper Sunflower

In addition to the watercoloring I’ve been doing lately, I’ve been crafting with my patterned paper collection. Today, I’m sharing a card created with the Penny Black  Sunny Hello [#30-230] stamp set and the Leaves [#51-002] die set using patterned paper.

SunFlowerPPCardI stamped and heat-embossed the sunflower on patterned paper and then fussy cut it. I also stamped and heat-embossed the “Sunshiny HELLO” sentiment (I can see myself reaching for this sentiment time and again!). I cut the leaf die several times and cut some of the stems and leaves off in order to arrange them to my liking under the sunflower. The sunflower is attached to the card panel with dimensional adhesive.

Hope there’s sun shining in your part of the world today!

OCC Watercolor Day 2

Today was another fun day in the Online Card Classes Watercolor for Card Makers class, in which we had a second day to explore watercolored backgrounds. I’m sharing two cards based on cards shown by Debby Hughes in today’s class. I’ve substituted stamps in my stash for those she used on her cards.

DayTwoRaspberry

DayTwoPeacock

Both cards use the Hero Arts Simple Leaf background stamp.  For the top card, I inked the stamp with Picked Raspberry Distress Ink, gave the stamp about ten squirts of water with a Mini Mister, and pressed Ranger watercolor paper, smooth side down, onto the stamp. For the second card, I stamped with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink using the same method. To be honest, I’ve hardly used this stamp because I got stuck on it being a leaf motif. I like the Batik-like feel it gives, stamped with this technique.

Debby is a master at adding accents to her designs, in this case, black and white with touches of gold. I stamped an Impression Obsession Thin Line background stamp with VersaMark ink on vellum and heat-embossed it with Hero Arts gold powder. I used stripes of the heat-embossed vellum on both cards for a gold accent. Both card sentiments are from Hero Arts.

Cards for Him

I’m sharing a few more cards from Catherine Pooler’s online class Cards for Him. The first two are variations of a card Catherine showed in a lesson on Nautical-themed cards. I used a border from WPlus9’s Dockside set with sentiments from the WPlus9 Super Star set. For the first card, I stamped “Dad” with Ranger green ink and on the second one I stamped it with VersaMagic navy ink.

DadCardGreenDadCardNavyThe next card, also by Catherine, is a variation of one in the Graphics and Grunge section of the class.Celebrate

I really like this card design and see myself using it again and again.

The top and bottom panels are stamped with white ink on navy cardstock with a border from Avery Elle. I used a different Avery Elle set for the sentiment, stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with silver embossing powder. I added a couple of die cut stars for embellishment. This would be a fun graduation or birthday card. Navy and silver just happen to be my eldest son’s college colors.

I had quite the “a ha” with these card design, realizing the huge potential with border stamps and strong sentiments!

OCC Watercolor Day 1

Today is Day One of the Online Card Classes Watercolor for Card Makers class. My card is a CASE of the one shown by Jennifer Rzasa.

OCC Watercolor Day 1

 

The focus of today’s lesson is on creating backgrounds with watercolors. I used Strathmore 140 lb coldpress paper and pan watercolors. I applied several shades of watercolor to a wet background, then I brushed several of the colors through a Studio Calico stencil. Jennifer shared a method in which she put the stencil on top of the wet painted paper, weighted in down, and allowed the paint to puddle up through the stencil. I tried this and met with no success. I also tried using Distress Inks on Ranger watercolor paper and the results weren’t to my liking.

My favorite thing about this card is the design. I really like adding a sentiment with a tag.

Additional Supplies: My Favorite Things sentiment and tag die

Poppystamps: Starry Night

Hello, today I’m sharing a card created with Poppystamps dies and a Memory Box stencil suitable for any occasion. My inspiration was a clear night in the Pacific Northwest. Year-round we have beautiful evergreen trees, and the Pine Tree Border fits perfectly with the Brevilla House die. We’re more apt to have a clear night during the summer.

HousesMay2014

To begin, I colored three watercolor panels with Distress Inks. I die cut the panel colored in earthtones with the Brevilla Houses die, and I die cut the green-colored panel with the Pine Tree Border. I intentionally left some of the windows in place in the houses for some variety. Finally, I applied embossing paste through the Starry Nights stencil onto the panel colored in dark blues.  Before applying the embossing paste, I covered up the largest stars in the stencil with washi tape. Even though the stars aren’t realistically in scale with the houses, the largest stars would have thrown off the balance considerably.

Supplies: