Cheerful Winter Birthday Wishes

Well someone out there in blogland who I knew I would remember and have now promptly forgot inspired me to get out my versamark and shimmering chalks, so a shoutout to whoever you are!  Now I had to have these chalks and I can probably count on less than one hand how many times I have used them!

This was for my mother's birthday.  I find that people with winter birthday's tend to get "winter" cards whether they like them or not so I try to step out of the norm and give them sometime a bit more bright and cheerful especially if it isn't really their favorite time of the year.

There really isn't anything too new or too unique about this card except it was going to have a white background as it was going to be a CAS card.  Maybe, it might just eek into that category.  I have had all the products stamps/chalks/inkpads and ribbon for years and it was good to break it out and use it - very satisfied feeling using up the stash of procured pretties.

So anyway - I stamped the center and the petals with versamark and then used shimmering chalks on them  I then stamped black outlines over the chalk.  Next I added the stem and leaves in versamark and again out came the chalks.  At this point I looked at the card.  It was white, pink and green with chalk halos around.  I could have stopped at this point, but I decided I wanted MORE! so I made a yellow halo around the flower to make it bright like sunshine and who doesn't need more sunshine this time of year in the northern hemisphere?  I reevaluated and decided that I may as well chalk the entire card and added the blue background.  The rest is pretty straightforward of placing the ribbon, stamping the greeting and added white gel pen for some added texture.

I think it is good to share the process every once in a while as there is no set way of making a card.  Sometimes I do make the card I set out to make but most of the time it is a creative process of adding and subtracting and deciding what would work best.

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Smooth, Black from stash - I believe Waussau textured.  It's pretty lightweight.
Stamps -  Kitchen Sink Stamps- Never a Loss 4 Words and Pretty Petals
Ink - Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black
Color - Shimmering Chalks
Accessories - grosgrain ribbon

PS - if you look for a stamp set name under the wrong manufacturer you aren't too likely to find it... Think it is time to call it quits on the blogging today! Take care!

Blue Christmas Skates

Over at StampTV they hosted a challenge last week (yeah, I got my card posted in time but the challenge itself is closed) for "Blue Christmas" and this is what I came up with.  On top of participating in the challenge I also used GinaK's tutorial for versamark resist.  Now I realize you will have squint, hold your computer at arms' length and possibly stand on your head to see it but there is a versamark resist snowflake background on this card.  The most prominent one is probably right under the main image.  They show up better in person.  Honestly!

What I think I learnt is that maybe the stamp was too delicate to pick up enough versamark for a good resist and maybe the blue I chose was too dark.  The ink itself should have been ok as it was Memento which is the same GinaK used in her tutorial just the next shade dark blue.  Failing that maybe it was a cardstock/moisture issue.  

Maybe I should find some candy have a find the snowflakes competition and the first one that finds all of them wins... like I would be that organized!

Oh and BTW this is One Layer card, I masked the skates and the circle. 

Ingredients-
Card size - 4.25 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Smooth
Stamps - GinaK "School, Sports, Spirit", Inkadinkado "Warm Holiday Wishes"
Ink - Memento Danube Blue, Tuxedo Black
Copics - B000, B000, B00, C1, C3, C5, C7
Accessories - White Grosgrain ribbon, Sakura metallic silver.

Unbee-lievable Birthday!

I decided I wanted to use this image first so I colored it... hmm how to mount and keep it all relevant because I knew this was going to be a "big" card compare to the ones that most cardmakers make.  I decided that I could cut down some cardstock and allude to a beehive.  My first attempt was dire.  I had graduated the cuts and truthfully it looked like a bad pyramid and didn't give the right "feel" so I started again.  This time I made the shape you can see and felt that the image mounted on black could allude to the hole in the beehive where the bees fly in and out.  I didn't want a literal interpretation just the idea.

Got all that done and decided I needed some leaves.  So I cut apart some extra vines (now if you have been following my blog you know I have already used them in another extra project).  I thought to make this all pull together that faux stitching would work.  I then decided to use the greeting out of Stampendous bee set I have.

Ingredients

Cardsize - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Card stock - Neenah Classic Crest, Recollections, Black (unknown)

Stamps - High Hopes Rubber Stamps (image); Stampendous (greeting)

Ink - Memento

Color - Copic, American Crafts (white gel pen)

Accessories - Corner rounder, Spellbinders oval dies.

Such a sweet birthday

Such a sweet treat to wish someone a happy birthday don't you think?  Well, of course sometimes you need more and more an more to share all the delicious goodness and the good thing about these sweet treats is that they are ZERO calories!

This sweet card concoction is for my Sister in Law.  It was all pretty straight forward once I decided I wanted to use these stickers that I picked up earlier in the year at Michaels, on sale nonetheless!  Oh yeah!  You can't really tell but I added some stardust glitter pen to the cupcake and the candle flame.  I thought a card full of sweet confection was the perfect foil for my homemade baker's twine.  I'm a bit iffy on how it turned out but I know the recipient isn't someone that would fret about whether it was fake or not.

Ingredients

Card Size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest

Ink - Memento

Stamp - Stampendous (image); Kitchen Sink Stamps (greeting)

Color - Copics, Sakura stardust gel pens

Paper - The Paper Studio

Accessories - Homemade Baker's twine; Recollection cupcake stickers. Rhinestone.



Combining inspiration for a great birthday card!

I would be lying if I didn't say I am rather pleased with the outcome of this card.  It all started with this post fringed-felt-flower-video-tutorial by Julie Ebersole.  I had to make a felt flower - I had all this excess felt off cuts from when I made the fez  .  So I followed her video and fell in love with the whole process of making such a fun embellishment.  I decided I was going to send this to my husband's auntie whose eyesight is failing and would appreciate the texture and dimension.  Now all I needed with the right layout.  I went to Moxie Fab Felt Challenge  got loads of inspiration to continue on my quest but couldn't find quite the right layout that I needed.  Then I happened upon this layout --> at StampTV and the accompanying beautiful inspiration card! Wowzer you should go take a look!  Go on... really go and take a look it is just a beautiful card AND perfect for what I needed. 

I think I fulfilled all my requirements and made a great card thanks to a lot of inspiration from some very talented ladies.  It took a couple of attempts to find the right color Copic to match my red, the first one when applied direct to paper looked a perfect match but when I airbrushed it was way too pink.

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest, Recollections
Ink - Memento
Stamps - Gina K Designs The best things in life
Color - copic to match red airbrushed
Accessories - circle and scalloped circles Nestabilities by Spellbinders, White and red with white dotted organza ribbon, adhesive pearls The Paper Studio.

Vroom Vroom Vroom!

I made this card for a dear friend who has recently become a father to a bouncing baby boy.  Our friend owns his own service garage so I know he will appreciate the car on the front.

Not quite a one layer card however it is pretty CAS!  I decided the stamped panel needed some pop so outlined it with a wide nib of my Copic marker that I had used to trim the onesie.

Ingredients

Card size - 4.25 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah, DCWV Nana's kids

Ink - Memento

Stamps - GinaKDesigns

Color - Copics; American Crafts white gel pen





Tree of Love - Wedding inspiration

So as with earlier this year we recieved an invite and I used it for my inspiration.  Truthfully the bride had shown me pictures of her wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses several months ago and I had been mulling over the details on making just the right card for this girlie girl bride.  Any time I spoke with her or her family it was about the pink dressed with black buttons all the way down the back.  I kept trying to make something like that work and just didn't like anything I could think out.  Then the invite arrived: a sillouetted couple with branches (and trees on the envelope and back) and hearts... hmmm....

So I went with the color scheme, and a tree full of hearts, lots of hearts.  I thought the polka dots embossing alluded to the black buttons down the back of the dresses.  Psst. Look closely at the tree trunk.  I "carved" the couple's initials in the trunk!

Truthfully I completed this card without the black heart... and it needed a bit more pop.  Yikes I had already used the largest of my dies to make the aperture.  So I used the negative and attempted to trace around it at 1/4 inch and then hand cut it to make the frame for the aperture. 

This is the inside of the card.  The pink polka dot paper from the paper pack didn't quite match so I went with the black and more hearts which we used to sign the card.

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest, Recollections (pinks)

Paper - The Paper Studio

Stamps - High Hopes (image), Kitchen Sink Stamps (greeting), I Brake for Stamps (Inside)

Ink - Memento

Color - Copics

Accessories - Spellbinders heart dies; Polka dot Embossing folder;  Heart punch unknown.