Superstar Birthday Soccer Owl

Sometimes the simplest cards are the more complex to make to keep them looking simple.  That made sense right?

I made this card for our dear friend who is a Sheffield Wednesday supporter and a "SuperStar!"

I knew I wanted depth and clean lines for this card and something different from the football (soccer) shirts I have done for him in the past.  So I started thinking about our nickname for him and knew I need to use my star dies and a great image but what image?  I was racking my brain for days.  Sometimes this really is a slow process and then I thought "oh I will just put a football/or owl in the middle and be done with it" Then I remembered this little guy that I had from a Hero Arts set and thought it would be fun to perch him on a football (soccer ball).

I die cut the stars and stamped the image through the back star for placement on the inside of the card.  I then opened up the card and colored the owl with copics and shaded the ball. 

On the top star I stamped the "Super!" in Memento danube blue twice to get the intensity and then used Memento markers to accentuate the different layers of the stars and tie in the colors.

The top layer was adhered to fun foam to create more dimension for the card and googly eyes were adhered to the owl, which to be honest gave the owl a completely different look to the stamp .

I used one of the die cuts on the back of the card to cover the bleed through from the Copics and to sign my name as maker.  This added an extra shadow effect that I couldn't capture on the camera.

Ingredients
Card Size - 8.5in x 5.5 in
Card Stock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth
Stamps  - Hero Arts You Hoo Owls; Kitchen Sink Stamps Never A Loss 4 Words; Recollections Comic Talk 
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Danube Blue
Color - Copics
Accessories - Spellbinders Nestabilities Stars, Googly eyes.


Soccer Pride Birthday

My youngest plays for the school's soccer team so I thought this would be an appropriate card for him.

I stamped the hoodie, bag and soccer balls separately on Neenah Classic Crest.  The balls were stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with metallic purple embossing powder.  I probably should have done some shading on the balls.  The hoodie and bag were stamped with memento ink and colored with copics.  I then hand cut them out and set them aside whilst I stamped the background of lockers.  I didn't worry whether they were all perfectly lined up because I don't know about you but the last time I was in a school the lockers looked like the students were using them and not that worried whether they were lined up. Now don't get me wrong they were bolted down and were lined up but I felt the lack of perfection in lining them up added to the ambience of the background.  Well, that is my story and I am sticking to it! ;)  I colored them in copics, keeping them neutral and colored the wall and floor in school colors.  TBH if I think about it I have probably reversed the actual colors; oh well. 

 

Then I used a Stampendous sentiment stamp and curved it on my acrylic block to make it look like the bunting you buy and hang up.  I stamped that with the Versamark and heat embossed.
When I went to assemble the card the hoodie looked random in the setting so I thought the best way to deal with it was to make a hanger as if it hanging off the lockers.  I got out some wire from my stash and made a couple of holes for the hanger to go through to help it look more realistic. 
Ingredients

Card Size - 8.5 x 5.5 inches

Card stock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White

Stamps - GinaK Designs: Just So Sporty, Sporty Accessories, and School, Sports, Spirit; Stampendous

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Color - Copics

Accessories - Zing! Metallic Purple embossing powder, wire.

 

 

Nom! Nom! Nom! Crunchy!

I made this card for my eldest to send to my youngest for his birthday.  He loves Dragons.  On top of that when discussing what our eldest may and may not need for university, I asked if he needed a trunk at which my youngest said - "Does he get an Owl and a wand too"?   Sometimes you really can't make these things up!  Thus I decided he needed a Dragon card from university.

I wanted a lot of texture for the background to imitate dragon scales and I wanted them irregular so handcut every row as randomly as possible.

The image and greeting were stamped on glossy paper and I colored the image in with Copics, adding texture and shading, and then tore around the image and greeting to keep it rustic. The mount for the image and greeting looked better being graphic like the image.

I originally went with putting the mounted image straight on the base and it didn't seem to portray the appropriate amount of fun and whimsy and I just wanted that power of that dragon fire to knock it off kilter, thus I tilted the image on the card.  I think it works and keeps it fun.

BTW the green cardstock as part of the mounting was a happy accident.  I just love the way it replicates the colors from the image, wish I could say I was a genius and planned it that way!

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 x 5.5 inches
Card stock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth, Recollections, Wassau, Hammermill Color Laser Gloss Paper
Stamps - High Hopes Stamps
Ink -  Memento Tuxedo Black
Color - Copics



H20 Pink Butterfly

I decided I wanted to try painting my stamp with my Twinkling H20s and then misting them and to stamp.  To be honest it seems to have turned out like a do it yourself Rorshach Test.  This was the best one so I decided to make it into a card. After stamping the butterfly I had to let it dry.  Then I used a circle mask to leave a highlight around the butterfly when I stamped and airbrushed the background. 

I liked the concept of this card but I don't know if I really like how it turned out.  It was fun trying different techniques and keeping it to one layer though.

Sometimes I have difficulty in putting a sentiment on a card, guess I solved that problem for this one!

In the end this was a messy time consuming process and I didn't like the result.  I might try it again with a rubber stamp in the future.  I did toy with the idea of going ahead and stamping the other two steps of the butterfly on top but didn't want to risk the one image I really liked after I had stamped this about a gazillion times (okay that might be a slight exaggeration).  I'm sure I will try it again though probably not this year!

Ingredients
Card Size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth
Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps (3 step butterfly) (Happy Birthday)
Ink - Memento London Fog, Tuxedo Black
Color - Twinkling H20s, Copic for airbrushed background.




University Love

Another challenge card for the GinaK Designs challenges.  I think it was to make a background from a foreground stamp, its been a while and I'm not going to search it out.  It was still a great challenge. 

Lots of dimension with the card.  Love the stick for the pennant (a copic colored toothpick).

Ingredients
Card Size - 4.25 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth
Stamps - Gina K Designs
Ink - Memento, Versamark
Color - Copics
Accessories - White embossing powder, Dimensional adhesive, Tooth pick.

Pink & White themed Roses

Join in with me, "another GinaKDesigns challenge card" this one was to keep to one color and one neutral.  I really like this card.  From the soft stamped background to the "flick" technique to color the rose.  I don't know if that is what it is called but I used the same technique that I saw used to color hair on YouTube.  I think it works and ads another bit of interest to the coloring of the rose.

Ingredients
Card Size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth
Stamps - Stampendous, Kitchen Sink Stamps
Ink - Memento
Color - Copics
Accessories - Spellbinders Nestabilities