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.



Soccer/Football - A different perspective

Just when you thought I had finished with the soccer/football cards - I put a different spin on it (get it?!)  OK I won't dwell on that I can hear the pun groan from here.

I decided I wanted the perspective of the crowd and goal.  So I stamped the crowd on my 5.5 in x 8.5 in cardstock and randomly spot colored in the crowd.  I didn't want them to be more than the background so I didn't use any loud colors just grays, blues and neutrals.

I then layered the grass green paper over the bottom 2/5ths of the card and cut the slot.  I wish I could say it was meticulous planning.. OH WAIT! With meticulous planning I realized that I could match up the front "grass" stripes with the back of the slot.

At this point I thought the "hard part" was done.  Little did I know! I have had this plastic mesh that came off some duty free for a while thinking it would make a great net.  I ran it through my Xyron... it lifted off the card.  I tried again.  It lifted again.  Thought maybe I could slightly melt it to the card with my heat gun and it started to shrivel. YIKES!  In the end good ol fashioned white glue to the rescue and an acrylic block to hold it down.

I think the rest is pretty self explanatory (or I have already said it in at least 3 of the previous 5 posts). 

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5 x 5.5 in

Cardstock- Neenah Solar White

Paper - The Paper Source pack

Stamps - Viva Las Vegastamps (crowd), GinaK (Little Tees, Sporty Accessories), Just Rite Stampers (Shirt lettering & numbers), Stampendous (Flexible Friendship Wishes)

Ink - Memento Tuxedo black, Versamark, Brilliance Victorian Violet (I think)

Color - Copics

Accessories -  White & Clear embossing powder, Pennies, Fun foam (for dimension), Foam Tape square.

A revisit less dimension sans cat, larger circle

At this point I think you could say I have this card nailed down.  Now I know a lot of people would tut tut at recreating different versions of this card for so many people.  Can I just say, do you know how hard it is to make a card that directly appeals to male interests?  I see it all the time on Splitcoaststampers.  Cries of help regarding male cards.  I also made this interactive and tactile.  Simple pleasure of rolling that ball up and down the pitch seems to bring the brightest smiles to the men in my life.  They really seemed to love it.  It is like a card version of a video game! Result!

The only major change is that I had run out of foam tape and started using fun foam from my stash and truthfully it worked better the card was much less springy.  If I make another one of these cards I will definitely be using fun foam.  I did use foam tape square with the ball

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5 x 5.5 in

Paper - The Paper Source pack

Stamps - GinaK (Little Tees, Sporty Accessories), Just Rite Stampers (Shirt lettering & numbers), Stampendous (Flexible Friendship Wishes)

Ink - Memento Danube blue Tuxedo black;  Versamark 

Color - Copics to match the Sheffield Wednesday kit.

Accessories -  Black embossing powder, Spellbinders Circle Nestabilities, Pennies, Fun foam (for dimension), Foam Tape square.

And when Football (Soccer) Season begins so do the themed cards!

I make no apologies for my blogging - life is too short!  What I will do is warn you that I have a lot of soccer/football cards of a similar ilk coming up.  Hey! I'm an if it ain't broke don't fix it sort of gal.  What I think is good about sharing this is that you will see how I changed things slightly with no two cards exactly alike (the SCS spinner card use is prominent) even though the theme is the same.

This card was for one of our favourite uncle's who is celebrating his 80th birthday and used to be a Reading FC season ticket holder.  Unfortunately he has had a few health problems and had to give up his season ticket a few seasons ago but I know he still supports them. 

The name "Uncle Manky" is a pet name from my husband, it stems from a family party where his uncle asked "Who's manky cat is that?" Well, that just tickled my husband's funny bone and ever since (20+ years) he has been "Uncle Manky".

Of course, I had to add a cat too just to remind him how he got the name!

That second cat.. well I will get to that another day.

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5 x 5.5 in

Paper - The Paper Source pack

Stamps - GinaK (Little Tees, Sporty Accessories), Just Rite Stampers (Shirt lettering & numbers), Clear Dollar Stamps (Simon the cat),  Stampendous (Flexible Friendship Wishes)

Ink - Memento Tuxedo black and Danube blue, Versamark

Color - Copics W1,W3, W5 and I can't remember the pink...

Accessories - Clear embossing powder, Spellbinders Circle Nestabilities, Pennies, Foam tape 

Just in case you are interested, I used the small round stamper with the medium sized font - it overhangs the outside but gives me the right curve for the shirts, I just go along and press down with my fingers to ensure the tops and/or bottoms of the letters get enough pressure to ink the paper.

I guess its hard to tell from the photo but I did my best to make it a Reading FC kit with the sleeve trim in blue and accent this with a blue ball.

From your favorite Aliens...

When you have a dear friend that is a plane buff and pilot you can get some pretty interesting conversations late at night and one of them was if they had ever seen a UFO...

Of course a UFO only means the flying object was unidentified.  Right? LOL!  So logically the way my mind works when it came time to make a birthday card for our friend I had to play on this conversation.  We are definitely a bunch of goofballs so I'm sure it really wasn't any surprise for our friend to receive such a silly card.



So do you think this is Out of this World?  I won't pretend it is a piece of art but I do like how it all turned out.  And yes, I do see that bit of marker bleeding at the bottom.  I got ready to spend loads and loads of time and effort trying to eliminate it and then realized that a nice shiney flying saucer would reflect the sky around it.  That's my excuse and I am sticking with it!

TBH I'm particularly proud of remembering to put a bit of pink in the space.  Though honestly I could have spaced the Aliens better.  A fun set from Clear Dollar Stamps that I can't wait to find an excuse to use again.

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah

Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps

Ink - Memento

Color - Copics

Other - Embossing (yeah there are some twinkly stars on there)

Techniques - Stamping, Masking, Airbrushing.