New Home, New door, New step, New plaque, New plants...

So with just about everyone I know (slight exaggeration but only slight) moving this summer, at some point I came upon this idea that it would be cool to do a door/doorstep card and have light come through the glass of the door.  Although there are many beautiful door dies out there, I didn't really feel the need to invest in them.  I used what I have.  So with a combination of Spellbinders rectangles and long rectangles this is what I came up with after a bazillion passes through the die cutter.  Now, I know it doesn't look like the typical "American" door, but that is okay because it wasn't going to an American but rather to my MIL in England and they do have front doors like this (although I don't know what her current front door looks like).
  

They also have wall plaques with their house numbers on.  Again I don't know if she does but I thought she might appreciate the detail, though admittedly it is probably too small to read.  The vines around the door were a "save" I dropped some extra color on the front of the card after I was well into the construction process and had to camouflage the area to hide it.

I knew when I was laying out this card that I wanted a potted plant next to the door as my MIL loves to garden and has been a long time member of many gardening clubs.  I initially was going to stamp a Kitchen sink Hydrangea but the proportions were just too big for what I was trying to do.  I searched out my old, trusty See D's stamps and found just what I needed, well almost.  I found a beautiful bouquet in a vase.  Well, who sits a vase on their front step.  The same set had a flower pot, so I did a bit of masking and came up with this arrangement.

I played a bit with my watercolors and color mixing especially with the purple/yellow to get a brown middle that fits.

Now I just hopes she likes it!

Ingredients:

Card size - 8 1/2" x 5 1/2";

Cardstock - Recollections 65lb: Ivory, Red, Gray; Vellum;

Stamps - See D's: Floral, Whimsical Garden; JustRiteStampers - Special Occasions;

Ink - Archival ink, Memento - GrayFlannel, Cottage Ivy, New Sprout, Northern Pine, Pear Tart; Versamark, Delicata Golden Glitz

Color - Koi Watercolors;

Accessories - Spellbinders dies, UTEE

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.

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.

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.

Triple Teamed Birthday

Sorry about blurring the names but it was a bit TMI.  Still numbers of favorite players and last time England won the world cup are on this one.  This card was for the hubs.  He follows at least three different football teams (Liverpool FC, Sheffield Wednesday, and Rochdale) rather religiously.  I had already thought what can I do differently, then I decided that I could spin one of the jersey's.  Now you would think ok, that's the end of this episode. Same but different of the previous incarnation.  The real story about this card is that my hubs turns to me AFTER I have made this card and says.  "You know you should make a card with the shirt as the spinner!" So either this card is pure genius or pure "RutRoh" to quote Scooby. I'm going for great minds thinking alike and genius! LOL wouldn't you?

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5 x 5.5 in

Paper - The Paper Source pack

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

Ink - Memento Tuxedo black and Danube blue, Versamark

Color - Copics & Multiliner.

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

Baby Shower crafted gifts - Clothes Dividers

So I told my aunt that I would help decorate for my cousin's shower. My cousin is having a boy and has a jungle animal theme for her baby accessories. I happened across this tutorial http://adreatravis2008.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-second-video.html and just had to make these part of my gift to her.  Please visit the tutorial and leave some appreciation if you like this project.
I used fun foam for the ovals and cut them out on my die cutting machine as I wanted a larger size than the nestabilities I have. I picked colors that went along with the scheme and mostly replicated animals similar to her sets and added a couple more - the bird and the frog.

I decided to use some twine I had for more of a jungle/rustic feel. Did you see how the chick is in an oval (or is it an egg)? And because I had two monkeys I thought they needed to be the next size.

With the cutting I had to re trim the ovals as the fun foam had a bit of a perforated look even using the deep blade housing and a very slow cutting speed.

What I did different from my inspiration is that I used twine instead of ribbon, and I made the oval the entire mat for the piece without having rectangles hanging down as I thought they would be easily damaged. I wanted this to be about making new mom's life easier.

Generally I went with the normal animal sizes for the order. The exception is the frog and I just thought he needed to be on "water" blue!

Truthfully it was a fun project with great impact that the mommy to be loved (once I explained what they are! LOL). All the printing was done on the computer onto card stock.

Apologies for the picture sizes. I didn't want the post to scroll forever just repeating the same project but different color and animal but still wanted to share them all with you.

I was trying to work out how to do some groovy things in my photo editing software and starting losing the will to share so when plain and simple. 

IngredientsFun Foam
Card stock
Cricut Create a Critter
Spellbinders Rectangle Nestabilities
Eyelets
Twine

 

Oopsie "Baby on Board" a little more to the right please.

 This card is fairly CAS in my opinion, but then again what do I know!

In the spirit of telling you the ups the downs and the all arounds this isn't exactly the card I was going to make... I had this vision of a single popped layer with airbrushed shading around the image.  All went well until the mask wanted to permanently attach itself to the t-shirt on the oval.  Sheesh! I'm a time limit here.  Did I forget to say the car was packed and ready to go to the baby shower for set up and everyone was waiting for me!...oh I did? Well the car was packed and I guess you get the idea.  Quickly I decide that there is no saving it.  I stamped another t-shirt and promptly got the letter skewed.  ACK! oh no... I'm just going to have to go with it at this point.  So I color it and mount it and pray that all the decorations and paper gifts I made for her will make up for my skewed "Baby on board".  And yes I will start sharing those with you my next post... I probably will divide it over a few posts in case anyone is inspired by my humble little creations.  Thanks for looking and sharing in my oops!

Ingredients
Card size - 4.25 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah
Stamps - GinaKDesigns
Ink - Memento
Color - Copics
Dies - Spellbinders
Techniques - Airbrushing, Dimensional layering, Masking, dry embossing

Red Hearty Happy Anniversary

So I got creative block and got to trawling Etsy one night, well lets be honest one day & night and got inspired by loads of graphic letterpress cards.  I had wanted to make a Clean & Simple card for my BIL & SIL for their anniversary and this is what I came up with.

I don't know if it completely works.  What do you think?  I like all the components and I really liked it when I sent it.  I think I'm just second guessing myself now.

Anyway at least I used some dies that I have had for a few years and have never used! Oopsie!

Ingredients

Card Size - 8.5 x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah, Archiver's open stock linen texture, The Paper Source

Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories - Spellbinders Heart Dies, Cuttlebug Male & Female dies, Ribbon, Heart brad.

There's something fishy about this...

So I had to make a quick card for a teenage girl who invited my kids to a pool party.  She loves tigers (used my only tiger for her last year) and Team Jacob but not Twilight (and I have no idea how to even approach that with the stamps I have!) so I decided to go with the water theme.  I like the card but don't think it particularly screams teenage girl and maybe that is a good thing because she isn't the most girlie girl - in fact I think she would have been offended by a pink card though if you look at this card you can see I did manage to get some glitter on the fish!

This card represents a lot to me.  I think after I decided the theme it was just about the quickest card I have ever made! From first inking to final glitter application all over the cod, I think it took me just under two hours which was the time frame I had to complete it.  I am so excited about that.  I think technically it is pretty good, though with a bit more time I might have added some friends for the cod to swim with on its birthday though I kinda like the watery open space.  Maybe next time I use these stamps I will add a present dangling from a fishing line and maybe a party hat for the cod... I always seem to come up with these ideas after the fact! LOL.

AND it is another airbrush card!  Lots of water and sand airbrushing. I'm loving my cheap Harbor Freight compressor - the most time consuming part is making the masks and I just keep them with the stamps so I have them for the next time!

Ingredients

Card size 8.5 x 5.5 inches

Cardstock Neenah, Recollections (blue)

Stamps High Hopes

Ink Memento

Color Copics - TBH the colors were three out of each 10 group and I don't know if the specifics are so important because it's personal choice to match what you want to match.

Accessories  Spellbinders Nestabilities, Glitter Glue (plain old kiddy glitter glue).

My 9 year old cousin loved it! But I have the feeling I missed the mark with regard to a teenage girl... oh well I will probably have next year to get it right! LOL!

2010 Ski bear Snow Wishes

I decided early on that I wanted this card to use non-traditional christmas colors. 

I think it works even though I didn't have quite the right color cardstock and ribbon to match the blues in the coloring.  Sometimes I think we can get too hung up on things matching.  When Helena Bonham Carter was questioned by Jay Leno recently about her oddly paired shoes at the Golden Globes she said perfection is overrated and she is happy being herself. 

I think she had a point.  I know many card makers that can drive themselves to distraction trying to perfectly match items rather than enjoying the "flaw" or even glorying in it - so here's a shout out for non-matching blues - don't let them get ya down!

Recipe

Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah, Bazzill

Stamps -  High Hopes

Ink -  Memento

Color-  Copics

Accessories - Ribbon from Michaels, Spellbinders snowflake background die.

PS - the color matching police haven't found me yet!