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.

Rainbow Butterflies

Isn't it amazing how sometimes the simplest cards to make are the most striking cards to view.  I decided that as this was a get well card I wanted it to be cheerful.  What is more cheerful than a rainbow after the rain and better analogy.  So basically I cut out 12 in strips with the butterfly punch in each color of the rainbow.  I then cut them to length for the card.  Next I sent the strips through my sticker maker.  I did then send them through my die cutting machine with an embossing pad to ensure all the glue was adhered. 

With the excess strips I cut out some of the individual butterflies and then adhered them to each color for some movement.

All that was left was to stamp the greeting with my Big Juicy rainbow inkpad.  The sentiment is Inkadinkado.

Ingredients

Card Size - 8.5 x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah

Paper - The Paper Source

Punch - Martha Stewart

Stamp - Inkadinkado

Ink - Big Juicy

Accessories - sticker maker

"Fezzes are Cool" - how to make your own Fez

Subtitle - "how to make your own fez". - it's handmade not blocked nor perfect.

Our household is a big Dr Who house - now we are are bit subtle about our Dr Who love.  No conventions or outward appearances but if you know us you know we love the Doctor in all his incarnations.  That said it came as no surprise when my eldest gets a prom invite for a masquerade and promptly says - I want a fez.  Simple right?  Well you would think so, especially with all the steampunk related sites around.  It seems that Fez's aren't that well documented in the How To Category unless you want to find a bucket to fit your head and put a tassel in it.  I knew I wanted something a little more durable than that and I believe I have come upon the answer to all those steampunkers who need a fez.

First I measured my son's head - yeah it IS big 22.5 inches  (that's the easy bit)  Then I took some scrap cheap cardstock and fashioned a conical cylinder (is there such a thing?) with it and put it around his head for a fit.  From pictures on the web I knew it wasn't a cylinder, though was only a slight slant. Had to decide how tall the fez was going to be at this point, and truthfully mine is probably a tad on the tall side. If I did another I would probably shorten it by an inch. I took it down to 21 inches circumference by trial and error.  Lots of cutting and trimming and I had my cardstock pattern to cut my fabric. 

I had bought a yard of red felt from the fabric department of Hobby Lobby (very wide) and some medium stiffness Double Sided Fusible Package Interfacing. I needed the stiffness to keep the fez upright but I did want some flexibility so it would survive more than one event.

I did the math (thank you internet) for the radius of a 21inch circle for the top and drew out a circle with the string method.

I cut out 2 felt circles and 1 Interface circle.  I then cut out 2 felt sides and 1 Interface side - I had to piece this together for about an inch.

I then attempted to iron the felt to the interfacing.  It did work a little bit but it isn't a super sticky hold and don't panic when the felt pills up a bit.  Just peel it off and keep going.

Now I got my sewing machine out.  I did a short wide zigzag stitch and attached the circle to the top (21 in) of the side.  There really is no good way to pin it and use a sewing machine.  After I had gone all the way around AND liked how the top looked, I then sewed the side seam together. I won't lie at this point I was praying it was going going to turn out ok.  I went up and down the side seam a couple of passes.  Then I bound the bottom of the side sandwich of 2 felt and 1 Interface together so you couldn't see the white.  Again with the good ol trusty zig zag stitch.

Now the tassel.  I couldn't buy one that would work so I used black crochet thread.  It took a lot of looping for the length.  Then a few knots to ensure it was stable.  I then cut the ends to make them fringe and passed the knotted thread to the top and started binding the tassel to the knot.  This took fabric glue and some patience to get a nice neat appearance.  I did pass the thread through the knot a couple of times in the process to secure it and keep it tidy. Once I had finished I sent the thread with a lot of effort and brute force up through the middle of the tassel to so I had a length to tie onto the hat.  I used a hole punch from my craft stash to create the hole.  I knotted it and glued the knot to stablelize it.

I know this was wordy but I hope it helps anyone out there trying to make their own Fez.  It survived the prom with just about every attendee having a "fez" picture in great shape.  I have a feeling this will become his staple accessory for many, many social functions in the years to come.

Ingredients
Inspiration - Doctor Who
Pattern- Internet, and Trial & error
Cardstock - cheap but sturdy to stand up to make the cone
Pencil - to draw and make the pattern
Felt -
InterfaceThread
Sewing Machine with a zig zag stitch
Crochet thread
Large blunt needle
Hole punch
Glue

Yeah, that didn't work

So the concept was to use my fabby new Hero Arts stamps to make some thank you notes that needed to be sent out already.  The  plan was to use purple for the typewriter, gold for the paper and an orange for the background, stamping in black.  This should work, Right?

So I stamp my typewriter black on purple and all is well... maybe I just should have left it at that but no I didn't.  I decided to put crystal effects on typewriter to make it glossy.  It curled when dry.  I stamped the "thank you" on gold and tried to make it look like paper. Hmm the paper is too big for the typewriter.  Lastly I put my orange paper through my die cutting machine and the embossing folder must have thought it was a die cutting folder...

You know I'm going with it.  I'm not perfect and I am proud!  Who wants to be card making elite?  I just want to get my cards done and sent out on time! LOL! and hopefully they are cute, and no one has ever made a prettier, cuttier, more scrumtious card right?!

Oh well back to the drawing board time!

Ingredients
Card Size - 4.25 x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Georgia Pacific
Paper - The Paper Source
Stamps - Hero Arts
Ink - Memento
Accessories - Crystal Effects

CAS Kentucky Wedding.

I saw this link on Paperlicious blog and remembered that I had seen the challenge whilst looking for inspiration for this card.  It didn't occur to me that I had actually used bling until I was blogging this so I am delighted to be able to "enter" this in CAS-ual Fridays challenge!

I took inspiration for this card from the invitation.  Basically I reversed the colors and used stamps from my collection to create a similar effect as the card but with a difference.

The colors for the wedding apparently are purple and blue.  I decided not to use the purple and just keep it simple.  Apparently the blue was chosen by the groom for UK basketball.  It really is a religion here.

I know a lot of people struggle with Wedding Cards but I think if you know the invitation is designed by the couple then it gives you more information than who and the venue - it gives you a style and reference point.  That said when I got married I had plain and simple black and white invitations.

This is what I came up with using the invitation as inspiration.  The damask stamps are from Clear Dollar Stamps and I think they mimic the original pretty well.

You can't really tell but after I colored the rings with Copics and then went over the top with some Tsukineko galaxy gold for a slight sparkle and of course the ladies ring need a "diamond" to sparkle too.  And I think that qualifies as "bling" on a CAS card!

What I really like though is the embossed border to just take it one step further than the original.

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5 x 5.5 inches

Cardstock - Neenah, Recollections

Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps, Just Rite Stampers, See D's

Ink - Memento, Galaxy Gold

Color - Copics

Accessories - Spellbinders Nestabilities, Rhinestone (I just couldn't afford the diamond for a card!) and NO airbrushing - I might have to have a moment of silence.

Mother's Day the card was on time.

I made this card as part of Challenge SC331 on SplitcoastStampers

I tried to upload it at the time and couldn't so I thought I would go ahead and post it now though it's been a couple of weeks.  I kept trying to hold off until I got my gallery updated.  Still trying to get that done.  Hopefully tonight if I'm lucky though it may not because it is VSN night there.  One of these days I'm going to have to participate in one however, I keep thinking I need to be a bit more organized before I start and at the moment if you could see my craft space - organized it is not!

I decided to use this High Hopes stamp I have had for a while for a Mother's Day this year especially as it was so close to Easter.  I colored, masked and airbrushed with my Copics.  I really do love the intensity of color I get with little effort.  I did alter the sketch a bit by adding some flowers to make it a little less masculine. 

I think I'm getting better with the airbrush!

Ingredients

Card size - 5.5 x 8.5 inches

Cardstock - Neenah, The Paper Source

Stamps -  High Hopes

Ink - Memento

Color - Copics

Accessories - Prima Flowers, Rhinestone brads, Airbrush

Technique - Stamping, Masking, Coloring with Copics, Airbrushing



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!