Relax...

I'm going to be the first to admit that the Relax doesn't really pop with the white stitching, at first I panicked and then I decided to take my own advice!

I like the subtleness of it being the orange on orange.  Maybe thinking about it I should have shadowed the letters with either white or purple instead of the faux stitching. 

What IS important is that it IS still a pretty cute card!  This card went to our uncle who is a big train and cheese enthusiast - however, he does like to garden too.  The slight irony is that I envisaged a sunny day in the garden and they have probably had one of the rainiest springs to date including a tornado in England.  Oh well, just keep reading the card.

Ingredients

Card Size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Card/Paper Stock - Neenah Classic Crest, The Paper Company

Stamps- High Hopes Stamps

Ink - Memento

Color - Copics

Miscellaneous - Sizzix alphabet; Spellbinders Nestabilities; American Craft White Gel Pen

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.