Cheerful Winter Birthday Wishes

Well someone out there in blogland who I knew I would remember and have now promptly forgot inspired me to get out my versamark and shimmering chalks, so a shoutout to whoever you are!  Now I had to have these chalks and I can probably count on less than one hand how many times I have used them!

This was for my mother's birthday.  I find that people with winter birthday's tend to get "winter" cards whether they like them or not so I try to step out of the norm and give them sometime a bit more bright and cheerful especially if it isn't really their favorite time of the year.

There really isn't anything too new or too unique about this card except it was going to have a white background as it was going to be a CAS card.  Maybe, it might just eek into that category.  I have had all the products stamps/chalks/inkpads and ribbon for years and it was good to break it out and use it - very satisfied feeling using up the stash of procured pretties.

So anyway - I stamped the center and the petals with versamark and then used shimmering chalks on them  I then stamped black outlines over the chalk.  Next I added the stem and leaves in versamark and again out came the chalks.  At this point I looked at the card.  It was white, pink and green with chalk halos around.  I could have stopped at this point, but I decided I wanted MORE! so I made a yellow halo around the flower to make it bright like sunshine and who doesn't need more sunshine this time of year in the northern hemisphere?  I reevaluated and decided that I may as well chalk the entire card and added the blue background.  The rest is pretty straightforward of placing the ribbon, stamping the greeting and added white gel pen for some added texture.

I think it is good to share the process every once in a while as there is no set way of making a card.  Sometimes I do make the card I set out to make but most of the time it is a creative process of adding and subtracting and deciding what would work best.

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Smooth, Black from stash - I believe Waussau textured.  It's pretty lightweight.
Stamps -  Kitchen Sink Stamps- Never a Loss 4 Words and Pretty Petals
Ink - Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black
Color - Shimmering Chalks
Accessories - grosgrain ribbon

PS - if you look for a stamp set name under the wrong manufacturer you aren't too likely to find it... Think it is time to call it quits on the blogging today! Take care!

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.

Ye Old Buzzard -that's my BIL

So my brother-in-law turned 50 and what was I to do but rub it in his face.  It wasn't until I was nearly finished with this card that my husband decided to suggest a Hawaii Five-O theme.  Really? You wait until I am nearly finished with a unique card that isn't useful for anyone else we know this year?!  Anyway I stuck with my original plan and will have to try to remember to use the Hawaiian theme in the future!  So here's my attempt at elder humor -

It's a combined stamps project.  What can I say if I like a stamp I use it.  And I really like how these combined.  The image is from High Hopes Stamps and the Large numbers are from Kitchen Sink Stamps.  I love both stamp companies - High Hopes for their whimsy and Kitchen Sink Stamps for their beauty.  I wanted the graphic punch of a cartoon with this card, do you remember the days when we used to get excited about the color in the newspaper and how they used to print the comics in color on Sunday?  I guess I'm showing my age because its a fond memory of mine and that was the sort of feel I was going for with this.  Did I get it right?  The multi-colored line of "50" is the envelope.

Recipe

Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah, The Paper Source

Stamps - High Hopes Stamps, Kitchen Sink Stamps, Stampendous (the small 50 on the balloon)

Ink - Memento tuxedo black, Big Juicy Pad (kaleidoscope effect), Versamark

Color - Copics

Accessories - White embossing powder

What do Wednesday, Rochdale & Macclesfield have in common?

They are all represented on this card.

So my husband asks me to make a football (soccer to the Americans) card for one of his best friends and this is what I came up with.  I really debated how to do this and thought I really wanted to use my GinaK sets.  The problem was the stripes - Yikes! how was I going to make the stripes?  In the end I went with stamping everything on white and free hand coloring of the shirts.  Luckily (after some investigation) I found out that all the clubs are relatively the same color blue.

Then just when I thought I was done, he asks "can you put our names on them"?  What? what do you mean? OMG? I would have done it different?  Oh I don't want to waste what I have already done!  Don't you know I'm on a time limit here?  So I think for a moment and grab my Just Rite circle stamper and go through my alphabets for the one that is nearest.  Thankfully on a whim I had some white embossing powder.  Versamark and white embossing powder and using my letters half off the block and pressing each down with my fingers achieved the names - so nothing remotely awkward there! *snorts* OH NO!  The white doesn't work with the stripes.  Now what... I think they probably number the striped kits in black so I stamp up and color another striped shirt and try it versamark and black fine embossing powder.  IT WORKED!  HUZZAH!  Then to find the right numbers... where I should have some - too big, too small ooooo these GinaK ones are just right!!! I'm now officially in love with Gina, but don't tell my "I can pull random requests out of the air and my wife will make it" husband.  I outlined the number and letters of the main shirt in gold for that extra punch.  All the shirts stamped and embossed I needed to decide how they were going to be on the "field".  Quickly I grabbed my nestabilities and die cut a double circle out of the middle of a green sheet of 8.5in x 5.5 in cardstock and then cut that in half and spread them out to make the lines.  My husband chose the placement of the shirts (I think he did a pretty good job) and I cut up some chipboard to lift the shirts off the field.  I looked at the card and decided it really did need the football (soccer ball) so quickly stamped on out one and adhered it.

Recipe
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah, The Paper Source
Stamps - GinaK (Little Tees, Just So Sporty, Sporty Accessories), Justrite
Ink - Memento, Versamark
Color - Copics
Accessories - white embossing powder, black ultrafine embossing powder, gold pen, chipboard

A 2010 card! but only on the scanner

Sorry I don't have fancy photography for this one - I had camera issues and had to get it sent on its overseas journey - so on the scanner it went.

I covered the entire front in S.E.I. designer paper Alpine Forest (the white around the card is the scanner lid). The image is from Clear Dollar Stamps. I used it for my BIL because it reminded me of the birds that advertise Guiness which is just perfect for my BIL. I chose the cardstock to reflect that history and earthiness of the thick stout. After deciding on a layout I thought I should emboss a greeting but I wanted it unobstrusive, so I decided to use my Kitchen Sink set and Zig white embossing powder so that the "Brother" was there but not glaringly so.

I think the card is a little quirky with the mix of earthiness and cute birds but I think I like it because of that; I could have bought a card that was either or but this combination is truly unique because it is handmade. What do you think? Did I take it too far? Not far enough?

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock/Paper - Neenah, S.E.I.
Ink - Memento, Versamark
Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps "Hanging Out" , Kitchen Sink Stamps "Whole Family"
Copics - 0, B000, B00, C3, C5, C7, E50, E51, E08, E49, R35, R37, YR02, YR04, YR07,

Christmas 2009 for the MIL

Should I start with what I would change about this card? LOL - well I would have had the tree stand on a colored background so the snow (chunky glitter) would pop.

This is pretty much all Martha Stewart punches glued on to look like a full spruce. I got my inspiration on Splitcoast Stampers - I don't know who was first but there were many cards. The ornaments are all jewelled brads and the sentiment is one of my favorites from Kitchen Sink Stamps embossed with white embossing powder.

So how would you have made this card better? I like the red,white and green traditional color scheme but did I take it too far.

Maybe I should have just put the tree directly on the red... hmmm....

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah, Archiver's open stock, Michael's Recollections
Punch - Martha Stewart
Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps
Ink - Versamark with Zig embossing powder

Autumnal Birthday greetings

This is one of the cards I made for my mother's birthday in November. I think it is kind of unisex and doesn't automatically scream that the recipient is male or female.

I was hoping that the ink would bead (and it did) for the tree trunk just to create some bark texture. I think just played with the leaf stamps from the set and kept over stamping in different autumnal Memento inks.

The one thing I would absolutely change on this card is that I would have had the exact match memento ink pen for the brown lines on the kraft card base.

The layers are done so that the brown echoes the size of the image and the green the dimensions of the card base.

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5in x 5.5in
Cardstock - Archivers Kraft, Bazzill, Neenah
Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps
Ink - Versamark, Memento - Summer Sky, Canteloupe, Desert Sand, New Sprout, Bamboo Leaves, Rhubard Stalk, Rich Cocoa.

Inkadinkado flowers (and fairy)

I did this for the Inkadinkado contest. I wanted a really light, fresh spring feel as if I were lying down in the grass and looking up on the card and I think I got it.

I used Marvy le Plume pens direct to stamps and then I covered the stamping with Versamark pen and clear embossed them. So I could wipe away the ink on the layer. Though, I did go ahead and do this with all of the flowers for consistency.

I colored the sentiment stamp with the same green marker for consistency and I just wanted the hint that this was a clear spring day on went the shimmery chalks to give a hint of blue sky in the background.

I think this technique really suits this stamp set.

Ingredients

• Card size - 4.25 x 5.5 in
• Stamps - Inkadinkado
• Cardstock - Bazill, Georgia Pacific
• Ink - Marvy le Plume markers, Versamark
• Color - Pebbles Inc chalks

I'm not going to bother with a separate blog for this fair card as she is pretty much my tester piece for the first fair card I did .

I liked this enough to use it but it made me to decide to not outline the other card's fairy as darkly.

Ingredients

• Card size 4.25 x 5.5 in
• Cardstock - Bazzill, Georgia Pacific
• Color -as listed in previous fairy card
• Threading Water punch, Nestabilities