Oh, Baby!

It’s been a while since I’ve made a baby card…. so this was fun!

I love the bright colors in this card that I sent to a former co-worker on the birth of her first child. From Close to My Heart we have the coordinating papers (Baby Cakes collection), the stamped letters (framework alphabet E1027), the ink.
The letters were filled in with Art Glitter’s Designer Dries Clear glue (I love this for glitter — I love the thin tip and the consistency) and covered with Stampendous! Sunflower and Orange micro glitters. (Yes, I missed a few spots. But it’s still pretty glittery!) The “congrats” is from an old Inkadinkado set and the scallop punch is from Stampin’ Up!

Here’s another baby card that came together by accident:

The pretty leafy background is a lovely Spellbinder’s die that I have had for a while. I played with it when I first got it and made the pretty background. I got so far as to stick it to a card front. And then it sat. And sat. And sat some more. Along comes this cute Little Sprout stamp from Art Impressions. The sprout image seemed like the perfect time to play with another new acquisition — these cool Irojiten colored pencils from Tombow. I love the way the colors blend (and now I want all the other sets, of course.) Now I just need to add a cute sentiment and find another baby.

More Stencils

Yes, we’re still on stenciling. When I’m in the mood to stencil, I figure I may as well do several at a time!

Here’s what I’ve done with three different stencils from Gourmet Rubber Stamps.

(I think I used Distress inks and a foam applicator on all of these! I used Ranger Dimensional Pearls on the butterflies.)

That’s it for today! Thanks for stopping by!

Scintillating Stencils

On Friday, I showed some new large stencils. Today, let’s get card-sized with some of my new favorite stencils.

Here’s a little beauty from Gourmet Rubber Stamps.

Using Ranger Distress inks and a foam applicator, I pounced color through the stencil.

Ta-da!

And put it all together….

…trimmed the panel and layered it to brown cardstock. Added a die cut bird and cage (Tim Holtz/Sizzix). I also stamped a text image to the bird’s body — you can barely see it in the photo. (I need to fix the wing. I may glitter it.) I’ll eventually get around to adding a sentiment.

I’ll have another in my next post.
Thanks for stopping by!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Stencils

Stencils have been around for ages, but they have made a comeback in a big way… and I mean that literally! You can now find stencils big enough to cover a 12×12 sheet of paper.

Check out these new stencils from DecoArt:

I used the stencil (and DecoArt’s Americana Paint) to create a large panel on watercolor paper, which I will cut down to a card:

And here it is uncovered:

Ta da!

Tried it again, this time using sprays:

(I did more spraying on this but don’t have a photo.)

And since nothing should go to waste, let’s clean our stencil on paper:

Next week I’ll show some cards made using stencils.
Thanks for spending some time with me! Have a great weekend.

Boo! Scarin’ Up Some Halloween Cards

Yay! It’s almost Halloween!

I love this orange dotted paper from Close to My Heart (you’ll see it a lot on my Fall cards!). Everything here is from CTMH’s Charmed set. The main scene was black embossed on a scrap piece I colored with Ranger Distress Inks (spiced marmalade, wild honey and a touch of crushed olive.) I mounted the panel on a black scrap and trimmed it … but I goofed. I cut too close to the image and it looked odd. So I hung a punched spider web border (EK Success) on the top to cover my mistake. Then I added the orange Prima flower to cover another mistake. Sheesh. The center dot is a Doodlebug Sprinkle (I love these!)
The sentiment was stamped on scrap paper and rubbed with Distress wild honey and spiced marmalade. The diamond background was stamped in Hero Arts Wet Cement.

I don’t use a lot of cute animals, but I could NOT resist this House Mouse image from Stampendous! There’s that CTMH dotted paper again, broken up by a punched strip (EK Success). The sentiment is also CTMH. The mouse was colored with water color pencils and after everything was dry I added some yellow and orange Ranger Stickles. Mousie was popped up with Glue Dots. Fast and easy.

This is not my favorite, but embracing my failings as the Imperfect Stamper I’m including it anyway. It feels too fussy and overdone. I had a strong urge to use navy with orange and I gave in to that urge. (Which is why sometimes urges need to be held in check.) All images from Close to My Heart. The scene and the sentiment are embossed in white; the edge was rubbed with navy pigment ink and sprinkled with Psychedelic embossing powder from Judikins.

If you’re not tired of Halloween cards, check out these oldies or these.

Enjoy!

Last Set … Butterflies

Here’s the last of my card sets, and maybe my favorite. These cards are so fast and easy and I used up a lot of my scraps! This project is also great when you need something to do while watching TV — I take a big stack of scraps, a few punches, and punch away during the commercials.

Pretty self-explanatory here … I ran the top paper through a Cuttlebug embossing folder (using my Sizzix Big Shot), layered it on cardstock, and added the butterflies (punch is from Martha Stewart/EK Success.) I added small dots of Ranger’s Opal dimensional paint and/or Stickles.

Have a great weekend!

Another Set of Cards

In my last post, I talked about making sets of cards.

Here’s another yellow set — so fast and easy, using up scraps:

(The butterfly punch is Martha Stewart.)

And a different take, using a very old but well-loved hydrangea image from Hero Arts. (These were made a while ago):

A few close-ups:

Just basic stamping above. The hydrangea on the green card was stamping using an old Adirondack Mountain Lake rainbow pad. The white rectangle was edged with gold metallic pen. I love the way it came out.

The image on the pink card was just stamped in black and layered onto other cardstock.

The three hydrangeas were stamped in Tsukineko’s Memento black on a piece of torn white paper, then colored with pencils. A little color was stippled on the background using a Tsukineko Kaleidacolor blue rainbow pad. The pretty glittery cardstock is an old one from Paper Adventures. (Yes, I do hoard my papers for a VERY long time!!)

And last, but not least, some vellum cards:

The vellum on the green patterned card was pre-printed (yes, also from my old stash!) The hydrangea was stamped in the Adirondack rainbow pad (told you I love it!) I then ran the deckled edge against the card stock to get ink on the edges, then I used a water brush to blur and bleed the ink for a softer edge.

On the white-embossed image, I used an old trick of coloring on the back side of the vellum, like so:

(I always loved that technique!)

I have one more set coming up! Thanks for coming by.

Stamp, Set, Match! Making Card Sets

I love making sets of cards. It just makes sense — I have the paper, the inks, the embellishments all handy, why not make several cards at a time? There are several advantages: I have everything out… I always have a quick gift ready should I need it … and I don’t have any leftover scraps!

Imagine my delight to see a sets challenge on A Blog Named Hero. What fun!

This week, I’ll share some sets I’ve made.

The first installment is this sunny yellow set:

Almost all the stamps are from Hero Arts. Not sure where I got that bright yellow paper, it’s been around a while.

Here are a few close-ups:

Thanks for stopping by! I’ll show more sets during the week.