Fast & Easy Layered Card

Who can resist a card that is fast and easy to make, and uses up some scraps? Heck, not me.

Stamp set is Hero Arts Color Layering Bird CL866. For the blue flowers in the background, I stamped the first layer with Hero Arts’ Unicorn white pigment ink, then over-stamped with ColorBox Stephanie Barnard blueberry blue die ink.

Tip: When I stamped the blue layer on top of the white, the stamp picked up a bit of the white pigment. To prevent the white from contaminating my pretty blue pad, I off-stamped it before re-inking with the blue. I started off-stamping on scrap paper, then saw how pretty it looked, so went for scrap card stock and created some tags:

Fun, huh?

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Die-licious!

(Note: Computer meltdown kept me from posting last week. But thanks to the hubster, we’re back up and rolling … and trying to replace files.)

Can you tell I am hooked on dies?

Here’s a nifty two-part kimono die from Elizabeth Crafts:

The die has a solid and a detailed component. What a perfect way to use up my old origami paper! The brushstroke image (Hero Arts) was stamped in Stampin’ Up Basic Gray ink; the silver strips (scraps cut from an envelope lining!) were stamped using an old Hero Arts set (Arigato) in ColorBox’s news SurfaceZ inks (black and bluebell.) These were featured in a previous Fab Finds Friday.

Here’s another version:

And some other combinations: (I can’t stop cutting this die and playing with different color combos!!)

So much fun to play with different colors and layers! Thanks for indulging me!

Celebrate an Easy Card

Oh, how I love a quick and easy card!

You can’t get much easier than this:

When making a quick card, color is often the key. Here I stamped the flags from Hero Arts/Studio Calico set ST510 using the bright colors in Stephanie Barnard’s signature ColorBox line (Tangerine, Banana, Spearmint, Grape, Bubblegum and Sky. Yum.)

These were stamped on a white panel. The baker’s twine (Close to My Heart) is held down with a dab of Ranger’s Glossy Accents. Celebrate (Hero Arts) was stamped in black, and a few Dew Drops from The Robin’s Nest were added, held down with Glossy Accents. The panel was mounted on a piece of WorldWin card stock.
Bam! Done!

Thanks for stopping by!

Moroccan Medly

Maybe it’s the summer heat, maybe it’s just hearing about my friends’ vacations … whatever it is, I have the travel bug. I’m craving adventure in exotic lands. Maybe that’s why I was drawn to the Mosaic Madness set from Stampin’ Up! It makes me think of Morocco (no, I’ve never been there. But I love the food! And the architecture.)

We all know how impatient I am, so as soon as the stamps arrived I immediately began randomly stamping images using yummy new pigment inks from Colorbox and embossing them in clear powder.

But here’s the BEST part — I didn’t have to cut them out individually! I used the matching punch! So cool. So easy. So fast.

I had so much fun just stamping, embossing and punching, but I finally put together a card:

(sentiment from Inkadinkado.)

Then I heard my neon inks (all Hero Arts) screaming out, “stamp me! stamp me!” So I did.

Now I need to go back and do more thoughtful stamping using these images.

What are your travel plans?

Fabulous Finds Friday — Hot Fix Gems

Hot fix gemstones have been around a long time, but they never intrigued me… until I got a battery-operated, easy-to-use hot fix tool from Imaginisce. Now I want to put hot fix bling on everything! (So much easier than dealing with glue and tiny pieces.)

Take a look:

The rhinestones and metallic pieces have glue on the back. You simply touch your hot fix tool to the top, count to about 10, and it melts the glue.

Here’s a close-up:

One more:

Here’s a detailed look at the butterflies, which were embellished with Ranger’s Liquid Pearl Gold.

The flowers, butterflies and sentiments (all Hero Arts) were stamped in another Fabulous Find from the beginning of the year — ColorBox’s Limited Edition colors Plumeria (purple) and Mint (green), both chalk inks. Aren’t they deep and luscious? (the green flower on the left of the “Smiles” card was hand cut; the others were cut using matching Hero Arts/Sizzix dies.) The striped paper is some scrap stock I saved from an old folder. I attached the front and back using washi tape. The scalloped border used a Stampin’ Up! punch.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Getting in Gear with Stamping Gear

When I first saw the Inkadinkado StampingGear at the Craft & Hobby Association Show, I thought the idea was cool — creating designs by stamping around a tool that had slots in it. It reminded me of my old Spirograph. But the gear seemed too large for me,  suitable for 12×12 scrapbook pages, but not applicable to my card marking. Even when I saw the smaller version, it didn’t immediately wow me.

Until I started to play. And then I found it addictive. There is a Zen-like quality of just stamping randomly, changing colors, switching out the images… Don’t think, just stamp! You never know what you are going to get. And that is part of the charm.

Take a look. Here’s the starter kit:

The green cling-mounted stamps go on the paddle handle. Put them on any way you like. Then insert either end of the paddle into one of the slots on the “gear” and stamp around the knob!

I started playing around using the gear on boring old manila file folders. Here’s a close-up of how it works:

And some finished folders:

I used ColorBox Stephanie Barnard dye ink for the fast drying, vibrant colors.

I can hear you wondering … “but these are such big, bold designs. How can we use them on cards?” Take a look at some of these backgrounds:

In my next post, I’ll show you what I’ve done with them! In the meantime, take a look at the helpful video on the EK Success website (or direct link). Thanks for stopping by.

Fabulous Finds Friday — Random Cards & Pretty Paper

Last week I played with some wonderful baby paper from Graphic 45. This week, I tore into another pack, a little funkier. Here’s a quick card (I puposely did not add a sentiment because I have a few possible uses for it.):

(butterfly paper, Graphic 45; background stripes by Hero Arts; butterfly stamp, Layers of Color; scallop border punch, Stampin’ Up!; text on border, Stampers Anonymous.)

Next up is a card using a stamp from LaBlanche, makers of the beautifully etched white silicone stamps.

The silver cardstock (from Wausau) was run through my Spellbinders Grand Calibur using a Cuttlebug folder that I bought before Christmas but never used — I love it! I had a piece of scrap paper that had been sprayed with two colors of Clearsnap’s Smooch Spritz. I stamped and embossed the ship (black ink, clear powder) on the scrap. I rounded the corners and layered it on black before mounting the whole thing to the card. The sentiment (Hero Arts) was stamped and black embossed, then trimmed and mounted using foam tape.

Here’s anothere use of the ship stamp (I’m not really fond of this card, but am sharing it anyway!) It needs a sentiment on the bottom!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Next week I will show a variety of cards — and a mini book! — made with papers from Close To My Heart.

Fabulous Finds… Tuesday? Graphic 45

I know it’s a little early for a Fabulous Finds Friday, but I couldn’t wait to share these cards made with Graphic 45 papers. I’m a huge Graphic 45 fan, but these papers are so different from my “image” of the company’s metal products and embellies, I was immediately intrigued.

Sweet baby papers, but with a vintage flair — so Graphic 45! From the Little Darlings collection.

Here’s the first card (all decorative papers from Graphic 45):

The wonderful rocking hourse image (Close To My Heart) was black embossed on a scrap, then cut with a Spellbinders die, as was the black layer. The background was stamped using the Hero Arts envelope lining stamp and speckled ornaments stamp in Memories Soft Sage. The edge of the text paper was distressed then inked with the same soft sage.

Is this a cutie or what? (baby words and self-stick lace by Hero Art). “Baby” was inked with aqua ColorBox pigment ink then clear embossed. The edges were distressed and inked with Hero Arts Soft Sand shadow ink.

For the next card, I face a real dilemma. These papers are two-sided and it almost killed me to cut up this adorable side:

But cut I did and here’s what happened:

Same basic techniques, same CTMH stamp. The lacey piece is from a knit blanket a friend gave me. The blanket itself was worn, torn and stained, so I cut off the edges. I thought about trimming the edge a bit more neatly, but decided I liked it a little ragged.

Thanks for coming by!

Valentines!

Valentine’s Day is my favorite card making excuse, er, holiday. I love sending valentines to my children, my friends, military troops, and of course, the Hubster.

Imagine my delight when I got this new paper pack — Kissing Booth — from BasicGrey:

Being the Queen of Impatient Stampers, I had to make something RIGHT THIS MINUTE.

So I made this very simple, very plain card from this adorable paper:

Just the paper, some distressing and I was done. Hmmm…. that really is way too simple…. I need to add something….

I got a little more creative by cutting out hearts from another paper and actually stamping:

(background: envelope lining by Hero Arts; love by Stampin’ Up) To create the varigated background I inked up my stamp (with a pigment pink), put the stamp on the table (rubber-side up) and pressed my card to the stamp. I used my thumbs to press a little more firmly in a few areas to get that random extra texture.

Okay… now I’m gettin’ into the swing of things:

(paper, BasicGrey; envelope lining background Hero Arts; words Stampin’ Up; heart trio Stampendous!  The brown ink is a yummy dye ink from the ColorBox Stephanie Barnard line) 

Thanks for stopping by … I’ll have more valentines coming up. I can’t stop using this paper!

Play Time!

A new friend came over to play this week. She is relatively new to stamping and although she has bought some stamps, paper, punches, etc., she was feeling overwhelmed — like, where do I start? What inks do I use? How do I pull together a card?

My mission was to get her to make a card — without scaring her away with the dozens of choices and techniques. I kept our supplies to a minimum, starting with just a black ink pad and some water color pencils. I also wanted to show her how easy it is to make a simple, yet eye-catching card, in five minutes.

I started with chalk inks (these happen to be from ColorBox) to point out that you can, indeed, create a card using one stamp and some ink. (All images Hero Arts.) She was impressed with the quick-drying chalk ink, which lets you layer color in a snap.

Next, I couldn’t resist playing with my newest Impressibilities texture plate (Spellbinders):

I wanted to show the fun and ease of texturing, and how it sets off a focal image. It was like magic! She oohed and ahhed appreciatively. The background was perfect for this scrap that I dug out of my stamped scrap box. (poinsettia by Hero Arts, Stickles glitter glue by Ranger)

And one more, again using a previously stamped image:

Again, using chalk inks and background stamps. (Crow by OnyxXpressions; background circle in circles cube by JudiKins)

And there … within a few minutes, we made three cards! Can’t wait to have another play date!

Thanks for stopping by … and stay tuned for some crafting news about new products.