Quick Cards from Leftovers

Time to clean the desk again … and use up some of those images and papers that seem to reproduce with wild abandon on my desk.

You’ll all recognize Tim Holtz’s Crazy Birds … well, this one is from a mini set. I love the smaller size — perfect for a 4Bar card (about 4 7/8 x 3 1/2, when folded). The background was made by spritzing Heidi Swapp sprays (mustard, chartreuse and sweet cherry). Layered, glued, added some Lawn Fawn sequins, and that’s a wrap! Oh, and a liberal dose of clear Wink of Stella on the bird. Bam!

These frolicking girls (by Crafty Individuals/Magenta)  have always tickled me. This was stamped a while ago on some leftover card stock that was colored using Faber-Castell Gelatos. The card stock, as you can see, is very textured, so the girls didn’t stamp as smoothly as I wanted. But a part of me is okay with the sketchy look. The paper is an old scrap from Paper Source. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Fabulous Foiling!

Yes, I am obsessed with foil. I didn’t do a lot of foiling when it first became big because I didn’t have the right tools (including access to a laser printer for printing and foiling).

But my discovery of therm-o-web‘s wide selection of foiling capabilities rocked my world! And I’ve been foil crazy since then.

I started my experimenting by using my Fiskars XOXO punch (see here for more on this punch. My first experiment was to use the punch on  ToW’s adhesive foam. (The adhesive was a tad thick for the punch, but I managed to not mangle it too badly. My foiling was not perfectly smooth, but that’s ok!)

The background was made using Magenta‘s Nuance, a water-soluble powdered coloring agent (similar to Brusho, Ken Oliver’s Color Burst, Cosmo Cricket’s Pixie Paints, etc.) The butterflies were cut from a wonderful new Donna Salazar/Spellbinders die, Cascading Butterflies, then stamped and inked with Ranger Distress Inks (Fossilized Amber, Abandoned Coral, Peacock Feathers, Shabby Shutters). A light mist of Ranger Perfect Pearls gives them a subtle sheen (hard to see here.)

My favorite so far is therm-o-web’s self-adhesive toner sheets. For this card, I first die cut the Stampin’ Up Rose Garden from the toner sheet, then foiled it (using ToW’s iCraft® foils and a Royal Sovereign laminator.) I cut the leaves off and foiled them separately.

(sentiment by Kaisercraft, gold embossed. Black panel cut using a Spellbinders’ Cele’bration pierced rectangle die)

Never one to toss out a scrap, I used the leftover sheet (the negative left after foiling the rose die) to create this:

(Sentiment by Technique Tuesday).

I’m obsessed, so there are more foiled projects to come! Thanks for stopping by.

 

Meow… the Book

Last year I made a going-away booklet for a friend who loves cats. This was so fun and easy! I gave all our co-workers pages to decorate, then put the book together using my (We R Memory Makers) Cinch binding machine.

Take a look at a few of the pages:

The front and back covers were made the same way. I cut down chipboard to 5×6 and covered them with pages from an old book. I cut out these fabulous cat pictures from a piece of Cavallini Vintage Cat gift wrap (bought at the Paper Source). The pages were edged with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress ink.

Here’s the inside of that cover:

And the back cover, inside and outside:

Here’s one example of an inside page. I used scraps to create the background then stamped this Magenta cat, cut her out and glued her on.

(for more on this mosaic background technique, go here and here.)

This was such a fun project, and a true labor of love. Sadly, I didn’t take any photos of the book when it was put together. Bummer.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cards for Soldiers

Last Friday I posted some info on Operation Write Home — an organization that sends handmade cards to troops so they can send cards home. I am also having a We R Memory Keepers paper give-away on my blog (deadline for entries is Father’s Day. See my Friday blog for more details.)

Anyhoo…. I have made a bunch of cards to send to WRMK and Operation Write Home. Here are a few:

Many soldiers have children back home, so I wanted to make some child-centric cards. I thought it would be fun to make some “interactive” cards — cards that children can color! (It didn’t hurt that I just got some gorgeous bright papers from Die Cuts With a View!) So I ran few sheets through various embossing folders (the pink embossed design is from Lifestyle Crafts), stamped some owls (Hero Arts) and a two-word instruction (hee hee … stamped with a tiny Hero Arts alphabet set). Fast, easy, and I hope fun!

Here’s the boy version:

Almost all the same stuff, but the embossing folder is by Sizzix (maybe a Tim Holtz design?).

One more color-me-in design:

This was a fun background. I started with a diagonal embossing folder (Lifestyle) and then turned the folder so that I created a cross-hatch pattern on the top half. Here’s a close-up:

Isn’t that fun? The elephant is an old one from Magenta …. the sentiment also an old one from Hero Arts.

Thanks for coming by!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Marvelous Magenta

I have long been a fan of the elegant art stamps from Magenta, a Canadian company that has been around for as long as I’ve been stamping. The stamps, whether wood mounted or on cling, never fail to delight — and the samples the company shows at its booth always make me drool. Now THIS is art!

 Here’s a peek at some of the Magenta style shown at the Carson stamp show:

See the pretty red bird? The bird is a cork die cut from a new Magenta product, cork sheets. The bird is dyed using Alcohol Inks. Here’s a close up of the card and the sheet:

Another card made using a different cork design:

Magenta has another nifty new product — book kits:

Imagine what you can do with the pieces from this kit! Here is one of the samples:

So pretty!

Magenta is also the North American distributor for Crafty Individuals. Here is one image I love:

(This is one stamp.)

Thanks for stopping by! And Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!