Sneakers!

If you follow my blog, you know how much trouble I have making masculine cards, but I needed one.  I thought the sneaker die from MFT would make a cute card.  I searched Google for different style Chuck Taylor sneakers and when I found a pair with mustaches, I knew I had to use that idea for my sneaker card!  

The sneaker die is very detailed.  My favorite part is the tiny die that cuts out all of the eyelets.  They look fabulous cut out of gold or silver mirror card stock.  They aren't as difficult as you'd expect to glue on and they are well worth the effort because that little detail gives them the look of real sneakers...so cute!  I added a craft colored twine for shoe laces.

Guys like sports so I decided to put baseballs, footballs, basketballs and soccer balls inside since it went with my sentiment.  I used strips of acetate to attach them to a center spine so when the card is opened they bobble all around!

You can see the acetate strips a little better in this pic!

Thanks so much for visiting :)
Janet

Supplies Used:
Cardstock: Black, assorted DSP, gold mirror card stock
Stamps: none - sentiments were done on the computer
Dies: My Favorite Things LL All Star High Tops, Spellbinders Labels 17 
Miscellaneous: Acetate, twine, Stampin' Up Scalloped Oval & Large Oval 

Bouquet Greetings

I belong to a group called Random Acts of Mail.  The focus of this group is to send 2 cards a week to people in need.  It is nice to be a part of something that helps people to feel better when they need it most.  I like to make sets of cards so that I have them ready to mail out.  These cards were made for that purpose.  My inspiration was a card from Susan Kirk's Stamp Camp.  It's so simple yet pretty and is perfect to send when someone needs cheering up!  I like to do sets using different colors.  Here are how they came out...

I used Copics to color the flowers.  A light, medium and dark in each shade.  I colored the tulips in the lightest color, then added the medium and dark and blended the colors by going over it with the lightest color again.

Here are the Copics I used...

Thanks so much for taking time to look :)

Janet

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  Stampin' Up Mossy Meadow & Old Olive, Papertrey  white, assorted complementary colors
Stamp: Stampin' Up: Love is Kindness & Endless Birthday Wishes
Copics: See above
Miscellaneous: Stampin' Up Scallop Oval & Large Oval Punch, Silver sequins

12 Tags of 2015 - September

Tim's tag this month is beautiful.  I couldn't wait to make this one until I realized that the only things I had for making the tag were glossy paper and a handful of alcohol inks.  I decided to go with what I had and see if I could make it work.  Here is what I came up with...

Making the backgrounds was a blast! I didn't want to stop.  The technique is just like the one TH does with his Distress Stains, but the Alcohol Inks are much more vibrant and the addition of gold is really pretty.  You have to be careful not to smoosh too much because the colors blend to make mud quickly.  After making the background I stamped some butterflies.  I used an old Hero Arts butterfly stamp and then added clear embossing paste through a swirly Tim Holtz stencil.  I'm hoping you can see it in this photo.

I also didn't have the the frosted sheet that he used to make the 3D butterflies.  I used a piece of acetate and I really like the effect that I got when I heated it.  When it was hot it was very pliable and you could position it any way you wanted.  Once it was cool it would stay in that exact position.  Wow...very cool.  I'm going to have to think about ways to use this for other things.  It's hard to photograph.  I hope you can get an idea of how it looks here.

I used some strips from a green alcohol ink background to bring some more color to the bottom of my tag and added a TH number embellishment and a quote.  I died some seam binding ribbon with Peeled Paint Stain and Twisted Citron reinker to use at the top of my tag.  

This was a fun one and I learned a few new things! 

Thanks for visiting,
Janet

Butterfly Parade

This is the other card that I made for our Project Day.  I seem to be using these My Favorite Things dies more than any other.  They make beautiful, easy cards :)  I wanted a subtle pattern on the front so I used a stamp by MFT called Simply Circles to make a tone on tone background.

An acetate window added some interest but also caused a problem because you could see the backs of the butterflies on the inside of the card.  Cutting an additional black lacy butterfly for the reverse sides fixed the problem easily.  

I tried some other color combinations, and I like them but I wish I'd used a bigger sentiment stamp on these. 

Thanks so much for stopping by :)  Have a great weekend!

Janet

Supplies Used:

Card stock:  Stampin' Up Pink Pirouette, Black and White

Stamps: MFT Simply Circles & Assorted Sentiment Stamps

Ink: Versafine: Black and Versamark

Dies: MFT Flutter of Butterflies-Solid & Flutter of Butterflies-Lace

Miscellaneous: Copic markers, Acetate

You Gnome Me - Hello Card

My group of stamping friends got together recently for a Project Day.  I am so lucky to know these girls. There is nothing better than a day of stamping and a lunch with people that you like!  I made 2 projects this time because I couldn't decide on just one.  For the first card I used the My Favorite Things set called You Gnome Me.  The card was inspired by one I found on Pinterest by Torico.  You can see her adorable card here.  All of the die cutting on this card is done with MFT's Blueprints 3, except for the fence and grass.  I don't have the dies to cut the gnomes so I cut him by hand.

I didn't have a soft yellow DSP, so I used a brighter one.  I had to use brighter colors for the background and the embellishments to make it look right.  I used Pan Pastels to make the sunset sky in the background. They are SOOO easy...I love using them to make backgrounds!  I also tried a new coloring technique for adding texture when coloring with Prismacolor Pencils.  You use a fine point stylus to press a pattern into the card stock and then when you color over it the pattern lines (dots) stay white!!  I found out that you can't use Gamsol for this technique because it makes the color bleed onto the white lines.  Here's a close up of the plaid pattern...

And here is how it looks with a dotted pattern!  Ohhh...ahhhh...imagine the possibilities!!

Thanks so much for visiting, hope I made you want to get out your stamps and play :)

Janet

Supplies Used:
Card stock:  Yellow Designer Patterned Paper, White Cougar Opaque 80 lb, Assorted solids
Stamps:  My Favorite Things: You Gnome Me
Dies: My Favorite Things: Die-namics  Blueprints 3, Fresh Cut Grass, Garden Fence
Miscellaneous: Prismacolor Pencils, Pan Pastels: Diarylide Yellow, Violet Tint, Ultramarine Blue

Bridal Shower Stamping Bella Card

Stamping Bella makes the girliest girl stamps ever.  I just love them so when it came time to make a shower card for my future daughter-in-law, Cathy, I had to use one for her card.  I used the Brigitte the Bride stamp from Stamping Bella.

Isn't she darling?  This card was a lot of fun to make.  I loved adding the embellishments and the bling!  Here's an angled view so you can see the sparkle better.

Here's a closer view.  I used Art Institute Sea Shell glitter over the top and bottom of her dress.  It's the most transparent clear glitter that I've found and the Copic coloring showed through just as I'd hoped it would!

I enjoyed making this card so much that I made another one in pink.  

I tried something new for adding color to the background.  Instead of using Copics, I used the Ultramarine Blue Tint Pan Pastel and a Sofft Tool knife.  I loaded up the knife, positioned it on the edge of the bride and pulled away.  It looks very much like a Copic shadow background but was so much easier to do!! 

Flower Soft really dressed up the bouquet...so pretty!  My friends convinced me to use it and I'm glad that they did.  I used pink and silver Flower Soft here.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Have a nice day :)

Janet

Supplies Used:
Stamp: Brigitte the Bride from Stamping Bella
Cardstock: Papertrey White, Stampin' Up Basic Gray,  Bo Bunny yellow dot, Pink dot that I found at Joanne Fabrics, Stampin' Up Silver glitter card stock, vellum
Copics:  Skin: E00, E11, E50 and R02.  Dress: C00, C01, C02, C03  
Miscellaneous: Pink & Silver Flower Soft, Ultramarine Tint Pan Pastel, Sofft Tool knive, gems, Sizzix label dies, Paper piercer, Art Institute Sea Shell glitter