Happy Purrthday Card

For my daughter-in-law's birthday card I wanted to use a Whimsy floral slimline card stock sheet from a pack that I just purchased.  I liked that the flowers were done in bokeh style. I also wanted to use some recently purchased Whimsy cat confetti...so cute!  It was super easy to make a shaker card using a piece of acetate, Sizzix scallop circle die, Whimsy slimline mini stitched die, and Scrapbook Adhesive foam tape.  

Lawn Fawn and Neat and Tangled images plus words were stamped with waterproof ink and colored in with Copic pens.  The cats look plain because they were colored to look like my daughter-in-law's twin cats.  Although the card was a little small for the envelope, I thought the Daiso blue envelope was a good match. (It was only $1.50 for a pack of twelve.)  The Whimsy printed card stock was supposed to be for a full sized slimline card so when I used the mini die I ended up with a small piece of scrap. You know me, I couldn't resist turning it into a tag. I really like the tag especially with the fluffy yarn added.  Making the card and tag made me happy so I know that crafting is good for my soul!

 

Panda Anniversary Card

 I was inspired by the sample card on the back of the I-crafter panda stamp package (purchased at HM Ben Franklin Crafts).  I could tell from the photo that the creator of the card used a die to cut out the circle for the sun and added the fussy cut panda images.  I liked the layout but thought that I would try making a one layer card using masks to protect the previously stamped images.  I began by stamping the pandas with black ink. Then I created a mask for the pandas by stamping on an adhesive backed shipping label (free from some orders)  and fussy cutting out the pandas.  (I couldn't locate my package of masking paper...sigh, so much stuff.) After placing the panda mask over the stamped pandas on my white card stock, I made a circular mask with my Spellbinder die. To make the mask easy to remove I sprinkled on some cornstarch so that the mask was tacky but not going to adhere to the card. Once I had the circle mask down over the masked pandas, I blotted on some yellow Tim Holtz Distress ink and spritzed it with water. To protect the sun (moon?) I used the cut out circle to cover it. More Time Holtz Distress inks (purple and blue plus shades of green) were dabbed onto the card and spritzed with water.  Finally, the bamboo was stamped in green and ochre inks. To insure that the sentiment would be legible, I used my Misti stamp aligner. It was a good thing that I did because there were a few words that had to be inked up more than once.

I had another sentiment stamp (Penny Black) that I wanted to use on this card so I stamped it on a small white rectangle and smudged the edges with olive green ink.  I adhered it to the side of the card's interior so that it would be easier to write a message.  This card was really easy to make and I'm pleased that I chose to make it in a single layer.  Overall, I think this card is attractive and hopefully it will bring a smile to my hubby's face as he realizes that the pandas' butts look just like ours. LOL!    

Elegant and Easy Wedding Cards (Part 3)

Sadly again, my photos do not show up the delicate details of these cards. Oh well, I'll explain what I did to achieve a look that I really like.  I started with a turquoise and silver marbled washi paper that I hoarded for years.  I finally decided to use some of this precious paper on two wedding cards.  A thin gauzy tissue with silver and gold flecks (see previous post supplies) was adhered to the marbled paper with thinned down decoupage medium (you could use a glue spray).  To this base, a special layered wedding sticker was added as well as ribbon with words, a lace scrap and a tiny rhinestone strip. The decorative add-ons were purchased from the HM Ben Franklin Crafts wedding department. The entire marbled paper piece was adhered with double stick tape to a shimmery card blank. 

This last wedding card in the series was started the same way as the top card.  The LOVE ribbon, rhinestone heart and feather were added with a little 3 in 1 Beacon Fabri-Tac glue. All the embellishments were from HM Ben Franklin Crafts...the store that has a gigantic assortment of craft items to make your creations sparkle and shine! Do some HAPPY shopping at HM BFC today!

 

Elegant and Easy Wedding Cards (Part 2)

As with the last set of wedding cards, these are very hard to photograph...too shiny.  I found some highly textured fibrous paper in my stash  which I thought could benefit from the addition of the gold and silver flecked gossamer tissue that I used on the previous wedding cards.  I chose to adhere the tissue with decoupage glue rather than double stick tape because it didn't stick well to the fibrous paper.  The dry card fronts were adhered to shimmery card blanks with double stick tape.

For the Asian characters I used some very old wood handled rubber stamps by Stampendous and Mari&Me.  With clear Dazzle embossing ink, I heat embossed the stamped images with gold or silver embossing powder.  (The lower image looks like a silver on silver character but it is actually gold on silver.)

Here are the insides of the wedding cards. The words were also stamped and embossed. I am happy with the look of these cards.  I promise they look great IRL (in real life).  I have two more wedding cards to show you in (Part 3) of this series.  Please return to this blog site to see them. I will TRY to take better photos next time. 

 

Elegant and Easy Wedding Cards

I decided to make a bunch of wedding cards because of upcoming events.  These are the first two of a series  Using Gansai pearlized watercolors I painted an abstract blend of three colors onto some watercolor paper.  I left these to dry before cutting them to be just slightly smaller than the white pearlized card blanks.  Using a sticky but dry tape runner (Japanese type in small hand dispenser possibly available at Daiso or Celebrations), I ran the dispenser over the front of the watercolored piece. Next I laid a sheet of the super thin, gossamer tissue with gold and silver flecks over the sticky water colored blank  (I'm not sure exactly where I purchased the tissue from but you may be able to find some at Celebrations or online at a Japanese washi paper site. I applied the sticky tape to the back edge of the card and folded the wispy tissue over to adhere.  This whole piece was then glued to the card blank and the square foil sticker (Double Happiness or Celebrate) was adhered.

My camera skills don't do justice to the subtle details of these cards.  They really did turn out to be lovely and softly delicate. Although the plan was to use them for wedding cards, they could easily be used for birthdays or other special occasions. Please return to this blog site to see the other versions of  wedding cards that I create.

 

"You're That Old?" Magic Wheel Card

I was surprised that making a Whimsy 'Magic Wheel' card wasn't really difficult.  I did have to watch a video to understand the mechanics of making it but I think I can make another one without referring to the video again...(so I guess this is really one of the easier paper construction pieces LOL!). I started by making the wheel portion from cardstock with numbers printed on it and then stamping the 'Happy Birthday' wheel , the dotted circle and arrow onto the various pieces of cardstock cut with the Whimsy Magic wheel die set. 

I used a Whimsy purple dotted card stock from a 6x6 pack for the background. The Whimsy character and the saying were die cut with Whimsy dies and colored with Copic pens.

I hope my friend will see the humor of this card. (We are almost the same age.) I had to stop myself from playing with the spinner because the arrow was getting a bit bent...hahaha! I am already planning a floral version of this Magic Wheel card because this one was so easy and turned out very close to what I imagined.  Yay for me! 

 

Welcome Baby Girl Pop-Up Card

I love pop-up cards so of course I had to get the I-Crafter one that Joy (Joy of Crafting) introduced on her show.  The base of the card is similar to the Lawn Fawn one that I showed several posts ago.  However, this one is easier to assemble.  Both pop-up platforms work but I think the LF one is a little more pleasing to my eye and has a better way to hold up the add-ons.  For this pop-up card I used a double sided printed paper, die-cut pieces and stickers from my stash of 'baby stuff'.

This side view gives a glimpse at how the card is constructed. The stickers were adhered to leftover pieces of the printed card stock and then fussy cut before gluing them to the paper stakes. Little ribbon bows add a bit of  soft dimension.

By backing all of the pieces with the same printed pink card stock helps to make the back look unified.  I had to make a simple matching blank card to write a message because there is no space on the pop-up card.  

Amazingly, the whole pop-up card folds up and fits into a standard sized envelope for mailing.  For a  first attempt at this particular platform pop-up card I think it turned out fairly decent. I am including a photo of the card expanded so that the recipient can see how the card should look.  I don't think it will be too hard for the new parents. They had to assemble a crib right? 

 

Monster Birthday Cards

My identical twin grandsons are celebrating their 4th birthday with a picnic at the beach so I decided that the Hero Arts 'Party Monsters' stamp set and Lawn Fawn 'Meadow Backdrop' die would work well for the card front.  The tiny images were colored with Copic pens and color pencils, then fussy cut...tedious work for me.  Lawn Fawn dies were used to cut out the number 4 and the clouds. The words were printed from the Hero Arts 'Monster Fun' stamp set and die cut with a Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle die.

Since the twins look the same on the outside but have different personalities, I decided to create different card interiors. The monsters and words were from Whimsy 'Monster Moods' and 'Monster Birthday' stamp and die sets.  They were colored with smudged Hero Arts reactive inks that were misted a bit with water.  I stamped the monster words and then hand drew the word bubbles before cutting them out.  These monsters as well as the ones on the card front were adhered with foam adhesives to add some dimension.  I'm not sure four-year-olds will be too interested in the birthday cards but I think they will be amused with their birthday gifts. Can you guess what we got for them?