Friday, February 26, 2010

Wild Card #23 -Thinking of You

This card is a "thinking bubble" shape, a very fun idea for a "thinking of you" card.
This wild card can be found on page 54 of the wildcard booklet.


Circled in red are the images and quantities cut for this card.
Each image was cut at 6" (I do not use the real dial size feature)

The front bubble image was cut on double sided paper, so I was able to fold it over and glue the flap down, it created a great frame look. I then glued this directly to the top of my white card.I discovered a really cool effect for my "thinking of you" word. I wanted the word to pop off the card, but I knew using pop-dots would look too bulky for me, so I tried using liquid applique, this is like puff paint after being heated with a heat tool it puffs up.

I added white liquid applique to the back side of my word, let it dry for a few hours, then heated using a heat tool, then I gently dabbed my wide two-way glue over the puffed applique then placed it onto the front of my card. This gave me clean raised words, just the look I wanted.


A better view of the raised words

I added the cut out oval to the front of the envelope.post signature

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Little Miss Bunny

Doodle Palace is having their new digital stamp release today, one is Chibi Kids Bunny, the second is an Easter Cross.

I used the sweet little bunny.

I colored the hair, face, belly, hands & ears with colored pencils, then added glitter to the hands, belly, ears, and barrette. Then used liquid applique all over the bunny coat, the tip on this pen makes adding the liquid applique so easy. Then for the fun, I heat the liquid applique with a heat tool and it puffs right up.... so cool!My adorable fuzzy bunny.
To see more great projects using this sweet bunny and the Easter Cross go HERE and check out the Doodle palace design team projects; remember to click on the designers name to go to their blog and see more details about their project.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

My New Challenge Blog -coming soon

Woo Hoo.... I'm sooooo excited to share with you my great new challenge blog and I know will be fun and inspiration to all. I would love for you to go over and check it out...
My 16 year old daughter came up with this fun new blog name... she is all about using creative words, so I thought it would be prefect for a creative and inspirational challenge blog.
To all my faithful followers I hope you will come follow my new blog, as well as continue with Robin's Creative Cottage.

For those that may not know I am no longer the leader at Just Buggin' Challenge Blog. I really enjoyed creating with the talented design team and working on new ideas for that blog, and I'm looking forward to being able to continue to share, create and inspire all of you with {FCCB}.

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Lovey Dovey Bears

Isn't this the cutest couple that you've ever seen? They are so sweet!
This one of the newest digital images available at Doodle Palace digital store, this image is called Lovey Dovey Bears. And another new release image is titled Chester the Rabbit he is an adorable Easter image.
I printed the image twice, then used colored pencils to color, with the second image colored only the rose, hat and heart, then cut them out and used pop-dots to give a 3-D look.
Come see more of the doodle palace design team creations using these two new digital images, Lovey Dovey Bears and Chester the Rabbit. Here
Remember to click on the design team name above the photo to be taken to their blog for more details about their creations.

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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

One Sunflower in a Pot -Ribbon Tip

This lovely digital stamp available at Doodle Palace is fun to color. Remember when using digital stamps the size can be adjusted to your desire before printing.
I colored the image with colored pencils, then brushed the edges of the cardstock with an ink pad, I also gently rubbed over the sunflower image with the ink using diagonal strokes.
On the yellow cardstock I used the Swiss Dots embossing folder, then again gently rubbed over the embossed dots using the same ink pad.
I wanted to share a fun ribbon tip that's easy to do and I used on this card.
My card is vertical, and the ribbon I added is horizontal; typically if I added a horizontal ribbon it would wrap all around the card, then the ribbon would need to be untied or removed before opening.

Using the following technique the ribbon stays on the card even when opened.
I use a rectangle hole punch (a round punch could be used as well) to punch the very edge of the folded side of the card.


Opened view of punched rectangle.Slip the ribbon into the hole, then bring around to the front of the card and tie a bow or on my card I used a knot.

A great simple tip, give this a try today on one of your vertical cards. post signature

Wild Card #22 -Thanks Quotes

I like how pretty this card turned out.... there is something so fun about adding lots of bling to a card. This is wild card #22 found on page 53 of the Wild Card Cricut booklet.

Below is page 53, I've circled the images in red that I cut for card #22.
Here are the cut images, I cut each at 6 1/2".

I used the inner frame piece to add to the inside of the card for writing my message.Bling!
Super quick and easy card.

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Saturday, February 13, 2010

Wild Card #21 - A Lovely Doily

This wild card has some really lovely features; a doily shaped card, a rose and a beautiful square rose pattern icon.... hmm....how do you use that image on a card? I decided to challenge myself to use that square icon on my card. This wild card can be found on page 52 of the Wild Card Cricut cartridge booklet.


Circled in red are the images and quantities that I cut for this wild card.

Here is the cardstock and patterned paper I cut for my card, each image is cut a 5".
Note: I do not use the real dial size when cutting my wild card images.

The patterned paper is from Stampin' Up designer paper packet (discontinued). I only used the outer circle from the circle liner feature, the inner circle was discarded. For the phrase "How Thankful", I used my mini gel pen and holder in my cricut machine. The gel pens and holder I ordered from Custom Crops on line store.

I challenged myself to use the square rose icon feature for this card. I begain by tracing a circle using the outer circle image. Cut it out, then used my cricut spatula tool to lift/bend the cuts in the rose pattern.

I used three colorbox cats eye inks to add a distressed look to the rose. By lifting the edges the ink was able to scrape those edges and give a darker color there. I started with the light tan ink, then the dark brown, and finished off with just a little green.

Some of my edges of the rose did break away, but not to worry, I keep inking those as well, then when finished inking I adhered the rose to the same circle that I used to trace the original rose circle, the loose edges were easily put back in place, just like a puzzle. This image was now adhered to my doily card front.
For the two roses I used the same lifting/bending technique, then inked the edges, yellow for the rose, then green for the leaf and stem. I cut off the leaves and stem of the yellow rose then adhered that rose over the top of the green rose

I used pop-dots to adhere my lovely yellow rose to my card front.
Here are the finished envelope and the inside of my doily card. I trimmed the phrase using my paper cutter, inked the edges, then placed it on the inside of the card.

Challenge yourself.... when you find image in your wild card booklet that you're not sure what to do with, remember to challenge yourself and find a way to make that image a part of your card.

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Thursday, February 11, 2010

Oh So Sweet

New images at Doodle Palace, you'll have to head on over and check them out.
This week there is an adorable baby digi stamp set called "Tucker & Tabatha" with 4 images in the set.
I used the cute baby clothes line, in the "Tucker & Tabatha" set for my card.

This week I tried a new technique using my digi stamp. I printed my image on vellum paper then immediately poured embossing powder on the damp image, poured the excess powder off, then heat set with my heat tool.
When I print on vellum the ink stays wet longer so I'm able to use the embossing powder before the image dries (I tried this technique using my regular cardstock but the ink dried way too quick).

With the image embossed I'm able to color with my markers without the worry of the printer ink smearing. The words "Oh So Sweet" were done using my printer.
The other new digi stamp image available today is called "Fishing Stuff", and to view projects using this image and Tucker & Tabatha click here. Remember to view more details about each project click on the Doodle Palace design teams name above their project to be sent to there blog where they give more detailed information about their creations.

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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Sunflowers in a Row

One thing I'm loving about using digital stamps is you can re-size them, large or small to fit any size card or even a scrapbook page.

I start by measuring my card and decide the size that I would like the digital stamp to be. Then I print the image that size. For this sunflower card I wanted to use three flowers next to each other, I'm able to line them up perfectly before I print.

This digi stamp comes in a set of two sunflower images, available at Doodle Palace. My project shows only one of the images, the other is a bouquet of sunflowers in an old fashioned beverage pitcher.

Sunflower Set
I used colored pencils for the image and a shading technique, using light to heavy pressure on opposite ends of the image.

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Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Toadally Love You -You make me Hoppy

I'm learning how to color digital stamps, I've actually had years of experience using rubber stamps as I was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for 10 years, I'm retired now but still love stamps. So I'm taking the plunge using digital.

One thing I've noticed is knowing what my printer ink will do when I use different mediums to color the image. I have a Canon i860, and the ink does smear when I use a wet marker to color. I believe there's a spray that you can purchase to spray over the image to keep it from smearing, I will look into this in the future because I do love using markers.

I'm going to invest in copic markers which are expensive art markers that blend beautifully. I've been watching some tutorials on Utube of how to use them and they are fabulous. So as I learn coloring techniques on digital stamps I'll share with you what I learn, and if you haven't tried digital stamps we can learn together as we go. Also if you have tips on coloring digi stamps let me know, I love to learn.

I'm on the Doodle Palace design team and am having so much fun playing with their super cute digi stamps.
The following image is available for purchase at the Doodle Palace.

Toadally Love You
I used my brightly colored gel pens to color this "toadally in love" frog, he's so sweet! I used a circular motion to color him, I love his cute little grin. In the center of the flower I added just a little bling.
Years ago I picked up some charms for card and craft making, I'm sure I have enough for a life time, but I do love charms, a girl can never have too many... right?
I find my charms on e-bay, just do a search and you can find any type of charm you want.
Remember to check out Doodle Palace, new images are released each Wednesday.

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