Mail for the holidays

Making faux postage stamps was popular early in my stamping career but at the time you needed patience and probably special scissors to get the edges right. Now, you can just die cut a postage stamp shape, which is exactly what I did here. After masking the edges, I stamped postage-sized images of a tree and an ornament, colored with pencils, then sponged around them. After removing the masking, they look so good. Suddenly, I understand why people like making them. It's fun and easy. 

This card is for these challenges:

Rudolph Days -- Christmas

Die Cut Divas -- Holidays

Simon Says Stamp Monday -- Tree

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #623 -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #212 -- use an image

 

Pretty poppies

 Mrs. A has another fun Butterfly Challenge up, this one calling for poppies and lots of layers. I don't usually do a lot of layers, so this was a bit of a challenge.

I started by picking out  this Penny Black Stickeroo, then went looking for coordinating snippets to use for my layering panels. I focused on finding colors that worked will with the background colors, letting the red poppies, well, "pop" in contrast. As you can see from the photo of the snippets, I found one that had already been border punched and decided to use it as is. I used the white snippet by applying the sticker to it, then trimming it down to leave a small white reveal around the edges, then used a corner rounder to echo the rounded edges of the sticker.

I also used the last bit of that darker blue snippet for the Thinking of You Sentiment (a stamp which I came across by accident; it's part of a set I haven't used in ages.)

I punched out the butterfly and realized the snippet I'd used had failed heat embossing on the other side, but I liked how the white sort of breaks up the colors and chose to use it as it.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Butterfly Challenge #189

Snippets Playground #467

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Thinking of you

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2345 -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #621 -- anything goes

Cocoa Christmas

 It's about time to be working on Christmas cards, isn't it? Here's my latest.

The central image is from Stamplorations -- a gingerbread man in a mug of cocoa. How cute is that? I've centered it on a die-cut doily and used a couple of fun pieces of Christmas patterned paper behind them. The sentiment is from Purple Onion, white embossed on red with a red gem.

This card is entered in these Challenges:

Die-Cut Divas -- Holiday cards

Double-Trouble #152 -- coffee/cocoa (met challenges 1 and 2)

Coffee Lovers blog hop -- cocoa theme

Word Art Wednesday #621 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2344 -- anything goes

Jingles Belles -- Hard Candy Christmas/Christmas treats

 

Butterfly joy fold

 

I love joy fold cards, but I rarely remember to do them because I forget how easy they are. Luckily, Mrs. A. asked us to make a joy fold for the current Butterfly Challenge, and I got reacquainted with this simple but lovely technique.

Because the Butterfly Challenge is also to make a monochromatic card this go-round, I started by collecting a bunch of blue snippets I thought would work well, from a Navy blue  to several blue and white prints.(see photo to right) I ended up using the two large solid-colored snippets for the base card and the second folded element, and just two prints to cover some of the dark blue. (I think the lighter blue is lovely and wanted to keep it uncovered.) 

My butterfly mage is actually a used postage stamp. I used to collect stamps off all the mail I got and recently looked at what I have stashed away. This stamp really stood out. I squared off the edges of the bit of envelope I'd saved and matted that on a small dark blue snippet. There's lace tape along the edge, and the sentiment "thinking of you" is stamped in navy.

This card is for these challenges:

Butterfly Challenge #188 (monochromatic blue, joy fold, lace)

Simon Says Stamp Monday -- thinking of you

Double Trouble  #191-- something/anything (Thing 1 and thing 3, circles on lace)

Snippets Playground #466 -- use snippets

CRAFT #696 -- anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore #117-- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #619  --anything goes

 

Beekeeper's birthday

My BIL's birthday is coming up. He took up beekeeping a few years ago, so I decided to make a bee themed card for him. I came across these cool postage stamps featuring a bee on a flower and decided to use them as an interesting art element.  To create the card, I stenciled hexagons for a honeycomb background, mounted that on  gray card stock cut with a stitched die, and attached that to a black card. The sentiment is black embossed next to the postage stamps, then mounted on a black piece of cardstock. It's pretty simple, but it meets my idea of a masculine birthday card.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #619 -- anything goes

Stencil fun -- use stencils

Double Trouble #150 -- (no patterned paper, flower,, garden insect; plus entered at partner site)

Crafter's Cafe #302 -- flowers

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2342 -- anything goes

Pink Christmas

 I love it when a couple of challenge themes work together to suggest a card. ABC Christmas and the Jingle Belles did that for me. ABC Christmas has the theme "U for Use it Up" and I went digging through my file of stickers and embellishments (some which have moved house with me three times). The Jingle Belles wanted pink Christmas, which led me to these sparkly pink and green stickers. All I had to do was arrange them on pink cardstock, matt that on green cardstock, add some sequins, and draw in a slim border. Presto-change-o, it's a retro pink Christmas card.

This card is entered n these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Christmas

ABC Christmas -- U for Use it Up (stickers)

Jingle Belles -- pink Christmas

CRAFT #694 -- nontraditional Christmas colors

Word Art Wednesday #617 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2340 -- anything goes

 

C.R.A.F.T Challenge #692

 

I am the guest designer for the C.R.A,F.T challenge this week, thanks to having been named a top pick for a previous challenge earlier this year.

This week's C.R.A.F.T. Challenge, #692, has a theme of wedding/anniversary. The sponosr is All Dressed Up, which offers some really cute digi stamps -- including this one, called Just Married. The winner of the random draw for this challenge gets two images of their choice from All Dressed Up.

Entries via the linky on the C.R.A. F.T. Challenge blog page are due by 6 p.m. GMT Wednesday, Oct 4.  Hope you can play along.

For my card, I colored the All Dressed up image with simple colored pencils and framed it with a silver stitched frame. The sentiment is silver-embossed of vellum, and a few heart-shaped sequins finish the piece.

In which the stamping platform comes in handy

 

You know how an idea sometimes just appears in your brain? Well, that happened here. I'd been vaguely thinking about Mrs. A's butterfly challenge -- to include lots of butterflies, and thought of this stamp From Hero Arts. I decided to make it into a rainbow of color. But I knew it would be tricky to get it right.

This is where I really apprecaieated the utility of a stamp platform. YTruth is I'm a creature of habit, and it's much easier just to grab an acrylic block than to use the stamping platform. But for this, I took the time to set up the platform, inked up the stamp (and those are ancient pigment inks I used, so wow to them) and stamped.  Several of the butterflies had to be inked and stamped multiple times to get the depth of color I wanted before clear embossing everything. 

The image was the perfect size for a mini slimline, mounted on purple and then on the card. Gold splatters fill in some bare spots, and a ribbon with a rainbow of colors complements the butterflies.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Butterfly Challenge # 187 --  butterflies galore

Simon Says Stamp Monday -- Take Flight

Word Art Wednesday #613 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2336 -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #210 -- use a stamped image.

Pumpkin season (it's not just for lattes)

 Here's another fall card for you, this one featuring a mass of fussy-cut pumpkins. In my ongoing crafty cleanup I've uncovered supplies I've had for ages, including this excellent plaid patterned paper and a variety of pumpkin stamps.  I used pumpkins from three different sets to create this scene, by stamping, coloring, fussy-cutting and arranging the gourds on a strip of brown. I'd used the scallop border die before, but I've never used the insert that cuts the holes in the scallops until making this card.  The green acrylic dots also have some age on them. The sentiment is heat embossed in a weird embossing powder that dries in a textured and not shiny manner (kind of like the Distress EP that I don't think lasted on the market too long.)

This card is entered in these challenges:

Double D -- Fall plaid

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Stamp it. 

Inspiration Station #56 -- Gourds (inspired by the variety of colors in the inspiration photo)

 

Double Trouble #147 -- All three twists (green/yellow/orange; gourds; entering partner's challenge)

Word Art Wednesday #611 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2336 -- anything goes

 

Lots of Leaves

 I don't know about you, but I am ready for fall. This is my first fall card of the season, featuring a lovely maple leaf die from Poppystamps. Every time I use it, I mentally debate if it's border or just a leaf die, and this time, I used it both ways. After cutting the column of leaves, mounting on a white base and adding the sentiment, I decided the card was too flat and needed texture, so I embossed the leaves and added them. The card still needed something, and after giving myself time to ponder it, I added the white lines around the edge. Honestly, that thin white line made a huge difference.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Die-Cut Divas -- anything goes with die-cuts

Colorful Options -- orange

Can you handle the pressure -- machine embossing/embossing folders

Word Art Wednesday #611 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2335 -- anything goes

Pretty poppies

 

Poppies aren't  very common garden plants where I live; I'm not sure if they don't like humidity, if it's too hot, or some other reason. However, they are beautiful flowers associated with remembrance =. So, it made sense to pair this poppy image with a "remember" sentiment from Stamplorations.

The image is colored with pencils and cut with a stitched-edge label die. The image is mounted on a red panel that is embossed with a swiss dot folder. The sentiment is black-embossed on vellum, which is wrapped around the red panel and adhered to the back, so no worries about adhesive showing through the vellum. The butterfly helps hold the vellum in place.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Butterfly Challenge #186 (center column -- flowers, die cuts, spots)

Can you handle the pressure -- twist of poppies

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

The Paper Shelter #565 -- add a sentiment

Word Art Wednesday #609 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2334 -- anything goes

Double Trouble #146 -- anything/everything (twists 1 and 3)

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge #8 -- focus on flowers

Santa Paws

 

Well, it seems there are Christmas in July challenges everywhere! What a great opportunity to have a little fun making Christmas cards without the pressure of a looming holiday.

I went the cute route with this card, using a fun image from Bugaboo colored in pencils. (Hmm, just remembered I wanted to add some Wink of Stella to the Santa hat -- will do that right away).  Used a stitched circle die to cut out the image. The sentiment is from Purple Onion.
The background panel is made from two snippets of Christmas patterned papers. (My last bits of each..) 

I added a few acrylic dots in the corner. They probably aren't necessary.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- four-legged friends

Snippets Playground #458  -- Christmas in July

Jingle Belles -- Santa's Hat

Double Trouble #143 -- (meeting all 3 challenges -- Christmas, Santa's Hat, enter Jingle Belles)

Double D -- Christmas in July

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2328 -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #208  Anything goes with an image

Word Art Wednesday #605 -- anything goes

Stripes, star, glitter

Stripes, star, glitter might sound like the formula for a Fourth of July card at this time of year, but I'm thinking ahead -- it's a Christmas card. 

Inspired by the joint challenge at Double Trouble and Jingle Belles for using stars and/or stripes on a Christmas card, I pulled out some striped Christmas paper to start the card. I found a snippet of green that coordinated and die cut a tree, then stamped a garland and embossed it in red glitter EP.  Did the same with the star for the top of the tree (die and stamps from a Hampton Arts set).  Added a sentiment and a red satin bow. 

This card is entered in these challenges:

Double Troupe #142 -- Christmas in July (with stars and stripes s=twist and entered in partner challenge at Jingle Belles)

Jingle Belles -- Stars and Stripes 

Word Art Wednesday #603 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2327 -- anything goes

Sunset on the lake

 I hope to get out on my kayak over the holiday, so I've made a card with a lovely on-the-water scene. The orange setting sun is paper pieced over the main image, which is black-embossed. I was inspired to make the orange sun by the Inspiration Station's "cue" photo for this month, which you can see below.  For embellishment, I used baker's twine and an interesting flat bead that has been in my stash for years. (I went through a brief period of collecting beads until realizing they make cards hard to mail.) 

 This card is entered in these challenges:

Inspiration Station #50 -- sunset

Double Trouble #141 (all 3 challenges -- something, slimline, linkng with past partner)

Simon Says Stamp Monday -- vacation

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

Simply Create -- lazy days of summer

Word Art Wednesday #601-- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #207 -- use an image

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2325 -- anything goes

 

 

 

Alcohol inks on vellum

I tried something different for this card -- I colored vellum with alcohol inks (a green and a blue AI, plus some blending solutions). 

To create this card, I began with a variety of snippets (see photo). The tree shape was cut from a large white snippet. The vellum (also a snippet) was placed behind the apperture (inked side down), then another white snipped was placed behind it to keep the green matting from showing through. The green mat was also a snippet. I went with blue ink for the sentiment to help the card from being too green (or to make the bit of blue in the tree make sense, however you want to look at it.)

 This card is entered in these challenges:

Rudolph challenge, June -- Christmas

CRAFT #682 -- Christmas

Snippets Playground #457-- use snippets

Word Art Wednesday #601 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2325 -- anything goes

Vintage book page

 Have you ever found out you were siged up for a  swap you don't remember putting your name down for? That just happened to me, Turns out I signed up for a "vintage" swap, and the deadline for sending cards out was already past when I realized I'd been assigned a partner. Time to figure out how to do vintage...

One fun way to do vintage is called vintage book plate -- it's an old Technique Junkies technique that I've had good luck with, so I decided to go down that route. It works well with botanical stamps, and since I'e been cleaning out my craft space I'd come across some stamps I haven't used int a while that I thought would work. 

The result is this citrusy, lemony and quite antique-looking bookpage/card. I used Distress antique linen ink to create the aged page, with Memento black ink for the script so I could color the lemons with regular markers.I used a fine back marker to create the page border, and I used a few brads for another pop of color.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Double D - Lemonade (the color yellow)

Simon Says Stamp Monday -- masculine

Word Art Wednesday #599 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2323 -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #207 -- must use an image

All in a box of Kleenex

 A swap group I'm in has a challenge they're calling dumpster dive - the challenge was to use something you would usually throw away on a card. I used part of a flower-patterned tissue box -- it's the three-part panel in the middle of this card. (You can tell it's a box, because it has a bit of a sheen on it that resulted in a glare on the photo). It really made a nice background and pairs well with the die-cut flower too. (flower was in my stash, used the navy blue paper left from cutting the center panel to white-emboss the sentiment.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- flowers

Use your Stuff #486 -- flowers

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2323 -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday # 599 -- anything goes

Sunshine Shaker

 

I had a little fun with color blending and stenciling to make this card. I took white card stock, placed this honeycomb stencils on it, then blended blue, pink and yellow Distress inks to get the colors of the rainbow. Die-cut an oval in the center, and stamped a happy sun and clouds on the card beneath, then added some clear sequins and a clear plastic cover to make a shaker card. 

This card is entered in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- interactive

Crazy is our fame, stencils are our game (May challenge)  -- stenciling 

Word Art Wednesday #595 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2320 -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #206 --  anything goes

Fresh Cherries

I'm trying to organize my stamping space, and I've come to a realization that I impulse buy supplies when they are on deep deep discount. Case in point is this stencil (seen under the card), which includes pears and apples as well as cherries. It's really an old wall stencil I bought cheap and I can't remember using before now.  I'm glad I finally got around to it, I think it came out cute.

The cherries were stenciled, then cut with an oval die and framed on a scallop oval. The black base card left from a fancy fold I tried recently -- this half of the paper got in the way of a diagonal cut, so I had to trim part of it off. I decided to use it as a fold that reveals part of the inside of the card. The gingham print was a natural choice with the cherries, as was the "sweet" sentiment, which is part of an old SU set. The sentiment is white embossed. A few acrylic drops finish off the card.

This card is for these challenges:

Double D: Fresh picked.

Stencils are our game -- use a stencil

Word Art Wednesday #593 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2318 -- anything goes

Butterfly -- positive and negative

 I got the idea for this card from a video by Laurel Beard, although I made several changes to make it my own. You can see the snippets I started with on the right. I just knew I wanted to do a patchwork, so I chose a solid and several prints, eventually narrowing it down to just one print. The larger white snippet I used as the backing behind the patchwork pieces to give me something sturdier to die-cut. Before die-cutting, I embossed the square, which added some much-needed texture to the blue.

I wasn't planning on using the die-cut butterfly at all, just the negative, but it sort of flew to that corner of the card and seemed to fit there.  The sentiment is from Purple Onion Designs.

This card is for these challenges:

Butterfly Challenge #181 -- colors straw and sky blue, plus butterfly

Snippets Playground #453 -- use snippets

Can You Handle the Pressure? -- use an embossing folder 

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2317 -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #592 -- anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore #111 -- anything goes

Fun fold

 

I saw a cute fun fold that I wanted to try, and this is the result. (the instructions are here.) The adorable penguin image is from Conie Fong. 

For the card, I cut a regular sized sheet of card stock in half lengthwise. The white panels (there is another one under the image panel so you have a place to write inside the card) and patterned papers were snippets.  I used a couple half gems to fill in some empty space.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

Pixie's Snippet Playground #452  -- use snippets 

Pattie's Creations #205 -- anything goes

Word Art Wedneday #593 -- anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore #110 -- anything goes

A new spring in my step

 I've been kind of quiet in the craft department for the past few months. I broke my foot about two months ago and spent a long time in a support boot. Even without the boot, I can't move as well as I should. Since getting to my craft space requires going down stairs (still difficult), I'm still not crafting much. However, I do miss it, so I've pushed myself to battle the stairs a few times to play with my crafty supplies. Here's my most recent project.

The central die-cut is a lovely branch of spring flowers, which I watercolored in shades of mint and a heathery lavender.  For a sentiment, I die-cut the world "happy" (Stamplorations die) and combined it with white-embossed "birthday" on a small brown panel.  Everythng is mounted on a white panel embossed with a dot pattern, which in turn is on a brown card. The butterfly in the corner is painted with the same colors as the flowers.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Die-Cut Divas -- watercolor

Butterfly Challenge #180 (colors heather and highland)

Can You Handle the Pressure -- pressure embossing

Pattie's Creations #205 -- anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore #110 -- anything goes

Creative Inspiration -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2314 -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #591 -- anything goes

Merci

 I have an Eiffel Tower stamp that is just a tad too big to fit on an A2 card, so I used it for this mini-slimline card.  The tower is black-embossed onto a patterned paper with a very discrete gray design on it. Along the right edge, the word "Merci" was repeatedly printed. Down the left is a fascinating bit of trim that sort of looks like the open ironwork on the tower; the trim is silver and blue and adds a little simmer to the card.  The gray paper is mounted on a shimmery blue mat, which is on a white card with a very narrow reveal around the edges of the blue.  Another piece of shimmery blue was die-cut as a round tag. There's something that sort of looks like a Fleur de Lis black-embossed on the tag. (I keep thinking I have a fleur de lis stamp, but I cannot find it and decided this would have to do). 

This card is entered in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday - emboss it

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- slimline

Word Art Wednesday #585 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2309 -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #204 -- must use an image

Crafts Galore Encore #109 -- anything goes

 

Flowery van

 

I have had this digi image of a VW van (It's by Bird) for a long time and I've always wanted to try paper-piecing on it. I found this wonderful retro-looking flower pattern to do the piecing with. The parts that aren't pieced are colored with pencils with some silver gel pen on the details that would be chrome or metal.

The sentiment is computer generated.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday -- Things With Wheels

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2307 -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #583 -- anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore #108 -- anything goes

Creative Inspirations -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #203 -- anything goes