Embossed Sympathy Cards

 
I needed to add to my stash of sympathy cards and I wanted to make a dozen cards quickly, so I chose the Gina K Year of Flowers set and Year of Leaves set for my project.  Wanting to keep it quick and easy  I chose a one layer design of just the sentiment and the flower or the leaf for the card front and then to add just a little pizzaz I went with a favorite technique of using embossing powders.  While I was making the cards my husband came by and asked why nothing showed up after I had stamped the image with Versamark.  I told him to wait and watch the magic as I poured Zing embossing powder over the leaf  I had just stamped.  He thought that was pretty cool.  I just love watching that powder change to solid, to me it really is magic.  I used Martha Stewart's Bronze for the flowers and that little bit of sparkle just thrills me.  I made two of each flower and leaf design, one vertical and one horizontal.  Unfortunately I only ended up with eleven cards since I got interrupted in the process and smeared one of the cards, but eleven is more than I had before and that makes me happy.

A Spring Time Get Well

I wanted to make some get well cards to add to my card ministry baskets, so I spent some time looking around for  ideas and came across this video on StampTV.
I have the Spring Time Silhouettes set from Gina K,  so I pulled it out and got going.  I've decided that when I'm making cards like this I'm always going to make at least two cards so I ended up changing the format slightly.  Rather than going with the oval shape for the focal point I went with rectangle, it worked out better for me since I could use the scraps from the card base yellow layer for my focal point and sentiment.
I also skipped making the bow since that is something I just have more trouble with than it's worth when I'm rushed for time.
If you watch the video you'll see how this card was made and it really can be translated onto any stamp and DP.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

The Little Birthday Truck

I don't know about you but when I'm making a card for a specific person or occasion I will often stamp off extra images for later use.  Very often they just sit there and feel neglected but not this image.  I LOVE this little truck, something about it just warms my heart.  So of course after I finished Nate's card I went on to make this one.  It served two purposes, I used up scraps on this card and I colored and used this image.  Actually it also served the purpose of adding to my card stash but that's a whole other story.
I used Copics to color and then layered the scraps onto the card and added the sentiment and was done.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

One Layer Flowers in Bottles

The other day I posted up a couple of cards I made using this image from Inkadinkado.  While I was looking at the stamp I wondered how it would look just stamped onto the card base and minimally colored.
Well here is what I came up with.  I pulled out some Beckett Expressions card stock in soft blue and pale green, I stamped the image on the front with Memento Rich Cocoa and only colored a few of the flowers with Copics using  RV17.  I traced the edges of the bottles with B000 for the blue card and G20 for the green.
I'm really happy with how they turned out and I hope you like them also.  Thanks for stopping by.

Flowers in Bottles

Bruce and I made a trip over to Grand Rapids yesterday, mostly just to get out of the house.  We, or rather I, was having a bad case of cabin fever.  It's so hot I just don't want to go outside.  So we went , we shopped, we ate lunch and came home.  Nice little break and I scored some craft items and this stamp from Inkadinkado was one of them.  One of the few remaining independent stamping stores left in mid-Michigan, StampTherapy, has just moved into a new store, so of course I had to check it out.  They are still setting up but it's really nice.
So last night I was looking at my goodies and I inked up this image and stamped it onto some Cryogen white in Memento Rich Cocoa.  I decided to keep the coloring very light so I just outlined the bottles with Copics (top card B00, bottom card G20).  Then the flowers were done in shades of pink, R85, R83, R30 and RV14 for the top card and bottom in shades of yellow this touches of violet, V0000, Rv00, YG0000, YR00 and YR31.
I used a kraft card base for one and Neenah Classic white for the other with Papertreys Bitty Dot Basic for the DP.  The orange and the brown mats were from scraps and the ribbon, flat back pearl and rhinestones are from my stash.
Warning, it's never a good idea to craft when you're tired.  When I went to pull out my drawer of embellishments I dropped it on the floor.  Do you know how it hurts to kneel on a rhinestoen when crawling around to pick up those little buggers.  And of course trying to pick them up and getting them stuck all over me wasn't a picnic either.  Oh well lesson learned.
I really like how the cards turned out in spite of the aggravation.  Hope you do also.
Thansk for stopping by.  

Embossed Black Vellum

When I was playing with embossing powders the other day I started to wonder how it would do on vellum.  I have this black vellum that I picked up at last years stamp show in Novi, so I tried it out with gold silver and white embossing powders.  I really like how these turned out.  Heating embossing powders on vellum is a little tricky, the vellum tends to curl up if you keep the heat on too long, but if you keep your heat tool moving around it's all right.
I had just received an order from Papertrey and decided to use all of the small medallions in the Mehndi Medallion set, mounting them all onto the same block and just rotating the block as I stamped.
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

For Ann

A few months ago I made these cards as a thank you to my family for an anniversary gift.  My sister Ann called me a few weeks ago and asked me to make some cards for her.  She so liked the thank you card that she wanted something similar.  She wanted cards that could be for a variety of occasions.  The Thinking of You sentiment works wonderfully well for these cards. 
I used a dozen different colors of Memory Box card stock for the card bases and for the focal point.  Papertrey's Year of Flowers set worked perfectly for this whole set of cards.  I ended up making 24 cards, two of each flower, one vertical and one horizontal.  I stamped each flower and sentiment in Versamark and then used Martha Stewart Dove embossing powder.  After heat embossing I mounted the focal point onto a white mat and then to the card base.
Ann only took some of the cards so the rest will go into the raffle card baskets at our Church fund raiser in a couple of weeks.
These cards are really easy to make just a little messy (I tend to get embossing powder all over) and time consuming, of course when I'm doing cards like these I end up making a lot of them.  If I'm going to make a mess why not make a real mess. lol
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by. 

Nate's Graduation

I finally got around to making our grandson's graduation card.  He's out of high school and headed to college in the fall.
He's headed to classes to become a Master Mechanic (did you know there was a college degree in that?)  So of course his card has to have cars on it.  The little truck is one of my favorite stamps so that was one of the first ones I went looking for, then I chose to use this antique car also.  I colored the truck with Copics but left the antique car just stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa.  The card base has a layer of dotted textured card stock with plaid from DVWV Natural over that.  After I mounted the cars I stamped a strip of kraft with the sentiment and was done.
I know he'll like the check enclosed more than the card, but I liked how it turned out.  What do you think?
Thanks for stopping by.

Ed's Retirement

We have a retirement party to go to tonight for a friend of Bruce's.  Ed has finally decided that 45 years is long enough to work for anyone. He is so right, waaaay to long.  He's still a young guy so he'll have lots of fun enjoying his favorite hobbies.
We know that he loves his beer (asked what kind of beer he likes he just said 'cold') and fishing and enjoying the world around him.  So that gave me the idea for this card.  I pulled out this beer stamp from Custer's Last Stamp, the little truck with the fishing pole from Great Impressions and this wonderful summer chair from Lockhart stamps.  I colored them up with Copics, trimmed out the beer mug, and cut out the chair and car with Nestabilities.  I was trying to decide what to use for the background when I remembered this DP that has been sitting in my stash for several years.  I knew one day it would be useful.  All that was left was to stamp the sentiment onto some kraft paper and tear the edges and put it all together.  I know Ed will have a great time in retirement but I worry about Julie (his wife) still working while Ed is at home.  I had 12 years of that with Bruce, I may have to give her some tips. lol
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

An Ice Cream Birthday

My Echo Park Summer Days paper pad has so many fun designs that I just kept going back to look at it and smile.  The colors on all the different sheets are just so bright and cheerful that you just have to smile when looking at them.
I decided to use the ice cream cone paper to make several birthday cards and this is one of them.  I first selected the diagonal stripe for the background, such yummy colors, then trimmed off two rows of cones and a strip of yellow card stock from Memory Box.  I stamped the sentiment from Papertrey's Simple Sentiments onto the yellow and then had some fun.  I pulled out my Quickie glue pen and some glitter and 'iced' some of the cones.  You can just see a little of the glitter here, but in person it really pops.  I didn't glitter all of the cones so there would be some contrast and besides my hands were getting tired.
I'm really tickled with how it turned out.  What do you think?  Thanks for stopping by.  

Sympathy for Erin

When I had a chance to make some cards the other day I knew I needed to add to my sympathy card stash.  Unfortunately I just learned that my nephew Greg's fiance just lost her Grandfather so I chose this one to send her.
I had just a few sheets left in my Basic Grey Cappella paper pad so I decided to use them up.  I had my Papertrey Botanical Silhouettes set handy and I thought I could use up some of my kraft scraps and keep my pledge to use up existing supplies.
The DP is a little formal and the kraft is a little rustic and I think it turned out very nicely.  I stamped the image in several Memento colors and used a Copic to draw in the stems.  To ground the image I used a Papertrey Text stamp in Versamark.  The sentiment is from the Sending You set also from Papertrey.  (I really do have stamps from other companies and I'm going to get them out to play as soon as the kitchen is done, I just don't have room to spread out right now.)  
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by. 

A Happy Accident

I goofed up cutting some card stock for card bases and found that I had scored the fold at the wrong place on one of them.  I set it aside and went on to make the other cards and then picked up this card base and came up with this design.
I had just picked up two new DCWV paper pads at JoAnn's and thought I could use DP's from one of the pads and make a card.  I had to trim off a half an inch from the long end to make a 5.5 by 4.25 card and then trim the DP to fit.
I chose to use The Natural matstack for this card.  I just love the foil roses on this sheet and the a subtly textured paper for the inside.  It's really neat since the top folds down for a little different design (hard to stand up on the shelf for display) but still very pretty.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Remade Christmas

One of the nice things about our church members is their donations to the various ministry's.  For our Card Ministry group people donate cards or card fronts for us to remake.
This is one of the card fronts that were in the stack pulled out at our last meeting.  I loved the water color design of the manger scene and decided to go with a more rustic theme.  I trimmed the card front close to the embossed edge and then went looking for a mat that picked up on one of the colors.  Since there was so much blue I decided to pick up the green instead for a very narrow border and then mounted it to a kraft card base.
One of the lessons I've learned is that as much as I like to create my own designs, having a great picture to start off with still leaves a great deal of creativity to play with.
Thanks for stopping by.

Stars and Stripes

 Here are a some more of the 4th of July cards I made for the summer food baskets.  Using the est. 1776 set from Papertrey and the Star dies (also Papertrey) I went with a stars and stripes theme for these.  Please note the grouping of stamped stars on the card to the right.  I accidentally smudged some ink and this is how I covered it up.  Love it.  I used a white pen to decorate the stars for a little pizazz.
I went with a little bit of a rustic look on these cards with a kraft card base.

For this next card I used some more of the Postmarks DP from Papertrey and scraps for the rest of the layers and stars.  Using a white card base completes the red white and blue color scheme.  The only stamping on this card is the sentiment for est. 1776 set.  Very simple, very patriotic and a wonderful use of scraps.
Hope you like these and thanks for stopping by.

Happy B'day Kristi

I made this card for my cousin's daughter.  Kristi is an artist and an art teacher and has decided to get back into creating works of art in addition to teaching children.
One of the things she has been wanting are Copic markers, so her mother is starting her out with some sets.  I decided to stretch her Copic horizons by getting her the air brush system (not the compressor just the cans, I love Kristi, but not that much).
Well this leads me to this card, I took out my Copics and air brush system (yes I have the compressor) and had a go at creating a background.  It's not the greatest, but then I haven't had time to play with it in a while.  After I had created the background I went looking for some stamps to use and found these felt flowers that I had cut out with Flower Fusion #4 die from Papertrey, perfect.  I went through my stash of brads and used them for centers and stamped the stem and leaves from Flower Fusion #5.  The sentiment is also from Papertrey the Simple Sentiments set.
Now for the confession.  When I went to stamp the stem and leaves I started with the center flower and goofed it up, luckily since it is a clear stamp I could re stamp and fix it (sort of).  The flower to the left I had to add some extra leaves and the flower to the right I drew in the stem and added leaves.  As a lady I used to work with so long ago would say "I'll never be noticed from a galloping horse"
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Enjoying the 4th

 I made these cards for the food baskets our church gives out for the 4th of July (as my Pastor says "It's a long way from Easter to Thanksgiving".
So when I started to make my cards the first set I reached for was Papertrey's est. 1776. Then I went looking for DP and remembered Papertrey's Postmarks set of patterned paper that I had been wanting to use.  I used kraft card stock for the base and layered the different papers over that and stamped the Eagle and the sentiment.



Not wanting to waste any of the DP I used the leftovers in a different layout.  I really like how these two turned out and I will post the others I made over the next few days.