Thank you card

Had a chance to do some thank you cards last night. It was one of those "sit down and have fun" kinda moments. Will post some of my results this week including this card. After scouring my scrap paper pile, I pulled out three printed papers. Found a card color to go with them, pulled out the gems, a button, flowers, and ribbon, and voila! To help tone down some of the colors and to blend them, I sponged on a light layer of black to some of the paper and one of the flowers. The words are by a clear Thank you set by Hero Arts.

lots of leaves

On the way to Pennsylvania this weekend, we saw the first signs of leaves turning. On this card I stamped 3 different leaves. One is stamped with metallic gold, one is stamped with metallic copper. Both of these leaves were outline stamps. Then the solid maple leaf is stamped with a dye based rust ink. The leaves were overlapped. Two colored papers on the left were torn and then a beads were added to thread that ran around the card. The paper closest to the leaves is a swirled metallic mulberry
paper. Have you seen any signs of fall yet?

Christmas

So, I'm in the store the other day waiting on a customer when she says, "Oh, it's exactly 4 months until Christmas!" -Did that take your breath away a bit like it did me? Well if you haven't started your Christmas cards and you are planning to....here's your incentive to get going. The card here uses a stamp from Stamp Barn. It was inked with Versafine "Sepia". The quilt section was colored in with a blender pen and red from a watercolor pallet. Glitter was added after tracing all the places I wanted glitter with a Quickie glue pen. The word stamp is by Memory Box.

Hero tree

Hero Arts is one of my favorite companies. This is a limited editon stamp from last fall. It was colored in with copic markers. I haven't found a better marker for color than Copics. I colored in the leaves by doing one color at time so it really didn't take that much time to do. We're really enjoying the feeling of fall here in VA this weekend. Hope you are having a good weekend as well.

Autumn chalk card

This stamp is by Eureka and honestly, looks better in person. It's a very detailed stamp. Rather than meticuously color in every little leaf, dry chalk provided color, and coloring outside the lines gives a soft halo effect to the images. I chalked the sky as well which gave it the color hue I wanted and a sense of texture I liked as well.

Autumn wishes

I became familiar with the Accucut machine while teaching. We have one at the store and I used it to create the circles within the card. It also cut the printed paper to size as well. There are a lot of options for die cutting shapes these days. On the white circle I stamped out images from one of the leaf sets from Rubber Stamp Tapestry using dye based inks for each image. It always goes amazingly quickly. Overlapping on images doesn't detract at all. The words are also from the same company. The printed paper is from Lasting Impressions.

All about pumpkins card

My friend,Diane, who had a birthday this week, was my inspiration for this card. She loves pumkins and spreads a multiude of them all over her dining room table in the fall. I took this solid pumpkin and stamped it 4 times using slightly different colored dye inks on 4 different background papers. Then mounted them all on the card. Behind the dark paper I tore orange mulberry paper and glue it to the card. I found some twigs and wrapped them with color raffia and glued them onto the card. Hey, Diane, this card is for you!

Inchies fall card

Here's a fall card I recently took in to the store. It's featuring the new fall line of Imaginisce paper. This paper was my inspiration to get me going on autumn cards. I punched out pieces in one inch squares and then mounted them onto a slightly larger square. Easy and fun. Two of my favorite words!

First fall card

It's still in the 80's but here's my first fall card. This is one of the five cards we'll be doing in Techniques I at Angela's Happy Stamper in September. The leaf is stamped with a Watermark pad onto glossy white paper. Then the color is added with a brayer. The stamp is by Hampton Arts.

Birthday Card

I'm counting this as another "transition" card. The papers are all by one company and made to go with one another. The owl is part of the paper. I positioned the punch so it would be at the right spot for what I needed. Did add some antiqued pearls accents to the trees and at the bottom right of the card. The word stamp was inked in black and stamped right onto the paper. Marvy punches were used to make the circles. A little brown ink was added to the edges of the paper. A easy and quick card.

Transition Card

I'm calling this my "transition" card between the last of summer and the beginning of fall. Finally bit the bullet and started making some fall cards. Will start to post them next week. This was a simple and easy card. The Hero Arts flower stamp was inked with Versafine "Sepia"and stamped several times on the card. The words were stamped with the same ink.

Deer Card

This isn't a Stampscapes card, but doing the class last night put me in the mood for posting an outdoor scene. What makes this image dramatic is the use of the moon behind it. Using a reverse mask, I stippled the yellow dye ink onto the paper after first stamping the image in black onto the card. The deer took on the yellow from the moon but looked ok. The edges of the paper were sponged lightly with black ink. Then I mounted it onto the background papers. The deer is by Serendipity stamps. The quote is from PSX.

ATC Card

I'm teaching a class using Stampscapes stamps today. So, thought I'd post a card using these types of stamps. Stampscapes is a company that creates images that you can use to build a scene. This card uses 4 stamps. It is a very easy card to do-just stamp the images with black ink onto the red card. The corners were spliced on the black card and the corners of the red paper were slid into the slits. That's the joy of Stampscapes. You can make the card as easy or as complex as desired. Want to see more? Check out Ken Pesho's link or go to Stampscapes.com.

Apple art

I love multi layered cards. They look great, and they are just fun to make. Six different stamps were used on this card. The apples were stamped in black and then colored. The other stamps were randomly stamped using a variety of soft colors all over the card. To get an extra soft effect, "off stamping' was used as well. This is where you ink up a stamp and then stamp it first on a piece of scrap paper and then onto your card. Dry chalks were applied to the paper to give it color and texture, and more color was applied to the corners by stamping ink on with a sponge. I took extra parts of the paper and cut them in pieces to add in strips. It's more time consuming to do a card this way but definately worth the effort.

Incorporating found items

Yep. Another summer card. I love fall and usually look forward to it, but I'm having a hard time letting go of summer this year. I didn't do much stamping to this card-only the word stamp, but I posted this as an inspiriation to look around and see things in a new light. This is actually a coaster I got at Starbucks a few years back. A few round punches and similar colored printed paper brought the whole thing together. What's around you that you can use in a whole new way to make a fun card?

Flower soft window card

In the town of Oaks Bluff on Martha's Vineyard, there is a Methodist Camp full of wonderful Victorian cottages. Bright and colorful, these cottages have been there for over 100 years. They were the inspiration for this card. The background blue was embossed by my Cuttle Bug. I cut out the Impression Obsession window and mounted it onto the blue with foam tape. The window was colored with Copic Markers. Flower Soft was added to the window box with a white glue. This gives the card a very textured look. I added a little sparkle to flower soft with loose glitter. This is one of the cards I do in my Flower soft Windows class.

seashore card

I'm back home after a wonderful week at Cape Cod. I love the beach and sea where ever I can find it. I made this card earlier this summer when Hare and I were at Assateauge. Stickers were combined with stamps from a Rubber Stamp Tapestry set. The stamps in the sets are mounted on pegs so you can create scenes and fabulous borders and wreaths. I used the shells to accent the stickers and stamped them with dye based inks. The one sticker is wrapped with twine.

Birthday Card

It's my husband's birthday this week so I thought I'd post his card. He'll be at a conference. But, I get to go along so we'll work in some time for celebrating. Won't be posting while away, so if you haven't had a chance, now is the time to catch up on some of my older posts. I used an EK success punch for the blue candles. You can't see it, but I dotted each flame with a dot of irridescent glitter to add a little bling. The truck, gifts and sayings are from Stampn'UP! My husband works for the federal government in transportation so he enjoys cards with "things that go". I colored in the truck with copic markers. The round and scalloped punches are by Marvy.

Thinking of you

One of my happiest crafting moments is when I endulge in just "creating" for no particular reason. I like to use paper from my scrap drawer and often try out a new lay out template. That is how this card came to be. I keep cards in an accordian file then ready for use when I need them. I hope this card will be an inspiration for you to try this layout and make a card!

Art tribute

Before I head out the door to go to our Open House at the store, thought I'd post this "tribute to art" card. The image on the front is also the same one I used to create the backgound. I stamped the background image with a watermark pad so there is a subtle look to it. The main image was stamped in black on glossy white paper that was brayered before stamping.

Sunshine

We sure have been feeling Mr. Sun this week. The sun on this card was stamped on a sheet of acetate. To do that I needed an ink that will stick to plastic. Stazon is always the reliable pad for any nonpourous surface. Once stamped, I attached it to the card with the use of the fiber cords. Because of the flash, I had to take this photo at an angle so it wouldn't reflect off the acetate. The word stamp is by Printworks, and the sun in by Stamp in the Hand. We're actually suppose to have a pretty nice weekend. Hope you can come by Angela's Happy Stamper to help celebrate our 7th anniversary on Sat.

Summer scene

This card is a good reflection of our summer-blazing hot! I started by brayering on a multi yellow ink, and then did a reverse masking using red ink. After laying down the sun's reflection, I inked a large circle stamp in red and stamped it. The red in the sky was applied by sponging it onto the paper. Extra ink was applied around the sun by taking my finger and swiping it on a pad and then onto the card. The birds are all one image stamped in black. The card was initally a white matte glossy paper. All inks were dye based inks. The stamp is by American Art Stamps.

Under the sea

There is actually a lot to this card. First I stamped the porthole and cut out the center. I stamped the sea grass on a white card that has been brayered blue. Next I stamped the fish on white glossy sticker paper with a multi colored pad and cut them out and stuck them to the grass. I took a piece of acetate with a sticky back and cut it to fit in the porthole. After peeling off the back so the sticky side was exposed, I poured micro glass beads on the acetate. That way you can see through the porthole, but I think it makes it look more like you are looking through glass. Ray and I got to tour in a glass bottom boat in Florida once. The fish weren't as bright as these, but it was really fun to see the wild life in the water.

photo cards

My friend, Lexie likes to make cards. She also loves to take pictures. She's learned to combine both together by printing out small size photos and putting them on her cards. This first card is one Lexie made. The second one is one I did using one of her photos. Is this a great idea?

Hawaii shirts

Here it is August. Thought I'd post some summer cards before the summer is gone. This card was done by stamping the image over a multi colored ink pad and then stamping onto glossy white paper. Then it was cut out. The drink at the bottom was stamped on poly-shrink and colored in. It was then heated and reduced in size by 30%. The color intenisfies as it shrinks. The shirt is by Savvy stamps, drink by American Art Stamps, and the words by Amuse.

Inchies

One by one inch squares are called "inchies". The challange is finding what will fit on these squares. I found an image of a cat that fit well and then built the rest of the card around this image. The paw prints are from printed paper. The phrase is a dimensonal sticker. I did highlight the cat's eyes with a yellow copic marker.