Monthly Archives: June 2017

HB2U HB2U – Birthday Card

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HB2U-HB2U

Life has been pretty busy this summer. Time is flying by while friends and family are having birthdays and other celebrations.

I have “resigned” myself to making birthday cards with a little help from my stash of patterned paper packs. I tend to hoard my patterned paper and this helps me reduce my stash, so I have more room to buy more patterned paper! LOL! Help, I’m in a buyer/hoarder loop!

Using patterned paper relieves me from the stress of choosing a color scheme. I just pick up the colors from the patterned paper in my inks and solid cardstock. The patterned paper also saves me time in stamping a background.

When I first started making cards, I felt that I had to create everything from scratch from the color scheme to the patterned background if I was using one. But as time went on, I saw the folly in this belief. Card making is all about putting different design elements together to create something that is pleasing to the eye. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if you get a little help from patterned paper, store-bought embellishments, stickers, etc. I’m sure this revelation is nothing new to other card makers, but it took a while for this to come to me.

How I made this project:

I used a 6×6 patterned paper from Pinkfresh Studio’s Felicity collection. I love the particular color combination because it is bright and cheerful. Since the pattern was a little busy, I decided to partially cover it using a cover up die from My Favorite Things. The openings in this cover up die still allow the pattern to show through, but not so much of it as to be distracting. The cover up die cuts out an area that is slightly smaller than an A2-sized card, so I cut the patterned paper down to the same dimensions as the cover up die. The patterned paper was adhered to the back of the cover up piece. I found a piece of pale blue cardstock from my stash that matched the blue in the pattern and used it to mat the card front.

The 2 speech bubble sentiments were stamped in inks that were similar to the colors in the patterned paper. I die cut the 2 stamped speech bubbles using their coordinating die and mounted it to the front of the card with foam tape.

The entire front and mat were adhered to a top-folding, portrait-oriented, A2-sized card base.

I was pleased with the result and so was the recipient. Hope you like this card!

Supplies used in making this project:

Stamps: My Favorite Things: Birthday Speech Bubbles stamp set.

Dies: My Favorite Things – Die-namics: Birthday Speech Bubbles die set; My Favorite Things – Die-namics: Bold Stripes Cover Up die,

Inks: Papertrey Ink: Aqua Mist and Harvest Gold.

Paper: Patterned paper from Pinkfresh Studio: 6×6 Felicity paper pack; Neenah Solar White 80# for cover up die; for the mat for the card front, I found a piece of scrap that matched the blue in the pattern; for card base: Neenah Solar White 110#.

Smile–The Sun is Out

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Simon Says Stamp’s Flickr Challenge #72 is all about summer and what it means to you!

A bright sun and the clear blue water of a lake would make anyone smile during the summer. This is the second of two submission to SSS’s Flickr challenge. If you want to see my first interpretation of this challenge please go to my post Hello Summer.

How I made the “Smile—the Sun is Out” project:

  1. The wave background was stamped onto A2-sized white cardstock with Versamark ink and then heat embossed using white embossing powder, after prepping the cardstock with an embossing bag.
  2. Then the embossed wave background was colored using three different colors of blue Distress inks to create an ombre effect.
  3. The sun was stamped onto yellow-orange cardstock and then die-cut using a coordinating die and orange enamel dots were added to the sun’s cheeks.
  4. The sun was mounted onto the card front with foam tape.
  5. An oval die was used to cut an oval from vellum cardstock for the sentiment.
  6. Then sentiment was stamped in a black ink compatible with vellum.
  7. Sequins were then adhered around the sentiment using glue dots.
  8. Glue dots were adhered to the back of the sentiment behind the sequins and the entire piece adhered to the card front.
  9. The card front was cut down to 4” x 5.25” and mounted onto an A2-sized piece of cardstock.
  10. The entire piece was then mounted onto an A2 top-folding, portrait-oriented card base.

Supplies used in making this project:

Stamps:

  • SSS: Happy Days (sun image)
  • SSS: Happy and Smile (sentiment)
  • Hero Arts: Wave Background

Dies:

  • SSS: Happy Days (coordinating die set – for sun)
  • My Favorite Things: Wonky Stitched Oval STAX Die-namics

Inks:

  • Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, and Mermaid Lagoon.
  • Versamark
  • Versafine Ink in Onyx Black (sun)
  • Tsukineko Brilliance Ink in Graphite Black (sentiment on vellum)

Cardstock:

  • Neenah Solar White 80# (card front)
  • Papertrey Ink: Summer Sunrise (sun)
  • Stampin’ Up: Tempting Turquoise (card mat)
  • Neenah Solar White 110# (card base)

Other:

  • Hero Arts White Embossing Powder
  • SSS: Crystal Reflections Sequins
  • Pinkfresh Enamel Dots

Hello Summer

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Hello-Summer-SSS-flickr-challenge-72

Simon Says Stamp’s Flickr Challenge #72 is all about summer and what it means to you!

Whenever I think of summer, I think of the sun and puffy white clouds against a bright blue sky. This card is a representation of all of that. This is one of two of my submissions for this challenge. For the other submission, please go to my post: Smile: The Sun is Out.

How I made the “Hello Summer” project:

  1. Using watercolor cardstock, I used Distress Oxide inks to create a yellow/orange back ground using plenty of water. I did this by smooshing (a very technical term) Fossilized Amber and Spiced Marmalade oxide inkpads onto a craft mat and spritzed water on the craft sheet until the colors beaded up. I then swiped the cardstock face down onto the colors, moving the cardstock until the cardstock was full covered with ink. I dried the cardstock with a heat gun and then swiped it onto the inked craft mat again, and dried the cardstock again. I repeated this process until I got the desired result. I added more ink or water as needed after each swipe.
  2. The cardstock was then die cut using SSS’s Full Card Sunshine craft die. I saved the die-cut pieces and the negative space for the final assembly of the card.
  3. Using another piece of watercolor cardstock and a cloud stencil, I colored the cardstock using a blending tool and Distress Oxide ink in Broken China to create clouds.
  4. After the cloud background was finished, I laid the negative die cut piece from step #2 over the background and used it as a guide to properly place the sun and the sun rays onto the cloud background. I glued down each piece with a glue pen and lifted off the negative guide piece after everything was glue into place.
  5. Next, the hello and summer dies were die-cut from turquoise cardstock.
  6. The puffy cloud was cut from vellum using one of the dies from a nesting clouds die set.
  7. For the assembly:
  • The sun and sun rays were already adhered to the cloud background in step #4. This assembled piece was then cut down to around 1/8-inch on all sides.
  • The die-cut “hello” and “summer” were glued to the vellum cloud using a glue pen.
  • Sequins were adhered to the cloud using mini glue dots.
  • Glue dots were adhered to the back of the vellum cloud behind the sequins and then the entire cloud piece was adhered to the card front.
  • An A2-sized turquoise piece of cardstock was used as a mat.
  • The mat and card front were adhered to an A2-sized, top folding, portrait-oriented  card base.

Supplies used in making this project:

Dies:

  • SSS: Full Card Sunshine craft die; Painted Hello wafer die; Painted Summer wafer die.
  • Hero Arts: Nesting Clouds Infinity dies.

Stencils:

  • My Favorite Things: Stencil Clouds

Inks:

  • Distress Oxide Inks in Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, and Broken China

Cardstock:

  • Tim Holtz Watercolor Cardstock (card front)
  • Stampin’ Up cardstock in Tempting Turquoise (mat)
  • Neenah Solar White 110# (card base)