Monthly Archives: March 2019

Lavender Bud Thanks

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I love clean and simple card designs. However, for me they are difficult to achieve. I think the difficulty in making such cards lies in knowing that more is not better and there is a fine line between sparse and just enough.

I liked the results of this card. There is a single image of a lavender bud, a simple sentiment, and a little bit of background for the bud so that things don’t look too sparse or unfinished.

Hope you like this project. Have a great day!

 

How I made this project:

  • Stamp the lavender bud and its green stem onto a piece of white cardstock.
  • Die-cut or fussy cut the stamped image.
  • Adhere foam tape to the back of the image for some dimension.
  • Stamp the distressed circle and sentiment onto a 4-inch by 5.5-inch piece of white cardstock.
  • Adhere the 4-inch by 5.5-inch stamped circle onto a 4.25-inch by 5.5 inch (A2 size) of colored cardstock (in the same color as the stamped distressed circle).
  • Adhere the lavender bud over the distressed circle.
  • Mount the entire card front onto an A2-sized card base.

Supplies used to make this project:

  • Stamps: Altenew: Lavender Bud (flower and sentiment); Altenew: Watercolor Frames (distressed circle).
  • Inks: Altenew: Midnight Violet (bud) and Parrot (stem); Catherine Pooler Inks: Shea Butter (distressed circle).
  • Cardstock: Neenah Solar white 110# (for stamped images and card base; Papertrey Ink: Summer Sunrise for mat.

 

Hello Spring with a Floral Frame

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Spring is creeping slowly into our lives again in the Midwest. The sun sets a little later each day and on somedays (though not all) the temperature low is above freezing! Yay! I hope this card gives you a  taste of the Spring to come.

I chose bright pinks, yellows and greens as the color combination for this card and blended the colors together using ink daubers and Distress Oxide Inks.

How I made this project:

  • Die cut the floral frame from Bristol Smooth cardstock. This cardstock makes it easier to ink blend colors. The ink seems to sit on top of the paper longer so you cs
  • Use sponge ink daubers to do the blending. One dauber for each of the colors used. Note: When coloring the frame, I dabbed the inked dauber onto the frame with a tapping motion so that I wouldn’t tear the delicate die-cut frame. As you dab on the colors, begin dabbing the flowers or leaves and then work out to the edge of the frame. I daubed all the flowers in pink, the circles in yellows (with 2 yellow inks), and the leaves in green (first using a light green then adding a deeper green for more depth).
  • Blend inks on the edge of the frame with a bit of yellow to blend out any harsh color distinctions.
  • Wait for the inked floral frame to dry.
  • Stamp the sentiment and butterflies onto an A2 (4.25” by 5.5”) piece of white card. You may want to lay the floral frame over the white card piece to determine proper placement of the sentiment and butterflies so that they aren’t covered by the frame.
  • Adhere the floral frame over the sentiment piece with either liquid or dry (tape runner) adhesive.
  • Adhere the entire floral/sentiment piece to an A2-sized card base.

Supplies used to make this project:

  • Stamps: Neat & Tangled: Hello Spring stamp set (‘Hello Spring” sentiment); Paper Smooches: Graceful Beauties (small butterfly image, small heart image).
  • Dies: Simon Says Stamp: Outline Floral Frame Die
  • Inks: Catherine Pooler Inks in the following colors: Be Mine, Lime Rickey, Limoncello, Tiara; Distress Oxide Inks in the following colors: Squeezed Lemonade; Cracked Pistachio.
  • Cardstock: Strathmore Bristol Smooth 100# cardstock for the floral frame; Neenah Solar White #8 (behind the frame); Neenah Solar White 110# (for the card base).
  • Other: Sponge daubers.

Hope you like the project. Have a great day!

Hooray and Smile: A Cheerful Card

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I created a cheerful card to brighten someone’s day. The card is gender-neutral so it is appropriate for anyone. You can use different color palettes or combos depending on your own tastes or the tastes of the card recipient. I love cards that can be sent to anyone with just a few minor changes!

The stamps and dies I used are all by Altenew. Though Altenew’s specialty are gorgeous floral stamps, they have some great graphic stamp sets as well. I used two of them to make this card (the name of the sets is listed below in the supply list).

I used two colors in the same color family for this project. A light orange/coral to stamp the background and a darker orange/coral to stamp the small images over the dots of the background stamp.

Hope you like this project. Smile and stay happy. Have a great day!

How I made this project:

  • Stamp the Watercolor Dots background stamp onto a piece of 4-inch by 5.25-inch white cardstock. Make sure that the background stamp pattern is centered onto the piece white cardstock. This means that the dots on the background don’t hang over the edge of the cardstock. (Note: I used the MISTI stamp positioner to stamp the background to ensure even ink coverage.)
  • Stamp the small images include in the background stamp set over the background dots. You can stagger the pattern of the images, use only a few images in the set. I chose to use the asterisk, scattered dots and flower images and alternated them across the dots in the following order: asterisk, scattered dots, flower. I repeated this across each row of dots and then started with the next image of my pattern on the next row of dots (e.g. if the row ended with an asterisk image, I started the next row with the scattered dots image and then continued with the pattern.).
  • Stamp the speech bubble sentiments with the darker shade of orange/coral and die-cut them using the coordinating dies. If you don’t have the dies, then fussy-cut the speech bubbles.
  • Adhere the speech bubbles to the background dots card front.
  • Cut a 3.75-inch by 5-inch piece of fun foam to the back of the card front. This will give the card front added dimension.
  • Mount the background piece onto a mat in the same tone as the darker ink.
  • Adhere the entire card front to an A2 (4.25-inch by 5.5-inch) card base.

Supplies used in making this project:

  • Stamps: Altenew: Watercolor Dots background stamp set; Altenew: Speech Bubbles stamp set.
  • Dies: Altenew: Speech Bubbles coordinating die set.
  • Inks: Catherine Pooler Inks: Bellini (lighter orange/coral); Samba (darker orange/coral).
  • Cardstock: Neenah Solar White 110# (card front and card base); Papertrey Ink: Berry Sorbet cardstock (mat).

 

Smile with a Floral Background

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Winter is hanging on way to long! So, I hope this springtime bouquet is something you enjoy while waiting for more sun, and less snow and cold.

How I made this project:

  • Create a floral bouquet with some of your favorite floral stamp onto an A2-sized piece of white cardstock. (Note: use the largest floral stamps first and stamp them to form a floral arrangement with open spaces between them, then fill in the open spaces around the larger flower images with small ones or dots until the arrangement looks nice and full).
  • Trim down the A2 floral card front to 1/8 inch on all sides so that the final size is 4.0” by 5.25”.
  • Mat the floral card front to a piece of colored cardstock that picks up one of the main colors in the stamped floral arrangement.
  • Mount the entire piece on to a horizontal A2 card base.
  • For the sentiment:
    • Die-cut the sentiment 4 times from the same cardstock used to mat the floral arrangement.
    • Adhere each of the 4 sentiment pieces together (I like to use liquid adhesive). Let the sentiment piece dry.
    • Adhere the raised sentiment piece to a piece of vellum (I used micro-sized glue dots behind the sentiment). The vellum piece should be cut to a size slightly large than the die-cut sentiment.
    • Adhere the vellum piece to the center of the card. (Note vellum was used behind the die-cut sentiment to make the sentiment stand out and mute the floral pattern behind it).

Supplies used in making this project:

  • Stamps: Concord and 9th: Peek Through Patterns (floral shapes); Concord & 9th: Love You, Mean It (tiny flowers and dots).
  • Dies: WPlus9: Basic Greetings dies (‘smile’).
  • Inks: Versafine Clair in Charming Pink, Glamorous, Purple Delight, Verdant, and Cheerful.
  • Cardstock: Neenah Solar White 110#; Papertrey Ink: Raspberry Fizz (mat and die-cut sentiment)

 

Hope you like this project. Have a great day. Spring can’t be far away!