Best Buds~Thanks a Lot

Hello friends!

I'm back with another card using Paper Smooches Best Buds stamp set. Eek! 

I had an idea of a card I wanted to create that used the banner image in the set. Terrific cardmakers have been using those single word dies to span a die cut circle and I think that looks really neat. So I thought I'd try my hand at it using the banner image. I thought I'd die cut a circle out of the top of the card and use a negative space of the die cut to act as a stencil and I would blend some colors like Kay Miller or Laura Bassen does. That was the look I was going for. But not what I ended up with!

So I start by taking a few attempts to die cut the circle on the main panel of my card, because, you know, the die kept shifting and going off center. My tape wasn't strong enough. Got that right. Okay, so I start blending using a negative space circle. I got a couple of hard lines, even though I thought I was being super careful, but liked the look by the time I was done. Picked up the stencil and realized that the "stencil" didn't cover the whole inside of the card and....I got ink on the inside panel of the card. Grr again. So, I start over and messed up the blending a.gain. Oy! I had a mini hissy fit and just about threw it all into the garbage can. But I took a couple of deep breaths and changed my plan. 

Instead of  doing the blended ink circle on the inside panel of the card, I used the same size panel and attached it with foam tape to the top piece with the die cut circle. Okay, I'm sure that doesn't make any sense. 

Here's the card I ended up with:

Originally, my idea was to have that blue inked circle be what you see on the inside when you open up the card. Now it's attached with foam tape to that embossed panel and when you open up the card you have the full white panel to write your note or stamp your sentiment. Would you believe that when I attached the embossed piece that was covered with foam tape to the card base, I did it crooked? Oh my gosh, it was just about the last straw for me today. But I carefully cut it off the card base and attached it to a new one. 

I took a close up of the circle because I liked what I decided to do here. I used my clear Wink of Stella pen and covered the blue inked circle. I love how sparkly it is! Then I added some Stickles to the center of the flowers and used a Gelly Stardust pen on the leaves. I also added some foam under the banner to help keep it from bending in the open space behind it. 

That embossing folder is a Darice brand and I colored the images with pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

I so appreciate the visit!

Best Buds Surprise!

Hi Friends!

I got a huge surprise last week when my sweet friend,  Ms C left me a comment telling me that I had won a prize from Paper Smooches(for a comment I left on my massively talented friend, Kay Miller's, blog). I was absolutely giddy. I knew for sure which stamp set I wanted to order, Best Buds. I also was able to select a few dies. Squeal! Shipping was super fast, too! Thanks, Ms. C, Kay, and Paper Smooches!!

I sat down and stamped several of the images onto white cardstock (Michaels Recollections 110lb white). I knew for sure the first image I was going to color was the one with the flowers in the jar. I used my trusty colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits and got to work. 

I kept it simple and straightforward. Then I added some Wink of Stella as well as a little bit of Gelly Stardust pen. I also tried some white dots from my Signo pen, but I think that might be drying out or gooping up from lack of use. :( I ran the cardstock through my Cuttlebug with a Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle and adhered that to a piece of textured black cardstock from Hobby Lobby. Finally, I add a few iridescent sequins (also from Hobby Lobby). 

By the time I finished futzing with this one, my crafty time was up. But oh, I was smiling big time when I was done. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you are having a wonderful day. 

Big hugs!

Fox Makes a Wish...

Hi Friends!

Here's a birthday card that Jessica and I made today. My godson has a birthday coming up and and I don't have a lot of masculine stamps. But I do have Party Animal from Lawn Fawn. A quick search on Pinterest gave us this inspiration. The card is pretty straight forward. Jessica did all the coloring. She really wanted to color Mr. Fox. I think she did a great job I did the random stamping. :)

I used primary colors for the little bits using Close to My Heart inks. I also used a Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle die. But the rectangle was a smidge too big. So I cut it down a bit and ran the cardstock through my Cuttlebug again to get the "stitches" on the sides that got cut. Worked really well.  Mr. Fox is popped up with foam dots. 

It was fun working with my crafty co-hort this afternoon while her sister was at band practice. 

Thanks so very much for stopping by. I hope your week is going well. 

Shake, Shake, Shake...

Hi Friends!

Welcome to a new week in a new month! Yikes! It's August already and my darling daughters are scheduled to begin school in a few short weeks. That means I'm also slated to head back to work, too. Oh my. Rather that think about that, how about I show you some cards I made? That sounds like lots more fun!

Of course these cards are inspired by cards I saw online. I think you would faint dead away if they weren't and I don't want to be held responsible for any dead faints. ;)

The first one is completely inspired by the wonderfully talented Laura Bassen's card that you can see here. I wanted to do the blended ink background and, well, it kinda grew from there. 

I'd never done partial die cutting, so I wanted to try that. Took a few attempts, but I got it. Yay. Then I wanted to do the blended color background to look sunset-ish. I also wanted to add some additional interest, so I heat embossed a Hero Arts background stamp in white before blending Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon and Squeezed Lemonade inks. I made that portion a shaker, like Laura did. I used a bunch of Martha Stewart chunky glitters from a set I got at Michaels. I really liked the letters she used, but of course, I don't own them, so I cut them using my Cricut and Artiste cartridge. The letters are cut at 3/4 inch. I blended Spiced Marmalade and Squeezed Lemonade on the letters and gave them a dose of Wink Of Stella (whihc is hard to see, but it is there) before gluing the letters onto the acetate. The palm trees and flipflops are from Lawn Fawns Life is Good stamp set adn the word sunshine is from Lawn Fawn's Hello Sunshine set. I heat embossed the sunshine and blended Spiced Marmalade, then added Picked Raspberries to make it a little more pink. 

I added the waves to help break up the vastness of the blue, since there is no texture on CTMH's cardstock. But I added them after I made the shaker. Um. Should NOT have done that. Let's just say doing so gave me several opportunities to embellish and leave it at that, shall we? I sponged on some clouds using Lagoon ink and a template made from the Taylored Expressions cloud die. All in all, I am happy with the final result, but along the way wasn't sure that this wouldn't end up in the trash can. Whew!

Now, while I was on a roll, I decided to try another card. I really liked the one with a butterfly die cut in this post. Only...I don't have a large enough butterfly die. So, I decided to go off on my own. That should have alerted me that this might not go well. Let's just say, I'm going to show you the card, even though I don't love it. I think the idea is good, but the execution could use a little (okay, a lot of) work. Ha, ha! (not)

See, I told you!

And another example of how this idea just didn't quite work.

I blended many distress inks. Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick (mistake #1), Crushed Olive (mistake #2) and then I tried to fix it with a few other colors. Yeah, that didn't work. I thought the white behind the leaf cut out was too stark, so I inked CTMH's Creme Brulee. It softened it, but I didn't put enough Recollections fall colored chunky glitter in the space and the inside of the leaf looks majorly stark. Sigh. The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's set So Thankful for You. I added some hemp to give the bottom of the card more weight and for good measure added a few sequins. Unfortunately, I cannot get past the fact that the top of the card looks like newborn baby poop. 

I may try this again, with a few modifications. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a great day.