Sledding Squirrel

This is an under the wire entry in the Merry Monday Outdoor Activity challenge.  I stamped this squirrel by Inkadinkado with Chocolate, colored it with Prismacolor pencils and backed it with Mistletoe, a very old Close to My Heart paper.  In keeping with the vintage vibe I distressed the edges with chocolate ink.  The sentiment is popped up with foam tape to give the card some dimension.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Kitty Decks the Halls

The Christmas Card Challenges inspiration picture features kitties.  Now I have loved cats all my life and have many stamps featuring them, but this is my favorite, perhaps because Luna, who was adopted as an adult, may have looked like this as a kitten (except for the white paws).

  I heat embossed her with Cocoa pigment ink and clear detail powder and then colored her with Prismacolor pencils.  I sponged the edges of all the light papers to age them in keeping with the vintage feel.  I popped her up with foam tape and embossed the sentiment in gold to give the card some dimension.  Here is the inside:

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Stained Glass Snowflake

Ever since I saw this video by Jennifer McGuire on what she calls a stained glass technique, I have been wanting to try it.  This Freshly Made Sketch seemed perfect one to try it on while test driving (stamping) my new Tim Holtz Swirly Snowflakes stamp and coordinating die sets.

Essentially you cut the shape and attach a stamped image that has been embossed on heat resistant acetate behind the opening.  This works best with a stamp that has lots of lines.  I will have to warn you about this die set:  There is no border, so positioning the stamped acetate behind the opening so it would line up was tricky.  I ended up lining it up and then holding it in place while I pulled back sections of the acetate and applied adhesive.  Next you put a colored version of the stamp behind the  opening separated by foam tape, so the embossed image floats above.  Jennifer used a sponge dauber to ink the solid layer of a multi-layered set for one set of cards and copic markers to color the image for another.   I used a light blue to stamp the snowflake on a piece of watercolor paper and painted it with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers and a watercolor brush with water to spread the color.  I embossed the sentiment and added a lone sparkle to the middle of the snowflake.     Here is a close up shot at an angle to try to show how the embossed acetate snowflake is above the backing color:

Before I did all that, I had to make the background.  I wanted to keep the emphasis on the "stained glass window,"  so instead of using two papers, I used one color and embossed one piece to keep it subtle.  I adhered the two pieces on a piece of printer paper to hold them together because they were not going to be glued directly on the card base.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

White on White Snowflakes and Lace

I used this Atlantic Hearts Sketch to create a card for the Paper Players white on white challenge.

I layered die cuts from Stampin' Up's Swirly Snowflakes Thinlets set and embellished with clear sparkles from Close to My heart.  The sentiment is embossed with Ranger's Fine Silver Embossing powder.  It was fun playing with texture to create interest when you don't have color to fall back on.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used:
Paper:  White Daisy cardstock from Close to My Heart
Ink:  Versamark
Stamp:  Sing Glory by Claose to My Heart
Embellishments:  Clear sparkles from Close to My Heart and Super Fine Detail Silver Embossing Powder by Ranger

A Wreath for the Christmas Card Challenge #24

This card is a just under the wire entry into the Christmas Card Challenge #24 to use this photo as inspiration:

I started with a stamp from Tim Holtz's Mini Christmas Doodle set and used masking to stamp the wreath using Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and the sentiment with Vesamark ink so I could heat emboss it in gold.  Next I colored over the wreath with Prismacolor pencils.  I cut it out  using what I think is an old Nestabilities die and inked the edges with Close to My Heart Desert Sand ink.

I made the background using the wrapped watercolor technique in which you apply layers watercolor until the color is fairly saturated and the water puddling on the paper.  You then cover it with crumpled plastic wrap and weigh it down until it dries.  You can see the technique in action in this Jennifer McGuire video.  I trimmed the dry background and inked the edges with Close to My heart's Olive ink  The center strip was cut from Cranberry paper and inked heavily with Tulip to give it and aged look.  The wreath panel was attached using foam tape.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used:
Paper:  Strathmore cold press watercolor paper, Close to My Heart Cranberry and Colonial White cardstock
Ink:  Gathered Twigs Distress Ink by Ranger, Desert Sand, Olive, and Tulip ink by Close to My Heart,  Versamark
Stamp:  Mini Christmas Doodles Tim Holtz Collection by Stampers Anonymous
Other:  Gold Embossing powder,  assorted green Gansai Tambi watercolors by Kuretake, Prismacolor pencils, Nestabilities (I think) die

Eclipse of the Heart

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary, and yes, we got married on a Friday.  I have been wanting to try an Eclipse card.  If you are not familiar with the technique, the idea is you die cut letters, or in my case shapes, out of your image and then put them back in place popped up.  Right now I am seeing a lot of cards using letters, but I like to put hearts and flowers on my romantic cards for my husband, so I went with hearts instead spelling out the word love.  He knows I love him, right?

First I want to talk about challenges.  I started this blog five years ago this month, so I could participate in the Mojo Monday challenge because I wanted to give myself "homework assignments" and grow as a cardmarker.  My cards have definitely evolved as the number of challenges I follow has grown.  I have just started following two new for me ones:  The As You Like It Challenge asks you to make a choice between two items, themes, etc. or maybe pick a favorite something such as paper and then explain why you made that choice.  This week the challenge is ribbon or flowers.  For an anniversary card that is easy.  My husband has always given me roses for no reason except that they are pretty and he thinks I will enjoy them.  Even in our starving student days he would sometimes stop by a florist and buy a single rose.  It should come as no surprise that most of the anniversary and I love you cards I make for him include roses.

The second challenge I have begun following, Happy Little Stampers, has several challenges each month that run for the entire month so you have plenty of time to work on your entry(ies).  They are designed to "inspire you to create using techniques or products that may be new to you or just a refresher on using them."  Each month there is a Watercolor (or any medium using water), CAS, Christmas, Mixed Media, Anything Goes With a Die Cut, and ATC challenge.  This card is for the Die Cut challenge.

If you like pink, with October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, a number of challenges including The Sisterhood of Crafters, Craft Rocket Challenges, Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge want to see projects featuring it.  I am also entering this in the Stamps & Fun = Creativity challenge to make something "non cute."

Now back to the card:

I started with a stamp from the Lady Rose set by Tom Holtz whose designs are often messy with a lot of texture and a vintage feel.  This is what it looks like stamped with black ink on white and dark brown on ivory paper:

When colored with your favorite medium, the color of the ink will dominate when using a dark ink to stamp.  I chose to stamp it in Close to My Heart's Champagne ink which is a light beige.  This allowed me to use my Prismacolor pencils to color over the stamping.  Any beige showing through just added to the muted, vintage feel I was aiming for.  While I had the Champagne ink out I sponged in circles around the edges of my paper to "age" it.  

Once I was satisfied with my image it was time to cut the hearts.   This is easiest using dies which  you can position on the image however looks best to you before cutting.  I imagine you could use a Cricut type machine to cut the word on plain paper, leave the cut and background together and then create your image so the raised sections will coordinate nicely with die cut.  I cut the smallest heart first and then the larger one.  Some people pop up their die cuts with foam tape.  I prefer to stack multiple dies cuts to get more of a chip board effect.  Again, this is where dies shine.  Each one will be exactly the same.  The one complication for this design was the carved out part in the large heart.  After each was cut I used the original heart to trace the carved out spot so it would be in the same place, allowing the smaller heart to fit in perfectly.  I used five layers of pink cardstock to pop up the large heart and seven for the small one.

Lastly I embossed the sentiment in gold, added a few clear Nuvo Crystal Drops for balance and mounted the panel onto a piece of pink cardstock.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Elegant Wedding Card

Over the years there have been a number of college students to whom I have sent care packages and cards of encouragement.  Some have been family, some the children of friends.  I have had the privilege to watch one of "my students" to grow from a high schooler singing in a praise band, to a college student, to high school teacher, and now a Navy wife.  I have always felt that gold, ivory, and black is an elegant combination suitable for a wedding. 

The center panel is Hero Arts' Leafy Vines stamp embossed with Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder and embellished with Black Nuvo Drops.  The sentiment was stamped with Black Versafine ink, an intensely black pigment ink, and embossed with Stampendous Clear Detail embossing powder.  This let me avoid the perils of stray flecks of black embossing powder.  To gild the edges I lightly pressed the edges perpendicularly into Versamark and then into gold embossing powder and heat set.  I popped it up with thin foam tape.  The ribbon is Shimmer Ribbon from Close to my Heart.

Now to photograph my cards I like to bounce the flash straight up to flood the subject with diffused, even light to show details.  Here is a shot with the flash bounced at an angle to show the shine.  Put on your sunglasses!

Here is the inside.  The sentiment and bells are also embossed.

 
Did I mention that the Monday Simon Says Challenge theme is "Heavy Metal?"   I am entering this card into that challenge and well as the Addicted to Stamps and More "Anything Goes" challenge.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi