Rainbow Butterflies

 

I always have a stash of backgrounds ready to use, some like this one, feature ink blending.  Many people like blending with Distress Oxide inks because they are not quick to dry which makes getting a smooth blend easier, and being opaque, you can cover mistakes.  I prefer regular Distress inks because the colors are more intense and I like how one color  seems to glow through the other.  Unfortunately that means sometimes my transitions are blotchy or not as smooth as I would like.  Then there is the dreaded unintended ink "embellishment" which seems to happen when I have a lovely blend going:

With Oxide inks I could let it dry and then go over that section to cover it.  With Distress there is no getting away from it.  This background went into my backgrounds that will need special consideration to use.  Often such backgrounds are cut into strips or die cuts or are used to back window die cuts that only reveal the parts I like as with this card set.  

A few days ago I finally got around to using a layered butterfly die set from Stampin' Up and had some lovely negative space leftovers that were worth saving.  I wanted to enter the Use Your Stuff Rainbow challenge in honor of Pride Month and knew I had a few rainbow backgrounds including this "needs special consideration" one.  It just so happened that the butterflies were in just the right place to hide the ink blot.  I cut only the top butterfly layer to allow more of the color to show through.  I then went though my stash of sentiment strips and pulled out one from Taylored Expressions which I backed with two strips of black cardstock for dimension.  I toyed with putting some sparkles of Nuvo drops on but decided they would make the card too busy.  Now I have a black negative space to use, stay tuned...

I also plan to enter this in the Crafter's Cafe Insects/Butterflies, Day of the Month Card Club Best Friend Day, and Love to Craft June Anything Goes challenges.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

My First Slimline Card

I have been toying with trying a slimline card which requires thinking long and lean vs compact.  The current Inkspirational challenge is to make a slimline card, so I took that as my cue to take the plunge.  This cat and balloon stamp from Inkadinkadoo would give me a head start towards vertical thinking.  I don't really like the balloons on the stamp so I usually cover them up with paper balloons.  The Paper Players are running a color challenge featuring bright, summery colors: Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, Grannie Apple Green and Black (or white).  Now that I had my color scheme it was time to get to work.

I stamped the kitty and used the Stampin' Up balloon punch to cut balloons from paper in the challenge colors.  I wanted to sponge them with ink to give them some dimension, but unfortunately don't have those colors in Stampin' Up ink, so I used Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers, and Mowed Lawn Distress inks which were almost identical.  It took several coats to get the shading to show up as I wanted. Then I glued the Grannie Apple Green balloon directly to the panel, used thin foam tape to attach the Melon Mambo one and thick foam tape to attach the Bermuda Bay one, so each balloon is at a different level.  I used the birthday die included in the Gina K Designs Forever Flowers card kit to cut the word birthday and a stamp from the Lace Flowers stamp set also included in the kit to heat emboss the sentiment strip.  What I love about this particular birthday die is that there is no dot over the letter "i" that I need to avoid losing.  I used a border punch from EK Success to cut circles from the cardstock and arranged them along the bottom to draw the eye down and repeat the colors in another part of the composition.   

I plan to enter this card in the Craft Rocket Birthday and Seize the Birthday Anything Goes challenge.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Using Up Old Backgrounds

 

I know I am not the only one who makes backgrounds and finds that some of them are, shall we say,  less pleasing to the eye.  Sometimes I can salvage a part of such a background and use it to back a window type die cut like with these cards, but sometimes not.  I had one such background leftover after making these cards where I created bokeh backgrounds using gold rather than white pigment ink for the over laying circles, and it has been sitting in my box for almost six (!) years waiting to be used.  

When I saw this Freshly Made Sketch I thought about a die from Penny Black I bought last February and have yet to play with use.  

This is how I discovered that using a die such as a sentiment or very small shapes breaks up areas of color enough to simply give some color variation and interest to the die cut.  I backed the die cuts with two layers of Neenah 110 lb. cardstock for dimension.  Next I used a Penny Black Stitched Nested Frame to emboss a white panel, backed it with the remnants of my failed background and a single layer of 110 lb. cardstock for dimension and adhered it to a white cardbase.

I also plan to enter this card in the Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes With Dies Challenge, Just Us Girls No Stamping Challenge, and the Penny Black Saturday Challenge, Anything Goes or Fussy or Fancy.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Graduation Card for a Butterfly

 

I need a graduation card for a young woman I have known since she was seven who just graduated from the nursing school at Case Western Reserve University and will be pursuing some post graduate training in Pediatric Nursing.  Caring and passionate with strong people skills and experience with children and adults with special needs, she is going to be one of those peds nurses that children and their parents remember.  Because I didn't want a traditional "congratulations graduate" card, I struggled until I saw this image from the If You Give a Crafter a Cookie challenge:

I thought about how she developed from this young girl on a swim team into a fabulous woman like a caterpillar grows into a butterfly.  Butterflies and pastel colors it was going to be!  Now which of my too many butterfly stamps and dies should I use?  The current Always Fun challenge is layers, and I had a Stampin' Up layering butterfly die set that I bought last year from Stampin' Up and, unbelievably, had not used.  I had so much fun with it that you will be seeing it more in the future.

I started by blending Salvaged Patina, Tumbled Glass, and Spun Sugar Distress Oxide ink onto a panel.  Then I cut two of the bottom layer die from Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb. cardstock to stack and one of the top layer from the center of a piece of Dreamy holographic paper from Close to My Heart that I cut to 4 3/8 by 5 5/8.  I used one of the sentiments from the Simple Strips Friendship set.  This line from Taylored Expressions consists of themed rubber stamps with 18 sentiments per stamp and coordinating dies with different ends which are all interchangeable and easy to line up thanks to squares in the corners and side that you line up.  In other words, you can stamp and cut once and have 18 sentiment strips.  I have the flagged end die and several stamps and every so often stamp, emboss, and cut a mess of sentiment strips to have on hand to speed up cardmaking.  I snipped the tails off the strip and backed it with two 1/4 inch wide strips cut from the Neenah 110 lb. cardstock to pop the sentiment up over the butterflies and, because the butterflies are popped up, cut two more one inch long strips to layer under the part of the sentiment that extends over the background.

I backed the panel with the piece of Dreamy paper from which I had cut the top butterfly layer and a  piece of  Neenah cut to 5 x 6 1/4 that I embossed using the Subtle folder from Sizzex for Stampin' Up.  I toyed with embellishing the card with a few clear sparkles but I wanted to enter this card in Mod Squad Simple Focus challenge.  I also plan to enter this card in the Happy Little Stampers June Anything Goes With Dies challenge.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

A Fishy Birthday

 

I struggle with masculine cards, so I usually fall back on graphic or geometric designs.  This time I needed a card for a friend who does semi abstract metal sculptures mostly of sea creatures and thought the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous  Sealife stamp set might be appropriate.  I started with a sheet of Tim Holtz water color paper, blended some Distress inks on the rough side, and spritzed it with lots of water to make the colors run together like water colors.  I then lightly rubbed ink minis over the surface to add texture and depth.  I stamped the kelp in black along the bottom and then heat embossed the two fish in white.  I used a Simon Says Stamp die to cut the sentiment, coated it with Versamark ink and white embossing powder and then heated it to make it shine and give it the appearance of a puffy sticker.  Lastly I attached some Studio Katia clear drops for air bubbles.  After sponging some more ink around the edges to define them, I attached the panel to a white card base.

I plan to enter this in the Male Room Water/Beach, Modsquad Under the Sea, Sweet Stampers Animals or Critters or Birds, Bastel-Traum Water (#btchallenge101) , and bizarrely, Happy Little Stampers June Watercolor challenges.  To show how international the challenge blogs are, as I write this May 31 at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time it is 12:30 p.m. on June 1 Australian Eastern Standard Time where the Happy Little Stampers challenges originate.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

#btchallenge101

 

Birthday Card for a Beachy Friend

 

Growing up on the corner of the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean virtually guaranteed that the beach would be in my DNA which means I love Stampin' Up's Sand and Sea suite.  The Seaside Seashell die set not only coordinates with the stamp set, but with the Seashells embossing folder as well!  You can either line up an embossed panel with the die and cut or you can cut first and line up the die cut in the embossing folder.  I tried it both ways and found the later was easier to line up and seemed to result in a deeper impression.  

Now, I have a dear friend and sister paper crafter who, despite growing up in the Midwest, loves the ocean, so you know I had to use this set to make her birthday card.   I wanted to use the Fab Friday Sketch below, so I cut the embossed die cut apart and colored the pieces with Prismacoler pencils. 

I then arranged them across the front panel which was embossed using the Sea Bed folder to form the element that goes across.  I used a stamp from the Itty Bitty Birthday Greetings to make a sentiment piece and put it more or less in the middle.  The bottom right shell is popped up with foam tape to add dimension.

I also plan to enter this card in the Crafty Catz Challenge which is anything goes with the optional twist of embossing and the Addicted to Stamps and More Birthday Card Challenge.   Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Unconventional Wedding Card

 

My cousin's daughter was recently married in his backyard with only her immediate family in attendance, blowout party to celebrate with extended family and friends to follow at a later, safer date.  This may seem like an unconventional card for a newlywed couple, but you have to know the couple.  The bride wore a black modern take on a 1950's prom dress with black, clunky heeled, ankle booties and a wreath of roses in her hair.  The groom wore black pants and a black shirt with a grey blazer and a rose  boutonniere to match the bride's headpiece.  Somehow an ivory and gold card does not seem appropriate for them.

I used the Mid-Century Frame die by Altenew to cut the frame in black cardstock and realized afterward that I should have backed it with adhesive paper before cutting.  Oops!  I then cut another frame from white cardstock, placed some adhesive paper behind the opening and inlayed the black frame filling it in with the negative space white pieces.  I then used the Kitty Love die by Penny Black to cut the cats in black and from the center of the Majestic holographic paper from Close to My Heart that I planned to use as a mat so I would have a heart to inlay.  I put it all together hoping for a modern Art Deco vibe.  I matted the panel on the Majestic paper and Black card stock before putting everything on a white card base.   Originally I did not fill in the tiny white pieces in the frame because it would be hard to fit them in, and I figured no one would notice since it was backed with white paper. I decided the frame needed something more, so I cut another frame from Majestic paper just so I would have the six tiny dots to fit in the black frame.  I already know what I will do with that extra frame.  The sentiment is from the Just to Say stamp set from Close to My Heart.

I plan to enter this card in the Daring Cardmakers'  challenge to use back and white plus one other color and the Happy Little Stampers April Die Cut Challenge.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi