The Season to Sparkle

 

The sketch below from Freshly Made Sketches was the perfect one on which to test drive my new Penny Black die, Christmas Elegance.  It which cuts openings in the paper, so the design is formed by negative space.

I planned to use the technique I used on this card where you put wadded up plastic wrap on thickly applied watercolor, press it down and let it dry for a while.  I must not have applied enough watercolor because it did not end up with the cool texture I was looking for, so I went on to plan B.  I used the Crafters Workshop Lush Petals stencil with Rustic Wilderness and Pine Needles Distress Oxide Inks to put a pattern on the top half of the page, turned the stencil around, and repeated the process on the bottom half , so the petals would fan out towards both ends.  I repeated the process using ColorBox Gold Metallic ink after moving the stencil a little up and over to get a shadow effect.  I then masked off the ends that would show and applied some more Pine Needles in the middle and rubbed the excess gold ink off in spots so the color would show better through the tree openings cut into heavy white cardstock.  I gold embossed a sentiment from an old Close to My Heart set, Holiday Wishes.  I then pressed the edges of the inked, die cut, and sentiment pieces perpendicularly into a Versamark pad and then into gold embossing powder and melted it to gild all the edges.  I attached everything to a white card base and popped up the sentiment with foam tape.  I finished it off with bitty sparkles that  I had colored with an alcohol marker.

Here is the inside:

The sentiment is part of the same stamp set and the stars part of Stampin' Up's Star of Light set.  The gold embossing does not show up well in the photo.  I also plan on entering this card in a brand new challenge, the Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge.  It is an anything Christmas goes challenge with a mood board for inspiration if you would like some. 

This is an unusual card for me becuase I don't often used traditional Christmas colors.  Thank you for stopping by, Until next time, Hansi

A Cat Themed Anniversary Card

 

The festivity being celebrated at Festive Friday is National Cat Day which is confusing to Luna and Calli because, as any cat will tell you, EVERY day is National Cat Day, International Cat Day, AND World Cat Day.

To enter the challenge you do not have to make a card featuring a cat.  You just have to select three items from the inspiration list below:

I used a cat (two actually), heart, and love sentiment to make an anniversary card for my husband or, as Luna and Calli like to call him, Soft Touch.

I started by taping a piece of 4.25 x 5.50 inch watercolor paper to my glass mat to keep it from curling, taped a deckled edge rectangle stencil from A Colorful Life Designs over it, and placed a circle mask cut from Gina K Design Masking Magic where I wanted the moon to be.  I used blending brushes to apply various shades of pink, blue, and violet Distress inks, spattered it with water using a fan brush, and once dry, re-applied the inks lightly and not necessarily in the same places to tone down the splatters and allow layers of colors to show through.  Without using a block, I inked a small acrylic text stamp with Basic Gray ink from Stampin' Up, stamped some of the ink off onto scratch paper, and stamped different parts of it along the left side and in the lower right corner.  I used the flower bouquet stamp from Stampin' Up's Very Vintage set to stamp the flowers around the cats and the Grass and Borders stamp from Nellie's Choice to stamp along the bottom.  The thickness of the stencil kept the "meadow" from reaching the edges, so I used a small brush to apply some ink along those edges.  I also brushed a bit of Hero Arts' Unicorn pigment ink outward around the moon.  Now it was finally time to remove the stencil and mask.  I used a small brush to apply Colonial White pigment ink from Close to My Heart and Silver pigment ink from ColorBox to the moon to give it some texture and dimension.  I also outlined the moon with a Gelly Roll Stardust pen.  

With inking done it was time for die cutting.  I used Penny Black's Kitty Love die to cut the cats from black and silver foil cardstock.  This gave me a silver heart to use where the cats' tails meet and silver cats for my stash to use on another project.  The sentiment was cut from silver foil using a die from Gina K Design and embellished with clear bitty sparkles.  I attached the panel to a card base made from Stampin' Up Purple Posy cardstock.  Here is the inside:

The sentiment from Close to My Heart's The Happy Couple set is embossed in silver.  The cats were cut using a die from Impression Obsession.  

I am also entering this card in the Happy Little Stampers' October Anything Goes With Dies challenge and the Critter Crazies' Anything Goes With a Critter challenge.  Luna and Calli are not sure how they feel about being referred to as "critters" but, as well brought up Southern Ladycats, are too polite to say anything.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi 

Scrap Happy Snowflakes

 

I made this card for the ABC Christmas Challenge, V is for Vocabulary, Christmas 24 Challenge, Simply Snowflakes, and the Stinkin' Inkers Challenge, Scrap Happy, using one of the scraps that were left after making this card and others like it.  Please excuse the photo quality as it was taken with my phone under a strong overhead light.  It does, however, show the metallic shine that is not as obvious in the photos of the card taken in my usual set up with a bounce flash.  I used the other two scraps to make cards which I am not entering.   You can see them at the end of this post.

To make the backgrounds that I cut the ornaments from I put drops of Hero Arts Glimmer Metallic Inks on my craft sheet, misted them with water and smooshed them onto watercolor paper.  To get a second card from each scrap I placed a Hero Arts Snowflake Edge Fancy Die at a diagonal across a 4 x 5 inch piece of white cardstock, taped it in place, made my die cut sandwich with the edge of the top cutting plate so that the plate only covered the part of the paper I wanted cut and then ran it though the machine.  You can see this partial die cut technique in action in this Jennifer McGuire video.  Because the watercolor paper is so thick, if I backed the snowflakes with a scrap, you would see a ridge in the white cardstock, so I cut a 4 x 5.25 piece of printer paper to use as a backing, attached a 2.25 x 4 inch piece cut from scrap at the top edge to back the snowflakes and a 3 x 4 inch piece of watercolor paper below it to create a level surface and then put the white cardstock with the snowflake edge on top.

I used the die from the Hero Arts Stamp and Cut set  to cut the word Peace twice from white cardstock and once from Galvanized Metal cardstock from Stampin' Up and then stacked them.  I also cut a 1/8 inch strip and glued it along the bottom of the snow flakes.  I embossed a sentiment from the set in silver and underlined it with a very narrow strip cut from the scrap.  Lastly, I attached the panel to a white card base and embellished the center of each snowflake with a bitty sparkle.

Here are the other two cards which I am not entering.

And then I found the remaining scraps from the ornament cards which I need to use.  Plus, there are some small pieces leftover from the scraps above.  To be continued...

Thank You for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

A Pink Christmas Card

The first Jingle Belles challenge in October is always to create a pink Christmas card for breast cancer awareness.  The Belles, Stephanie and Lauren, each donate $2.00 for each entry to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  Although I am not a fan of all the October pink packaging that is essentially a marketing tool to sell more product, I can get behind this because the only entity that will profit financially from this challenge is the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  Also in honor of breast cancer awareness the Dragonfly Dreams challenge theme for October is In the Pink and the Cut It Up theme is pink.  I have quite a few friends and family members, including my mother, who are survivors thanks to early detection, so please make sure to do your monthly breast exams, and if you are of that age, go in annually for your mammogram or as I like to call it, The Big Squeeze.  In all seriousness, modern technology has made the process less uncomfortable than it was when I first started getting them, and a few minutes of discomfort is worth it if it saves your life.   The American Cancer Society has information about risk factors and lifestyle measures you can take to reduce reduce the odds of getting breast cancer.   Now enough of the preaching, let's get on to the card.

I started with this Freshly Made Sketch:

I used a layering die set from Birch Press Design, Frosty Flake, to cut one A and  two C layers from white cardstock and a B layer from pink foil from Stampin' Up's Love You Always  paper pack.   I used washi tape from a tube I bought at Michael's years ago to make the stripes, folding the ends under the panel, and filled the spaces in between with thin stripes of the pink foil.  I glued a bit of the washi tape behind some of the openings in the snowflake to tie it in to the stripes.  Knowing  that the snowflake would overlap the stripes, I filled the openings of the points of the bottom C layer with the negative pieces to keep the stripes from showing though and making it too busy.  The word joy, cut from a Spellbinders die, is in honor of a paper crafting friend who is the home stretch of her battle with breast cancer.  Her motto has been "Find the joy."  I attached the panel to a white card base and embellished the snowflake with a pink sparkle and some clear bitty sparkles.

Thank you for stopping by!  Now please make sure to do what you can to reduce your risk of breast cancer and to detect it early if you do get it.  Until Next time, Hansi

Out of My Comfort Zone for a Spooky Card

 

The theme for the current Paper Players Challenge is Spooky with this mood board for inspiration:

 

Anyone who knows me will know I zeroed in on the cat.  I was also attracted to the greenish sky and the moon.  This was my cue to leave my usually fairly clean, smoothly blended ink with die cuts style and go out of my comfort zone.  I love the look of layers and layers of ink and images but am intimidated by the idea of creating it, so I took a leap of faith!

I started with a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper, masked off a circle for the moon with masking paper and positioned a deckled rectangle stencil from A Colorful Life Designs over the smooth side.  I used a blending brush to apply areas of Bundled Sage, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Antique Linen and Speckled Egg Distress inks.  Next I used a fan brush to flick mostly small drops of water on the panel, let them air dry, and reapplied more ink to soften the effect.  Next I brushed Speckled Egg in random spots though the Starry Night stencil from Hero Arts to give some subtle texture.  Then I used a small acrylic script stamp without a block, inked it with Vintage Photo Distress ink, stamped off on scratch paper, and then pressed parts of it randomly along the left side.  I stamped along the bottom with Frayed Burlap and Ground Espresso using a stamp from Stampin' Up's Timeless Textures set.  I removed the circle mask and lightly brushed on Antique Linen and Old Paper to give the moon some texture.  I used too heavy a hand and had to lighten it with a bit of Hero Arts Unicorn White pigment ink.  Now I could finally remove the stencil to admire my handiwork.  For a first attempt I was pretty pleased with it.  I stamped the Tree of Courage from Lavinia Stamps in Ground Espresso Archival ink from Ranger and Mooch the Cat from Lavinia Stamps and a Sentiment from Close to My Heart's Purr-fect Halloween set in Black Archival ink.  By the way, smooth is relative.  I had to stamp Mooch four times and the sentiment three to get a solid impression on the "smooth" side of the paper.  I used dark brown and black Prismacolor pencils to create a shadow under Mooch to ground him and a Gelly Roll #700 pen to outline the moon and add some reflected moonlight to Mooch's head and left side.  I used foam tape to attach the panel to a card base made with Always Artichoke cardstock from Stampin' Up.

Here is the inside using the same materials and techniques featuring Mooch's sister, Mimsey, from Lavinia.

I also plan to enter this in the Stamping Sensations October - Animals, Birds and Bugs, Watercooler Wednesday All About Occasions, and Show Us Your Pussy Cats Furrything Goes/Meowloween challenges.  Was there any question that I would use a cat for the Stamping Sensations challenge?

One thing I have learned about going out of my comfort zone with this is that the key is to apply lots of layers of ink using different methods.  I have a friend who does mixed media and is encouraging me to give it a try.  Hmmm.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time,  Hansi 

Freshly Made Sketch's 500th Challenge

 

Freshly Made Sketches is celebrating their 500th sketch!

I started by spraying Dina Wakely glossy acrylic sprays in Turquoise, Ocean, Fuchsia, and Night on 9x12 bristol and, once it was dry, cut out the focal panel.  I am sure y'all will see some of the rest in other cards...  Because the sprays are acrylic, regular dye and pigments inks will not adhere to the surface, so I rubbed some Archival ink in Majestic Violet along the edges of the panel to ground it.  For the backing panel I embossed a piece of Close to My Heart paper (I think it was Pansy) using the 3D Subtle embossing folder from Stampin' Up and sponged on a little Milled Lavender Distress Ink to make the texture a little less, well, subtle.  The snowflakes were cut with the Snowflake Edger die from Gina K Designs.  I cut the sentiment twice from white and once from Silver Foil cardstocks using a die from Spellbinders and stacked them.  I attached a thin piece of the Silver foil on the snowflake border to tie it in.  Lastly I finished it off with some sparkles.

I am also entering this card in the Christmas Craft Creations Challenge to use non-traditional colors and the Holly and Ivy anything Christmas goes challenge.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

I Always Need Birthday Cards

 

This week's Color Throwdown Challenge is to use purple, blue, and green in a project.  Have I ever mentioned that my favorite color scheme is Cool Analogous, adjacent colors on the cool side of the color wheel?  The Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge is celebrating it's ninth birthday with a challenge to make a birthday card.  I don't know about y'all, but every time I turn around I need a birthday card.  For this reason I like to play the Seize the Birthday Challenge which currently has the optional topping of using an embossing folder.  Cool colors are sometimes referred to as the colors of water and I have a folder that looks like waves.  Just Add Ink is challenging us to make a shaker card which is always fun on a birthday card and I have a Happy Birthday die set from CZ Design which is perfect to make one with.  Isn't it great when all these challenges work together to make a card you know you will need?

First things first.  I embossed a piece of white cardstock with an old folder from Lifestyle Crafts.  Then I flipped it over and swiped ink pads over the back side where the design is pressed into the paper otherwise known as the debossed side.  When I was happy with the look I trimmed it down to fit on an A2 card with a narrow border.   Next I used the shadow die from the CZ Design Happy Birthday Lucky to Know You set to make an opening in the middle.  I held the negative space piece on my card base so I would know where to put the backing, applied glue to the back of the shadow and glued it to the card base by fitting it into the opening and removed the negative piece.  I then glued a piece of shimmer vellum over the shadow to finish the background of my shaker element.  Now to back to the top part of the card.  I glued a piece of acetate behind the opening.  I cut the sentiment from both white and purple card stock, stacked them, and glued the sentiment to the front of the acetate.  Once everything was dry I carefully fit pieces of foam tape to the back of the top piece making sure the pieces fit tightly around the opening, so shaker bits could not escape later.  Speaking of shaker bits:  I went though three packs of mixed sequins to pull out pieces in the challenge colors plus a few white and silver ones.  This is what everything looked like before I put it together:

The last thing to do was put the shaker bits on the card base, remove the tape backing, slather the foam tape with liquid glue so I could fine tune the positioning, flip it, and attach the top to the card base.  On hindsight, I think I may have put in too many shaker pieces.  

Now I have a card for a forgotten about birthday or when my husband asks me for one for a friend.  He graciously puts up with my papercrafting addiction because he knows I will keep him supplied with cards as needed.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi