Lunar New Year Challenge

 

Happy first day of May!  I'm guest designing this month for the Lunar New Year Challenge.  

The is one of those great challenges that allow you to use whatever you might have in your stash.  No rules, just create a Lunar New Year card.  There are sponsors each month, and prizes too, but no requirements to use anything in particular.  This month's sponsors are Simon Says Stamp, Lawn Fawn, My Favorite Things, and Catherine Pooler.  Be sure to stop by the blog to access this month's link up and get the details on the prizes being offered.

Because it's the year of the dragon, and I happen to be a dragon, I had to make a dragon card.

I pulled out one of my favorite dragon stamps, Magical Dragons from MFT, and stamped the dragon and clouds on Neenah Solar White cardstock using Gina K Black Amalgam ink.  The images were then colored with Copics.  I used C1 and C3 to add a little depth to the clouds and R89, R39, R35, and R29 for the dragon as well as Y17, Y38, and YR24.  The reds on the dragon felt a little too red for me, so I muted them by coloring E07 over all the red areas.  The images were then fussy cut and set aside.

The die I used in the background is an older Spellbinders die, Chinese Knot Frame.  I cut it three times, centered on a 4 1/4" square piece of paper, and then from red and yellow cardstock.  I then created an inlaid background mixing the colors together to incorporate the red outline piece and some yellow sections.

I arranged the colored pieces over top to get the spacing right and then stamped the sentiment, from Simon Says Stamp's Joyful Greetings set.

The colored pieces were then adhered.  The large cloud and small cloud on the left were adhered directly to the card, and the dragon and small cloud were popped up with foam tape.

Thanks for visiting!  Be sure to stop by the Lunar New Year Challenge blog to get all the details on how to link up your card and be entered to win!

MFT Hooray Kind of Day

I realized that I hadn't really done any coloring since Kathy Racoosin's last coloring challenge in April, and thought I should rectify the situation.

I'm always in need of birthday cards, and these little critters by Stacey Yacula for MFT in the Hooray Kind of Day set were needing to be colored.

This one is pretty simple on this one, I wanted the images to be the star of the show.

They were all stamped with Gina K black amalgam ink, colored with Copics, and die cut.

Then I added some simple inking to the background using Tumbled Glass distress ink and Moon Rock ink from Altenew.

The inked panel was adhered directly to the card base, and then the die cut images were adhered on top.

Hope you are having a day that is just as happy as these guys!

Last of the Daily Marker 10 Day Coloring Challenge Cards

 

Today I'm sharing cards created using the last of my colored images from Kathy Racoosin's 10 Day Coloring Challenge.  

The first card features this a nice big sentiment from Paper Smooches Well Wishes set.  It was very simply colored, and I kept the finish simple too.  I used an older MFT die to create a scalloped mat for the colored panel and added a soft gray mat over the card base.

This next card features the Floral Fantasy cling stamp from MFT.

I love the dramatic/vintage look of the image and colored it with a more unexpected color using my Blue Green Copic family.  The leaves/stems were colored with Neutral Grays.

I trimmed the panel down and added a simple dark gray mat.  The sentiment which I managed to kind of mangle when stamping (the one time I don't use the MISTI.....) is from Papertrey Ink's Choose Joy set.

This last card is my favorite, featuring Janes Doodles Read All About It set and a journaling card from Felicity Jane.

The images were fussy cut.  That book on the right actually is actually part of the stack on the left.  I just cut it off of the stack to help balance the card a bit.  The books were adhered directly to the journaling card, and the little boy was popped up with foam tape.

I added a large fishtail banner using an old MFT die set as well as a patterned paper mat.

And that's the last of my Coloring Challenge images!  I have all sorts of new things that have arrived recently, so I'm hoping to be able to dig into those happy mail packages this weekend!

The Daily Marker 10 Day Coloring Challenge Finished Cards, Day 3

I've got two more cards featuring images I colored during Kathy Racoosin's most recent coloring challenge.

Today's cards both feature journaling cards from my scrapbooking stash.  I have a ton of journaling cards, and I'm always looking for ways to incorporate them into my cardmaking.  

This first card features a pretty common journaling card format - there's a pattern on the top portion of the card, and then a white band at the bottom.  This format is perfect for cardmaking because that white space is just right for a sentiment.

I added a couple mats to the journaling card, a print from a My Favorite Things paper pad, and then a simple white cardstock mat.  For some texture, I added stitching around the white mat.

The image and sentiment are from Neat & Tangled's Slow and Steady set.  

I was really excited when I was flipping through my journaling cards and found the one I used for this second card.

I thought all those letters were perfect for a reading themed card.  

My stamped/colored image, from My Favorite Things Magical Friends set, was fussy cut and adhered directly to the journaling card, and then added a sentiment from Mama Elephant's Good Reads set.

Since the journaling card/image really stand on their own, I just added a simple dark gray mat.

Thanks for stopping by.  I'll have some more finished cards to share next week.

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

SSS All the Feels Release

Have you guys seen the new All the Feels release from Simon Says Stamp?  Today I'm sharing a cute mini slimline card featuring the Mini Slimline Windows die from the release.

This is a really versatile die which cuts three windows, each of which has a sentiment in it.  Note that it just cuts the windows themselves, but doesn't cut a frame.

You can use the die cut pieces together as I have, but they can also be used on their own

I thought it would be fun to create a comic strip type card.

I started by die cutting a piece of Neenah Solar White cardstock, being sure to save all of my letters.  

The images were then stamped on the little sections.  I used the Magical Friends set from My Favorite Things.  I was looking for a set with really cute figures that were on the smaller side and this was just right.

In the top and middle sections, the space was a little tighter, so the image bleeds onto one of the letters, no big deal if that happens.  The images were then colored with Copics, where the image went onto the letters, I just popped that letter into the die cut piece and colored it along with the rest of the image.

I didn't want to leave the background white, so it was colored with Copics as well.  Also colored were the letters themselves.  I had originally planned to use cardstock for those, but since the images went onto some of the letters, they woudn't all have matched, so I used N9 to color themto a nice dark gray.

To create the frame, I die cut the frame from the center of a dark gray piece of cardstock 3" x 6".  This was then popped up over my three colored pieces with foam tape.

That's all I've got today, but be sure to head over to Simon Says Stamp to check out the full release!

More Oldies but Goodies

As promised, I've got a couple more Oldies but Goodies Christmas cards to share today.  This time I'm mixing and matching products from a bunch of different companies, but I've again stuck with the same basic formula for each of the cards.

I started by stamping my images on Neenah Solar White cardstock and coloring them with Copics.  Then I fussy cut around the top of the images, but left the bottom of the stamped image attached to the panel, kind of like faux partial die cutting.  Once that was done, I was ready to put together cards.

This first card features the Walter image from Purple Onion Designs.  He was colored with Cool Grays, and I used my trusty red combination (R22, R24, R29, and R39).  

I cut an arched frame from a piece of patterned paper using an MFT STAX die for the front of the card, and stamped/embossed some snowflakes on a panel of light blue cardstock using a stamp from Ellen Hutson's Abstract Paint Strokes stamp set.

The sentiment, from Neat & Tangled's Scandinavian Prints Christmas set was embossed on a banner from the Scalloped dies set.

The snowflake piece was adhered directly to my card base as was the little penguin, and the patterned paper frame and sentiment strip were popped up with foam tape.

The second card follows the same formula, but this one features an owl, Flora, also from Purple Onion Designs.  The owl was colored with Warm Grays and I used B32, B34, and B37 for the scarf, and E70, E74, E77, and E79 for the tree stump.

The snowflake were embossed on a piece of grout gray cardstock and instead of using patterned paper, I stamped a panel of kraft cardstock with The Stamp Market's Jumbo Plaid background using white pigment ink.

The sentiment for this one is from Neat & Tangled's Nativity Play set, and I used another of the banners from the Scalloped die set for it.

I still need a few more cards for the season, but I'm getting close to being done.  Still have lots of goodies in that stack of Christmas products that I pulled to work with and am looking forward to getting some more stamping done this weekend!

A Smile on My Face and a Song in My Heart

This Happy Campers set was another of my recent My Favorite Things purchases.  This little fox playing the guitar put me over the edge.  Andrew is a guitar player and Ellie has recently started learning how to play.

I stamped the image with Gina K Amalgam ink, colored him with Copics, and fussy cut.  

I found a Studio Calico journaling card from my stash that created the perfect little burst to go behind him.  It actually has some words in the center of the star burst, but he covers them up perfectly.

The sentiment, also from the set, was stamped directly onto the journaling card. 

I used a variety of papers from my scrap bin to complement the journaling card.  

Lots more cute images from this set to come!

So Excited to See You!

I've been wanting this Adorable Adventures set from MFT since it came out, but I've been trying to be good, so had held off.  Last week it was marked way down as one of MFT's Blitzday Steals and I couldn't wait any longer.

I wanted to use the little girl waving figure first and also colored a couple of the bushes and the rocks to go with her.  Then I fussy cut my images.

I have all my scrapbooking supplies out still, so I picked a journaling card for my background.  This one is from Felicity Jane.  I think one of the reasons I like using journaling cards as backgrounds for my stamped/colored images so much is that it takes a lot of the work out of creating a background.  Normally I'd fuss about adding more scenery or blending, but here the journaling card does all the work for me.

The sentiment, also from the set, was stamped directly on my journaling card.  I actually cut the sentiment as it appears all in a row, but I wanted the two parts stacked over one another.  I'm always a little wary about cutting apart my stamps, but I'm becoming more open to it.

I added a few little offset mats and then adhered them to my main mat at an angle.

Hoping your week is going well!  

Simple Things

The Hooray Kind of Day set from Stacey Yacula for My Favorite Things has been in my to use pile for a while, and I finally inked it up.  There are several really cute images in the set, but this little foxing pulling the wagon is my favorite.

He was stamped with Gina K Amalgam ink and then colored with Copics.  I used Warm Grays (W5, W3, W2, and W0 (I can't seem to find my W1!)) for the fox, and R37, R35, and R32 for the flowers, and G28, G24, and G20 for the leaves.  The pot was colored with E09, E15, and E11, and the wagon with E59, 57, and E55.

Once the coloring was done, I fussy cut the image.

I am a bit of a journaling card hoarder.  I have them for scrapbooking and love them, and I try and work them into my cardmaking from time to time.  This simple little peachy pink frame card from Studio Calico seemed perfect for my fox.

Next step was finding the right sentiment.  There were a few that I found, but this one from The Greetery's Simple Things set seems to perfectly balance the card as well as the image.

I couple of patterned paper mats finished things off.  

Friend Like You

Hi friends!  Today's card started out with this adorable little lamb called Wooley by Stacey Yacula for Purple Onion Designs.  I originally had him stamped dead center on a panel, but then I decided I wanted to do something less boring.

So, I colored him in (white animals might just be my favorite thing to color) using Copics: N0, N1, N5, and R11 for his cheeks.  Then, to mimic partial die cutting, I cut my panel using my paper trimmer to either side of where his feet hit the ground line, using detail scissors to trim around him.  

The background was created using Paper Smooches Power Rays die.  I inked a piece of white cardstock with Scattered Straw and then Mustard Seed Distress Ink, and then die cut.  This was adhered to a piece of light blue cardstock that I inked with a bit of Faded Jeans and then Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink.

I cut a piece of dark blue cardstock and adhered it over the bottom of the faux partially die cut/stamped image, and added a sentiment from a retired My Favorite Things set.  This was then popped up over the Power Rays die cut piece.

To finish things off, I added a little red die cut heart, also from Paper Smooches.

It's always kind of ufn to see where creating takes you when, and I love being able to mix and match old and new products.

Hope you are having a lovely week!

MFT Card Design Superstar - Innovation Master Flipbook Card

I wasn't planning to enter any of the other Card Design Superstar challenges, but I got this idea in my head and it just kept percolating and wouldn't go away, so I had to try it.

I wanted to created a flipbook card which told a little story from the front of the card to the inside of the card.

You can make a flipbook go forwards or backwards, but since this is a flipbook on top of a card, I thought it would be easier to flip from the back to the front so that the card itself didn't get too bent.

Because this was my first try, I wanted to use a smaller image that would be pretty easy to color.  I settled on the cute little ducks from the Rain or Shine set.  I used two of the ducks, the one who looks like he's walking to the left and the one with his wings out as well as the puddle and water droplets.

I started by creating a mock-up of the flipbook, cutting pieces of printer paper to 2 x 3" so I could make sure to get the right placement and number of pages.  This also helped me because I knew I'd have to do some masking on a couple of the pages.

I first stamped the puddle in the same place on each little sheet, easy when you use a stamp positioner.

For the mock-up, the ducks and splashes were stamped using a small block (for the actual pages later, I used a stamping platform).  Once I was happy with the order and arrangement, I cut 2" x 3" pieces of white cardstock.  For all but the last two scenes, I stamped the puddle first, following up with the ducks.  For the last two scenes, I stamped the duck and splashes first, created a mask for the duck, and then stamped the puddle last.

To try and keep the coloring as consistent as possible, I colored all the ducks first, using Y000, Y11, and Y13 for the body, R11 for his cheeks, and YR14 and YR16 for his beak and feet.  The puddle was colored next using B0000, B000, B00, and just a touch of B01.

Then I needed to figure out how to incorporate the flipbook into my card.

I started by deciding that I would sew my flipbook pages together as well as to the card base.  On the top sheet, I scored a line 1/4" from the left edge and used a pencil to add a dot every 1/4" along that scored line.  I then used a yard needle to pierce holes in cardstock at each of those pencil marks.  Using this page as a guide, I pierced holes in the next sheet and so on, until each of the pages was done.

Placing the flipbook sheets over my card base, I added marks where I wanted a window to appear on the front of the card base.  It wasn't symmetrical because I needed to attach my flipbook to the left side.  Using my paper trimmer, I cut an opening slightly larger the edges of the flipbook, approximately 2 1/8" x 2 3/4".

Once the hole was cut, I lined up the last flipbook page inside the window to use as a guide for stamping the inside of the card base.  Those images were stamped and colored, and a sentiment from the Puddle Jumper set was added inside.

With the inside taken care of, I needed to figure out how to decorate the front of the card.  This was where I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants.  I found that cute yellow heart print that I thought would be perfect.  It was trimmed down and adhered to the card front.  Of course I had previously cut the opening for the window, so working on the inside of the card, I carefully used a craft knife to cut away the patterned paper from the window.

I wanted to add a couple vertical elements, so I use the smallest of the Fishtail Flag Layer STAX dies to cut two accent pieces, one from the Black and White Stripe paper pad, and one from a coordinating blue paper, and adhered them to the card.

I then centered one of my flipbook pages, on the card/in the window as a guide, and used my yarn needle to pierce holes through the card front.  I also added a hole right at the top and bottom of the flipbook page.

To make the stitching a little easier, I added a bit of adhesive to the left edge of each of the flipbook pieces so they stayed together more readily, and then stitched the flipbook to my card front.  I used a basic back stitch with some floss and smaller needle, sewing down and back up to make sure it was very secure.

To finish things off on the front of the card, I added a sentiment from the Birth-YAY set which was embossed in white on a strip of black cardstock and popped up with foam tape.

It was fun to puzzle through this one!  Here's what the flipbook looks like in motion (I'm a GIPHY novice and for some reason the video below looks super blurry, but if you click on it, it'll take you to a non blurry video):

via GIPHY

Thanks for visiting and hope you're having a great weekend!

MFT Card Design Superstar - Clean & Simple Genius

It seems like it's been ages since I participated in a challenge.  I used to do so a lot, but my crafty free time is a lot less flexible these days, and sometimes challenges feel like work because you are really stretching yourself.  Still, sometimes a challenge really resonates with you and it makes the creative process fun and exciting.

That's what happened when I saw the MFT Card Design Superstar call.  I flipped through my MFT collection of stamps and dies, and was struck with an idea, and then it was just a matter of seeing that idea through.

For my card, I used and older MFT background that's been retired called Balloon Strings.  This is such a versatile background and can be used in many different ways.

For my card, I decided to piece the background with cardstock to create a dimensional landscape effect.

I started by choosing five shades of blue cardstock (including MFT Blueberry, After Midnight, and Nightshift Blue) as well as one shade of a very light cool gray (MFT Cement Gray).

The background was stamped on 2-3 pieces of each color using a very light ink.  Then I fussy cut along the lines to create the contoured piece.  I did this both at the top and bottom of the background to create the two pieces.

Originally I was just going to use two pieces of each color, but because there were so many layers, I used three for some of the middle colors.  I had also originally thought I might use some foam tape between some of the layers for dimension, but given the fact that each landscape piece already has 14 layers of cardstock, that didn't happen.

I did need a way to create some definition between layers of the same shade of cardstock though, and decided to use my Versamark ink pad to ink the edge of the cardstock to create that distinction.

There were a couple layers where lines from the background intersected and they needed to be 'erased'.  This was done with a combination of a fine sand/grit eraser as well as the Couture Creations eraser tool.  This was where stamping with that very light ink helped as well.

Once my landscape pieces were done, they were directly adhered to my card base.

I chose a clean and simple sentiment, from the Because You set, to finish things off.

This was such a fun card to conceive and put together, and definitely makes me think I need to get back into the challenge scene!

ZAP Thank You Cards

It's apparently thank you card week here on the blog.  I've got the cards for Carina's party (which doesn't happen for another week and a half) to share today.

Carina is turning 10 this year which means it's her last year for a party and she gets a bigger one.  She really wanted to have it at one of those jumping places, but given the current state of affairs, it didn't seem like the best idea.

Instead, we're doing a laser tag party, but it's an outdoor party.  The company shows up with the guns and organizes the games.  A lot of people do it at their home, but our yard isn't huge, so we're going to have everyone meet at a local park.

There are no images of laser guns in my stamp stash, so we went a little more generic with these, using products from several different companies.

The background was created using the retired Spiral Staircase stencil from The Crafter's Workshop.  It was inked with Altenew Desert Night ink over PTI Blueberry Sky cardstock.

The letters are cut using the Caps Bold Alphabet die set from Altenew, and the sentiment is from MFT's Level Up set.

These were a little more involved than the thank yous I normally make, but it was easy to divide the steps up into chunks:  inking the backgrounds, die cutting the alphas, adhering the alphas to one another, stamping/embossing the secondary sentiments, and then putting all the pieces together.

The other fun thing was that before I went into mass production mode, Carina and I worked together on the design.  I had a few different stencils I was considering, so I inked each one up and she picked the one she like the most, she helped decide on the sentiments and colors, etc. 

Thanks for visiting!

MFT Call the Shots

A quick and easy card to share today.  This Birdie Brown Call the Shots set from My Favorite Things has been selling out QUICK, but I was able to grab it a couple weeks ago when it came back in stock.  One of my sisters is a Physician's Assistant, and the other is a doctor (I picked up the Doctor's Orders set that features a female doctor also), so I knew I needed to add this to my collection.

I stamped, colored, and fussy cut the nurse image.  Her scrubs were colored with BG10, BG11, BG13, and BG15, and I used C5, C7, and C9 for her hair.  For the skin I used E50, E53 and B91.  

I've really been trying to use up some of my patterned papers, and this geometric print from an old Fancy Pants 6x6 pad matched my nurse perfectly.  

I didn't want to cover up too much of it, so I just cut a strip of white cardstock and stamped the sentiment with Versafine.  To soften it up a bit, I added a bit of very soft inking with a blending brush and some black ink.

Short and sweet today, and looking forward to the weekend!

*Affiliate Links Below

Call the Shots By Birdie Brown, My Favorite Things Clear Stamps

Obsidian Amalgam, Gina K Designs Ink Pad

BG10 - Cool Shadow, COPIC Sketch Marker

BG11 - Moon White, COPIC Sketch Marker

BG13 - Mint Green, COPIC Sketch Marker

BG15 - Aqua, COPIC Sketch Marker

C5 - Cool Gray No. 5, COPIC Sketch Marker

C7 - Cool Gray No. 7, COPIC Sketch Marker

C9 - Cool Gray No. 9, COPIC Sketch Marker

E50 - Egg Shell, COPIC Sketch Marker

E53 - Raw Silk, COPIC Sketch Marker

B91 - Pale Grayish Blue, COPIC Sketch Marker