Every Bunny Card

 I love the way this card turned out! This image is from A Day for Daisies and for the Blog Challenge over at Cards And More for the "Friendship" them.  

The watercoloring isn't perfect, but that's one of the things I like about watercoloring--it seems perfectly acceptable for it to not be perfect!  I think the blades of grass really completed the look of the image. 

I'm still working on my splattering technique as well, so it's a bit more "splattery" than I'd like.  Then the ink I used chose not to dry very quickly, and it got a little smeared. Grrr! Sequens to the rescue--they at least hid SOME of the smears.

 The card base was one I had on hand and found that it looked so adorable with the image! Then the ribbon matched with that--at least one thing went right on this card!

Just to make me completely frustrated with my abilities as a crafter today, the sentiment I used on the interior of the card left a little edge smudge. Geesh--I'm on a roll!


Let me know if you think the "mistakes" are too noticeable, and I should re-work it!  Also, head on over to the Cards And More Blog challenge to see what others came up with for the "Friendship" theme challenge.

Monsterous Birthday Card

Fun and simple sketch over at Sketch Saturday today! Very versatile and easy to customize.  I chose to make a horizontal card rather than a vertical, the stripes on the top, and flipped so they run vertical rather than horizontal!  Confused yet? Pretty simple, really, just sounds complicated.

This fun stamp is a digital from Bugaboo Stamps. Of course, the benefit I find in digi's is that you can print them to whatever size works best for you! I probably should've actually made this a little smaller, but it would've been harder to color that way. So it takes up a larger portion of my card-front than I'd like, but still cute!

The coloring was done with a combination of Copics and Spectrum Noir markers.

The inside sentiment was stamped with Memento Black.

Thanks again for looking and for playing along over at Sketch Saturday!

Train-Ride Birthday

 How cute is this little train set from ScrapNDiptiy?? It also comes in a girl figure, rather than a boy. I made this card for the ScrapNDipity Design Blog Spotlight--please check it out over there, as well!

I thought this train set was the perfect chance to make a regular envelope sized card, which I'd been dying to try for a while now. 

I will admit, I had a terrible time finishing the coloring on these critters! I cut each with my Scan N Cut 2, and always go around the edges with a black marker to make them look complete, and remove any stray white around the border. For some reason, every time I did this, it bled into the coloring of the critter! GRR! I re-did the little boy at least 3 times, and STILL have a little bit of bleed. And totally gave up on the bunny--she is what she is!

When I finally got a boy that I was willing to live with, I attached him with foam tape, so he was a bit of a focal point on the card.

The "Birthday Boy" on the cover, and the "It's all about you today" sentiment on the inside were stamped with the Stampin Up set, "Hooray Its Your Birthday". It just didn't seem to make sense to place the sentiment in the middle of a long card like this, and I think the off-to-the-side placement worked out great.

Thanks for checking it out! Have a great day!

Mommy & Me Watercolor Card

 Second Mommy & Me Project done! And WOW! I think it turned out AWESOME!!

We forgot to put on the fancy-schmancy apron this time, because he was not very focused today. But he still had fun, and made a great project for his teacher. 

We did the emboss-resist method, using versamark ink and white embossing powder. Of course I used the MISTI to place the flowers on the different corners of the card.

Letting Leroy do the embossing powder was a challenge for this OCD Mamma! But I DID let him do it, and then use a baby-wipe to clean up the table.

I used my Zig Clean Color Brush markers to lay down some color in each flower. Leroy and I chose reds, oranges

and yellows.  Then I let Leroy use the Aqua-Brush to spread the color.

The colors stayed bright inside the flowers, where I layered down the water color, then we used the aqua-pen to make paler colors around the outside.

I added a bit of green and blue around the edges and between.

 Leroy picked the sentiments to be for his teacher. And chose the ribbon from my stash, which I made into a bow--with his help.

The one thing I have found is TRULY hard to do with a Little while making cards, is keeping everything completely clean and unmarred. Notice the little black mark above the sentiment from where he pushed too hard on the stamp? There is also a small black smudge a little higher up, and maybe a couple of crumbs of chocolate?? beside the sentiment. Oh geez! Makes it obvious it was made with love by a little boy, right?? 

It still looks awesome, though! 

Please leave a comment to let Leroy know what you think of his first Watercolor card!

Hang In There, Teddy Bear!

A friend asked for a "special" anniversary card so of course I got myself lost in Pinterest-land for several hours! Geesh--that place can be dangerous!  I decided I really liked an older post from Inky Fingers. But before I created The One, for the client, I thought I'd try out the design with this cute little bear from ScrapNDipity, which I'd colored with Copics.

 

The bear was cut out with the Brother Scan N Cut2, while the circle in the card front was cut with a Sizzix die cut, as was the scallop-edged ivory circle on the inside of the card. Jute was run through a whole placed at the top heart, then tied through a matching whole punched in the card base. This of course leaves the heart/bear embellishment to swing in the circle whole in the card-base.

Now keep in mind, I realized that I couldn't make a top-fold card out of any 12x12 paper, so I cut a 5x6.5 sheet and a 5x7" sheet from a regular 8.5x11 sheet of craft-paper. Then embossed the extra 1/2 inch of the cover piece so it could be folded over at the top and attached to the back with adhesive tape. Ta-Da!! 

Unfortunately, I eventually realized that the craft paper was too thin once the circle was cut out of it. So I re-enforced the sides with extra strips of same paper. This made it strong enough to stand-up and not just fold over from the weight of the heart-piece. Ta-Da #2!!

 Stamped the sentiment on a piece of scrap Ivory Cardstock, with SU's "Here for You" using Versafine Brown ink, and embossing with clear powder. The other 2 small flags were also cut from scrap-papers, adhered together, then added the small brown metal brad.

 The interior circle was cut from the same Ivory Card Stock, and distressed with Antique Linen. The message is also from the "Here for You" set, and stamped with the same technique.  It did take a little bit of fiddling to get this circle placed just right--adhesive on the back then only gently placing it, closing the cover and adjusting the ivory circle until I was pleased with the placement.

 

Here is the card from Inky Fingers that was my inspiration for 2 cards! Thanks for sharing, Carol!!

So here's the Anniversary Card!!  I think it turned out FABULOUS!!

This card is from a wife, to her husband, so I tried to keep it simple, with as little embellishments or froo-froo as possible! :-)  I used a whole mash-up of stamps from all over the place! But all were inked with Distress Ink, Vintage Photo, and distressed around the edges. The little labels were actually cut with the Brother ScanN Cut2. 

 I absolutely love this card!! I think its one my favorites, EVER! What do you think?

Park Day LayOut

I had a ton of fun making this layout for these pictures from a few years ago--No, of course I'm not behind in my scrapbooking!!

  All the random pieces were cut with a rotary tool, leaving space for the pictures. The round photo and the edges of the pieces around it were cut with an older Creative Memories circles cutter.

I took the pages to my sewing machine and stitched around the edges a couple of times, and the same around each picture, with a dark blue thread.

The arrow pieces were a set of embellishments that I was given--I have no idea the maker of them. Sorry!  All the arrow pieces were attached with foam tape for dimension.

I printed the two journal/title sections and cut them with the paper trimmer. The larger one, I used to create my own Project Life style of card, with the smaller paper flags along the bottom.

 The long one, I used the Stampin' Up Banner punch to repeatedly cut little fish-tails of different papers, and attached them on either side of the banner--I love the way that turned out!

 



A star paperclip with different ribbons on the first page is mirrored with the bits of ribbon under the title on the second page, held in place with over-sized staples. 

 

 

 And of course, the little primary colored ribbon & brad combos add color as well.

Bottom Line: Several of the papers were scraps, or at the very least, from paper-pads I already had on hand. All the embellishments were things from my stash, and most of them were actually fairly old and/or given to me for free! So, I have about $1 into the background card stock I used, plus the cost of printing the pictures, probably less than a $1 total, and of course the adhesives--maybe another $1 used of those (probably less, but whatever!) That means, for about $3 I was able to make this awesome page! Not too shabby, huh?? Don't let people tell you that you can't scrapbook on a budget!! :-)

Thanks for looking and sharing!

It's a Lovin' Feline Valentine's Card

Last year about this time, I was given a really cute stamp from a friend, Robyn Vass. I haven't had a chance to use it more than once, and saw that it would work perfectly for this sketch from Sketch Saturday. 

This is the sketch for Saturday, February 11th, number 450. Keep in mind that a sketch is just a beginning point, an idea. For a Sketch Challenge, you want to stay fairly close, to make sure it is recognizable as the original sketch. For mine, I obviously changed the star to a heart, and moved it to the left side of the card.  Other than that, it's fairly spot-on.

The stamp included the hearts on the cat, but I just colored over them to get the good look of the fur on the kitty. Then I stamped extra images and colored a bunch of hearts. The Brother Scan N Cut 2 was a huge help in cutting out all those little hearts. I placed some over the hearts ON the cat that were colored over, then more going up like the love is just radiating off the kitty! And of course added a little one to the heart die-cut at the bottom. Each heart was made "complete" by adding Glossy Accents.

 

I could have used a stamp to do the inside sentiment, but chose to just print it--this always seems easier to me!

I love cats, and made this one look like my favorite kitty, Silver, who passed a couple of years ago. This was a super fun card to make and again, thanks to Robyn for the lovely stamp-set!

Hello Friend - Scrap Cards

 

 

Today, I gave myself a challenge! I pulled these scraps out of my drawer and said THESE are what I was going to use up today. You may recognize the pink "Friends" oval as being the cut out from the Teddy Bear card I did on January 21st.

 

 These are the cards I came up with!!

 

  

I only used one extra piece of scrap paper: the ivory piece with circle patterns. I used card stock scraps, two sheets of craft brown paper, and of course, the ivory colored card-bases.

There were 2 of the same cards, the first one. At the bottom, I was running out of larger pieces. I really like the little tiny square at the bottom of the four-quadrant one. The one with the small squares was fun, too--I like the way the stitches look around the edges.

All the "hello" sentiment die-cuts were cut with my Cricut, inked with Antique Linen Distress ink, then covered with Accent Essentials. I do wish I had made the one on the ivory background darker.

I loved this last little strip of paper and didn't want to waste it! So the stamping was done with Versamark Ink and White embossing powder, on this really cute flourish stamp--I just rotated the stamp and stamped it several times. And of course the Hello stamp was done the same way.  

Really enjoyed this project!  Thanks for checking things out!

 

Valentine's for Leroy's Class

With Valentine's Day coming up, I had to get started on Valentine's for my son's class! Leroy is 5, and a boy, so he's really not into the whole thing, but that wasn't going to stop me!!

I had this sheet of paper in one of my paper pads, which includes a ton of little "stamps" on it. I cut them all apart, and it made 35 of the little stamps. 

 

I then used my Cricut to cut the little banners with the scalloped edges to match the edges on the little stamps, in several different colors.  For once, I actually chose to attach the stamps at an angle onto the banners.

 

I then used some scrap papers cut to 3" x 3.75" as a base. One of these papers was actually from a great piece of paper that I used to make a couple of full-sized cards! 

I love how simple it is to make cards like this with the corner of a paper!

(And of course leaves the rest of the paper for using as the base for the little Valentine's Cards.)

There were 5 different styles of stamps, and 2 different sheets of background paper. This made 35 little Valentines. I used my MISTI to add the "To:" and "From:" on the back using Memento Black ink.

I have more than enough Valentine's Cards for Leroy's class, AND enough to give to his teacher for any kids that show up without cards to give! :-)