Mother's Day - part 1

This year I made over thirty Mother's Day cards with all of them going to Operation Write Home. I don't want to post all of them here so I have selected several; which I will post in a couple of batches of three or so cards. The majority of the cards will have one thing in common and that is the text format. It seems that simple holiday specific sticker type text is impossible to make according to the manufacturer's, so I create my text stickers using the computer and clear address labels (Avery). The first batch are simple flower based cards using one primary color.

The first card is a study in yellow using a stamped image of a rose (The Picture Show) which I colored in yellow and for added emphasis mounted it on a yellow piece of paper (Die Cut with a View) cut out with a deckle edged scissor (Fiskars). One of the computer generated text was added to finish the card. The second card is a study in pink using alternating panels of pastel pink paper (Die Cut with a View) and pink damask patterned paper (Prima) as a background for a frame created out of gold paper (The Paper Company), a die-cut system (Spellbinders) and faux gem stickers (Stampendous Dot Sparklers). The inset is created using lily of the valley stickers (Martha Stewart/E.K. Success) and one of the computer generated text.

The last card of the first bunch is a study in blue using a pastel blue ribbon (ColorBok Self Adhesive Ribbon) and a rose cameo (Martha Stewart/E.K. Success) in blue and white. The text is a gold sticker (Stampendous) that I colored with a black marker (Sharpie).

Simple, elegant and perfectly appropriate for the occasion.

Mojo Monday - week 187

When I saw this week's Mojo Monday sketch I immediatly knew I had to do something masculine with it. The sketch reminded me of a clock, specifically a grandfather clock and so naturally I decided to make my version of a grandfather's clock.

The background papers are both from the "Imaginisce" Timeless collection. The full background is "garden promenade" and the frame inset is "for all times". The frame, clock face and tag are all from an old "Sandylion" coordinated pack I've had for years. The ribbon across the card is a velvet ribbon from "American Craft" while the bow is satin and is by "Martha Stewart/E.K. Success". I edged the background panel with walnut ink and the frame with black ink both from "Ink It-up!". To add some depth the ribbon and tag are mounted on shimering brown paper from "Bazzill Basics". The scalloped edge was created by using the "Martha Stewart/E.K. Success" edge punch called cherish on tan paper from "Die Cut with a View" and then edged with more walnut ink.

Last Easter cards for 2011

These are my last two Easter cards for the year and for these I decided to use animal images with very simple yet elegant layouts.

The first card uses a lamb sticker (Day Spring Chapters of Life) which is mounted on a shimmering blue paper (Bazzill Basics) circle with raised adhesive dots and then mounted on a white card. The lily embellishment is a left over sticker (Jolee's Boutique/E.K. Success). The text is a rub-on (Chartpack).

The second card uses a dove stickers (Jolee's Boutique/E.K. Success) from a wedding pack mounted over a glittered text sticker (The Design Studio). These are mounted on a 1 1/2" wide strip of shimmering blue paper (Bazzill Basics) running vertically down a white card and edged with silver lines (Mrs. Grossman's Design Lines).

Easter - crosses part 2

I decided to cheat for the remaining cross cards and combining theme #1 with theme #2 by adding lilies to the crosses.

The first card is very simple and uses a 3D sticker (Jolee's Boutique/E.K. Success) of a cross entwined in lilies mounted on a purple colored parchment die-cut (Sizzix). To emphasize the 3D effect I die-cut the parchment twice, cut out the corner on one of the die-cut and with raised adhesive dots added it to the other die-cut. The text was computer generated and printed on a clear label (Avery).

The second card uses a rubber stamp (Inkadinkado) image of a cross with flowers stamped in gray on a light purple piece of paper. The image was colored with pencils and then the remaining flowers from the sticker above were used to cover the flowers that are part of the rubber stamp image. The light purple panel was mounted on a white card and edges with darker purple lines (Mrs. Grossman's Design Lines). The text was computer generated and printed on a clear label (Avery).

The third card started with a pre-made tri-fold scalloped window card (K&Company/E.K. Success). The exterior most scallops were cut off to create a square opening which was edged with wide metallic silver lines (Starform). the inner opening was square and simply edged with thin metallic siler lines (Starform). The inside of the card was lined with shimmering light blue paper (Bazzill Basics). The design is a combination of lilies (Jolee's Boutique/E.K. Success) and a glittered die-cut cross (Jolee's by You/E.K. Success). The text is a metallic silver sticker (Stampendous).

Cards made with Stickers - my way!

I love using stickers and people are always asking me how I get the results I do with pre-made products. Well, it's not a secret and it's actually very simple: I don't treat a sticker as a finished product. I have no problems cutting stickers apart and re-arranging them to get as much use as I can out of each individual one or to get the finished look I want. I do this by placing the sticker I want to cut up on wax paper and use a very sharp craft knife to cut it apart. I also have no problems coloring stickers to match my specific needs. Most paper stickers can be colored with markers; however care must be used to make sure the marker does not bleed through the sticker and dissolve the adhesive quality of the back side. As I said to me a sticker is a starting point not a finished product. To illustrate my "secret" for this blog I made the following three cards but there are other examples on my blog such as the February 1, 2011 post.

The first card uses two of the same two bloom Iris sticker (Mrs. Grossman's). For the central image I wanted one to create a fuller stalk with flowers at various levels of the stem. To start I took one sticker and cut it apart. I separated the leaves from the stem and then split the remaining portion of the stem with the flowers into two pieces so that each piece contained a flower and a piece of stem. I then arranged the full sticker and all the pieces of the cut up sticker on a piece of wax paper to create the fuller flower stalk before I moved it to a piece of light blue paper. By underlaying and overlaying the various parts the finished stem takes on the illusion of depth and fullness. To finish the card I trimmed the blue paper, mounted it on a purple paper matching the color of the flowers, trimmed that panel with a lace edge sticker (Mrs. Grossman's) and added a purple line (Mrs. Grossman's). I mounted everything on a lavender card and to finish the card I added the text (Deja View Wonderful Words) below the flower image.

The second card I made uses a left over piece of a 12" long ocean scenery sticker (Mrs. Grossman's). The original sticker is only about 1" high and I didn't want to have just a narrow band of either the ocean or beach across the bottom of the card. To start with I cut up the sticker in two pieces, overlaid two of the pieces to create a wider and more dramatic looking band which allowed me to have both the wave and the beach as my background. To complete the scene I added the background clouds and gulls; which are all parts of the same scenery sticker. The white tag was made using a border punch with a matching corner punch (Martha Stewart/E.K. Success) while the blue wave trim was made using an edge punch (Fiskars). The text is a sticker (Cloud-9-Designs/Fiskars) which is now also available as an acrylic stamp from the same company. The third card started with one laser cut texted and lace sticker (Mrs. Grosssman's) that I mounted on a piece of burgundy paper and then trimmed down. I covered three of the laser cut flowers within the sticker with other flower stickers (Mrs. Grossman's). To create the river of flowers I started by locating the panel I made in the lower right hand corner of the card and then tracing around it in pencil. This creates a space around which the river of flowers (Mrs. Grossman's) goes through but does not need to actually be covered with flowers. Matching the flowers I used on the panel I started the river by laying down the largest of the flowers from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the card in an uneven pattern and spacing. To maximize my stickers I cut some of the individual flower stickers in pieces and used them around the marked off area of the panel which creates the illusion that the flowers continue behind the panel. I also re-used the portions of the flowers that I trimmed off along the edge of the card around the panel. To complete the look I filled in the river with different sized flowers. The panel was then attached to the card with raised adhesive dots.

These were all done with flat one dimensional stickers but I use the same techniques with 3D stickers.

Easter - Crosses part 1

As I said this year I chose two themes for Easter and these are the first three cards I made using a cross as a theme.

The first card was made using a die-cut system (Cricut with the Inspired Hearts cartridge from Walmart). The image was so beautiful and powerful that I decided to leave it alone except for the addition of the sun behind it. The papers all have a shimmering finish (Bazzill Bassics) except for the cross; which is just a mat finished burned sienna color (DCWV).

The second card was made using a laser cut wooden cross that I found at our local craft store (Micheal's'). I colored it in green, red and gold using magic markers (Sharpie). To emphasize the center I added a faux gems sticker (Stampendous Dot Sparklers - diamond). he background is made up of three rays in white shimmering paper (Bazzill Basics) embellished with gold lines (Starform).

The third card was made using my favorite media: stickers. The cross is a 3D sticker (Studio 112/K&Company/E.K. Success) mounted a circle of metallic copper paper (The Paper Company). The card was covered with more of the metallic paper and then with a patterned paper (DB Designs) trimmed with a deckle edged scissor (Fiskars) and edged with walnut color ink (Ink It-up!). The rays are antique gold stickers (Mrs. Grossman's Design Lines). The text was computer generator and printed on a clear adhesive label.

Pin-wheel Card.

Since I posted this version of a pin-wheel card on my Face Book page, I've had a couple of people ask me how I did it! My immediate response: it was not easy and required several tries with a lot of patience!

I started with the basic pieces of a pin-wheel: two squares of paper 2 5/8" x 2 5/8" for the background (Bazzill Basics shimmering brown) and four squares 1 1/4" x 1 1/4" of shimmering white (Bazzill Basics Diamond) and shimmering ivory (Bazzill Basics Glass Slipper) for the pinwheel. I used a corner punch (Martha Stewart/E.K. Success - eyelet lace) for the pattern. Because of the size differences between the punch and the squares I turned the punch upside down so I could see where I was punching and used a needle nosed tweezers to hold the squares in place while I punched them. I punched each square twice along one side. To get each square right took several tries and many more 1 1/4" squares than I had originally cut out! When I went to layout the card I realized that due to the punched out pattern some of the design was overlapping the bottom of the previous piece of paper and was not visible. So I went back and trimmed each square by trial and error so that when they were laid over each other the background paper would show through.

To finish the card I used an old piece of text patterned paper (Hot Off the Press) that I mounted on more of the shimmering brown paper and centered it on a 5" x 5" square card I made from more shimmering white paper. After I attached the finished pin-wheel, I added a gold banner (Martha Stewart/E.K. Success) across the front with a gold text sticker (Stampendous) that I colored black with a marker (Sharpie). The final touch was the addition of the sugared pansy stickers (Martha Stewart/E.K. Success) and some leaves that I cut out from another sticker (Hydrangea from Martha Stewart/E.K. Success).

Because of the 1 1/4" size restriction some corner punches will not work while other will. The only way to find out which ones work is with lots of patience by trial and error. The final results are well worth the pain!

Easter - Lilies Part 2

Here are my next two Easter cards using the lily theme!

The first card was made using a series of consecutive overlays in tones of shimmering white and shimmering ivory papers (Bazzill Basics) with the inner frame made using a die-cut system (Spellbinders). The bouquet of flowers with the bow is a 3D glittered sticker (Jolee's Boutique/E.K. Success). The text is computer generated on clear adhesive paper.

The second card was made using white glittered 3D frame stickers (All That Bling/E.K. Success) mounted on a pastel blue patterned (Die Cut with a View). The bouquet of flowers with the bow is a 3D glittered sticker (Jolee's Boutique/E.K. Success). The text is computer generated on clear adhesive paper.