MoJo Monday #226

This week's MoJo Monday challenge immediately caught my eye:: a masculine square or a feminine circle. After some thought I decided to switch and go with the square for a feminine card and the circle for a masculine card.

The square card uses pastel shades of green, olive and ivory for teh background with the introuction of a self adhesive vellum lace sticker (Recollections) for the lower panel. The flower band is a border sticker (K&Company/E.K. Success) which I matched up with one of the glittered die-cuts from the same collection (K&Company/E.K. Success). The text was computer generated.

The circle card uses shades of brown and ivory with various parts of the rustic clocks 3D tole paper cut-outs(Hot Off the Press). The text was computer generated.

Work and Patience!

Sometimes the simplest ideas take the most work and patience to accomplish. That was the case of my latest card. I wanted to create a card that mimicked the colors of these great 3D glittered flower stickers (Martha Stewart/E.K. Success).

The background is a simple olive green 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card that I edged with walnut ink (Stamp It-up!). The ribbon was made from two strips of white paper (one 1 3/8" wide and one 1 3/4" wide) that were punched on both sides using a Fleur-De-Lis edge punch (E.K. Success). The wider strip was inked with black ink alone the outside edges and then brown ink along the inside of the punches but leaving the central portion white. The narrower strip was inked with gold ink on the outside edges and light olive green on the inside. The smaller strip was adhered down the center of the wider one and then both were lightly inked with gold ink. Note: all the inks used on the strips were from Martha Stewart/E.K. Success).  The strips were adhered vertically down the card 1 1/2" away from the folded edge.I then added brown square rhinestones down the center of the strips. The tag was made using gold paper (Colorbok) and a die-cutting and embossing folder (Cuttle Bug), which I then inked lightly with permanent black ink (Staz-on) and added to the card. I then added the three flowers. The leaves were punched with a rose leaf hand punch (Martha Stewart/E.K. Success) from shimmering dark green paper (Bazzil Bassics), edged with walnut ink and individually added behind the flowers. The final touch was a sticker text (Mrs. Grossman's).

The strips reflect the colors of the flower petals, the rhinestones reflect the color of the glittered flower inner centers and the aged gold tag reflects the glittered ring around the flower centers.  Overall it was a lot of work but I think the results were well worth it!

Mojo Monday #225

When I saw the sketch all I could think of was "form follows function"; which in turn meant architectural motifs. So here's my Mojo Monday #225 submittal.

The smaller stamps are from Stampin Up! and the larger stamp is from Beeswax and the text is from Anna Griffin/All Night Media. They were all stamped using Chestnut Roan Fluid Chalk ink from Color Box/Clear Snap on on Recollection textured Marble paper. I did lightly color the images in pencil to add some depth and character to the over all look.

Just for You!

Everyone enjoys a special thought for no reason other than the fact that you are thinking of them ... even men! With that in mind I made the following card using a soft background with a bold text.

I used a pastel olive green paper (Die Cut with a View) to make the 4/14" x 5 1/2" card. The image (Rubber Cottage) was stamped in grey ink (Making Memories) on white paper and colored with pencil (PrismaColor).  Both the card and stamped panel were edged with stem green ink (Martha Stewart/E.K. Success). The branches are stickers (Mrs. Grossman's Design Line) that were soften with a thin coat of white ink; which I then cut up and reassembled on the card. The ribbon is a self adhesive twill ribbon (Martha Stewart/E.K. Success) on which I added a sticker text (Stampendous).

Thinking of You - masculine style!

Once again I was reminded that although I'd made some beautiful "Thinking of You" cards, they were all on the feminine side and I needed to make some masculine one's as well. So here's my first attempt.

The card itself is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and was made from shimmering ivory paper (Bazzill Basics). The image is made up of three stamps: the deer (Serendipity Stamps), the clouds (Beeswax)  and the distressing pattern (Stampin' Up!). The first two were stamped using sepia colored ink (Ranger Archival) and then colored lightly using chalk (Pebbles) and coloring pencils (PrismaColor). I highlighted the face and tail of the deer with a fine point black marker (Sharpie) just to add some depth and expression to the image. The distressing pattern was stamped in black ink over the colored image. Using a deckle edged scissor (Fiskars) I cut out the stamped image and a 1" wide strip from a scrap piece of black paper. Before adhering the stamped panel to the card I edged it with sepia ink. The leaves, branches and text are all gold colored stickers (Stampendous) that I colored with a black permanent marker (Sharpie) and then wiped to create an antiqued gold look (which is not really visible in the scan but works well).  

Hero Cards!

Some simple Hero cards for OWH. All the cards are made using DCWV papers, CuttleBug embossing folders and various K&Company/E.K. Success stickers.

Simple, direct and to the point.

Another window die card!

I needed a card for an elderly relative who loves cats ... and I wanted to use my new window die again. So here it is!

The window was die cut from a piece of tan paper (see previous post for die info). I laid out the window die-cut out on a piece of self adhesive blue vellum (Generations) with small pencil marks in each of the upper window pane's corners and then cut up a lace doily (Mrs' Grossman's Laser Cut) to fit between the pencil marks to create the curtains. The window die-cut was then added. I started by adding the 3D glittered flower bouquet (K&Company/E.K. Success) on the kleft side of the window after cutting off some of the extrenuous leaves and re-attaching them in different places. Next I cut up a 3D cat sticker (Punch Studios) and slid him behind and into the 3D flowers.  I then cut up one more set of the 3D glittered flowers to get the extending branch and added that to the right side of the cat, again sliding it behind and into the cat.  The final touch was a sticker text (Stampensous) that i colored with a black marker.

New Window Die-cut!

I couldn't believe my eyes when Ted at "Happily Ever After" posted a beautiful card he made using a window die-cut. I've been looking for either a window or door die-cut for quite a while and couldn't find either. When I saw the card I quickly logged on to Ted's blog and was happy to see that being a true crafter he posted his sources. I couldn't wait to order my window die-cut and this afternoon it finally arrived! So here's my first of many creations using the window die-cut.

I started by making a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" white card. I continued by die-cutting the window (Poppy Stamps - Small Madison Window #816) from white paper and then highlighted the embossed details in pencil. The window was then mounted on a small piece of light blue paper and then on a piece of patterned paper (Basic Grey 6x6 Design Pad - ledger sheet); which was cut 1" smaller all around than the card itself. I mounted the window closer to the top of the panel to leave room for the flower box. The flower box is a die-cut (Cricut - Ornamental Iron 2) cut out of black paper and adhered to the lower part of the window.  The flowers and the small butterfly are 3D glittered stickers with rhinestone embellishments that I got at the dollar store (the only manufacturer information was "made in China"). I cut up and re-assembled two flower stickers to create the look of one continuous group of flowers.

Thanks Ted for sharing!

First 2012 publication

These three cards (which I posted here early in 2011) just got published in the March 2012 issue of Scrap & Stamp Arts magazine and I thought they deserved another showing here. 

January Challenge Sketch

Recently a forum was created by Ivanka Lentke for card makers who used to post on "Cuppas and Cards" and part of the fun is a monthly "challenge" sketch.   When I started on "Cuppas and Cards" I leaned towards masculine themed cards and decide to do the same for my first response to the challenge sketch.  The January challenge sketch was simple and perfect for a masculine themed card ... so here's my interpretation of it.

I started with two complimentary embossed papers from "K&Company/E.K. Success": one being a copper colored version and the other being a multi colored version of the same image.  To accentuate the fact that these papers were complimentary I matched the design and pattern at the joint line.  The joint line was covered with a 3/8" wide strip of texture ivory paper (The Paper Company).  I used the same textured ivory paper to die-cut a decorative tag with the "Spellbinder Fancy Label" set.  The card's edges and the ivory paper were lightly antiqued using Coffee Bean ink from "Inkadinkado".  To complete the card I added a sticker text from "Mrs. Grossman's" and two small rub-on flourishes from "American Crafts" to the decorative tag.  There you have it: my first challenge entry of 2012!

Thank You!

I was looking to create a card using as many different products (stamps, chalk, coloring pencils, markers, stickers, papers and die-cuts) but yet having it look very simple and uncomplicated.  The result is below.

The papers are: an antique gold (The Paper Company) base panel overlaid with a pale yellow damask paper (Anne Griffin) and a plain white paper for the card and the die-cut.  The die-cut was done using the largest die of a set (Spellbinders Labels 18) and edged with two contrasting gold markers (DecaColor and Making Memories) attached to the card using raised adhesive dots.  The stamp (Fiskars) was stamped in olive green ink (Color Box Fluid Chalk), colored with coloring pencils (Prisma Color) and high-lighted in the flower centers with a gold gliter marker (Martha Stewart/E.K. Success).  The pale blue background around the stamp was done using chalk (Pebbles). The final touch was the text sticker (Mrs. Grossman's).