Halloween 2013

One thing I learned early on with stickers is that they don't need to be used as they are packaged. Stickers can be cut apart, dis-assembled and re-assembled as needed and some even colored. I took advantage of these techniques in making these two cards.

 

The first card started with a laser cut over sized sticker from Mrs. Grossman's picturing a tree with several small crows. The sticker's original shape was rectangular which I changed to oval by adhering the sticker to an ivory piece of paper and then using an oval die cut to eliminate the original square frame. To emphasize the crow concept I added a large glittered crow sticker from Martha Stewart/E.K. Success, whose eye I colored with some red glitter glue.

 

 

 

The second card also started with a laser cut Mrs. Grossman's sticker. This time I adhered it to a white piece of paper and then colored the background as needed. The paper background was trimmed to fit the frame of the sticker and then the panel was added to a pale green card. This time I added glittered bat stickers from Martha Stewart/E.K. Success to emphasize the haunted house theme.

 

 

The original stickers are great by themselves but a little personalization never hurts!

Time flies!

For the year and a half I was un-employed I had plenty of time to create cards and post entries on my blog. Now that I'm working in another city three hours away and I stay there monday through friday my creating and posting time has been reduced to the point of being almost non-existant. I can't believe that today was my first post since the end of June. I will have to make a better effort to do better.

Making the most out of a collection.

End of the season shopping is always great ... especially when you find entire collections (or at least the remainders) on clearance. Recently I found various K&Company products from the same line all in a clearance bin. It included everything from paper, to stickers to die-cuts to tags. It makes coordination and layering so much easier.

 

I started with an A2 size (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") white card which I covered with a portion of paper. I looked through several sheets and found the one that matched the other pieces best and also offered the best layout ... a fairly solid background with just a hint (in this case corner) of flowers. To create depth I edged the card with brown ink. In the opposite corner I trimmed and added a 3D tag with the same basic concept; which fortunately was a mirror image and provide perfect balance. I edged the tag with brown ink as well. On the flowers form the background paper I added glittered 3D stickers of similar flowers. To finish off the card I added a 3D glittered butterfly. All I need is to decide the occasion so I can select a text!

Copper metal embossing.

I like dry embossing but when using paper (especially white) the results are sometimes very hard to see. So I started looking around for other materials, including more masculine ones. I ended up embossing some of my 36 gage Amoco Copper tooling foil and here are the results.

 

The first card uses a simple band of embossed copper (Darice edge embossing folder) which was aged by coloring the entire strip with a black Sharpie pen and then rubbing as much ink off as possible from the raised surfaces. To add some interest I added faux gems from Stampendous to the center of some of the flowers. I then layered the embossed strip on a white strip of paper,which I edged with gold line stickers from Mrs. Grossman's when I adhered the strip to the card. The final touch was the addition of a tag from Martha Stewart/E.K. Success and a sticker text from Momenta. This card has a distinctive masculine look to it.

 

 

The second card uses the same design ideas as the first card, except that I colored the embossing (Darice edge embossing folder) with a variety of colored Sharpie markers and added small 3D sticker flowers from Jolee's/E.K. Success before attaching it to the card and adding a more flowery tag decorated with more of the small 3D sticker flowers. This card has a more feminine characteristic look to it.

 

 

The third card and final card is strictly masculine and used a watch themed embossing folder from Darice, which was again colored completely with a black Sharpie marker and then cleaned off as much as possible but still leaving a darker background. The watch is a 3D resin sticker from Jolee's/E.K. Success.

 

 

3D Creations

Creating multi layered cards using 3D stickers is quick and easy - but have you ever tried doing it yourself? The easiest way is to find multiple copies of the same image, cut the image out in pieces and then layering the pieces using raised adhesive dots. I recently found a company that actually provides you with pre-cut images to make the process more enjoyable.

 

 

This card uses the Reddy Company "antique rose" pattern. The roses, lilac and leaves vary in layers from two all the way to five and are attached to a background design using small adhesive dots (some which I had to trim down to mere slivers). I then trimmed the image background using a deckle edged scissor. For the card and background I used papers that matched the colors in the image. To add to the antique feel I edged the panels with a brown ink pad.  The Reddy Company "antique rose" package comes with six background images on one sheet as well as with a second sheet that has all the pre-cut layers neatly numbered. The punching out and layering processes due to the small fragile pieces are very time consuming ... but the results are well worth it. Try it!

 

Personalized card using initials!

I am a huge fan of letter writing and always used seals on the envelope with my initial and at some point even had writing paper with a gold embossed initial at the top. Sadly letter writing has gone out of style (I think) but you can still personalize your cards by incorporating the recipients initial in the design. Actually although I've thought about it for a long time I never did until I made this card!

The card was made using the Cricut "Art Deco" cartridge and incorporates two designs from the cartridge. The horse is made up of 3 layers (black, rust brown and tan) but sadly to get it to fit in one direction  it just wasn't large enough to really fill the rest card which is a simple white A2 size card (4 1/4" x 5 1/2"). So I looked through the images on the cartridge to see what would go with the horse and came across a medallion and the thoughts about what I could put inside the medallion. That's when I decided to use the recipients initial.  The initial is 2 layers (gold and black) and is in the same Deco style as the horse ... very masculine on both counts. The addition of a simple ribbon finished off the card.

Printed acetate frame overlays.

Spring sale at the local craft store led me to make some unexpected purchases ... a box of pre-made dies which also included printed acetate overlays. The smaller acetates were usable but the rest were frames. The ones in the box I got fit well centered on a 5"x 6 1/2" card but were just a slightly too big for the 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" cards I usually make. My first reaction was to chuck the frame overlays (after all I only paid $1.00 for the entire package) but then I took a second look at them.

 

 

The first card is a 5"x 6 1/2" that I made for Easter. I used two of the acetate overlays full size over one another as the background. The overall background of the one had a slight greenish tint to it; which I emphasized by mounting them on a light green background paper before mounting them on a white card. I added flower stickers in the upper left and lower right corners to finish the frame effect.

 

 

The second card is a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and required the acetate frame to be cut apart and re-assembled. I chose to only frame portions of the card leaving the upper right corner empty. The card was scanned and the edge of the acetate shows up much more than it does on the actual card. I added a 3D glittered sticker to add interest and depth to the overall image. The final touch was a pre-made texted tag. The acetates I used are lightly glittered; which add another level of depth to the card.

Easter - a fall mistake!

 Last fall I was playing around with some of my stamps with various images of trees. One of the result was made using an Inkadinkado/E.K. Success stamp; which I stamped next to each other twice in brown ink on a piece of sky patterned paper (Cosmo Cricket Chicken Little). The bottom part of the stamp is actually a solid background with leaves silhouettes. The end result was not what I had expected and seemed to have no real life.  I put the stamped image aside. Fast forward to this Easter. For some reason the stamped image looked better but better yet I knew what to do to it to fix it.

 

 

I started by covering the lower part of the image with a Merlot ink pad (Colorbox) and even lightly went over the ground line into the trees. I then highlighted the background by padding on some yellow and sky blue ink (Colorbox) over the yellow and blue in the sky. Next I trimmed the panel down to size and edged it with more Merlot ink. The next step was the rub-on text (Chartpack) from some texted sheets from 2005; which I recently found at the bottom of a drawer and thought had gone bad. The final step, mounting the stamped panel on a size 2A card made from shimmering white paper (Bazzil Bassics).

 

This one is for Cora Jean ... thank you for stopping by!

 

Masculine Album

A couple of weeks ago I posted a card on face Book that had no flowers and received so many comments about my "missing" masculine cards that I just had to respond to by making some masculine cards. Here are the results.

Card 1: Having just seen the new movie about Oz, I could resist using this stamp from Michael's dollar bin. The background is a retired die-cut from Sizzix cut from a Paper Company piece of mustard parchment paper edged with brown and black ink. I colored the stamp image using Prisma Coloring Pencils and then added some brown floss held in place with a glittered Fleur de Lis sticker from Jolee's Boutique/E.K. Success.

Card 2: I stamped a group of horses from Inkadinkado in Martha Stewart/E.K. Succes Merlot ink on a piece Paper Company mustard parchment paper which I then tore the top of and edged with brown ink. I layered a wood grained paper from K & Company/E.K. Success and the torn panel on a card and edged the entire card with more brown ink. The ribbon is made from self adhesive 7 Gypsies paper ribbon and an antique copped buckle from Making memories.

Card 3:   This card is semi monochromatic and uses a layer of patterned paper with a Christmas paper ribbon from Anna Griffin mounted on a black background. The front panel is more Paper Company  parchment paper but this time its the tan version on which I stamped the Fleur de Lis image from Stampers Anonymous. I used a deckle edged scissor to cut the panel and then edged it with black ink before I added it to the card using raised adhesive dots.

Card 4: This last card was the quickest and easiest ... a deep burgundy background on which I ran a burgundy ribbon from American Crafts and then added a gold Spellbinder die-cut frame inlaid with some texted paper from K&Company/E.K. Success. To finish off the card another piece of ribbon cut with a birds beak detail and attached using with a glittered Fleur de Lis sticker from Jolee's Boutique/E.K. Success.

Easter

This year I decided to break down my Easter cards into adult and children categories. I used cutesy baby chick and bunny stickers for the kids and more religious themed images for the adults. But when I started doing more old fashioned styled cards I realized they could actually fit both categories.

This card uses a Martha Stewart.E. K. Success border punch to create an oval shaped doily ribbon for the background stripe. I overlaid this with an oval lace edged tag also from Martha Stewart/E. K. Success. The image is a sticker from Punch Studios. I used a baby blue card to match the color of the egg in the sticker. Another simple multi recipient card.

Left overs ... who knew!

This card was made using left over pieces from three different sticker and rub-on packages from K & Company/E.K. Success.

The card was actually inspired by my seeing two of the packages stacked over each other.  I always take my K & Company/E.K. Success packages apart because I save the patterned paper backing material.  This leaves the stickers and the rub-ons on their clear plastic support sheet.  Once I use the pieces that prompted me to buy the package, I keep the remainders in a storage box ... stacked over each other.  There you have it, my inspiration.  I started with a white size A2 card to which I added a 2" wide light purple panel.  I then overlaid 3D texted and framed mini panels in a collage format copied directly from the packaging.  To this I added some rub-on flourishes to enhance the upper and lower corners. To create the shape I cut up the rub-ons and then assembled them to meet my needs.  For the final touch to the lay-out I added some additional 3D flowers with small rhinestone centers and to finish the card I added a computer generated text.

 

Sometimes the unexpected can produce great results.

 

 

Multi media layering

Some card makers use nothing but stamps other stickers and othet yet use mostly paper ... I like to use them all and layer them.Layers do not need to have a three dimensional aspect to create depth, sometimes imple flat overlaying works just as well. The idea is to get as many layers as I can.

The first layer was the red stripe. I then took a tan strip of paper and used a border rub-on to embellish the strip. this was my second and third layer. I then added the dimensional sticker tag (layer number four). I used more rub-ons, this time flourishes, around the sticker tag to create the fifth layer. Finally I added a row of rhinestones to the one strip; which become layer number six.

 

At first glance the card looks simple but when you start looking at it each layer becomes visible and the depth becomes more evident.

Combining Themes

This year I wanted to make a very elegant New Year's day card but could not find anything like that in the New Year's section. So I had to improvise and look around the craft store under other holidays, themes and even sections.Finally what caught my eye was a black rub-on flourished frame from the wedding section of the store.

 

 

I started by making a legal size black card for the background. I next added the black rub-on flourished frame to a piece of white paper; which I trimmed accordingly to fit on the card and adhered to the center of the card. The final touch was an old rub-on text is.