Dimensional Ruffles for Dad

We were challenged today to make a Dimensional Ruffles card for Dad.  This one took me quite a while, because I broke 2 border punches during the process.  This punch made it through the process.  I added another layer of dark blue under the ruffles, then mounted that on a cream base card.  The sentiment is computer generated because I have no Dad stamps.

Dimensional Ruffles card

There was a video tutorial this morning on making a Dimensional Ruffles Card.  You can see it HERE.  I made this card while watching the tutorial so it's not as even as I'd hoped.  I'll work more with this idea later.  The punch is by Martha Stewart and the stamp is by Rosebud Rubber Stamps.

PS:  It might be better to watch this tutorial video on UStream.

Dog Tag card - cord comparison

I've been making dog tag cards as Any Hero cards to send to Operation Write Home.  These cards are sent to deployed heroes to let them know we support them.  I'm running out of the cord that I have been using to simulate the dog tag chain.  This is my favorite:

This is a nice size cord and looks good on the cards, but I ran out of it and haven't found more.  I don't remember where I bought it, but I'll keep looking.

'I tried this Trim cord that I bought with Christmas wrapping supplies.  It is stiff and 'breaks' when I try to curve it.  It just won't hold up as good as the Wrights metallic.

I found this Lion Brand Lame Metallic Yarn in my tatting supplies.  It works well, but it's much thinner cord.  I made the dog tags in a smaller size and it seems to work for my purpose.

Dog Tag Thank You card

This is a thank you card for the troops.  I made the dog tags from an old Sizzix die with silver cardstock.  The cord is from Wrights.  The camo paper is from a Marine pad from K & Co. and the rest is from an Army pack by Bazzill.  I've made similar cards before, but this time I added layers and dimensional foam tape under dog tags and God Bless America.

Trees & Hikers

When OWH held the challenge day on Facebook Saturday, I made 3 cards using the top portion of a 12 X 12 piece of scrapbook paper.  The lower part was all trees and I wasn't sure how to use it.  Here's my first card. 

I also used another piece of scrapbook paper for the hikers.  The whole page is filled with rows of hikers.  I cut a piece off one strip and mounted it on brown cardstock that I had punched with on EK Success border punch.  I mounted both the hiker strip and the sentiment on the foam dimensional tape.  Now, to go use up the rest of that paper.  Here's the original 3 cards.

Take another look at those packages of scrapbook paper with large images.  Sometimes, you can cut part of it and use it for cards.

Ruffles card remake

I wasn't really pleased with the card in the previous post with the ruffles.  I always have trouble with combining patterned paper.  I tried it again with a solid layer between them and toning down the patterns a bit.  I also found the punch I wanted to use on the previous card.  Here's the result:

This still isn't my favorite card, so I think I'll move on to something else.

OWH Challenge cards

Operation Write Home is sponsoring several challenges today on Facebook to try to stimulate our mojo.  Mine has been seriously lacking recently, so I've tried to do the challenges.  Some cards worked out better than others.  Here's my results:

The first card was a Food Challenge.  I used this cupcake stamp and paper pieced it.  The circles are the Pinking Circles Nestibilities.  These are on sale in a lot of online stores.  I guess they didn't sell well, but I love them.





The second challenge was to make a card inspired by this picture .  I saw lots of pastel ruffles and made this card:

I wasn't really pleased with this card, so I'll see if I can make a better one later.  I did add a pink ribbon over the purple one to soften it a bit. 

The 3rd challenge of the day was to make a Weather Inspired card.  I made the sun with 2 punches, popped on foam mounting tape.  I also scored the blue card with my Scor-It board and highlighted the score lines with a bit of Brilliance yellow ink.  The Hedgehog stamp is by Penny Black and colored with Prismacolor pencils.  The sentiment stamp is also from Penny Black.

Our next challenge was to make masculine cards or cards that aren't too feminine.  I used a 12 X 12 sheet of scrapbook paper and cut out 3 sections across the top.  Here's my cards.

Now, I have the lower half of the paper to use.  It is all trees, so I'll have to think about that for a while.  My mojo has really been pushed today, so I'll let it rest a bit and celebrate Easter.  Happy Easter to all.

Red Baron Birthday card

Success!!!  I managed to make a card for my other brother-in-law.  Since I don't like to color images (and I've colored this one before), I used paper piecing this time.  It takes a lot of cutting and gluing, but I like the finished product.  This stamp is made by Stampabilities.

Now, I'll see if I can keep my mojo going and make some more birthday cards.

Tool sticker card

I've been struggling with mojo for a couple weeks.  It came back this morning.  I used to make all cards for a specific person and make them personal.  Recently, I have been doing groups of cards for people I don't know.  That's when I lost my mojo.

Today, I made a card for my brother-in-law, who used build homes and is now in a nursing home.  I used some stickers from Sticko (EK Success).

The sentiment is stamped on a balsa wood business card.  I've had a stack of these for years, but haven't used them lately.  I punched holes in the corners and inserted brads.  The tool corners stamp is an old unmounted one with no label.  I just stamped it in the corners, put the brads through both layers, then mounted them onto black, then on a tan base card.  The hammer and screwdriver stickers were added last.  Here's the finished card.

Now, I have another brother-in-law card to make.  Hope the next one works for me.

The Rest of the Star Story

Recently, I made a Star Card and decided to finish it up.  Here's my finished card, ready to mail - no envelope - just put it in the box for Operation Write Home.

Thank you square is only attached at upper right corner, so it can be opened and closed again.  I wrote a note to the troops on the back.  I'm aware that this is a 6 pointed star, but it still serves my purpose.

Poor Eagles

I've still been keeping an eye on the Eagle Cam in Decorah, Iowa.  The 3 eaglets are growing fast and doing well.  However, it appears they have had snow in Iowa.  Mama doesn't look very happy.  The camera has been covered with snow all morning and this is the first glimpse we've had of her.

Yesterday, it took both Mom & Dad to keep them fed.  They grow fast and are getting feathers to replace the down that the had earlier.  Hopefully, the weather clears up and they can get back to their schedule.



More Sticker Cards

I made this card yesterday, after being inspired by Jan's sticker cards from the blog skip.  These hibiscus stickers are from a sheet of stickers that I bought on a trip to Hawaii a few years ago.  The colors are very vibrant and I found it difficult to find cardstock that would show them off properly.

I chose 3 stickers in the same color and mounted them onto white cardstock and cut them out with the circle Nestibilities.  The white flowers work well with the white cardstock borders.  I used this metallic cardstock to frame the elements.  I keep wanting to add more embellishments, but may just keep it the way it is.  What do you think?



I made this card last year for a man, using the tool stickers from a sheet I found at Wal-Mart.  The 'tool belt' is made from brown cardstock with some added distressing to make it look used.  I added faux stitching with a sharpie marker and brads for the rivets.  This is the front of an A2 size card.

OWH Blog Skip

Welcome to the blog skip.   If you arrived here from Julie's blog, you're in the right place.  If not, please start at the beginning.

  1.  OWH Stars and Stamps blog.
  2.  Barb at Paper Therapy Ponderings
  3.  Erica at Creative But Messy
  4.  Jan at Jan's Gone Stamping
  5.  Sherry at Bits of Cheer
  6.  Julie at Handmade by Julie
  7.  Velda at OldStamper Musings  - (You are here)
  8.  John at John VM's Cards
  9.  Steph and Robin at SR Cards
10.  Paula at Handmade by Paula
11.  Samantha at Expressions of a Craftaholic

Today we are sharing with you ways to use stickers wisely on our cards.  My recommendation is to choose good quality, appropriate stickers - not those made for kids to play with.  You can find these in stores that sell stamping and scrapbooking supplies or online.  Stampendous has some very nice stickers.  Just do a search and you can find lots of others.

Treat the stickers with respect and consider them part of your design, not an add-on to fill a blank space.  Some stickers are too lightweight to stand alone, so put them onto a piece of cardstock and cut them out.  If your sticker doesn't have adequate adhesive, add your own.

I chose a sticker from this sheet by K & Co.  I placed the circle sticker onto a piece of neutral cardstock.  I then cut it out with a circle Nestibility, using small pieces of painter's tape to keep it lined up.  I distressed the edges a bit, so the cardstock will blend with sticker.

I made the card, using layering and embossing.  The sentiment is stamped with a Hero Arts rubber stamp and Memento Bamboo Leaves ink.  Edges are distressed with some of the same ink.  I added the butterfly sticker, using foam mounting tape to make it more 'on top' of the other elements.  You may need to put the sticker on cardstock and cut it out for stability.

I added a liner to inside of card with smooth writing paper because card is textured.  I embellished  the liner with some stickers from a coordinating set of borders and corners by K & Co.

Finally, I added a small bow to soften the entire card.

Tip:  You should be able to click on any of the photos to make them large enough to see the details.

For this card, I choose these metallic corner stickers from Starform.  I just stamped an embossed gold sentiment in the middle of red cardstock and placed the stickers in the corners.

This background paper is an old one from my stash, when I was practicing techniques.  Save them, you never know when they will work for for another card design.  I had brayered Liquid Applique onto a card and heated it.  Didn't like result, so I sprayed on some black webbing.

I added some layering and ribbon for a completed card.

This card was made using metallic stickers.  The dragonfly is from Class A'Peels and the Happy Birthday is from Starform.  The background is from my stash and I'm not sure how I made it.  It's on black glossy paper and either Marvy Metallic markers or Lumiere paint were daubed on.  I have a lot of these old backgrounds that I've saved from my experiments over the years.

Now, to continue on the OWH Blog Skip, take a jump over to John's blog.

Iris Thinking of You

This is another background from my stash.  This one appears to be polished stone, made with alcohol inks.  The iris image is stamped with Marvy Metallics purple, with Encore gold ink on the stem and leaves and stamped on black matte paper.  I cut image out with Nestibilities along with the Metallic purple cardstock.  The sentiment is stamped with black embossing powder.  The image is mounted on foam mounting tape.

Iris Birthday Card

I found this background in my stash that I made several years ago.  By checking out the colors, I think that I used Marvy Metallic markers on acetate, then smooshed the black glossy cardstock between the layers.  I used a black layer under the background and put it on a lavender base card to highlight the colors.

The Marvy Metallics can be put directly on the rubber and stamped.  I used this solid iris stamp by Stamp A Mania on black cardstock.  I attempted the sentiment, but the details get run together.  I used a copper Encore inkpad for the Happy Birthday.

The glossy layering really makes everything pop and the ribbon pricks up the purple in the background.  Both image and sentiment are raised with foam mounting tape.

I'd love to make more of these, but will go onto use other backgrounds from my stash of samples.

Star card

My idea and instructions for this card is from Stamp Owl's Studio blog.  She is from Australia, so those of us in the USA need to do some conversion, but it's not too hard.

Folded

This card starts out as a triangle with 3 - 12" sides.  It is scored in 2 places and folded.  The corners of the blue triangle with stars are tucked under previous fold on one side, like closing top of a box.

Open

I haven't added a sentiment nor decided where to put one.  It's just a fun fold and this is my first try.  More work should come up with some interesting cards.  Stay tuned!



Learning to color images

As many of you know, I've been struggling to learn to color my images.  This flower was stamped in Memento Black Tuxedo ink onto pearescent pale lavender cardstock and cut out with circle Nestibility.  This stamp is by Alesa Baker.

Step 1

1.  I started by coloring the stamens in the middle of flower with yellow pencil.  This doesn't really show in the photo.   I colored the petals from center of the flower outward, using light, short strokes with Mulberry Prismacolor pencil and the leaves with Prismacolor Grass Green pencil.

Step 2

2.  Next, I added a second color with each section, working my way outward and overlapping the strokes.  I used Prismacolor Parma Violet for petals and True Green for leaves.

Step 3

 3.  I now added a third color to each side, using Lilac on the petals and Spring Green on the leaves.

Step 4

4.  The 4th layer of color on the petals is Lavender Prismacolor pencil.

Step 5

5. Finally, I added white to the outer edge of both petal and leaves.  Since the paper is lavender, the white really makes the edges pop.  You can still see all the colors and pencil strokes on the image.

Step 6

6.  The last step is to blend all the colors with a Prismacolor Colorless Blender.  This makes it all look smooth and blended.  I also use my Electric Eraser to clean up any edges or overly dark pencil strokes.

7.  Add an accenting color layer under your image before mounting onto your final card.

Step 7

You can see my finished card in my previous post.

Finished card

Thinking of you

This card has taken me a while to create.  When I was playing with making bows, this ribbon made very nice bows on the fork.  I had to find paper and a stamped image that would go with this color ribbon.

I stamped this old Alesa Baker stamp (2002) onto pearlescent cardstock and colored the image with Prismacolor pencils.  I still need to work on my coloring skills.  I'm trying to learn to shade my flowers.  I blended several colors with the Prismacolor Colorless Blender.  Then I had to locate ink and paper to go with the colors.  The base card is just white cardstock.

I also tried to create dimension in my card by popping the sentiment and the image on foam mounting tape.

The Eagles have hatched!

It's hard to concentrate on making cards when even my dog has become an eagle watcher!  He was attracted by the sound and tried to attack the speakers.



Last night Eaglet #3 came out of his shell.  How exciting to watch it hatch.  You can watch the close-up video HERE.  If you want to watch the Eagle Cam live, here's the link:  Decorah Eagles.  There are eagle watchers from 31 countries watching this.  Last night, there were over 100,000 viewers watching Mama Eagle sleep, with babies under her.

If you want to really be addicted, you can follow the eagles on Facebook.  This site is very fast moving with lots of photos posted.  This morning we had a glimpse of all 3 eaglets.

I'm still trying to get some cards designed, but this is so much fun and a chance of a lifetime.  It is so 'egg-citing' to watch our national bird in their normal lifestyle.  This has been going on forever, but this is our first opportunity to observe it so closely.  Thank you, Bob Anderson, for your vision and hard work to set this up.

Eaglet #1 just doesn't want to miss a thing!