Tuesday, May 28, 2013

More love cards

There was recently a tutorial on the Stars & Stamps blog on using a 6"X6" pad of paper to create a group of cards.  I have problems with patterned papers, so decided to work on this plan.  I chose a pad by Fancy Pants Designs called Love Notes.  I had already used some of the sheets and didn't finish it this time, but I did get 9 cards made:
Here is final 2 that I created today.
 
Here's a couple more cards that I made yesterday:
The sentiments stamped on these cards are from a new set of stamps made by Hero Arts for Operation Write Home.  There are several sets of stamps available from Hero Arts for OWH.  Check them out.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Sending You Love














I made a couple more cards out of the 6X6 pad from Fancy Pants.  The Sending You Love sentiments is from a new set of OWH stamps by Hero Arts.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Digging out of my rut

I'm still trying to get out of my rut.  I'm hoping to get some inspiration from the Operation Write Home bloghop on Memorial Day weekend.  This traditional event is what got me started making cards for OWH in 2009.  I'm not participating, just hopping along with the rest of you.

This bloghop will be all Thank You cards based on sketches.  I have a terrible time making cards from sketches, but here's an attempt for today.  I started with this sketch:
This is the cards I created from this sketch:

I cut 2 pieces of patterned paper from a 6X6 pad from Fancy Pants, called Love Note into a rectangle 4" X 5 1/4".  I put them together and cut them diagonally - corner to corner.  I glued them to black cardstock.  I stamped the sentment onto a scrap piece from the same pad and cut the circle and frame with Nestibilities.  This looks very plain to me, but it's a start.
I made this card with a sheet from the same Fancy Pants pad.  I just cut this to size and adhered it to a black frame.  It is pretty, but very plain for my taste.  I worked on several attempts before chosing these embellishments.
 
I added some shiny heart stickers over the hearts on the paper and added a bow made with some sheer ribbon.
 
I'm looking forward to learning about making cards with a sketch in the OWH Memorial Day Bloghop.

Love card

I'm getting stuck in the mojoless pit again.  I even made it to a real store to shop for some fresh supplies.  I bought some new paper and ribbon, but I'm not using them as yet.  I did also buy some pretty heart chain stickers, so made a couple of cards with them.  Both cards are the same design, so I'll just post one of them.
The Love stamp is by Stamper's Best.  I stamped it with Versamark ink and embossed with gold embossing powder.  The frame is glossy gold cardstock.  The rose is a sticker and the heart chains are stickers.  It's hard to see in the photo, but the centers of the hearts are coated red glitter.  I tried a scan, but it just won't pick up the glossy gold.

One of our deployed heroes recently requested some romantic cards to send to his wife.  I decided to give this a try.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

More watercolor flowers

Continuing with my efforts to use watercolor crayons to color flower images, I stamped several of my old Magenta rubber stamps on watercolor paper.  Coloring these is really a learning process for me.  Here's some of my results:

Friday, May 17, 2013

Playing with watercolor crayons

I bought a copy of the new Scrap & Stamp Arts magazine (June 2013) and found a fun tutorial on using watercolor crayons.  Since I have a very old set of watercolor crayons, I decided to give this a try.  I started by stamping some flower images on watercolor paper with Stewart Superior Document Stamping ink, which is water resistant.  I colored the image lightly with the crayons, then used a waterbrush to spread the color.
The card on the left is on rough textured cold press watercolor paper.  The card on the right is on smooth hot press watercolor paper.  It takes practice on the amount of water to add.  If your brush is too wet or you keep trying to fix the color, the water bleeds out over the edges of image and dilutes the color.
 
I found it works better to allow image to dry before correcting color.  If I needed to add more color, I would rub the wet brush directly on the crayon and paint that color onto image.  If I want to remove color, I add plain water and blot the color off the image with a paper towel.  It will take me more practice to become satisfied with my results.
 
I found a very old pad of mulberry cardstock and used that for the background.  I used Cuttlebug embossing folders for added texture on my cards.  Frames are cut with Spellbinder's dies.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Playing with chalkboard

I've been seeing chalkboard cards on the Internet.  I wasn't really sure how make them until I watched Sandy Allnock do a demo on OWHtv on Thursday evening.  If you go to the video on this link, you can watch her make her card.

The first one I made was a little large and too messy for my taste, but I did eventually turn it into a card.
 
 I did wrap some gold cord around the edges of the image and add a piece of patterned paper to the base card.
This card was the second attempt.  I like it a bit better than the first one, but I decided to make a smaller panel for the third card.
Most of the stamps that I used on these cards are old wood mounted rubber stamps from my stash.  I think a lot of people use clear stamps because they make placement easier.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

OWH VCMP #7

JoAnn's challenge in the Virtual Card Making Party is to make a summertime card.
This is a very old House Mouse stamp that I colored with pencils.  I think the hummer just stopped to join the mouse in a cool drink.

OWH VCMP #6

Operation Write Home is having a Virtual Card Making Party this weekend.  I haven't been participating so far, but decided to attempt challenge #6 where Julie challenged us to make an Any Hero Card, using a photo that we took ourselves.  Since I have a good little model in my dachshund, Tex, it was easy to get this photo of him this morning.

Tex loves to smell flowers and is enjoying the fragrant Jasmine that grows in my yard.  I will write a message inside the card telling our heroes about Tex and thanking them for their service.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Saying Hello

My mojo is still missing, but I'm looking for it.  I bought a set of Spellbinders dies, called Back to Basics Tags.  Now, I'm trying to figure out how to use them.  Here's a couple of cards that I made recently, with one of the dies.
I used some patterned paper by My Mind's Eye and some punches to create embellishments.  I need to work on finding more ways to use the rest of my new dies.