Testing! And Easter Eggs

I've tried to set this blog so that anyone can leave me a comment... but a few people have said that it wasn't an option for them or it wouldn't work? I just tweaked the comment settings so could you do me a big favour and leave me a comment on this entry - I want to see whether it actually works! I don't just want to be able to get comments from people who have blogger blogs...

And now here's some goodies for you... yesterday I sat down and made some hearts and easter eggs for a swap.

First the hearts... I cut the shapes with the colluzzle and stamped around the edges with small hearts and flowers. I love those two stamps because they're small enough that they're really delicate. Then I did the romantic quotes. I was going to stamp directly onto the cardstock but there wasn't enough contrast, so I put them on white textured cardstock instead. I matted the top on on some bright pink paper that was the same colour as my background ink, and trimmed the bottom one out. Lastly, I cut some hearts with my cricut - it was hard to cut the purple ones because they're on fairly thin patterned paper. I had to cut a dozen hearts to get five good ones! It's much easier to cut cardstock - paper tears!

And then I decorated my Easter eggs. I wanted to use my cute bunny stamp... so I stamped it and coloured it with my new markers (I got some double-ended artist's markers on clearance for 25c each! They didn't have a lot of colours but I bought every 'light' colour they had...) Then I matted it on some metallic green cardstock. I really wanted to incorporate the carrot paper but it was just too much of a good thing, so I trimmed out a single carrot for the bunny.
Then I made the second egg with the same metallic cardstock in a different colour. I wanted to make it look bright and cheerful and stripy... so I cut the paper and matted it, and finished the egg off with a sequin 'bling'. Isn't that easter bunny cute?

Card with stamps

Somebody RAKed me the crocheted ribbon ages ago. I think it was meant to be a bookmark... but I didn't really have a use for it so it sat in my 'miscellaneous' drawer waiting. The challenge for this card was to make a vintage-style card, and the lacy crochet made me think Vintage, so I finally put it to good use.

Outsized Teddy Bears

I don't usually do outsized cards... but a friend gave me this adorable teddybear stamp, and a lady at church gave me a bunch of old unused cards with envelopes, and they were just the right size! So here are some outsized teddybears for a bit of outsized love.

PS. If you do decide to make outsized cards for Operation Write Home, please make sure to send in the envelopes to go with them, and tuck the card into the envelope so that they stay together! The greatest demand is for the smaller sized cards - they fit into the boxes better, but that doesn't mean that they won't take bigger ones, especially if they're made with plenty of love!

Easter Cards with my Cricut

I was going to do lots of crafting today... I managed eight cards, plus one that was such a disaster I binned it! Not exactly a record... but I'm very happy with six of them. (I'm not going to upload the others...)

And another challenge card for S&S

I'm just sneaking in under the wire for last week's sketch challenge on Stars and Stamps. I realised I hadn't done it yet and it's a very simple sketch...

Most people used a bow of some kind in the corner, but it's too late at night for fiddling with ribbons, so I used a strip of printed cardstock and some pretty 3D buttons as a feature. I also had to cheat the frame - the inner piece of paper was a scrap and not quite big enough to qualify for the sketch, so I made an outer frame for it with strips of a darker pink (I had to use strips because I only had a very small piece of that paper left too - not enough to do a straightforward mat!) There was just enough of it left for a little accent to help 'pop' the sticker frame.

And here's my card... I've been doing Easter cards for OWH tonight so I stuck with that theme.

Button Cards for Winterhaven and Stars and Stamps

I made these two for a Winterhaven challenge that simply said to use buttons on a card... I bought a stamp that says 'hoppy easter' at Joanns. It had a hopping bunny in between the two words and I didn't really like it that way, so I dismantled the stamp and cut it into three parts. That gives me the freedom to use the words together or seperately, since that's the only Easter greeting stamp I have!

 

Card Number One uses flower buttons from Joanns and a little blingy flower to fill in the empty space. The little bunny is a sticker from the Dollar Tree.

 Now I think of it, this second card is eligible for the Stars and Stamps midweek challenge, so I'll have to go and add it to Mister Linky - that challenge was to use two patterned papers and a button on your card. I don't think it said 'ONLY' one button! I stamped the bunny with an Inkadinkadoo stamp and coloured him in with markers (please ignore how poor my colouring skills are!) I left the bunny white and coloured in the background instead. I double-matted him and finished the card off with some lovely shiny buttons.

Storing my cards

 I was too busy to make cards today... so I'm going to share my new card storage method with you. I used to put all my finished cards into a plastic shoebox. It kept them nice and it fitted on the shelf easily within arm's reach... but you can't see what's in it unless you pull the lot out and flip through them, so it's easy to forget what's there. Also it doesn't hold as many cards as I needed it to.

I saw somebody online who was putting their finished cards into an over-the-door-shoe-holder. That seemed like a great idea so I went shopping. Ross didn't have any shoe holders with clear pockets... so I looked in the Dollar Tree. They had one... but right above it were 'hanging pocket storage' with a choice of five or six pockets in each. I bought a six-pocket holder, brought it home and hung it up... and immediately realised that I had a bunch more room. So I went back and bought a second, and I fastened them together myself. I put duck tape on the back where you can't see it, clear packing tape on the front, and I finished it off with four eyelets set into the edges with my cropodile. I taped it to my paper drawers with  more clear tape.

Then I started figuring out how best to use it. This is subject  to change, but the pockets are labelled as follows:

• Love
• Friendship
• Birthday
• Thinking of you/Miss you
• Encouragement/general
• Children (I don't make a lot of kiddy cards...)
• Current Holiday
• Next Holiday
• Future Holidays
• Next Year (in case I make cards for a holiday that's already passed...)
• Any Hero Cards

Each pocket looks like it will hold about 20 cards, so that's PLENTY of room! And I left my other supplies and partially finished card bases in the shoebox.

Altered Diecut Challenge

Here's a card I made tonight for the 'altered diecut' challenge on Winterhaven. I used a set of nesting diecuts and stamped them (and the card base) with stamps from a Heidi Grace set. It needed a little something more so I trimmed the largest size diecut into a border strip and added brads and a silk flower.

Oops!

I HAVE been making cards... but I love to watch the Olympic ice-skating and it's taking a big chunk out of my time every evening! The other day I went to the Dollar Tree and they had some Miss Elizabeth's paper packs with matching diecuts (they called them 'vellum quotes' but they're just printed on white cardstock...) so I opened the pack and started making simple cards. I used a few of my own papers to co-ordinate but I mostly just used the pack. And here are my cards... I still have half the paper and some more diecuts left to play with too!

How many cards can I make in 90 minutes?

This many! This morning I finished off making some cards for our churches' card ministry before I went to service. I gave Birdie 38 cards in all, but here are the ones I made this morning.

Is anybody interested in this thing?

I didn't make any cards today, but here's a pair I made a few days ago. I used pictures from an advertising brochure and some ink. The poodle is cut on an angle because it had price balloons in either corner, but I think it makes it look more interesting! I'm wondering when my hand is going to get better so I can go back to making cards properly instead of improvising all the time!

S&S Technique Challenge #1 - Embossing

 I don' t do a lot of heat embossing because the powders are messy, but  here's  a quick card for this week's challenge on Stars and Stamps.

  The card base and embossed image are from my stash and I finished it with stickers  to make a cheerful f riendship card for OWH.

Today's Challenge - the Winterhaven Spring Fling

No, you don't have to throw anything out... the challenge was to grab five random items from your stash that you didn't have any definite purpose for, and to combine them into a card.

 Item 1, and my starting point, was the pre-stamped card base. I was making another card design and I messed up my sentiment so the card was ready to be trashed. But I figured I could reuse it if I covered over the botched stamping with another similarly-sized sentiment from my RAK box (item 2). That left a lengthy rectangular space to fill in and what better than some punchie flowers? (item 3). Item four was a little purple diecut tag floating around in my diecut collection, and 4b was an odd purple flower brad that went with it. But a tag needs something on it, which brings me to my last item - a message recycled from the inside of a Christian greeting card, which just fit nicely when I trimmed it into smaller segments.

Want to give it a go? Here's the original challenge thread over on Winterhaven.

Cards from Swap Items

It's time to restock the card supply for our churches' card ministry, and making them from scratch is currently difficult for me, so I dug into my basket of swap items to find some nice decorations. The main elements on all of these cards were received in scrapbooking swaps from various groups. I added brads, decoration, stamps etc to finish the cards as the mood took me. Eleven cards later I haven't even made a dent in the basket!

 

 

Rubber stamped flowers

I made three cards tonight with the same basic stamp - a gorgeous flower from Heidi Grace. I finished them with other stamps, brads and a few stickers... all three are for Challenges over at Winterhaven.
The first is for the 'use at least three stamps on your card' challenge:

The 'Use something Wood on your card' challenge.


And lastly, '3D stamping' challenge.

Oops, I missed a day! Digital Card

I made four cards yesterday... but I forgot to come and post them! Oops! I'll have to make two posts today to make up for it.

The card I'll share with you is an all-digital card. It took about three times as long as making a card out of paper, even WITH one hand! All the graphics except the brads and sentiment are downloads from the Scrapbookbytes website. I made the brads myself. I did digital scrapping for awhile years ago and I downloaded every freebie I could get my paws on!
This is the digital image but I also printed it out and glued it onto a card base so that it can actually be used for OWH.
PS. I went to the site to see if it was still operating five years later... it is, and my personal gallery is still there! For a real touch of nostaligia, visit my Digital Scrapbooking Gallery. I warn you I wasn't very good at it...

Girly embossed cards

You might wonder why I keep talking about how hard it is to make my cards - I injured my hand on Jan 1st, and after struggling along all month, it's in a thumb brace for the next two weeks... it sure slows me down, but I'm doing my best to complete at least one card a day to follow through on my promise.

I made these two cards for the 'A little brassy' challenge over at Winterhaven - to use brass stencil/s to make your card. I haven't used my brass stencils and lightbox in living memory but I dragged them out for this challenge and made a pair of girly cards... I embossed the tag first as a practice run and I decided to make it into a card as well because it worked out.

Aside from the stencils I used a whole flock of  ink pads - the very pale one is Memento angel pink; the middling dark one on the edges of the cards is from Joanns Essentials pink rainbow pad, and the purple accent is Stamp It Circus Rainbow.
I also used some rainbow edging stickers, sticker lettering, some photo corners from the Dollar Tree, and a big pink blingy butterfly.

Salvaged from disaster - Trifold card completed

After yesterday's little fiasco I was ready to give up but a wonderful angel suggested that a simple ribbon might cover up my stamping disaster. The card looks fine from the front - it's the center and right-hand panels I spoiled!

I looked in my ribbon box and lo and behold I had a narrow yellow ribbon in exactly the right length, width, AND colour to fix it! I covered the mid-section with a narrow stripe of glimmer cardstock to echo the diagonal stripe, and used a sticker for the sentiment - I didn't want to risk another stamp! (The yellow stripe is straight, but the panels tilt so it looks crooked in the pic.)

One of the problems with this card design is not having anywhere to write... my solution to that is simple - I cut a panel of plain cardstock the size of the card, decorated it, and fastened it to the back of the card with a brad so it can swivel out for writing on!

If you want  to try this card yourself, the pattern (and measurements) are in the Stars and Stamps blog.

A Cautionary Tale

Come gather around me
boys and girls,
and hear my tale of woe

Of my attempt to make
A trifold shutter card
And how disastrous it did go

Stars and Stamps
put forth the challenge
(Who was I to turn them down?)


It was going to take
some effort
I'm not the most careful girl in town!

I girded my loins
and fetched my tools
I swore I would be neat

If  twas the only thing
I did today
This card I would complete.

I measured thrice
and cut but once
Held my thumbs and made a bet

My folding was
imperfect
but lo and behold it met!

Excitement
overwhelmed me
As I gathered up my stamps

To complete
the decorations
My design I would enhance...

I measured precious
glimmer cardstock
Added the daintiest of brads

Picked a balloon
to add to the corners
And... oh #@#@#%#$ @#$%&@!@##!!!!!!!!!!

My stupidity
overhelmed me
My world began to rock

When inking up
the birthday stamp
I tilted the @#$%$# block!

The moral of
this story
Should be obvious to you

When making such
an intricate card
Stamp BEFORE you glue!

***

As you can see, it was a beautiful card until I managed to ruin it... it's not blood on the card - I was using a rainbow ink pad for the balloons and one end of the pad was red. I have a bad tendency to tilt the acrylic block over when I'm inking (and stamping)... sometimes it doesn't matter, but in this case the damage is irreparable. I'll try again tomorrow. My hand is too sore to make any more cards right now.
The pattern for the trifold card is here. It's really not as hard as it looks!

S&S Colour Challenge 1: Spring

Today's Challenge on Stars and Stamps is a simple one - make a card inspired by the beautiful springlike colours on this Easter dress. Isn't it lovely? I'm a big fan of aqua and sea-green, and I had some paper that seemed just right for the challenge.

My first card uses some embossed floral cardstock that was RAKed to me, two little embossed page corners that happen to be a perfect match, floral paper from the Rubber soul Meadow's Edge collection, and a vellum message from Colourbok's 'Growing in Faith' collection. It needed a little something extra and I hadn't used the white part of the challenge yet so I mounted a heart-shaped floral sticker on some white cardstock, trimmed it out, and put it on a popdot.

I hadn't used any rubber stamps yet... so for my second card I made a random background with one of my Heidi Grace floral stamps and a Serenade rainbow inkpad. I don't know if they sell these any more - I've had it for so long that it's disintegrating, but they had 'rainbow' pads for each colour family and I bought blue and green. I added a blue denim diecut with a sentiment from the same set, and put some white rub-on stitching along the long edges. The strip was JUST long enough to do them both. It still needed a little something so I used some stickers to finish it off.

Want to try this challenge (or any of the others posted?) Visit the Stars and Stamps blog and check them out.

A 3D flower card & my first blog candy!

I actually made two cards tonight... but one of them is a sample for Winterhaven 2010, so you'll have to wait till next week to see it! I'm excited about Winterhaven - there are lots of juicy challenges lined up for the two weeks and exciting prizes to be won. Come along and check it out - it'll be lots of fun. Now on to today's card...

Like most of my cards, this one designed itself... I started with the stamped border, and I got ink on the corner of the block and made a big mark in the middle of the card, so I had to cover that up somehow. I used the center of a sticky diecut frame to cover up the mess. It also covered up part of the border but that was okay! Then I added a RAKed stamped sentiment mounted off-center. And lastly it needed something to embellish the top of the mat and tie the colours together. I dug out some pastel punchy flowers and layered them into a 3D flower. To make the leaves 3D, lay them on a felt pad and draw a stylus down the center of the leaf to stretch and curl it. It adds a lot more life to them than leaving them flat. Apologies that the pic is so blurry. It's dark and the card had wet glue on it so I had to photograph it rather than scanning (besides the scanner would have squashed the flower!) and it came out rather blurry.

Stamp - Heidi Grace, Ink - Big and Juicy Hydrangea

On another note, I have six followers! Thank you for adding me to your list... I'm very excited, and when I get to 12 followers I'd like to reward someone with a RAK. So tell your friends... and don't forget to leave me comments so I know you're here!

S&S Holiday Challenge (Spring)

Today's Stars and Stamps challenge is to make a card using a groundhog or other rodent... since groundhog stamps aren't exactly thick on the ground, I dug out one of my precious RAKed housemouse images and had a go at it. I don't use them often because my colouring sucks! I used kiddy markers because the lines are so fine and I wanted light colours. It doesn't look quite as patchy and high-contrast IRL as it does on the scan. I did my best to fix the colour in photoshop but it's still not really accurate. The sentiment is an embossed sticker, and it needed a little something more so I made a 3D flower from assorted punchies, and used a few tiny scraps to embellish the other corner.

Easter Cards and a Challenge CPC-CM42/CPC-ST41

This morning I finished off some more Easter cards using Cathy's template. I love this look... they're very quick and easy and they make the patterned paper go a very long way. The hardest part is deciding how to arrange the squares and what embellishments to put on them! Apologies for the blurry scan - the buttons and some of the stickers are 3D and my scanner gets blurry around the lumps. :( Just click on the picture to see a larger version. The 'Just for you' stamp is from my favourite Heidi Grace line, and the 'Celebrate' stamp is from Joanns. I just LOVE those Heidi Grace stamps - the images are so sharp and clear you'd never guess they were done with an acrylic stamp.

And now for the challenge. This morning I tackled two challenges from the Christian Papercrafts board. Actually I combined them! Monday's Colour Challenge was to use chocolate brown, two shades of pink, orange, and cream or white... and Tuesday's Sketch incorporated a large bloom/circular feature with a swirly line. I started with the sketch.

It looked like it would be perfect for a spirelli... but while I was digging in my diecuts box to find a suitable circle, I came across a pair of pink diecuts to nest on the card instead. I mounted the smaller one on popdots and hung them over the edge of the card since they were so large. Add a basic swirl with yet another Heidi Grace stamp that was perfect for the job... the sweet sentiment is from Stampin' Up, and it looked like it just needed a touch more colour, so I gently rubbed the edges with a small pink inkpad and it was done. It's so simple it felt like I was cheating, but I'm pleased with the design.

I still wanted to tackle a spirelli card... so I kept the sketch and moved on to Monday's Colour Challenge. Orange is NOT a colour I use very often except for Halloween cards! But I had a spool of nice bright ribbon and some embroidery thread that nearly matched. I inked up a white spirelli shape with two shades of pink ink (Joanns Essentials) and added a touch of Stamp It Circus orange to the center. The papers were RAKed to me a few weeks ago so I cut narrow strips and nested them... and lastly I added a little heart to the center of the spirelli and stamped a sentiment. I don't do a lot of Missing You cards, but they're a popular subject for Operation Write Home and it gave me a chance to use my new Stampin' Up sentiment from Ebay.