Blast From The Past

I was leafing through my card stash and came across this old Valentine. I made it at least 5 years ago, but I still like it.

The card base has been covered with scrapbook paper.

The large heart is one that I made a template for. I took a piece of plain white card stock, folded it in half, drew the open heart, and cut it out. It took several attempts to get just the right look. Things do look different when unfolded.

Now take the paper that you want for the large open heart, fold it in half and draw around the template you just made. Cut it out and you are ready for the next step. By folding in half and cutting you get a perfectly symmetrical heart.

The phrase was computer generated. I had downloaded a font that had open spaces in the letters. A pink gel pen was used to fill in those open spaces. The are lots of free fonts on the internet. I did a google search for "free fonts" and came up with a multitude.

After cutting out the phrase with a straight edge, the edges were sponged in pink, the it was attached to another piece of white card stock and that layer was trimmed with a scallop decorative scissors. Again, sponge the edges with pink.

From the scrap that was cut from the inside of the heart I punched out three more hearts to finish off the design. Happy Valentines Day to all.

Western Flavor

Begin with a fantastic image from
Wildlife Enterprises stamped
with black Ranger's Archival ink.
Why archival? So when you smooth
out the colored pencil with a stump soaked
in baby oil the black ink doesn't run.
A non archival water based ink
will "move" and smear when it get
wet with the baby oil.

Cut the finished image to a rectangle,
punch the corners and sponge the edges
with a dark brown ink.
Layer onto a dark brown card stock,
trimming the left side with a decorative scissors.

The faux snake skin is also layered onto
dark brown card stock with
the bottom edge cut with the
same decorative scissors as the
hat and gloves image.
Place three brads at the top and
some type of decorative western
embellishment at the bottom.

Attach the faux snakeskin and
stamped image as shown in the picture.
I used a beige parchment card stock for
my card base. The edges of
the card have also been sponged with
dark brown ink.

Howdy Y'all

Another use of those fantastic five step boot stamps from Kitchen Sink Stamps.

The boots have been stamped in shades of brown using Ranger's Distressed Inks. Cut the image out in a rectangle, layer onto brown card stock and trim the brown to a narrow border. Now layer onto a wood look paper. This is a digital down load and I have no idea where I got it. If you know of a place that has a wood look digital down load please leave me a comment.

Now the wood layer goes onto a medium brown card stock, cut with a decorative scissors, then layer onto the dark brown card stock again. Attach to the top portion of a card base.

Stamp B & J's Art Stamps barbwire image under the boots. Final step - stamp the words at the bottom. I arrange both words on my acrylic at the same time to get them perfectly lined up and spaced.

Four Cowgirls

Oh was this a fun card to design!
The four cowgirls stamp is an unknown image.
AND I have two version of this stamp, this is the larger one.
I just hate it when companies don't put their
name on the wood and I really wish they would find
a way to print it somewhere on the unmounted
rubber or acrylic as well.

Begin by covering a card base with leather look
scrapbook paper, in this case from Karen Foster.
The edges have been sponged with dark brown ink,
Archival Coffee by Ranger, and Archival Black by Ranger.

The cowgirls were stamped with VersaMark,
embossed with fine line black powder
and colored with chalks.
I sprayed a fixative over the chalks.
It was hand cut with quilting ruler and
straight edge click blade into a rectangle.
The edges were barely sponged with
the dark brown ink.
Two pieces of dark brown card stock
were cut with a decorative scissors.
Draw a line on the back side of the paper
to use as a guide if you want the edge to
be relatively straight.
Attach these to the top and bottom of the cowgirl image.

Using the same decorative scissors, cut a piece
or medium brown card stock.
Stamp a horseshoe (PSX) at the bottom
in dark brown ink and
using that same brown ink
sponge the edges of the piece.
Place the cowgirl layer about where you want it.
Now using a pencil, lightly mark where your
brads are to be positioned.
Punch those three holes and place brads in
those holes. I usually take the head of
my hammer and gently flatten the back side of the
brads to get them to lay flat.

Stamp the barbwire, from B & J Art Stamps,
on white card stock, trim edges so the piece is about as wide as
shown in the sample card. Again, sponge
the edges with dark brown ink.

Attach all pieces as shown, beginning with
the barbwire, then the medium brown over that,
and finally the cowgirls.

Now stamp those grazing steers in dark brown
at the lower right hand corner.
Sutter Enterprises made that lovely
little stamp. If you are in need of
western and cowboy type stamps,
Sutters is a fantastic resource.

Western

Where to start?
The horses from Inkadinkado are stamped on
faux suede. Faux suede is made by spreading a thin
layer of Liquid Applique on card stock and heating
with your heat gun. It really does feel like suede.

The suede was stamped first with a medium brown
ink and a crackle stamp and the a very dark brown in
and the horses. The edges were torn and "burned"
with a sponging of black ink.

The leather brown diamond is a heavy leather look
gift wrap that is mounted on dark brown card stock
and cut with a decorative scissors.

The horse shoes are punched from black card stock.
The edges of the entire card are sponged in dark brown and
then black.

Mom's Day

It finally dawned on me that Mother's Day was this Sunday.

Here are my quickly assembled designs.

The flower stamp is a clear design by Hot Off the Press,

while the elegant flourished phrase is from PSX.

I have used die cuts, punches and decorative

scissors to achieve the various decorative edges.

Lazy Tiger

You can do a lot with a stack of paper. I love that everything coordinates so well.

Decorative scissors were used around the edges of the zig zag print. The corners of the large rectangle were cut with a corner cutting scissors from Fiskars.

The stamps are from and unknown source. That means before I knew that I would be blogging and teaching and people would want to know where to get the stamps I used. Now I try to write on every unmounted stamp the name of the company. If you put cling mount on them the you can't see the name of the company on the back of the rubber. Some do have the name of the company on the CD case that they are stored in, but not many. Oh well, there are lots of tiger and paw print stamps out there. Happy hunting!

Even More Blue Snowflakes

Cut up a dry embossed panel into three rectangles, mount them on some K & Company paper from the latest Christmas stack then layer onto dark blue. Dark blue ink was sponged around the edges.

A second example of my blue snowflake frenzy is also in this post. I created the multi-shaded various blue snowflake paper. You can read the basics of how it was done in yesterday's post.

Paper Ribbons

Paper ribbons can be addictive. You will find yourself buying scrapbook papers that coordinate just so you can make these lovely cards.

If you use text weight papers, you will be able to fold them in half and then punch. This will line the designs up across from each other perfectly.

I have found the Fiskars border punches to be rather fragile. They are not meant for anything heavier than a light weight text paper. You can prolong the life of them by placing the heel of your hand on the pivot point and them pressing the lever to punch. Other wise the plastic and the little pin that are the pivot area will break. Sadly most other punches of this type are made pretty much the same way.

I also used various decorative scissors to achieve the look that I wanted. One way to make sure you get an even cut with your scissors is to draw a line on the back of the paper and use that as a guide for your cut.

On the very widest parts I simply punched one long narrow strip and carefully attached them one at a time to the ribbon. That way you can match up the punched designs on either side and not use as much paper which reduces the over weight of the card.

Layered Medallion

This card may look difficult, but if you look closely you will see that it is simply mulitiple layers.

The while textured layer is paintable textured wallpaper. Gift wrap was used for the metallic golds. One layer was cut with a decorative scissors.

One thing I like about this type of card is the mutliple uses. I could stamp something across the bottom for a specific occasion or leave it plain and put a note on the inside.

Rather than the punched medallion in the center, you could pick a stamped medallion or use a variety of stamped of textured squares or rectangles to create your beginning medallion. There are endless possiblities here.

Cowboy On Leather

Great cowboy image from Rubber Stamp Avenue ! If you are going to buy from this company I highly recommend the sheets of rubber. Each sheet has it's theme so all the stamps coordinate. Also get on the email list as she has some fantastic sales. You will never regret buying from Rubber Stamp Avenue. Great product at a resonable price and a lot of variety.

This card was made almost exactly the same way that the Wolfie card from a the post a few days ago was made.

You will note that I have a real thing for the western stamps. Not Indian, but cowboy/cowgirl type western.

Wolfie

The wolf face image is from a company called Bear Rubber. I have not been able to find them on the web. There is one Bear Rubber Company on Etsy that make custom stamps and may have these images.

I stamped and embossed the image on cream leather. A Coluzzle template was used to cut the leather in a circle. The Coluzzle swivel knife will not cut completely through the leather, but makes enough of an incision that you can easily and cleanly cut with a sharp scissors.

The eyes have been colored yellow with a felt tip marker. The edges of the leather have been sponged with sepia ink (Ranger Archival, one of my favorites) The leather circle was then attached to corrugated cardboard. The cardboard was inked with the same sepia ink as well.

The decoration on the right side of the card was done with various punches, hand punches and decorative scissors. The turquoise half balls are plastic and from "I have no idea where I got them." You know......the stuff that has been waiting in your craft area for years.......the stuff that you bought because "someday" you just might need it. That is where those little half balls came from. If you can't find any, try clear embossing powder on a punched out circle of turquoise paper, or a glitzy turquoise embossing powder. (you know......punt, LOL)

Psallm 118:24

More scripture cards!!! After stamping several 12 x 12 sheets of scrapbook paper I had to do something with them. At the time that I stamped and embossed these I was sure that the paper would be easy to work into some great cards. These have laid around staring at me for several months. One day I just couldn't take it anymore and started playing.

The card on the left has a white card base. The texture is from one of the new Sizzix Texturz plates. (they had a LOT of texture plates now and they are slightly larger than an A2 card, love it, love it, love it) I used dark green and some olivey-type green card stock for the layering.

TIP: to get ink only on the raised portion or your textured paper, use a brayer with a very light touch. Don't try to get all the ink on in one go. Lightly go over and over the texture. This way your brayer won't dip down and color unraised parts of your paper.

The background on this card is a very formal mum stamp. I used Clearsnaps Olive Pastel Colorbox Chalk Ink and just stamped until the entire card front was covered.

The little ribbon on the right side was cut from dark green card stock with deckle scissors. Very simple and it adds the finishing touch.

I am not sure that I like the epoxy stickers, but they are on there now, so I guess they are ok.

The Psalm 118:24 stamp is by Stampabilities and the mum stamp is by Rubber Stampede.

Match the inside to the outside

A lovely finishing touch for a card is to have the inside

match the outside, as in this card.

It is also a way to use a scrap.

And we paper addicts hate to waste even the smallest

scrap of paper.

When you use a border punch there is often a strip of

paper left over. It is perfectly straight and just cries out

to be used somewhere, so I glue them along

the inside of my card.

Since the strip came from a part that is on the front

of the card, using it on the inside "pulls" the

entire design together very nicely.

The above card was created using Basic Grey clear stamps.

For once I stamped right on the front of the card base,

using VersaMark ink and ivory embossing powder.

The ivory on white is very elegant and subtle.

The blue punched border was stamped with the

same image using clear embossing powder.

The phrase was computer generated, attached

to the same blue cardstock as the punched border and

trimmed to a narrow border on the top and bottom.

A Fiskars Ripple decorative edge scissors was

used to cut the white and the blue cardstock.

It takes a little practice, but this matching of

the cut on both layers can be that final little

touch that finishes off a card perfectly.