Baby Card

I have several friends that are in need of baby cards,

so the design journey began.

Four ideas later came the final design.

The DP is from Paper Studio's Mirabella stack.

The front of the white card base has been totally 

covered with maroon card stock.

The DP was cut to 4 x 5.25 inches,

glued to gold gift wrap, then

the gift wrap has been trimmed to a narrow border

with Perfect Layers rulers.

This is then centered and glued onto the card base.

The phrase has been done in PSP X and 

mounted on a Spellbinder's Tag that was cut

from maroon card stock. 

The phrase was punched.

The mother and child image is a stamp from

Second Star on the Right.  It was stamped

with Ranger Archival black ink on white card stock.

It was cut into an oval using the remains of an oval die cut

as a template.  This allows one to place the open space over

the image and perfectly position.  I gently drew around the

inside of the oval and then cut the image out.

The Spellbinder Lacy Oval was made into a frame by

placing the Lacy Oval and Spellbinder's widest

nesting oval together on the card stock.

They are taped to the paper after the plain inner 

oval die cut is perfectly placed.

The tape is left on after cutting to keep the

dies in place for the embossing mat.

To create the thin pale pink accent oval on the frame

use two nesting oval dies from the same nesting ovals

that were used to cut the inside of the frame.

Since the pale pink oval is so narrow you will have to cut

the larger and then position the smaller over

the larger oval die cut.

I tape the small oval in place to cut.  Since this

is such a narrow piece even the slightest slippage

will be glaringly obvious.

After several failed attempts to simply glue the

narrow oval ring to the frame I gave up and taped

it in place with the usual low tack masking tape.

Then carefully lifted the oval up and place dots of 

glue with my trusty toothpick.

Now small piece of paper egg carton were

glued all around the back side of the frame

The frame is then attached to the image and then

placed on the card.

Dragoflies and Butterfly

 Let me begin at the bottom and work my way up, just

like you would do when constructing the design.

We have a white A2 (4.25 x 5.50 inch) card base.

Next is the textured layer that is done with an embossing

folder, cut to 4 x 5.25 inches, attached to 

the pale green card stock and trimmed to a

very narrow border using a Perfect Layers ruler.

Now die cut two of Spellbinders beaded ovals in white,

then cut two pale green ovals from Spellbinders nesting ovals.

The green ovals have been textured in Cuttlebug's dotted Swiss

embossing folder and attached to the beaded ovals.

Cheery Lynn Designs Victorian Flourish was used

to cut the lovely  flourishes that are over the

pale green dotted swiss ovals.  

The ovals have been raised off the card base with

layers of paper egg carton.  One has one layer and

the other two layers.

The butterfly and dragonflies are from dies by

Cheery Lynn Designs.

A green iridescent  and blue iridescent gift wraps was glued

to card stock to make the bugs.

I just love all kinds of gift wrap for my designs.

It is inexpensive and they make such shiny pretty papers.

For card projects a little goes a long way.  I am still

using gift wrap that I bought 15 years ago!

Christmas is the best time to buy, that is when

the shiny bling-bling stuff really shows up.

You can bend the wings on the insects to give them the appearance 

of being ready to fly off the card.  On several of them I have

attached very narrow pieces of paper egg carton

to raise them off the card a bit.

Tips, Tricks and Techniques

FAUX BURN
The edges of the three rectangles on this card have a burned appearance.

This is an easy effect to achieve.  It does take a little

time and practice.

What you will need - 

dark brown ink

black ink

sponges

thread cutter 

Begin by sponging in from the outer edge with

your sponge loaded with dark brown ink.

I will sponge in lightly a fair distance and then

re-sponge again, but not as far in. 

The second sponging makes it a little darker.

This adds more depth.

Now for the "burn".

Rough up all the edges with the thread cutter.

You can use any edge that will slightly tear or

rough the edges.

With the black ink, flick the very edges 

with your sponge.  You may have to do it more than once

to get the burned look.

It takes some practice, but soon you will be an addicted

sponger, just like me.  This technique is wonderful

for vintage and masculine designs.

I have been known to use two, three or even four shades 

of brown ink to get just the right look.  

The lighter shades are farther in, using darker and 

darker ink as you progress towards the outer edge.

Hebrews 6:10

I asked Pastor Dan and his wife, Connie, if they

had a scripture that they would like to see on some

cards that I made them.  This is the scripture that they chose.

The two strips of green
DP (designer paper) are layered over dark green

card stock and then brushed gold gift wrap.

The narrow borders have been cut with Perfect Layers rulers.

The gold "tatting" is also from a gold gift wrap.

The gift wrap is attached to cards stock

before cutting.  This makes it look like those 

expensive stickers.  (which I am far to cheap to buy)

The die cut is from Cheery Lynn Designs.

The scripture is computer generated in PSP X.

It was cut out with a Spellbinders Label die.

This was layer over a dark green oval and 

a gold gift wrap scalloped oval, both 

by Spellbinders.

Adding flowers to a design

These three design are basically the same. The variance
is the in color and placement of the flowers
and the Spellbinders Labels used.
The peach and pink flowers were punched from
card stock, while the lavender flowers are from vellum

The card base is covered with a textured piece the exact
size of the card. I used an embossing folder to achieve this texture.
The centers of the flower on the textured pieces
have been accented with various glitter glues.

The scripture was computer generated in PSP X.
The scripture is raised over the lower label layer
with the flat pieces from a paper egg carton.

The flowers were shaped using a large stylus.
I rubbed each flower gently until it cupped around the stylus.
Then the flower was turned over and I again used
the stylus to press in the center.
A tiny sun punch was used for the center on two of the
cards. Again, just rub gently with a smaller stylus until
the paper cups around the stylus, then attach to the flower.

The peach flowers have a pearl product by Stickles in the
center of them. I am not wild about this method. The stuff
goes flat and just sits there and looks pearlie, not at all like
a flower center. ; )

Cougar

PSX made this stamp at least 15 years ago.
It is so elegant and detailed. AND
since we have these critters in our hill pasture
I have a special respect for them.
The cougar is also the reason that we
seldom hike in our pasture without a pistol.
It just isn't safe and we humans are easy prey.
We jump up and down and make lots of noise,
but are basically very slow and an easy kill for a cougar.
No idea how good we taste. ; )

The cougar has been stamped on cream card stock
with Stampendous black pigment ink
and embossed with fineline black embossing powder.
The edges were inked with Rangers Archival coffee ink.
A thread cutter was used to rough up the edges,
followed by an inking of black Archival ink
for a faux burn effect.

Under the cougar image is a medium brown
card stock that has been die cut with a
Spellbinders Label.
This is attached to the card base.
The dark green pine branches are a Cheery Lynn Design die.
Pine cones are punched from an
Emaginations punch out of dark brown card stock.
They were then tightly scrunched up and
partially unrolled. I only smoothed them out
enough to be able to see the pine cone shape.
There is a lot of texture on those little pine cones.

The card base is an ivory and light tan parchment.
It has been sponged with dark brown and black ink.
By sponging the card base and the oval of the image
the look of the card is more "pulled together".

Under God's Feet # 2

I will begin with the card base. It is
craft paper card stock. The edges have
been sponged with Ranger Archival black ink.

The texture layer is an embossing folder.
This was layered over black card stock and
a narrow border was cut using Perfect Layers rulers.

Over this layer is a band of DP from Paper Studio's
Everyday Kraft stack. Again it has been mounted
on black card stock and trimmed to a narrow border
using the Perfect Layers rulers.

The phrase has been created in PSP X. It is one
of my very favorites.
It was cut out with a Spellbinders die and
mounted on black card stock, then cut
to a narrow border with those Perfect Layer rulers.

The flourish is a single Bosskut die that is
wrapped around the phrase.

The final touch is three black rhinestones
in the upper right corner.

Isaiah 41:10

Here is a relatively simple design that showcases scripture.
The scripture was designed using PSP X.
Fonts used are CAC Champagne and ST Honeymoon.

After adjusting the size of my scripture in Word
it was printed in 2 column format.
A Spellbinders die was used to cut it out.
The edges of the die and the card base
were sponged with Ranger Archival coffee and black inks.
A very thin edging of black creates the faux burned look.

The pine branch stamp is from Hero Arts.
First I inked it with a dark green Distressed ink.
Stamp once on scrap paper and THEN
stamp on the card to give a shadow appearance.

The pine branches were cut using a Cheery Lynn Designs die.
The pine cones are the fun part. Just punching them
out and leaving them flat was very ordinary and boring.
So I tried scrunching the punched pine cone.
I really scrunched it into a tiny ball.
Then only partial smoothed it out.
That gave the little pine cones a lot of texture.
At least they look a little more real now.

Christmas Ornament Card

I don't normally do the artsy type pictures, but here is
one. I wanted to show the 3-D of the bulb over the
rest of the card front.

The metallic gold flourish and lines are a heavy gold foil gift wrap attached
to card stock with a thin layer of Crafters Ultimate Pick glue.
The Victorian Flourish from Cheery Lynn Designs was
cut apart to make the central focal point on the bulb.
The bands of gold are the finishing touches.
It just looked so much better with them in place.

The bulb is positioned over a "ribbon" of embossing folder
textured card stock layered over brushed gold gift wrap.
The Merry Christmas in the oval and the brushed gold gift wrap
large scallop oval under it are by Spellbinders, as is the
bulb die cut.

The Merry Christmas is a free font - Zenda.
It was created in PSP X.

Christmas Card Challenge

Split Coast Stampers has a Christmas Card Challenge.
You are to make a Christmas card or two or three or four
every month till December.
Now I just thought that was a great idea.
I have been playing with Spellbinders 2010 Christmas bulb die
and one of their original Christmas bulb dies.

Here are the results of my efforts.
The bulbs have been cut from Polished Stone.
Polished Stone uses alcohol inks on glossy paper.

The textured layer under the bulbs is also glossy paper
that has been textured in a Cuttlebug 5 x 7 embossing folder.

After the polished stone paper was die cut I began the fun
of decorating my bulbs.
For this us used Cheery Lynn Designs
Victorian Flourish and a border die from them
that looks like tatting.

The gold used for the Cheery Lynn Designs is
a fairly heavy metallic gold foil gift wrap that has
been attached to cards stock using a thin layer of
tacky glue. It works best when the glue is spread on the
card stock with some type of credit card tool or a squeegee
kind of tool. You want a thin layer to cover the entire piece
of card stock. After putting the foil on the glued card stock
I ran over it with a brayer, using a lot of pressure to get the
bubbles out.

These die cuts really do look exactly like those expensive stickers.
For the wider bands of gold I first scored it in my ScorPal, then
carefully cut it while still in the ScorPall with a click blade cutter.

The final touches involved black sponging all around the edges of the
bulbs. Next is pieces of paper egg carton attached to
the backs of the blubs to add a little dimension.
A very thin piece of gold foil was added at the top of
each bulb to "hang" it.
BEWARE!!!!
Decorating these little bulbs is really addictive.

And the final product will be on the blog tomorrow.
While I like these designs, there is one that is my favorite.
There also some also rans that are my trial and error
phase of designing. Don't think you are going to get to see those.
They are visiting my trash can.

Giraffe

The giraffe image is from a Bees Wax stamps. I have no idea
if they are still in business. The stamp is at least 15 years old
and this is the first time I have used it. I only used about
half the image on this design.

The giraffe is stamped in Ranger Archival coffee ink.
It has been die cut with Spellbinder's oval die.
I tried it on the card base with the giraffe skin print paper
after sponging the edges and it just did not work.
I knew that scallops would not look right. So I attached it
to another cream card stock piece, cut with a
deckle scissors and sponged again.

The greenery around the giraffe's head is from
a Cheery Lynn Designs die cut - Olive Branches.

Note that the edges of the card base have also been sponged.
By sponging the card base and two edges of the giraffe piece
the whole has been pulled together nicely.

Beautiful

Let's begin at the bottom layer.
A 4.25 x 5.5 inch piece of cream colored
card stock was stamped with a Tim Holtz image.
I used several shades of brown and one green ink
from Ranger's Distressed Ink. After stamping
it was misted heavily with water to cause
the inks to run and fade. This is why I did
not do my background on the card base.
When the background paper was attached to
the card base with Crafter's Pick Ultimate glue
it spent a few hours under my huge college dictionary
to flatten it nicely.

After the card base had become flat by the pressure
of the dictionary the next step was to
dust the front of the card with talc.
Now the Stampscapes pine tree image was
inked up with black pigment ink and
heat embossed with fine line black embossing powder.

The deer image is unknown. There was no maker
ID on the wood of the mount.
It was stamped with black pigment ink
on cream card stock and heat embossed
with Rust embossing powder.
After the deer image
was cut out the edges were distressed with a
Tim Holtz thread cutter. Dark brown ink
was sponged around all four edges of the
deer image and the card base.
This was followed by a narrower sponging
of black ink to give a burned look.

The scripture is one of my own creations.
It was cut out with a Spellbinders die.
The edges were sponged with dark brown ink
followed by a burning of black ink.

Cards By Donna F.

I belong to stamping group that meets every
Tuesday morning at a church in Scottsbluff NE.
We gather at 10 am, break for lunch, then come
back to create some more.
This is a very casual group. There is no leader and
generally each of us brings whatever project we are
currently working on.
We have been meeting like this for at least 7 years.
It is so much fun to see what everyone else is doing.
We spark each others creativity.

These five cards have been created by Donna F.
She is a talented lady that I am proud to call a good friend

Pine trees

The stamped image is an unknown stamp.
I stamped it with VersaMark.
By careful application of two different embossing powders
it is possible to emboss both the green pine needles
and the brown trunk.

The trees image was cut out with the Spellbinders
Mega Oval die. The edges were distressed
with a Tim Holtz thread cutter.
I sponged brown in a short distance and
then "burned" the distressed edge with black ink.

The tree image is mounted on a brown cards stock
Spellbinders Label die cut.
The card stock was left in the die after cutting
and the edges sponged with dark brown ink.
This leaves a definite narrow border when
the paper is removed from the die.
You are going to have to clean you die.

The card base is a parchment beige paper.
All the edges have been sponged with dark brown ink.

The pine embellishment is done with
Cheery Lynn Designs pine branch die.
Pine cones are from an old Emaginations punch.
After punching them out in dark brown cark stock
they were closely crumpled and not totally smoothed
out when uncrumbling. This gives the pine cone
looking texture.

Since I live in an area of western Nebraska called
the Wildcat Hills and see Ponderosa covered
hills everyday, these cards are NOT Christmas.

Purple Flower In Frame

An embossing folder is used to create the texture that
is the base layer for this card.
The textured ivory paper is cut to 4 x 5.25 inches.
The little berries are highlighted with glitter glue
and the whole is layered over purple card stock.
The purple is cut to a perfect narrow border using
Perfect Layers rulers.

Now we come to the framed k & Company sticker.
Begin with a purple card stock that has been
texturized in Cuttlebug's Distressed Stripes
embossing folder.

The frame was cut using both die cuts at the same time.
This is the only way I have found to get it perfect.
The dies are taped with masking tape to the paper,
cut in my trusty Wizard and while the tape is still
attached they are embossed.

The frame is raised over the sticker layer by
a double layer of paper egg carton cut
into small bits and glued carefully to
the back of the frame.

Five Sympathy Cards

Five different versions of the same idea.
This was a lot of fun, thinking of different ways
to use my supplies.

The tree scene is a stamp from a company called
Bear Rubber. I have no idea if they are still in business,
but I sure do like a lot of their stamps.
It was cut out with Spellbinders Nestabilities Ovals,
then layered over a slightly larger black oval.
A medium tan ink was used to stamp the "shadow"
image, using the same tree scene stamp.

The phrase was done in PSP X (as usual), cut out with an oval
and layered over a black oval. The above card has a
textured layer in craft colored card stock under the
tree scene and the phrase.

An EK Success Martha Stewart punch was used for
the viney leafy border.

This last card does not have the tree scene. I was
experimenting with the texturing of the craft card stock
and using the viney leafy border on the top and bottom.
It turned out reasonably well.

I Am The Resurrection

Another card for Pastor Dan and his wife Connie.
The scripture is John 11:25 and has been created
in PSP X. It was cut out with a Spellbinder's Label die
and layered over black card stock. I used
the Perfect Layers ruler to get the border even
all the way around, then rounded the corners
with a corner punch. The rounded corner fits
nicely withe the round corner on the label,
pulling the whole together.

The base of the card was craft color card stock.
The top third was stamped with VersaMark ink using B-Lines net
background stamp. It was embossed with clear embossing powder.

The bottom two thirds is black card stock that has been
embossed using an argyle embossing folder.
In the center, dividing the two patterns is a
"ribbon" of scrapbook paper layered over black
card stock. This paper came from the
Everyday Kraft stack by Paper Studio.

This basic design is called "Thirds Cards"
by our Wild Women of the West Stampers group.
The principle behind it is the "odd" number rule.
Placement of objects in any layout, be it
paper, flower arrangements, store displays,
or hanging pictures is usually more pleasing
to the eye if they are in odd number.
1, 3, 5, 7 etc. Try it and see.