Hambo Stamps and Birthday Sundaes inspired this card.
The digital stamp is the Hambo freebie. (I don’t feel guilty as I have – and am planning to buy – many, many of Hambo Rubber and Digital stamps.)
I did reverse where the element was and turned it on its side – but I think it works well.
The blue background paper is stamped with Great Impressions fish and starfish. The “Happy Birthday” is from TP Studios.
I think I’m having a bit too much fun with making cards.
Three challenges inspired this card:
Quirky Crafts wanted to go under the sea.
Cooking It Up wanted to splash a circle. (Hopefully, my oval is ok.)
Dream Valley Challenge wanted us to Stamp something up.
First, I used my Fiskars templates to cut out the oval from white cardstock.
Luckily, Great Impressions Stamps had two fish and a starfish in this months offerings that came in just in time for me to use them!
I took a plain blue sheet of paper and stamped one fish in Chipped Sapphire, one in Spiced Marmalade, and the starfish in green. I then took the portion that would go into the circle and swirled some blues (combined a couple) with a sponge over the paper. I then put the paper inside the circle.
At this point I thought the card was just too plain. So I added some of the leftover unswirled paper to the bottom of the card.
It still didn’t seem quite right. I added a ribbon along the side and the “Let’s Celebrate” stamp mounted on the blue swirled paper sans stamp. I put the card to the side.
The next morning I was looking through my Sizzix dies and found the conch shell! I cut it out in white and blotched it with orange and green ink. Pop dotted it onto the card, rounded the corners, and was finally happy – very happy with the results.
This week I created a faeries in a lovely English type flower garden to meet challenges for a few folks:
How much more English can you get than Shakespeare? Place the faerie among a garden of flowers to meet the English Garden Challenge at Scrapbook Sisters.
The bling that was added via inking a Sizzix embossing folder and adding a bit of lace to the side to meet the needs at Sugar Creek Hollow’s Paper Flowers, Vintage Lace & Bling challenge.
Opus Gluei wanted something inspired by Midsummer’s Dream. And don’t forget, this is a Blog Hop !
I’m not sure who will get this card, but I know plenty of folks who would enjoy it.
How did I make it?
I used some images I have from pre-1923 postcards. I cut out the lady faerie and placed her inside the hoop which had a white background before I inked it with Tim Holtz Dusty Concord. The hoop was part of a garden postcard that I then isolated the flowers on and layered.
The final touch of lace on the green inked embossing folder in yellow placed on a nice purple cardstock completes the card.
Boys, Bugs, yellow ribbons, and shabby chic/vintage? Of course i can put that together!
Tie a yellow ribbon came from Ginger Loft Challenge.
The Bugs and the Boys challenge from Spectacular Sunday Challenge was met by using some images I scanned from pre-1923 postcards. There are a dearth of really nice little boy images in the world of stamping / scrapbooking, so I decided to find my own.
Well, since I knew that my card was definitely going to have a vintage / shabby chic to it, I decided it would fit the Paper Sundaes Challenge for Vintage or Shabby Chic!
To make it more “steampunk” in its look, I used a Tim Holtz texture folder of gears and brushed silver ink onto it. I also used a Sizzix impressions folder to make the frame – fulfilling use a frame at City Crafter Challenge – and brushed gold ink onto it. Now, since everything else was looking shabby chic, I used some Tim Holtz inks to age the picture of the boy.
Every family and group of friends seems to have one or two months when everyone was born. It is just one of those things. My family – and my husband’s family – nearly all decided to come into this world in July.
I’ve been feeling very crafty of late.
I decided to surf card making blogs to find inspiration and came upon several challenges that fit right into my preparations. In no particular order, the challenges that inspired a July Birthday Card:
This card was pretty simple to put together. I started with a nice dark blue (flag blue) card base. I then cut corners of red and white plain card stock. Using a ruler, I cut red and white stripes – and let the card be the blue stripe underneath.
I must say I am totally in love with Hambo Stamps. Both their rubber stamps and their digis. The digi of cupcakes raining from the sky are the dream of every picnicker who has ever been rained out! (I did remove the words since I didn’t want the recipient to “wake-up” from the dream of a cupcake rain.) I colored the cupcake holders in red and blue stripes with white frosting. Unfortunately, I am not a very talented photographer, so it is rather hard to see. The sentiment is from TPC Studios birthday sentiments collection.
Lastly I added some stars. At first I was just going to add the gold stars but beyond the corner points on the stamp, they were too overwhelming. I then remembered I had some Fiskar templates that I could use! I cut a red, white, and blue stamp and added it to the side. I think it really completed the card.
The Sisterhood of Crafters has a challenge called Button Box this week. I was trying to figure out what would complete a card I was making today. I also had a new toy – Stampin’ Up button embosslits – that I wanted to use.
My dad has been under the weather, so I made him a very similar card. This is why it just had to be a really old car stamp – or two. I started with a vanilla card stock and stamped an old car from Langnickel Stamps directly on the card stock. I then took a bit of black card stock and stamped the same image in silver on it. (I can’t quite capture it with my camera.)
The main image is from Great Impressions Stamps (one of my favorite stamp companies). I colored it in black and deep greys – well, except for the grass and flowers. I placed the white stock with the car on some black card stock and used some pop dots to give it a 3d look.
It felt too plain. I went to browse the web and came across this week’s challenge from The Sisterhood of Crafters which led me to my ever-growing stock of old buttons. I found a lovely bunch of grey and black buttons. But, I still wanted to use that new toy! Using the button embosslits, I created a few black paper buttons and just added some silver ink to give an “aged” tarnish.
Well, I know I have been mostly silent these days. Been busy moving my blog to a new server. More on that in a later post. For now, let me just show you the card I am entering for the Crazy4Challenges blog challenge #89. The theme? Vacation destinations:
How was it made?
Starting with white card stock, I stamped an Eat Cake tree using Marvy Markers (also used for coloring the tree).
The side paper is made by using the Tim Holtz distressing inks. I just play with those inks from time to time and have a nice stash of paper I can use. “Northern Dreams” is stamped in Tim Holtz’s Frayed Burlap and Peeled Paint using The Little Classic Rubber Stamp Mini’s Alphabet Set – Curlz from Hampton Arts, L.L.C.
The edging is from a Martha Stewart Around-the-Page stamp set.
All of the items are readily available either online or from your local stamp shop.
I created two cards that met this challenge – almost identical except for the coloring method. One has a red owl in pencil, the other in ink.
The Great Impression’s Owl in ink with a heart cutout I foud free on MTC. The paper is from Joanns, but I don’t know who its from.
And the pencil version…
The base paper is a very deep red from my stash. I used a Stampin’ Up punch around the owl’s paper.
The challenges this owl (either one) are meant to be entered into are:
Crafts and Me Challenges – All Red
Cupcake Craft Challenges – Red
I know, I’ve been absent from the blogosphere of late. Mostly this is because I just haven’t been feeling it. But I happened upon some cardmaking challenge blogs and felt inspired.
This first post is for Cute Card Thursday’s Challenge.
This card starts with Once Upon a Lifetime papers in an Iris Fold within a Martha Stewart anywhere heart punch. I then added some flowers I picked up on clearance at Tuesday Mornings (I don’t remember the company name.) Finally, I added some heart ribbon with with a crystal brad holding them together.
The paper is just plain red! I decided to keep this card really simple.
I have discovered the joys of making cards. The projects can be as simple or complex as I like. They can also be done in a single sitting! (Very little knitting can be done in a single sitting.)I admit to going a wee bit overboard with this new hobby. But, well, it is fun and can draw upon so many other things I do.
First, I got some stamps and ink. This happened during the August Craft Group Sleepover and Shop Hop. My Wednesday Night Craft Group does this every year. We craft together and watch bad movies. (By being obsessed with trying to find my hiding crochet needles, I escaped the horror of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.)
The next thing I knew, I had signed up for the Christmas Card Extravaganza at the very local Sandee’s Stamps. I immediately started thinking about making cards for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Of course, I still have to get the card to my nephew for his 4th birthday.
Everything is on the Internet, including card making contests. So, I decided to enter one, to enter my project(s) into. The contest is from Caardvarks (Clean and Simple with Hero Arts Stamps)- a blog that is all about making cards. It is very inspirational to look at what the designers there have come up with. I thought it was appropriate to enter this contest as the Hero Arts owls were the first set of stamps I bought!
The second card I made was inspired by looking at all the purple I had around me. I used a second of the set of three owls I had gotten:
DH likes the purple better. I kind of like the orange more. (I think it is because purple is his favorite color.)