Merci

I made this card for an elderly friend of mine who made me some scones the other day. They were DE-LISH and I thought she’d enjoy one of my cards.

This card uses the Merci set, a Sale-a-bration set from 2008 which had never seen ink. It just didn’t seem to lend itself to my style of cardmaking but that’s just because I needed to get inspired. The paper was what did it for me. I just LOVE this pattern!! Normally I’m working with the main element and then have to find paper to match. This time I found this great patterned paper and then had to try to find the colors to match. I probably should have made the flower blue and the little hearts pink, but I did it backwards, before I realized my "mistake," and wanted to get SOME blue in there. Oh well.

The main card base is Brocade Blue and a piece of patterned and glitterered paper (you can't see the glitter in the picture but it’s there in a few places) was attached to that. A 1" strip of Brocade Blue was run through the Cuttlebug with a Swiss Dots embossing folder and attached to the card.. I stamped the main image on watercolor paper with Black StazOn ink. It was colored in with a watercolor brush and ink pads. I also used markers for the stem and heart outline. This was matted on to Brocade Blue and Regal Rose. "Merci" was stamped with Brocade Blue on a scrap of watercolor paper and punched out with one side of the Tab Punch. This was glued to the lower right side of the main image mat. This was attached to the card with dimensionals.

Here’s the recipe:
Stamps: Merci
Paper: Watercolor Paper, Brocade Blue, Regal Rose, Rose Red, "Once Upon A Time" Mat Stack by DCWV
Ink: Brocade Blue, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Summer Sun, Always Artichoke and Rose Red markers, Black StazOn
Accessories: Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder, Tab Punch, dimensionals, watercolor brush

Swiss Hearts

We've been having a snow storm today here in Milwaukee, WI. I turned on the Weather Channel early this afternoon and what city should be featured but . . . . . Milwaukee! I thought we were through with it which is why my husband and I went out and shoveled and dug out our car, and now it's snowing again! ACK!!

So, that meant that I have been stuck indoors and could . . . . . STAMP! Yay!

Before I post what I did today, I want to post something that I did last week, that lead to what I did today. I watch Laura Fredrickson's blog religiously, she's a fantastic source of inspiration for me and a lot of other folks out there, so check her out here. She had a link to another blog here where I got my inspiration for this card. I'll post some of my CASE's of Laura's stuff soon, but wanted to get this one out there first.

The paper that I used for the hearts lent itself better to a colored background so I chose Barely Banana for that. I used my new Swiss Dots embossing folder. I got several new ones the other day, but the Swiss Dots is my favorite. I can truthfully say that it took me longer to pick out the heart colors than it did to make the entire card. I used a black marker to ink up just the "hello" word on one of the Hero Arts stamps and stamped that on the bottom heart. Very simple! Thanks Jennifer for the inspiration!

Recipe:
Stamps: Hero Arts Friendly Greetings
Paper: Barely Banana, Textured Designer Mat Pad by Brenda Walton-K&Company
Ink: Basic Black marker
Accessories: 3/4" Small Heart Punch, Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder

Think Happy Kiwi Thoughts

I’ve been trying to be inspired and make something on my own that I’m not copying from someone else. The cards that I’ve made the last three days have been completely CASE’d from others which is why I'm not posting them until I can attach the proper credits to them.

This was a card that I tried to make from a card I found on the Internet, and it didn’t turn out anything like I thought it would which is why I’m posting it. It doesn’t resemble at all the idea I started out with originally. The only element that's even REMOTELY similar is the medallion. I’m sure all of you have had that happen to you. I’m not sure if I like this card or not. I think it will have to grow on me.

I started out using the colors from the Murifield designer paper as my inspiration. The final result isn’t what I thought it would be, mainly because I used so little of the actual designer paper. The card I started out with used Certainly Celery as the background, but that didn’t seem to look right with the brightness of the blue accent so I changed to the Kiwi Kiss which is what I should have started with in the first place.

I used my Leafy Branch Cuttlebug folder to emboss the background on Kiwi Kiss card stock. This was attached to a Pacific Point card base. Pacific Point was used with my Vintage die for the corner pieces. The flower was stamped with Versamark and embossed with embossing powder and punched out. I did it this way because I didn't trust myself to get the flower in the middle of the dotted circle image. And no, I didn't think at the time to use my stampamajig. The dotted circle was stamped with Kiwi Kiss on Very Vanilla card stock and punched with the 1 1/4" circle punch. This was attached to a circle of Pacific Point punched with the 1 3/8" circle punch. I used the Murifield retired paper in the plaid pattern and used the scalloped circle punch. All elements were attached with a brad.

Recipe:
Stamp Set: Think Happy Thoughts
Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Piont, Very Vanilla, Murifield
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Versamark
Accessories: Cuttlebug embossing folder "Leafy Branch", Vintage die, Pearl luster Sapphire embossing powder by Stampendous, 3/4", 1 1/4", 1 3/8" and scalloped circle punches, vanilla brad from Hodge Podge Hardware, ribbon from Michael’s, dimensionals

Black Birthday Soup

Boy, that's some name, huh? "Black Soup?" Well, that's what happens when I'm trying for something catchy and miss. Oh well.

This card was made for a 14 year old boy who’s favorite color is black. Now I know that black is a pretty basic color that goes with anything, but I wanted the other color to be something that wouldn’t stand out too much but would still look like a nice contrast. Grey was simply too "blah." I’ve never been too fond of the Bordering Blue color because it looked too grey to me, except then it’s against black and then it has a definite blue tone to it. I had used this layout for another card but felt that it lent itself well for this design. I really like how it turned out! The black really sets off the blue.

The base is Basic Black. A mat of Bordering Blue and another one of Basic Black were cut out. The black mat was run part way through my paper crimper (you can't see the crimps in this picture but they’re there), about half way up from the bottom and the top was trimmed to fit.

The "Happy Birthday" sentiment was stamped on Bordering Blue in black ink and the bottom edge was torn. It was layered on to the black mat leaving enough room at the top for the brads and then attached to the Boarding Blue mat. The brads were then attached using the paper-piercing tool and template and the whole things was then attached to the card base.

Recipe:
Stamp Set: Alphabet Soup
Paper: Basic Black, Bordering Blue
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Paper Crimper, gold square brads, Paper Piercing tool from Crafter’s Tool Kit, Paper Piercing Template