Feel Good Cards – Page 32 – SkyPaperScissors

Believe In Yourself

April 12, 2018June 23, 2018 SkyPaperScissors

UPDATE: I submitted this card to the CASology Challenge, Week #295, and received an honorable mention.

Hi there! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the weekend to get here. It’s been quite a week!

Today I’m sharing a one layer card using the Simon Says Stamp Believe stamp set. I just love this scripty font!

I started by using painter’s tape to tape down an A2-sized piece of Canson XL watercolor paper to an inexpensive Jack Richeson hardboard panel (any board will do, even a plastic clipboard). Using a wet 8 round brush, I transferred some Peerless Watercolor’s Robin’s Egg Blue to an acrylic block which I used as my palette. I added some extra clean clear water to lighten the color a bit as Peerless Watercolors are quite vibrant.

Then, using a clean brush, I added clean clear water to the watercolor paper in the general area where I wanted to create the wash. Since I’m still new to watercolor, and not very practiced in all of its subtleties, I have no idea if this is the best way to achieve the look I want, which is a wash that fades into nothing. I’m learning as I go, one card at a time!

I then dropped color onto the bottom left of the watercolor paper and watched it spread. I tried to tilt the board to get the watercolor moving in the right direction,, towards the top right, and when it stalled in a harsh line, I added a bit of clean clear water in its path to pull the paint forward. When I had a decent looking wash, I used my heat gun to dry the card front.

I put the dry card front into my Misti stamping tool and stamped the sentiment in Versafine Black Onyx ink. I used the Misti because watercolor paper has a bit of texture and I wanted to make sure I could re-stamp in the same place if I didn’t get a crisp image the first time. I ended up having to stamp three times to get into all of the nooks and crannies of the paper.

I usually use liquid adhesive to adhere my card fronts to card bases, but since my panel was a bit warped I wanted to use an extra strong adhesive. I used Scor-Tape double-sided tape, which really has a strong grip, and that finished up the card.

Thanks for swinging by!

Animal Cards, Encouragement Cards, Feel Good Cards, Friendship Cards

We Can Weather Any Storm

April 10, 2018June 23, 2018 SkyPaperScissors

Hello there! I know winter is digging in its heels in many parts of the US so I hope, wherever you are, you get to see a glimpse of sunshine today!

Today I’m playing with the new Rain or Shine stamp set from My Favorite Things. I’m a sucker for encouraging sentiments (and ducks!) and this set has a few great ones. I also pulled out a couple of stencils for the background, as well as some standalone dies for the clouds and sun.

I started by stamping out the girl, ducks, and water elements in Copic-friendly Hero Arts Intense Black ink onto Neenah Solar White 80# Classic Crest cardstock. I then brought out what is essentially my entire collection of Copics to color in all of the images, doing some very simple two-color blending. When I was done, I cut out all of the images using my Brother ScanNCut2.

For the background, I used another piece of Neenah Solar White. I used Tombow Mono Removable Adhesive to temporarily adhere the panel to a piece of scratch paper and then I used washi tape to hold the My Favorite Things Drifts & Hills stencil in place while I used a foam blending tool to apply a heavy layer of Salty Ocean Distress Oxide ink on the top half of the card to create a blue sky. Then, on top of the inked area, I used more washi tape to hold down the Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil.

I misted water over the stencil using a mini-mister (Ranger sells these, however mine is from Tombow). My thought here was that the water would touch the paper at the open areas of the stencil and lift the Distress Oxide ink, creating lighter colored dots that would look like rain (I hoped) and not snow. I let the water sit for about 15 seconds, and then used a paper towel to wipe off the stencil and pick up any excess water.

Then I cleaned the Drifts & Hills stencil and re-arranged it over the blue side of the card and proceeded to ink up the remaining white space with Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink to create the ground. The curve of the stencil didn’t line up perfectly but I was able to make some micro adjustments to match the curve of the sky.

For the clouds, I used Lawn Fawn’s Simple Puffy Clouds die set to cut out clouds of varying sizes from some scrap Neenah Solar White. The sun is a piece of yellow Recollections cardstock die cut with My Favorite Things’ Sunny Skies die.

Next I laid out all of the elements onto the background and got a sense of where I wanted to stamp the sentiment, which I stamped in Versafine Black Onyx ink. I ended up using only one of the three little ducks that I’d made.

Then, I got out the adhesives. I used Tombow Mono Liquid Glue to adhere pieces flush to the background. For the splashes, I used Zots Bling Clear Adhesive Dots because I wanted just a bit of dimension but couldn’t bring myself to try to cut tiny pieces of foam tape. And for the the clouds in front of the sun I used foam tape. I left most of the rays of the sun glue-free so that they stand up a bit from the background. To finish, I adhered the card front to an A2-sized card base.

Thanks for stopping by!

Feel Good Cards, Just Because Cards

Spreadin’ A Little Love

April 7, 2018April 7, 2018 SkyPaperScissors

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I hope you’re having a lovely Saturday!

CTS_266 Today I’m playing along with the CAS(E) this sketch! challenge #266. I’ve been following a couple of challenge blogs for a few months now, but yesterday and today are the first times I’ve played along. I’m finding challenges to be a great way to get my creative juices flowing, and to learn about color combinations and compositions that I might not otherwise have thought of. You can check out the CAS(E) this sketch! blog to follow along.

When I saw this sketch I immediately thought of the Create A Smile Hocus Focus stamp set that I have in my stash. It has a variety of circular starburst stamps that I thought would be perfect for this challenge.

The next thing I thought of was the Little Girl Agenda stamp set from Mama Elephant. I just love these cute little girls, especially the ones with their arms thrown out. They just feel so cheerful to me.

I started by stamping three little girl images onto Neenah Solar White 80# Classic Crest cardstock in Copic-friendly Hero Arts Intense Black ink. I used several colors of Copic Sketch markers to do some very basic coloring (YG17 and YG25 for the dresses and shoes, E53 for skin, R20 for cheeks, and E35 and E37 for hair and bear). The images are so tiny that I finished in no time. I die cut them out and set them aside.

For the card front, I used a 4.25″ x 5.5″ piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper. I masked the top of the card off at an angle using Post-It Tape. Then I used a foam blending tool to add Salty Ocean Distress Ink. I added the ink more heavily near the Post-It Tape and then blended downwards, slowly fading out towards the bottom of the card front. If you have trouble with blending regular Distress Inks as I do, try Bristol Smooth paper. It makes me feel like a pro!

Then I removed the mask and stamped a starburst image three times along the edge of the inked area. I used Versafine Onyx Black ink for both the starbursts and the sentiment which is from Mama Elephant’s Everyday Greetings stamp set.

To finish, I added foam tape to the back of the little girls and adhered them to the center of the starbursts and then glued the panel to the front of an A-2 sized card base.

Thanks so much for swinging by!

Feel Good Cards, Just Because Cards

What A Lovely Face

April 5, 2018 SkyPaperScissors

Hello lovely!

We’re due for some heavy rain in the next few days so I was inspired to create something bright and summery to offset the gray skies.

This card uses elements from two stamp sets from The Ink Road stamps: Frond of You and Chin Up Buttercup. A note about The Ink Road is at the bottom of this post.

I started by stamping multiple solid leaves and fronds in three shades of Altenew ink (Bamboo, Parrot, and Olive) onto a piece of Neenah Solar White 80# Classic Crest cardstock. Then I stamped a few flowers in Peach Bellini ink from Gina K. Designs. The flower stamps were outline stamps, so I used a few shades of Copic Sketch markers to fill them in and add some detail. I used R20 for the center of the flower, R22 for the petals, and then I added flicks of R24, the darkest of the colors, on the petals as well as a few dots in the center of the flowers. In hindsight, the R20 isn’t noticeable so I could have used just two colors. I also added some dots to the centers of the flowers using a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

Since these stamp sets don’t have coordinating dies, I put my new toy to use. I recently splurged on a Brother ScanNCut2 so that I could cut out images without needing dies. I ran the sheet of stamped images through the machine and wound up with beautifully cut elements.

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I used Post-It Tape to help temporarily hold the leaves in place while I arranged them in the pattern that I wanted. Because they were all held together, I was able to easily flip them over and add small pieces of Scotch Tape to adhere them together. Then I added some liquid adhesive and adhered the entire set of leaves to the front of an A2-sized card base before removing the Post-It Tape.

For the sentiment, I stamped in VersaMark ink onto black cardstock and then sprinkled gold Ranger Super Fine embossing powder over it. I tapped off the excess and hit it with a heat gun to melt the powder. I trimmed and adhered a piece of scrap white cardstock to create a mat for sentiment, and then adhered the flowers in place using liquid adhesive. I re-used the Post-It tape to temporarily hold everything in place while I was arranging the flowers and gluing them to the sentiment.

Then I added foam tape to the back of the sentiment/flower strip and then adhered it to the card base and that finished up the card.

Thanks for stopping by!

A note about The Ink Road: I placed my first order with them last week using a special link that someone shared on Instagram. That link gave me 50% off my first order and I was able to find some great deals, including the stamp sets that I used today (with the 50% off they were $3.50 each!). When I received my order, I was pleasantly surprised to see a hand-written thank you note from Lara, the owner, as well as a bonus full-sized ink pad and some beautiful sequins. Lara offers many ways to save on orders and one is by providing a referral link. I’ve posted my referral link at the top right of this page which can be used for 50% off your first order (as the referrer, I would receive a $5 credit to the shop). Please visit The Ink Road for ways to save without using the referral link.

Feel Good Cards, Friendship Cards, Just Because Cards, Love Cards

You + Me = Awesome

April 4, 2018May 21, 2018 SkyPaperScissors

Good morning, I hope you’re having a great week!

Let me start by apologizing for any duplicate blog post emails you may have received over the past couple of days. I’m still learning about this blog platform and I made a couple of mistakes that caused the extra emails. Thanks for your patience!

Today I have something a little different. I felt challenged by this Simon Says Stamp You + Me set which has a lot of linear elements and bold sentiments. I decided that I wanted to use the “You + Me = Awesome” sentiment and then somehow weave together strips to resemble a knot, or “we.”

I started with Neenah Solar White 80# Classic Crest cardstock and stamped the L-shaped strips (the stamp has three stripes) four times in Altenew inks (Rose Quartz, Puffy Heart, and Purple Wine).

I fussy cut the strips and then wove them together, using washi tape to temporarily hold everything still while I got all four pieces spaced and lined up properly.

For the background, I created a pink splatter on an A2-sized piece of Neenah Solar White. I started by smooshing my Picked Rasberry Distress Ink mini ink pad onto an acrylic block, and then I used a Pentel Aquash Water Brush to mix a bit of water into the ink and to pick up some of the color. Holding the brush over the paper, as if I was turning a key in a lock, I used a finger of my other hand to tap the middle brush and splatter ink onto the card front. By moving closer or farther from the paper, I was able to create splatter drops of varying sizes.

To finish, I adhered the “knot” to the card front and then removed the washi tape. I stamped the sentiment using Versafine Black Onyx ink and then adhered the card front to an A2-sized card base.

Thanks for stopping by!