Spring Cards

Happy Spring | Gina K. Designs

Hi there, I hope you’re having a nice weekend and that you’re enjoying the first days of spring!

Today’s card features the Forever Flowers card kit from Gina K. Designs. I shared a couple of other cards using the card kit a few weeks ago, so be sure to check out that post for additional inspiration.

Continue reading “Happy Spring | Gina K. Designs”
Animal Cards, Spring Cards, Thank You Cards

Thank You – Pinkfresh Studios

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Happy Friday! Even though I’m taking today off work, it sure felt like a long work week. I hope you had a good one and that you have some time to do something nice for yourself this weekend!

Today I’m sharing my first submission to a challenge. When I saw the colors for the Color Throwdown Challenge #487, I knew I wanted to play along. I just love these shades together!

I started by stamping flower images from Pinkfresh Studio’s Fleur 1 stamp set onto Neenah Solar White #80 Classic Crest cardstock using Copic-friendly Hero Arts Intense Black ink. Then I stamped the bird from their Bird With Flowers stamp set (the Thank You sentiment also came from this set).

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I colored the images using R22, R24, and R29 for the flowers, and BG45 and BG49 for the leaves and bird. I also used just a touch of W7 for the bird’s beak, though I could have easily used black or any other dark brown or gray. I did not take much care in blending since these are such small images.

Then I cut everything out using my new Brother ScanNCut2. I checked the cut lines and as far as I can tell, the Fleur 1 die set cuts these three flower images very similarly to the ScanNCut2. The Bird With Flowers set doesn’t have coordinating dies and since I’m a terrible fussy cutter, I’m glad I decided to splurge on the ScanNCut2. It have a feeling it’s going to come to my rescue on a regular basis.

I created a card front by die cutting another piece of Neenah cardstock with the largest die from the Lawn Fawn Outside In Stitched Rectangle Stackables. This added the pretty stitching along the borders.

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The bunch of flowers was a little hard to manage so I used Post-It Tape to temporarily hold the individual flowers in place while I arranged them. This has become one of my favorite tricks. It’s like having an extra pair of hands! Once I had the flowers in place, I flipped the bunch upside down (still held together by the tape) and applied liquid adhesive to glue them all together.

At this point, I pulled out my Misti stamping tool, experimented with the placement of the flowers and sentiment, and then stamped the Thank You sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black ink.

Then came time to assemble the card. I added liquid adhesive to the back of the bunch of flowers and adhered them to the card front. I avoided adding glue to the tulip shaped flowers since I wanted those to stand up a bit from the card. Once the glue took hold, I gently removed the Post-It Tape. Then I added foam tape to the back of the little bird and adhered her on top of the flowers. At the last minute I touched a black Sakura Gelly Roll Glaze pen to the eye of the bird to give it the tiniest bit of shine and dimension.

Finally, I adhered the card-front to an A2-sized side-folding card base and that finished off today’s card.

Thanks for visiting!

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Easter Cards, Spring Cards

Happy Easter

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Happy Easter!

I pulled this card together at the last minute using the only remotely Easter-themed item in my crafting stash: Simon Says Stamp Oval of Flowers. An oval is egg-shaped, right? This pattern is also available in a die, and I purchased the set that includes the stencil and the die.

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To start, I lightly hand wrote the Happy Easter sentiment in pencil, erasing and adjusting until I had it properly centered. Then I went over the pencil with a Sakura Pigma Micron Pen (03, black). I let it dry before erasing the pencil.

I then used Post-It Tape to tape down the stencil onto an A-2 sized piece of Neenah Solar White 80# Classic Crest cardstock and to my work surface . This tape is less sticky than painter’s tape and won’t damage your paper when you remove it.

I used foam blending tools to blend three Distress Oxide Inks (Picked Raspberry, Wild Honey, and Squeezed Lemonade) over the stencil, taking care to blend carefully between the colors.

Then I removed the Post-It tape and stencil to reveal my flower “egg.” I used the largest die from the Lawn Fawn Outside In Stitched Rectangle Stackables set to trim the panel and add the stitching detail.

To finish, I adhered the card front to an A-2 sized piece of yellow Recollections cardstock, and then adhered the finished card front to an A-2 sized card base.

Thanks for stopping by!

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