Thank You Cards

Thanks

May 8, 2018May 7, 2018 Sky

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Hi there!

Today’s card uses the Center Cut Flowers background stamp from Simon Says stamp, as well as the Big Thanks dies from Honey Bee Stamps.

I started by stamping the background stamp in VersaMark ink onto an A2-sized piece of Stratchmore Bristol Smooth cardstock. I poured Hero Arts white embossing powder over the top, tapped off the excess, and hit it with my heat gun.

Then I began coloring the flowers and the leaves. I used three water-based Tombow Dual Brush Pens: Deep Magenta (685) for the flower petals, Light Orange (025) for the centers of the flowers and the small circles, and Light Olive Green (126) for the leaves. I added bits of color to the areas of the images that I wanted to be darker, and then used a Pentel Aquash brush to pull the color to fill in the rest of the image, much like watercolor.

For the sentiment, I die cut the word from a piece of yellowish-orange Recollections cardstock, and the shadow from a pieces of scrap white cardstock. I adhered the two together using a Zig 2-way Glue pen. I’m finding the Zig glue pens to be very useful when I need to add liquid adhesive to an intricate die cut.

To finish, I adhered the card front to an A2-sized card base, and then adhered the sentiment.

Thank you for coming by!

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Thank You Cards

With Thanks

May 6, 2018May 6, 2018 Sky

Hello! I hope your weekend is going well and that the sun has been shining for you!

Today’s card uses the Neat & Tangled Flower Medallion Builder stamp set and the colors were inspired by this week’s Color Throwdown Challenge #491 (CTD491).

I started by stamping the pink layer multiple times using Altenew Rouge ink onto a piece of Neenah Solar White 80# Classic Crest cardstock. I had originally intended to create a patterned background but didn’t like what I was seeing so I decided to cut out the images and play with those instead. Before I cut them out using a Brother ScanNCut2, I stamped the fill-in pattern with Altenew Parrot ink. I also stamped one of the small circle stamps from the set in the same green ink.

I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark ink onto a scrap piece of Recollections kraft cardstock, and then heat embossed it with Hero Arts white embossing powder. I trimmed a scrap piece of Neenah Solar white cardstock and adhered it to the back of the sentiment to create a frame and then set it aside.

For the card front, I used a piece of kraft cardstock trimmed to 4″ x 5.25″. I arranged five of the leaf shapes into a pentagon and then used a piece of Post-It Tape to temporarily hold the pieces in together and in place. This allowed me to easily turn all five pieces over at once to add liquid adhesive and then turn them back over to adhere them to the card all at the same time and in the same arrangement. I did the same for the second layer of leaves, except this time I used foam tap for dimension. I also used foam tape to pop up the little green circle in the center of the design and the sentiment strip.

To finish, I adhered the card front to an A2-sized card base.

Thanks for visiting!

Animal Cards, Thank You Cards

Thanks a Ton

April 27, 2018April 26, 2018 Sky

Happy Friday! I’m doing an extra little happy dance because not only is my stressful work week over in ten or so hours, but I also have a friend coming over tomorrow to craft with me. I have a few crafty friends, but only one who has joined me in card making. Where are all the card makers hiding?!

Today’s card features one of the sweet whales from Ellen Hutson’s Essentials By Ellen S’Whale set. I have been seeing a lot of photos of people on cruises lately and I was inspired to make something blue.

I started with an A2-sized piece of Canson XL watercolor paper. I smooshed three colors Tumbled Glass, Broken China, and Mermaid Lagoon) of distress ink onto an acrylic block, overlapping, but not mixing, the colors very slightly. I then sprayed the block seven times with a fine mist using a Tim Holtz Distress Sprayer, though any sprayer with a fine mist will do. I sprayed from about a foot away so as not to disturb the ink too much.

I then turned the block over, ink side down, and placed it onto the center of the watercolor paper. When I use this technique, I usually weigh down the block with something heavy which helps force the colors to blend and smoothes them out, but when I saw the beautiful droplets of blue, I realized that I wanted a more textured look for this card so I didn’t put anything on top of the block.

I waited nine minutes (usually I wait five) and then removed the block, lifting at an angle so that the last part of the block touching the paper was over the area with the darkest color. This was important because the inky water tends to pool at the last point of contact and if that point of contact had been over a light part of the blend, then I would have gotten a splotch of a dark color in that light area.

I dried the card front with a heat tool until it was just slightly damp and then I put it between two sheets of typing paper and placed it under a heavy book. I find that doing this helps the piece dry a bit flatter than if I had left it out.

While the card was drying, I stamped the whale in Copic-friendly Hero Arts Intense Black ink onto a piece of Neenah Solar White #80 cardstock. Using N0, C1, and C3, I did some very simple Copic coloring and blending. I die cut the whale and set her aside.

The sentiment is heat embossed onto a piece of black Recollections 110# cardstock. I stamped the sentiment in Versafine ink, sprinkled it with Hero Arts white embossing powder, and then hit it with a heat gun.

When the card front was dry, I adhered it to an A2-sized card base and then adhered the whale and sentiment strip using foam tape for dimension, and that finished up today’s card.

I hope you had a wonderful week and that your weekend gets off to a great start. Thanks a ton for dropping by!

Feel Good Cards, Thank You Cards

Thanks Just For Being You

April 26, 2018April 25, 2018 Sky

Hi there!

Today I’m sharing a card with one of my favorite sentiments. I’m using the Kind Thanks stamp set and the Twice the Thanks die set from My Favorite things, along with the Bouquet Builder 1 stamp set from Waffle Flower.

The card front is a piece of Neenah Solar White 80# Classic Crest cardstock trimmed to 4″ x 5.25″. I stamped the leafy image multiple times using Copic-friendly Hero Arts Intense Black ink. I colored in the leaves with YG25 and the stems with YG17. I also added some flicks of YG17 over the leaves to add just a bit of shading and dimension. To break up all of the white space, I used one of the very small circle stamps from Simon Says Stamps’ Lots of Dots stamp set to stamp random dots in Simon Says Stamp Fog ink which is a very light gray.

I stamped the butterfly using the same ink and paper, and did some quick coloring by blending Y15, YR15, and YR68. Then I cut out the butterfly with a Brother ScanNCut2 and set it aside.

The sentiment is die cut from Recollections 110# black cardstock four times. I stacked and adhered the die cuts together to create a chipboard-like embellishment. I also stamped the sentiment onto a piece of scrap white cardstock and used the Brother ScanNCut2 to cut the sentiment shadow layer. I adhered the die cuts on top of the shadow layer and then adhered that to the card front.

The “just for being you” sentiment was stamped onto the same black cardstock using Versamark ink. I sprinked Hero Arts white embossing powder over top, tapped off the excess, and hit it with a heat gun. Then I adhered the sentiment strip to the card front using foam tape for extra dimension. I did the same for with the butterfly, and then adhered the entire card front to an A2-sized card base to finish up the card.

Thank you for stopping by!

Animal Cards, Thank You Cards

Thank You For Being There When I Kneaded You

April 11, 2018April 11, 2018 Sky

Happy National Pet Day!

I love animals, but I especially love my two cats. They came home with me as half-pound kittens and grew into 20-pound beasts. They’re from the shelter and my best guess it that they’re Norwegian Forest cats. So today I have a simple card to celebrate my cats and the many times they’ve saved me over the years.

I started by die-cutting a piece of Neenah Solar White 80# Classic Crest cardstock with the scalloped rectangle die from My Favorite Things Blueprints 27 Die-Namics. Then, using stamps from the My Favorite Things Cool Cat stamp set, I stamped the cushion and sentiment using Copic-friendly Hero Arts Intense Black ink.

I colored in the cushion in two shades of blue (B32 and B34), doing some very simple blending. On a separate piece of cardstock, I stamped the cat image and colored it using W1, W3, and the colorless blender to make a virtually all white cat. I added a bit of R30 inside the ears and on the nose. Then I cut out the kitty using a Brother ScanNCut2.

Then I adhered the scalloped panel to an A2-sized piece of Recollections kraft cardstock. I backed the kitty with foam tape and adhered her onto the cushion. I adhered the card front onto an A2-sized card base and that finished today’s card.

I hope you have a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping in!

Spring Cards, Thank You Cards

Thank You – Pinkfresh Studios

April 6, 2018May 5, 2018 Sky

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).

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.

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!

Thank You Cards

Thank You For Helping Me Grow

March 29, 2018March 28, 2018 Sky

I just love the look of watercolor, don’t you? I love the soft and loose feeling of it, but I have a really hard time achieving that look. I’m a complete amateur when it comes to watercolor. So, I like big stamps which are easy to loosely paint, like this bunch of flowers from the Fleur 1 stamp set by Pinkfresh Studio.

I started by stamping the floral image with Versafine Black Onyx ink onto Canson XL watercolor paper. Versafine is watercolor-friendly, so I knew the ink wouldn’t bleed when I added water. I also added a sentiment from Hero Arts.

Then I taped down the panel to a board with painter’s tape, to prevent it from warping as I painted. Using a few colors from a small set of Windsor & Newton Cotman pan watercolors, I very loosely painted the flowers and leaves, intentionally going outside of the lines. If you’re like me, ignoring the lines is not easy! I used Alizarin Red and Purple Lake for the flowers, and Sap Green for the leaves, applying the wet watercolor directly to the dry watercolor paper. Once those were dry, I wet down the area around and among the florals and dropped in a bit of watered-down Cerulean Blue.

Once everything was dry, I removed the painter’s tape and cut down the panel using a Stitched Rectangle die from My Favorite Things. Finally, I glued the card front onto an A-2 sized card base.

The closeup photo shows just how messy it is, but I’m happy with it.

Thanks for visiting!