SkyPaperScissors

Hello there, I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!

Today’s card is a CAS(E) of one of Concord & 9ths inspiration cards for the Birthday Stacks stamp set. I made today’s card for a friend who is celebrating his birthday. I originally planned to use shades of blue, but then I realized that blue ice cream doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. In the end, these shades of yellow and orange and the way the scoops overlap reminded my friend, and other friends around the table, of tennis which is how we all met. I love it when things work out in ways you didn’t imagine!

I started by stamping the ice cream scoops in Versafine Onyx Black ink onto Neenah Solar White 80# Classic Crest cardstock. Then I used the coordinating die to trim off the top part of the scoops. Since the die wasn’t long enough to stretch across the card, I used my paper trimmer to finish the horizontal cut to the edge of the paper. I then used the same ink to stamp the ice cream cones.

For the ice cream scoops, I used Hero Arts Soft Vanilla and Altenew Citrus Burst and Sunkissed inks. And for the cones, I used Hero Arts Pumpkin Pie. The stamp set includes solid stamps for these elements which makes the stamping very easy!

For the sentiment, which is Concord and 9ths standalone Hooray die, I used a scrap piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper because I wanted to blend the Altenew Inks and I usually find it challenging to blend dye inks smoothly. The Bristol Smooth paper has a coating that allows the ink to sit on top of the paper longer which gives you extra time to blend. I die cut the sentiment, and then placed the die cut back into the negative space so that I could easily hold it in place while blending. I used foam blending tools to sponge Sunkissed along the bottom and Citrus Burst across the top, blending in the middle.

I die cut the sentiment four more times out of scrap 110# regular cardstock and layered the pieces on top of each other, adhering all of the layers together with liquid adhesive. Then I adhered the inked sentiment on top to create a chipboard-like embellishment.

Then it came time to assemble the card. I adhered a A2-sized piece of kraft cardstock (I like the Recollections cardstock from Michael’s which is 60# weight and great for layering, not to mention its affordable price point) to a card base. Then I cut a piece of orange cardstock, also from Recollections, and adhered it to the back of the ice cream scoop piece, leaving an edge of orange peeking out. Then I adhered that combined piece to the card base.

Finally, I created some loops of twine and sandwiched it between the sentiment and the card. I used a couple of acrylic blocks to hold it all in place while the liquid adhesive dried. And that finished off the card!

Thanks for visiting!

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!

Animal Cards, Spring Cards, Thank You Cards

Thank You – Pinkfresh Studios

April 6, 2018June 23, 2018 SkyPaperScissors

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!

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!