Graduation Card for Katie

We recently hired a respite caregiver for my son who has autism. It is such a relief to have some time to myself while she watches him and my baby if he is awake. She is wonderful with them so when I heard she was graduating from Queen’s University, I had to make her a graduation card.

I’m afraid I don’t know her very well so I went with a very plain style. The fact that I decided to go with her school colours AND that I don’t have many grad stamps kinda threw me for a loop too. I wish it was more interesting. But… I went for the wow factor inside!!

It is hard to take a photo of but when you open it, the spiral opens and you see her grad year! Along with stars covered in the same washi tape I used on the front. I cut two stars for each one you see and glued it to the back on the other side of the spiral to make it look more finished and give it stability.

I’m entering this in the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Open Sesame challenge to make a card that moves or has an unusual opening. My spiral expands as you open the card.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: grad hat-SU!, sentiment-WMS
Ink: versamark, navy-SU!
Paper: navy, ridinghood red-SU!
Accessories: gold EP, washi tape-stash, foam dots-Jody Morrow, Sizzix star die, numbers die-Quickutz

Pretty Strawberries for August SFYTT

 

Sorry about the terrible photo that used to be here. I hope you like this much better! I got a new computer! YEAH! My old one was so slow it was positively painful. I can’t believe how few times I posted last month. So sorry!

 

 

I used Copic markers to colour the image, I airbrushed the background but only masked the berries and flowers. So much easier than cutting out the whole image. I have a trick for colouring the seeds so easily! I colour over the whole strawberry, ignoring the seeds. Then I add a tiny bit of white gel pen on the seeds and when dry, I colour over with a yellow Copic. Hasn't bothered by Copics at all and the seeds look so nice and bright. Even better than colouring them yellow with the white of the paper underneath I think.

 

 

Enjoy, Rebecca

 

RECIPE

Stamps: Flourishes

Ink: Moss, Kraft-PTI, antique linen Distress, Memento black

Paper: Moss CS-PTI, white CS-XPress It, light lace DP-Basic Grey Nook and Pantry, coral dots DP-Cosmo Cricket Be Happy, blush CS-SU!

Accessories: doily die-PTI, hug snug seam binding, Quickutz tag die, twine-PTI, charm, lace-stash, pearls-Dollarama, oval Nesties dies

Vintage Fruit Matchbox

Here’s a cute little MB that almost missed being posted.

I am typically quite critical of my work but at least this time, there is a point to it! I didn’t notice at the time but I am now seeing that the strawberry is completely lacking in highlights which doesn’t match with the other fruits. Also, the shadow is on the opposite side. While I didn’t plan it, I just coloured them, it does look odd all together. I’m actually happy with the cherries, the bright shiny highlight suits the smooth skin; the peaches have softer highlights because the skin is fuzzy muting the brightness of the highlight.

Strawberries are hard to colour because you have to colour around the seeds and that can throw off the best plans you might have for shading, shadowing or highlights. I don’t consider the yellow area a highlight, that is supposed to be where the berry isn’t quite ripe yet which often happens on the side away from the sun. The highlight would actually be on the opposite side, facing the sun at the same angle as on the other fruits. I know that some people like to colour over the seed then reclaim the colour with a colourless blender and then add the yellow for the seeds. I’m not stuck on that technique but I think I might have tried it here because the sees aren’t really showing up as a different colour.

So here’s what I would do if I were colouring this again. I’d make sure the highlights and shadows were consistent on all the fruits. I’d darken the shadows and add some serious highlights on the strawberry and try to add some more life to the leaves. I’d really work to make the seeds yellow. The peach leaf needs more blending to make the leaf look smother.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Fruits-Flourishes, text bkdg-not sure, maybe PTI BB:Hearts?
Ink: memento black, cocoa-SU!
Paper: white CS-Taylored Expressions, cocoa CS-SU!
Accessories: vintage lace-stash, Dew drop, foam dots-Jody Morrow, Copics-sorry, I don’t have the colours, this was from September

Nasturtiums

Wow, another CAS card and a bright one at that! I decided to play Flourishes Timeless Tuesdays Challenge to use flowers.

I like to use the company’s stamps for challenges if possible but as I have NO Flourishes Stamps (how is that possible!?!?) I used some images I was given by Bonnie Sharp. I coloured them a long time ago so I am sorry, but I don’t know the colours I used. Once again, I can’t seem to get the colours in my photos right, the green in the ribbon isn’t as dark as the  leaves but much more vibrant than it looks.

The bow was an interesting discovery. I wanted both tails behind the loops and out to the sides but I couldn’t tie a bow to end up that way to save my life. So I used the method shown in THIS tutorial up to and including step 5. Then I punched two holes in the card, vertically, just under where you want the center of the bow to go. I placed the bow center over the holes and used another piece of ribbon to thread from the top hole over the bow down to the lower hole. Then I used a glue dot to attach the ribbon ends to each other inside the card. I prefer this method to simply tying a ribbon around the bow for the bow middle because it is less bulky because some bulk is inside the card. The size of the holes will depend on the thickness of your ribbon when bunched as does the spacing between the holes. Test ahead of time to determine the sizes to use. Remember that you don’t want the holes too large or you will see them and if the holes are too close together they may rip through.

Apparently, you can also get the tails to go to the back with the Bow-Easy if you pull them both up while tightening the knot. I’m not sure it would work with ribbon stiffer than the silk used in the example I saw online but I intend to try it out.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamp: Flourishes
Ink: UK
Paper: image-UK, white, summer sun CS-SU!
Accessories: foam dots-Jody Morrow, ribbon-May Arts, Copic Markers

Plum Heart Easel Card

Oh man, I have to start this post by apologizing for not posting Thursday and Friday after I promised to post everyday this week! Sorry, but I am going to make up for it today!

I made this card for FOUR challenges. Clear Dollar Stamps has a blog, Clearly iStamp, and the challenge was to glam up your card. So I added glitter to my heart and rhinestones to the top corner. Sharon’s challenge #126 on her No Time to Stamp blog was to use green and purple, very springy colours. Of course here in Southern Ontario, we still have cold and snow and as we really haven’t had a BIG storm yet, I expect one, probably several still, any time really! Last year, the worst weather was in late March and early April after a very warm February. Anyhoo, the third challenge was the sketch on the new OCC sketch blog. The last was Flourishes Timeless Tuesdays challenge to make an easel card. No problem, I love this this last challenge can be applied to almost every card.

This card is going to my son’s teacher. I let her know early in the year that because of our religion, he cannot participate in most popular holidays including Valentine’s Day. She not only remembered but added a note to the bottom of the Valentines’s Day class list.“Jameson doesn’t celebrate for religious reasons. But he would appreciate a friendship card.” Isn’t that so sweet? And even better, most of his classmates made special Happy Friendship Day cards for him with candy taped on just like a Valentine. It made me so happy, I almost cried. It is so unusual for anyone to go out of their way to make up for holidays we don’t participate in.

Because of the angle, it is a bit hard to see but there is an eyelet at each end of the heart punched panel and a silk-ribbon threaded button on either side of the Thank You oval. The dove is placed right above a similar bird stamped as part of the background. It kind of looks like the ivory bird is creating a shadow on the card!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: SU!
Ink: perfect plum, eggplant, sage-SU!
Paper: DP and all CS-SU!
Accessories: MS heart border and dove punch, oval punch, buttons, eyelets-SU!, silk ribbon-May Arts, purple sheer ribbon-stash, rhinestones-Zva, Art Institute Glitter-Watercolour

Quick Double Challenge Post – Chicken Car

Thought I’d throw this post up quick so I can link it to a challenge site. The first challenge is Flourishes colour challenge, use dark red, olive green, chocolate and cream. The other is Flourishes Sketch Challenge by Silke Ledlow. It is 11:28 and the challenge ends at 12MN so I’ll write more later.

Edited to add: Finally I have time to get to finishing this post! I hope you like my colouring on the chicken car! I worked for over an hour on it. Unfortunately, my haste in posting this card means I forgot to add some highlights with a white gel pen. Ooops, I’ll have to add that later. The olive paper I had looked too bright so I sponged it and used SU! rough wheel on it to subdue it. The ribbon through the hardware buckle is actually the BACK of May Arts corduroy ribbon. Thanks to Sandra for this fabulous image!! I loved hers so much I shamelessly BEGGED for a couple images! She stamped it on white but because the challenge called for cream, chocolate, dark red and (optional) olive, I very lightly sponged Antique Linen Distress ink over the white to darken it slightly.

The colour challenge was actually on the Colour Throwdown blog, and was SPONSORED by Flourishes. Sorry! I obviously turned the sketch 90 degrees too in case you were wondering.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Ink: Memento black, cocoa-SU!
Paper: white CS-unknown, chocolate, olive CS, all DP-SU!
Stamps: main image-unknown, rough wheel-SU!
Accessories: Copics, copper buckle-SU!, ribbon-May Arts

Girls in White Dresses with Blue Satin Sashes

Flourishes has such a fun challenge right now. Be inspired by the song, ‘My Favourite Things’ from the Sound of Music. My first thought was of this gorgeous dress stamp I’ve had almost since I started stamping in late 2004. (Well started again, I stamped a bit in the late 80’s but there were so few supplies back then I lost interest.)

It was hard to figure out how to get it white and still see it but using white EP on vellum seemed to do the trick. When I added the blue Copic to the back of the vellum it really started to come to life. Adding a bit more to the lower dress layer and the outline made it just so much prettier!

The layout I used is from the OCC this week, SASSC39. Worked perfectly with this large stamp. To put it in perspective, this is a 5.25” square card. It is hard to tell because the blues are so close to the same but in the center of each daisy is a tiny blue brad. I love the hat pins from the SU! pretties kit but there aren’t very many of them. So I bought some head pins from Michael’s and now I use those unless I need the length of the SU! ones. I used perfect pearls over the entire card base to get a super shimmery look.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamp: unknown
Ink: Versamark
Paper: bashful blue, white-SU!, vellum-stash
Accessories: pearls, beads-SU! pretties kit, head pin, satin ribbon, daisy chain, brads-stash, sheer ribbon-stash, Perfect Pearls-Ranger, white EP

Vintage Baby Label Card

I am sick but still crafting – a little. Rotten cold, with all the diseases mankind has conquered, I find it amazing that colds still exist. Anyhow, This little card (3.25x4.25”) is for the Friends of Flourishes sketch challenge, they showed 4 versions, each being a 90 degree rotation of the previous one. I just love their stamps but honestly, I haven’t gotten around to buying them yet-too many stamps, too little time and money! I have coloured in their Nasturtiums though, that is a Copic challenge because with such bright colours, I find it difficult to still show shading. I will eventually make the images into cards and will let you decide if you like how I coloured them.

In case you are wondering, this card is for Wyatt, that’s right, I still haven’t mailed the giant clothespin photo holder I made for him. I had to make this card small because I custom made the shipping box for the clothespin and it is quite small. So the card has to be small to fit in the box! I think you can get 3 cards from a sheet when you make them this size too. Good thing because I remade this card so many times it is ridiculous!

I started with a bashful blue base but changed my mind about the colour when I found this DP. So I cut another card out of this paper, I think it is soft sky, then distressed it with Baja Breeze but it was just to bright (I hadn’t even picked the label yet!) even after adding Antique Linen Distress ink. And when I tried it out with the DP squares, the distressing on the squares melded with the card base so the squares didn’t stand out well. ****SIGH**** So that base went into the scrap pile-the other side is still good right? Then I decided to go with a scalloped chipboard circle, I pressed it into my Antique Linen ink pad but it was too yellowish, so it went back into my chipboard storage box where I will likely cover it in paper or paint sometime later. No cardstock I usually use matched so I went into my odd pieces file. Cardstock other than SU! which I don’t use much and finally found a piece that matched. Woooo Hoooo

The rest was much easier. The chipboard flourishes are covered in white paint, then distressed with Linen Distress ink but they were still too white. So I pressed the ink pad onto an acrylic block, added a tiny squirt of white Liquid Pearls, mixed it and painted it on. Now they are distressed and pearlescent, I agree, an odd combo but it works. The button is one my mom got on eBay in a huge lot. Some were broken, seconds or grungy so I got those ones, perfect for this card.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: none
Ink: Distress Antique Linen
Paper: CS-SU!, DP-K&Co
Accessories: paint-Making Memories, label-Melissa Frances, foam dots-Jody Morrow, chipboard-Maya Road, ribbon-May Arts, button-stash, Copic (ribbon colour), Liquid Pearls, Nestabilities scalloped circles

His and Hers Cards End Up Being TROUBLE

I decided to make cards for the current Flourishes challenge to make two cards, similar or the same layout, one for her, one for him. For the ‘hers’ card, I used CTMH cardstock because of the white core. I should have used it as a layer, not as a card base because it is too thin IMHO. Sorry Janet! (my girlfriend who sells CTMH!) The white core was great for dry embossing and sanding though! I struggled on both cards trying to decide what to use as a focal image. Everything I wanted to use was horizontal not vertical and I had already added other elements preventing me from turning the card. At least, it didn’t look right to me the other way. So I ended up using a sticker by Melissa Frances and put baby powder on the back to prevent it from sticking to the card where there are no foam dots. Super technique!

For the ‘his’ card I tried hard to find CS that would match. None of my basic SU! colours matched and that is pretty much all the CS I have. So I tried colours I don’t use much and found that the retired River Rock worked perfectly! Now that I think about it, Kraft might have worked nicely too! Why do I always think of this stuff later? UGHHH!! I had no buttons that matched in my button jar but Basic Grey Bittersweet buttons were perfect! Again, all the images I wanted to use were horizontal, same as the ‘hers’ card. Included in the Lil’ Man paper pack were some stickers. This card is actually for my hubby and I wanted the sentiment to say ‘Thank You’ but none of the stickers were anything close, I assume because it is meant to be a scrapping kit. Cosmo needs to do something similar to Basic Grey and come up with small versions for card makers. Oh well, ‘Hi’ works and I’ll just write ‘thank you’ inside. I also baby powdered the back of this sticker. I would have stamped thank you instead of using the sticker but I don’t have any ink that matches either!! This is the trouble with using mainly one brand of cardstock and stamps; everything matches perfectly until you insert the monkey wrench of another brand of paper!!

Now remember, this is a Flourishes challenge, that’s right- A STAMP COMPANY! URGHHHH. How could I have done that!! I rarely make cards without stamping and NEVER TWO IN A ROW!! I double checked the ‘rules’ and it doesn't officially require stamping. It does say you can use Flourish stamps but it isn’t required. I'm sure that means you can use other stamps, not NONE, but it doesn’t say ‘stamping required’!! I hope that if by some freak of nature I am chosen, they don’t notice that I didn’t use stamping and choose another random number. I don’t expect them to read this far down!! This layout’s origin is unknown because I saved it to my iPhone’s photo album and obviously the designer did not include a website or keyword. Let me know if you recognize it so I can give credit where credit is due. Did you also notice I forgot the three dots at the bottom and placed my oval and stripe at the midpoint of the card? I noticed my cards seemed a bit empty this way but did I check the layout? NO and now I wish I had imitated the layout more carefully. This challenge was nothing but trouble. If I get time, I am going to do it again properly! With a new layout and I am going to START with stamping!!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPES

HERS
Ink: cocoa-SU!
Paper: CTMH
Accessories: Melissa Frances sticker, ribbon-SU!, hemp twine, key-UK, Oval Scalloped Nestabilities, Cuttlebug Textile Folder, Foam Dots-Jody Morrow

HIS
Paper: River Rock and Riding Hood Red CS-SU!, Cosmo Cricket Lil’ Man scrapbooking kit
Accessories: foam dots-Jody Morrow, Buttons-Basic Grey Bittersweet, hemp twine-UK, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Folder