"Summer Jobs" Dirty Dozen Card-Making Challenge

Nine months ago I wrote in THIS POST that I was given the great honor in the paper-crafting world to join the "Dirty Dozen" on Splitcoaststampers.   Splitcoaststampers is an on-line paper crafting community where crafters can learn new techniques, chit chat with each other, share their art work, and so much more.  One part of this community is "The Dirty Dozen".  This is an invitation only group of crafters whose work is seen as exemplary so they are asked to be part of the Dirty Dozen.  The requirements of the Dirty Dozen is to create six cards for six months centered around a different theme each month.  The cards then are uploaded into the "Dirty Dozen Gallery" and only fan club members are allowed to see them.  After six months, Dirty Dozen members are allowed to post them elsewhere on social media or their blogs.  Well, it has been six months since I completed my first challenge, so I can finally show me my first set of cards!

The third Dirty Dozen theme was "Summer Jobs" and these are my submissions:

Farm Card

The first photo shows the outside of the farm card.  Once opened (the second photo) is another farm scene.

I live in a rural area and summer time provides a lot of summer jobs on farms.  

I created a Gatefold design card following a tutorial on Splitcoaststampers .  I used a combination of stamps and my Cricket machine to make all the farm images.  The barn, Sio, fence, tractor, and tree were all made with the "Country Life" Cricut cartridge.  The pig, farmer, horse, and chickens are from MFT "Punny Farm".  The sentiment is from Crafty Secrets "Down on the Farm".  I used stencils from Taylor Expressions to create the clouds and the grass.

Canning Card

My next card shows my summer job:  canning. I spend a good part of my summer canning vegetables from my garden.

To make this card I used a free canning jar image off the internet and printed it out in two different sizes.  The strawberries are stamps.  I put Glossy accents on the large strawberry and the strawberry tag.  I cut some red gingham designer paper by hand and glued it to the top of the larger jar, adding a twine bow and a tag.  The sentiment is from a stamp in my stash, and is cut with an MFT banner die.  I created the jam in the smaller jar just by coloring it in with a Copic marker.  The strawberry designer paper is from Jellibean Soup "Coconut Lime Soup".

Beach Scene Card

Lots of people work as lifeguards in the summer, so I created a beach scene card.

To make this card I used retired Stampin' Up! "Sparkling Summer".  The sentiment is from Flourishes "Kid's Play".  I used Taylored Expressions cloud stencil for the background and then colored my own sea and sand with Copic Markers.  I added some Dew Drops to the sand to make it more sparkly.  The beach images were all stamped on to separate card stock and cut out by hand.  The sentiment is from Flourish's "Kids at Play" and cut with a MFT banner die.  I added a ribbon and a sea shell stick pin for embellishment.

Ice Cream Cone Card

Another summer job is an ice cream worker.  We have neighborhood ice cream trucks in the summer plus all our ice cream shops usualy re-open for the summer.  In Wisconsin, many ice cream stores are only open in the summer months.

To make this card I used my Circuit machine once again and cut out a large cupcake using the cartridge "Sweet Treats".  I dry embossed the cone and the background paper using Cuttlebug embossing Folders.  I colored the sprinkles various pastel colors and then put glitter glue on them.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts "Cupcakes".  I cut the tag and the white scalloped background with Spellbinder's Nestabilies.  Ribbon, twin, and a button are the embellishments.  The ice cream cone is popped up on dimensionals. 

Camping Card

In the summer, camps open up again and many people are hired to work as camp counselors, camp employees, etc. 

To make this card, I followed a Diorama Tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.  I used images from retired Stampin' Up! sets "Happy Camper" and "Travel Time".  I stamped all the images onto separate card stock, colored them in, and fussy cut them out then glued them to my diorama.  The starry background is designer paper.  

Gardening Card

Another one of my summer jobs is gardening so I created a gardening card.

To make this card, I used the MFT stamp set "Can Ya Dig It?"  I stamped all the images separately, cut them out, and glued them onto the card or used dimensionals.  The sentiment and seedling were stamped directly onto the card stock.  I created a trellis background using a die.  The clouds and sun were also cut from dies.  The flower background is designer paper. 

I hope you enjoyed looking at my Dirty Dozen Design Team cards.  I have shown you about half of them now.  There is more to come next month!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

See More Dirty Dozen Cards in These Posts:

"Let's Go Fly A Kite"

"Butterflies Are Free"

 

Easy Handmade Christmas Cards Using Stickers

Spellbinder's had a HUGE warehouse clearance sale in November so I took advantage of that and ordered a whole box of new toys.  One of the things I ordered was a $1.00 set of Nutcracker Ballet Chipboard Stickers.   You heard me right, $1.00!!! And guess what, they are still only $1.00 as I write this post, so you may want to scoop them up as they are cute!

So far, I managed to make four cards and two tags out of the sticker set, and I still have some stickers leftover.

Stickers today are not the same as stickers when I was a kid. Today's stickers have so much more interest, detail, and dimension.  They are so attractive looking, they are perfect for making quick and easy cards:  no stamping or coloring involved.  Anyone can do it!

My first two cards are my own design, and the last two cards I cased from the Spellbinder website which always has great ideas of how to use their products.

Christmas Ornaments Card

To make this card, I used the ornament stickers in the set and placed them on the white panel in different lengths.  I added gold twine to 'hang' the ornaments, and I used two red bow stickers for two of the ornaments and I created a gold bow out of the twine for the third ornament.  The "25" sentiment is also a sticker from the set.  I put some pretty Christmas designer paper in the background and added four rhinestones in the corners of the white panel.

Christmas Stocking Card & Tags

My next card uses a mix of stickers from the Nutcracker set, plus some Circuit cut outs and other stash I had lying around my craft room.  The stitched border was done with this month's latest Stitching Die:  "Cross Stitch Nested Card Front and Tag"

To make this card, I cut a Christmas stocking using my Circuit machine then I just filled it with a lot of the stickers from the Nutcracker set.  I added a foam snow man, and more images I cut with my Circuit machine in the bottom right corner, along with the sentiment. The evergreen foliage is from another Spellbinder's set.  Adhesive crystals and snowflakes were added for embellishment.

To make the tags, I simply cut them out, stitched them, stamped a sentiment and Christmas image, and then added an eyelet to the hole. 

The edges of the card and tags were stitched using one strand of red embroidery floss.

My last two cards were inspired by the cards on the Spellbinder's website.  The layout is the same, but because I didn't have the exact same supplies the designer paper and sentiments are different. 

                           Nutcracker Card

To make the first card I simply stuck the stickers onto the white card stock base that I cut with a Spellbinder's die.  Then everything was adhered to a pretty Christmas designer paper adhered to a white card.

Speaking of The Nutcracker, has anyone watched the new Ben Stiller Christmas movie "Nutcrackers" on Hulu?  It is so good.  The children in the movie dance their own version of The Nutcracker at the end of the movie, and it is so touching. It's hard not to cry!

Mouse King Card

To make the second card I adhered the stickers to a light blue card stock, then I put some glittery Christmas designer paper below and separated the two panels with a silver ribbon.  The simple card is finished off with a sticker sentiment and poinsettia flower.

 I hope you enjoyed my easy handmade Christmas cards and you will try making your own cards out of stickers too!  Only one pack of stickers made all these cards!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Stitched Christmas Cards Using Spellbinder's Stitching Dies

I have a couple of Christmas cards to show you that I made with my Spellbinder's Stitching Dies.  I belong to the Spellbinder's Stitching Die of the Month club.  I get one die a month at a reduced price.  I'm really enjoying this club because it combines two of my favorite hobbies, sewing and paper crafting, into one!  Plus I think the stitching takes card making to a whole new level.

"Merry and Bright Cloche"

My first Christmas card uses the Spellbinder's die "Merry and Bright Cloche".  I had to admit I had no idea what a cloche was until I looked it up.  😁.  I really like this set because it has so many possibilities.  For my first card, I used the card exactly as it was meant to be used, but I can see just making a forest of trees, or constructing a shaker card with the cloche; the possibilities are endless.

To create the card I cut all the individual pieces out, ink blended the cloche, tree, and stand, and then stitched everything with metallic gold floss.  I then glued everything together, and popped the tree up on dimensionals.  The dark blue card base was embossed with a snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder.

"All Wrapped Up"

My next card works great for many occasions, not just Christmas.  I could just change the colors and make a birthday card, graduation card, etc.

This card uses the Spellbinder's Stitching Die "All Wrapped Up".  On the inside of the card, I used a retired Stampin' Up! sentiment from "Star Studded Season".  I highlighted the word "gift" by stamping it separately on white card stock and cutting it out and gluing it onto the card.

To make this card, I cut all the pieces in two shades of red, then did the stitching with metallic gold embroidery floss.   I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder to create a Christmas design on white card stock.  I glued the bow to the white card stock and added a sentiment tag from "Flourishes".

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!
 

"Let's Go Fly A Kite" Dirty Dozen Card-Making Challenge

Six months ago I wrote in THIS POST that I was given the great honor in the paper-crafting world to join the "Dirty Dozen" on Splitcoaststampers.   Splitcoaststampers is an on-line paper crafting community where crafters can learn new techniques, chit chat with each other, share their art work, and so much more.  One part of this community is "The Dirty Dozen".  This is an invitation only group of crafters whose work is seen as exemplary so they are asked to be part of the Dirty Dozen.  The requirements of the Dirty Dozen is to create six cards for six months centered around a different theme each month.  The cards then are uploaded into the "Dirty Dozen Gallery" and only fan club members are allowed to see them.  After six months, Dirty Dozen members are allowed to post them elsewhere on social media or their blogs.  Well, it has been six months since I completed my first challenge, so I can finally show me my first set of cards!

The first Dirty Dozen challenge theme was "Let's Go Fly a Kite" and here are my submissions:

Vintage Boy

To make this card, I used the Splitcoaststampers Dirty Dozen Sketch 0424.  The stamp set is retired Crafty Secrets "Little Boy".  I stamped the images, colored them with Copic Markers, fussy cut them out, and popped them up on dimensionals.  I stamped the "Dear Little Boy" sentiment on a separate piece of card stock and cut it out with a Spellbinder's Nestability.  The other sentiment I stamped directly on to the card. I hand drew the grass with acrylic paint.  The designer kite paper is from Cosmo Cricket "Togetherness".

Wishing You Joy

To make my next card, I used retired Stampin' Up! "Kids at Play".  

The little girl and kite were stamped on separate card stock, cut out, and popped with dimensionals. I used a Spellbinder's Nestability to create the Very Vanilla frame behind her. I added a ruby red diagonal panel over the kite designer paper to emphasize the little girl more (otherwise she would have gotten lost on the card). I stamped the sentiment onto Very Vanilla and cut it out with an MFT banner die, then I cut another one out of Ruby Red to make it stand out. I adhered the sentiment with two brads. The card base is "Soft Suede". The sentiment is unknown.

Kite on Card

This card was inspired by "lovinpaper" who shared "ruby-heartedmom"'s cute kite card. I made a kite shaped card and decorated it with Cosmo Cricket designer paper. The kite portion of the card is made the same way as the Penny Black "Garden Friends" card below following the same SCS Tutorial.  I glued it to a card base also decorated with paper from the same stack. I stamped a sentiment onto white card stock and cut it out with Spellbinder's Nestabilities along with a scalloped frame cut out in Blue Bayou. The Flower die is from MFT, all cut from card stock. The butterfly die cut was made using a Spellbinder die.

Fabric & Felt Kite Card

This was a fun card to make because it brought both my love of sewing and paper-crafting together. I made a kite out of felt and cotton material. I sewed the cotton and felt triangle pieces onto a kite shaped piece of felt. I had to put the cotton material on top of another piece of felt or it would have been lower than the other two felt pieces. I cut the clouds out of white felt using an MFT cloud die. The kite tail is a piece of "fiber" purchased from a craft store. I only glued portions of the tail so other parts would stick up. I stamped the sentiment directly on the main image panel. I cut two scalloped border out of Ruby Red card stock for the side borders and the edging strips are Cosmo Cricket designer paper.

Penny Black "Garden Friends"

I made the kite shaped card following the directions on the SCS tutorial. I stamped my image, colored it, and cut it out using a Spellbinder Nestabilitie. I added a scalloped frame using Spellbinders Nesties. The flowers were cut out of card stock using an MFT die. I put a small yellow pom pom in the center. The sentiment was stamped onto white card stock then cut out with an MFT banner die. I made a kite tail with yellow twine and tied ribbon onto it.

MFT "Adorable Elephants"

I made a Diamond Fold Card following the SCS tutorial. I stamped the main image onto white card stock and colored it in then cut it out with a Spellbinder's Nestabilitie die. The kite was stamped on a separate piece of card stock, colored, cut out, and glued to the die. I stamped the sentiment onto blush card stock and glued it the main image panel. Adhesive crystals were added for embellishment. I mimicked the colors in the die by coloring just the corners of white card stock with the same colors in the kite using copic markers

I like how the shape of the card's design mimics the shape of a kite.

 I hope you enjoyed looking at my first set of Dirty Dozen cards.  I will be back next month with more.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Bless This Nest Handmade Card

My daughter asked me to make a few baby cards for her as she has a number of showers she needs to attend.  Papertrey Ink has daily deals where everyday a new stamp/die set is drastically marked down.  You can subscribe to their email service to see these daily deals.  I've purchased several new sets from them and have been anxious to play with them.  I must say, as a stamp and color girl, these new die cuts are a big learning curve for me.  I've been noticing for a while now that stamping/coloring seems to be on the way out and die cutting is what is hot, hot, hot in the paper-crafting world.  I actually find it harder to make a card using die cuts, but since most people probably don't like to color or purchase hundreds of different shades of markers, this is probably easier for them.

Whenever I work with a new set, I first like to just case a card to familiarize myself with the set.  This is the card I cased:

As you see, I changed the colors, the sentiment, and added flowers to the branches,  but the layout and concept remain the same.

I used a tree branch Cuttlebug embossing folder for the background, stamping the sentiment first before running it through the machine.  Everything else you see was just cut with the die cuts provided in the Papertrey Ink set and then stamped.  It's actually a very fussy, time consuming process especially gluing all the little blue dots into the center of the flowers.  I think I'd rather color.  I like the look of coloring better than a die cut/stamped color look.

 So what about you?  Do you prefer stamping/coloring or are you a die cut kind of gal (or guy).  I'd love to hear from you.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE.

Welcome Grand Baby #4

We have another new grand baby to love and cherish!  Lazarus entered the world this month, he is grand baby number four and our third grandson.

We were not there for the birth as it is too difficult to coordinate living nine hours away, but we did show up the following weekend for Mother's Day.  Then we took a week's vacation visiting two national parks and a state park in Ohio which I will share all about in an upcoming travel series.

In the mean time, since it's Tuesday craft day, I have a card to share with you.  This is the card I made to welcome baby Lazarus into the world.  My daughter is crazy about the color sage green right now (as you can probably tell in some of the photos pictured below) so I created the card with her favorite color in mind.

To make the card, I started by playing the sketch challenge on Splitcoaststampers.  I love a good sketch challenge.  This sketch is SC1008 if you're looking for it.  My main image and safety pin background is from retired Stampin' Up! "A New Little Someone".  The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink "Nesting".  I created the safety pin background by randomly stamping the safety pin onto white card stock and then coloring it in.  The bunny was colored with Copic markers and popped up on dimensionals.  The main image panel and scalloped panel were cut with Spellbinder's Nestabilities.  I used a Sizzix corner die and dew drops to meet the requirements of the sketch challenge.

And now for the best part of this crafty post:  photos of the little guy!

The other three grandchildren are absolutely in awe of the new baby.  When I was visiting they were constantly touching and kissing their little brother.  They all want to hold him and think he is the cutest thing ever.

My daughter and son-law chose the name Lazarus for this reason: "Lazarus means "God is my Helper." We also recall the biblical account of Lazarus being risen from the dead, as a foretaste of our hope in the resurrection of our own bodies when Christ comes again! "

A week later it was finally my turn to hold the new baby.

He is quite the handsome little boy isn't he?  But I suppose all grandmas think that.  

The week I was in the area all he did was sleep, waking only to nurse.  Next time I see him will be the 4th of July, so I'm hoping he will be a little more alert by then.

"Children are a gift from the Lord.  They are a reward from Him"

Psalms 127:3

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!