Just One More Card

Discovering the world of card making. One Project at a time.

Inspired by: Online Card Classes

Since I’m just starting out with card making as a hobby, I signed up for the Online Card Classes class “Clean and Simple Cardmaking 2”. It was already over when I signed up, but since the videos are available for download and the PDFs for reading, it didn’t even matter.

The lesson which impressed me most was about stretching your stamps to create many different looks with what you have. I ordered the Hero Arts cling stamp Tall Flowers and re-created two of the cards (I completely forgot there was a third, otherwise I’d have done that as well).

Here’s my take:

This one was done with stamping in Memento Tuxedo black ink, the coloring with Copic markers. Since I had placed the stamped image a little too far to the bottom of the card, I added some stars I had die cut with the Simon Says Stamp Holiday Shapes Hearts Star die. I added some glossy accents to the stars.

I also wanted to make the flowers pop a bit and used my Wink of Stella brush pen on them, but I had ordered the white one instead of the clear one by mistake, so the colors of the flowers a bit more muted than I’d have liked.

The second card has the same stamp, but this time I heat embossed white Stampendous Fine embossing powder on Versamark. The coloring was done with distress inks.

Case This Sketch #48 – Feathery Challenge Entry

Due to severe lack of people I can send cards to, participating in challenges is a great way to find inspiration and direction when crafting.

This week’s Case This Sketch #48 caught my eye. I honestly didn’t know which way I’d go when I started making the card. I pulled out my stamps, but nothing really triggered a spark in me. Then, by accident, I found a piece of Copic Express paper in which I had already printed three feathers.

Granted, it’s not terribly original when you look at the other cards, but it’s the first time I used a feather theme and I like the colorful, but yet elegant and simple result of my project.

Freshly Made Sketches #106 – Challenge Entry

Once more, the design by the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge drew my eye. I knew right away that I wanted to use my brand new Avery Elle Written in the Stars stamp set. Here’s the sketch we are working with this week:

My card has a base of Doocraft pre-made card which I cut to 5.5″x4.25″. I stamped the background with Versamark on a simple blue sheet of paper and embossed it with white embossing powder.

The moon is cut with the Sizzix circle dies from yellow card stock. I used the same die to cut parts of the original circle away. It’s hard to see in this picture, but the moon as some clear embossed stars on it as well.

The sentiment was stamped with Versamark as well and I heat embossed white embossing powder.

Stampin Up Gigglin’ Greetings Birthday Card

Ever since I’d seen a certain Stampin Up set demoed in a YouTube video, I wanted the Gigglin’ Greetings. To my delight, I found a very nice Stampin Up Demo close to me and Ramona from Scrap Stueble was kind enough to organize the stamps for me in record time.

With another friend’s birthday coming up, I decided to go with a funny approach (we are all just crossing the 30 year mark or are just past it, so I guess humor is badly needed).

StampinUp-Age-Doesnt-Count-4
(click to embiggen)

This card turned out quite differently than my original sketch; but at some point I really wanted to use my Sizzix Circle die set and once I had thought of that, I couldn’t go back to my original idea (please tell me that happens to you, too?).

I pondered back and forth and then remembered some advice from, I think, Kristina Werner: paper that comes in a paper pack usually goes together very well. So I went through my – at the moment quite modest – stash and found some nice patterns (I picked the yellow with the white hearts to have something to go with the cheese theme). Some cutting and assembling later, I only added some bling to one side of the card and some Glossy Accents to the other side and that was it.

A little bling to make the card sparkle
Some glossy accents on the hearts add dimension and interest

On the inside, I could have just went with stamping, but I had this beautiful pattern I wanted to use. I only realized later on that the colors don’t do too well with the outside. Ok, I got a little carried away to try the Simon Says Stamps from the September kit and my Hero Arts Shadow Inks, but hey, it looks awesome, doesn’t it?

So, there’s my birthday card for a special friend across the ocean, literally on the other side of the world. Hope she likes it 🙂

Lawn Fawn Stitched Leaves – Three Beautiful Fall Cards

Ever since watching the introductory video for the Lawn Fawn Stitched leaves dies, I wanted them. Badly. To my immense joy, Stempelküche got them delivered last week and my order arrived at my doorstep on Friday. Needless to say, Saturday was devoted entirely to my new die set.

Lawn Fawn Stitched Leaves Dies

The first card took me forever to assemble. First, I cut the leaves out of different card stocks, both colored and white. I wanted to see how the leaves would look if they were made out of thinner paper and stronger card stock. In the end, I liked the 300gms (about 100lbs) card stock best.

The different looks of the leaves cut from different paper

Then I used my beloved Distress Ink pads to add some color to them and that was so much fun. Seeing as the leaves are turning red and yellow outside, drawing inspiration wasn’t too difficult. But I ended up re-arranging the leaves I had for about 1 hour until I was finally satisfied with what I’d gotten. I also bend the leaves about along the score lines to give them more dimension.

Detailed view of the leaves, colored and bend to shape 

Just a Note - Lawn Fawn Stitched Leaves Dies

I actually didn’t want to put any bling on the front of the card; I though the leaves where absolutely gorgeous and didn’t need anything else. Unfortunately, yours truly managed to blotch the stamped sentiment – I used white pigment ink which wasn’t dry when my fat thumb landed smack in the middle of it and smeared it across the card. I managed to salvage most of it, but the worst part of the smear I just had to cover up. Next time: heat setting.

To finish the card off properly, I took a simple white note card, trimmed it down to size and used my distress inks to give it some bright autumn colors. Some additional leaves and the inside of the card was finished, too.

Inside of the Kraft card – a white piece of paper distressed and some more leaves to finish it off

Of course, I couldn’t stop there and went for a cute little square card that I kept simple. I thought that the color of the leaves was a nice contrast to the white base of the card and that it didn’t need much more.

Marvelous - Lawn Fawn Stitched Leaves Dies
Inside of the square card – just something tiny to finish it off

And last, but not least, I wanted to go for elegant, really elegant. And to me, that’s white on white. Again, this took me forever to arrange and to make sure there was some color in there to give it contrast, but not too much to take away from the elegance I wanted to achieve.

So Totally Awesome - Lawn Fawn Stitched Leaves Dies

And here are all my three beauties side by side. Thank you Lawn Fawn for this gorgous die set and thank you Stempelküche for stocking it!

PS: And because not all people realize these cards are made by hand…