Designer pack - Baby Boy - Card #1

Good evening! Today I'm going to share one of the cards I made with this month's designer pack from Scrapping Essentials, a fantastic online scrapbooking supplies shop I design for.

I was graciously given three packs to create with this time - one for baby girl and boy cards, one for feminine cards (frangipanis) and one for masculine cards (diamonds). Each pack came with a sheet of vellum which I haven't *really* worked with before and I'm finding it takes a little bit more ingenuity to get the results you want.

Vellum Rule No. 1: You first have to ask yourself the question - "How am I going to adhere this??" before cutting it out to the desired size. If you plan on having it half underneath a strip of ribbon (as in my card below) or paper you will need to cut a bit more generously to allow for this.



I cut my desired piece of vellum about 1/2 cm wider (or taller?) than what you can see and adhered the ribbon straight onto it with tape adhesive. The ribbon was then tucked behind the white layer and taped on with single-sided tape for added strength. I added a simple overhand knot in the ribbon for added interest before I adhered it down.

The vellum print is quite soft on the white, but much better than on the blue. Click on the image and go to 'All Sizes' and then go to "Original" to see the words on the vellum clearly. It is very much clearer in real life - it's the vellum's fault for being so transluscent!

Size of card: 6x4" top folding

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill cardstock, Vellum A4 Patterned - Baby Words
Extra - Blue Footprint ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar tape runner

Stay tuned tomorrow - when I present - another baby boy card. I know you're excited! :)

you're my type

I thought I was being so hilarious when I thought up this card, and it still makes me giggle. I'm sure my husband thinks I laugh too much at my own jokes ;)



This is my entry into this week's One Layer Wednesday challenge - make a one layer card, and be funny. I haven't got any funny stamps so I decided to go digital.

When I saw the Steampunk digital Stamp Set from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff on Mygrafico I knew I had to have that gorgeous little typewriter. It reminds me of when I learned how to touch type (true the typewriters were electric at that stage, but still).

I downloaded the (Free!) Rough Typewriter font from Dafont.com and then used MS Word and my new Printer (Canon Pixma IP4700 in case you are interested!) to produce the card.

In order to get it to print where I wanted it on the page (even though I was putting in an A4 sheet of card, I wanted to make it as easy for myself as possible to cut out) I have created a 4x4 card page size in Word. It is 4" wide by 8" tall. This allows me to see roughly where my cardfront will be and lay everything out accordingly. When it comes time to cutting it out I just need to work out where the 'middle' of my cardfront is (very easy to do with my handy dandy centering ruler) then cut 8" from the top and fold in half - done!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock
Stamp - Steampunk Digital Stamp Set by Lindsay's Stamp Stuff, Rough Typewriter Font from Dafont.com
Ink - Printer
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, MS Word, Printer

Challenge: OLW11

Thanks for looking!

Birthday Wishes

The card in this post was originally intended to be a one-layer number that I spent half of "Sleepy Hollow" and some of "Braveheart" colouring in (yeah yeah, I'm slow).

True to my word in this post I masked the design, then stamped the sentiment, and THEN coloured, but alas I stamped the sentiment kind of crooked. I was all set for chucking it on the scrap pile but I stopped and thought it wasn't often that I got the masking pretty much spot on (trust me, I've wasted enough cardstock within the past week to know to take the good when I can get it!)

So I saved it from the darkness of my scrap drawer and came up with the following:



I tried the reverse 'label' trick I saw on the Hero Arts flickr pool (I really should jot down usernames or something when I do this so that I can give proper credit!) actually I think I left a comment... here it is: butterfly thank you by Lucy Abram.

It took simply ages to find the right sentiment - everything was either too long or too short, too skinny or too tall. In the end I decided to put a small one in the corner and balance it out with ribbon, and when that didn't 'complete' the card I whacked on some rhinestones.

I'm still not completely sure about it - it's not really my usual style... would anyone out there care to give me some feedback?

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Cre8tive textured cardstock
Stamp - Inkadinkado "Garden Flower" sentiment, Inkadinkado "Flourishes"
Ink - Versafine "Onyx Black"
Extra - Ribbon, Kaisercraft "Antique Rose", Prismacolor pencils "Pink", "Pink Rose", "Grass Green" and "Apple Green"
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar tape runner, Big Shot, Nestabilities Labels 1

Thanks for looking!

Birthday Wishes

This is the second card I have made this week using trains! It's for a little boy turning three this week. I hope he likes it.

I was inspired by the CAS-tastic Challenge sketch this week:



And here's my interpretation:



As you can see I did deviate a bit but sometimes you've got to go where inspiration takes you (at least that's what I reckon!)

And here's the inside view:



I don't usually like showing ribbon when someone opens the card, but for this card to work the way I wanted (by having a hole to show the train engine) I was going to have to bite the bullet, this once.

To get the circle where I wanted it, I used my new Big Shot and Circle nestabilities (I think it was the 3rd smallest circle in the SM pack). I held the closed card up to the window where the light was shining in so that I could get the circle right where I wanted it.
I then marked the inside edge of the nestability with my pencil, which made it easier to position it while stacking up my Big Shot 'sandwich'.

I do recommend using scrap bits of the same paper/card you will be using in your project to give the sandwich a test run first and adjust where needed - especially when cutting cardstock - as sometimes I forget and I end up with slightly embossed edges... oops!

Size of card: BIG - again! 6" x 4 1/4"

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Canson Messages, Bazzil cardstock
Stamp - Cupcake Cuties "Boy Toy Elements" digital stamp
Ink - Printer
Extra - Ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Cre8tive spring scissors, Zig 2-way glue, Helmar tape runner, Big Shot, Nestabilities Circles (SM)

Challenge: CWC010

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Balloon

The card in this entry is for my nephew, Thomas who is turning 5 this month.



I didn't make up the idea of the owl holding the balloons - I saw someone's card who had done it on the Hero Arts flickr pool ages ago and it stuck in my memory.

I paper pieced this one to bits! I freehand drew the 'hills' using opposing sides of the same green paper (slightly lighter on one side than the other, I found), and the alternating colours in the balloons were all cut out bits as well (talk about fiddly!)

I used a bit of old DMC I found in my cross-stitch stash which is from probably about 10 years ago (!) for the balloons and stuck them to the back of the owl's little wing using my tape runner to make it sticky.

Size of card: BIG - 6 1/4 x 4 1/2 (I made it this size to fit into an envelope I have on hand - gotta use 'em up!)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Grant Archival plain paper, Quill 80gsm "Cool colours" pack
Stamp - Hero Arts "Wonderful Birthday"
Ink - Versafine "Onyx Black"
Extra - Foam tape, DMC thread
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Cre8tive spring scissors, Zig 2-way glue, Helmar tape runner

Challenge: Caardvarks

Thanks for looking! Hope everyone had a lovely weekend - I know I can't wait for the next one ;)

Happy Birthday to You!

I've been making lots and lots of birthday cards lately for people - I suppose it makes sense, everyone has one, right? :) The following card is one I have made for a little girl, turning four, who likes trains. I hope she also likes pink and cupcakes!



I used a stamp by Inkadinkado for the clouds of smoke coming out of the engine by selectively inking one circle at a time. It was fiddly, and I wasn't sure whether it was going to turn out, so I did it on a piece of the same cardstock as the base layer of the card, just in case I screwed it up! I then layered with it giving it the 'white on white' look that just makes me so happy ;)

I liked the look of the scallops without a sentiment cluttering everything up, so I stamped one on the inside:



Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Polka Dots are from: Inque Boutique "Isn't it Romantic" 6x6 paper pad, Cupcakes are from: Studio B "Party Girl" paper pad
Stamp - My Sentiments Exactly "Birthday Sentiments", Cupcake Cuties "Boy Toy Elements" digital stamp, Inkadinkado "Circles and Dots"
Ink - Printer, Versacolor "Cement"
Extra - Foam tape
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Cre8tive spring scissors, Fiskars scallop border punch, Sanding block, Zig 2-way glue, Helmar tape runner

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday

Hello again! Today's card is not a response to a challenge (in fact, I don't think ANY of the cards I'm going to post this weekend will be for challenges - shock, horror!)

In my stash of odds and ends I found a bit of Stampin' Up polka dot designer paper given to me as a sample and thought I'd use it...



I coloured the hand drawn flowers from Lil Ellaboudy Design with Copics and Bic Mark-its. To make the two sets of flowers and leaves look different I layered them differently - I used "Pale Pink" on the smaller flower first, and then "Peach", and with the larger flower I just used the peach. On the leaves I used "Margarita Green" on the smaller set and then on the larger set I used "Spectrum Green" and then "Margarita Green" on top.

My craft desk was an absolute mess last night (which, let's be honest, isn't much different from usual). I wanted to photograph this card before I gave it to a colleague at work so I set up my light tent on the ground instead of on the desk. I was in the middle of taking shots when my vision through the viewfinder was obscured by this:



Toby wanted to check out what was happening... I took a couple of photos before he wandered off. Silly boy!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Stampin' Up designer paper, Grant Archival plain paper, Hunter Studio Sketch Pad (160gsm)
Stamp - Hero Arts "Classic Sentiments", Hand Drawn Floral Stamps by Lil Ellaboudy Designs
Ink - Versafine "Black Onyx"
Extra - Copic Ciao "Peach", "Pale Pink" and "Spectrum Green", Bic Mark-it "Margarita Green"
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Cre8tive spring scissors, Fiskars scallop border punch, Carl corner rounder

Thanks for looking! I hope everyone has a lovely weekend ;)