A little birdie told me + free digital sentiment

After I made this card for my little niece I thought it would be a cute sentiment to wrap around a circle. So here it is:


As with all of my other digital sentiments, it's free for the taking (just click right click on the image above and choose 'save target as'). All I ask is that you credit me and provide a link back to this blog.

Sentiment info:
File type: PNG (can be dropped into MS Word, background is transparent)
File size: 277kb
Full dimensions: 25cm x 26cm
Font: Walkway

And here's a card I made using this sentiment:



I used the same little birdie that I used in my neice's card, and paper pieced it with my favourite textured paper - Mi-Teintes by Canson.

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Canson Mi-Teintes in Azure and Lily
Stamps - Digital sentiment by me (see above), Chatter Birds by JW Illustrations on MyGrafico
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Canon Pixma printer, Big Shot, Nestabilities Circles and Big Scallops, Helmar glue runner

Welcome Kitty

My supervisor at work just adopted a young cat from the local RSPCA shelter and since my cats have a zillion toys that they've never used I thought I'd give some to her [well the kitty really] as a little present. And you can't give a present without a card, right?

So here we are:



I love the colours and the theme for this month's Embellish Magazine challenge - Quirky, Cutesy, Clean Style, so I just had to use them for this cutesy card. I used brown as my additional neutral colour, as when I printed the sentiment and kitty in black it just looked far too stark against the softish pastels of the rest of the card.

I had to print the sentiment out in Word as for some strange reason nobody's made a 'Welcome Kitty' stamp yet (can you believe it?) and the kitty is a gorgeous digital stamp from Softpencil. This one to be exact. I cut him out and popped him up on some foam dots. The way he's positioned is kind of like he's popping up to say hello! Very cute :)

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Kraft cardstock, Kaisercraft Secret Bird Society 6x6 paper pad [seafoam scallop strip], Chatterbox designer paper [peach layer], "Lily" Canson Mi-Teintes [for kitty and sentiment layer]
Stamps - "Be Mine" digital stamp from Softpencil
Ink - Printer, "Peach" copic ciao marker [for ears]
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Tonic scissors, Canon Pixma printer, Helmar tape runner, Papercraft foam dots, Fiskars scallop punch

Challenges: Embellish Magazine - Quirky, Cutesy, Clean style / Stamp Something - August Digi Day

Scrapping Essentials Designer Pack - Frangipanis - Card #4

Okay so in my last post I was mistaken - THIS card is my final card from the Frangipani pack from Scrapping Essentials. I just forgot all about it! It wasn't until I was flicking through my card stash in my quest to organise them better that I found it and realised I hadn't posted it!

So here it is:



The frangipani vellum shows up really nicely on the diamond bazzill bling - this is the only card I managed to make with just that cardstock, which is beautiful IRL I must add. So shimmery!

Size of card: C6 (top folding)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill Bling cardstock, Frangipani A4 vellum
Extras - Kaisercraft Birthday Cards rubon, ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Provocraft bone folder (for rubon), Scotch Vellum Tape

Thanks for looking! :)

Scrapping Essentials Designer Pack - Frangipanis - Card #3

Technically this should be 'cards #3' because I'm posting twin cards but I thought that looked weird so I'll just leave it at that.

So here it is... the final instalment of the Frangipani pack from Scrapping Essentials. I have really enjoyed working with these vellum packs as they got me crafting outside my comfort zone, and experimenting with new and innovative ways of layering.

Without further ado, here are the final cards I made with the pack:



These cards really only happened because I had small scraps of the Diamond bazzill bling left. They were just enough to make 3" square notecards with. They are sentiment-less because I've also pretty much run out of rubons from the pack, but I like these cards as they are. Wouldn't one of these look nice on top of a gift, or perhaps left on someone's keyboard as a little surprise? I love doing that - it's my favourite way to give my cards out at work. What's your favourite way to give a card?

Size of cards: 3" (7.5cm) square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill Bling cardstock, Frangipani A4 vellum
Extras - Ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Scotch Vellum Tape, Papercraft foam dots, Helmar glue runner

Happy Birthday

This is the final card I will be entering into the Helping Hudson challenges, as it is nearly the end of the fundraiser! Good news though - the team have raised enough for Hudson to get his walker! It's such a lovely feeling to be involved in something (however tenuously!) that will bring such joy to people I don't even know! That's charity for you I suppose :)

So here's my card for the final technique challenge - embossing and sponging. I went through alot of different ideas before I hit upon this one. Nothing was working! Luckily inspiration hit late last night and I created this:



Technically it's 'debossing', but I'm sure it still counts! I sponged around the edges of the patterned paper layers with my "Sand" versacolor cube to give them a bit of definition.

And that isn't a word window punch I used for the sentiment - I faked it! To make your own word window (which has the added advantage of being as long as you need it to be - think of the possibilities!) I cut a strip of paper a touch thinner than my 3/8" circle punch. I then slid one end in from the back side of the punch. I stamped the sentiment and then did the same to the other end. I thought I had a page bookmarked that showed this technique but I don't, so I've modelled it for you below:



I think the strip of paper I used was slightly too thin to make the perfect rounded edges, but you get the idea.

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill black cardstock, Chatterbox Designer Paper "Botanico Garden"
Stamps - Hero Arts "Classic Messages"
Ink - Versafine "Onyx Black", Versacolor "Sand"
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Big Shot, Big Scallop nestabilities, Circle nestabilities, Cuttlebug "Swiss Dots" folder, Helmar tape runner, Papercraft foam dots, Sullivan's 3/8" circle punch

Challenge: Helping Hudson Challenge 8 - Technique

A little birdie told us...

I can finally share the photo I made for my little niece Emily for her christening last Sunday. We weren't able to go to the ceremony we had to send it up. They received it on Wednesday and I could have posted about it then but I've been so busy blogging about other things I completely forgot about it!

So here it is:



Here's a view of the inside:



It is supremely difficult to find a christening sentiment that isn't religious [due to the nature of the event, I would imagine] so I came up with my own.

I used all digital elements, except for the patterned paper, it's real Inque Boutique and Kaisercraft patterned paper (I haven't crossed over to 100% digital paper yet - I still have a truckload of it that I probably should use up first!)

Size of card: C6 (A5 folded in half)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Stampin' Up "Very Vanilla" cardstock, Kaisercraft "Hey Birdie" patterned paper, Inque Boutique "Isn't it Romantic" patterned paper
Stamps - Chatter Birds by JW Illustrations on MyGrafico
Ink - Printer
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Tonic scissors, Canon Pixma printer, Helmar tape runner, Papercraft foam dots, Fiskars scallop punch, 3mm punch

Paper flower tutorial

It took me a while, but I finally got there with my paper flowers tutorial that I promised in this post. Hope you enjoy it!

What you will need:

• Six tissue paper circles (or flowers if you have a die-cutting machine and nestabilities)


• Needle (a mending/fabric needle is best)


• Thread (doesn't matter what colour, nobody will see it!)

Gather up your tissue paper circles/flowers and line them up so they're sitting on top of each other. I'm using six because after trial and error I've found that it is the easiest amount to push the needle through, but you could definitely try more if you're game!



Pick the stack up and fold in half. Please ignore my horrible nails (yep, I'm a biter!)



Fold again until it forms a point.



Thread your needle and tie a knot at the end. Start sewing into the tissue paper at around 3-4mm (1/4") from the point, all the way around. You don't have to be overly neat with the stitches, but try to keep it even all the way around - not doing so makes for a lopsided finished flower!





When you're done sewing open up the flower carefully to check it out and make sure it doesn't look lopsided, and looks the way you want it to.



If you aren't happy with it you can close it all back up again and keep sewing. If you're satisfied, you can either leave it as is, or do what I do, and give it a bit of a crinkled effect by closing it again and smooshing the edges with my fingers.





To finish cut the thread about 5cm (2") from the flower and tie a double overhand knot. Pull it firmly, but don't wrench it - you might rip the tissue paper. Trim the excess and put a rhinestone/pearl or button in the centre and you're done! Here are some that I prepared earlier:



The flower I made for this tutorial is the big one on the right.

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial! If there is anything that doesn't make sense and needs further explanation, please let me know!

All of the embellishments shown on the flowers are Kaisercraft.

Scrapping Essentials Designer Pack - Frangipanis - Card #2

Here is the second card from the Frangipani pack, as promised in my post the other day. I didn't get to it yesterday like planned as I didn't get home till late and only had time to ramble on for one post.

So here it is:



And here's a view of it laying flat(ish):



The 'medallion' is actually the vellum tag that you can see in the pack picture in this post. I covered it with rhinestones (including over the hole where the string was looped through.) To get it to look like part of the card from the inside, as well as taking away the ugly strip where it was partially see-through, I punched out a 1 1/4 circle of the cardstock and attached it to the back of the tag with vellum adhesive. I then stuck half of it down with the strongest adhesive I have - glue dots from a no-name brand I get in my local discount store. Nothing shifts these, believe me I've tried!

To make the card I simply cut the bazzill to the ordinary C6 (A5 folded in half) size and then cut a strip about 3/4 (2cm) wide off the front.

Very simple to make, but very eye-catching as well!

Size of card: C6 - A5 folded in half

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill Bling cardstock
Extras - Kaisercraft Birthday Cards rubon, vellum tag, Kaisercraft Rhinestones in Gold and Silver
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Provocraft bone folder (for rubon), Scotch Vellum Tape, glue dots

The third and final installment of the Frangipani pack will be posted tomorrow (I promise!)

Many thanks

The card in my post today is one I am entering into a couple of challenges - the Helping Hudson challenge #9, and the Pink Elephant ribbon and sparkles challenge.



The Helping Hudson colour challenge for this week is to use one colour (as many shades as desired), plus a neutral colour (I just realised that technically I used two - black and white... oops!)

The polka dot paper is my first foray into printing digital papers and I must say, I'm now hooked! I bought this digital paper set from Lilly Bimble on Mygrafico, and recoloured the polka dots paper using PSPX2 to make it suit my needs.

I find it's best to use heavier weight paper than ordinary copy paper to print the pattern onto. I use cartridge paper which is 110 gsm (copy paper is 80gsm so it's just a little bit heavier). I find that it prints better, and doesn't buckle as the ink saturates the paper. My printer is an inkjet but from what I know about laser printers I don't think this would be a problem.

The beauty of printing your own patterned paper is that you only have to print as much as you need for a particular project, and you can have the cake and eat it too (that is, you can use the paper, and print out more when you want to use it.)
I'm sure I'm not the only one guilty of buying beautiful patterned paper and then not wanting to use it because it's soooo beautiful, and it must be kept for a SPECIAL occasion. Well that isn't an issue with digital patterned paper!

And you can't go past the convenience of being able to change the colour to suit your project/colour scheme! How fantastic is that?!

I got started with printing my own paper a short while ago when I was reading a post on Lucy's blog and saw that she was using digital patterned paper and it looked like the bought stuff!
Lucy has some excellent videos on all manner of things digital on this page.

I've just started making the tissue paper flowers featured on this card, and I've taken a couple of photos on how I do it so I'll post a little tutorial tomorrow (edited to add - the tutorial is here). I was going to do it in this post but it became a little bit long-winded with my digital paper ramblings. ;)

Size of card: C6 (top folding)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Cartridge paper (Lilly Bimble Carolina Patterns digital paper from MyGrafico)
Ink - Printer
Extra - Papercraft rubon, ribbon, tissue paper flowers by me (tutorial is here)
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Canon Pixma printer, Helmar tape runner

Challenges: Helping Hudson Colour Challenge 9 / TPE80

Scrapping Essentials Designer Pack - Frangipanis - Card #1

I was so lucky this time to have three gorgeous packs to play with from http://www.scrappingessentials.com.au/">Scrapping Essentials! I made three cards with this final pack which I have dubbed 'Frangipanis'.

Here are the goodies:


The pack includes Bazzill Bling (cardstock with a lovely pearly/metallic shine), 1 A4 sheet of Frangipani vellum, 1 foot each of white and yellow grosgrain ribbon, a vellum tag and 1 pack of gold kaisercraft rhinestones. I also used the silver kaisercraft rhinestones from the His and Hers designer pack, along with Birthday Cards rubons.

The first card I made was this one:



The pattern on this vellum is perfect for the dreaded vellum tape, as it's quite busy, so it distracts from any adhesive that might be visible. As mentioned in my previous posts about vellum tape - I used it only in the corners to save much frustration. You just have to be careful when handling it afterwards not to get it snagged on anything - the white marks that occur when vellum is creased aren't very attractive.

Size of card: C6 - A5 folded in half

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill Bling cardstock, Frangipani A4 vellum
Extras - Kaisercraft Birthday Cards rubon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Provocraft bone folder (for rubon), Scotch Vellum Tape

Thanks for looking! Stay tuned for card #2 tomorrow!

Scrapping Essentials Designer Pack - Diamonds - Card #4

This is the final card from the "Diamonds" pack for Scrapping Essentials.

I used 3 of the 4 eyelets I was given for the below card:



The vellum is adhered down to the top with the eyelets, but I had to also stick some vellum tape on the bottom as the rubon made the vellum curl a bit.

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill Bling cardstock, Blue Diamond A4 vellum
Extras - Kaisercraft Birthday Cards rubon, Kaisercraft Blue square rhinestones, blue metallic eyelets
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Scotch vellum adhesive, Provocraft bone folder (for rubon), Provocraft Silent Setter

This is the final card from this pack, but I have another pack to share in the next few days which is full of girly goodness!

Scrapping Essentials Designer Pack - Diamonds - Card #3

This is the third card I made with the "Diamonds" pack from Scrapping Essentials.



I took advantage of the diamond background and placed a square rhinestone in each corner to give it a quilting effect.

The ribbon was a last minute addition as I thought it needed something to separate the sentiment from the vellum. As it was a one layer card and I didn't have much ribbon to spare I adhered it down to the front of the card with some double-sided tape and cut off the ends. I gave them a test flick and they don't seem to want to fray, thank goodness.

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill Bling cardstock, Blue Diamond A4 vellum
Extras - Kaisercraft Birthday Cards rubon, Kaisercraft Blue square rhinestones, white grosgrain ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Papercraft double-sided tape, Scotch vellum adhesive, Papercrafts foam dots, Provocraft bone folder (for rubon)

Thanks for looking!

Butterfly Wishes + digital sentiment

Here's another digital sentiment I've made, which is yours free for the taking (you don't even have to credit me, but you can if you want to.)


(right click on the image above and choose 'save target as...')

Sentiment info:
File type: PNG (can be dropped into MS Word, background is transparent)
File size: 179kb
Full dimensions: 29cm x 12cm
Fonts used: Tangerine, Gentium Basic

And here's the card I made to go with this sentiment:



As often seems to be the case, I couldn't get a good shot of where I dotted clear spica pen on the butterflies. You'll have to just trust me on that :)

Size of card: 4" x 5 1/2" (it's a weird size as I accidentally cut too much of the white layer after I printed it, oops!)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Cre8tive textured cardstock
Stamps - "Flourishes" by Inkadinkado, Digital sentiment created by me (see above!)
Ink - Printer, Versafine "Black Onyx"
Extra - "Dahlia" and "Lilac" prismacolor pencils, Cool shadow Copic Ciao marker
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Canon Pixma printer, Clear Spica pen, Papercraft double-sided tape, Papercraft foam dots, Carl corner rounder, Sullivan's 1" square punch

Scrapping Essentials Designer Pack - Diamonds - Card #2

As promised, here is another card from the "Diamonds" Designer pack from Scrapping Essentials.



I didn't use the vellum tape for this one (at this stage I think I was over it!) so I just cut the width longer than I needed and folded the excess around the white layer.

Oh, and you can actually see the metallic sheen of the Bazzill Bling in this photo! Nice huh?

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill Bling cardstock, Blue Diamond A4 vellum
Extras - Kaisercraft Birthday Cards rubon, Kaisercraft Blue square rhinestones, white grosgrain ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Papercrafts foam dots, Provocraft bone folder (for rubon)

Thanks for looking!

New Pad

I made this card for a friend's friend who recently moved in with his girlfriend. I really struggle with masculine cards but this colour combination (to follow the Helping Hudson colour challenge for this week) made it easy. I also made it to follow the sketch for Helping Hudson (time was not on my side this past week, so I had to economise!)

If you haven't been to Helping Hudson yet, have a go at the challenges - even if you aren't an Australian resident you can still play along, and if you win something you can nominate an Australian address for Stampin' Up to send the goodies to.

So here's the card:



The centre circle is made up of a digital stamp I bought from Create with TLC which is my source of digital inspiration these days. I resized it in PSPX2 and lightened it so that it wouldn't print too dark. I carefully positioned my circle nestability to cut it so that it was perfectly centred and used magic tape to hold it in place while I ran it through my BigShot.

I popped up the top layer with foam dots to give it a bit of a lift.

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Canson textured messages in Brown and Cream, Blue Optix paper
Stamps - Create with TLC "New Home"
Ink - Printer ink
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, LG & SM Circle Nestabilities, BigShot, Papercraft foam dots, magic tape

Challenges: Helping Hudson - Colour challenge No.4 / Helping Hudson - Sketch Challenge No.5

Scrapping Essentials Designer Pack - Diamonds - Card #1

This is another lovely pack I was given to work with by Narelle of Scrapping Essentials.


It features Bazzill Bling (cardstock with a lovely pearly/metallic shine), 1 A4 sheet of Blue Diamond vellum, 1 foot of white grosgrain ribbon, 4 eyelet studs and 1 pack of Kaisercraft Blue square rhinestones.
I also used up more of the Kaisercraft Birthday Cards rubons from this designer pack.

I made four cards with this pack, and tried to make them as masculine (or unisex) as possible. I used everything except for one eyelet and a couple of scraps of cardstock and vellum.

Here's the card I am sharing with you today:



True to my word, I bought some vellum tape (3M Scotch to be precise) and because it's the only vellum adhesive I've ever worked with I can't compare it to other brands, but I have a couple of remarks in case you're interested:

• It works best on light-coloured vellum on top of light-coloured cardstock/paper. I tried it on the dark blue Bazzill I received in the pack and it had a 'wet look' even when I burnished the surface with my bone folder. It's not perfect with white vellums either, as I noticed on the white parts of my vellum that it had a slight yellowish tinge. To counter this I was careful when cutting to try to get the diamonds in the corners as much as possible so that I could hide the adhesive better.


• I found that, much to my frustration, it stuck to my fingers and I was getting the vellum and card all dirty and sticky... yuck! It reminded me alot of removable adhesive actually. I developed a way of getting it stuck down without touching it with my fingers, and that was to leave it on the edge of the scissors after cutting and then positioning it on the vellum still on the edge of scissors, and then press it down with a finger from the other hand. No more sticky fingers!


• The absolute worst thing about using vellum and adhesive (I think this would go for ANY adhesive) is that EVERYTHING shows through. Got a bit of cat hair caught in there? Yep, that shows! What about a teeny tiny miniscule bit of god-knows-what? Yep that shows too! I ended up only adhering in the corners for this reason (as well as the reason in my first remark above) as it's easier to keep little 1cm bits clean than long strips.


• That all being said, I liked how easy the vellum was to reposition right after sticking it onto the cardstock base (allowing me, the crappy layerer that I am to actually have a well-lined-up card). It didn't stay repositionable though, as I came back to it 20 mins later and gave it a test 'tug' and it wouldn't budge!

The rubons worked great with the vellum - just try to rub them on before sticking the vellum onto the cardstock layer! This will speed up the process as the rubbing tool won't get caught down in the little textured crevices, and it will have a smoother finish when you're done.

I hope you've enjoyed my vellum adhesive ramblings, and the card. I'll post the rest of the cards from the pack over the next few days.

Size of card: C6 - A5 folded in half

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill Bling cardstock, Blue Diamond A4 vellum
Extras - Kaisercraft Birthday Cards rubon, Kaisercraft Blue square rhinestones, white grosgrain ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Papercrafts foam dots, Provocraft bone folder (for rubon), Scotch Vellum Tape

Lucy's cards giveaway

Lucy is giving away a pile of stuff from Hero Arts and My Minds Eye to a lucky random commenter. Check it out!

Thank You No.2

And here's another 'thank you' card, this time inspired by the Helping Hudson Challenge No. 1: Sketch. If you haven't checked the blog out yet you really ought to - the prizes are all Stampin' Up, but that's not the only reason to play - it's a fundraiser to help a little boy become mobile.

Here's the sketch:



I really like this sketch as it is perfectly CAS. Here's what I did with it:



I used one of the flocked sheets from Kaisercraft's "Peachy Keen" paper pad (which is a very cute collection by the way) and cut them into identical strips, adhering them one at a time to the brown layer (paper from the same pad as above).

Size of card: 4 1/2" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Kaisercraft Peachy Keen paper pad
Stamps - Stampendous "Flower Chat"
Ink - Versacolor "Pinecone"
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Snow sanding block, Helmar tape runner

Challenge: Helping Hudson Challenge No.1

Thank You

I got stuck into making 'Thank You' cards this weekend because I have none! I seem to be making birthday cards more than anything these days so it's good to do something a little bit different.

This is for the Helping Hudson Challenge No. 3: Technique. I urge you to visit the blog and try your hand at the challenges - it's all for a very good cause.

The technique is 'rock and roll' - inking up the stamp all over in a light colour and then rolling around the edges with a darker colour. I love the combination of Versacolor "Misty Mauve" and "Ash Rose" which I used for this card so I decided to use it again here:



I didn't 'roll' so much as 'dob' (my new favourite word) on the darker ink ("Ash Rose") and I only did it on the wings. Some more than others, as you can probably tell. It did the job though!

I also cracked out my brand new Mask It Film Sheets from Make it Crafty (Aussie online store) to mask off the bottom and the top, instead of using post-its. The beauty of using this material (well actually there are a couple of beauties) is that it can be cleaned after use, which is exactly what I want - I hate waste! Another beauty is that the ink will never saturate through because it's plastic. A while ago I was experimenting with different masking materials and used tissue paper - um never do that - just a little tip from me to you.

The only thing I think that could be a bad thing when using the film to mask in this way is that the plastic combined with wet ink can make for a bit of a slippery surface. Just be mindful of this and exercise caution when stamping mostly on the masked parts. Luckily the one-layer gods were looking down on me when I was making this card and I didn't fudge any of it. Hallelujah!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock
Stamps - Stampendous "Flower Chat" [sentiment], Inkadinkado "Garden Flowers" [dragonfly]
Ink - Versacolor "Misty Mauve and "Ash Rose", Versafine "Black Onyx"
Extra - Kaisercraft ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Snow sanding block, Stampin' Up mini glue dot, Mask It Film

Challenge: Helping Hudson Challenge No.3

Thanks for looking!

Merci

The CAS-tastic Wednesday challenge this week is to CASE one of the design team's cards. Until tonight I had no idea what that actually stood for. I knew roughly what it meant: you copy a card you like the look of, but give it your own flavour.
Well I googled it tonight and found the explanation in this blog post. It actually stands for Copy And Share Alike. Makes sense!

Here's the card I CASEd:



And here's my version:



The colours aren't my usual style but I like the way they work together. I used them to follow with the Helping Hudson Challenge No.2: Colour at the Helping Hudson blog. Click here to visit the blog and find out about Hudson, and the challenges. It's a truly worthy cause!

I don't have any of the actual colours (Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, Not Quite Navy), so I improvised with my Grant Archival pastels and brights collection of 12x12 papers.

I used my Versamark inkpad for the first time tonight, and I went to town! I paired it with Seafoam White embossing powder from Stamp It. Gosh that stuff sticks! I used my homemade embossing buddy (read: cornstarch in a baggie) beforehand and it still stuck everywhere. Luckily it was holding on tight to the versamark like there was no tomorrow - I was able to blow on it and tap it on the back to my heart's content, and it only shifted the bits and pieces that weren't stuck to the versamark.

I also versamarked the blue strip and THEN stamped the sentiment and embossed it (I know! I like to live life on the edge eh?)
To combat the stickiness (as versamark stays sticky for a LONG time in case you didn't know) I dobbed on it with my homemade embossing buddy and that stopped the previously sticky bits of versamark from being sticky. This allowed me to stamp the sentiment and emboss it more or less easily (read: by thumping it repeatedly on the back and blowing on it till I started getting light-headed).

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Grant Archival Brights and Pastels 12x12 paper
Stamps - Hero Arts "Blossoms", Inkadinkado "Chelsea Sentiments"
Ink - Versamark
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Snow sanding block, Helmar tape runner, sticky dots, scissors, Stamp It embossing powder in Seafoam White

Challenges: Helping Hudson Challenge No.2 / CWC015

Thanks for looking! :)

Digital Sentiment - Birthdays and stardust

I love digital stamps - almost as much as clear stamps. I have a growing collection of both as I am constantly on the lookout for the perfect sentiment, or cute image to have a go at colouring in.

I recently tried my hand at creating my own digital sentiments after admiring Raindrop Echo Designs' work on Whimsy Stamps and Create with TLC's treasure trove of digital sentiments.

When choosing my fonts I keep in mind that I might want to sell the cards I make with the sentiments and I don't want to accidentally violate any terms of use, so I checked out Font Squirrel which has free commercial-use fonts from around the web in one easy spot.

And without further ado, here is my first effort:


If you like it, take it! Just click on the image and "Save target as..." to your hard drive. Feel free to do anything you like with the sentiment, just let me know if you do take it and show me what you've made because I'd love to see!

Sentiment info:
File type: PNG (can be dropped into MS Word, background is transparent)
File size: 443kb
Full dimensions: 35cm x 22cm
Fonts used: Angelina, Gentium Basic

Here's the card I made using this sentiment:



You can't see it in this photo but I dotted the middle of each star with my spica pen to make it sparkle (like stardust!)

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Kaisercraft Wish Upon "Shine" 12x12 paper
Stamp - Digital sentiment created by me (see above!)
Ink - Printer 
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Canon Pixma printer, Spellbinders Circles and Big Scallops, Big Shot, Clear Spica pen, Snow sanding block, Helmar tape runner, foam mounting tape