Have a wonderful birthday + free sentiment!

Hello again :) I've got a card to share as well as the sentiment I used which I'm giving away as a freebie. 

To save, right click on the above image and choose 'save target as...'.

Sentiment info:
File type: PNG (can be dropped into MS Word, background is transparent)
File size: 171kb
Full dimensions: 25cm x 11cm
Fonts: I wish I knew! My old computer died and I have yet to reinstall all of my fonts...

All of my free digital sentiments can be found on the "Free Digital Sentiments" tab at the top of every page of this blog, or by clicking here. I'd love to hear from you if you use them! Please leave a comment or drop me a line: jess@lennonforever.net.

 And here is the above sentiment in action:




 After printing the card (see template below) on white cardstock I used a strip of Mask-It film sheet - a temporary low-tack adhesive plastic - to create an invisible border above and below my sentiment. I then stamped some of the flowers from 'Petals from Scratch' by Fiskars with Black Onyx Versafine ink. After pulling off the masking film I took out Versacolor cubes in Boysenberry, Grape and Raspberry (yummm) and diluted them with a spritz of water on a stamping block and used a paintbrush to colour the flowers. As you can see from the photo above I went for a very loose and watercoloury effect which goes well with the loosely drawn flowers.


It can take a bit of trial and error to get the sentiment placed just right on the cardfront but to make the process even easier I've done the hard part for you by making up a word document with the sentiment already in the right spot and the page dimensions to print a 4x8" (score at 4") card - all you need to do is print it out and stamp/embellish/whatever!
You can download the word document I used for the above card here. Please let me know via comments or email if you have any problems accessing the file.


Thanks again for looking at my cards, and for leaving such lovely comments. :)

Sweet wonderful you + free sentiment

Hallelujah, it's the weekend!

When I saw the below picture from Jay Gee's Nook's Monthly Challenge:

I was immediately drawn to the wrapping paper on the left. It reminded me of damask which made me think of the latest challenge at Moxie's Fab World - Diggin' On Damask. I was so inspired I had to blend the two challenges!

Wee Memories are hosting an 'Anything Goes' challenge, so I'm going to sneak this into that as well ;)

Here is my card:




I can't stamp damask patterns (or anything that's supposed to line up really, even clear stamps!) to save my life, so I quit while I was ahead and created the pattern digitally. I used one of the stamps from a lovely Mujka Chic set I bought on sale a while ago called Decorative Design Elements.

I tried something different with the ribbon for this card - I burnt the ends using a small tealight candle, which is how I stop my bookmark ribbons from fraying as well. It sure beats wrapping it around the card!

It was easy for me to change the colour of one of the words in this sentiment because I had the 'raw' file to work with, but there's nothing stopping you from changing the colours of the sentiments you have in .png format. Just use the 'Flood fill' option in your picture editing software (I think most have some form of this - it usually looks like a paint can) and coat each letter with the colour of your choice.

And here's the free sentiment I promised in the title of this post:

Right click on the above image and select the 'Save target as...' option.

Sentiment info:
File type: PNG (can be dropped into MS Word, background is transparent)
File size: 66.2kb
Full dimensions: 22cm x 4cm
Font: LD Cotton Candy, Vrinda

See my terms of use here.

Size of card: A5 folded in half (C6)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Epson matte photo paper
Stamps - Decorative Design Elements by Mujka Chic on MyGrafico, Sentiment - freebie from me (see above!)
Ink - Printer
Extra - American Crafts ribbon
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Pixma printer, fabric scissors, tealight candle

Challenges: Diggin' On Damask / Jay Gee's Nook's Monthly Challenge / Wee Memories Anything Goes!

And before I go, I just thought I'd share a picture of my darling girl Abby that mysteriously found its way into my blog photos folder:

That's where she hangs out almost every night - behind me in my craft room, hoping I'll get up and feed her some more food! Well I might go and give her a cuddle - I'll be back on Sunday with next week's Sentimental Sundays challenge!

Have a Hoppy Day + free sentiment!

I just love this week's sketch from Clean and Simple! Here's another card I have made using it:




Here's a slightly different angle:



How adorable is that little frog? He's from Pink Cat Studios (as is the little owl from yesterday's post).

And because I know how much everyone loves freebies, I'm going to add the sentiment used on this card to my growing pile of them! :)

Right click on the below image and select 'save target as...'.

Sentiment info:
File type: PNG (can be dropped into MS Word, background is transparent)
File size: 66.2kb
Full dimensions: 22cm x 4cm
Font: LD Cotton Candy, Vrinda

Enjoy!! Don't forget to give credit where it is due, and let me know when you use it so that I can take a look!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Textured cardstock, Kodak photo card,
Stamps - Frog from Pink Cat Studios, Sentiment - freebie from me (see above!)
Ink - Printer
 Extra - satin ribbon, Prismacolor pencils
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Big Shot, Big Scallops nestability, Pixma printer, fabric scissors, EK Success large corner rounder, Foam dots (to pop up scallop layer), Carl 1 1/4" circle punch

be merry + free sentiment!

Even though I'm selling my sentiments over at Squigglefly these days, I still would like to offer the occasional freebie here, as I can see from my stats that they are pretty popular!

Here is my take on the scraplifting challenge over at Cardvaarks:






And here's the design team member's card that I scraplifted (Ashley's):

I can't get SRM stickers here in Aussieland (at least I don't think I can, honestly haven't looked that hard, but I'll bet they're expensive!) so I decided to make a digital sentiment in the same sort of style.

If you want it you can have it by right clicking on the below image and choosing 'save target as...'

Sentiment info:
File type: PNG (can be dropped into MS Word, background is transparent)
File size: 100kb
Full dimensions: 20cm x 20cm
 Font: LD Cotton Candy

If you use the freebie I only ask a teeny tiny favour - that if you blog about it please credit me and link back here so that others can download their own. Oh wait, actually I want two favours - send me an email or leave a comment telling me you've used it so that I can take a looksee!

Size of card: C6 (A5 folded in half)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Recycled brown cardstock, white cartridge paper
Stamps - "Be Merry" Digi stamp by me (see above!)
Ink - Printer
Extra - Bow Tie grosgrain ribbon in red
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Big Shot, circle nestability, Pixma printer, fabric scissors

Challenge: Caardvarks Sensational Stickers

Thanks for looking! Hope everyone had a lovely relaxing Sunday. Back to work tomorrow. *sigh*

Wishing you everything wonderful + free digital sentiment

Good evening! I've been busy making my entry for the latest Embellish magazine challenge:


Here is my entry:



I had a really hard time paper-piecing all of these leaves... it was painstaking and I think this was the 3rd attempt... if I'd had to start from scratch one more time I think I would have given up in disgust! The main trouble was adhering the little bitty leaves - I used my Tombow mono glue fine applicator for the bigger ones alright, but the glue would ooze out from under the smaller leaves, even though I used barely any. Very annoying! In the end I got a bamboo skewer and applied the glue VERY sparingly to the backs of the leaves with no further tearing out of the hair. Thank goodness!

The sentiment I used is another of my creations which I provide free below, for anyone who wishes to take it! The only thing I ask is that you give me credit and link back to this blog.


To save, right click on the above image and choose 'save target as...'.

Sentiment info:
File type: PNG (can be dropped into MS Word, background is transparent)
File size: 109kb
Full dimensions: 14cm x 8cm
Fonts: Gentium Basic and Windsong

All of my free digital sentiments can be found on the "Free Digital Sentiments" tab at the top of every page of this blog, or by clicking here. I'd love to hear from you if you use them! Please leave a comment or drop me an line: jess@lennonforever.net.

Size of card: 4 3/4" (120cm) square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Epson matte photo paper, Bazzill "Capers", Stampin' Up (not sure what colour - was a sample), Lexel kraft paper
Ink - printer
Extra - Prismacolor pencil "Canary Yellow", Kaisercraft ribbon
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Bigshot, Nestabilities (SM and LG circles), scissors, Tombow mono multi liquid glue

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

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

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