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