You Grow Girl

Hi and welcome! I have a really quick and easy card today made with the brand new stamp set “Grow Happiness”  from Gerda Steiner Designs. This set is full of plants and one little kitten that managed to sneak into a flower pot, as well as some sweet sentiments. 

I copic coloured all my images - I may have had every shade of green I own, out to play! I die cut a window from white cardstock, but if you don’t own any window dies, you could just draw in a window or a simple room scene.  I pencilled in the area where the window would be, and then masked off the area outside this. I ink blended a cloudy sky with a cloud stencil, removed the masking tape and then glued my die cut into place over the ink blended area.  Then I arranged all my potted plants and the kitten around the window. Finally, I stamped and clear heat embossed the sentiment. I love how all the sentiments in this stamp set are so uplifting and positive. Definitely something we can all use these days. 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a very happy, creative day! 

One in a Melon

Hi and happy Wednesday everyone. I want to share a card today made with a brand new stamp set from Gerda Steiner Designs called Melon Friends. This is such a cute stamp set as you can see from the little critters on my card and it will be available in the Gerda Steiner Designs shop tomorrow! 

To make this card, I drew a rough watermelon (just an oval with a round end), and when I had it looking the way I wanted it, I went over my pencil lines with a copic marker. After colouring it in with copic markers, I fussy cut it out right against the coloured line.  I stamped and copic coloured almost all the images in the stamp set and cut them out.

Next, I diecut a lattice background frame from white and black cardstock.  I paper pieced the black pieces into the small oval shapes, gluing them in place. Any cover die would work here or just leave the card as it is - the die is hardly noticeable.  I then glued the lattice frame down to my card base.  I had made a mask of the little bear image, and I placed this where I wanted it to go on the watermelon.  I was hoping it would look like he was inside the watermelon to match the sentiment, but I was also conscious that inside the card, his body would have to be able to fit towards the bottom of the card.   Now here’s the scary part - I fussy cut out the bear image through all the layers of cardstock.  If you have the dies, this would be much easier! I started in the middle of the bear’s head and cut out to the edge. It got a little dicey around the ears, but I was fairly happy in the end.  I went around the cut edge with the same red copic marker I had used for the watermelon to give it a smoother look.  Now the easier way to have done this, would be to stamp, colour and cut out a second bear head and then just glue that to the front of the card.  But that’s hindsight at work ...! :)

I spread glue across the back of my coloured bear image, held him up to the inside of the card, and once I had his head lined up with the opening in the watermelon, I pressed him down to the inside of the card so he was positioned correctly.  I added the watermelon border just underneath him on the inside of the card.  On the front of the card, I attached the dinosaur with foam tape and glued the rinds just under the bear.  The sentiment is stamped and embossed in black, and popped up on foam tape. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you’re having a great day!

Rain Beads Shaker Card *Video*

 Hi and welcome!  I’ve got a rain beads shaker card to share with you today and a video showing how I made it. This is such a fun card to play with that I can’t believe it took me this long to get around to making one! 

I’ve got a short video of how I made this card if you would to see how it was created. To watch the video, PLEASE CLICK HERE.  I used a new Paper Panda die from Creative Expressions called The Cat’s Pause to create this card.  I thought the die was just perfect for a rainy themed card. 

Thanks again for joining me and I hope you’re having a great day! 

Chicken Scratch Friendship Card

Hello and welcome, I have a friendship card to share with you today. I think we are all in need of more personal connections these days and sometimes a hand made card can bring a lot of joy to those we love.  I’ve used the Chicken Scratch stamp set from Gerda Steiner Designs for this one because those chickens have definitely got some attitude! 

I used copic markers to colour in my images.  I added some greys and browns to the pig to make it look like he was playing in the mud.  The copic markers I used are listed down below.

For the background, I masked off the sky and ink blended the ground with a mix of Distress Ink in Tea Dye and Vintage Photo.  I used a copic marker to add brown spots in a random pattern, and also to make a mud puddle for the pig to play in.  Then I masked off the ground before ink blending the sky.  I used the Cloud Edger stencil from A Colorful Life and Clear Day ink from Cosmic Shimmer for the sky.  The fence and grassy borders were cut from Lawn Fawn dies.  The barn was embossed with the Honey Bee Barnwood Planks dies before ink blending it and assembling it. 

Before adding the animals to the scene, I stamped and clear heat embossed the sentiment which is from the Chicken Scratch stamp set and is just perfect for a friendship card, especially these days.   I think those little animals would lift anyone’s spirits! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you’re having a great day! 

Copic Markers:

Chickens - R24, Y17, E23, E35, E13, E11, C2, E40

Rooster - BG78, BG18, BG49, R24, Y17, E35, E13, E11, E40

Pig - R22, R20, R43, N4, N2, E35

Easter Shadow Box Card

Hello again!  I’ve got a shadow box style card to share with you today that features one of the new Paper Panda dies from Creative Expressions.  I think these bunnies are trying to hide the eggs for an Easter egg hunt! :)

Start with an 8 x 8” piece of watercolour cardstock and create a soft meadow scene with watercolour paints.  Cut one Paper Panda Shooting Star diecut from regular cardstock and paint the left and right trees to add to the scene. Save the rabbit from this diecut also. 

Trim the panel down to 6 1/4” x 4 1/4”, saving the bottom pieces to use as the inside steps.  With the panel in landscape orientation, crease it at 3/4” ,1 1/2”, 4 3/4” and 5 1/2”.  Fold the first crease from the left hand edge, back towards the back of the watercolour. The second crease folds in the opposite direction, in towards the watercolour. Repeat this on the right hand side. 

From the watercolour scraps, cut two pieces 1 1/4” tall by 3 3/4” long. The tops of these can be cut into hilly shapes or grass.  Crease these at the 1/4” mark from both of the long ends. These will become the steps in the shadow box. Fold the creased ends under so the tabs are along the back of the watercoloured side. Cut hilly shapes out of the top edge to add interest. 

Trim down the painted trees and glue them to the background ( I changed my mind and added in the second tree later).  Place double sided tape along all the tabs on the step pieces. Starting with the step that will be closest to the back, remove the backing tape on the left tab and position the step along the second crease line from the left. See photo. 

Next, position the frontmost step tab so that it aligns with the the edge of the first tab.

Once the left side tabs are in place, flatten out the right tabs on both steps and remove the backing paper on the adhesive strips. Keeping the tabs and left hand side of the background flat, fold up the right side edge of the background to attach to the exposed adhesive strips. You should now have both steps  aligned and a shadow box base. 

Make 2 or 3 egg shaped templates and cut eggs from cardstock, or patterned paper.  I added some Cosmic Shimmer Ultra Sparkle Paste to some of the eggs to give them sparkle and shine.  I also used copic markers to add in some details.  Glue the eggs to the background along the bottom edge and to each of the steps.  Add in a few extra diecut rabbits from the Paper Panda die. 

Diecut the Shooting Star die twice from white cardstock and glue these together to give a little more strength to the diecut.  Place glue on the back of the outermost branches on the left side and adhere the diecut to the left edge of the card base so it will be centered over the middle section.  Place glue on the back of the outermost branches on the right.  While folding down the left side of the card towards the center, flatten out the right side and adhere the diecut to the right edge. This will ensure its position is correct to allow the card to be folded down for mailing. 

Stamp and heat emboss the “Just for You” sentiment from the Creative Expressions Sweet Wishes CEC813 stamp set. Ink blend around the edges to coordinate with the background, and glue it to the right side of the card. 

Cut a strip of white cardstock 3 1/2” x 8 1/2”.  Crease it at 4 1/4” and fold in half. Attach this to the back of the card for a place to write a message. 

Thank you for joining me and I hope you have a happy, creative day!

Dragonfly Delight Birthday Card

Hi everyone, I’ve got a birthday card to share with you today. I’m so happy with myself because I used some patterned papers for it.  Now, I know most of you are probably great at using patterned paper, but I’m ashamed to say I normally hoard my pretty papers and have a really hard time cutting them up.  So I was thrilled to make this card!

I used the new Creative Expressions Dandelion Dreams paper pad by Jamie Rodgers.  I started by cutting 1” strips of paper from most of the papers in the pack.  I think I felt better about cutting into them as it was only 1” and it’s an 8 x 8” pack so lots of paper left over!  I applied a double sided sheet of adhesive to my card front and used a bone folder to press it down.  I chose to do a herringbone pattern, but any pattern would work for this technique.  After removing the adhesive backing, I started laying down the strips of paper, leaving a small border between all sides of the strips.  The strips extended over the edges of the card front, so once all the strips had been placed, I used scissors to trim the edges even.  Next, I added some Cosmic Shimmer Golden Jewels gilding flakes to the card front, and gently rubbed it into the cracks between the paper strips where the adhesive was exposed.  So much pretty shine! I love how that gold just adds so much to the patterned papers.  I trimmed the card front down to 4” x 5.25” so I could have a slight white frame.  

Next, I stamped the dragonfly from the Creative Expressions Designer Boutique stamp set called Dragonfly Delight.  This is such a gorgeous stamp set! I left the stamp in my stamp positioner so I could re-stamp it after copic colouring the image.  Once I had the image coloured, I re-stamped it with Versamark ink and gold heat embossed it.  I also stamped and gold heat embossed it onto heat resistant acetate.  After cutting both of these out, I carefully creased the wings up on the acetate dragonfly.  I used some Cosmic Shimmer clear glue to attach the body of the acetate dragonfly to the copic coloured one.  

I used a sentiment from the Moments in Time stamp set from Creative Expressions by Jamie Rodgers, and stamped it in Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide ink and clear heat embossed it.  Finally, I glued the dragonfly to the card front and added a few clear jewels.  

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you have a happy, creative day!