3 for today (3)

This one has a lot going on that isn't real visible due to the size of the stamp I used. If you look carefully where the text ribbon is, you can just about pick out a white flower. See it? Its up under the bow. This was stamped using a shadow ink - light one on a page from an old book that I destroy more each time I need a  page! The greeting was stamped in a darker ink as I found out you couldn't read it the first time! It is on vellum and attached round back of the ribbon. That is a little heart jewel that I thought just had to be there. The card is embossed and I finally got to use my vagabond!!! I am not doing anything tomorrow except cutting and embossing until I am real familiar with it. I couldn't get over how much easier it was to get things right where I wanted them. I have never embossed the whole front of a card and had it look right!!! This was first time ever on the vagabond!  I want to thank all of you for the support you have given me since I started this class. I really appreciate all the enthusiasm!! Hugs to you all, (this is really all for today), Barb F

3 for today (2)

This one is done with a kind of reverse image stamp. The black background is stamped leaving what I colored white. Then I colored the white in with colored pencils. That was the technique. I only have 3 of this kind of stamp and they are all on the smallish side. The background didn't look too black after I stamped it. I tried lots of times and finally thought, I would find a way to fix it after. I use Prismacolor colored pencils and have used them even in needlework! If you color the light colors first, then you can kind of blend them. I colored lightly over the black when I was done and then noticed that I had black pencil all over my hand!! From leaning on it, I guess. So I put a light coat of glossy accents over it and let it dry. I know the bird isn't a cardinal, but I wanted it to be red! Call it artistic license!  One more post for today yet.

3 for today (1)

This card is just such a cool technique! You use double sided sticky tape and burnish superfine glitter onto it. That gives you the white center. Well, I actually had to order both online and wait until their arrival to make the card! It was sure worth it. The glitter is called Ritz, I believe and it is transparent and as I said, superfine. The double sided tape sheets are the same material as scoretape - who knew? It would have taken me forever to cover a circle with 1/4" tape, but I could have done it. Anyhow, then you stamp and color - I used copics and archival ink that I made sure was dry. It is that swing card that we made for day 7. Onto posting the other two cards I made today.

Day 10

This card was supposed to use border stamps. We were shown lots of things to do with clear mount border stamps. Only one problem - I only had one! All the rest of mine were red rubber and my mind wasn't working too well. I have a blind side when it comes to stars. I just love stars and once I started thinking stars, well, that was really the end of it. I did add lots of stars from my border stamp all over the place. I recently bought a Martha Stewart border punch of stars and of course I own a cricut with a bazillion cartridges and a gypsy, so I can pretty much make stuff if I need to or am so inclined. Well, I had an idea and it did take me longer than usual to put it together. I guess because this was made today before Day 9 and I wanted it to be for my service people and as such, I wanted it to be just right and for either a man or woman. And of course the stars!!

 

The star dp is a recent addition to my collection of star papers! I just can't resist!. I cut those stars on my cricut and stamped different star designs on each one with that border stamp. I used distress ink. I cut out the thank you on my cuttlebug - waiting for that extra shim I need for spellbinders dies for the vagabond. The little star and the greeting are on dimensionals. I added a couple of straight lines of stars under the stars also. My thoughts were that the person who would get this was certainly a star in my mind - just had to keep it within size. A2.

I spent a crazy amount of time getting the center stamped here. Then it dawned on me to try a different ink! So distress didn't work so well, but memento london fog was perfect. The letters on the bottom of the circle weren't real legible, so I went over them with my Pentel white gel pen. It is fabulous and so far has not let me down. I really like the way the inside came out. It says, wishing you the very best! I don't think my photography is the very best, but I use my phone as it is a whole lot easier. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Day 9

This card is supposed to be for yesterday. I had company yesterday, so I had to wait for today to make my card. In the meantime, I finally came up with a great way to use my cards! I think this idea passed through my brain a few times already, but now I have quite a stash so I can actually get started. I am going to send them to operation write home. They have a category called any hero mail. You actually write a note to the service person and hopefully it is in a card. You can also send blank cards so the service person can write home. So depending on the theme of the ones I already have made and are just sitting there, will depend on how I separate them and send them to the mailing center nearest me. I am really excited about it as you are allowed to use stickles but not glitter - That one put my participation right over the top, as most of you already know, I don't do much without stickles!!! So at least I can use the cards I have already made!! 
So here is the card for day 9 - I used the same stamp set as the teachers did and just combined the techniques a bit. I thought it came out really cute. Of course, (at least so far) they don't show us what the inside of their cards look like. If I leave it blank, I don't take a photo either!!! OK - quit laughing!! I knew when I saw this stamp set that it was coming to my house and then the same thing happened when I saw this paper. Sorry - you know how poor a job I do when its figuring out which paper pack is which. So here it is! Front and inside both!

The houses and "bushes" are white heat embossed and cut out. One of the little kites on the front is on dimensionals as are the bushes. I used my stamp positioner (that I couldn't do without) to place my greetings as they are stamped directly on the dp.  I thought the greetings were just perfect for the any hero card!! I am posting two cards today again. Tomorrow is the last day of class. I will miss it for sure. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Day 8

So today I made what I think is a really cute, masculine card. Is there such a thing? There were lots of examples for today's cards - using labels stamps. I actually cut the whole inside out of this stamp. It was some kind of camp list -  not ever going to use it that way, I don't think, and besides I kept the inside so I could use it it I wanted to! I loved the card that opened where the label was (Lisa Spangler who works for Hero Arts and is one of my fav designers), but I didn't want to copy it. Then it hit me! I didn't have any stamps to say what I wanted to say, but I knew I had little letter stickers. Somewhere along the way, someone was using those cutterbee tweezers and I just had to have them! I could not have placed all those letters without them! They are like having an extra pair of hands! I used them to knot my twine also.

There is a little piece of washi tape making a tab to open the little door. The greeting is on dimensionals and of course, no male card would be complete without a button!

Did you guess what was inside the little door? Now don't you think its the cutest?!!!!!!! You are looking at the entire card. There is no "inside". It wasn't even hard to cut the opening since I had the stamp to guide where to cut. Thanks for your support! It means so much to me to get your feedback. At least I know I am going the right way down the path!!! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Day 7 back on track

Today we did flowers. Jennifer did a wonderful background made from burnishing glitter onto the card and then she colored her image. I didn't have the exact supplies and wanted to try it anyhow. Needless to say, I didn't like how it came out. The glitter should have been very light, like close to white and mine wasn't and also it doesn't burnish well using glue to hold it as you have to wait until it dries and then nothing comes off. Oh well, I learned what not to do!! I colored this one with copics and the stamp comes from Gina K. I don't know where my "words" come from but I do know they were from 2 different stamp sets. I made the blue paper by spraying a mix of broken china distress reinker and water. Then I stamped over it using tumbled glass distress ink and stamp I colored. Pretty isn't it? (By the way, for all the Tim Holtz lovers out there who have an Apple device - THERE IS A TIM HOLTZ AP!!!!! And its free!!) The edge which is black is actually a new die (for me) that is part of a gear collection. I cut a larger circle for my card and I cut a larger black circle so I wouldn't have a hole on the back when you swivel the card. And of course stickles!  I thought it needed a little more, so I did the dashed lines. I didn't want it to be the first thing you noticed, so I used a regular black pen. There is a difference in the amount of black. So here is the inside

The swivel part is made just by using a brad. I cut the inside circle to match the outside one and matched them up and punched the hole for the brad through both of them at the same time.  And for those of you who want to know, here are the copics I used: YG67, YG13, YR68, YR04, Y17, Y15, E15. I wanted to make so many more cards today from the lesson. I spent lots of time experimenting with that glitter. Enough that next time I go out, I am buying some fine, light colored glitter and also that paper that has adhesive on both sides and is much bigger than the 1/4" tape I have which is why I tried so many of the glues I own!!  I have a couple of projects that I am working on and will post them once I finish. Hope you are enjoying the cards half as much as I am making them!!! Hugs to you all, until tomorrow. Barb F

Just wanted to add this photo of my new toy!! I got a Vagabond and here it is with some of the other Tim Holtz things - didn't want it to feel lonely!! Am calling him Eddie!!!!

Day 6 inside

Now you can see the actual stamp I used. Did you know it was a tree? I thought the greeting was appropriate to the butterflies. It was interesting doing this one. Wish the colors had come out better. I appreciate all the support you give me when I am taking a class. It makes me want to try extra hard not to copy what our teachers do exactly. This class is so packed with stuff, there is no way I could make so many cards in such a short time. I am getting much more knowledgeable though and most of them are coming easier - this one was a major challenge and I am not sure it was worth all the time it took!!Hugs to you all, here's hoping I get tomorrow's card posted tomorrow!! Barb F

Day 6 -bonus day

This one is the culprit that took me forever to make. I had an idea that I dreamt of all night. It is really an unusual kind of card. That fancy circle is a cut out on the front of the card with that cut out being glued to the inside of the card. I stamped it in green ink and then dried it and colored the rest in copics. You didn't really think I could do this many cards in one day and not color, did you?!!There are 3 Martha Stewart little butterflies from a punch and I cut them out of dp that was a mottled green. The rest of the front is embossed through my cuttlebug. I used some distress ink slightly on the front as the card is white. I wasn't happy with the way it looked, so I took my copics and did the stems. Better. But then when I added the stickles, I finally liked it. I need to add the inside but for some reason blogger won't let me so I will do another post! Hugs, Barb F

Day 5

This card has a lot going on. The front top couple of inches are cut off and I used that same alphabet stamp to add all the "up"s. It's pretty obvious that there is some kind of balloon on the inside.

I stamped the balloon image and paper pieced the colored balloons. The black ones are stickled! I cut little strips of patterened paper to edge the center piece and it still looked lost in the background paper, so I ran a line of black stickles and then it looked right to  me. I originally was going to cut apart the greeting and stamp the ups on the front that way, but the letters were just too close - look at how the p's overlap into the second row a little. I love that background with the center covered. It has clouds and stuff.  This one took a bit as I had to stamp each letter separately onn the front. I loved the cut front though. Hugs, Barb F

day 4

This one is white heat embossed vellum and I glued it to a dp. Nice easy card which considering the next two and how long they took me, I needed a couple of easy cards. Hugs, Barb F

First of 4

These are going to be quick as there are 4 classes I need to post for. Each card needs a separate posting as its the only way I know how to do this. This card was made with an alphabet stamp set. It was a quick one and I just added a few gems to make it sparkle. It is done on Kraft. I apologize for the photos for all of these as its night and the light is screwy in my "sewing" room. Let me know which ones you like. Hugs, Barb F

Class Day 2

There is so much to tell you about this card, I decided to show it to you first -in case you just wanted to see it. I finally got this stamp and I just could NOT cut it apart so I did my own take on all the things in today's class. I did attempt the things that I had never tried or didn't know how. The first thing was heat embossing which as you know I do know how but heck, you have to start somewhere. I offset and stamped again, giving me two more butterflies. I do have a bazillion butterfly stamps but wanted to use this as its brand new to me. Then the coloring with distress inks, but masking them off. I decided that I was going to do a rainbow effect and I cut the edge of the paper I used for a mask with an edge punch. You can see the effect on the overlaps and I thought it was pretty cool myself (my own invention?). Then I sprayed it with my own mix of perfect pearls and water and decided I wanted drops so tried the new to me technique of flipping a paintbrush full of my perfect pearls mist. I liked the effect. Never cut out anything with a craft knife. Didn't have a clue where to begin but now you are looking at my very first attempt at using one. I think the cutout came out super good. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought. Actually it was a lot easier than using the paper cutter to cut out an opening. I don't have a die for this and didn't want to use my cricut although I can. So now, I know how to use a craft knife. And the greeting is done on vellum which I have never used for crafting before. It is heat embossed and now also since I can successfully use the craft knife, I actually could cut apart my gems and not have to glue them down!! The glue that is holding the greeting is under the gems! I really like this one. Lots of new things for me all rolled into one card!! Looking forward to what tomorrow is going to bring. I don't have all those errands to do so maybe I can make more than one card!! Hugs to you all, Barb F

One of two posts for today!!

Yep!! That's right - I finished not only that one card but another. These two have something in common. They are from the same stamp! I needed to post this so I could enter a drawing. But I have yet to even view my class. Have a million super important errands to run before I can even check out the class for today - that's the super part of doing it online. It's pretty much at your convenience, but if you want in on the prizes (this one gives prizes!), you have to stick pretty close to the dates - notice I didn't say time. So here is my take on two. The pinky one is colored in with copics (of course) and stickles (of course, again!). That greeting is from a brand new to me Hero arts stamp/die set and is heat embossed. I also punched an edge in a herringbone paper to give it some interest. The other card uses the diy stamp pad I made for the first card (yesterday) and is called offset stamping - cool, huh? I think the tiny bird adds a bit to the card and that sentiment comes from a new inchie type stamp set. I had to have it!Don't forget to look in this evening (I am on Eastern time).

These went together much quicker than the first one. Guess I was trying to do too much? Hugs to you all, Barb F

Stretch your stamps Day 1

Well folks, I am taking another online card class called Stretch Your Stamps. These kinds of cards are very difficult for me which is why I keep taking classes! I am just fine coloring images but you know, I don't always have time and would like to get halfway proficient at this type of card. Right now they take me twice as long as coloring!! I know, what a joke! But its true. We did some incredible things today and I am in process of making more cards, I only finished one and need to post it so I can be eligible for prizes!!!! This one was done with a rainbow type of stamp pad made from Tim Holtz's cut and dry foam. I don't have many background stamps so I just used this one and kept stamping until it ran out of ink (I only inked it one time). I am looking at it and you really can't see the shadow stamping. Oh well.

I loved the way the stamping came out but was at a loss what to do with it. Made that felt rose from TH's pinecone die when my daughter was visiting and figured it would fit nicely. The tiny flowers are raised stickers that I have had forever so I decided to use them. I kept thinking Easter and it kind of does look like an Easter card! That's the main reason you don't see a greeting - if its still here next Easter, its going to find a home away from mine!! Hope you like it. The other one is in process - I am waiting for the stickles to dry so I can put it together. It is a really unique take on what to do with a background stamp. Hugs to you all, Barb F

1st July birthday

Now, you know, I have lots of kids/grandkids, etc and July is a three birthday card month. This is the first one. I have this paper pack that is 12 x 12 and I just adore it - one of those I tore apart when I got it way back when. It is lots of butterflies and just so pretty. I haven't been able to make myself use it until now! The paper is just too pretty so I decided to really showcase it and picked out my favorite two sheets. The one I liked best is the one that I fussy cut and laid raised in front of Tilda - yep, if its going to be my fav paper, its going to be my fav Tilda!! Now if you are actually reading this, you already know which Tilda this is and if you don't  - well, here's the photo

Happy Birthday is white heat embossed. I used an edge punch on the red paper which had butterfly stuff that I just couldn't use. I don't usually use black cardstock either, but it just was perfect for this card. The only stickles on this whole card are on the little cut out butterflies. I put gems on the bodies of the fussy cut butterflies on the front of the card and also on Tilda's bow. I was going to spray Tilda's background but decided I liked it white. So I just edged it with distress.  The copics I used are: E21, E18, E33, E35, E00, E11, BG72, BG09, G82, G21, R17, R14, R11, Y15, Y17, C0, C2.

This is the entire inside of the card. I cut a black dp with a double sided Martha Stewart punch and glued it over the red edge punched piece that I also used on the front. The greeting is raised on a flag kind of piece and white heat embossed. I stickled the edges so it would be noticeable that it is raised. The little butterflies are from a Hero arts set that has stamps and dies that coordinate together. I have been really checking out my cricut lately and find that I could do pretty much the same things on it . I accidentally found out something grand! I was making a scrapbook page for the two babies we added to the family in April and May and the paper I wanted to cut kept coming up off my mat. I really didn't feel like cleaning the mat and I really didn't want to bust a new one out for one little embellishment either, so I just grabbed one of those temporary adhesive tape runners. Worked like a charm and the "glue" easily rubbed off the back of the paper. You know how sometimes when you pull paper up from the mat, it curls? Well, this pulled up so easily and it did really hold it down as it was a pretty fancy cut. I plan on using that method again - will let you know if anything different results! Right now I am thrilled.

I am going to have some different things coming up besides birthday cards. My grandson is getting married in August and I want to make them an album for snapshots taken at the wedding. And I am in another tag swap - actually it is really not . Ok, you make 12 tags and send them in and this wonderful gal is putting them together into a picture- one for each person in the group. Its the yahoo group  All Things Tim. I am really in love with this group. Wish I could mix up my Tilda into the group, but I am not quite sure. Now that's what I need - a steampunk Tilda and Edwin!! Hmm.. I will have to think about this one. Wish I could draw! Hope you like my card. Lots of hugs go to all of you!! Barb F