Things sure have been mounting up - I have been busy, that's for sure. I just finished up 4 cards , 3 of which are for May birthdays (have about 3 more left) and one that was for April. We have so many kids, grandkids, etc that we have multiple birthdays every month except none in August. I have really enjoyed making cards without coloring them, but somehow they seem a little more special to me when I color them. The cards are for a 1 yr old girl, a seven yr old girl, a 5 yr old boy and a man. These were lots of fun to make and I was amazed that I colored them as quickly as I did after not coloring for so many weeks. Have a fun thing to pass along just in case you haven't heard of it - Zentangles. I thought - Oh, just doodling with a black pen. Not so - it is making patterns starting with one line of the pattern at a time. Very very relaxing and you end up with some really neat things that you could showcase on a card. You could also use them on scrapbook pages or journals or art journals. Do a search and you will see that there are lots of you tubes as well as blogs having instruction for free. Of course you could pay also!
So here is the first card - the one I made for April.
Its a bit unusual for me to cut an image out this way, but it worked! The dp on this one is shiny - didn't realize that when I bought it and was amazed that I didn't have any problems with it. I have been wanting to stamp clouds for a long time and they just seemed to work here. Sometimes you can fussy cut paper to illustrate a point. I was lucky to get the five in my background paper and how neat that the five on the jersey was just perfect!
I paper pieced a couple of the balloons and added some more clouds to the inside. Thought a clear envelope with a little cash would qualify for a little happy! It took a little fussy stamping to do this, but I think it was so worth it. Copics I used are;
B12, B14, Y21, Y28, YR23, R27, R29, G82, E47, E00, E11, R20.
This little gal is one of my most favorite ones. She is very hard to cut out but I did another odd cut and I think it worked out ok. You can see the L shape I cut. I also just watched a youtube from Sparkletart. She colored white mulberry flowers with colics. I did match the colics I chose for these papers and even though the flowers came out darker, they are still the same color family and look spectacular. This was a very odd layout but it was fun to work out.
Using the same dp on the inside as the outside makes it go together. I recently bought the Sizzix flourish die and just had to use it. Lots of stickles on this one. The copics I used here are: E00, E11, R20, Y11, Y15, C2, C3, R81, R85, RV29, BG34, E31, E35, E37, E47, Y21, Y28, YR23.
I will try to keep posting and making as I need to get a little ahead. I recently bought some new Lawn Fawn stamps that have dies to match. The dies were not in yet, so I am waiting for them. I can hardly wait to get them as I thought they were just so cute! I have a real passion for making scrapbook pages. Since I have soooo many old photos, I can usually come up with a theme and find photos from different years that fall in to that theme. It lets me scrap old with newer ones so I don't feel so overwhelmed by the sheer quantity! I recently bought a new video recorder. Once I learn how to use it, I will see if I can upload videos to this site. It would be so much nicer to actually show you how something looks. You know, a picture is worth a 1000 words. Hope you enjoyed these two cards. The inside gives you a chance to try other ways of using the same papers. It also uses a bit more so if you are lucky, you won't have a whole lot left! I am dying to buy new paper but promised myself that I needed to use up a whole lot before I can. I don't have room to store any more!! I did manage to get some more 12 x 12 for my scrapbooking as I have been using it like its free!! I did make a dent and bought some more. Hugs to you all, will try to get the other two cards posted real soon. Barb F
