Specialty Card

The MFT Wednesday card sketch was in my mind all week and this is what came out of my hands.  Thank you MFT.

A friend asked if I could make a specialty card for a dear friend of hers who is having her 90th birthday.  Well….of course.  I had been eyeing up this stamp set from My Favorite Things and it went on 50% off sale and I knew it would be the perfect images for my friends request.   I could hardly wait to get it but since she was so kind as to give me an order for several more cards, I focused on getting them done as I waited for my MFT order.

A 90th birthday card for a very active lady had to be larger than the standard A2 card I usually make so I used 12x12 paper to create a 5 x 7 card.

My friend had a lot of input for this card so I can’t take all the credit.  She suggested background paper that had sewing things on it and buttons.   I don’t have any paper like that or buttons to match,  so I went ahead and made my own.  Using paper from Afternoon Amuse Glitz pack, I stamped the images all in olive green.  I laid the paper on the scor-buddy and made holes with the scor-bug.  Then using a metallic gel pen I “sewed’ the edges.  Using a large spellbinders die for the circle I left the die in place after cutting and used the inside of the die as a template to pierce holes around the circle.  Remove the die and “sew” again with the same gel pen. 

Next step, stamp the spool image onto chipboard and hand cut it.  Wrap it with embroidery thread.  I then stamped the dress form in olive green on thick cardstock and fussy cut it out.  I knew I would need a base across the bottom and I went digging for this gorgeous wire ribbon from Ribbon Carousel.  It has a bit of fine wire in it and wraps beautifully.  I cut the buttons out of Coredinations card stock and then cut chipboard backings for them. I took the one darker button and threaded twine through the holes and then made a great figure eight bow for it. 

The sentiment on the banner was requested by my friend and I thought the wavy banner gave movement to the card.  It looked a bit bare and I used the same technique as  the background paper for stitching it.  As I laid the pieces all out on the big doily it still looked bare and not tied together.  I made a needle, free hand and threaded it, wrapping it around the dress form and pushing the needle into the spool.  Ah that looks better.  then looking at the card, it seemed a bit weighted on the bottom and I added the two “Candies” in the top corner.  Hmm…still a bit bare looking.  The doily looks too stark white.  Using my favorite Judith stamp, the five dots, I dotted the white area with blue mettalic ink.  A small gem popped onto the top of the dress form and it’s all ready to put together.  You can’t tell from the picture but the dress form is popped up with dimensionals to give it some depth and make it the real focal point on the doily.

I love how this turned out.  I love being challenged to create different things.  I am so excited about how this turned out and I think my friend will find it is exactly what she was hoping for.  Thanks for looking.  All comments are like big hugs and much appreciated. 

I realized after I took the photo the stamp set was sitting right next to the card.  I left it for you to view rather than cropping it out. What a fun set.

Use a stamp

That is surely a simple “Challenge”  Monday’s challenge @ Simon Says Stamp is that simple.  Join in.  It’s the last challenge for the year and you have a lot of time to upload still.   Here I am trying a technique I learned from Hero Arts.  I am using stamps from Mark’s Finest Papers and Gina K though as I have so few Hero Arts besides sentiments.  Thanks for letting me play anyway, Simon!

Simon’s Bling challenge

I just love all the challenges Simon Says Stamp posts.  This one will run two full weeks so lots of time to join in on the fun.  BLING  IT ON besides the obvious  rhinestones I also glitzed up the little heart.  I do so love the mini heart die from Simon Says Stamp. …..here is my entry.

MFT sketch challenge

The MFT Sketch 155 challenge looked a bit intimidating as I’ve never been able to make those hills and valleys look very nice; but let’s just jump right in.  I have been playing with MFT Blueprints all day anyway.  This card took about ten minutes to make.  It uses Tim Holtz images.  I sprayed the stamps with water after inking them up with Distress Inks and stamped them onto a piece of Coredinations linen look cardstock. It will be a GoTo sketch for me from now on.     

My Favorite Things Challenge 154

The sketch challenge at MFT had me intrigued since I don’t own the Blue Print dies from that sketch.  Hmmm…how to fix that.  Here’s the sketch and also my take on it.  Always love the way the sketches make me stretch.  The star is from BluePrints 4

Altered Note Book for Simon Says Stamp

Simon’s last challenge for the year is to use a stamp.  Well that’s fun.  Here is an altered notebook that I have made for my niece.  It was in the $1.00 bin at Michaels and had boring colors on it and Christmas words.  To make it work for her for a trip she is taking in January, I made it in pink which is one of her favorite colors.  She had commented on a little notebook that I made for HYCCT and I wanted to remember to make one for her.  I first covered the notebook with some coredinations cardstock that I embossed and sanded.  Then STAMPED on it. The arrow is a Heidi Swapp embellishment and the other elements are homemade.  Using Mark’s Finest Paper sentiment and train and then My Favorite Things oval and the scallop border from Blueprints 4 I love the way it turned out.  The chip board is embossed and then swiped with a gelato.  Can’t wait to get it in the mail tomorrow for her Friday birthday.

Christmas papers at MFP

Mark’s Finest Papers Challenge 190 is to use three different Christmas Papers.  I had fun with this one and used The Peaceful Nuthatch set. I used red, green and the holly paper.

Simon threw me a challenge

Do you need a tissue?  Simon Says Monday challenge was to use tissue paper.  oh dear, that is something I have never tried.  All the samples they showed were waaaaaay to complicated for me.  I thought about this all week and finally put something together this evening.  It’s simple but it’s tissue.  I wanted to make a special card for a  special young friend and thought the tissue would be pretty.

After embossing the tag portion of the card; I took some tissue paper and ran it through the same embossing folder.  then used my glue pad to put glue all over the embossed portion of the tag.  I lined up the pattern with the tissue paper and then folded it all behind.  I then took Smooch spray and sprayed the tissue paper to give it an even softer look and take away the white white of it.   I learned a new technique and had a bit of fun doing it.  I really like the way this turned out.  Something else new was to punch the heart and then line the back with the same paper as the band going across.  Then I filled in the entire heart with stickles.  I love the sparkle.  My new favorite embellishment are the Candi’s buttons.  Just the right touch.  Thanks for stopping by.

Simon’s SnowFlakes

They asked for snowflakes.  I am so pleased with how this turned out.  I might just go and make another one.  White on white is so very elegant.  The only snowflake die I have is a little sizzlet one that I got years ago but I love it and it’s still effective.  I do have a couple of snowflake dies on my wish list though.  Just so my viewers aren’t bored.     I used an embossing folder by the Paper Studio.  When I placed the globe on the card it covered up part of the Celebrate letters.  I embossed the word only on a scrap of 80lb. weight cardstock and fussy cut it and used crystal effects sparingly and then layered it over the already embossed word.  It worked great.

Happy wonderful Holiday time to you all.  WIshing you Peace.   Thank you Simon Says for all your challenges and inspiration.  This one is for your Wednesday Snowflake challenge.

Sometimes you just have to be creative

Sometimes ideas progress.  Like this one.  I wanted the gingerbread jar on the inside of the card.  I cut the circle hole in the front and then penciled around it onto the inside giving me a guide to place the stamped image.  Then the fun part, I colored it in with copics.  When I looked at the result it looked kind of boring and I decided to add the beautifully embossed designer paper but now I have to make the circle hole match up perfectly to the one already on the card base.  It’s more challenging than you think.  Well I got it close but not perfect…hmmmm…okay, I will color around the white portion with a brown marker.  Yep, that works and gives some depth too.  Cool, I like that look now.  But it needs a bit of color.  Rummage, rummage, yep, here’s some ribbons that will work well.  But then that stinkin’ bow would NOT adhere to the ribbon below it.  I finally used crystal effects, put a book on it and let it sit all night.  It sticks NOW!  Then, looking at my card inside, I see a black smudge of ink up top.  I tried to white it out but that looked kind of crummy.  Plan B.  Punch some small circle dies and cut them in half, make a scalloped border up top.  Hey, I like that look.  Cute, eh?   Then I turned my card over and, oh no, all the coloring from the gingerbread men have bled through.  Rats….what is Plan B now?  Cover it up with a scrap of that same designer paper and now it looks like I just covered something up.  Aha..a strip of coordinating scrap, cut with the same die, makes it match the frosting look on the gingerbread men.  Voila’ –a masterpiece.  We never know what we are going to end up with. 

Gelli Plate fun

At the vendor show I went to last month, one of the vendors was showing the Gelli Plate.  I had heard of this tool but had NO idea what it was.  Well, what fun to spray, dab, and smear onto a squishy cushion and make our own back ground papers.  Here’s a piece of one of the works of art I did on deli paper. You know, that stuff that they wrap around your sandwiches in a deli.   It makes a wonderful background for holiday greetings.  Simon Says Stamp is challenging us to use a home made background and they are featuring the Gelli Plate this week on the Wednesday challenge blog, perfect entry for this challenge.  I used a sentiment strip die from MFT for the greeting and the Prickley Pear scalloped oval.  All stamped images are Prickley Pear.

Wedding Wishes

My cousin is getting married.  She sounds as surprised as can be.  She has been with this guy for quite a while and he proposed.  She has grown children already and a previous marriage and we are very happy for her.  They got engaged two weeks ago and the wedding is Friday.  I made this gorgeous winter card for her and new hubby.  Using Simon Says Tilted Banner Sayings stamps.  I get a lot of mileage out of these.  Use them often.  I am entering this in the anything goes challenge at Simon’s Blog.  I used Viva Pearl pen to make the pearls.

Anatomy of a card

This was a great card to make.  First off, a disclaimer.  I did NOT come up with the idea for this creation.  I went to a Holiday Card Making class with Heidi from The Stamp Shoppe last month and we created one very similar to this.  It was so much fun I knew I wanted to make a bunch of this one.  But ….it looks simple, however there are many many steps to this. I made a dozen. I will enter this into the Use a Flourish at Simon Says.  The flourish is the red stamp.  I am using small pics for this post.  If you click on the pictures you can bring them up closer.

   

Step 1.  Cut and score the card stock

Step 2.  Cut 4 x 4 pieces of brown decorative paper

Step 3.  Run those pieces through the cuttlebug with the Brick Embossing Folder

Step 4.  Run a distress ink pad over the brick texture to give it more realism

Step 5.  Using the Prickley Pear Dies cut out 24 pieces of Stockings

Step 6.  Cut out 12 small white pieces for tags

Step 7.  Using MFT die from Blue Prints 3 cut the fire place piece out

Step 8.  Cut 12 strips of brown for the mantle

Step 9.  Texture the mantle pieces all at once with a screen texture stamp

Step 10.  Glue the fire place on the card base

Step 11.  Glue the mantle down

Step 12.  Stamp each stocking with the patterned image from Prickley Pear

Step 13.  Color the 24 stockings (that took me an hour and half) but I love to color so it was fun

Step 14.  Attach the stockings to the mantle.

Step 15.  Add Viva Pearl pen as the little nails to hold the stockings

Step 16.  Stamp the little tags

Step 17. Cut a V shape into the tags

Step 18.  Glue the tag on

Step 19.  Glue in the sentiment panel inside

Step 20.  Stamp the Sentiment in Green

Step. 21. Stamp the Flourish from The Cat’s Pajamas “at your service set”

Step 22.  Stamp the back with my Handmade for you stamp and hand sign them in gold.  (but of course)

That’s it!  I did them in several steps so I didn’t feel overwhelmed when starting them.  I had all the pieces cut out last night and then did the rest this afternoon.  My reward to me for shoveling the drive way and the deck.    go me!