“Smooshed” Background Easter Card

“Smooshed” Background Easter Card

Smooshed Background Easter Card DSCN9110

Over at Perfectly Rustics this fortnight, the challenge is “Eggs” (challenge # 44) where we are to make a creation with an egg or eggs on it.  For this project, I made an Easter card with a “smooshed” background. (http://perfectlyrustics.com/2015/03/23/prdc-no-44-eggs/)

A “smooshed” background is where you put ink down on a non-porous surface (like a craft mat, a piece of acetate, or an acrylic block for example), spritz the ink with water, and “smoosh” your paper onto the wet ink.  It creates a beautiful water colored panel that looks different every time it is done!   I used this technique on my Smooshed Egg card project which you can see HERE.  When I created the panel I needed for that card, I made a bunch of them and decided to use one as the background on this card. As I mentioned in that post, I was inspired to use the “smooshed” background technique from my friend Barb and a video tutorial I had seen.  (You can see the video tutorial HERE on You Tube, and Barb’s post HERE .)

The card stock used on this project was Gina K edible eggplant, wild lilac, sweet corn and white.  The ink used to create the background was Gina K wild lilac, sweet corn, and innocent pink and was topped with Tattered Angels “Pearl” Glimmer Mist.  (The shimmer is hard to see in the photo but is gorgeous in real life!)  The small, lilac panel was embossed with a Sizzix (Stampin’ Up) stripes embossing folder.

The stamp is by Craft Smart from Michaels (no name) and was stamped with Gina K wild lilac ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  (Gina K did a tutorial, which you can see HERE, on how to emboss in any color using your regular dye based ink pads along with clear versamark ink, clear embossing powder, and a stamp platform like a MISTI.)  After it was embossed, a touch of color was added to the image with Copic Marker Y21.  Then I masked off the center and sponged Gina K wild lilac ink around the edges to create a border.

Recollections twine and a yellow button I had in my stash finished it off.

Now it’s your turn.  Create a project with eggs, and join us over at Perfectly Rustics.  I can’t wait to see what you create!

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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“Smooshed” Egg Easter Card

“Smooshed” Egg Easter Card

Oval Smooshed Egg DSCN9025

Over at Perfectly Rustics this fortnight, the challenge is “Eggs” (challenge # 44) where we are to make a creation with an egg or eggs on it.  For this project, I made an Easter card with an egg-shaped (oval) window and a “smooshed” panel behind it. (http://perfectlyrustics.com/2015/03/23/prdc-no-44-eggs/)

I got my idea for this card from several places:

When I was teaching quite a few years ago, two of my students (twins) gave me a gift for Easter.  I’m guessing that their mother made it, although I suppose the boys could have done it!  Anyway, it was a picture frame with an oval mat, and instead of a photo, there was a collage of scraps of paper.  I’ve always thought this was a clever idea and a beautiful project.  Here it is:

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A few weeks ago, I saw a beautiful project posted on a blog I follow where Karen did something similar for her card project.  She created an oval mat for her egg, but instead of using tissue paper, she inked stripes for her back panel.  You can see her post HERE.  Seeing this post reminded me of the frame gift I had received all those years ago, and it got me thinking – what could I use for my background if I were to make a card with an oval mat as an Easter egg…

The final bit of inspiration came from another post I saw this past week by my friend Barb where she made an awesome card with a “smooshed” background.  A “smooshed” background is where you put ink down on a non-porous surface (like a craft mat, a piece of acetate, or an acrylic block for example), spritz the ink with water, and “smoosh” your paper onto the wet ink.  It creates a beautiful water colored panel that looks different every time it is done!    I’ve tried this technique before, but I was never really happy with how mine came out.  Her colors were so vibrant!  So I watched the video tutorial that she posted (by Betsy Veldman from papertrey ink) and decided to give it another try and use it for my egg.  (You can see the video tutorial HERE on You Tube, and HERE is Barb’s post.)

For my “smooshed” panel, I used Gina K wild lilac, sweet corn, and innocent pink inks.  I used those Gina K card stock colors as well, along with grass green.  I cut my oval with a Spellbinders classic oval (large) die.  The grass was made with a Fiskars “grass” contiuous border punch and embossed with the Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder.  The lilac panel was embossed with the Cuttlebug d’vine swirls embossing folder.  I didn’t have ribbon to match the lilac, so I used my air brush and Copic Marker V17 to color a piece of white ribbon and added it to the bottom of the grass strip and on top of the egg.  The greeting was Inkadinkadoo (no name) and was stamped with Gina K edible eggplant ink.  The sentiment was too long to fit on my egg so I stamped each word separately while masking the other word.  To make sure the words lined up properly and ended up where I wanted them, I used my stamp-a-ma-jig.  Normally, I would have used my MISTI for a job like this, but this stamp was mounted on wood so the MISTI couldn’t be used.

It’s hard to see in the photo above, but there is a beautiful shimmer on the “smooshed” panel which came from the Tattered Angels “Pearl” Glimmer Mist that I added before I adhered it behind my oval frame. Hopefully, you can see the shine a little better in this photo:

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(click on photo to see the shimmer from the glimmer mist)

Now it’s your turn.  Create a project with eggs, and join us over at Perfectly Rustics.  I can’t wait to see what you create!

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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Easter Shaker Card

Easter Shaker Card

044 Easter Shaker Card position adjusted

Over at Perfectly Rustics this fortnight, the challenge is “Eggs” (challenge #44 ) where we are to make a creation with an egg or eggs on it.  For this project, I made an Easter-themed shaker card with an egg-shaped (oval) window.  (http://perfectlyrustics.com/2015/03/23/prdc-no-44-eggs/)

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The cute chick, egg and greeting stamps are from the Inky Antics “Easter Chick” set (from the Honey Pop Collection).  The speech bubble is from the Gina K Designs “Let’s Talk” set.  I stamped all the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I then masked them and inked the background with Tim Holtz Broken China and Mowed Lawn distress inks.  The images were colored with Copic Markers (Y13, V12, B04, YR15, and YG25).  I used a Wink of Stella clear glitter brush pen on the egg, and I added texture to the chick with a piece of terry cloth towel and colorless blender solution.  (I did a tutorial on this technique a bit ago which you can see HERE.)  The card stock I used is Gina K heavy base weight pure white and sweet corn, and the printed purple paper is from the Recollections “All Girl” 6″x6″ paper pack.

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Acetate, and thick fun foam were used to create the recessed window, and I filled it with a few Bead Girl Assorted Diamond Beads (by Cousin).  There were different shapes in the pack, but I used the ones that looked like eggs!  (In the past, I’ve created the edges of my window with pop dots, foam tape, and even a recessed window made with card stock (see StampTV tutorial HERE.)  I’ve never used fun foam before to create my window, but it seemed the easiest material to use since the window didn’t have straight edges.   Originally, I used 2 thinner pieces of fun foam that I glued together to make it thick enough and sequins and micro-beads for my shakers, but they kept getting stuck in the edges and between the two layers of foam.  The thicker foam and larger shakers worked much better.)

I also used “an oldie but goodie” from my tool stash – my Creative Memories Oval Cutting Patterns from their Custom Cutting System.  I usually reach for my Spellbinders dies, but the ovals  just weren’t big enough to fit around my stamped images.

Join us over at Perfectly Rustics, and create something with EGGS!

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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Quilled Iris

Quilled Iris

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It had been a while since I had done any quilling, so I thought I’d make a quilled card to enter in this week’s Mod Squad Challenge called “Spring Forward” where we are encouraged to use flowers, birds, butterflies, hummingbirds, etc. and bright, beautiful colors to make a Spring themed card.  (Sadly, this site is no longer active.)

I sponged Gina K Wild Lilac ink on white card stock and glued my quilled iris and decorative swirls on this panel.  Then, I created a recessed frame with thick fun foam and Spellbinders oval dies.

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The printed paper is from a digital set I bought from a store on Etsy called The Pixel Posy. The set is called “Vintage William Morris digital paper designs//Art Nouveau background paper pack//Blue and purple flower digital paper.”   HERE is the link.

This card used a number of quilled shapes:  teardrops, half circles, marquises and wheatears (leaves).  I used instructions by “Quilled Creations” to create the iris.


I had made a few other quilled cards in the past that I had posted in my StampTV Gallery.  (Sadly, this site is no longer active.)  I’m including them here as well.

Quilled Sympathy Card DSCN5557

This sympathy card was the first one I did back in May 2013.  I used a basic marquise shape for the flowers and leaves.  The sentiment was from the Gina K Designs “All Occasion Tags” Stamp set.  The tag was cut with a die from the Spellbinders Grommet Tag set, and the embossing folder is Darice Corner Scroll.

I used the same embossing folder and marquise shapes to create two more – a wedding card and a confirmation card.

Quilled Wedding Card DSCN5602.jpg

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The sentiment on the wedding card is from the Gina K Designs “Always and Forever” duo stamp set.  I purchased the stamp for the confirmation card on Ebay, and it is unmarked so I have no idea what company made it.

The next card I made was for a bridal shower.  I used teardrops to make the umbrella.

Quilled Bridal Shower Card DSCN5666.jpg

The bride and groom stamp is called “Happy Couple” by Stampendous!  The greeting was done on the computer.  I used the Darice Stripe embossing folder on this card.


Quilled Creations makes a great tool called “Circle Template Board” that makes it easy to create consistent and perfectly proportioned quilled shapes. I also use their slotted quilling tool to roll the circles; the slot makes it easy to get the paper rolls started.

circle template board  slotted tool

I forgot how much I LOVE quilled designs; I will definitely need to do this more often!!

Thanks for checking out my card projects!

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