With Love Triple Layer Card

Posted in Birthday Cards, Cards, Get Well/Sympathy, Mother's Day, Other by lisababitz

With Love Triple Layer Card

Normally, I stamp my panels when making a triple layer card, but I had this beautiful printed paper and wanted it to be the focus of my card. The dark layers add interest without covering up the print.

This card was done with patterned papers (floral and brown) from a pack by Momenta. (There is not a name on the package so I don’t know what it called.) Once I cut and layered the panels, I adhered them to an ivory card base so the card was sturdier. The stamp used for the greeting is from the “Vertical Greetings 2” stamp set by Gina K Designs. I heat embossed it with versamark ink and Ranger’s Liquid Platinum embossing powder. The ribbon by Recollections – Celebrate It #215813 matches the embossing powder beautifully. I stamped a birthday sentiment on the inside, but this card could be used for a variety of occasions. To cut my panels, I used dies from the Spellbinders “5×7 Matting Basics B” for the dark panels and “5×7 Matting Basics A” for the floral panels. (The center panel was cut with a paper trimmer.)

This technique could be used with any printed paper for any occasion, and I will definitely use it again!

Thanks for checking out my card post!

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22Apr2015

Vintage Floral Mother’s Day Card

Posted in Cards, Mother's Day by lisababitz

Vintage Floral Mother’s Day Card

The current challenge over at Perfectly Rustics is the try a new technique. (http://perfectlyrustics.com/2015/04/20/prdc-no-46-new-technique/)

For this card, I tried a new technique for my background panel that I saw on StampTV called “Scrappy Background” which you can see HERE. Basically, you cut strips of paper, and arrange them in a perpendicular pattern with a thin space between them. In the tutorial, Gina uses a variety of patterned paper scraps. My pieces are all the same pattern. I started with a piece of paper from the Momenta “Songbird” 12×12 inch paper pad (which was white and gray) and sponged Tim Holtz Tea Dye distress ink on the whole surface (to match my focal image panel). I cut 3/4 inch strips and arranged them on a piece of Gina K Dark Sage card stock. Once all my strips were attached and the edges trimmed, I matted the panel on another piece of Dark Sage card stock. I thought this looked kind of cool because it appears that I measured (perfectly!) the edges to leave a border around the outside to match the spaces throughout the pattern.

One of the things that frustrates me is that I have a room full of paper (I am running out of places to put it!!), and yet I can never seem to find paper to match my projects when I am working on them. That was the case with this project. I had completed my focal panel, and then I could not figure out what to do with it because nothing seemed to match it! (Mental note – choose papers first and then color the images! Seems obvious, but I never do that! The other thing I always forget is that different surfaces and papers take ink differently so even using the same color ink doesn’t always look exactly the same.) Anyway, I found the printed paper that had very little color and inked it to match (or at least complement!) my focal panel. It was still pretty boring as one whole piece, but the Scrappy Background technique added a bit more interest. If I had multiple matching papers, I may have tried it with several patterns, but as I said, finding one was a challenge! I kind of like the single pattern on this card, though. (Next time, I’ll try several patterns!)

The focal panel was made with an Inkadinkado large background stamp called “Floral Wood Cut” stamped on Strathmore Mixed Media paper with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. The darker parts of the flowers were first colored with a Tim Holtz Aged Mahogany distress marker, and then they were “water colored” with plain water and a brush to fill in and blend them. The leaves were colored with a Peeled Paint distress ink marker, and the edges were water colored with peeled paint ink and water. Once that dried, I sponged over the entire panel with the Tea Dye distress ink. This panel was mounted on a piece of the Dark Sage card stock. (I used the mixed media paper because my water color paper is textured, and I was having trouble stamping my image on it. This image is very subtle with lots of shading and I needed a smooth surface. Since I planned to water color my images, I wanted a paper that could handle the water. This was my first time using the mixed media paper, and it worked well!)

For my greeting, I used a scrap of the paper I used for my scrappy background. The greeting was from the Spellbinders “Matching Clear Stamps – Label Accents” (which matches their Labels 2,4, and 8 die sets) and was heat embossed with Stampendous Garnet embossing powder and versamark ink. I cut this piece out with an oval die from the Spellbinders “Fancy Frame Tags Two” die set and tucked it behind a metal Tim Holtz idea-ology ornate plate.

To complement the flowers, I cut burgundy mats from the Recollections “Habitat” 12×12 paper pad and inked over them with a bit of the Aged Mahogany ink to get the colors closer.

Finally, I used Tim Holtz Aged Mahogany distress stain to color some “Hug Snug” seam binding to create the crinkle ribbon for my bow.

If you’d like to try a new technique and share your project over at Perfectly Rustics, I’d love to see it!

Thanks for checking out my card project!

22Mar2015

“Smooshed” Background Easter Card

Posted in Cards, Easter, Holiday Cards by lisababitz

“Smooshed” Background Easter Card

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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22Mar2015

“Smooshed” Egg Easter Card

Posted in Cards, Easter, Holiday Cards by lisababitz

“Smooshed” Egg Easter Card

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:

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:

(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!

This content uses referral links as described in the disclosure policy on my sidebar.

22Mar2015

Easter Shaker Card

Posted in Cards, Easter, Holiday Cards, Interactive by lisababitz

Easter Shaker Card

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/)

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.

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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