Confetti Cluster Flower Card

Posted in Birthday Cards, Cards by lisababitz

I just learned a new technique called Confetti Cluster Stamping where you stamp a bunch of small images in the shape of your choice. (You can see the video tutorial HERE over at Papertrey Ink.) Basically, you start with a shape template and lightly trace it onto your card panel. Then you use a variety of tiny stamps and inks to fill in the traced shape. Once the entire shape is filled in (enough to clearly see the original shape), you erase your traced lines and you are left with a beautiful, confetti-like image.

I am entering this card project in the Mod Squad “Flowers” Challenge this week where we are to use a flower as a focal point. (Sadly, this site is no longer active.) The sponsor for this week is Melanie Muenchinger from Hands. Head and Heart so for the bonus entry, you need to use one of Melanie’s stamps.

I am also entering this in The Paper Players challenge # 236 – “Ann’s Clean and Simple Floral Challenge” – where we are to create a clean and simple floral card. (http://thepaperplayers.blogspot.com/2015/03/pp236-anns-clean-and-simple-floral.html)

I started with a flower template from the Cricut George and Basics Shapes Cartridge that I cut with my Cricut. I traced it very lightly with pencil onto a piece of white card stock. Then I started stamping.

Inks used: Tim Holtz tattered rose distress ink, and Gina K wild lilac, turquoise sea, ocean mist, sweet mango, sweet corn, kraft, grass green, prickly pear, and innocent pink.

Stamp Sets used (all Gina K Designs – some retired): Love You Mini Set, The Giving Tree, Pretty Patterns, Mommy-to-be Diva, Party On, Fabulous Frame Fillers, Fabulous Holiday Fillers, Best Fishes, Bundle of Love, and Sunkissed Autumn.

Card Stock used: Stampin’ Up Crisp Cantaloupe, Gina K Turquoise Sea, and white.

The Sentiment was from the Gina K Designs Happy Birthday Duo set and was stamped with versamark ink and heat embossed with Recollections snow embossing powder. I cut the flower center with a Creative Memories circle punch and embossed it with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. The ribbon is by American Crafts and is strategically placed to hide an ink smudge!

This project was fun to do, but I needed to start over quite a few times because I kept getting ink on the edges of my acrylic block and then onto my card panel. With such tiny stamps, you need to be careful not to rock the stamps when you are inking them up and again when you stamp the images. Another problem I had was that I started off stamping my images slowly and deliberately, and then started moving more quickly which is when I tended to mess up. I know that sounds obvious, but when you repeatedly stamp the same image randomly on your project, it is really easy to pick up speed! My final problem was that I don’t normally use this many colors and I wasn’t sure I liked my combination at first. I ended up putting the panel aside and working on something else, and when I came back to it, the colors had faded when the inks dried, and I liked it so much better! For this project, I basically just kept grabbing ink pads. For next time, I think I will try some combinations on scrap paper and let the inks dry to see how it will turn out instead of just starting on my card panel.

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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12Mar2015

Baseball Thank You Note

Baseball Thank You Note

My son needed another baseball themed thank you note, so I created this card.

The baseball print was from an image I found on google and printed with permission (photo courtesy of Tennessee Home & Farm, tnhomeandfarm.com originally seen HERE) on white card stock. The brown paper is a digital paper I purchased on Etsy from a store called Happy Place Art and is from a set called Watercolour Series Nautical Set. (You can see the listing HERE.) The THANKS stamp is from the Gina K Designs Vertical Greetings stamp set. (I LOVE their vertical greeting stamps and wish they would make more!) The baseball stamp is from the Hampton Art Warehouse Baseball Rubber Stamp Set (as seen HERE). Both were stamped with Gina K dark chocolate ink. All the edges were sponged with the dark chocolate as well. The stamped panel was adhered with foam tape to raise it up slightly. I finished it off with a bit of thin twine and adhered the whole thing to a Gina K Pure Ivory card base.

The greeting stamp had to be positioned “just right” with the other stamp, and because I stamped brown ink onto a somewhat dark brown card stock, I needed to stamp the images multple times in order to make the images dark enough to see well. I also wanted to make several copies of this card. My MISTI was the perfect tool for the job! (I talk about the MISTI in a previous post which you can see HERE.) It allowed me to precisely place the two stamps exactly where I wanted them, and it allowed me to stamp and re-stamp the images in the exact spot each time. I posted a demonstration of how I used this tool to make this card HERE.

This card is being entered in the “Use Your Stuff” Challenge where we are encouraged to use stuff that we’ve had in our stash but have not used yet, and this week – to “Make it Monochromatic.” It can be a card or a layout, altered art or an ATC – as long as it is monochromatic. I used shades of brown and a baseball stamp that I purchased but hadn’t gotten around to using before now. (http://useyourstuff.blogspot.com/2015/03/176-monochromatic.html)

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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10Mar2015

Birthday Wishes

Posted in Birthday Cards, Cards by lisababitz

Birthday Wishes

This card was made with three challenges in mind:

1) There is a color challenge over at The Paper Players. Here is the color palette we are to use:

If we don’t have these exact colors, it’s ok. As long as the color scheme is similar, we are welcome to play along. (http://thepaperplayers.blogspot.com/2015/03/pp235-anne-maries-color-challenge.html)

2) For the Mod Squad “Make a Background” Challenge, we are encouraged to make a background where we can use ink, watercolor, markers, crayons, stencils, stamps….well you get the idea. Basically anything but pattern paper. (Sadly, this site is no longer active.)

3) Over at Pile it On, we are to incorporate their CURRENT challenge with at least one other CURRENT challenge . We are encouraged to see how many challenges we could get into one project! Their challenge this week is to use green. (http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.com/2015/03/pile-it-on-59-green.html)

I created my background by applying Tim Holtz distress inks and water to my craft mat and then placing my card stock onto the ink. The inks I used were peeled paint, scattered straw, frayed burlap, and tattered rose. These colors closely matched the color palette above. I trimmed the panel to fit my card base and then used a scrap of it to create the squares on the left as well. I also used patterned paper from the Gina K Delicate Essentials 6×6 paper pack. For card stock, I used white to create my background panel along with Stampin’ Up Crisp Cantaloupe, Gina K Sweet Corn and Grass Green, and Bazzill Basics Quick Sand. To make the vase, I used the Spellbinders Filigree Vase set. The Spellbinders Fantastic Flourish One die was used to cut the leafy flourish in green. I cut additional pieces in sweet corn and crisp cantaloupe and cut off the flowers and a few sections of the flourishes for my accents. I also used a Creative Memories square punch. The greeting stamp came from the Gina K Designs “Elegant Florals” stamp set and was stamped with the peeled paint ink on a scrap of my hand-made background paper. (To see how I easily adhered all the delicate flourishes to my project, check out my earlier post HERE.)

This was a fun card project to make. I really like the color palette and would probably never have thought to use these colors together on my own. It had been a while since I had made a background using distress inks. And trying to combine challenges is always …well, a fun challenge!!

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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9Mar2015

Potted Plant

Posted in Birthday Cards, Cards by lisababitz

Potted Plant

It’s amazing how some cards begin with an idea and you just need to execute the plan while other cards evolve so much throughout the process that they end up looking nothing like they were intended to look. This card falls into the second group! I originally envisioned this card with delicate flowers in a pot made with patterned paper. The patterned pot was beautiful, but I couldn’t make the background work so I decided to use the patterned paper for the background instead. I had a sentiment I intended to stamp on the pot, but it was too big. I wanted to make flowers out of crepe paper, but I had trouble with that so I redid them on paper and added 3D Stamp Paint that made them too bold and sparkly. Then I added the leafy flourishes, and when I moved the flowers to arrange the leaves, I liked the plain leaves better so I decided to go with a potted leafy plant instead. My very feminine idea ended up being a card that is more gender neutral. I’m still not sure if I like the solid colored pot and may try different patterned papers. And I still may go back and re-try a version with flowers like I originally wanted, but I do like this evolved design as well!

The pot, tag, and leafy flourishes were all cut with Heartfelt Creations (Spellbinders) dies from the “Flower Pot” set. (I hand-made the top part of the pot as the set did not include a die for that part.) The greeting on the tag is a Gina K Designs stamp from the “A Wish For You” mini stamp set (retired?) that I received in a grab bag. Gina K Warm Cocoa ink was used to stamp the greeting and to sponge all the edges. Paper and card stock used: Gina K Fresh Asparagus, Core-dinations Valentia, Paper Pizazz Tan Floral Tapestry (printed background), and Melissa Frances First Class Mail (gray script).

I used my Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Bubble Cap maker and Clear Round (14) epoxy shapes to create the three orange embellishments in the upper left corner to match the flower pot.

This tool is pretty cool because you can use whatever paper you want to create custom embellishments for your projects. If I end up changing the paper for the flower pot, I will make new circles with matching paper.

Just a note – this company makes tools to create embellishments in different shapes and sizes. Each tool makes only one shape/size so you’d need to purchase multiple tools to create the different shapes. (This is very much like a punch you might purchase.) In addition to the tool itself, you need to purchase the corresponding epoxy shapes to create your embellishments. These are consumable and need to be replenished when they are gone. In addition to the epoxy shapes, they also have metal charms you can use to create your embellishments. (The tool, epoxy shapes and charms are all sold separately.)

I previously made an anniversary card (called “Happy Anniversary” originally posted in my StampTV gallery which is no longer active.) where I used the square tool and a mini wedding photo to create a square shaped epoxy embellishment that fit inside a mini picture frame.

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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8Mar2015

Don’t Lose Hope Card – “Make It Better”

Posted in Cards, Get Well/Sympathy by lisababitz

Don’t Lose Hope Card – “Make It Better”

I am so excited to be sharing my first card project as a member of the Perfectly Rustics Design team! This fortnight, the challenge is called “Make It Better” (challenge no. 43) where we are to improve on a project that we have done in the past while making sure to keep some elements of the original project the same. (See challenge post HERE.) The card I chose to re-do is a card I did last October called “Don’t Lose Hope” which was a card of encouragement for someone battling breast cancer. I like the layout of the original, but I was going for a vintage look, and I feel it ended up a bit dark. Here is the original card:

(click HERE to see original post)

In addition to the background being on the dark side, I felt the flowers were much too dark. I thought the paper I used was burgundy, but it really seemed dark brown once it was on the card.

For my first attempt at a re-do, I decided to try it in lighter shades while still keeping the layout and vintage style similar. Here is the card I came up with:

I changed the background paper, used a piece of the original, darker paper as an accent, added a smaller, light panel for added interest, and spruced up the corners with a ticket punch and pink pearls. I also made two of the three flowers lighter to match the new background.

Personally, I like these new, lighter shades better, but I know brown tones aren’t for everyone! So, just for fun, I thought I’d try a completely different color scheme and changed the background and flowers to a bright greenish-blue. The leafy flourish now matches the eggplant mat.

This version has only two flowers.

The two re-done cards are definitely not as dark, and I am happy with the results. I probably like the first attempt with the warm tones better, but that should not surprise anyone who knows me! (I do like my browns!!!) It was really neat to see how changing a few aspects of the card really changed the whole look of it.

Now it’s your turn! Choose a project you did but are not crazy about. While keeping some of the elements the same, change some of them to “Make it Better!” (You only need to make one new version.) Link your new version for the challenge, but be sure to include the “before” photo somewhere in your blog post along with your new version. I can’t wait to see what you create! (This challenge will close at 11:59 pm Saturday 21st March 2015 (AEST) Australian Eastern Standard time. Here is a Time Zone Converter to figure out when they end wherever you happen to live!)

Thanks for checking out my card project!

[The greeting stamp for these cards came from the Gina K Designs “Don’t Lose Hope” duo and was stamped with Tim Holtz walnut stain distress ink. (Clear embossing powder was used on the original and greenish-blue cards.) The flowers were handmade using dies from the Heartfelt Creations (Spellbinders) Vintage Floret set. The leaves were made using dies from the Heartfelt Creations (Spellbinders) Cut Mat Create 2A Die set. Cardstock used was a pink from a Recollections paper pack, Recollections Evergreen, and Gina K Edible Eggplant. The printed card stock came from two Heartfelt Creations Paper pads: Floral Key Collection and Antiquity Collection. The greenish-blue paper is K & Company Addison Blue Garden Swirls. The ticket corners were made with a Tonic Ticket Punch.]

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