Enjoying an Itty Bitty or two and a Sketch Challenge... ;)

I was told that if I follow this link I'd find a good sketch and a challenge. The person giving the directions, absolutely told the truth!

Paper Crafting Magic

http://www.challenges.papercraftingmagic.com/?subscribe=success#blog_subscription-2


I needed a birthday card for a fellow wine lover. So I decided that this was the perfect stamp, Age and Wine by Unity. AND if I altered the sketch just slightly, it would work... and I altered and it turned out excellent.

I inked the edges (which is by far, not my style) but I absolutely adore how this turned out. I colored the wine according to her favorite selection and I guess it looks vintage like she might in a few years. ;) Love you Jen!

Then I altered the sketch to include a little more fun stuff, some brads, a sentiment and a little doily stamp in the corner. This is one of the new Itty Bitty stamps by Unity called Cup of Tea. I also used the doily that came in my grab bag. The brads are colorbok. These wonderful vintage papers were from The Paper Studio Vintage Amour stack.

I'd love to know what you think and I'd love to see you play along with this same sketch! Now run, to the craft room and then to the blog!!! or vice versa. ;)

What is better than Ink and Rubber? Ink, Rubber and a Best friend!!!

Today we had a massive card making marathon. My best friend and her husband came down to visit and we got to spend the entire day crafting while he did his thing. It was such a nice change of pace from crafting on my own, which I love, but it was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of. So we played with some Unity, some AI stamps today and she brought one basic grey / hero arts set.

Little Stinker

 

 So this is the cutest AI stamp I have seen in a long time. Little Stinker.  The stamp is a set, image and sentiment.  The first time this little guy was inked, we both made cards.

I love making images female when the artist has portrayed them as male, just for the fun of seeing what can and can't be either gender. I chose to make this "boy" a girl and she chose to do a green shirt which could be gender neutral.

 I colored the image using Copics, E000, E00, E02 & E11 for the skin tone. RV34, RV21 & R20 for the shirt. N0, N1 & N2 for the white diaper/ undies and the white stripe on the skunk hat. I used N4, N5 & N6 for the rest of the skunk hat.

The background was embossed with a chevron embossing folder. The pink stripe was secured with 6 little black brads. I think that she is the cutest little stinker ever!

 Bestie did her version using greens. I'm not sure of her combination but it was really neat to see her love on my Copics and love how they blend. She used cream instead of white card stock and some awesome coordinating papers. I am very proud of her for this card. She did a great job.

And then there was Unity!

Change is a good thing

 

These tighty whiteys were screaming out for some fun pattern and color. I figured that putting a cool pattern like these superhero stars on them would make them more awesome than ever. I was right! lol... I found it really neat that the placement of the undies worked out the way it did. Notice no stars on the inside of the undie's leg holes? I didn't even notice until I cut the image out. Then I didn't notice the difference in the background paper and the undies until I put them together. The white dots...see them? they are on the background but not the undies. I didn't realize that the white dots faded as they went across the 12 x 12 until this card. It worked out pretty neat, don't you think?

Bestie's Stack of Books

 Look how awesome her coloring is. And the paper choices! And the use of the paper clips. What an awesome card.

Bestie's Vespa

 Again with the greens. She absolutely rocked the coloring on this one. I love how the rear fender looks 3-D. I think her inking around the oval shows movement and action. Great job Maria!

And Bestie's last card, made with this adorable Hero Arts set. 

She pinned a card probably a year ago and loved this set but never had the time to sit down and create the card. Well today, she did!!! And look how adorable this card turned out.

 Here are some more cards I created today. 

I used the Little Stinker stamp to create a boy and a girl card because my Mom took the first Little Stinker card I made so I had to create another one or two.

And then back to Unity

This itty bitty is so sweet. I think that anyone would love to receive a card using this set. It just says so much with the simple Sent with Care sentiment. 

This card reminds us to enjoy the little things. 3 butterflies were stamped on the background paper and one on shiny red card stock. It was cut out and glued down only at the center.

 My last card was sort of a challenge for myself. I found these three patterned papers that I thought looked awesome together and I wanted to use them with this stamp set. I usually throw around a few ideas before putting a card together and this time I was able to use the three papers, plus two solid colors and the card came together really quickly. I think this set is super cute and I can't wait for someone to receive this card. I wonder how they will react to hearing that You Look Great for an Old Bag.

If only there were a cure for Cancer

It seems to be a theme today, cards for someone or about someone that has cancer. There is a very special little boy who was just diagnosed with A.L.L Leukemia. He loves Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a card was ordered especially for him. I colored the image but other than that I didn't do too much. The image is big and fun and I hope the purchaser and the receiver love it as much as I do.

TNMT

The second card I completed today is not cancer related but definitely child related. A pretty, pretty Princess for a little Cinderella loving princess. This is a free coloring page image that has been resized and then colored with Copics. The background was run through the Cuttlebug and that blue glittery Card stock was just mounted to another piece of pretty sparkly paper and TA-DA a completed Cinderella card for one special girl.

Cinderella

After that it was back to Cancer card making. My Mom's friend passed away recently from cancer and there is a benefit coming up for her family to help pay for her final expenses. I offered to donate some cards for her benefit. So although the cards may not carry a cancer theme, they were made because of cancer.

A woman contacted me because she knows I make cards to sell and the profits are going toward my daughter Delaney's headstone. She stamped a ton of cute images for me and the majority of these cards were made with some of her images. 

Wheel barrel with Tulips

 This wheel barrel was super fun to color and to exaggerate the wood grain. The image has some in it but with a little effort I was able to create a very distinguishable wood grain.

Frog rides Turtle

 Super fun flower brad accompanies this duo. It looks like they are stopping to smell... err... taste the flowers.

Girl in the Butterfly Wings

This sweetie looks like she just sat down after playing all afternoon in those wings. How fun is she?!? Three purple brads frame just a little corner of the image circle.

Girl with a Bunch of Tulips

 I think this girl looks so sweet with her bunch of tulips. I'm not sure the image name but this little girl was a whole bunch of fun to color.

Mouse with Daisey

The flower was colored with E40, E41 and E43 for the white. I absolutely love how this turned out. Isn't that mouse just darling? Three little heart brads stack up on the side of the image.

Besties

 Looks like some besties right here. I had a trip coloring them and picking through the paper scrap bin to find coordinating papers. I think there are about 4 or more of these cuties stamped out for me and I might just have to color one for the real life bestie!

Cancer Cannot

And then of course I had to stamp the What Cancer Cannot Do stamp and do up a really cool card for the benefit with this very touching saying. Two little square brads hold a simple tab down for a little additional detail.

Reflection

And then one fun, for no reason than to play card. I have seen the cards where people do the reflection in the water of an image and I wanted to try that so badly. Tonight I tried for the first time ever and this was the result. I think for a first try it is pretty fabulous. I can't wait to see what else I can create after I play with this technique a little while longer. And I have to say thank you to the bestie for allowing me to borrow this set and play with it. I can't wait to see what other things I can come up with.

Unity 3 ways and a little card of Hope

I will get to the Unity 3 ways in a minute but first I want to talk about the Card of Hope.

Today was an emotional day. I found out that the son of a very good friend was diagnosed with Leukemia. He started his chemo today and this is probably going to be along road for them.

Cancer has a special place in my heart because my family has been touched so hard by it's effects and I have always tried to send cards of hope to those who need it. Last year at either the scrapbook expo or the rubber stamp show I found a stamp by Chatterbox and it is my go-to for the first card of hope. It can, however, seem a bit grown up especially when the intended audience is a 5 year old little boy.


So I added monsters and aliens and bright colors and hoped that this would cheer this little boy up during this very scary time.

I fussy cut two of the aliens/ monsters from the background paper and added a few star brads. Inside is signed by 70-ish women who all love and support this little boy and his mother.

Now, onto the Unity 3 ways. Heat Embossed, Paper pieced and Colored with Copics.

This great camera image was heat embossed in white on black and then the camera was fussy cut and put on this most perfect designer paper. I heat embossed the SHOOT! directly on the designer paper in white. This would be a great card for a photographer, a hobbyist, or for a late birthday card as in... SHOOT! I forgot your birthday.

The second of the Unity tri-fecta is paper pieced. I stamped this adorable umbrella in the rain stamp on cream paper and then on the designer paper and fussy cut the umbrella out and paper pieced it onto the image on cream. This card is a great reminder that the worst always ends and that things always get better.

And the final of the three is Coloring with Copics. I received this awesome Elephant stamp as a free gift from Unity. I wasn't sure what to do with it but I really though it would color nicely. So that is exactly what I did, colored it! The elephant sits on a dry embossed layer that looked Indian and to me the Elephant looked Indian. I think this Be Original Be You card is a great one for encouragement.

For the love of the Grab bag #1

I was one of those that flocked to the Unity site and purchased the special grab bags and yes, I had to order all three. Tonight I got out two of the stamps with their sentiments from the grab bag #1 and made two cards.

I decided to use the same sketch (card design pattern) and see what would happen with two different subjects. Well, I love how they came out!

The first card I made was the You Rock My World card. I absolutely adore the way this image colors.

I layered this card with some paper that had globes on it, some stripes that coordinated and a checked patterned paper. All backed in black for the POP! (I did see the image wasn't centered on the black so that has been fixed)

I think someone is actually going to think this card rocks!

The second card I made using this same layout was the Birthday Wishes Card.

The present was a bunch of fun to color and try to give dimension to. I wish I would have orange in my Copics but until my set arrives, I don't.

I think it is gender neutral and I'm sure the recipient would smile with this bright, cheery card.

Unity Package of Love

I love getting mail, I love getting things in the mail, I love it when packages arrive from stamp companies and crafting companies such as UNITY! Unity Happy Mail arrived today. Several itty-bitty stamps, three grab bags of stamps and a cute house set called House a Home. I had to, HAD TO, play with the stamps a little bit tonight.

I created a card using the itty-bitty Age and Wine stamp.

I also used two stamps from Grab Bag Special Collection 3 to create a cute little elephant card.

Both cards were fairly simple and easy to make. I colored both images with Copics and used my Cuttlebug and dies to cut the image panels. All in all, super fun cards to create.

Did you say 4-H kit card?

My best friend teaches the 4-H kids in her town how to stamp and make cards. I had been a big part of this experience until I lost Delaney. After that it was difficult to be around kids, people who asked questions, and just people in general.

WELL, today I am going to win this battle with anxiety and missing out on things that I love. I am going to go to her 4-H card meeting!

I can't just show up, I HAVE to bring a project for them. (of course)!!!

So I decided to bring something that incorporates several techniques, but that looks simple and effortless.

The first step was punching all the butterflies, I chose to use a rainbow color palette on white.

 After punching the butterflies, I folded up the wings and stacked them together to form a 3-D butterfly.

Then I ran the back layer through the Cuttlebug Swiss dots folder. And heat embossed the sentiment (with love) on the second layer.

After gluing the dry embossed layer to the card base and the butterfly to the second layer with the heat embossing, I used 3-D foam tape to pop this panel up.

As you can see this results in a white on white card with a pop of color.

It was all about the Wedding Invite today

Today was Wedding Invite day. It may seem rather fitting since yesterday was Valentine's Day, or uhm... pop the question day.

So our friends are getting married this September at this really quaint place in Northern Wisconsin and guess who was gifted the opportunity to make their invites? This girl!

I'm pretty certain she could have had them done elsewhere but as you are aware, if you have read the last two posts, all the profits from my cards are going toward Delaney's headstone.

So with that honor, I set to work creating the perfect invite. A balance of wedding elegance and well, low maintenance simplicity... just like the bride.

With a little embossing powder, some vellum, a piece or two of ribbon and card stock, these were created.

You can see that there is a bridge printed on the cream card stock. This image was sharpened on the computer so it is distinguishable through the milky vellum layer. Each was then placed on the purple card stock. A simple knot tie was added.
Of course the backs of these will have the Because of Delaney Jane stamp, because well, she is the reason for this new movement toward the sale of cards and the creation of things like these wedding invitations. Next is the little insert card with the reception and local lodging information and then these beauties can ship to the wonderful couple. Stephanie & Steve, cross invites off your to-do list!

A Valentine for Tinker Mama

Today should have been my daughter Delaney Jane's very first Valentine's Day here with us but it isn't, she isn't here. I would have been sharing the card I made for her, for her keepsake box, one of those things she'd have received as an adult that had more memory for me than for her. Instead I will show you a card I made for one special little girl who her mother loving refers to her Tinker Mama. This baby and Delaney would be about the same age and I was so honored to make her first, very FIRST, Valentine.

Hello Kitty Valentine

This is a super easy sketch card. I used my corner rounder to put the curved edge on some 1" strips of patterned paper. The sentiment on the outside is heat embossed, inside says Happy Valentine's and is stamped. The image is actually a coloring page image that is resized and then colored with Copics, there is some sparkle from some Stickles and then all of that is placed on a die cut scalloped edged oval. Some white gel pen dots around the edges and a sparkle ribbon and bow finish it off. I know that this card was received with a smile.

Here is a photo of the beauty and her card: