Ornament Card

jHere's an ornament card I made for a card event I attended. It flips open so you can write on the inside. I had to make over 30 of these to trade with other crafters, which is why I kept colors and embellishments to a minimum. It was also hard to come up with a card that only used Stampin' Up! products. I'm so used to mixing them with random supplies made by other companies. lol

Stamp set: SU! Deer Friends (Hostess Set), Snow Swirled
Paper: SU! Ruby Red, Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Ink: Versamark, Chocolate Chip
Punches: Round Tab, Scallop Circle, 1-1/4" Circle, 1-3/8" Circle, Coluzzle, Paper Piercer
Accessories: Hemp Twine

Get Well Wishes

Here's a simple card I made for my craft group a couple of weeks ago. I've been trying to add more miscellaneous cards to my collection just in case. ;) I think what really makes the card work is the scalloped and embossed rectangle the stamped image is on. Like one of my friends said, Nestabilities scallops are definitely the way to go for that added uuumph! Haha.

Stamp set: SU! Fun & Fast Notes, Priceless
Paper: SU! Ruby red, Martha Stewart Heirloom
Ink: Versamark, SU! Basic Black, Koh-I-Noor colored pencils

Cup Runneth Over

I made this card a few months back for my boss' birthday. We had been talking about getting a high-speed blender and after she had gotten hers, I decided to give her a recipe book for juices and smoothies. What better card to go with it than a cup card? ;)

Stamp Sets: SU! Tart & Tangy, PapertreyInk Mixed Messages
Paper: SU! Whisper White, Always Artichoke; Papertrey Father Knows Best, vellum cardstock
Ink: SU! Basic Black, Wild Wasabi
Accessories: Straw, Clear Microbeads, Sticky Strip, Sponge

Wishing on the Stars

This is definitely going on my list of top favorite cards!

A coworker commissioned me to make a card for his daughter's birthday and he mentioned her having a black lab, so this is what I came up with. I used the Dogs clear stamp set from Inkadinkado that I had gotten awhile back on sale at Joann.

My favorite thing about the card has got to be the strips of SU! Night of Navy cardstock punched with my new Martha Stewart Stars edge punch. It's just SO gorgeous! I love how clearly defined and colorful each star is and how there's also a zigzag edge. I also picked this particular dog from the stamp set because it looks like he's looking up at the stars and "making a wish." ;)

I stamped the dog in black StazOn on white Papertrey paper and then colored him in with Koh-I-Noor colored pencils in shades of blue, green, and yellow. I then went over the pencils with my Sakura gelly roll pen so that it would add a nice shimmer to the swirls. I just left it for a few hours to dry completely before cutting and adhering the dog to the card. I added some sheer blue and silver ribbon I found in the dollar bin at Michaels to finish off the bottom section.

The pretty pattered paper is from Target from awhile back. I'm glad I stocked up on the different patterns available, because I can't find mat packs like these anymore! Not only were the papers gorgeous, but they also featured an adhesive backing, which made it really easy to stick on cards. The only downfall is that if you mess up, there's no going back! They're like sticky strip and really stick to the surface you apply them to.

The sentiment is from Papertrey's Mixed Messages set and the circle is from Boxes, Tags, & More. The flower and leaves are from Creative Expressions and are adhered to the tag using mini glue dots. I finished off the card by using rhinestone stickers I got from Michaels as the center of the flower and on the upper corner of the card. I used to use loose rhinestones with glue, but these are SO much easier to use and a lot cheaper than I thought they would be! What I also like about them is how they're all adhered together in one long glue line. I just snip in between them and then use my tweezers to take them off the sheet and place them on my card. It makes it really easy to take groupings of them and have them perfectly lined up too! ;)

Craft Group - 11/5/08

Sorry it's taken me so long to update my blog! I didn't want to start adding any more entries until I had added watermarks to my images, but then I got lazy adding the watermarks to my images. Hehe.

I have a wonderful craft group at work that started up a few months ago. We each take a turn being the "project manager" to come up with the idea of the project and teach the rest of us how to create them. We've been meeting up once a week during our lunchtime to craft, so the projects we create take under an hour to finish. The project manager does cut up any necessary papers or materials beforehand though, so that goes a long way into helping with time management. ;)

It was my turn this week and I decided to decorate glass ornaments using some acetate. This is an old stamp set I bought off one of the crafting ladies in my group. It's a SU! stamp set called See with the Heart. Isn't the woman gorgeous?!?

I stamped her onto a piece of acetate using black StazOn ink and then used permanent markers from Bic (you can use Sharpies too) to color in the image on the opposite side so that the StazOn doesn't smear.

While waiting for the image to dry completely, I took the top off the glass ornament I got from Michaels and used a makeshift funnel out of paper to add some Martha Stewart mica flake glitter into the ornament.

I used my Coluzzle circle stencil to cut out the image. Then I used my embossing tool (you can use a pencil or whatever you have on hand) to roll the acetate around it and place inside the ornament. I played around with the placement of the acetate once it was placed inside until it was where I wanted it.

I added some Michaels ribbon to the top and just tied it into a bow and slid the bow towards the top of the ornament.

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out and it's super easy once you get the hang of it!

As if the projects alone weren't enough, we decided to add card exchanges to each of our craft meetings! Good thing there are only a small handful of us ladies right now, so it wasn't too difficult to do.

Here is the card I came up with. I stamped the images from SU! Pocket Silhouettes using Martha Stewart inks onto SU! whisper white cardstock and punched them out using the SU! square scallop punch. Even though I have nestabilities to use with my Cuddlebug, I still love punches because they're so quick and easy to use!

I used the ink pads to sponge the edges and then I cut some square pieces of SU! chocolate chip cardstock to back the images on using some pretty high square dimensionals I got from Joann.
I drew a square around the images with my chocolate chip marker and then added a sentiment I stamped from SU! Fun and Fast Notes and punched out using the SU! window punch.

I used the Martha Stewart Doily Lace edge punch for the bottom of the card and cut my Papertrey craft cardbase down to make room for the doily. Then I added some paperpiercing to finish off the card.

Gee, I didn't realize I had used so many punches for this one card until I listed them out. lol Oh well, that's what they're there for!

Whoooo knew?

Whoooo knew I'd love owls so much? I don't know when my love of owls began, but it seems like there are a lot of us owl lovers out there! This is only the beginning of my owl collection, but it's still my favorite thus far. The owl and branch are two separate acrylic stamps that I placed on the same block when stamping. I stamped them both in Versamark and then used black detail embossing powder. I love the look of embossed images, don't you? It really makes them pop. I colored them in with my Crayola markers and added googly eyes. I used a Martha edge punch that also embosses the white cardstock and tied a brown satin ribbon underneath the owl. I left the card blank so that I could add a sentiment later. The 3 pink dew drops were one of my greatest finds from Michaels. They came in this huge bag and were on clearance for $2! They are actually called something else and used to fill up vases, but they serve the same purpose as dew drops and look great to me! A small Zots glue dot is the perfect size for them too. :)

Stamp set: Oliver & Friends by Sassafras

Paper: random scrap papers from a friend's bin

Accessories: brown satin ribbon from Michaels dollar bin, dew drops, Martha edge punch and embosser

Adhesives: Tombow Mono Multi and tape runner, Zots glue dots

Martha

It wasn't until Martha Stewart craft products became available at Michaels that I realized what I had been missing. I LOVE her paper punches! This card relies heavily on her lace edge paper punch and her butterfly punch. The background paper I used was a self-adhesive paper found at Target that I stuck onto a piece of dark blue cardstock. The stamp sentiment is from SU! and I hand dotted the butterfly trail using a black marker.

Stamp set: Simply Said by SU!

Paper: Target self-adhesive patterned paper, cardstock from Michaels
Tools: Martha Stewart Doily Lacy Edge Punch and Royal Butterfly Punch

Adhesives: Tombow Mono Multi and Permanent Mono Adhesive

Always

I started getting better at this point with my design and use of tools. I used black detail embossing powder for the bird and colored it in with markers. I also embossed the always circle that was first stamped on patterned paper. The pink scalloped circle was sponged with distressed ink around the edges. I used paper from a scrap pack and a piece of beige cardstock from Michaels as a base.

Stamp set: Always by SU!

Sam's Club paper

I made this card using paper from a scrap pack to layer on top of paper from Sam's Club. This was when I first realized I needed to buy better quality cardstock to serve as at least the base of a card. The Sam's club paper was super thin and flimsy! It's not even good paper to cut with on a Cricut machine. The only thing nice about it is that you get a ton of colors in a pack and it's double-sided with a subtle pattern on one side and a solid color on the other.


Stamp set: Stampin' Up! Pun Fun
Paper: scrap pack from Michaels, Sam's Club cardstock
Ink: Stampin' Up!
Accessories: ribbon from Michaels dollar bin
Tools: Fiskars corner punch, blender pen

The Beginning

I've always been a creator or crafts in one form or another, but it wasn't until about 6 months ago that I began making greeting cards. It all started when a friend of mine had invited me to a Stampin' Up! party and I was able to see all things I could make out of paper and all the neat tools involved. I was immediately sucked in! The cards were like mini works of art and I couldn't believe I had actually made one! I loved every minute of the process and knew I had to continue making more cards. I rationalized that with the price of fancier cards steadily increasing in stores, this would be more of an investment than simply a hobby. Yeah, it didn't exactly work out that way. lol The more I bought the more I want to buy, so it hasn't exactly been an investment, but perhaps it will be in the future. For now, I'm just happy to be creating something I love and I thought I'd create this blog to log my progress as it unfolds.

Here is my very first card:

It's a very simple card using white and red cardstock. The cake was stamped in VersaMark ink and heat embossed with an iridescent black embossing powder. I used a corner punch for all four corners and slid the white cardstock into place. I had very little supplies at this point, so that's why I had to take a minimalist approach to this card. lol

Stamp set: Birthday Whimsy (Sale-A-Bration February 1 - March 17, 2008)