Clean Up Cards!

 I don’t know about you, but I have hundreds and hundreds of card photos stored in my computer and my typical habit is to edit them for blog posts or to post on social media then pop them over to my CopyCatCard file!  Once that’s done, I delete them from Camera Uploads but unfortunately, I often forget that step!  During this time of social distancing, I’ve been working on cleaning up my files and came across a number of cards that I never edited and so they were never used for a blog or Facebook post!  I thought I’d share them with you today!  You’ll see that I have quite a few cards made with some of Alex Syberia Designs like this one above!  I printed it onto Bristol Smooth card stock and then colored the blossom with my Zig markers.  After die-cutting the image into a circle, I mounted it to a white base card which I’d embossed with a lovely folder I have.  I think that script is so elegant, don’t you?  The sentiment is from Unity Stamps.  

Here’s another one of Alex’s designs called Roses Bouquet which I stamped onto Bristol Smooth and painted, again using Zig markers! I think the sentiment is from Taylored Expressions  Simple Strips set!  

This card features a stamp made by Crafty Individuals called Summer Poppy Meadow.  I have to admit that I didn’t check to see the actual dimensions of this stamp when I ordered it, assuming it was a full A2 size!  It was quite disappointing to see the actual size when it arrived but it’s still a beautiful image and easy to work with!  I paired it with a black and white striped panel of a store bought card I had in my stash!  

I made this card over a year ago (maybe two?) and I’ve kept it for myself instead of selling it!  The simple yet striking lotus blossom was drawn by Luisana Lowry for her collection of digital stamps she called Red Hibiscus Designs and I was honored to be asked to create cards for her!  I colored this blossom with Copic markers and paired it with a background I had in my stash.  A little gold cord and a few sequins are pretty details!  

How gorgeous is this moth?!  Another one of Luisana’s designs, it’s not something I would typically be interested in, but I loved coloring this!  My Copics collection was fairly new and quite limited at this point but with the excellent tutorials that Luisana has shared, I learned so much and just love how beautifully this came out!  The background was made with Hero Arts Everything Flower stamp and I think I colored directly on the stamp, misted with water then stamped it onto Bristol Smooth card stock.  A perfect pairing, if I do say so myself!  Oh!  That bold sentiment is from Stamplorations!  

I just love this card!  It’s a print I found on Pinterest and it came with the blue background so all I had to do was color the flowers!  I believe I used Prismacolor pencils on this because I had to print it onto regular weight card stock.  The addition of Glossy Accents on some of the blossoms give it a really nice touch!  Sentiment is Taylored Expressions Simple Strips!  

When Alex Syberia created her first line of digital stamps, she invited me to design cards to help promote the line and I was honored and happy to do so!  This image is called Spring Bouquet and you can find it here in her Etsy shop!  Because I printed this with an inkjet printer, the ink smudged a bit but I used the printer ink as my gray and just went with it!  

Here’s the same image in orange and yellow; I like the addition of the Tim Holtz Hello die popping out of it!  

Another colorful card using Spring Bouquet, again letting the printer ink be my gray for coloring.  

Alex rocked the flower frame with this digi called XOXO Floral!  What a glorious array of blossoms and leaves to frame the hand-lettered XOXO!  I used Prismacolor pencils for this card, die-cut it with Gina Marie Designs Stitched Rectangle die then mounted it onto a base card made with heavy patterned paper!  

My last card is a simpler design featuring a sweet little Stampendous set called Sunshine Daisy!  I colored it with Copics, die-cut it into an oval and adhered it to the dotted paper oval.  The embossed base card is perfect with it’s display of petals, right?!  The sentiment is from Butterfly Reflections, Ink set called Let’s Flamingle.  

Here’s the inside of the Daisies card with the rest of the sentiment!  

I leave you with this sympathy card done in restful colors of nature and Papertrey Ink’s Meadow Greensstamp set.  I heat embossed the ferns with clear powder then sponged oxide and distress inks over them for a resist look, one of my favorite simple techniques!  The sentiment is from an old Stampin Up set.  Thanks for coming with me on this little walk through my computer files!  

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Stampendous Little Mushroom & Fern Garden

I recently received a big fat package of goodies from Stampendous and was so tickled to see these beautiful images!  I immediately got busy and have been making cards with Little Mushroom and it’s coordinating dies plus this amazing background stamp called Fern Garden!  I’m in love!!!   

The first thing I did was to ink up Fern Garden with Peeled Paint and Forest Moss distress oxide inks, then spritzed with a fine mist of water.  I stamped it out onto a panel of Bristol Smooth card stock, then stamped it again onto a second panel so as not to waste any of that delicious color!  

Next, I stamped the Little Mushroom onto another piece of Bristol Smooth and had so much fun coloring it in with my Zig markers!  I spattered droplets of water to create “texture” on the image then used the handy-dandy die to cut it out!  

Lastly, I added some bits of foam tape to the mushroom and attached it to the Fern Garden background then adhered that to a white base card.  I stamped the sentiment directly to the card front with Versafine Onxy Black ink.  This was a simple card and I just love the woodsy-ness of it, don’t you?!  

For my next card, I decided to play around with the Fern Garden background using the Floral Garden Embossing Powder kit which I also received!  It has twelve little containers of colorful embossing powders and little scoops for using with it.  I inked up Fern Garden with Versamark and stamped it onto a piece of Bristol Smooth then scooped the two shades of blue powder onto a section of the inked design, tapped it off and heat set it.  I did this again but used the two greens next!  

I inked up Fern Garden again with Versamark, then turned the stamp so the design was going in a different direction and stamped it directly onto the first heat-set layer of colors!  Again, I scooped additional colors of powders (orange, red and yellow) but this time I placed each color onto an area of the Versamark’d image, gently removed the excess and then heat-set them all at the same time.  I hope all that makes sense!  

The result of all that layering, scooping, heat-setting and repeating is quite vividly beautiful, I think!  I have a stamp set by Papertrey Ink called Meadow Greens with fern stamps and dies, so I stamped one out onto Bristol Smooth using distress oxide inks (Peeled Paint and Mowed Lawn) then die-cut it.  I also die-cut a fern of olive green card stock and placed that beneath the stamped fern.  

To complete my card, I adhered the Fern Garden background panel to a white card base, added a little Vintage Note script stamp to the bottom then attached my ferns to the lower corner using foam tape for dimension.  The sentiment is from Pink Fresh Studio’s Let’s Flamingle set!  I had a lot of fun playing with the embossing powder kit and the Fern Garden background and have several ideas for more fun cards, so stay tuned!  Thanks for visiting!  

Hello Fall!

Fall is taking it’s time getting to Vermont as we’ve been enjoying prolonged summer temperatures, but I’m ready for all things “fall”!!  I made another card using Brutus Monroe’s Simple Blend Circle stencil and paired it with Papertrey Ink’s Meadow Greens again!  To make this card, I placed the Circle stencil frame over a piece of watercolor card stock and filled in the center with Zest Surface Ink, making it darker around the edges and lighter in the center.  Next, I stamped some leaves from Meadow Greens using Versamark so I could clear emboss them.  When that was done, I spattered black paint over the panel then heat-embossed in black the “Hello Fall” sentiment directly onto the card.

I set that aside in order to create my leaves by tapping out Fossilized Amber, Fired Brick and Carved Pumpkin distress oxide inks onto my craft mat, spritzed with water then pressed another piece of watercolor card stock into the ink, drying between colors.  Before I die-cut the leaves from the inked paper, I stamped the pretty script stamp all over the panel.  The little raccoon is from The Greeting Farm and I colored him with Copics then cut him out and mounted him with 3D Foam Squares.  The leaves were folded and attached in the same manner.

Lastly, I embossed the “you’re my favorite” sentiment onto a strip of black paper then added that as my final touch!  A base card of Terracotta compliments the leaves and sets off the brighter colors beautifully!  BTW, did you notice my awesome new Brutus Monroe watermark??

Vintage Tapestry

Happy Saturday, my stamping friends!  I’m excited to share my card on the Brutus Monroe blog this morning as we continue to feature our Fall Favorites!  There are so many things to love about fall, especially in beautiful Vermont where the foliage changes to brilliant shades of red, orange and yellow!  Today’s card showcases those colors via the luscious Surface Inks; Zest, Wagon, Suede and Terracotta plus a little of the beautiful Sage!  Each one of these velvety chalk inks wonderfully represents the colors of fall!

I had no specific design in mind as I began this card and it always fascinates me to see what develops as I begin!  For my first step I embossed a piece of watercolor card stock with my Vintage Tapestry folder then just rubbed the various shades of color onto the raised surface!  That was easy and fun!  I knew I was going to gold-emboss some leaves so I also rubbed a little  embossing ink randomly around the panel, sprinkled on Gilded Embossing Powder and then set it with the heat gun.  I love the little bit of shine it created!

After cutting down the panel with Stitched Rectangle dies, I attached it to a layer of Copper Glitterstock to add another shade of shine!  I heat-embossed Papertrey Ink’s leaves from their Meadow Greens set and used the coordinating dies to cut them out.  Setting those aside, I then heat-embossed in gold the sentiment from Brutus Monroe’s Super Sentimental onto a strip of vellum.

To assemble my card, I mounted my embossed and Glitterstock layers to a card base of Terracotta, then attached my vellum strip with a couple of jeweled brads which I colored with a Copic marker to get the exact shade I wanted!  Lastly, I tucked in a couple of the embossed leaves behind the vellum and VOILA!  Done!  I actually can’t stop looking at all the colors on my background!!  This card really makes me happy!!  Take a look around Brutus Monroe‘s website and see if there’s anything there that’ll make YOU happy!!  😀

Celebrate Your Day!

I feel like I haven’t made or posted any floral cards recently, so today I’m sharing a beauty with yellow roses!  This image is You’re Forever Beautiful by Unity Stamps and I tried my hand at no-line coloring!  I stamped the roses onto a panel of soft gray card stock with a light gray ink, then took out my Prismacolor pencils and got busy!  There are layers and layers of color and it was so relaxing to just sit and do this!  

 I just love the combination of gray and yellow and aren’t those little purple-y sprigs the perfect accent?!  I used a lot of gray for shading on the blossoms themselves and all around the image.  Before I rounded the corners and mounted it to my card base, I spattered some black and white paint for a little added interest!  

The green base sets off the green leaves, and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.  I really love this and hope you do too!  Thanks for visiting!  

Playing with Trucks and Cars!

I’ve made a number of masculine cards over the years using trucks and cars; they’re a popular image for the guys in our lives and I enjoy the break from florals!  This card was made using a car from the long-retired Classic Convertibles set by Stampin Up.  I heat-embossed the image in black then cut it out and colored with Zig markers.  I needed a map background so googled Vermont road maps and printed this off on the computer and roughed up the edges after smudging with Pumice Stone and Walnut Stain distress inks.  The Route 66, tire track and Road Trip images are from Tim Holtz’ Road Trip set and I stamped those right over the map.  I used a diamond-plate embossing folder on the base card and smudged Walnut Stain distress ink over the raised part to get the grungy look. The sentiment is from Unity Stamp’s I’d Go Anywhere set.  

Another awesome vintage car from Stampin Up’s set, colored and cut out.  I printed out this map of Vermont, smudged Pumice Stone distress ink around the edges, stamped the mileage stamp in red from the same Tim Holtz set and the sentiment from Fiskars Let’s Get Lost was heat-embossed onto the map.  This was a quick and easy card!  

For this card I used Deep Red Rubber Stamp’s Chevelle, colored and cut out.  The same printed out Vermont map with more images from the Tim Holtz Road Trip set and the sentiment is from The Stampin Place.  The interstate sign image is from the Fiskars set I mentioned previously and it has an empty space for whatever numbers you choose!  I stamped in the 89 because that’s our main highway here in Vermont!  I smudged ink around the edges, roughed it up with my scissors, then tore and curled up a corner for a fun, distressed look!  Layered onto a red panel, then a black card base, I think this is a pretty cool card!  

Another combination of Stampin Up and Tim Holtz!  The awesome embossed background is Tim Holtz Travel Signs on kraft cardstock, smudged with Walnut Stain distress ink.  A strip of colorful Tim Holtz patterned paper on a narrow panel of red card stock really pops!  

The last in my series of trucks and cars, this truck is from Deep Red Stamps as well!  I stamped it in the center of a piece of white card stock, then masked it in order to stamp the other images around it.  They’re from Papertrey Ink Stylish Sentiments .  I then uncovered the truck, colored it with a red Zig marker and glazed it with a coat of Glossy Accents.  The PTI set came with the little star stamp which I randomly stamped in red around the card front.  I trimmed the panel down to layer onto black, then onto a base card of Stampin Up Crumb Cake on which I’d embossed their folder called World Traveler.  I hope you enjoyed this series of masculine cards!