A little stamping done!

After a long break from doing anything stamping-related I recently made some cards for family and a friend. I've not been following the stamping trends or buying anything new, so I'm clueless as to what is currently popular. Just trying to be content using what I already have. It's been very enjoyable and I hope the urge lasts.

This one was for a good friend of mine. I took a white pompom and colored it with a yellow Copic marker for the hat top. I used black string to give the balloons a little dimension, and also popped out the left balloon with a dimensional dot. I did a nifty stitch on the ribbon that makes me think of a heartbeat and zigzags just to jazz the edges up a bit. Let me just say, corners are so hard to stitch!



I could not get the colors in the upper and lower pics to match, so please forgive the differences. You can see the pompom, string and the balloon more closely below (and every stray bit and boo-boo that I never catch until after I look at the pics!)



I made this one for my hubs last year for his birthday, but never posted it. Probably should've avoided the overuse of the Mesh texture. Oh, well. I had fun doing the crazy sewing stitches all over the place!



Squiggle squiggle! Love it!



And this one I made him this year. More guy-ish for sure, and he loves classic cars. I made mine to look kind of like a rainbow trout. I don't know why! I just did!



Still love using LOTS of texture on my cards. All coloring was done using Copics.



I went wild with my sewing machine on all of these cards, trying different stitches. Turning corners was tricky, so I had to kind of ad lib because of what I ended up with. I threw in the gems in a funky way to play along with the jumpy stitches. It sort of works, I think.



So that's all the stamping I've done so far, but I have another birthday I need a card for, so there's more stamping in the near future.

Not sure if anyone still comes here anymore, but if you do, thanks for stopping by!

Convertible Birthday

Our son turns 16 this coming Monday. He's a joy to us all and a blessing in every way. I wanted to make him a special card. I hope he'll like it!

All the stamps used are Stampin' Up! I used Cheery Chat for the sentiment, Collage Alphabet Numbers for the 'no. 16' and Classic Convertibles for the car.

This card is pretty simple and straight-forward. The base is Chocolate Chip and was cuttlebugged using the Traffic Jam embossing folder.

I cuttlebugged the side panel of dp (Basic Grey Archaic) with the Mesh embossing folder. I glued it to the black background and stitched it on the sewing machine.

For the circle I stamped 'Happy Birthday' on ivory cs, cut it out using a Nestabilities circle die, ran it through the Cuttlebug using the Tiny Bubbles EF, and then sponged around the edges with my awesome new Tsukineko sponge daubers using Creamy Caramel ink.

For the car, I heat-embossed it with Brilliance Graphite Black ink and Judikins Detail Black embossing powder on ivory cs. Then I colored it with a Creamy Caramel marker, layering the color heavier in some areas and barely coloring others. I finished it up by using a silver Sharpie for the chrome and metal parts and a white Prismacolor pencil for the tires.

I stamped the 'no. 16' part on ivory cs, punched it out with the large oval punch and sponged the edges with Creamy Caramel ink.

Thanks for looking! Now I better git a move on and finish up the Mother's Day cards I need to make! Whew! May is a busy month!

Stamps: All Stampin' Up! - Cheery Chat, Classic Convertibles, Collage Alphabet Numbers

CS: Chocolate Chip, black, Basic Grey Archaic, ivory

Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, Brilliance Graphite Black, Creamy Caramel

Other: Cuttlebug embossing folders - Traffic Jam, Mesh, Tiny Bubbles; Nestabilities Standard Circle Large and Small, Judikins Detail Black ep, large oval punch, 3D-Dots, black zigzag ribbon, silver Sharpie, Creamy Caramel marker, Tsukineko sponge daubers, sewing machine, white Prismacolor pencil (for tires)

Sporty birthday

I've got SO many cards I need to make! This card is for my teenage nephew whose birthday is already past. Oops. Wish there were more stamping hours in my day!

I felt the need to simplify again. Mind, this isn't 'simple' in some people's eyes, but it is in mine. It's hard to go backwards once you're used to flinging the bling!

The base is one layer thick (excluding the inside) with a minimum of bling (for me). But the bling I did use works well enough, I think.

It's always hard trying to come up with a card for a teenage young man. Men's cards are difficult, in general, but a teenage version is the hardest. And thinking about it now I should've used the Nestabilities Labels One set (forgot I had it! Can you beLIEVE it?) rather than the scallop for the car image (which btw is from Stampin' Up! Classic Convertibles - retired). It would've been less foo-foo-y. Oh well, he'll never know. My 16 yo son loved it and thought my nephew would like it, so that's enough for me.

The base is Taken with Teal, but I couldn't get that color to look right in the photograph to save my life. It looks more like Tempting Turquoise, doesn't it? Some colors are just like that when you photograph them indoors. I used the Cuttlebug Traffic Jam embossing folder to add some visual interest.

I used 2 black jumbo eyelets that I think are by Making Memories. I wove black hemp through and around and pulled one end back through again, tying it on the inside.

I used the small and large oval punches for the birthday greeting, which I stamped in VersaMark ink and embossed with white ep. The sentiment is from the Stampin' Up! Amazing to Zany set.

The car scene is popped out with 3D-Dots as is the sentiment piece. I used black and Chocolate Chip cs for the sentiment piece.

When coloring the car I used the CTMH Breeze marker and Prismacolor pencils. I added highlights here and there with my Inkssentials opaque white pen. To finish it off I added Diamond Glaze (aka Crystal effects) to the windshield, side panel, hub caps and headlights. I had colored it before running the image through the Cuttlebug. I added the Diamond Glaze afterward.

Don't you just love my new watermark? I had it made by Dina Kowal. Here's her digi-sig site. She's very reasonable and ever so nice to work with. I got 4 watermarks for $11. Very reasonable, indeed!

Thanks for looking!

Recipe

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Classic Convertibles, Stampin' Up! Amazing to Zany

CS: Taken with Teal, black, white, Chocolate Chip

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, VersaMark

Other: Cuttlebug Traffic Jam and Tiny Bubbles embossing folders, Nestabilities Classic Oval Large and Classic Oval Scallops Large, large and small oval punches, 3D-Dots, white embossing powder, Making Memories jumbo black eyelets, black hemp, Croc-a-dile (for making holes and setting eyelets), Diamond Glaze, CTMH Ocean marker, Prismacolor pencils, Inkssentials opaque white pen