Winter Friend Card

Hello to anyone who might wander over here to my stamping place! I hope you enjoy your visit! I am back in the swing of things after a 3-year hiatus and am enjoying myself immensely. Stamping is a very satisfying, albeit expensive, hobby, and I love it.

I made a bunch of these cards for some online friends in lieu of Christmas cards, as I got a very late start on my Christmas cards last year and didn't have time for 10 more cards. So I made these January/Winter cards instead. Do you like my little pom-pom trim? It looks like little hanging snowballs!

I was looking through my Pure Innocence digital stamps and thought this cutie would be perfect for a Winter card. So I printed out 11 copies of her (one as a sampler) on good white cardstock and got busy coloring them. I did the backgrounds with Copic markers BG10, BG11, BG13, and BG18 until I ran out of ink for the BG10 and BG11 and had to find substitutes. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I had to use another brand of markers and found them wanting. But they did fill in for my Copics until I could get some refill ink.

I used R29, some YGs (yellow-greens), some Es and Rs for her face, Some Es for her hair, and the W7 plus a reddish brown for her boots (although the pic doesn't show it right).

I wanted to depict swirling snow, so I used the D'Vine Swirls embossing folder and a swirls stamp from the retired SU! set I Like Your Style. I stamped in SU! Real Red ink (do they still sell that color? I feel so ancient asking that!).

I used a Uni-ball Signo white gel pen on all the white areas. And I did a little stitching around the edge. What made the card pop for me were the red gems. They really added a lot.

Inside, I just made a simple design using the I Like Your Style stamp I used on the outside and 2 stamps from the SU set Amazing to Zany (probably also retired).

I made another card yesterday and will be sharing that one soon. Thanks for coming by! Please let me know that you stopped by! I love visitors! Happy Weekend!

Stamps: Pure Innocence 008 digital stamp, SU! Amazing to Zany, SU! I Like Your Style

CS: White

Inks: SU! Real Red, Copics

Other: Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirls embossing folder, turquoise stitching, red gems, pom pom trim, foam tape, Uniball white gel pen for white highlights

I like your style, Donna!

I'm trying to make more time to play lately. I've found that if I don't make time I will have none. There are always things I "need" to be doing, but a little fun now and then is what keeps one sane, amen?

This card was inspired by Donna Mikasa's creation found here. It doesn't really look like her card, but her colors inspired me. The red, yellow and green on the brown was what excited me. ALL her cards excite me. She's a card-making genius. But the colors on this one especially grabbed me. Thank God for inspiration! Where would we be without it?

I had a dickens of a time trying to photograph this card for some reason. Taking it outside seemed the only solution to making it look good. Inside pics all looked washed out. So it looks brighter than it really is. And shiny ribbon is just murder on a photo shoot, ya know?

I took the main brown piece and stamped the big image from Stampin' Up! I Like Your Style in black ink and let it dry. This was white card stock, btw. Then I did direct-to-paper inking all over it using Vintage Photo distress ink. Then I crumpled it up, smoothed it out, and did more inking to simulate creased leather. I used large eyelets to hold it down on the black cs underneath. I used a Crop-a-Dile to apply the eyelets.

For the dress forms I stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Copics. Then after they dried I cut them out and sponged them with Vintage Photo ink. Same with the tag. I used pop dots to adhere them. The flowers are actually green and the hearts are yellow and green, but the sponging kind of washed them out. But that was intentional. ;)

Hoping to get more stamping done now that I'm forcing myself to play!

Thanks for looking!

Stamps: SU I Like Your Style

CS: Black, white

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink

Copics: R29, YR12, YG13

Other: Black organdy ribbon, paper piercing tool, sponge mat, corner rounder punch, spiral punch, foam tape, pop dots, large black eyelets, sponge dauber, Crop-a-Dile

Dressing in Style - DTGD08Jody

Another card that was created because of the inspiration of another. This time it was a card by Emily Giovanni. I love the look she achieved with the designer-papered dress and the ribbon, so I had to pull out my Dawn Houser dress stamp and get to work!

This is also done for the same SCS challenge as this card.

For the dress, I chose a Basic Grey paper that was soft and relatively small in scale. This is from their "Blitzen" collection. (Man, I wish it was easier to find Basic Grey paper locally because I know I'd just have to stock up and then I'd spend too much. Maybe it's better that I don't have such an easy time finding it after all!) I stamped on the DP using Basic Black ink. Isn't it great that the new Basic Black is actually black and not that bluish color it's been for so long? I'm so happy they fixed that! Anyway, because the stamp didn't ink a nice solid black image I doctored it a bit with the Basic Black marker in the heavier areas. Can you tell? I hope not.

I cut the dress out except for the straps and the hanger, as if it was strapless. I attached the light blue narrow organdy ribbon by running it around and around the waist and then tied it with a bow.

Here's a close-up of the tiny bow:

After cutting the white cs out with a rectangle Nestability, I stamped the dress image and one of the word stamps from the SU I Like Your Style set in Basic Black ink using the Stamp-a-ma-jig to position the images just where I wanted them. Then I ran the white cs through the Cuttlebug machine with the rectangle Nestability again to emboss the edges. I attached the cut-out dress over the stamped-on-white dress with Dimensionals. Then I adhered that to the scalloped black cs with more Dimensionals.

I used the Cuttlebug "Perfectly Paisley" embossing folder on the big blue background. It was smaller than the area I needed to cover, so I hid the line of demarcation with the polka dot ribbon. I added a bit of the blue organdy ribbon to that to keep the color theme going, although it might've looked just fine without it. Then I attached that to the black cs.

So there you have it. Another card that comes from the inspiration of another. Thanks for looking!

Stamps: Dawn Houser's "My Mother's Dress" stamp, SU I Like Your Style

CS: Black, Basic Grey Blitzen Collection designer papers, White

Inks: Basic Black

Other: Cuttlebug "Perfectly Paisley" embossing folder, Nestabilities regular and scalloped rectangles, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Basic Black marker, Dimensionals, Polka dot ribbon, Light blue narrow organdy ribbon

Cosmobella birthday girl card

Recipe:

Stamps: Paisley Print, Cosmobella, purse from Shopabellas, word stamp from I Like Your Style

Paper: Tempting Turquoise, black, Green Galore, white

Ink: VersaMark, Basic Black, Creamy Caramel

Accessories: Cuttlebug Tiny Bubbles embossing folder, Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, blending sticks, Inkworx air art gun, Basic Black marker, oval template, aqua-blue grosgrain ribbon, sponge, Dimensionals, mini Pop Dots, copper mini-brads, 2" circle punch, 1/16&q

Techniques: Gamsol Magic, Cuttlebug

I was fortunate enough to do an image swap with a fellow SCSer and finally got around to using one of the images she sent me.

This card was tons easier to do than the last few! I was tired of complicated and decided simple was a good thing. Not that this card wasn't work. The Bella was a bit, but it was fun coloring her.

All I did for the biggest piece of cs (Tempting Turquoise) was stamp it in VersaMark ink with the Paisley Print background stamp. Easy. Then for the Green Galore piece I did the same thing, stamped it in VersaMark with Paisley Print. Then I ran 2/3 of it through the Cuttlebug with the Tiny Bubbles embossing folder. I mounted the Green Galore onto black cs. Then I covered the line between the two areas on the Green Galore with some lovely aqua-blue ribbon that has lime green stitching on both edges. It was actually the inspiration for the colors in this card. I set that aside.

On the Bella, I used Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol to color her. Did you know you can just dip the pencil tip right in the Gamsol and color? I used a blending stick (looks like a gray newspaper stick with pointed ends) here and there, as needed. After coloring her I cut her out (no easy task with those stick arms!), cutting the martini glass from her hand, and touched her up here and there with my Basic Black marker (thus the thicker arms). Her hat is actually a purse from another Bella stamp. I was going to use it as a purse hanging from her arm, but couldn't get the purse strap cut out without ruining it. So I cut off the strap and turned the purse into a hat! lol

The oval under her feet was created using a plastic template I bought when I first started stamping years ago. It was just right, so I laid it where I wanted it and sponged Creamy Caramel over it. I also spritzed the background behind her with my Inkworx air art gun (I love that thing!) using the Basic Black marker.

I adhered her to the background with mini Pop Dots and glued her feet to the background using my mono adhesive so she wouldn't look like she was hovering. ;)

I stamped a word phrase from I Like Your Style on Tempting Turquoise and punched it where I wanted the phrase to be with a 2-in. circle punch. Then I stamped it with the Paisley Print stamp to give it more interest, and adhered it behind the Bella piece.

I mounted the Bella/word phrase piece to the Green Galore with Dimensionals (another product I couldn't live without) and glued the circle down on the GG with mono (a bit tricky).

I punched 3 holes in the Green Galore with a 1/16" hole punch and then punched 3 holes in a scrap of black cs. Then I punched 1/4-in. squares in the black scrap over the 1/16" holes (turning the punch upside down to see where to punch) and applied those to the card with copper mini brads. The mini brads went well with the oval feature under the Bella.

I mounted the whole black/Green Galore piece to the Tempting Turquoise and was done! This card will go to my niece who is turning 20 on April 2nd. Seems like she was just 3!

Grumpy morning coffee lady card

Recipe:

Stamps: Print Pattern, "Good Morning" woman by All Night Media, Word stamp from I Like Your Style, Coffee cups from Espress Yourself, Mesh by Magenta

Paper: Black (of course), Real Red, Taken with Teal, Glossy white

Ink: Basic Black dye, Markers: Basic Black, Ruby Red, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Creamy Caramel, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Dimensionals, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Air art gun, 1" circle punch, 1&1/4" circle punch

This is for Amy Westerman's Super Sunday Sketch Challenge #4.

I saw a Bella stamp (Grumpbella) that made me remember that I had this cute old grumpy woman in my stamp stash. I figured it would be a good one for this challenge. Sorry I'm using Print Pattern YET AGAIN, but I just love that stamp. What can I say? It goes with everything! I will try to hold back, though. ;)

I popped the woman's coffee cup out with a tiny piece of a Dimensional: