Sunday, April 28, 2013

More Invitations!

    My little sister is graduating with her Bachelors in Nursing in two weeks!! She and I made invitations for her pinning ceremony and commencement this weekend. Funny thing is, her school colors are red and black, which means the invite was red and black, just like the last card. Sad thing is, I have roughly 3 more ideas for cards that are red and black. Lucky thing is, I just got some neon Hero Arts inks! Anyway, here's the invite:

    My sister went through all of my stamps (Lord!) and found this sentiment from Dylusions The Right Words set. (I'm sensing yet another pattern...) I put the sentiment on a white piece of cardstock and cut it out with Spellbinders Wonky Rectangles and edged the die cut with Brushed Pewter Distress Stain. Then I cut the black piece and embossed it with a folder from The Paper Studio. Finally, it was attached to a standard sized red card stamped with Hero Arts Aged Print Frame in Aged Mahogany Distress Ink which is now all over my hands! To add a bit more and a nursing theme we punched some hearts and covered them with Stickles.

    I hope you like the invite and I hope to either start a black and red series or delve into the neons!

Friday, April 26, 2013

Now for Something Totally Different

    Last week I did two things. 1) I ordered Dyan Reaveley's Mini Couture stamp set and Luscious Leaves Mask and 2) I found the Runway Inspired Challenges blog. So in playing along with Challenge #34 pictured first, here's what I came up with below:


  I wanted to do something totally different and I've loved everything I've ever seen Dyan create. Just crazy beautiful wacky stuff! Wonderful. So here's how I created my Runway Inspired homage to Dyan:

    First I stamped the dress on white cardstock and then again on a piece of masking paper. I cut the mask out around the inner folds and across the top of the skirt to mask off the outer portion of the skirt. Then I used my Stamp a ma Jig and the Tiny Backgrounds stamp from Unity to add the spotted pattern. Then I removed the masks and added Copic Markers in R05 and R08 and 110 with a white gel pen to color the dress.
 
    To create the background, I used Black Soot Distress Ink and a very small rounded ink dauber to add ink through the stencil for the runway and the leaves inspired by the print of the dress from Reem Acra. Then I created shaky lines on the leaves and runway squares and added Black Soot Distress Stickles as well.
  
    While that was drying, I stamped the sentiment from Dyan's Say What You Mean stamp set and fussy cut it out. Finally, I stamped the dress one more time on the background and then added the dress with pop dots as well as the sentiment. Finally, I adhered it to a red card base. The card is a standard size which fits Dyan's Mini Stamps just perfectly. I can't wait to 'design' more dresses with the set. I just love, love, love that set!!
 
    I hope you like the card and my branching way out of my comfort zone!

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Shower Invites are Done :)

    Yay! My friends and I made 50 invitations yesterday and they look great! I hope the mom to be loves them. Luckily, they weren't too hard to make and we had a great time. So, drumroll for which one won out....Emily picked the vertical design with the brown background!
    If you'd like to make one just like it, here's how we made it....but you don't have to repeat it 49 more times :)
    First, cut a piece of The Paper Studio 12x12 paper in brown polka dot into a 6" x 4 1/2" rectangle. Then cut a  piece of white smooth cardstock to 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" and ink the background with Tumbled Glass and Peeled Paint Distress Inks. To mask off each section when inking, cut a piece of cardstock at a curve by hand and place each section down while inking. But, before inking the blue, stamp the baby giraffe from the Mama Elephant Nursery Deco set on the hill and on a piece of masking paper with Memento Dye Ink in Black. Cut the giraffe from the masking paper with an exacto knife leaving a small border around the stamp and place the mask over the stamped image on the white cardstock.
    To make the big giraffes I had to get a bit creative. The Critters on the Savannah set from Lawn Fawn comes with the giraffe facing right, but not left, so I stamped it and scanned it as a .jpeg then mirror rotated it in MS Word and resized it until it matched the stamped size exactly when printed. The ink finish looks a bit different but, when the giraffes are colored with two slightly different color schemes, it looks somewhat intentional...I hope. I colored the giraffes with Copic markers and used YR21 (which I completely ran out of....) or Y21 and Y35. Then for the spots I started with E33 and then added E15 and E18 for shading. The baby giraffe was colored with Y21, Y35, E51 and E33. I cut out the giraffes with the matching die from Lawn Fawn and my Big Shot machine.
    To create the strips on the side, I cut a strip of yellow gingham paper to 1/2" and a piece of chocolate brown to 1/4" and a piece of orange polka dot paper to 1/4" after punching the edge with an EK Success border punch. All of the papers were from The Paper Studio and adhered with an EK Success tape runner since the adhesive is clear and the strips were so thin.
    For the last detail, emboss the "Baby Makes Three" sentiment with Versamark ink and white embossing powder. and cut the ends into a banner either by hand or with the corner of a square punch and adhere it to the card with foam dots for some dimension.
   I really think they turned out great and I'm really happy that they are done!!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Mama Elephant Sketch Challenge




    One of the main reasons I started this blog was to have an easy way to enter the tons of awesome challenges I've seen on the blogs I follow. A new company that I've come to love since they first started last year is Mama Elephant. Their stamp sets are just awesome and are so clever in the 'extras' they put in the sets. There's just so many ideas that I can pull from just one set. Anyway, they are hosting a sketch challenge on their blog and here's a link to the challenge if you'd like to play along: ME Sketch Challenge
    And here's the sketch:


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    I loved this sketch immediately and played around with a lot of ideas but I wanted to use just one stamp set on the card to add a second challenge. All the stamps are from the Nursery Deco set which is one of my go to sets not only for the adorable teddy bears and giraffes but for the great sentiments as well. So, instead of using a literal interpretation of the sketch, I flipped it on its side and created a mirror image. So, the three dots became my three bears and the vertical line became a horizontal shelf. I also snipped the "Hello Sweet Baby" stamp apart so it could be stacked and stamped for the sentiment and changed to doily background into pennants.
    So, to make the card! I used the Fact and Fiction 6x6 paper pads from Basic Grey for the pennants and shelf and stamped them with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink. Then I cut them out with an exacto knife. The bears were then stamped on smooth white cardstock with the same ink and colored with Copic markers. I added some glossy accents to the larger bears' noses and feet for some shine. Then I embossed the "Hello Sweet Baby" with Zing Chestnut embossing powder and cut the piece of K & Company yellow cardstock into a banner. To keep with the outlined/stamped theme going, I used a ruler and a distress marker to outline the banner. Finally, I added all the elements with glue or pop dots, for the bears, to a piece of cardstock from My Minds' Eye's Dolled Up 6x6 pack and adhered it to a note card.
   Thanks so much for visiting and for checking out my card! Yay for my first sketch entry!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Baby Shower Invitations

    Next weekend I get to make 50 each of one of these designs or some form of them. Unfortunately, I have no idea which one I like best or which one the designs Emily, the mom to be will like. Any ideas/suggestions?