Birthday Month

Another birthday card for another friend's birthday!  Between family and friends, late March and April is birthday time here!  I will also be sharing these cards over at Simon Says Wednesday challenge.

I began by stamping onto watercolor paper, the Stampin Up cheesecloth background stamp in versamark ink and then embossing in gold embossing powder.  Heather Telford shared this technique on her blog.

I then came back with various colors of color burst and spritzed with water until I achieved results that I liked.  I mounted the watercolor paper onto coordinating cardstock and then onto a white card base.  The sentiment is cut three times from matching cardstock and glued together so it has a raised appearance.  The sentiment is from Elizabeth Crafts.

Happy Birthday, Karen!

I created this special birthday card for my friend, Karen.  I will also be sharing this birthday card over at Simon Says Wednesday challenge since they are celebrating their 9th birthday.

This is a Stampin' Up die (set of three) which I cut from silver card stock.  The sparkly does not show up at all on the photo!  

The inside piece is Yupo paper on which I dropped various blue alcohol inks along with silver alcohol ink and let it swirl and work its magic on the plastic "paper".  The die is from Creative Expressions and also cut from silver card stock.  One of my favorite mediums is alcohol inks.  There are so many different techniques to play with this awesome ink!

Birthday for a Friend

I created this card for my friend Pat's Valentine's birthday!  I will also be sharing this over at Simon Says Monday challenge - Grunge it Up!

Pat and I Gelli printed together recently and I created this background.  I layered the print onto a black card base after grunging up the sides.  I stitched the cloth panel and adhered to the print.  I colored one of Tim Holtz's paper dolls with Distress markers and adhered to the card.

The heart was a piece I recently created in a class I taught at the The Paper Boutique in Springfield, Il.  The technique is from Stampendous using chipboard pieces, UTEE, and various colors of enamels from Stampendous.  The heart was stamped with a flourish image while still very warm and then adhered to the cloth panel.

Hope you had an awesome birthday, Pat!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is my interpretation of the sketch I provided for our stamp club this month.  I typically deviate from the plan and so I did!

I will also be sharing this card over at Simon Says Wednesday challenge "It Must Be Love".

There really isn't any special technique involved in this card but I did use new dies from Memory Box and new paper from Authentique.  Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Love is in the Air

I've been having some fun crafting Valentine's cards.  This is my shoe box for stamp club this month and I will also be sharing it over at Simon Says Monday Challenge.

The photo doesn't even begin to do this card justice!  How in the world do you take photos of foil cards?!  The card fold is called double dutch door.  I used the new Gina K heart foilables and foiled in gold.  The love die is from Impression Obsession.  Hope the gals like it Tuesday at club.

Cold Winter Days

Wow....haven't posted on my blog for two months!  Guess I've been a tad busy with the holidays which are special family times for us.  I created this card for our January stamp club challenge which was this sketch along with snowflakes.  I'll also be sharing this card over at Simon Says Monday Challenge - Winter Blues.

I started with water color paper and stamped Tim Holtz's new snowflake stamps in versamark and then used white embossing powder to heat set.  I then sponged distress oxide inks in blues and purples and then spritzed with shimmer mist.  The beautiful shimmer does not show up at all on the photo!  I trimmed this piece down to the four pieces as shown above and adhered to white card stock and then mounted to a blue card base.

The sentiment is a die from Quietfire Designs and I cut three from water color paper and glued together to add dimension.  On the top I used Nuvo crystal drops in white and added the blue sequin.  This was a fun sketch.