Warm Wishes Winter Card

I love the Anna Griffin embossing folders, and decided to try making an embossed winter card using them for the background. The sentiment is a Sizzix folder I have had for years. This was a very quick and easy card to make, because it didn't need much embellishment because of all the texture.

I embossed light blue CS, and used my square foam shading thingies to go over the embossing with white ink to make it look frosty. Everything is matted with Core'dinations Pearls CS in white, and mounted dimensionally.

I added a bow I made just before adding the sentiment.

Blue Sparkly Shell Card

Here is a card I made with the embossed shell I posted yesterday. The glitter was coming off as I was making it, so I tried spraying the embossed design with Krylon. It worked so well on this shimmery blue art paper that I tried spraying the irises I made as well. The Krylon didn't react well with DCWV shimmery paper, and removed the shimmer on the iris one. It also removed some of the lilac color, so if you try krylon, spray a test swatch first.

The shell layer is matted with Cordinations Pearls, and since I seem to get so many of those expensive gold and silver pens which are old and don't work, I tried a Sharpie Metallic Silver pen to outline the white. The Sharpie isn't as shiny as the expensive pens, but at least it worked.

The next layer is DCWV Glitzy Glitter paper, and is also matted with the Pearl CS, then mounted on a pearl card. Both matted layers were mounted dimensionally.

I took two photos, one shows the colors and dimensions better, and the other shows the shimmer and sparkle.

Well, I have to go see to my mother now, I'll try to do some visiting tonight.

Embossing Paste, Glitter and Stencils

I have wanted to try embossing paste on a card for a long time, and got inspired by this tutorial by Shaz Brooks.

For my examples, I used some old Anna Griffin stencils I have in my stash. I cut the pearlescent blue and lilac papers to the same size as the stencils because I was afraid I might mess them up if I cut them after they dried.

I did everything else the way Shaz explained it, except I couldn't find my pallette knives, so I used a plastic knife. I loved her idea of using baby wipes on the stencils, and I did that as well.

The only kind of paste I could find in my area was Liquitex Flexible Modeling Paste, and it seemed to work well. After I removed the stencil, I sprinkled on some ultrafine glitter that I had in an old spice bottle. The glitter was from some painted ceramic kits I had bought years ago. I had never used it, and had put it into the bottle for later use.

The plastic knife gave me a bit of a corrugated cardboard type look because of the serrated edges of the knife, but it wasn't too bad. The designs are much sharper in person than in the photos because it has been freezing, snowy and dark here, so I can't get a good photo. I was very pleased about how fine the detail came out, except for a few of the little flowers in the top of the iris one, where I managed to smudge it a bit. There really is a lot more fine detail in person.

Anyway, since I did them last night, they are now dry, and now I get to make cards with them!

Thanksgiving Blessings Card

Last September I made a card from an old JustRite stamp set I had. When one of my best customers saw it, she commissioned me to make two more cards with the other two stamps in the set. This is the second one.

The CS is a generic ivory, and metallic copper and green CS. The DP is some very old Anna Griffin CS.

The sentiment and frames were stamped with VersaMark, and embossed with gold EP, then cut with the matching JustRite dies by Spellbinders. I don't remember what color I used for the shading. All layers were outlined in gold, and some were mounted dimensionally. Green pearls were added as accents.

Special Friend and Lace Card

I'm still busy, but thank you to all my friends who visited and left comments. I'll be back to see you by next month.

I had this really pretty pink Mulberry paper from PSX, still sealed in it's plastic bag from years ago, and decided I wanted to use it on a card. I knew I wanted the card to be 5x7, so I ran a sheet of 4.5 x 6.5 white CS through the Xyron and applied the mulberry paper to that. The matte is white CS colored with Gold ink from a stamp pad, and both were mounted onto a white 5x7 card, and everything was outlined by running the edges over the stamp pad.

My favorite lace was applied before I mounted the paper onto the card, and I chose a very old Anna Griffin label from my stash for the sentiment. The label already had the bow, and I think the pink backing was also attached. (I made the card two months ago, so it's hard to remember). The label layers were also outlined in gold. The foliage was punched with either my McGill punch, or the Martha Stewart branch punch, and the roses are also from my stash.

Last, I added gold half pearls and pink rhinestones.

Flowery Happy Birthday

Today I decided to use one of my old Anna Griffin background stamps and color it with my Copics. The design was stamped with VersaMark, and embossed with gold EP. I stamped onto Core'dinations pearl CS so the Copics would shimmer. The sentiment is from JustRite, and was cut with Spellbinders.

The card was matted with Green CS and a pearlescent pink CS, then I edged each layer with a gold Gellyroll pen. The sentiment was also accented with the gold pen and mounted dimensionally onto the card.

Now I need two refills for my Copics. I ran out of R81, and YG63, which are two colors I use all the time. I almost didn't get the whole stamping colored. I guess it's time to get the refills and a few new colors!

Blue Butterfly Card

A few months ago, I made a pink butterfly card using some paper I had stamped and embossed in gold using an old Anna Griffin background stamp I had. I really liked that card, and decided to make a blue one just like it.

The blue paper for the card was made by taking some white moire paper I bought a few years ago at an art supply store, and painting over it with some watercolors I made from two shades of PearlEx. I ran out of sheets of Gold Mirror card, and only have scraps left. The mirror card is really hard to find, and the new owners of the craft store where I bought it are terrible about ordering, so I used some gold gift wrap I bought years ago at a paper mill outlet store for the matting. The butterflies were cut from my scraps of mirror card using Cheery Lynn Exotic Butterflies, then I used those Angel wing things to cut some blue paper for behind the wings. I still hate those angel wing things, and wish they were whole dies instead of half dies though. Usually I have to run them twice through the Grand Calibur to get a whole butterfly. This time, I used lighter weight paper, and folded them, but the bodies came out thinner than the bodies on the filigree butterflies and didn't quite fit. Anyway, after gluing the butterfly layers together, I used a sparkly Gelyroll pen to color the blue in the wings a little bit deeper shade of blue than the background.

The label is from Spellbinders, and is cut and embossed from more scraps of mirror card, then I gold embossed a JustRite stamp on blue paper for the sentiment. This was stamped with VersaMark, and the whole label was mounted dimensionally.

I'm really sorry I haven't been around to visit much lately, it's still pretty busy here.

Roses and Butterflies Twisted Easel Card

I have been working on those commissioned altered cigar boxes, so I don't have a new card to share. Instead I'm uploading one of my very early cards. I think it was only the second twisted easel card I ever made.

As I was looking through my old card photos for something to post I ran across this one, and even though it's different from the cards I make now, it actually was quite pretty in real life. I put it into my shop at the time, and someone bought it the first day. I think if I was making this card now, I would probably add more embellishments, but in those days, I didn't have much to work with.

I have no ides where the rose graphic came from, it might have been from Dover Publications. I do know that it is matted with gold mirror card and mounted onto some Anna Griffin paper in my stash.

Warm Wishes and Roses Embossed Card

We unloaded the U-Haul, set some furniture up, took the truck back, got groceries, and are finally home again. I can't wait until I can get back to card Making!

Here is another card I made a while back but never uploaded. It was a bit of work, and I was really disappointed with it when I got it done, although it looks better in person than in the photo.

I used a Darice EF with Brilliance Sky blue, and used the letterpress technique to emboss the background. It looked quite pretty, so I matted it with white CS shaded around the edge with the same blue, and mounted it all onto a white card.

I wanted everything on the card to be embossed, but knew I needed something fairly simple because the background was so busy. Then I found this old Sizzix EF in a notebook. It is really meant for Christmas, but since there is no holly or anything on it, I decided it would work for any occasion, so I used the same technique for that, cut around the frame, and mounted it onto a Lacy rectangle from Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles. It was mounted dimensionally onto the background.

I had a terrible time finding anything I liked with it, and embossed a ton of things I ended up not using. The lesser of the evils was this rose I embossed on a light table using an Anna Griffin Stencil. The stencil is actually a large rectangle, with more roses on the top, but all I wanted was the rose with some kind of a frame. I finally decided to use parts from the big frame on the same stencil, and make them fit the rose. I shaded around the rose and frame with the same blue ink and various shading tools, trying to leave the raised parts white, but it came out messy looking because I couldn't get the ink smooth enough.

Since I had already done so many things I didn't like for the card, and had run out of ideas, I stuck this one on dimensionally and added some Liquid Pearls and called it good. I just wished it had looked as pretty as I had pictured it looking.

White on White Stencils and Impressabilities Card

I wanted to play with my Anna Griffin stencils again today. I keep them in binders, along with a couple of Spellbinders Impressabilities I have, and decided to make the background with one of those.

I've only used one of the Impressabilities once. It was before the Grand Calibur came out, and I used it in my Big Kick. Unfortunately, it warped all out of shape when I tried to emboss with it. I tried this one in the Grand Calibur, and it worked well. Rather than using the letterpress technique, I stenciled Brilliance Platinum Planet on it to make it shimmer. (In case you haven't figured it out yet, I really like shimmery cards)! :-)

For the top medallion, I ran the stencil through the Grand Calibur and then stenciled it with the same ink.

The label at the bottom was made from two different stencils. This one was done on the light table. I used the sentiment from one stencil, and used another to make the bottom part of the border, then flipped it and did the top half. (It was a large border, so I only used parts of it).

All the embossed pieces were mounted onto Core'dinations Pearl CS, then mounted dimensionally onto the card. The accents are Liquid Pearls.

White on White Bouquet Stencil Card

I have quite a few brass stencils which I hardly ever use any more. I decided to use this very old Anna Griffin one to make a card.

I have made cards with this before by embossing on a light table, and it took forever to emboss all those tiny flowers, not to mention how much my hands ached, so this time I ran it through the Grand Calibur by layering the raspberry plate, the embossing pad, the CS, the stencil, and the white plate. The embossing isn't nearly as deep doing it this way, but this stencil has so much detail that I will use it much more often this way.

The other embossed layer was done with a Spellbinders M-Bossibility. Both embossed layers were done on plain white CS, because I knew I wanted to use my PearlEx Micro Pearl watercolor I made to add shine. The shine doesn't show up as much on pearl paper. Next, I used a Ranger Nib to highlight the embossed areas. The painted seeped a little under the stencil when doing the tiny flowers, even though I tried to keep it quite dry, but it isn't all that obvious in person.

Both embossed layers were mounted onto Core'dinations Pearl CS. The bottom layers were mounted dimensionally onto a pearl card, and the top layers were mounted dimensionally onto the bottom layers. The card was accented with a sheer white bow and Liquid Pearls.

Gold and Pearl Bouquet

When I made my last gold and pearl card, the pearl flowers looked like mother of pearl, and it was really pretty, so I decided to try another card with gold and pearl flowers. I did these on a pale gold Core'dinations Pearl CS. The flowers don't look quite as much like pearl on this paper as they did the last time. It might be the light, it's really dark today. I don't have window sills, so I propped a plastic container up on the back of the couch and faced the card as much as I could toward the window, but it doesn't really show the shine.

The bouquet was stamped with an Anna Griffin stamp using VersaMark and gold EP, then painted with my Micro Pearl PearlEx paint. The layer behind is White Core'dinations Pearl which I also painted with the PearlEx to give it even more shimmer. Both of these layers were outined with a gold pen, and the flower was mounted dimensionally.

They were matted with more of the pale gold, some gold mirror card, and mounted onto a white pearl card.

I added some half pearls and a small gold bow as accents.

Shimmery Roses Card

I took two photos of this one, the first shows the design better, the second shows how shimmery it is.

I felt like trying a different way to shade flowers, so I chose this very old stamp from Stampendous because it had large flowers and leaves. It was stamped onto pale gold Core'dinations Pearl CS with VersaMark, and embossed in white.

What I decided to try was shading with only ink, blending it out to almost the color of the card stock, without using any other color or shade.

The roses were colored with Brilliance Rocket Red Gold, and the the leaves with Memento Bamboo Leaves. The tiny flowers were done with Brilliance Pearlescent Lavender. All the ink was applied with Ranger Nibs. After shading the roses and leaves, I used Delicata Golden Glitz, and used the nibs to shade the background.

All the paper is the same Core'dinations Pearl, and gold mirror card. The sentiment is an Anna Griffin tag that came with some card kits, and is mounted dimensionally. I added a bow and some pearls to embellish the card.

Has anyone else had problems trying to log into SCS? My computer crashed this morning, and when I restarted it, I was logged out of everything. Whenever I hit the log in button, the password disappears and I get sent to the wrong password page. I tried clearing the cache and cookies, and still couldn't log in. Then I reset my password, but I still can't get in. I can't ask on there, because if I can't log in, I can't post! As of now, I can't even view all my items in my gallery, because SCS thinks I'm a stranger, and none of the cards they moved into other albums show up. I can only see the stuff they let me leave in my members gallery. It's awful to be a stranger there! In case anyone else is having the same problem, I'm using Firefox, which has always worked well. I suppose I will have to try using Chrome, but I really don't like the Chrome Browser.

Okay, Chrome works. I can use it to log in to SCS, so apparently the latest version of Firefox has a bug. I sure hope they fix it!

My Heart is with You Card

I took two photos of this card, one shows the dimension better, the other shows the stamp better.

This one was made with another of my digital stamps. It's another card where I couldn't quite get it right though. I used Spellbinders Labels Eight, and Decorative Labels Eight. I fussy cut the stamp and laid it on the die cuts, but didn't like it, so I shaded the pink with VersaMagic Perfect Plumaria, and went around it with my PenTouch pen. Then the white lacy parts looked too white, so I shaded them a bit with Brilliance pink. It looked better, so I mounted everything onto a card.

Next, I added Liquid Pearls. It looked too flat, so I added Glossy Accents to only the flowers in the stamp to give them dimension. (It doesn't show in the photo, but it does look quite nice in person).

The card still needed something, so I grabbed an old Anna Griffin label from my stash. (We're going off the island in a few minutes, so I had to find something fast). The label had gold lettering and a gold border, but it didn't quite match the card because they weren't metallic like the golds on the cards, so I went around the border with my pen, and it matched better. Next, I lifted up a few parts of the stamp and mounted the label under those. The label is only attached under the stamp, and is loose at the other end, so it's raised a bit by the Liquid Pearls under it, and can be lifted up on that end. It looks better that way, the card isn't as flat as it was.

I'm not perfectly happy with it, but it's okay.

Anna Griffin Flowered Birthday Card

I bought a couple of Anna Griffin card kits a few years ago, but had only made one card from them so far. I always feel like I'm cheating when I use a kit, but it's also wasteful not to use them, so I thought I would make a second card.

For this card, I took a card blank and one of the smaller panels included in the kit and outlined both of them with a gold pen. Next, I applied some lace from my stash to the smaller panel and mounted it dimensionally onto the card. I took one of the sentiment panels and mounted that onto gold mirror card and mounted that dimensionally onto the flowered panel. Last, I added dimensional flowers, a butterfly, a bow, and some Liquid Pearls.

It was quick and easy, but it made a pretty card, and mounting everything dimensionally gave it a lot of depth.

Cherry Blossoms Card

Lately I seem to be making a lot of cards I'm not crazy about. The one I did today I really don't like, so I'm uploading the one I did on Saturday that I wasn't happy with. The worst part about cards you aren't happy with is that it seems like they take the longest because you spend so much time trying to figure out what you can use on them to make them better.

Anyway, I was looking through my paper stash the other day, trying to use up some older papers when I came across this one. It is one corner of a 12x12 sheet from pad I bought at Walmart a few years ago. It was kind of pretty and reminded me of spring. I cut the paper out with Spellbinders Grand Labels One, and cut a card and a front to fit using the same set. Next I shaded the card front with Brilliance pink. It started to go wrong after that. First I outlined with a gold Gelyrol pen, which worked well. Then I tried to make one of my new metallic pens work, and it got messy.

Then I had to figure out how I wanted to decorate it. Even though I spent hours trying lots of things, I wasn't happy with any of them. I ended up using a very old Anna Griffin stamp from my stash. It was stamped with Brilliance Pink and embossed with clear EP and a few highlights were added with Copics to make it match the background more. The stamp was cut and embossed with Spellbinders Labels One, and matted with Spellbinders Decorative Labels One.

I tried ribbon, bows, and lots of different flowers, but the best I came up with were a couple of these Prima ones, and some Liquid Pearls for accents.

PSX Floral and Filigree Card

This morning I designed a card around some paper I've had forever, but I wasn't happy with the card. Since I won't have time to make anything tomorrow, I will probably upload that one tomorrow anyway.

While I was looking for a stamp I liked for that card, I came across a very old Floral set from PSX. I've always liked the set, but the stamps are very small, and I haven't used them in years. I kept the set out, and decided to use it to make another card after I finished the one I wasn't having much luck with. This is the card I made with it.

I cut a bunch of white CS using Spellbinders Decorative Labels Eight . The card itself is also cut with this die set by folding the card in half and cutting it so the fold was inside the filigree on the folded side, then I layered a single die cut sheet over that for the front of the card so it would have filigree all around it.

The DP is some very old Anna Griffin CS from my stash, and is cut with Spellbinders Labels Eight. I used a gold pen to outline the die cuts.

The DP was mounted flat onto the filigree layers, then each layer was mounted dimensionally on top of the one below it.

The design was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black, then colored with Copics. I wanted the design to look more like an embellishment, so after coloring it, I ran VersaMark over it and used clear EP over the whole thing. I really wanted to use UTEE, but no matter how many times I've tried that, I've never gotten a finish I was happy with. I think I need to try the UTEE in a toaster oven. Anyway, I like the one coat of clear EP because it is shiny but has a little bit of texture to it.

The design is mounted dimensionally on top, and Liquid Pearls were added to the filigree.

Pink Butterflies Card

A few months ago, I was using an old Anna Griffin background stamp to make embossed gold backgrounds. Today I decided to use this one to make a card.

I matted the embossed piece with gold mirror card and mounted it onto some interesting moire paper I bought a few years ago at an art supply store. The background paper was run through my Xyron and mounted onto white CS first, then matted with more of the gold card and it was all mounted onto a 5x7 card.

The butterflies are Cheery Lynn. The filigree part was cut from gold mirror card, and the other part was cut from Core'dinations pearl. As usual, when using heavy paper like this, you have to use the die on one side of the paper, then carefully line it up on the back side to cut the other side, since Cheery Lynn only makes the background cutting dies as half a die for some strange reason. (It's a big pet peeve of mine, so I always mention it in the hopes that they will make whole dies instead). I love using this very heavy Core'dinations paper, and I love Cheery Lynn Dies, but it is too heavy to work with what they call their Angel Wings. After cutting all the butterfly pieces, I glued them together and colored them with Gelyroll pens.

The Happy Birthday is from JustRite, and was cut with a Spellbinders tag die and embossed with gold EP. The pearls are Liquid Pearls.

This card couldn't be any pinker, so as usual, when I make a pink card, I'm reminded of my loyal internet friend Jill!

Embossed Shell Card

I seem to be in a less is more mood this week, because here is another less is more card. I started with this Anna Griffin brass stencil, and embossed it onto off white paper on my light table. Then I decided it might be pretty to do the borders with a gold metallic pen. After I did that, the shells disappeared, so I decided to do the little solid parts of the spiral shell, and the two solid parts of the top shell. That made the rest of the shells disappear! That is when I decided just to outline the rest. I didn't want to do the whole thing with a solid color because the border is so light. Anyway, I like how it came out.

Next, I matted the embossed and stenciled layer with gold mirror card, a wide border of some Anna Griffin paper and another layer of mirror card, then mounted it onto an off white card. Last, I added gold outline stickers and Liquid Pearls.

Blue Hydrangea Card

I finally got around to making a triple time card. It's one of those cards I've been wanting to do for a long time, but never did until today. I had this beautiful background stamp from Anna Griffin, and was thinking it was 4"x5", but I should have measured it. It is a bit less than that. It also didn't stamp very darkly on the bottom layer. The layers looked pretty anyway, so I made the card. The stamping was done with VersaMagic Aegean Blue, and the matting was white CS, shaded with the same ink and a sponge dauber so it would match exactly.

The sentiment is from one of my JustRite sets, and cut with two sizes of Spellbinders ovals. Both layers were shaded with the same ink, and all layers of the card and sentiment panel were mounted dimensionally. The hydrangeas are Prima, and are actually the same shade as the ink, but they look brighter in the photograph.

The white card under the layers was covered with a pearlized blue linen textured CS from my stash. I made this a little wider than the matting around the layers because I wanted the card to be at least 5x6. (Most of my rectangular cars are 5x7).