#980 – New Year Wishes

Hello and welcome! As is tradition, I made New Year’s cards for my family this time as well. I wanted to make an interactive/shadow box kinda card for quite some time now, and thought this would be an opportune time for it. The technique is better described by Jennifer McGuire in this video, where I learned it from.

Anyhow, these are the cards I made –

I used a combination of stamps from different companies which worked well together. I shall list them below as well. However, the sentiment on the top of the cards are all the same, from Winnie & Walter Wishing You stamp set. I used Faber Castell Oil pastels to color all the images, and mineral oil to blend them.

For this card, I used My Favorite Things Scene Builder except for the little butterfly, which I hand drew. I used Concord & 9th Retro Petals Turnabout stencils for the background. I added the dots and lines using a grey fineliner pen and Sakura clear glitter pen.

For the inside, I used My Favorite Things Piggy Pebbles, My Favorite Things Scene Builder and Purple Onion Designs Blossoming Perch stamps.

For my second card, I used Purple Onion Designs Blooms 2, the butterfly from Waffle Flower Happy Day and the background Simon Says Stamp Botanical Split. I went over the flowers with a red pencil from Faber Castell Polychromos pencils, then highlighted some areas with a grey fineliner pen, then the flower centers with the glitter pen.

Within the card, I used My Favorite Things Friendly Foxes, Purple Onion Designs Blooms 2 and Birch Tree Background, butterflies from Waffle Flower Happy Day.

For the last card, I used stamps from My Favorite Things Gill Friends and Waffle Flower Mermaid Mail stamps, pairing it with bubbles from Simon Says Stamp Be a Mermaid. I had to add another stamp for the bubbles since they weren’t big enough, and then I drew over them with the fineliner along with the reflected light and the little fishes.

For the inside, I paired the stamps from My Favorite Things Gill Friends and Waffle Flower Mermaid Mail stamps. For the giant sea weeds and those waves in the background, I didn’t have any stamps, so I hand drew them.

I must say, the finishing isn’t the best in all these cards, I had a hard time getting the right measurements for the supports, and then adhering them properly so that they stood up when the card was opened. It definitely wasn’t a total failure, but I felt I could do better with practice. I kept the coloring at relatively low levels, so I could concentrate on the rest of the card, so I wouldn’t feel exhausted, and I must say that was a good decision I made! 😀

But I am really happy to have tried them. They came out well and I have a good idea on how to make further cards if I want to.

I’m joining the following challenges with my cards –

Wishing every one a wonderful new year! Hope this year brings in plenty of new and happy for everyone!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#964 – Happy ‘Sketchy’ New Year!!

Hello and welcome!! Its pretty late in the year for New Year cards, but after forgetting to publish them in the beginning of the year, any time is just fine, I guess! 😉

I was very inspired by these set of cards that were made by Norine Borys. Love how she added her own ‘sketchy’ charm into simple stamped images. I mean, they would look so beautiful by themselves, but by adding the sketching, she added a beautiful charm of her own to them!

I tried applying my sketching skills with the Altenew Watercolor Wonders stamp set. I first stamped the images on the cardstock using distress inks. Of course, I misted the inked stamps before stamping them, so that the colors spread and mixed a bit. These looks absolutely wonderful by themselves, of course. I had half a heart of leaving them alone, afraid of ruining it, but I went ahead with it.

When I was done, I realized that the final result was making me less than happy. They weren’t look great at all! I stared and stared trying to understand why – what was different between what Noris had done and what I had done… and no, I was not thinking about my sketching skills being the problem.. Then I realized it. I had white space between my stamping! I then picked up my brush, and watercolored some green leaves between all the white space, and voila! It started looking a whole lot better! 🙂

Finally happy with the results, I proceeded to add some splatters once everything was dry, and then the frame, and finally the sentiment. That came from Paper Smooches Alphadot stamp set. I stamped the letters skewed, but mostly together. I felt it went with the ‘sketchy’ look of the flowers well. 🙂

And that’s my 2 cards done! I’m joining the following challenges with these cards –

Watercolor Wednesday challenge #323: Cathy’s Challenge: All Things Feminine

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Stamploration Summer challenge: Anything Goes

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#849 – Another New Year card!

Hello and welcome! Here’s another new year card. I made this one to send to a dear blogging friend of mine. Hope she liked it! 🙂

I was totally inspired by this card made by Jennifer McGuire (the last card in the series). I don’t have any such die, but I wanted to achieve a similar effect. So instead of a single die cut, I used many!! 😉

Of course, as you can see, I made the card a more-or-less tone-on-tone, rather than colorful, as I first intended to. I kinda liked this look! 🙂

I first started with a card panel – 6″x4″. I used MFT Flutter of Butterflies and die cut a few of the butterflies from the panel. I then used the flower and leaf dies from Paper Smooches Flowers and Flowers 2 dies, and die cut from the gaps in between the butterflies. I also added a few dotted swirly lines using Paper Smooches Stitched Flourishes 2 die. I retained all the die cut pieces, to use them later in my card.

I first adhered the die cut panel on a cream colored cardstock. I then started adhering the die cut pieces, layering a few and finally embellishing a the butterflies and flowers with cream half pearls.

Finally coming to the sentiment. After finishing the card base, I had no idea how to proceed. I finally settled on using the happy die from Mama Elephant along with a strip of stamped sentiment from Reverse Confetti Whole Lotta Happy. I first die cut three pieces of the die and stacked them. I added some liquid glue behind both the die and strip and just laid them on the card – no pressure, so that they would appear floating on top of the butterflies.

And that finished the card! With this card, I am joining the following challenges –

Just us Girls challenge #514 – Trends Week: Create Dimension

Global Design Project #223: Celebration

Happy Little Stampers January Anything Goes with Dies challenge

Just Add Ink challenge #488: Celebrate! A BIG congrats on completing 10 years of the challenge! Wow! What an achievement!!

Thanks for stopping by!

#847 – Happy New Year!

PE: Honorable mention at Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies challenge!

Hello! I am already almost half a month away, but I think I can have the whole of January to wish someone a Happy New Year, so there! 😀

These are the cards I made for the family this year.

As I do for every year, this time too, I have common theme and design. This year, I planned to

• Use colored cardstock as my card base
• Use layered flower stamps as the focal
• Use dies for the background
• Have some kind of a different fold than the usual.

For these cards, I made the card open in between. The bottom half is tucked in between the foil strip and the colored card base. So, one has to kinda pull the bottom half of the card towards themselves to open the card.

For the first card, I used navy blue cardstock, added pieces die cut from Simon Says Stamp Clustered Flowers die. On this I added a strip of silver mirror card stock. I then adhered all the leaves and flowers in layers. The focal flower comes from Hero Arts Flower Layering Hibiscus stamp set, and the other pieces are from other stamp set.

For the second card, I used Spellbinders Doily Circle dies, die cutting cream and yellow cardstocks and alternating them between each circle when adhering. I used a gold mirror cardstock strip on this one, and the focal rose is from Altenew’s Build a Flower: Rose.

For the third card, I used Stamplorations Bloomtangled 1 die with a strip of silver mirror card stock. The flowers are a stamp set  from Right at Home called Sunflower.

For the fourth card, I used Altenew’s Doodled Lace die cut, a strip of gold mirror cardstock and then Altenew’s Layered Lili as the focal point.

On all of these cards, I used the sentiment which is a combination of Lil Inker Designs’ Rustic Spring and Reverse Confetti’s Whole Lotta Happy stamp sets. I used the same on the self made envelops as well. This time I used Fabriano Tinta paper to make the envelopes.

With these cards, I am joining the following challenges –

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge: Something New

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Fun with Florals

Happy Little Stampers: January Anything Goes with Dies challenge

Virginia’s Show and Share for January. Thank you Virginia for hosting it!!

Thank you for stopping by!

#806 – Happy New Year!!

Hello and welcome!! Its going to be the new year in a few more hours, and so… wish everyone a very happy and prosperous new year!! 🙂

Of course, this also calls for some cards! The newest installment of the new year cards – the cards I made for my family this year –

As always, I used the same concept on all of them. This time, though, I had no idea how to start or where to proceed, so I am really glad they came out well! I initially thought of making something interactive or even a shadow box, but all of that went to the dumps. I ended up with just a folded card – with florals…florals always!! 😉 I used white and ivory cardstocks for two cards each. Most of the floral images come from Altenew. The ‘happy’ die cut is from Mama Elephant cut out from cardstock with gold foil and the rest of the stamped sentiment is from the same company’s Calli Letters.

Of course, the envelopes also need to be handmade! I used the same design as the background I had used on the cards. I swapped the die cut to a colorful one, using the rest of the sentiment as is.

On the first card, I used a combination of Altenew’s Garden Treasure and Peony Bouquet stamps. The background pattern is using Lil Inker Design’s Really Rosemaling.

On the second card, I used, once again, Altenew’s Garden Treasure and Peony Bouquet with leaves from Beautiful Day. The background is a stencil from The Crafters Workshop, called Mini Solace.

On the third one, I used Altenew Build a Flower: Rose and Vintage Flowers. The background is Waffle Flowers Layered Marble.

And on this last one, I used Altenew Bride-to-be and Winnie & Walter In Bloom: Victorias Very Merry Flowers. The background uses the stencil from The Crafters Workshop called Mini Garden Gate, which I used twice for two colors, overlaying for the second color to get that illusion like effect.

And here’s how the card opens up..and where I’ve written out the message.

With these cards I am joining the following challenges –

Timeout challenge #125: Inspired by words

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday challenge: Try Something New (the Z-fold cards are new to me)

I hope you liked the cards as much as my family did (yes, I’ve already given it to them, as they will be going on a trip tonight)! If you would like to checkout what I had created for the last few years, check them out here – 2018, 2017 and 2016.

Thank you so much for stopping by!! 🙂