Friday, April 24, 2015

Thank You Window Card using Art Impressions "Purrr-thday" stamp set

Hello Crafty Friends,

Earlier this week I finally finished that window card I mentioned in my previous post. Personally, I totally love how it turned out. I got to use my cricut cartridges since I don't have a whole lot of dies. Most of the dies I have are the basic shapes but I really like looking for ways to put my Cricut to use.

So, the card ended up being a tri-fold because that was the best way I found for the window card to work since it was a kind of "Thanks from all of us" and I needed room for everyone to be able to sign.

I never seem to be able to use just one stamp set and this card was no exception. The focal image of the back and front cats is from AI and the inside sentiment "You're the Best" is actually spliced together from several stamp sets because I don't have a stamp with that exact sentiment.....errrr....well, I found one after the fact but it wasn't the right style or size anyways. lol. The greeting in the front was created with an alphabet stamp and cut set by Hero Arts, which I just purchased. The inside of the window has a greeting from yet another stamp set (which I can't recall at the moment). I also can't recall at the moment where the pattern paper came from. Hmmmm....

So, enough chit-chat about memory loss....here's the card.


You can see that there's not a lot of room to write because of the window and the pattern paper. I suppose I could've omitted the pattern paper or used a lighter print, but I really didn't want the recipient to be able to see the message(s) through the window. The solution to that dilemma was to make a tri-fold. I didn't take pics of the card completely opened but the floral panel opens up to reveal blank pages ideal for signatures and personalized messages to the recipient. To create this fold I basically made another card base and simply glued them together.




The yellow paper was more of a happy accident to cover up a bad stamp job. I don't use yellow much but I think it totally works in this case. You can see the floral paper through the window. Love it!



And here's a close up of the inside...


There's some acetate in between the window frames. I actually cut out the center piece from the bottom of the window; originally it was a 4 pane window but you couldn't see all of the cats' faces so I cut out that center piece and it looks neat-O.


The banner was created using that same Hero Arts stamp and cut set I used to create the greeting in the front. This stamp set actually comes with a couple of dies; a fishtail banner and a flag banner. I scored it at Joann's for less than $10. Yay!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed the card. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below.

Have a blessed & crafty day.

Hugs,
Bettina :)

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Thank you card sneak peek

Hi again,

Just thought I'd give you a little sneaky peek at a Thank You card I'm working on. This stamp set is super fun; it's from Art Impressions and it's called Purrrthday. I purchased mine here from Simon Says Stamp a while back.


I colored the image following a tutorial by Kristina Werner but I substituted her Copics with my Spectrum Noirs.

I haven't decided yet if I'll be making a shaker card but it will have a window; that's all I know. As soon as it's finished I'll be sure to post pictures. It's almost nearly done.

Thanks for stopping by. Hoping you're enjoying some nice spring weather.

Have a blessed and crafty day.

Hugs,
Bettina :)

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Happy Easter and Happy Spring

Hello there,

Hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Easter and a restful Spring break.

I had the chance to make a few cards over the past couple of weeks. Here they are. The top card is an Easter card and a Mother's Day card. I had actually made a second Easter card like the one shown only with floral background paper but I already sent it out to my daughter.

Mother's Day and Easter card

Penguin birthday card


The penguin card is for my youngest daughter's birthday which is coming up soon (sigh)

The Mother's Day card was inspired by this beautiful card made by Debbie Hughes. I actually used my Cricut Country Life cartridge for the vase and a SSS stamp set that came with the May 2014 card kit. The roses and leaves are cut from vellum and the swirls are white embossed in the front but colored with pigment inks in the back. Then I arranged the elements in three different layers; either flat, or one to two thicknesses of foam tape.


The Easter card is just a 3.5"x3.5" square card. I colored a stamp with Spectrum Noir colored pencils and used Gamsol to blend out the colors. For the background I used some Tim Holtz Salty Ocean (I think) distress ink. Then it's just centered on a scalloped circle die cut and a simple bow for embellishment. Kept it fairly simple. :)


Finally, the birthday card was inspired by this card, which I found on Pinterest. To create the background I applied some white pigment ink onto purple cardstock using a stencil I had. Then I used my Cricut Create a Critter cartridge to cut out some balloons, but I also used an egg die to cut out oval shaped balloons. I didn't like how "flat" the balloons looked so I distressed the edges of each with similar colored distress inks. I created the penguin entirely with the oval egg die which I cut from black and white cardstock and then used my version of punch art but used the die instead. The feet are upside down hearts punched from yellow cardstock. For some fun I gave him googly eyes and a fun hat. I think she'll like the card; I enjoyed making it.



So, those are my card shares for today. Thanks ever so much for stopping by.

Hope to be back soon.

Have a blessed & crafty day!

Hugs,
Bettina :)