Friday, October 28, 2016

Pawprint on My Heart card

Hello,

I almost nearly forgot to share this little cutie project. This is for yet another MFT card challenge, MFTWSC303. I barely finished it on Wednesday after their next sketch had already gone up.....in other words....I was late. lol.

The reason I've been joining these challenges is two-fold. First, I seem to have a lot of MFT stamps & dies and Two: this gets me started in cardmaking and I finally use the stamps and dies that I have.

Anyway, so this card came about after some brainstorming with my daughter. I showed her the sketch and asked her what she envisioned. So we went from fish and bubbles to fish tank (I told her I have no fish stamps) to halloween & x-rays....and ended up with this. lol.



I know...it was a logical progression ;)

My favorite part is actually the blended background. I used Tim Holtz distress inks in pinks and reds. The stamp set is the same one I used in the "I Love Mew" card that I posted here.

A lot of heat embossing went into this card. The pawprints on the background, the kitty's outline on the x-ray and the sentiment were all heat embossed. The enamel dots are actually Nuvo Crystal drops that I created separately on my craft mat and then placed on the card once they were set. I originally placed the Nuvo drops directly on the card but didn't like the rough edges once they dried. So I carefully pried them off and used the pre-made ones. Here are some close-ups.




The sentiment is continued on the inside.


So that's this week's project. I've already started work on the new MFT card sketch challenge and I will hopefully finish that one on time. I have a million ideas for this latest sketch but I think I finally settled one. If I have time, I might create the other ideas I have.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and hanging out with me for a bit.

Have a blessed and crafty day.

Hugs,
Bettina :)

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Christmas Gift Tags

Hello fellow crafters,

Just a quick share of my latest crafty project. I made a few tags for Jamie's Scrappin Stampers FB group October challenge using the BB Santa's Elves stamp set by MFT. These playful elves are too cute and were the perfect size for these little tags.


As small and as simple as they may look, they were truly a challenge for me to make. I don't know what my issue was but it took me days to finish these. I used an older Christmas themed 6x6 paper pad I had in my stash and cut the shapes with a Spellbinders die. When it was time to add the ribbon for hanging I tore the paper a bit (the hole was too small for the ribbon I was trying to use) hence the use of a snowflake eyelet on one of the tags. I also switched to some gold thread and baker's twine instead of ribbon. Because the images took up quite a bit of space I couldn't fit the "to" and "from" on the front of all of them so I stamped it on the back.



Coming up with colors and color combos is always hard for me as well. I really like the idea of bright colors and green hats vs red so all of the elves are wearing the same colored hat and shoes. I did want them all to be a little bit different so they all wear different colored shirts and leggings. For the white on their hat and the stocking I added lots of shimmer with the Spectrum Noir glitter brush pen.




So that's my project share for today. I hope it gave you inspiration to start on your own Christmas projects. Thanks for stopping by.

Have a blessed & crafty day.

Hugs,
Bettina :)

Saturday, October 15, 2016

I Love Mew

Hi there,

So, I decided to leave the card alone and not add any more to it. Less is more, right? I'm super happy with how the card turned out and I definitely also learned a few things along the way--mainly what NOT to do when creating a shaker card with micro beads. lol.  Anyway, here's the card and my take on the MFTWSC302 


I used the MFT BB Knead You stamp set...soooo cute. I tried to color the kitty to look like ours; she's a tortoise shell and she's grey and white with tan patches all over. 


I hand doodled the string coming from the ball of yarn and squiggled it a bit to give the string some "yarny" texture. I used the largest of the MFT Stitched Rectangle Scallop Frames and also decided to use the MFT Stitched Interactive Window Trio die for the first time EVER. Once I had the windows cut out and stamped the images that would be under each window flap I decided to make it a shaker card.

I first layed the front panel with the windows onto the card front and traced the squares so I could see where I wanted to stamp the images and sentiments that would go inside the shaker and be concealed by the flaps. I stamped one of the yarn ball images in the first window, one of the mice in the middle, and the I Love Mew sentiment in the last window underneath the kitty. Then I masked off the area around the window and added some Tim Holtz distress inks; Spun Sugar along the bottom portion of each window and Tea Dye across the top.

Next I added some acetate on the back of the front panel to create the windows and then added foam tape and micro beads. I kind of did things backwards and had trouble centering the card panel with the front panel but in the end it all worked out. 


I think this would make a cute Valentines or anniversary card...or a Just Because card.


So, that's my card for today. I really enjoyed creating this card. Hope you like it, too.

Have a blessed and crafty day.

Hugs,
Bettina :)

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Sneak peek

Hi there

I'm working on the next card sketch challenge by MFT and I'm nearly finished. Here's a sneak peek


Just trying to figure out if it needs anything else before I post final pics.

Have a blessed and crafty day.
Hugs
Bettina :)

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Beary Special Surprise Birthday Card for the MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge

Hi there all,

I decided to join in on the MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge. As I'm posting they've already moved on to the next challenge but you can find the sketch for last week's here

Anyway, I had some grandiose idea about what I wanted to do and here's a glimpse of it in the planning stage


It was going to be a tri-fold card. But, alas, time ran out for me and I couldn't quite figure out how to execute my design idea in time, so I ended up with this card:


It ended up being a regular side-fold card with a peek-a-boo window. I used a different image from the same stamp set - it's the Beary Special Birthday stamp set - and I think it turned out sweet. It would be a really cute little boy's birthday card, I think.


I used a SSS stencil for the stars and masked a section to create the lines with Tim Holtz distress inks.
I forgot to write down the colors but I used warm greys to color the bear with Spectrum Noir markers. I was going to also use this card to join the MFT color challenge, but then felt it needed a pop of color and added the red circle frame. Here's the inside:



Well, that's my entry for this week. I'm off to create something for next week's challenge. Hope you have a chance to join in the fun, too.

Have a blessed and crafty day,

Hugs,
Bettina :)




Sunday, October 2, 2016

Show Piggies

Helloooooo world

Thought I'd share a project I finished yesterday and see if I can get back into the swing of writing a few blog posts now and then. My, how I've neglected this blog. But I'm super excited to share this project. I call it a dimensional card but I'm not sure if it's a card? I suppose you could call it a diorama. So, what happened was that I watched this tutorial by Kelly Latevola and decided I wanted to try my hand at free-style coloring some curtains. She used copics while I used spectrum noir markers but I was really very pleased with the results considering it was my first time trying something like that. Getting started was really the most intimidating part.



Well, so then I decided I'd try to shade the scallop edges cause they just looked too white and flat. I realized that shading white things is not my thing. lol. Definitely need more practice with that technique but it wasn't bad enough for me to toss the entire piece.


I'd been itching to use the new stamp set by MFT called "Hog Heaven" which I purchased not too long ago from Jamie in her Not2Shabby shop here. It has the cutest little piggies and one of them has WINGS people!!! Well, I thought a flying piggie would make for a pretty amazing show and add to that some dramatic curtains and VOILA!....


That's what I came up with and it's also my contribution for World Card Making Day. I originally planned on using foam tape to add dimension but it just wasn't enough. I felt like this card and the scene I had in my head needed more dimension and depth and it would require way more foam tape than I was willing to spare. So, I created an accordion style frame that's about 4-5 folds deep (7 score marks spaced at 1/4"). Had I watched this tutorial, or something like it, I probably would have struggled less and it would look slightly less wonky, but overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. You can't tell, but the flying piggy is actually suspended by a thin thread so he dangles to and fro. lol. He spins so I really need to add a mirror image but I didn't have time.


Used the cloud die from the ME Landscape Trio die set and MFT's grassy hills die. Also, used a Tim Holtz stencil for the sun rays and had some wood grain patterned papers that I used for the stage floor and for the fence (I simply stamped the fence image onto the paper and fussy cut it out). I also fussy cut the piggies...and the curtains...you probably already figured that out. lol



Anyway, cute, right?!

Until next time. Have a blessed & crafty day!

Bettina :)