Two More Cards

The Day 184 challenge for 365 cards is – White Space

Today’s sketch:

 

And my take on it – very offbeat and I just have a hard time following all the rules now, don’t I?  May I take artistic licence with this one?

 

 

I saw this beautiful border in the Silhouette bin and had to have.  My sister Nina gave me some of the gorgeouls suede paper in deep red so I set it to a cool blue background which makes is pop pretty good.  I have to admit at one point this card was ‘un-showable’ but I did some serious scrunging to the edges with ink, added the sentiment and gems and its just crazy enough for some dear little old lady to fall in love with it.  I can hear it now “Oh DARLIN’ – I used to have a paisley shirt just like it!”  I’m not poking fun at every little old lady but hay.  Me and my sister Nina have talked about all the liberties we will be able to get away with when we get to be seniors.  Got to be some big rewards we figure.

This next card is one I’m glad I made.  I’m not talking just because it turned out so nice and I actually like it.  I’m saying this because it caused me to use my own cutting files I’d given out yesterday and oh boy, the .studio files I had were just terrible!  Haha, so I cut out my acorn and oak leaf and resaved the files and then quickly re packaged, re zipped and re uploaded.  See, you did not even notice. 

 

 

I am sorry I cannot tell you the manufacture of the designer paper.  The acorn and leaf are all mine, of course.  The sentiment a Fiskars.

 

 

I used my Glossy Accents on the nut and it’s shell – and textured them a bit with a seam ripper (which I use for EVERYTHING) while the gloss was still wet. 

Honestly, I’d ♥ to see how you use my cutting files/elements.  If you send me a jpg I’d post you up here and puff up with pride!

Day 183 card for 365 and, as promised, a FREEBIE for YOU!

 

Today’s challenge # 183 at 365…

Imagine this: WRINKLED!   “I want you to use the word "wrinkled" to inspire your card.” 

So, here is my take on a wrinkle-ish card. 

 

My ‘wrinkle’ is in the ribbon!

 

This rose and shrinkly wrinkly ribbon is a technique i stumbled upon while carding.  Ok, I was waving around with my heat embossing gun and managed to fry some nylon sheer ribbon and I thought, “well THAT’S interesting!” and so I decided to make it work for me.  I intentionally ran the embossing gun over the ribbon (anchor both ends – one you can hold but with the other tuck the roll under something, like your knee or a weight)  Wave the embossing gun to and fro sideways over your ribbon.  How close you hold the gun and how much you wave will influence your wrinkliness. 

*note – I used TWO layers of sheer for the ribbons, it was not bold enough with just one.

For the rose I used a needle and thread, wound the ribbon around in a loose blossom shape, then gave a little blast with the embossing tool.  Add a gem and its gorgeous.  I cut two tiny leaves out of a green sheer and blasted that for good measure too.  It gave the leaves some dimension. 

For the card itself, I cut the ‘O’s’ ribbon out using my silhouette SD. The tiny “with love” stamp is a Fiskars. 

And as promised, a fall themed freebie in honour of all my new buddies over at the Silhouette Plus forum and also the group over at the 365 Card a Day Blog - I’m truly loving all you guys, you’re super enthusiastic and I hope to get to know and grow with y’all!  Let me know if you have specific requests.  I’ve made my files in all sorts of formats – no matter what machine you have, or if you are a digi-scrapper there should be one that fits you! 

Just click on the preview below and you will be taken to the download site.  All the files are together in a zipped file.  Please tell your friends to come HERE to get this for themselves. 

 

3 More Cards–Freebie delayed one day please :|

 

Ok, this is going to be a fast thrown together post or I will never get it done.  I apologise for no freebie as promised today – but tomorrow if all goes well.   Without further delay.

First, Mojo Monday # 206

 

I’m terrible, I chose… rectangle, does it count?  I had the dickens with my cards today – all fumble fingers and such:

 

I think I re-worked this one about 4 times.  I had stamped and embossed the sentiment in gold but it looked cheap.  So many adjustments, so much indecision.  I was ready to slap myself and say “GO already!”  Sheesh. 

 

I do like these simple and sweet little flowers – I made one in an earlier post – the triangle fold but with this one I squashed them over to one side.  I added the little bit of crochet thread for the delicate bow.  I want to share a bit of advice I learned from my tatting days (which are still going on but very sporadic)  My hint is that when you tie something tiny like this to dab both the ends of the thread and the little knot with a product called Fray Check – I think I bought mine at Wal Mart.  Seals the thread nicely and invisibly.

 

365 Day 181 – Super Sketchy Sunday

 

 

Yes, once again I am a deviant.  Well I have some hints of the sketch I am sure.  The artist in me just takes over, sorry.

 

I’ve been meaning to give my friend this beautiful photo of her I took way back in June and today I thought I’d incorporate it into the sketch.

 

My take on the second piece of paper is to use this piece of onion skin type paper and paint and pencil on a “faux drop shadow” – I think I will for sure use this idea again.

A little mini glue dot colored with my versamark inkpad and a strand of jewelery wire make the photo hang nicely.  Oh yes, the frame was a free file from sxc.hu which I altered.  Printed to photo paper and cut out.

 

I tried to  find this exact word in my stamps collection – not sure if I have a “beautiful” in it and then I had the brilliant idea to look in my magazine collection – there are hundreds of ads in them screaming “beauty this and beauty that”  and there you have it in a nice font even.  Just snip snip and its mine!

 

365 – Day 182

Instructions were to include 5 buttons and 5 bows. 

I hope nobody’s going to shoot me, I only managed two bows and 4 buttons.

 

I just could not see how I could jam it up any more than it already is.

 

I used pretty pink little buttons (I only had 4 of them in the entire jar) and then topped them with pink gems.

 

But here is what was fun and is a COOL idea I had while having my coffee with 2 squares of chocolate for breakfast today. 

I discovered it quite by accident on another card and it hit me this a.m. … If you take sheer nylon ribbon and blow at it before you stick the ribbon on the card (you will have to experiment, a little tricky) with your heat embossing gun you can make it go all ‘shrively and pretty’!!!  Oh I have so many ideas I want to try with this.

 

Ok, and I just have to blog these last two snaps:

Last night our friend Italia and John had us over.  There were 8 of us people (including them) and there were seven GIANT pizzas!

 

Cooked on the bbq with bricks under they were FABULOUS.

 

And that’s Italia with an uninvited guest in the foreground. 

Two More Cool Cards and a FREEBIE for YOU!

 

Well what are Saturday’s for anyway, and my sister was up for making a couple more cards so….

I’ll start with a simple one that my sister Nina egged me to try – well, she’s a “Glamette” – well, best you let HER explain that to you, but basically it means her card was picked as a fave for The Friday Mashup #20, Who’s Got That Special Cupcake by their Glam Squad.  Yay Neen! (that's my sister waaaahooo!)  So as she rides on a cloud of fame and fortune she dared me to give it a go – and I 'go-ed’!

Friday Mashup – 21 Let’s Get a Little Sketchy

My SIMPLE take:

I don’t know the brands of designer paper, just tried to use up bits I had.  The sentiment is Fiskars “Just Between Friends” 

 

I made this flower a few weeks back – there were designs for them in a magazine.  I was glad i found a place to use this up  It was quite easy to make, just cut out 8 circles at 1”, folded 7 of them in a triangular fashion and glued them fast to the last circle.  A shiny button completes it nicely.  (I can see my refleeeection in there haha!)

 

Next is today’s 365 challenge

Day 180 – Challenge Combo

I chose from:

Day 80 - Cute cuts

All you need to do is take some stamped, handwritten, computer generated, etc. (whatever method you can think of) letters and cut them out individually as part of your sentiment

Day 122 - Feeling Fuzzy

This challenge is about giving some element of your card a "fuzzy" feel to it.

Day 140 - Raised Up

This challenge is all about giving dimension to an image.

Whether stamped or digi raise up two different parts of the image off the page.

And here’s my version of these all squashed with a fork and mished up!

 

This photo really does not reflect the true colors of my card well.  It really does look like a chalkboard with an eraser.  Obviously the ‘cuts’ are the lettering.  The ‘fuzzy’ are also the lettering and the bottom of the eraser because they are cut from fuzzy vinyl using my Silhouette.  The dimension is the apple – it is raised above the card, then the leaf is layered above that. 

 

It was fun thinking up the eraser, I had it all done and then my husband said I should ‘smear’ the chalk behind the eraser.  He’s right 99.999 % of the time.  The ‘chalk’ is actually a pastel pencil, the chalk-board is black cardstock. 

 

I ♥ my apple.  I designed this apple for YOU and it will be available both here on this main page and then again in my archives as well.  K, about the apple.  I cut it out using my Silhouette and then I stamped the red fruit and the green leaf with my Versamark Shimmer, embossed with clear and then used some Glossy Accents to make it all shiny.  It actually looks much prettier in life – it was still tacky when I was taking photos. 

So, I figured if I was going to take all that effort to create a unique apple design, why not share with YOU ?  So, I’m posting it here, for your enjoyment.  All I ask is that if your fingers are not chopped off, arthritic, in gloves due to cold, texting or something important that you could leave me a comment/hug below and that you credit me when you use them.  Please do not share the download link, it will always be free here – but please send your friends directly here to scoop it themselves.  It will be in the freebies tabs up top!  I’ve made these files available in a multitude of file formats – something for everyone.  These should easily work for your cutting machines.

Hows them apples?  *giggle*  Just click on the preview graphic to download – all files are in a single zipped folder.  And psssst – there must might be another sweet tasting graphic for YOU  next post!

 

More 365 Cards with Tutorials–Cool Recycle ideas!

 

 

 

Who doesn’t have a pile of these laying around?  I was emptying the trash in my husband’s office day before yesterday and these were included.  I just could not bear to toss them.  I guess I’m a serious artist/crafter because I don’t see trash, I see possibility.  At the time I was not sure what I’d use these for but it came to me the moment I decided to make a Christmas card and use it for my day 178 challenge for 365.

 

Day 178 – Buried Deep

The instructions - Dig into your stash and crack open 2 items that you've never used before.  They can be old or they can be new, but they can't have been used.

So I decided to use a CD because I’ve never done this before and to also use a designer paper I bought a couple of weeks ago when shopping with my sister Nina and had forgotten I had. 

 

I took a beautiful pattern for a Christmas Ornament I bought at the Silhouette Store and I cut it out (I did it twice, I plan on making more than one of these) 

 

I cut out a plain green backing using cardstock. 

 

Slathered the CD with craft glue – then assembled it all.

 

I used an already stamped sentiment from Nina and some of the pieces that were left over from the ornament cut-out and decorated the back.  I affixed this tiny bow.  I’ve not used one of those before either, they’ve been patiently waiting in a tiny box.  So it could have counted as one of my “not used” items.

 

This is the back of the card. After tying a strand of gold filament through the top I really created it to be an ornament/greeting card.  There is white space left for me to personalize it.  Note: I cut the pattern so that it included the “hole” at the top, if you were to try to do this without a machine you could possibly do it by cutting out two circles (or round-edged squares) and then creating a hole in them with a punch.  Also, I seem to remember that there are those circles for reinforcing loose-leaf for binders.  I bet they would work well,  If you stuck a couple of those under your designer paper before you stick the designer paper to the CD.  I bet you could even ink or stamp your “top” to match your color theme.

 

This is the front.  These will fit nicely into an envelope meant for a 6 x 6 square card. How nice for your recipients to be able to hang your greeting – a real conversation piece and recycling too!

 

Day 179 – Boy meets Girl

Instructions - Use girly papers and make a card for a little boy, or take paper suitable for a little boy and make a card for a girl.

I chose to make another CD card and I also made it a card for a girl but in boy blue and black colors.  This paper is a Recollections Blue Pinstripe (Michaels)

 

This is the front of my card.  I used my flower pot template to cut out the pot, my leaves as well.  The flower pot is available for free download under the Silhouette tab up top of my blog.    By the way, the measurement to cut a circle to perfectly fit a CD is 4.7 inches.  The ‘cute’ stamp is from Trisha Santry – Happy Day

 

Nina will be so proud of me, I used my Glossy Accents on the leaves, after stamping with my Versamark Shimmer pad and embossing with clear powder. 

 

The back is very simple, leaving lots of room to personalize.  The ‘you’re so sweet’ stamp is a Fiskars – Just Between Friends. 

 

I am giving you the recipe I use to make a little easel to affix to the back of the card.  Just cut it out of cardstock and adhere it to the back of your card using either glue or double sided tape. 

 

The most fun part of this card is my clever idea to affix the pretty flower element to a bobby pin (yep, bought a box of 200 of the good old black b-pins at the thrift for $2)  Now whichever little girl receives this card can ‘pick’ her flower, wear it and replant it back into the pot for safe-keeping! 

♥ Hope you enjoyed and thanks for coming to visit! ♥

Days 176 and 177–two more 365 cards!

 

I could have been all caught up today, in actuality I am caught up now but I thought I would save today’s card for tomorrow because I want to include a tutorial for this card, its a pretty cool idea.  So today I am going to just keep it to the last two cards I completed.  I also spent an hour on the phone with support at Silhouette SD trying to work out an issue I was having with my machine – turned out it was not an issue with the machine or software, but the matt.  After a long while of use they curl on the edges which causes the machine to not be able to make a cut properly.  I think I've figured out how to work around that though.  I have to say the support at the company is amazing.

Day 176 – Water and Sand

Instructions were: The challenge for today is to use watercolor paints on your card, and to use a sanding technique -- "water and sand".

Here’s my take:

 

I used a yellow toned paper for the background and then I splotched it with a burnt sienna using some plastic wrap.  Just enough to give texture.  I cut the “BLOOM” out of another heavier cardstock and then stuck it to the background using double sided foam tape.  Next I added some details to that to make it more visible, and watercolored in some of the red. 

I painted in the red blossoms and added the dark green leaves.  Went all ‘artist-y’ on this card.  I glued gems on the flowers and finished the card with a green velvet trim.  This turned out to be a very folksy card I must say.

 

Day 177 – Album Inspired

Instructions and sample pic:

Today's challenge is a lot like an ad inspired challenge, except we're using an album to inspire our cards.

 

Here’s my interpretation:

I had a lot of fun with this one.  I used a free vector from the internet to cut the silhouette of the children.  Next I tied some crochet thread to two “poles” which were coloured  match-sticks my SIL Judy gave me when she was here – purchased at the dollar store, they come in all colors. 

I cut the letters and pennants using my Silhouette SD and then glued them onto the thread.

I love the fine detail my Silhouette can cut – that little hand is like the size a Barbie Doll would have.  Because I used a paper that was black coated but white inside it turned out looking like the fingers have nails!

Two More 365 Cards

 

Ah, now I am only one card behind this week I believe.  I hope to get the other done this evening if things are favourable for me.

Day 170 – Vintage Plus Blue

I had fun with this card.  I added my own sentiment onto this elegant graphic I downloaded from Graphics Fairy.   I cut it out using my Silhouette SD.  I painted her skin, hair and hat using watercolour pencils.  I added glitter to the pieces beside her waist. 

 

I cut the swirl out using my SD – I purchased it today from the Silhouette Store – every week they have a “clearance” bin, so I took advantage.  This machine really can cut out some very intricate stuff so nicely. 

 

The finishing touches were some pretty white lace topped with a sheer blue ribbon, a tiny tatted ribbon, then embellished with charms, a flower and my own tatted flower. 

 

Day 175 – Mixed Drinks

Well, I went with the Strawberry/Lemonade theme in my colors and this is how it worked out for me:

 

The yellow background designer paper is from Mind’s Eye – Quite Contrary, an umbrella theme on the side you can’t see – I think it was called umbrella something.   The happy birthday stamp is from Studio G – Michaels!

I designed my own cutting template – very simple rounded edged size you can fit nicely on the front of a 4.5 by 5.5 portrait 1/4 fold card.  I designed slots for you to run ribbon through, this ribbon is 3/4 inch wide. I will put the template for this in my cutting files tabs up top of my blog, both in png and .studio format so you can make your own! 

 

I made these little flowers by layering – inked the edges.  The flower shape is my own, I will offer it sometime in the future.  I embellished with a small gold gem.

Off to make 176.  Thanks for visiting. Don’t forget to scoop the templates for this card.