HBD - Happy Birthday - Marvelous Masking, Spring Card Camp 2 Day 1

I cut my own stencil from plastic with an electronic die cutter. Then I temporarily glued the stencil down to color blend with Distress Inks. I stamped over the stencil in the same colors -- I feel like I might have gone too high with the orange color, but I still like it. I added some thin glitter stripes with Zig pens. I white embossed the sentiment (HBD = Happy Birth Day) on black paper and popped it up with some foam tape.

Blog? Who blogs? Here's over three months of stuff!

Basically, summer happened, Europe happened, and then I got viral vestibular neuritis. So I haven't blogged in forever  

But that didn't mean I haven't made anything. Here's everything I made (and took cell phone pics of) since the last time I blogged. 

 

Sending Lots of Love, Belatedly

I missed someone's birthday, so I am having to play catch-up with this card. I have been hyper-busy with extra work, extra volunteering, and oh yeah I tried to go on a week-long vacation. What ever was I thinking?

Anyway, this card is made from the July Simon Says kit. First time I got to touch it, actually! It's a super-cute kit and I really like it. Rather than put all of the navy paper in the back, I cut two small strips of it for the edges. I used a light patterned paper on for the mail panel. I don't often stamp on patterned so I thought it would be a neat thing to do. I cut out a bunch of envelopes and attached them on different layers. I kinda wish I clear embossed the sentiment for some shine and texture, but alas, I did not.

Boy Birthdays Everywhere

I made some cards for my friends who are twins on their birthday. We are all big fans of sushi and video games, so I thought these were appropriate. I also made a mini-album for another nerdy friend's baby boy birthday shower.

More Fun with Watercolor (and the new SSS kit)

So since watercolor class is over, I can get back to my regular unscheduled card making. (LOL, unscheduled, I need a schedule so bad...)

Anyway, I wanted to test out my watercolor skills on some actual cards, and blammo, here we go!

First up, Cas(e) this Sketch #77. Just begging for watercolor, am I right? Rather that freehand the circles, I put a pencil in my circle cutter instead of the blade and drew out some of the bigger circles. Then I filled them in with wet-on-wet. The smaller circles are 'drops' and for giggles I added some splatter as well. The stamps are from Technique Tuesday and I have had them for awhile but for whatever reason never got them out! Shame! Because they are 'fabulous.' I love this card. If I did it again I'd make the circles a little lighter and be more careful with the splatter.

Next, I played with the kit that just came from Simon Says. This is probably one of my favorite boxes this year. The stamp set is bonkers fun to play with. This was my first test and I flipping love it. It's a little busier than I meant it to be, and I wish the center strip of paper stood out more, but it is still pretty good. This is for Seize The Sketch #20.

The boyfriend's father loves fish almost as much as he does. So here's his birthday card. Water(color) everywhere. I masked off the fish with rubber cement -- I love that tip! Best thing I learned in class because frisket is really stinky and expensive. Rubber cement is so much better. Sketch is from Retro Sketches 116.

Timely cards are not my forte.

Lucky me, that I will get this birthday card out on time! Sketch is from Retro Sketches 108. Stamps are from Amuse Studio. My bf's sister has a thing for cats. I try to oblige.

Another fail on the timeline. This card was for CTS 70, and allllll I needed to do was glue it together before yesterday, but no. Nothing doing. <sigh.>

Sorry for the phone photos. One of these days I'll remember where I hid the camera. 

Two Challenges and Misc Cards

I am trying to play with more of the stamps I got for Christmas and haven't used yet, so I am jumping on some challenges for fun!

This is for the Unity Challenge. I used both the color and the sketch, with the cute pun stamp! I love the pun stamps. The papers are from MME Sky's the Limit.

This is another Unity pun stamp. The sketch is from Retro Sketches 106. The paper is from Dear Lizzy - Lucky Charm.

Here are two other cards that I only got phone photos on. The first one is for my better half's mother's birthday a few weeks ago. The second one I made four of for St. Patrick's Day. I didn't get it linked up in time for its challenge, but it's from Freshly Made Sketches 126.

Papers from the February Simon Says kit. I forget who they were. The stamp kit is from the now defunct The Craft's Meow. I don't do a lot of scene-building, so this was a challenge.

Papers from DCWV Chateau Lavander. Letter stamps and flowers are some of the oldest things in my stash, so that makes me happy to find them homes!

Miscellaneous Cards

The business has gotten to me. I have a bunch of misc cards that I've made that I've meant to put up here but haven't gotten around to it. So here we go.

Get well soon card, using sketch from Mojo Monday 335. These are Unity Stamps that I got for Christmas. Very appropriate to the situation, sadly: bowel obstruction. :( No fun.

Mom's birthday card. I'm particularly proud of the coloring job here. I mixed and blended several of my Spectrum Noirs.

From Retro Sketches 104. I didn't enter it on time, but I still liked the sketch. The supplies are all from the March Simon Says Stamp kit, which was a really awesome pack.

Card for a friend who lost her mother.

Valentine's day cards that didn't make my other blogs. I'm slow. There was a sketch that fit both these ones, but I don't remember which.

Whoops! Missed a birthday.

I swore she said her birthday was the 25th. Alas. The 22nd. And I am now overdue. By two days! Oh well.

For my belated birthday in a hurry, I used Retro Sketches #86 and a whole lot of Lawn Fawn 'Dewey Decimal'.

I totally dig the salmon and sea foam color scheme. Accented with brown and white. Love it. I think she will too.

ETA: Lawn Fawn themselves pinned this card with the caption "Perfect belated birthday card by Amanda". OMG can I die now, because that makes me so happy!

Supplies: Lawn Fawn 'Dewey Decimal' (stamps, papers, twine); Stampendous 'Typewriter Wishes,' detail white embossing powder; MME dots; Tsukineko StazOn Timber Brown, Black; VersaMagic Cloud White, Pink Grapefruit; 3D adhesive; vellum.

Sew Happy For Your Birthday!

I happened upon Cosmo Cricket's 'Material Girl' in the clearance at Archiver's and snatched that kit right up. My mother, my grandmother, and a goodly number of people I know are quilters and sewers. First up, Grandma. For whatever reason, her birthday was not on my calendar, so thankfully I mentioned my score to mom who got me right on it!

The layout is from Seize the Sketch #4. This is a card where I actually did an inside! I didn't take a pic, but it's a sewing machine stamp and the words 'For Your Birthday'. I think she's going to like it.

Supplies: cream card; yellow paper and sticker from Material Girl; red button paper from DCWV 'Crafty Stack'; red ribbon and Geranium marker from American Crafts; Stampendous 'Typewriter Wishes'; My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose Mabel 'So Sweet' stamps; buttons, Tsukineko VersaMagic 'Pink Grapefruit' inside.

Make a Wish Pin-Up Birthday Card

Well, it's that time again. I need a birthday card for my 1950s-loving friend. She was over the other day using my die cutter to cut twirled flowers from her old pin-up calendar pages. She gave me a page to use for my own purposes. I knew what to do!

Here's her card. I used the sketch from Just Us Girls Challenge 205. I made the oval frame in my cutter software by welding some wingding twirls with an oval and adding an inline layer. I tried distressing the edges, but I used metallic inks and I'm not sure how well I liked it. The Tsukineko Brilliance 'Lightning Black' shows up really super gold on the black. It's interesting, but not exactly what I was hoping for.

Supplies: calendar page; red, black, and cream cardstock; die cutter (Pazzles); red ribbon (American Crafts); sticker (3 Bugs in a Rug 'Celebrate'); black rhinestones; inks (Tsukineko Brilliance).

More craftiness from yesterday

After making one challenge entry yesterday, I kind of kept going. And going. And going...

This card is intended for a friend's birthday. As she and I both love books (she's a librarian, so she kinda trumps me on the book love). It's also my entry to Lawnscaping's 'Favorite Things' challenge. What are my favorite things? Paper, books, stamps (Lawn Fawn!), and sweet embellishments. (The little orange rose for example, from Webster's Pages). Most everything on this card is Lawn Fawn Dewey Decimal. I 'stole' it from Scrapbooking Steals (seen a shopping trend?) and was thinking I'd end up making cards for this particular librarian friend...

Picture frame for the coworker of the significant other. She said 'animals', and so she receives.

I also did some serious craft area organization. It was a lot of work, but totally worth it!

Birthdays everywhere!

Late August is full of birthdays, so it seems. I've got two friends in the need of cards. These came out way more colorful than I thought they would. I had planned on an all-white background, but the white sentiment and mostly white pastry-image squares were getting lost. So I busted out the spray inks (most of which I 'stole' from ScrapbookSteals.com) and got a little overzealous. I was a little overwhelmed at first, but I think it worked out. I decided to run with the color bomb, and I think the washi tape and pearls help!

Happy Birthday, RR and AS! Sorry if your cards are late. I've had one heck of a week!