Happy 21st Birthday!

June 8, 2017August 9, 2017 Kimberly1 Comment

I’m really excited to share this card with you today, because I’m so happy with how it turned out! First, I should give credit where credit is due, and tell you that this card is almost a carbon copy of this one, which I stumbled upon after doing some google searching for a good 21st birthday card idea.

This card uses one of my favorite techniques, die cut masking (see here, here, and here!), and was made for my cousin’s 21st birthday (for which I got to tag along for the evening’s events!).

You can read the “how to” on the post for the inspiration card, but I’ll tell you what I did here, too. Firstly, I cut a bunch of numbers using the Number It die from Mama Elephant and some inkadinkadoo masking paper. I arranged them onto my card panel in a way that I liked, and stuck them down accordingly. I then used distress inks and an ink blending tool to blend ink onto the panel and around the masks. The distress ink colors I used were: Worn Lipstick, Festive Berries, Abandoned Coral and Seedless Preserves. Then, I removed the masks and lightly blended some more ink over the masked areas to soften up the design. Lastly, I added a few droplets of water onto the panel to activate the distress ink and then lifted the water away with a paper towel. You can’t really tell in the photos, but it gave the panel a bit more interest and texture – I didn’t want to go crazy with it, though!

For the sentiment, I stamped happy birthday (with enough room to fit my numbers in between) onto the panel using VersaFine Onyx Black Ink. Then, I cut more numbers using the Number It dies, stacked them on top of each other and glued them to the panel between Happy and Birthday.

I added a few clear droplets as a finishing touch and she was finished!

I think I might make one of these in every color!

Kim and Kam
Happy 21st Birthday…Kam! :)

(Did I mention we could be twins?)

*p.s. this post contains some affiliate links. I may receive a small commission if you purchase something from one of my links, but otherwise there is no additional cost to you.

A Birthday Card for Jake

February 21, 2017February 21, 2017 Kimberly2 Comments

It’s turning into a bit of a tradition that every year my godson Jake and I spend the day together to celebrate his birthday. Because I can rarely get my act together on time (and because he has a busy social calendar) this day usually takes place about a month after his actual birthday, but it happens! This past weekend, we went out to lunch, played with my kittens, and saw a movie together (we saw Sing, which was really cute).

Each year the card I make him incorporates some blues and greens, since that seems to be the easiest way for me to end up with a boy-suitable card. I stayed in my comfort zone for this one, too: geometric shapes and bold sentiments. An 8 year old’s birthday might have been a good time for me to bring out the cutesy critter stamps and dies. Maybe next time!

I stamped my abstract triangles stamp in VersaMark ink on a piece of Bristol paper, and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder and my heat tool. I then did some ink blending with a combination of Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio and Twisted Citron distress inks. I added some water droplets and some white and black watercolor paint splatters as well. Once I was happy with that, I put a piece of printer paper on top of the panel and pressed a hot iron on top to remove the embossing powder, just to give the card a flat look. I then cut out the panel with a stitched rectangle die.

Then got to work on my sentiment. I used Winnie & Walter’s Happy Cutaway die and cut that from some white card stock several times and stacked it up to give it a chip board quality. Like I always do, I rooted around through my stash for a simple “birthday” sentiment and then heat embossed that in white on a strip of black card stock. I positioned that under, around and through the happy and attached it to the bristol paper with some tiny staples. Lastly, I mounted the panel onto a piece of teal card stock cut to about 4.25″ x 5.5″ and then onto a card base of the same size.

I think Jake liked the card! There was a gasp and a “you made this?!” when I told him it was handmade, so I was feeling pretty good about myself for the rest of the afternoon. :)

I also entered this card into the current Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge (SSSflickrchallenge#65). You can read more about that, here.

Throwback Thursday // A Baby Shower Card

February 16, 2017February 16, 2017 Kimberly2 Comments

I just posted a photo of this card and tag set on instagram and it occurred to me that I never actually blogged about it! I made it a few years ago, so it works perfectly for a #throwbackthursday post, don’t you think?

I made this card for a baby shower nearly two years ago, and I really liked how it came out, so I’m not sure why I forgot to share it here. I made it gender neutral, because we didn’t know the sex of the baby at the time (it was a boy!). I used a combination of Lawn Fawn and Mama Elephant products for this card, as well as some distress ink and copic markers for the coloring.

For the card: I started with a 5.25″ x 4″ piece of watercolor paper that I “painted” using distress ink (Peacock Feathers, Mustard Seed and Salty Ocean). I say “painted” because what I actually did was press each ink pad down onto my craft mat, spritzed each color with water, picked them up onto a piece of acetate and then stamped the acetate onto my paper until I achieved the look I wanted. There are good tutorials for this technique on youtube. In fact, here’s a recent video where the technique is shown.

After the panel was dry, I cut it out with a stitched rectangle die and added a stamped and die cut (and copic-colored) stork from the Plus One Lawn Fawn stamp set. I added some polka dots to the stork’s satchel with a white gel pen.

The sentiment is from the Mama Elephant Surprise Sentiments stamp set. I stamped it with VersaMark ink onto a strip of vellum and heat embossed it with some white embossing powder. I layered the vellum piece on top of a black strip of card stock cut to the same size. I also added a bit of washi tape behind the sentiment to give it a pop, and affixed it to the card with a tiny attacher/mini stapler.

For the tag: I cut the tag shape out using the Lawn Fawn Tag, You’re It die set and added the stitched border using the coordinating Birthday Tags stamp set. For the sentiment, I used another from the Mama Elephant Surprise Sentiments set, and I then added a little rattle from the Plus One stamp set. I added glossy accents to the rattle..and then didn’t wait long enough for it to dry before taking the photos, so the rattle looks a little cloudy here. Once the glossy accents dried, it looked perfectly clear and shiny.

I found some tissue paper, ribbon and a simple brown gift bag at Target that seemed to match the theme I was going for. Inside the bag were some gender neutral onesies and a zebra stuffed animal if I do recall (it helps when the zebra is peeking out of the bag). :)

Happy Throwback Thursday (which means it’s almost Friday)!

Watercolor with Distress Inks

December 19, 2016December 19, 2016 Kimberly1 Comment

As you may know, I’m a big fan of distress inks. I love using them to create backgrounds for cards because of how pigmented the colors are and because of how they react with water. Painting a wash and then sprinkling some water over the panel and using a paper towel to lift away color is one of my favorite things to do. And for this card, I did just that using Worn Lipstick, Abandoned Coral, Wild Honey and Festive Berries distress inks.The card ended up looking so sherbet-y!

I started by dampening my watercolor paper with some clean water, and then added a very light wash of my lightest color, Worn Lipstick. I let that dry, and then painted on another layer of color in Wild Honey. Lastly, I came in with a mix of Festive Berries and Abandoned Coral for the final layer. Once everything was mostly dry, I added some water droplets here and there, and some larger puddles of water in other places. In some cases, I let the water dry on its own, in other cases, I lifted the extra water away with a paper towel, taking some of the ink color with me.

I stamped part of the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black ink from the Concord & 9th Lace Leaf set. I cut the rest of the sentiment from the grateful leaf die set. After I adhered my panel to an A2-sized card base with some double-sided tape, I added a few clear sequins to finish everything off!

Have a wonderful week!

Blended Background Birthday Card

October 17, 2016October 17, 2016 Kimberly2 Comments

This one might be a new favorite! I tried a new-to-me technique with distress ink blending for the background on this card and I love the effect. I started by blending a mix of Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry, Festive Berries and Abandoned Coral distress inks onto a piece of Tim Holtz distress watercolor paper. I then created the mottled/washed-out effect (I just made that term up) onto the panel by adding puddles of water here and there and letting the water dry on its own instead of picking up the color with a paper towel right after, as I normally do. It’s not a novel concept by any means, but it was the first time I’d tried it out and I love the softer, more diffused effect it gives. I was turned onto the technique after reading a post over on the Wplus9 blog (watch the video, too!).
While the panel dried, I stamped (with Versamark ink) and heat embossed a flower and some foliage from the Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set onto a piece of vellum. I used the coordinating dies to cut out the images and then arranged them on the dried watercolor panel. Did I mention I used a stitched frame die to add some detail to the panel? I did that, too, before I adhered the floral images with some strategically-placed glue dots.

I also die cut the word Happy with the Winnie & Walter Happy die from some white cardstock and fun foam. I heat embossed the birthday part of the sentiment in white onto a piece of black cardstock. I adhered the panel to an A2-sized white card base and finished everything off with – you guessed it – some Pretty Pink Posh clear droplets! I took quite a few photos of this card…I think because I like it so much. I hope you like it, too!

Merci Beaucoup!

August 30, 2016August 30, 2016 Kimberly9 Comments

Sometimes a simple distress ink-blended background and a big and bold sentiment are all it takes to put together a nice thank you card!

The two cards were made for two college students who worked for me (at my day job!) this summer. They were such a great help to me that I was really sad to see them go. Somehow bright, colorful handmade cards eased the pain just a bit. :)

I had an ink blended panel kicking around my craft room, that I had made during #thedailymarker30day coloring challenge. To make the panel, I blended an assortment of distress inks onto some white 80lbpaper in rough rainbow order. I then added some water droplets which bleached out certain areas and created what looks to me like a nice bokeh effect. I then used a 5″x 3.75″stitched rectangle die to cut two panels from the larger piece.

I used my Mini Misti and Versa Fine onyx black ink to stamp the sentiment from the Mama Elephant Merci stamp set. Then, I attached each panel to an A2 sized card base. I resisted the urge to glue some sequins onto the cards, though I think that might have been a nice finishing touch.

I really love how these turned out. I hope you like them, too!

Sunshine Shaker

August 22, 2016August 22, 2016 KimberlyLeave a comment

I can’t believe there are only two more weeks of August left! As usual, summer has flown by and, as usual, I’m just about ready for some cooler fall weather.However, I have certainly enjoyed the summer of 2016, making lots of extra trips to the beach this year and enjoying what’s left of what was a pretty great tan.

Today I’m sharing a card project that came out of some experimenting I did as part of the Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge. Just for kicks, I did some ink blending on a cardstock panel and added some water splatters – which showed up pretty well because I used cardstock and not watercolor paper, but I ended up with a bit of warping, too. You win some, you lose some. The panel looked like a summer sunset to me, so I ran with it.

I cut the panel down and stamped the Hello sentiment from the SSS Flip Flop Season stamp set. I used a sheet protector and my fuse tool to turn the panel into a shaker card – adding lots of seed beads and sequins inside. I also stamped some flip flops on a piece of scrap from the ink blended panel and mounted those on the outside of the shaker.