Birthday Card Making – Simon Says Stamp Card Kit March 2015 & Newtons Nook – Birthday Card Idea

 

This card I made for a workmate’s sister’s birthday. I used the Simon Says Stamp Card Kit from March 2015 with the Newtons Nook Newton Dreams of Paris stamp set. The cardstock is the grey from the Simon Says Stamp Card Kit which I cut and folded to the standard card size.

I used two strips of the shiny gold paper left over from my previous cards I made, you can check the birthday card I made for mother out by clicking here.

I used another scrap piece of pattern paper and placed in in the middle of the two gold strips, making the gold strips border the chevron strip. I stamped the sentiment ‘le meow’ on to a small rectangle cut from the same grey cardstock as the card base. I accented it with a cluster of three gold rhinestones.

Lastly, I stamped little Newton who looks absolutely adorable wearing his little scarf and beret. I coloured Newton in using my Derwent Studio Pencils. My favourite gunmetal grey for his kitty cat body and then yellow for his beret and scarf. I accented his scarf bow with a rhinestone. I went over the hat and scarf using a Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen but it’s really hard to catch the glint of the glitter in a photograph.

I really liked how this card turned out. It was a little surprising as when I started making the card, I hadn’t intended on using the Newton’s Nook stamp set, but I’m glad I decided to go that way.

Thinking Of You Cards – Cards for Friends – Simon Says Stamp Card Kit March 2015 – Authentique Classic Beauty Card Idea

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I work night shift and my shifts are twelve hours sometimes thirteen (like tonight) and because of not just the amount of time I work, but because it’s night shift so I tend to be sleeping when everyone else is awake doing normal things, I quite often end up neglecting my social life and thus my friends and family.

So yesterday morning, before going to bed, I spent about 15 minutes as my relax time to put together a nice little card for my dear friend Yvette, who I wouldn’t be where I am today without her.

Yvette is quite often on my mind, but being on opposite schedules means I can’t always tell her and we rarely find time to catch up with our conflicting schedules. I can’t just call or text her at 2AM in the morning when I’m wide awake having lunch at work, thinking ‘I wonder how Yvette is going’, because she’ll be in bed sleeping – and there’s nothing worse than having one’s sleep interrupted…

The card is constructed simply using the Authentique Classic Beauty pattern papers and journaling cards. I chose out the pretty picture of the lady holding the rose from the collection. I chose it for a few reasons: the image is simple and beautiful, the lady looks both sad and happy, and she seems to be looking at the flower wistfully but also fondly with amusement. So I was kinda feeling like my friend is the rose and I am the woman.

I love Yvette, I’m happy she’s my friend but at the same time I’m sad because we don’t spend much time together and I neglect her terribly.

I really tried to capture in the photo the shiny glitter I added on the rose using the Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen. And I added a triplet of gold rhinestones as a little design flair to finish the card off.

Do you have a friend or family member you’ve been neglecting? Is there someone you’ve been thinking of recently and would like to reconnect with? Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you.

Birthday Card Making – Simon Says Stamp Card Kit March 2015 – Authentique Classic Beauty – Birthday Card Idea – Mum’s Belated Birthday

  

This card I made for my mother’s birthday (belated) using the Simon Says Stamp Card Kit March 2015 release containing the Authentique Classic Beauty paper and coordinating journaling cards. I absolutely loved the look of this card kit and Authentique’s papers as they are all so beautiful and it really is a classy, chic combination of the greys, blacks and then that bright pop of yellow.

I started this card by flipping through the journaling cards and I found this one with the quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald ‘you are the finest, loveliest, tenderest, and most beautiful person I have ever known – and even that is an understatement.’ And I thought that was suitable to describe my mother and would be a positive note for her to receive as a birthday message.

As I had this quote and the journaling card took up the majority of the card face, I didn’t bother with any other sentiment stamps on the face of the card.

One of the papers has a newspaper style text but could also be an old style dictionary as it had words and then descriptions. At first I wanted to make sure I had the tree displayed as my mother has always loved trees and then when I looked closer I saw that there were the words mother and the description of mother and I thought, how perfect!

I had the black striped lines left over from a previous card and I really loved the gold shiny scrapbook card that was also in the card kit and I wanted this card to be shiny and bright and positive. I arranged the pattern papers to my liking and then adhered them down. I adhered the journaling card to some scrap black card stock and cut the black card stock down to size to allow a small black border. I found this helped break apart the quote from the bright, shiny gold of the main background. I adhered that using foam squares.

On the yellow rose flowers on the journaling card I used a wink of stella clear glitter pen to give a bit more shine to that part of the card, bring everything together and give the card that little something extra special. I tried to show the glitter shine on the roses, but the photos never truly capture the sparkle.

I really love how this card turned out and I enjoyed the process of making it. Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Thank You Cards – Making Cards With Kids – Simon Says Stamp March Card Kit 2015

This card was made by Ben (Age: 7) for his mum (or mom if you’re from America) using the Simon Says Stamp March Card Kit for 2015. I gave him instructions on how to construct it. Ben chose a design from the inspirations page that is included in kit and we went from there.

Below is a picture which shows what is included in the March Card Kit for 2015 and if you click the picture it will take you to a link on the Simon Says Stamp Website where they have the list of the items included in detail. Unfortunately the kit is out of stock, but if you’re interested you should still be able to buy the items separately (it will probably just cost a little more).

On the plus side, a subscription is offered so you are guaranteed a kit, so you don’t have to worry about sell outs for future kits. They email you a payment when your order is ready to ship. I believe, every month on the 14th they release what’s inside the kit.

This kit has actually been my favourite kit to date and it is so chic; I have so many ideas for the materials. My friends are going to be swamped with cards! Haha!

Anyway… back to Ben’s Card!

Ben started with some plain black card stock. He trimmed the card stock down to 4 and 1/2 inches wide. He used the Martha Stewart Score Board and scoring the card down the width of the length-ways center. He folded the card to make sure it had a good crease.

Then Ben trimmed the spotted yellow pattern paper to fit the card facing and adhered it with adhesive using the Advanced Tape Glider. Ben needed a little bit of extra help using the ATG and the card was adhered for him as he didn’t want to mess up the alignment.

Next a strip was cut from black pattern paper and was adhered to border the left-hand side of the card.

It was decided, by Ben, that the flowers needed to be constructed next. Ben chose blue for the large flower stamp and yellow for the small flower stamp. He was fascinated by the stamps and how they clung to the acrylic block.

Ben chose two different shades of green for the leaves with a total of four leaves and 2 of each colour. Kelly fussy cut the flowers and leaves out for Ben.

Ben stamped the sentiment ‘Thank You’ on to a journal card using Tuxedo Black Memento ink. Kelly helped with the placement. Ben was able to master use of the Advanced Tape Glider and adhered the journal card to the background.

Foam squares were attached to the back of the flowers and leaves then the flowers were arranged with instruction from Ben by Kelly into the top left-hand side corner of the journal card.

It needed to by shiny! Kelly used the Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen on the coloured parts of the flower and on the leaves. Ben watched carefully monitoring to make sure Kelly didn’t make a mistake.

After rummaging through craft storage drawers, gold rhinestones were located. Three small rhinestones were adhered to the small flower with the trickery of tweezers. Three large rhinestones were adhered to the center of the large flower. Kelly was ordered to adhere more.

When Ben was satisfied with the look of the card he wrote his message inside the card using a white gel pen and showed his proficiency in drawing love hearts.

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1

This is my very first multi-media art journal layout which I’m very proud of and I had a lot of fun creating. I’ve created a separate post throughout the process of creating this layout so if you’re interested click the links provided to be taken to the post which will describe the process for what was captured in each photo.

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 1 – Apply Gelatos Colour

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 2 – Gesso

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 3 – Center Stencil

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 4 – Ink Accents

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 5 – Brown Tags

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 6 – Coloured Tags

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 7 – White Gel Pen Accents

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 8 – Distress Ink Ribbon

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 9 – Tying Ribbon to Tags

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 10 – Adhering Tags

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 11 – Stamping Flowers

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 12 – Adhering Flowers

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 13 – Gesso Accents

I hope you’ve enjoyed this creative process and encourage you to explore your own creativity by enjoying your own multi-media art journal.

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 13 – Gesso Accents

Again I was going to call the layout complete but then as I looked at the page I thought the white was just a little too bold against the distressed inks of the tags. I wanted to tie the whole layout together a bit more so I decided to do that by using some plain white gesso to create some accents.

I used a paint brush just to paint a couple portions of the edges, I still wanted some of the splodgy purple to be seen but I wanted some really bright crisp white sections too.

I then used the Tim Holtz Dot Fade stencil and added here and there some gesso dot patterns. Even going over some of the tag to really try and draw it all together. I was really happy and proud with this finally final result!

It is my first ever multi-media art journal layout and I had so much fun and did so many different things. To anyone that hasn’t tried art journaling before, I highly recommend it.

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 12 – Adhering Flowers

I adhered the flowers to the photo frames using both glue and foam squares. I wanted a bit of dimension on the arrangement of flowers. Such as on the bottom left square pictured, I have the large purple flower raised up on foam squares so I can tuck the leaves and the yellow flower behind. I think it just makes the flowers flow better and creates more interest.

Once both photo frames were complete, I adhered them to the page using gel medium. That stuff is strong as a glue!

Multi-Media Art Journal 1 – Layout 1 – Part 11 – Stamping Flowers

Originally I was going to just stop at the sentiment tags and call the layout complete, but I decided I didn’t like the gaps in either corner so I thought I would make a photo frame and have flowers inside it. This embellishment really didn’t turn out how I had originally thought, but I’m happy with the end result even though it wasn’t what I had envisioned.

My original thought was to to cut a piece of white card stock in a rectangle shape and use distress ink on it and then cut a smaller piece of black card stock in a square and place it in the top section of the rectangle to make it look like a photo. And then when I was rummaging through my supplies I found some pre-made photo frame embellishments that my mother-in-law bought for me.

So I thought, ‘yay – time saver I’ll just use that instead’. The white frame part was very glossy though, so I didn’t think the ink would work to well on it and I was having second thoughts about using the inking technique again anyway. I thought it might just make it all blend in too much or be too repetitive.

So I left the border crisp and white and then I cut a square of white card stock and placed it over the black to create an all white background.

I stamped a whole bunch of flowers on scrap pieces of white card stock using the Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Set of Stamps “Flowers On My Mind” from the Simon Says Stamp Card Kit 2015 (which I totally loved, by the way, and has been my favourite so far).

I stamped them in the matching yellow and purple colours using the Tim Holtz Distress Ink in the Mustard Seed and Seedless Preserve. I stamped the leaves, also from the the Simon Says Stamp “Flowers On My Mind” stamp set, using the Tim Holtz Distress Ink ‘Mowed Lawn’.

The stamping was a bit rough and splotchy, but I kind of liked the effect so I didn’t try and touch it up or fix it at all. I used a pair of scissors to fussy cut all the flowers and leaves out and then I started to arranged them on the two photo cards I had.