Christmas 2015 – Christmas Card Making – Simon Says Stamp Card Kit December 2013 – Merry Kissmas Kawaii Deer Idea

I love the cute deer pattern paper from Doodlebug that was in the Simon Says Stamp Card Kit December 2013! I was digging through my stash and I located a lot of Christmas themed papers not just in the Simon Says Stamp Card Kit for December 2013 but also from Lawn Fawn Snow Day 6×6 paper pad. Which I used some scrap strips of red pattern paper from the Lawn Fawn Snow Day papers to create the borders on the side of the cut deer pattern paper from Doodlebug.

This card is super simple and easy to make but I had a blast making it. The cuteness overload made me so hyper happy! I finished this card off by stamping “Merry Kissmas” on a die cut banner from plain cardstock. The “Merry Kissmas” sentiment is a stamp from Simon Says Stamp Big Holiday Wishes and the banner was made from a die cut also from Simon Says Stamp. I added a little bit of extra sparkle by using the Stickles Christmas Red to go over the little red love hearts. This is so super cute and I can’t wait to gift it to my partner with a kiss! (o^-^o)

Thinking of You – Winter Wishes – Simon Says Stamp January 2015 Card Kit Idea – Bo Bunny 6 x 6 Altitude Paper – Sparkly

This card I made with my father’s girlfriend in mind. She is very crafty also and is abundant in creativity; she has an eye for design. So I wanted to make sure this card had nice design elements to it as well as some flair!

I used a cream coloured card base and adhered a stripe of pattern paper with a beautiful wood and snowflake design and then I cut a strip of pattern paper with a white and blue repeated snowflake pattern, which looks very delicate and magical, and I adhered that in the center of the wood pattern paper.

I cut two snowflakes with the Simon Says Stamp Kate snowflake die, one on a light grey pattern paper and one on a light blue pattern paper; all from the Bo Bunny Altitude Collection of 6 x 6 papers included in the Simon Says Stamp January 2015 Card Kit. I adhered them one on top of each other over two strips of blue and clear chevron pattern washi tape. To jazz it all up a bit I went over the snowflakes with the wink of stella clear glitter pens and then took it further with the clear stickles glitter glue and I added frosting on the top most snowflake and added some droplets leading out diagonally to the top of the card. I also added some sequins to the clusters leading out from the snowflake and put one sequin in the center of the top snowflake. I really love how the whole feature turned out.

 

With the sentiment I put it to the opposite side of the feature and I used Memento Teal Zeal ink with the ‘Winter Wishes’ sentiment stamp from the ‘Hand Lettered Winter Wishes’ stamp set. I went over the sentiment with the clear stickles to really make the card sparkle!

Thinking of You – Winter Wishes – Simon Says Stamp January 2015 Card Kit Idea – Bo Bunny 6 x 6 Altitude Paper – Messy

 

This card I made for my partner’s mother while at my friend’s house using supplies from the Simon Says Stamp January Card Kit with a couple extras such as the Simon Says Stamp Kate Snowflake die, the black liquid pearl I received with the March 2015 Card Kit and some blue pattern washi tape.

I adhered the pattern paper from the Bo Bunny Altitude collection onto the grey card base at on angle on the top half of the card. I added the blue pattern washi tape underneath to create a border. Then I cut out a cream, purple and grey pattern snowflake using the Kate snowflake die cut with the Big Shot machine. I stamped the ‘Winter Wishes’ using Tuxedo Black Memento ink to the right-hand side. I then laid out the snowflakes on the left-hand side.

 

I didn’t feel like the Memento Ink by itself was really enough, it didn’t have the effect I wanted. So I used the black liquid pearls (which I’ve never used before) and I went over the cursive writing of the sentiment. This next part makes me very sad as I’m sure you can see in the photos…

I stood the card up to let it dry and went to place it at the end of the table and it slipped and fell diagonally into my fiskars paper trimmer… and the liquid pearl smudged heaps. There was no way to fix it. And I had used scraps to create this card so I couldn’t make another to look the same as I didn’t have the supplies. Oh my goodness the liquid pearl takes so long to dry! I watched about 5 episodes of Dharma and Greg with my friend and it still wasn’t dry by the end of the marathon.

Even though this card has been messed up beyond repair, I still plan to give this card to my partner’s mother and I think she’ll get a kick out of the quirkiness of the card and that extra, home made feel of the unique mistake.

Thinking of You – Get Well Soon – From All of Us – Basic Grey Grand Bazaar Card Idea with Lawn Fawn Hedgehugs Hedgehogs

 

 

This card is very special and I’m very proud of it. I made this card for a workmate and his son who is very ill and has had the sickness since he was very young. The son is only 13 years old and the dad is very hardworking. I was diagnosed with cancer in 2008 so I know how hard it can be constantly going to the hospital for treatments, the stress it can put on family, and the financial strain.

The dad is the sole earner as the mother is caring for the son. As such, I would expect that they wouldn’t have a lot of spare money to waste on entertainment as a lot of the funds would go to medication and treatment. My idea was to take $1 and $2 donations from the other employees at work (as that’s only like a chocolate bar) and it would all add up and then we could get a gift card so the son could buy a video game.

Everyone’s really jumped on board this idea a lot more than what I originally thought and the bosses have said that whatever the employees raise they’ll match it, which is really incredible!

 

For the design, I started with a base white card, standard size, and I cut a strip and two squares of Basic Grey Grand Bazaar pattern papers from the Grand Bazaar Card Kit. This is inspired by a Becky Williams design which is included in the kit. I did have to alter it to suit quite a bit though. In the card kit supplies are envelope pockets and there were only 2 spares after taking into account all the designs, which I really want to try them all so didn’t want to use up. The 2 spare pockets weren’t in a pattern that I wanted or looked good with the front design of the card.

So I took a 12 x 12″ sheet from the papers I have stored and I unstuck the glue of the pocket size I wanted and laid it flat on top of the 12 x 12 inch sheet and I cut around the edges. After cutting it out, I used the Chomp-a-Dile Corner Cutter to make the corners rounded and then I used the Martha Stewart Score Board and the bone scorer to score lines to fold the sheet into the pocket. I adhered the pocket together and voila!

I decided I wanted to use the two foil arrows spare from the card kit and I had the idea of embossing ‘from all of us’ onto the pocket. As the pattern paper was dark, I decided to use a strip of vellum which I wrapped around it and adhered at the back.

Next I stamped the two adorable little hedgehogs from the Lawn Fawn Hedgehugs Stamp Set using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. I stamped the ‘thinking of you’ speech bubble using what I thought was Spiced Marmalade but what turned out to be Pickled Raspberry. The lids had somehow become mixed up. I had to stamp the Spiced Marmalade twice in order to get the really full colour. The stamp is from Lawn Fawn Chit Chat set.

I also have the dies for the hedgehogs and the speech bubble so I placed them over the stamps and held them in place with washi tape. After that I ran it through my Big Shot to die cut them out.

After colouring the hedgehogs using my Faber Castell Connecter Pens, I went to adhere the hedgehogs to the card, however the hedgehogs and sentiment did not look good simply on top of the rectangles so I decided to add a space for them to sit. I used the Sizzix Stackable Circles Dies and I cut out a larger circle from the yellow Grand Bazaar paper and a smaller circle from the blue pattern paper also from the Grand Bazaar 6 x 6 pad. I adhered the blue circle onto the yellow circle off center and then I adhered the circles to the center of the card. Then I adhered the hedgehogs and the sentiment and the golden foil arrow all onto the circles. I think it looks great!

 

Finally, I used the new orange embossing powder for the ‘from all of us!’ sentiment on the vellum. This sentiment is from the Lawn Fawn On The Mend stamp set. And I used the second gold foil arrow to start the sentiment. Then I cut a whole bunch of strips of paper so that all the people that donate can write their names on the strip. And the pocket will hold all the names and the gift card. This is very exciting and I can’t wait for everyone to finalize their donations so it can be handed to him.

Greeting Card – Basic Grey Grand Bazaar Card Idea – 6×6 Papers & Die Cuts with Simon Says Stamp Sentiment

 

This card I made for my Grandma just as a general greeting card as she sent me card and I needed to send her a card in reply. I started by using some of the scrap pages from the card I made for my workmate, you can check that out by clicking here. And I used the Sizzix circle cut dies with the smallest die and I cut and cut out nine circles from different pattern papers. The yellow pattern paper was actually a plain yellow and I’ve used a Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Seedless Preserve to stamp the circle ‘hello’ stamp inside. The ‘hello’ stamp, the cursive ‘sending’ and the ‘lots of love’ sentiment are all from the same stamp collection from Simon Says Stamp ‘Better Together’.

 

I used embossing ink to stamp the ‘sending’ and lots of love’ and then used black embossing powder and heat set it using the Ranger Heat It Craft Tool. After that base of the card was done, I used the embellishments from the Grand Bazaar dies and transparencies pack that I had in my stored collection and I went nuts and had a lot of fun layering the elements.

And that’s it! I’m really pleased with this one, the simpleness and ease of construction merged with the brightness of the papers and the fun of putting all the elements together. This was a great card to make and I’m excited to try this design idea out again.

Thinking of You – Winter Wishes – Simon Says Stamp January 2015 Card Kit Idea – Bo Bunny 6 x 6 Altitude Paper with Paper Smooches 9 Lives Cute Cat Stamp

I had a very quiet night at work the other night, so I started making another winter wishes card using the materials in the Simon Says Stamp January 2015 card kit. I started by cutting a card base from some of the gray cardstock included in the kit and folded it using the Martha Steward Bone Scorer.

Then I chose out some pieces. The initial idea was to have a strip of the purple on the left-hand side of the grey card stock then I built on there by adding a coordinating piece that has the same purple and snowflake pattern in a zig-zag chevron pattern design.

I first adhered the chevron pattern paper down on the right-hand side simply using a glue runner. I prefer the Scotch Advanced Tape Glider. I’ve got the large pink one and I love how easy it is to use and the fact that you can buy refills for it which makes it really good value for money because you don’t actually have to purchase the refills very often at all and they aren’t very expensive so you get a lot of bang for your buck.

Next I adhered the purple strip on the left-hand side and I really liked this but didn’t know where to go from there and I didn’t want to make another card with a tag design. I tried some of the postage stamps included in the kit but none of them looked good anywhere so they were put back on their sheet and put away. I went over the entire purple strip and the purple zigzags on the opposite pattern paper with the wink of stella clear glitter pen. I decided I wanted even more glitter so I added the clear glitter to a couple more random zigzags, but not many more.

Finally I decided to turn the card horizontal. I stamped out the nine lives cute cat from the Paper Smooches 9 Lives Stamp Set onto some of the Authentique Classic Beauty grey pattern paper that is from the Simon Says Stamp March 2015 Card Kit, which has been my favourite kit so far. I fussy cut the cat out and sat him on the border line between the two pattern papers. And then I used the Tim Holtz Distress inks in the Seedless Preserve and Peacock Feathers hues to stamp some love hearts and snow flakes from the Simon Says Stamp Hand Lettered Winter Wishes stamp set that is included in the Simon Says Stamp January 2015 Card Kit. I also stamped the sentiment ‘winter wishes’ using the white Simon Says Stamp ink on the bottom purple banner. After I had the snow flakes and love hearts on and dry, I went over the hearts and dots on the snow flakes with the stickles diamond glitter glue. I don’t know why but I wanted this card to really shine and sparkle!

The Simon Says Stamp white ink looked really terrible on the pattern paper when it dried and it was a horrible light pink and so I thought the best way to fix that was to go over the ink with white paint. I completed these next steps at home as I didn’t have the materials at work to do so. Going over the winter wishes sentiment in white acrylic paint made the white a lot crisper and also gave it a more hand-written/hand-made quality. You can really see the difference between the white paint on the ‘w’ and the rest of the sentiment.

I had some white paint spare after finishing the sentiment so I decided to make some bright dots all over the card as some snowflakes and added interest and I went a little nuts with it, I’ll admit.

The last thing to do was to finish the cute little grey kitten off and adhere him to the card. My standard technique of using the gunmetal grey colour from the Derwent Studio Pencils to add some value to his tail, body and face. And then I went over all the black lines using the Memento Tuxedo Black ink pen and coloured in the red of his tongue using the red Memento ink pen.

 

I adhered the cute anime style cat to the card using foam squares for a little extra pop and dimension. I stamped on the inside of the card ‘Thinking of You’ from the same Simon Says Stamp Hand Lettered Witner Wishes stamp set using versafine black ink as it is really crisp. I plan to gift this card to my partner’s mother.

Thank You Card – Winter Wishes – Simon Says Stamp January 2015 Card Kit Idea – Bo Bunny 6 x 6 Altitude Paper

This card I made for my aunt as a Thank You Card as she had sent me a card and a bookmark. I hadn’t made a card for her since Easter so hopefully this will come as a nice surprise. I used the scraps pieces of pattern paper left over from the card I made for my grandma,  you can check that card out by clicking here.

The card is simple with the sentiment stamped directly to the background pattern paper using versafine black ink. The sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Hand Lettered Winter Wishes stamp set as are the extra black and purple stamps of stars and snowflakes. I used the left over purple and attached one of the stamp stickers that says “Hello Snow”. I cut two ribbons from the light blue scraps and adhered them under the purple square.

On the inside I stamped ‘Thanks’. And that was it!

Multimedia Art Journal 1 – Layout 3 – Part 5 – Lilac Acrylic Paint Splatters

It has been soooooo long since I did anything on my multimedia art journal and I left my third layout incomplete as I ran into a creative block of sorts. I purchased some new Tim Holtz stencils and so I wanted to give them I shot but I quickly found my gesso with stencils skills inadequate still. As I glared at my craft supplies in frustration, suddenly, a spark ignited and I grabbed the tiny lilac tub of acrylic paint. The tub was leftover from a completed paint-by-number kit. I used the light purple paint and the Tim Holtz Splatter stencil to create lovely paint splatters all over the layout. I absolutely love how this turned out and I feel invigorated again to complete this layout.

 

This is really why I love art. I came home feeling angry and annoyed and simply creating something pretty with a pleasant texture just clears all the stress away. And as this idea sparked more ideas started to flow. Look at that texture!

Thinking of You – Winter Wishes – Simon Says Stamp January 2015 Card Kit Idea – Bo Bunny 6 x 6 Altitude Paper

I had the Simon Says Stamp card kit for January 2015 stashed away, as I’m in Australia it’s actually really hot around January so Winter Wishes cards and snowflakes don’t actually make a lot of sense at that time of the year.

Now that it’s June, it makes more sense being that it’s so chilly out. Definitely sweater weather. I made this card to send down to my Grandma. I often think of her and she loves receiving cards and letters, especially handmade ones.

I used a lighter grey card stock for the base and then I cut some of the lighter blue pattern paper with the circle I wanted to make sure I had the circle pattern as even as possible.

I then made a tag for the sentiment from the snowflake pattern paper and gave it a backing of the purple pattern paper. All the papers were from the Bo Bunny Altitude Collection that is in the SSS January 2015 Card Kit.

I used my Big Bite to punch the hole to finish the tag. I only adhered the snowflake pattern paper in the middle so that it curves at the top and bottom for a little extra interest. I stamped the ‘Winter Wishes’ sentiment using the ‘hand lettered winter wishes’ exclusive Simon Says Clear Stamp.

I also stamped ‘thinking of you’ inside the card and decorated the inside a little with some of the small love heart and snowflake stamps. I think it’s a nice effect. To finish the wintery look, I die cut some snow flakes out of white card stock using the Simon Says Stamp Kate Snowflake Die and my Big Shot Die Cut Machine. I cut three out and cut one of them in half after I fiddled around with the arrangement for a while I decided this was the best way. I adhered the snowflakes using a glue pen and tweezers.

I was very happy with the results and I can’t wait for her to receive it in the mail.

Multimedia Art Journal 1 – Layout 3 – Part 4 – Faber Castell Gesso with Tim Holtz Dot Fade Stencil

I just felt like the whole layout was a bit too bright and vibrant and I wanted to tone it down a little, especially if I’m going to have another sentiment or a quote on the page – which I’m still trying to brainstorm, but I didn’t know how I was going to desaturate the page. As it turned out when I was trying to add Tim Holtz Dot Fade stencil accents using gesso, I was continually mucking up the gesso, as I always seem to do when applying gesso, and when I mucked up, I just rubbed the gesso in a circle using a baby wipe and that’s what has created that cloudy effect that has really dulled down the colours in exactly the way I wanted. Such a beautiful mistake. I love the effect! As well as the smokey effect, as I had left some gesso dots on the page for a while before attempting to remove them with the baby wipe, I added a dimensional effect quite by accident. Really happy with how this multimedia art journal session turned out. But now I’m outta ideas!