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.

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!

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!

Multimedia Art Journal 1 – Layout 3 – Part 3 – Simon Says Stamp Love Heart Border Clear Stamp

For some reason I felt the need to put lines of love hearts all over the page using Memento Dew Drop Ink pads in hues Teal Zeal, Rose Bud and Lilac Posies, alternating between the three colours. It was kind of a cool idea I suppose, but it is a very vibrant and bright result. And still at this stage I do not have an end result in mind so I have no idea in which direction this decision is going to lead me. I do like the blending of the colours and I think it brings down the pink a little and is starting to lead it more towards the purple I was looking for. I used a love heart border stamp from a Simon Says Stamp exclusive stamp set called Sending and Wishing from the Better Together release.