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Have a Monster of a Birthday

By KariV on August 23, 2014 in Paper Crafting, Uncategorized

I’ve been working on some masculine cards lately. This is a simple card, but a favorite! That little monster from Paper Smooches is so funny…and he can cheer me up like no other.

This time, I painted him with green liquid pearls. It gives him a pearlescent glow and adds a little texture! Then I used some new dies (index card die by Mama Elephant) and drew some silver pinstripes in the background with a Sakura silver glitter pen (loving these pens)! A few stars with glossy accents added a bit of dimension and shine.

This was a fun card to make…had me smiling the whole time. 🙂

Linking up to the Paper Smooches anything goes challenge.

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Hippo Birdie

By KariV on August 19, 2014 in Paper Crafting, Uncategorized

This Lawn Fawn stamp set is adorable, and I haven’t had the chance to ink it up until now! It was my son’s birthday this week (he’s 24…I can’t believe it!) If you know me at all, then you know that I STRUGGLE with masculine cards. I mean I have to really focus!

But Jennifer McGuire inspired me (Stretch Your Stamps 2) to make some metal-looking accents and I think it fits the bill for this card. I used more “manly” papers…like this newsprint paper from 7 Gypsies and some black and gold accents.

Then I had a little fun with the hippo, birdie, and balloon. I mean…it’s a BIRTHDAY card, right?

See those metal accents? It’s just paper and embossing powder (embossed 3x while it was still hot). So cool. That Jennifer is truly inspired. She made an embossed small square background and then stamped on top of that, but I thought these little arrows would be a neat looking accent embossed multiple times like she showed. This is an especially handy technique if you don’t have any wood pieces or embellishments. 😉

I also used Lawn Fawn’s grass border, using the same black and newsprint papers. I think the card turned out masculine, don’t you? (Well, at the very least its much less feminine!)

My son was impressed with those metal accents and he also liked the embossed words. 🙂

I added a little glossy accents on that balloon, wink of stella on the bird, and some gold sakura pen around the speech bubble. I also ruffled up that grass a little to bring a little more texture to the card.

Joining in the fun over at the Lawnscaping challenge!

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SYS2 Day 11: Play day!

By KariV on August 19, 2014 in Paper Crafting

Well, I couldn’t wait to get back into the craft room to try out another card once I saw Debby Hughes’ sample!! Wowza. I just love her style. She made a card with sunshine in a soft yellow and soft pink (using Hero Arts colors, I believe). Well, I don’t have much in the way of Hero Arts ink, but I do have some distress inks that I used very SPARINGLY to create a soft look like hers. I love coloring these little Mama Elephant critters! This card was a welcome distraction to my not-so-fun day today (ever have those? Just me?)

I just realized that I used these exact critters on my other card from last week…I guess that poor monkey in the set needs to be stamped up next time!

I love that Hello Friend stamp from Technique Tuesday, and I embossed it with a clear embossing powder, then inked it up with some distress inks in Worn Lipstick and Festive Berries (to match the sun rays). See how soft I got those sun rays? I’m delighted with the feeling of this card.

You might notice that the critters are heat embossed in black. Then I used distress markers to color them in. I really like to emboss before watercoloring, it’s so helpful in keeping the color where it should be!

The “Life is Amazing” is another Technique Tuesday stamp set that I picked up for a song at a sale a while back. I need to remind myself that life really is amazing (today was a good day to use this stamp). 😉

The sequins are Pretty Pink Posh in “Lemon Meringue” and “Pink Blush”…aren’t those lovely names?

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SYS2 Day 10: Floral builders and Foam!

By KariV on August 19, 2014 in Paper Crafting

Catching up on my homework today from Day 10 of Stretch Your Stamps 2. This card is not only simple, but it’s fun because it uses that fun foam (the kind you buy at Michael’s). I did not have any foam in white, so I used this tan color and I think it looks good. Of course, one of my favorite colors right now is yellow, and I only have 1 hero arts stamp pad in “Butterbar” so this card turned out a lovely shade of butter!

Can you see the dimension on those letters?! Awesome.

What a fun way to use some floral stamps…monochromatically!

Linking up to the Paper Smooches anything goes challenge.

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day-9-multi-inking-and-gilding-with-florals

SS2 Day 9 — Gold Gilding builder stamps

By KariV on August 13, 2014 in Paper Crafting

Oh. My. Today was filled with inspiration over at Stretch Your Stamps 2 online card classes. I am in love with Jennifer McGuire’s gold gilding technique on her card! I wanted to give it a try, but I don’t have many floral builder stamps. Luckily, I have the Paper Smooches Botanicals 2 and that is what I used.

I sort of combined Julie Ebersole’s wreath idea with Jennifer’s gold idea and came up with this:

While making this card I realized a number of things:

1) I really need more ink colors
2) I am not great at builder stamp sets
3) I wish I had a Pinstripe Background set

But I did have fun with this and I love the way it turned out. When I showed my husband he exclaimed: “Oh! Can you make our Christmas cards like this?” Ha! Um, no.

This card took longer and created small fits of frustration now and again. 🙂 I’m not sure if builder sets are my thing, or maybe I just need more practice. But I am grateful for the card example by Jennifer and the fun double-stamping to create highlights (see those leaves…they are stamped in 2 shades of green).

The burgundy flowers looked a little dark to me so I added some Stickles. It made them glittery, but didn’t brighten them up. Ok, Simon Says Stamp…I just might be coming for some of your inks!

Linking up to the Paper Smooches anything goes challenge.

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