Enjoy the ride

Today I made a couple of special request cards for my oldest daughter. She is a volunteer training captain for the South Texas chapter of the Team In Training (TNT) cycle team. TNT is the fundraising branch of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. In return for training for an event the participants raise funds. The cycle team is training for the Armadillo Hill Country Classic a 105 mile ride through the Texas Hill Country in 2 weeks time. These card will be given to 2 of the participants who are riding in the event for the first time.


The TNT colors are purple and green but I didn't have a lot of purple to work with. I thought that these Penny Black images were perfect with the birds taking a ride! On the green card I ran the green CS through the Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots folder. I think this is the folder I use the most! I colored the images with Prismacolor pencils. Although it doesn't show up in the picture I used Diamond Stickles on the zebra's feet and the turtle and on the elephants spots and toe nails. The sentiments are computer generated.

Scrappy Saturday Encore

Okay, so I am new to this blogging thing. I tried last night to schedule the Scrappy Saturday post to publish this morning but it published right away so I have Scrappy Saturday posted on Friday! So in that case if that is how it want's to be then I will have a scrappy encore!

The original idea for this card came from here I just used squares instead of circles.

For this card I used punched circles but most of the 'doodling' I did with Borders and Corners {circles} stamps from Papertrey Ink I ran the background and some of the circles seperately through the Cuttlebug using the Spots and Dots folder.

This card reminds me of the New York skyline but I guess it could also look like candles. I just used scraps of mostly Basic Grey papers. I think this would make a great card for a man. *TIP It is difficult to cut strips a consistant width. I know I have either had the paper a little crooked or the measurement is just a little off and they don't match up exactly. To solve this problem I taped a piece of cardstock to the cutter along the measurement line that I want and then slide the paper in from the right and butt it up against the cardstock. You can also cut perfect squares this way at any size you desire. It is quicker than using a nestie and cheaper than a punch!


I removed the piece that holds the paper down so that you can see a little better what I am talking about.

Scrappy Saturday

This is the card I made with the scraps left over from the ornament card. I cut the leftover triangles in half on the fold and then cut two of the triangles a little smaller. The piece the sentiment is on is a piece left over from cutting the 6" x6" Basic Grey Wassail paper to a 4" x4" square. There are enough leftovers to make 2 of these cards.

For this card I used a scrap of red that measured 2 3/8" x 3 5/8". I don't know how I ended up with a piece this size but that is the way it came out of my scrap folder. I just used different sized circle punches around the edges and then flipped the pieces. I used a regular hole punch to punch the holes in the center and then outlined with black dots.



This is another card done in the same way but I found a black triangle and used a really small scrap of purple. I didn't put sentiments on these cards but sentiments can easily be added as needed. These would look great using double sided DP too with the reverse pattern showing.

Baby bib cards

While looking through my older card for inspiration I came across a bib card I had made a while back. I thought I would like to have the 'lace' more lacy so I made a second card. Now I just need someone to send it to!


The card on the left is the original card I made. There are lots of bib cards out there but none are the same as the one I made so I thought I would tell you how I made it. I used the largest scalloped oval nestie in my cuttlebug for the lace and then used the largest classic oval for the pink part. I adhered the pink oval off center leaving more of the scallop showing at the bottom. I didn't have any 'baby' stamps so I just used a tiny flower and words from the mixed messages set from Papertrey Ink.

By the time I made the second card I had a baby stamp, it is a $1 stamp from Michaels. The rattle and sentiment are on one stamp. I also made the scallops more 'lacy' by using piercing tools around the edges of the scallops. I used pergamano tools, the single and the flower but the flower dented the cardstock The tool is made for vellum. Only a few of the flowers show so it really wasn't even worth the effort!

Doodle and coloring fun

A couple of things I like to do is doodle and color, for me it is very relaxing. As I don't have a card to share today I thought I would show you a couple of doodles and mandalas that I have done.

It takes very little in the way of supplies to doodle. Just some paper and a pen. When I travel I take a small drawing pad and a couple of pens and doodle on the plane or at the airport between flights. I did these doodles last month on a trip to California. You can use any fine tip pen such as the fine end of a black marker or a Sharpie. I use Pigma micron pens because they come in different tip sizes. These are small, about 4" x 3"

I print the mandalas on the computer and these are colored with Prismacolor pencils and odorless Turpenoid. Most people use odorless mineral spirits but I had Turpenoid and it works. It is a great way to practice coloring. I will be printing more to practice using my new Copics. Goodness knows I need the practice! You can find free mandelas to print HERE and HERE The ones shown are 3 1/2" across.

In everything give thanks

I made this card a while ago but it is a wonderful example of thinking out of the box when using cuttlebug folders. It is not my idea. You can find a tutorial HERE on how to do the background. It is in German but it is easy to follow. If you like grunge this lady had some great examples on her blog.

I am useless at sponging with inks, I need a lot of practice, so I used pastels. I have found that I do not need to seal the pastels. The flowers are from the Blossoms and Butterflies set by Anna Wight from Whipper Snapper Designs and the sentiment is from Stampin Up.

Scrappy Saturday

I have decided to make Saturday's scraps day. I have so many scraps that I need to use them or get rid of them. I keep any piece that is 1" square or more! This probably comes from making miniatures for so many years. A 1" scrap is like a 12"x12" sheet of DP.



These cards are based on quilt blocks. The one on the left is called Windmill and the one on the right Pinwheel. For these card I cut 8 - 1 1/4" squares fron DP and then cut the squares diagonally to make triangles. This will give you enough triangles for bith cards. The card on the left is 4 1/14" square. I arranged the triangles on a piece of white cardstock and used a grey marker to do the faux stitching. Then I ran it through my Cuttlebug using the Paisley folder. For the card on the right I arranged the triangles and added dots around the outside of the triangles with a white gel pen. The sentiment is from Stampin Up. This is the first time I have ever added a button to a card although I have a ton of them!


I had bought a package of Basic Grey Pheobe 12 x 12 scrapbook paper on clearance at Hobby Lobby. The patterns are to big for card making but the front sheet that has all the patterns on are a perfect size (so are the labels that come with the pack) I cut 1/2" wide strips and wove then together. I made a border with the Scor-Pal and the sentiment is from Stampabilities.

Coloring with Copics

Well the UPS man came with my 72 piece set of Copic Ciao markers about 20 minutes after I posted yesterday. He must have heard me complaining. LOL As it happened I didn't get a chance to color with them after they came anyway but I did print out a Copic color chart so that I can see what colors I have and what I will need in the future. There are quite a few people who have done color charts where you can color in the colors you have and each is different so I won't list them here but you can do a search for Copic color chart and you will find them.




This morning I made this card using the Copics and a Lockheart stamp. I used faux stitching on the band but other than that I think it is self explanatory. I am not sure how I like the Copics yet. It is not the same as using colored pencils but I guess I will just have to practice, practice, practice!

What can Brown do for me?

Brown, meaning the UPS man, can hurry up! I ordered some Copic markers and they are on the truck out for delivery. The weather is nasty, we are expecting a big storm. Not complaining because we sure do need the rain. South Texas has been in a drought for 18 months and we are on water restrictions but that is no excuse for Brown to be late!

I was experimenting with making a medalion with a Martha Stewart edge punch. This is the card I made with the medalion. I embossed the green cardstock with the swiss dots cuttlebug folder. I stamped and colored the flower by Inkadinkado with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. The center flower and the medalion are raised with pop dots. I then added a bow and pearls in the corners and the center of the flowers.

When your mind is full........

This is the card I did for this week's sketch/layout challenge # April14 on creativecuttlebuggers. I stamped a vanilla card then used square Nesties and my Cuttlebug to cut the Basic Grey DP and the sentiment square. I used punches to cut out the hearts and mounted them with pop dots. All the edges were sponged with chalk ink.



Stamps: Stampendous marble texture cube, Stampin Up petite backgrounds, Hampton Arts sentiment.
DP: Basic Grey Blush
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Distress Ink old paper, Color Box fluid chalk Rouge

Unmounted stamp storage and a masculine card

This is how I store my un-mounted rubber stamps. I found an old photo album, you know the kind, where you peeled back a clear sheet and put the picture underneath? I don't know if they still make them or not. As you can see the album pages are pretty yellowed from age! Anyway I stamped the images on a 8.5" x 11" sheet of cardstock and put the stamps on the opposite side. I used Aleene's Tack it Over and Over. Well after I bought 100+ unmounted stamps from Hampton Arts Stamps, a great deal for $15 on Ebay, the photo album didn't hold them. I wanted a large enough binder to hold a lot of stamps so I went looking for a 4" binder. I found that the price started at $14 and went up from there at the major office supply stores . Well being the cheapskate that I am I did a search and found them for $7.13 here. Much more in my price range! I ordered 3 because shipping for three was the same as shipping for one so I am all set for a long time to come. When I run out of photo album pages, or when I get tired of looking at the discolored pages I will replace them but they work for now.




I had some strips of the striped paper, Granola, from Basic Grey, left over from another card. The stamp is one of the unmounted stamps I bought from Hampton Arts stamped on another piece from the Granola pad with Timber Brown Staz On. The sentiment is from Stampin Up. I distressed the edges and sponged them.

Pergamano

A few years ago when I went home to England to visit my sister and she introduced me to Pergamano. It is paper piercing and embossing on heave weight vellum paper.

This little dress has a lot of piercing and embossing and took a loooong time to make!


This card is pierced and cut out on parts of the front to show the pattern on the back. The coloring is done with oil pastels on the back side of the front of the card. The coloring technique is called dorsing.



These flowers are on the back of the card and the front is cut out. The flowers are colored with markers.


This card has a lining of patterned paper. In real life the background doesn't look gray because it isn't pressed up against the front. These pictures are scanned because they came out better than in a photograph with my lack of photography skills!


This last card is also lined but this time with cardstock. There is no piercing on this card only embossing and the sentiment is a sticker.

I haven't done any Pergamano in a long time. Maybe I will do some more seeing as I bought all the tools and a lot of books when I was home. The trouble is I can't part with them when they are finished because they take so many hours to do!