Love your blog

I made this award and sent it to a few bloggers and two of them sent it back to me! Thanks Penny and Rita! This award has no rules you can just take it and give to whomever you would like to show your appreciation of their blog.

Happy Bird - Day

I just love this stamp from Inkadinkado it is so versatile! I am going to use it on a Christmas card later. I used the Cuttlebug Leafy Branch embossing folder and swiped it with white ink. I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils and OMS (odorless mineral spirits) I cut the ovals with Nesties and used dimentional tape to raise both layers. Pretty quick and easy!

The lemonade stand award

I was given this award by dear, sweet Rita a friend I met not to long ago when I joined her Yahoo group Crafty Card Creators. Thank you Rita!

Here are the rules for this award.

1. Comment on this blog.
2. Cut and paste the award logo and use it on your own blog.
3. Nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude.
4. Link to your nominees within your blog post.
5. Comment on their blogs to let them know they received the award.
6. Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.

Here are the ladies that I am passing this award on to in no particular order of preference.
1. Diann
2 Christina
3 Kanan
4 June
5 Chrystal

$1 Stamp Thank You

My daughter needs quite a few Thank You cards to send to people who donate to her fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. so I have to make then quick and easy and ch--- inexpensive!


I used paper from my scrap drawer and the stamps are $1 stamps from Michaels. Easy to put together and minimal coloring.

Frugal Friday

COLORING ON VELLUM

What does this have to do with Frugal Friday? What could be more frugal than a free image! There are free images all over the internet. All you have to do is save them, resize them, print them on copy paper and trace them onto vellum. Look for stained glass patterns and clip art and of course sign up for the free samples from Dover. Here is a clipart site to get you started. On this post you can find a download for a free program to resize your images as well as a tutorial on how to do it.

I made this card with a free parchment craft pattern I got from the internet. You can get the pattern and directions HERE. Instead of using the floral image that came with the pattern I used part of a free image from Dover. As it is from a long time ago I have a download HERE I colored the image on the back with Prismacolor pencils.

The vellum paper I am using is from Pergamano but any cardstock weight vellum would be fine. You can get it at Papertrey Ink. The vellum you generally find at Michaels, Hobby Lobby etc is not heavy enough to take the embossing.

If you just want the soft look of coloring on vellum the lighter weight from the craft store will work. Print or stamp the image on regular printer paper and then trace it onto the vellum. To get the very fine line on the card above I use a mapping pen and white acrylic ink. You can get these in any art department.You can use a white gel pen but you will not get the fine line you get with a mapping pen. Of course you can use any color pen you want to do the tracing or you can trace with a white pencil, color on the back and then erase the pencil mark from the front.

For this card I traced the image onto vellum with a black Micron pen 005 which is a very fine line. Instead of coloring the petals I used a stylus to emboss the petals slightly from the back. The leaves and centers are colored with pencils on the front.

Sorry for the angle of this card but I wanted to show the gold outline. I traced the image with a gold gel pen, you can see the difference in the thickness of the line with a gel pen versus a mapping pen or fine Micron pen. I colored on the back side with colored pencils. You can color on the back or the front but coloring on the back gives a softer look. Both colored pencils and markers work well for coloring.

Have fun with coloring on vellum!

Swaps

These are cards I made for swaps on the Crafty Card Creators list. I can post them now as the recipients have received them.

This card was for the Aged Appearance swap and went to Diann. The image is from Stampin Up colored with prismacolor pencils. What doesn't show in the picture is the irridescent green on the hummingbird. I used a wash of Twinkling H2O's scarab beetle.

This card was for the sketch challenge swap and went to Christina. The flower and sentiment are from Rubbernecker Stamps Wildflower set.

And lastly this card went to Phyllis and was for the stamped image swap. The image is actually a digi stamp from Dover. The patterned paper is from Basic Grey and I did the border with a Martha Stewart border punch.

Masculine Thank You

At the request of my oldest daughter I have made two more thank you cards for men. I find it very difficult to do masculine cards. For one thing I have very few masculine stamps and my color preferences are definitely on the feminine side!


The papers on this card are from Basic Grey. I used the cuttlebug folder spots and dots on the solid paper and ran the blue strip through the paper crimper. The sentiment is from Stampin Up.


The paper on this card is from my stash, the leaf stamp is from a clear stamp set and the sentiment is from Stampin Up. The spots on the paper look pink but they are really two shades of beige.