Silhouette #3

This is yet another card I made using a silhouette dig stamp.

I used a Martha Stewart edge punch, some DP, Nestabilities big scallop ovals and a piece of ribbon that came from a Christmas gift! You can download the image HERE

Silhouette 2

Another silhouette card! This time I colored the hat, matted the image panel with red and added some DP.

You can get the digi stamp HERE.

Silhouette

This card was made with a silhouette free digi stamp which I will share with you. I kept this card black and white. Can't go wrong there! I will share a couple more in the next two days.

You can download the digi stamp HERE

From polka dots to purple

It seems like I have gone from polka dots to purple! I wasn't intentional but there it is.
For this card I used the lacy fence stencil on the right hand side and then just a part of the stencil on the left. The CS is a pale lavender although the color doesn't show up well in the picture. The image is from Hampton Art Stamps colored with pencils and OMS.

The African Violets on this card is a digital image that I printed and colored with pencils and OMS. You can download the image HERE

A touch of color

I have been playing around in Paint Shop Pro making digi stamps. This is the first one. The others didn't turn out to my satisfaction so I will be playing more! The image is colored with Prismacolor pencils and OMS and I used the Cuttlebug paisley folder for the panel. If you would like the digi stamp you can download it HERE

10 Card Gift Set

Wow, I have been away for a while! Not intentionally but nothing I made seemed to turn out right so I had nothing to post. I hope this post makes up for it!

These are a set of 10 cards from one 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of decorator paper I made for my daughter Kelly to sell as a fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I will be making more sets using different papers and stamps.

You can download the directions for making the 10 cards HERE the file is a PDF file. If you need a PDF reader you can download a free one HERE If you have enjoyed and learned from my blog I sure would appreciate it if you would take a look at Kelly's fundraising page HERE and make a donation!

Sweet Violets

Yesterday I received some embossing stencils I had ordered so of course I had to play today! This is the card I came up with using one of the stencils I bought HERE. I embossed and cut out the tag and then used part of the stencil to emboss two corners of the panel.

I printed the violets onto cardstock. I printed a whole sheet so that I will have more to play with. I used 4 prints to cut out the different parts with the first one being the whole print. After cutting the various parts I gave them some dimension by turning them over on an embossing pad (I use a piece of a placemat from the dollar store) and rubbing them with an embossing stylus until they curl a little. You can get the violets HERE I used dimensional tape for the different parts of the violets and to raise the tag. I finished the outside of the card off with a bow and half pearls from my stash.

I also decorated the inside of this card, a first for me but it took so long to make that I decided to go the whole hog! The sentiment is from My Sentiments Exactly.

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!

Resizing Graphics and Pictures

I have had e-mails from some people who are having trouble with printing the graphics from Dover. The graphics as you have saved them are huge, much to big for a card so you need to be able to resize them. I use Paintshop Pro to resize my graphics and pictures. You could also use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. If you have one of these programs you probably know how to use it to resize so you don't need my help. None of these programs are free although you can download 30 day trial versions.

........Or you could download GIMP which does basically the same thing and is FREE and not just for 30 days! (GIMP is also available for Mac but you will need to go HERE to find out about it.) GIMP has some great reviews so I downloaded it and I have written a short tutorial for how to resize using the program. You can go HERE to download the tutorial PDF file.

I hope this will help those who are having trouble with resizing.

Images to download

I have had quite a few inquiries about the Dover images I have used recently. I posted the url to the Dover website so that you can get the weekly emails with the free samples. The images I have used are from a long time ago so after a lot of brain strain trying to figure out how to get these images to you I have finally figured it out. Yeah for me!

In the future when I use one of these older images I will have a link on the relevant post so that you can download the image. In the meantime you can download the three images I have used so far HERE They are .bmp images in a zip file so you will need Winzip or some other way to unzip them and save them to your computer.