I made a card for a two year old girl who has been diagnosed with Leukemia. Someone posted on Splitcoast Stampers with a request for Christmas cards. Since I just saw this note yesterday, I contacted the original poster and asked if an encouragement card would work and she was excited, so I created something special for a young child.
Sheep Fold-it FrontSheep Fold-it Inside
I wish I had texture laying around my house, like wool felt, old socks, old wash cloths, or anything to provide texture for the sheep would be fun, but I gave up and went with paper. I looked at the die set and added color like in the photo for the front, then chose a greeting from other stamp sets for the inside. I know the child can’t read, but thought this would provide a fun card for the parents. I think the child will hold the card, open and close it and that is about all. It was mailed today. I hope it bring a smile to the little girl’s face and the parents as well.
Each month, I make a card based on a theme with the Crafter’s of Faith group on Splitcoast Stampers. December is based on Matthew 2:10 When they [the Wise Men] saw the star, they were overjoyed beyond measure. The challenge is to use stars on your card.
Rejoice
I used many items from The Stamps of Life. The nativity is from extras4snowglobe along with matching dies. The palm trees are from flamingo2stamp, which I stamped in Versamark ink, embossed with clear powder, then fussy cut out. The stars in the sky are from a star background die also The Stamps of Life. I needed a greeting for the front, so I found the word Rejoice in Christmas Sampler from Paper Smooches. I had gold foil paper which I had ran through my Xyron machine giving it self adhesive for the backing. It made it easy to create the background as well as the small nativity pieces.
I made another card on Friday with the same star theme. There was a challenge to use an older Christmas stamp set, so I searched through my mother’s stamps and found one I hadn’t really used and it was perfect for the star challenge.
Joy to the World
The stamp set used is called The Sounding Joy from Stampin Up. I stamped the star with Memento Pistachio Ink, then the word Joy with GKD Cherry Red ink and Versamark Ink, clear embossed. I added a star around the star with a stitched star and only embossed rather than cut. I cut small stitched stars for the corners. The papers used are GKD Fresh Asparagus, SU Real Red for the stars and card base, and the white was layout out, so it could be any. I enjoyed creating this card as it is something different and I was using a beloved set of my mother’s.
I have been busy with a few challenges with Splitcoast Stampers that were focused on pine trees and pine cones. I submitted these to the Double D Challenge from the posts at SCS. I thought I would share these here.
I linked those photos to my gallery at SCS. The Peace card was created for a Faith challenge and I shared a quite a bit about the photo at that link. The Thanksgiving card was created with all Stamps of Life products. The paper is Gina K and SU along with the inks used on the pinecone.
Following are a few other photos that I made recently. We had a birthday, I worked on a Christmas card, and a card with dogs for a young man.
Birthday card
This card is my husband’s birthday card. He really liked it as it is all about guitars. These are acoustic and are not usually colored, but I needed the spread of color and it worked. All were fussy cut.
Christmas Ornaments
I have new product that I wanted to play with. This is a Spellbinders die and stamp set. I followed an idea on the Spellbinders blog using supplies that I had on hand. I didn’t have silver foil paper, so I made my own. I took a small piece of gray cardstock, swiped Versamark ink, then silver embossing powder. I used two layers of the ink and embossing powder to make it thick and look more silvery. It is not as shiny as foil, but for giving this idea try, I think it works. Since then, I purchased silver foil. I will try this card again soon. I pulled the colored paper for the ornaments from my large stash of scraps.
Doggy card frontDoggy card inside
This doggy card went to a 7 year old boy who had a surgery then got an infection which went septic. His aunt requested a card and he loves dogs, so I got busy with my doggy stamps and dies. The outside part is from a Stephanie Bernard/Sizzix set. It is retired but Stephanie is selling the Sizzix product still remaining in her warehouse on Amazon and the price was right, so I picked it up. I think every piece of this card came from my large scrap pile. That makes me happy to find uses for the pieces in that never ending pile.
Thanks for reading this long post. These were not made in the same day, but over one to two weeks.
The stamp set I used is lights4Christmas from The Stamps of Life, dated September 2013. I’m sure I have inked it up, but can’t remember when. The Falliday Fest Challenges at Splicoast Stampers had a challenge to make a Christmas Card with light. I found a similar idea on the gallery at TSOL, so I tweaked it a bit and followed the idea. This twine has been in my stash for several years and it matched the blue cardstock. Gluing it down was the hardest part of this card as it kept wanting to come up. I used SU cardstock for the cardbase and lawn fawn inks for the lights. The embossing folder is a Darice one. There is a lot of sparkle on the lights. Thanks for looking!
My niece loves animals, so I chose a few dogs and a cat to get the party atmosphere going. The dogs, cat, hats, and greeting are all from The Stamps of Life. The card base, balloon paper, and the shadow for the greeting are all My Favorite Things cardstock and patterned paper. I die cut an arc of white cardstock with a die that is Simon Says Stamp. I bought it used and I think it may be retired. I placed strips of double sided adhesive on the paper and added glitter. I hope it stays put without falling all over the place as my sister may not be happy when her daughter opens it.
This was fun to create! The MFT Birthday challenge needs balloons. The patterned paper took care of that requirement. The SSS challenge is an Anything Goes one, which I love to participate in.
I used Gina K Designs cardstock in creating this card. The images are from Give Thanks, colored with Tombow markers and die cut with the coordinating dies. I used a slimline die from The Stamps of Life for placing the characters into. The rest of the card was cut with a paper trimmer.
I have been busy the last several days off and on, making birthday cards. These cards were created in trying to find the perfect card for my pink, sparkle loving daughter. Her birthday was on Monday and she turned 21.
Sunray Birthday
While this card is festive and pink, it didn’t scream my daughter. I used Echo Park patterned paper and Massive Messages by Gina K Designs.
Tropical Birthday with Bird
This card was created with The Stamps of Life product. I watercolored each of the images on Bristol paper using a water brush and Tombow markers. I love this bird, flowers, and layout, but it didn’t scream the daughter I was trying to create the card for. Someone else will love this card.
Birthday Cupcake with Banner
This is the winner for this daughter’s birthday. She loves pink and a lot of sparkle. The cupcake is a die from Sizzix designed by Stephanie Bernard. I had paper with double sided adhesive on the back so it made it easy for adding the layers. This is a mixture of two sets, Bloom by Bloom and Hip Hip Hooray both Stampin Up. I used the Bow Easy tool for the bow. She loved her card.
I had several cut circles left over from Online Card Classes Summer Camp, so out they came for another rainbow. I cut clouds from a Lawn Fawn die. The sun is a flower stamp and die, Gina K Designs, Autumn set. The greeting is from The Stamps of Life rainbows2stamp. My inspiration was from Split Coast Stampers featured stamper. I enjoyed creating this card and using supplies from my stash is always a joy.
I had fun creating this card. It is entered in Always Fun Challenges using stencils. The sunray stencil is from Spellbinder’s Fun Stampers Journey, ink blended with Lawn Fawn lemonade and butter ink pads. The waves are from A Colorful Life stencil, blended with Mowed Lawn distress oxide ink. The floaties are from The Stamps of Life, floaties2stamp, morefloaties2stamp, and the matching dies, colored on Bristol paper using markers and a water brush. I use a variety of markers, so these are either Tombow or Stampin Up as they are always close by when stamping and coloring.
Floaties inside
I placed a large hello from Big Time Saying by Maymay Made It, along with the other floaties that were colored and die cut. I did add a bit of pool ink from Lawn Fawn to the inside for a bit of color so the floaties could float.
