Thinking of Inking

I know, I know, it’s been a very long time since I’ve posted anything.  Three months, to be exact.  Part of the reason why is because it’s been a very busy three months.  Part of the blame lies with my being in a vast creative rut over the last few months.  There are a few more reasons but I won’t bore you with them.

I did make a card recently to send to a friend.  She’s a wonderfully unique person and I was hoping to represent her individuality with the red butterfly, standing out among the brown ones.  I hope she realizes that she is every bit as special as I think she is.

Supplies:
Stamps: Priceless, Spring Garden (Stampin’ Up!); Garden Inspirations (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, Naturals Ivory (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Rose Red (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: Cutterbee scissors, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Once again, I’ll be making birthday cards for the faculty and staff members of our local elementary school on behalf of the PTA Executive Board.  I’ve been looking for card layouts that are going to be quick and easy for me to make, and I think I’ve found two that will work.

Today’s card shows the design I’m probably going to use for the resource teachers, aides, cafeteria workers, and other school workers who don’t have a homeroom class.  This particular card was meant to be masculine, but it would be super easy to change the patterned paper and color scheme to something more feminine.  The layout is cased from a card here; I just added a little more ribbon and changed the shape of the sentiment panel.  Thanks for the inspiration, Taylor!

Supplies:
Stamps: Birthday Wish (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: white Paper Basics (Papertrey Ink); Going Gray and Night of Navy (Stampin’ Up!); “Buckle” patterned paper from Boxer 6″ x 6″ pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Night of Navy (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: navy grosgrain ribbon, mini corner rounder (Stampin’ Up!); rectangle and scalloped rectangle dies (Nestabilities)

That’s a place I haven’t been for a while… the beach.  I enjoy walking along the shore and letting the waves tickle my feet, but I don’t care for having sand stuck in my swimsuit.  Ick.  LOL

I have a little confession to make about today’s card. I actually made the focal point several years ago.  Like probably 5 years.  Really.  It’s been sitting around, and I came across it last month and decided I’d finally put it to use on my parents’ anniversary card.  I stamped the “congratulations” on it and trimmed it up and matted it and got it on a card base, and ta-da… card done.

So how did I create it?  It’s honestly not quite as difficult as it might look.  It’s a technique that I’ve heard described as “palette stamping.”  I used a large solid rectangle stamp for the base.  I applied pigment ink directly to the stamp in random fashion.  (Hint: the “cat’s eye” or petal-shaped ink pads work better for this than a full-sized ink pad.)  Next I inked the large and medium shell stamps with dye ink and stamped them directly onto the pigment inked-up rubber.  Then I stamped onto the white cardstock.  Lastly, I added the little shell images with dye ink.

Now that doesn’t sound too hard, does it?  Hey, if I can do it, so can you.  :)  If you decide to try this version of palette stamping, please add a comment including a link to your creation so I can see it!

Supplies:
Stamps: Stipple Shells (Stampin’ Up!); Large Straight-Edge Rectangle (Hero Arts)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Blue Bayou, Chocolate Chip, Naturals Ivory (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Chocolate Chip and Really Rust dye ink (Stampin’ Up!); Dune, Harbor, and I’m not sure of the other color of pigment ink (ColorBox)

Hopefully today’s card will lighten the “down” mood of my last couple of posts.  I think the bright colors and the butterflies will do just that.

This is the birthday card my family sent my mother-in-law this week.  The layout was inspired by a card I’d seen in the gallery at Splitcoaststampers. I got the idea for the color scheme from my old Stampin’ Up! Fiesta spectrum pad.  I stamped off the blocks twice on a scrap piece of paper before stamping them on the cardstock. Cutting out the butterflies was a bit of a faff, but I really like the 3-D effect I achieved by slightly bending their wings.

I didn’t realize it until I was watermarking the photo, but this card does a good job of comparing two different brands of white cardstock.  I used Stampin’ Up’s Whisper White for the top layer of the card, and Papertrey Ink’s Paper Basics white cardstock for the card base.  There’s definitely a difference in the white-ness.  Can you see it too?

Supplies:
Stamps: Priceless, Sincere Salutations (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Summer Sun, Ballet Blue (Stampin’ Up!); white Paper Basics (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Summer Sun, Real Red, Marvelous Magenta, Ballet Blue (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: Stamp-a-ma-jig; Cutterbee scissors

Well, that’s not exactly right.  I don’t think the card itself is bad.  But the reason for creating it definitely was heartbreaking.

I’ve mentioned before that I make cards for our elementary school’s PTA Board to send.  Most often I create cards for faculty members’ birthdays, but I’ve also sent cards to teachers who have had a death in their family.  I’ve also made cards for the retiring teachers.

This card was sent to the family of a student who died in an automobile accident earlier this month.  She was only 9 years old and would have been in fourth grade this coming school year.  I didn’t know this girl very well, but she seemed to be a good student and a well-behaved child, interested in learning and making those around her happy. 

The girl’s obituary stated that her favorite color was pink, so that’s how I arrived at my color scheme.  I colored the image stamp with markers to get the varied shades of pink and green. 

As much as I enjoy making cards, I hope I never again need to make one for this reason.

Supplies:
Stamps: Thoughts & Prayers, Linen (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Mellow Moss, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Pretty in Pink (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: Pretty in Pink, Positively Pink, and Mellow Moss markers, ticket corner punch (Stampin’ Up!); piercing tool (Making Memories)

I’ve been feeling uninspired this week.  Normally I wouldn’t be terribly bothered by that.  But today it bothers me because I do need to make some cards to send out by the end of the week.

A lot of times when I’m feeling that my creativity has left the building, I’ll turn to an older card that I made and make something based on it - the same layout, or the same colors, or the same stamp set.  I’m beginning to think that maybe it’s time to revisit the layout of the card in today’s post.

This was actually a double challenge card at Splitcoaststampers - Sketch Challenge #177 and Color Challenge #167.  I don’t often think to stamp on designer paper, but this time it worked really well.  I lucked out with the Primas matching so well. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Everything, Linen (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Blue Bayou, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky Prints designer paper (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Blue Bayou (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: ticket corner punch (Stampin’ Up!); Prima flowers; crystal beads; sponge

Here’s another birthday card I made not too long ago.  This time I used Choc-o-lot Shimmerz on the cupcake icing, and the camera really captured the shimmer!  The layout is Lizzie Anne Designs Sketch Challenge #78 and the stamps are from Lizzie Anne Designs, too.  This is one of my two favorite cards I’ve made with the Stampin’ Up Berry Bliss designer paper.

Supplies:
Stamps: Party Animals, Sketched Sentiments (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Purely Pomegranate, Pretty in Pink, Berry Bliss designer paper (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Purely Pomegranate (Stampin’ Up!); Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: Wonderful Watercolor Crayons and Purely Pomegranate ribbon (Stampin’ Up!); Choc-o-lot Shimmerz; Windows & Frame Making dies for cutting the circles (Sizzlits); sponge

I thought I’d share something different than cards in today’s post.  My younger son helped me decorate some tins for end of the year gifts for his teachers and classroom aides.  He chose the style and size of tin and the designer paper used for each recipient, and I covered the tins.

First, this is the tin given to his homeroom teacher, who taught him Math, Reading, Word Study, and Social Studies.  It’s just a “normal” Provo Craft rectangular tin, covered with papers from Stampin’ Up’s retired Porcelain Prints designer series paper.  I used SU’s Blue Bayou ribbon and some Prima flowers to embellish it, and added some tiny crystals to the centers of the Primas.  Tucking the ends of the ribbon inside the silver hardware on the front was more of a faff than I’d anticipated it to be and the end result was a little messy looking, but I was crunched for time so it had to do.

My son gave the next two tins to his Science and Language Arts teachers.  Both tins are approximately 8″ x 6″ x 3″.

Once again, my son chose retired Stampin’ Up designer papers - Bali Breeze for the tin on the left, Petals & Paisleys for the tin on the right.  The shape of these made them super easy to cover.  I used a corner rounder on the pieces for the lids.  The hard part (because there’s always a difficult part, isn’t there?) was that the papers were 12″ long, and the tins were about 28″ around, so I had to do some additional piecing on the sides. 

These two tins were for two classroom aides.  These measured about 5″ x 3″ x 1″ and ended up really cute, if I say so myself.  :)  The one on the left was covered with paper from Basic Grey’s Oh Baby! Boy collection, and the one on the right shows off two designs from Stampin’ Up’s Tea Party designer papers.  My mini corner rounder was the perfect size to finish off the papers on the tops of these tins.

So, there they are… five tins for five teachers.  My son wrote a little note to thank each teacher, and I adhered the notes to the bottoms of the tins.  I don’t know if they’ll see this post, but I hope they know I appreciate all they did to make this a really good school year. 

Hi.  I’m sorry for the lack of posts lately.  I’ve had some blog issues, and it’s been a rather busy month.  But hopefully I’ll get back into a routine of posting on here again.  I’ll include two cards in today’s post in an attempt to make up for lost time, ok?

The beginning of June is always a time for celebration in my family because both of my parents have birthdays then.  This year they have both reached ”milestone” years.  I won’t embarrass them by saying just how old they are, but I hope that I will live as long and happy a life as they have.

This is the card I made for my dad.  The three trees are supposed to be symbolic of his three daughters.  I really like the versatility of this stamp set and think it could be used for lots of different occasions.  The layout is Weekly Sketch #81 at Lizzie Anne Designs, and it’s adaptable for a lot of different situations, too. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Trendy Trees, Birthday Whimsy (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: River Rock, Sage Shadow, Whisper White, Western Sky designer series paper (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: River Rock, Sage Shadow (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: River Rock ribbon (Stampin’ Up!)

Here is Mom’s card.  My mom has always kept her house very tidy and clean - in fact, the only person I’ve met who kept a cleaner house was Mom’s mother!  My dad and sisters and I have often teased her about how frequently she vacuums.  When I saw this stamp image, I just had to get it for a card for Mom.  It makes me giggle every time I see it.  I was able to deliver this to Mom in person, and it made her laugh out loud, too.  The sentiment on the front says “On your birthday…” and on the inside I’d written, “Relax! Take a break from vacuuming!”  The layout for this card is a sketch by my friend Taylor. 

Supplies for this one:
Stamps: Kindred Spirits Sara (Gina K Designs); On Your Birthday (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Cool Caribbean, Rose Red, Whisper White (Stampin’ Up!); “Bless” from Euphoria 6″ x 6″ pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: petite oval and petite scalloped oval Nestabilities; Prima flower; Making Memories brad; Wonderful Watercolor Crayons and blender pen (Stampin’ Up!)

I know I’ve mentioned that on behalf of the PTA executive board, I send cards to the faculty and staff at my son’s elementary school.  Usually I just send birthday cards, but I’ve also made cards for the retiring teachers and teachers who have had babies.  I recently needed to send a sympathy card to one of our male teachers, but I didn’t have a lot of spare time to make a card.

I had just received the Branch Out stamp set from Stampin’ Up, and it seemed to be calling for some ink.  I had been browsing through the list of color challenges at Splitcoaststampers and particularly liked the look of challenge #53.  So I ended up creating a scene with those colors, added a sentiment, and ta-da… a quick and easy card that doesn’t look feminine was created.

Stamps:  Branch Out, Always in My Thoughts (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip (Stampin’ Up!); Paper Basics white (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery (Stampin’ Up!)