Summer Cards

I have been on a card making kick lately and I saw a challenge to make a card with circles.  I have always wanted to enter some of these challenges and so I decided to do it. =)  As I was thinking of what to do I thought of summer as we are smack in the middle of it. And I love summer.  It means not getting up early everyday and playing with the kids.  It means summer movies and working in the garden.  It means mowing lawns and sprinklers and lots of water fights.  It means summer walks and bike rides. So much fun.

So back to the card, I love dot stencils so I definitely wanted to do something with that and I have been loving coloring with Tim Holtz Distress Markers and water.  So here is what I came up with.

This was the first card.  I designed the rectangle with a circle cut out with Cricut Design Space.  I'm loving my new Cricut Explore and Design Space.  I welded and circle and square together for the layer under the stamping and for the top layer I just used the same shapes that were smaller and not welded together.  For the greeting I also use my Cricut and found the two words in my library of shapes and welded them together to make one image.  I cut some tiny hearts with the Cricut and covered them with Glossy Accents.  The image is a stamp I had from my days of being a Stampin Up Demonstrator.  I loved this little girl.  She reminds me of my girls. I watercolored her with Tim Holtz Distress Markers.  I love using these markers.  The background is a stencil I created again using my Cricut and the new Design Space.  I just duplicated a circle about a million times and carefully with many math calculations put them inside a rectangle then I attached them all so they would cut how I arranged them.  Then I had this awesome stencil.  I actually cut it from some scrap card stock but I intend to cut a more permanent one from some acetate or stencil material later.

After the first card I wanted to make another so this is it.  This time I cut the background from some watercolor paper and stamped right on it instead of adding another circle.  I like the coloring on this one a bit better. (She looked more like me, white even in the summer.) This time I used some enamel dots for accents and not sure which embellishments I like better. OK both! =) I also inked around the edges more with this card.

Hope you enjoyed these cards.


          

Embossing Resist Card

I couldn't sleep tonight so I had to come and make this simple one layer card.  One layer cards are usually simple and easy and so quick.  I think this took me about 15 min to make the whole card once I figured out all the details.  This would be a easy card to reproduce and make in quantities for a card swap or gift or if you like me just for the card tote stash.  ;)

I wanted to have a ombre look and that took a couple of try's to achieve.  I first stamped my swirls in Versa Mark ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. (I have hunted for where i got this stamp set and couldn't find it.  I guess thats what I get for buying stamps and then not using them for years. Ha Ha on me.) Then I masked off all but the darkest portion and then inked up my sponge ink applicator with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink (any quick drying ink would work) and then started applying in a circular motion.  After it looked how I wanted I moved my mask over about one inch and continued applying ink but I did not re-ink my applicator.  You will notice that the swirls I embossed resisted the ink.  This is just one of the techniques that can be done with heat embossing and ink. I love the look. (On my first card I re-inked and then I didn't get the graduated color I wanted.)  I continued moving the mask until I had the look I wanted with each section receiving less and less ink and so getting lighter. The small greeting is from Sending Happy Thoughts by Simon Says Stamp and I stamped it in the same Distress Ink. 

You can do this technique with any stamp and even use other colors of embossing powder.  

It could be made into any kind of card with different images and greetings.

Hope you enjoyed this card!

Amelia

Art Impression Stamps

So lately I've be seeing lots of cards made with these stamps by Art Impressions.

I love them so much.  

They have the best images to color and such great fun sentiments.  Kristina Werner has colored some of their images.  She is a great teacher for coloring with Copic Markers and Distress Markers. She has a great youtube channel where she demo's great coloring techniques.

So I saw this image and thought of so many friends and all the times we have laughed and almost peed our pants.  So if you are one of my friends who gets a card like this from me then know you are so special to me.  If I can have a good laugh with you then I know you are a true friend and I enjoyed the laughter.  I truly believe "Laughter is the BEST Medicine".

This was the first of many cards that I will make with this set which is called "Laughing Set"from the Girlfriend Series.  I colored it with Tim Holtz Distress Markers (A new favorite of mine) on some water color paper.  I have learned the hard way if you are water coloring you need to use water color paper.  I bought some inexpensive water color paper at Micheal's at it works great but I hope to compare with some more expensive brands and see what I think of the difference.

Hope you enjoy the image as much as I do.