Friendship Card

A friend of mine sent me this image to color and turn into a card as a challenge. And a challenge it was as this is normally not my type of image. I kind of fussed and stewed and offered to make dinner if my friend would come and color the image for me. She informed me that I was perfectly able to color the image myself :)  I thought about bribing her next with an offer of cheesecake but instead I pulled out my color pencils and started coloring. I don't think it turned out too bad! Thanks for the image and the challenge Jenny!

Blocks Card

Something different today...a block card. A super easy card to make and folds up flat for mailing. Want to know how to make your own block card? Check out papercrafter45's video. Her videos / tutorials are awesome. Always easy to follow, fun , inspirational and sometimes with a bit of humor! She is one of my fav you tubers!

I would also like to share a link to my Pinterest board, "Block Cards", full of fun and inspiration of block cards that I have pinned.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my block card!

Asian Inspired Mountain Scene Card

I made this card several months ago but never got around to posting it. Eeks! To create the card I stamped the mountains first. I then masked off the mountains and a portion of the top and bottom of the card so that I could ink in the sky. After I was finished with the sky, I removed all the masking and then stamped the dragonfly and Asian lettering. Lastly I embossed a straight line just below the mountain scene. A clean and simple look with no layers and didn't require extra postage for mailing!

Happy Hopper Seed Shooter

How about a fun, smile maker card? The Happy Hopper Seed Shooter is just that. I remember as a kid, sitting on the back porch with my grandpa, eating watermelon and seeing how far we could spit our seeds. Fun days and fun memories! I colored the image with Prismacolor colored pencils. The Summer Fun sentiment is computer generated.

I hope you all have been having a fun summer making lots of happy memories.

For today's post I would like to share with you a card I made using inchies...7 inchies to be exact! I had so much fun making this card. I used watercolor paper with Ranger's Distress Ink to create the background. The inchies were made using the same background technique and then stamping my image of the dragonfly before cutting into 1" squares. I used a bit of Stickles added to the wings to add just a bit of sparkle to my card. Clicking on the photo will allow you to view a larger version of the photo.

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to view my card.
Happy creating!

Vase Card Series

Wow! It has been a long time since I have posted last. I think it is time to do some catching up. Let me start with my vase card series, all using the same flower stamp and  die, and the emboss resist technique. The first one pictured above is actually the second one I made in this series. The flowers are stamped on a manila file folder with Versamark clear ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. Two different colors of Ranger's Distress inks were then used to create the emboss resist technique. The two different designer papers used are from Graphic 45's Couture collection. Awwww Graphic 45...love their paper collections!

Below is pictured the first vase card in my series. You might remember it as it was featured in a past post of mine. I call it my "Seventies meets Japan" vase card.

Once again the emboss resist technique was used, again stamped on a manila file folder but only one Ranger Distress Ink was used this time. No designer paper was used, only solid color cardstock by Bazzill and an embossing folder to create the textured background.

The third card in my vase card series brings in some brighter color using two different colors of ink and designer paper also from the Graphic 45 Couture collection.

The fourth design in the series is in the works and will be posted later once completed.

I hope you enjoyed my vase cards. Thanks for stopping by and happy creating!

Altered Matchboxes / Graphic 45 Couture

I had fun this weekend with altering little matchboxes!

First I started with 8 of these...

I painted the drawers with Jacquard's Neoopaque black acrylic paint. I love this line of paint when painting on chipboard or cardstock as it does not warp or wrinkle the chipboard / paper. I then covered the outside of the matchboxes with Graphic 45's Couture paper collection.

Hmmm....I worked on the above photo...rotated it,,,,it still keeps inserting into my blog post in the wrong direction. So turn your head to the right a bit and you will see the photo correctly. :) I used the 6x6 pad for the solid part of my project, the 8x8 to cover the matchboxes and the 12x12 for the inserts inside each drawer.

I then cut two pieces of medium weight black chipboard (by Graffix) into 3 3/4" squares. I rubbed on some Inka Gold by Viva Decor on the edges of the chipboard pieces. Not a lot but just enough so that it showed and looked aged as if the gold had rubbed off some throughout the years. I also used Black Soot Distress Ink by Ranger to edge all my papers.

The handles on my drawers are made by using a jewelry spacer with a black brad. The feet were made using these beads from my stash. Looks like something that might have been used in the 70's judging by the color and the size of the hole in the beads.

I took some light weight spackle to fill in the holes so that I would have enough of the bead to attach to the bottom of the chipboard. Every craft room should come with a jar of spackle! :) Once the spackle dried, I painted each bead with the same black paint that I used to paint my drawers.

I assembled all the pieces using Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive. The matchboxes are stacked two high and sandwiched between the two chipboard pieces. Then I glued the feet on using my hot glue gun. The beaded design on the top was made using a 3" stick pin, one of the green beads that I painted black, a gold jewelry spacer and a gold bead. When the boxes are all placed on the base chipboard piece, it leaves a hole in the middle where none of the boxes touch. So my stick pin runs all the way through the top and through the bottom chipboard piece. This left me just enough of the stick pin sticking out that I could attach a small rubber tip which now holds the stick pin in place.

Here are some different views of my finished project. Each side is a bit different as I used at least one different print on each side.

Here is a view with 4 of the drawers opened:

The box kind of has an Asian flair to it, don't you think? I'm calling it< "Couture goes Asian"! :)

I hope you enjoyed my altered matchboxes. Thanks for stopping by!