Baby Dragon Birthday Card

I've posted three photos of this very sparkly, glittery card because it was impossible to get a good image due to all the shiny papers I used.  I decided to make a departure from Halloween for awhile since I just received the super cute Whimsy dragon stamp set and scalloped window dies. 

I used the window dies on many sparkly, glittery papers until I found just the right combination.  HM Ben Franklin Crafts has many shiny, sparkly, glittery papers for sale. After layering and gluing the card base together, I proceeded to stamp the dragon and selected words. The baby dragon was colored in with Copic pens.

Next the words were enclosed with a bubble balloon using a Copic pen.  Both the words and dragon were adhered to the card with adhesive dots.  Finally, Glossy Accents was applied to the front of both the dragon and the word balloon. Before the Glossy Accents dried I sprinkled on fine clear glitter.  (Don't get too heavy handed with the glitter.) I'm not sure exactly who I will give this card to but I think it will be suitable for someone whimsical and young at heart.  Is that you?

Halloween Shaker Card with Vampire and Mummy

This card does not look anything like the one I had planned in my mind.  It was supposed to be an origami pumpkin/cat shaker card.  It turned out that the origami paper I had was too small and the folding instructions a bit too complicated.  Since I had already made the shaker portion of the card, I decided to dress it up with some monster stickers and words.  You can see that inside the window the paper was embossd with leaf impressions which were rubbed with metallic ink.  It was my hope that the impressions would provide a bumpy surface which would impede the sequins a bit.  It didn't work; the bits and pieces swooshed around like ususal.  Oh well, I like the final outcome of this card and I will practice to make origami cat/pumpkins to put on future Halloween cards. LOL!

Meoween Scream!

This is truly a spooky Halloween card.  The background images were made by accident.  It looks like there are three ghostly skeleton-like faces. (They sort of remind me of the Edvard Munch painting, 'The Scream'.)  They appeared on a paper that I used to blot an ink sprayed card stock sheet.  Really scarey....even the black cat howled.  I wrote the word 'meoween' on a piece of vellum and cut it out to look like a frosty breath emerging from the cat.  The Tim Holtz die set is a really old one but you may be able to find it for sale somewhere online.  I hope this accidental Halloween card makes you look for spooky images everywhere......BOO!

Monster Birthday Sprinkle Cookies

I know these cookies look normal sized, but each one is about 5" across and 6 oz. in weight.  One batch of cookies ( recipe in Bake from Scratch magazine July/August issue) yields only six monster cookies. My cookies are a little darker than the ones shown in the magazine because I used whole wheat flour (for more nutrition).  I chose to make this recipe because I've embarassingly purchased many bags of baking sprinkles (from HM Ben Franklin Crafts and other sources) and this recipe uses 1/2 cup of sprinkles per batch. YAY! (I do LOVE confetti sprinkles...both edible and the ones used for craft projects. LOL!)  This cookie recipe is very easy to mix up and bake. I think each cookie would make an excellent birthday party favor. You would only need a pretty cellophane bag tied with a ribbon to make a departing guest super happy.  These good looking colorful cookies are easy to bake and definiely delicious to eat. Go make some cookie monsters happy with Monster Birthday Sprinkle Cookies!

Secret Fairy Meeting Card

Here is my second Lavinia stamp card.  Again, I used a scrap of watercolor test paper from my stash (refer to my previous post). I found just the right yellow gold scrap (with metallic highlights) to die cut (Spellbinders) a moon.  I glued the orb onto the mulsticolored watercolor paper before placing it into my Misti stamp alligner.  Using permanent black ink, I stamped the log and leaves to get a clear impression.  I took off these stamps and then positioned the fairies.  After inking the fairy images, I stamped them repeatedly to get dark images.  The inked fairy image on the edge of the moon had a faint line because the moon was slightly higher than the background paper.  Careful coloring in with a permanent black marker solved the problem.  On this card I flicked on gold Liquitex ink with a stiff brush.  The little specks of gold added the magic touch....fairy dust!   As with the previous card, I am enthralled with the finished look of the Lavinia stamped images. I can't wait to purchase more Lavinia stamps...perhaps mushrooms or mermaids. Crafty ideas keep blooming in my head...so many beautiful images!   

Quiet Bunny Conversation Card

 I've admired Lavinia stamp designs for a long time and finally took the plunge and purchased some.  I'm so happy that I did because the delicate stamp designs are exquisite and print out perfectly everytime. In my craft area I had a bunch of watercolor paper scraps that were used as tests for Tim Holtz watercolor and Distress inks (including metallic ones).  Rather than throw away these ink tests, I saved them in the hopes that they would be useful one day.  I found one watercolored piece that was the right size and look for the card I had in mind.  It was easy to place the stamps in my Misti stamp aligning tool and get perfect images on the watercolored paper.  The Misti  tool allows for restamping exactly to get a perfect dense image.  I used the bottom of one of the stamps to complete the grassy foreground.  For a more finished look I mounted the watercolor stamped piece on a metallic cardstock and then onto the purple card blank.  Finally, I used silver ink ( Liquitex metallic ink) and a stiff bristled brush to flick on a little sparkle magic.  The finished card has a misty magical look that I really love.  Why did it take me so long to invest in Lavinia stamps?  

Honeycomb Hexagon Bee Boxes

I bought the Whimsy hexagon box die years ago, but I didn't put it to use until recently.  The die makes a cute 3" hexagon shapped box with a hinged lid that flips up.  Because the box shape reminded me of a honeycomb, I thought it would be fun to try to design a series of adjoining boxes to mimic a honeycomb.  I die cut three boxes out of yellow medium weight card stock.  After gluing (with Fabri-Tac glue) the box tabs, I used the same glue to glue three boxes together.  I only applied glue to lower half of the box sides (where I wanted to join the boxes) so that the box tops could be opened and closed. (You could actually join many boxes together but I suggest putting a cardboard base under them for support if you want to join many boxes together.)

I used half of the die to cut out the printed card stock pieces (from my scrap pile) for the box tops. I added some artificial flowers (form my stash) plus bees stamped ( Doodlebug Designs), fussy cut and colored with Copic pens.

The words came from a package of bee themed ephemera purchased from HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  Some glitter dinensional paint (in a squeeze bottle applicator) was used to decorate the bee's wings.

I also made a single hexagon-shaped gift box which I think will be perfect for a small gift.

These hexagon boxes were super easy to create thanks to the Whimsy die. I really enjoyed decorating the boxes as I love bee themed papers, stamps and well...bee design anything.  I hope you'll try to make bee-u-tiful bee themed hand crafted items just bee-ause they're sweet as honey. Well, time to buzz on to more craft projects. Hope you'll buzz to this blog site again...soon!