Special You Butterfly Flower Distress Ink Card #2

Here is the second card in my series of Distress Oxide Ink cards.  The main supplies needed for this type of card are the Ranger Distress Oxide Inks (sold at HM Ben Franklin Crafts). These inks come in a luscious array of colors which when rubbed on watercolor paper and sprayed with water result in a distressed watery look.  On this card I think I used too much ink so the colors were very dark which makes the stamped black ink (Archival) images a little difficult to see.  Also I think I was a little too heavy handed with the Mica Distress Spray (lots of colors with metallic sheen available).  The stamps used on this card were mostly from a set included in a magazine purchased at Barnes and Noble.  I forgot to show the word stamp set (sorry) produced by Woodware Art Collection.  A Misti stamping tool is very useful in this type of card because it helps to align the images and allows you to restamp accurately if needed.  HM Ben Franklin Crafts sells the Misti stamping tool in two sizes. Please return to this blog site to see two more cards in this series.

 

Gather Life's Treasures Distress Oxide Ink Card #1

Of the four Distress Oxide Ink cards I made recently, this is probably my favorite one because it reminds me of what I do on the east coast shoreline.  While clamming, I often get distracted by the seashells, rocks and seaweed all around that just MUST be gathered and saved. LOL!  I started this series of four cards to show what can be done with the Ranger Distress Oxide inks (available at HM Ben Franklin Crafts).  These inks were created to be used with water to result in a distressed watery look.  I first rubbed the inks on watercolor paper and then spritzed the inked paper with water.  Next I sprayed on some Distress Mica Stain and let the paper dry. Using black Archival permanent ink, I stamped on the images and words. Lastly, the stamped paper was trimmed to fit a standard 4-1/4" x 5-1/2"card base. This style of cardmaking is really easy and often results in an unexpectedly beautiful surprise. Why don't you give it a try?

 

Back-to-School Bookmarks

I saw these Whimsy stamps and dies and knew that they would be wonderful on some bookmarks for my two grandsons who are starting at a new school.  The vinyl bookmark sleeves were purchased long ago online in bulk. I think they should still be available...at some site? Stamping and coloring in the images with Copic pens were done before fussy cutting them out. Then the images and words were glued down to some Echo Park printed card stock from House Mart Ben Franklin Crafts. I think the overall look may be a bit busy but then that matches my energetic grandkids.      

The backs of the bookmarks were decorated with the die cut YAY! (foil on top of glitter paper) and the boys' names which were formed from card stock letter stickers.  For the tassels I found some rainbow ribbon in my stash...YAY! for hoarding! (The Echo Park paper actually had the boy toys print on one side and the star print on the back so that's why it was chosen.) I think making something special for a child, to commemorate the beginning of a new chapter in his life, will make an impression on him and hopefully add to his lifetime of memories. Craft something for someone you love!

 

'Breakfast at Tiffany's' Upcycled Gift Bag

As mentioned in the previous post, here is another upcycled bag...yes, I did buy a lot of Swiss chocolate from that shop in Boston...hee hee hee!  Anyway, this bag was decorated with stamped images from a Hero Arts monthly kit.  Don't you think the woman's image is very Audrey Hepburnish?  These images did not have matching dies so some simple fussy cutting was required. The stamp set also included some accessories like the sunglasses and some script-written sayings.

Of course, I had to use a Tiffany blue color for the background.  The city scape buildings were die cut from grey and black card stock using Sizzix dies. Tiny polka dotted ribbons were added as well as some mini pearls. A strip of glitter tape was added to the bottom of the bag to cover some product words.  I am happy with this bag transformation because I not only saved a bag from the landfill, I now have a lovely bag for gift giving...so this is a double plus project! 

 

Upcycled 'Barbie' Gift Bag

Don't you just love it when a fancy store gives you a lovely bag to take your purchases home...and they don't charge you?  I can never resist recycling these bags especially if they have very little wording on them...like this one from a Swiss Chocolate store.  With the recent popularity of Barbie (due to the movie of the same name), I decided to use the Hero Arts stamp and die sets from a monthly kit. These stamps have a very Barbie appeal and contain many clothing, accessories, and changeable body part images. There are dies in the kit for most of the images but some have to be fussy cut.  It does take some time to assemble the 'Barbies' which is why I decided not to do any coloring which I think adds to a more sophisticated look anyway...LOL!  I used Beacon 3 in1 glue (from HM BFC) because it is clear, dries quickly and can be removed if needed. The Eiffel Tower was cut from silver foil with the die in the kit.

The back of the bag was assembled in the same way as the front  and shows two more possible 'Barbies'.  To cover up the small amount of wording at the bottom of the bag I used a glitter tape that I purchased from Daiso (I think).  The polka dot ribbon was created from two colors that I had in my stash,  I glued them together before tying and gluing them onto the bag.  Oh yes, the pink paper rectangles have a slight frosted look and were also in the Hero Arts kit.  I think I may make some 'Barbie' greeting cards in the future because she never goes out of style...right?  In an upcoming post I will feature a 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' upcycled bag using another Hero Arts set. Hope you'll check it out!
 

Floating Cat Birthday Card

My cat-loving daughter-in-law is having a birthday soon so I made this card for her.  I've had this Newton's Nook stamp set and matching dies for a long time in a drawer with birthday items so the cute floating cat was hidden away. I was excited to ink up the stamps and create a card for someone cute and sweet like the cat image.  The cat was colored with Copic pens and then Nuvo paints were added to the balloons and gift. Once the balloons were dry I used the die to cut out the image  I really like how the Nuvo medium dries to a sheen similar to the surface of an inflated balloon. I intended for the cat shaped balloon to be a light pink color but it turned out to be a hot pink color.  To balance out the colors, I added some tiny Sticko heart stickers.

I'm not sure where the cloud background paper was purchased from (probably HM BFC).  I just found a partial piece of a 12x12 in my stack of printed sheets.  If I see this paper again I will surely buy more because clouds make a great background for many types of cards.  Decorating greeting card envelopes with stickers/washi tape is a must for a finished and festive look.  Okay, that's it for today. Have a crafty week!

 

Cupcakes with Sprinkles Cards

It's hard not to think of frosting when looking at the TCW Stencil Butter available at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  The fluffy, creamy stencil butter has the consistency of frosting too, so it wasn't hard to imagine it on the cupcake cards (purchased years ago in a set of twenty).  Using my finger as the spatula, I generously applied the 'frosting' before shaking on the 'sprinkles'. Ben Franklin Crafts sells many types of confetti (Sprinkletz) that look amazingly like edible sprinkles...but don't let the kids eat them!

As you can tell, I'm the kind of baker that overdoes it with the sprinkles....LOL!  Next time I'll try to apply more frosting and a modest amount of sprinkles...wink! wink!

Because the cupcake cards were plain (to me) even with all the sprinkles, I decided to add some words that would make the cards useable for all occasion notes.  After searching through my drawer of 'sweet image stickers', I settled on the the words used on these cards. Although, the my sticker packages are probably not sold any more, HM BFC has tons of really luscious stickers that you could use on your cupcake cards. Hope you have fun making 'almost edible' cupcakes using stencil butter on your cards.

 

Fifty Year Celebration Card

I know that this card looks like the top of a cake, but it is really the front of a card for a 50 year celebration.  In this case, the card was created for a fiftieth wedding anniversary...amazing!  It could also be used for a birthday or retirement card.  These days celebrating 50 years of anything is truly remarkable so it was fun to think of a special way to decorate this card.  I started by embossing a white card blank with a Sizzix embossing folder. This raised surface was then rubbed with platinum Viva Inka Gold paste.  Next, Beacon 3 in 1 glue was applied to the card front to form the number 50. Small pink artificial flowers were applied to the glue numerals. To add a bit more sparkle, Stickles (icicles) was added to each flower center. I didn't really want to use pink flowers because they seemed too feminine for an anniversary card, but it was all I could find in the right size. In hindsight, I should have sprayed them silver...next time.  To somehow coordinate the pink flowers used for the numbers with the rest of the card, I dug through my stash of embellishments.  I discovered some really old Martha Stewart border strips which when added to the card looked like a lei around the 'cake'....perfect! The blissful couple are islanders so the card does seem appropriate. Here's to another 50 happy years of love-filled togetherness!