Thursday, July 1, 2010

June Cards Pt. 1

Summer weather is settling in with the beginning of July. We are expecting temps in the 80's today & tomorrow, then up to 90 or so on Saturday, with high humidity. The weatherman said to expect heat & humidity for about the next week. I know the crops like it, but I tend to wilt in the sunshine, heat & humidity, so I am re-arranging my work schedule a little today. This afternoon I am staying indoors, working on the computer and at cardmaking. I will spend a while at my sewing machine, too. Then this evening I will head outdoors to do more weeding and planting in our garden spaces. Yes, I am very late with my planting this year, but didn't get started until June, then we've had lots of rainy days & other activities to keep us out of the garden. It is what it is. You make the best of it and keep going.

Enough about all that...on to the cards I made in June. There were quite a few so I am going to share them in a couple of posts. Here goes...

I bought this stamp at a little scrapbooking shop in Hayward, Wisconsin, the last week of May. It was in their clearance basket and I just couldn't resist it. It turned out to be rather difficult to use, as I had a hard time getting a completely clear impression, but I still like it a lot. I colored the image with Bic markers and watercolor pencils, adding Stickles glitter accents on the flowers. The image is matted on light green cardstock and outlined with a Sharpie marker. That is layered over a "diecut" shaped mat, which I cut by hand from a template I made, then drew in wood-grain lines with a Sharpie marker. I added flower brads and the bee brad. The floral background paper is a scrap from my stash, originally a 12"x12" sheet purchased at JoAnn's. The "crimped" strip with the border punching is a scrap of a digital print from ScrapbookScrapbook.com. I wrote the sentiment by hand and inked the edges of the card, to complete it. The card has been mailed off to a friend for her birthday.

I belong to this cool cardmaking group, Crazy Card Makers, a Yahoo group (the link is in the sidebar). Every month there are swaps. A year or so ago I had received a card from Judith in Israel using this technique of stamping on tissue paper. I wanted to try it. While going through a box of papers & stuff, I came across this turquiose-colored tissue paper and thought it would work well for this. I stamped it with an acrylic stamp from a new set I'd gotten, Flower Sentiments by Inkadinkadoo. I mounted it behind a frame I made from cardstock, which is stamped and heat embossed. The other printed papers & cardstock used in the design are from DCWV stack packs. I used this card for the Anything Goes June swap in Crazy Card Makers.

This card was made for my stepdaughter Paige's birthday. Her favorite color is purple. I had seen a stamp with butterflies similar to my stamped image on this card and loved it, but wasn't able to buy it--and besides, I already had these individual butterfly stamps so decided to imitate the stamp with my own stamps. I colored them in with Bic markers, then used Glossy Accents on the butterflies' wings. Iused gel pens on the butterfly bodies. I drew lines on the edges of the cardstock to frame the image, then inked the cardstock. This was mounted on a scrap of plum colored cardstock, layered over a background comprised of three different paper scraps. To finish, I added two rows of trim and a pearl brad. Oh yes, I added lines to the background paper in the corner as it was just a little too plain otherwise. And the butterfly image is mounted with foam tape to pop it out.

This card makes me happy to look at it. I used two wallpaper samples for the background papers. The image is from PC Crafter.com. The sentiment is computer-printed and mounted on a cardstock tab, embellished with two brads. My favorite Martha Stewart border punch made the while doily trim.

I've been on a roll with wallpaper samples in June. This card uses two more wallpaper samples for the background papers. Again, there's the doily edging made with the Martha Stewart border punch. The blue wooden embellishment is a recycled popsicle stick (please tell me you don't throw those away!) colored with a Sharpie marker. It matched the blue wallpaper sample almost perfectly! The image is another from PC Crafter.com. The bee brads seemed to go with it quite well. All in all, this card went to Robyn in South Africa for the Crazy Card Makers June "letter B" swap. The B's in this card include blue, bees, bloom, and beautiful (in the sentiment).

Now on to the next set of cards from June...Happy cardmaking! Take care and may the grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you!

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