Heart Balloons at The Outlawz

     Today's card uses Sandi Huggert's image for The Outlaws Creative Freebie Challenge here. You can find Sandi's blog and images here. I decided to make this for a friend's daughter who didn't go away to college, so she doesn't usually get cards when I do my mailings to those away at college. I decided she could use a card too ;- ) My original vision was to paint the whole image with glitter and early on, I did some tests on that, but put it aside (which is never a good thing with me.) So here I am coloring in PhotoShop (which I would have done anyway so there would be color under the glitter ;- ) I tried to stay true to my vision/inspiration and went over the part I had planned to use silver glitter on with the Stardust glitter pen by Sakura. I did paint the red hearts with Martha Stewart glitter. I used black gel pen on the purple balloon. I added red Martha Stewart twine for the balloon strings. The circle and scalloped circle were cut with the Quick Kuts die set made to go with some of the Hero Arts stamps. The sentiment is from Hero Arts Sweet Wonderful You and was embossed with Red Dragon embossing powder from Stampendous. I inked it with Dusty Concord Distress ink. The rick rack was cut with a die from The Scrapping Cottage. Those of you with keen eyes will notice that I put the border on upside down >.< Just shows how things are going in my current state of craziness. I also should have rounded the corners.

     Thanks for stopping by two days in a row. I've have another progressive due on Mon. So I better get to work ;- ) Have a great rest of your weekend!

Valentine for a Techie

     Well, I surface again <.< Today's card is a valentine for my son. The sentiment was cut from Cricut's Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake Art Cartridge. I learned it's best to size for your width with this cart, because otherwise it goes very wide thinking you're making a cake (I was using the Gypsy, so I could see the size ahead of time), but when you select the size to cut the shadow, be sure to select relative, but use the height number of your cut to get the shadow to match your tip cut. The software is use to expecting things sized to height, so that's the way it computes the relative size. The pattern paper is Paper Studio. I actually made a mistake her and the sentiment and it's shadow are suppose to be reversed. They are suppose to mimic the colors and style of my son's computer as you will see on the inside.

     The SVG on the inside is cut using Sure Cuts A Lot a a file from Designs On Cloud 9 called Tech Toys. The set also includes game controllers and an iPod. You can find the file here and check out some of there other cute files. They also have a free file each week!!! The papers are Bazzill from Archiver's. The sentiment on the computer screen is also welded and cut using Sure Cuts A Lot2 and the font  is Orbitron. If you'd like the cut file,  just let me know. The pattern paper is from Generation Tech by DCWV.

The matted sentiment on the bottom is printed digitally using the same font. I used stickles to re-create the look of his speakers and a white gel pen to  mark the keys on the keyboard that spell, Valentine. We'll see if he gets that code ;- )

     I also added a tab similar to a pop-up card, so that it allows the card to open and close properly and so that my son could set it on his desk in the open position and admire his computer look-alike, without the bottom of the computer flopping loose.

     Well, I also forgot to distress the white a bit, in my rush to get his package of goodies off to him at college. I think he'll like it though ;- ) Thanks for stopping by and giving me some of your precious time. Please, leave a comment before you go, I can use a boost. have a spectacular weekend!

The Outlawz freebie challenge - a day early ;- 0

     Today's post is a bookmark using Anne's image from The Outlawz Freebie Challenge here. You can find Anne's blog here. I colored the image in PhotoShop Elements. I added appropriate romantic titles to the book spines (fonts are Love Store in Nickelodeon, Love Poems in SNF Infinity and Sonnets in SNF Sunday Alternate - Nickelodeon (a freebie) can be found here and Scrap n Fonts can be found here (about $5, but they go on sale))  and added artwork using PhotoShop brushes that I'd picked up as freebies. The one on the top book (which is hard to see and you might want to click the photo to make it bigger to see any of this ;- ) is from the Heart brush set by Pop the bubble wrap, the middle book (on the spine) Heart brushes by Cassie and the bottom one by Hero Arts at 2peas Background stone etchings. The best way to find them would be to google Photoshop brushes + hearts or do browse over at Brusheeezy or deviantART. I added Diamond Lace stickles to the heart. The square mat was sprayed with Crafters Companion Spray and Sparkle Iridescent Glitter Varnish. The pattern paper is from Paper Studio. I experimented at the bottom and used a scalloped circle die from Quick Kutz to cut the edge. I added some card stock to the area above where I didn't want it cut, in case I went to far when I put it throughout the Big Kicks. I had just wanted a softer end on the bookmark.

     The nice thing about doing the image digitally is that I can make multiples. I'm thinking of using this to make some note cards for my librarian friend, with maybe a change of titles. She works in a school library, so I'll change them to children's lit ;- ) This one is for me though.

     Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a relaxing and creative weekend. I will be back soon with the other image and another bookmark. please leave me a comment before you go.

Anniversary or Valentine ;- )

     Today's card is an anniversary card for a dear friend's oldest daughter. I used the same love bird stamp that I used on the wedding card I showed on the last post (by Inkadinkado), but I wanted this one to have a different look. I decided to use the heart from the Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake Cart. The pink cardstock in the back is Core'dinations Glitter cardstock. So, once I started in this direction, I found myself using pinks and reds. When the front was done, it looked like it could be a Valentine, but I basically decided that both celebrate the same thing... Love. So it's appropriate. The roses were ones I made with the Quilled Creations Quilled Roses quilling set, that I showed in this post here. I found this kit at Hobby Lobby. I frosted them with Martha Stewart fine glitter. The ribbon was on clearance at Michaels. I actually even remembered to round the corners this time. Woo Hoo!

     The inside was done digitally in Photoshop Elements. The font is LDWedding, for most of the writing,  LDJ Jilligraphy for the word "wonderful" and LDJ Revelry for the word "Romantic". All these fonts are from Lettering Delights. The heart flourish is from the brush set, Valentine-clip-art-3 from photoshopfreebrushes.com. The 3 red roses are from the brush set, inobscuro_roses. You can find it here. It says it works with Photoshop 7, but I use it with Elements 3, so if you like it try it. I used glitter pen around the hearts and on the rose details, but you can't tell in the photo.

  
     What would I do differently? I like how it turned out, maybe use purple to stamp the birds and in the ribbon, so it doesn't look so much like a Valentine, unless I was making a Valentine.

     Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment, I really appreciate hearing from you and knowing you were here. Have a Happy Mother's Day! Enjoy your families. 

Easel card, multi-views

     We didn't get back from visiting my son at college until very late, so I didn't get these posted until now. Here are the different views of the easel card to help you understand it's construction better.

     The directions for cutting and assembling this card are in the previous post. Thanks for stopping by and for your comments.

Valentine for a friend

     Today's card is my first easel card. I cut the base card stock at 11 x 4 1/4 inches. I then scored and folded it in half making it an A2 (5 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches). I then scored the front in half (2 3/4 inches) and folded the opposite way (up and out from the card).  I attached a piece of patterned paper from Paper Studio, to a piece of 5 1/5  x 4 1/4 white card stock, to make it stiff enough. This I then attached to the piece of the base that was folded out, attaching the folded piece to the top of the patterned piece. You might want to try the card closed and easeled before gluing, to be sure you understand the orientation of these pieces. That was the way it worked for me, because just looking at pictures wasn't enough.  I'll try to post a side view of the card tomorrow, so you can get a better view of that.

Here is the card easeled. (by the way I don't think that's a word ;- )

     The top heart was cut on the Expression using the Storybook cart at 2 inches, from pink glitter paper (use multi cut and raise your blade setting for this). The one underneath was suppose to be a shadow, but I used the dot feature key by mistake and it works. The second heart is from the Accent Essentials cart. The main image is cut from the red card stock and the main image with the shift key is cut from the pink glitter paper, also at 2 inches.

This is what the card looks like closed, except when it lies by itself it pops up a bit, so the ends don't seem to line up at the bottom, but they really do.

     On the inside, I used patterned paper from Paper Pizzaz, cut at 3 inches, at the top. I attached a piece of red card stock at the bottom, that I punched with a Martha Stewart punch and then I added pearls. I used pink ink to stamp  a sentiment to a piece of white card stock and then embossed it with clear embossing powder. The stamp was a $1 stamp from JoAnn's. I then added epoxy stickers from EK Success.  I printed my personal sentiment digitally and cut it with a scalloped oval nestability.

     What would I do different? Well, I'd meant to dry emboss the red paper on the inside and I think I'd still like to see that. Also I think I would have cut the inside red piece bigger, so that I could center the way the punches ended up better and the trim it to fit, instead of cutting first and then punching. I am really happy with the paper though. I'might have done the Happy Valentine's digitally, but I was trying to use 1 of only 2 stamps I have and the other didn't fit. Well, there you have it. I hope my friend likes it. thanks for spending your busy time with me. Let me know that you stopped by.

Getting on with the Valentines

     Well, despite some shopping at Hobby Lobby and JoAnne's, I was still able to finish my DS's Valentine card. Very tricky this year, because he's in collage and likes to put up his cards on his bulletin board, so I had to keep it non-mushy and non-embaressing, as well as mature ;- ) That's an awful lot to ask of a mom! So I decided, no pink or red on the outside. I have picked up a lot of cool, free Photoshop brushes, at a few sites so I took some time yesterday, just going over them. One, I liked for my son, was from a site called photoshopfreebrushes.com. Who'd of guessed. I applied a few effect to it such as, chrome and wow chrome beveled edge to make it look metallic. I had the original layer on top and made that layer partly transparent for the effects to show. I also add one of the texture backgrounds that comes with Photoshop Elements. I then printed this and used it as the top layer of the card. On this I attached the word Hugs cut from the Smiley Cards cart on the Gypsy. It was cut at 1 1/4 inches from blue DCWV paper. I bowed it slightly and attached it with shiny heart brads and silver dull brads from Spare Parts. I also added faux stitching with a black glaze pen.

     On the inside, I started with a black mat. I made the sentiment digitally using the font Tabitha, which comes on Macintosh computers. After that, I remembered an idea I had while shopping, to put a list of the reasons we love him, in his card. So, I decided to make a tag and find a way to squeeze that in too. I stamped the tag with a clear stamp by Autumn Leaves called Hand Drawn Journaling Panels by Katie Pertiet with Big and Bossy and clear embossing powder. I then rubbed rubbed Ranger's Broken China ink over it and cleaned the excess off of the embossed areas. I wrote on it with a black glaze pen. I made 2 hearts out of Core'dinations Magic Paper that was black with a red core. I cut the hearts at 1 inch with the Expression using Plantin Schoolbook using the Roly Poly feature key. I then dry embossed it with Swiss Dots and sanded it so the red core would show. I used one of the hearts to help hold the tag on the card, but also attached the tag with removable tape, so he can take the tag off and save it anywhere he wants.

     What would I change? I would have planned for the tag better to begin with and moved the writing  over inside the card. Or... maybe I would have planned a pocket in the card for the tag to fit in and the it could be slipped out. Though I do like it as an element in the card, maybe I'll shorten the twine a bit yet and attach the twine across the top. The inside isn't quite right, but I like the card. I might have been able to make the digital writing narrower and that would have balanced the tag better. Ah, that sounds better.
Well, thanks again for visiting. Please give me your feedback. I'd love to hear from you.

Valentine from the past

     Well, I worked on my friends card today, so I can't post that. It didn't go as easily as I thought, but what does. That's a story for when a post the card, after her birthday though.  I keep seeing all these postings of Valentines. People have been showing them for weeks now. I haven't had time to think about what I'm doing for Valentine's Day yet, because there is so much to do in-between now and then. Do some of you find that too? I'm happy to get my cards done just in time to mail them ;- ) I really don't do many Valentine's though, fortunately. My DH, DS and one friend who sends one to me. I will mail to the college students in Feb. but Valentine's don't really seem appropriate to friends of my son, so I'll just go with a winter theme. So I decided to show you the Valentine card, I made for my friend last year. 

     I used my favorite, A Child's Year. Looks like it was cut at about 3 inches and has a shadow. I liked a vintage feel with the black and white in every thing except the actual Valentine images. I got the  background paper as single sheets at Hobby Lobby. I don't remember now where I got the heart image cut out. The ones on A Child's Year are much fancier. It might have been Plantin Schoolbook. I stamped and embossed the sentiment with metallic embossing powder. Here is a closer look, but it's a bit blurry. I'm afraid even though I used the close-up setting, I was still too close. 

     The papers inside also came from Hobby Lobby and the words and heart were printed from my computer. The heart stamp on the bottom is actually a Photo Shop brush that I got from a site that had freebies. I don't remember which one now, but if you're interested leave me a comment and I'll try to find it. They had a number of very nice free brushes for Valentine's Day available and they were all free! Thanks for spending your precious time here. Let me know what you think.