Hugs & Kisses Inchie Card

Greetings to All!
Today's card is a relative to the Valentine Inchie post a few days ago. On that card, as you recall, I mounted 6 inchies equidistant from each other on the front of the card. Each one of the inchies was an individual picture.

In this post I am stamping a beautiful daisy stamp from AMuse Artstamps on a 2" X 2" square of stock with tuxedo black Memento ink, coloring it in with my Copic markers, and then splitting it in half  both ways to get four inchies. I then mounted them on a 2 3/8" square of craft card stock, and then mounted the entire square on the front of the card. I also took two strips of washi tape and stretched it across the card front for a banner that I also tied with twine. For the sentiments, I used the Heart to Heart clear stamp set from Hot Off the Press/Paper Wishes. "Hugs and Kisses"stamped  at the bottom below the washi tape, and "It Tales a Long Time to Grow an Old Friend", next to the inchies.

Inside of the card I stamped, "We"ll be Friends Forever!" and I ran another width of washi tape near the bottom of the card. For the BLING factor on this card, I added an adhesive pearl to the center of the inchie flower on the front.  So, now you have seen two different ways you can use inchies on your greeting cards. Like I mentioned before on the previous post, inchies are quick and fun to make and can be added to a card in just moments. So the next time you need to jump start your mojo, just get out your tiny stamps and stamp up some inchies!  Have a nice weekend, and I will see you again on Monday!

Let's RODEO, Texas Style!

HOWDY Pardner's! The San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo is just around the corner, Feb.7, 2013 is when it starts, and if you enjoy a good old fashioned rodeo with buckin' bronco's, and barrel racers, and goat ropers, then this is the place you need to be. San Antonio has one of the top ranked rodeo's in the USA, and every year it gets bigger and better! (I should work for the Rodeo Association.)

Today's card is titled Let's Rodeo! and features many Texas themed stamps from our own Texas based company, Deadbeat Designs. This very dimensional card is made from kraft card stock, and stamped with tuxedo black Memento Ink and Versamark Sepia Ink.The background papers are from My Minds Eye, and  I am not sure where the design of the foldout card came from, but was shared by a friend.  I dug through all of my Texas stamps by Deadbeat, and picked out stamps that fit the panels of the card, and that pertained to the happenings at the rodeo.

This shows the card laid out flat, I laid it on my scanner bed to take this picture, and so you could see all of the designs and stamps I used. When it is folded up to put in the envelope to mail, it looks like the picture at the top left of the post. If you would like a basic cutting guide for this card, post a comment on this blog and your contact info, and I will get one to you as soon as possible.

Here is an image of the pop-out card that I took, to try and show the folds and layers, of how it looks when it is opened. I'm sorry it came out so blurry, but maybe you get the idea. I hope you all have a nice weekend, and create something beautiful with your Art!

You Are ONE of a Kind !

Greetings fellow Paper Artists!

Today's post is a beautiful heart card done in the folded paper technique of Iris Folding.

I have always loved the look of this ancient art of paper folding, but have never had time to try it. I saw a video of it done on the Paper Wishes webisode several weeks ago, and decided to send off for the template they sell. It is called Teresa's Iris Folding template #1 by Hot Off the Press and Paper Wishes. (photo of template shown below)  As far as I know, there are many folding patterns and designs you can use. HOTP and Teresa Welch have simplified the process and brought together a template that shows a basic folding pattern, and several designs that you can fill to make a beautiful card or scrapbook embellishment.

First, you trace and cut out the shape you want to fill on the front of your card base. You then turn the card over and temporarily tape it to the layout pattern, centering the pattern on your cut out.(as seen below)  You then pick two or four coordinating pattern papers to make your design.

You then cut out strips of paper, the size is in the directions, and fold them where indicated. Then you start placing them around the guide in numerical order as shown on the template. This is much easier to follow from the instructions, rather than me telling or showing you. Each strip of paper is taped down with cellophane tape to the base of the card. When all of the strips have been placed and taped as per the diagram, you trim the excess paper strip ends and cover the back of the design with a piece of cover stock sealing in all of the pieces of paper. To finish my card, I taped around the edges with a printed washi tape to seal in my strips of paper. I then  outlined the heart with a fine line of Dazzles, also made by Hot Off the Press for Paper Wishes. My banner sentiment is from the HOTP clear stamp set titled Heart to Heart, and I just cut a simple banner shape and inked the edges with a lime green chalk ink pad to correspond to the patterned papers I used in the heart.

This card was a lot of fun to make, and the Iris Folding was not as hard as I expected it to be. The template came with a butterfly and a flower shape to fill, so I may try these at a future time. I hope you will try something new in your paper arts and stamping, and until next time, have a "Love"-ly Day!





Valentine Inchie Card

Hello Everyone! Today's Valentine Special Card is one made with Inchies. If you don't know what inchies are, or haven't heard of them before, stick around and I will give you a little history of them.

Inchies are 1" X 1" tiny works of Art! They can be hand stamped, hand drawn, painted, etched, embossed, any type of  artistic medium can be used and any art technique.  Mine are stamped and mixed-media today, and I used them on an A2 card, with a Valentine or Love theme. To begin, I covered a base card with a sheet of 6 X 6 printed paper from the "Ruby" paper pad from My Mind's Eye. Since it was printed with tiny hexagons, I cut out around the little shapes to give the paper a detailed edging.  I then cut out 6 each one inch squares of white card stock, and 6 each squares of red card stock to give each one a small border. I used various stamps with Love Letter Red Memento ink that were a heart or love theme, such as the Wedding Couple, and Love Bird from AMuse Artstamps, along with a single daisy stamp and LOVE square from my stash. The square on the bottom right I covered in red heart washi tape and then glued a tiny wooden heart from Artchix Studios on top.  The sentiment "Happy Valentine's Day!" was stamped in Tuxedo black Memento ink and then I centered it on a banner from the Bannerific clear stamp set from Lawn Fawn.  I also raised two of the squares with a foam dot to give the card texture, along with the banner to make the whole card POP!  In addition to the tiny stones in the daisy centers for bling, I also added a sheer red ribbon up top on the fold of the card.

When I am stuck for inspiration when making a card or art project, I sit down at my stamping table and play with my stamps. Sometimes I color the images, and sometimes I leave them plain. If the image happens to be larger than 1",  you can then punch out 1" squares of the design or use your paper cutter to cut the image into 1" X 1" squares. Usually the inchies are matted with a solid color background before they are used on a project. However, if you separate a larger image into the inch squares, you don't need a background before reassembling them on your card or project. You just assemble them like a mosaic, and leave a small border around each piece.

So, know you know about inchies!  Why not try stamping some out this weekend and make a unique design with them. You will soon be collecting  lots of little inchies to use in your art projects and cards.

Keep a bowl full on your desk for that next special card or tag. You will LOVE them!  See you again soon.

Victorian Valentine

Victorian Lady and Peacock feathers! What else could be so enchanting? Today's Valentine card is a glossy finish background of peacock feathers from DCWV (Die Cuts With a View) mat stack, mounted on a greeting card base.  I also stamped one of the Victorian Ladies from the Hero Arts Stamp and Die Set in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and colored her in with Copic Markers. She was double stick taped to the left side of the card, opposite the printed peacock feathers. The sentiment medallion was also pre-printed on the background and had a very glossy finish. Even the Staz On ink blurred when I stamped it, so I had to wipe it off and stamp the sentiment on a scrap of regular printed paper and adhere with double stick tape. (I guess in my old age, my hands are a little shaky, even with my stamping block!)

Below the medallion, I added a length of lime green adhesive lace along with a strip of red and white washi tape.  To complete the bling on the Valentine card, I made tiny hearts from hot pink Stickles and let them dry until they were firm to the touch.  When they were dry, I cut out around them and adhered them to the peacock feather "eyes" with Glossy Accents.

I hope you are enjoying these Valentine cards that I am making. Hearts are one of my favorite shapes, so Valentines Day must be one of my favorite days for making cards. I hope you get some ideas for creating some Valentines of your own this year. Until tomorrow, happy stamping!

LOVE Hearts

More hearts today!  Today's card is one that went together quickly if you have the parts to assemble it. The background paper was a sheet from the 6 X 6 paper pad titled "Blush" by My Minds Eye. (also the paisley print heart)

The other parts were from a die-cut sheet I got for FREE for being a special customer of Paper Wishes. Die-cuts are a light weight cardboard, a little heavier than card stock, that are printed in color and usually pre-cut so you can just punch them out and use them to decorate cards, tags, and scrapbook pages.They can also be used on virtually any type of art project.

I layered the parts onto the card front with the large heart outline first, then the swirl with flower next. I then added the hand tied bow and the paisley heart I attached with foam tape, to make it pop off the page with dimension. The last element added was the banner with the word "Love" stamped on it, attached over the edge of the card.

This card can be put together very quickly, without even stamping, if your aren't into stamping. Just one sheet of die-cuts will make several cards and you just have to arrange the parts and glue or tape them down. Add a little ribbon and a handwritten message and there you are.Then you will have handmade Valentines to send out or hand out to all your friends. They will think you care so much when you make their card by hand. Thanks for stopping by, see you again tomorrow!

Be Mine Valentine

Hello Stampers and Card Makers! I have another Valentine's Day card for you that is really cute and exciting!
I had the basic parts of this card cut out and partially put together when I came across a little booklet I got Free in one of my shipments of supplies before Christmas.
The background paper and heart, ribbon band and layered flower are from the Blush 6 X 6 paper pad from My Minds Eye. Around the ribbon band and the cut out heart I outlined them with the Thin Border Dazzles from Hot Off the Press in the silver color. I adhered the band and layered flower to the bottom of the card, and used small foam squares between the layers of the flower to make it dimensional. I couldn't decide where I wanted to put the heart, so I kept turning it and moving it around to see where it looked the best. I added three strips of hot pink polka dot ribbon to the right corner of the card, and a strip of washi tape with multi colored hearts to the bottom of the card. The only place left for the heart was in the top left corner, but it looked so plain there, That is when I found the little white booklet with green stripped border that had an arrow on the cover. I adhered the heart to the book cover and then adhered the book to the front of the card. That was the exact look I wanted, but to my surprise, when I opened the little booklet. . . look what happened!

The little booklet was a heart, folded to look like a mini-book!  What a surprise! I wrote the word LOVE inside with a white marker, but you could write any secret message inside for your friend or loved one.
I hope you liked today's card, and will make one for someone special in your life. Have a great day, and I will see you again tomorrow.

Party Hearty . . . It's Your Birthday!

Greetings fellow stampers and paper artists!  The card for today is titled "Party Hearty" it's your birthday, and is a paper pieced card that is similar to one I saw on a Paper Wishes blog post. I am a huge Paper Wishes Fan, and love their projects and supplies. This card is made using one of their Design Template tools kit #2.

Background paper #1 purple with lt. blue polka dots is cut from "A Beautiful Life" 6 X 6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye with the Vintage Label Stencil.  Layer #2 floral print is also from "A Beautiful Life and the Vintage Sign stencil. Layer #3 is a chipboard tag covered in a yellow print from "Sunshine" 6 X 6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye, and has the sentiment "Party Hearty" stamped in Versacolor black ink from the Birthday Greetings clear stamp set from Hot Off the Press. Each end of the tag was punched with a small hole punch, and a crinkled purple ribbon was looped through the holes around the edge of the design stack of printed papers.

The stacked flower was made by punching several layers from the scraps of paper I used, and then arranged with foam tape between the layers to give the flower depth. A single bow was tied with the same ribbon used in the tag and placed behind the flower.  Finally, to add some bling to the card, I added pink Stickles to the outside edge of the tag, and small coordinating stones and pearls in among the stamped letters of the sentiment.

If you have any questions on how this card was done, or any questions or comments, please feel free to leave me a message. I would love to hear from you. See you again soon.

Winter Wonderland Card

Happy Wintertime fellow stampers!
Today was another one of those dreary days here in So. Texas where I live. The only good things about this dreary weather is that we really do need the rain that we get, plus it gives me lots to time to work on cards.

Today's card is another winter themed card with papers from the Graphic 45 line," A Place in Time." The colors for the January embellishments and papers are in shades of teal, so I used some strips of the teal printed pages attached to the card base as my background. I punched a 3 1/2" circle from white card stock and used a new metal stencil I got with  club kit I belong to. Paper Wishes/Hot off the Press has a monthly club kit that features metal stencils. Each month you get a kit with 2 metal stencils and a newsletter with lots of ideas for using the stencils, on cards, tags, scrapbook pages and the like.  They also discuss how to use different techniques and products with the stencils to help you with your projects.  When I used to work at Stamp Antonio Arts, here in San Antonio, we sold a lot of the metal stencils. I just never learned how to use them, and never seemed to have the time to take any of the classes offered.

With this stencil of the ice skates, I first traced around the inside of the stencil with a Pigma Micron .005 fine tip permanent marker. I then removed the stencil, and went over the laces and shoestrings with a heavier tip .08 fine tip permanent black marker.I also traced around the boot and heel with the larger tipped marker. The next step was to color the boot, and I used my Copic markers in Aqua shades to color them. Finally, I colored the bow with streamers and the metal blades of the skates with Ice Blue Stickles. The instructions suggested Silver Stickles, but I thought the light blue would bring the card together, especially since I was using so much of the teal blue. To complete the card I cut a tag and stamped "Winter Wonderland" on it, and shaded the edges with Ocean Water Distressed Ink and tied some Caribbean blue twine around the whole card vertically and knotted it.

This time of the year when so many people are feeling depressed and blue, I like to suggest trying something new like stamping or card making to help lift your spirits. Just trying one thing new each day will help you boost your self esteem and help you feel like you really have accomplished something. So get out there and try a new technique, or even use new colors in your stamping that you have never used before. Then share it with a friend, and make someone else HAPPY!  See you soon.

Got Bee's in Your Bonnet?

Hi stampers and paper artists!
I hope you are having a good day today. The card I want to share with you today, is using a beautiful stamp and die set from Hero Arts, and it is the head of a Victorian Woman with a beautiful feathered bonnet. The stamp came in a set with the cling mounted stamp and a die to match. I stamped the image on heavy white watercolor paper, and used my Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils to color it in. When the watercolor pencil and paper were dry, I placed the matching die over the image and ran it through my die cutting machine to cut it out. You can see the small white border around the stamped image if you look closely.
I then stamped two small bee's from the Lawn Fawn "Be Mine" clear stamp set and colored them with the Inktense pencils, too.  The sentiment, "Got Bees in your bonnet?" is from a set of sentiments from Cardz TV's clear set, "Going Buggy?" I also stamped "hello honey" inside the card. It was from the same "buggy"set.  I then put the card together by adhering a sheet of paper from the Almanac Collection by Prima Papers on the card front, and then glue dots on the woman's image and banner. The cute little bee's I attached with tiny dots of foam tape to really make them pop off the page.

This is an old saying that I haven't heard in years, but means, is something bothering you? I think it made a really pretty card, and when I find the right person to send it to, I sure hope they like it. Even if it is just for the little bee's!  Thanks for stopping by.

Winter Wishes Collage Card

Brrrrrrrrr! Is Jack Frost nipping at your nose? Hello fellow stampers and collage artists. Today's card that I want to share with you is a Winter Wishes Collage card made from the 8" X 8 " "A Place in Time" paper pad from Graphic 45.

The January collage item page has snowflakes and snowmen in shades of teal. So I pulled out a teal card base to construct my card. I first got all my collage pieces together that I wanted to use, and arranged then on the front of my card to check the size. I then stamped the Snowflake #2 stamp from Penny Black in Versamark Clear Embossing Ink in several places on the front of the card, sprinkled them with white opaque embossing powder, and then heat set them. I then attached the collage elements to the card front with double stick adhesive and foam dots for the postage stamps.
I then stamped the phrases, "Brrrrrr!" and "Jack Frost" on the front of the card, and "Baby, it's COLD outside!" on the inside of the card. All of the phrases came from the "Snow Day" clear stamp set from Cardz TV with Mary. They have some of the cutest phrase stamp sets ever, I just went crazy when I saw them.  Of course, I wanted all the phrase stamps when I saw them, but had to limit my purchase to just a few.  Why not check them out HERE when you get a chance.

Have a great day, pour yourself some tea, and make some greeting cards. You will be glad you did! See you soon.

Bee Mine

Greetings friends,
I have another Valentine/Friendship card for you today.  The idea is from a video I saw on YouTube where the artist made the sleeve/pocket and then used it for a gift card holder or greeting card holder.

I didn't take down the measurements from the video, so I played around with my card stock until it came out right. I finally realized that it used an 81/2" X 11" piece of card stock cut in half lengthwise. (41/4" X 11") The pieces were then scored at 5 1/2" or in half cross-wise. The outer sleeve took one whole sheet of card stock. One piece made the left section, and the other half made the right section. After each section was scored, you cut the angle on the top flap only, and then overlapped the two to make the pocket.

For the card I inserted inside, I cut a piece of stock 4" X 5" and then used it to mat a piece of stiff watercolor paper. That helped to give the insert a little stability. To decorate the out side sleeve and the insert, I dug through some more of my stamping scraps and trimmings. This file consists of images I have stamped out and colored with various pencils, markers, and pens to try them out.  These roses were colored with Copic markers and stamped in tuxedo black Memento Ink. I used pop dots to pop out three roses on the sleeve, and glue dots to adhere three more to the insert.  I stamped "Bee Mine" and the bee, from the Bee Mine clear set from Lawn Fawn, and then tied a red sheer ribbon around the whole insert before placing it in the sleeve.

This made a very interesting card, something out of the ordinary. Those are the type of cards I really like! I really liked the weather today, too here in So. Texas. For the past week or so it has been cold, and cloudy, and dreary.  But today the sun was out when I awoke, and stayed out all day!  I even got outside to soak up some of the Vitamin D that was pouring from the sky! I hope you enjoyed your day, and could do a little stamping of your own. Until tomorrow, take care!

Your Friendship Warms My Heart!

Hello fellow stampers!  How is the New Year treating you? Today I  am sharing a Valentine or Friendship Card with you. The background is the Blooming Heart stamp from Hero Arts, stamped with tuxedo black Memento Ink on white card stock. The flowers were colored in with various red and pink Copic Markers. The little girl is from the Warm Wishes clear stamp set from My Favorite Things, and so is the saying, "your friendship warms my heart!"

The girl in her coat and hat was stamped in tuxedo black Memento Ink also, and colored with my Copic Markers. After coloring, I cut her from the white card stock and used foam dots to pop her up from the surface, and added a 1" strip of patterned paper to the top. I then tied a strip of ribbon around the image and knotted a strip at the top for a bow. A single heart flower with stem and leaves was stamped beside the girl, and the whole unit was adhered to the front of the card base.

Valentines Day is one of my favorite "card making" holidays of the year. I hope to have quite a few samples available to show you this year in time for Valentines Day, February 14, 2013. Have a safe and warm weekend, and I will join you again on Monday.