Lovely Westcoast

I wanted to try to get the feeling of the Westcoast in my next brayered card, so I used a soft blue to brayer the mountains in the distance ... I'm happy with the way it turned out.  It definitely looks familiar!! :)

 

I ended up with the main image slightly smaller than when I started.  Sometimes with glossy paper there are imperfections (or fingerprints, even though I wipe the paper with a clean cloth before starting).  That happened to me today - there were small imperfections, luckily all on the one side of the paper near the edge.  So when I was finished brayering and stamping, I just cut the paper down a little ... you'd never know!  Hope you like.

 

"Lovely Westcoast"

 

 

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Vintage Labels (sentiment) (SU!)

Paper:  Glossy White, Soft Suede Designer Series (SU!); Brown Leather

Ink:  Old Olive, Baja Breeze; Stampin' Write markers:  Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Soft Suede, Early Espresso

Accessories & Tools:  Speedball Rubber Brayer, post-it notes for masking, sponge, clear embossing powder, heat tool, small oval punch, medium oval punch, suede strips, sticky strips, adhesives and dimensionals

 

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I ripped a post-it note mask to cover the sky area on the glossy paper (about 2/3).  I brayered Old Olive up to the mask and then used a small sponge to add a darker line right along the mask at the top of the "grass" area.  I removed the mask and ripped a new mask for the first set of mountains (right above the grass area).  I covered the rest of the sky with the mask and then brayered Baja Breeze ink for the first mountain range, ending at the grass.  I removed the mask and placed the third (and final mask) to covered the sky, creating a second range of mountains above the first.  I brayered with Baja Breeze and carried it down to just above the lowest dip in the first mountain range, leaving a small bit of white space (it's hard to tell in the picture above).  I removed the mask and then brayered Baja Breeze just at the top of the sky area, leaving lots of white space between the top range of mountains and the blue sky.

Using Stampin' Write markers, I inked the tree with Soft Suede and Old Olive and stamped the tree in the middle of the grass area.  I used my heat tool to heat set and dry the ink.  I then "colored" in the trunk of the tree with more Soft Suede and also random swipes of Early Espresso.  I colored in the tree branches with Old Olive and Always Artichoke.  I heat set the inks again.

A knotted double strand of suede strips was added at the top left corner of the main image.  The main image was mounted onto the background paper and card base as shown in the picture above, popping up the main image with dimensionals.

The sentiment was stamped in Early Espresso ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.  

Bird's Nest

A while back I started a card and once I had the background paper done, I wasn't sure what to do with it.  I had used my Little Leaves die-cut for a previous card, then kept the "stencil" that's created when die-cutting and used it to sponge a backdrop of leaves on white paper.  I added a grid with the Scor-Pal and then ran out of ideas of what to do.  I had tried adding some flowers and they just didn't look right, so I filed away the background and today, it just came to me what to do with it.  Viola ... my bird's nest card.  Hope you like.

 

"Bird's Nest"

 

 

Stamps:  Pendant Park (sentiment) (SU!)

Paper:  Whisper White, Not Quite Navy (SU!)

Ink:  Kiwi Kiss, Old Olive, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Night of Navy (SU!)

Accessories & Tools:  Two-step bird punch, Little Leaves die-cut (stencil), raffia, Word Window punch, Scor-Pal, white gel pen, sticky strips, adhesives and dimensionals

 

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Using the stencil that's left over after cutting out the Sizzix Little Leaves, I sponged Kiwi Kiss and Old olive to create the leafy backdrop on the Whisper White cardstock.  I then used the Scor-Pal to create a grid (see Splitcoaststampers for tutorial on how to create a grid).  I finished the background paper by sponging around the outside edges with Old Olive and Kiwi Kiss inks.

I sponged two strands of raffia with Soft Suede ink and then added random patches of Early Espresso ink to give the raffia some color.  I wound one strand around two fingers several times, pulled in off and then started wrapping the other way.  Once one strand was used up, I added a second strand and kept wrapping until I was happy with the look of my "nest".  I tied the two strand ends together at the back to secure and hold everything in place.  I used sticky strips to glue the nest to the background, placing it on one branch.  I punched the bird out of Not Quite Navy cardstock and sponged with Night of Navy ink around the edges.  I glued the back wing to the body of the bird and popped up the front wing with a dimensional.  I then placed the bird sitting in the nest and popped it up with another dimensional.  I used the white gel pen to add an eye on the bird.

I stamped the sentiment in Night of Navy ink and punched it out with the Word Window punch and added it below the nest.

Happy Graduation Card

I had a request from Melissa on Splitcoaststampers asking for instructions on how to make the below Graduation card.  I made this card last October when my son received his degree in Visual Arts from SFU.  I CASE'd this card from Jackie Topa.  Hope you like.

 

"Happy Graduation Card"

 

 

Stamps:  None (computer-generated sentiment)

Paper:  Pacific Point, Real Red, Whisper White (SU!)

Ink:  Whisper White (SU!)

Accessories & Tools:  5/8" Basic Black satin ribbon (approx. 8"), small brad, gold thread, hole punch, sticky strips, adhesives and dimensionals

 

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First I made the "shirt" ... using one the two pieces of 4" x 2" Whisper White (laying vertically), I scored a line from the 1" over from the top right to 1" down from the top right (diagonal line) and then creased the fold (see below picture for visual).  I repeated this with the second 4" x 2" piece but on the left hand side.
 
 

 
I then layered the left hand piece over top of the right, just overlapping slightly at center (about 1/8") and adhered them together.  I then cut a "V" shape with my shirt from the top left corner to the middle of the bottom and from the top right corner to the middle of the bottom (see below picture for visual).
 
 

 
I punched a hole in the middle, just under the collar of the shirt (or you could cut a slit with an Exacto knife).  I took the black satin ribbon and tied a loose 1/2 knot and fed one end through the hole and glued it to the back of the white cardstock.  I used a couple of glue dots to hold the "tie" onto the shirt.
 
I then used the Real Red 5/8" strips of paper to add a design on top by gluing them along the edge of the "V" and overlapping the strips at the bottom and then trimming any excess.  The thin strips of Pacific Point were placed on top of the red, overlapping at the bottom and then trimmed to created the "V".  Then the whole panel was adhered using sticky strips to the card base, lining it up with the top edge.

I framed the sentiment (that I printed on my computer) on Real Red cardstock and adhered to the bottom right side of the card front.

The "hat" was next.  I took the 2 1/2" piece of Pacific Point and scored a line 1/4" in on all four sides and folded the creases to the back and glued them down ... this give the illusion of depth of the hat, but you can certainly just use a 2" piece of cardstock instead.  I sponged the edges with Whisper White ink to give more definition to the hat since it would be sitting on the blue cardstock.  I punched a small hole in the middle, made a tassel out of gold thread and threaded it through the hole and glued it to the back and then added a small brad through the same hole.  The hat was attached to the card and popped up with dimensionals to give it even more depth.

I framed the inside white panel with Real Red cardstock and adhered to the inside of the card.

Baby Buggy

Today I'm sharing how I made a "Baby Buggy" card.  It's so adorable and you will definitely be the only one giving a special card like this!  Hope you like.

 

"Baby Buggy"

Stamps:  Short & Sweet (sentiment) (SU!)

Paper:  Pacific Point Blue, So Saffron, Whisper White

Ink:  Pacific Point Blue

Accessories & Tools:  Big Shot (or cutting machine), large scalloped circle die-cut, Swirls Scribbles Sizzlits die-cut, Sizzix buttons die-cut, 1 3/8" circle punch, scallop trim border punch, small oval punch, medium oval punch, scalloped circle punch, two yellow buttons, 6" yellow 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, polka-dot embossing folder

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I ran the folded card base through my Big Shot with the scalloped circle die-cut, making sure the fold was inside the circle on the left hand side by about 1/2".  I then ran the card base through the Big Shot again with the polka-dot embossing folder.

I used the 5" x 2" So Saffron cardstock to punch out the scalloped border, trimmed it to size and adhered it to the middle of the buggy and along the front edge of the "bonnet" part of the buggy.  Using the 8" x 2" So Saffron cardstock, I punched out four 1 3/8" circle for the wheels and attached two at the front and two at the back of the card.  It's important to have wheels on the back of the card in order to balance the card so it will sit straight.  Two Pacific Point flower buttons are centered on the wheels on the front of the card.  Two yellow buttons are centered on the flower buttons.

The sentiment was stamped using only half of the "welcome baby" stamp and then framed as per the picture above (popped up with dimensionals).  The Swirls Scribbles die-cut was used for the handle and a yellow bow finished off the card.