3 cards for you today!!! No wonder it took a week for a new post...

Hello!!

I'm typing this with Isabella sitting on my lap singing "Row Row Row your boat" (but her special version)...

I've made three cards this week, with much frustration on one but the other two came easily and with little thought (always the way for me!)

The first, "Thinking of You" above is a card I tried to incorporate lots of techniques into.
FIrst I chose a piece of green bazzil cardstock from my new pack of pre-cut pieces. HANDY!! I then stamped the gorgeous leaves woodblock stamp from Hero Arts in Forest Moss Distress ink.
I then stamped the same image in a light brown distress ink (I forget which one!!) and rubbed some perfect pearls gently over the top. Next I cut out some flowers using my NEW EK Success flower punch and then stamped & embossed them wit a Hero Arts swirl woodblock stamp. I simply layered them with their petals on angles with each other and secured with a button & some thread. I also inked the edges just lightly with distress ink.

I then hand-sewed some green thread to make the stem. It's only very light and not too easy to see in this picture but I kind of like the subtelty of it...(subtelty doesn't look right spelt that way...hmmm)

I stamped the first two words of the sentiment with plain ol' black stayz-on, onto the card stock, then I chose the smallest Tim Holtz fragment charm I could see and stamped the 'you' onto it with the same stayz-on. I also dipped the back of the charm in versamark ink and embossed it with the same swirl stamp I used for the flowers, but used the 'kissing' method Jennifer McGuire uses (where you cover the surface in embossing powder, ink the stamp and then kiss the stamp to the already embossed surface.)

Again, a subtle effect but I like it.
Then I tried desperately to stitch neatly around the edges with my sewing machine (to no avail!) but I like the look. Handmade items are supposed to be a tad less than perfect I think and the wonky stitching certainly makes it look handmade! (I'll keep telling myself that!)



This next card is called "for the graduate" and I love it!
I distress inked a piece of dictionary paper in mustard seed and forest moss in the centre of the page with tea dye and walnut stain on the edges for a nice aged look. I also screwed the paper up tightly a couple of times then swiped the crevaces with dark walnut stain in a sweeping motion. Next I tore up the edges to make it look as if the page were almost burnt. I added extra walnut stain DI where needed.
I took this gorgeous little chipboard owl and just added crackle paint in peeled paint and left him to dry--what a hoot! (*wink*).
Next I tore a piece of plain ol' notepaper out of a tiny notepad I have, stamped the sentiment from Tim Holtz' stampers anonymous series and distress inked the page with the same colours as above (walnut stain mostly, a touch of tea dye and a swipe of the forest moss to tie in the colours). I crumped the paper up just lightly to reflect the dictionary paper.
Then I just compiled them all on top of each other, only lightly adhering the notepaper to the backing so that it stood up off the card a little (I didn't want to use dimensional tape/dots as I didn't want lumps. I wanted it to sit naturally so I just dotted glue-tape and put tiny amounts of double-sided tape all over the back of it). To finish, I used my gorgeous Dymo label maker to add the 'the graduate' sentiment and the 'congrats'.


This next one only took a few minutes to actually make really. I did as little thinking as possible (which always tends to work better for me) and lots of playing. I stamped the Hero Arts leaves woodblock stamp in forest moss onto green bazzil cardstock and swiped some Forest Moss DI on the edges, with a light covering of Broken China, Milled Lavender and Bundled sage DI. I used these same colours on the tag and but first I stamped the same leaves image in versamark and used white embossing powder to cover it. Unfortunately this was a new tub of embossing powder and it had caked up a bit in the store so it didn't give the usual smooth coverage, but it ended up looking quite nice in reality despite the grainy texture--added for some interest. I punched 8 pieces of scrap paper out and temporarily adhered them to the tage before distress inking them, to create a shadow effect (or the opposite of a shadow really), then after DI'ing the tage, I punched out the same number of squares from vintage textbook paper and attatched those to the tag just off centre to the blank 'shadows' below, using dimensional tape to give some extra height & dimension. The text page squares were edged with a little Broken China DI and a TINY bit of Walnut Stain.

done!!

ok, both kids are now clambering for attention, so that's mummy's time at the computer done...more soon :)

Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed!! Feel free to comment :)