OCC Stretch Your Stamps: Day Two

I've not played with Perfect Pearls very much so when this lesson came up yesterday I was quite excited.  This JudiKins leaf background stamp was ideal for this technique.   I really like the richness of Perfect Pearls and it's depth of colors.

Online Card Class: Stretch Your Stamps - Day One

Really it's day 3 of class already but who is keeping track?  Not me!  This is one of the things I enjoy about OCC...you can sign up for classes and take them at your leisure.  I prefer to try to keep up but in real life it's not that practical.

Day one had us making background pieces with large background stamps.  With some embossing powder and watercolors, the backgrounds really turned out interesting.   This is a background stamp from Hero Arts.

The first two cards are made with the above panel.  I did not follow (shocker) the actual card designs, great as they were.  But this process was fun and encouraged me to play with it and my dies.  I used the stamped and embossed panel to die cut the feathers and birds for the two below cards.

My third card is again from a background stamp, a JudiKins wood mount of butterflies from many years ago.  This time simply inked with multiple Distress Inks, spritzed and stamped.  I did follow the card design on this one.  Getting those inchies straight is a chore and I'm not sure I would do this again.  I'm not fond of being so exact, LOL.  However, I am happy with the results.

Thanks for looking:)

More Strawberries

Yes, more.  These little jewels are becoming addictive.  This time I used Stephanie Barnard's Elegant Flip-It card die to show off her luscious strawberries from her "strawberries2stamp set and dies.  In my 6x6 paper stash I was thrilled to come across the tiny strawberries paper from Prima.  How lucky was that?  Combining the Elegant dies, Mini-flowers and the fabulous strawberry leaf dies that are embossed made for a fun card to play with and put together.  I couldn't stop myself from making those darling flowers and leaves.  A few candy dots for the flower centers was just the ticket to finish the card.

Thanks for looking.

Card closed:

Flower detail:

Card opened:

Unity FWF Friday 8-1-14

Oh my goodness...it's August!

Today's FWF is made with two sets of Unity stamps.  The flowers are from Insightful Meadows and the sentiment and butterfly are both from Gina and Me.  A truly fast and easy card.  I dabbed Mini Distress Ink pads directly onto the stamps, spritzed with water and stamped on watercolor paper.  How easy is that?  Then also stamped in a light color directly onto the card base for a shadow look.  The tag was cut from MFT Tag Stacks.  My butterfly was cut using my Klic-N-Kut and then stamped on.  Various levels of foam mounting tape give the card some extra interest.

Thanks for looking:

Two Random Cards

Well one is really random and one isn't.  Can you guess which is which?  Don't bother, I'll tell you.  The Season's Greetings card came about for two reasons.  One is I am in a challenge with my dear Squirrel buddies.  We have given ourselves 3 cards to make over the next two weeks...or at least that is how I have chosen to interpret the challenge.  We 3 have each picked a component and at least one of them must be in a card.  My choice was to use embossing folders.  The second reason for this card (Jen picked using a holiday theme) besides holiday is that I signed up for an older OCC class called Pattern Play.  The class is designed to teach how to use up all that lovely, addictive patterned paper that we so willingly have hoarded.  This design was taken from that class.  So not random at all.

This next card is definitely the random one.  Or should I say a "scraps-left-on-my-desk" card.  I've been playing with some oval stitched dies from MFT and wanted to use them in a card.  There, right on my desk were a few leftover scraps of PL cards which are ideal for card making.  So this is what I ended up with.  The flowers and leaves are TSOL dies also cut from the PL cards.

Strawberry Basket

Nothing like fresh strawberries to say it's summer.  This card screams summer and all the tasty things that can be enjoyed involving strawberries.  For me, just as is, with nothing added is my way of eating these little jewels.  So when Stephanie Barnard's July stamp and die set was all about strawberries I was thrilled.  Then a few days later she lured me in with this berry basket die.  L.O.V.E. it!!!

I used my paper stash from 4 different sources to create this card.  The strawberries were cut from a PL style card.  Those little cards are always great sources for card making.  The strawberries with their greenery (I embossed the green toppers with an embossing folder) and berry basket are from TSOL.  The "happy birthday" is a Stand Up Helper from Elizabeth's Crafts.


Thanks for looking.  I would love to hear your comments!

7/25/14 Unity FWF Friday

Yes...another tag...full of fabulous Unity stamps.   I love those Adirondack chairs from The Reason Someone Smiles and worked it into a summer sunset scene or so I hope.  Lots of happy colors using Mini Distress Inks, a touch of copper paint for the butterflies, and a little white gel pen to highlight the tiny flowers.