Penny Black Love Nip - Valentine's Day card

Hi blogging friends

Today I am sharing a Valentine's Day card.  It is AGES since I used the Magic Coloured Pencil/Gamsol Magic technique to colour an image, ie: Odourless Mineral Spirits with Prismacolor/Derwent Coloursoft pencils and paper stumps, having mainly used Watercolour Pencils in recent times.  I felt so rusty as it is a completely different technique to watercolouring and I struggled at first but got there in the end.  Glad I started with a simple image such as the one I used on my card!

I love this little cat - he makes me smile when I look at him - but I probably say that about all my Penny Black Margaret Sherry stamps!  I never get tired of them and they don't seem to go out of style.  I am still using Penny Black stamps that are 10 years old!  I recently had a clear out of my stamps - some look so dated and I am not sure whether I should try and sell them on EBay or just donate them to charity.  There's nothing wrong with them - I just wonder if it would be worth all the effort with the photographing, writing a blurb, paying to list them, then IF they sell, having to post them:  I feel tired thinking about it - and I am tired with the ongoing care of my loved one.  Anyone have any advice?  Is it better to sell them as one lot?  I haven't sold anything on EBay before - only bought things.   Anyway, onto my card...........

I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto white cardstock and coloured it as per above, then lightly chalked around the cat with blue chalk for the sky and brown + grey chalk for the ground.  I added some Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue to the hearts and the envelope.  The image looks a little washed out in the photo.  My camera never likes to photograph anything with pink - it just can't seem to cope with that colour and always washes out my image.  Cameras can be so frustrating sometimes!

All the layers on the card are designer papers from my Basic Grey 12" x 12" Kissing Booth collection.  I would usually use matching cardstock but as my set of Kissing Booth papers has quite a number of plain colours in it, I thought I would use them instead - and of course, they match the floral papers perfectly making the whole process a bit quicker.

The fancy diecut circle is a Nellie Snellen die - so pretty.  JUST A LITTLE TIP:  This main panel is up on dimensionals because when I had it flat on the floral background, it all but disappeared into the background designer paper, so by popping it up a bit, it stood out from the background and looked 100 times better.  I was actually quite surprised at the difference it made, so if a similar thing happens to you, try popping your image up.

The sentiment is from my Wendy Irving Expressions set - one of the most useful sentiment sets I have ever purchased and had for a few years now.   I punched a tiny heart from the pink designer paper using my Arrows border punch (the leftover punchies look like tiny hearts) and glued it next to the sentiment.

The ribbon on the side panel was attached in 2 separate elements and I added Fray Stop to the ribbon ends to stop them from fraying.

Lastly, I added 3 heart gems to the bottom right-hand corner.  These gems came on a small sheet of bling from Target (Australia) which is meant for decorating your mobile phone or i-Pod, but I use the gems for cardmaking instead as the sheets have quite an assortment of different shaped rhinestones and pearls.  I have seen them at Woolworths/Safeway as well and they cost about $2 - $3. 

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Penny Black and more at Allsorts - Love is in the Air
Bunny Zoe's Crafts monthly challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by! 

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Penny Black Love Nip 3776F wood-mount, Sentiment from Wendy Irving Expressions clear set J6412.01

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black

Designer Paper:  Basic Grey Kissing Booth 12" x 12"

Accessories:  Big Shot, Spellbinder Circle Nestabilities, Nellie Snellen MFD020 die (fancy circle - largest die in set), ribbon, Fray Stop, pink heart gems from Target, dimensionals, Kaisercraft chalks, Odourless Mineral Spirits, Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils, paper stumps, Kindyglitz Crystalina, cardstock - KW Doggett Knight white

Punches:  EK Success Arrows border (for the tiny heart)

Wellington Bear - a Get Well card

Hi blogging friends

I made this Get Well card to give to my brother-in-law who has been unwell and thought one of the Docrafts Wellington Bear images would suit him to a T.  I really love this range by Docrafts and I bought quite a little stash to have on hand for those oh-so-hard masculine cards.  I have really been enjoying getting back into paper tole (or decoupage as you call it in the UK) after not having done it for quite a while but was so inspired by my blogging friend Merry's (from MerryMade Cards and Crafts) paper tole cards, that I bought a few diecut sheets last year and fell in love all over again.  You can see my other paper-tole Wellington Bear cards HERE and HERE.  I might add that Merry not only makes cards, but sews and does other craft - I am in awe of her crafting abilities! 

Wellington Bear image by Docrafts - copyright Hallmark

All I had to do was pop the pieces out of the diecut sheet, trim off any daggy edges and put them together with dimensionals.  The sentiment was also from the sheet.  I am sure you could use the card for a number of different occasions such as Father's Day or a birthday just by changing the sentiment and the diecut sheet comes with a range of sentiments which is great and makes it very versatile.  Note that the main image panel corners already had rounded edges but I corner-punched the blue designer paper backing.

The designer papers are from my Wellington Bear 6" x 6" pad.  I corner-punched the sentiment panel too, added some brads and popped the panel up on dimensionals.  All the layers were trimmed using my Perfect Layers Tools.

I found a beige heart button in my stash which seemed to be the perfect-not-over-the-top-for-a-man embellishment to the card.  I tied some string through the button holes then glued the button on with Crafter's Pick Incredibly Tacky glue.  Here is a wee close-up:

Wellington Bear image by Docrafts - copyright Hallmark

Lastly, I tied some Cappuccino twine around the card a couple of times then tied a bow.   The hardest thing about the card was taking a photograph because the multiple layers create big shadows which can look a bit weird and can detract from the picture.  Trying to angle the card in the sun to minimise the shadows usually ends up over-exposing the image and makes the colours look all washed out and no amount of fiddling with my photo editing software seemed to make much improvement.  Finished size is just under 5-1/2" square or if you are metric, 13.8 centimetres/138 millimetres.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenge -

The Squirrel and the Fox Challenge #35 - Anything Goes.  This is my 2nd card for this challenge as I entered my card from my last blog post in the challenge as well.  You can enter a maximum of 2 times for this challenge.

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Before I go, I thought I would share a few photos my cat Ruby.  Ruby has an orange mouse shaped tent which came FREE with a pack of IAMS cat pellets that I bought a while ago - and for once, she actually USES it to sleep in.  Of course, the other bedding that I paid MONEY for, she doesn't use.....typical cat!  There was some lovely morning sun shining through the window and she got a bit hot inside the tent, so stretched out on the floor in front of the tent.  Cats sure know how to relax and soak up the warmth, don't they?!  The 2nd photo, Ruby is back in her tent snoozing; I am sure she is dreaming something nice because she looks like she is smiling to me.

Aahhhh - it is so good to be a cat!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  None

Designer paper:  Docrafts Wellington Bear 6" x 6" pad

Ink:  None

Accessories:  Docrafts Wellington Bear diecut sheet, Raw umber brads from stash, The Twinery Cappuccino twine, Heart button by Jesse James 'Dress it up' Country Hearts, button twine, dimensionals, Perfect Layers Tools, cardstock - raw umber, Crafter's Pick Incredibly tacky glue

Punches:  Stampin' Up! corner

Lili of the Valley Topper birthday card

Hi blogging friends

Edited to add:  This  card was featured by Lydia on the Splitcoaststampers Facebook page - WOW!  That sure made my day!  Thanks Lydia!!

My husband's family have alot of birthdays at the beginning of the year so I thought I would use one of my Lili of the Valley (UK) pre-coloured toppers which I bought in December when they had free postage (along with some stamps of course because I find them quite irresistible!) as an early Christmas present to myself. 

Am I cheating by using a pre-coloured image?  Even though using a topper saves you colouring an image, you do still need to plan out the rest of the card so from where I stand, I feel very comfortable using a topper.  And I put a lot of love in my cards and try and tailor it to suit the recipient.  I think you could use this topper for so many different occasions - Mother's Day, Friendship, Thank you, Thinking of you etc. - just stamp (or handwrite) a different sentiment on teddy's envelope.

As I wanted the topper to be round, I diecut it using my Cuttlebug and one of my Spellbinder Circle Nestabilities dies.  I couldn't really find the right colour cardstock to match the image so after a bit of a search through my designer papers, I found some old Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie 'Ella' papers and on the flip side of the flowers, was a nice, soft pink that toned beautifully with my card.  I decided to add a white diecut Scalloped Circle to the image as well and popped this panel up on dimensionals. 

I recommend that you use lots of dimensionals (or doublesided tape) if you are attaching something to a dry embossed panel as there is less surface area for the panel to stick to and in my experience, is more likely to fall off - which I learnt the hard way after handing one of my relatives a Christmas card one year which he popped on the window ledge, and whilst we were sharing our Christmas meal with family, two of the panels dropped off to my horror!  As I had already posted the same card to about 8 other people, I still wonder how many other panels dropped off!  Did they open the envelope and find a jumble of panels and thought it was some sort of weird Christmas jigsaw puzzle card?!  Oh dear........

I added 2 pink hearts around the image which were punched from a Martha Stewart Lace Heart edge punch and the designer paper; I used the leftover punched hearts.  Just the right size for what I needed.

As another Christmas present for myself, I bought one of the new Die-sire Embossalicious 6" x 6" square embossing folders by Crafters Companion from Joanna Sheen's website.  I was so thrilled when Crafters Companion released some square folders to suit us cardmakers who love to make square cards and I do hope they release some more, in particular, some Christmas designs.  You know, I never cease to be excited when I emboss a white card with an embossing folder and see it come out all pretty and textured - and it can really 'lift' a card and give it that 'wow' factor.  I used the Floral EF6 folder which I ran through my Big Shot.

The bottom pink border was punched using an EK Success Abstract Flower punch with the same pink designer paper along one edge of the paper which had a bit of a lacey design printed on it - and I think it turned out a bit prettier than just using the plain pink colour.  I did add a Scor-Pal line just above the punching so I had a straight line to butt the border up against the white cardstock.

I went to town with Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue around the pink circle, the hearts on the image panel, the tiny hearts printed under the butterflies, the heart on the envelope and the teddy's cheeks. Here is a wee close-up:

The envelope that the teddy is holding was blank, so I rummaged through my stash and found a tiny little stamp from my Popcorn the Bear 'Someone Special' stamp set and stamped it with Versamagic Pink Petunia chalk ink.

Lastly, I tied on some button twine after winding it twice around the card and added some Fray Stop to the twine ends so they wouldn't unravel.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

The ABC Challenge - E for Embossing - where you can use any sort of embossing such as embossing powders or folders

Incy Wincy Designs Challenge - Something New - show off your crafting goodies you got for Christmas - mine is the topper and the embossing folder.  This challenge blog is an Australian one which I was very pleased to discover as I don't know of many Aussie challenges.

Splitcoaststampers - Ways to Use it WT408 - New Year - make a card with your new toys - mine is as per above.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  'For you' sentiment from Crafter's Companion 'Popcorn the Bear' Someone Special set

Designer paper:  Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie 'Ella'

Ink:  Versamagic Pink Petunia chalk

Accessories:  Image by Lili of the Valley from Cuddly Teddies diecut sheet, Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Circle + Petite Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, dimensionals, button twine - pink by May Arts, Crafters Companion Die-sire Embossalicious EF6 Floral square 6" x 6" embossing folder, Big Shot, Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue, Scor-Pal, white cardstock

Punches:  Martha Stewart Lace Heart edge punch, EK Success Abstract Flower border