Back to Stamping!!!

I'm back!
My CTMH stamping and cardmaking has suffered due to my full time job.  LOL.

After my foot surgery in April 2015, I went back to work on a large proposal, with lots of overtime, and moved into 2 more proposal projects that lasted through December, and then through June 2016.  Then, I worked 80 hours a week through July and most of August on a new project.  That's proposal life.  I was barely able to keep up with family cards. 

So...I hope that my new project (not on deadline yet, so plenty of planning time) will allow me to spend a little more creative time, and I can get my cardmaking and scrapping mojo back!   I'll be posting catch up pix of my cards and projects over the last year, so stay tuned!  Been missing blogging and sharing and seeing everyone's creative play!
-- Dawn

Beautiful Bokeh Cards

I learned a new technique from some of the art boards I follow and I am in love with it!

I made these 3 cards using the Bokeh technique.  

2 of the cards use Sunset, Autumn Terracotta and Goldrush inks.  On the pinkish one, I used Sorbet instead of Goldrush. 

Once the background is dry, these fabulous cards practically made themselves! 

I added a butterfly from the Seasonal Expressions 2 hostess set, Paper Bird. I also started a Gold embossing trend with these cards. Gold glitter trim is an easy accent and doesn't overwhelm the design.




The sentiment here is now retired from the Operation Smile set, You're the Bomb, in the SE1 catalog. 












The sentiment on this card is also Gold-embossed, and is from the Hostess Set, Paper Bird.
















The last card used a sentiment from Finding the Right Words. 


I LOVE how they turned out!

I hope you enjoyed looking!  See my previous blog on the Bokeh Technique to see how to create your own!

Father's Day

May 7, 2015

I didn't get my April SOTM sample put together until the last week of April just before a craft fair. I learned about the Bokeh technique and combined the technique with the Typed Note image to create a simple Father's Day card.

Blossom Workshop

The Blossom Workshop on the Go comes with all the materials to make 15 cards.

It includes 15 card bases and envelopes, Blossom B&T papers, an exclusive stamp set, Glacier, Pear and Lagoon solid papers, thick Lagoon twine,  and a set of Caribbean sequins. Of course I had scraps left over and wanted to use them all. That's just my personal challenge. If I've gone to all the trouble to gather coordinating papers and embellishments,  why not use them while they are out?

Card 2 uses the adorable popsicle stamps. One is stamped in Pear and the other in Smoothie. I tried embossing the Smoothie popsicle as you see in the picture, however it didn't come out quite like I wanted. I stamped it then very quickly added Clear CTMH embossing powder. Hey - sometimes it works! But it was a bit uneven, so the other 4 cards do not have embossed popsicles. (I did place an order for the mini pigment inks just because of this failure). Many times I would like to make the ink color stand out instead of an embossing powder. You can do that with a pigment ink and clear embossing powder, but the dye inks just dry too quickly to emboss well. To ensure even placement of the sentiment, I laid the cut strip and the layered embossed stamping on the patterned paper, then stamped the sentiments using Versamark ink. I removed the layers and heat embossed in Black. This subtle blue pattern is the back of the flowery Blossom paper. From there I started assembly. The strip of Lagoon has a small strip of Blossom floral on top with the Lagoon twine on the side. I used 2-way glue to attach the twine and simply snipped the ends at the edge of the paper. I attached the popsicles layered with Pear and then a few Caribbean sequins to finish the card.

The individual cards were fun because the entire set of cards uses every single stamp in the included stamp set. I liked the cards themselves this time but I also changed up the designs on each one just a little bit and made them my own. I followed the cutting guide and started assembly. 

For the first card, I dry embossed the craft layer with the leaf embossing folder to add texture. The main image is leaves stamped in Pear and the flowers stamped with Smoothie. The little circle and flowers centers are added in black. That image is layered on Pear. The main items I changed on this card were the dry embossing and adding the tab for the sentiment. I didn't like where it was positioned on the example, so I selected some Flaxen paper,  cut the tab with my Cricut, and added the sentiment in Black. The rainbow stripe is one of the "zip strips" on the Blossom paper. I love the colors in this strip! I found myself hoarding it! I only used just enough under the main image layer to reach each side of the card. (It doesn't extend under the image layer). That came in handy so I could use more in my extra cards! I added twine and sequins to complete the card. 

I changed the third card too. I dry-embossed the white layer with the CTMH Dots embossing folder and added glitter glue to the candle flames for a pop of bling. The main image was stamped in steps. It was a little difficult to get the tiny dotted line stamp to line up straight on my acrylic block. The trick I've found is that it's easiest if you attach one end of a wiggly stamp and let it drop on its own and it will want to lay in its original shape. If you don't push them they won't come out crooked. The stamp is made in a certain shape so the acrylic will want to "find" it's original shape. By holding one end and allowing it to fall as it was made, it will be straighter on the block. You can always hold the block in a position to stamp a straight line, but the stamp itself needs to be straight. Once I had the 2 stamped lines on the paper it was easy to add the words in Black and Smoothie and stars in Honey so that they filled the space nicely. I layered the images in kraft and started the strips. The bottom 2 strips are both sides of Blossom. The top 2 are made from White Daisy and the included washi tape stamps in Pear and Smoothie.  The strips don't extend all the way under the main image - they are just small pieces of white with torn edges.  Because there were five cards I made all the little strips, tore the edges, then stamped them all at the same time and had them ready for assembly. I learned that stamping across the torn edge produced a realistic washi tape-type piece. Fun! For final assembly, I added some Caribbean sequins and a Lagoon twine bow. On this card, I glued the bow to match the guide, but it looked too contrived for me, so I just let the other bows fall naturally.

After having fun making 15 cards with this WOTG,  I had a lot of scraps!!! This is when my creativity really kicked in! I started using the Blossom Complements as part of the next set of cards. I loved them on my journaling box (see prior post) and wanted to use more of them. 

My first extra card was a bit forced. I tried weaving some of the excess strips, inspired by Pinterest.  I cut a small label using the Artiste cartridge and used my Operation Smile stamps from the Seasonal Expressions 1 catalog to add "SO fabulous", and inked the edges in Lagoon. "You Are" is stamped in Pear on a Pear scrap. The flowers and leaves from Shower Flowers  match Blossom perfectly. I stamped a few in various colors and fussy-cut them. Fussy cutting the leaves was time-consuming, so I also cut a few sets of leaves in Pear from Artiste to add around the flowers on my next cards.

Bokeh Sympathy

I'm still playing with the Bokeh cardstock background I made using CTMH Pear, Sweet Leaf and Topiary inks.

I made a simple sympathy card. Not only am I still having fun with Bokeh, I seem to be using Gold heat embossing on everything, too.  The gold scroll is Inkadinkadoo, the sentiment is JustRite Stampers, and the embossed, fussy-cut butterfly is Cloud Designs.

Bokeh Birthday

Ice Cream Dream

Most everyone is using the June SOTM ice cream truck and  cones, but I found the sentiment embossed in Gold the best for hubby's Birthday card. 

See the set on this page.

I paired it with a strip of Bokeh cardstock using Pear, Sweet Leaf and Topiary inks.  During  my Bokeh experiment I made a large 12x7 strip that I could trim as needed for quick cards. It came in quite handy for this special card! I added some green gems and gold ribbon. I did include a JustRite Stampers circle sentiment, so it's not all CTMH, but a good use for the SOTM sentiment!

Year Noted Cards

May 7, 2015.

Yep. I had some scraps left over from my mini album project and of course I made cards! 

My first card uses Kraft as a background. The sorbet paper has washi tape on the left, and I dry-embossed the right side using the ctmh Arrow embossing folder. being the sentiment is gold embossed on white daisy layered on crafts paper. I added one of the gold stickers and a few sequins from the Caribbean. A simple card.

This card has a background of kraft paper with the washi tape and gold glitter trim. I stamped the sentiment on a year noted and gold  embossing powder and trimmed it into a banner. Then I added the triangles from the embellishments sheet and a few Caribbean sequins.

The last card used the last sizeable scrap of Year Noted paper with a sorbet background. The teal glitter trim was a good accent.  Again, using gold embossing powder, I added the sentiment.