His and Hers - Day One

I'm sure you've noticed that I really love Online Card Classes. Jennifer and Kristina and their talented guest instructors always provide lots of wonderful ideas and inspiration. I'm currently taking part in their newest class, "His and Hers". There is still time to join in - you can get all of the information you need to take part in the classes at http://www.onlinecardclasses.com/

Here are a couple of cards that I created after watching the Day One videos. The first one is a feminine card:



Here is a close up of the detail on this card:



Next is my take on a masculine card with the same basic design:



Here is a close up of the detail on the ship:



Lastly, here is a picture of the open card:



Hopefully I'll have more postings this week as the class continues.

Masculine Birthday Card

Although I've been extremely busy constructing wedding invitations, I wanted to share a masculine birthday card that I recently made for a class that I taught. I love the way this card turned out. The ship is one from a set of six stamps made by Local King Rubber Stamp Company entitled, "Adventure". I stamped the tall ship with Versamark Ink on 40 lb. vellum and then embossed the image with Ranger Tarnished Gold embossing powder. I love the vintage, less shiny look of this particular embossing powder. I burnished the vellum from the back side using a variety of Pergamano tools. By repeatedly rubbing the backs of the sails, the vellum not only turns white and opaque, but also adds a dimensional effect to the parts that are worked in this manner. I added some colour to the hull of the boat using a brown Copic marker. When I was satisfied with the overall effect, I fussy cut the image out and mounted it with Tombow Mono Multi Glue onto a piece of pattern paper that had a watery look to it. Next, I used the wave stamp from the same "Adventure" set of stamps to create two series of waves. They were both stamped with Versamark Ink and embossed with Tsukineko white embossing powder on blue card stock. After fussy cutting the waves, I mounted one set so that they appeared to be pushing out from the front of the ship and the other so that they seemed to be flowing from the wake of the ship.



I took this picture to show the dimensional effect of the mounted pieces:



I used several layers of kraft, white and a marine blue card stock to mat the focal image. I ran some Stampin' Up Crumb Cake card stock through a wood grain embossing folder to add a panel with some texture to the left side of the Neenah Desert Storm card base. I added some rustic looking jute ribbon, a metal tag and a twine bow for more interest. The sentiment is handwritten with a white Gelly Roll pen.

Until next time,

Easter Inspiration

I have had so much fun creating Easter cards this week. I was delighted to see that the theme of the Simon Says Stamp Challenge this week was Easter/Spring. I kind of went crazy playing with the super cute new "Happy Easter" stamp set by Lawn Fawn. I'm also in love with the Impression Obsession bunny dies. Here are the cards that I ended up with this week:

I used Prismacolor Premium Colored Pencils for all of the colouring on the first three cards and used pattern paper for the backgrounds and some of the elements on all of the cards. I've been involved with the current Online Card Class, "Pattern Play" this week. It has been terrific and I have enjoyed all of the videos and wealth of ideas that were presented. I highly recommend the Online Card Classes - they are so much fun and certainly chock full of inspirational ideas and techniques. I have taken part in 12 of their classes to date and have been delighted with their content and the wonderful teaching videos. Unfortunately, I've been so busy making wedding invitations for my son's upcoming nuptials that I haven't had much time to play.

Until next time,

Spring Will Arrive

As I have mentioned before, I live in the snow belt region of Ontario. We still have lots of the white stuff around and they are forecasting more in the next few days. I hear that the skiing is terrific right now, but I no longer take part in such winter activities. Sometimes, at this point of the year, we begin to wonder if spring will ever get around to visiting us again. It is not unusual for us to have snow lingering in the shadows well into April, and we long for the sight of green grass. (I really shouldn't complain, as we have had a relatively mild winter this year.) When I saw this digital stamp by Mo Manning, I just couldn't resist turning the little bird into a robin. The stamp is entitled, A Little Birdie Told Me, so I decided that the little birdie could be telling this adorable little girl that spring would arrive eventually.



The card base is made from Memory Box card stock. The focal image is coloured with Copic markers on Solar White Neenah paper. I cut out the image and adhered it with 3D mounting squares onto a background constructed of some gorgeous My Mind's Eye paper from the Reunion collection. I added a chipboard border under the window, also from My Mind's Eye, with a stamped sentiment from Hero Arts. As a finishing touch, I used twine to tie a bow above the sentiment. Here is a close-up of the detail on the card:



I am entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Challenge this week, where the topic is "Anything Goes".

Until next time,

Have a Heart

The Simon Says Stamp Challenge this week is "Have a Heart". I'm entering the challenge with one of the cards I made during the latest Online Card Class, Clean & Simple 2. I have found the lessons just chock full of ideas and inspiration and can't wait until I have more time to play with the concepts that Jennifer, Kristina, Julie, and their guest instructors presented. For my card, I incorporated the Salted Watercolour that Kristina presented on the eighth day and the folding that Jennifer showed on the ninth day. I changed it up by creating a three dimensional hand cut heart from the watercoloured paper.

Here is a close-up of the heart detail.

I'm so sorry that the Clean & Simple Card Making 2 classes are drawing to an end. It was just so much fun!

Until next time,