Friday, October 6, 2017

Happy Birthday, Maria!

Today is my big sister's birthday! Happy birthday, Maria!

I've actually had this card completed for a while now. I've been keeping it on a shelf in my room (except for when Maria visited, in which case it was hidden) to inspire me for a while. Now that it's handed off to its intended recipient, I'm going to miss having it around!

My sister is a major (sometimes)foodie, so of course I had to make her a food-themed card. And what's better than ice cream? Nothing, that's what. So we've got a delicious ice cream card for her, with creamy vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and mint colors. The ice cream stamp set I used is from Hero Arts by Lia Griffith, "Oh Happy Day." I wasn't happy with the "drips" that came with that set, so I borrowed different ones from my Lawn Fawn "Lovable Legends" stamp set.

It's a top-folding card on a kraft base. A sweet pink polka dot ribbon wraps around and is topped with a circular birthday sentiment. The sentiment fit perfectly into the layered pierced circle die cuts! My sister Maria actually bought this birthday stamp set for me, it's by Ready Set Stamp. She's always been super supportive of my crafty hobbies.

 I finished the ice cream panel with some splatter in matching colors as well as a few sequins. These ones were sent for free along with an order from Neat & Tangled and I can't say enough how much I loved them! I forgot about them until the card was complete, so they were added as a bit of an afterthought. But the pink matches perfectly, and the off-white ones had a green iridescence that matches the mint color so well. Happy coincidence! And they really finish off the card front.

Of course the message inside had to reference ice cream, it's from the "Birthday Messages" set by Simon Says Stamp.

And that's it! I have to say, this is by far my FAVORITE card yet, out of everything I've made. I hope Maria has a great birthday, and loves this card as much as I do!

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Color Throwdown #463

I was the lucky featured stamper of Color Throwdown #461! I got an official blinkie and everything! I'm so pumped!



Here's my entry to this week's challenge, where I'm a special guest star stamper. The colors are Orange, Kraft, and White.


I did top-folding vertical "portrait" oriented cards the past three challenges, so this time I tried to change things up by going "landscape." I started with a white card base. Above that is orange paper, and on top of that is a kraft panel raised up on foam tape.

 The kitty here is colored to match my dear Rusty Buttons, our beloved cat that passed away a few years back. When I found out the colors for this challenge, it made me think of him right away! He's raised up on foam tape to make him the star of the show.

The kraft panel is decorated with stamped orange cats, acorns, and oak leaves. I embellished with orange and white twine and a few white Nuvo drops. The hand-written sentiment is on a dimensional banner. Overall I am very pleased with the card. It's a little bittersweet, what with Rusty being gone, but I think it honors his memory.

Here is Princess Honey Bunny Gumdrops (a.k.a. "Lily"), my precious angel sent from the heavens and genuine Million Dollar Cat, posing with this week's card. She was adopted from Camden County Animal Shelter, my FANTASTIC local animal shelter. We adopted her and Rusty during a "two-for-one" sale many years ago (2005!). She had to be spayed, so we had to pay for her, but they threw Rusty in for free to sweeten the deal! They have some high quality cats there, let me tell you.

Monday, October 2, 2017

Remembering Leela

My best friend Rachel lost her amazing cat Leela suddenly this September. As a card maker who got her start (and kind of specializes in) making sympathy cards, I really struggled to make one unique from the other designs I have already used. The more of these cards I make -- and unfortunately there has been many -- the more I struggle to honor each individual pet with a unique card.


Once I settled on a color scheme, everything started to come together. Leela was a black cat, so  knew I wanted black to be one of the dominant colors on the card. But I also didn't want it looking too somber, so I ended up adding coral, amber, and a pistachio green to give it some vibrance.

 
 I used Distress inks to add the colors around the edges of the top panel. Abandoned Coral and Cracked Pistachio are some of my favorite colors to use for cards, but I didn't want to use just those same colors again. I'd already used them as the dominant colors of another card I made with this sentiment stamp set.


I settled on adding yellow as kind of analogous color, to try and marry the orangey-toned coral and green colors. I found a cute floral washi tape to really connect everything together the way I wanted.


Here's a closer look at some of the ink blending going on in the corner. I'm addicted to stitched border dies.


Finally, I used a gold Wink of Stella pen to add some glitter to the paw prints I'd embossed on the heart die cut. I placed the die cut raised up on foam tape. I used a peg stamp to add the black cat to (theoretically) balance out the sentiment.

I didn't take a picture of the inside before I wrote my message, and I hate to share something so personal here. I deckled the edges of a sheet of Stardust White paper, which has some lovely subtle specks of color in it. I brought back in the same washi tape I'd used on the front of the card for some design unity. 

Rest in peace, Leela.

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Color Throwdown #462

This week's colors over at the Color Throwdown Challenge are rust, green, orange, and aqua! Let's see what I came up with...


I'm not going to lie, this was the most difficult card I've made so far for this challenge. I really struggled with the palette, and I thought for a while I wouldn't be able to pull anything together. That said, I'm pretty happy with the result. I used a kraft card base, an I incorporated the aqua color with layer paper backgrounds. I stamped leaf patterns in orange (Memento Tangelo), rust (Memento Potter's Clay) and green (Memento Bamboo Leaves).


 I embellished with an orange ribbon pilfered from my sister's old ribbon stash, and some Nuvo drops in pale gold. The sentiment is popped up on a die cut. I jazzed it up with some stamping and clear Wink of Stella pen.

I spritzed the samped background layer with gold Shimmer Spray, which gives it a lovely warmth, but it was SUPER hard to photograph.

That concludes my third round of the Color Throwdown! Hopefully I'll be able to handle both the CTD and Inktober, wish me luck!