Graduation Girl

I have another card for Dreamerland Crafts to share today.

This one is from the newest release and is called Graduation Girl.
I think she is so cute and very smart and determined obviously :)

I coloured her with copics and cut her out and placed her on the background panel I made.

I used various Distress Inks with some Tim Holtz stencils to create a bright and happy panel.
Then I used a star stencil with some texture paste for added dimension and interest.

The YAY die-cut is from the MFT Happy Birthday die.  I cut it out of grey cardstock and then "painted" it with Wink of Stella for some glitz.
The enamel dot is also sparkly.

I applied this panel to a white base and stamped "congratulations" which is from an old and retired CC Designs stamp set.

I've never made a Graduation card before but I was happy with how this turned out :)


I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges :

Southern Girls Challenge - just a bit flash
Love to Scrap Challenge - anything goes

Thanks for stopping by today :)

Kathy

New Best Friend Gift

I have something other than a card for Anna's Craft Cupboard to share today.

I made a little post-it note holder and decorated it with the cute girl and kitten from the MFT
New Best Friend set.

They are both so gorgeously cute!
I coloured her to match this very beautiful paper from the Photoplay Vintage Girl - tiny prints collection.
I am really loving these papers and I think they work perfectly with these sweet little girls from My Favorite Things :)

Post-it note holders are great little gifts to give people of any age and for any occasion.

They are very quick and easy to make too!

I cut a piece of black card 7.5" x 3.25"
Scored at 9, 10 and 11 cm.
(Yes. I know!  I mix up the way I measure to make it easier :) )
Fold it in half at the 10cm score line and cut two times to the next score line.  This makes the little pen holder bit.
Put glue between the 9 and 10 cm score lines, missing out the pen holder.
Push forward the pen holder part but glue down the rest.
Glue a post-it note to the inside and you're done :)


Actually the hardest thing about making this holder was trying to find post-its that weren't fluoro!
I looked in so many places and had almost given up when I finally found a pretty pink set which was just the right colour.  You can see it poking out a little in the bottom photo.

The pen was a pretty good match too.  I had bought a set of these small pens in lots of different colours a while ago, just so that I would have one at the ready when I needed to make a little post-it note gift for someone special :)

I don't think anyone could resist this little girl and kitten on this beautiful floral background!
Unless perhaps they have a thing against pink I guess :)

I'd like to enter my project into the following challenges :

Love to Scrap - anything goes
Tuesday Throwdown - anything goes


I hope you can use your stamps to create a gift for someone this week.

Thanks for dropping by today :)

Kathy

New Best Friend

I was lucky enough to get a fabulous stamp set from Anna's Craft Cupboard to play with :)
It's by My Favorite Things and is called New Best Friend .

I had lots of fun colouring it and I took my inspiration from the current Colour Challenge at Anna's.
The challenge uses gorgeous shades of blue and green contrasted by grey, black and white.
It was a combination I couldn't resist!
So I coloured the girl and dog using Copics in similar shades and found some papers to match too :)

All the papers I used are from the Vintage Girl Tiny Prints Collection by Photoplay.
This is a fabulous collection!  I can honestly say that I love every single sheet (both back and front)!
And that never happens!

It is 12" paper but the designs are on a smaller scale, so the paper works equally well for card making and scrapping.

I edged all the papers and card with Black Soot Distress Ink and white embossed the fun sentiment from the set onto black card.
The little banner is from the MFT Up In The Air set. I just stamped it onto the same green paper as the background and fussy cut it.
I also stamped a little paw print  from the New Best Friend set in the bottom right corner.

I love this stamp, it is just so sweet!
There is also a cute girl holding a cat in the set that I can't wait to use :)

The colour challenge at Anna's is a great one!
I hope you can play along with us :)



More information about the challenge can be found here.

Thanks for dropping by today :)

Kathy

Happy Pawlidays and Striped Ombre Background

I have a new post for Anna's Craft Cupboard featuring My Favorite Things to share with you today.

I wanted to make some more Christmas cards for family and friends as I still don't have enough!
So I decided to use the cute Happy Pawlidays set again and combine it with the Santa's Elves stamp set.
I love how the MFT sets all work so well together!
The possibilities are endless really :)

I also decided to use a new (to me) MFT die-namics Die called Bold Stripes Cover Up with these stamps and talk a little about how I created these Christmas cards.

This first card was very simple and pretty quick too!

I coloured the image with copics and used a circle die to cut it out.
I used one of the sentiments from the Happy Pawlidays set but masked off the the bottom of the sentiment so that it just says "Santa Paws".  On the inside of the card I have stamped the "is coming to town" part of the sentiment.
I used the MFT Blueprints 5 Tag Builder Die to cut the sentiment out.

I used the Bold Stripes cover up to cut out the white background piece.
It will leave you with lots of white rectangular pieces, but don't throw these out!
They are perfect to save for later to use for sentiment strips :)

Then I used the die again to cut the coloured stripes from Lawn Fawn Watercolor Wishes papers.
I used 7 different colours to create a rainbow look.
If you were going to make a set of 7 backgrounds the same, for a set of cards, you could just use the whole die to cut the paper and you would have made 7 cards very quickly.
But I was just making 1 so I just used the die on the end of the paper so that I didn't waste any and only cut 1 stripe out.

I cut a piece of kraft card the same length as the die but slightly wider.
I glued the white die panel to the kraft card and then glued each coloured piece of paper into the die cut space.
I then attached this piece to the card base.

I think this made a lovely background and you could use it for so many occasions.
A rainbow pattern isn't even "Christmassy" but I thought it worked and looks cute too :)

For my second card I decided to use the die as a stencil and create an ombre background with Distress Inks. You could also use Distress Oxides for this.

I used the die to cut out a piece of card for the stencil.
I then put Tombow Mono Multi Liquid glue on the back of it and waited for it to "set" so that it would be repositional.

When ready, I attached it to the smooth side of some watercolour paper.

I then used Distress Inks and the Tim Holtz Mini Foam Ink Blending Tool to create an ombre background.

I started with the darker colours at the top and worked my way down to light.
I started sponging the ink in a circular manner which is the usual way of applying distress ink but I ended up kind of just swiping across the lines.
I put more ink on each side and kept the centre lighter.

At the very top it is a mix of the darkest blue I had with the purple.  And it made a great colour :)
Most of the background is done by doing 2 rows using the same ink colour but making one of the rows darker.
I did this by adding a little of the darker ink (from the row above it) to the new colour.

After I was satisfied with the look, I removed the stencil and I had my background piece.  It did look gorgeous with the dark stripe over the top but it just wouldn't have worked for the card I had in mind.
I will have to do it again that way another time :)

I then splashed some water on it and used paper towel to remove wetness.
I also added a few little splashes of  Dylusions white paint to the background.

I trimmed this piece to attach to some kraft card and then attached this to a Kaisercraft Square white card. I then rounded the corners of this.

On this card I used the dog and present from the Happy Pawlidays set and the tree and sentiment are from Santa's Elves.

I made a happy discovery when doing the sentiment :)
I realised I could use the Bold Stripes Cover Up die to cut it out.  Yay!
So I stamped it and cut it out using the smaller rectangular opening on the die.
And then I used the larger rectangular opening to cut a piece of black card for a perfect mat for it!!!

I will be using this all the time now for any narrower sentiments that I want to use :)

You can use this die in so many interesting ways

The stamps were coloured with copics and I added some glitter glue to the star on the tree for a little sparkle.
I also used the tag die again and some antique linen and walnut stain distress ink around the card's edge.



I love this die and both of these stamp sets from MFT!

You still have time to make some more Christmas cards too!
I would love to see what you create :)

Thanks for dropping by today

Kathy

Santa's Elves

I have a card to share for Anna's Craft Cupboard today.

I was lucky enough to get this MFT stamp called Santa's Elves!
Yippee!!! I was so excited because I have wanted this one for so long.

He was so much fun to colour in and he's absolutely adorable isn't he?!

As well as colouring fun, I also had some "messy" fun with this card :)

I used some Dylusions paints for the first time.
I fell in love with their colours and decided to take a chance and buy a few in the hope that I could create some beautiful backgrounds.

I used London Blue, Vibrant Turquoise, Crushed Grape and White Linen.
I love this colour combination and I think it works well for a Christmas card.

I used 2 stencils for the painted background.
A Kaisercraft template called Ornamental
and a Crafter's Workshop one called Confetti for the white elements on top.

I painted onto the smooth side of some watercolour paper.

The panel was then mounted onto a Kaisercraft C6 white card.

And I popped the elf up on some x-press it foam mounting squares for some added dimension.

I decided to use some Doodlebug Designs Candy Shoppe alpha stickers for the sentiment.
It is a bit hard to see in the photo, but this is sparkly and looks so good against the painted background without drawing too much attention away from the elf.
After all, that elf deserves all of it ! :)

Copics used :

BG 0000, 01,02,05,09,10,11, 13, 15, 49

B04

BV 02, 04, 13

C1

E 000, 00, 04, 11, 21

R30

I love making Christmas cards!
I hope you get some crafty time to make some too :)

Thanks for dropping by today

Kathy

Happy Hippos Birthday

I have another card today for Anna's Craft Cupboard featuring those Happy Hippos from MFT :)

This really is an adorable set!
I used a different hippo and bird this time with a birthday cake and I created a little background scene for them too!

I used the MFT Spring Scene Builder Die-namics with papers from Lawn Fawn's Watercolor Wishes pad.  These papers worked so well with this die! They all coordinate beautifully and have light and dark areas of colour, giving them a real watercolour look. Plus there's none of that extra work (and talent) that's needed for painting!  Bonus!

Once I'd created the little background scene I rounded the corners and glued it to a Kaisercraft square white card.
I coloured my images with Copics and cut them out and I used X-Press IT foam mounting squares on the hippo and balloons to make them "pop" and give the card some added dimension.

Thanks for dropping by today :)

Kathy

Happy Hippos

I have a card for Anna's Craft Cupboard  to share today.
I've used the adorable My Favorite Things set called Happy Hippos.
This set is full of  hippos and little birds and birthday themed images to go with them.  Plus there are some wonderful sentiments too!

I thought a colourful but soft Bokeh background might look good with these two cuties.
Here is how I created it if you'd like to give one a try too :)
Ingredients :
I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Broken China, Dusty Concord and Dried Marigold. You could use any colours, but I always think that 3 different colours works best.
Dylusions White Linen Acrylic Paint.
I used watercolour paper on the smooth side, but other cardstock can also be used.
Tim Holtz/Ranger Mini Foam Blending Tool
Circle Dies
Tombow Mono Multi glue
white embossing powder

Step 1 - Using the Blending Tool, apply distress inks to card in a circular motion. I used the purple first, then the orange and then added  blue to fill in the gaps and blend it together a little.
Use a different foam pad for each colour.

Step 2 -  Make a stencil from a scrap piece of card by using small circle dies or punches.  Don't place the holes too close together or near the edge, so that it's easier to sponge.

Step 3 -  Shake the Dylusions paint a little and then just use the paint that is sitting inside the lid.
Using the blending tool and a new pad, pick up some paint and dab some off onto some plastic or craft mat to remove excess.
Dab paint onto stencil to create 2 sizes of white circles on the card.

Step 4 - The largest circles are applied with just the Blending Tool.
Load paint and dab off as before. Place Blending Tool on card and twist/turn until you have a nice circular shape.

Step 5 - Reload Blending Tool with paint and using stencil again, add more circles and overlap some this time too.
You can realign stencils and go over circles with paint again to make them brighter.  You want to have some softer and some brighter circles to add depth.

Step 6 - Using just the Blending Tool make more of the large circles. Try to make some without applying extra paint but if it's too dry just add a little.  These last circles are meant to be very light.
You are trying to fill in the gaps and card edges to create a very soft filter effect.

Step 7 - Trim the edges so that there is no harsh coloured edge.

I coloured the images with Copics to compliment the colours I used in the background, cut them out and added them to a white panel.
I also white embossed one of the fabulous sentiments from this set onto grey card.

Bokeh backgrounds are fun to create! No two are exactly the same and they work wonderfully with so many of the MFT stamps.

I hope you will give this background technique a try too.

Kathy

Party Like a Pirate Pop-Up Box Card

I have another card and tutorial for Anna's Craft Cupboard to share today :)

I have used the fabulous Party Like a Pirate stamp set by My Favorite Things again.
There are just so many cute images in this set that I wanted to make a little scene with them.  A fun way to do this is by making a Pop-Up Box Card.
The MFT stamp sets are all really great for this type of card because there are always a lot of different images in each set.  And you can also incorporate stamps from other sets too as they coordinate so well together.

Here's how I made my Pirate Pop-Up Box Card if you'd like to give it a try :)

Ingredients:
American Crafts Smooth Kraft Card
Ruby Rock-It Bella iWood version 1.0
Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue
MFT Die-namics Die - Spring Scene Builder
Distress Ink - Antique Linen
X-Press it - High tack double sided tape 
MFT Party Like a Pirate stamp set and die

Step 1 :  Cut card 8.5"x 12".  Then score the long side at 2.75", 5.5", 8.25" and 11".
Cut off a 12"x 2" strip (to be used later).

Step 2 : Score along short side of 6.5"x 12" piece at 2.75"
Step 3 : From long side, cut down to this 2.75 score line on each of the 4 score lines.
At 11" score, cut in at a slight angle to create a tab.

Step 4 : Cut the 2"x 12" piece at 4.75" from the end with the 1" score line.
Then cut the strip in half lengthwise to create 2 strips 4.75"x 1".

Step 5 : Fold both tabs back.

Step 6 : Cut patterned paper to fit on each panel and adhere.  Adhere longest pieces to panels next to the tab.
You will need:
1 Inside back panel 2.5"x 6.25". (I used blue card for mine and decorated it with a couple of die cut clouds from the Spring Scene Builder Die and sponged around edge with ink).
3 Lower panels 2.5"x 3.5" (for outside of box)
6 Upper panels 2.5" square (inside and outside)
1 2.5"x 6.25" outside back panel (white card, to write message on).

Step 7 : Put adhesive on tab and fold card to form box and adhere.

Step 8 : Add adhesive to end tabs of 1"x 4.75" strips and adhere to inside of box.  Align them with the top.  Both tabs ends towards outside front or back.

The pop-up box is now built and ready to decorate :)

I coloured all my images with copics and cut them out with the co-ordinating die.  This saves so much time when making something with this many individual stamps!

The images are adhered to the strips of card inside the box but it can be hard to visualise where you want to place them.  I find it best to put dabs of Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue near the bottom of the images and leave them for a while to "set".  Then the glue is repositional! You can move them over and over while you're trying to decide on the best placement and this makes me very happy :) 

Once I'd decided where they looked best, I did take them off and add some more glue to the bottom as normal, and stuck them down again, just to make sure they would "stay put".

You can see from the above photo that I glued some images to both strips and added more to the back panel also. 

On the first strip I added some images along the entire front, overlapping them slightly.

On the second strip I stuck the girl pirate to the front but then stuck the island to the back of it, for a little extra dimension. I also cut out the Ahoy Mate sentiment and glued it and the parrot to a thin piece of acetate and stuck it to the back of this strip with  X-Press It tape. From a distance this looks as though it is "floating" in the air (or that the Parrot has flown off with a sign) :)

It would be best to create the very back piece right at the beginning, before you even stick it onto the box.  I had glued on the clouds from the Spring Scene Builder Die and thought that would be enough, but then I decided that I wanted to add the pirate ship. And after that I thought it maybe needed a couple of waves too!  I don't really have a wave die, but I improvised by using the stream also from the Spring Scene Builder Die. 

You don't really see the entire ship, but everything is placed on this card to add extra depth and dimension to the scene.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and will try making a Pop-Up Box Card too :)

Kathy

Party Like a Pirate

I have some exciting news to share today!  I've been asked to join the Design Team at Anna's Craft Cupboard!!!
Anna's is a wonderful Australian online craft store, with great products and fabulous customer service and I am very happy and honoured to be a part of their team :)

And it also means that I get to play with MFT stamps every month :)  YAY!!!

One of the main reasons why I love MFT stamps, is because they are so super cute!  They always make me smile!
BUT they are also versatile and you can make something a little less adorable when needed :)

MFT's Party Like a Pirate is a pretty cute set but I have "grunged" it up a bit and I think now it would appeal to a guy of any age.

I wanted to make the card dark and distressed looking. I decided to use a black card base and accents with this wonderful paper from Carta Bella's Transatlantic range called Vintage Map .  It worked so perfectly with this pirate!

I coloured him in muted colours and used the matching die to cut him out.  I also white embossed a sentiment from the set onto black card.
Then I distressed the panel he is on.  I cut a piece of white card and tore the bottom of it and then I used Distress Inks on it.  Firstly I sponged on some Antique Linen, then some Walnut Stain and finally some Black Soot.  I have had Distress Inks for years and have only just bought the Black Soot.  I never thought I really needed it, but I was SO wrong!!! The panel looked much better once I added it!  If you don't have it - get it! It's a must have :)   I left the centre of the panel white so that the focus would be on the pirate and then I just splashed some water on top of  the panel.  I did sponge a little black around the edge of the patterned paper too.
I also added a few splodges of Black Tie Enamel Accents to add to the "grunginess" of the card.

Copics used :

E 000, 00, 21, 13, 31, 41, 43, 50, 53

R 23, 27, 29, 30, 39, 59

W 00, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9

BG 0000, 000

B 02

Y 26, 28

It was so much fun making this card!
I hope you get some time to be crafty this week too :)

Kathy

Up in the Air Dog

I’m back to share another MFT card for Anna's Craft Cupboard. 

I’ve used the Up In The Air set again but this time I have the dog in the balloon J

And I have used the same sunrays (AKA Sunburst or Starburst) technique as I used on my last card but with a few differences.

This time I chose a focal point that’s towards the centre of the card and the rays radiate all around it.

So I cut the paper into 4”x 1” rectangles this time and then cut them into triangles. So they are smaller, but I needed more of them.

There are 24 triangles on my card.

I inked around the edges of them with Antique Linen Distress Ink and glued the triangles onto a brown cardstock this time.  This was cut to 4 1/8” x 6” and I used a Kaisercraft C6 White Card for the base.

All papers are from the Bloom and Grow collection by Simple Stories.  And they are SO beautiful!

I decided to put the balloon and dog on a tag in the centre of the rays.

I stamped onto white card and coloured just the basket and cut the entire image out.  Then I stamped the balloon part of the stamp again onto patterned paper and cut it out and glued it on top. 

Paper piecing the balloon like this made it much quicker and easier than colouring it.  I could have also cut out each balloon segment in a different colour but I just thought that might be a bit too much on this card. 

I glued it to the tag and then adhered the dog on top. And because I was putting this onto a white base, I didn’t have to bother with the trickier cutting of the balloon that I did on my previous card.

I lightly sponged around the tag with the distress ink and stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment which is also from the Up In The Air set.

I hope you’ve liked seeing this technique and that you’ll give it a try too.

Kathy

Up in the air

I have another card and tutorial for Anna's Craft Cupboard today.

And I’m showcasing another fabulous stamp set from My Favorite Things (MFT) .

I got the chance to play with Up In The Air this month and it is so much fun to use.

There are just SO many possibilities with this set!  The sky is the limit! :) (ha ha)

I was also lucky enough to get the MFT Die-Namics Die - Spring Scene Builder to use and it is wonderful too :)

So I wanted to use these two together and create an interesting sky for the balloon to float around in.

I decided to create a sun ray background with patterned papers (AKA the Sunburst or Starburst technique).  

Here is how I created my card so that you can try it out for yourself :)

This technique can be wonderful for using up scraps of patterned paper you have in your stash.  You can use all different lengths, widths and designs and make them work.  But I actually cut mine from 2 new sheets of paper and cut them all the same size :)

When using this technique you need to firstly decide where you want the “rays” to radiate from.  I decided to put my sun in the top right hand corner of the card, so all the points of my rays start there.

I also decided to leave a space between my rays, but you can vary the look of the background by butting them together instead.

I used Spring-a-ling and Butterfly Net from the Spring Things  collection by Doodlebug Designs to make the rays.

·        I used a Kaisercraft C6 White Card for the base.

·        I cut a piece of white card 4”x 5 7/8”. This is the piece you will glue the rays to.

·        Then I cut 5 rectangles from patterned paper 1”x 6”.

(I cut 2 rectangles from one colour and 3 from another).

·        Then cut them in half diagonally.

·        I glued 1 ray along one edge, making sure the point of it was in the top corner of the card.

·        Then I glued a second ray along the other side.

·        I glued the other rays between these two, leaving a little space. They may overlap a little at the points or not be perfect but this is fine as it will be covered over.

·

·      Turn the card over and carefully trim away the excess paper.  I found this easier to do by hand, but you can use a paper trimmer.

You will notice some pieces are not quite long enough.  That is okay because I am putting some grass on the bottom of the card.

·        I cut the sun and clouds with the MFT Die-Namics Die - Spring Scene Builder.  I added some ink to the sun and glued it over the top of the sun rays at the right corner of the card.

                                       

·        I white embossed the cute sentiment from the Up In The Air set onto a piece of American Crafts – Key Lime Card. I used the hill piece from the die to cut it out and trimmed it down to fit.  Then I inked the edge of it and attached it to the bottom of the card.

·       There are trees with the die too, but I decided to colour the trees from the stamp set and cut them out and attached them to the hill.

I didn’t get the matching outline die with this stamp so I thought I would show you how I cut out the balloon too. (I guess this is just for people like me who don’t like to cut images out with a knife.)

Maybe you noticed something a bit wrong with this photo? Were you wondering why a dog has suddenly appeared?

Well I had my card all laid out just how I wanted it ready to be glued down when my daughter came in.  So I asked her what she thought of the card and she said “I really love it but there is one thing that would have made it perfect”. 

So I had to ask …. “What?”  And she said ……         

“The CAT”!

So I just had to colour up the cat and swap that puppy out of there so that my card would be perfect! :)

The dog is very cute too though and I will be back here on the blog later this week to show you how I used him on another card.  I hope you’ll come back to see. :) And in the meantime, please check out all the wonderful MFT goodies at Anna’s Craft Cupboard.

Kathy

Strike 2

I have another card for Anna's Craft Cupboard to share using the MFT Strike Up The Band stamp set.

I do Love these bunnies!  They are just so cute aren’t they?!

This time I’ve teamed them with papers from the Doodlebug Designs Spring Things range.

I thought this stripe from the Frog Friends paper was gorgeous and so I coloured the bunnies to coordinate with it.

Then I cut them out using the Strike Up the Band Die-namics die and mounted on foam mounting squares for some added dimension.

There are so many wonderful sentiments that come with the bunnies but I decided to cut the Happy Birthday Sentiment from the Baby Blooms paper.  I attached this at a slight angle so that the bunnies are walking downhill and it gave the card a little extra “something”. 

I always adhere my card and papers with Mono Multi Liquid Glue.  It is very easy to use and stays put.  You also have some wriggle time if you need to change something.

I also used the coordinating Doodlebug matte sprinkles - dots.  I’ve never used matt dots before and I think they look fantastic!  I will definitely be getting more. Love them!

The green matt is American Crafts Key Lime card .

And I used the Kaisercraft C6 white card for the base and rounded the bottom corners.

I also cut another of the C6 cards to make the panel the bunnies are marching on.  Just so it would be the same colour white card.

Copics used :

E 41, 43, 44

BV 0000, 000, 00

Y 11, 13, 15

BG 11, 15

R 30

YG 11, 13, 17

W 00, 1

Colouring these adorable bunnies and making this card was lots of fun.

Thanks for dropping by today :)

Kathy