Some Odd Girl - Bird Duo

 It's time for another fabulous release from Some Odd Girl! This week, we've got 2 fantastic bird digis - Nerd Bird and Tired Owl. Aside from being absolutely adorable, these birds are also incredibly fun to color! So, if you're a fan of coloring (like me), these two awesome birds are a must-have.

 

I just loved how smart Nerd Bird looked with his glasses, so I knew right away I had to use a smartie pants sentiment. I paired it with some fall-inspired paper and a few fun sequins. To make things just a bit more interesting, I made a square 4¼x4¼" card and used some foam squares to add a bit of dimension.

Tired Owl reminded me of a college student studying for his finals, so that's the direction I took with the second card! I used some hand-written patterned paper and cut out a tea-cup from another piece of paper. I layered everything together and found the perfect school-like sentiment in my stash. A few enamel dots, and voila!

Please be sure to check out what the rest of the Design Team ladies did with today's fab release.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Nerdy Tia

It's time for another fabulous new release from Some Odd Girl!

Last time, we had the adorable Tobie in his smart school clothes, and this time it's Tia that's joining in! Nerdy Tia is a perfect stamp for celebrating school, learning, or anything that's clever and smart.

I started by printing Tia out onto some Copic X-Press it cardstock. I colored her in with Copics, going for a bright and cheerful palette. Once I was done, I carefully cut her out with scissors, leaving a small white border.

I dipped into my stash of patterned papers again and found a fantastic plaid paper as well as a white notebook-inspired paper. I trimmed the plaid paper to be slightly smaller than the standard A2 card base (top-folding 4¼x5½") and die-cut the notebook paper with a stitched circle die.

I layered the papers together and adhered them to a Kraft card-base. I added Tia with foam squares.

For my sentiment, I die0cut a couple of word dies with yellow and red cardstock. My color inspiration was pulled from the colored image (yellow pencil and red tie). I adhered them above Tia.

As a last touch, I added a few blue enamel dots next to Tia, just to pull in some more of that blue color.

Be sure to check out the amazing projects the rest of the Oddie Design Team created!

Geeky Tobie

 Today's card features a brand new digital stamp from Some Odd Girl -- Geeky Tobie! Tobie looks really smart and studious in this stamp, which is great for all those school projects. From cards to notebook decorations, I can see Tobie's smiling self fitting in just perfectly.

For my project, I chose to go with a card - something that I can give to a teacher once school starts.

I started by printing out and coloring Tobie with my Copics. I carefully cut him out with scissors, leaving a small white border.

Then I dug into my school-themed papers (I have a ton!) and pulled a couple of fun papers. Since Tobie's got a calculator, I used a bright number paper as my backdrop. Then I die-cut a composition notebook cover paper into a banner shape and trimmed it down to size.

I adhered the papers to a medium gray card base (top-folding A2 size - 4¼x5½"), then added Tobie with foam squares. As both papers are quite busy and vibrant, I chose to minimize embellishments and added just a few enamel dots near Tobie.

Since this card was going to a teacher, I chose to leave the sentiment out. Instead, I added a chipboard button with "A+" on it. This way, the teacher can use it for a variety of occasions and write a fun personalized message inside.

Head over to Some Odd Girl blog to see what the other designers created with Tobie. Their projects are awesome and super inspiring!

~Elle~

Thanks, Teacher!

 Summer vacation is slowly creeping up on me. There's less than 2 weeks of school left!!! And that means it's time to create a card (or two) for the teachers my kids have had throughout the year.

I like making end-of-the year cards for the teachers for two reasons:
1) It's an extra way to show how much we appreciate the hard work and effort they've put into educating and helping children grow.
2) It's a great exercise for my children, as they get to reflect on what they enjoyed best throughout the year. Their answers often surprise me, as I'm sure they'll surprise (and delight) the teacher.

Also, I always include a personalized thank you note tucked inside the card that mentions some specific details we enjoyed throughout the year that weren't necessarily a part of the study curriculum. For example, this year we'll be thanking the teachers for encouraging children's curiosity and finding tools and programs that help them work on building more concentration and having better listening skills.

I've collected a few school-themed stamps throughout the year, but my favorites still remain digis from Some Odd Girl - like Teacher's Pet Tia that you see in today's card. Some Odd Girl has a pretty large variety of school-related stamps - including a teacher photopolymer stamp, which is just plain awesome. Lots of choices means lots of opportunities to really personalize the stamp and make it look like the student (or the teacher!).

For today's card, I colored Tia to look like my daughter. She helped me pick out the colors for the outfit and the card itself. I worked to incorporate her favorite color (pink) with a more neutral color that fits her teacher (kraft). I also added in some stars and enamel dots as a fun embellishment. As cards go, it's probably a very simple card. But it's filled with tons of personal little details - something you won't find in store-bought cards.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

For Teacher

Today, I've got a couple of cards to share!

There's something so exciting about a new school year - from shopping for supplies, to meeting new friends and getting to know your teacher. Speaking of teachers, we're getting brand new teachers this year, so I decided to create a few teacher cards.

I'm using two adorable school-themed images from Pollycraft's Brains and Sparky - both of which were bought from C.C. Design's website.

I started by stamping the images and coloring them in with my Copics. Since I knew I'd be using a fun school patterned paper as the background, I kept the stamped images very simple and only scribbled in a shadow under the feet. I cut the images to a rectangle that measures 3 1/2 by 2 1/2"and set them aside while I worked on the rest of the card.

For the base, I made a standard top-folding A2 card by cutting and scoring MFT's Brick Red cardstock ink half to measure 4 1/4 by 5 1/2". I also decided to mat the colored images and the sentiment in the same cardstock, so I cut a couple more panels.

I decided to use one of the lovely new Simon Says Stamp's teacher dies. I used it on a piece of Slate cardstock. Since the die is delicate and thin in some parts, I used a metal adapter to make sure it would cut out perfectly.

The patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye School Daze 6x6, and I trimmed it to measure 4 by 5 1/4".

Last step was to assemble the cards. I adhered the patterned paper to the base with my standard dot adhesive. I matted the stamped image onto the cardstock, and adhered it to the card with foam squares. I adhered the "teacher" diecut with spots of Tombow glue, then matted it to the brick cardstock and adhered to the card with foam squares.

And that's all there was to it!

Supplies:
Pollycraft Brains stamp (from C.C. Designs)
Pollycraft Sparky stamp (from C.C. Designs)
My Favorite Things Hybrid Ink in Black Licorice
My Favorite Things Heavyweight cardstock in Brick Red
Copic Marker Mini Paper 70#lbs
Simon Says Stamp Heavyweight Cardstock in Slate
Simon Says Stamp Teacher die
My Mind's Eye School Daze 6x6
Copics
Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares
Tombow dot adhesive (pink)
Tombow Mono-Multi Liquid glue

PS- Congrats

This week is another designer drafts sketch challenge on SPARKS, and the sketch inspired me to make a graduation card. I've only ever made one graduation card and it was very feminine and specific for the recipient. So, I wanted to challenge myself to make a more general card.

I started with picking out a fun star patterned paper from Fancy Pants Memories Captured. I die-cut it with Paper Smooches Borders I die. I also die-cut a circle from plain white cardstock. While I had my Bigshot out, I also die-cut congratulations from Paper Smooches Congratulations die.

For the background, I cut a piece of light-gray cardstock to 4x5.25 and adhered it to my card base. I adhered the white circle, then layered the star panel over it. I cut a strip of stripped yellow paper and adhered it to the star panel.

I cut apart the Congratulations letters and shortened it to say "Congrats". I glued it to the circle with a glue pen. As a last touch, I stamped a few solid stars.

Voila! Simple grad card is done.

Supplies:
Base: Simon Says Stamp White Woodgrain card stock
Paper: Bazzill Taffy card stock (panel), Fancy Pants Memories Captured 6x6, Lawn Fawn Let's Polka 6x6
Dies: Paper Smooches Borders I, Paper Smooches Congratulations, Sizzix Circles
Stamp: Paper Smooches Space Cadet
Ink: MFT Hybrid Ink in black licorice
Tombow Mono Glue Pen

PS- Thanks Teacher

As the school year is slowly coming to a close, I find myself with the need to make quite a few thank you cards for teachers. I'd actually bought several stamp sets throughout the year so I could have a nice variety of cards to send out, and it's time to pull them out and get creative!

For this card, I went with Paper Smooches' Smarty Pants set. I love how the professor in that set looks, so I stamped him and colored him in with my Copic markers. Then, I layered a few book stacks together and stamped an apple on top. I chose different bright colors for the books and red for the apple.

After I carefully cut the stamped pieces out, I got to work on the background. I pulled out the Simple Stories Smarty Pants 6x6 paper pad and took out a few of the fun patterns. First, I adhered a piece of green paper to the base. Then I created the center panel by adhering the white lined paper to the orange at an angle, and cut off the excess.

I adhered the professor and the book stacks and added a simple white rectangle at the top with the greeting. As a last touch, I added a couple of red enamel dots. And voila! Simple teacher card. :)

Paper Smooches is currently holding a guest designer search, so I'll be entering this card. I don't think I can really compare to the amazing talent that's out there, but it'll be nice to get a tiny bit more exposure and maybe meet another crafty friend or two. :)

Supplies:
Stamp: Paper Smooches Smarty Pants
Ink: MFT Hybrid Ink in Licorice Black
Base: Neenah Desert Storm 80lbs
Paper: Simple Stories Smarty Pants 6x6
Copics: Professor (E00, E11, E13, E15, B000, W2, B91, B95, G21, E15, E18), Books (Y15, G21, BG01, YR15, B05, R55, YG67, R29, E35, W2), Apple (R08, R46, R89, G67)