OHC 67 - Vintage

Today, I'm sharing another card for my One Hundred Cards challenge (read more about it here). I'm using a super cute set from WPlus9 called Pick of the Litter. This set is smaller (and more affordable!), and it features sweet vintage-style images.

I started by stamping the girl and the kitten in brown ink onto some Copic marker paper. I used brown because it's softer and gives a slightly faded look. I colored my images as I usually do, using the B41 and B45 for the dress because they were a little less bright than my other blues. I trimmed the image down to a small size. I used the chisel tip of a YR82 (Mellow Peach) for the background. I simply covered the whole background, then switched to E84 to add in some subtle lines.

Then came the fun part! Making the image look older. I grabbed my trusty mini-blending tool and the Antique Linen distress ink, and went over any parts of the image that were very pale/white -- the girl's stockings, kitten, and a bit on her arms and face. I then blended in just a bit of that same antique linen ink into her dress - taking care with this one so it just looked aged, rather than turning her dress green.

I then switched to Vintage Photo and deepened the edges of the image.

I found some fun papers in my paper stash that weren't labeled vintage, but I think they still worked. The small flower print was a very popular motif in vintage, so a small pretty print from a card kit was perfect. And just to add a bit of contrast, I layered the image panel with some striped black and white paper.

As a last touch, I adhered a piece of flair from a Studio Calico's Darling Deer flair pack I found in my stash.

Thanks so much for reading!
~Elle~

Sympathy Lilies

My mom visited recently and took with her the majority of the cards I've created over the past year - some to gift to friends, others to use herself. On one hand, this was wonderful! My cards will find a happy home somewhere and really brighten someone's day. On the other hand, it's left me with an empty stash that really needs to be replenished.

When it comes to sympathy cards, my go-to idea is simple and elegant flowers with a simple sentiment. For this card, I chose Taylored Expressions' Calla Lily Bouquet stamp. It's a lovely and large vase of flowers, and it has sentiments that also make it perfect for Easter, Mothers' Day or just "thinking of you".

I decided to go with watercolors this time, and wanted to soften the image contrast a bit, so I stamped them in brown. I used distress markers to water-color the image. There wasn't anything exceptional about my coloring here, I just did a simple wash of color without much shading and let the colors pool in around the darkest parts of the stamp.

When the watercolor piece was dry, I stamped the sentiment and trimmed it down. I wanted to do a subtle frame around it, so I used a piece of white cardstock to mat the front panel. I then adhered it to a raspberry Avery Elle notecard.

The notecard is a pretty bright color, so one might hesitate to use it for a somber occasion. But I think it works here because it contrasts with the front panel and makes the lilies stand out a little better. Another color I considered was a light blue - which would have echoed in the vase color. I preferred how the pink looked, though, and that's what I ultimately chose.

For this card, I hope I won't have a chance to use it for a very long time. :)

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Galaxy Halloween

I'm super excited for Lawn Fawn's upcoming release. I think I want everything that they've shown, and at least 2 of each paper packs. But the release is still a couple of weeks away, so I decided to dig through my existing Lawn Fawn stamps and come up with a fun card.

I started by pulling out the Critters in Costume stamp set. I didn't buy this set last year, since it wouldn't have shipped in time for Halloween. But I grabbed it this year, with intentions of making some adorable Halloween treats. Seeing the cute witch cat and the broom inspired me to go for a starry sky scene.

I started by stamping the cat and the broom from Critters in Costume onto some Copic marker paper. I colored them in with my Copics. The set does have coordinating dies, but I didn't want a white border this time, so I fussy-cut the two images by hand.

I used Lawn Fawn's Stitched Journaling Card die to cut a stitched rectangle out of plain white cardstock. I used an embossing pillow to get rid of any static, then used the star stamp from the critters set to stamp a bunch of cute stars around the panel. There was no special placement or anything. I just made sure they didn't overlap and that they stayed inside the stitched rectangle border.

I used Ranger Super Fine Silver embossing powder on the stars, then hit them with my heat tool until the powder melted.

 Then I got to work on the background - and this is where the real fun starts!

I took a long strip of Post it tape and tore it in half - tearing toward me and making sure it wasn't torn completely straight. I put these on the background panel and covered the rest of the panel. This left me with an irregular-looking section. Using my mini foam applicator, layered on some Wild Honey distress ink. When I was happy with the color, I switched to Picked Raspberry and sponged just a little on the left side, and quite a bit on the right side of the panel.

I then unpeeled the tape - which is so much fun! It left me with a fantastic area that had a very defined wiggly edge. I switched to the Salty Ocean ink now, and started sponging the white edges of the panel. I worked from the outside in, being very careful not to put too much heavy color or blending near the orange area -- this would make the colors become all muddy.

I then switched to Chipped Sapphire and Dusty Concord, making the edges deeper and darker. I wanted a sort of two-tone look, so I focused the dark blue on the left, and the purple on the right. I went back to Wild Honey and Picked Raspberry and added just a bit more color around the orange strip to smooth it out. I think it added a pretty neat glow.

Once that was done, I wanted to add more stars. So, I took out my Sakura Souffle pens and added some turquoise, yellow and purple dots. Small tip: you can just hold the pen down lightly pressed to dispense more ink, and it will make for a larger dot. One of the things you have to be careful with the Souffle pens is that they seem pretty dark when first applied, but they dry to be much lighter. I took a minute or so break between each color to make sure I wasn't adding too many dot stars. I let it dry completely.

I created a simple A2 card base from white cardstock and adhered the galaxy panel with foam squares. I then adhered the cat and broom, trying to make it look like the cat was riding it. I messed up a bit with which of its paws should have been forward, but oh well. I still like it. :D

Lastly, I stamped the sentiment from the stamp set under the panel in purple ink.

Supplies:
Lawn Fawn Critters in Costume stamp
Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling Card die
My Favorite Things Hybrid Ink in Chocolate Brown
Copic Mini Marker Pad 70lbs
Neenah Solar White in 80lbs (panel) and 110 lbs (base)
Distress inks in Wild Honey, Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire and Dusty Concord)
Ranger Mini Foam Blending Tools
Sakura Souffle pens (turquoise, yellow, purple)
Copics (E33, E39, Y11, Y15, Y35, C4, BV25, BV29, BV01, BV04, BV08, YG09, G07)
Post-it tape
Stampin' Up Dimensionals
Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry Inkpad

Lawn Fawn - Relax

Tomorrow is the very last day of school for my daughter, and I wanted to make a quick summer card for her teacher.

I started with Lawn Fawn's Life is Good stamp set. This is a brand new set and it's full of completely adorable images that have to do with the beach. It seemed like the perfect theme for the summer vacation card. I also wanted to create a smaller card, so I chose the Sunflower notecard- which measures 3 1/2 by 4 7/8.

First, I cut a center panel to measure 3 1/4 by 4 5/8. I created a simple scene with two palm trees, a hammock and some sand. I knew I wanted to distress the background, so I stamped a second set of palm trees and hammock on a separate piece of card stock. I used Copics to quickly color them in.

For the background, I used distress inkpads and the blending tool to add color and depth. After masking off the sky, I used Wild Honey distress inkpad and my blending tool to add a golden color to the sand at the bottom of the panel. Then, I masked the sand and got to work on the sky.

I knew I wanted to do a sunset-like sky, so I started with lightly adding some yellow and I softened it with pink. I then moved to blue, and lastly to purple.

After adhering the palm trees and the hammock with foam dots, I stamped a simple "relax" sentiment in black ink. Since the distress colors and Copics were pretty bright already, I decided not to add any other embellishments.

Supplies:
Stamp: Lawn Fawn Life Is Good
Ink: MFT Hybrid Ink in Black Licorice
Base: Lawn Fawn Sunflower notecard
Distress Ink: Ranger Distress Ink in Wild Honey, Spun Sugar, Broken China, Peacock Feathers, and Dusty Concord
Copics: E23, E37, YG00, YG07, G46, R81, R95, V17
Scrapbook Adhesives foam squares

Lawn Fawn - Sunflower and Daisy

I've got two cards to share today. They both use the same supplies, but give two very different looks.

Let's start with the sunflower:

For this card, I first stamped the flowers, leaves and planting pot from Lawn Fawn's Our Friendship Grows stamp set. I colored them in using my Copics, added a few subtle highlights with my white gel pen, then got to work on the background. I got the watercolor look by rubbing distress inks in rows on my craft sheet and spraying them a couple of times with water. I placed a 2" strip of watercolor and pressed it down firmly to create a gradient look. I dried it with my heat tool and attached it to two strips of gray paper from the Let's Polka 6x6 paper pad. After gluing it down on a sunshine notecard, I arranged the flowers and leaves.

And now the daisy:

I followed the same process with the daisy, but I switched the colors around - using a mermaid notecard for the base. It looks much different from the sunflowers, even though the same stamp was used. I experimented a little with the texture on the flower center, and it turned out really cool.

I think this card duo is my favorite set of cards I've made this year. I just love how the colors and textures came out. 

Supplies:
Stamp: Lawn Fawn Our Friendship Grows
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Copics: Sunflower (Y06, Y21, Y35, YR15, YR68, R29, E42, E23, E37, E79), Daisy (B000, B00, B91, B95, B99, Y21, Y35, Y06, YR04, YR15, YR27, E37), Leaves (G21, G43, G46), pots (E23, E37, E79), Shadow under pot (W4, W6)
Distress Ink: Broken China, Peacock Blue, Seedless Preserves
Watercolor paper
Lawn Fawndamentals notecards in Sunshine and Mermaid
Paper: Let's Polka 6x6
Sakura jellyroll White gel pen