Be Mine?

Hello!

Once again sorry for the delay, I was travelling during the weekend and since then I've just been a bit lazy.
Today will be the last of the valentine cards the next post will likely be a birthday card as I have a few birthdays coming up.

Here is the card:

Materials:

• Black, pink and white card
• Silver embossing powder and embossing ink
• Heart border punch
• Alphabet stamps and a heart on stems stamp
• Silver and pink gems
• Water colour pencils and a paint brush
• Silver gel pen

Directions:

1. Make the card base from the black card.  Punch the heart border along the bottom of the front of the card.  Cut the pink card about 2cm thick and adhere on the inside of the card to show through the punched design.  Cut the white card to fit on the front allowing room for a small border of black to show around the sides and top.
2. Stamp the hearts on stems and spell out 'be mine' with the alphabet stamp.  Cover in embossing powder and heat set.  Using a purple and two different shades of pink water colour pencils, gently add colour to the white card slightly overlapping the colours.  Using the paint brush and a small amount of water, brush over the pencil to create a smooth colour wash and to partially blend the colours together.  Let it dry fully.  Create a border with the silver gel pen and adhere several gems to appear to float away from the top of the hearts.  Adhere the panel to the card base with dimensional foam.

It took a bit of time and effort for me to make this card but I am pleased with how it turned out.  I love the pop of pink through the punched border and the gems floating away in the breeze.

Til next time

Stacey

Tutti Frutti Valentine

Hello!

Sorry for the delay this week!  Today I have a confession for you...... I did in fact make a card ready for posting on Saturday, however I thought it wasn't good enough and to top it off I stuck the main panel on to the card base wrong so that instead of opening on the right it opens on the left!  After that I gave up and took some time to reflect.  I've been trying far too hard to create lovely valentine cards that I just ended up getting myself in to a right state.  It took 3 hours on Saturday to make a card that I wasn't even happy with!  So I took a couple of days and waited for inspiration to strike, and it did! I stayed away from the pink and frilly and only used hearts as an accent rather than the main feature to make this card:

I love this card!
Materials needed:

• White card and orange patterned paper
• Embossing ink, black, red and yellow ink
• Clear embossing powder
• An orange stamp, a heart stamp and letter stamps
• Colouring pencils
• Orange glitter glue

To make this card:

1. Create card base from white card.  Cut orange patterned paper to leave a 0.5cm border of white.  Cut a piece of white card to leave a 0.5cm border of orange.
2. Using the orange stamp, first ink with the embossing ink and then the black directly on top.  This is because we want the embossing ink to end up on top for the powder to stick to when it is stamped.  Stamp several of the orange images on to the paper using the embossing ink with black ink combo.  Cover in clear embossing powder and heat set.
3. Using the pencils, colour in the oranges.  I made a couple of them to look like lemons in order to break up the orange.
4. Using the red and yellow inks with the letter stamps, carefully stamp 'tutti frutti valentine' around three of the orange images.  Using the same inks, stamp the small heart in the gaps around the oranges (I actually only did this step because I accidentally created a couple of smudge marks with ink that was on my fingers and I wanted to cover them up!).
5. Adhere the white panel on to the orange paper with dimensional foam and then the orange paper to the card base with regular adhesive.
6. Add glitter glue to the inside segments of each orange and try not to knock the card on to its front until its dry (like I did, oops!).

And there you go, while I had enough troubles making this card, I didn't get nearly as flustered as the previous ones because I had a goal in mind for the end result.  Which is surprising given that it is particularly hot here today, so excuse me while I go melt.......

Till next time.

Stacey

Valentine Heart Card

Hello!

Today I have the first in a series of Valentine Cards to share with you.  I struggled with inspiration for this card until I came across a heart die that I purchased several months ago but hadn't yet used.  I am so pleased with how this card turned out given that I spent just as long deciding what to do as I did actually making the card.

Materials needed:

• two different pink patterned papers (with a very subtle pattern)
• white cardstock
• pink gel pen
• embossing and pink coloured ink
• silver embossing powder
• silver gem stones
• heart die
• 'Valentine's Day' stamp

How to make this card:

1. Using an A4 piece of white cardstock, trim it in half to make the card base (10.5 by 14.85cm).  Score down the middle and fold.
2. Trim one of the pink papers down to leave a 2.5cm border of white when adhered to the card base (10 by 14.35cm).  Use the pink gel pen to create dash lines around all sides.
3. Cut the heart die from white cardstock.  Using the die cut as a guide, trace around the heart onto the other pink paper.  Cut out the heart.  Cover the die cut with embossing ink followed by silver embossing powder.  Heat set the powder.  Once cool, adhere the die cut to the pink heart and trim off any excess pink from around the edge.
4. Cut a strip of white cardstock 5 by 12.5cm.  Create a banner shape at one end by trimming out a triangle.  Using the pink gel pen create dash lines around all sides except the very top.  Stamp your 'Valentine's Day' stamp towards the bottom of the strip.  Adhere the heart with dimensional foam to the strip and the strip to the card base also with dimensional foam.
5. Place three large silver gems on to the card base creating a triangle shape.  Stick two smaller gems beside two of the larger gems and only one beside the remaining large gem.

I love how this card is so pink and also sparkly!  Even though it took me far too long to figure out what I was going to create, I am so glad I persevered because I am so pleased with the result.

Till next time.

Stacey

Anniversary Card

Hello!

Sorry for the long delay, there was Christmas and New Year then I started work at a holiday programme and I actually haven't made any cards for a long time!

So today's card is an anniversary card which will lead in to Valentine's cards in the next few posts.

Materials:

• Glitter embossed paper, blue paper
• Blue ink
• Heart shaped stamp and an "Anniversary" stamp
• Blue and silver thread
• Silver gel pen
• Corner rounding punch

How to make the card:

1. Stamp the heart twice and the anniversary stamp once onto the blue paper.  Using the silver gel pen add highlights to both hearts and anniversary images.  Cut from the blue paper leaving a small border around each of the images.
2. Cut and adhere the glitter embossed paper to the front of your card base.
3. Wrap both the blue and silver threads around the bottom of your card base several times and stick down the ends on the inside of the card.
4. Adhere the stamped images onto the card base using dimensional adhesive.

There you go, one anniversary card!  Of course it will be easy enough to change the colours according to the anniversary being celebrated, also it is quite a quick card to put together (the hardest part was cutting out the stamp images!).

Till next time.

Stacey

Happy Birthday Negative Butterflies Card

Hello!

Today I am presenting a birthday card for your viewing pleasure.  Often at this time of year we are so wrapped up in Christmas that birthday's can be overshadowed.  So today we celebrate those with a December birthday to let them know they are special to.

Materials Needed:

• Card base (white)
• Purple paper (one dotted, one glitter, one plain)
• Butterfly die
• Happy Birthday stamp
• Sliver embossing powder and embossing ink
• Sliver gel pen

To make this card:

• Cut the dotted paper so that it is 0.5 cm shorter on each side than your card base.  Using the butterfly die, cut three butterflies out of the paper.
• Cut the glitter paper into three pieces that are big enough to cover the card base underneath each of the butterflies.  Use a pencil to mark the edges of each butterflies on the card base and adhere the glitter paper so that all marks are covered.  Adhere the dotted paper to the card base with dimensional foam.
• Stamp and emboss the Happy Birthday onto the plain purple paper.  Cut and trim to make a banner shape, then adhere to the bottom section of the card with foam.  Create a dotted line border with the gel pen.

There you go.  This card is actually quite easy to make, the hardest part is lining up the glitter paper underneath so that none of the white shows through. It would be easier to just cut a piece of the glitter paper exactly the same size as the dotted paper, but I feel like its a bit of a waste when so much of it is covered up.

This card is easily adapted too, changing the colour, shape of the die, and the sentiment will produce a variety of cards for many occasions.

Til next week!

Stacey

P.S Don't forget to check out the facebook page for Confessions of a Card Maker for extra inspiration!

https://www.facebook.com/ConfessionsOfACardMakerBlog

Christmas Card Number Seven

Hello,

It seems that Saturdays are now my posting day, so I may just continue on with this pattern and see how it goes.

Today's card is designed to be easily massed produced as well as being easy to change aspects of it so you don't get bored after the 20th card.  I made three different versions with the same design in less than an hour (I spent most of this time picking what paper I wanted to use!).

As you can see they all have a repeated stamp across the top, the gold stripe, the embossed sentiment and the patterned paper.  The differences lie in the stamps used, the paper used and the size of the paper used.

Materials needed:

• Patterned paper
• Gold paper
• Red, green and embossing ink
• Gold embossing powder
• Christmas themed stamp and a "Merry Christmas" stamp
• Gold gel pen
• White card base

To make the card:

Cut a piece of the patterned paper to fit across the bottom of the card base.  Stamp and emboss the Merry Christmas towards the middle right of the paper.  Adhere the piece to the card base.  Cut a small strip of gold paper and adhere above the patterned paper.  Stamp the Christmas themed stamp several times above the gold paper alternating the colours.  Using the gel pen, colour small portions of each of the stamps.

And there you have it, a simple design to make a bunch of Chirstmas cards!

Till next time

Stacey

Christmas Card Number Six

Hello

Sorry for the delay this week, I've just had one of those weeks where everything I touch seems to fall apart.
Today's card features the humble Christmas tree again and a really bold colourful background.

Materials needed:

• 3 pieces of green patterned paper, one striped pattern paper, and two light coloured patterned papers.
• Sliver embossing powder and embossing ink
• "holiday greetings' stamp
• A sliver and black gel pen

To make the card:

• Cut the striped paper to fit the front of the card and adhere.  Cut a small strip of one of the light coloured papers and adhere towards the bottom of the card.
• From each of the green papers, cut a Christmas tree in three different sizes.  If desired add some embossing or glitter to the trees.  Cut a heart from the other light patterned paper.  From a scrap piece of paper cut out three small rectangles to be the trunk of the trees.
• Stamp and emboss the sentiment on to the heart.
• Adhere two of the Christmas trees directly to the front of the card.  Using dimensional foam adhere the third Christmas tree in between the first two.  Also with dimensional foam, adhere the heart towards the right side of the card.
• Using the black gel pen create dash lines around the outside of the heart.  With the silver pen do the same around the background piece.

I hope today's card has provided you with some inspiration.

Till next time

Stacey