It’s Graduation Time!!

Here are some graduation cards I’ve made in recent days.  I helped some friends to make some too, but I forgot to take pictures!

 First off is for a young man – masculine card

His school colors are purple and gold, but he also went to a magnet school with blue so ci added them to the sentiment.  The circle stamps are Tim Holtz, and the 2016 are Unity Stamps.  I also added some gold sequins.

I also a Unity Stamp for the inside quote.

This one is for a girl.  Her school colors are red and blue.  I cut the balloons out with my circle dies added some yarn and the black cap with the a red tassel.

I got my inspiration for this card from a card I saw at  My Creative Time blog hop.  I  used a torn piece of paper in the shape of clouds and using a sponge, I colored them with Broken China distress ink.  I then added the embellishments on the base.  The Celebrate stamp is an older Stamp’n Up stamp.  I also added yarn for the balloons’ strings.  I also stamped inside the balloons.

On the inside I stamped this new stamp by Unity Stamps.  I received the set just in time to make my cards!

This one is for a young lady who is graduating from college.

I used a Julie Nuttig doll stamp and a brand new face stamp to fit these girls from Peachy Keen.  It firs perfectly!  I used watercolor paper I then colored the face with watercolor pencils, and pieced together her dress  and shoes to match the background.  Her aunt said she likes purple, so I made purple the accent color.  I then added a small ribbon around the waist and a graduation cap.

Close up of the graduate.

The face

the sentiment along with her diploma.

Last, but not least, the card I made for my grandson.  It had to be special!

I used black and gold because those were the colors on his Graduation Announcement and the invitations.  The stamp on the left is a Unity stamp.  I didn’t have anymore graduation paper so I stamped the diploma, caps, words, and stars on white cardstock with gray ink.

I got this quote from Scapbooks.com and added it to the inside of the card.

As a gag gift, I enclosed a small envelope with some graduation embellishments  I found at JoAnn’s.  It had a small driver’s license and a set of keys in heavy cardstock.  I glued them on a piece of cardstock and glued a miniaturized graduation picture of him.

Then I put it inside another small envelope with gold chipboard sentiments and stars.

I’m waiting to see how he reacts to it.  I also added on the back of the small envelope under the flap:  “Patience is a virtue.”  Just saying!

Looks like I’m caught up with all my graduation cards!!

Thanks for coming by and until next time,

happy crafting!

Carmen

Unity Stamps Photo Challenge April 7 – 14.

Since I didn’t have to make a project for this week’s Life Book 2016, I spent my time making cards for a couple of challenges.   I hope you read my previous post about the projects I created for Club Scrap.

This week’s photo is open to interpretation as you can see by the image.  I’ve seen a few of the cards people have made for this challenge and many involve rain drops.

I chose to concentrate on the colors instead of the raindrops.

I went to Hobby Lobby and found a Spellbinders Stained Glass die cut on clearance.  I think this was an excellent purchase and will make great use of it.

I used the You do This stamp which has several words you can insert in the banner.  I chose “amaze.”  I then cut out the letters and the banner individually so the “stained glass” wouldn’t be obscured.  I used silver cardstock and ran it through the Big Shot.

I die cut another piece using white cardstock and used it as a mask, then used inks, colored pencils, and markers to add the colors on the photo.

Here’s a close-up

I really enjoyed making this card although had to take my time to color each segment of the “stained glass” and fuzzy-cut each letter.

I hope you enjoyed your visit here, and until next time,

make some art!

Carmen

Two Cards and Two Inking Techniques

Hello, my stamping friends.  Today I want to share a technique I learned at Club Scrap hop to introduce their new stamp kit Dahlias.

I made two cards to enter into the Unity Stamp sketch challenge, but I missed the deadline.

Card Number One

 I went ahead and shared it with the group and I had someone ask how I did the inking on this card.

First, I stamped the flower from the Everything Joyful & Beautiful kit on specialty paper, but you can use any nice card stock available. I used Ranger Archival Ink.   I then created a rectangular mask using  low tac masking paper.  I used the grid on my cutting pad to align the rectangle so it would come out perfectly centered on the paper.  Then, using four different colors of distress ink and a sponge, I dabbed the colors making sure the paper stayed in place.

Once you remove the masking paper, you are left with a beautiful frame. Then I stamped the sentiment and the three hearts that came in the kit.  I then stamped the three hearts on white cardstock and used the same inks and used a circle punch.

I matted it with violet card stock and popped it up on top as well as the three circles to follow the sketch.

Next time, I’ll take pictures as I go along.

Card Number Two

This card was also inspired by the Dahlias post at Club Scrap.

They showed cased a card stamped with white ink on black cardstock.  It is not exactly the same because I added hearts instead of buttons.

I used  the Remembering You blooms kit  using only the flower which I stamped several times with Dew Drop Brilliance fast-drying pigment ink in Platinum Planet, and added some silver drops and a butterfly punched out of patterned paper.  The layered hearts are from my stash.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and the links for more information.  Stay tuned or the next challenge!

Thanks for stopping by!

Carmen

Unity Stamps Sketch Challenge

This week the challenge at Unity Stamps is to make a card using this sketch:

I decided to make a sympathy card for a dear friend who just lost her mother last week.  She is loved by many people so this sentiment is perfect for her.

I used watercolor paper because I wanted to use my Brushos color crystals.  They are intense paint powder that is water-based. The colors are brilliant and transparent.  They’re mainly for impressionistic work, but I love the way they run on water color paper when I use the wet-on-wet technique.  You can also do sprinkling, spritzing, and other techniques.  I’m still getting used to the intensity, and at first I was getting mud.  I’m getting closer to liking them much more now that I can control them better.

I started out by brushing gesso on the paper and after it was dry I then used a stencil and modeling paste with this awesome stencil.  I let it dry, then I used the Brush powder adding a little water on my palette and coloring the branches.  Then I just spritzed the paper with water and threw a miniscule amount of the crystals on the background.

I used a Unity Stamp that came with one of the Kit of the Month collection, What Lies Within Us.  I wanted the girl to be walking in a field of grass so I masked the stenciled branches and stamped her directly on the watercolor paper using Memento ink.  I also used the Brusho crystals.  I then went back and used a pen to outline the scarf, the branches, and the hair.

For the sentiment, I used printed vellum and outlined the edge to make it stand out, then I aded a few sequins.  If you look closely at the vellum, you can see it has faint leaves all over.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my sympathy card.  I want to give it to my friend personally, but she leaves on the west side and there is construction going on, so I’ll mail it.  Be sure and stop by the Unity Stamp store this week, they are having a FUNtastic sale!

Until next time,

Create something awesome today!

Carmen

Teaching My Friends To Make Cards

Good morning my friends!

I’ve been making cards for several years and I love to give them out to people.  Some have said they wish hey could make cards, but find it too difficult.  So I decided to give card classes for them using a variety of stamps.

I started in the summer and I find that not only are we making cards, but we’re also getting to know each other better and enjoying a creative form of entertainment.

 For this week’s lesson, I set up all the materials for them and will show them how to put them together.

I had so much fun making this one – lots of layers and dimension, but it will take some time to put it together.

I used the Now And Always stamp kit (an oldie) from Unity Stamps.  I love this kit because it has flowers that can be stamped on different colors of cardstock, and be cut apart to stack them and give them dimension.

I saw this type of card online and since I don’t have a beautiful butterly die like the one they used, I chose an older dragonfly from Spellbinders.

And, used this kit with that has many different sentiments and fonts!

Finally, this is my favorite.

I used Poppy Pattern Penny Black background stamp for this one, and the sentiment from this kit:

One of the friends that comes to take classes prefers 6×6 cards and I usually make 5 1/2 by 4 1/4,  and so I’ve been trying to accomodate her, but the background stamps are usually 5 1/2 by 4 1/4.  I guess I’ll have to use single stamps to make the background, but it will be more time consuming.

So, if you’re in the area and want to learn how to make stamps in two hours, leave me a message on my Facebook page.

Have a wonderful day!

Carmen

Unity Blog Hop Challenge

I hadn’t had a chance to enter the Unity Blog Hop Challenge in a while because the day of the blog hop was changed, but this week it happened on a different day and I decided to enter my cards since I made two cards for a couple of friends.

I’m taking a Craftsy class called “Lovely Layered Cards From Top to Bottom” taught by Sharri Carroll and these are the cards I made for the homework.

One of the segments was called “Layering With Mixed Media.” I used corrugated cardboard for the top of the card then added crackle paste.  I also cut out a couple of hearts and the top and bottom of the cardboard of with my dies.

I used Authentique 6×6 double sided designer paper pad for the second layer where hearts were laid, and the bottom layer.

For the embellishments I used a Prima flower and a rolled flower I made myself plus the “Love You” brad.

I finished it off by adding glitter to the crackle paste as well as the flowers.

The ribbon is from my stash.

This second card is a Sympathy Card I created for a dear friend who lost her mom – she was only 58 years old – so young!!

This segment was called “Distressed Collaged Background”

I used the same paper pad for the top of the card, collaged the front with  torn designer paper and tissue paper with mat medium to soften some of the dark color of the designer paper.  I also used a stencil and Flexible Modeling Paste on the bottom right hand side and colored it with distress inks.  I then dded a few butterflies punched out in three different sizes from the same paper.  Died my own ribbon with distress inks, and added the black Prima flower.  The sentiment I used was from Unity Stamps also.

Thanks for coming by and if you wish, follow my blog!

Hugs,

Carmen

Online Watercolor Class for Card Makers – Day 3 (continued)

Gelatos and Watercolor Crayons with Shari Carroll

Although this is the last day of class, we will probably have a bonus day, so you’ll have to put up with me and my cards one more day!

I made two cards with the techniques she showed us.

I made my first ever shaker card using the watercolor paper and Gelatos that was sprayed with water and a stencil.    I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of the before that shows all the nice texture.

I used a heart die and also cut out “love you” out of gold shimmer paper.

 

You can see a bit of the texture on the top:

The second technique, she only made the card base, bit I made a card using Gelatos because I didn’t have watercolor crayons.

I made it into a celebratory card.  I stamped a single stamp with stars and stripes, embossed it with silver embossing powder, cut out some starts with a Martha Stewart punch, and added silver stickles to the stars on the stamp.  The sentiment is from Unity Stamps.  I used a spellbinders die.

Well, friends, that is all the samples I have for this class.  I hope we do have a bonus and I can make more watercolor cards!

Thanks for stopping by,

Carmen

Several Cards I Have Created in The Last Few Weeks

Here are some cards and other mixed media projects I’ve created, but haven’t posted.

My grandson Sage stayed with us for a few days this summer and wanted to surprise his girl friend.  He said he wanted a folder to tell her how much he loved her.  “Grandma, can you make something for Emma?”  What do you want me to make?  “Oh, just take a folder and do your stuff on it!”  He loved it!  You should have seen the look in his eyes when I gave it to him.

Emma’s Folder

I used stencils, spray paint, acrylics and a black marker

 

The back of the folder with a silhouette of a person dancing.

Close up of the stencil I used and the word Celebrate!

This is a mixed media canvas for a dear friend of the family who just found out she has Ewing’s Cancer, a rare form of bone Cancer.  She is so sweet and only 14 years old.

A closeup of the quote:

It didn’t take long for her to start loosing her hair, so I sent her a card to cheer her up!

I used a couple of Unity stamps for this one.

One of my cousins asked me to make a Sympathy card for a coach who just died, so I dusted off my Cricut and cut out a few images from the Basketball cartridge.

I also used my single stamps and stamped the inside.

Finally, I’ve been taking some Craftsy card classes and these are a few of the cards I’ve created.

The lessons were given by Catherine Pooler – so much fun!

Deepest Sympathy Card

Hello and thanks for visiting today.  I created a sympathy card for my brother-in law.  He lost his brother recently and this weekend is the memorial.

I used tumbled glass distressed ink, applied it to my craft mat, added water and dipped the watercolor paper several times, drying between layers.

I took the Wild Flowers and Wings SMAK Kit and Imperfection is Beauty , Donna Downing stamps and stamped them on another watercolor paper several times so I could use the petals to layer on top of other petals.

I used a new brand of watercolor paints called CQR – they are very intense when dry.

I also took another butterfly stamps  from Unity.  Sorry, I can’t remember which kit it came from, never the less, I love that it has hearts on the wings.  and colored three to scatter them on the card.

I fussy cut all the elements and added some scattered twigs distress ink to the edges to make them pop and layered several petals to the flowers.

The leaves are also from the Wildflowers & Wings SMAK kit.

I also added a bit of distressed Stickles with a brush all around the flowers and butterflies.  I stamped the flower in scattered twigs on front of the envelope and the inside of the card.

The sentiment on the front  is from  May Hope Sustain You sentiment kit and for the inside I chose one of the sentiments from the sentiment kit Beautiful Life, Blessed Memories.

I’m entering this card in the Friends With Flair challenge at Unity Stamps.

Until next time, happy crafting!

Carmen

You Color My World Greeting Card

For this month’s post, I made a card from the Happy Easter Collection.  When I saw the brush and the paint drip I knew I wanted to make an art related card.

I took the egg on the front and transformed it into a paint palette by adding different size circles and joining them to the original egg using Make The Cut.  

I cut everything on my Cricut, including the watercolor paper so I could drop some watercolor and acrylic paint on the panel as well as the color wells.

On the inside of the card I followed the same theme using card stock with color drips and smears.

I stamped “You Color My World” with a Unity Stamp I just received in the mail yesterday.  Perfect timing, Unity!!

There is a tutorial to put this card together on the Kneedles and Knowledge blog for your convenience.  

This file also comes with a matching envelope.  I used the same color of cards stock as the front panel and the designer paper on inside panels for the envelope.

 Well, my friends, sad to say this is my last post as a Design Team member.  I want to personally thank Beth Fiscus for having faith in me and choosing me to be a member of the team for the six month duration.  I enjoyed using SVG Attic files and modifying them into different projects.  I will miss the excitement  of the blog hops for sure, but especially the camaraderie with all the people associated with SVG Attic!

I turned down the request to continue as a member because my husband and I will be traveling in the summer and, of course, I’ll be away from my computer!

 I hope I will be able to contribute in the future if there are other opportunities to join the team again!

Keep on crafting, I know I will!!

Carmen