Bubble Birthday

I made this birthday card to combine two of this week's challenges. The colors come from the latest Your Next Stamp challenge. The challenge this week at the Mod Squad Challenge blog is to make a birthday card.

I found scraps from my stash that matched the YNS challenge colors and used the "scrappy background" technique. Then I dry embossed the background with an embossing folder called "Tiny Bubbles."

The stamp is from My Favorite Things and I thought the little circles around the boarder matched the bubbles from the embossing folder. I used a corner rounder on the sentiment and on the card base.

wistful watercolor

Pretty Pink Posh is hosting a Watercolor Blog Hop and I'm joining in! 

The watercolors I used are called Twinkling H2O's. If you've never used them, let me explain. They are pots of solid watercolors with mica in them. You get them wet and let the water sit a while to soften the paint. Then, when you paint with them the colors all have a soft shimmer to them. Very beautiful, but hard to capture with my camera. 

For this card I used a stamp from Penny Black called "wistful." The stamp is pretty large, and really beautiful. So, it needs to take center stage when its used on a card. 

I painted washes of color using Twinkling H2O's on watercolor paper. When they dried, I stamped the image over the top using black Staz-on ink. That's all! The part that took the longest was waiting for the paint to dry. 

Car Card

The challenge this week at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is to make masculine cards. That is a good opportunity to this unique car stamp that I have from Club Scrap. It shows the right half of one car and the left half of the other and I'm never quite sure what to do with it. Sketch 231 from Operation Write Home seemed to be a good choice. 

Operation Write Home #231

Sketch: Operation Write Home #231
Paper: Colorbox
Sentiment Stamp: Hero Arts
Image Stamp: Club Scrap

Best Dad Ever Card

When I saw this paper it seemed like a great choice for making colorful, interesting cards that would be appropriate to send to men. 

Because I'm making cards for Operation Write Home, a sentiment like "best dad ever" is great. It could be used as a birthday card, a Father's Day card, or just to let dad know that he's in your thoughts. 

Paper: Basic Grey Hello Luscious
Stamp: Verve
Washi: My Mind's Eye

This week the Wednesday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp is "Make it Masculine," so this card will be entered over there. 

Ready, Set, Go! Version 2

Last year I bought a 6" x 6" pad of paper called "Ready, Set, Go" by Amy Tangerine. The cute designs seemed ideal for making cards for Operation Write Home. 

When OWH announced that they will be shutting down at the end of this year I realized that now is the time to use up all those papers that I bought specifically with OWH cards in mind. 

I started by making a series of cards using the "Ready, Set, Go" paper and sketches from Viva La Verve. This is the second card I'm posting. 

Viva La Verve May 2015 Sketch 1

The stamp is from the Hero Arts Woodland Creatures set. 
The button punch is from Martha Stewart.
The chevron embossing folder is from Darice. 

Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go

Last year I bought a 6 x 6 pad of paper called "Ready, Set, Go" by Amy Tangerine. The cute designs seemed ideal for making cards for Operation Write Home. 

When OWH announced that they will be shutting down at the end of this year I realized that now is the time to use up all those papers that I bought specifically with OWH cards in mind. 

So here is the first card in my own version of the Finish Strong campaign. I already knew the sentiment I wanted to pair with the paper. Viva La Verve provided the sketch inspiration which made the job easier. 

Viva La Verve May 2015 Week 4

Stamp: Hero Arts, Forest Friends

Ink: Momento Nautical Blue

Edging Ink: Colorbox chalk ink

Bittersweet Chocolate

The names of the products I used to make this card are very evocative. The stamps and die-cut word are from the new chocolate collection from Verve Stamps. Since the theme was chocolate I choose paper from the Bittersweet collection from Basic Grey. The dotted paper in the background is Blissful from Bazzill. 

Its difficult to see in the photo, but the word and hearts were die cut from a paper that is a bit sparkly. The paper is adhesive backed which worked out great because the word die would be difficult for me to put glue on without getting it all over the place. 

Viva La Verve Week 1 May 2015

This card is based on the week 1 Viva La Verve sketch from May.