Birthday Cards

I've been following the newest Online Card Class: Stretch Your Dies.

Lots of great ideas! They inspired me to get caught up on my family birthday card stash. Don't worry, the intended recipients do not read my blog!

Here's the first:

Beautiful Bokeh background with Distress Inks and white pigment ink, plus home-made circle stencil. Then, those lucious-looking letters! These were inspired by Jennifer McGuire. The letters were white card-stock, cut with Avery Elle alpha dies, coloured with Distress Markers and inks to match the card, glossed with Wink of Stella, then covered with Liquid Glass for that shimmery, shiny effect.

Next up, one for my niece. This card is a shameless CASE of Laura Bassen. I used my rubber embossing mats to make the Polaroid impression with a Lil' Inker's die.  I masked off the edge, and stamped a photo-bomb scene, using Paper Smooches Chubby Chum Pals. Those were coloured with Copic Markers.

For the sentiment, I blended two Copic colours from the scene above, then die-cut the letters from Paper Smooches Sassy Script.

I tried a couple different colour combos before deciding on the blue and brown. Lining the dies up with washi tape helped keep them straight, even when using the magnetic platform.

One more view:

I am linking these up to:

And the Online Card Classes' gallery.

Have a crafty week!

Caroline

Monster Hugs

Isn't that lil' monster just the CUTEST??!!

I am a follower of Jen Shurkus aka {Creative Chick}. When I saw her initial card kit/online class, I had to try it out.  The stamp set (designed for Simon Says Stamp by Sandy Allnock, I believe) has the most adorable images! I love the big eyes.  I added a little shading to them, then Wink of Stella, then Glossy Accents to make them shimmer and shiny... But I'm getting ahead of myself!

I made four of the cards in the Valentine's and Friendship Card Kit for my hubby and sons. Then I made a shaker card with little Wendel (yes, those monsters have NAMES!).  I used a trick seen on Jennifer McGuire's blog, where rather than using adhesive foam tape as the spacer between the card base and overlay, she die cut craft foam sheets. This seemed like a good idea to me, as I find my sequins tend to stick to the edge of the foam tape.  

Here's a closer look:

There's the water-coloured Wendel image surrounded by the craft foam cut-out. I used Lil'Inker Designs stitched hearts dies.  Using the actual shape evacuated from the foam, and working from the bottom up, makes it easier to add your sequins and punched shapes because they are contained.  I cut out some little foam hearts to add to the shaker mix, while I was at it. The sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh (came in the card kit) and Neat & Tangled.

Then I die-cut another heart from card-stock, and layered it over the foam, sandwiching the acetate in between.

I wish I'd left a little more space between the shaker box and the sentiment, however its still pretty darn cute, eh?

Since I used Pretty Pink Posh sequins, and Paulina is sponsoring the challenge, this card's being linked up to Virginia's View shaker card challenge. I also hope Jen Shurkus gets to see it!

Happy crafting,

Caroline