The Bee's Knees!

The Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog calls for sprinkles and splatters. I have a few fun cards that I have made with that in mind. Each of them follows a similar format. 

Memory Box card base, washi tape, Waltzingmouse Stamps bees and
sentiment. Black Soot Distress Ink sprinkles.

I created a beehive overlay from white cardstock on my Silhouette Cameo by manipulating a purchased file from the Silhouette Online Store called Beehive Background by Hero Arts, Design ID #38548. Each of the following cards were created with a Distress Oxide inked background with varied amounts of water splatters. 

For the following cards, I used the negative pieces from the Beehive Background.

Black photo corners used to frame these busy bees.
Hexagons were inked with Distress Oxide inks.

A few black gems and some glitter on the
bees' wings add a bit of sparkle.

It was fun, once I got in the groove, to make a batch of these bee-autiful cards! Thanks for visiting today!

My Kind of Guy

I am sharing here masculine cards I made using a Dreaming Tree project cut file. This is a fun shutter card that makes a great Father's Day or birthday card for the man in your life.

My first one was for my husband for Father's Day. I used Tim Holtz Paper Stash papers, as well as some other scraps, and an old photo of my husband and daughter for the insert. The photo is revealed as the action of opening the gatefold card opens the heart-shaped aperture. This provides that WOW factor. The bow tie band slides off.

My second card was for a card exchange and so I needed it to be a bit more generic. I used Tim Holtz Paper Stash papers again and instead of a photo inside, I did some rubber stamping. For the eyeglasses, I used silver Silhouette brand printable foil instead of the pearl paper used in the first card, and a textured glossy metallic paper for the bowler hat.

I think the papers really compliment the retro style of the Waltzingmouse rubber stamps used.

I used a rainbow stamp pad to get a gradated effect to the words.

For this second card, I made the bow tie with a magnetic closure so instead of sliding the band off, it comes undone easily by pulling apart. Here's what that looks like.

The recipient gave this card to her husband for his birthday, which was such an honour for me. She said she did not want to give it away so by giving it to him, she still gets to have it around. So I am entering this card in the Male Room Challenge which is for a male birthday card as that challenge is celebrating its fifth year.

Thanks for visiting today. If you have an electronic cutting machine I highly recommend Dreaming Tree files. They have useful videos showing how to put together the cards or 3D paper items. In the case of this file, there are even helpful divots built into the design to help align the various pieces. The hardest part for me was just deciding on which coordinating papers to use!

Christmas Card Challenge - Bethlehem

For Sylvia's month of March Christmas Challenge, the prompts were Navy Bethlehem and Sparkle Background. I chose to use a navy Canson Mi-teintes heavy paper for my card base.

The stars were made by dotting on Nuvo Silver Moondust Glitter Drops. As I don't have any Bethlehem rubber stamps, I created a cut file from watercolour paper and used Zig Clean Color Markers to shade in the scene. 

I also cut a second scene from watercolour paper to use as a silhouette. The background was made with Distress Oxide Inks and spattered with white gouache. I created the song refrain on my computer to run along the base. Fun challenge for me this time - I really stretched to make it work!

Christmas Card Challenge - Watercolour Background

Here I am with a Christmas card for Sylvia's monthly Christmas Card Challenge. This is for the month of April (I am playing catch up after a few months of poor health). Sylvia proposed a white snowflake and a watercolour background for a die cut. I used regular Distress Inks for the background with lots of water and some splatters. I tore the edges to fit a 5 X 7 inch card.

I love this snowflake die for its daintiness. I cut it from American Crafts cardstock and it cut like butter in my Cuttlebug and released with ease. 

I added two other die cut snowflakes because you can never have enough. The beautiful calligraphic quote is a rubber stamp from Quietfire Design that I stamped in blue Versafine ink and clear embossed.

I added shimmer with a Wink of Stella clear shimmer pen and a Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen in Crystal Clear. I think, of the two, I prefer the latter. Close up below. I'm entering this in the Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge, The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge, and the Merry Christmas Challenge. Check them out for great Christmas card inspiration!

Seize the Sequins!

What's a birthday without confetti?

Over at the Seize the Birthday blog the "toppings" optional challenge is sequins. I have a clean and simple card (no stamping involved - eek!) and it features sequins. Take a look:

I used a My Favorite Things Stitched Basic Edges die to create space for an inset of Prima Fairy Flora paper. Same paper was used for the inlaid Avery Elle "celebrate" die cut. The WMS "Peaches and Dream" sequins took their colour cue from the paper.

Thanks for visiting today!

DCWV July Stack-a-holic Challenge

The paper company Die Cuts With a View has a Facebook challenge for July to use this sketch to create a layout or card, etc.:

I mirrored the sketch and came up with this birthday card:

I used papers from the DCWV Premium Stacks Nana's Nursery Baby Boy - proving the versatility of those papers. I inked the edges with Distress Oxide Inks. The "Party" is die cut from blue cardstock from the DCWV Metallic Stack. I bumped it up with a few layers of plain cardstock die cuts underneath. The sentiment is a retired Waltzingmouse Stamp. The teeny stars are leftovers from the die cut circle.

Thanks for peeking in today! This challenge runs until July 17th, so there is still time for you to enter, too!

Black Ice Technique

There is a wonderful tutorial at Splitcoaststampers for the Black Ice Technique, which creates a striated and shimmery effect using metallic cardstock, swipes of black ink, and clear embossing powder. I was intrigued and had a go with some leftover cardstock for my first effort. I mounted it to medium brown cardstock.

Once I saw how cool it looks, I decided to try it with blue metallic cardstock for a beach theme. I mounted the squares onto plain metallic cardstock, then onto black cardstock and I added washi tape.

Here are some close ups, but it is hard to capture the frosty effect:

Thanks for visiting today!