Valentine Card Candy

A few years ago "Card Candy" was all the rage in certain stamping circles. I was always intrigued but never got around to trying it. A swap is the perfect way to get me to try new things, and my Canadian paper crafts swap group chose this for one of our January 2018 swaps.

The idea is to create card embellishments that would be perfect to add to a card front. Then package them up like store-bought embellishments. (Yes, paper crafters are crazy this way.)

I backed my sets with bingo cards which were a digital file (Jenni Bowlin Studio) that I printed out. 

I went for a red and aqua theme for my card candy. I shopped my craft room for items in those colours and had fun using scraps and bits and bobs. This was a transparency I had printed out for another project that I had extras of. 

These hearts are just layers of cardstock, felt and vellum that I cut out with Spellbinders dies.

I used another Spellbinders die and the Tim Holtz rosette die to make this heart. I added silver crinkled threads and silver glitter. The banner features a Waltzingmouse Stamp.

My favourite piece is this rubber stamped thread spool. The red satin ribbon I used was the perfect width. I hand-sewed a button on the felt hearts.

I made three sets:

Here's a shot of the packages all put together and wrapped in cellophane.

And the back:

Hope you enjoyed seeing these. I enjoyed making them and they are in the post now making their way to my swap partners.

Thinking of You

Sympathy cards - always hard! This is an Inkadinkado stamp that I heat embossed on watercolour paper and I watercoloured with Zig markers. The scalloped flourish is a Spellbinders die, as is the frame.

A Winter Birthday

I wish you could see this card's background in real life. I had a lot of fun making it. I started out with a background of alcohol inks in blues and purples. Then I lifted off snowflake shapes with Alcohol Lift Ink. 

Then I added some holographic heat-embossed snowflakes for some shimmery fun. They just show up when the card is tilted.

Lastly, I ran the background through my Cuttlebug with a snowflake embossing folder. It added a bit more subtle texture. I didn't want to cover up too much of the background, so I kept the Copic coloured bird and sentiment minimal. 

Thanks for visiting today! I am entering this in the Facebook Scrap 'N Stamp Challenge Page for the current All That Sparkles Challenge. 

Happy Hanukkah

Here it is once again; well, actually, this year Hanukkah began on December 2. Even though I put a reminder in my calendar, I still did not get this card finished by then. Luckily for me, there are eight days to celebrate the Festival of Lights!

I cut out the greeting (kerribradford.com) and free-hand designed the candles. The Star of David was a free SVG file courtesy of the internet. I coloured the flames with Copic markers. The blue is a beautiful silk-finish cardstock. I cut everything out of the yellow and the blue, then popped the bits back into the yellow base, so it's all level and clever looking. :-)

I am in the throes of Christmas card making, so it was a challenge to stop and pivot a bit here, but I'm happy with the way this turned out.

Purple Stippled Flowers

The optional "toppings" challenge at Seize the Birthday this week is Foliage. I hope my few leaves here and there count! For this birthday card I chose to use the Gina K Designs Stippled Flowers set. I embossed the blooms and die cut them, along with lots of leaves. The card design was based on a card Gina made for the launch of this set. She embossed in white but I chose gold.

I used Zig Clean Color Watercolor Markers and a water brush to colour them, then touched up with a purple Copic marker here and there.

Gina layered on a Swiss Dot dry embossed background, but I chose an Anna Griffin Poppy design. I popped a few of the flowers up with foam tape to add some dimension. I added a strip of tape and some purple glitter to the dividing border.

The sentiment is from a separate Gina K Designs stamp set, Bold & Blooming. I added a few pale purple Swarovski Crystals to finish it off. Thanks for visiting today!

Stencilled Birthday Card

Over at Splitcoaststampers there was a challenge to create a card with a stencil. Seize the Birthday's challenge is "Anything Goes."

I had wanted this particular stencil for a very long time and once I finally got hold of it - it sat unused. Why does that happen? So this was a good time to get it out.

I layered Ranger Opaque Matte Texture Paste through the Stampers Anonymous stencil onto some very old patterned scrapbook paper that I have been saving for a special card. After it dried, I used Versamark to adhere Perfect Pearls to the flowers and vines for colour and shimmer.

The Quietfire Design sentiment was stamped on a Stampin' Up Word Window Punch tag and tied with a ribbon. Thanks for visiting today.

A FAN-tastic Card

I am not ashamed to admit I love a good pun. I think someone somewhere once said puns are the lowest form of humour, but I  think they can range from groan-worthy to clever. I am not sure which category this card falls in! It's a card for a guy - which is always a little challenging. 

I stamped the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Mini Blueprints 4  sketched fan all over the card front. Using a stamp positioner helped in lining up those fans. I clear embossed the fans and coloured them in with Tim's watercolour Distress Markers. I mounted that panel on black cardstock and then a white 5X7 card.

The greeting is from the Hampton Arts Vintologie Birthday stamp set. I coloured the stamp with markers and kept layering the colours on with repeated stamping (again - a stamp positioner helps) until it was not splotchy and blended well. Then I overstamped with Versamark ink and embossed with sparkly holographic embossing powder. Looks great in real life.

I cut strips of lime green tissue paper to back the sentiment to echo how fans often have a strip of paper ribbon attached so you know they are running. And the pun? That was computer-generated inside:

I am entering this in the Seize The Birthday challenge. Thanks for visiting today.