Clean & Simple Holiday OCC

Day 1 – Clean and Simple Holiday Inking

It has been nearly 5 years since I have really been able to set up a studio and make some cards.  I have been moving quite a bit lately and life finally seems to be finding its rhythm.  With such an extended hiatus, I find myself completely loss and my creative mojo is nowhere to be found.  I figured it would be in one of the many boxes I have unpacked, but apparently the movers left it behind!  I actually feel as though I am just starting out again (I have been a crafter for nearly 12 years!)

After spending several months organizing, organizing and more organizing, I can no longer use that as an excuse and must try to get back in the crafting game.  Alas, I signed up for an OCC in order to catapult myself back into a card making frenzy.  It has been slow going to say the least.  Remember the scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when Violet pushes the button on the mammoth machine and all that it spits out was a tiny piece of gum?  That’s kind of how I feel.  My small studio, once quite pristine and perfectly organized, is a chaotic mess and all that I have to show for it is a card or two.  I forgot the disaster that creating a 4.25 x 5.5 card makes!  I guess the Craftaster is back!

Anyway, Day 1 inspired me to try Jennifer’s technique of using fun foam as a stamp.  I have seen her do this a few times before but never tried it myself.  I was so pleasantly surprised by how easy it was and the results it gave.  However, I did have to make three different cards in order to find a layout that I liked.

My first attempt! A cluttered mess…I think this one is going to the recycling bin!

Attempt 2.  Perhaps a bit too Simple.  It makes the cut though!

I like this one 🙂

I know, it is suppose to be Clean & Simple Holiday, but quite honestly I am still in need of fall thank you cards and have none left in my stash!  I had to make a few fall cards before I venture into the world of snowflakes and Santa Claus.  With Jennifer’s technique of using the fun foam to add color, coloring the leaves in was a cinch and I really like the results.  Can this be the start of a new love affair?  Probably.

 

Another nautical inspired card

Here is another nautical inspired “thank you”  I created with the extra background I made.  This time I used a life saver silhouette file, shaded a bit with copics (can’t tell from the picture though) and covered it in glossy accents.  I totally messed up the “thank you” at the bottom, so had to cover it with something.  Not crazy about the silver sentiment, but I couldn’t get it off the paper without ruining the background.  So, it will just have to do.  Not very creative since it looks exactly like the other!  It has been one of those days!

Nautical Thank You

Here is my take on a masculine “Thank You” card.  Masculine cards are so difficult for me!  Obviously, this is Nautically inspired 🙂  Nothing mind blowing and I am sure it has been done before.  The cute anchor “charm” was created using my silhouette and heat embossed with Ranger’s detail silver embossing powder.  The photo isn’t very good (snow is coming our way, so lighting is very poor), but you get the general gist of it.  Probably as masculine as I am going to get!  

Happy Anniversary!

Here is a card I made for my hubby for our Anniversary.  The challenge was to make a “masculine-like” card.   Peanut butter and jelly is masculine, right?  We are having a debate on whether I am the jelly or the peanut butter though.  Which side of the sandwich looks more like a girl to you?

The image is a digital stamp by Drawn with Character.  I love her images and they are so fun to color!

Digital stamp “We go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly” by Drawn with Character

Online Card Class

Stretch Your Dies – Day 2

I’m revisiting Negative Die Cut Background.  I like this technique and I needed to try it with something that was a) not a shamrock and b) used some pretty watercolor backgrounds that I created.  I think one of my most favorite things about this OCC class is the watercolor background that Kristina created.  I just love it and cannot seem to stop trying different color combos.  I use Fabriano Watercolour Paper – Artistico extra white, 100% cotton, hot pressed.  I LOVE THIS PAPER!  It is so smooth and beautiful.  It resembles velvet when it is dry!  I have used both the traditional white (which is a bit off-white) and the extra white (which is really really white).  Both hot pressed (which means they are really smooth) and both are 140lbs (which means they are really sturdy).  I think I am ready to make a lifelong commitment to them.

So, here is my negative die cut background…

I created this using my silhouette and a shape called “Moroccan flower.”  I also used PTI linen impression plate (one of my all time favorites) on the pink card base.  Not too much to describe here.  I used a hodgepodge of watercolors, but mostly Koi watercolors.  The sentiment comes from PTI’s wonderful Words: Hello stamp set.

Success!  I made something that doesn’t have a Shamrock!  I deserve another pint of Guinness 🙂

Online Card Class

Stretch Your Dies – Day 2

I wanted to try another technique presented on Day 2 – Negative Die Cut Background.  I don’t know what my deal is, but everything is shamrocks lately.  I needed one thank you card for St. Patrick’s Day and I end up making three different cards with shamrocks!  Oh well, I guess I will just go with what motivates me!  I am all set for St. Patrick’s Day 2016!

I don’t own a lot of dies, but I do own a silhouette.    I designed the layout via my silhouette program a year or so ago.  The first time I created a card with this layout it looked like this…

This time around, I cut the shamrocks from some Neenah Solar White 80lb card.  In retrospect, I think I should have used the 110lb, but it was fine.  I popped up the white panel over some random green card and matted the whole thing on a random piece of black card.  The card base is 5.5×4.25 made from Neenah 110lb card.  I also used my silhouette to die cut the hello and covered it in a Wink of Stella.  Thank you Stella, I love you.

Here’s a look…

Personally, I like the first card.  It took a bit of time to color those shamrocks and I love the dimension.  However, the second card is fun.  I like it well enough.  Now I need to go create something that doesn’t have a shamrock.

Online Card Class

Stretch Your Dies – Day 3

Kristina Werner had a fun technique to share on day 3 – Die cuts within larger die cuts.  This technique was great in and of itself.  But, what I really loved was the paper she created using distress inks as watercolors.  I couldn’t wait to try this out and create some of my own paper.  Here’s a close up of one of the sheets I made.  I used some distress inks and some Kuratake Gansai Tambi Watercolors.  I just loved it.  I created two backgrounds…haven’t used the other one yet though.

So, here’s the card I created using my new watercolor background and the technique that Kristina shared…

I really liked how this card turned out.  I used my silhouette to die cut the different shamrocks.  I then arranged those shamrocks on some post it tape and used a circle die to cut them out as a circle shape.  It was a bit tedious to put foam adhesive on all the tinier die cuts, but I think it is well worth it.

Here is a technique that may take a bit more effort, but I believe the results are fantastic!

Online Card Class

Stretch Your Dies – Day 1

Day 1 brought us some interesting techniques for using dies.  I was really interested in trying out Jennifer McGuire’s technique of shrinking fun foam.  I had never tried nor heard of this technique before and I am always ready to try a new technique!

The die is the Simon Says Stamp “Big Thanks” die.  I love this die, but find it too large for some projects.  This is the beauty of the shrinking fun foam technique.  I was able to shrink the foam down to a very workable size for my project.  However, I didn’t have black fun foam (only pink).  I found this part frustrating.  I used a black copic marker, heat set the marker and allowed the foam to dry overnight before adhering to my card front.  First, coloring the fun foam was a huge pain and really really messy.  I don’t mind messy, but this was ridiculous.  I ended up putting on gloves becomes my fingers were black.  The copic just didn’t dry well on the foam I was using (which I found rather surprising).  After the extended drying time, I tried to adhere the foam die to the card front which was tricky because, well it’s foam.  It likes to bend and move and not stay where you want it.  If this wasn’t frustrating enough, when I applied liquid adhesive (multi-medium) to the die cut, it reactivated the copic marker and consequently left black smudges ALL OVER THE FRONT OF MY CARD!!!!  At this point I had to walk away as I was close to throwing everything out the window and declaring my kingdom craft free forever!

The next day, after mulling things over, I decided to create a new front to selvage the work.  It took a relatively long time to adhere all my green sequence, so I knew I needed to try to do something with it.  I also wasn’t going to allow that fun foam to get the best of me.  I was going to conquer it.  I still needed to use a liquid adhesive (the foam likes to move and using a dry adhesive just wasn’t working for me).  The copic still smeared like crazy, but I was a bit more cautious and was able to make it work.

I have to say that it was one of the most frustrating techniques that I have tried to date.  I will never do this technique again UNLESS I have the proper color of fun foam.  There were some great suggestions in the forum regarding coloring the foam (like coloring the foam before die cutting it) but I think it still would be a mess as I would still need to color the edges (which I found to be the messiest part).  It just isn’t worth the time and frustration to color it.  I don’t think it should be called fun foam anymore.  How about frustrating foam?

Online Card Class

Day 4 of Clean & Simple 4

Continuing with day 4, I decided to try Jennifer McGuire’s technique – stitching.  Another time intensive project.  I really wanted to get another card finished today, but it was not meant to be.  While the technique isn’t difficult, it is a bit tedious.  I really lucked out with my layout.  It wasn’t a well thought out plan by me, but it ended up somehow working.  Yay!

Adding Texture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was inspired by one of my pins on Pinterest.