cards

Project Share: Flower-Burst Card

In The Studio

Another month, another round of Imagine-ative projects to share!

This first February project is all about celebrating the BIG news over at Imagine, namely that the shimmery Fireworks! sprays now come in BIG 2 oz bottles with an aerator ball to help mix the shimmer when you shake it.

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I used the Fireworks! in two ways: first I misted a light covering over my white cardstock to give it a bit of shimmery color then I sprayed different colors close to the page to get the controlled round bursts of color. Those color-bursts became flowers with the help of stamps and Memento markers.

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Make sure to check out what my fellow Artists in Residence came up with to showcase their Fireworks! today on the Imagine Blog!

Another Year of Getting Inky with Imagine!

In The Studio

Since the official announcement has been made, I can now let the cat out of the bag: Imagine has graciously allowed me another year on their Artist in Residence team and I couldn’t be happier!airs-badge-2017

I really enjoyed my first year with the team and appreciate the push it gives me every month to create. After stepping down from Helmar earlier this year I debated whether I’d submit myself for a second term with Imagine, but when the time came to make the choice, the idea of not being on the team (or at least trying) was just too horrible to contemplate!

Of the 32 projects I created for Imagine in 2016, two were selected for their 2017 catalog: the Growth Potential onesie and my Stamped Napkins.

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But there was one project you never saw, and that was my audition piece from last fall, the one that got me on the team in the first place:

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This card uses Iridescent Creative Medium (roughed up with a stipple brush) for the moon, with the background of India ink dropped around and on top of it, creating a space-like background and shadowy craters on the surface of the medium where I made spaces for it. The tree and other embellishments are StazOn Studio Glaze. I remember writing up the project sheet for submission while on our anniversary cruise last November so it would be ready to send when we got back to our home port. Guess it was worth the effort, right?!

So here’s to another year with the fabulous folks at Imagine! I can only hope to do them proud once again.

8 Cards from 1 Kit

In The Studio

In an attempt to curb my random spending, I joined two subscription services at the end of October: Pipsticks (more on that another time) and Simon Says Stamp. I’d been impressed with the Simon Says Stamps products I’d seen some of my favorite YouTubers display and I finally let myself buy in. My first kit to arrive was the November kit, very fall, very Thanksgiving-y, and very bad timing. When it arrived I was in the crunch time on the yarn bomb so all I could do was open it, ooh and aah over the items, and set it aside until this past weekend.

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With the December kit already shipped and due to arrive at any moment, I thought it wise to go ahead and bang some cards out while watching Gilmore Girls A Year in the Life on Saturday. I usually watch Vicky Papaioannou make 10 cards from each kit and wanted to challenge myself to do the same. You can see the cards she created with the kit over on her YouTube channel (I waited until after I made mine to watch hers) and here are mine in more detail.

Unless noted with a +, everything is from the Thankful Heart kit (currently out of stock, but the stamp set may be available in the future). Just because it’s fallish, doesn’t mean the materials are dated–the stamp set is fabulous for any thank-you occasion! (And, no, this is not a sponsored post. I’m just a fan.)jvanderbeek_simonsaystamp_november_cardkit_thankful-1

  • Red cardstock base
  • Plaid patterned paper
  • Thankful Heart stamp set
  • Celestial Copper Delicata Ink
  • Stickles
  • +White cardstock
  • +Spellbinders Belly Band Two die
  • +Dollar Tree grosgrain ribbon

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  • Red cardstock card base
  • Green/Orange dot patterned paper
  • Red heart patterned paper
  • Stickles

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  • White cardstock card base
  • +Vellum
  • Floral embossing folder
  • Blue patterned paper
  • Floral-heart clip
  • Thankful Heart stamp set
  • Celestial Copper Delicata ink
  • +Xyron Create-a-Sticker

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  • Green cardstock card base
  • Tree patterned paper
  • +White cardstock
  • Thankful Heart stamp set
  • Celestial Copper Delicata ink
  • Stickles

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  • White cardstock card base
  • Wood plank patterned paper
  • White patterned paper
  • +Spellbinders ellipse die
  • Thankful Heart stamp set
  • Celestial Copper Delicata ink
  • +Off-white twine

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  • Green cardstock card base
  • Flower-pot patterned paper
  • Wood plank patterned paper
  • Thankful Heart stamp set
  • +Tuxedo Black Memento ink
  • +Helmar Zap Dots

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  • Blue cardstock card base
  • Dotted patterned paper
  • Orange patterned paper
  • Camera patterned paper
  • +Heart punch
  • Thankful Heart stamp set
  • +Coffee Bean Brilliance ink
  • Stickles
  • +Twine
  • +Helmar Zap Dots

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  • Blue cardstock card base
  • Camera patterned paper
  • +Heart punch
  • Thankful Heart stamp set
  • Celestial Copper Delicata ink
  • +Coffee Bean Brilliance ink
  • +Helmar Zap Dots

Things like acrylic blocks for stamping and basic adhesive go without saying, right?

At any rate, my timing was good. I finished these cards (plus the bonus cards for Monday’s blog hop) on Saturday, the December kit landed in my mailbox on Tuesday evening, and last night the special Holiday Card Kit (not part of the subscription–I was at work on Black Friday and did some frustration shopping from my phone at lunch) came in! Now I have two kits to play with!

Card Week Continues!

In The Studio

It’s an unofficial designation, sure, but it seems to be where we’re heading, because I’ve been on a roll, lately, and have another card to share.

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This card started out a bit differently, as one of my Imagine-intended projects, but then I ended up using no inks or media other than paper or washi. So it turned into a bonus card, just for me. I guess there’s nothing wrong with that, right?

Recipe:

  • 5″x7″ white card base
  • White glitter washi tape (Scotch brand, from Target)
  • Striped and solid printed paper (American Crafts, from the dollar spot at Target)
  • Spellbinders Moroccan Motifs die set
  • Hermafix adhesive
  • Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots

I used 5 of the 6 dies in the Spellbinders set, cutting them out of the two solid burgundy (with white back) papers at the same time. Some of the larger pieces were snipped to make individual “petals” and one of each was flipped upside down so the white showed. Offsetting the burgundy and white matching pieces, I put them together with a thin layer of Liquid Scrap Dots between each, curling the points up a bit where appropriate. A little more of the Liquid Scrap Dots is propping up the largest motif to give it a little sturdier structure.

The downside to the 6″ paper pads is that it can limit the size of the card you can make. Unless, of course, you think outside the pack a bit, like I did by creating a frame of washi tape to serve as a matte underneath the striped paper. I considered that a slight stroke of genius on my part, and it worked out far better than piecing together two smaller pieces for the backing.

A card like this would require a padded mailer, to be sure, if you wanted to send it through the mail, but it was such a quick card, ultimately, that I think it’s worth the extra postage.

May the Caffeine Be With You…

In The Studio

Go ahead and say it: And also with you.

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(Even if I’m still more or less caffeine free, this card makes me happy.)

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Imagine is teaming up with Flourishes LC, today, for a blog hop and I got to play with their My Cup Over Flows set to make this card tutorial for you!

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So the main image of the coffee cut included words that tied into a bible verse. That’s all well and good, but it didn’t fit my vision for the card. The awesome thing about acrylic stamps, though, is that they are incredibly easy to manipulate. I **carefully** cut away the words from the coffee cup and then selected the rest of the stamps I wanted to use to build my scene.

I stamped them in Coffee Bean (appropriate, no?) Brilliance ink, embossed them with clear embossing powder, and colored them with my Spectrum Noir markers. Even though I had them, more or less, in the spots I wanted them, I decided to fussy cut the elements out and layer them on a stamped background instead.

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To make that background, I used several of the images in a cluster and Versamark Dazzle ink in Champagne to make a tone-on-tone background on craft cardstock (by DCWV). Just stamp and turn and stamp and turn and fill the cardstock with the images.

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I layered the stamped craft cardstock onto a white and then a yellow patterned cardstock (the latter from the Recollections Country Farm House paper stack) before using  Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots to position and pop-up my stamped and colored elements.

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It still needed a little something, but I didn’t want to clutter up the main images, so I grabbed my awl and a ruler and punched holes on the top and middle layers every 5 mm, offsetting the outer layer punches to fall between in the inner ring.

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Then I sewed a zig zag backstitch through the layers with yellow thread and a regular sewing needle. Could I have put it on my sewing machine? I suppose, but I don’t like to dull my sewing needles like that, and this way was much more precise. And the stitching, I think, is the perfect touch to finish the card. It took about as long as the coloring did, but it was worth it.

Even if my coffee got cold in the process… Oh, the irony.

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Caffeine Blessings Card Recipe:

  • 4″x6″ Craft Cardstock (DCWV)
  • 4.5″x6.5″ White Cardstock
  • 5″x8″ Yellow Paterned Cardstock (Recollections)
  • 10″x8″ Cardstock Card Base
  • My Cup Over Flows Stamp Set
  • Coffee Bean Brilliance Ink
  • Clear Embossing Powder
  • Spectrum Nior Markers
  • Champagne VersaMark Dazzle ink
  • Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots
  • Darice Awl, Heating Tool
  • Needle and Thread

Flourishes LC was kind enough to send a few different stamps sets and I also made these cards, too:

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Camellia Card Recipe

  • 5″x3″ White Cardstock
  • 5.5″x3.5″ Green Dot Patterned Paper (American Crafts)
  • 12″x4″ Cardstock Card Base
  • Camellia Love Stamp Set
  • Olive Memento Luxe ink
  • Prismacolor Colored Pencils
  • Sage Satin Ribbon
  • Craft Knife
  • Hermafix Tape Runner
  • Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots

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Winter Cheer Bouquet Card Recipe:

  • 3.5″x5″ White Cardstock
  • 4″x6″ Green Plaid Patterned Paper (American Crafts)
  • 5″x7.125″ Craft Cardstock (DCWV)
  • 11″x8.5″ White Cardstock Card Base
  • Winter Bouquet Stamp Set
  • Tuxedo Black Memento Ink
  • Spectrum Nior Markers
  • Pink Plaid Washi Tape
  • Twine (American Crafts)
  • Enamel Dots (Franklin Covey + My Minds Eye)
  • Hermafix Tape Runner
  • Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots

And since this is a blog hop, it’s really worth checking out all the other cool projects made from this latest Flourishes LC and Imagine collaboration! Leave a comment on each blog in the hop for a chance to win prizes, too!

Imagine Blog - https://imaginecraftsblog.com/
Barbara Thompson - http://cardsandpaperfun.blogspot.com/
Toni Storie - http://sweetpeasstory.blogspot.com/
Alison Heikkila - http://alisonsrandomthoughts.blogspot.com/
Beverly Cole - http://bevsbliss.blogspot.com/
Kren Kurts - http://afourthlife.blogspot.com/
Neva Cole - http://snippetscrafter.blogspot.com/
Roni Johnson - http://inkstainswithroni.blogspot.com/
Linda Lucas - https://lovelylindascraftcentral.blogspot.com.au/
Davi Long - http://alstromeriaartistry.blogspot.com/
Jennifer Vanderbeek - https://scrapsoflife.com/  <<–You Are Here
Naomi Gong - http://www.naomigong.com/
Vickie Yeakley - https://stuffbyvickie.blogspot.com/
Nadine Carlier - http://myscrapnstuff.blogspot.com/
Rebecca Ednie – http://eclecticendeavours.blogspot.com/
Gloria Hayoung Lee - http://iiroom1004.blogspot.ca/
Mark Melnick - http://latidart.blogspot.com/
Shirley Qu - http://mypinkieisinkie.blogspot.com/
Martha Lucia Gomez - http://stampartpapel.com/
Terre Fry - http://terresscraptherapy.blogspot.com/
Mary Prasad - http://artbymdp.blogspot.com/
Trisha Traxler - http://simplystamping.blogspot.com/
Monica Edwards - http://scraps2treasure.blogspot.com/
Flourishes L.C - http://flourisheslc.com/blog/