Happy Easter

        Happy Easter to you! Recently, I received an Easter gift...my Stamparatus arrived! Yeah baby!!! So of course the first order of business is to play with my new toy and create an Easter card for this week's Global Design Project challenge. 

      When I first played with my Stamparatus, I wasn't used to not having the edges to put my paper against. And I discovered that stamping anywhere near the hinges did not work very well either, so I solved this problem by creating my own stamping guide.

     I just cut out a 7x7 piece from our grid paper, marked the inches and laminated the piece. I then cut out a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" (since this is the size I always use for my cards) piece from one edge and stuck a piece of window sheet at the back. This then serves as my guide...I just have to put my cardstock on this opening I made and my paper won't move!

     To test out my 'guide' and my Stamparatus, I made a 2-for-1 card...stamping the same images on two different cardstocks with two different inks. For my cards I used Tangerine Tango cardstock with my images gold heat embossed, and Tangerine Tango ink pad on my Very Vanilla cardstock. I wanted a flourish background so I used my Falling Flowers and Flourishing Phrases stamp sets.

       I must say that using my 'guide' really helped me out in placing my paper exactly where it needs to be, so I think it passed the test! So on with my card...I wanted to do a spotlight technique, sort of. So I taped my two pieces of background together and cut out my rectangles and crosses. As I wanted the cross to be the focal point, I did a little switcheroo so that it stands out more.

       To put my cards together, I used another piece of Tangerine Tango and Very Vanilla cardstock and cut them up for my mats. Before sticking my center mat, I wrapped ribbon around the frame. For the vanilla card, I used the SAB ribbon in Calypso Coral with a gold ribbon on top of it. I then put the orange cross in the center using dimensionals. For embellishment I used Wink of Stella on all the flowers and leaves and scattered some gold glitter flakes. 

     For the Tangerine card, I used an old SAB ribbon with the same gold ribbon on top. For embellishment I colored the insides of the flowers and leaves with Cherry Cobbler reinker and my AquaPainter brush followed by my Wink of Stella once dry. I also scattered a few iridescent sequins for embellishment.  

       My sentiment is from Sweet Little Something stamp set, stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock which I then cut out using my Duet Banner Punch. I also cut out a piece of gold foil banner for layering, and then just covered my sentiment piece in Wink of Stella and added a few sequins. 

     And these are my finished 2-for-1 cards! Using my Stamparatus sure made creating these cards super easy...can't wait to play more with this tool! Thanks once again for stopping by and see you next time! 

Last-minute Valentine Card

     I did it again...I lost track of time and forgot to do my last Valentine card. So right on Valentine's day, I am making my final cards. It is a simple two-for-one card, and again I used my Heart Happiness stamp set along with my Ribbon of Courage and Flourishing Phrases stamp sets.

     I believe that there is beauty in simplicity, and there is something to be said with making simple cards and stepping them up as well. My cards for today involved just heat embossing. I used my Versamark and white embossing powder on my Cherry Cobbler cardstock (3 1/2" x 5 1/2") and then reversed it on my Whisper White cardstock (same dimensions) by stamping my images with Cherry Cobbler ink pad instead and then clear heat embossing it. The important thing to note is that you'll need to use a stamp positioning tool for this to make sure you get two exactly identical pieces of card fronts. Unfortunately, I haven't received my Stamparatus yet, so I'm still using my old positioning tool. 

stamping images on Cherry Cobbler cardstock using Versamark pad for white heat embossing

re-stamping images on white cardstock with Cherry Cobbler ink pad for clear heat embossing

   

     This is what my card fronts look like after all my images and sentiment have been heat embossed. I could have left it like this and it would've been a nice simple card, but I wanted to step it up a bit. So I taped both cards together and cut them both on the diagonal. And then I did a little switcheroo after. Here's what that looks like.

     These card fronts were then just adhered onto my Basic Black A2 sized card base with foam tape for additional dimension. Now I wanted to of course add some shimmer, so I used the silver glitter washi tape from last year's SAB. And for embellishments, I added these white sequins. These sequins didn't come in red, so I improvised and just colored them in with a red sharpie. Problem solved!

     So from very simple cards, I stepped them up a bit by cutting and a bit of switching, and adding some embellishments. Here's my final cards. 

     I'm not sure which version I liked better...the simple or the stepped-up ones. One thing for sure, experimenting fuels creativity. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed today's cards. Have a lovely day! (It's almost the weekend...yay!!!)

Orange Blossoms Valentine

     I bought the Orange Blossom stamp set a while ago but unfortunately never had the chance to play with it...until now. In my constant search for inspiration, I happen to stumble upon the Global Design Project website, and this week's design challenge inspired me to finally use this stamp set. 

     For my simple card, I stamped my images on a die-cut stitched circle using Flirty Flamingo, Dapper Denim and Wild Wasabi ink pads. This stamped circle was then layered on top of another die-cut circle in Dapper Denim and then adhered to a Whisper White cardstock that has been ran through the Big Shot with the Petal Pair embossing folder. This entire piece is then layered again on top of another Dapper Denim cardstock before adhering to the card base.

     I wanted to stick with the Valentine's theme and so I chose the 'I love you' sentiment from my Flourishing Phrases stamp set, which I then heat-embossed with silver embossing powder. For embellishments I picked a couple of vellum foil pieces from the Sweet Soiree embellishment kit, scattered a few silver sequins, and added shimmer to my flowers using my Wink of Stella. And this is my card for the day.

     Hope you enjoyed my card for the Global Design Project challenge this week. This is my first time to participate, what a great idea to keep everyone's creativity flowing! I'm looking forward to the next one. Hope to see you next time crafters!