Hello friends!
Last week was full of rainy, hot weather so I hide inside with my iced coffee and whipped up a few cards. In addition to making cards for my shop I enjoy making cards just for fun! I send them to friends and family and use them as a chance to play with new products and techniques. Are you a card maker or are you interested in trying it out? I'd like to introduce you to 3 challenge blogs that might get your motivation and creativity flowing. Most of them are linked to a brand or store BUT you don't have to have their products to join in.To enter them is simple - make a card using their inspiration, then upload it online somewhere: FB, Instagram, or Flickr are a few options. (I post mine on my personal IG account HERE) Somewhere you can get a link to share with the original blog post. Each week you'll get fellow crafters' eyes on your card AND have a chance to win a fun prize! It's a really fun community to share with.
Check it out...
Summer Birthday Card (Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge)
Supplies: Dies – Avery Elle and Lawn Fawn, Paper – American Crafts and Paige Evans, Stamp – Mama Elephant, Adhesive – my favorite tape gun and liquid adhesive from Tombow. Gold sequins from my stash.
I have had this starburst die from Avery Elle for a while now and finally used it! I love shaker cards, but they still take more patience and time than I'm sure is necessary, lol. Do you have a good system? I’d LOVE to hear about it! For this one I die cut teal paper as my background, then cut 5 circles. 3 I glued and stacked for dimension, then the last two I glued on top to sandwich the plastic cover. They didn’t stack correctly, so if you look at it closely, it looks a bit wonky. There has to be an easier way! Lol I decided to trim the edges of the starburst die cut to make it look like fringe. Works with the summer feel I think.
The rest of the card went together easily. I die happy from pink cardstock two times using the Simply Said Hello Die from Avery Elle (super old, couldn’t find a good link online). I glued them together for a bit of dimension, then glued it to the front. I stamped ‘birthday wishes’ from this Mama Elephant set and added that. Then the whole thing was mounted on THE MOST GORGEOUS floral paper from Paige Evans and then the teal card base.
Gold sequins and florals will forever be my favorite combo = )
Floral Love Card with Masking (find challenge posts on the Ellen Hutson blog HERE)
(Supplies: Stamps – Essentials by Ellen and CZ for Simon Says Stamp, Markers – Tombow, my favorite black ink Momento, Shimmer Pen – Wink of Stella)
This is a 'one layer card' with LOTS of layers to it. I was really inspired by this stamp set and wanted to create something similar with my own wording. I started by stamping these letters to say 'love you' I stamped them again on post it note paper and cut them out to use as a mask. I then used my NEW floral set from Ellen Hutson to stamp the floral images on top of the letters. Pull off the letter masks and you can see the final design. It's a time consuming process, but relaxing and fun! You can see how the post it notes worked on my IG post about this card. After all that work I colored the image in with markers inspired by the challenge post.
Lawn Fawn Sushi Birthday Card (Lawn Fanatics Challenge Blog)
(Supplies: Stamps - Lawn Fawn Bannerific (retired) & Let's Roll, Studio Calico Card Kit Exclusive Stamps, Paper: Studio Calico Card Kit, my favorite black ink and adhesive
The theme for this week was 'fun folds', This sushi set is one of my all time favorites, so I pulled it out and stamped this fun dinner scene. I used the bottom of the platter as an edge to the flap that attached on top (side note: AFTER I took these pictures I realized I adhered the flap on top of the 'let's celebrate' panel instead of behind it! can you see it just under the fold how it covers up the top flower? OMG..... once I realized my mistake I took it apart and reassembled it. I wanted to get this blog post up so you might have to imagine the final product, lol) I mixed in a few images (like the hat, candles and let's celebrate from an old card kit from Studio Calico. I pawed thru my stash to get the yellow and red papers as well. This kind of card looks complicated, but honestly is super easy!
Thanks for stopping by! My challenge to you is to try that medium or project you've been thinking about and share it! Whether it is with friends, on FB or just leaving a comment here - I would love to see you stretch your creative muscles!
Talk again soon,
Michelle
(please note: many of the links I shared here and on other posts are affiliate, which means I get a commission when you purchase using my link. I only recommend products I love and use, so thank you for supporting my little blog! )