ADFD - Very Special New Release Image

It's new release time again at A Day for Daisies and this one is very special to me.  The DT was asked to send Tammy their favourite picture, so I sent one of my wedding pictures.  Its a picture of me and my husband kissing after we were announced husband & wife.  Tammy took the picture and made a digital stamp from it.  How cool is that!  I think its beautiful!  So here's the card I created with "my" new stamp:

Supplies:
Stamps:  My Story Begins and Ends With You (A Day for Daisies), Sentiment & floral flourish (unknown - clear stamp set)
Papers:  Recollections card stock (red & brown), Wausau Exact Index 110# (white), patterned paper (CatScrapFever Designs), Staples matte finish brochure paper
Tools & Embellishments:  Fleur De Lis pennant dies, Renaissance Hearts border dies, Fancy tags dies (Spellbinders), Cuttlebug, Walnut Stain distress ink (Tim Holtz), Red & Star Dust stickles, rhinestones, crayola markers (red & brown - to ink the stamp), PSPX 

So first, I didn't have the paper I wanted for this.  I couldn't find anything in the stores near me close to what I wanted, so I had to design it myself.  I use PSPX to do 95% of my graphics work and I used it to design the paper.  The paper was done using a bunch of stock brushes on the background layer.  Then I typed the poem "How Do I Love Thee" over and over on the top layer of the paper.  I used a couple different blending layer options to get the paper to look the way I wanted and it was done.  I really like it.  I printed it out on matte finish brochure paper.  I like the look of matte finish papers for this type of thing rather than glossy or semi-gloss.  However, I do prefer to have my photos printed on glossy.  Once I got all the layers for the card cut, and the patterned paper edges distressed with ink, I cut the shapes with my Spellbinder dies.  The frame for the image is two dies glued together.  I cut one large shape from the Fleur de Lis die set and then 2 of the next largest die.  I glued the two smaller shapes to the top & bottom of the large shape - making sure they were the same height and centred.  Then I glued rhinestones in the centre design on the top and bottom of the die cuts. For the sentiment, I first stamped the flower in red, cleaned the stamp, inked the sentiment, lined it up and stamped.  Then I cut it out with the Fancy tag die making sure the sentiment was centred.  Then I cut off the curly queues on it and sanded down the edged to smooth off the scissor marks.  I cut the same shape again in brown and layered the white onto the brown tag.  For the heart  border, I cut the red with the bottom border die, then with brown cut the top layer.  I had to trim the bottom layer since the die doesn't cut the entire shape out (I guess its meant to just go along the bottom edge of the paper).

Next was to work on the image.  This was actually fairly simple.  I used a couple filters in PSPX to make it look like a cartoon (Posterize & Pencil lines filters), then I lowered the opacity to about 40%.  I layered the new stamp over top of my photo and deleted any of the original photo that didn't fit inside the stamp.  Then I printed it out onto my white cardstock.  I used stickles on the image for the flowers in my hair and what looks like "confetti" floating down.  I think this image is so cool.

Tip:  remember to make a duplicate of your digital photos before you work on them.  If you make a mistake and have saved the image, you still have the original as back up.  Never use your original and always back up your photos.

So that's it for this one.  Remember that there is still time left on the challenge, so get your entry in.  You could win yourself an image of your choice from the store.

Take care.

Cat

IBFD - "Love or Valentine's Day" Challenge

Hi again!  I have a very cute little card (if I do say so myself) using one of the adorable Freddie the Frog images from I Brake For Digis.  This one is Frog Prince and I thought the way he has his lips puckered up to give you a big kiss is just too darn cute.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Frog Prince (I Brake for Digis)
Papers:  Recollections cardstock (Valentine collection), Smitten Heart Stripe (K&Company)
Tools & Embellishments:  Scallop Trim border punch (Stampin' Up!), red & gold Stickles, Copic Markers, Bic Mark It markers, quilting ruler, rotary quilting cutter, Occidental font (sentiment)

Even though this is a very plain card, I think the colours pop just because there is so much white space.  And, luckily, I picked the right shade of pink when printing the sentiment.  Its a good thing I calibrated my monitor to get it to match as closely as I could to what actually prints on my printer.  I didn't use my paper trimmer this time because I needed to make some very small strips (1/2" & 1/4").  Instead I used my quilting ruler and rotary cutter.  I also used them to do the matting around the image.  They're pretty handy tools, but you do have to watch because that rotary blade is very very sharp.  I've sliced the skin off a couple knuckles a time or two when I was still quilting.  Not good to get blood all over your fabric (or your card making supplies either).

I hope you like this little card I made.  You can purchase this darling little frog at the IBFD store.  You can also still get in on the fun with this week's challenge over at The Brakefast Club.  They're a really nice bunch of people there and I'm sure you'll have some fun.

Thanks for coming by and taking a look at my stuff. :)

Talk to you later...

Cat

A New Challenge & A New Release at ADFD

This week starts another new challenge on the A Day For Daisies blog.  The new challenge is "Organic Soul" - use something organic in your creation.  You can use pressed flowers, handmade paper, pieces of twigs... Whatever you want.  There is also another great new release of images this week and they are, as usual, simply great.  Here's a peek at the new images:

You can find these images in the ADFD shop.  Remember, there is a freebie on the blog for you to play along with the challenge.  So check it out. :)

I'm always delighted with the images Tammy puts out week after week. They're so easy to create with.  The card I made this week just sort of popped into my head when I saw the images.  Here's a look at the card I made with one of the new images:

Supplies:
Stamps:  Making Friends (A Day For Daisies)
Papers:  patterned paper (DCWV), Recollections cardstock, Wausau Exact Index 110# cardstock
Tools & Embellishments:  Copics, 3-in-1 Classic Butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), glitter (Craft Decor & Glitter Ritz), Lace corner punch (Dollar Store), pressed flowers (Recollections), ribbon (Michaels), Tulip large edge punch (EK Success), Zig glue pen, Zip Dry glue

Again, another straight forward card.  The dried flowers are a little tricky to work with.  If you decided to use dried flowers or leaves, remember they are quite brittle.  You will need to use a pair of tweezers to handle them since they are so fragile.  I used my Zig glue pen to put small dots of glue down where I wanted the little fern and then used Zip Dry to attached the other flowers.

I hope you join in on the challenge.  Not only do you get a free image to play along with, but you could win another image of your choice from the shop.  Its going to be fun. :)

Thanks for stopping by today.

Talk to you later...

Cat

IBFD Laughing Hyena

Hello again!  I've decided this year to build up a stash of birthday cards for myself.  I have a lot of cards left over from the craft shows last year, but no specific birthday cards.  So, when I get time each week, I'm going to make a card with someone particular in mind.  That way I won't be rushing at the last minute to get it done and then have the card arrive late (I hate that).  So I made this card to start with.  I won't say who its for since I don't want them to know if they read this post. ;)

Supplies:
Stamps:  Laughing Hyena (I Brake for Digis)
Paper:  Recollections card stock, Wausau Exact Index 110#, patterened paper (unknown)
Tools & Embellishments:  ribbon (Michaels), copics, EZ Cutter oval templates, Bradley Hand font (sentiment)

This card is very straight forward and really needs no instructions.  I thought the image was a blast and easy to colour and get great results.  If you're interested in this image or any of their great digis, you can find them in the shop here.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Fairies Play Here - Version 2

I really love this release from ADFD.  I have these pictures of my niece when she was 5 years old wearing wings, a crown, and holding a "magic wand".  She looked so cute and I couldn't help but make another scrapbook page of these photos with a couple images from this new release.  Here's my layout:

Supplies
Stamps:  Fairy Mushroom, Quiet Fairy (A Day for Daisies)
Cardstock:  DCWV, Recollections, Wausau Exact Index 110#, Domtar Cougar
Tools & Embellishments:  star dust stickles, rhinestones, small scallop decorative edge scissor (Fiskars), frond punch (Martha Stewart), French Script font (title), Craft Robo, Marvy markers, Crayola markers, iridescent medium (Windsor & Newton), ric rac ribbon (Dollar Store)

I've been wanting to make some of the large quilled flowers that are cut from circles.  They look so pretty.  I decided to cut some with my deco scissors for a little bit of a different look.  To make the flower, you cut a sprial from a circle. You can use a quilling tool or just roll the sprial to the centre and then glue in place.  I glued a rhinestone into the centre of each flower.  You have to use a good strong adhesive with these.  I used Aileen's fast grab tacky glue.  It works really well.  The big green leave are hand cut from scraps of green cardstock, and the smaller ones are punch outs.  These flowers and leaves are a really good way to use up those smaller scrap pieces.  The largest flower is about 1" across and the starting circle I cut was about 2.5" across. You don't even need to be all the accurate cutting since a little deviation here and there gives the flower some "petal" shapes. Here's a close up of some of the flowers:

I've been trying to use my Craft Robo more than I have lately.  Its a great tool and I'm always impressed with how nicely (and easily) it is to create with it.  I used it this time to create the frame which is pretty straight forward, and I also used it to create the title.  I love the matting & the print & cut features in the RoboMaster software.  I printed the title, then used the mat feature a couple of times, making a larger mat each time for the different layers.  Here's a close up of the title:

And finally, the images that inspired me to make this scrapbook page:  the Fairy Mushroom & Quiet Fairy images.  I combined the two images, then imported the jpg into my RoboMaster software and used the autotrace feature with a little bit of a margin to create the cutting line around the image.  This is SOOOOO much easier than hand cutting all those little crevices. Plus its always exactly the same distance from the lines all the way around. Here's a close up so you can see some detail:

I used my Marvy markers on the mushroom because I had a marker colour called mushroom, so that worked. I then sponged some iridescent medium over it when the marker ink was dry, but that seemed to wash it out, so I took some Momento rich cocoa ink and sponged that on to give it a little texture.  I used Crayola markers to colour the little fairy, and once the ink was dry I put stickles on her wings because all fairy wings sparkle.

A couple other things I did was I cut the big scalloped circle on my CraftRobo with a font called 09KutUps. Its a font with shapes with some similar to Nestabilities that you can cut directly from any cutting machine that will cut true type fonts.  Secondly, I wanted it to look like there was "fairy dust" coming off the wand in the first picture, so I drew some swirls on the cardstock very lightly with pencil.  Then I used my star dust stickles and went around the lines with little dots.  Once the stickles were dry, I erased the pencil lines, then I glued little flower shaped rhinestones in amongst the swirls.

Well that's it for now.  Its pretty late here, or I should say, its pretty early here (3:40 am).  I'm having another one of those nights were I can't sleep, so I thought I would post this layout.  Hubby doesn't have to go into work until later in the afternoon, so I'll be able to sleep a little later.

Take care & thanks for stopping by...

Cat

ADFD - New Release - Fairy Dress

Hi again!  It's another new release at ADFD.  This time around, there are some pretty special images.  They appeal to the little kid in me and the way I use to play dress up when I was small.  They're so sweet and whimsical.  I know you'll just love them too.

I've started to develop a really strong liking for kraft card stock lately.  I really didn't like it at first.  I got a couple pieces of Stampin' Up kraft cardstock last year, just to see if I liked it and I didn't - at all.  So, I just never bought any because I thought I wouldn't like it.  Then, for my Christmas cards last year, I thought that kraft and teal would look great together (which they do) but I didn't want to order anything from Stampin' Up, so I kept my eye out around the stores whenever I was out shopping.  I happened to stop into Zellers one day for something and thought I would take a quick browse through the craft section.  I've gotten some really good deals on punches and stamps on lines they were discontinuing, so I was hoping I would find some more of those good deals.  I happen to find a pack of Kraft cardstock on the shelf that had the corner opened so I felt it and it felt like brown card board.  This is exactly what I wanted.  I know a lot of people turn their nose up at buying inexpensive/no-name cardstock.  Well not me.  I'm not a craft snob. I use everything and anything as long it works and I like it.  So, I've been using this on all most all my projects lately.  And this next card has it too.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Fairy Dress (A Day for Daisies)
Papers:  Kraft cardstock (The Paper Company), red & yellow cardstock (Recollections), white card base (Staples 110#)
Tools & Embellishments:  CraftRobo (Nestability shapes & oval), red pearlescent fabric paint (Tulip), lemon yellow Liquid Pearls, large Hydrangea & Hydrangea trio punches (Martha Stewart), embossing stylus, ribbon (Dollar Store), Edwardian Script font (sentiment), pop dots, Star Dust Stickles, artists chalks (Loew Cornell), eyeshadow applicators (Dollar Store), liquid glue (Zip Dry)

This card is fairly straight forward.  I cut the Nestability shapes with my CraftRobo.  I then used the print and cut feature to print the stamp image and then cut the oval around it.  I coloured the image with artists chalk, and then coated the wings with stickles.  I attached the image to the Nestability shapes with pop dots.  I used my Liquid Pearls on the top & bottom scallops of the Nestability shapes.  Then I punched several of the hydrangea trio punches from yellow and one from red, and one large hydrangea from red.  I used an embossing stylus on the petals by going over them on top of a piece of fun foam so that they would curl.  Once they were the shape I wanted, I glued them together with Zip Dry.  I used red pearlescent fabric paint on the centre of the yellow flowers, and yellow Liquid Pearls on the centre of the red flower.  While the liquid pearls were drying, I cut my kraft cardstock and ran it through the printer to print the sentiment.  I usually use Paintshop Pro for all my digital work, and like to create my own word art, so I did that for the sentiment.  I cut my length of ribbon and tied my bow.  It took me several tries to get it the right shape.

Tip:  I ran a straight piece of ribbon through the knot before I tightened it so that I could slide the bow back and forth once the ribbon was adhered  to get the positioning just where I wanted it.

I glued everything together, and, voilà, my card was done.  I am really liking this colour combination.  And, I'm sure you will see a few more projects from me using kraft cardstock.  It is my new best friend in my supplies.

Don't forget that the ADFD challenge is still going on.  You could win a free ADFD image, plus, there is a free image to get you started if you don't already have any of ADFD images.  If you want to check out the store, there are tons of beautiful digi stamps to choose from.   Any ADFD image will be accepted in the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Looking forward to seeing you again...

Cat

IBFD - It's a New Day

Hi everyone!  I'm a little late on this post.  My husband has been off for the last 3 days and has been making a mess of the kitchen.  He's been baking bread.  While I appreciate having nice hot, fresh bread, I don't like cleaning up the kitchen every time he steps in there.  I spent 2 hours cleaning the stove top the other day, and it looks like it hasn't been cleaned in 3 months.  I don't know how he is so sloppy when cooking stuff.  He certainly hasn't adopted the "clean as you go" method, that's for sure.  Usually, we can wait and run the dishwasher every second day, but I've had to run it every day this week.  And that sucker is full! It will give me a bit of a break from cleaning the kitchen when he goes back to work.

So anyway, I have a new card to show you.  Its for this week's challenge at The Brakefast Club - Challenge #10 - Ring in the new.  I saw this rooster image that I thought would make some really cute country cards.  This card isn't exactly country, but I thought the rooster would work well for the challenge since it rings in each new day. Here's my card:

Supplies:
Stamps:  Rooster (I Brake for Digis)
Papers:  DCWV (red cardstock), Bazzil (yellow - sun rays), Recollections (sun), The Paper Company (kraft), Wausau Exact Index 110# (white), Cougar 110# coated (vanilla card base)
Tools & Embellishments:  Swirling Lace around the page punch set (Martha Stewart), Classic Frame die (Spellbinders), black Sharpie marker, artists chalks (Loew Cornell), eyeshadow applicators (Dollar Store), kitchen sponge, light blue & green pigment ink (ColorBox Catseye), pop dots, spray fixative (Prismacolor), large corner rounder (EK Success)

This card was fairly simple, but there are a lot of pieces.  The first step is to sponge the sky.  I took some scrap pieces of cardstock and cut some cloud shapes.  Then, with a piece of sponge, I lightly tapped on some blue ink using the cloud shapes as masks on a 4x4 piece of white cardstock.  I sponged the sky & cloud background about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way down my background piece so that my "ground" layer would overlap it. Next I assembled my sun and sun rays.  I used scraps of cardstock again, and cut five long triangles of yellow cardstock.  I made sure they were fairly long since I wanted them to hang over the edge of my background.  I cut a circle from another scrap of orangy yellow cardstock.  I then used the little flower die from my Spellbinder's Classic Frame set to make the centre of the sun.  I glued the flower shape to the centre of the circle and glued the sun rays to the back of the circle, spacing them out evenly.  I decided where I wanted my sun to be on the card - about 1/3 way from the top - and glued it on the background.  The rolling hills are then made and applied.  To do this, I cut wavy pieces from scrap kraft cardstock.  I then used green ink to ink the edges to make it look more like grassy hills.  I cut the waves 4" long (same width of my background) and layered them on the background, slightly over lapping the bottom of the sun so that it looks like the sun is just rising up from behind the hills.  Next, I coloured the rooster with artists chalks using eyeshadow applicators, then spraying it with a fixative so the chalk wouldn't rub off. Once the rooster was dry I cut closely to the edge of the image and attached it to the front with pop dots.  I attempted to make a rub on for the sentiment, but the ink didn't transfer very well and was too light to see very well, so I just took a sharpie and traced over the printed sentiment.  Once everything was glued down where I wanted it and the way I liked it, I trimmed the sun rays with sharp scissors even with the background cardstock.  I then took a corner rounder and trimmed the corners, cutting through all layers at once.

In order to get the right size mat for a 4x4 piece, I cut my red card stock 5x5 and used my Swirling Lace punch set (yay! first time using it).  I adhered that to a 5x5 card base, and then attached my "picture".

It may seem like there's a lot of detail and steps to make this card, but all in all, it probably only took me about an hour to make the card.  And I got to use up a few pieces of my ever growing scrap stash.

I hope you like the card and try making a paper piecing project yourself.  It is a very fun way to use up your scraps.

Take care...

Cat

New Release and a New Challenge at ADFD

Its time again for a new release and a new challenge over at ADFD.  This week's new images are spectacular.  Here's a sneak peek of them, and you can purchase any one of them (or all) at the ADFD store.

Don't forget the $2.00 release image.  This week is it the ballerina slippers and is a super deal for $2.00

We are also starting a new challenge at ADFD - Challenge #9 - "A Fresh Coat of Paint".  So get creative, get messy. Its a lot of fun.  And congratulations to the winner of our last Challenge:  Sabina.  You can see her entry here.

This week I got to play with some acrylic scrapbooking paints that I've had in my stash for a very long time.  In fact, I've had them so long (and not used them) they were drying out and came out about the consistency of toothpaste.  I was annoyed with myself for not using them since they're such pretty colours and letting them get to this state, I tried to look on the bright side.  Now instead of just coating my paper with colour, they were also going to give it some texture. :)  First I'll show you my card, then I tell you how I made it.

Supplies:

Stamps:  Delicate Dancer (A Day for Daisies), You've Got Flair sentiment (You've Got Flair set, Close to My Heart)

Papers:  cardstock (Recollections & Bazzil), watercolour paper (Canson 100#)

Tools & Embellishments:  scrapbooking paints (Making Memories - Anthology collection), plastic stencil (Pebbles - Fancy Frills set), fancy tags shapeabilities dies (Spellbinders), ribbon (Michaels), classic ink (SU - Night of Navy), Stickles, paper flower (unknown), brad (Michaels), Iridescent medium (Windsor & Newton), sponges, rhinestone (Recollections), watercolour paints (Loew Cornell), Twinkling H20s

So, to make the background paper, I took a piece of grey cardstock and painted some of the green shade of paint in streaks on it leaving some of the grey showing through.  Then I took a stencil and put that in the corner and used some of the blue paint and stencilled the shape.  Since the paint is really thick, the stencil really stands up off the page and the streaks make the paper look aged.  Once the paint was dry, I took a few drops of Night of Navy ink and mixed that with some iridescent medium and sponged it on the part of the card front opposite the stencil.  I let that dry and then sponged over the entire card front with the iridescent medium again. To use up the left over ink mixture, I sponged it on the petals of the paper flower.  While all that was drying, I cut my tag with my Spellbinder die and stamped the sentiment with Night of Navy classic ink.  I had to stamp each word separately and mask the other words since the sentiment wouldn't fit the way it is and I only had room to put it on the left side of the tag.

For the focal image, I printed it on watercolour paper and used regular watercolour paints on her body and the bodice of her dress.  For the skirt, I used my long neglected Twinkling H20s.  Once the image was dry, I put dark blue stickles on all the flowers.  I decided since my background was kind of aged looking that I would take my distressing tool to the edges of it and the edges of the main image.  

I matted the ballerina on dark blue Bazzil cardstock, ran some navy blue satin ribbon through the tag and attached  it all to the card front.  The main image is adhered with pop-dots.

I had a lot of fun making this card.  I got really messy and used some products I hadn't used yet.  My only problem with the process is that I just got a set of gel nails the day before I made this card.  Now my nice pretty french manicure is stained Night of Navy blue.  Most of it came off in the shower and the shampoo really takes ink off your fingers well, so its all good.  I had fun and that's the most important part.

I really hope you all join in and get messy with your paints for this new challenge.

Talk to you later...

Cat

IBFD - Star with Baby Bear

Hope you all are doing well.  It seems that there has been a few issues with blogger.  I've been pulling my hair out thinking my computer was getting hung up everytime I tried to post something.  Well, at least now I know it wasn't me and that makes me feel a whole lot better.

I have a new card using the ever so cute Star with Baby Bear image from I Brake for Digis.  There aren't a lot of young children in my family.  My niece is it and she's 10, so baby cards are a little too young for her (although I know she would find this image adorable too), so I don't make a whole lot of baby cards.  To top it off everyone I know is waaaaayyyy past the point in their lives where a baby would even be considered. :)  So I saw this image and I just had to make a card with it.  And I had to use one of my favourite colour schemes for it - blue & yellow.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Star with Baby Bear (I Brake for Digis)
Papers:  coloured card stock (Recollections), white card stock (Wausau Exact Index 110#), patterned paper (Costco)
Tools & Embellishments:  ribbon (Michaels), Lace Heart edge punch (Martha Stewart), Classic Butterfly trio punch (Martha Stewart), Perfect Pearls, Copic markers

Its a fairly simple card, but I really wanted to show off the image.  Also, I needed to make the image large enough to show all the great detail, which meant there wasn't a whole lot of room left on the card front.  I usually don't make cards that are "off size" since its a chore to either find an envelope or make one for the off size.  I think this card turned out pretty nice.  I hope you all like it. :)

Take care & I'll talk to you later...

Cat

Just a Reminder...

The A Day for Daisies challenge is still open until Thursday night and then the new challenge starts on Friday. Make sure you get in on the current challenge though.  There is a great free image for you to use to play along, and you could win another image of your choice from the ADFD store.

So lets see those beautiful creations!  I know you can do it!

Cat

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I want to wish everyone a wonderful, happy new year!  All my best to you and yours in the coming year.

Cat