Happy Mail

Hello there.  My card today is two months overdue! 🙈  A thoughtful crafty friend surprised me with a hat trick (sports term when a player scores three times in a game) of happy mail including crafty goodies.  Long story short, I was finally able to make this card for her.  Hopefully, she will be pleasantly surprised when she receives it.

I couldn’t think of a better time to ink up a new NBUS stamp set called Happy Mail (so appropriate) from SugarPea Designs.  On a stitched slimline panel die cut from X-Press It cardstock, I stamped the single envelope with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, masked it, then stamped the penguin.  Coloured them in with Copic markers.  Masked them and the upper 2/3 of the panel.  Blended light gray dye ink with a blender brush to create the sidewalk.  Masked the sidewalk then applied green and turquoise dye inks for the grass/sky.  Took some green Copic markers and added grass shading and details.

The Impact Alphabet letters from My Favorite Things were each die cut twice from white and once from gold metallic foil paper and stacked for dimension.  For a shadow effect to make it stand out better, die cut each letter from black and offset.  Created the custom sentiment with some stamp surgery and strategic masking using the different sentiments in the set.  It was heat embossed with white embossing powder on black.  Mounted the panel to a white 3.5”x8.5” card base to finish.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a wonderful day!

Challenges:
The Sisterhood of Crafters - It’s the Thought that Counts (sentiment as the focal point)
The Paper Players - #506 Tic-Tac-Toe challenge from Ann (middle column metallic-embossing-thank you)
Crafty Animals - #42 Anything Goes Animals
Send a Smile 4 Kids - Thank you Cards or Anything Goes 4 Kids

Santa’s Christmas in July

Hello there.  Popping in quickly to share a slimline Christmas in July scene card.  I think Santa prefers this “most wonderful time of the year” where he can relax with no stresses to worry about. 😂

The images are from Newton’s Nook Sun Soaked Christmas stamp set.  Started by die cutting a slimline stitched panel using a die from Trinity Stamps.  Stamped Santa and the sand”wo”man first with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  Masked them, then stamped the palm trees.  Masked the palm trees as well before ink blending brown dye ink (discontinued) and Antique Linen distress ink for the sand and Mermaid Lagoon distress ink for the water.  Spritz with water and blot with a paper towel for some texture.

Dried the panel with a heat tool then coloured in the images and scene with Copic markers.  Went to re-stamp the images to crisp them up when it happened!  The Santa image was just a smidge off and then I noticed I accidentally coloured his arm holding the drink black!... arrrgh, I guess he could‘ve just burnt that arm really badly! 😂*lol*   I’m mentioning this to show a fix for this type of error. 😉

Anyway, I definitely did not want to start over or discard it, so I stamped and coloured the Santa image again, fussy cut him out then pieced on top of the old image.  Stamped the sentiment (retired) with Memento Rich Cocoa ink “in the sand” then again with VersaMark to heat emboss with clear embossing powder.  Adhered the panel to an 8.5”x3.5” white card base to finish.

My third slimline card!... I can see why some say it’s addicting!  Thank you for dropping by.  Have a wonderful week!

Challenges:
Christmas Kickstart - #33 Hatty Christmas
Christmas Craft Creations - July Christmas Characters
ModSquad - Slimline Scene
Time Out - #166 Peaceful
Merry Little Christmas - #24 July Anything Christmas Goes
Watercooler Wednesday - #280 Kath's Anything Goes with a Masculine Twist
Cardz 4 Guyz - # 249 No Patterned Paper

Guest Designer for Just Us Girls Challenge #544 - Trend Week: Slimline

Hello there.  I’m back for another week as guest designer at Just Us Girls (JUGS) for their Trend Week challenge #544 Long and Skinny.

Of course, immediately the popular “long and skinny“ slimline card style jumped to mind and for bonus points, I used the Skinny Upper Alphabet dies from The Stamp Market, too. 😂   Combined them with new NBUS slimline stitch dies from Trinity Stamps and new NBUS Tons of Fun stamp set from SugarPea Designs (SPD) to create this.

Started by stamping the elephant on the left with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on a scrap of X-Press It cardstock.  Used the reverse image stamping technique to create the facing elephant on the right.  Here’s a video tutorial from Jennifer McGuire showing how.  Coloured with Copic Sketch markers then fussy cut them out.

Next, the slimline stitched panel was die cut from Bristol paper.  Seedless Preserves and Spun Sugar distress oxide inks (DOx) were blended on with blender brushes for the background.  Spritz with water and blot with a paper towel to give it texture.

Repeated the blending / spritzing on a scrap of Bristol paper before die cutting each letter three times from it and stacking them for dimension.  A little disclaimer... so bummed I lost the letter “P” 😢 so I ended up modifying the letter ‘R” to resolve this situation.  Can you tell? 😂   The sentiment from the same set was white heat embossed on a scrap of black cardstock.  Assembled the card onto a 8.5”x3.5” white card base.  Doodled in the stars and dots with a white gel pen and added clear shimmer on the letters to finish.

My second slimline card ever and it was so much fun.  Come and join us this week with your take on long and skinny.  For more inspirations from the wonderful JUGS team, click HERE.   Can’t wait to see what you come up with.  Thank you for dropping by.  Enjoy your weekend.

Challenges:
Crafty Animals - #40 Anything Goes Animals
Mix It Up - #39 Anything Goes + optional open technique (reverse image stamping technique)
The Sisterhood of Crafters - Ink It Up
Watercooler Wednesday - #279 Helen’s All About Occasions
Pixie’s Snippets Playground - #381 Use snippets
NBUS #16 - new stamp and slimline die

Flying By

Happy Fri-YAY everyone.  I made my first slimline card!  And of course, it’s a Christmas card.  Christmas cardmaking season is my favourite time of year.

Hello Bluebird’s October 2019  release stole my heart and I was in the process of placing my order when my husband says it’s his early Christmas gift to me!  I must admit, I held back a bit because I didn’t want to take advantage of him. 😂   And he’s still asking me for my Christmas list!.. whaaat!?  BEST hubby ever!!! 🤗    Check out my early Christmas gifts.

So not wanting to add too many of these to my growing unused list 😉, I used a variety of stamps to create this fun scene.  All images were stamped with Copic friendly black ink on Copic friendly cardstock measuring 3.5”x8.5”.  The finished card fits in a regular #10 envelope.

Started by stamping the kitty, masked it, then stamped the plane.
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Next, stamped the squirrel, masked it, then stamped the penguin.

The remaining images were stamped on their own, then the whole scene, including the tree line and mountains, was coloured in with Copics.  Snow was added with a white gel pen and the sentiment was white heat embossed on a black strip to finish.

This may be my first slimline card, but it won’t be my last.  I had a lot of fun making this and love the fact that I can use so many products.  Thank you for dropping by.  Have a wonderful weekend.

Challenges:
Merry Little Christmas - November Anything Goes
Sweet Stampers - #38 Christmas
The Sisterhood of Crafters - Forest Animals
Watercooler Wednesday - #248 Kath’s Masculine Anything Goes
Addicted to Stamps and More - #368 Holiday
Uniko - #56 Christmas optional twist Tree