Tim type tag

Tim Holtz isn't doing 12 tags of Christmas this year, so neither am I; but one of my yahoo groups is having a Tim tag swap, so I had to make one.  It has a big Tim flower for the homemade flower challenge at Amusing Challenges.

Yes, it is deeply dimensional, and loaded with metal dangly bits.  You can see the NOEL clearly when the silver isn't reflected straight at you.  Now here is the problem - I don't see how in the world I can mail this to anyone for less than $5.  I like it, but I think that is a little steep for a single item swap.  It's silly not to enter the swap after I've made the tag, but really...

Challenges:
Fussy and Fancy - Christmas
CCEE Stampers - new die (spellbinders foliage)
Crafty Ribbons - tag
Do You Stack Up - silver and gold
In the Pink - pink Christmas

It's not easy being pine green

My friend Diane sent me some glamorous embossing powders a while back including this one that gives a deeply textured effect.  I love the effect, but after I stamped it, I found that it is a very difficult green to match.  This is as close as I could get with what is in my stash:

Funny how a touch of gold makes anything better.

Challenges:
Amusing Challenges - sketch
Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - photo inspiration
For Fun - must use a rubber stamp
My Mum's Craft Shop - star
Lollypop Crafts - multiple punches (I used 4)

Iris Window card

I found this cool card at CraftsUPrint - a window card with a popup interior that goes through the window.  My print is terrible at printing color (red doesn't print well), so I touched it up a little with my markers, but the basic design is the one in the kit.  This is how it looks folded flat:

I used a nestie die to cut a window and frame, rather than handcut it from the template.  The floral panel is a scrap from a previous printing (I was trying to resize it to fit a standard US card size (most of the cards on that site are bigger).  This is how it looks open:

Lots of fussy cutting, but it is not as hard as it looks.  I'm going to have to buy some duplex paper if I'm going to make more of these.

Challenges:
Clearly Inspired - colors (that blue is really purple)
Delightful Challenges - diecut
Incy Wincy - flowers
Crazy Challenge - flowers
Sparkles Forum - new craft item (digital kit to make the card)

Friend

I was playing around with a CTMH stamp set I had sitting around for almost a year, but never used, and made this card. it's just one layer, plus the flower.  I doublestamped the sentiment on purpose, with the hopes it would give a drop shadow effect.

CTMH stamps don't work well with a lot of dye inks other than their own, but they are very good with Tim Holtz distress inks.

Challenges:
Kreative Stempelfreunde - old-fashioned
Heart Song Inspirations - brad (in flower)
Incy Wincy - flower
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - photo inspiration
Touch Twin - colors

Traditional Valentine

To me, this is the basic traditional valentine.

Two kinds of punches, fussy cutting, folding and a little stamping, embossing and beautiful paper - it really isn't as simple as it looks.

Challenges:
Crafts 4 Eternity - CAS
Lily Pad - patterned paper
Polka Doodle - template (scalloped edge around the heart)
Simply Create Too - Love is in the air
Stempelsonne - Valentine

Valentine treat boxes

A girlfriend of mine who works for Hallmark came over today.  I always tease her that my cards are better than hers.  She brought with her a bunch of leftover envelopes, and we made bag-alopes.

This are made from pink envelopes.  We embossed them with an embossing folder my mother gave me years back, and ran red ink over them.  a heart punch was used to make little tags, and we closed them by folding over the top, punching two holes, and running ribbon through.  These were practically free to make, as we didn't pay for the envelopes, and the tags were punched from scraps (after making so many valentines, I have a few red scraps!)

Challenges:
Fairy Fun Fridays - anything but a card
Mami Doodles - for a loved one
Poodles Parlor - valentine
Stamping for the Weekend - embossing
Crafty Creations - valentine for a kid/not a card

Wiggly eyed cats

The best thing about stamping with friends is the ideas they suggest.  My girlfriend suggested the wiggle eyes and the ball of yarn on this card.

I spent ten minutes after I glued the eyes on just shaking the card to make the eyes move.  I've half a mind to make an animation!

Challenges:
Charisma Cardz - Pretty in Pink
Craft Us Crazy - love + animals
Hanna and Friends - pink and gray
Fab n Funky - eyes
Little Darlings - polka dots

EDIT:

Yes, I love Paint Shop Pro.

Year of the Dragon

I love dragons, so I had to do at least one Year of the Dragon card.

The metallic gold part is from a box of chocolates.  Everything else is from the pile on my desk.

Challenges:

Clear It Out - scraps

Cards and Things - sketch

CCEE Stampers - Lunar New Year

Rainbow Lady - Year of the dragon

Bling it on - new beginnings

Cat valentine

This card features two things that I've had for a ridiculously long time but never used.  the first is this adorable stamp from My Paper Moon.  It was just so cute, I had to have it, but for some reason, I have never inked it before now.  The second is this little cat-shaped tag.  I don't even remember where I got the tags, but it seemed horribly important to have them at the time.

  My little "friends" stamp just barely fits!  It's not strongly valentine-ish; I suppose I could use it at other times of the year.

Challenges:
Cupcake Craft - all you need is love
Nettie G - pastels/spring colors
PanPastel UK - two of something
The Paper Players - CAS with a tag
The Squirrel and the Fox - critters

Shabby sympathy card

I was tasked to create a sympathy card for the ladies in my bowling league to sign - one of our members lost her sister.  Since I had the Shabby Vintage paper handy, I decided to use it for a background.

The Certainly Celery cardstock picks up the Peeled Paint color in the background.  the paper in the center rectangle is the reverse side of the larger background piece.  The stamp is an old TAC stamp - I always like to use butterflies on sympathy cards, or dragonflies if it is for a man - they are so symbolic of death as rebirth, a very uplifting thought when one loses someone special.

Challenges:
Dream Valley Challenges - animal
Fashionable Stamping - butterflies
2 Sisters - embossing
So Artful - colors
Twisted Sketches - sketch (and this is the first time I've used the blue in this paper stack)

Swallow Valentine

I bought some dies from AMuse recently, and thought I would try them out.  One is the swallow, which comes in a set of two (the other swallow is small enough to fit on an inchie!), and the sentiment is stamped on one of the vintage labels set.

The paper is the same Tim Holtz Shabby Vintage, only this is the design on the back of the paper I used yesterday. The stamp is out of the dollar bins at Joann.  those acrylic stamps don't hold ink well but if you tap them in Versamark before the regular ink, they work okay.  The ink is the Fired Brick distress ink, which really warms up the cool colors of the Shabby Vintage.

Challenges:
Craft Us Crazy - valentines
Crop Stop - vintage/shabby chic
Delightful Sketches - vintage/distressed
Moving along with the Times - things with wings
The Craft Garden - monochrome
Cardabilities - sketch

Shabby Vintage valentine

I love the Tim Holtz paper lines.  I love the colors and the designs, but what I hate about them is that they are such beautiful, strong, assertive designs, I can hardly bring myself to cover them up.  I bought this Shabby Vintage paper pack almost 2 years ago, then despaired of using it, and stuck it in the back of my scrapbook paper file, where I had forgotten it until I was searching for valentine paper.   I don't want to make a card that is just a background paper and a sentiment, but what else to put?

I punched the heart from white, then dry embossed it with a cuttlebug folder I had forgotten I had.  I used the reverse, so the fleurs des lis would stay white, then lightly distressed heart with distress and gold metallic inks, a red heart offset helps it stand out. The sentiment was a leftover from when I was testing my new stamp earlier this week; I got the fancy cut on the ends by weaseling it into a corner punch.  a little gold organza ribbon seemed to tie the whole thing together.  None of it is bold enough to outshine the Tim Holtz paper, though.

Challenges:
 Scrapbook Sisters - sweet Valentine
Gingersnap Creations - Favorite paper
Truly Scrumptious - something forgotten
Alota Rubber Stamps - heart
Artistic Stamper - vintage

Punchart Valentine

I occasionally try to submit my cards to "Clean and Simple" challenges, but they always get rejected, because I always do too much.  Even if it's a single layer card, I do too much coloring and embellishing.  For this card, I really tried to rein it in.

Except for the sentiment, there is no ink on this card.  All the design is punching, or in the case of the scallops, hand cutting (AMuse has a die that makes a big scallop like this, it's on my wish list).  The heart was first punched out of red cardstock, then I punched a flower out of the heart, and then I punched a swirl to make the stem.  I cut the scallops out of the card base and punched the holes (I punched a hole in red for the flower center; I glued a strip of red to the inside of the card.  So there you have it - three pieces of cardstock (four if you count the flower center), no coloring, no embellishments.  If this isn't clean and simple, I give up.

Challenges:
Crafty Bloggers Network - monochrome
Lollipop Crafts - no embellishments
Penny Black - love and hearts
CAS-ual Fridays - scallops
The Stamp Man - red

Phone book flower Valentine

I'm determined to make these valentines - if only there were people that I love. (just kidding)

I'm really loving this color palette.  It is so much more elegant than almost anything with pink.

 I used old telephone book pages for the flower and under the ribbon.  I did the faux stitching to pick up on the real stitching on the ribbon.  I can believe that with all the border punches I own, I hand cut the scallops.  I did punch the heart with a new heart punch, though.  The word on the heart is from a stamp that has "Happy Valentines Day"; I only needed the one word.

Challenges:
Crafty Catz - Something new (heart punch)
Fun with Shapes and more - no black lines
Polka Doodles - vintage
Phindy's Place - Embossing, ribbon, sewing
Paper Play - stitches

Pink valentine

It's so hard to make a pink card!  It gets sticky sweet very quickly.  The glittery background paper is from a pack of baby girl papers, and the pink heart was cut freehand from some pink handmade paper.  the white ruffle was added to offset all the pink, and the word was strategically cut from a "Thank you" diecut.

What it lacks in elegance, it makes up in texture.

Challenges:
Art Impressions Stamps - pink
Pixie Dust Studio - heart
Southern Girls - sparkle
Do You Stack Up - pink
Paper Pretties - sentiment as focal point

Red flower valentine

I was feeling the urge to work on some valentines, and started poking through my patterned paper to see if I had any that I forgot about.   This paper is one of those that I have had forever.  I love the vintage fabric look to it, but I keep forgetting I have it.  It happened to be very close in color to this punched flower I had lying on my desk, a leftover from my son's art project (his girlfriend doesn't like florist flowers because they are treated with so many chemicals; he made her paper ones).  The rest of the card just came together.

 It's a little squished in the scanner, but it would get squished in an envelope, so I guess it is better to see how it will look to a recipient.  The little heart on the vellum tag is punched from a scrap of the same painted paper - I love painting paper rather than using colored cardstock for a lot of things, but I have both on here.  The sentiment is from a CTMH stamp set I bought several years ago - I have used the doodles in the set, but the words don't often see ink.  it was the only "friends" stamp that was mall enough to fit on the tag, though.  The only thing new on this tag really is the baker's twine.  Well, it really isn't new; I just haven't used it before today.

Challenges:
Aud Sentiments - use your scraps
Color Create - red, cream, sage
Gingersnap Creations - ribbon
Heart2Heart - stamp on tag
Incy Wincy Designs - vintage

A couple of Halloween projects

Bead or make cards?  Bead or make cards?  It's too hard to decide, so I did a little of both.

This little spider was fun to make, and looks great on my red hat.  It's so much more interesting than a flower or ribbon.

It's not a complicated card - some pretty background paper, a couple of punches and die cuts, and a few scraps.

Challenges:
Cheerful Stamp Pad -  Halloween
Dream Valley - Halloween
I Did It Creations - animal
Whimsy Inspiration - punches, diecuts

Guess who?

It's funny how the most innocent sentiment can seem sinister on the right card.

If you don't know who this handsome devil is, well, all I can say is that I'm glad I didn't use Lovecraft or Stoker.

Challenges:

Cupcake Crafts - Halloween

Corrosive - Purple plus one other color

Quirky Crafts - Spooky

Stamptacular Sunday - distressing

Crafty Pad - vintage

Secret Crafter - sparkle

Southern Girls - masculine

Crafts and Me - use a digi

Gingersnap Creations - Horror Story (the real horror is having me for a friend!)

You can always find challenges to play in at Feline Playful.

Vellum pocket card

This is another card that I assembled according to Chris's directions.  This used a vellum pocket to hold the tag, and I don't really ever use vellum, so she gave me a piece of hers.

The first thing I noticed after I glued everything down was that I used the wrong paper. (you can see Chris's version here.)   I was supposed to use a very interesting textured background paper, and instead, I used solid colored cardstock.  the result was a little plain, so I stuck some bling in the corner.  I'm not sure it improved anything.

You can see the stamping on the tag through the window.  Anyway, I had to do it in Reese paper too, and was in a quandary about what to use for vellum, when I found an old (7-8 years) sheet of patterned vellum that I had bought and never used - I never know what to do with vellum.

A tree stamp in the background seems to give that little something that keeps the solid background from being bleah.  I am loving using these tags!

Challenges:
Fashionable Stamping - ribbon
Just Add Ink - something from your stash (vellum)
Stampin' for the Weekend - holidays
Winter Wonderland - a decorated tree
Pixie Dust Studio - tag

Ribbon and Lace card(s)

My friend Chris had a stamping workshop last week, and the theme was to make cards using the TAC Angelique paper packet.  The TAC paper sets come with a sheet of tags, and although the tags are all very nice, a lot of people, including myself, have no clue what to do with them.  The workshop offered us the chance to make 5 cards right then with the papers in the packet, and also gave printed instructions for 5 more, with photographs.

If you know me, you know I am a pushy person.  This comes from years of working as an air traffic controller, then more years married to an even bigger control freak than myself.  Anyway, I saw the five cards that we were supposed to be able to make at home after the workshop, and I immediately started grousing - they all required equipment or materials that I did not have at home. Chris pointed out that the five cards to do at home were supposed to inspire us to make similar cards with what we had, and not the exact ones, but I persisted. Chris was very nice, and gave me the stamps to pre-stamp my images, and she let me diecut the shapes I needed to finish the cards, but that was not enough for me.  I wanted the special lace and ribbons and fancy paper she used.  We had some fierce words, which we never do, but the bottom line is that I paid extra and got the extra trimmings.  It was a fair conclusion, in my mind.  However, it occurred to me that after making such a stink about getting the extras to make the other five cards, I had better actually do them, or I was never going to hear the end of it, not from Chris or any of the nice ladies who watched me make an ass of myself.

Here is the first of the do-at-home cards that I did:

Chris coughed up the lace and the ribbon. This is pretty much exactly what she designed, except I think my bow is a little large.  I did want her to know that I could do a variant, that I wasn't a total idiot incapable of following directions with my own materials, so I also made this one,  using the Reese paper set (all the sets have identically sized tags, but in colors to match the set)

As I pointed out to Chris, I didn't have the nice lace, so I punched a lace-like border from a brown paper sack and gathered it.  I had gold organdy for a bow, but somehow the bow and lace alone didn't look quite festive enough for a Christmas card, so I pulled a gold star from my stash.  I made the star a while back - it is a punched cardstock star covered with a gold foil candy wrapper.  After the gold ribbon and the gold star, I grabbed a Stardust pen and glittered up the lace bits and also some of the circles in the paper (too bad glitter doesn't show in a scan).

This was fun!  I will have to try it with the other 4 cards waiting to be made.

Challenges?  Sure, why not!

Mark's Finest Papers - use lace

Alphabet challenge - 3 embellishments (lace, star, bow)

Crafts 4 Eternity - Christmas

Crafty Catz - metal and lace

Phindy's Place - make your own embellishments

Paper Cutz - star

Sew many challenges - border punch