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Posts Tagged ‘Handmade Get Well Card’
Feeling a Little Perkier
Aloha, all!
Finally today I'm feeling a bit more like doing some craft work. For the last several days I've really had a bit of a struggle feeling like doing anything but just sitting, reading, and sipping tea. But today I'm back into the groove a bit. In fact, as I was setting today's project up for its photo opp, my darling husband came into the craft room and said he was glad to see me being perkier. We both laughed when I showed him the card and the sentiment at the top! I was about to say, "Isn't that a hoot!?" but that's a greeting on another card.
Today's card is for the weekly Divas Coffee Break Design Team, of which I am currently a Design Team member. It really is different dealing with a challenge that I'm obligated to take on (because of my commitment to the Divas Team!) than seeing a challenge somewhere on the Internet and maybe or maybe not showing off what I come up with. So I thought about this design quite a bit. I had already decided on this Stamp Set, Morning Cup, in fact just because of the line, "Perk Up!" I needed that! And, as I usually have a cup of tea in the afternoon when I'm in the Craft Room, I focused on the tea cup images on the stamp set. Once I got going, though, the coffee pot and mugs jumped out of the box and onto my stamp pads (can you just see that!?)
For the most part when I'm dealing with a line art stamp that has a large open area, I like to use Stampin' Up! Designer Series Papers rather that just coloring it in. I also wanted to start getting into my stash of In Color Poly-Stitched Ribbon which has been languishing in a bottom drawer for over a month. Once I picked out the Peach Parfait Ribbon, it wasn't hard to find the Baja Breeze sheets in the Elegant Soiree Designer Series Paper. After that, everything pretty much all came together. The Polka Dot Paper at the top of the card is also from the Elegant Soiree set of papers. I needed a little bit of something extra to go with the saying in the top element, so I chose some Marina Mist Brads as an accent. They're not right on top of the Baja Breeze paper, so it didn't bother me too much that they weren't a perfect match. (In fact, if I hadn't mentioned it, do you think you would have noticed?)
When I decided I needed a bit of a dark color to set things off, with this card's theme it was only seconds before Early Espresso came to mind. I can see that the next time I have to go into town, there will be a stop at the local branch of some famous coffee shop!
I hope that you'll decided that this is a design challenge that you might want to try! To help you out, I'm posting the measurements that I used for my card. Make your card, post it somewhere on the Internet (Split Coast Stampers is a nice spot that everyone can link to), and then post your link on the Divas site!
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And even if you just make a card for yourself using this layout – or any layout! – have fun with it!
Subscribe to the comments for this postA Colorful Tea Party!
Aloha, all!
I am just blown away by the fabulous new colors that Stampin' Up! has provided for me (you, too!) to use this year! And what a great way to show a group of them off than with a stack of tea cups from the New Stamp Set, Morning Cup. When I have a tea party, I love to use all different kinds of tea cups – just makes it feel as if I've raided my grandmother's kitchen cabinets for all those odd cups from old sets of family dishes. What memories!
But I digress – this stack of tea cups is what most recently brought that memory back to me – and look at those colors! Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Peach Parfait – all just so enjoying being together on one card, don't you think? I got the idea for using this group of colors from fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Connie Babbert, who does just wonderful design work. I sketched in the colors for my card with Stampin' Write Markers, and used some sheets from the new Designer Series Paper set, Sunny Garden. Hmmm. Tea Party, Garden Party – well THAT all works well together! And the papers work well with this color scheme because they included the very same new colors. The final touch is a luscious piece of Daffodil Delight Taffeta Ribbon, and a base card of Daffodil Delight Card Stock. I may have to go make myself a cup of mango-flavored tea and go out into my Hawaiian Garden (yes, that's a piece of it peeking out from behind the picture!) to enjoy a beautiful day.
And there I go digressing again! Before I go out for that cup of tea, I want to share the sketch for this card with you. I have to tell you that I tried layering up the two layers of Designer Series Paper. But I always ended up going back to the simplicity of just having those two complementary strips of printed paper accent each other – which I think they do nicely. Have fun with this sketch!
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Love That Morning Cup…
….of coffee or tea!
Aloha, all!
At the beginning of this week I shared a card using the stamp set, Morning Cup. Oh, I have just too many "favorite" new stamp sets. But this is definitely one of them. (Actually, whichever new stamp set I have out on the Craft Room table right now is my current "favorite"!) I played around with it quite a bit last week making samples for my workshop display boards. There's so much that can be done with it, I could probably play around with Morning Cup to the exclusion of the rest of my stamp sets for a month! But that wouldn't be fair to the other sets now would it?
Enough rambling – here is another card that I made using some of Stampin' Up!'s newest Designer Series Paper sets, as well as this new stamp set. I loved the idea that fellow demonstrator, Sandra Grimes, had of pairing up the Coffee Pot with the Newsprint Designer Series Paper. What better combination than morning coffee and the newspaper! For this card, I placed those two elements on a background of a sheet of Real Red Patterns Print designer paper stack (doesn't that paper just look like old fashioned wall paper?). Stampin' Up! has put together a gigantic pad of papers in each of its color families this year, and this is one of the patterns in the stack.
To tie the elements on the card all together, I matted both front layers with Real Red Card Stock. Then I stamped the coffee pot on a scrap of the Patterns Print that I used as the background and cut out the center part of the coffee pot and adhered it to the stamped image. Nice!
A bit of a finishing touch with some Very Vanilla Brads and a thin layer of Basic Black Card Stock to frame the card, and it's done!
Here's the sketch for this card – a nice all around sketch if you want to show off some Designer Series Papers along with a favorite stamped image!
Just Hanging in There?
Aloha, all!
Oh, my, it’s been awhile since I’ve taken the time to sit and chat. The problem has been in the sitting, as my back has really been giving me a hard time over the past couple of weeks. So it’s been hard to keep my focus and do everything that I’m used to doing. But I’ve been hanging in there.
For one thing, I’ve been able to spend some time in my craft room because I do most of my papercrafting standing up. That has nothing to do with my back; it’s just the way I like to work. I may have to analyze that one day. But for today, I’m going to take some time to try to catch you all up on what I’ve been doing.
To begin, I have a friend – Marcia – who has also been under the weather. So a get well card is definitely in order. Getting that designed and made fit right into a watercolor class that I presented last week. For that class, we used Stampin’ Up!’s Watercolor Pencils. These are one of the hidden gems in the Stampin’ Up! catalog. I’ve taken art lessons on and off for the last 20 years or so, and watercolor is the medium in which I work most of the time these days. So taking a wet brush in hand is just a delight, especially when I can use Stampin’ Up! products.
There are quite a few Stampin’ Up! products in this card, some old and some brand new. You’ll probably recognize the "old" stamp sets, Flower Fancy and Sincere Salutations. It seems to be that I’ve been using these sets since I became a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator. And I never time of them. They’re comfortable old standby stamp sets that I can turn to for every need.
What I didn’t expect was how well they coordinated with one of Stampin’ Up!’s newest product lines, felt embellishments. You may remember the Felt Flurries of Christmas 2008. The newest felt line, Sweet Pea Stitched Felt, has so much more to offer!. I have to tell you that I couldn’t quite get myself to but any when we available to preorder from the 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog. But Stampin’ Up! gave me these free when I received my My Digital Studio certification. Can’t have something lying around and not using it, can I?!
When I get myself back to where I’m comfortable staying in one position for any length of time, I’ll prepare some kind of a tutorial on the use of the watercolor pencils. For now, I think I’ll take a break and go walk around a bit.
Discovering An Old Stamp Set
Aloha, all!
Sometimes I’m so intent on using the latest "thing" in stamping, that I forget all those stamp sets that I have that, while still current, have been around for quite awhile. Today I rediscovered one of these sets, and ended up making two cards for two entirely different purposes from it.
Today’s card was one commissioned by a friend who needed a quick, pretty, but large card as a get well card for a friend who had been taken seriously ill. She wanted lots of people to be able to sign it; but it wasn’t to be TOO big. So I settled on a 5" x 8" card, for which I have some envelopes in stock in the craft room.
The stamp set – the "old friend" of a stamp set – is Fun and Fast Notes. There are 8 different designs, and each has a greeting with it. I knew right from the start that I wouldn’t necessarily be using the greeting that came with each image with that particular image. So, when I mounted the stamps, I cut the greeting away from the image, and mounted the greeting on the SIDE of the same block on which I mounted the image. This way I could at least find the greeting if I needed it!
In the case of today’s card, the greeting that went with the image is actually the one that I used. But I used the greeting in a different spot, so the separation of the two worked out well in this case, too.
The background paper for the card is from the Designer Series Paper set, Cottage Wall, and includes Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence, Old Olive, and Whisper White. I colored in the teacup with the bouquet with the Razzleberry, Olive and Orchid colors. I made the two butterflies by first running the Orchid Opulence card stock through the Sizzix Big Shot with one of the Stampin’ Up! Backgrounds I texturz plates, and then with the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die. I decorated each with a few Ice Circle Rhinestone Brads (as I also did with the flowers in the Teacup). I added a bit of interest by using the Scallop Edge Punch on the Old Olive card stock behind the Whisper White layer, and I finally added a bow made with Whisper White Organza Ribbon.
I think this is a lovely card, if I say so myself (or, in today’s language, IMHO!)
While the stamp set was out, I was reminded of a sketch challenge that was currently being run on the SUDSOL website (a site for Stampin’ Up! demonstrators). I’ll share that card with you tomorrow!
Have fun stamping!
Get Well Wishes
Aloha, all!
The only one I know at this very moment who is under the weather is my own dear husband. Hopefully it won’t be too many more weeks before we can find out what’s ailing him and get on the road to fixing it.
So it was DH of whom I was thinking when I made this card, though I’m not sure he’d appreciate the "feminine" look. He’s more the kind to enjoy a card made with "To The Nines" specialty paper. Maybe I’ll have to make him one of those tomorrow.
But for today, there was a challenge on the blog, "Diva’s Coffee Break Designs," to make a card using specific colors, not a specific sketch. The colors are Rose Red, Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip and Sage Shadow.
My card uses a set that’s a couple of years old, Fun and Fast Notes. It’s really a very versatile set–and yes, you can make fun cards with this set very fast. Each of 8 images comes with a greeting attached. For this set, I cut the greetings from the rubber before I mounted the stamps onto their blocks. I mounted the images as intended, but then mounted the greetings on the ends of the wood blocks. This way I can more easily stamp the image in one place and the greeting in the other. Or use different greetings for different images! In the case of this image, the greeting and image went together very nicely, thank you.
This also turned out to be a good challenge for me today because I needed some quiet "down" time. Just standing at my work table carefully coloring in the line art in the image, as well as placing the little dots of Regal Rose color at the intersection of each of the grids made with this Sizzix Texturz Plate, was very soothing.
So tomorrow I’ll try something a bit more masculine! Check back then!
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