A Fun Card for Every Stamper!

Aloha, all!

Once again, it’s the last Wednesday of the month, and it’s time for the monthly Island Hopping Blog Hop featuring me, Robin Messenheimer, from Hawai’i’s Big Island and Cheryl Hamilton from the island of Maui. This month we’re featuring not only an upcoming holiday (Halloween), but we’re showing off how stampers at all levels of crafting experience might create a card using the same basic design.

For my projects this month, I chose the fun new stamp set, Birds of a Feather, which features four different kinds of birds ready for four upcoming holidays – Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day.

The Halloween bird is a duck! And this little critter is all decked out in a pirate costume. Though most of the ducks I see are white, I wanted some color in this set of cards, so I made him yellow – Daffodil Delight yellow. I added some Pumpkin Pie for his bill and feet, as well as for the pumpkin, and colored his little vest with Cajun Craze. These are favorite fall colors in my craft room, along with the ever-present Basic Black. The Trick or Treat sentiment is also a part of this stamp set, so that makes this card fun and simple – all you need is a Memento Black Stamp Pad and some Stampin’ Write Markers. There are lots of other colors you could use to make this little guy, so just use what you have on hand!

To step it up a bit, someone who has experience in stamping, but doesn’t want to go too overboard to make a card that has a bit more pizzazz that the beginning card, might stamp three ducks instead of one. There’s a bit of technique to doing this, and it involves using the Stamparatus to keep the ducks all in a line. I stamped one duck at the left end of my 4-7/8″ piece of Whisper White Cardstock, using the Stamparatus with the hinges on the right. Then I moved the paper to the left 1-5/8″ and stamped another duck, and then 1-5/8″ again.

I mounted the stamped layer onto a layer of Cajun Craze Cardstock and then onto a layer of Basic Black Cardstock. Before adhering these layers to the card base, I added a length of the new Basic Black 3/8″ Scalloped Edge Ribbon, which I glued down using Tear & Tape Adhesive. Finally I stamped the sentiment in basically the same place as I stamped it in the beginner version of the card.

I really had fun with this version of the card because, as you might imagine, I’m one of those Avid Stampers who loves to add ribbons and embellishments and designer series papers to my projects. And that’s what I did with this version of the card.

Once again, I have three costumed ducks marching across the card. But for this card, first of all, I colored them using Stampin’ Blends Alcohol Markers. Besides being awesome markers, you can buy them one at a time! I used the Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie Blends, both the light and the dark. Now, I’m not a pro at alcohol markers. But I sure do like the way they just slide onto paper and blends so well together. I somehow have managed not to have the Cajun Craze Stampin’ Blends in my collection. I was so sure that I had them all (I’ll order them soon). So it was back to the Stampin’ Write Markers for the vest.

But what about how the three ducks are laid out? I stamped the ducks on either end of my white layer, but for the middle duck, I hand-cut him out and adhered him to the middle section with Stampin’ Dimensionals. But that’s not all! Instead of coloring his vest, I stamped the top part of the duck on a piece of the gingham from the Regals 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper set – which is in the background of this card. I also added a bit of the Cajun Craze Linen Thread from the new Come to Gather Ribbon Combo Pack in the Holiday Catalog before I adhered the fussy-cut duck to the white cardstock.

Finally, I wrapped a length of ribbon around the layer made up of the gingham paper and Basic Black Cardstock, tying it into a bow (love bows!) to finish it. I stamped the sentiment onto a 1″ square of white cardstock, cut a 1-1/8″ square of Basic Black to mat it before adding it to the card with a Stampin’ Dimensional.

This was fun and I may just do it again before too long. I hope you have fun with whatever you’re making this holiday season.

Now go over to Cheryl’s blog to see what she has in store for you!