Lovin' Miss Anya!

Been seeing a lot of cards posted on blogs I enjoy visiting created with Anya stamps from the Greeting Farm. Always thought they were all so cute...but I admit it wasn't until I saw the new set of "Miss Anya" stamps which were released in February that I knew I was really hooked. Just HAD to have them! In my own mind they so reminded me of my own dd... so fashion forward, always shopping and lookin' so deviously cute! lol. So of course, my very first Miss Anya card had to be for her.

Had fun coloring the image in with Copics and Prismacolor pens, using what I call a "palette technique" which I learned from a video tutorial shared by Jenn Muraoka on her blog. I consider her an expert at this, and I think you will agree once you have seen the all the beautiful cards she has created. Jen has an incredible eye for color, and her talent for blending colors is just amazing. She also always posts the pen colors she used to make her card, which makes it easy to learn how to re-create some of the different shades and hues she uses.

Oh, I do have one little "secret" to share about this card...as I was coloring Miss Anya, I realized that I did not own any black Copics or Prismacolors. I really wanted to try shades of black and gray for her long locks, so I ended up using a black Sharpie marker! I used the blender pen and different shades of grey Prismacolors to pull and blend the black. Didn't turn out too bad, huh.

Finished my card with pink Bo Bunny double dot cardstock, Bazzill Bling, printed glittered cardstock from a DCWV stack, and some flower rhinestone blings from Photocraft. Used a Martha Stewart lace edge punch for the lace border, and Nestabilities for the scallop circle. Flower petals are from Heidi Swapp, and the round stamped sentiment is from an Autumn Leaves clear stamp set.

A Revisit To Rubber Stamping

This is a recipe folder I made to send to a favorite aunt when she asked for a few of my dessert recipes after a recent family get together. A very simple gatefold style card with a pocket inside to hold the recipe cards and some room for a short note.

This stamped image is one of my favorites from Penny Black; a stamp I had purchased from J's Knicknacks several months ago and had been itching to use for the longest time! I always feel so guilty buying new stamps...I already have a ridiculously immense collection (circa 1990), and honestly, I need more stamps like I need a hole in my head.

Nowadays, there are so many new companies with so many fresh and cute stamps, it's so hard to resist! Well, happy to say, no regrets about buying this one. I think these mousies are so cute, and I really had fun coloring them in with my old Aquarell pencils and Dove blender. It made me remember why I enjoyed stamping so much in the past!

Used Nestabilities dies to cut the circle and scalloped circle and added some matching ribbon for a simple finishing touch. Used my original stamped and colored image to create matching recipe cards.

Inspired By Hallmark

Here's another card created after seeing a similar one while browsing the Hallmark card aisles. It's a trifold card with die cuts attached to windows that peek through to the inside of the card. This is the same style of card I used to make dd's Girls Day card in my last post. The original Hallmark card I saw was a birthday card and I thought the idea was so clever I had to try one too. "I can do that with Design Studio"! Thanks to a tip from Diane at Capadia Designs, I used one of the window cards from the Beyond Birthdays cartridge to do the window cuts with the butterfly and bee welded inside. This saved a lot of time and made it a whole lot easier than creating the windows myself in George! BTW, if you own Design Studio and ever have any problems or questions, Diane's blog is one you should visit. I consider her as one of the Design Studio experts, and consult her blog often for solutions to problems I encounter.

The butterfly and bee cuts are from Pooh and Friends, and the daisy is from Walk In My Garden. Front of the card was embossed with Cuttlebugs Flowers and Vines folder and I used my new Martha Stewart Arch Lattice Edge Punch for the borders on the inside. Sentiments are from a Hero Arts rubber stamp set.

The design of this window card is pretty simple... two windows overlapping each other, and each with a die welded to different positions on the windows, and a third die on the inside of the card.

All three dies show through on the front of the card and only one die is seen on the inside. After making this card, I later realized that the actual card by Hallmark had an accordian fold, which gave it a little different effect when opened. Think I'll try that next time.

This was the card I sent off to my new blogging friend, Tracy for Teri's "One Card Swap". Hope she liked it!

Kokeshi Dolls, Hello Kitty, & More for Girls Day

Girls Day was on Tuesday (March 3rd) but I just couldn't find the time to post till now. Had some fun playing around with my new Hero Arts Kokeshi Doll stamp set and Hello Kitty Cartridge to make a few goodies to send away to dd and for my niece.

This is the tri fold window card I created with the stamp set to send to dd along with her box of treats. The base card with the two windows was created with the Beyond Birthdays cartridge and Design Studio, then I simply adhered the stamped doll images to the windows. (The original idea for this card actually came from another Hallmark card I saw at the drugstore several weeks ago.) Decorated the card with washi paper from Creations Unlimited and 4 sizes of Carl Crafts' sakura punches. FYI, when using paper punches on washi paper, you should always layer a piece of regular bond paper (or some other easily punched paper) on top of the washi paper and punch them out together to avoid jamming and possibly ruining your punches. I used Bazzill Bling (pinks) and Currency Gold cardstock, and the sentiment is Teen font printed on vellum.

I decorated this gift bag to hold gifts for my niece with the same kokeshi doll stamps, which I colored with copics, scanned, enlarged, then printed onto photo paper. I really like the smooth, glossy texture from the photo paper, plus it made cutting out the images a breeze. I then used the original stamped images left to make matching gift tags.

BTW, though I don't usually make note of the type of ink I use, I think it may be worth mentioning that I was informed when I purchased these stamps that the best stamp ink to use for photopolymer type stamps with large solid stamped areas (like the hair on these) is Tsukineko's VersaCraft. Apparently this pigment ink is very "sticky" and adheres well to the solid areas, giving the best stamped image, which also resists bleeding when coloring with alcohol based inks like copics. (I actually heat embossed my images with embossing powder for these projects so I can't say for sure about the bleeding, but the ink coverage on the solid areas was very good.)

When I saw stationery and trinkets with Hello Kitty dressed in her pretty kimono for Girls Day, I couldn't resist buying them! Then I thought, "Hey, why not giving it a whirl on design studio?" I put together the kimono on Design Studio with the George cartridge and added on HK's head from the Hello Kitty cartridge. Then I picked some cute flowers from the Walk In My Garden cartridge to replace the bow on Kitty's head. Chalked and decorated her kimono using very tiny flower punches cut with a Fiskars hand punch and a white gel pen. "Orizuru" or paper crane is another Carl paper punch. Used the George cartridge again to create a little flat box (just the size to fit a powder compact from the new MAC Hello Kitty line) and finished it off with with a sliding band made of currency gold cardstock and more pretty washi paper.

This paper kimono is actually a little treat box. The side view shows the box which is adhered to inside the kimono. Dd saw these displayed at Creations Unlimited when she was home for Christmas and pointed them out to me, "Look mom, this is what I want you to make for me for Girls Day!" These were quick and easy. The girls at Creations used their big Ellison machine to do the cuts for these at no extra charge in just a few minutes while I shopped. All it took was some quick folding and gluing to assemble, some embellishing with more sakura punches, and cardstock & ribbon for an obi. Added some sweet senbei crackers to the boxes and it was done. Wrapped these in cellophane bags tied with ribbon and tags and sent them off to dd to share with her friends.