Hope you all rang in the New Year with joy. Our family got together with a bunch of other families and had a bash. It was nice. Then I got to work on my New Years Cards – aka Belated Christmas cards. I think a seasonal greeting is a nice expression even if it comes after the traditional greeting times.

For my cards I was inspired by The Paper Variety’s challenge of black and white with “a kiss of color”. They have changed their challenge protocol for the new year and I think I am going to like it. They have fewer challenges but are offering more time for inspiration and tutorials between challenges. Fewer challenges means I will be able to better participate with more time to work on things. I am especially happy since I had troubles with the old deadlines for some reason. They just fell at awkward times in my week. At any rate, I had fun getting some to-do items checked off my crafty list with help from this color challenge.

Recipe

cardstock: Stampin’ Up (black), Bazzill (blue bling), white (stash scraps)
stamps: Stampin’ Up (greeting, snowflake), Boxer (swirl)
punches: Stampin’ Up (border, circle), Fiskars (snowflake from Teeny Tiny Cassette Punch kit)
ink: Versamark, Ranger
embossing powder: Stampin’ Up (white, crystal clear)
ribbon: upcycled from old gift packaging
other: foam adhesive

TIP: It is hard to see in the photo but the clear embossed swirls on the plain white layer add texture and dimension without adding any color. A great way to add depth without distraction. Also the punched snowflakes are the negative space and have glimmer paper layered behind them for more depth without too much bulk.

I was back in my space recently making a birthday card for a clipper ship fan in my life. I had no clipper ship anything in my stash so I decided to try drawing one. I am not the best drawer and there are some technical mistakes to the piece but, heck, I am pleased with how this came out. Here is my “cheatsy” tip for you today: find a piece of clip art online and use it as a visual guide for drawing! That is just what I did. It helped me get some clearer proportions and better graphic detail.

Recipe

cardstock: Stampin’ Up, X-Press It Blending Card
stamps: Technique Tuesday
inks: Ranger, Tsukineko
glimmer spray: Tattered Angels
embossing powder: Stampin’ Up
pen: American Crafts
markers: Copic
clip art inspiration: http://www.clker.com/clipart-galleon-sail-ship.html

Before I began I cut my card layer, sprayed with different colors of glimmer mist and inked the edges. I added travel themed stamps with versamark and clear embossing powder. I then gave depth to the stamps with more ink. Once that I was done I went to work with my drawing. I used a 03 American Crafts pigment pen to sketch out the image. I then went back and darkened my lines and colored in with Copic markers. I inked in more blue around the waves. I used my Signo Uniball white pen to add some detail to the water and the sails. The edges were frayed and it was ready to go on the card. On the card based I inked more of the blue and brown. I added a scrip text stamp in a very light inking to add some textural and mood detail both inside and out. Remember you are not just sending a card you are sending a feeling captured on paper. The more detail you add, the more you capture that feeling.

This week’s The Paper Variety challenge is a 1-2-3 recipe challenge. You pick any items and use them in the quantity of one, two and three. I wanted to see what I could do if I went really hard core with this challenge. So here is what I picked: one pattern paper, two stamp sets (an image and a sentiment), and three distress ink colors. I wanted to go all the way hard core and only use those things. But I just couldn’t do it. So the additional supplies I used were cardstock for the card base (though I probably could have worked in more of the pattern paper), a waterproof ink to stamp my images (so they wouldn’t bleed when water colored) and a punch to shape my pattern paper.

I used my three distress ink colors three ways to make them go farther in the design.

1. I used them to distress the background with layers of color and added subtle stamp images from the image stamp set.
2. I used it to add hard inking of the paper paper edges to get it to pop a bit.
3. I used an aqua painter to pull color from the ink pad to paint in the stamped image.

When you are restricted in your product choices – for a challenge, a small crop bag, a tight budget or whatever – make your supplies go farther by figuring out multiple ways to put those items to use.

No go cook up your own 1-2-3 crafty soup!

I’ve been busy getting myself ready for the Creating Keepsakes Convention in my region. I will have plenty of goodies to share with you on Sunday or Monday. For now, I’ll give you the last two cards I made.

This first card I made for my SIL’s birthday. I didn’t have the stamp I wanted to I actually cut the “r” off of a “for” stamp and added on to the end of the “you” stamp to create “your”. I cringed as I sliced the scissors through my cling-mount rubber. But everything worked out just fine. When I cling my stamps onto my block I can just add the “r” back on to it’s original word and it will look just fine! If a stamp isn’t quite what you need, don’t be afraid to alter it!

This next card was made for my friend’s son’s birthday. He is an animal lover so I wanted to go with a wild animal feel without being too cutesy since he is 11. I used my alcohol inks on glossy paper to get the marbled background.

Enjoy! And I’ll be back in a few days with tidbits from CKC!