Swimming Fish Card saying hello to my blog friends!

Hello again to all my blog friends!  Its so nice to get back into my craft room after a two week hiatus!  Between my in-laws being out and all three of my kids getting the same nasty cold/ear infection (of course one after another to take the maximum amount of time to get better - LOL) its been two weeks since I've had time to really sit and play.

While I'm waiting for my new goodies from the upcoming Fall/Winter Idea Book to show up, I'm playing catch up on some challenges.  I made this card with the fabulous sketch on the Heart2Heart Challenge blog this week.  The sketch is fun and the design team did some beautiful work with this one!  I went more fun and funky and was thinking about a fish race in the ocean when I put this together. 

Original Sketch @ H2H Challenges

Materials Used:

Paper:  Fanfare Level 2, Black CS

Stamps:  Hot Diggity (fish and sentiment), True Happiness (waves)

Inks:  Cranberry, Sky, Sunflower, Pacifica, Black

Other:  Blue/Green Sparkles, Glitz Glitter Gel

Thanks for stopping by today!  Hope your day is sunny and funny!

Paige

Get Well Soon card with CTMH Springtime, True Happiness, Say It in Style

I needed a "feel better" kind of card the other day for a friend who is under the weather.  Weather, weather...hmmmm....I know!  I'll use my new umbrella stamp!  (Yes, that really is how I think.)  I've mailed off the one for my friend but I whipped up a couple of copies to have in my stash of cards.  I try to make two or three of each card when I come up with a design that I like.  That way I can put them in my personal stash for use or give them away as prizes at parties.

The clouds are from the set True Happiness mixed with the rain drops and umbrella from Springtime.  I really like that Springtime comes with three different patterns for the umbrella so you can make a more masculine card easily by using the plaid or dotted pattern.  The rain drops were given a little dollop of liquid glass to give them shine and the umbrella got the same treatment for some added dimension.  I was trying to keep it fairly flat for mailing so the only big bump is the button on this card and they usually go through the mail pretty good.

For those of you who do mail out handmade cards, one of the tips I've used is to take a paper towel or paper napkin and place it over the "bumpy" parts to help keep the envelope from ripping.  I send cards across country to my family back east and they've all come without damage so far using that technique. 

Here is a close up of the liquid glass on the rain and umbrella.  I've picked out the pattern in the umbrella with some gel pens to give it some more dimension and the button above has a rub on placed on top.

Here is a more masculine version using the dotted umbrella pattern.

Materials Used:

Paper:  Heavenly Blue B&T (retired) but Caboodle would be a good subsitute, Gray Wool CS, White Daisy CS

Stamps:  Springtime, True Happiness, Say it in Style

Inks:  Gray Wool, Heavenly Blue, Black, Topiary (green umbrella), Sunflower (yellow umbrella)

Other:  Liquid Glass, Summer Craft Button, Autumn Flowers (retired), Metal Brad, Connection Club Rub Ons, Gel Pens (from Costco)

CTMH Ocean Treasures Kid Card with True Happiness and Animal Cookies Creative Basic

"Of all the treasures in the sea, you truly mean the most to me." What a wonderful sentiment that goes with this adorable Ocean Treasure stamp set. I'm always impressed with CTMH's selection of themed B size stamp sets. They are only $13.95 for a set of several themed images perfect for creating projects like cards, bag toppers, booty bags for parties, lollipop covers, altered notebooks, scrapbook accents and so much more! I usually stock up on all the new B size stamps with each Idea Book as they are inexpensive, fun and a great way to add a gallery of images into your stamping tool box.

Here I've combined Ocean Treasures with True Happiness for a fun ocean themed card. I made the ocean waves by stamping in Dutch Blue first with the stamp in a straight line and then I curved the stamp on a block to create the bouncy ocean waves. One of the HUGE benefits of our acrylix stamps is that you can bend them into shapes and they bounce right back to the normal shape after you take them off the block. This is great for curving long words, images or borders to create the exact shape you need. I also used the clouds in True Happiness to stamp along the top of the card. The sea creatures are simply stamped on the clover green backside of the blue flowered Animal Cookies Creative Basics paper and pop dotted playing along in their ocean waves. My sea-creature-crazy son gave this card two thumbs up - hope you like it!

Materials Used:
Paper: Animal Cookies Creative Basics, White Daisy Cardstock
Stamps: Ocean Treasure, True Happiness
Inks: Clover Meadow, Dutch Blue
Other: Pop Dots