Monthly Archives: September 2014

Happy 40th Birthday – a rerun

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I was thinking about another project when I fell over the birthday candles stamp. This used to be on a wheel – the idea being that you could pop in an ink cartridge and stamp as far as you liked. Stampin’ Up! has discontinued wheels because they aren’t easy to stamp in straight lines but they also provide clear mount cling foam which means that you can convert your wheels into regular stamps. All you do is carefully peel the rubber stamp off the wheel starting at the seam and stick the rubber onto the clear mount cling foam and you’re done. A new clear mount stamp!

birthday candles cherry cobbler 40

I decided that I wanted to emboss the candles in gold but, thinking that the card needed to have a 40 on it, figured that I could mask some of the flames and put the 40s there. But first I embossed the sentiment thinking, for some crazy reason, that I could stamp and sprinkle the gold embossing powder on both the sentiment and the candles before using the heat gun (trying not to warp the paper too much). But after stamping the Birthday Wishes, I came to my senses and heat embossed it. After masking and stamping the candles and embossing in gold, I realised that also embossing the 40s in gold was just going to be too much. I tested on a scrap piece to see how clear, cherry cobbler and gold looked and wasn’t thrilled with any so selected black. I stamped the 0 in versamark and then the 4 thinking that the stampamajig wouldn’t mess up the ink too badly that way before sprinkling the black embossing powder on and heating it. Then I obviously repeated it twice more.

I think it would have been more balanced if I’d used black on the sentiment too or perhaps used white instead of black. But on the whole, I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out.

Base: Cherry cobbler 8.5″ by 5.5″

Stamp sets: Birthday candles (retired), Four You, Typeset Numbers (I think – I borrowed this set, so I’m not certain)

Ink: Versamark

I hope that one of these 40th birthday cards fits the bill – currently they are in Julia’s mail box and she’s yet to see them!

 

Happy 40th Birthday

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Julia asked me to make a card for someone at work whose 40th birthday is this week. Until she told me the person was male, I figured I had enough variety already made. Male birthday cards are harder! Plus I don’t know the birthday boy so it’s hard to know whether I should play up the 40 or down. In the end, I went for subtle.

happy hour 40 island indigo

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ island indigo

Mat: 4″ by 5.25″ very vanilla

Stamp sets: Happy Hour, Sassy Salutations plus a numeric set that I borrowed (retired)

Inks: island indigo, versamark

Other: Cherry cobbler embossing powder, clear embossing powder

I don’t have any sets with numbers (I need to rectify that!) so when I took the Cool Cats set back to class, I borrowed a set with numbers. Previously I’d tried writing 40 myself using my caligraphy pen. Since I’ve only had that for about a month, I’m not skilled enough to write on a card! I stamped the glasses in the same colour but different glasses to create interest and varied the height of them as well. I positioned the sentiment to fit in with the slope of the glasses and embossed it in cherry cobbler; I echoed the colour in the strawberry. Then I decided to emboss the 40 in clear so that it was there but subtle – in case the birthday person is sensitive about turning 40. I really like how this came out although it took me about a week to finish it. I kept putting it to one side and doing easy things – cutting envelope liners or trying different colour variations on previous cards.

Side Benefit

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A side benefit of making the thank you card for Dr Demaira was that there was a stamp of a stack of presents in the same set that I borrowed from my upline. I stamped a few of them in rose red and real red and pacific point and then realised that they’d look really great if I coloured the three presents in different colours. So I got out my stampin’ write markers and tried it out. I really like how it worked – I got suggestions from the Colour Coach which worked well. I used pacific point, melon mambo and pumpkin pie.

cool cat gifts melon mambo

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ melon mambo

Top layer: 4″ by 5.25″ very vanilla

Stamp sets: Cool cats( retired), Sassy salutations

Inks: pacific point, melon mambo, pumpkin pie

As I said, I simply coloured in each present using a different stampin’ write marker; then I moistened the ink by breathing on it hard (just channel the end of a run) and stamped onto the very vanilla. I would never have partnered these colours but I trusted the colour coach and loved the result. I definitely recommend that tool. The backgrounds dsp in melon mambo to line the envelope finished off the card.

I had previously done another card where the mat and colour of the sentiment was the same as the biggest present and I think it looks almost monochromatic. Somehow all the Tempting Turquoise pretty much overshadows the Rich Razzleberry and Pear Pizzazz. It’s a completely different look and another example of how different colours can totally change the card.

cool cat gifts tempting turquoise

I stamped and coloured a number of pieces of cards in this stamp for later use so stay tuned for more examples.

More Cat Congratulations

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Donna is another of my colleagues who was promoted this year. I don’t believe that she reads my blog, but if so – sorry, that you’re seeing your card before you receive it and congratulations! Donna is a cat person so whilst trying to create the card for Dr Demaira, I somehow easily came up with this one which is a surprise since the first one was so difficult.

cool cat congrats blackberry bliss

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ blackberry bliss

Stamp sets: Cool Cats (retired), Bravo

Ink: Versamark

Other: silver foil paper, silver embossing powder

This was a fairly simple card. I embossed the cat in silver on blackberry bliss and then cut it out with oval #3 (counting from the smallest die) and then created a frame from silver foil by using ovals #3 and #4. A bit more silver embossing for the Congratulations from the Bravo stamp set and the card was pretty much done. I used the Park lane DSP to line the envelope. I’m really pleased with how this came out and I hope Donna likes it.

 

Pink Cats

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I had a tooth pulled recently and the dentist, Dr Demaira in Montville NJ, is a genius. She believes in teasing the tooth out so it may take a bit longer than with some dentists, but she’s GENTLE. So gentle in fact, that I had to ask if the tooth was out because the awful pressure and cracking didn’t happen. She had the implant in and the stitches done before you could say jiminy cricket. Not that it’s easy to talk with dentist implements in your mouth, I admit. But she and her nurse Kathy, had me laughing a lot. And enjoying listening to the musicals. How many times have you been singing along to the Sound of Music whilst waiting for the numbing to happen?? I wanted to send her a card to thank her for such outstanding work and the subject was easy to figure out. Her office is covered in cat pictures; even the staff have cats on their scrubs. And there’s pink. Everywhere. Pink scrubs, glasses, tray liners, you name it. It’s pink.

Of course, I don’t have any cat stamps. That would be too easy. But when I went to a class earlier this month, I borrowed a retired set, Cool Cats from my upline. She said that there was no rush, just bring it back at the next class which gave me three weeks. I thought that was plenty. Have you ever tried to make a completely pink card? With a cat? It’s not easy. I have 5 different pink cardstocks (although my brother decreed that 2 of them couldn’t be termed pink – I disagreed, but there you go. Rose red is definitely pink. As is melon mambo). I decided on strawberry slush and blushing bride. I almost regret this because strawberry slush is one of my favourite colours and I’m a bit off pink now.

I worked on this card on and off for almost all of the three weeks. I finally decided on an oval shape for the cat. But what should the colour be? And how large the frame? And should I have some texture in there?

pink cat in progress

I started to panic and in fact, stamped the cat quite a few times on different card stock. I stamped in gold, I embossed it in clear, I stamped in strawberry slush. Finally on Monday night, the night before the class and my deadline – although of course Jen my upline (not to be confused with Jen from Canada who comments on my blog) would’ve let me keep it longer, I made a break through.

cool cat strawberry slush in progress

I was semi pleased with this. I could see that it could be better, but not how. I talked to Jen From Canada (it’s handy having a friend with an arts degree) and she pinpointed what was bothering me. The left hand side of the oval is not defined. Once she pointed it out, it was so obvious! I tried DSP with an oval cut out around the left hand side of the cat. That didn’t quite work. Then, I tried glitter. I’m not really a glitter kind of girl, but it worked. Well I think it did – here’s what the final card looks like:

cool cat strawberry slush

The colour is actually closer to the intermediate card. Not sure what happened here with my photography. I hope Dr Demaira likes it!

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5: Blushing bride

Mat: 4″ by 5.25″ strawberry slush

Ovals – blushing bride and strawberry slush cut out with the #4 oval framelit (there are 7 so it doesn’t matter where you start counting!). BTW, the oval framelits are on special this week until next Tuesday when new weekly deals come out. They are 75% of regular price.

Stamp set: Cool cats ( retired)

Ink: versamark

Other: Clear embossing powder, dazzling diamonds glitter

If you wanted to make this card and had the supplies, it’s easy. Once you know where you’re going. Now that I’ve given you the dimensions, I think that’s all that I need to tell you! I hope you enjoyed seeing how this card evolved. I now have lots of cats and texture and ovals for use on other projects!