Late MIM: DIY Notebooks

I have a secret pal at work and since the school year is wrapping up, I need to go meet her and give her the final gift that I've prepared. Even though it's too late for the Make-It-Monday post, I still want to share the little notebook that I made. With summer coming up and one of my secret pal's favorite color being pink, these flip flops just yelled, "Ink us up!". I added some glitter and used some pretty patterned paper from my stash for the back of the notebook. I used double sided tape to keep the pieces of paper in the book and it seems to be working out pretty well. I ran the bone folder up and down the spine and let the notebook sit under a pile of acrylic stamp blocks overnight and all of the papers seem to be staying in the notebook. It's late so here's the picture.

MIM: Artsy Watercolor Background

I didn't think I'd get around to making a card this week. I went to my craft room several evenings but just never got a card finished. I finally watched the MIM video this evening and found out how easy the process was and how pretty the final product could be. I have decided that I love the Happiness in Bloom stamp set. It saw ink for the first time tonight and I love the effect of the layering. I didn't put in all of the layers since I was going to be using water on the card and I thought the effect wouldn't show if I added more layers to the flowers. I really like the two-tone flowers though. I stamped Lemon Tart, Hibiscus Burst, and Summer Sunrise as my calmer tones of color. Then, the darker tones were Harvest Gold, Raspberry Fizz, and Terracotta Tile. The Terracotta Tile was almost too dark but I just saturated it with more water. I did put the sentiment in that color and really like the effect of how it jumps off the page. I added some twine at the top and a few of my homemade enamel dots. For a quick card, I really like this effect and the end result. Thanks for looking!

I always love putting a close up of a portion of my card. Sometimes I can't show the card well enough as a whole so I like adding a snapshot of my favorite parts too.

Another MIM: Cluster Stamped Sentiment

I was having so much fun with this challenge that I made a second card. I went through my stamps and looked for my favorite stamps for the clusters. I ended up with these cool triangles. It's a PTI five dollar set and worked perfectly. I grabbed several ink pads and just went to town. I think I have: Hibiscus Burst, Hawaiian Shores, New Leaf, Canyon Clay, Plum Pudding, and Harvest Gold. I randomly stamped the triangles on the card. Then, I embossed the "Happy Birthday" in gold on top of the triangles. The sentiment came from another PTI five dollar set. It was one of the Think Big sentiment sets. I added some of my homemade enamel dots and tied a bow in the pretty gold ribbon.

Here are some of my favorites parts of the card.

MIM: Cluster Stamped Sentiment

As a teacher, I sometimes have random days off for different reasons. I had today off because it is election day and some of the election sites are in schools. It was nice to have a day off, especially near the end of the year. It makes me even more ready for the summer with my boys. While my youngest was taking a nap after his almost year check-up, I made a quick card for the challenge. I had taken out a sheet of the Tropical Tide paper because I thought it was just so pretty. Then, it dawned on me that I could use it for the this week's challenge. I took the smallest three circles from Circle Scribbles and randomly stamped them with Versamark ink. Then, I embossed them with clear embossing powder. I grabbed the "Thanks" sentiment from Mini Blooms and used silver embossing powder to make it stand out on the card. I finished the card with some silver sequins. I wasn't so particular about their placement this time and was happy with the finished result. Here's my card!

Here's a close up.

MIM: Envelope Wraps

I love this! I always just put my card in a white envelope and write the addresses on the front. I will say that I've, from time to time, stamped an image on an envelope or added a little something but I have never made envelopes as beautiful as the ones that Danielle made. I was inspired and made a set of three envelopes using the Special Delivery set. It just cried out to be put on the envelopes. I absolutely love playing around with all of the pieces. It feels like I'm dressing a doll and get to choose all of the little details. I chose three Papertrey Ink colors: Limeaid Ice, Canyon Clay, and Hibiscus Burst. Then, I found some patterned paper that I just bought by Alison Kreft. It's called Recorded and has some really cool patterned paper. I decorated the backs of the envelopes also but kept that really simple. I know that it's just going to be ripped open so I didn't want to put a bunch of work and details into it. I did want to put sequins on the card with the Canyon Clay because I thought my orange sequins would look great but I never found a pattern that I liked. I spent way too much time so any tips of placing sequins, I would appreciate it! Oh, and I have a different message on each truck. The Hibiscus Burst is for a birthday with "celebrate" and "ice cream" on the truck, "We move you" on the Canyon Clay, and "Speedy's next day mail" on the Limeade Ice card. Here are the cards....ooppps...envelopes! This is my favorite one. I love the color combination.

This one just makes me happy.

This is the one that I wanted to add pretty sequins to but couldn't find a placement that made me happy so I just added a little rhinestone. I still like it.

The backs of the envelopes...nothing to sneeze at but still a bit pretty.

Here are all three envelopes together...now, to make cards that will go inside.

So Grateful for You

Like I said in my last blog post, last week was really rough. My best friend has really been there for me so I think I'll drop this card off in the mail for her. I was originally making this card for this week's MIM challenge but then I re-read the title and saw that it was supposed to be a pie chart so I made the heart card. I still wanted to make this card though because I had everything cut and just needed to put it together. I love the little whale! I also got rid of some scraps with this card also. I used the kraft card base and put a chevron cover plate on the card in Smoky Shadow. I trimmed up the patterned paper scraps and put them under the whale. I added some of my homemade enamel dots too. I really liked how this card came together.

MIM: Paper Scraps Pie Charts

Life was busier than imaginable last week. It was an incredibly stressful and bad week. Any prayers sent my way would be appreciated. I was glad to be back in my craft room making cards and I'm so glad that Melissa had a challenge to use scraps. It was fun to pull out a lot of scraps and put a card together. I love how the scraps look combined on the card. It was a quick card that came together and I thought that an anniversary sentiment would be fitting for the heart on the card. It's late and I'm sleepy so I'm just going to post my card. Enjoy!

Here's a close up of the heart.

MIM: Heat Embossing on Die Cuts

This has been an extraordinary crazy week. I'm just now getting to my card for the Make-It-Monday Challenge. The video was so great and had a lot of tips for heat embossing on die cuts and two step stamping. I wanted an Easter card so I decided to find a wreath and use the cute Hippity Hoppity stamp set. I ended up with the twiggy-looking wreath from Wreaths for All Seasons. I stamped the wreath, heat embossed a second wreath and adhered it on top of the original. Then, I heat embossed the eggs in white. I stamped patterns on each egg and popped them up from the wreath. I added lots of layers to the card from the patterned paper in the background, to the hand-stitched edge on the green paper, and the tags and felt along the bottom. I enjoyed making a card with all of the layers and little details but it take more practice with layering everything. I hope my layers work well together!

Here's a close-up of the embossing.

MIM: No-Sew Quilted Card

I have so many new pins thanks to Dawn's challenge! I immediately went to Pinterest after watching the Make-It-Monday's video and scoured the quilt patterns. It makes me want to get my sewing machine out and sew a quilt! I went for second best and found a great quilt that reminded me so much of the Papertrey Ink dies and stamps. Here was my inspiration:

I just got the Diagonals dies and stamps with my last order so I grabbed the dies and sort of combined making my own cover plate with making a no-sew quilt. I placed the diagonals dies and then cut out different pattern papers from my stash. I love going through my scraps and seeing which colors look good together and I get to see all of the lovely papers in bits and pieces. Anyway, back to my card for the challenge. After I placed the itty bitty diagonal pieces into the card, I ran the paper through my Grand Calibur with the sunshine impression plate. At the bottom of my card, I added a strip of Raspberry Fizz paper, the "thank you" from the Wonderful Words line, and a glittery green button. Although this card was very difficult to photograph, this is one of my favorite techniques. I know I will make more no-sew quilt!

Here's a close up of the no-sew quilt effect with the sunshine impression plate.

MIM: Stamping with Watercolor Medium Take 2

I decided to try my hand at watercoloring again but with something not floral. I will definitely do lots more flowers with watercolors but I grabbed my Watercolor Wonder set and used the watercolors to stamp lines of color based on the colors of the rainbow. I continued with the rainbow theme by gluing sequins to the bottom of the card. It took a long time to glue them on individually but I really like the shine and bling it gives the card. Of course, then my lines of color looked a bit boring so I wet embossed them and I think that it brought the colors out a bit too. The last thing I did was just to add a sentiment to the side from one of the Think Big sets. Thanks for looking and thanks also for the comments about a good watercolor set. I did put the Gelatos in my wishlist on Amazon but I think I'll just what I have for now.

A close up of the embossing, if you can see it.

MIM: Stamping with Watercolor Mediums

I think I am in love with the watercolor look on my cards now. I immediately knew that I wanted to paint the flowers from the Botanical Silhouettes set because of the whimsy and beauty in those flowers. I started with a black card base, which I very rarely do but I really wanted the floral image to pop from the card. I got out my cheap watercolors that I borrowed from my son's IKEA craft set that he got for Christmas. I was ready to get started with my glass of water, a paintbrush and the watercolors. Speaking of which, I only have the cheap watercolors from the IKEA set and another inexpensive set that I found at Dollar General. For those of you that like to watercolor, what brand do you use? I'd like to invest in watercolors because I have really enjoyed using them on my cards.

Thanks for looking!

Make It Monday: Make Your Own Cover Plates

Boy, do I like this challenge. Betsy is genius! Her video on making your own coverplate with dies is just such a brilliant idea. I have really enjoyed all of the MIM challenges; it's getting me back into my craft space after a hiatus due to job changes, moving, and a new addition to our family. It's been a couple of crazy years so it's nice to be in our house and be able to have a space to call my own for crafting. Anyway, back to the challenge. I used the Lock & Key die and stamp set. I will be honest; I had never even inked up the stamp but now that I made this card, I do believe it will be inked up a lot more often. I ran the keys through twice on the card front. The really nice part about this die is that they are on one die so it was just two swipes through. I wanted to dress up the bottom of the card so I used three different borders, a Smokey Gray ribbon, and then tied on the lock. I wet embossed the lock with clear embossing powder to give it a bit of shine, after enjoying the shine challenge on the most recent blog hop. I also used a color combination that I wasn't sure about but I really like the outcome. I combined Hawaiian Shores, Hibiscus Burst, Smokey Gray, and Canyon Clay. I finished the card with the sentiment in the corner.

A close up of some of the pretty details.

Blog Hop: Shine On!

High Gloss is the name of this month's blog hop over at Nichole's blog for PTI. I immediately thought of layers of color and using the Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) to gloss up my card. Then, I thought about how neat it looks to emboss a background image before finishing the card. Out came this card from the combination of those two ideas. I embossed the Circle Spirals after cutting one inch strips of four pretty, pretty colors. After embossing the scribbly circles, I covered the entire sheet with Frost Versamark and the UTEE. I wasn't sure how it would look but I love the result. The UTEE looks like raindrops in places because it doesn't cover perfectly since some of it blew off as I was embossing the card. I really like the effect though with the scribbly circles in the background. To take the shine challenge on step further, I embossed the edge of the frame with silver. I stamped a sentiment from Framed Out #2 in the center in Royal Velvet. Wow, What a beautiful purple that is!

Here's a close-up of all the shine and gloss on my card.