Saturday, April 27, 2013

Dragon Greeting Cards

Well, I already showed you the mermaid birthday cards I made for the Kards for Kids at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.  Ever since I made them, I've been trying to design something for the boys.  Here it is!

I used a High Hopes Stamps dragon image on this one.  High Hopes is a sponsor of the Kards for Kids project.  Their current stamping challenge is to use borders.  I used my Accucut Craft Fence border die on this card and also created a fringed grass border by hand.

These were quick and simple and I really enjoyed colouring the dragon with my copics.  I used lipstick red and some brown for shading.  I lightened the wings with pink and I dotted the dragon's body with the colourless blender to give him a mottled scaly look.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Handmade Cards For the Dogs

These cards were made by my co-worker, Debbie.  She made them to donate to a local dog rescue: the Southern Ontario Animal Rescue (SOAR).  SOAR uses them in new adoption kits and on one-year adoption milestones.

Here's a birthday card with an adorable C.C. Designs bear stamp:

And a friendship card with a free-hand dog.  Debbie claims I gave this to her, but I cannot remember!  I think the little picket fence is a nice touch.
This next card we made when Sheri from Close to My Heart stamping came to teach us some techniques earlier this year.  I think it would work well as a homecoming card for a newly adopted dog.
Debbie used the sprinkles we got from Annabelle Stamps in Australia on this thank-you card.  I cannot say enough how beautiful these little baubles are!  I really like all the repetition of circles in this design.
On her last card, Debbie used a large Birthday embossing folder and inked it up.  This card is monstrously large!  It fits in a 6 x 9 (or so) envelope!  It is perfect to hold a picture of the pup.
Thanks, Debbie for your contribution to SOAR!  I'm sure your cards will bring lots of smiles to happy dog rescuers!


Sunday, April 7, 2013

Rose Birthday Card - GrandeMark Challenge Entry 1

It's that time of year again: time for the 2013 GrandeMark Challenge.  I entered it last year too.  I think I will do the same: take a week off work in May to crank out some projects before the deadline.

My sister's birthday was this month, so I made her a card.  I have enough of the background paper to make two.


For the one on the right, I used a border punch but on the other I used the Theme Album die from Accucut Craft.  I put my paper over just the section I wanted and it created a fancy bracket-shaped border for me.  I distressed the edges of the background paper (from Die Cuts with a View) and applied Walnut Stain Tim Holtz ink to the edges of them and the edges of my borders.


On both, I used the Flourish die from Accucut Craft to accent the flower. The flower and sentiment are from a Close to My Heart stamp set.  I also added some sprinkles from Annabelle Stamps for a bit of bling.

I coloured the flower with my red Copic marker (lipstick - I only have one red).  Then I used a brown to add the shadow and then ran over it heavily with the red again.  I used Bazzill double think white paper to colour and cut out the roses because I knew I would be soaking it pretty well with the red.  A Sakura stardust gel pen accents the flower centres. (TIP: I used my black Copic marker - but any black marker will do - to line the edge of my cut out rose so that it would not show white.  I think it helps finish the look a little better.)

My aunt isn't well.  She is home from the hospital now, I'm told.  She is all the way out in New Brunswick.  I made her a card today and I used one of my newest Accucut Craft dies.  Once I get it photographed, I'm going to enter it too!