Birthday Train!

It's my nephew's birthday today. I was struggling with something to do for his card, but then I found the CASology challenge: MOVE. I decided it was time I dug out the train stamp I bought years ago and never used!

I paired it with a couple of teeny party bears I have from Dreamerland crafts. They fit perfectly in the little train cars!

I used a lot of different supplies on this one! 3 stamp sets: the train (Hot Off the Press), the bears (Dreamerland Crafts), and the sentiment (Your Next stamp). I used my Misti to line them up. I used scrap papers on the background, layered on scrap and then cut them with my new stitched rectangle die (Your Next Stamp). Plus, I coloured it with 3 different alcohol marker brands too: Copics, Bic, and ProMarkers.

Hooray for challenges to start your mojo!

Baby Scrapbook Mini Album from Envelopes

I have a new video to share today! I started this album a year ago. I finished it a couple months ago, but I'm just getting around to filming now because I finally have the two things I need: quiet and sunlight! (Sunlight being the harder thing to come by! Thank heavens for a beautiful day.)

I made this mini album from A6 envelopes cut from heavy gold foil paper with my Accucut Craft die. I put a skinny 1/8th of an inch gutter between each page so they are not totally squished against each other.

I used a neutral colour scheme of browns to go with the gold and accented with some blue-greens. This is a (very late) gift for a co-worker with two little boys. True to my style and since I expect the photos will take up most of the room, it is only lightly embellished. I designed a onsie die cut specifically for this album. I wanted it to be a journalling spot and the die cuts I have are too small.

This is my Ribbon-Bound Triple Envelope Scrapbook Album. I taught a class to my creative crew for it and I've shown other albums I've made in this style. It doesn't matter what size envelope or whether you have triangle or rectangle flaps. It works with all styles.

I put a large tag in each envelope too. That's where you can put some photos in landscape orientation. (One page is not embellished as well as the front and back covers, so a landscape picture could go there too.)

I also put one of my die cut dinosaurs in here, which I had designed for another project.

Want to see the whole thing? Watch my baby mini album walk-through video on my Vimeo channel.

CTMH Balloon Rabbit Shaker Card

When I saw the February stamp of the month from Close To My Heart, I knew I wanted it. It's perfect for birthdays and babies and any sort of wild thing saying!

My sister was born in the year of the Rabbit. So, I made her a balloon rabbit birthday shaker card. I originally wanted to use a soft purple, but I made the rabbit pink.

I got a MISTI for my birthday, so I used it to stamp this rabbit. I have trouble getting perfect coverage  on the first try with solid stamps. Furthermore, I used Spun Sugar distress ink. Distress inks are not designed for solid, perfect coverage. So, I actually stamped it three times with my MISTI to get this nice, even solid image.

I cut the bunny out by hand and used my grass die to line the bottom of the partially cut circle. I used sequins, beads and a little heart confetti inside my shaker. I got the beads at the dollar store!

I think my sister liked it. I know I liked shaking it around. The sound adds an extra dimension to the card! The paper was a nice foiled paper from SEI that I've had for years. I've been saving bits of it because I liked it so much. I think it went perfectly with the balloon animal party theme.

We just got back from ScrapFest Kitchener. I picked up some more nesting dies that will work well for shaker cards. I got lots of other goodies to play around with too. I did more make'n'takes this time, which added to our time spent at Scrapfest compared to other years. The bonus of a make'n'take is the chance to sit here and there! You have to scope them out early though, or else you end up standing in a long line before you get a small sitting break.

Can't wait to play!

Love You with Red Roses Tri-Shutter Card

Here's another of the Tri-Shutter cards we made in class. This one I had the creative crew do from scratch (i.e. no die cut!). It's always hard to use the Xacto knife well (especially on black), but so worth the effort!

For this one, I used the clay-coated glossy paper I got at Scrapfest from Local King Rubber Stamps (out of B.C.) This paper stamps SO well. We used watercolour markers with a direct-to-stamp application. We huffed before stamping (instead of spritzing the stamp). It seems to lock the ink under the gloss and the sentiment comes out amazingly crisp! Everyone was impressed!

The trick is to colour the whole stamp with a lighter colour and then add some spots of a darker colour directly over top of your lighter colour already laid down on the stamp. I used red as my lighter colour and then brown as my darker shade. Each person in my class tried different colours: light pink and darker purple, purple and dark blue; pale pink and purple.

I made a mask for the rose stamp out of acetate. I used stazon ink on it and a repositionable glue dot on the back. I really like that kind of mask because it is easy to clean of and lasts longer than a post-it note mask.

You can really see the gloss in the second picture. The sentiment is a mash-up of two sentiments by Avery Elle. "Love" was its own stamp. "You" came from a "For You" sentiment. We taped over the "For", inked it, removed the tape and then stamped the "You". Positioning on an oval was a little bit tricky. For my birthday, I asked for a MISTI! That would have made stamping the sentiment easy peasy! I'm always afraid to stamp the sentiment last and risk ruining the whole piece. With the MISTI, I'll be able to see how it's going to turn out before putting the ink on! Can't wait to find the time to try it out!

I figured this card would work for a mother's day card or siblings/besties just as well as it would for couples!