NBUS Challenge #9: Hidden word technique

The wonderful Darnell of DJKardKreations.com is running another fun NBUS challenge this week.

Darnell has challenged all of us to try out the "hidden word" technique. This is actually an NBUS technique for me, as I've never used it before. I also used an NBUS bunny die and cracked open an NBUS paper pad, to boot!

My NBUS bunny die is by Darice. If you look closely, you can see that I shaded the white fir with a very light coat of gray chalk. I also shaded the inside of one of the ears with some pale pink chalk and used a gray metallic marker to add the nose and eye.

These Darice dies are the kind that you cut and then run through your machine again with a rubber pad to emboss. I love the little extra dimension the embossing gives to them.

After tying some pink and white baker's twine around his neck, I popped him up on some foam tape.

I used a little piece of patterned ribbon from my stash to ground my bunny.

My "Happy Easter" was cut with a Cheery Lynn die. I cut it out of my front mat and inked the edges of the die-cut a bit. Then I cut half a dozen more from white cardstock and glued them together to make a dimensional sentiment.

But before I did all that, I just held the die-cut in place while I glued all the little inner bits on, like the spaces between letters, the "D" shape cut from the P's, the triangle shape cut from the "A," etc. This was a bit fussy, but really didn't take too long. After that was done, I glued all my die-cuts in a stack, with the patterned one on top. It was easy to glue this right back in the exact space it needed to be on my card front.

I'm not so sure about my decision to ink the edges. It does look better IRL, but I think next time I may try it without inking any of it.

One more look at my card, and now you should run to your craft room and whip up a card for the challenge. It's so much fun!

Today is my birthday, and as a birthday gift, our furnace decided to die. The heating company was here today and said we need to have a new one...and they can't put it in until Monday. Now that isn't a problem if it's 70 degrees outside, but that isn't how the weather works in January in Minnesota. At least we're having a bit of a mild stretch (30 degrees Fahrenheit for a high), so it could be worse.

As I type this, I have a fire going in the fireplace and two space heaters running nonstop. I also turned on the oven, and I just go and prop it open every now and then for a few minutes. My hands have finally warmed up enough so that I don't have to keep putting them under the blanket on my lap to thaw them out!

I hope you are having a great day and your furnace is working perfectly. Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Layered stamping...

I recently purchased the Hampton Art Perfect Stamp Positioning Tool. I LOVE it. It has completely done away with my stamping challenges of getting a crisp, clear image in the right place at the right angle.

The little magnets are so helpful in keeping my cardstock in place while I stamp.

I purchased this tool on www.Blitsy.com when they had a "free shipping" special, so it was very affordable.

At the same time that I bought the Perfect Stamper, I also bought a Hampton Art layering stamp set called "Flower Happy."

Here's a card I made with those stamps.

I stamped my flower layers, then added my Penny Black sentiment and a little punched (Fiskars) butterfly. The black lace is actually from a roll of sticker lace that my daughter gave to me for Christmas. Isn't it pretty? The ends didn't look finished where I had to cut them off, so I added a black enamel dot at each corner.

Here's a little closer look at those layers. The Perfect Stamper makes it so easy to get the layers perfectly lined up. And if I don't like how dark it stamped, I can just do it again.

On the inside of my card, I added another peach and white striped mat and a stamped birthday sentiment by Woodware.

I think it would be a good idea to stamp several panels with different colored flowers and cut some coordinating mats to have on hand for a quick card. I think this would work for almost any occasion.

There is another flower stamp in the set that I also have to try soon.

Our January thaw is continuing and our snow cover is disappearing fast. I'm really not sad to see it go, but the standing water that refreezes overnight is no fun!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Joining in the NBUS challenge - use colored pencils on kraft...

Over on DJKardKreations.com, Darnell is once again hosting her fun and inspiring NBUS (NeverBeforeUsedSchtuff!) challenge. This time around, she has asked us to use colored pencils on kraft.

Well, I love the look of pencils on kraft, and I LOVE the idea of being challenged to use items or techniques that are just sitting there, begging to be noticed and put to work.

Here's the card I put together for this challenge. I decided to make a Valentine for the hubs, because, well, why not?

I had this really old Penny Black stamp that I had bought used, but never used (if that makes any sense).  I stamped it with some Versafine ink and then grabbed my watercolor pencils. I squirted just a little water onto an acrylic block to have at the ready. After coloring in my image, I used a fine paint brush, dipped it into the water on my block and then spread some of the color around from my pencils. It was actually super quick and easy, and I like the look of it.

Here's a closer look at my chubby cat in his fuzzy sweater.
The "X" border at the top of my card is also NBUS. I was given a pack of fun borders but hadn't yet used a single one. This seemed like the perfect chance to put this one to good use. After all, X's are kisses, right?

The heart-shaped speech bubble was a pale pink heart left over from cutting out another Valentine on my Silhouette, which I'll share later. I couldn't bear to throw it away, knowing it would probably come in handy eventually.

On the inside of my card, I added a computer-generated sentiment, a few X's cut from the left-over border and a tiny punched heart.

I love the word "smooch." Sometimes I ask my husband to "give me a smooch," so this will seem completely normal coming from me. :)

That's it for me today. Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Hard to photograph, fun to make...

I made these two simple cards for my daughter's card stash (actually, I made three), and I know they look pretty nondescript on the outside. But wait until you see the inside!

For this male-oriented one, I stamped a tone-on-tone background with a "Celebrate!" stamp on the yellow mat. Then I heat-embossed a circular birthday greeting and layered it on several colors of cardstock.

These cards measure about 4 1/4" X 4 1/4". For this one, I just used a scrap of DSP for my mat and the same layered birthday greeting. Each circular greeting also has a brad in the center. I hardly use brads anymore with all the enamel dots available, but this was a great chance to use a couple. Each of the circles are popped up with foam tape.

As you begin to open the blue card, this is what it looks like inside. I have made an "Explosion Card Insert" (you can easily find a tutorial online- I looked at several). I used some one-sided DSP for my insert and stamped my greeting and assorted images on the white side of the paper.

Fully open, it looks like this. The stamped images come from several birthday stamp sets and the dots were made with a metallic marker.

Here's a look at the pink card from the side as it begins to open. I used the same DSP for the insert as was used for the mat on the front of the card.

This one is more girly with a flower image included in the mix of stamps.

I did make my folds before I did my stamping, just so that I could see approximately where I wanted my sentiment to go. These were incredibly fun to make, and I plan to make some Valentines using this idea, too. The cards actually lay pretty flat when closed. Of course, it depends on the weight of the paper you use inside. I didn't leave any specific area to sign a name, but I figured it could be signed right below the sentiment over top of the dots and other images.

The pictures truly don't do these cards justice. I think it's so much fun to open the card and have the insert "explode" from inside the card. I'm even going to make some of these for the adults in my life. I think they'd get a kick out of them.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

A simple pirate birthday card...

I have some very old pirate-themed dies, and thought I would use them to make a birthday card for my daughter's stash. They are just one layer dies, but by cutting them out from different colors of cardstock, cutting them apart and layering them, they look a little more 3-D. The letters for the word "Ahoy" were some puffy stickers from my stash.

Here's a little closer look. The dotted lines at the bottom were made with a dotted line die, but I'm not sure of the brand. I'm also too tired to go and look.

On the inside I added the pirate boat die-cut and a computer-generated sentiment. I'm hoping this card works for some little boy's birthday.

It's COLD here in Minneapolis. I envy those animals who get to hibernate through a Minnesota winter. Kind of wish I could join them when that wind chill dips below -20F.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Let's Craft and Create Challenge #121: Things with Wings...

The time has come for another fun challenge over on Let's Craft and Create. This month, we'd love to see your creations that include "Things with Wings."

I was excited about this challenge--so excited that I decided to make two cards!

My first card was made with some beautiful cardstock for the background I split my mat into two pieces at a diagonal and joined them together with a piece of white cardstock on which I had put some Heidi Swapp Washi tape that had the word "hello" repeated on it in gold lettering.

Next I grabbed my set of nine Ellentina butterfly dies and cut five of them from some subtly striped gold metallic cardstock. If you look closely, you'll see that each one is unique. This set of butterfly dies is my absolute favorite. They're intricate, beautiful and just the right size for cardmaking.

I also ran a narrow strip of the gold cardstock down the right and left sides of my mat.

If you've read my blog before, you probably know that I like to dress up the insides of my cards, too--even when it's essentially just a notecard, like this one. Here, I've added two more narrow strips of the same gold cardstock I used on the front and added one small (Fiskars punch) gold butterfly.

My second card incorporates a little humor with Tim Holtz's Crazy Birds stamps and dies. I bought a set of three of the bird stamps that came with the dies, a few sentiments and an embossing folder. I used the embossing folder to make the background panel for my birds. I inked up one side of the EF before sending it through my Cuttlebug, so as to get this letterpress look. I also backed it with a black mat.

I colored my birds with ProMarkers and popped them up on foam tape. I added some Glossy Accents to their eyes for a little added dimension.

Since I used my ProMarkers on this card, I'm entering it into the latest challenge (#376: Anything Goes) over on the "Passion for ProMarkers" blog.

On the inside of my card, I used a black mat, a computer-generated sentiment and a black and white stamped image of one of the Crazy Birds peeking up from a lower corner. Isn't this card fun?

Now it's your turn--think about what you'd like to create that includes wings of some sort, however you would like to interpret that. The Design Team members have some wonderful inspiration for you over on Let's Craft and Create. Please take a few minutes and check it out!

We all look forward to your entries, and we'll do our best to visit your blogs or Facebook sites and leave a comment or two.

Thank you so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

A little more practice with ProMarkers...

I made this card for my daughter's stash. She has three beautiful children who like to include a birthday card with their gift whenever they're invited to a birthday party. Every once in a while I make a few cards for her to have on hand.

This image is from Saturated Canary. I don't believe that the creator of these digital images is selling them anymore, so I'm glad I got a couple of them when I did (which was long, long ago).

I am entering this card into the I Love Promarkers challenge #325: Anything Goes.

This is a very simple card, other than the coloring, but I think some young girl will really like the image. At least I hope so!

I have been working on a few more cards, one of them for my granddaughter who is turning 9 this month. I'll share those with you soon.

My brother-in-law will leave tomorrow and my husband will go back to the office, so I should be back to a normal schedule, whatever that is! I will like having my house to myself again - so I can get back into my craft room and spend a few hours each day. I've got some vinyl projects I want to try and some sewing I have to do for our new RV.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl