Clean & Simple Card Making: Lessons 1 & 2

Dear Reader,

I am currently enrolled in the Clean & Simple Card Making class at Online Card Classes.  Last night when I should have been going to sleep (in fact I put the dogs to bed and they happily slept without me), I went into the studio to catch up on the videos for the class and try my hand at the lessons.  I was really inspired by Julie Ebersole's (I really loved her video and I hope she does more videos in which she talks as she has such great energy and an infectious laugh) one layer cards so I tried my hand at that first.

This card should have been a breeze and once I figured out exactly what I wanted to do, it was.  With full disclosure, I ended up making it 3 times.  The first time I used too heavy of a hand with the background and hearts.  The second time it turned out well with a simpler background and only one heart, but I didn't like the size of the card.  The last time was the charm.

I wanted to create a Valentine's card with the cute plane from Bon Voyage by Lawn Fawn and have a banner sign being pulled by it with a customized sentiment.  I love all of the abcs by Lawn Fawn as they are designed to make it easy to stamp any word or sentiment you desire.  I wanted to stamp "sending" so I used my Smitty's ABCs and paired that with the sweet "love" from Sophie's Sentiments (suggestion: if you are new to Lawn Fawn start with Sophie's Sentiments along with whatever other stamp sets catch your fancy) and then added a little heart from Cruising Through Life in red for a little interest and drama (in the future I may fill in the heart with stickles or just a marker or emboss it, but I wanted this card to be a simple stamp and ink card).  The banner is a two sided ribbon banner from Bannerific, but I wanted one side to be plain so I simply removed the ink from one edge of the inked up stamp and once stamped filled in the area with a marker as I wanted it and added the attachment to the plane.  I stamped the banner and plane first, then masked them off before stamping the cloud background.  Lastly, I rounded the bottom right corner.

The second card I made uses one of the simple sketches by Kristina Werner.  I needed a masculine birthday card so I grabbed my Oxford 6x6 patterned paper pad by Basic Grey.  Stuck in there was a strip of the claret colored paper I had left over from a previous card so that was my jumping off point.  I began with a white card and stamped the Dash Pattern background stamp by Basic Grey/Hero Arts, but after adding the plaid strip of paper over the claret the white wasn't right so I colored all the white cardstock using my Antique Linen Distress Ink.  As my card is for a relative that has an interest in cars I used the vintage car from the Going stamp set by Hero Arts on a circle cut using a Spellbinders' die and also decided to also use the "to arrow" image in the set for further interest and to begin a sentiment.  I embossed the "to arrow" stamp and filled in the unembossed section with Shabby Shutters Distress Ink with white embossing powder, but since I changed the color scheme away from bright white I colored over the white embossed image with some Copic markers.  Usually I would have used some dimensional adhesive on a card, but I wanted to go away from my usual modus operandi (can you tell I have been reading some mystery novels?) on this card.  I added a "u" sticker from Studio Calico and rounded the bottom corners of the card.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Happy creating,
Shay.

{sending love card}

stamps: (sending)smitty's abcs, (plane&cloud)bon voyage, (heart)cruising through life, (love)sophie's sentiments; banner(bannerific), Lawn Fawn

ink: tuxedo black, Memento; soap powder & cough syrup, Jenni Bowlin for Ranger

cardstock: white, Georgia Pacific

marker: soft black memory marker, American Crafts

other: crop-a-dile corner chomper, We R Memory Keepers

{to u card}

stamps: (to arrow&car)going, Hero Arts; dash pattern, Basic Grey/Hero Arts

ink: tuxedo black, Memento; shabby shutter, antique linen & black soot, Tim Holtz Distress Ink by Ranger; weather vane, Jenni Bowlin for Ranger; versamark, Tsukineko

embossing powder: opaque white, Judi Kins

cardstock: white, Georgia Pacific

patterned paper: oxford 6x6 paper pad, Basic Grey

markers: Copic
die: from nesties classic & standard circles nestabilities set, Spellbinders

stickers: u from documentary collection alphabet stickers, Studio Calico

other: crop-a-dile corner chomper, We R Memory Keepers; cuttlebug, Provo Craft

On the Town

Dear Reader,

I return with a card for Week 3 of the Summer Card Camp 2011 online class.  This one is completely out of character meaning it is clean and simple.  I admire cardmakers like Maile Belles who pull these cards off over and over with panache.  I am not one of them, but a girl can try can't she? 

I had a concept in mind using some lovely Hero Arts stamps I had bought, but sadly not used yet.  I broke them out and liberated them.  Hopefully they will enjoy much more inky happiness in their future.  I thought the lovely ladies from Three Silhouettes along with the Cityscape were perfect for a Girls' Night Out card.  I am not a girls' night out type of person...I am a true homebody, but I like the idea of ladies that party until they drop in killer dresses and more lethal heels.   I am happy the option is out there and some partake. 

Here's the card:

Thank you so much for visiting the Hall!

Hoping some of you have lethal heels,
Shay.

Girls' Night Out Card
Supplies:
Stamps: Three Silhouettes (LP195) and Cityscape (K5325), Hero Arts
Ink: malted milk and brown sugar, Jenni Bowlin for Ranger
Cardstock: earthstone, Neenah Papers; white, Georgia-Pacific
Pen: memory marker in chestnut, American Crafts
Other: red emboidery floss, DMC and Crop A Dile Corner Chomper, We R Memory Keepers

Absolutely Fabulous Spray Paint

I am presently taking a class with the super talented Debee Campos.  If you have ever happened upon her blog you will see some fantastic eye-candy.  We are working on mini-albums, but since I had an ATC trade coming up with the theme of Altered Playing Cards I thought I would use the first day's art lesson to create my cards.  I had an incredible amount of fun playing with spray paint and I think black and white shall soon be joined by chartreuse, aqua, yellow, orange, grey and purple (some of the colors for Halloween). 

I really love how they turned out--both grungy and clean which is something I have never really accomplished before. 

Here are my ATC's (and please forgive the quality of the photos):

Absolutely Fabulous ATC's
{Supplies}
Stamps: Absolutely Fabulous, Papertrey Ink; Label, Kenner Road
Mist/Spray: Sweet Pea, Glimmer Mist
Die Cut: Bird, Tim Holtz by Sizzix
Punch: Starburst, Martha Stewart Crafts
Watercolors: Crayola
Other: Matte Black & Glossy White Spray Paint; Dimensional Foam Adhesives, American Crafts