Do you realize, as of today there are exactly two months left till Christmas?! Are you ready?
I signed up for a shaker card exchange on SplitCoastStampers, and I've been working on some ideas. After a couple of epic fails (like glueing the darned thing closed *before* putting in the shaker bits!!) I finally completed a working prototype. Not sure if I want to make 5 more of these, but I do like the end result. And as it happens, this week is The Cats Pajamas Anything Goes challenge. Since this is from TCP set 'Reindeer Kisses' how perfect did that work out, huh? I haven't played in a TCP challenge for ages, so I think I deserve that part lining up for me... since I spent the weekend working on my failed cards. ;) They were both completely different ideas so maybe this one is meant to be!
I could point out all the glitches, but I won't! It's not like anybody reads my blog to learn stuff so I'm sure I can just keep those things to myself, hehe. I colored in the penguin and reindeer with Copics, and used Tumbled Glass distress ink for the 'sky'. I tried a new-to-me trick for the glitter. I used my clear double sided tape (the tape with the red liner that sticks to your fingers like crazy when you peel it off! lol) and covered it with glitter. Sure enough, once you've shaked and rubbed off the excess glitter, it still looks shiny and glittery but nothing comes off. I love that tape, it's pretty much my favorite adhesive. I just bought two 50 meter rolls for super cheap, I think I'm set for a while now. :)
One of my biggest pet peeves is the photography part. I suck at it. My hands are really shaky so I have a teeny tiny tripod that I use, but it's not very stable so I still need to steady it with my hands. And my camera isn't that great. Honestly, some days I get better pictures with my iPhone! So I'm bummed that you can't see that the sentiment is heat embossed. I used Crimson Red Versafine ink and Judikins clear detail embossing powder. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get the light to catch the gleam of the embossing so it just looks flat in the picture.
Both the big and little circles were done with the Simon Says Stamp stitched circles. The stitching really takes it up a notch without any extra effort. Really glad I finally bought that set! I just need me some squares... and some rectangles... and, and, and... :D
I hope you're all having fun working on your Christmas cards. I'm not going to start mass producing till my MISTI arrives this week. Super squeeee!
Alright, I'm done for today.
Wow, it's been 12 days since I last posted. Last week I was working on a mixed media project and intended to blog about that, but I haven't finished the assembly so perhaps next week.
If you haven't noticed yet, I adore The Cat's Pajamas. Their TCP Tuesday challenge was the first challenge I ever participated in; I had a blast and realized I needed to do more of this card making stuff. So I try to make a point of joining in each challenge, which fortunately is only every two weeks. :)
This time it was a sketch challenge:
I really love sketch challenges because I'm still quite new at this whole cardmaking thing, and it gives me a really good jumping off point.
For some reason, I've been wanting to make a card with a kite. And in my mind, kites are bright bold colors. I kept trying to use patterned designer paper, but I don't have much in bright and bold. Fortunately I had a pack of primary colors cardstock to work with.
You know, I didn't even realize till just this moment that I used the same yellow background color as the sketch. Too funny, that was so not deliberate!
I used a Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder from the 'Dainty' set. The kite is a retired Sizzix die that was in the package Krista sent to me. It was one die, so I ran it through with red, yellow, and blue cardstock, and then cut out and layered the yellow and blue bows over the red ones.
The buttons were from The Cat's Pajamas Buttons CutUps die. This was my first time using this die and it worked great! Then I dabbed the buttons and the kite with Versamark ink and used Judikins clear embossing powder to heat emboss everything. Then I layered some of the buttons over different colored non-embossed buttons to show a little pop of color in the buttonholes, without the gloss.
Last but not least, I used the 'Life is Good' sentiment from The Cat's Pajamas 'Spring Fling' set. I really waffled back and forth over the sentiment. I originally planned on using the 'Happy Spring' stamp from the same set, but I really liked the font of 'Life is Good'. Realistically, 'Life is Good' is more versatile. :)
And there you have it. My contribution to TCPTues282. I really like how this card turned out, and I'm actually thinking of replicating it for a card swap I'm in. What do you think... if you were one of the swappers, would you want to receive this card? What kind of sentiment would you prefer? I might put the sentiment on a little banner and send a bunch of them so they can use the one they like. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your comments. :)
