Bah Humbug Embossed Card

I wanted to pop in for a moment and tell you I'm not MIA.  I've been working on a shape book and it has become all consuming, then I have two more BIG projects to get done before I hope life might be back to normal.  I'm working on a banner for the Farmer's Markets and I want to send one of my brothers a banner for St. Patrick's Day.  Hopefully I'll be able to post each of those very soon.

However, I couldn't let two weeks in a row go by and not join in the fun at Hum Bug Hall.  Ladies, I loved this one.  It was so much nicer than flying things.  Those flying things just kept flying out the window (or maybe Dr. Who put them in the Tardis and whisked them away).  Where ever they went, they can just stay there for the time being.

Back to the embossed card.

In my overachieving way, I decided not only to dry emboss the card but also to heat emboss.  The wreath is a  Cuttlebug folder.  I can't remember the name of it right now but if you really want to know, I can try to find it.  (One of my other upcoming projects is organizing all of my embossing folders).  I then used Perfect Medium pen from Ranger to put glue on the petals of two Poinsettias.  I went a little crazy with the gradiant gems from Creative Charms.

I took a recent recommendation to heart.  I made certain I added a sentiment now so I wouldn't need to do it when I was scrambling to get my cards out.

Here is the inside.

A touch more embossing just to stay with the challenge.

I hope you like my offering for this week.  I'm going back to my current responsibilities but I hope to have a couple more projects this week.

Pop-Up Cards at The Cuttlebug Spot

I'm enjoying trying a number of new types of cards.  If you are ever looking for designs and tutorials, Splitcoast Stampers is the place to go. Oh my goodness, some of the things they have designed.  They are incredible and the tutorials are FANTASTIC. 

This week Cuttlebug Spot is continuing the different card folds challenges.  The challenge was a pop-up card.  Well, that sounds specific but let me tell you, there are lots of types of pop-up cards.  There is the traditional type where you open it up and something stands up, there is the type that you pull something and the card either turns into an easel card or the tag comes out and reveals another design, oh why am I telling you about all the different types.  If you don't know what they are go to this post at the Cuttlebug Spot and look at what the design team cooked up. 

I made the card inspired by Agnes.  The directions come from Splitcoast Stamper and can be found here (printed and video what could be better)?

Here is the card opened up.  It stands by itself.

Doesn't that make a fun thank you card?  Now, if you look at the papers, you might be wondering what has gotten into me.  That is a lot of pink and look, I put flowers on it also.  I stamped lovely images from Tim Holtz on the tag.  Well, here is the deal with the paper and ribbon.  A couple of months ago (maybe 6 now but who is counting?) I bought a box of stuff from Stampin' Up.  I liked the concept of inks and ribbons and paper all coordinating.  This would make it a little quicker when I wanted to make something.  Well, I bought a bunch of stuff and much of it was on sale.  I don't know what I was thinking because I ended up buying bright pink (they call it Rose) paper and ribbon.  It coordinates in a lovely way but reality, this just isn't my color.  So, I tried to force myself outside of my box and not only do a unique card fold but also use papers I wouldn't normally use. 

This shows you the dry embossing on the pattern paper.  That paper came from My Mind's Eye.  It is called Celebration Tracker.  It has a wonderful rose color so in person, it actually matches.  I'm not certain the colors look so good in the pictures.  The flowers were in my stash. 

I'm loving this card style.  What do you think?

Robot Card

I don't have a lot of pictures with this card but I think it is very fun.

Isn't it a blast?  I feel like all of the pieces came together just right.  The robot is from the Robotz cart cut at 4 1/2 inches.  The entire card is 5 x 7.   I used red, black, gray and white cardstock from my stash and a red glitter ribbon that I picked up somewhere along the way.  The design paper on her dress and the bottom of her head is from DCWV Amber Autmn stack.  The heart brad came from Michael's after Valentine's Day sale.  The card topper is a piece of aluminum foil over a piece of cardstock and run through my cuttlebug.  The diamond plate folder is an A2 so I had to run it through twice, thus the ribbon.

The sentiment is computer generated.  It says, "I am a LOVE Machine".  I cut the sentiment out with the scalloped heart Nestability then ran it through the cuttlebug again to emboss the edge.

I have no idea when I will ever use this card (I'm thinking this one will need to go up for sale or given away).

I am very pleased with this card.  It came about because of the Paper Playtime Challenge, Technology.  I was thinking about coloring a cool digi from Tiddly Inks but in the end I decided I wanted to play with my E. 

What do you think?

So, the other thing I've been working on is a light box.  I'm not getting the pictures I want and I'm hoping a light box might solve most of the issues.  The picture at the top is with the light box.  This one is taken outside in the middle of the day.

It is always tough to photograph foil but I wanted it to look as good as possible.  What do you think about these two pictures?  Light box or No?

Bugaboo Digi ATC

Have I mentioned how much I hate the color pink?  Well, these are pink, that is for certain.

I'm not certain I'm made for ATC's.  For one thing they really are very small.  It took everything I had to be able to stay inside the lines on my coloring.  I also hated cutting off this little Skelekinz' boots but I think it looks better on the ATC that way than this...

The one in the middle has all of the boots where as the ones on either side have the boots cut off.  If you want to purchase this little cutie, you can find her here.  I used some BRIGHT pink paper from my stash for the base of the ATC.  I cut the stamp out using a Large Deckled Rectangles from Spellbinders.  I thought it had the right feel for the Skelekinz.  I used gradient pink gems from Creative Charms on the bottom of each ATC.  They range from clear to three shades of pink. 

Here is a close-up of the ATC.  In this picture you can see the embossing I did with my new cuttlebug folder, Love is In The Air.  I bought it at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon.  I love the fact it has 3 embossing folders 5 x 7. 

Here are two of them a little closer.  The one on the right has no embossing.  The one on the left is embossed but the boots are cut off.

Bugaboo Dottie Digi Stamp

I have another card I made with my first attempts at coloring and Digi Stamps.

This stamp is from an incredible store called Bugaboo Stamps.  I love her characters, especially some of the little boys.  She has some REALCharacters.  I love her older characters named Stella, Gus and Mildred.  I've already decided I need to buy one of the Mildred stamps to make a card for my Grandma. 

Dottie (the image in my card) was a freebie.  Isn't that nice of Bugaboo Stamps?  She does regular freebies so I recommend signing up for her emails. 

I think I did a decent job coloring Dottie given that I only have 20 pens and none of them are great for skin tones or hair.  The browns just weren't the right color.  I have one red and a slate blue.  Actually, the one color I could really work with was blue.  I'm not certain I would have made her dress blue or used that color for her boots but necessity dictated on this card.

I used a clear stamp from Inkadinkado for the sentiment.  It was a stamp I bought from Micheal's when they were on sale. 

The embossing folder is Birthday Greetings from Cuttlebug and the cardstock is Core'dinations.  I love the way the Core'dinations looks when it has been embossed. 

Thank you for checking out my card today.  I'm hoping to do a couple more challenges this week, although work and snow is really getting in the way.

First Digi Stamps

I tried so many new things today, I'm not sure I'll be able to remember it all.  First, I tried coloring stamps for the first time.  OK, that isn't technically correct.  I have been messing around with this technique for a couple of weeks but this is the first time I felt like I could use what I did.  It was the first time I ever used a digi stamp. 

This stamp is a freebie from Little Scraps of Heaven.  She has a lot of great stuff.  I must admit, part of the reason I used this image is because I have a VERY limited number of alcohol pens.  I bought a few from an art store (Dick Blick).  It is their brand and is close to ProMarkers or Copics (although the nibs are different from the Copics - from what I can tell).  So, I only have a few so it truly limited what I could color.

I embossed the card topper with one of the 5 x 7 embossing folders in the Preserves Cuttlebug Companion set.  Who would have thought it would work for a card like this but I liked the way it turned out.  I also used some Nestabilities for the first time.  I only have one set (Labels 8) and I bought them at least 6 months ago and never figured out how to use them in my Cuttlebug.  They worked like a charm. 

Here is a closer view of the embossing and the coloring.  The sentiment is computer generated and seemed to work with the little boy.  I picture him getting ready to put out the fire on a cake.

This is the other card I did with the same image.

I used another Cuttlebug folder on this one.  I can't remember the name but it is like Swiss Dots except it is little hearts. If anyone knows the name, please let me know so I can mark it.  I cut the oval and the funky shape for the sentiment with my E.  The oval is from George cart and the shape is from Locker Talk.  I liked that the digi isn't completely on the oval but moves onto the card.