Gallery Idol, round 3.

I am so thrilled to be able to compete again - and this week's theme was right up my alley.  As soon as I read the masculine/feminine card set theme, my mommy-mind wandered towards creating a baby boy and a baby girl card set.

In my mind, what I've created are 2 nursery walls - one for a boy's room, and the other fit for a new little princess.  I love a baby room painted in soft stripes (where else in your home could you get away with that bubble-gum pink?!) and little lacquered white frames with alphabet art inside.  

When I say lacquered, I mean that I added some glossy accents to the scallop portion of the frames - in real life, it's such a pretty detail.  You may be able to pick up some of that detail in the close-up shot below:

I hope you can also see that I only swiped a bit of blue or pink onto the images, but left them mostly white, and colored around them with a light grey copic marker (T1.)  It gave them the vintage meets pop art feel that I was after.  Oh, and the sentiment?  It's an Elena-original :)  Sooooo, if any stamp makers need help with theirs... hahaha.  

In case it's not super obvious, let me list the products that match up on both cards:

1) the little Denami scallop frame (stamped and hand cut many, many times this past weekend)

2) the PTI stripes, for the backgrounds

3) the lawn fawn alphabet letters, above each frame

4) the grey polka-dotted diy faux washi tape (made using this tutorial)

The only things that differ between the cards are the images inside the frames, and the color schemes.  

And, because I do so much masking on this blog, I thought it was high time for a little step-by-step:

First, I stamped the scallop frame onto white cardstock.  (Hilarious, that you can see my notes and stamped images on the scrap paper underneath.)

Next, create your mask (sorry, this one is used, but you get the idea, right?)  I use Eclipsys masking paper - it's like a post-it note, but with removable sticky everywhere.  I stamped the scallop frame again onto the masking paper and then used scissors to cut out the circle in the middle.  After that, I aligned the mask with the original stamped image.

Then, I inked up one of the images - a crab (from lawn fawn's "critters of the sea.")  When I removed my stamp, I had to laugh for a moment at the funny crab-lady I'd just created for myself (note to self: make a new mask for tutorial purposes next time!)

And, when I finally peeled back the masking paper - voila!  A crab image, perfectly contained within the circle part of the frame.  Now, repeat with all the rest of the images :)

I had such a fun time creating this card set!  And now, to find a mom pregnant with a set of boy/girl twins, and be invited to that baby shower *wink*

here* to access the top 15 gallery, or click on the picture of my card set on the right sidebar (it will be up all week for your voting convenience.)  I would love to continue on for another round!

Supplies
Stamps: Denami: scallop frame, PTI: distressed stripes, tiny treats: birthday, SU: greeting card kids, under the big top, every little bit, lawn fawn: critters of the sea, smitty's abcs, silly valentine, blissful botanicals, american crafts amy tangerine: lovestruck
Ink: SU: basic grey, pink pirouette, going grey, PTI: aqua mist, Memento black
Paper: PTI white cardstock
Misc: white tissue paper, glossy accents, computer fonts: Ld glorious and scrap casual (both from dafont.com)

she wore an itsy bitsy, teeny weeny...

...yellow polka-dot bikni!

My mom is bravely jumping back onto the weight-watchers bandwagon, and while (right now) I'm lacking the motivation I need to join her, I wanted to encourage her with a fun card.  Isn't so hard to START the process of eating better and exercising when you haven't been doing it for a long time?  sigh.

And can we talk about the staging of this card for a second?  I was cracking myself up, with the blue martini glass, and the jar full of sea-shells... oh, the things I have lying around my house :)

I hope she'll get a kick out of the little yellow-polka-dotted Denami bikini - it was just the right size for this card.

I added my favorite accent of the moment, the Wplus9 sunburst, in back of the bikini (with some masking, of course, to avoid the bikini itself), and the sentiment was computer generated before I stamped the frame around it.

The card base was stamped with the "classified" section of the PTI newsprint background, and the tiny stars are leftovers from the star border die (mft.)

For a last, fun touch, I glazed the bikini with a layer of glossy accents.

Have a great day, all!

One stamp, two ways.

 How to stretch your stamp dollar, 101.  

I used this little Denami stamp:

2 ways.  First, as pretty florals:

I stamped them onto patterned paper (dear lizzy "neapolitan") and cut them out.  I heat-embossed the sentiment (also Denami) and added some leaves (mft).  The simple touch of curling the flower petals with my fingers added some pretty dimension (and helped them to look like more of a flower and less of a frame.)

Then, second, I used it as a frame (with the adorable little bunnies from their bunnies border stamp inside):

The sentiment is Lawn Fawn, and the patterned paper is by Studio Calico.  The fluff on their tails is hand-glued by me :)

Thanks for peeking!

simple circle background.

Hi peeps!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend :)  Mine was spent enjoying a bbq for my mom on Saturday, and then waking up to a yummy crepe breakfast on Sunday morning, along with the cutest handmade cards from the kids.  It was great.  But I also can't stop coughing....blech.

I recently got my first-ever stamps from Denami (you might see more red rubber on the blog this week!), and I was excited to create something with the little speech bubble stamp.  I stamped a sentiment from Lawn Fawn's "on the mend" inside (selectivitely inking it so that it fit on 2 lines instead of 1.)

And see the background of my card?  I took this double circle stamp:

and stamped it repeatedly to make this geometric background:

Do you love it?  

I adore how it turned out.  

Thanks for peeking!