The Paper Artist/Creative Card Design

  To the Mr. & Mrs... When you need to create a wedding card and have very little supplies pertaining to a wedding. It has become apparent that I haven't been making very many cards  themed around weddings or bridal showers?!  So much so, that I don't even know what's in for wedding colors or themes at the moment, or any other moment really.  It seems I have been making birthday, sympathy, thinking of you and any other occasion of cards other than weddings.  There's no particular reason other than I just didn't need to create one I guess. How about you? Have you been creating cards full of wedding wishes? Fill me in if you have, since I am definitely out of the loop on that topic. So, as the sub heading on this post states - I needed a card for a wedding this  weekend and I discovered that I have virtually nothing pertaining to wedding.  I dug through my  stash of stamps and dies and found an old Last A Lifetime  stamp set from a few...

  Looks like your average Halloween card? It's not... It's a Halloween Slider Card!! However, if you don't want to create a slider card - then the design on the card  front will do just fine for a basic Halloween card.  So I have made a ton of slider cards using the traditional method of measuring out cardstock pieces, cutting, scoring and fiddling to be sure everything fits just right - and then I decided to bite the bullet, make life easy on myself and I purchased a die set that would do all of this for me!! Yes, that's right, I got lazy.  I'm not sure if it's lazy or just whatever makes it easier for us in the craft room?!  The purchase of the Double Slider Surprise Die from Lawn Fawn seemed like it  was going to cut down on the time used to measure and cut all of the sections  and leave me with more time to have fun with ink blending and tiny die cut  pieces  to decorate the card.  Some days I just want more creative time to for the...

  A "Spook"tacular Halloween Card!! And here's how I made it... This card is the first or maybe 2nd card in the prelude up to Halloween Eve! I don't have a ton of Halloween supplies so you may see the same stamp sets or dies used repetitively on those cards, however they will still be worth a look!  This card has been so incredibly popular. I made it just fooling around with some new products that I had purchased and it was never meant to really be anything other than a test card. However it was rather striking so I ended up sharing it and the response has been super crazy. That being said I'm going to assume that this would be a great card to give to someone with some Halloween wishes since it's been so popular.  No, here's how I made it... ↓ ↘ ↙ ↓ The card started with the Spellbinders - Boo Dance Party Dies that I had picked up online at a pretty good price.  These dies are amazing! They cut so well and the set is just incredibly cute for Halloween car...

  How adorable is this little sleeping mouse image? This right here is exactly how I like my mice - in a cutesy image! I'm not one to enjoy a little mouse running about my house and I'm probably not alone there. I know that my daughter didn't much enjoy the company of a mouse one night here in her bedroom. My daughter is in her early 20's has the most adorable little boy who both live with us while she finishes her studies in nursing. They have a bedroom in the basement in our home and well... our home has been under renovation for the last 5 years while life goes on everyday. Older kids have moved in and out and the spaces of our home get worked on in order to accommodate the needs of whom ever is living in the home at the time. Needless to say the basement has been undergoing some renovations.  My daughter went downstairs to put her little boy to bed one night, when suddenly she came flying back up in a hurry full of screeches and squeals in a fashion as though someth...

  In these challenging times, it's easy to get caught up in fear and uncertainty. However, it's important to remember that we are all connected. This card reminds us to focus on the fact that every person on this planet, regardless of where they live, what their nationality is, or what their ideology may be ...we all look at the same moon. This card reminds us to embrace our differences - we are all unique and beautiful individuals living under the very same moon... The quote on the card front reads "no matter what our differences are, we all look the same moon" - Katrina Mayer, and the stamp set is yet another beautiful illustration by Anita Jeram from the Colorado Craft Company called A Fox's Life. This card was created by first stamping the desired image on the left side of my white cardstock piece. I then stamped the same image onto a piece of masking paper, I cut the image out and placed the mask over my stamped image on the cardstock layer. I also used the m...

Sketching in a very loose background ~ "It's not how much you give but how much love you put into giving"  - Mother Teresa These furry little friends would walk uphill both ways in a snow storm to get their little gifts of Christmas delivered to each other.  The background here was simply drawn in with very little to no artistic skills, probably more on the later.  I used a very light grey copic marker to draw in the illusion of hills and then just blended that color out a bit with an even lighter grey.  I wanted the scene to appear that the characters were in fact very far away from each other travelling with their gifts in hand to deliver to each other. So ideally each in their own scene so to speak. Sort of like, if you looked in a crystal ball and could see all 3 friends on their journey to each other at the same time.  I'm not quite sure if I captured that or not. I can see it, however I'm the person who intended it that way.  I also didn't want the ba...

  Peace on Earth...  Usually when I start playing around with a new stamp set, there is usually  at  least 1 ( sometimes 2 or 3 ) trial run layer that makes it to the recycle bin  before I have a card  that I am completely satisfied with, however the card above  is the first attempt!  Is it perfect? ... no, definitely not.  Are there things I would do differently on the next creation?  ...There certainly are.  Will someone love it? ... Absolutely!! I went with the first attempt on this card because who is going to throw  this in the recycling bin?  Maybe an actual artist who is seeking absolute perfection or someone who  has no appreciation for the love we put into our card designs.  Neither of those are me... The stamp set used to create this card was Anita Jeram's  - Peaceful Fox , and other than the stamp set itself the creation consisted of coloring, blending a background, a few rounds of splatter, toppe...

This Beary Cute stamp set from Stampin Up is not just for Christmas. Though it has a coordinating designer paper, the paper is very holiday themed. This card shows the adorable bears from the stamp set used for a winter Birthday greeting. The card is quick and easy and can be used with many different designer papers, so use what you have in your stash.  It starts with a grey card base ( on the lighter side of grey ) cut at 4 1/4 x 11,  Scored at 5 1/2 The designer paper layer is 3 x 5 1/2 and adhered to the card front. I stamped snowflakes from the same stamp set on the top of layer of 3 x 4 1/4 layer of white cardstock using Versa mark Ink, then added silver embossing powder over the snowflakes and heat embossed to get super sparkly snowflakes. I stamped a Happy Birthday greeting under the snowflakes. I matted this layer onto a piece of Black Cardstock - 4 3/8 x 3 1/8  On a scrap of white cardstock I stamped the mama bear and baby bear in Black Memento Ink and added a li...

These festive puppies sure know how to send out a warm & cozy holiday greeting!  This card was created using Whimsy Stamps - Pups for Christmas stamp set.  These fun little pups are just so adorable - I'm going to have to try this card again in a horizontal version ...  To create this card, I first stamped the fireplace in the desired placement on a layer of white cardstock.  I colored the fireplace stones and the fire and covered with a mask that I created out of sticky note paper.    Using a fine liner marker I drew in where the floor would meet the wall,  as well as some lines to indicate the floor boards. I then used markers to  create a hardwood floor effect.  Using a darker yellow marker I dotted in a pattern on what would be the wall to start creating somewhat of a wallpaper look. Using a mid tone yellow I shaded around the fireplace to create a faint shadow. I then used 2 lighter yellows to haphazardly color in the rest of the wal...

This card was just a quick and easy card layout using the Pick of the Patch  stamp set from Stampin' Up combined with a  wood panel designer paper. The card base is 8 1/2 x 5 1/2, Scored at 4 1/4 Designer Paper Layer - 4 x 5 1/4  Pumpkin Color Technique - stamp the pumpkin in the lightest color of 3 chosen colors. Use a finger dauber to add a mid tone color to areas of the stamp, and again to add the darkest color.  To avoid seams in the ink dab your finger where the 2 ink colors meet. Don't rub or smoosh it, just dab it.  3 inch Vellum circle 1/2 in strip for the sentiment Gold Twine, burlap ribbon or a ribbon of your choice.  Attach the pumpkins to the vellum circle using dimensionals.  Wrap the twine around your fingers a few times and attach to the card only adding glue where the sentiment strip will cover it. Attach dimensionals to the back of one side of the sentiment strip and glue to the other, and adhere to card front as pictured. The card ins...

This card is so snowy and sparkly you can almost smell the frost in the air!! A deer in a snowy meadow all aglow in the light of a huge winter moon. I used a circle shape to mask off the moon and blended the snow sky with Boho Blue Ink and Salvaged Patina Distress Ink, leaving a nice dark ring around the moon so it would stand out on the card front. I used a piece of torn cardstock as a mask on the bottom section of the card and the Salvaged Patina Ink and lightly blended in a few snow ridges on the foreground of the card.  I stamped the deer from the Grassy Grove stamp set in Basic Grey Ink standing on the first bank of snow, and the trees ( also from the same stamp set ) behind on the second layer of snow. I removed the mask and blended using just the ink that was left on my  blending brush to add a little shadow or snowy cloud coverage to the  moon on one edge.  I added a few drops of water to a tiny bit of white acrylic paint to my stamping block and used a small...