Masculine Birthday Cards

I have 3 birthdays in October and I need masculine themed cards.  Gosh, those are a challenge for me.  I like bling, bright colors, glitter, flowers - you get the idea.  Unfortunately, I don't have any masculine type rubber stamp images.  I'll make an effort to look out for some new rubber stamps with a masculine theme.

Here's the card I made for the Oct 2, 2015 Week-end Challenge for the SU Stampin Gals Gone Wild Facebook group.  I think the name for the group is a hoot!  Stampin Gals Gone Wild...most of ladies in this group are Seniors - as in Senior Citizens!!!  It just makes me laugh, but it's a fun bunch nonetheless.

Triple Square Direct to Paper Card

On 9/25/2015 The Stampin Gals Gone Wild Facebook group posted a color challenge to the group.  I've tried to participate every week-end.  Luckily, I almost had all the colors to participate except for Stampin Up's (SU) Rich Razzleberry card stock.  BUT, I had the ink pad in that color.  That's when I remembered the direct-to-paper technique I learned a long time ago.  So I inked up the white cardstock and viola - Rich Razzleberry card stock!

The Get Well Card quickly came together.  I used punches to cut the squares - no measuring.

MFT Shaker Card

I just love the new #MFTStamps Die-namics cover up dies.  They are large and are made to basically cover up an A2 card base.  I like this die because it makes an easy shaker card.  The flower is another MFT die called Plentiful Petals.  The stamps are from the Simon Says Stamp You die and stamp combo set and I used Pretty Pink Posh sequins.  Easily came together.

Funny Quick Card

This card makes me grin.  I just love that sentiment.  This is a quick card because I had a stash of pre-cut #MFTStamps die-namics Four Way Chevron die.  I also used another MFT die label to cut a white label to stamp the cute saying.  It was super quick.  Hope you like it!

I love the deep true red card stock from Simon Says Stamp.  I used that red to pop the white card stock with the sentiment.  I also add black enamel dots on the yellow flowers.

Does anyone make Halloween cards?  Somehow I've never made more than 1 or 2 but this year I found myself making quite a few for different card challenges.  This Halloween card was not a quick card.  The sponging took the most time to do, but it was fun.  I love sponging backgrounds.  I made my own cloud mask out of regular typing paper.  The little bats are from a paper punch I've had for years!

Watercolor Roses

I just love the My Favorite Things Roses Background.  This was fun to create and super quick to put together.  Used Ranger's Distress Inks to watercolor the white embossed rose background stamp.  I used the MFT Die-namics Stitched Basic Edges to cut the embossed and water-colored roses background.  I went back and used the same die to cut a strip of black card stock and another one in lime green. It's hard to see the lime green card stock strip.

Vertical Greetings

I have 2 sets of  My Favorite Things ( MFT) Vertical Greetings but one of them has been retired.  You can find these under the Die-namics companions at the MFT stamps website.  The Vertical Greetings set contains 4 inspiring sayings and you can purchase the die that is sized to fit the stamped greetings.   Lucky for me the Vertical Greetings I own is still available.  Then I used the cool background die called Die-namics Four Way Chevron Cover-Up to cut my background using black cardstock.  I then took some yellow card stock and cut out the MFT Die-namics Pierced Fancy Flourish.  It is fancy!  I used the same yellow card stock and die cut the LJD Scribble Flowers and layered that under the LJD Scribbles roses cut out of red card stock. I cut the rose leaves using the MFT die-namics Royal Leaves dies.  This set is a must have and is perfect for roses.  Can you imagine cutting these out in white or gold card stock?  Perfect for Wedding or Anniversary Cards.   All products are from MFT!  I love how this card looks so complicated, but it's not.

Since I work outside of my home I've had to device ways to get my "required for my sanity" creative card-making time.  I've had to device a time-saving strategy.  The best thing I did was to set a couple of hours out and just die-cut a bunch of backgrounds, flowers, leaves, butterflies, flourishes, and precut and score your base cards.  I also stamp a bunch of greetings at one time as well.  

Strategy #2 - Store all of these card elements and use a $1.00 bragbook to store them in.  Brag book?  Is that aging me.  I'm talking about those $1 photo albums you pick up at Michael's to store your 4"X 6" photos in.  BTW, Michael's $1 bins are up to $1.50.  It's still a good deal.  

Now when you need a quick card, just go to your photo album with the cut-out goodies and slap that card in no time!  

Watercolor Butterfuly

I love the My Favorite Things (MFT) company's butterfly dies.  This was another ink smooching technique using Distress Inks by Ranger to create a background.  I used several  MFT Blueprint Dies to create this card.  It was a quick card as well.  The black card stock butterfly was die cut using the Flutter of Butterflies - Lace dies, the word "Wish" is from the die-namics brushstroke birthdays set.

The watercolor paper was first covered with plain water to better able the accept the organic flow of the distress ink water color.  

So what is the ink smooching technique.  I saw this great video by Kristina Werner and have seen Lauren Bassen's video as well.  This is how it goes:

1.  Take a non-stick craft mat (Ranger makes one), pat your distress ink pad directly onto the craft mat.  

2.  Spritz the ink splotches on the craft mat with water.  Side note:  Next time, I'm adding Pearl Effects to my water spritzer for added glimmer.  Can never have to much glimmer & glitz in my book.

3.  Here's the fun part.  Take a manageable piece of acetate, or clear packaging that you get when you purchase  photopolymer stamps.  Use the outside plastic NOT the sheets that your stamps "live" on.  

4.  Take the piece of acetate with both hands and place it on top of the distress ink splotches.  The ink gets picked up onto the plastic and now place the inked acetate on your still wet watercolor paper.  You can play around and smooch the ink around.  

5.  Continue to build your layers of color until you get the desired effects.  

6.  I use my heat tool to dry the paper and go back to add another layer of color if I want more intense colors.

7.  You can add plain water on top of the water color and wait a few seconds to pick up the water droplets with a paper towel and you get a cool "bleached" out effect.

This card was eazy-peazy, because I had die-cut a bunch of water color paper with my Blueprints and had ink smooched several of these panels.  So, I had backgrounds and card elements pre-cut it was a matter of picking out a sentiment and putting the card together.

Have a great day! 

Courage

This post is about art and the courage to release inhibitions and just create art.  I get tired of people saying, "I don't have a creative bone in my body" or "I'm not creative."  Ah, yes you are!  Did you skip your childhood and go straight into adulthood?  I didn't think so!  Discover the love of just coloring or playing with paper and scissors.  It's so good for your artful soul.  Don't  shut that part of your life off.  Time to bring it up to the forefront and make it a part of your life.  OK, I'm off my soapbox now.

My Favorite Things (MFT) has a retired stamp set called, "All About Art" and it had many quotes and sayings about art, artists, and the artful life.  If you ever find it on ebay or Craigslist, you need to buy it.  It's a must have.

The Super Boy was colored with Prismacolor pencils.  I wish I had more of these pencils, they are the best, but alas I only have the 24 pencil set.  After I colored the super boy I used Gamsol to blend the colored pencil images.   I also used the MFT Die-namics Double Stitched Oval STAX to cut out an oval.  I used ink blending using distress inks on the oval.

I borrowed the Super Boy stamp set from my crafting friend Rubina.  The cute street lamp is the Streetlights die-namics die which I don't think it's available yet.  I received it as a "free with purchase of $60 or more" from MFT.  Isn't that the coolest -free dies with a purchase?  I die cut the street light and glued it onto the sponged background oval.  The sentiment, "Creativity takes courage" is from the All About Art stamp set.  The sentiment is stamped on a strip of white card stock die cut from one of the elements of Blueprint 13 I believe.  

Hero Arts Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge Card

Wow, first I don't post for a couple of weeks and now I'm posting another card on the same evening.  This card is for the Hero Arts Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge.   Hero Arts posted a tic-tac-toe online challenge and each square had a different item or technique one was to use to design a card or other paper project.  My tic-tac-toe was:  watercolor, birthday theme, and heat embossing. 

Since I had so much fun using the watercolor smooching technique I decided to do that again for this card.  I used a Hero Arts Happy Birthday stamp and a flower stamp, both heat embossed with white embossing powder.  I hope you can see the sequins and how the watercolor flows together to make different colors on the watercolor paper.

 

 

Well that's it for tonight.  I need to get ready for work tomorrow.  I hope I've inspired you to get out your supplies and create something.  Remember it's fun!

Challenge Cards

It's been a long time since I posted.  I can't believe how quickly the month has flown by.  I have found myself spending more time creating cards and trying out new as well as revisiting techniques I had not tried in quite awhile.  It's kind of like "what's old is new again."  In 20+ years I've seen trends come and go and then back again.  I'll try to post a few of the many cards I've created.  Many are simple and took very little time to create. 

This card was created using the watercolor "smooching" technique.  All you do is take your favorite distress inks and smooch them onto your nonstick craft mat.  Spray with water and then take a piece of acetate and pick up the color onto the acetate and place that over your watercolor paper.  You "smoosh" or "smooch" the color around.  It's easy and lots of fun. 

I used the Ellen Hutson, Bold Blooms stamp set by Julie Ebersole.  I love, love, love this stamp set.  There are 3 coordinating items:  Bold Blooms photopolymer stamp set, a coordinative die set, and a stand alone die set.  The 3 items are a must have!  You can just create an endless amount of designs with the 3 sets.  My friend, Rubina and I were on a month long wait list to get these and then quickly snatched them up when they became available.

I stamped the images with Versamark ink onto watercolor paper and white embossed the images.  I then smooched the watercolor onto the watercolor paper.  Last step was to mount the card on black card stock and add it to a white A2 sized card base.  I the added 3 clear sequins to the card.

Frida Card

This is not a weekend challenge card.  I bought a theater/stage embossing folder and was playing around with it.  It's one of those things where you think, "What a cool embossing folder!"  Then you get home and wonder, "How the heck am I going to use this???"  I remember I bought a stamp set at a scrapbook convention that I had not used.  At the time that I bought the set from Paper Wings Production I didn't know how to use it but it's a rare occasion when I run into Hispanic cultural stamps - so I bought it!   The photograph doesn't show the rhinestones in the centers of the flowers in her hair.  Oh, this was my first attempt to color in an image using the Chameleon Markers.  Love them!

May 30-31, 2015

No, I didn't have more time during the busy week-end, I just couldn't decide which I liked better so I posted both.  Still not thrilled with my post but I really try to stick to the challenge design posted.

Weekend Challenge May 23-24, 2015

Stormy week-end and poor natural light so the colors on the card are off.

Weekend Challenge May 16-17, 2015

I'm posting the cards I've made for the Facebook group called "Stampin Gals Gone Wild."  It's a Facebook group created by Connie Stewart, a Stampin Up demonstrator.  No, we're not wild, but have fun making cards.

Here's how it works:  Connie will post a card design on Friday's and then the people in the group create a card using those elements and post to the Facebook group.  It's fun to see what people create.  I try to create my card but since I work it's sometimes very difficult to get it done.  I do manage to squeeze in some cr8tive time.  Here are my posts:

May 16-17 challenge:

 

 

 

 



Mother's Day Card

Here's another example of how I assembled a quick card.  I love the MFT stitched circles and rectangle die-namics sets, so one evening I proceeded to cut several circles and rectangles.  While I was at it, I also embossed several sheets of solid colored cardstock, and some scalloped borders in different colors.  Again, this card came together quickly since I had all the elements pre-cut when I needed to make a Mother's Day card.  The stamped blossoms are from Stampin Up and I colored them with Chameleon Markers.  I love how easy they were to use to blend in the colors.

The small blue flower centers have silver stickles added as well as the little specks around the bouquet. 

Quick Birthday Card

So you love to make stuff, especially cards, but how can you carve out some creative time to soothe your creative soul?   Well, you can!  You can with a little planning and some strategies I've learned along this creative journey that I'll share with you. 

One method is dedicate 30 minutes to simply precut cardstock.  Cut your cardstock into the standard A2 card size (4.25" X 5.5") and/or cut some to layer as card fronts.  Another time-saver is to take shortcuts by using what is becoming more available at the big box craft stores.  For example, one can buy packages of cards with designs and use those as printed pattern paper or sometimes called designer series paper.  In this example I used a pre-made card/designed as the base and mounted a 2" piece of Nina Solar White cardstock with a Stampin Up butterfly punched out.  Added a stamped sentiment, tied on some bakers twine, added a little shimmer with a Wink of Stella pen and a rhinestone and DONE!  No time at all.

The little banners on the upper left of the card were part of the many banners I cut from this same set.  By using the same box of cards, all the papers coordinate, minimizing the time to select coordinating elements. 

Why name my blog Quick Cr8?

You might be wondering why I named my blog Quick Cr8.  It's simple, I love the creative process but I also have a full time job that requires long hours, have many family obligations, lots of friends and involved in many organizations which leaves me with little time to indulge in creating art.

When I do manage to steal away a few minutes to create a project it must be quickly put together or broken down into smaller steps.  So, it's quick cr8!

Confession:  I envy all the artists and crafters that devote their lives to art.  I wish I could spend the entire day at home, in my little studio and cr8 all day.  It's a dream that I hope will some day come true.