Hybrid Father's Day card

Happy Saturday Everyone! I'm finally finished cleaning up from last night's stamp class- boy were we a late night group- almost midnight! We had a great time as usual with both new friends and old. As promised, I wanted to post this hybrid card we made last night for Father's Day.

What's hybrid? A hybrid card or scrapbook page uses elements that are produced digitally with others that are "real"- real ribbon, buttons, etc. What's the advantage of hybrid? You can store a whole lot of digi stamps and patterned paper on your computer without taking up any room in your crafting area. If you've ever seen my craft room closet, you know this is a definite bonus for me-lol! The advantage of digi papers is that you can print as much or as little as you like when you need them.

Stampin' Up has a program called My Digital Studio that allows you to quickly and easily make digital cards, scrapbook pages, invitations, etc. You can print entire cards or just elements to use on hybrid cards, like we did in the Father's Day card. If you're a Photoshop user like me, you can simply use all the digi stamps, paper and accessories that come with My Digital Studio in Photoshop. It's easy to make color swatch palettes in Photoshop so you have all the SU colors at your disposal as you create- totally easy and fun!

For this card, I dgitially "stamped" the ties from the Father's Day Stamp Brush set in Pumpkin Pie, Baja Breeze, So Saffron and Soft Suede on a white 4x6 background- in the portrait layout, I could fit two per page to save paper when I printed. I made my own greeting for the outside just using a text box in Photoshop- you can also do this with Word if you want a different greeting that what the set comes with. I printed the striped paper from the Travel Journal digital paper set for the bottom half of the card- it exactly matches the real Travel Journal paper pack and I don't end up with pages I'll never use. A little Soft Suede dotted ribbon and a button from the retired stash were the only accesories to keep it simple for a guy card!

The inside is finished simply with the Father's Day greeting, corners punched with the Ticket Corner punch to frame it out nicely. This will be the perfect card for hubby for Father's Day since he's a tie wearing kind of guy!

If you missed the class, or live outside the Houston area, and want a kit email me and I will get one out to you- $15 for the 6 cards + treat box and $2 shipping. I'll be posting the last card in the kit tomorrow- a bright July 4th card!

Hope you're having a relaxing weekend! 

 




Supplies:
Stamps: Father's Day Digital Stamp Brush kit
Paper: Soft Suede, Baja Blue, Travel Journal DP, Whisper White
Digi Ink: Soft Suede, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Baja Blue
Accessories: Soft Suede dotted grosgrain ribbon, dimensional dots, button, hemp twine, ticket corner punch

Simple Journey

Happy Friday everyone! After being sick all last week, I am still trying to catch up, both at home and at work-ugh! I finally finished all the cards for my class tonight late last night- nothing like last minute pressure to get the Mojo going!

I have two cards to post today so you folks coming tonight can get psyched to stamp! The first uses this week's Mojo Monday sketch and one of the stamp sets from the new Summer Mini called Pedaling Past. For a copy of the Summer min, click the link to download the catalog- it's full of great stamps and cool accessories!

I wanted to keep the color palette for this card relatively simple to go with the clean line drawing of the stamp, so went with Kraft, Basic Black, Very Vanilla with just a splash of Old Olive Designer Series paper. The bottom edge was punched with the Scallop Trim border punch and the greeting with the Word Window and Modern Label punches. I added a piece of the 1-1/4" black striped ribbon tied with some hemp twine and a burgundy button for contrast. I like how clean and simple this turned out- it will make a nice graduation, new job or retirement card!

The next card is a sweet card for birthdays, literally! It features the Sweet Scoops set and the "kissing" technique. The kissing technique is a great way to add pattern or texture to a smooth image. It's a very simple technique where you ink your main image stamp then "kiss" or press an uninked patterned stamp up against it. When you stamp your main image, the pattern has been transferred to the stamp surface. For an easy to follow tutorial, follow this link to the Splitcoast website technique section.

The cones were stamped in the new Crumb Cake ink and the ice creams were stamped in Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose and Pumpkin Pie. Funny for me to have these colors all in the same color family now- it will clearly take me some time getting used to the new color combinations-lol! I ran the Regal Rose paper through my Sizzix machine with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder to give it a little texture and added a simple banner style greeting with a ribbon tied button.

The inside is finished simply with a greeting a a soft serve cone- reminds me of my Dairy Queen days! This card has already been swiped by my daughter for her friend's birthday party tomorrow- all the girls now look forward to a "Mrs. Doctor Karpen" card with their gift- nice to know I have a younger groupie fan club!

Hope you have a great weekend! Stop back tomorrow to see the fabulous hybrid (digital+traditional) card I made for Father's day- super fast and fun to make!

 




Supplies:
Stamps: Pedaling Past, Sweet Scoops
Paper: Kraft, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Old Olive DP; Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette
Ink: Basic Black; Crumb Cake, Pretty in Pink, Pumpkin Pie, Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: 1-1/4" black striped grosgrain ribbon, hemp twine, button, Scallop Trim border punch, Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch; Soft Subtles button, brown gingham ribbon, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder.

Luau Birthday!

When I saw these cute little Island Oasis cartons in the new Summer Mini catalog I was sad that my daughter's birthday had already come and gone because these would have made such great treat containers for the girls to decorate and fill. They're officially at the age that they get to make their own treat bags/containers and they are always trying to get into my craft room when they come over-aaah!

I decided to go ahead and use them for my class Friday night and pair them with a birthday card- maybe I can actually remember to use them for my daughter's birthday next year...well, probably not-lol!

The boxes were a bit plain so I dug out a retired set called Bodacious Bouquet and a current set called Paradise to make the leaves and flowers. I have saved the Bodacious Bouquet set, BTW, so I can use it for when I scrapbook the pictures from our trip to Hawaii (it's only been 2 years ago, so no rush!).

I wanted to keep the card simple and bright so I used a Whisper White card base and layered it with a strip of the new Island Oasis paper from the Summer mini punched with the scallop edge punch. I cut off 3/4" from the bottom of the card front and adhered the paper so that the scallops would overhang the edge- kind of looks like a cabana to my vacation hungered eyes! The flowers were stamped in Melon Mambo, So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie, the leaves in Old Olive- I like the way this bright combination turned out. A little ric rac and some paper piercing detail to the corners and it's done.

Hope you have a great Thursday!

 




Supplies:
Stamps: Paradise, Bodacious Bouquet (retired)
Paper: Island Oasis DP, Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie
Ink: Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Old Olive, Basic Black
Accessories: Island Oasis Party Favor boxes, Scallop edge punch, ric rac, paper piercing kit, dimensionals

Baby...

I have finally started to make the cards for my upcoming class this Friday night and I have been struggling to find some Mojo after being sick. I wanted to use some of the retiring sets/colors one last time, but also want to showcase some of the great new colors. I was inspired by a card in one of the SU demonstrator magazines and modified it to fit my stamp- casing is always a great way to start a card!

This is a super simple card, which is great when you're in a pinch for a baby card-lol! This card starts with a Chocolate Chip card base layered with 3/4" circles in Green Galore, Pixie Pink and Pink Pirouette and two 1/2" strips of Green Galore. The elephant was stamped in Chocolate Chip Craft and embossed with clear EP. He was layered onto a series of coordinating card stock and a piece of Chocolate Chip Designer Series paper.

The inside was finished simply with coordinating circles and a greeting punched out with the Modern Label Punch and mounted on a Pixie Pink die cut shape. After I finished this card, I realized I could easily modify it to make it into a baby boy card as well, so here are the boy versions.

I think I'm partial to the girlie pink and green, but we'll see which one wins on Friday. If you can't make it to my class, leave a comment and vote for the one you like best!

Have a great day~

 




Supplies:
Stamps: Nursery Necessities
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Gable Green, Pixi Pink, Pink Pirouette, Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Chocolate Chip Designer Series paper
Ink: Chocolate Chip Classic and Craft
Accessories: Chocolate Tafetta ribbon, Crop-a-dile, Modern Label Punch, 3/4" Circle Punch, Sizzix Machine, nested die

Perfect Pair

After being sick in bed for an entire week, I am finally beginning to feel like I am rejoining the living! I can't even blame my children for this particular viral illness- in fact, I think they now have ear infections because of me (oops!). A sad testament to how bad I felt is that I was home for a whole week and didn't step foot in my craft room- I was really sick!

I started this card last weekend before I crashed and just got back to finishing it yesterday- sometimes walking away from a card is a good thing-lol! I needed a card for some friends who just got engaged and have been waiting for an excuse to use this great stamp from Unity. Now I need to disclose up front that the colors in this card are not pukey like they appear in this photo- no matter what lighting I used, the greens just did not come through right. If you're coming to my class next Friday, you can see for yourself!

I started with a 5-3/4" square Old Olive card base- my favorite size to use with larger images- gives you more real estate to work with! I stitched some patterned paper from my stash (the name of which I absolutely cannot remember) onto a Very Vanilla square, added some red ric rac (love ric rac!) using 1/4" red line tape and layered it onto the card front.

I tried several different ways to get this image stamped the way I wanted and ended up inking the whole stamp with an Old Olive ink pad, using a Q-Tip to wipe off certain areas and coloring them with Real Red and Chocolate Chip markers. A little heavy breathing on the stamp to moisten it and voila- a multi-colored image! I stamped another one, cut out the large pear and popped it on a foam dot to give the image more dimension. The tree was cut out using a large scalloped die and layered onto a larger patterned paper die cut underneath. A few hemp-tied buttons and the greeting and it's done!

The inside was finished to match with some more of that great red ric rac from my stash (I'm on step 3 of my anti-hoarding program...). Now I just have to actually get it in the mail- always the hard part for me-lol!

Now I get to drive my daughter to swim camp (yay- one less child for the week! I mean, I'll miss her very much...). Hope you have a relaxing Sunday~

Last Day of School!

Unbelievably, the last day of school has finally arrived. After all the craziness of Exhibition, projects and tests, I should be thrilled to see the year end, but I actually have mixed feelings this year. Emily graduated 5th grade on Monday night and it was very bittersweet for me, as for all the parents in that auditorium, I'm sure. Elementary school, especially the one my children go to, is a very special place and time. Middle school is going to be a great adventure, but it also heralds the beginning of really growing up- and I'm clearly not ready, although they certainly are! OK, I have to quit that train of thought because I'm going to cry!

Although we contributed to the class gift instead of getting one of our own, I wanted to make a special card for each of my children's teachers. I have had this school themed paper hanging around for a few years waiting for the right card/scrapbook page and now seemed a good time. I love Heather Ellis' "Pure Innocence" and "Boy With Dog" illustrations, as you all probably know from all my posts using them! I bought two new ones recently and they were perfect for a boy and girl end-of-school card.

I was short on time, so I used the same layout and papers for both cards, but changed the details to make each one unique. I printed the digital stamps on Whisper White paper from Stampin' Up and colored them with Copic markers. For Emily's card, I die cut a scalloped border from More Mustard to frame the image and added some More Mustard ribbon, bronze brads and burgundy buttons for accents.

 Matthew's card is a bit simpler to avoid frilliness that boys don't like or appreciate-LOL! I used a combination of red and brown markers to make the burgundy color for the boy's sweater- a nice trick if you need a more muted shade than what you have. I used a white Uniball Signo pen to write on the "blackboard"- it's the only white pen on the market that actually works! The image and frame were die cut with more masculine shapes- no scallops, please Mommy! Bronze brads finish off the corners of both main layers.

I meant to get a picture of the inside before the kids wrote in them, but I wasn't fast enough! The inside was finished with layers of burgundy and white paper, a strip pf the same patterned paper and a die cut apple. The greeting is from the Stampin' Up "Thank You Kindly" set- it has four great thank you stamps in a variety of fonts- it's one I'll always keep around!

Time for me to get ready for the end of year picnics at school, then geared up for a busy night on call. Two last thoughts that I must keep reminding myself of when life gets busy- they are only little for a short while and take more pictures!!!

 




Supplies:
Stamps: Pure Innocence by Heather Ellis, Thank You Kindly- Stampin' Up
Ink: Close to Cocoa
Paper: "Homeroom" TPC Studio, Kraft, Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White, More Mustard
Accessories: Bronze brads, Sizzix machine, nested dies, Copic markers, More Mustard grosgrain ribbon, buttons

Tea-rrific

Thanks to everyone for all the sweet emails and notes to see if I'm still alive and well! With so much upheaval at work, I haven't been motivated to craft (serious derangement for me!). I finally got some Mojo back the other night because I needed two special thank you notes for colleagues who helped with my daughter's exhibition project for school and had nothing appropriate in my stash (hard to believe actually!).

I have been trying to use some of the paper stash I have been hoarding over the years, so I broke out a pretty pack from SEI called "Juliette" for this card. I wanted some delicate colors for this tea themed card so this fit the bill perfectly.

I layered the small polka dot print and the striped piece onto a whisper white background and tied a bow with some ribbon I had in my collection that matched perfectly- this is probably not a surprise for those of you who have seen my ribbon, um, "collection" (i.e. addiction). This was layered onto a Basic Gray card base- I really like the combo of peachy tones and gray.

The teapot was stamped on patterned paper and cut out, with the bird paper pieced from the peach solid paper. I colored the leave with markers because the leaves were too small to cut out without my glasses! The image background was stamped using a set from Waltzing Mouse, which works perfectly with nested dies. I stamped one on white and the other on the solid peach, then punched a white circle for the middle- this layered approach gives it more visual interest. The greeting was computer generated and punched out with the Modern Label punch.

The inside of the card was finished with a strip of the patterned paper punched with a scallop edge punch- it looks a bit like an awning at a cafe to me! I stamped another teapot using some Cameo Coral ink and left room for the girls to write a small thank you note.

I'm going to pack up some nice tea and a Starbucks gift card inside a mug as a thank you for their time and patience-LOL! Make someone's day today and tell them they're tea-rrific!

Supplies:
Stamps: Unity KOM, Waltzing Mouse Very Vintage labels
Paper: Basic Gray, Whisper White, SEI Juliette
Ink: Cameo Coral, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: ribbon, Moden Label punch, 1-3/4" circle punch, Sizzix machine, Nestability dies