Tuesday 17 January 2017

Wedding Gift Cards

Finding an appropriate gift for weddings is quite tedious for me. And even if I do find something nice I always feel the need of adding a personal element to the gift. Now that I am into card making I've found a nice little way for that little personal touch.

So today I am sharing 3 cards that I made keeping weddings in mind.

Card 1




This card was inspired by Altenew's January Inspiration challenge. The colors in the challenge came together to give a very auspicious feel to the card. I used the Dahlia Blossoms stamp set from Altenew to stamp out the flowers and leaves on the outer panel of white cardstock using Distress Inks & the Mini MISTI and used the layering feature available in this set - the outline with Vintage Photo and the layers with Fossilized Amber for the flowers and Peeled Paint for the leaves.



After this I cut out a rectangle from the center of the panel. I heat embossed the same leaves in the center of maroon cardstock. I then adhered the white stamped panel on the maroon cardstock using foam tape. I heat embossed the sentiment - from Magnolias for her stamp set by Altenew - on to a black strip and stuck that in the middle of the card. The whole set was then mounted on a white cardbase.

To add finishing touches I added some gold pearls using Ranger's Liquid Pearls and also added some gold to the flowers and leaves.



Challenges




Card 2




I wanted to create a very dainty wedding card - something with soft tones. I first created the stenciled background using Distress inks - Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed and Peacock Feathers. Sprayed some water on the background to soften the look.


I then stamped a couple of Magnolias from the Magnolias for her stamp set by Altenew using Picked Raspberry and lightly watercolored it with the same ink. I fussy cut the flowers and mounted the background and the flowers on a card base. I stamped the sentiment - from Mudra Stamps - in Picked Raspberry at the base of the card. I then rounded off the edges of the card.

To add a little sparkle I finished off the card with some sequins.



Challenges




  • Fusion Card Challenge - Congratulations for the 3rd Anniversary :) Card is inspired by only the sketch.



Card 3



I made the final card for the Mudra January Challenge - Heat Embossing. I first created a background by blending distress inks - Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon and Broken China. I sprayed water on it to create a distressed look and to get some watermarks.

For the heat embossing I used the leaf stamps from the Leafy Stamp set by Mudra. I stamped the leaves at the right bottom corner and heat embossed using Rangers White Embossing powder. I loved how the white leaves were looking against the distressed background. The sentiment is also from Mudra stamps. 

For the finishing touches I splattered some white paint all around the background and adhered some sequins for the sparkle. I also loved how the black strip of sentiment was standing out against the background so as an afterthought I added a thin strip of black cardstock on the right of the card. That finished the card for me. 

Challenges

Saturday 7 January 2017

Cards with Alcohol Ink

Happy New Year!

Am back after a small break. A lovely vacation with my family :) So once I got back I could not wait to get started again. Just before leaving I had received a new bunch of craft items!

So for the new year I wanted to try something new. And then I came across the latest challenge at CAS Mix Up - to use liquid colors such as Alcohol Inks. I thought its a good time to experiment with them. But to use them I did not have any Glossy cardstock or Yupo Paper. So I decided to make do with what I had - some Acetate Sheets and Photo Paper.

Then I made two cards using some Alcohol Ink backgrounds I created.

Card 1 - Alcohol Inks on Acetate Sheet



I had tried out Alcohol Inks on acetate sheet before and I was quite pleased with the results. So for this card also, I created a background using two colors of Alcohol inks - Wild Plum and Stream   from the Valley Trail set. For this I first applied drops of colors on the felt applicator and pounced all over the sheet. Then I added some blending solution on the applicator and pounced all over again to get lovely patterns and blended colors. I did this till I was satisfied with the outcome.

Once the background was ready I trimmed it to my desired size. With the left over scrap piece I punched out some small hearts using a small heart punch. After that I took a strip of White cardstock and punched out a few butterflies and a heart again using a craft punch.

I stuck the background on the card base and adhered the white punched out strip on the base of the background so that the background shows through the punched parts. I then randomly stuck the hearts around the base.

To finish the card I stamped the word Beautiful from Simon Says Stamps Sketch Ranunculus set in two colors of distress inks - Picked Raspberry and Peacock Feathers - to match the background. Then I wrote the words 'Life is' in front of the stamped image using Sakura Micron Pen.



I am entering this card in the following challenges



Card 2 - Alcohol Inks on Photo Paper



Photo Paper is not a great surface for Alcohol Inks. I realized this when I tried to use Photo Paper as a replacement for Glossy paper. The colors would get absorbed so soon that it doesn't leave much to do. Disappointed with this result I just randomly streaked the felt applicator which had some left over inks in it across the photo paper and it created some nice patterns. For this card to get more colors, I added more drops of the colors - all 3 from the Valley Trail set and ran it through photo paper and created a background with streaky lines of colors.

With the background ready, I cut it up into 3 rectangles and punched out butterflies and hearts from the background similar to the previous card. I punched out some extra butterflies and hearts from the scrap pieces of background. I stuck the rectangles, the butterflies and hearts on the card base using foam squares.

For the sentiment I chose 'Believe in your dreams' from the Flutter By Stamp set by Lawn Fawn. Again I stamped it with Distress Inks to match the colors of the background on a white strip and then adhered it on the card base. To finish it off I stuck a couple of hearts on the sentiment strip.  I also rounded the edges of the card.



I am entering this in the following challenges




Supplies

  • Ranger Alcohol Inks
  • Blending Solution
  • Felt and Applicator
  • Butterfly and Heart Stamp Punch
  • White Card stock
  • Acetate Sheet and Photo Paper
  • SSS Sketch Ranunculus Stamp set
  • Lawn Fawn Flutter By Stamp Set