Valentine's Day cards for Him & Her

I am sharing a couple of cards I made based on Love using Mudra stamps.

As you can see both are very contrasting cards - one for the guy and the other for the girl

Card for Him

My main aim for this card was to create something not using the typical colors you would find in a Valentine's Day card. So i decided to go in for a Vintage look to symbolize Love that lasts forever. For this I thought i would try to make a worn out page of a book  with the word Love popping out from different places.

So I stamped the word Love from the Love stamp set by Mudra and then used the Old Script stamp by Mudra to cover up the remaining areas around the stamped Loves. Then I blended some Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo Distress Inks to create that worn out distressed look. With the background ready I proceeded to stamp the word Forever from the same Love stamp set on a piece of vellum and adhered it to the lower half of the background. I also stamped a small heart in Red just to add a pop of color. I used some Bakers twine to create two borders above and below the vellum strip.

I wanted to add some wilted flowers so I cut up few flowers inked in Walnut Stain Distress Ink and stuck them on the top right corner of the background. Embellished the flowers and the vellum strip with some Gold Liquid Pearls. To finish the card I mounted the whole panel on to black card base.

Card for Her

For this card, the only thing I had in mind while starting off the card was the hearts background in Violet and Pink. Because of that this turned out to be a card on which I spent a long time - not because it was complicated but because I kept changing the look and colors and the elements that go on the card.

I stamped the outline of the heart balloons from the Love stamp set by Mudra on some watercolor cardstock and colored them with Wilted Violet Distress Marker and Pink Zig to create a watercolored effect. Once this was done I started thinking of what would complement this background and after trying several things settled on creating a border of hearts using a heart punch and placing a cardbase blended with Wilted Violet (in the front) underneath the heart border.

I added white ribbons to form a frame on top of the hearts background. I then mounted the heart background on top with the heart borders only on the bottom and the right side. For the sentiment I used the same stamp set to stamp on small piece of cardstock and created a border using the Wilted Violet Marker and mounted it on top of the heart background. I finished off the card with some shine from the Wink of Stella glitter brush and some sequins.

I am entering these cards in the following challenges.

1. Mudra Challenge # 6 Love

2. Parus Card Making Challenges - February Challenge - Love

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

• Altenew January 2017 Inspiration Challenge

• Paru's Card Making Challenges - Anything Goes - Congratulations for the 1st Anniversary! :)

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

• Paru's Card Making Challenge - Anything Goes

• Happy Little Stampers Jan CAS Challenge - Stencil

• 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

• Mudra Craft Stamps Challenge # 5 - Heat Embossing

Spring Flowers Cards

I came across this post by Yana Smakula for Simon Says Stamp Blog where she used a single stamp set to create 4 different cards. This inspired me to try something similar. And for this I chose the Botanicals 3 Stamp set from Paper Smooches and created 3 CAS cards.

For all the 3 cards I used the same stamps and the same distress colors as well. The colors I used - Mustard Seed, Worn Lipstick, Ripe Persimmon and Peeled Paint and Broken China for one of the cards.

Card 1 - All Over Background with some Sparkle

For this card, I stamped the flowers and the leaves from the Botanicals 3 set all over the front panel randomly in the colors mentioned above using Distress Inks. I left some space in the center for sentiment that I was going to place on top. I also sprinkled very little water on top of the flowers for some effect.

I decided to 'Make it Sparkle' inspired by the SSS Wednesday Challenge :) So for the sentiment I cut out a circle and went with a Handwritten 'hello' sentiment which I then heat embossed in Gold. Also heat embossed the edges of the circle with Gold. After that I adhered some gold sequins to add some more sparkle to finish off the card.

I am entering this card in the following challenges

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Make it Sparkle

• Mod Squad Challenge - A Little Bit of Spring

Card 2 - Circular Patterns

For this card I used only the smaller flowers from the set and stamped them in random circles. I introduced a bit of Blue in this card as well. For the sentiment I made a small Banner and painted it with Broken China Distress Ink and stamped the sentiment from Paper Smooches Birthday Bash stamp set. I also added a few dots with a gold marker on the banner and the card - again for a bit of sparkle.

Entering this card for the following challenges

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Make it Sparkle

• CAS(E) this Sketch #202

• Mod Squad Challenge - A Little Bit of Spring

Card 3 - Corner Patterns

For this card I stamped the flowers and leaves only in the 4 corners. For the sentiment, I cut a rectangular piece and I stamped small dots in the colors of the flowers all over and then stamped the Best Wishes sentiment from Mudra Stamps. I also drew a black border around the rectangular piece and then adhered it in the center of the front panel.

                                              

Entering this card in the following challenges

• Mod Squad Challenge - A Little Bit of Spring

Supplies for all 3 Card

• Canson Watercolor paper
• Distress Inks
• Botanicals 3 - Paper Smooches
• Birthday Bash - Paper Smooches
• Best Wishes - Mudra Stamps
• Foam Tape
• Sakura Micron Pen
• Deco Art Gold Marker
• Gold Sequins

CAS Wedding Card

I love the White and Gold combination and I think they are an ideal choice for a wedding. So I decided to use these colors to make Wedding Gift card.

Other than white and gold I also used some blended colors of Blue, Green and Yellow - to create some subtle shades - so that they don't take much away from the White and Gold look.

To start off, I drew a rough circle in the center of the front panel of the card base. I took one of the leaf sets from Mudra Stamps' Leafy stamp set and applied three shades (Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint and Broken China) of distress inks randomly on the stamp and then stamped it inside the circle. This created some very beautiful blended colors and each leaf pattern was of a unique shade. After the circle was covered, I cut out a circle in the center of another piece of card stock and placed it on top of the card base.

Once this was done I went ahead and added touches of Gold to the card. I drew a golden circle around the cut out circle with Deco Art Gold marker. Then with a single leaf stamp from Altenew's Peony Bouquet stamp set I heat embossed in gold the leaves randomly around the circle.

I used a pale yellow card stock for the sentiment. Sentiment is from Mudra Stamps again. I heat embossed the sentiment in Gold and stuck it across the center of the circle. I stamped the leaf set on the ends of the sentiment strip as well to finish the card.

I intend to use this card for the next wedding I go to! :)

Supplies

• Mudra Stamps - Leafy
• Mudra Stamps - Sentiment Essentials
• Distress Inks
• Deco Art Gold Marker
• Versamark Watermark ink pad
• Ranger Gold Embossing Powder
• Altenew Peony Bouquet stamp set
• White and Pale Yellow card stock

I am entering this card in the Mudra Sketch for Challenge #4. The idea of the layout of the card was inspired from this sketch.

Snowy Christmas Card

Here I am with another Christmas Card. This time I wanted to make a CAS (Clean and Simple) card with a night sky background along with some speckles of snow.

Stamping

Before getting to the background I decided to finish the stamping and heat embossing elements. So I started by roughly drawing a circle in the center. I used the snowflakes and baubles from Mudra Stamp's Christmas Decor set and arranged them along the circle. I heat embossed the snowflakes with White embossing powder and the baubles with Silver to give them a shiny ornament look.
For the sentiment, I thought I would try something on my own for a personal touch and used the Emboss IT pens from Ranger and wrote my sentiment Merry Christmas in the center of the circle. I embossed this also with some Silver embossing powder.

With this my stamping part was done and I was ready to move on to the background.

Background

For the background I wanted an inky night sky so I took a few shades of blue in my Distress ink stock  and Black Soot and blended the colors from light to dark to create the look. After I got the desired look I splattered some white acrylic paint spots to give a snowy night look. Also drew a few stars with the White Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

I wanted a reindeer jumping over my sentiment and I chose to stamp it with Festive Berries Distress ink as I liked the Red-Blue contrast that I could get. The reindeer is also from the same Mudra Stamp set. I fussy cut the reindeer and mounted it above the sentiment with some foam squares. I wanted to create an effect where the reindeer had pounced over the Merry Christmas sentiment which caused the sentiment to slant.

Supplies

• Mudra Stamps - Christmas Decors
• Ranger White and Silver Embossing Powder
• Ranger Heat - It tool
• Ranger Emboss IT pens
• Distress Inks and Mini blending tool
• Sakura Gelly Roll Pen - White pen
• White Cardstock from Papericious

.Challenges - I am entering this card in the following challenges!

• Mudra Sketch Challenge # 4

• Simon Says Monday Challenge - Let there be Snow

• CAS Mix Up December Challenge - Sponging + Stamping + Heat Embossing

• Kylie's 12 Days of Christmas Cards Challenge 

• Country View December 2016 - Christmas Challenge

• AAA CAS Games # 79

A Christmas Card

Since my little one is still sleeping, I thought I would sneak in another post for today. :D

Though Card Making is what I am into now, I have never finished making a complete card! I just keep either creating backgrounds or other elements never really tying them in together.

I finally made a full card yesterday inspired by the thought of taking part in a few Card Challenges! So I decided to make a Christmas Card. .
This is the card I made yesterday - again when my daughter was napping. :) I decided to go in for the Christmas Colors Red and Green for the Card and included Gold (based on Lulupu Challenge)

Supplies

• Watercolor paper from Brustro
• Distress Inks and Markers
• Ranger's Mini Blending tool
• Sakure Koi Waterbrush
• Christmas Stamp set from Mudra Craft Stamps
• Textured Cardstock
• Versamark Watermark ink pad
• Ranger's Gold Embossing Powder
• Ranger's Heat Tool
• Ranger's Liquid Pearls - Gold
• Deco Art Gold Marker
• Sakura Micron Pen - Red
• Foam Tape and squares
• Masking Tape 
• Sequins

 For the Background, I used masking tape to tape offr areas where I did not want color. I then used the blending tool to blend in some Festive Berried Distress ink in the Center. I then went over it with the waterbrush to create a watercolored look. I then used the Mowed Lawn Distress Marker (only because I didnt have an ink pad of Mowed Lawn) and created the green stripes and used the watercolor brush to spread the color.

Once the background was ready, I stamped some snowflakes from Mudra Stamps with Versamark Watermark Ink pad and heat embossed them with some Ranger's Gold embossing powder. I did the same with the sentiment on a black cardstock that was cut into a banner shape.

Next I moved on to the Christmas Tree. I drew a tree by hand on some green textured Cardstock and cut it out with my scissors. I then embellished the tree with some Gold Marker and Liquid Pearls - Gold.

I then adhered the tree on the background with some adhesive foam sqaures and placed the sentiment at the base of the card. I then mounted the background on to some red textured cardstock (to match the tree) using foam tape. The whole thing was then mounted on a white card base. I added a few sequins to the card and then it was done!

Please do let me know what you think about this in the comments!! 

I am entering this card in the following challenges (My first time! :) )

• Lulupu Challenge #68 - RGG 

•  Paru's Card Making December Challenge - 

• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - O Christmas Tree