Yellow and Black Theme Seems Like Late August

Today after terrible rains and winds and a microburst on Saturday, the weather settled down but was still hot and humid.  I opened the window and listened to the birds and watched the butterflies in the garden from my desk. I was inspired to make these cards with a yellow and black theme.

I used the new stamp set (a $5.00 special offer) from Stampin' Up:  Reason to Smile to create these cards. I did see a card by Rita Wright that inspired me. I used black, gray, yellow and white cardstock from my stash.  I had some black and white and yellow items leftover from creating my daughter's wedding scrapbook that came in handy also.  One of the items was the Silver Swirl design paper (brand unknown).  I used the Stampin' Up eyelet punch on the Making Memories Yellow Gingham paper and 3/8 inch yellow grosgrain ribbon to tie that layer together.  I stacked yellow and gray cardstock to frame the white centerpiece.  I inked the flower three times: first in yellow, then green for stem and calyx, and finally black for the outline.  I used a dauber to add some more color and to make the yellow fill shape more indefinite like a watercolor.

The companion card was the same color scheme with some different patterns.  I used Making Memories Small Dot in black for the background and gray for the eyelet trim.  I layered the yellow gingham, gray eyelet and mini polka dot background and tied it with yellow grosgrain ribbon.  I stacked black and yellow for the centerpiece frame and stamped it with the sunflower set. This set is three pieces:  the color smudge, the outline and the center.  I have already misplaced the center stamp so I used the dauber to make the center more colorful and also less distinct than the outline stamp. I popped one sunflower and the whole frame.

Spoiler alert!  Don't view the next card if you have an anniversary August 20th!

This card uses the Silver Swirl paper and some Wild Saffron adhesive paper ribbon on yellow gingham for the background layer on a gray card.  It's wrapped with 3/8 inch yellow gingham ribbon and 3/16 inch black satin looped ribbon tied up in a bow just like the tablecloths at my daughter's wedding six years ago.  The framed layer is yellow, gray and black cardstock. The centerpiece is stamped with the Reason to Smile sunflower.  I use a marker and a dauber to brighten and smudge the color.  One sunflower and the whole fram layer are popped for added dimension.

I had fun listening to an old, favorite Andrea Bocelli CD and using the leftovers from the wedding decor (great memories) to make some new cards on a yellow and black theme.

Other Card Designs from the August Workshop

Carol had a lovely design based on quilting. 

Very nice colors and loved the criss-crossing ribbon to cover up any mistakes gluing or positioning!

Bonnie had a similar idea but used postage stamp die cuts to form a quilt-like pattern.

This one reminds me of a beach towel with the flip flop brad and the twine ribbons.

Bonnie's other design was a floral in her new vase die cuts.

I loved the black, white and pink color palette.

Carol's granddaughter Kayleigh came to make cards with us--and to show us her crafts. She loves to make miniatures.  She is very creative, imaginative and talented--a future Martha Stewart!

Kayleigh brought a box of her creations including cotton candy made from cotton swabs that cleaned pink chalk off a chalkboard, cake slices made from sponges, a fortune cookie made with craft foam (fortune included), a felt chocolate candy bar and a tiny envelope containing a note.

Some more  Kayleigh creations up close:

Sushi platter with baked potato, noodles, California roll (small bead wrapped in black electrical tape) and toothpick chopsticks.

Parfait made from the top of a plastic bottle--with a cherry on top!

Miniature candy in bins. The wrappers were printed from Google images.

Veggies and dip from the soda bottle bottom!

And a little hard to see, but these are pencils made from toothpicks in their own clear pencil case.

We had a great afternoon of crafting--young and old alike!

Bleach Technique for Papercrafting

Hot August afternoon, so I thought I would try the Double Time bleach technique from the Make It Monday #76 video tutorial from Papertrey Ink's blog Capture the Moment. The bleached stamps are there somewhere since I added a lot of techniques to the cards.  Must have been the fumes from the bleach!

I used some inexpensive stamps I had of  pansy (from Autumn Leaves) and a branch with buds and leaves from a Hampton Arts set (with a dandelion and a bird also).  Both were in the dollar bins at local craft stores.  I found some pink paper, not sure the brand or color but the bleach took well on this color compared to other colors I tried.  I double stamped the same images in PTI dye inks Berry Sorbet and New Leaf. I also use some inexpensive cubes of pigment ink in maroon and purple for variety and to make the flowers seem to come forward (lighter colors) or recede (darker colors) in the pattern.

The card needed more pizazz as the bleach effect didn't show well.  I think a stamp with a wider line would have shown more white versus the background color.  Next time!  So I got out the markers and watercolors and a paint brush and started to make the flowers pop with color.  The white marks and the double stampig and off stamping gave the pattern additional texture and dimension.

I just added a lilac organza ribbon (5/8 inch) and a small purple (Bazzill Grape Delight) tag with a sentiment as embellishment since I wanted the patterned paper and the various techniques to take center stage. 

This second card is actually my first attempt.  The white bleach stamping shows a little more since the pattern is not all over the card front. The flowers are markers blended with water and a paint brush.  The strokes were too evident so I reached for the watercolors for the second (first!) card. I darkened the flower centers and added a Recollections Faux Pearl in lilac. Maybe I should go back to the card above and darken those centers also?  A double bow of Offray 1/8 inch purple satin ribbon and a little butterfly from the scrap bin perked up the sentiment and the lower left corner.  Maybe the branches should not all be at the same angle next time?  I added those in the upper left at the end because that corner had too much negative space.

Design can be tough, but it was a cool way to spend a hot day in my basement studio. 







August Card Workshop

Summer Fun card for tomorrow's workshop is a card with several pre-made embellishments. That's just what you need for summer--some easy shortcuts!  I used K & Company Color Basics Radiant Multi cards and envelopes in yellow, green, blue and pink. I borrowed Bonnie's wave die cut again.  I used our group's Top Note die cut from Stampin' Up to make the blue polka dot pop-up frame. The papers were from a designer paper pad called Everyday Flair from Six by Six by My Mind's Eye,  I loved the dots and checks because they remind of summer fun from my childhood. The beachball and flip flops were from Gartner Studios' Summer Fun Confetti pack of 30 shapes (no adhesive). The sentiment is stamped in Versamark black ink using one of three stamps in the Stamp Craft set from Plaid.  And lastly, the adhesive pennant border was from Momenta. This is not an A2 card so the only hard part was designing in a little bigger space.  That's where the pennant border came into the design!

The second card is masculine. We have a lot of requests for masculine get well cards in our community through our outreach committee.  I saw a tutorial on Pinterest by Dawn Olchefske for "Triple Time Stamping."  She used florals but I had some compass, gears and globe stamps from Stampers Best that I thought might work with Dawn's technique. It was successful I think!

I cut the 3 ivory stamp areas and 3 chocolate mats using these sizes:  2 X 3.25 and 2.25 X 3.5 for the center layer, 3 X 4.25 and 3.25 X 4.5 for the middle level and 4 X 5.25 and 4.25 X 5.5 for the outside layer. Laying the three ivory pieces together, stamp all over with background (I used Gears and Papertrey Ink Fine Linen ink pad) and then a larger, darker pattern (I used the Compass and PTI Dark Chocolate ink pad). I used ivory cover stock from Staples for the stamp areas and the card itself.  I also used Staples A2 envelopes in ivory.  I had some chocolate paper in my stash. I think it was from Wal-Mart since it had the perforations and extra paper at the top with a hole in the center of the stack.  I also found a scrap of teal paper for the tags to coordinate with the stitching in the Burnt chocolate stitched Offray ribbon.  I cut the tags out of a Stampin' Up die cut by Sizzix called Lots of Tags.  I had some jute leftover from last month's workshop design.  I stamped the compass again and cut it out with a 1.5 inch circle punch.  A bigger punch, maybe 1.75 inch, would be a better fit, but it worked to cut it smaller.  I popped it up with foam tabs and colored the needle red with a marker. I even got out the brown marker to make the stitching on the tag to reflect the stitching in the ribbon. I'm very happy with the results.

Thanks to Dawn for the idea and my stash and my friends for the supplies!  That's the way a summer project should go together.  Just a little effort --and no trip to the store in the sweltering heat and humidity!