Their talk was very thought provoking and I genuinely admire them for their commitment so it was only natural that anyone would come away wondering what could be done to help. My mind was pondering if I could do anything even before they'd finished so I felt as though Debbie might be speaking to me individually when she jumped back up at the very last minute and added as a last thought 'Oh and if anyone wants to make handmade cards that we could sell, we can really use some'. That was all the prompting I needed - this was definitely something I could do!
I chose today to get busy on these cards since I'm desperately waiting for Mr Postie to deliver my latest Waltzing Mouse stamp order. I was in hope it would come today as it's my day off but nothing so far. Still I have spent the entire morning playing with stamps so it's cool and besides I know me. I would've been very distracted if they had arrived so I might not have gotten these cards done. See how good God is to me? He knows me sooooo well. My stamps will arrive that's for sure but most likely not until after these are finished LOL. Just a s well I think cos I'm hoping to use the new dies I ordered for the WMS sketch challenge this week - well as long as they arrive before Saturday that is.
Since I knew I needed several and I needed them quickly I decided to keep it pretty clean & simple. I also knew I wanted to use this super sweet berry stamp set and whilst I was about it I decided to take a few shots for a tutorial too. It's nice to get back to tutorials.
First up I had purchased a pack of 25 pre-made mini card blanks with envelopes for just £3.99 with this project in mind. I usually make my own card blanks and envelopes but doing it this way wasn't really any more expensive and it was a fantastic time saver too. I started off by stamping one of the Waltzing Mouse handmade stamps on the back of each card.
Next up I used my pattern tracing wheel and ruler to run a faux stitch line around the front of the card. I just love this technique. Hopefully you can just about see it in this shot but click on it to enlarge it if not. Maybe that will help.
Once that was done I cut a square measuring the same as my card front (4" x 4") and die-cut a heart from the centre. I then used the relief by centring it over the card front and shading in an area using distress ink.
Then I stamped my sentiment where I thought I wanted it to be.
And after that I decided to stamp up all my strawberries - don't they just look yummilicious? I'm gonna try this card again as a gift set and maybe do some fun colours like pink berries and lime green leaves, plus I think I might try the WMS gingham stamp instead of shading next time too. Ooooo and I can see a shade heart with the text stamp over the top too - endless possibilities!
Then I used the same heart shaped die, traced it onto a scrap of card stock and stamped the sentiment in about the same place as I had on my card front.
After cutting out my strawberries I was then able to position them onto this scrap piece where I thought they would appear on my card.......
....and then re-stamp my sentiment to get just a portion onto my strawberry. I set my strawberries aside for a moment to do the next step.
I love to doodle so I used the heart die to trace around my inked heart with a black fine line marker.
But because this fine line was too neat and because I also wanted a kinda hand stitched pen detail I traced around the pen line freehand weaving in and out and then added a few stitch strokes so it created a piece of patchwork. On reflection it kinda looks like barbed wire too but what the hey!
All that was left to do was adhere my strawberry taking care to line it up to the stamped sentiment. After that I inked the edges of my card - yes I love this technique too. It's kinda like adding another layer without actually doing that.
Finally I finished it off with a few doodled pen dots (which you can't see in this shot so go back up to the first shot) which again I love to add. And there you have it! One quick, easy, pretty card - ten down and only 15 more to go! Then all I have to do is line them, bag them up and pop them into the post.
I am at my mother's house for dinner and crafting this evening so no prizes for guessing what I'll be doing tonight huh? LOL.
And as an added bonus keeping myself occupied today has helped keep me on track with the diet. Can you believe I kept my weight steady and maintained the entire time I was out of action with Labyrinthitis and NOW I gain a couple of pounds? Aaarrgghhhhh!! I'm hoping it's back off when I see the nurse this Saturday and that I'm getting back on track. Jessy has been out walking with me plus I played on the Wii fit board this week too - first time ever and it was a blast. I don't usually do any computer games but I about pee'd my pants laughing when I tried to hoola hoop and then when Dave got on to try it I nearly pee'd em' again laughing at him! In the new year I plan to join a Salsa class or something but I'll keep plugging away at what I can when I can until then. I'm still just a bit too giddy to put myself out there in public LOL.
Blessings
Suezie
P.S. I will be running a couple of Christmas workshops at my church before Christmas if anyone's interested in coming along. I'd love to catch up with you all.
No comments:
Post a Comment