Category Stamping

cat face

Happy Kitty

CraftyK Leave a comment

Hopefully you like cats. I do. I have 2 of them. My cousins have several cats among them as well. The cousin who is getting this card however had to give up his cats after finding out one of his kids is allergic. Yet the whole family still loves cats. They are all getting a cat card to at least have a non-allergy causing cat around. I cannot guarantee the card is free of cat hair either. I usually have one on my lap while attempting at stitching.

happy cat thread

This pattern is part of a set from a quilt book. I tried to highlight the symbols and colors I would need, yet missed the pink. It’s not in the picture when I started, but I had to go find some pink for the ears by time I was done.

stitching top

This was a pretty fast pattern to work on. It was the designing of the card that took a while.

I had no idea where to begin. I went through both paper drawers a couple of times before finding the blue geometric patterned paper from a book I bought last year.

The pattern was small enough to add some stamping with a birthday message. That paper was easy to find, I find myself using it a lot. It’s not white and has some character to it.

bottom view

I used my Cricut to cut out the blue paper and ivory paper for stamping on. I have a corner rounder cutting thing I used to round the corners. I was lazy and didn’t design the box in Illustrator and the Cricut program doesn’t allow for rounded corners.

After stamping I decided since I had my clear embossing powder by me to emboss just the word birthday. A little got on the letters above, but not enough to change the effect I was going for.

front of card standing

For not having a clue how to start designing this card I think it came together really well. Bringing in the additional element of the stamp helps offset the smaller cross stitch design.

Stitching

Started: May 9th
Finished: May 11th

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

front of Happy Cat

the otter stitching

Otter Love

CraftyK Leave a comment

The newest addition to the family by marriage loves otters…and Harry Potter. While Harry Potter is great, a little harder to come by cross stitch patterns. And for some reason I remember her otter love before HP.

I went searching for an otter pattern on Etsy and ended up with one from dailycrossstitch.com that is pretty adorable.

the pieces

There are lots of browns in this pattern, with pops of color with the pink and blue. It’s a very easy pattern to work which is good when you need to move through them quickly.

standing front view

This card ended up using a few new things I have learned about over the past year. First is the super new interfacing fabric that I think I mention every post now. The next is embossing powder for stamping.

The fun curves of this pattern lent itself to being one that is cut out and mounted. Since it doesn’t take up the full space I also decided to pull out some stamps. Then I read that the ink was the kind you can emboss with…and found I had bought powder called “Tinsel”. Knowing that Iris has mailed just glitter in an envelope before I couldn’t help but add some to the card.

close up of stamping

I haven’t figured out how to “clean up” the powder before running the heat gun over it making everything permanent. So this attempt looks messy to me along with some areas being heavier on the glitter than others. Overall it’s a cute card that came together nicely.

Stitching

Started: April 21st
Finished: April 29th

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

front only

set of 4 thank you cards

Holiday Thank Yous

CraftyK Leave a comment

Despite knowing all year when Christmas is I managed to put off creating my thank you notes. I also flat out didn’t do cards to send to people. I probably should, but if I make them it’s lots of work and my personal life is pretty boring so nothing to write lengthy prose about. Anyway, I digress.

These cards are to send to the 4 people who give me gifts in my old age (post 30). My mom, my mother-in-law, and my godparents. This year I enlisted help for my godparents gifts from my husband. He’s getting into woodworking and made something for each of them. Since it’s his thing, I don’t have pictures of the projects. So this will continue to be about the cards and my side ramblings.

I have stamped onto wallpaper before and decided to go for it again. Although it’s somewhat hard to see I did actually stamp on the pear card. I also took a Sharpie to it for an outline. For the white card I used black ink and stamped right onto the wallpaper. I had to wait awhile before adhering it to the cardstock because it was starting to bleed a bit. I barely touched it and it started to run up the lines in the wallpaper. After letting it sit for a while I went ahead and finished up making it into a card. The pear I didn’t seem to have those issues, but you can barely see the text. It’s a little more visible in person depending on the angle.

For the other two cards I got out the handy Cricut. I was never good at cutting squares or any shape for that matter. Straight lines are hard and getting them the correct size is even worse. I used the Cricut to cut out my squares from pink and grey paper. I then took a red ink to stamp Thank You onto the pink paper and a dark blue ink I onto the grey. Then I used foam tape to adhere the paper to the wallpaper to give a more 3D appearance.

To attach the wallpaper to the cardstock I used double sided tape on all 4 cards. I didn’t have the time to mess with Yes Paste and get it all to stick properly. I hope to spend some time working on more wallpaper cards next year. Until then I have now created some cards for December and can complete my blog on 2018 Cards. I think I’ll do another blog for next year since I know I’ll have a lot of cards to make for my mom’s side of the family.

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

flat lay 4 thank you cards

Birthday on my mind

CraftyK Leave a comment

I somehow managed to not make any cards in the entire month of August. All year I made a point to make at least one a month. I missed the mark last month.

The card featured here was on my mind since I finished my last set of new cards in July. I knew I wanted it to be a birthday card. I would cut an oval with the Cricut, stamp Happy Birthday with a script font in blue, and mount it to the card using foam tape. I had the wallpaper piece ready to go and everything, but for some reason I put this off for over a month.

 

wallpaper cards embellish_0918_09

I have been working on another cross stitch card for October, it’s just nowhere near done yet. More on that one later.

Back to the new card I made…I was doing my normal mass scrolling through Facebook and saw a new event pop up from a former teacher. (I only knew her through National Honors Society, never actually had her as a class teacher) Anyway, at some point we became friends on Facebook. So this event is to send her snail mail birthday cards. She is turning 40 and wants to celebrate with everyone by getting “a boatload of mail” for her birthday.

I wish I had thought of that last year when I turned 30. I love getting snail mail, but sadly my mailbox is filled with bills and junk.

Even though I don’t know Ms. Connors that well I decided that the reason I wanted to make this card and had the idea for it for so long was to send it to her. One of those odd the universe is trying to make something happen, just listen!

I hope she likes her custom hand made card from a former semi-student.

wallpaper cards embellish_0918_07

 

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

 

This post uses affiliate links. This just means that if you go to the site and end up buying something I’ll get a small percent, this doesn’t increase the cost to you at all. 🙂

All commissions from affiliate links go to the maintenance of this blog. Thank you for your support!

just because…

CraftyK Leave a comment

I told you I would write about stamping attempt #3, so here it is.

A brown plaid card on its own isn’t very exciting, but with my new stamping venture I was excited to start thinking of ideas. I had already affixed the plaid wallpaper to the card and chose to have the darker section at the top. After going through my new cards this one got tagged for needing something more.

Next I went to my stamps to pick something out, just because in a typewriter font seemed like a great idea. I found a button that would look good with the paper and found paper that would match nicely to stamp on.

I decided I wanted a rounded corner rectangle. I can’t remember if this is possible to do within the Cricut design space, I wasn’t finding anything quickly so I made my rectangle in Illustrator and uploaded it into the Design Space.

The cutting, stamping and embossing went off without a hitch.

The attaching to the card is where things went awry.

After I make a wallpaper card I mark the back with 2 small dots to let me know the bottom. Mistake #1: I failed to look at the back. Mistake # 2: I didn’t try to open the card the way a typical person/non-lefties do.

wallpaper cards embelish_0718_35

So this is what happens when you don’t check something and just start taping and gluing. I was so proud of this card until that moment. I am left handed, but have adapted to the spine being on the right and opening on the left.

I felt that even though the whole thing is backwards (and upside down, however you want to look at it) I can still use it based on the words I chose to adorn on it. “just because” Now it’s more of an ironic statement that “just because” I decided to make this card upside down.

wallpaper cards embelish_0718_31

 

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

 

This post uses affiliate links. This just means that if you go to the site and end up buying something I’ll get a small percent, this doesn’t increase the cost to you at all. 🙂

All commissions from affiliate links go to the maintenance of this blog. Thank you for your support!

The beginning of stamping

CraftyK Leave a comment

I started collecting stamps last year. For whatever reason I have been terrified to use them. Partially I think it’s the mess and clean up that stamping entails that has kept me from using them. Whatever the cause I finally pushed through, grabbed a stamp and ink pad and tried something new.

One

wallpaper cards embelish_0718_18

My first stamping was to add something to a mostly plain wallpaper card. Add a little pizzazz. I didn’t know what would happen with applying ink to wallpaper, but it turned out ok. So far it hasn’t wipe off either.

Two

wallpaper cards embelish_0718_27

The next card I made I got a bit fancy with. Adding layers and foam squares to really give a 3D look to this card. I kept with a greyscale color palette. The wallpaper backing is much shinier than the picture shows. The black and white papers are matte. The thanks is a clear stamp. When I put ink on it there were just bubbles, so it doesn’t have solid coverage like I was expecting, but it works to keep with an industrial look. This card is staying in my personal collection to use.

Three

Can be found here…it’s a doozy!

Four

wallpaper cards embelish_0718_30

I already had used this paper for a regular “classic” wallpaper card and I was having such fun using stamps at this point to make cards different I came up with this idea. I had to buy some darker red ink and pink paper (I also bought blue to see what I liked better). I did learn that buying the cheapest ink is not the best idea.

I had to get out the embossing powder to try and get this design to show up better the ink was so faint. I also used the Cricut to cut the pink paper into an off kilter square. Giving this a funky look to match the stamp style.

Five

wallpaper cards embelish_0718_37

This card is the result of just wanting to keep going. I started to get into this whole stamping thing. I happened to have bought espresso colored ink a while back and it went perfectly for this card. Again stamping direct on the wallpaper and then I embossed it as well. I wanted to have it stand out.

I’m not sure if it’s because of the heat or what caused this, but there is now a bubble under the ‘no’ of note. I did the stamping and embossing with the heat gun (seriously spend a little more to get a good one) before I applied the wallpaper to the cardstock. So that might be a bit of a learning curve.

I did learn that you should probably hold small paper that need embossing with tongs, even low powered heat guns get super hot.

And here they are the completed cards using stamps. (Minus number 3, like a said whole story on that one)

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

This post uses affiliate links. This just means that if you go to the site and end up buying something I’ll get a small percent, this doesn’t increase the cost to you at all. 🙂

All commissions from affiliate links go to the maintenance of this blog. Thank you for your support!