Highlights Jan.-July 2018

Hard to believe it's already a new year! This year I am hoping to do more with my art.  I would like to teach, and be challenged to try new things, maybe publish some of my designs, and possibly make a YouTube video. Scary thought!  At the time of this posting, one of my newest challenges is to set up this Blog, and a Facebook page.  I am new at this, but learning fast.  Here's to new adventures in 2018!

Let's start off the year with the card I made for my honey.  I needed simple, easy to mail, but it needed to be kinda cute.  So I came up with this.  Pretty straight forward card, but I did make my own background paper (the stripes).  I learned how awesome glossy accents are, about shading around objets, and then how to cover a boo boo with an embellishment! Oh, yeah, I also did an ombre sentiment.  Fun, fun, fun!

 There was a new grand baby on the way, and we didn't know the gender, so I made one of each.  I don't have any background stamps yet, so I improvised and just loaded the entire stampset into my misti.  I embossed with white on the boy's card, and clear on the girl's card and used that for the background.  I stamped, colored, then cut out the stork & buggy.  I popped them up with dimensionals. The buggy, the stork, and the greeting are Lawn Fawn stamps, and I'm sorry to say, I don't know where I got the background stampset.  The clothing dies were gift, and again, I don't know the manufacturer.

Here's the inside. 

These two are treat bags for Valentine's Day

Both use Simon Says Stamp "Wild Cuddly Critters"  I love this stampset, and have had tons of fun playing with it! 

 

This is one of my many favorites.  The only thing that would have been better, is if it had been a pop up card....Hmmm, I must think on that one.  I found the layout for this on YouTube.  So cute! I did my own background with Distress Oxide inks.  I had to cut the rectangles on my scan n cut because I didn't have dies like this.  The monsters....Ah, yeah, they are a Katzelkraft creation.  So adorable!  Perfect for little boys! A little Glossy Accents on the eyes, Wink of Stella on the wings and we're done!  Like I said, this was one of my favorites this year.  I do wish I had thought of a pop up tho.




At about this time, I REALLY started getting interested in pop ups cards.  I even tried taking some tutorials on the subject!  I am surprised I have any hair left!  My motto after weeks of trying was "leave it to the experts!"  I can do some things without dies, but honestly...not enough to make a complete popup card.  So then I switched to watching Karen Burniston on YouTube.  Karen, you are my hero, and I wish my brain worked like yours! Wow!  The videos I watched!  Only problem was, I was watching old videos using discontinued die sets.  If you look under frustration in the dictionary, it now uses my name as a description!  I was so glad when I finally stumbled onto newer videos using newer die sets.  Now came the "I want them all" phase!  Since then, I have manage to get my hands on some of the older dies, but for some reason, at the time, I didn't get all the pop-up dies.  So stupid! I instead got her "support" dies, like Buster the Dog, Rudy the reindeer, Poppy the Owl, and others like this. And I love them!  I actually did purchased 2 pop up dies from when she was still with Elizabeth Craft Designs, and only used them one or two times, not realizing then what I know now....you can use them in different ways other than just the standard way. So now, my mission is to get more of the new releases and learn to really use them.  They are truly awesome, and this time around I plan on owning all of them.  But quite honestly, I'm behind the eight ball, and have to show some patience and restraint.  I could bankrupt us with all the stuff I'd LIKE to get!
 
Sorry for going off on such a long tangent.  It's just the best way to explain where I am at now with card making.  Up until now, I made only a few pop ups, now, they're all I want to make!

 So....here it is!

I used the Snowman Twist Circle pop-up by Karen Burniston!

Such a great, and useful die.  The mushrooms are from Elizabeth Craft Designs, and the stamps are from Technique Tuesday.  The backgrounds are both made by me, and also paper I had in my stash.  The front cover was paper from ADORNit.  They have lots of cute designs!

I'm done posting pictures on these pages.  I've made other popup cards since this one, but to be quite honest, I copied other peoples' ideas/designs so it doesn't seem fair to post them here.  Sometimes you just need to get a feel for a die set so you can best know how to proceed with it.  

And now for the rest of this year....  Happy crafting, and I'll see you on my Blog Home page with new posts.