The Card Concept #61 & Caring Hearts Card Drive

Every time I sit at my desk to work this month, I try to make four more cards just for the Caring Hearts Card Drive which distributed more than 22,000 Holiday Cards last year to the elderly who live in nursing homes.  So with the idea of making a few rather than just one, I used the same design that I showed on Instagram the other day, just with slightly different colors. This design is so fast that really, I should make about 10 each time!  (In the end, I made 12 today.) However, I don't have much in the way of printed paper, so it takes a while to choose that. Otherwise, it's super easy to make these cards.  I was having a problem the other day with an ink pad when I was working on these cards but my replacement pad was in yesterday's mail so I could go ahead and make a few more of these.  You can see in the next Photo that my leaves are a different color (Ocean Tides) than the ones I made today, but I decided not to make anymore until my replacement ink pad came.

I did use the MISTI to stamp the sentiment since it is two different fonts and on two different stamps and I needed to be able to stamp it again if my first stamping was not as clean as it should have been. I started with panels of 5.5 x 4.25 inch Stamper's Select White Cardstock and stamped my greeting from the Simon Says Stamp's Believe in the Season Stamp Set. I sprinkled Ranger Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder over the top and heat set it. I stamp, sprinkle, stamp, sprinkle, & heat set 2 panels at a time. Lots of people do more than this but I found if I have too many at once, I tend to mess up the embossing powder before it gets heat set. Some folks stamp 10 at a time for instance but I don't get impressions as good when I do it that way as I think the ink dries too much before getting sprinkled.  I guess I am kind of a slow stamper. Whatever happens, you should always do what works for you personally.  Other people's experiences can be your guideline, but do it how you like.

I wanted to add a few thoughts about MISTI here as food for thought.  I have the MISTI and also the Mini MISTI.  There is also available a Large Misti which will stamp a 12 x 12 sheet of paper. At the time when I got mine, the regular sized MISTI was the only size available. Just after CHA this year, the other two sizes were released.  Heidi Crowl had a "Steals & Deals" flash sale at Simon Says Stamp sometime in the past 6 month and had the Mini MISTI on there for $29.00 so I snatched it up!  I love the small size since I usually work on a panel of cardstock but you need the larger, 8.5 x 11 inch size if  if you want to stamp directly onto a card base.  Also, the Mini MISTI takes up a lot less real estate on my desk.

Image from my Instagram Account on November 8

On the first 4 cards from today, I used the Holly Leaves and Berries from Papertrey Ink's Enclosed: Bell Stamp Set to stamp the images by stamping first in Versamark Ink and then adding my color choices for each thing - in this case Pine Feather and Pure Poppy.  I want to make sure you understand what I did here so I'm going to explain it a bit further.  I stamped first on the Versamark Ink Pad and then without cleaning that off, stamped again in the colored ink. So there is a double layer of ink so to speak is what I stamped onto my paper.  I sprinkled each of them with WOW! Neutral Ultra Shimmer Embossing Powder which deepens the color and makes it look all sparkly.  

I wanted to do a comparison for how that worked as opposed to stamping just in the ink, without any Versamark added, then covering with embossing powder. So that I could keep it straight in my mind which was which, I used Simon Says Stamp Clear Embossing Powder for these next four cards.  I would stamp in ink only, sprinkle the embossing powder, heat set it, then while that was still warm, sprinkle the clear embossing powder again and heat set it and again a third time. These make the glossiest, smoothest berries and leaves.  The 2nd time helps, but it's that third time of sprinkling and heating that really makes them nice.  The look very much as if I put a coat of glossy accents on everything but I didn't have to wait for them to dry. Pine Feather is a very deep green ink and the clear embossing powder just intensifies this.  When I worked on this design a couple of days ago, I did those by sprinkling the berries with WOW! Primary Apple Red Embossing Powder, but honestly, the clear was so much easier to do and I could do it without having to change embossing powders mid stream.  These stamps are small in size and I have my container of Clear Embossing Powder sitting right there for an immediate sprinkle.  Since I planned from the beginning to heat emboss the stamping, I had moved over to that area of my studio where I keep those tools.  I wouldn't have had enough time to get the embossing powder onto the damp ink if I had stamped them at my desk and then moved them the heat embossing area. These inks are not pigment based so they don't stay wet very long. Time is of the essence and you can't dawdle on this step.  I used an acrylic block to stamp the leaves and berries.  I could have used MISTI since it was sitting there but it seemed easier to just stamp them normally.  And although I did this by hand, they are really close to being in exactly the same place on each panel - proof that practice really does help.

The patterned papers are from Wild Rose Studio's Bird & Berries Collection and Painted Poinsettia's Collection. I didn't mess any of these up when I was die cutting them with the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles Dies but I was worried I might because they are so thin.

This is the one time of year that I used pre-made note cards from Hobby Lobby but they are not the same size as usual being 4 x 5.5 inches.  Anytime I am making a large group of cards, I use these, to be consistent and because they are fast and ready to go.  I love the narrow margin around the outside of the die cut so if I trim 1/4 inch off of the longer side, then this is a perfect fit for this look.  I actually wish someone would make a die with the stitched edge and the slightest bit smaller than a standard A2 card base; like 5 3/8th's x 4 1/8th.  So far, no one does.  Everyone makes one that is a quarter of an inch smaller on both sides or the same size of 4.25 x 5.5 inches. I'm looking for the in between size.

On some of these cards, I did a bit of ink blending around the edges of the smaller rectangle (cut using the second largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle) with Pale Peony or Spring Rain Ink and a Mini Ink Blending Tool. Since this is card stock and not watercolor paper, I used a back and forth scrubbing motion just on the edges which gives some added texture. All in all , this was a very easy card to make and to duplicate. I noticed that my friend, Yana, did a card with the same basic design the other day and all I can say is that "great minds think alike". She used the Simon Says Stamp Poinsettia Stamp Set for her "Holly" which is a genius idea. Yana always makes me take a step back and try to see my stamps in other ways but I'm not nearly as good at that as she is.

This last card is the one I'll be entering into The Card Concept Challenge #61 in the Clean & Layered Style. The color Pink was my total inspiration for this challenge although I did more cards in both the pink and the blue.  If you'd like to contribute cards to this great card drive, you can find all the details here at Jennifer McGuire's Blog or you can contact the Activities Director at a local nursing home to see if there is a need in your area.  I bet there is!   

Birthday Greetings

I worked on a few card things today in my studio including trying to get my design together for my best friend, Gloria's, birthday which is coming up in about 8 days.  Even though we live 260 miles apart now, we do our best to stay connected

That's harder than it might seem in this day and age of social media, but she is pretty much my only friend, acquaintance or relative other than my in-laws who does not have a Facebook, Instagram or other kind of account.  She does have e-mail but she doesn't check it very often; and I have to remind her to check her actual snail mail box so she can get the cards I make and send to her.  At the time we became friends, I worked outside the home but she didn't.  Now our roles are reversed and she is the busied, harried working mom trying to juggle her kids activities and work a more than full time job.  The expectation from her employer is to work at least 45 hours a week and it is often 50 or more.  I know, because I worked for the same company before she went to work there.  

Gloria likes to make cards, too, and that is what we do when she comes for the weekend a couple of times a year.  Therefore, my goal is always to make something for her in a style or manner that she wouldn't think to do, so that it is different from anything she would make for herself.   This year I wanted to do something special since I started making cards this year.  For my birthday in June, she sent me a card that played a song, really loudly!  I had to take the battery out before I could read it because it was so loud.  Ha!  Shhhhh--don't tell her.  

The design I came up with is really simple.  I wanted to have something she could take with her to her office or her bathroom mirror or anywhere she might have a notion to as a reminder of our sisterhood.  I always say, "Whether we're near or far apart, we will always be sisters of the heart." So I wanted her to see that heart and have it remind her that I'm always there in spirit.  I'm planning to put a note in the card about how to remove the heart and take off the removable adhesive on the back side.

For such a simple card, this was quite the learning experience.  I haven't done a whole lot of embossing and hadn't really tried to until August of this year.  I initially tried to use some Cherry Cobbler Card Stock and no matter how much Powder Tool I used, I was getting bits of Gold Powder scattered all over the card stock and I wasn't getting the smoothness I wanted.  So I opted to try it out on this Garnet Shimmer Paper and that was a winner.  I'm learning that the smoothness of the paper has a lot to do with your results.

I stamped 2 - 4.25 x 5.5 pieces of the Garnet Shimmer Paper using an older Stampin' Up set called "Baroque Motifs" with Versamark and heat set the Ranger Fine Detail Gold Embossing Powder.   I really don't use the rest of this set, but I love that one particular stamp a whole bunch.  Then I cut one of the panels using the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Dies in the largest one.  I used my Memory Box Stitched Hearts Dies to cut the other embossed panel in the largest heart.  Next I put an eyelet through a hole near the top of the heart so that I could feed a narrow ribbon through it to make it hang like an ornament.

I cannot even count the number of eyelets I have.  I bought several packages years ago at the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington, Texas.  I lived in Dallas then so it was not too far of a drive and I went with one of my scrappy friends and we met up with other scrappy friends there.  What fun that was; it makes me smile just thinking about it!  But most of the eyelets I have can be set using a ball point pen.  I happen to have a Silent Setter so I did use that since it also puts the correct size hole first.  But these eyelets are easy to set.  I had the ribbon (trust me when I tell you that I have ribbon) and since it was so narrow I knew it would fit through.  I cut the Penny Black Happy Birthday die in gold metallic paper and made sure to place it on the removable heart.  Then I tucked the ribbon behind my front panel and adhered that to my card base.  I used a narrow strip of Removable Adhesive to hold the heart in place in alignment with the background panel.  There's nothing fancy here, but she will love it.

The Garnet Shimmer Paper I have came from Create for Less several years ago. Sometimes Hobby Lobby will have some Shimmer Vellum in a nearly identical color called Lava.  

I may have another project later as I will be continuing participation in the Share Handmade Kindness Campaign that you can read about on Jennifer McGuire's blog (link on the right hand side).  If you stop by, please leave a comment for me; I love reading them!