Daily Archives: April 24, 2007

With Sympathy

Posted on April 24, 2007 | 12 comments

I finished it…the card I started this morning! Today’s Color Challenge was to make a sympathy card with Virginia Tech colors for one of the families who have lost loved ones in this senseless tragedgy. I know it has touched people across the US, Canada and other countries as well and our hearts go out to those who have experienced this tragedy. If you are interested in joining in this challenge, the link is here.

Virginia Sympathy click to see enlarged detail of butterfly

jks-virginia-sympathy.jpg

I decided to keep this card simple…one, I just don’t have the energy for anything complex. Two, the strong colors of this challenge seemed to work better in my mind with a simple design, and three, I fell that sympathy cards seem to by more soft and soothing if they are not too busy. This card is made from Very Vanilla cardstock in a 5″ square format. The layers are Bravo Burgundy and Pumpkin Pie, the colors of Virginia Tech. I added a top large vanilla layer with lots of open space for the butterfly to “fly”.  I love the look of open space in a design…sometimes it can be a little intimidating…I often fill up all the space with so many elements and forget that simplicity is beautiful too.

The flower was stamped with black ink and the watercolored with my Aquapainter and the ink pressed into the lids of my ink pads. I then stamped my sympathy sentiment with the Bravo
Burgundy and added a little Prima flower from the Prima Essentials Lucid Collection that I purchased from Jacksonbelle. The stitched ribbon is a beautiful green and it is from Starlitstudio. To finish off my design, I “inked up” the butterfly with my new Essential Glue pad by Tsukineko, stamped it on the card and then covered it with clear glitter. I was extremely impressed with the detail and shimmer that I achieved. I was quite honestly a little nervous, seeing as my card was almost done and I had never tried the glue pad with an intricate stamp and also clear glitter. I just love the result and wish you could see it in person! I wanted the shimmery butterfly to represent hope and their loved one who would always be with them in memory. For more details on the new Essential Glue Pad see this entry…Glitterama.

12 Comments

Posted in Card Designs, Challenges

To Answer a Few Questions…

Posted on April 24, 2007 | 3 comments

I tried to come with a card design this morning to post today…no luck! I still have a residual headache so I’m going to stick to a quick post that I know I can do! I’ve been asked a few questions lately and thought I’d just answer them in one quick post…

  1. Do you ever get your desk cleaned? You seem to always be finding goodies on your desk to make into cards.  Answer….Ummmmm, pretty much no! LOL I do try and tidy up but I really don’t have any place to put everything! I just have a desk with one file drawer and two shallow drawers on the other side. A couple Iris carts and then…well, things are pretty much on the desk or stashed away.  I’ve asked  my husband to build me a buffet-like piece of furniture with three large pull-out drawers for some of my stash for my birthday. I think he actually may this year as I think he’s finally given up on me getting over this hobby any time soon! I just have a tiny corner of the family room to work in. Not ideal but I manage. Someday I’ll have a stamping room but probably not until a few of my children move out. I’m enjoying them much more than a stamping room so I’m really not looking forward to that happening any time soon!
  2. Do you mail your cards with large flowers and embellishments on them or do you hand deliver them? Answer…..I do mail them and also hand deliver them. If I’m sending a card with a daisy Prima and large brads, I might wrap it with cardstock first before inserting it into the envelope or wrap it with tissue and mail it in a large Manilla envelope. The Martinique Primas (the ones I use the most) and most other Prima flowers are gorgeous but surprisingly tough and stand up well. One thing to note… bulky mail with embellishments does cost more postage. You may also want to bring the mail directly into the post office and get it hand stamped so that it does not have to get sorted by machine which may injur your card.
  3. Do you find the glitter comes off when you use your Essential Glue Pad from Tsukineo? Answer….I’ve just had my glue pad for just over a week. The projects I have created wtih it, I’ve had great success. After this question was asked…I went back and actually rubbed at the glitter to check. Small amounts of the glitter will come off under this abuse but I was quite impressed with it. The glitter still adhered quite well. I know that if you rubbed at glitter that had been applied with Heat & Stick powder or a Two Way glue pen, the glitter would come off at about the same speed. I would suggest that if you are having trouble with this, try “reinking” your glue pad so that it has more glue in it and see if that helps.
  4. How do you watercolor on colored cardstock…mine always buckles? Answer…I don’t seem to have much problem with that. I love watercoloring on my Stampin Up cardstock! If you are using a lighter weight of cardstock, you may find yourself having difficulties with it. If you are using the heavy Stampin Up cardstock, my suggestion would be to use less water. I try to watercolor without much water in the aquapainter. Just don’t squeeze the barrel as much. If you are using a regular watercolor brush, tap off most of the water before inking it up with color. Let me know if this helps!

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be back to my usual self! Thanks for all the get well wishes! I’ll try and answer questions like these in blog entries from time to time so if you have questions…I’d be glad to hear from you.

3 Comments

Posted in Card Designs