Coco and company, with the principles or art and elements of design firmly in hand, embark on the tangled path just to see…
I’ve been planning this card since I first read on Love For Lizi’s blog that the challenge for this month was “Magpie Supplies. I know that many others have referred to the challenge as “shiny”…but with supplies from the August kit…and maybe a bit from the May kit…I think this card fits both.
And when you remove the slider band…
A magpie resting in a nest of gold. And the sentiment…Made with Love…because why else would a magpie gather all those shiny things if he wasn’t hoping for love.
I had such a fun creative month and I really don’t want you to miss any of it! Look at all the goodies in the June card kit from Simon Says Stamp. The floral stamp is a nice large 6 X 8 size. Yes that’s a sampling of Daniel Smith watercolors, a Sizzix embossing folder, card stock, 6 X 6 patterned papers, a preprinted watercolor card base. And don’t forget the sweet treat!
I fell in love with this card kit as soon as I opened it! I enjoy being able to make a variety of cards…such as a greeting card, a sympathy card, an inspirational card, a birthday card…so this kit was perfect for me! In this first card I punched up the color of the nearest ballon to give a real sense of depth to the image. The row houses have a bit of color enhancement and a bit of layering and “popping up” of the nearest row of houses. And I let them extend out of the picture frame to express contin
The color of flowers in the following card have been punched up a bit with alcohol markers. The “you” was cut with a die from my stash. I used three cutouts to give it some strength and dimension. I used chestnut ink to distress the edges a bit, and added a piece of green burlap ribbon from my stash. This lovely card could be used to lift someone’s spirits or it could be a special occasion card. 
The two next cards were created at the same time. I used prism colored pencils to color the stamped floral arrangement on the white card stock. I used Daisy white by CTMH to print the same floral design onto blue card stock. Carefully cutting both designs, I matched them up and adhered them to card bases, added a green burlap ribbon, and embossed the sentiment in gold.
The next coloring with alcohol markers and colored pencil caused a bit of a halo around a couple of the flowers I had stamped on the a printed paper…but I didn’t mind the effect! The edges are distressed with chestnut ink. I added a twine bow (it reminds me of hug) and popped the whole card up on a card base from my stash.
The following sympathy card was created by embossing first black card stock in the embossing folder, then adding gold embossing powder and heat setting it. Then I cut out just the one flower and adhered it to a vertices line of black shimmer tape from my stash) onto an embossed piece of soft gray card stock, and tied it with a black bow before popping it up on a card base. I thought love and hugs was the perfect sentiment for a formal “thinking of you “ card. (Just a hint…if you mist your card stock before inserting it into an intricate embossing folder, you will get a better imprint and less damage to the fibers in the card stock.)
The next color of the balloon and the flowers of the next card are embellished with Bianyo alcohol markers. The sentiment “you’re braver than you believe” was printed on gold mirror card stock that matched the card card base.
I reached into my stash for butterflies, a couple of stamps, and some ribbon to make this birthday card. The patterned paper edges is distressed with a soft blue. The butterflies were stamped onto a background of distressed inks that repeated the colors in the patterned background paper.
And, of course…with all the graduates in June you have to expect one “spread your wings and fly” card! The paper was so perfect I just added a bit of color, stamped the sentiment and added the simple embellishments.
For the final card of this set of 10 I created a background with distressed inks, added a bit of color to the balloons. The sentiment is from Close To My Heart, as are the mini jewels in the textured sequins and about the background. Popped up on a card base and tied with a coordinating sheer ribbon.
These cards are fun and and i loved the theme of “fly me away”.
See you soon with more creativity and cards!
I completed 10…no 11 or was it 12…cards with Scrapping For Less’s May card kit, ”Countryside”, and I still have backgrounds stamped and critters colored….and I don’t think I have even touched the tiny check papers yet! Opening the red checked envelope that held this month’s inspiration immediately felt like summer and fair time and childhood memories!
If you haven’t explored a card making kit…I think Scrapping For Less is a good place to start. They always give you four mini kits all based on the theme. This month I found these supplies:
The first photo shows everything that comes in the kit (mine was missing a sheet of black licorice card stock, so it’s not in the photo, but arrived a few days later). The packet on top with the Nuvo drops and burlap ribbon showing was May’s Banana Split option. The other five pics are what’s in each mini kit (one of the kits shows both sides of double sided papers…sorry but I forgot to snap a photo of the other doubled sided paper set).
And here are the cards (so far):
The sentiment balloon was actually printed with something I didn’t particularly like…but there was this sentiment stamp included. Colored it with some distress ink and edged it with my favorite color for distressing the edges…Color Box (Cat’s Eye) chestnut ink. Sparkle tape, ribbon and black and white drops from my stash. I think the white eye is gel pen.
When I saw the jeans pockets I had two thoughts…shorty high pockets and deep pockets. Deep pockets implies a “thanks”…so this card emerged. (Sentiment stamp and white embossing powder from my stash.
There were some fun neckerchiefs in this kit and fun plaid paper. I created the graphic design background and then wondered what I was going to do with it… Finally deciding to use the “Howdy” sentiment strip and some of the stickers seemed to work. I did punch up the color on the stickers with my Bianyo alcohol markers (which I love!) and distressed all the edges with the same chestnut colored ink. I think the juvenile sticker give a whimsical feeling to this card.
Missing ewe… perfect sentiment…but I decided to use those alphabet stickers (which didn’t stick very well and had to be glued in place). I found a piece of bright polka dot paper in my stash which went well with the plaid paper. In my stash I have a nice rose embossing folder which I thought created a wooly feel to the white card stock, stamped the sheep in Close To My Heart’s Toffee ink…and left one spot empty. Only the sentiment is popped up. The white sparkle tape is also from Close to My Heart. I think this card’s cries out for bold pun inside…like “For flock’s sake call me!” (Thanks Scott! You see what direction you puns are taking me! LOL )
The next card is almost entirely from the kits. Only the sentiment, twine bow, black embossing powder, black sparkle tape, and Nuvo Aquatic Mist glitter drops emerged from my stash. And, of course all edges distressed with chestnut colored ink. This card is popped a couple of times. If I remember correctly I used one of the downloadable sketches from the kit web site. The tag had a different sentiment preprinted on the reverse side of the punch out. I covered the “beef” part of the stamp and printed the Farm Fresh with versamark. I really like the “feel” of this card. It would be perfect with a jar homemade pickles or maybe apricot jam.
There’s a set of “pig-nic” stamps in one of the mini kits. But, I decided to invite all the animal friend stamps included to picnic. Again, I used one of the sketches from the downloads to create the layout. Stamped the sentiment with Versamark and used white embossing powder. Then I realized I had invited a lot “meat” to my picnic and stamped delicious underneath…so I added a mini sparkle “wink” to one eye of each animal friend. The hearts are Nuvo glitter drops, orange soda I think.
Happy Birthday to Moo! Perfect sentiment! I edged the turquoise cardstock with a border punch by Martha Stewart (I’ve had it for awhile…so it may not be available any longer). The party hat was a quick hand drawn addition. And, of course the mooing choir was inspired by happy cows lined up for milking across America.
The next card started with that great barn stamp Fine details…and challenging to work with. There is a Farm, Faith, Family, and Friends sentiment above the barn on the stamp. But I think that barn is wonderful and needs to stand alone. I attempted to give the roof a copper glint with the transparent Nuvo drops in the Banana Split option kit…but I found I couldn’t add color to the surface. Tuned one of the preprinted sentiments over for the flower petals, and cut a circle for the center, to create a flower that resembled the sunflowers in the printed paper. Added some chicks to the barn. If you know anyone who raises chickens…unless they are carefully caged they tend to be everywhere. So my chickens are sliding down that barn roof. I’m still playing with that barn. The fine lines require careful coloring and permanent ink that is alcohol friendly. I have blurred several while experimenting with various coloring schemes. You can expect to see again on future layouts. The sketch I used was from a 2017 download on the web site.
Back to the Pignic. I love the stamp set and used it several times. The “Hey There” is from my stash…used when I temporarily mislaid the “Hay There” that was included in the kit. Still cute though!
I wanted to use the die set that came with the Banana Split kit option, and also a piece of that great burlap ribbon. The printed sentiment under the farm says “Home Gardening~Farm to Table”. Cute for the farm paper layout. But…there was this one ephemeral sentiment…”How’s It Growing”. With a little white gel pen and some blended Scattered Straw oxide ink…that sentiment became “How’s it Crowing”…which went much better with my rooster, hens and chicks theme. Added quite a few sequins, but I loved the way they moved the eye around this card.
So…that was 10. And usually I stop at 10 cards from a kit (unless I need a special one for some reason), but I just keep going back to this kit. So, here are two more. Another pignic, using the checked stamp included in the kit. Another Martha Stewart border punch.
The second card uses one of four stamps that seem kind of like advertising to me. I stamped them with toffee in and blended scattered straw oxide ink. The stamps make great backgrounds. I fussy cut a sentiment balloon and stamped the sentiment from the kit. I did add some sparkle to the cow…which doesn’t photograph well. But, it a fun card!
So, that it’s for now! Keep on creating and my farm farewell pun…
Thanks for joining me!
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
Paper Poodles and Puns 