Scallop |

The new challenge of the month over at H2H is all about sponge techniques! This one was fun! Because, I don’t know about you, but I like to channel my inner Tim Holtz every now and again! I saw him do this technique years ago, on a video, that was probably years old! LOL!! Basically he used a Misti tool to make a rainbow of colors on a stamp, by sponging colors onto the stamp and overlapping them.

So, before you leave, I would love for you to leave me a note and let me know which is YOUR favorite card, and let me know if you have tried this technique!

Mine didn’t ALL overlap, but some of them did! I just think the whole thing turned out great!

I also channeled my inner Jennifer McGuire, and made TWO dinos when I was stamping, to make two cards. However, I couldn’t decide which background I wanted, so I just went ahead and did two!

Before I swap over to the other card, I wanted to show something. I managed to blow a fuze when I was making this card. (literally, had to go and flip the breaker!) So, one of my pieces didn’t cut all the way. So, I decided to do something fun with the inside, and use that piece that hadn’t cut all the way.

I tore it into a ‘sloped’ shape, and then distressed it, and glued it to the inside of the card. I think it turned out great!

Ok, let’s see the other card, shall we?

This is the other dino! Isn’t he cute, too? I created a background with one of the images on the Artbooking cartridge. Then I cut it four times, to give it some depth

It was fun to do two different cards! It would have been much faster if I had done two of the same, but that’s ok too!

Last week, you saw that I was inspired by a friend’s son, and this week is the same! Just, a different friend! (actually, both friends’ sons like dinos!)

Like I said earlier, I hope that you will let me know which card is YOUR favorite! Also, if you might want to try this whole sponging thing, join us over at H2H for some fun challenges, and put YOUR artwork into the hat!

Thanks so much for joining me!

Welcome back, folks! This week we are talking about borders. As always, it is up for interpretation. This week, I went with the Decorative Borders Thin Cuts! Now, like you have seen me do in the past, I went for the Make it from your Heart books to get me started. Today, I was perusing Volume 1, and I gained inspiration from both patterns 25 and 30. More the artwork of those patterns than of the patterns themselves. (This is one of the things that I love about all of the books, there is artwork to show you that it can be done similarly, but differently at the same time!)

So, I started with pattern 30, and in that artwork, there is a scalloped border that is done, probably with the old corner punch, and there are a few layers of it. So, my brain said, if they can do a few, I can do a whole card front of them, right? Right! So, I ended up cutting about 24 strips! I used 20 on the front of the card, and 2 on the inside, and have a few left over that I can use for another project!

So, I have my card front, what do I do now? So, back to the book I go, and I pause at pattern 25. It has this fun rectangle on the front, and I knew that I could use the Stitched Rectangles thin cuts for this! I thought about just leaving the rectangle empty, but didn’t much like it that way. So, I decided that I would use a scrap of vellum on it, and that would be perfect! I would be able to see through it and still see that border background. I had a scrap of the Mix In paper packet on my desk, and thought that it would be perfect to add a bit of color to the card, but still soft enough to not take over the card. So, then I decided to add a bit of color to the frame that I had cut from the rectangle die, so I grabbed my pink watercolor pencil, and colored it in, and then went over it with the medium waterbrush. I did another scrap of the frame for the inside as well.

Then I needed to decide what to do for the front sentiment and focal point of the card. I had stamped and die cut the flowers from the Escape to Paradise stamp and thin cuts, so I grabbed those, and thought they would be perfect! So, I grabbed the watercolor pencils again, and colored away! Now, I had not stamped these on watercolor paper, so I tried to be very gentle with the amount of water that I used on the flowers and the frames too!

Now, I have everything but the sentiment! What in the world am I going to do? While I like the sentiments in the set, they just didn’t seem to fit with the direction that this card was going! So, I looked through what I had, and fell back to my trusty favorite set, the sentiments from the cricut Flower Market cartridge bundle! I LOVE these things! This sentiment worked perfectly with these flowers! And gives the card so many more possibilities! (I actually already know who I am giving it to, but won’t say just yet, as I want it to be a surprise!)

I attached the vellum to the frame with micro glue dots. I used them also on the flower in the back. Then I used some thin foam tape behind the frame, behind the sentiment strip, and for the top flower. Then, the card needed a bit of bling, so I added some silver glitter gems to it. Now that I am looking at it, I could have added a ‘nest’ of the silver embellishing thread behind the flowers, and that would have added yet another nice little touch.

I hope that you like my little card! Let me know what you think, should I have added the silver thread in a nest?

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you play along with the challenges over at Heart 2 Heart, they are super fun! You always have until the end of the month to complete your challenge, with a new challenge every week!

All products used are CTMH unless otherwise noted:

Escape to Paradise Bundle Z4085
Mix In Paper Packet
White Daisy Cardstock
Decorative Borders Thin Cuts
Stitched Rectangle Thin Cuts
Flower Market Cricut Bundle
Intense Black Ink
Water Color Pencils
Medium Round Waterbrush
Silver Glitter Gems
Liquid Glass
Micro Glue Dots
Thin 3-D Foam Tape
White Cards & Envelopes Value Pack
2 x 3 1/2 Clear Acrylix Block
1 x 3 1/2 Clear Acrylix Block
Fiskars Paper Trimmer