Have you seen the hostess rewards stamps in the Seasonal Expressions book? These are only available until the end of August, so if you haven’t seen them, run and go look! If you have seen them, and haven’t gotten them yet, you will definitely want to grab a couple of friends and put in a party order, so that you can get them! Just ask me what you need to do to have that happen!

Today I am working with the Dino-mite Birthday stamp set. I LOVE the little dinosaur in this set, but wanted to play along with the Heavy Metal challenge with Heart 2 Heart Challenges. So, I got to playing!! I started with the Make it from your Heart, volume 4, again. And used pattern 10, just like I did with my notebook, here.

I was going to make just one card, but couldn’t just go with a boy card, so believe it or not, both of these cards are made with the same two pieces of paper, just flipped to use the opposite side!

I started with the boy card, and didn’t get very far before I had to go with a girl card too!

Now, believe it or not, this metal paper is the gold foil cardstock! What?!?! Right? I am LOVING how this turned out!! And believe it or not, it was SUPER simple to do!! I really wanted an ‘old’ and patina type look to my metal, and, as you know, we don’t carry anything like that in the idea book. However, we do have LOTS of different supplies to be able to do many fun things!

So, this is what I did. . . First I cut the scallop sides with the dies, from the gold foil cardstock. Then I tried a couple if things, but the one that worked the best was to use the black shinhan marker to cover the gold side, then flip it over and press it into a piece of scrap paper, to remove a bit of the black. On the spots that weren’t quite removed enough, I took an alcohol wipe and blotted in spots to make it a bit more worn looking. Then I did the same thing for a straight piece for each card. (actually, I did one piece and then split it in half to put the left edge on the cards). And then I repeated it yet again for a banner mat. I just LOVE how this worked out!! I don’t think I can tell you guys how much I liked how well it worked!

Now, this robot, was just as much work . . but turned out equally as well! So, first I measured how big the 2nd largest banner die cut was. Compared that to how tall my robot was. Then I cut some pieces to be about 2 1/4″ tall and 4″ long. This gives me enough height to have my entire robot on. Then I lined up my die to the left of my robot, and did a partial die cut. Then continued the straight cuts on the right side of my robot with my paper trimmer. Next, I trimmed the rest of the robot out with my micro-tip scissors. This gives a fun popped out look.

Now, to back up just a bit, after I stamped my robot, I decided I needed to add some color to him, but didn’t want to just color him in. I know, I know, I have to be a pain, right? So, I grabbed a post it note, stamped my robot twice, and then cut out the body parts that are colored in. I did the head and the hips/legs on one, and the chest/arms on another. This made sure my post it had a little bit of stability, as I was using the negative spaces for this technique. So, I covered my robots with my post it notes (this ended up with two passes per robot) and then squished my archival black in pad together to get some ink on the lid, grabbed a baby wipe and ‘cleaned up’ the lid. Next I dabbed the baby wipe over the robot to give the mottled grey coloring. I really like that he isn’t just one solid color.

So, these cards needed a bit more ‘bling’ . . . but with as old and grungy as the rest of the card already was, I couldn’t very well just add something sparkly and ‘new’. . . . so I grabbed some of the bronze sequins and did the same thing as the gold foil cardstock! I added some of the black shinhan marker on top, and then dabbed with an alcohol pad to get the old look.

Oh, and not to forget using the markers to add a bit on the chest of the robot and coloring in the “gear up” on these cards. I did do some stamp surgery to be able to get the sentiment to be able to fit onto the banner. When I was stamping the ‘boy’ card, I started a bit too low, so then I used a mask to put the smaller part of the sentiment “under” the block letter. I kind of like how it turned out!

So, please, let me know what you think of these fun cards! Do YOU need to have a party so that you can get this fun stamp set?

~ Michelle

Items used to make these cards:

– Value pack card base (and envelope)
– Whimsy fundamentals paper pack (retiring 8/31/18)
– Gold Foil Cardstock
– White Daisy Cardstock
– Black Shinhan Marker
– Archival Black Ink
– Memento Black Ink (retiring 8/31/18)
– Warm Grey Shinhan Marker
– Bronze Sequins
– Liquid Glass
– Fiskars Paper Trimmer
– Microtip Nonstick Scissors
– baby wipe
– alcohol wipe