"Hippo Birdie Two Ewe" Birthday Card

 

This is a cute card I made for a boy turning 5. The inspiration came from a background I created using a turnabout stamp I got off Aliexpress and a AAA birthday card challenge which I you can link to here.

If you just want to watch a card process video on how I made this card then please click here or the link below...

 

The first step was to trim my background to fit an A6 card base.

Next I grabbed the black circle and die cut animals from my stash that I wanted to use and arranged them onto the background to get an idea of how I wanted it to look. The die cut animals were made using a stamp set I got off Aliexpress - I loved the play on words that the sentiment 'hippo birdie two ewe' presented and the stamp set came with stamps for the animals to match. I had already colored these animals in using my STA dual tone aquarelle watercolor brushmarkers; click here for a link to a review I did on them.

I took the 'hippo birdie two ewe' sentiment and placed it onto the black circle - I decided the critters would 'dance' or sit above the main sentiment. The position of everything also needed to accommodate the recipient's name below the main sentiment.

Using silver heat embossing powder, I heat embossed the 'hippo birdie two ewe' sentiment onto the black circle.

After that I used double-sided tape to adhere the black circle to the background. Ideally in the middle of the background but I'm lazy so I just eye-balled this one.

Then I arranged the die cut creatures around the circle and sentiment again to make sure I was happy with the arrangement before using double-sided tape and liquid glue to adhere them. I used liquid glue to lessen the chances of the tiny little details on the edges of the animal diecuts to catch on something and rip off the card front. For my review on the glue pens I use click here. To make sure that images stuck down flat whilst the glue was drying, I placed an acrylic block on top.

I decided to stamp the recipent's name "Robert" using the capital letters from my Concord and 9th perfectly penned stamp set and my ranger archival ink in jet black. I just used an acrylic block to this, stamping each letter individually onto a yellow sentiment strip of card that matched the cardstock used for the background. To finish it off, I cut banner edges to each end of the sentiment strip.

Final step was to adhere the front notecard to the card base using double-sided tape.

Of course my laziness meant I had to re-trim my card front because it overhung the cardbase. Don't be like me and eye-ball trim your background, just measure it properly otherwise all your work might end up with an unbalanced looking card front.

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

 

Birthday Card - Watercolor Galaxy Space Themed

 

Once again, another space themed card. This time I'm using a galaxy background created using watercolors with space themed embellishments. I needed a birthday card for a gift to my nephew so used a happy birthday sentiment with 'Whoa' in front to give it a bit of an 'out of this world' feel!

As per my recent trend, I made a process video of how I put this card together and a link to it is below or you can click here.

First step is to create the galaxy background. I was playing around with some watercolor paints I recently got and decided to make a galaxy. It's made by brushing shades of yellow, green, blue hues near the centre the piece then surrounding it with a dark purple hue then very dark blue (almost black) was painted around the outer edge. I then let the piece dry overnight before using a paintbrush to flick white acrylic paint flecks all over the piece for stars - I added a little water at times to help dilute the paint and make it easier to flick the white specks of paint everywhere. Again I let that dry overnight before adding my sentiment strip and space themed embellishments.

So, once the watercolor galaxy background piece was dry, I arranged the space themed die cuts I found and had hanging around in my stash on top of the galaxy background. I had already coloured these using alcohol makers (a review of the markers I used can be found here) so they were ready to use.

I also decided that I wanted to make a birthday card for my nephew who I was going to give a gift to soon. I found some stamps in my stash to create the sentiment "Whoa. Happy Birthday" The 'whoa' part is to give the sentiment a bit of an 'out of this world, kind of feel to match the space theme I was going for.

As I wanted to heat emboss the sentiment I place the black cardstock sentiment strip in my stamping platform then used it to stamp the sentiment 3 or 4 times with clear embossing ink. I then sprinkle white embossing powder over the sticky ink sentiment and tap off the excess. I do this over non-stick baking paper so I can easily recollect the excess powder for use next time. 

I then use my heat gun to heat set the embossing powder. I decided I wanted the rocket die cut to cover the end of the sentiment strip so it looked like the sentiment strip ends at the rocket so I trimmed off a bit off the end of the sentiment strip.

I stick the sentiment strip down using double sided tape over the nebula part of the galaxy background. Using foam tape behind the rocket die cut, I stick it down over the right hand side edge of the sentiment strip ensuring the end is covered by the rocket.

Standard double-sided tape is used to adhere down the rest of the space themed die cut elements.

Last thing to do is to adhere the card front to a card base. For this I decided a black cardbase would suit the space theme and used double-sided tape to adhere the card front to the card base, ensuring that there is an even border of black around the card front before pressing it down.

And its all done!

Happy Crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Good Job Mama Card

 

Good Job Mama Card

Today this post is about how I made a card perfect for a new mum or a mum who could do with a loving hug. Click here or see below for a link to my card process video:

Inspiration for this card came from stuff I found in my crafty stash including my 'good job mama' stamp set and a background I stamped and colored using my STA watercolor brushmarkers. I was coloring the background piece to test my brushmarkers as part of my review of those markers so I wasn't really being careful in places, hence why a lot of the coloring is outside of the lines!

Because of this 'poor' coloring I needed to hide the imperfections somehow whilst making a good looking card. To do this I decided to overlay vellum on the top of my front notecard.

To start off I cut my  watercolor piece to the largest square I could using a square diecut.

I then cut some specialty paper (Typewriter Luxury Designer Paper from Cristina Re d-i-y stationery) to 10.2cm x 20.4cm to make a square card base that is 10.2cm x 10.2cm square.

Time to cut the vellum. I cut it 0.5cm longer than the watercolor piece on one side to allow me to fold it over and behind the watercolor background to help with securing the vellum.

I then decided to heat emboss in black a love heart as well as the sentiment "good job mama, you are doing a great job" on the vellum. If I had red embossing powder I would have used that for the heart but I didn't so never mind. These sentiments/images are from the stamp set called "Good job mama" from Simon Says Stamp.

Time to put this card together... so I used double-sided tape to adhere the vellum to the watercolor background. I make sure to score, fold over, and tape down the excess to get a good hold. I leave the right hand side flapping about so that you get a little pop of color every now and then as you hold, open and close the card. The vellum does a great job of obscuring the imperfections in my coloring without taking away the beauty of it.

Next, I decide I wanted a bit of dimension to the card so I use foam tape to prop up the card front and adhere it to the front of the card base.

And that's how I made this "Good job mama" card.

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Birthday Card - Beads shaker #2

Birthday Card - Beads Shaker Card #2

Made another shaker card this time for my niece Olivia. I used various tools, stamps and items out of my crafty stash.

Very excited to use my son's water colour painting again as the background along with some glass beads and a white scripty 'happy' die-cut I found in my stash.

Below is the process video for this card/notecard! Click https://youtu.be/N4HsqU1GpzQ to go to my you tube channel and view via You tube.

To start off, I cut a circle using a circle diecut and my Big Shot die cutting machine. I then stamped "Olivia" onto the piece of watercolor painting using letters from Concord and 9th's perfectly penned stamp set. This set has both scripty and print letters which makes it very versatile. To stamp these so they looked linked, I used an acrylic block and Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black. When using this set of I always do a test on a scrap piece of paper first to make sure I get the look I want before committing to and stamping on the paper/card to be used on the card.

I wanted to fill the space a bit more so I grabbed a star stamp from a birthday celebration themed stamp set and stamped it just above Olivia on the right of the name.

With the 'happy' die cut in mind I place it onto the black notecard to help me position where I want to stamp 'BIRTHDAY' (from Honey Bee Stamps' 'Hooray' stamp set). I place the notecard in my We R Memory keepers stamping platform, grab the stamp with the door of the stamping platform, using my anti-static powder tool across the whole card front and then I stamped it using clear embossing ink. Then I dusted it with white heat embossing powder and heat set the powder with my heat gun. I made sure to do the heat embossing first before adhering the clear window for the shaker to prevent melting/warping the plastic. I don't have a fancy craft heat gun I just use what I found in the garage which is a Bosch PHG 500-2, it does the job and I just make sure I keep the gun moving so it doesn't burn the card. 

Grabbing my little liquid glue pen applicator; I then applied dots of glue to the back of the 'happy' die cut before placing it on the black notecard below the circle cut out. You will notice that the sentiments aren't particularly straight or lined up, I wanted to give the sentiment a slant and organic look plus it is easier for me to get a good looking card if I don't try too hard to make this nice and perfectly lined up or straight!

As the glue takes a while to dry, I placed some non-stick baking paper on top of the card front and put some weights on top then left it overnight. This helps to ensure the card front does not warp and stays flat.

Came back the next day to adhere the plastic window to the card front. This time I just used an old presentation report cover and double sided tape. I put foam tape all over the back of the card front. This is to give some space between the window and the water color background for the beads to shake in.

Foam Tape Window Offset

Then I placed some beads on top of the 'Olivia', removed the backing paper on the foam tape and positioned the card front over the water color background so that the clear window encompassed all the beads and the name was approximately in the middle of the window. The beads I used were Mill Hill Glass Beads - 02010.

Mill Hill Glass Beads - 02010

Final stage was to added double sided tape all over the back of the water color piece, remove the backing paper of the tape and stick on another piece of black notecard. To finish I trimmed the excesses and we were all done.

All was left was to write a message on the back of the notecard - here I used a white gel pen.

All done and happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Birthday Card - Spinner - Bear

Birthday Bear Spinner Card

I found some images I'd stamped and watercolored using STA Aquarelle Brush Markers (a review for which can be found here) some time ago. They were pictures of the front and back of animals so perfect for spinner cards. Couple that with the fact that I needed to make some birthday cards in preparation for upcoming family birthday, this card was a good way to use up some of my crafty stash whilst making a card I'd have a use for!

In my internet travels, I stumbled across the Addicted to Stamps and More 'Make Your Mark' card challenge, since this card fit the rules as I used watercolor markers to water color the bear I thought I'd enter it for fun! You can find details of the challenge here.

 

My crafty stash also contains a bunch of die cut words that I've kept from the time I went crazy when I first got my Big Shot die cut machine. I don't like the idea of waste so I'm going to aim to use up as much of these as possible in future cards too.

I found a happy dies cut with matching shadow and placed that at the top of a purple notecard. I left it floating there so I could position the square diecut for the spinner element window. Once I'd decided on the position for the window I used masking tape to tape temporarily tape the notecard to a matching card base then run it through my die cut machine a couple of times (each layer separately to make sure I got a nice clean cutout).

I used my stamping platform to stamp the word 'BIRTHDAY' underneath 'Happy' with clear embossing ink. Then used black embossing powder to heat emboss it.

Then I used a toothpick to pickup little amounts of PVA glue to dot on the back of the black 'happy' diecut to stick it to its matching shadow cutout. Then did the same to adhere both to the card front.

Next was making the spinner element. I fussy cut around the bear images and went around the outside with a black alcohol marker to tidy up the edges. I then sandwiched some thin red string (clear nylon or fishing line would be better but I didn't have any) between the two images and stick them together using doubled sided tape. I taped down the ends of the string to the back of the notecard making sure to line up the bear inside the window and making sure the string is taught.

Using double-sided tape I adhered the front notecard to the card base, making sure to windows lined up. 

Trimmed the outside edges to make it look tidy and added a strip of masking tape to the fold of the card to give it a bit of reinforcing (unfortunately, I used quite low quality card stock and it felt quite flimsy without it - please don't judge me, I'm new to this card making thing, having lots of fun doing it but I'm still learning!)

And we are all done.

For a process video on how I make another spinner card check out the link below:

 

Happy Crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Birthday Beads Shaker Card

Birthday Bead Shaker Card

First birthday card I made for my niece. I also entered it into  a couple of card challenges: AAA Birthday card challenge - Click here for more details on the AAA Birthday "A shaker card" card challenge.

Also entered into CAS Watercolour card challenge. Click here for more details on the CAS Watercolour "Cool Colours" card challenge.

And if you want to watch a process video for this card, here is a link to a similar shaker card I made in a similar fashion.

It is actually a notecard (no folding card base used) where the message is written in white gel pen on the back of the card front you see in the photo. I wanted to use up stuff in my crafty stash including letters I made when testing an alphabet die I bought off AliExpress and an awesome watercolor painting my 3 year old made using STA Aquarelle Watercolor Brush markers ( a review for these markers can be found here.

Watercolor Painting by my 3 year old with niece's name

I used a glue stick to adhere the die cut letters of my niece's name to the watercolor painting. I then used doubled sided tape to adhere a piece of plastic to the inside of black cardstock with a circle cut out. I decided to make a shaker card so I'm making a circle window here looking through to Sophia's name on the water colour background.

Window Made, Beads Ready, Foam Tape Offset

I used some glass beads as the shaker elements and double layer of foam tape to add both dimension and some space for the beads to move around in. Removed the backing paper on the foam tape and placed the card front on top of the watercolor background and diecut name.

Card Front with Shaker Window

Then I used clear embossing ink to heat emboss happy birthday in silver under the shaker window.

Unfortunately, I should have done the heat embossing before attaching the plastic for the window as I accidentally melted a little hole in the window! That is why I had to place some grey star washi tape across the card front to disguise the hole.

To finish the card I adhered the card front to a black notecard, trimmed off any excess and gave the card a tester shake.

All done, and happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Christmas Card - CAS Watercolor Monochromatic

Christmas Card - CAS Watercolor Monochromatic

This card is a simple card designed to enter CAS Watercolor November card challenge - Monochromatic. Click here to find the card challenge.

I chose to use blue as my monochromatic color and the coloring medium I used was watercolor markers used like watercolor paints. The water color markers I used are STA Aquarelle Brush Double Tone Markers which I bought off AliExpress. You can find my review of these markers here.

Finally, a year later, I managed to piece together the process video. Click here or below to check it out.

To make this card I firstly marked a rectangle in the centre of a water color paper notecard by tracing around a rectangle die with a pencil. I then used washi tape to mask around this rectangle then stamped snowflakes using a stamp set I bought off AliExpress using clear embossing ink inside the rectangle.

I then heat embossed the snowflakes using white embossing powder. I removed the washi tape mask, used an eraser to remove the pencil lines then re-masked the rectangle.

Using the dual tone watercolor brushmarkers, I scribbled a little of the dark and light blues onto a plastic lid. I applied water to the inside of the rectangle then to the inks on the lid and painted a fade from dark to light blue inside the rectangle.

I dried it using a heat tool, removed the masking tape then stamped 'merry christmas' (from the same stamp set the snowflakes came from) using Gina K Designs amalgam ink in jet black.

I wanted the watercolor panel to have more definition so I used my tsukineko clear emboss pen and a ruler to trace around the edge of the rectangular panel, then applied black embossing powder and heat set it with my heat tool.

To finish off I mounted the notecard using double-sided tape onto a blue card base.

All done!

Happy Crafting.

Mel Crafting

Seashells on the Beach - Thanks Card

Seashells on the beach - thanks cards

I found a seashells stamp set in my stash as I was rummaging through. I haven't used it much and remember buying it off trademe second hand as part of a bulk bunch of stamp sets so thought I'd make a couple of cards from it. Also came across the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - the challenge asks for cards in celebration of thanksgiving so I thought, why not create a 'Thanks' card.

You can find a link to the challenge by clicking here

And here is my card process video for this creation:

Firstly, I used Ranger Archival jet black ink to stamp seashell outlines onto 300 gsm white cardstock.

Seashells Stamp Set

Once the ink dried, (you could use a heat tool here to heat set to speed up drying time), I watercolor the shells using distress inks (tumbled glass and crushed olive). By water coloring, I mean I smooshed the pads onto plastic or non-stick paper, added a bit of water using a brush and applied 'paint' to the seashells then fussy cut them out as I didn't seem to have to the coordinating die cut.

Coloured stamped images and distress inks used

For the sentiment, I used  Simon Says Stamp! Thanks 3x4 clear stamp set (SSS101347). This also came in the bulk pack of stamps off trademe. I stamped it onto black paper (shaped like a banner) using a Tsukineko embossing stamp pad then white heat embossed the sentiment using Ranger white embossing powder.

Simon Says Stamp Thanks Stamp Set SSS101347

Note that I use a 'normal' heat gun I found in the garage - it's a Bosch PHG 500-2, it does the trick and melts the embossing powder well enough. I am very careful not to burn the paper by being careful how close the heat gun is to the paper. I probably should by a craft one before the other half finds out I've stashed it with my crafty stuff...!

Heat Embossing Tools

I found a "thanks" die-cut in my stash, which I'm not sure if it is a coordinating die-cut but it does seem to match nicely with it!. I used this die cut to cut thanks out of white cardstock twice and coloured one with my purple marker to act as a shadow.

"thanks" die cut and die cuts

For the background, I blended using distress inks from bottom to top: scattered straw, tumbled glass and shaded lilac onto water colour paper notecard. I drew some clouds on a white piece of paper and cut it out so I had a faux cloud/waves stencil. I then used my sponge dauber with white pigment ink (Stampin' Up kraft in Whisper White) to blend outlines of waves on top of the background.

Tools used to make blended background

To assemble the card, I glued the white thanks on top of purple thanks with a slight offset so the purple thanks looks like a shadow, then glued this to the top of the background. Using double-sided tape, I stuck down the black banner with heat embossed sentiment below the die-cut "thanks." Then I stuck down three of the coloured seashells where the 'sand' meets the 'sea' on the background.

After that, I stuck the notecard to the front of a silver card base, cut down any excess and the card is finished.

Seashells on the Beach - Thanks Card

Check back into this blog post in a few days and I'll have a  you tube video at the top of this blog post showing how I made another 'seashells on the beach' card with similar materials and vellum for the sentiment.

Hope you found this post useful - feel free to ask questions or leave a comment I'd love to hear what you think as I grow and learn more about this new cardmaking hobby of mine.

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

STA Aquarelle Brush Double Tone Watercolor Brush Markers Review

This is a review of the STA Aquarelle Brush Double Tone Watercolor Brush Markers I bought off AliExpress for US $12.69.

STA Aquarelle Brush Double Tone -Watercolor Brush Markers Review

Firstly, this came in a pack of 14 and they are dual tips with dual tones so you actually get 28 colors. The pack came slightly damaged but the markers themselves seemed unaffected.

Click here to view above review video in you tube.

Quick test swatching of the markers found them all very nice and 'juicy.' The brush tip works well and I found them to suit my style, ie. not too flimsy or too hard. Using them with water, I found they blended out well to a fade and are a nice pen to watercolor with. Although I would prefer to use watercolor paints over these because when I tried to apply more color to make it more vibrant. I can't say it  blended in nicely. I think water coloring with these suits quick coloring techniques or making random watercolor backgrounds - which are always fun to do!

Quick Test Swatching

If your looking for examples of these in action, check out the following where I put these markers to the test on some of my projects:

- water coloring on my 'oh kitty tree' Christmas cards (https://melcrafting.blogspot.com/2019/11/christmas-cards-using-oh-kitty-tree.html)

-Direct coloring on the background of one of my 'Mama' cards (to be posted in near future!)

-Water coloring on my 'CAS Monocromatic Christmas card'
(https://melcrafting.blogspot.com/2019/11/christmas-card-cas-watercolor.html)

If you're looking for a basic entry level set of watercolor brush markers then this is a fantastic inexpensive option especially since they're dual tone. A bit of a downer that the packaging turned up damaged and once applied it's hard to add more color without it looking a bit wack-a-doodle.

Overall, these are great and I would consider buying them again.

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Christmas Cards - using Oh Kitty Tree Stamp Set

Oh Kitty Tree Card

I was given this stamp set as a gift when I first ventured into the world of papercrafting and cardmaking. Today I figured I should make use of it. I'm pretty sure it's Mama Elephant's "Oh Kitty Tree" which I recently saw in Jennifer McGuire's video (https://youtu.be/Vcc95_cmslE). I've made a few cards and even stamped the images on watercolor paper then let my toddler have a  go at water coloring so you'll have to excuse some of the random color choices!

I started off by stamping the main stamp of the tree made of cats onto 300 gsm watercolour paper using Jet black archival ink, this is a waterproof ink so perfect for watercolouring. I've used a cheap watercolour paper as I knew my toddler would be helping colour the images and well sometimes he manages to make holes in the paper! I also stamped a few of the individual cats and coloured them in too.

"Oh Kitty Tree" Stamp set and Other Tools Used

By watercoloring, I mean I used a brush and water with watercolor markers I purchased off Aliexpress. A review of the STA watercolor markers can be found here or click on the video below.

I apply a few streaks of color onto a plastic lid or non-stick paper - just whatever I can find  - and add a bit of water to get the colour flowing.

I carefully and painstakingly paint each individual kitty cat; in this case I admire the joy and spontaneity of my son as he just goes with the flow without a worry about lines or color matching.

My Son Watercoloring Away

My Son's Finished Masterpiece!

Once they were all coloured, I fussy cut them out and arranged them onto notecards and stuck them to card bases. As you can see I made various arrangements using the images my son had painted. I stamped "Season's Greetings" and "Wishing you a Merry Christmas" onto vellum using clear embossing ink and heat enmbossed. I also stamped "Happy Christmas" and silver heat embossed straight onto the cardstock.

I stamped in black the sentiment "Have a Meowy Christmas" that is included in the oh Kitty tree stamp set onto the thumbnail card. For the others, I used sentiments from the following pictured stamp sets. I don't know what the stamp set with the tree setting is called; I ordered it off aliexpress but the other set I used sentiments from is manufactured by My Favourtie Things and is called "Hand Lettered Holiday" I used a little set of stars stamp from this set too.

Mystery Stamp Set Bought off AliExpress!

My Favourite Things "Hand Lettered Holiday" Stamp Set

Oh Kitty Tree Cards - Merry Christmas!

Quite inexpensive cardstock was used for the card bases which is regrettable as I got quite a bit of warping. It was nice to make my son's artwork into cards and I know he'll enjoy giving them away to his friends and family as we all do.

I'm quite new to the cardmaking world so if there is anything you want to correct me on, have any advice to offer, or just have something to say please feel free to leave a comment I'd to know what you think.

Happy Crafting,

Mel Crafting