Looking Sharp! - Make a Punny Card For Your Sweetie

Today's design team post for Itsy Bitsy will make a cute Valentine card for someone special! I started out with a piece of white cardstock and the Honeycomb stencil. I first blended Green, Royal Blue and Lavender Pearl Pigment inks together through the stencil.

Then, leaving the stencil in place, I spread Acrylic Matte Medium over top of the ink using a palette knife. I gently removed the stencil and washed it off while setting aside the panel to dry.

I then got to work on the rest of my card, stamping the cacti images from the Llama Birthday stamp set in Black Chalk Ink on pieces of white that I cut into squares and rounded 2 of the corners on. I also blended some of each of the pearl pigment colors over the cacti once the chalk ink was set. This not only looks great, it saves you time from having to hand color in each of the images.

I popped the cacti and the Looking Sharp banner up on the card front using mini Foam Dots for added dimension.

Inside the card, I die cut an oval using the Cross Stitched Ovals thin cut die set, brushed some ink along the edges and stamped on it -building up the sentiment from the set one word at a time. I also brushed a little bit of ink on the aloe-vera plant image to help tie everything together.

The texture is subtle but really eye catching on this card front so I let it take center stage!

Well, my time here on the Itsy Bitsy design team is quickly coming to a close...but I've learned alot, made some great friends and had a ton of fun during my term with this great company. I am so glad they gave me this opportunity to be even a tiny part of the crafty goodness that they bring into this world! 

Until next time, happy crafting with Itsy Bisty!

Pretty Princess Planner Pages

 Today's post with Itsy Bitsy features the Princess and Dragon clear stamp set, Water Color Floral Ballet paper pack and Irregular Dot Stencil in a pretty planner spread.

After gathering my supplies, I started out by using the Irregular Dot stencil with Picked Raspberry Distress Ink to blend the design along the sides, top and bottom of each page in the planner spread.

 I used a fine line black pen to add the headers for my daily "to do" lists.

 I cut the 1. 5" x 2.5" rectangles from 3 of the patterns in the Water Color Ballet paper pack and glued them on in an alternating block pattern.

 I stamped the images using Black Chalk Ink onto white sticker paper and colored them up using Colored Pencils then used my Scan N Cut machine to cut them out. 

I also used polka dotted washi tape in two sizes to accent the page.

Using the "magical" sentiment stamp from the stamp set, I repeatedly stamped it using the Raspberry Distress Ink and then accented it by gluing on several tiny pink sequins from the Pixum Shaker Sprinkles pack.

That's it for me today, but boy did it feel good to take a break from snowy winter designs in my planner for a week, lol! Until next time, happy crafting with Itsy Bitsy~

LLama Wish You a Happy Birthday

 For today's design team project for Itsy Bitsy I decided to try something new -stenciling with Gesso over top of plain Burlap = FUN! I wanted this card to have some special dimension to it, so follow along to find out how I accomplished that...

I began by cutting down the 12" x 12" Burlap sheet from the Natural Burlap Stack  to a 6" x 6" square and taping it down to my work surface underneath the Brick Stencil using removable painter's tape. I then used a palette knife to spread the white gesso over the top 3/4's of the panel. I didn't bother to spread it evenly because I wanted the texture to be irregular. I then carefully pulled off the stencil, washed it and set the panel aside to dry while I began work on the rest of the card.

Using thin metal dies from the Banner set, Scalloped Circle set and Stitched Circle set, I cut out 2 of my stamped images from the Llama Birthday Clear Stamp Set and one circle shape from green paper from the Happy Birthday Paper Pad. I then fussy cut out the sombrero hat.

I stamped the images using Black Chalk ink and colored them using Watercolor Pencils and a blender pen on the Llama banner, sombrero and guitar(shown below on the inside of the card). I then popped the hat up using Adhesive Foam Mini Squares and threaded a piece of string that I had pulled from the sheet of burlap under the llama to make it appear as if the llama is wearing the hat hanging down on his back.

I used a black pen to draw the faux stitching along the edges of the banner.

Don't ya just love that cute sentiment inside? Working with these clear stamp sets to make your own sayings is easy because many of the words are separate and you can then just build them to your liking.

The pattern paper on the right side of the card was also from the Happy Birthday Paper Pad. It was hand torn for extra texture and glued down on top of the burlap. After I layered and adhered the circle diecuts, I tied a bow using string pulled from the frayed edges of the burlap and glued that on for the final accent.

 And that's all there is to making a fun and 6" x 6" multi-textured birthday card! Don't forget to head over to the Itsy Bitsy Store to get everything I used here in today's project and happy crafting! 

Until next time~

Spreading the Joy of Christmas with Vintage Style Handmade Greeting Cards

The calendar tells us that Christmas has passed for another year, but my family has one more gathering coming up in the next few days so I still need several more cards to share. These 3 came together in a few hours time using the beautiful Joyful Rhapsody paper pack and lots of  little Christmas embellishments from Itsy Bitsy for today's design team post.

The first card in the trio is made with a simple Z-Fold design using a 6" x 6" white card base and 3 patterned papers . Using the Script Stencil #2 and white gesso I added some detail to the inside of the card and even sponged some on to the tree embellishments so that they would look frosty too. I then added tiny red star sequins from the Rubies and Sparkles Shaker sprinkles set to the tops of each tree with glue.

I cut the vintage tree picture from the collage sheet and layered it on the red glitter paper from the paper pack. The pennant banner and sentiment were also cut from another sheet from the pack. The sentiment is layered on to green glitter paper.

The second card is also made on a 6" x 6" white card base and the pattern paper was trimmed in a wavy line and layered on the top and bottom of the card using foam tape squares.

The white glitter tree embellishments were then added across the bottom while the sentiments were trimmed out and the larger one layered on the gold glitter paper and cut in a banner shape.

The inside I used more of the patterned paper scraps left over from the card front and glued  on a sentiment.

For the third and last card, I made a shaker panel for the front.

I covered the 6" x 6" white card base with 2 patterns from the pack and die cut the Cross Stitched Oval frames along with a piece of clear acetate for the shaker window. I then filled the window with green, red and gold elements from the Shaker Sprinkles packs.

The vintage artwork on this card really lends it a classic look, while the Christmas tree pack embellishments lend a bit of a more modern flair. Inside the card I layered the left over oval diecut from the inside of the shaker frame with sentiments and borders cut from the sayings sheet.

That's it for me today and I want to wish you all a happy new year! Until next time~

Making Holiday Rosettes for Your Christmas Tree Decor

 Today's design team post with Itsy Bitsy is all about decorating your Christmas tree with handmade goodies! I made over a dozen rosettes  using beautiful paper and embellishments from the Itsy Bitsy store. If you want to learn more about the new Itsy Bitsy Challenge #11 that runs until January 12th, please see fellow design team member Henriette's post by clicking the Challenge link above.

To start, I trimmed 1" x 12" strips of paper from 4 of the different patterned sheets from the Joyful Rhapsody paper pack. I scored them every half inch and then flipped the paper over to do it again so that I had both mountain and valley folds on every quarter inch mark.

Folding them is as easy as making a large accordion pleat, then attaching the two ends together using a thin but strong tape so that you have a pleated ring.

Using a hot glue gun, you'll need to run a line of glue along the outside of a 1 1/4" circle of heavy duty cardstock to anchor your rosette to.

Working quickly while the glue is still wet and extra hot, push the pleated ring down on to the glued circle base until it forms a rosette. This part can be a bit tricky because the paper wants to spring back up at you, but hold it down firmly for a minute into the hot glue and you should be good to go.

I then cut three 1 1/2" circles from the glitter paper that comes in the Joyful Rhapsody pack and 1 from glossy silver foil board to attach your Holiday Embellishments to. Using more hot glue, add these decorated circles to the front of your rosette.

Lastly, use more hot glue to secure a ribbon (for hanging) to the back of your rosette and then add them to your Christmas tree to enjoy the entire holiday season!

Wishing you all a blessed Christmas season~