Keep It Simple Sticker Card

I have found a new challenge blog and have played along a couple times.  It is called Keep It Simple.  I struggle doing simple cards.  I love to do lots and lots and LOTS of stuff on a card.  The post office loves me - I think personally card makers will keep the post office in business with the extra money we spend on postage to mail our cards.

The current challenge at Keep It Simple is to use stickers.  I have two favorite sticker companies.  SRM Stickers have the best sentiment stickers and they also have some small images (the daisy on this card is from SRM Stickers along with the sentiment).  Penny Black also has wonder image stickers which help you make a great card very easily.  The card at this link uses a Penny Black sticker image and a SRM sentiment.

As I said I struggle with CAS cards.  I have thousands of sheets of white card stock which are recycled from commencement programs.  It cuts down on my cost so much.  The card base and the dry embossed card front are recycled card stock.  I used my Silhouette to cut out the flower shape in the center of my front.  After it was cut out I dry embossed the front.  I did cut 3 flowers out of regular white card stock with no texture on it.  They are layered together to add just a little dimension to the flower.  I colored the top layer with Copics.  I then glued it in opening.  I had used all the big sentiments on a Thank You sticker sheet from SRM Stickers and have all these daisies left over so wanted to find a way to use them.  I thought I needed a pop of color so added the pinkish red mat and also put my daisy sticker on top of it.  The sentiment and daisy are pop dotted for some extra dimension.  I added a pearl in the center of the daisy.  Thank you card done.  I kept it simple or at least simple for me.

Everyone enjoy your Sunday.  I must go to the grocery store and clean my card making area since I am taking the Stretch Your Stamps Online class.  Looking forward to it.  I never thought you could take an online card class - well - I prefer to take an online class from this group than to go to a in person class.  Fantastic value for your money.

Keep It Simple and Mash It Up

Doesn't that Title sound like a good idea for dinner.  Hmmm - mashed potatoes and some chicken.  Oops - I digress - we are talking about card making and two different challenges.

I just found another new challenge called Keep It Simple.  Their challenge for the last two weeks is

Turquoise is one of my favorite colors.

The challenge at The Friday Mashup is color wash and a CAS project with minimal layers.

I dug out my distress inks and starting making color wash backgrounds.  I smooshed the ink on my work area and spritzed it with water.  I also spritzed the watercolor paper and then put the water in the distress ink.  On the Sympathy card, I rolled the ink around so that I pooled ink in some of the areas of the paper so it got a darker in some areas.  I really like how it turned out.  The birthday card started the same way but I got a more even color on this panel.  While the panel was still wet, I sprinkled salt on top and let it dry.  Once dry, you brush the salt away.  It gives a great finish to the color washed panel.   I am entering one of my cards in the challenge on Addicted to Rubber Stamps challenge to Make Your Mark - well I made my own color wash paper.  Hope that counts.

I used the same stamp set from Hero Arts on the cards.  The birthday card uses the outline stamp.  I then colored the flower in the distress ink.  When you use the distress ink without water, it gives you a deep rich color on the flowers.  I added some black gems in the center.

I stamped the flower on this card with the stamp that gives you the all over color.  Sorry the proper name escapes my mind.  I matted the image.  On this card I cut the top edge shorter than the back.  I lined the inside of the card with the same color as the mat.  It makes a very pretty card but it is very hard to photograph.  I added clear gems to the center of the flowers.

Both cards have a embossed background (white on white).  All the white in the cards, is recycled cardstock.  The sentiments are SRM Stickers.  I just cut off an edge on each color washed panel to get a strip that matched the cards.

Sorry for the long post.  I actually have one more card with the same color wash and flower stamp.

Thanks for the great challenges.  I am happy I was able to combine them and also I now have a sympathy card for my own supplies and a belated birthday card.  Numerous people could receive this card since I am a little behind on my birthday cards.