Week 3 Day 1: For You with Love (Using a Hair Clip as an Embellishment)

It's the last week of the Summer Card Camp 2 classes. I can't believe it has flown by so quickly. For Monday's class we received a new colour combo and three new sketches. At first I found the colours to be a bit challenging, but once I got my plan I think the colours came together pretty well.

What makes this card special is the green flower in the center is actually a hair clip that can easily be removed. This way the receiver will not only be getting a card, but she will be getting a hair clip too!

In this picture you can see the metal clip behind the flower.

The flower is just clipped onto the twine and can be taken off easily.

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Week 2 Day 4: Stretch Your Holiday Product Challenge

I made this card last Friday, but I've only had time to post it this morning. Our challenge for last Thursday is to use our Christmas stamps to create a non-holiday card. It was quite a challenge for me because all of  my Christmas stamps are very 'Christmasy'. I finally found a snowflake and a branch from a really old Christmas stamp set, Owl Christmas by Hero Arts. I also used the "glad tidings of great joy!" and "sending cheer" stamps from the set Gnome for the Holidays by Simon Says Stamp.

The non-holiday stamps I used in this card are the bird from Sweet Offerings by Stacey Yacula and the word Birthday from Square Sayings by Simon Says Stamp.

I combined three stamps to create this one tag. It was not an easy task. @_@

This was originally a snowflake stamp. I stamped it multiple times to create this background.

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Week 2 Day 3: Just Dropping By...

Hi everyone, I have a card to share with you today. It is supposed to be my homework assignment for yesterday, but I was only able to find time to finish it tonight. I made a shaker card that was inspired by one of the guest instructors in Wednesday's class, Kelly Marie Alvarez (from Lawn Fawn).

I love this little hedgehog by Penny Black. I've used it several times in previous cards, but for some reason they all turned out looking bad. I think this was my first successful use of this stamp. Yay!

I didn't want to put a sentiment on the front of the card because that would cover up most of the hedgehog. So instead I stamped "hi" on the balloon and added a longer sentiment on the inside of the card.

I just grabbed a bunch of random beads, sequins, and bling to put into the card.

To see the tutorial I made for creating these clouds click here.

I don't think I have a stamp that says this. (Maybe I do, but I'm way too tired to search through my stash. x__X) So to save time and hassle I just wrote the sentiment by hand.

If you have a friend who you haven't seen or chatted with in a long time, maybe it's time to drop by (text, email, facebook, or whatever) to say hi. It's always so nice to just say hi and catch up a little with old friends! 

Materials used:

- Neenah Solar White 80lb Cardstock

- Blue Cardstock (no particular brand, I think I got mine at Michaels)

- Darice 2A Embossing Folder - Clouds

- Copic Opaque White Paint (for the clouds)
- Cotton swab (also for the clouds)

- Various sequins and beads

To see my past homework assignments please click the following links.

Week 1 Day 1

Week 1 Day 2

Week 1 Day 3

Week 1 Day 4

Week 1 Day 5

Week 2 Day 1

Week 2 Day 2

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Week 2 Day 2 - Life Stinks Card & Cloud Tutorial

Hello all, I really should be in bed and making some Zzzz's, but I have to "hand in" my week 2 day 2 assignment before I go. Today we learned a lot of neat heat embossing tricks. I love heat embossing and I can't wait to try out all the new techniques. In this card I was able to use the embossed resist technique. I love the outcome of it and I use it quite often in my card making. Oh and please scroll all the way down to check out the quick picture-tutorial I put together showing you how to make the 3D looking clouds in my card.

The green "cloud" is not a cloud nor a speech bubble. I'm sure you can guess what it is. LOL!

This little guy came from a Simon Says Stamp set called Stinkin Cute. I added a white strip on his head to make him look more like a skunk. The faux wooden frame was created using the embossed resist technique and my new Hero Arts's Wood Background stamp from the True Love Collection.

Fluffy Cloud Tutorial

This tutorial shows you how to make 3D looking clouds.

Step 1 - put your background paper into a cloud embossing folder, the one I used is made by Darice called Cloudy Sky.

Step 2 - mix some white opaque paint (here I used Copic's Opaque White paint) with water. I would go with a 1 part paint to 3 parts water ratio. You want the paint to be pretty thin when your first layer

Step 3 - take a dry Q-tip and pick up a small amount of paint and then dab it (in a straight up and down motion) onto the raised cloud areas. You want to keep the Q-tip dry similar to the dry brush painting technique.

Step 4 - after the first layer of paint dries (which only takes several seconds) dab on a second coat, but this time focus on the tops of the clouds where the sun would shine on. Leave the bottom of the clouds somewhat transparent to show the blue from the background paper.  

Helpful hints - remember to use an up and down dabbing motion to create the round texture in the clouds. Do not "paint" with the Q-tip, because that would create a smooth finish and you would lose the 3D effect.

Hope you enjoyed my card and my very first tutorial. I would love to hear comments about my tutorial and please let me know if it's too wordy. I used to be a teacher and I tend to break instructions down to teeny tiny steps. Often times I would go overboard and complicate things rather than simplify them. =P

Before I head to bed, I leave you with my little thought. Often times our lives would stink. We might have to plug our noses and endure some stinging in our eyes. But soon enough the stink will leave and we can enjoy the fresh clean air once again! Have a not-so-stinking day! =) 

To see my other homework assignments from past days please click the following links.

Week 1 Day 1

Week 1 Day 2

Week 1 Day 3

Week 1 Day 4

Week 1 Day 5

Week 2 Day 1

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Week 2 Day1 - Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Yay, another new card! I can't believe it's already the second week of the card class. Today (Monday) we got a new colour combo and three new sketches. Kristina, Jennifer, and Jean were all very inspiring. And the new colour combo is just perfect for my dad's birthday card. (Hopefully he doesn't see this card before he receives it!) Here's the card I made for today's assignment and my dad's birthday. I took a whole lot of pictures of this card, because I really love how it turned out! =)

I made the card base with an acetate sheet. 

For some reason my dad really likes hippos. Personally, I think they are very scary. But as long as Daddy likes them I will make a card for him with hoppos. =P The pair of hoppos represent me and my dad. Hehehe. My dad is super skinny in real life though.

The happy birthday sentiment is actually stamped on the inside of the card. I love how acetate allows you to do that. I used a light blue coloured card stock for the inside of the card so that it looks like the sky when the card is closed.

This is a close up to show the details. The water and grass is actually placed behind the acetate and the hippos are on top. It's difficult to see in this picture. I used a stylus to crease wavy lines in the paper before inking (or buffing) it with Distress Inks in Broken China and Tumbled Glass.

To see my homework assignment from past days please click the links below.

Week 1 Day 1

Week 1 Day 2

Week 1 Day 3

Week 1 Day 4

Week 1 Day 5

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Week 1 Day 5: Additional Colour Combos

In this lesson we received six new colour combos to work with. I picked a set of colours that reminded me of Japanese Yuzen paper. I got out my stash and searched for papers that were the closest to the colour combo. This is the card I created.

I love this silver floss, but it's almost like working with fishing wire. It's more difficult to tame than my hair! LOL! Just joking... xD

I normally don't decorate the inside of my cards, because I never know how to decorate it without overdoing it. But this time I wanted to sketch a paper crane in the corner and add this sweet sentiment.

Materials used:

- Neenah Solar White 80lb Cardstock

- Darice 5 x 7 Embossing Folder - Basketweave

- Japanese Yuzen Paper

- Embroidery Floss

- Simon Says Stamp Tri Circle Craft Die

- My Favorite Things - Pearls of Wisdom and All Similes Stamp Sets

To see my homework assignments from past days please click the links below.

Week 1 Day 1

Week 1 Day 2

Week 1 Day 3

Week 1 Day 4

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Week 1 Day 4: 10 Minute Challenge

*Wipe sweat* Oh my gosh, the 10 minute challenge was so stressful!! I am definitely not a fast card maker. Being the daughter of a engineer/surveyor and an artist, I like to make sure everything is perfectly straight and (almost) flawless. I don't think I have ever made a sloppier card than this one. I really commend the people who can do this and do it so well! They are amazing! Anywho, here's the card I made in 9 minutes and 34.2 seconds. Phew ~ ~ ~

Here are the supplies I used, I didn't include everything in the picture, such as my Big Shot machine, my ink pad, or my embossing powder. But everything else I used is in this picture.

Proof that I finished within 10 minutes, YAY!! \( ^0^ )/

Here's the finished card. I love the colours, so spring-like even though it's mid summer already. Hehehe...

More of my twine flowers again. And let me warn you, this will not be the last time you'll be seeing them. LOL!

Although this (second) 10 minute challenge card turned out okay, I really doubt I'll be doing any more time limited challenges. I like to enjoy the card making process and unfortunately racing to finish a card is more stressful than enjoyable for me. = (

Anyway, now I'm sending all my readers, viewers, fellow classmates, and bloggers many HAPPY thoughts! Have a lovely weekend! ^_^

To see my homework assignments from past days please click the following links:

Week 1 Day 1

Week 1 Day 2

Week 1 Day 3

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Week 1 Day 3: Inspiration from Guest Artists

Day 3's lesson featured a bunch of guest artists who shared their cards and techniques with us. Very inspirational indeed! Our homework assignment was to continue to use the colour combo and sketch given to us on Monday. This is the card I created...

I originally made this card for Thursday's (Day 4) assignment, which was a 10 minute challenge (where you had to finish a card within 10 minutes). I had everything planned out and totally thought I could do it. However, the die cutting took way longer than expected. Cutting all the "you's" alone took the entire 10 minutes. So I eventually gave up, finished the card in 1 hour and 10 minutes and decided to submit it as my Day 3 homework. =P And because I was so stressed to finish this card as quickly as possible, I screwed up big time on the yellow part. I ended up using strips of green paper to cover my "bad decision" and now it looks awful! I will now try to ignore the yellow part and pretend the green strips are not there. ~_~

I love this "you" background, but it took forever to create! I die cut a whole lot of "you's", put them through my Xyron sticker machine, taped them to the red card stock, and then trimmed off all the pieces that were sticking out.

Here's another one of my baker's twine flowers. I love them so much!! xD

It took me four tries to stamp the sentiment perfectly, because my hands were shaking due to the stress from the time limit. ~_~;

I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the card. But on the inside I used the same aqua colour card stock to die cut the word "you". So the card would read "Think of..." on the outside and "you" on the inside.

To see my homework assignments from past days please click the following links:

Week 1 Day 1

Week 1 Day 2

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Week 1 Day 2: Stamping Techniques

For the second day in the online card making class, we learned a whole lot of new stamping techniques. Our homework assignment was to use one (or more) of the techniques in our card design. This is the card I made using the Multi-Inking with Masking technique taught by Jennifer McGuire.

I thought the fonts on the stamp look almost carnival-like. Therefore I die cutted some tickets and I used tiny die cut letters to spell out "admit one". It took a while but they turned out pretty cute.

This is actually one stamp that I inked up with different colours and created this. I love the combination of the colours! This technique is very time consuming, but I guess it was worth the effort.

To see the card I made on Week 1 Day 1's homework assignment click here.

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Week 1 Day 1: Colours and Sketches

Hello everyone! As you may know I'm enrolled in an online card making class, called Summer Card Camp 2.

I'm having a lot of fun learning new techniques and being inspired by all the amazing teachers and classmates. The first class was about colours and sketches. And our homework assignment was to brainstorm (and also make) some card designs using the colour combo and sketches given to us. Here is the card I made...

I was so happy to be able to use many of the recently purchased products. Including the "hello" die, the embossing folder, the "}" shaped die, the banner die, and the baker's twine flowers (but those I didn't buy).

I learned how to make these flowers last week using baker's twine. I had so much fun making them that I made about 30-40 of them. Now they are all ready for me to use in my cards. You will be seeing a lot of them in my future cards. LOL!

I love the shadow effect I have created with the word "hello". I die cut the word twice and then glued them together while slightly offsetting their alignment. 

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Hoping You Have an Amazing Birthday

Instead of being in bed at this hour I'm staying up to watch anime and make cards. =P

I've seen this technique done many times before, but this is the first time trying it myself. These were quick and easy to make, therefore I made two of them.

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~