Sakura Cards - Bold and Black

These next two cards were made from the same upcycled Royal tissue box as the two in my last post.
This time I opted for a more dramatic look with dark and bold choices.

The cardstock accent piece was embossed and then inked with a little dark purple ink. Note I used  5.25 x 4" piece and then cut this in half so I had one piece for each of these two cards. This card uses two pieces form the tissue box. The first was cut into a rectangular piece which was matted on pale pink cardstock. The second was die cut into a small circle shape that has been matted onto a white scalloped circle punch out and attached with foam tape.

The die cut greeting was attached near the top, accented with a bit of baker's twine tied to the cardstock behind the sentiment. For a finish touch little rhinestones were added to the flower centers.

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Bazzill, Recollections

Patterned paper: Royal tissue box

Ink: Blackberry Bliss - SU

Die: Hello Thinlits - SU

Punch: Scallop Circle - SU

Embossing Folder: Cherry Blossoms - Darice

Misc.: foam mounting squares/tape, rhinestones, white/pink baker's twine

The second card, as noted, used the other half of the embossed cardstock, but created an entirely different look.

The background consists of the blossom embossed cardstock and a strip of light pink added to separate the top piece from the dark card base. Little banner tails were added by cutting thin strips form the tissue box and punching one end with the banner punch to create tail ends. The tissue box image was die cut into a circle shape and matted and white circle one size larger and then attached to the card using foam squares. The greeting was stamped onto white and punched out with the word window, leaving a straight edge on the right. Final touches consists of three small rhinestones to right and one to each flower center.

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Bazzill, Recollections

Patterned paper: Royal tissue box

Stamp: So Many Sayings - SU

Ink: Blackberry Bliss - SU

Punch: Word Window, Banner - SU

Embossing Folder: Cherry Blossoms - Darice

Misc.: foam mounting squares/tape, rhinestones



Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon. 

Sakura Cards - white and bright

I love finding inspiration in unexpected places.

My latest set of cards is a recycled, or up-cycled, project using yet another lovely tissue box.
This one is a Royale box in deep fuchsia featuring beautiful sakura blossoms painted on a somewhat abstract background.



I kept these first two cards simple with minimal accents and a bright white base.

I started by stamping  random splashes across the bottom right corner of the card base. Then atatched a few strips of washi tape, some wire paper and in the middle a cut out  of my tissue box that has been mounted with foam tape.
The greeting was cut from black paper and several little rhinestones were added randomly to the card for a little bling.

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Recollections white and black
Stamps: Gorgeous Grunge - SU
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Rose Red, pear Pizzazz - SU
Dies: Greetings Thinlits - SU, Circle Framelits - SU
Designer paper: Royale tissue box
Misc.: foam mounting squares/tape, little rhinestones, green paper wire, washi tape

For this card I kept the shape of the tissue box piece rectangular. It was mounted on some spring green cardstock and attached to the card front with foam tape. Little flags were added to one side. these were created with the banner punch. For the larger flags the paper (and tissue box scraps) were cut to strips and then one end inserted into the punch to cut the tail
The regretting was cut form black and added vertically. For a final touch the flower centers have been accented with rhinestones as well as  small trio of stones was added to the top of the banner row.

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Recollections white and black, Bazzill green and pale pink
Dies: Greetings Thinlits - SU
Punch: banner - SU
Designer paper: Royale tissue box
Misc.: foam mounting squares/tape, little rhinestones

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon. 

Butterflies & Blossoms

I have a new toy, the tree builder punch; and I have a feeling it will be rather versatile.

I am eager to play with the shapes and come up with new designs aside from the many different uses that are provided with the matching stamp set.

This first one is a rather simple design. I used several of the trees to make a large branch. The flower in this punch was too small for my taste so I teamed it with the Itty Bitty Accents blossom.

I added a touch of colour with my Copics and shaped the flowers a little.
Its hard to tell in the photos but I also sponged a little Soft Sky on the background.

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Bazzill, Recollections, silver foil
Stamp: Because You Care - SU
Ink: Early Espresso - SU
Alcohol markers: Copic - RV10, RV34
Punch: Tree Builder - SU, Itty Bitty Accents - SU
Die: Bold Butterfly Framelits - SU
Misc.: foam tape (to mount the butterfly)

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Bazzill, Recollections, silver foil
Alcohol markers: Copic - RV10, RV34
Punch: Tree Builder - SU, Itty Bitty Accents - SU
Die: Bold Butterfly Framelits - SU
Misc.: foam tape (to mount the butterfly), 5/8" pink organza ribbon

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon.

Welcome Spring Window Card

We have had some very unusually mild weather here in Calgary in the past few weeks. It's making me very hopeful for spring (all though I am afraid to rock the boat so to speak).

That in mind I felt inspired to make something that said "spring". I've been seeing a lot of cards made using the new SU stamps et "Indescribable Gift". It is a lovely spring blossom branch that can be coloured with markers. I don't own it yet but thought I'd create something with spring blossoms.

This is what I came up with (I bet it would look even prettier with the SU stamp):

I don't have any blendabilities (or other alcohol marker). I used my regular SU markers to try an shade the blossoms a little. In actual fact I was not too happy with the results and almost threw the coloured image away when my daughter advised she loved it and would like a card made with it.

So this little gem was born. I do love the window die and think it works really well with this image.

Here is a  peak at the inside of the card, which I made to match.

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Bazill

Ink/Ink Markers: Blushing Bride, Rich Razzelberry - SU, Early Espresso

Stamps: Asian inspired - Fiskars, Easter Blossoms - SU

Embossing folder: Brick - Tim Holtz

Die: Door/Window - Impression Obsession

Misc.: Foam mounting squares, 2 x 1/8" silver brads.

Thanks for stopping by! Come back soon for some St. Patrick's day creations.

Asian Screen Card

I'm sure I've mention several times before, my daughter is very into Japanese/Asian art and design. She loves Sakura blossoms, dragons, Kanji... high on her wish list of items are currently both an old Japanese trunk and screen.

So when I saw the current trend of screen cards I immediately thought of making an Asian themed one for her. I have to say I am not fond of the 4 screen version that is really popular right now. Although it looks pretty standing upright, I do not like that the greeting ends up on the back of the card (I'm a little OCD). I therefore made this into a 3 screen card.

I used 1 full sheet of 8.5 x 11, folded into three's. Note it fits a standard business envelope:

The top was trimmed with a corner punch and I used a square die to cut away a portion of each screen panel to create "legs". At first I was going to leave the bottom square, but I found the "legs" were not as sturdy as I had hopped. I then added the trellis die and love how this turned out. Not only is it much sturdier, but it looks lovely.

My flowers are embossed in gold on the red cardstock (very classic Asian colours, black, red, gold).
Both the greeting and well wishes panels are foam mounted, the tassel was strung over one of the scallop points and secured with a glue dot at the bottom. I also added black rhinestones along the top border for a little extra bling.

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Ink: Basic Black - SU, Versamark
Stamps: Art of the Orient  -SU, Friendly Phrases - Stampendous, Kanji Collection 3 - Stamp Workz
Punch: corner scallop - PB (I removed the corner guards so that I could punch a border)
Die: Square - Spellbinder , Lattice bigz - SU
Misc.: gold embossing powder, small gold tassel, 1/4" black rhinestones, 5/8" gold organza ribbon, foam squares

Up next I have one more punch art Christmas card. It's been a little hectic here so I'm still finishing the instructions.

Thanks for stopping by; hope to see you again soon!

Chinese Lanterns Note Tag Style

When I played with the Note Tag punch and came up with the soup bowl from my last post I immediately noticed that the punched shape looked like a Chinese lantern. So today I am sharing my card featuring this little creation.

I left this card very clean and simple making the lanterns the focus.
I lightly sponged the blue background I glued to the front of my card. Then strung my lanterns (hung with a little wire loop) on butchers twine and adhered everything with glue dots. I stamped my greeting at the bottom of a 5.25 x 4" white card, cut my die and mounted it over top of my card front using foam squares.

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Stamps: Art of the Orient - SU,  Feeling Sentimental - SU
Ink: Blushing Bride, Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip - All SU
Die: Window Framelit - SU
Misc.: black butcher twine, silver wire, foam squares.

Punch art instructions below.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by; hope to see you again soon!

Let's do lunch

I love how cute this little lunch invitation looks.
My daughter and I love Japanese food so this was a perfect fit for a mother daughter lunch date.

 

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Stamps: Kanji Collection 3 (background) - Stamp Workz, Definitely Decorative Tea Time (steam) - SU, Art of the Orient - SU

Die: Window Frames Framelits - SU

Ink: Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Smokey Slate - all SU

Ink Marker: Basic Black - SU

Punch: 1" square for banner tails, Note Tag- see instructions below

Misc.: 1/4" black rhinestone.

Note: chopsticks were hand cut, greeting was PC generated, font is Oriental 

 

Punch art instructions below

 

And here is a little teaser of what's coming up.
Yes, as you may have guessed these all use the Note Tag punch.
How many punch art creations can you identify?

Thanks for stopping by, hope to see you again soon!

Lazy Panda Punch Art

I looked at quite a few photos of panda bears before creating this big fellow. I found many images where Pandas were hanging on top of large branches and really loved that idea. So my panda is lazily posed on a big tree branch.

The branch was created by trimming down my tree die until it seems to have the right fit. Sorry but I didn't take a photo of just the branch. I decided not to try and make bamboo leaves and instead chose a background stamp to serve the same purpose. Again my Kanji greeting of Friendship is one associated with pandas.


Supplies used:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Ink: Garden Green - SU, Basic Black - SU, Soft Suede - SU
Stamps: Kanji Collection 2 - Stamp Workz, Bamboo Background - SU
Dies: Branch Tree - Tim Holtz - Sizzix
Misc.: foam mounting squares, white gel pen

Full punch art instructions below:

Coming up next: a few more layouts including one with a "cool and refreshing" punch art accent.

Curled-up Snake Punch Art

As I may have mentioned before, my daughter loves everything Asian. Hence I have quite a few Asian themed stamps as well as many Kanji greetings. This card was made with her in mind (she's still trying to convince me to let her buy a pet snake while she's still living with us).

The Kanji background stamp was a bare rubber stamp purchased on ebay. No company name or anything noted. The red mat was hand cut as my die doesn't have a 1/8" mat. I created a little twisted knot at the top of my tassel, it served the purpose of shortening the tassel length and also looks better that way. Note I researched the meanings of certain animals and a snake, amongst other things, represents patience. I therefore chose the corresponding Kanji.

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Die: Window Frames Framelits - SU
Ink: Real Red - SU, Basic Black - SU
Stamps: Oriental Characters/Kanji - unknown, Greeting - Kanji Collection 1 - Stamp Workz
Misc.: foam mounting squares, white gel pen, 5" gold tassel, corner rounder (for the greeting mat)


Full punch art instructions below:

Up next will be my panda card.

Cherry Blossom Card

My dear daughter is turning twenty four this week.  As she absolutely loves Sakura blossoms I decided to make here a birthday card in that theme.

After playing with my punches for a bit I opted for creating the North American non-fruit bearing cherry blossom style instead of the Japanese Sakura blossoms.

This was my inspiration:

And this is my creation:

and here is a peak at the inside of the card:

I usually make 5.5 x 4.25 ins cards but for this one I decided on the larger 5.5 x 8.5 ins size.

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Dies: Branch Tree - Tim Holtz - Sizzix
Punches: Pansy - SU, Petite Petals - SU, Blossom Builder - SU
Stamps: Feeling Sentimental (greeting) - SU, In my Thoughts (card inside) - SU, Petite Petals - SU, Flower Shop - SU, Build-A-Blossom - SU
Ink: Pretty in Pink - SU for stamping the blossoms, Rose Red - SU to sponge the edges of the punched blossoms, Chocolate Chip - SU  for the sentiments and sponging the edges of the branches, Old Olive - SU, for the leaves
Misc.: 1" wide dark brown satin ribbon, 3/8" pearl accents, flower making tools.

Each of the large blossoms was made using 2 pansy shapes and 2 petite petal shapes. The outer/bottom pansy was shaped very lightly so the petals only curl a little. The remaining pansy and both petite petal shapes were shaped liberally so that the petals curl for added dimension. I off set the petals when I assembled the blossom.
You can see in my image that the large blossom on the upper right is lighter in colour then the others. I only sponged the outer edges of the pansy shapes on this one. Whereas on the others blossoms I sponged all edged quite liberally.

Note the branch tree die was trimmed in the same way as for my cherry tree punch art.
The leaves were made using the 2nd largest petal shape and matching stamp from the Build-A-Blossom stamp set.

For the inside of the card I made a "flatter" version by only using the pansy punch.

Chinese Lanterns Card

With Chinese New Year just around the corner I was inspired to make a quick card this week.
It only took a few minutes to make and turned out quite cute (at least I think so).

 

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Ink: Real Red - SU, Chocolate Chip - SU, Black - Colorbox, White - Staz On

Stamps: Asian Inspired - Fiskar, Wonderful Words - SU

Die: Top Note - SU

Misc: 3 x 1/8" black brads, white twine

 

Punch art instructions with punch list below.

Come back soon for more "light" inspired punch art.

Sakura Blossoms

I believe I mentioned this before, my daughter loves all things Japanese.
So of course she is a big fan of anything with sakura blossoms.

One of my older SU sets has the image of a small tree branch with blossoms.
I recently was given some older SU markers and thought this would be the perfect time to try and colour the section of a stamp image with different colours using my new markers.
So I made this card for my daughter's next birthday:

  

 

I kept it fairly simple so that the blossoms would be the main focus.

 

Supplies used:

Stamps: Art of the Orient - SU, Small Script - SU

Cardstock: Bazzill

Markers: Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery - SU

1" wide polk-a-dot gros grain ribbon

 

Here is the inside of the card:

 

 

The greeting is: Heard from the Heart - SU

 

Of course the envelope has to match as well:

 

Thanks for looking.

Chinese Bearded Dragon Take 2

Alright, so I thought I was done with dragons for a while. But my mind had different ideas. I kept thinking "how can I improve my Chinese dragon? There's got to be better options for the beard tentrils.".

Here is what I came up:

As you can see the basic design is the same as my previous bearded dragon. I added more "beard/hair including some on his chin and changed up the horns and the tentrils. I also think more popping with foam squares and the dual green tones make a big difference. What do you think, is this one or my first attempt better?

Supplies used:
Background: SU Bamboo II
Greeting: StampWorkz Kanji collection set 1
Carstock: Bazzill
Ink: Colorbox
punches for greeting: SU ticket, SU designer labee, 3/4" circle (PB)
foam squares under muzzle/nose, head and beard/hair.

Full instructions below.

 

More punch art creations to come.

Chinese Bearded Dragon Punch Art

Today I am sharing my first attempt at a Chinese dragon. He wasn't the easiest to create using punches. I know not everyhone has the Nankong grass punch, but it's the best I could come up with.

 

My daughter's only complaint was he's not colourful enough, and maybe the "beard" could be more wispy and flowing. I might have to play a bit more and see what else I can come up with.

 

Supplies as follows:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Mulberry paper (red with gold flecks) - source unknown

Kanji sentiment: Stamp Workz Kanji Collection - Set 1

Foam dots to pop the mouth/snout and then again the head.

 

Full punch art instructions below:

 

 

 More punch art to come, so check back soon.

Baby Dragon Punch Art

My second punch art dragon is full sized. He doesn't fit on the standard crad size, so the card below is a half sheet/8.5 x 5.5".


I call him my baby dragon as
1) he doesn't have any horns yet and
2) his legs and wings are so small he surely is still growing.

Regardless I fell in love with him as soon as he was finished and am having trouble giving him away.
I might just have to keep him for another 10 years (next Chinese New Year for Year of the Dragon if my math is correct)

Supplies used:
Stamp: Art of the Orient - SU (I believe the kanji means "wealth" or "prosperity")
Scallop square - SU, 1 1/4" square - PB
Stripes embossing folder - SU
Cardstock - Bazzill
Silver grey ink - Colorbox

Full punch art instructions below.

 

Next post is my attempt at a Chinese bearded dragon (don't laugh). Although he's not "authentic" I think he turned out rather well.

Eastern Blooms Cards

My daughter loves anything Japanese, Chinese, dragon and Sakura blossom related.
So when an older SU stamp set called "Eastern Blossoms" caught my eye on ebay I new it would be the perfect stamp set with which to make something for her.

The set wasn't as cheap as I would have liked so in order to ensure that I would get ample use from it I did a few searches to see what other's have created. It looks to have been a very popular set in it's day as I found quite a few really nice and inspiring designs (hence 2 of mine are pretty much cased).

When my stamp set arrived I not only made my daughter's birthday card with it, but decided to also make a little card set for her.

I packed it in a matching homemade box. It turned out very nice:

The gift set consisted of several cards and matching envelopes, here are a few of them.

 

 

Supplies used:
Eastern Blooms - SU, large stamp and the Sakura blossom from the tripple flower stamp
Greeting: Say it with Scallops - SU
Scallopped square punch - PB (38 mm)
Scallop square punch - SU
Stripes embossing folder - SU
Black organza ribbon
5 x 1/4" clear rhinestones
Cardstock: Bazzill
foam dots to pop the sakura blossoms
Colorbox ink

I hand cut all the flowers - unfortunately there are no punches that work with this set.

This one was inspired by this beautiful card by "wannabestampin':

Supplies used:
Eastern Blooms - SU, large stamp, the Sakura blossom from the tripple flower stamp and the two small ones for the background
Black organza ribbon
53 x 1/4" black rhinestones
Cardstock: Bazzill
foam dots to pop the largest blossoms
Colorbox ink

as with the card above, I hand cut all the two flowers

Eastern Blooms - SU, large stamp and the Sakura blossom from the tripple flower stamp
Greeting: Heard from the Heart - SU
Red grosgrain ribbon
White embossing powder and Emboss ink
Cardstock: Bazzill
foam dots to pop the large blossom
Silver foil
Darice Bamboo embossing folder

as with the previous cards, I hand cut all the two flowers

This one is another case, based on this card by "eured99":

Stamps: Eastern Blooms - SU flower spring, Art of the Orient - SU for background strips
Greeting: Teeny Tiny Wishes - SU
Red grosgrain ribbon
Silver mesh
Colorbox inks
Cardstock: Bazzill
3/4" circle punch (PB) to create the "ticket" corners
Modern label - SU (I trimmed the center 'bubble' on either side) and Word window - SU
Dots embossing folder - SU