Monday, July 15, 2013

Summer Card Class II-Day 5

Happy Monday everyone!! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!! I didn't do a whole lot but I was able to work on my cards for Day 5 of the card class. I chose alternate color scheme #4 to create my cards. I had to tweak the shades a bit since I don't own a mint green but I included at least four of the colors plus a little white. I also used Kristina Werner's technique in her video. I very rarely ever copy a technique directly but I liked how she made her card so I thought I would give it a try. I had to make two sympathy cards for two different people so I decided to use my homework as a place to create them. The first thing I did was to die cut a bunch of the flowers and leaves out of white card stock. I then stamped my images using Papertrey Ink's Rosie Posie stamp set. To create the leaves, I used my Sour Apple Stamp Pad from My Favorite Things. I inked up the leaves and then stamped off some of the ink and then stamped on the die cut. It have the leaves a mottled look.


After I stamped all my images, I went back in with re-inkers to paint some details on my images. I LOVE how it came out but it was very labor intensive. I need to get the coordinating detail stamp for this set to make my life easier!!



This is my first card that I created. I decided to use one a foam adhesive to pop one of the roses up on the yellow flower to give the card a little bit of dimension.


I would have made two gray cards had I had more of the patterned paper. I think this is perfect for a sympathy card!!


 The second card I created was pink and I stamped the sentiment in gray to get the 4 colors in.


 As with the gray card, I used foam adhesive to add dimension. However, I chose to use it on both flowers instead of just one. I think I like this look better.




I did create half of another card using the cut out technique but it came out terrible so I will not be posting it.

Things I learned from Day 5 of the class:


  • Kristina's video made this technique look easy. I, however, found it very labor intensive with all the different steps. I did make it harder on myself by watercoloring the flowers, I know. I LOVE how it came out, though and think if I did this again, I would make a ton and do it in steps.
  • Using glue is not my friend!! Yup, I am glue impaired. I like tape runners or my ATG gun. For some reason, no matter what I use, I always squeeze too much out and it goes everywhere. This project was no different!! I spent time getting glue off my plastic with a glue eraser.
I am off to look at what this Monday's class will bring. Thank you for stopping by to see my projects!!

Nora

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Thursday, July 11, 2013

Summer Card Class Homework Day 4

I think the homework for day 4 of the Summer Card Class II was one of the hardest that I have had to ever do in a creative class. The challenge was to make a card in 10 minutes. I have never created ANYTHING in 10 minutes. If I need a quick card and I don't have it in my stash, I buy it! I take way too long to plan out my creations-which is one of my problems-and even when I plan something out, I get a better idea and change it half way through.

The first thing I did to prepare for this assignment was to take out everything I was going to need for the challenge. I had so much out that everything was strewn across my work space. I should have taken a photo of it but the mess stressed me out so bad that I just couldn't.

To start with, I decided to use lemon tart card stock as my background piece and went from there. I had pulled out various yellow scraps of patterned paper last night, which were still on my desk, and I knew that I wanted one paper in particular on this card. I then just went for it, not second guessing anything and HURRIED!!!



I was actually feeling sick to my stomach at the end because I didn't think I was going to make it. To be truthful, I went a little over the time. Shshsh!! It actually took me 10 minutes, 10 seconds!! That was because I had to die cut the word balloon twice due to a stamping error. It always happens when I am in a rush so I should have cut out two to begin with!!


So this is what I learned from today's class:


  • If I do this challenge again, I will do it very differently. Instead of die cutting things from scratch, I would pull out my huge box of "extras" that I have die cut in the past and start from there. 
  • Before I start a project like this, I will CLEAN OFF MY DESK!! I think this was part of the problem. I had too much there-mostly from my late night last night and I need a clean work space.
  • For challenges like this, clean and simple is the way to go.

Well, that is all for today unless I get inspired again. Thank you all for stopping by. Have a great Thursday!!

Nora

Supplies:

My Homework for Day 3 of the Summer Card Class II

I am exhausted today from staying up late. I was too busy yesterday to do my homework so I was up last night until midnight making this card!

My assignment last night was to create a card inspired by one of four cards that they had on the classroom site yesterday. All of the cards inspired me in some way but since I only had time to make one, I chose the designer Laura Bassen's card. Her blog, Doublestick Heaven, is a must see. You can get lost in it. Her creative use of supplies and thinking outside the box is amazing!!


Laura's original card was simple in nature. The card itself was white and it contained six banners in different colors. There was a large flower element and a sentiment over the banners. Here is the card I created:


I liked the banners on the original card but since I am not one to copy a card exactly, I chose to die cut a border using an MFT border die and fill it with colored squares. My main element is a large flower, like Laura's, and I did stamp a sentiment on a banner to kind of keep the flavor of the original card.


I am happy with how this came out since I was up so late but once again, there are things that I will change when I repeat this design. (and I cut out a ton of borders so I will be repeating this!!) The original card banners were smaller and I think that I might cut my borders a bit smaller. I also am not sure I like that I started so close to the bottom. I also might put some glossy accents over the paper squares but I would have to experiment with that first.

I am off to go look at the class for today. Thank you for taking the time to look at my card.

Nora

Supplies