Art Card Garden

My mom's been doing cute little art cards lately, so I figured I'd try my hand at one this week.  Turns out, it took me longer to get out and put away the supplies than to actually splash the paint on the little 2.5 by 3.5 inch piece of paper.

It was a quick distraction from the heat, and I had fun playing without lines.  I think I might try this again sometime...

Hope your day is filled with sunshine and smiles!
~Kathy

Supplies: water color paper, acrylic paint, corner piece of a sponge, and small stencil brush with very stiff bristles.

Celebrating Dreams

A few weeks ago I mentioned needing a soccer image to make a card for my nephew.  He tried out for a soccer team, and was thrilled when the coach called to let him know he had made the team.  (He didn't think he had a chance to get picked.)

It's taken a while, but I finally finished his card.  I had a lot of fun putting this one together, and it took on a life of it's own.  The final result isn't anything like what I had in mind...

The design papers are from My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper pads (Fine and Dandy - boy and Quite Contrary - Jack and Jill).  The stamps are from Lili of the Valley (Football Crazy and one of the sentiments from the Vintage - Just to Say set).  My "ribbon" is a piece of a shower scrubbie - I thought it would make a good goal net.

I cut out three extra balls and glued them together in a fan type pattern, then popped it up for some extra dimension.  The sentiment is also popped up on foam tape.

Finally, I stamped the envelope with a pair of sentiments from the Mixed Circular Sentiments set.

Sending sunshine your way~
~Kathy

CAS - Fall to Layout 193

Had a little time this afternoon to play before my weekend company arrived.  (I got to work from home today too.  It's amazing what you can fit in when you cut 80 minutes of commuting out of the schedule!!!)

Decided to check out the clean and simple blog's fall to layout and see if I could use it for another thank you card.  Here's my take on their sketch:

I used the same Heritage card stock colors, but added some vintage photo Distress Ink to age it a bit more.  I played a bit with placement of the layered white and blue panels - it didn't feel right having it directly in the middle.  I settled on this for it's final location - still not sure how I feel, but the right most point of the large star seems to be reaching out to open the card... 

For the sentiment I combined three different stamps from the Lili of the Valley Mixed Circular Sentiments set.  First I cut out the spellbinders labels 18 shape, then I used my Tombow marker #992 to color the top portion of the "you make" circular sentiment and stamped it in the upper curve.  Next, I colored the bottom words in the "thank you" circular sentiment and stamped them in the bottom curve.  Finally, I colored the whole "the world a better place" sentiment and stamped it across the middle of the label. 

I also aged the edges of the label with distress ink.  I like how the watercolor marker is darker in some places - more of that antique look. 

This came together very quickly - even with all those steps for the sentiment, and I'll be making more of these!  I can play with the panel layout more that way too.

I'd send sunshine your way, but it's overcast here today, and feels like autumn after the mini heat wave earlier this week.  Hope your day is filled with sunshine and smiles!

Thanks for visiting~
~Kathy