Reinkers and Birthday Wishes by Janet Katz

This birthday card was simple to make for 2 reasons. First, the background was pre-made. Months ago I had played around with some reinkers on watercolor paper. I ended up with this vivid, almost symmetrical background.

 

 

Second, Poppystamps Birthday Wishes Moonlight Script die set is the ideal size and shape on any card to make it look great. I trimmed my watercolor to 4" x 5.25" and matted it onto a cardbase that matched the turquoise shade in the watercolor. Next, I die cut the script saying from the same turquoise cardstock. Then, I cut the shadow from watercolor cardstock to match the background.

 

 

I adhered these together and used foam adhesive to pop the sentiment off the watercolor background. Finally, I added some Fairy Jewels in matching colors.

 

That's it. I love sitting and making card backgrounds, because when it comes time to put together a card, most of the work is already done. Give it a try.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies

 

2523 Birthday Wishes Moonlight Script

JWL003 Bright Jewels

 

Reinkers and Birthday Wishes by Janet Katz

This birthday card was simple to make for 2 reasons. First, the background was pre-made. Months ago I had played around with some reinkers on watercolor paper. I ended up with this vivid, almost symmetrical background.

 

 

Second, Poppystamps Birthday Wishes Moonlight Script die set is the ideal size and shape on any card to make it look great. I trimmed my watercolor to 4" x 5.25" and matted it onto a cardbase that matched the turquoise shade in the watercolor. Next, I die cut the script saying from the same turquoise cardstock. Then, I cut the shadow from watercolor cardstock to match the background.

 

 

I adhered these together and used foam adhesive to pop the sentiment off the watercolor background. Finally, I added some Fairy Jewels in matching colors.

 

That's it. I love sitting and making card backgrounds, because when it comes time to put together a card, most of the work is already done. Give it a try.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies

 

2523 Birthday Wishes Moonlight Script

JWL003 Bright Jewels

 

Blooming Birthday Wishes by Janet Katz

 

 

While summer is just around the corner, there are still some spring blooms to be found. I put together this birthday wishes card using the Luscious Script Wishes Die and a lot of flowers.

 

Do you craft when you travel? I've found it easy to take along a small set of supplies and do a little crafting when I am on the road. Recently, I took a bunch of white floral die cuts and my alcohol ink markers with me on a trip. I spent some free time coloring these little blooms and it was very relaxing. I typically used just two shades on each bloom, with the darker color towards the center. Needless to say, I had to wear some strong readers to do the work. On the tiniest flowers I added a dot of yellow dimensional color to the center. I gathered these flowers to use on this card. I used all the floral dies listed below.

 

 

I didn't premake my greenery, so I did that two different ways. The first was to use white cardstock and cut some greenery using the greenery dies from the Floral Vase Pop Up Easel set, and then color them with two green Copics. The second was to take a strip of white cardstock, color it with one green Copic marker, and then cut leaves from the Floral Vase Pop Up Easel set. Both methods worked well for my needs.

 

 

I used the Luscious Script Wishes die set to cut 'wishes' out of heavy white cardstock and the shadow from a very pale purple cardstock. Since my flower centers were colored yellow, I used a yellow cardbase behind the white card front I glued my leaves and flowers onto. I added a stamped and gold embossed 'Happy birthday' sentiment above the 'wishes.' Finally, I added a few clear Fairy Jewels to the card.

 

 

Hope your spring is blooming all over.

 

 

 

Supplies

 

2554 Lucky Layered Flowers

2552 Floral Vase Pop Up Easel Set

2560 Little Posie Layered Flowers

2469 Floral Cake Pop Up Easel

2197 Luscious Script Wishes

jwl002 Pastel Jewels

Blooming Birthday Wishes by Janet Katz

 

 

While summer is just around the corner, there are still some spring blooms to be found. I put together this birthday wishes card using the Luscious Script Wishes Die and a lot of flowers.

 

Do you craft when you travel? I've found it easy to take along a small set of supplies and do a little crafting when I am on the road. Recently, I took a bunch of white floral die cuts and my alcohol ink markers with me on a trip. I spent some free time coloring these little blooms and it was very relaxing. I typically used just two shades on each bloom, with the darker color towards the center. Needless to say, I had to wear some strong readers to do the work. On the tiniest flowers I added a dot of yellow dimensional color to the center. I gathered these flowers to use on this card. I used all the floral dies listed below.

 

 

I didn't premake my greenery, so I did that two different ways. The first was to use white cardstock and cut some greenery using the greenery dies from the Floral Vase Pop Up Easel set, and then color them with two green Copics. The second was to take a strip of white cardstock, color it with one green Copic marker, and then cut leaves from the Floral Vase Pop Up Easel set. Both methods worked well for my needs.

 

 

I used the Luscious Script Wishes die set to cut 'wishes' out of heavy white cardstock and the shadow from a very pale purple cardstock. Since my flower centers were colored yellow, I used a yellow cardbase behind the white card front I glued my leaves and flowers onto. I added a stamped and gold embossed 'Happy birthday' sentiment above the 'wishes.' Finally, I added a few clear Fairy Jewels to the card.

 

 

Hope your spring is blooming all over.

 

 

 

Supplies

 

2554 Lucky Layered Flowers

2552 Floral Vase Pop Up Easel Set

2560 Little Posie Layered Flowers

2469 Floral Cake Pop Up Easel

2197 Luscious Script Wishes

jwl002 Pastel Jewels

Three Little Birthday Pandas by Janet Katz

There aren't many cuter images than panda bears to put on a card front. I used the Whittle Panda Pickup Kit to put together this slimline card. The panda bear die is a single solid die that cuts out 4 different panda bears with etch marks on them. As another design member has shown, you can use the bears as is, cut from a solid color; to make black and white pandas, you will have two choices. You can cut the pandas from white cardstock and take a black pen or marker and color the ears, eye area, nose, shoulders, arms and legs. I found this pretty tricky to do, so I tried another method used by a fellow team member. I cut the bears from both black and white cardstock and then carefully trimmed off portions of the white bear and glued them onto the black bear. I used a black marker to color the nose and the eyeball only. Once I got going using an Exacto knife to remove the eye ring and scissors on the rest of the bear, this became very easy to do. For a final touch, I added a bit of pink blush with an R30 Copic marker.

 

 

 

I used the bamboo die from the kit to cut out 2 colors of green bamboo. I glued parts of this together to create longer bamboo plants. I glued the bamboo onto a white cardstock panel measuring 3.25" x 8.5". I used a yellow green Copic marker to draw in some grass at the bottom of the bamboo.

 

 

 

Next, I placed my sweet little bear cubs in the bamboo, as though they'd climbed up it. Then I cut two balloons with the die that came in the kit. I ran two pieces of black thread from one panda's hand up towards the top of the card and taped it in place with a tiny piece of washi. Next, I glued the balloons on over the tape. The bottom of the threads are barely secured in place, so I might need a dot of glue later on.

 

My next step was to glue this panel onto a slimline cardfront measuring 3.5 x 8.5". I had already glued strips of black and white striped paper to the right edge of this cardfront to give it a nice little striped accent.

 

 

Finally, I added a sentiment stamped with a stamp from the kit and backed it with a small piece of cardstock the same color as the balloons.

 

Think of all the fun and cute things these little bears could do on your cards.

 

Supplies

 

KT005 Whittle Panda Pickup Kit

Three Little Birthday Pandas by Janet Katz

There aren't many cuter images than panda bears to put on a card front. I used the Whittle Panda Pickup Kit to put together this slimline card. The panda bear die is a single solid die that cuts out 4 different panda bears with etch marks on them. As another design member has shown, you can use the bears as is, cut from a solid color; to make black and white pandas, you will have two choices. You can cut the pandas from white cardstock and take a black pen or marker and color the ears, eye area, nose, shoulders, arms and legs. I found this pretty tricky to do, so I tried another method used by a fellow team member. I cut the bears from both black and white cardstock and then carefully trimmed off portions of the white bear and glued them onto the black bear. I used a black marker to color the nose and the eyeball only. Once I got going using an Exacto knife to remove the eye ring and scissors on the rest of the bear, this became very easy to do. For a final touch, I added a bit of pink blush with an R30 Copic marker.

 

 

 

I used the bamboo die from the kit to cut out 2 colors of green bamboo. I glued parts of this together to create longer bamboo plants. I glued the bamboo onto a white cardstock panel measuring 3.25" x 8.5". I used a yellow green Copic marker to draw in some grass at the bottom of the bamboo.

 

 

 

Next, I placed my sweet little bear cubs in the bamboo, as though they'd climbed up it. Then I cut two balloons with the die that came in the kit. I ran two pieces of black thread from one panda's hand up towards the top of the card and taped it in place with a tiny piece of washi. Next, I glued the balloons on over the tape. The bottom of the threads are barely secured in place, so I might need a dot of glue later on.

 

My next step was to glue this panel onto a slimline cardfront measuring 3.5 x 8.5". I had already glued strips of black and white striped paper to the right edge of this cardfront to give it a nice little striped accent.

 

 

Finally, I added a sentiment stamped with a stamp from the kit and backed it with a small piece of cardstock the same color as the balloons.

 

Think of all the fun and cute things these little bears could do on your cards.

 

Supplies

 

KT005 Whittle Panda Pickup Kit

A Bouquet of Tulips by Janet Katz

The new Layered Tulips die is so much fun to work with! If you like flowers (how many cardmakers don't?) it offers so much texture and dimension. I created this colorful bouquet with some Memory Box paper and Layered Tulips.

 

I started by choosing my cardstock from both the Twilight Purple and the Vibrant Violet Memory Box 6x6" paper pads. These pads are ideal for this die because each color has 3 different shades and there are 4 shades in a package. You are guaranteed colors that go together.

 

I cut out all the parts for every tulip from 3 different colors and rearranged them to make a total of 7 tulips. I used the same tulips dies to cut out green shapes to use as leaves, and stems all from the Lush Green Memory Box pad. I also used a big piece of greenery from the Floral Vase Pop Up Easel Set in the background. I loved the idea of a bouquet wrapped in brown paper, as though from a streetside flower vendor. I simply grabbed a lunch sack from my pantry and freehand cut out a shape that was sort of a semi-circle. I trimmed it down so it would fit correctly and still show some stems at the bottom. I folded it into a cone shape and glued the back to a piece of White Woodgrain Paper cut to 3" x 8". Next I arranged my stems, greenery, leaves, and tulips to be just how I liked. I started gluing everything down on top of the open brown wrapper. I used some foam tape to give some of the flowers even more dimension.

 

 

When I was satisfied with my bouquet and greenery, I folded the brown paper closed, securing it with a dot of glue and folding back a little so it showed the flowers and stems well. Next, I took a very short piece of yellow ribbon and tied a piece of twine around the middle. This served 2 purposes - it cinched the ribbon to make it appear as though the bow was tied from it, and it gave me something to tie the tag to. I wrapped it around the front, tucking it under the brown paper and gluing it to secure it. If I had been thinking ahead, I would have glued this down underneath my brown paper and wrapped it around. Next, I printed the Happy Easter sentiment onto white cardstock from my PC. I used a small tag die from the Basic Junk Journal set to cut it out. I punched a hole through it and strung it on the twine. When the glue was dry, I made a bow with another piece of ribbon and glued it on top of the cinched center of the other ribbon. I adhered the tag to the card with foam tape.

 

 

I matted the entire white piece onto a piece of dark kraft paper and then onto a pink-mauve card base. This tulip die set screams Mother's Day to me also. Wonder what I will make.

Supplies

 

2557 Layered Tulips

2552 Floral Vase Pop Up Easel Set

sh44001 White Woodgrain Paper

2451 Basic Junk Journal Set

 

Supplies

 

sp1008 Twilight Purple

sp1007 Vibrant Violet

sp1003 Lush Green

A Bouquet of Tulips by Janet Katz

The new Layered Tulips die is so much fun to work with! If you like flowers (how many cardmakers don't?) it offers so much texture and dimension. I created this colorful bouquet with some Memory Box paper and Layered Tulips.

 

I started by choosing my cardstock from both the Twilight Purple and the Vibrant Violet Memory Box 6x6" paper pads. These pads are ideal for this die because each color has 3 different shades and there are 4 shades in a package. You are guaranteed colors that go together.

 

I cut out all the parts for every tulip from 3 different colors and rearranged them to make a total of 7 tulips. I used the same tulips dies to cut out green shapes to use as leaves, and stems all from the Lush Green Memory Box pad. I also used a big piece of greenery from the Floral Vase Pop Up Easel Set in the background. I loved the idea of a bouquet wrapped in brown paper, as though from a streetside flower vendor. I simply grabbed a lunch sack from my pantry and freehand cut out a shape that was sort of a semi-circle. I trimmed it down so it would fit correctly and still show some stems at the bottom. I folded it into a cone shape and glued the back to a piece of White Woodgrain Paper cut to 3" x 8". Next I arranged my stems, greenery, leaves, and tulips to be just how I liked. I started gluing everything down on top of the open brown wrapper. I used some foam tape to give some of the flowers even more dimension.

 

 

When I was satisfied with my bouquet and greenery, I folded the brown paper closed, securing it with a dot of glue and folding back a little so it showed the flowers and stems well. Next, I took a very short piece of yellow ribbon and tied a piece of twine around the middle. This served 2 purposes - it cinched the ribbon to make it appear as though the bow was tied from it, and it gave me something to tie the tag to. I wrapped it around the front, tucking it under the brown paper and gluing it to secure it. If I had been thinking ahead, I would have glued this down underneath my brown paper and wrapped it around. Next, I printed the Happy Easter sentiment onto white cardstock from my PC. I used a small tag die from the Basic Junk Journal set to cut it out. I punched a hole through it and strung it on the twine. When the glue was dry, I made a bow with another piece of ribbon and glued it on top of the cinched center of the other ribbon. I adhered the tag to the card with foam tape.

 

 

I matted the entire white piece onto a piece of dark kraft paper and then onto a pink-mauve card base. This tulip die set screams Mother's Day to me also. Wonder what I will make.

Supplies

 

2557 Layered Tulips

2552 Floral Vase Pop Up Easel Set

sh44001 White Woodgrain Paper

2451 Basic Junk Journal Set

 

Supplies

 

sp1008 Twilight Purple

sp1007 Vibrant Violet

sp1003 Lush Green

Life is Better with a Friend Like You by Janet Katz

The Rainbow Arch die has more flexibility than you might imagine at first glance. Sure, it can be a rainbow. But it can serve as a cool, graphic semi-circle among other things. I decided to pull out some specialty cardstock and give it a workout.

 

I started by using the singular die (every arch cuts at once) with a pale blue glitter from the Delicate Pastel Glitter pad, then a turquoise mirror and blue-green pearl paper both from the Vintage Pastel Mirror pad. Finally, I pulled out a blue-green holographic paper from my own stash. After die cutting, I was left with 28 arches to play with on my card. I moved them around on top of a white cardbase. I quickly realized I wanted to use kraft cardstock and use the negative space between some of the arches to act as a warm contrast to my cool blues.

 

 

I glued the arches down and trimmed my piece to 4" x 5.25". Then I got stuck. I slept on it and came back the next day with an idea for adding additional interest and a sentiment.

 

I heat embossed the 'Life is Better with a Friend Like You' sentiment, which I got from the Art Deco Inspiration Stamp set, with white detail embossing powder onto heavyweight vellum and cut it into a rectangle. Since the arches did resemble rainbows, I felt like adding clouds. The adorable white stitched clouds came from the Poppystamps Whittle Rainbow Unicorns kit. Using these also allowed me to hide my adhesive underneath the clouds.

 

 

 

I matted everything onto a kraft cardbase. I love using shapes like clouds in my designs. What's your favorite unique shape to use on your cards (besides a rectangle)?

 

 

 

Supplies

 

2503 Rainbow Arch

fp1002 Vintage Pastel Mirror Pad 6x6 pack

gp1001 Delicate Pastel Glitter Pad

cl505 Art Deco Inspiration clear stamp set

kt004 Whittle Rainbow Unicorn Kit

Life is Better with a Friend Like You by Janet Katz

The Rainbow Arch die has more flexibility than you might imagine at first glance. Sure, it can be a rainbow. But it can serve as a cool, graphic semi-circle among other things. I decided to pull out some specialty cardstock and give it a workout.

 

I started by using the singular die (every arch cuts at once) with a pale blue glitter from the Delicate Pastel Glitter pad, then a turquoise mirror and blue-green pearl paper both from the Vintage Pastel Mirror pad. Finally, I pulled out a blue-green holographic paper from my own stash. After die cutting, I was left with 28 arches to play with on my card. I moved them around on top of a white cardbase. I quickly realized I wanted to use kraft cardstock and use the negative space between some of the arches to act as a warm contrast to my cool blues.

 

 

I glued the arches down and trimmed my piece to 4" x 5.25". Then I got stuck. I slept on it and came back the next day with an idea for adding additional interest and a sentiment.

 

I heat embossed the 'Life is Better with a Friend Like You' sentiment, which I got from the Art Deco Inspiration Stamp set, with white detail embossing powder onto heavyweight vellum and cut it into a rectangle. Since the arches did resemble rainbows, I felt like adding clouds. The adorable white stitched clouds came from the Poppystamps Whittle Rainbow Unicorns kit. Using these also allowed me to hide my adhesive underneath the clouds.

 

 

 

I matted everything onto a kraft cardbase. I love using shapes like clouds in my designs. What's your favorite unique shape to use on your cards (besides a rectangle)?

 

 

 

Supplies

 

2503 Rainbow Arch

fp1002 Vintage Pastel Mirror Pad 6x6 pack

gp1001 Delicate Pastel Glitter Pad

cl505 Art Deco Inspiration clear stamp set

kt004 Whittle Rainbow Unicorn Kit

A Deco Diamonds Thank You Cardby Janet Katz

Simple geometric shapes like circles, squares, triangles and hexagons can be a card maker's best friend. This is why I was thrilled to get my hands on the new Poppystamps' Deco Diamond Stencil Set. It has 3 stencils, each featuring smaller and smaller squares. There are so many possibilities with how to use this versatile set.

 

For this card I used Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass and Broken China. I used a blending brush to apply the ink on white cardstock, first with the largest squares and Tumbled Glass. Next, I used the second largest squares and Broken China Distress Ink. At this point, I *should* have gone over my panel with an antistatic powder, but I neglected to. I wanted a punch of gold, so using the smallest squares stencil, I spread Ranger's Translucent Texture Paste over it, removed the stencil and applied gold embossing powder over the top. My powder stuck in a few too many places due to static and I spent several minutes with a small, dry paintbrush, dusting off the excess powder as best I could. Then I heat embossed to get that great, slightly raised gold square all over.

 

 

I cut my panel to 3.75" x  5" so I could mat it twice, first onto turquoise blue cardstock, then onto a white cardbase.

 

Next, I used Poppystamps' Thank You Moonlight Script die to cut the shadow from white cardstock and the words from gold cardstock in Memory Box's Rainbow Reflections 6x6 Mirror Pad.

 

I wanted to add some foliage, so I used the leaves in the Leafy Vine Corner die set. I used a flower shaping tool to make them curl up some and adhered them to the card, once I had determined my placement. Finally, I attached the words with foam tape.

 

 

This was a fun card and I know I will use these same elements again and again.

 

 

 

 

Supplies

 

T104 Deco Diamond Stencil Set

2507 Thank You Moonlight Script

2511 Leafy Vine Corner

A Deco Diamonds Thank You Cardby Janet Katz

Simple geometric shapes like circles, squares, triangles and hexagons can be a card maker's best friend. This is why I was thrilled to get my hands on the new Poppystamps' Deco Diamond Stencil Set. It has 3 stencils, each featuring smaller and smaller squares. There are so many possibilities with how to use this versatile set.

 

For this card I used Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass and Broken China. I used a blending brush to apply the ink on white cardstock, first with the largest squares and Tumbled Glass. Next, I used the second largest squares and Broken China Distress Ink. At this point, I *should* have gone over my panel with an antistatic powder, but I neglected to. I wanted a punch of gold, so using the smallest squares stencil, I spread Ranger's Translucent Texture Paste over it, removed the stencil and applied gold embossing powder over the top. My powder stuck in a few too many places due to static and I spent several minutes with a small, dry paintbrush, dusting off the excess powder as best I could. Then I heat embossed to get that great, slightly raised gold square all over.

 

 

I cut my panel to 3.75" x  5" so I could mat it twice, first onto turquoise blue cardstock, then onto a white cardbase.

 

Next, I used Poppystamps' Thank You Moonlight Script die to cut the shadow from white cardstock and the words from gold cardstock in Memory Box's Rainbow Reflections 6x6 Mirror Pad.

 

I wanted to add some foliage, so I used the leaves in the Leafy Vine Corner die set. I used a flower shaping tool to make them curl up some and adhered them to the card, once I had determined my placement. Finally, I attached the words with foam tape.

 

 

This was a fun card and I know I will use these same elements again and again.

 

 

 

 

Supplies

 

T104 Deco Diamond Stencil Set

2507 Thank You Moonlight Script

2511 Leafy Vine Corner