Just Relax Card

The chillin' out chick is a digital image colored with Promarkers.  The acrylic bubbles were found at the Dollar Tree in their craft section.

Vintage Light Bulb Card

I saw a card like this in the latest Stampin' Up catalog.  Once again, their stamp image isn't available as a digi, so I found one online and used it instead.  It was a simple matter to curve the text around the light bulb image in Hallmark Card Making software.

Measuring Cup Card

Okay, I admit it.  The idea for this card was totally taken from the Stampin' Up Occasions catalog that arrived today.  They have a measuring cup stamp that I really thought was cute, but it's too small for an A2 card front.  The stamps are only available as wood or clear, not digital, so there was no way to purchase and resize the image. And, they're not available to order for two more weeks!  I was ready to make cards and knew I needed to do these before the inspiration left me.

It took a few minutes to find a clip art image of a measuring cup, add the text and get it resized in Hallmark Card Studio software.  Hopefully, Stampin' Up will add this stamp set into their digital stamp collection.  When it's available digitally, it's a set I'd really enjoy owning.

Stacked Cups Card

This is a digital image I found online.  It's a good thing I only printed four of these.  By the time I got them all colored, I was tired of all the tiny pieces and trying to pick colors!

30 Minute Cards

30 Minute Card

Joanneorbash posted a link on the Cricut Chat MB to a site full of digital images.  I downloaded the word circle and found the vintage typewriter in my clip art folder. By importing the images into Hallmark software, I was able to re-size them to fit a circle punch.

The card background is Tim Holtz paper and I used his die to cut the border shape. 

In the TH stack I purchased, there are several sheets of these alphabet blocks as well as some old type shapes like they used to print newspapers.  I kept looking at them and couldn't decide how I could use them on a card; I think the old typewriter ties back pretty well to the paper.  Now I can finally use these sheets.

This card serves as my prototype for the clip art image.  Since I had to print it out to verify that it would fit into an 1 1/2" circle.  Now, I'll have to do some planning and come up with a better layout to use the rest of the ones I printed!

Just Chillin' Card

Today on Mizbizibee's Facebook page, she posted a card sketch.  Using a free digital image from Hambo Stamps this is what I came up with for the challenge.

I printed the image on good quality cardstock then colored it with Promarkers and computer generated the sentiment.

Donut Birthday Card

Operation Write Home posted a card like this done by Laura C. on Facebook.  I thought it was really cute, went online, found a free clip art donut image and made the card using Hallmark card making software.

Using a swirl stamp and some ColorBox chalk ink, I added some dimension to the background paper.  I also used a Promarker to put the shadow underneath the donut so it wouldn't just be floating on the white background.  There is some doodling around the borders done with Stampin' Up markers and Gelly Roll pens.

The donut image is pop dotted off the card face for some added dimension.  I also used a metallic gelly roll pen to put some sparkle on the sprinkles on the donut.

I totally agree with the inside sentiment!

Summertime Cards

Okieladybug shared her word circle with me for this one.  The watermelon slice came from the Block Party cartridge.

I wanted to play with my Promarkers today and this was the largest flower image I could locate.  It's a digi stamp that I found online (perhaps it's a Dustin Pike digi?).   The Promarkers make shading so simple! 

I was going to use my Cricut...

Kudos to Janelle Larson for posting a photo of a card similar to this one online.  It was just so cute I had to scraplift her concept!

Shirley, aka Okieladybug, made a cut file for a crab that matches my SU Mr. Crabby stamp set.  I was going to use my Cricut to cut out the crabs for this card and realized they'd be too big.  Instead, I found a Dustin Pike digi image and used it instead.

The red crabs are printed in color on card stock.  Then I printed out several without color and used my Promarkers to make the blue crab and pop dotted it over the red one.    The sentiment was printed in my card making software, I added some inking and some twine.

Making digital stamps

I've had some inquiries about making the digital image of the checklist on the birthday card. Using Excel is the easiest way I've found to do these.  You just type in your text and adjust your spacing on the columns until it's set up the way you want it.  You can select any font on your computer to use in Excel just like you can in MS Word.

I copy and paste my layout until I have a page full and then just print them and cut them out to size.

Using Excel is easier than MS Word because you can actually see that the text is perfectly aligned. 

Using up embellishments and my digital stamp I made

There are too many embellishments laying around back here!  I discovered these little party hats today in a magnetic tin hanging on a rack so I decided to use them up! This week has been all about using up supplies on hand to make room for new stuff.  lol!

The main thing about this card today is the digital stamp I made.  Using Excel makes it simple to do things like this that need to be lined up perfectly.  I probably spent about 30-45 minutes getting it just the right size and picking the font.

More and more things are going digital and I'm hoping in the near future that Stampin' Up will offer more of their stamps as digital downloads that you can purchase by the set and not have to get an entire CD of digi images for their scrapbooking software.

I think it would be a "green" thing to do and would be so nice not to have to find a place to store the stamp sets.  Several of the crafting magazines I enjoy are now offering digital subscriptions that I've signed up for.  No more piles of magazines taking up my shelf space back here!

Digital Sunflower Images

Scrappers Emporium offered these free digital sunflowers today.  They have 3 different colors, yellow, lilac and a bright blue.  I just downloaded them and used my Hallmark software to print them out.  The original plan was to use them printed onto my white cardstock and add either some cut out, or stamped leaves and stems.

After a couple of trials, I cut the flowers out by hand and placed them over a stamped image.  The pop-dot behind the flower made a lot of difference in the appearance of the card.

The stamped leaves were colored with Promarkers, edges of the cut out pieces are inked and then I added some hot fix rounds for a little detail.  This card was inspired by one seen on Splitcoast Stampers.

And I even used a color wheel!

The colors on this card are just ugly.  I don't care if the Stampin Up color wheel does say that real red,  creamy caramel and old olive go together, or not.  It's a good thing I only cut enough of the caramel and the olive to do two cards!  I'm switching colors, for sure!  LOL!

The coffee cup is a clip art image that I colored with my Promarkers and cut out.  Punched the scallop circle and the bar holding the sentiment.  The silver rounds on each end are some hot-fix embellishments.  I Cuttlebugged the background paper, of course.

This card should win me the "What was she thinking?" award.  LOL!

Not buying stamps

Every time I see a cute layout or card with a stamp on it that I like, I want to buy the stamp.  Over the past year I've come to realize that:

(1.)  I'm running out of room to store stamps and
(2.)  After spending all that money on a particular stamp I wind up not using it enough to make the purchase worthwhile.

Using my cardmaking software has encouraged me to utilize digital stamps and clip art images on my cards.  Okie showed me how to manipulate digital images so that I can change them up and get more use out of each image too.

Stampin' Up has a clock stamp set that's been on my want list for some time but I told myself not to buy it because I didn't know how much I'd use it.   Last night I Googled "clock face" and found some great clip art images.  Then I downloaded them into my software and resized them to fit onto an A2 size card.  It just worked out that the large clock face fits perfectly in a 2" punch and the smaller ones also match some circle punches I own. 

The clock faces on these cards are free online clip art.  I computer generated the sentiment and printed it in my cardmaking software.  Now that I've set the image up in the software, I have it saved and can print it anytime I want to use it again.  Much cheaper and I don't have to make room to store the stamp set anywhere!  LOL!

Monkey Birthday Card

The monkey is a Dustin Pike digital image colored with Promarkers.  Computer generated the sentiment and added a few doodledots.

Elephant Card

The elephant is a Dustin Pike digital image that I colored with Promarkers.  I computer generated the sentiment on the front and inside.  The background paper is SU.

The inside sentiment is: " ...Just opened this card!  Have fun on your birthday!" and I stamped and colored a little image of a cake slice with a birthday candle.

I really, really enjoy using the Promarkers!  They have so many colors that it makes doing shading a snap!

Saturday cards

The get well card has a Dustin Pike digi-stamp that I colored with my Promarkers.  Computer generated the sentiment.

Numbers 6:24-25 is my favorite scripture verse.  I printed it in my cardmaker software and just matted it. The metal charm is from a package that I found on clearance at WM and the white disks in the corner are from Fiskars.  I inked the edges with Chestnut Brown.

The papers I used are from the Mirabelle stack.

Tonight's Cards

The butterfly is a Dustin Pike digi stamp.

As you can see, I'm still trying to use up the Little Yellow Bicycle Love Letter papers.

Computer generated sentiments and digital stamps

Recently I've been doing a LOT of computer generated sentiments and background papers.  Finding appropriate stamps when you live so far away from a craft store is a problem.   Shipping costs on a stamp set are sometimes as much as the cost of the set, and I'm basically a bargain hunter!

When I began making cards, I found Hallmark Card Maker software at Staples.  This program is super simple to use and it shows you the actual card as you're working on it so you know if your design is going to work.

You can use any font that you have on your PC to do your words and resizing the letters is a snap.

The only thing Cricut on this one is the little bracket, cut from Tags, Bags Boxes and More.

See how you can just do a simple sentiment on your PC and then punch it out?   In the past I'd buy single sentiment stamps but now that my craft room has reached its capacity, I use the PC a LOT more.  Besides, I can change the font and size so easy and not be tied to just one image on a stamp.

This card has a lot of detail on it, for me.  It took a few tries to get the little envelope folded just right.  The sentiment was printed on white cardstock, inked the edges and attached it to the envelope with some brads.

The flower is from the wedding section at Michael's.  They're bridal confetti and come in a lot of different colors depending on the season.

Tuck in a nice tea bag and you have a good get well card.

Sigh***  I sacrificed some of my polka dot paper on this one! And of course-----------DOODLEDOTS!

The dragon on this one is a Dustin Pike image.  Digital stamps are great!  I have some that you can print already colored or you can just do a black and white one and color it yourself.  I've had people ask me if my printer ink runs when I color.  To date, I haven't had a problem.  But I suppose if you really scrubbed on the image it might bleed some.

I use SU markers, BIC markers as well as Prismacolor pencils with Gamsol to color images and my ink holds up pretty well.

The leaf and pumpkin are examples of the colored clip art images.  The sentiment was just printed and cut out with shaped scissors.

 Okieladybug made some cards like this last fall and I totally lifted her idea!  (imagine that!)

The pumpkin was printed in B&W and I shaded it with my Prismacolor pencils.  Two different Cuttlebug folders were used and then I just cut the scallop circle on the Cricut.

Just find some appropriate words and type them in MS Word. Vary your fonts and spacing then print and cut to size.  I spent some time online finding some Irish/St. Patrick's Day words to use on this example.  The center sentiment is a stamped image mounted on a circle punch shape.  The shamrock was cut with my Cricut.

If your storage space is limited in your craft area and you're like me, want to stretch your crafting budget as far as you can,  try using some of the digital stamps and clip art available online.  There are a ton of sites full of free clip art so you can play with some images.  You don't have to have card maker software either.  The images can be resized using MS Word.