Birthday card with Smooch Swirls

The card I'm sharing with you today is a technique that I learned at a make and take last month.

The background is created using the product called "Smooch" by Clearsnap. You need a tin foil type pie plate, the instructor warned us not to use one of our good pie plates as the clean up it not easy. You put a couple of inches of water in the pie plate. Then you place a drop of a couple of different colours of smooch on the top of the water. Then you take the last colour you want to use and swirl it on the surface of the water. You now take a piece of glossy finish CS (not photo paper) cut to the approximate size you want to use and submerse it, glossy side down, in the water. After lifting it out you turn it over and you have your masterpiece. You can either lay it aside to dry or use your heat gun to dry it quicker.  It really is amazing the different effects you get by mixing your colours. This particular one was done with pumpkin, taffy, kiwi and then swirled with molasses. To finish off this card I used a dragon fly stamped on vellum and then cut out and popped up on dimensionals. The piece across the bottom is some Tim Holtz tissue that is pleated. The little flower is attached to a piece of brown twine double on itself and attached to the card front before adhering it to the folded card base. 
I have sent this particular card off to a card making friend of mine who's having a birthday this month.
Thanks for dropping by,
Sandy

A Milestone Birthday for a Fabulous Friend

The card that I last posted was for 1/2 of a couple who I'm lucky enough to count among my friends . This card today is for his wife. She is someone I met as a neighbour 25 years ago when she moved to Calgary from Ontario. We hit it off immediately and although we haven't been neighbours many years I definitely call her one of my 'best friends'. This birthday is one of those milestone years. You know that one's where you enter a new decade? I'm not going to mention which decade, but I did enter it myself a couple of years ago.
Although this card doesn't specifically mention age the sentiment "days just seem to flutter by" is perfect I think. Both the butterfly and the sentiment are from a sheet of stamps I won from Repeat Impressions The House that Stamps Built this summer. Lucky me! The background of card is a technique we were challenged to try on our CCB Yahoo group. It is done by using Versamark on your CS then passing it through your cuttlebug with an embossing folder, adding clear embossing powder and finally heat setting it. I used one of the folders from the Cindyloo collection. The butterfly was first stamped on the same yellow CS I used for the sentiment.  I also stamped it on some vellum with my black onyx Versafine added clear embossing powder and heat set it. I mounted it with a could of pop-ups on the body, which leaves the wings free.
I truly enjoyed making this card and was glad I could give it to such a good friend!
Thanks for dropping by,
Sandy

More Birthdays & New Techniques

This past week I had two more birthdays that I needed cards for, as well as a challenge on my Yahoo group that was to show my idea of a favourite vacation.  So with this card I was able to satisfy all my needs.

The technique that I used to create the background for this card and the next one I'm going to show you is one I learned in a demo at a local scrapping store last Tuesday.  Many of my card making buddies have been using distress inks for quite awhile now but I have resisted as it is so far out of my comfort zone of my clean and simple cards.  However, to my surprise and with the encouragement of having M-J at my side I really did enjoy experimenting a bit. And if I do say so myself the end product isn't half bad either.
The stamp I used is one of M-J's Stampin Up stamps that really does epitomize my idea of a perfect relaxing vacation of sitting at the beach, watching the waves, reading a book and spending time with good friends.
One this first example I used more muted tones and stamped the image with sepia versafine. Then I matted it with brown C/S before putting on the card base.

The second card is brighter tones and it is stamp with my favourite go to ink black onyx versafine. It is matted with black before been attatched to its card base.

Because I wanted to enter these cards in a Cuttlebug challenge I added the swirling frame, sorry I can't remember the name of the embossing folder (I will add it later to this posting when I remember).

I must say that distress inks, spritzing and blending just may be in my future. It certainly was fun to see what can be done with it!

Thanks for dropping by,

Sandy