Saturday, January 4, 2014

New Year's Cards

Happy New Year to all of my blog readers. I hope everyone had a wonderful 2013 and even better 2014. I know for me 2013 had a lot of changes and I look forward to a peaceful and prosperous new year. During my nice long holiday break I made a couple new cards with motivational messages.


As many of you know, my dad is an antique dealer and all around junk collector. Just tell him something you are looking for and he is going to find if for you. I had him looking for a vintage rubber stamp spinner and of course he found me the great one in the photo above. It is perfect to hold the blending tools I am using on whatever is my current project.


To create my new cards I used Adobe Illustrator to draw the shape of my mini Shaker cathead basket stamp and to place it in the lower corner of my card. After saving the Illustrator file in .SVG format I imported it into the eCal software that came with my Sizzix eClips cutting machine. The eCal software is great as you can easily duplicate and arrange your shapes to make the best use of your card stock.


After cutting out my card fronts, I stamped them with an old Stampin' Up! background stamp using Victorian Velvet Distress Ink and edged them with the same color. To add a little dimension to the panels I darkened just the very edge with Dusty Concord.


I stamped my Tim Holtz saying, "Courage is being yourself everyday in a world that expects you to be someone else," in Dusty Concord, layered my basket image (Coffee Archival Ink) in the cutout window and then framed the whole thing with a larger rose colored panel.


To finish the card, I affixed the assembled panel to a cream colored folder.


I also made a second version in a different color scheme, Distress Inks Weathered Wood and Faded Demin, and Espresso Adirondack Ink, with the Tim Holtz saying, "Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."

Well, I hope these two inspirations help steer the course for the year.




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