Journaling Cards Aren't Just for Scrapbooking

I'm not sure why, but I love the packets of journaling cards that companies put out. They're meant for pocket scrapbooking—you just slide the artwork (sized for the pockets) into the slots and then add some photos to the other pockets. However, I'm not a huge pocket scrapbooker, though I have done a few pages. I mostly just buy the journaling cards! So, in order to justify the purchase and to use some of the cute cards, I've trimmed them to fit a standard card base and made greeting cards with some of mine.

I bought these at Scrapbook.com and they're super on sale right now, so here's a link (not affiliate) in case you want them. This first card uses the cutest cupcake card and I cut apart the word birthday and then outline the edges. The happy die is from Stamplorations. I also added Nuvo blue drops and used another card for the background.

This one just uses a few different cards and a sentiment strip I had from a pack. I think this one might need more bling. What's fun about using a pack is that they all match, so you can mix and match.

I think this one is my favorite. I used just one card, but I added glitter stenciling and the same happy die, along with mini letters from a sticker pack, and circle holographic stickers.

I used three cards on this one, but again, I feel I need some more bling. I do love the different-colored rainbows, though.

What item do you buy even though you technically can't use it all? Tell me I'm not alone!😆

Happy Friday!

Chark

All the Birthday Wishes

Today I'm highlighting a bold Birthday Wishes die from Stamplorations. I've had this awhile and I keep die cutting it from a variety of papers and materials. I love it because it's bold and it's all connected and not too dainty. 

There are some word dies that have delicate lines that get bent easily but this isn't one of them. Looks like this die is on sale right now too, if you want one. I'm not an affiliate link, I just like the store and die.

For this first card, I framed a beautiful patterned paper from Altenew with a gold cardstock frame I cut with an oval and then used black foam to die cut the greeting. I added gold Uniball pen dots to the foam and it worked great.

This card uses a mermaid stamp and die plus a spiral stencil from Hero Arts. The sentiment is die cut from some ink sprayed cardstock. When I create with new materials, it's not always with a project in mind but I've found cutting the artsy pieces for backgrounds and sentiments works great.

This one uses alcohol ink experiments for the background and the sentiment. I added glossy accents to the paints for a little dimension.

 

For this last one, the background is Distress Ink watercolored and the sentiment is cut from more yupo with alcohol ink. I don't think I'm finished with this card yet. It might get some black spatter, sequins or enamel dots...maybe even a flower in the right lower corner. I guess we'll have to see!

Do you have any dies you love to use? psst! I just got a new set of pizza dies from MFT and I've been cutting up a storm...I can feel a post about to written about those dies soon.

Happy Friday!

Chark

Dragonflies Make Me Happy

I have a fabulous cover die from Stamplorations that I can't get enough of...I have a stack of these die cut from different papers just waiting to be used and I thought I'd share a couple here.

This first one (my entry for the Stamplorations Spring Fling Linky Hop) is in white cardstock and the background is watercolor on Bristol paper. The body is done in Stickles and the eyes are dimensional clear and glittery from Stickles and Tonic Crystal Glaze. I edged the card in silver washi tape and used a little white gel pen on the wings.

This one uses a piece of Bristol cardstock that I watercolored with ink smooshing and Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean, Squeezed Lemonade and Peacock Feathers. I backed it with text paper from an old book and actually Did Not Use any glitter products...wha?! I felt like the die was colorful enough as is. I entered this project through IG in the Linky Hop.

I love large cover plate dies that take up the front of a card, especially cool ones like this that need very few additions. I could've added a sentiment but I just didn't want to cover any of it up.

I'm planning to enter project #1 from here in the Spring Fling Stamplorations hop...you have until May 31 to join in to win prizes.

Happy Friday!

Chark

Circle Back to This

Sorry I'm so late posting my Friday post, but I was coloring...you know how it is.

The November Challenge at Stamplorations is Stamps & Circles...I picked just the circles and stamps but not the colors...because although these are lovely, I love me some bright colors. I used the Arteza brush pens and used water with parts of it, but not all of it because I printed this digi on regular (not watercolor) paper and I didn't want it to warp too much. 

Here's my take using a free gorgeous digi from Stamplorations. I added white Uniball gel pen and sentiment stickers from Pretty Little Studio in Rose Gold. Then I mounted it on yellow cardstock and called it good.

This image is so fun to color and it covers a card front nicely. Here's a link to how I've colored it before. Definitely two different looks with just different colors.

Hope you'll join in the challenge, I have a feeling I'll do more than one, as I love my Stamplorations products and it's literally just the first of the month...29 more days to stamp it up in November!

Happy Friday!

Chark

Am I Blue?

I love my blues and greens, so when I saw the National Coloring Book Contest over at Stamplorations, I knew I'd color up the lovely free digi stamp with my blue and green Prismacolor pencils. 

I added some white uniball pen accents, trimmed it out and mounted it to a kraft card I stamped with a text stamp. There's a black stacked sentiment and a gold piece of cardstock under it. I love how it turned out. If you want to join in the coloring challenge, here's the link, you have until the end of August to join.

Thanks for the freebie, Stamplorations!

Happy Tuesday!
Chark

It's a Purple Kind of Day

I put together some cards from some die cuts and colored pieces I had sitting around and I noticed they all have a purple and blue theme. And they all have wings. Must've just been that kind of day when I sorted through my stuff and put them together. 

This card uses the butterfly die from Stamplorations. I swiped this Mermaid Ombre Hero Arts ink pad on coated paper (slightly shiny paper for laser printers) and die cut the solid butterfly. Then the intricate die is cut from black. If you don't have layered bg dies, Jennifer McGuire has a way to do the layered look anyway here.

This card base is light blue and I've added a Unity Stamp angel that I colored and fussy cut. She takes up the whole card! The background I die cut from a piece of painted and doodled art that I didn't like, but it works just fine here.

That's if for today, but next week I'll have more glittery goodness to share when I guest design for a2z Scrapbooking!

Happy Fridsy!

Chark

First Day of Summer

Happy First Day of Summer, friends! My favorite season, though I can do without droughts or 90 degree days :)

I have this cutie and super fast card to share. This one uses a Doodlebug panel, some Stickles and Lawn Fawn rainbow paper. I popped up the panel and it's all ready to go!

And butterflies mean summer to me, so here's a Stamplorations butterfly die card, with glitter paper behind it.

These are  both super easy cards and glittery, which I'm all about.

Here's a fresh peach cobbler recipe which I love! Fresh peaches, corn on the cob, berries with whipped cream, bbq chicken on the grill...summer is a fab time for food!

Happy Friday and Happy Summer!

Chark

Things With Wings

Over at Stamplorations this month, they're having a Things with Wings sale and their Cutplorations challenge uses this owl graphic for inspiration. I love this graphic look and the colors. The DT at Stamplorations have some wonderful inspiration on the blog.

I didn't have any bird Stamplorations products, but this butterfly is one of my favorites. Instead of cutting it out, I impressed the die into the watercolored cardstock. I mounted it on some floral and striped paper (like the leaves and graphic nature from the inspiration) from Altenew and added a Happy Birthday die in gold glitter paper.

Here's a close-up of the glittery goodness. 

This was a fast card since it didn't take any stamping. Hope you'll join me in the challenge, but it ends soon! Check it out here!

Happy Friday!

Chark

Rainbow Foil and Die Cuts

Jennifer McGuire did a video where she used foil as a background for a die, without actually foiling. I loved the look so I tried it with this Leaf Medallion die from Altenew, rainbow foil from Decofoil and a sentiment die from Stamplorations.

I also used a thin piece of double-sided tape at the bottom and actually foiled it with the same foil. It really sticks well to tape. Here's a close-up. So, if you don't have a laminating machine, you can still use the gorgeous foils out there for your cardmaking. You can check out Jennifer's video here that inspired me.

Happy Friday!

Chark

Rainbow Treats

Over at the Stamplorations blog, the current Cutplorations (die cut) challenge inspiration is this picture. I love the striped look of these eggs and though I could never pull this off in, say, jello form or egg dyeing form, I used the rainbow stripes in paper form. 

The paper is from Lawn Fawn and the dies are both from Stamplorations that I got recently during their Spring Sale (through April).

I cut the sentiment from mirrored silver cardstock and the flowers from scraps of colored cardstock in my stash. Love how festive these flowers are in multi-colors.

You have until Tuesday to join in the challenge here, using one Stamplorations product and whatever dies you have. 

If you're feeling the rainbow and want some jello treats now, here's a recipe for you.

Or if you're like me and this seems way too time-consuming, you could always color some cookie dough in rainbow colors like this.

Rainbow food is yummy food!

Happy Friday,
Chark

Die-Cutting All the Livelong Day

When I drag out the Big Shot and the dies and plates and all that goes with it, I like to get a lot out of it, so I spend a few days die-cutting things here and there. I think if I had a permanent set-up, I wouldn't feel the need to pile up the die cuts. I do like having some things to choose from at any given time, though, so who knows?

Here's a card using the Stamplorations Dragonfly cover plate. I love this so much! I cut it from all sorts of colors and papers so I could play around with cards. For this one, I die cut the panel from a piece of coated paper (similar to the properties of Yupo) that I had used Distress Oxides on. They came out very light, but kinda perfect for Spring. I mounted it with liquid glue onto a piece of watered silk from a vintage book flyleaf. The Happy Birthday is die cut from Lawn Fawn plaid paper.

You can see the fabric in the close-up, but not the subtle sheen or pattern. It's lovely irl.

For this card, I used another Stamplorations die, this butterfly, and impressed it into cardstock instead of cutting it. I mounted it on rainbow paper and added some bling and called it a day.

I keep my die cuts in stackable plastic bins that come in different depths. I have one for words, one for circles and rectangles, one for fancy dies, etc. The containers are flat, so it works well for sorting through. Do you die cut a bunch at a time and then just store the die cuts? Just wondering.

Happy Friday!

Chark

Cupcakes Are My Jam

I don't know why or how, but I've become obsessed with cupcakes for awhile now and this free digi from Stamplorations made me so happy! They are always generous with their freebies and giveaways and challenges. They have like 4 or 5 challenges each month. These cards don't fit any of them this month but I loved the stamp and had to color it up.

This one uses Prismacolor pencils for the digi image and a watercolored panel background. I really like the soft-colored panel mounted on black.

The next one is also colored in Prismacolor pencils but I also added glossy accents to the rose and chocolate on the strawberry. The watercolor panel I had (using liquid watercolors from Hero Arts) wasn't large enough for the image, so I just cut it diagonally and added a piece of black cardstock between the pieces. I love yellow frosting on chocolate cupcakes, so that's what I went with here.

Here's a close-up of the dew drops.

My favorite bakery in the whole world is Cake, Hope and Love near me and they are starting an online shop so you can order cake toppers, sprinkles and their fab.u.lous. buttercream. Best icing ever. Their salted caramel is my all-time fave, but they have so many good ones!

So this obsession of mine started at least three years ago...what are some of your fave foods that you will eat 5 times a week if you could?

Happy Friday!

Chark

Die Cuts are Challenging

So, I got this fabulous dragonfly cover die from Stamplorations and love it. I sat down and cut like 10 of these from different colored cardstocks and papers. I had to use different shims, and cut face-up for this to cut best, and the 80 lb. paper I had worked very well. If you have some challenging dies, don't be afraid to ask the seller for help. The folks at Stamplorations had great tips. I love the classic black, especially with this watercolored background (I used my Arteza markers as paints).

I put the die cut down on the card after it dried and did a little more focused watercoloring for the dragonfly, just by swiping the marker in each open spot. I removed the die cut and spread the color around in the wings and body.

Then I glued the dragonfly cover die on top and added Stickles to the wings and a silver paper Hello die from Paper Smooches. 

You can see the shimmer a little better here.

I'm entering this card into the Cutplorations February Challenge...I was inspired by the colors in this.

You have until February 28th to join in here!

Happy Friday, 

Chark

Stamplorations Gave Me This Freebie

Well, actually, Stamplorations gave everyone this freebie on their site, along with a couple others. They are very generous with their free digital stamps. I printed this one in a couple sizes and then decided this would be good for a card front. 

I had the watercolor panel already made from a day playing with liquid watercolors from Hero Arts and so, after coloring and cutting the digi (with the Crazy Double Stitched frames dies from Stamplorations), using a scallop frame on the watercolor panel and finding some old text paper, I layered it all and am pretty happy with how it turned out.

I like how their stamps already have the text paper as part of the stamp and that reminded me to get some of my vintage books out and pick a page for the background. I used an old cookbook (1970s or 80s) that referenced an even older cookbook from colonial America for the recipes.

Here's a couple yummy ideas for your dinner tonight, courtesy of a Virginian housewife from the 1700s.

Now, I know people may still eat this, and my very own mother (who grew up on a farm in the 40s) actually ate cow brains, but oh, my, god. If I had to prepare this or eat this, well, I'd be a lot skinnier. 

And this seems like a perfect time to mention that mom also prepared some sketchy things in our home. I remember in the 1970s, being about 8 or so and lifting the lid of the crockpot to see what yumminess was in there—only to find a cow's tongue. Ewwww! Which is probably when I learned that brains had been on the menu when my mom was a kid. It was probably good, because why else would anyone eat it in the 1970s? But I assure you, I did not taste it.

Hopefully your dinner will be a little more appetizing than this. I made a soup for tonight that has turkey sausage (from the grocery store) and tortellini (from frozen) so I have the fortune to have spent all of 20 minutes preparing my dinner. The stove did the long simmering work. I'm feeling pretty thankful to be living in the 21st century right about now, how about you?

Happy Friday!

Chark

Shimmery Butterfly

I purchased the Stamplorations Butterfly die here and use it all the time. It's not too delicate (i.e., it doesn't tear when you cut it) and it's still intricate. I used a shimmery brown paper from my stash and made this lovely butterfly. I used a foiled star paper for the background, then layered a piece of kraft painted with metallic shimmer paint. The hello die is from Paper Smooches.

There's a lot of shimmery fun here and I'm entering this card in the Stamplorations Things with Wings challenge. You can enter too if you're quick!

Happy Wednesday!

Chark