Framed Becky Card

A couple of weeks ago I shared a card I made using the two stamps to make the front and back of a little girl. For this card I am using those same stamps along with my Cricut! Now she can either look out the window or from a picture frame!

Stamp Becky (Art Impressions stamp UMT1519) using Stazon ink on 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper and color her with Tombow watercolor markers. Cut her 2 pieces out and glue them together.

Using the Cricut die cutting machine and the Fancy Frames cartridge cut a matching pair of frames at 2".

Cover the front of an A2 card with pretty printed paper. Beacon 3 in 1 glue is great.

Check to see where to place the frame inside the card, according to where Becky can stand.

Trace the inside of the frame, to show where the first matt knife cuts should be.

Slightly enlarge that window using scissors.

Glue the inside frame in place.

Glue the matching outside frame in place.

Glue Becky looking outside the window.

If you like glue a picture across from Becky, so she will have a background behind her as she looks outside.

A few Becky cards!

Stamped Water Color Painting

 

I love to work on water color paintings. Using art Impressions stamps, I get passed the drawing into the painting. For this I used the following stamps and supplies:

1. Art Impressions stamps: U-1917 and UM 3521
2. Marvey Uchida Le Plume 11 Markers
3. 140 lb. cold press water color paper
4. Water Brush
5. White plastic palette
6. Winsor and Newton colorless art masking fluid for water color
7. Pink rubber eraser

Steps:
Using Marvy Marker #40- brownish grey, ink the back of the U-1917 stamp and stamp the image on your paper. Allow to dry.

Apply liquid mask to window frame, to save the white and let dry.

Now for the color. On the palette mix a wash of #45 Sepia with the water from the brush and paint across the window glass. Leave lots of highlights.

Ink the back the flower pot from the UM 3521 set and stamp it next to the steps filling in the space.

Remove the Liquid Mask by rubbing the pink eraser across the unwanted mask.

Complete pots by stamping greenery with "Foliage" from the UM-3521 set.

Use the palette to put bits of color from the markers and pick the color up with the water filled brush. Remember to leave white areas of highlights. Try deciding where the light is coming from. My light comes from the right and so my darker colors are on the left.

Trim and mount on a colored background and adhere to a card base. Sign your name and date your work. Well done!
For detailed instructions check the "Watercolor the Art Impressions way!" The book uses many of the scenic stamps the company puts out.

Family Pop Up Cigar Boxes as Holiday Gifts

My lovely granddaughter with her cigar box pop up. It was given to her for her 12th birthday at Thanksgiving dinner.

My granddaughter was in the performance of the Nutcracker Ballet last year. The picture used in this pop up was from that performance.

This is the box we sent my sister-in-law for Xmas. It is a picture of  my husband's sisters playing when they were little.

Machine Embroidered Christmas Cards

I recently gifted a friend with several Christmas machine embroidered cards. I used my Brother SE 350 embroidery/sewing machine. I bought the cards at Michaels to be used as bases. I do think better high quality cardstock with longer fibers, would have been a better choice, but I'm happy that what I did worked out.

Supplies:
4" x 5.5" cards that fit within my 4" x 4" embroidery hoop
Polymesh cut away embroidery stabilizer
505 Spray and Fix
Embroidery machine and hoop
Machine embroidery thread
Digital designs
         Use designs that are more open and not thickly stitched with fill for best results. There are designs online that have been digitized specifically for cardstock. Quick stitch designs are good for this. The one color redwork designs, with a low stitch count sew up really fast.

Hoop the stabilizer firmly and spray 505 inside where the stitching is planned. Press the inside flap of the card onto the stablizer.

Embroider the design using a size 11 or smaller sharp needle. The higher quality cardstock won't rip or tear, but the pack of cards I sewed, worked. The needle did cut through the cards, but I noticed that designs with less fill and coverage work best.

Following the embroidery, remove the stabilizer from the hoop and trim the excess away from the card.

Trim off all the jump threads.
To prevent the card's design from popping out and from showing the back of the design, cover the inside of the card with decorative printed paper.