Card Making Tutorial

I've just come back from vacation and I am exhausted, so I thought I would do something a little different for this Tutorial Tuesday. The other day we were having a conersation about the different steps we go through to make a card and how everyone does it a little differently. I thought I would share my process with you in case you ever get stuck and don't know where to start.

The first thing I do when I'm making a card is to pick my image this can be either a stamped image I'm going to color with copics or an image I'm going to cut with my cricut. Once I have decided on my image, I choose a sketch. I visit several different sketch blogs and print out the sketches I like the most, sometimes I draw them when I can't print them. A Smash Book would be perfect for this. You can redraw the sketches yourself directly in the book or you can print them and smash them in whatever works for you. Keep your image in mind and think it will work with a circle or if it needs to be a rectangle or a square. For this project I knew I wanted to make a birthday card so I chose this adorable little house mouse image. From the size and shape of the stamp I knew it would work best with a square mat so I chose this sketch from my sketch notebook.

Looking at this sketch, I knew I needed 2 different patterns of paper. I love to use the 6x6 paper pads to make cards because I know they are full of coordinating papers. The Echo Park pads Cutter's Creek sells are perfect for this. After I decide on my patterns, I pull out my copic markers and start trying to find colors that are closest to the colors in the papers and then I color my image. On this one I switched it up a little by adding some embellishments and a sentiment that weren't in the original sketch.

This also works on cards you make with your cricut. I love the egg and bacon happy face image on Kate's Kitchen and I was dying to use it on a card. Since the plate is round, I looked for a sketch that featured a circle as the main element.

Here is a sketch I pulled off one of my favorite blog sites a few years ago. Once I find the sketch that I think will work best with my image, I look and see how many different paper patterns I think I will need for the sketch. For this card I used 3 different patterns of paper from the Kate's Kitchen Imagine cartridge. I added the papers to my card base as they were in the sketch and then added my image. I changed this one up a bit by putting the sentiment on the bottom instead of up higher as it was in the sketch.

I know some people feel sketches limit them, but for me they are just the jolt I need to get my creativity flowing. Next time you find yourself stuck in a creative rut, try changing up your usual process and see if that helps any.

Favorite Things

Hi, it’s Mindy and it’s my turn to tell you about some of my favorite things. I love my cricut, but I have a few other favorite products as well. I LOVE stamps and copic markers. Coloring a great stamped image can be very relaxing and I don’t think anything makes a stamped image look as good as copic markers do. For this card, I used one of my favorite stamp companies- House Mouse.

House Mouse has so many adorable stamps it’s hard to pick a favorite, but I think this one called You Snooze You Lose is really sweet. The image is of course colored with copic markers. I chose the background paper I used because it reminds me of ice cream.

Patterned paper is another one of my favorite things. I can’t get enough of it. I especially love this Echo Park paper. The pack is called Dots and Stripes and it is the Candy Shoppe collection. This pack is awesome! It is full of different colors of stripes and polka dots and to make it even better- it’s double sided! I used the front and back sides of these papers to showcase the stripes and the dots.

Another one of my favorite things is Nestabilities. I just can’t get enough of them. I love how easy it is to mat your image and make it look great. This image was actually a little large and if I matted it, it would take up almost the entire card front. I cut the image, embossed it, and then went over the embossing with some pink chalk. This not only highlights the embossing, but it kind of makes the image look matted.

My final favorite thing is embellishments and one of my favorite types of embellishment is flowers. I love flowers and there are so many different types available. The new Cutter Creek Flowers are my current favorite. They come in several different types, sizes, and colors. I never have a problem finding the perfect one. For this card I used one of the gardenias up in the left corner and two of the lillies down on the bottom. I love how these flowers are not flat and add decoration and dimension to your projects.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about the design team’s favorite things as much as we have enjoyed sharing them with you.

Merry Christ"Mouse" in July by Laura C.

This sweet little mouse is coming to wish you a Merry Christ"mouse" in July!!  Made with a standard 5 1/5x4 1/4 base of red cardstock, inked with black chalk ink.   Next is white bazzill prisma cardstock a 5 1/4x 4" piece, embossed with the A2 swiss dot cuttlebug folder and then the corners rounded. I colored the Stampabilities "Dear Santa I Ate Your Cookies" stamp with copics, added some flower soft to the little hat for some extra texture, and a bit of diamond stickles to the flame.  I layered this with some paper from my stash, and added a border with a 1 1/4" piece of patterned paper, a ribbon, and another piece of the red cardstock cut using the Spellbinders scalloped rectangle die (I just trimmed off one long edge to use as the accent).  If you type up a cute sentiment like "Hope you have a Merry Christ"mouse" for the inside, you'll
have a card ready to give a special someone!

Available at Cutter's Creek:

Bazzill Prisma Cardstock (white)
Copic Markers
Stickles (Diamond)
Stampabilities House Mouse ("Dear Santa I Ate Your Cookies")
Flower Soft (Polar White & Red)
A2 Cuttlebug Folder (Swiss Dot)
Spellbinders Die (Scalloped Rectangle)

Vicki's Happy Valentine's Day!

I really love this stamp, as I used it on my LAST card. My daughter loved the image, and she wanted a card for her boyfriend. It uses House Mouse...With All My Heart. This was my SECOND coloring attempt, and I think I did much better this time ;-)

I used Copics: G29, G28, G24, B34, B32, R29, R27, R24, E49, E47, E44 and the Colorless Blender.

The image was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, on Prism white card stock. I used paper I had in my stash...a background paper that was too busy to be left alone, but had the right blend of colors to match my image. I balanced the stripes out by 'grounding' my image and card background on solid red card stock. My hearts are actually Bazzill Chips, which are carried by Cutter's Creek. I used plain old markers to color these - NOT my Copics! The Bazzill chipboard pulls the color in very nicely - even though it might appear streaky when the ink is wet, it smooths out when it's dry! I balanced the hearts on a simple scrap of color coordinating ribbon. And of course, a touch of Twinkle Jewels to jazz up the embellishments. Stop by Cutters Creek and check out all these wonderful products today!

Supplies:
House Mouse Stamp
Copic Markers
Bazzill Chips
Memento Stamp Pad
Twinkle Jewels
Ribbon
Card Stock