Pumpkin Spice Season -- Coffee Lover's Magic Card

Happy Autumn! A new season means a new Blog Hop with the Coffee Loving Cardmakers, and I always enjoy playing along. I created this Magic Card using a template I created in SCAL and the Coffee Cup Shaker Box Card by 17turtles/Juliana Michaels.

The sentiments are from Doctor Digi's House of Stamps; I colorized them in Photoshop & added the gradient background in InDesign. The coffee beans die is from Elizabeth Craft Designs. I used an actual coffee stir stick thingy as the pull-tab.

For the hidden portion, I used a glittery orange paper for the cup; it's pumpkin spice season, after all! Here it is, with the tab pulled up:

Inspiration/Challenges:
Allsorts: Feels Like Autumn
Fall 2017 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop: Coffee/tea/cocoa + Fall
Sisterhood of the Snarky Stampers: L is for Lost and Found (Many years ago, I went through a Magic Card phase & created a template in SCAL; the file is on my removable hard drive, but it's small and I've consistently misplaced it when I want to grab those files. Happily, it was at hand when I made this card, although I was almost too lazy to take the time to deal with finding the template. It was worth using my template and just adding the coffee cup! Speaking of lost-and-found, I've never once been able to find this coffee bean die the first place I looked...it gets moved around. This time it was where it was supposed to be, which of course was the last place I looked!)

Thank you for visiting! Have a perky Autumn,

Magical Magic Card with Crafting with Dragonflies

This fortnight at Crafting with Dragonflies our theme is Something Magical.

I made a magic card based on a SplitcoastStampers tutorial, but I created this cutting file in SCAL. Other than the base card, which I cut with my Silhouette Cameo, the pieces were cut on my Cricut using their Paper Dolls cartridge. Don't you just love that cute rabbit!

The acetate portion of the tag (I used an ink-jet-friendly transparency sheet) is printed with a sentiment I made myself.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Sparkles Forum Challenges: More than one Fold
Through the Purple Haze: Happy Birthday
WordArt Wednesdays Challenge #200: Anything Goes

Update: I won a lovely prize from V's Sweet Ideas for WordArt Wednesdays Challenge #200. Thank you!

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at Crafting with Dragonflies,

Card Cupids Valentines

The good folks over at Card Cupids are having a Valentines challenge, and I've been wanting to send some cards to them so this seemed like a perfect opportunity. Okay, I'll just admit that I didn't read all of the directions before I started this challenge, so these 4 identical cards were just sent off without a special note (just the required form). Hopefully they'll make it by the deadline of Jan. 17 (er, Monday), but if not, I'm pretty sure they can still be used.

I recently purchased this Flowering Tree digi stamp from PriscillaStyles and got the the Hearts version as a freebie. Well, now I'm going to have to buy it too because the stamps together work so well for a magic picture card! Digital magic cards don't usually take me too long, but I had some time so I colored both images with copics and hand-stamped the cardstock. I like how the store-bought Valentines paper I used for the frames matches so well with the handmade stuff. This card might well become this year's Valentine...

As part of their Valentines Day card challenge, Card Cupids has teamed up with My Pink Stamper and Viva Decor to offer a HUGE giveaway. Here are the rules:

Three Ways to Enter:
1. Post about their blog candy and what you need to do to win the prize. Leave a comment on their blog with a link to your post.
2. Create Valentine’s Cards for Card Cupids and add your link. Each time you create a post with new cards, you can add a link.
3. Send in the cards you created to Card Cupids to be given to the children at The Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel. For each card you send in, you will receive 1 entry. Be sure to follow their donation guidelines.

Hope you'll join in!

Get Well Throwdown

Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place. -Susan Sontag

The amazing online crafting community has rallied around fellow crafter Katie, who is balancing family and illness this new year: many of your favorite digi artists have donated their work for a fundraiser (check it out!) and this week's Color Throwdown challenge includes sending Katie a card. I just couldn't pass this up!

Using the lovely color scheme of Melon Mambo, Early Espresso & Soft Sky, I made a magic picture card, 'cause it's kinda my thing. For the paper, I stamped a pretty floral design and then added blue details with a gel pen. It's hard to tell in this photo, but the tree stamp is brown. Now, to get it into today's mail!

Inspiration:
Help for Katie donation site
Color Throwdown Challenge #124

Supplies: Tree rubber stamp from ekSuccess, silicon stamps from gstudio, Memento & StazOn inks, Recollections cardstock, clear acetate, Offray ribbon, Cricut personal cutter, SCAL software, Crop-O-Dile II, stash brad, ZipDry glue, Fiskars papercutter, Copic Ciao markers, Sakura Gelly Roll pens

Gold, Frankincense, Myrrh and TLC

January 6th is Three Kings' Day, so tonight, the 5th, children around the world will put their shoes out, filled with treats for the Kings' animals (perhaps an elephant, horse and camel). I haven't put my shoes out since I was 10 (and even then we kept them inside the door because of other animals), but this year I decided to make some cards for the occasion. So glad it's finally here, so that I can share them!

They were inspired by an image and wordart combo by Paulette at TLC Creations. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make a magic picture card, so I purchased the 3 images: the Kings, the Kings with music background, and the mix of the images & wordart of the carol "We Three Kings".

Good Cheer to all!Digi stamps: We Three Kings Verse, We Three Kings Vintage and We Three Kings Vintage Remix by TLC Creations
Original inspiration for magic picture cards: Naked Mole Rat magic picture card by CPeep at Extreme Cards & Papercrafting
Magic Card tutorial: SplitcoastStampers
Magic card template for SCAL2 by cg-says

Supplies: DCWV decorative paper, Staples cardstock, Graphix clear plastic, eyelet from Tuesday Morning, Crop-O-Dile II, ZipDry glue, HP printer & ink, Fiskars papercutter, Cricut personal cutter, SCAL2 software, Offray ribbon, Sharpies, Grumbacher pastels, Pebbles Inc. pom poms, Pergamano reverse-action tweezers, AquaNet hairspray

Update 1/6/11: This card was mentioned in the Happy Three Kings' Day post on Create with TLC.

Celebrating Celebration

When I first saw the Hanukkah or Holiday card challenge at Tuesday Trio I thought, Finally an excuse to make a Hanukkah card! Honestly, I usually just miss Hanukkah because my family doesn't celebrate it...but I have several friends who do. Heck, half the time I don't even know what day today is! I decided to make matching Hanukkah and Christmas cards for a family who celebrates both. I had a lot of fun making them. My main concept was based on the tradition in both religions to have candles in the windows.
Inspiration: Tuesday Trio Sketch #43: Hanukkah

Supplies: Martha Stewart silicon stamps, Recollections & DCWV cardstocks, Graphix clear plastic, ZipDry glue, Tim Holtz scissors, StazOn ink, Cricut personal cutter, SCAL2 software, Offray ribbon, Michaels eyelet, Crop-O-Dile II, Sakura gel pens, stickers by Phrase Cafe, gold holographic paper (colors in photo a result of scanning)

Update 12/16/10: This card made the top three for Tuesday Trio Sketch #43.

---

Inspiration: Tuesday Trio Sketch #43: Holiday
Aud Sentiments Challenge #16: Ho Ho Ho!

Supplies: Martha Stewart silicon stamps & glittered paper, Recollections cardstock, Graphix clear plastic, ZipDry glue, Tim Holtz scissors, StazOn ink, Cricut personal cutter, SCAL2 software, Offray ribbon, Michaels eyelet, Crop-O-Dile II, Sakura gel pens, gold holographic paper (colors in photo a result of scanning)

Original inspiration for magic picture cards: Naked Mole Rat magic picture card by CPeep at Extreme Cards & Papercrafting
Magic Card tutorial: SplitcoastStampers
Magic card template for SCAL2 by cg-says

Ornamental

While on our weekly Saturday-morning trip to Michaels I picked up a flyer for a month-long contest they're having via FaceBook: Craft Some Holiday Magic. So naturally I spent the rest of the day using my new dollar stamps to make this little magic picture card. At 3x4 inches, it would actually make a cute ornament itself. And it holds well enough that the card doesn't slide out.

Check out the Michaels challenge...even if you don't enter, the projects are amazing!

This week's challenge is ornament, ribbon, beads, so I broke out my old stash of plastic beads and tried my hand at some beadwork. I hand-colored the stamps for the stationary elements of the card and used a bright blue ink for the "floating" trees. I'm proud to say that all of these materials were purchased at my (or my mom's) local Michaels.


Inspiration: Michaels' Craft Some Holiday Magic Challenge, Week 1: Ornament, ribbon, beads
Supplies: Recollections cardstock, Grafix clear acrylic, ZipDry glue, Cricut personal cutter, SCAL2 software, Celebrate It ribbon, stash eyelet and beads, Pergamano reverse-action tweezers, StazOn ink, Tim Holtz scissors, decorative brad by Around the Block, rubber stamps by Craftsmart, Sakura Gelly Roll pen

Original inspiration for magic picture cards: Naked Mole Rat magic picture card by CPeep at Extreme Cards & Papercrafting
Magic Card tutorial: SplitcoastStampers
Magic card template for SCAL2 by cg-says

Vintage Magic Thank-yous

I'm totally crushin' on the vintage images over at Create with Tlc, but I try to limit my use of free images. Then I realized that I have a small stash of vintage-y images that I purchased from ClipArt.com last year. I was going to use them for Marion Winik's website, as they match the images in a recent book, but then just ended up keeping them for some future project. And here's that project! One of these cards is going to Marion, especially since I think that technically she might have purchased the images for the project, and the other is going to the wonderful women at Passager. I'm going to be including invoices, but hopefully these cards are cute enough to soften the blow!
Concept aside, I love participating in color challenges because they really get me thinking about patterns, textures and interesting color combos. I went to the fantastic resource of Scrapmaster's Paradise for the color choices for these cards. For the first one I used their color combo #73, but for the second I used their groovy color combo generator. I love that the generator gives you the option of choosing one color you know you want to work with; in this case, I chose green because I wanted to use my new Pine stamp pad. I definitely will be revisiting both of these combos.


Inspiration: Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Combo Challenge #73 & SP Color Combo Generator
Font: Speedball No. 3 by Nick Curtis
Image: Clipart.com
Rubber Stamp: Tiled Quad Cube by Stampendous!
Supplies: Recollections cardstock, ZipDry glue, Cricut personal cutter, SCAL2 software, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign & Photoshop, Offray ribbon, stash eyelet, Fiskars papercutter and decorative scissors, CraftSmart ink

Original inspiration for magic picture cards: Naked Mole Rat magic picture card by CPeep at Extreme Cards & Papercrafting
Magic Card tutorial: SplitcoastStampers
Magic card template for SCAL2 by cg-says

Birthday wishes and Argyle dreams

Both of my brothers-in-law have November birthdays, and I'm sure horrible at getting them cards at any regularity. They've received many a Happy Birthday & Holidays card over the years. Now that I'm obsessed with online cardmaking challenges, I don't have any excuse. For inspiration I started at the Cards for Men challenge blog (well, duh) and they must have read my mind because the current challenge is Happy Birthday. For color inspiration I went to Splitcoaststampers and a fairly manly color combo of deep purple, dark red and olive green. It was also a perfect opportunity to modify my magic picture card for circles. Now that's manly.
I made two versions of the same card, but they're certainly one-of-a-kind. The first one I made was mainly focused on the theme challenge, with a serious nod toward the color challenge. For the paper I used a mauve/white/olive DCWV cardstock I've been eying in my stash. I designed everything in SCAL2 for my Cricut personal cutter, including the text. One of my favorite tricks is to use use Cricut markers to write and then cut the card layers. I'd never "printed" and cut transparency paper, but it worked as well as it does in the printer. The card pulls out half-way to read "and more!" like in the photo below.
Cards for Men challenge #21: Happy Birthday
Supplies: Cricut personal cutter, SCAL2 software, Recollections cardstock, 3M transparency film, DCWV cardstock, ZipDry glue, Tim Holtz scissors, Cricut markers
For the second card, I took on the color challenge's dessert option: argyle. I took a piece of glitter-embossed black and gray argyle-patterned cardstock that I've been saving for the right project and colored it by hand. Definitely worth the time! And I really love the color combo.
Supplies: Cricut personal cutter, SCAL2 software, Recollections cardstock, 3M transparency film, DCWV cardstock, ZipDry glue, Tim Holtz scissors, Sharpies, Marvy LePlumeII pens, Cricut markers
Splitcoaststampers CC293: Concord Cherry Olives + dessert option: Argyles

Original inspiration for magic picture cards: Naked Mole Rat magic picture card by CPeep at Extreme Cards & Papercrafting
Magic Card tutorial: SplitcoastStampers
Magic card template for SCAL2 by cg-says

Behind the Masks

The moment I saw the Halloween Mask free digi at Too Many Ideas I knew I had to make another magic picture card featuring my dogs. I have this cute photo of them as Superman and Batman (if you use your imagination), and I figured that if I used printable transparency paper the project would be a relative breeze. And it was! Relatively! So I spent extra time making frames in SCAL. Once I had put everything together, I felt like it needed something else, so I asked my husband for ideas to which he immediately replied, Crescent moons. And of course I have a moon detail from one of Therese's digis that I could easily use. I used DDCC #89 (Halloween and black, orange, purple & green) as inspiration, and Core'dinations cardstock for texture. It's difficult to see in these photos, but I colored some of the mask details with a Sakura glitter pen. The sentiment is Happy Halloween from a couple of characters! in Harrington, and you'll notice that the whole family signed it!


Dutch Dare Card Challenge #89: Halloween and black, orange, purple & green
Digi stamps: Halloween Mask and Mosaic Turtle by Therese Travis

Original inspiration for magic picture cards: Naked Mole Rat magic picture card by CPeep at Extreme Cards & Papercrafting
Magic Card tutorial: SplitcoastStampers
Magic card template for SCAL2 by cg-says

Russian Nesting Dogs

While making a card with my new favorite stamp, I learned that the manufacturer, Hero Arts, has its own crafting blog. So I decided to enter their current challenge, only partly as an excuse to use my Russian Doll stamps. Their challenges are month-long, and two-tiered for those of us who arrive late to the party. October's challenge Holiday Cardmaking and Photo Cards, and I was inspired by their tutorials.
For an extra challenge, I used the Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Combo Generator. I picked this combo because it was kinda Christmasy.

I also decided to make yet another magic picture card, because it's fun and and everybody loves magic. I hope it will inspire others to do the same! I'm offering a free SCAL2 cutting file for the card pieces at the bottom of this post. For the photo, I subjected my sweet dogs to a shoot with a nesting doll. The "mask" effect on Allen (the white one) was a pleasant surprise!


The entire family is pleased with the result!

Stamp: Hero Arts LP158 / Russian Dolls
Magic Picture card:
Original inspiration: Extreme Cards & Papercrafting
Tutorial: SplitcoastStampers
Free template for SCAL2 (copyright cg-says 2010)

Stampin' Up!

Even though I already made something for SP Color Combo Challenge #70, I wanted to take a another shot at it. I liked the challenge of the color combo of black, gray and olive. I started by pulling out a Stampin' Up! panda stamp that Mom had given me, and then decided to add a bamboo cutting file element that I'd designed for an ongoing project. I used a small flower stamp to decorate a pretty olive-colored shimmer cardstock. The paper has a slick yet fabric-y texture and I like how the stamp came out on it. I cut the bamboo on gray paper and traced it with a gel pen. I used the same pen to add more flowers on the frame (made & cut in SCAL2). Since I've been making magic picture cards, I made the little guy move! I love it when it's hiding behind the bamboo...



Inspiration: SP Color Combo Challenge #70: basic black, basic gray and old olive
Supplies: Cricut personal cutter, SCAL2 software, Recollections cardstock, K&Company pre-cut card, DCWV metallic green cardstock, ZipDry glue, stash eyelet, Offray ribbon, Tim Holtz scissors, Grafix clear craft plastic, Stampin' Up! 2001 Panda rubber stamp, StazOn ink, Sakura Gelly Roll pens, clear flower stamp by Alys Paterson for Quick Cards Made Easy

Tricks or Treats?

Despite recent assertions that I was done with designing new Halloween cards for this year, I couldn't resist trying out a Halloween magic picture card. Plus, it gave me a chance to use Therese Travis's adorable Angel Helena digi stamp and to try this week's Tellen's Place and ColourQ #55 challenges.

There are two tricks/treats in this card: Changing color & text, and the "vanilla" stars are scent-embossed with Black Cherry KoolAid.

Inspiration: Tellen's Place Challenge: Trick Or Treat; ColourQ Challenge #55: basic black, river rock, poppy parade, tangerine tango, vanilla.
Digi stamp: Angel Helena by Therese Travis
Supplies: Cricut personal cutter, SCAL2 software, 3M transparency film, Recollections cardstock, ZipDry glue, Fiskars Deckle scissors, stash eyelet, Offray ribbon, HP printer & ink, FunkyFresh typeface by Scott K Yoshinaga, MeltArt clear embossing powder, Black Cherry flavored KoolAid, heat embossing tool, Tim Holtz scissors, Stampin' Up! 2007 Congratulations rubber stamp, StazOn ink, Sakura Gelly Roll pens, Copic E33 & blender, Elmer's CraftBond pens

Original inspiration for magic picture cards: Naked Mole Rat magic picture card by CPeep at Extreme Cards & Papercrafting
Magic Card tutorial: SplitcoastStampers
Magic card template for SCAL2 by cg-says

A Very Wealthy Woman

Even though I have a pile of Halloween Boot pull-out cards that need to be finished up and sent out to various loved ones, I just had to take a break to try my hand at this week's Character Cafe Challenge: Orange, 3 Squares & 3 Flowers. There was just something about it that tickled my challenge bone.

I didn't feel like making another Halloween card, so I chose the Mexican version: Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Actually, for half our family that's much more appropriate anyway. Having finally found some printable transparency film, I was able to make a magic picture card pretty quickly. The image I chose is of Catrina ("wealthy" woman") by José Guadalupe Posada, because I've always enjoyed the pun (and the idea that we're all equal in death). Halloween in American culture is all about being something else, and the Dia de los Muertos tradition seems to be almost the opposite.

For the card design itself I used the Character Cafe Challenge, and I love how it informs on the marigolds that are traditional for this holiday.

The image above is the card with the pull down. I printed the back image in black on Recollections silver paper.

Here's a CU of the "magic" part. It's black on white, hand-colored with Sharpies. The quote is traditional: He who lives with hope dies happy. Hmm, makes me want to dig into a nice sugar skull...

Speaking of candy, Designs by Denise is running a blogcandy drawing through December 1. I know I'm putting my number in the feathered hat!

Po'grrl Magic Picture Card

I tried my hand at a "Magic" or "Changing Picture" card, per the handy directions at SplitCoastStampers, but I don't have a good way to print/stamp onto acetate. I could have waited until this weekend, when I could pick up some transparency paper, but I didn't wanna.
So I made this version, which doesn't require marking on the acetate. And, like a good Po'boy sandwich, it winded up being relatively expensive and complicated, but Oh! so worth it.
I used Therese Travis's Decorative Cat digi stamp (now available on Etsy!), and actually "printed" the image with Cricut markers on my Cricut Expression. I think it adds a "stamped" feeling.
To do something like this yourself, import your digi stamp image file into SCAL, size it, and then make a copy and apply "blackout". Ta-da, instant mask!

At first, I was just going to use bright colors, but then I saw the Midweek Throwdown Halloween Challenge at the Operation Write Home (OWH) blog and just had to make the card for this challenge. So much fun!

Supply list: Cricut personal cutter, Cricut marker, SCAL software, Recollections card stock, Grafix clear craft plastic, JoAnn essentials eyelet, Offray ribbon, Sharpie markers, Crop-A-Dile 2, Zip-Dry glue. PaperFaces digi stamps: Decorative Cat.