January Cards

Where does the time go these days?  It looks as though I just cannot get into posting my cards here, even though I really do have the best of intentions.  I think the last time I posted was before going out of town again (did a lot of traveling in 2014) and then it was Thanksgiving already.  The holidays have come and gone with all of the hustle and bustle of getting ready for them, and then getting over them.   During this time, I managed to make holiday cards, but the majority were made from a painting which I did in an art class. It did make for easier cards in that I just cropped, matted and stamped a greeting on the inside.

This month I have concentrated on making thank you cards and these were very simple designs.

The first ones were made with stamps from a company called Rubber Necker Stamps.  I fell in love with these stamps at the stamping convention back in October but didn't have time to play with them until recently.  I used Distress Inks and markers on the flat stamps and then spritzed with a mini mister before stamping on cardstock.  The outline stamp was inked with Versafine Black Onyx ink and then stamped over the colored image and it is not meant to be exactly lined up.

The next set of cards was made with Impression Obsession stamps (CL505 Botanical Collection 1) which I picked up at the annual sale at Impression Obsession in Williamsburg.  That was also held back in the fall, but I had not used the stamps until the last few weeks.  The technique I used was one which I saw somewhere online, but cannot remember now where I found it.  Again I used Distress Inks (is there a trend going on here???) and masked a rectangular area on white cardstock with post it notes.  I applied various colors of the Distress Ink with a blending tool.  Then I stamped the floral image with Black Onyx Versafine ink after removing the masks.  Adding the sentiment was the last step for this supper easy card.

I also needed a birthday card for a good friend and wanted something besides what I had on hand so used the Penny Black hydrangea from the Flower Festival clear set.

Hopefully, I will be more attentive to my much neglected blog in the coming year.