Two-Heart Card, Blue and Green - Before and After

Sometimes a card needs just a little something extra ... a touch of bling, but not always the sparkly-shiny type. In this case, a couple of card-stock dots, courtesy of my sturdy old office-supply hole punch. I'm very fond of using quarter-inch dots, especially with hearts. Click here for more examples.

Below is how it looked before I added the dots.


My card is for the "Love You" challenge on the Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps blog. Card details:

• Card stock is PaperTrey Ink enchanted evening (dark blue) and spring moss (light yellow-green - more green than yellow in real life) on a sturdy PaperTrey Ink stamper's select white card base. All corners are rounded, using the 1/4" side of the corner chomper.
  
• My patterned paper is computer-printed on Neenah solar white, using PowerPoint. (White periods in a colored text box. It requires some patience at first to get the right spacing, but then it's easy to change colors. If you'd like more info, let me know via a comment, and I'll post more about it.)
  
• The sentiment "Love" is computer-printed. Click here for my font details.
  
• The hearts are from a 1" EK Success punch. The 1/4" dots are from a very old McGill Gem hand punch.
  

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (112)

Two Turquoise Cards - Before and After

                       Before (left) and after (right)

I revisited two of my card designs to try improving them. Although I liked both of my original cards (shown on the left), they didn't have much contrast. The new versions (on the right) are better, I think.

To add more oomph to my pennant card, I used some yellows instead of all turquoise and aqua colors. The yellow card stock is PaperTrey Ink lemon zest, and the embroidery floss is DMC 742 and 744. For an accent, I also added a faux button made from two layers of card stock - Paper Source peacock (dark turquoise) and PaperTrey Ink summer sunrise (yellow-orange). Click here for the rest of the card details as originally posted.

For more contrast on my tag card, I added a darker turquoise layer (Paper Source peacock card stock) under the tag and the blue plaid paper. To give it some dimension, I used a strip of foam tape under the right end of the tag. If you'd like to see more card details, click here for the original post.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (089, 032)

Red, White, and Blue Hearts with Bow Punch

Red, white, and blue with hearts, bows, stripes, and dots. I created this card for the "love" themed November Stars and Stamps challenge, sponsored by Our Daily Bread Designs to support Operation Write Home.

The solid-colored card stock is PaperTrey Ink pure poppy (red card base) and enchanted evening (dark blue layer and bows). The patterned paper is computer-printed using my PowerPoint designs. No new designs this time, but I changed the dots and hearts colors to match the striped paper. The hearts are edged with Copic marker B39. The punches are EK Success (heart) and Martha Stewart (bow). I used a white Signo Uni-Ball gel impact pen (broad) to draw the white lines on the enchanted evening layer.

Like most of my cards, this one is for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (111)

Pink, Red, and Black Window Card with Heart

Another heart card today. This one with strong lines and colors. A striped heart inside a circular window.

The card stock is PaperTrey Ink true black, pure poppy (red), and hibiscus burst (pink). The narrow diagonal "ribbon" is a 1/8" strip of hibiscus burst card stock. The red window is a 1-1/2" circle punch, and the pink window is 1-3/4".

The 1" heart was punched from Neenah solar white, and the stripes were colored with Copic markers RV06, RV13, and R29. The black lines were drawn with Copic 0.8 multiliner. The sentiment "love you" was computer-printed in black ink with Zapfino font.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (109)

Pink Hearts Card with Lace

It's not the card I started out to make. But I like it anyway. Three heart sizes, embroidery floss, and lacy ribbon.

The light pink card base and heart-shaped button are PaperTrey Ink sweet blush, and the medium pink layer is Paper Source blossom. To create the button, I punched two 1/16" holes in my 1" heart shape, then coated it with UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel). The UTEE makes it shiny and deepens the color.

The pink lace ribbon is Wright's flexi-lace hem tape from the fabric store, colored with RV11 Copic marker. The patterned paper is computer-printed - one of my PowerPoint designs - see this post for more info. The large heart is edged with RV11 marker.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (108)

Brown, Orange, and Turquoise Card with Color-Bleed Paper

Bold colors and patterns today. I made the patterned paper with Julia Stainton's color-bleed grid technique, posted on Ellen Hutson's educational CLASSroom blog. I'm having fun experimenting with this technique. For more of my examples, click on the "color-bleed grid" label, at the end of this post, or in the label list on the right of my blog.

For my paper, I used Copic markers E25, E33, YR14, and BG45 on Neenah card stock. The uneven squares and rectangles are about 1/2" to 3/4" in size. To get small droplets of "0" colorless blender, I used an eyedropper from the drugstore. The price was about $3.00 for a set of two. One of the eyedroppers featured a bent tip, which I found easy to work with.

The card stock is Paper Source peacock (dark turquoise card base) and PaperTrey Ink dark chocolate (brown), orange zest (orange), and Hawaiian shores (medium turquoise sentiment square). The twine is rustic jute button twine from PaperTrey Ink. My sentiment "Hi" and the dotted border are computer-printed in Prestige Elite Standard Bold font with turquoise ink.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (107)

Pink Lacy Circles Card

Lacy pink circles and scallops. Warming up for Valentine's cards that will need to be shipped by Christmas. Working months ahead for Operation Write Home!

The layered circle is made with six punches, as follows:

• Bottom circle - 2-1/4" plain circle - PaperTrey Ink hibiscus burst (medium pink)
• Lacy circle - 2" scalloped circle with 1/4" hole punch in each scallop - PaperTrey Ink sweet blush (light pink)
• Small scalloped circle - 1-1/4" - hibiscus burst
• Heart - 1" - PaperTrey Ink raspberry fizz (dark pink)
• Flower - 1/2" flower punch with 1/4" hole punch in center - sweet blush

The ribbon is 5/8" white sheer-and-satin, colored with Copic marker R000. The card base is sweet blush. The horizontal layer is raspberry fizz. The sentiment "love you..." is computer-printed with dark pink ink in Zapfino font.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (105)