It's time to get away from the regular Valentines that I make for the veteran's in the nursing homes. Cooking It Up With Katie's Blog had a challenge to make a card that wasn't your usual valentine, so I decided that this penguin image that I got as a freebie at
Shirley's 2 Girls was perfect. Although I finally posted this a day late, I wanted to let you know where the inspiration came from.
I started by printing this image onto white cardstock on my HP printer. I embossed the image with Ultra Fine Embossing Powder as soon as it came out of the printer. I've been doing this lately, so I don't have to use an embossing pen & my sometimes unsteady hands later if needed. The image was black where the blue glitter paper by Colorbok is, but I paper pieced it with this glitter paper. Another challenge I'm using this for is a color challenge that asks you to use blue and white, so I thought he would look good in a new blue suit!
The design paper from The Paper Studio was used on his hat and scarf, and then I added some white flocking from Mark Enterprises with the help of my handy Zig glue pen. Magic Scraps glitter was then used on his belly , beak, feet and snow. The matting for the penguin is textured cardstock from a Mat Stack from DCWV and the matting for the heart paper is from the Paper Bouquet.
The lace ribbon was rescued from my stash for this project which is one of my New Year's resolutions. The snowflake ribbon came from the Target $1 Shop. This sentiment was another freebie that was included with the penguin, but I added the outline with the help of a Zig Millenium black pen. Since there was snow on the tops of the letters, I had to add some more Magic Scraps glitter here too and on the top of the blue snowflake. This cute little heart with the buttons came from Stampin' Up! and was embossed with Versa Mark and blue embossing powder. I used pop dots to mount the sentiment and the snowflakes that are from my stash. To finish it off and add some more bling, I added some adhesive heart gems from K & Company.
This card need the inside to finish how the penguin was tied into Valentine's Day. You Melt My Heart sentiment is an oldie from Co-Motion that was embossed with Versa Mark and the Stamp 'n' Stuff Kaleidoscope embossing powder. The Happy Valentines Day is from a foam mounted set from PSX that I embossed with Versa Mark and blue glitter from Stampendous. Last but not least is the JRL Designs Heart Vine on the bottom of the card.
I really love thinking outside of the box as much as possible to recharge my energy, so that's why I like doing challenges as much as possible. When you make all of the cards I do each month to give away, you don't always want to exert yourself to make some extra special cards all of the time. Another good thing about putting more time into challenge cards is that I can sometimes find shortcuts to make multiple cards much faster. Now that you've seen mine, why don't you make yourself do a challenge today that you wouldn't normally consider. ~ Lee ~
Challenges:
Blue and White color challenge from
Stamp Something A Weekly Challenge Blog
Sketch came from
Stampin' For The Weekend
Winter Theme challenge from
Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge Blog
Favorite Color Combination and a Digi Image for the
Bee Crafty Download Challenge
Two Different Types of bling from
Humble Pie Stamps
Let's Go Digi at the
Corrosive Challenge Blog
Next, I picked my design paper for the front. Place the card, open side down on the backside of the design paper so it will fit properly. After cutting the heart out of the design paper, make a cut down the center of the design paper with a straight edge and Exacto, or you could even line it up and cut it in your paper cutter.
For the inside center of the card, you can draw the pattern on the right side of the paper if you want design paper on the inside. I wanted two different papers, so the sides of the card had to be drawn on the back side of the paper again. You want to outline the card with the cut side facing down. After this heart is cut out, line it up to one of the sides before you cut out the center just in case the cut isn't perfectly down the center.
The image was printed on white cardstock from my HP printer. No special inks are used, but I do set the print at best quality. Since Hannah had a star on her dress, I knew that I was going to use Scenic Route DP from a kit (Halloween) that I got for a song at Tuesday Morning. She was a breeze to color with colored pencils & blended with Goo Gone (better smelling than Gamsol & I hear they also have pens!). As usual, I highlighted with a white gel pen & then cut her out.
If you haven't been to the Michelle Perkett Studio, then you need to go! I found her on Paper Craft Planet, & I couldn't wait to get some of her images colored! That's one thing I love about digi images....instant gratification! I'm sharing two of her images with you today.
The next card uses another Michelle Perkett image called Buddy. He had a snowflake sweater when I bought him, but I wanted to dress him for Valentines Day with lots of bling from the K & Co. Adhesive Gems pack! I have a rottweiler as a service dog, so I couldn't resist coloring him like a rottie. He was colored with colored pencils & blended with Goo Gone & the highlights were added with a white gel pen.
