Two New Cards

I shared on my "Betty's Ramblings" blog last week that I bought myself a new toy, a mini sewing machine made by Janome. A blogger friend of mine has one and uses it on most of her cards. I like the way her cards look when she adds stitching to them and wanted to do the same on my cards.


Unfortunately, the machine had a problem with the tension. Regardless of where I set the tension, the stitching was not correct. So yesterday, after spending a good part of the day and watching a couple of tutorials, I asked Gerry to box the machine up for me. This morning we returned it to Hancock Fabrics where I had purchased it. I took a sample of the stitching with me so they could see what the machine was doing.


This is the card I wanted to put stitching on. I was going to straight stitch around the two pieces of designer scrapbook paper and then use a zigzag stitch around the image. I finished up the card last night and thought it came out okay. I used my Copics to color and then the flowers were part of my first prize that I won at our card swap in February. I put a pearl sticker in the middle of the flowers. Here is another card I just finished. The stamp is one that I have had for a while. I think it was among the first stamps I purchased when I first started making cards. I used Copics to color it and tried to use the same color scheme that is on the picture on the stamp itself. I think I should have used a lighter gray on the wheelbarrow or another color for it. I daubed VersaMagic Gingerbread chalk ink all around the image to cover the white cardstock. It doesn't really show up very well. Not real happy with the end result. I finished it off with some sheer black edged ribbon from A Muse.

I need to come up with card samples for our next card swap which is April 10th. I have some other new stamps that I will be playing with and will post whatever I come up later.

Two New Cards

I made this card last week. I needed to mail a check to the person hosting our next Shoebox Card Swap. So made a quick card to send. It is all A Muse except for the scallop punch which is by Fiskars and the white cardstock is Neenah Solar White which is great to use when coloring with Copic markers. I stamped the images using Chalk ink. This is the card I made for my sister Eke's family. The products are all by Memory Box which I had just gotten in the mail. I used two different colors of Stickles glitter glue on the flowers. I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

Hannah's Birthday Card

Hannah Marie Strempke celebrated her 16th birthday today with a pizza party at Round Table Pizza that is located close to their house. She is the middle daughter of our oldest daughter Elizabeth. Her actual birthday is March 4th.

Hannah loves pandas so I made this card for her. I've used the same image on cards for her on other birthdays.

I CASED the layout, sort of, from one I saw on Splitcoast Stampers. The CASE had a couple more layers and an inchie was used as the image. I stamped a bamboo stamp on the red layer using Versamark ink. I think I need a new pad because it does not show up very well. The only coloring I did was to color the bamboo the panda is holding. I used Copic G85 Verdigris (a dark green) for the bamboo and C1 Cool Gray to create a highlight around the panda. A chop stamp and some gold cord around the fold of the card finished it off. I will have pictures of her party on my other blog later, if not tonight then tomorrow.

Sympathy Card

I made this Sympathy card this afternoon to send to Mrs. Hotoke, the widow of Mr. Shigero Hotoke who was my former choir director at Kailua High School. I've used this card layout before. I cut a piece of burgundy cardstock 5 1/2" by 4 1/4". It is just one layer. Then I cut the white layer 4" by 10 1/2 inches and scored that piece at 5 1/4". It is adhered to the top of the burgundy layer. The cherry blossom stamp is by Stampendous. I used Copic markers RV13 Tender Pink and R11 Pink to color the cherry blossoms; E15 Dark Suntan for the stems and YG23 New Leaf for the leaves. After I colored the flowers, I used a clear gel glitter pen and went over them for a little sparkle. It doesn't show up very well. The sentiment stamp is a generic one. I used a small Marvey scallop oval punch (yellow) for the sentiment and then edged it with Rouge Chalk ink. The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch. I used a scrap of designer cardstock to punch it out. I used a pop dot for the sentiment and a tiny piece of foam tape for the butterfly to pop both of them up. The wings of the butterfly are folded up too so it looks like it is in flight. Then the ribbon is some that I got from Ellen Hudson LLC in Seattle, WA. Whenever an order is placed, she includes some ribbon. It is a beautiful burgundy satin ribbon.

I love the way the card came out and I hope Mrs. Hotoke likes it.