The Power of Practice Blog Hop Birthday Card and Prize You Could Win!

Are you a new cardmaker or blogger? Or do you ever look at someone else's cards or blogpost and wish yours were more professional or just better? I have and so have many of the bloggers who are hopping today. I started making cards 20 years ago and started blogging 10 years ago. Here is the card I CASED from a blog post of mine in May of 2010: 

Nothing wrong with this card- in fact I kept the same sketch and colors. Here is my new card:

I now own many stitched dies (the square ones in my new card are from Crealies) and think they add so much to a card's design. I also own many more sentiment dies and I used a My Favorite Things circular happy birthday die and a pretty "celebrate" stamp from Elizabeth Crafts along with favorite gems from Gina Marie Designs on my new card. I like the new card more because of these changes and much more creative experience.

I think if you look at the blogpost (linked above) from May of 2010, you will see where blogging and taking pictures has greatly improved through practice for me. My pictures are much brighter and I now title my blogposts in a better way too.  I also have a professional watermark now. 

One thing that has not changed through time is I love to use humor on my cards. The inside of the card from 10 years ago said: "Keep this up and pretty soon you will be older than dirt." Here is the inside of this card: 

This funny sentiment is also from Elizabeth Crafts in Suzanne Cannon's gorgeous calligraphy. 

I appreciate your visit today and am offering a prize you could win by commenting on this blog post before September 19, 2020 (if you have a mailing address in the USA. Please tell me in your comment where you live.) To earn extra entries, tell me if you are a follower of my blog (picture on the side of the blog), and/or if you are a subscriber of my YouTube channel here, and/or if you are a follower of my Instagram here (leave a comment there on the post of my card.) You  could win the sweet stamp set from Gina K Designs called "You Make Me Happy" and a Birthday Cut Out Die from Die-Versions shown here: 

I am entering this card in the humor challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday.

To see more "The Power of Practice" comparisons, be sure to keep hopping. The next stop on this blog hop is: Vicki Parson at https://stampedsmiles.com/2020/09/12/the-power-of-practice-blog-hop/

More Neon Stenciled Cards From My Newest Video

I am loving the reverse stencil technique shared by Rina K and her Electro Pop Neon Inks work the best for this technique as they are nice and bright. I brushed Poppin' Pink Neon ink on two pieces of white cardstock and on one of the pieces I then brushed black ink through a stencil. I cut both pieces into three strips and matched them up, then die cut "hello". I raised hello on black foam and placed back on the card for the eclipse look. "Friend" is a die from Bright Rosa.

I share all of these neon cards in my newest video here. My shine card features three Rina K. neon inks for the reverse stencil technique.  Then I applied black ink through a stencil which I cut into geometric shapes and attached to a white piece of cardstock. The strip on the left and layered "shine" were created with Screamin' Green Neon Glitz on black and white cardstock. 

The Rina K Neon collection at Therm O Web also includes Electro-Pop Neon Flock and I used Orange Glow for this geometric card. The flock can be attached with Transfer Gel Duo through a stencil as I did here on both white and black cardstock. I liked the shapes the stencil created so I cut some for this geometric design. The perfect sentiment for these days was cut with a die from Dies...to Die For. 

When the neon flock piece is pulled off the stenciled cardstock, you get a positive and negative image and I used both of them on this fun card. The stencil I applied Duo Gel through to get the pattern is from Stencil Girl. I also cut a diamond in the positive and negative colors and attached a black and white "you da best" from Simon Says Stamp. 

I had so much fun playing with neon inks, gels and flock from Rina K and Therm O Web for my newest video and hope my cards inspire you to give neon a try. 
 

Video - Bright Cardmaking With Stencils, Neons and Foil

I think we could all use some brightness in these times and my newest video shows how to add neon inks, gels and bright foil with stencils. This card uses many of the new neon inks from Rina K and an awesome stencil set from The Greetery called Pinwheel Party.

As I show in the video, the Pinwheel Party stencil set has 4 large stencils that work together to create the fun pinwheel background on this card. I used Therm O Web Transfer Gel Duo on the last layer and added the new Peach Princess Deco Foil when it was dry. The individual pinwheels were created with smaller stencil from the same set, two shades of blue ink and Iridescent Glitz Glitter Gel. There are dies available from The Greetery for the individual pinwheels but they were not in my budget so I cut mine out with circle punches and dies. The blue streamers were cut out with The Greetery's Twisted Crepe Die and the celebrate is a die from Tonic Studios. 

This is another of my favorites of the many cards I made with stencils and neon inks from Rina K and Therm O Web and it shows how we can use neon inks to make elegant cards too. I CASED a card I loved by Bibi Cameron with a similar butterfly center featuring two butterfly dies from Simon Says Stamp. The background was made with a stencil and Poppin' Pink Neon Ink and I added a little to the sentiment (die from Sue Wilson.) 

Another of the new neon Rina K Therm O Web products I show in the new video is the Neon Glitz and I love the Screamin' Green on black cardstock. I applied it through a stencil from A Colorful Life Designs and also on a scrap piece from which I cut "Soar" with a die from Quietfire Designs. The stars were punched from a piece of white cardstock with the neon green gel too. 

These are just a few of the many stenciled neon cards I share in my newest video, so be sure to check it out here. 

Cute Halloween or Fall Cards OR Anything Goes 4 Kids at Send A Smile 4 Kids

It’s the first Saturday of a new month and time for another fun challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids! Again this year, all challenges at SAS4Kids are Anything Goes 4 Kids! We will often have an alternative theme that you can choose to follow, but are not required to. Create and link any card that is appropriate for a child and your card could be chosen as one of our top three cards and you could join us as a guest dt member on a future challenge. We are also continuing as a monthly challenge so new challenges will be posted on the first Saturday of every month and you will have a whole month to make and link your cards.

The theme for this challenge is: Cute Halloween or Fall Cards 4 Kids Or Anything Goes 4 Kids. Remember- no graveyard scenes or anything scary. As always, be sure to check the current needs page before sending any cards in and stay safe and healthy. 

I made my Halloween slimline card with some cute dies from Tonic Studios and Karen Burniston and a googly eyed spider sticker. The best part is when the card is opened:

I used the new Karen Burniston Pop 'n Swap die to make the cute ghost disappear and the jack-o-lantern appear when the card is opened. I also used some more Tonic Studios and KB dies on the inside of the card. 

Be sure to check out the rest of the cards from TEAM SAS here and we would love it if you entered our challenge. 

Acetate and Frosted Binding Cover Cards

Today I am sharing the last of the many see through cards I made acetate and frosted binding cover for my newest video. Each card is very elegant looking and more beautiful than can be seen in a photograph. The hearts background was created with a background die from Altenew, the stitched heart is from Kat Scrappiness and the Love is a die from Impression Obsession.

On the inside of these acetate cards, I repeated the shape from the front and put it on the back as well to cover up the adhesive and allow for signing the card. The "forever" die is from Stamplorations. 

I found that the Frosted Binding Cover I had stored in my craft room for some crafty project years ago and just found, worked even better than the thick acetate for my see through cards. It folds easier and still looks very elegant with the see through look especially with this beautiful Deco Foil through a Gina K Designs stencil. Therm O Web's new Duo Gel is perfect for surfaces like acetate and frosted binding cover which I didn't want to put through my MINC. I can attach foil without any heat with the Duo Gel! The sentiment die is from Dies...To Die For and I finished the sentiment in the inside of the card: 

I am missing so many faces and hugs these days! But I can send cards and will continue keeping busy having fun designing and being creative with my cardmaking. To see these and many more see through cards, watch my new video here. 

CASED Cards From Instagram Collab

On Monday I participated in an Instagram collaboration where we each CASED (Copy and Selectively Edit) a fellow cardmaker on Instagram, and I thought I would share the cards I made here for those of you not on Instagram. 

I was paired up with The Joyful Soul Creates, and when I went to look at her Instagram pictures, there were so many great cards, I had a hard time picking one to CASE.  So I did two:) Here is a link to the card that inspired me to make my first card. I didn't have any floral stamps that would work, but I found a Penny Black poinsettia and script background stamp that worked beautifully. I heat embossed the image with Tonic Studio's silver glitter embossing powder so it sparkles IRL. The sentiment stamp is also from Penny Black and finishes on the inside of the card:

I was drawn to another card by Lady Joyful here on her Instagram because I really liked the triangular sketch and that she used Nuvo Shimmer Powders on hers. I love to design with Nuvo's Shimmer Powders so I pulled mine out and CASED her card. I created the curved lines in mine with a new Twisted Crepe die from The Greetery and added a circular Thank You die from Impression Obsession in the center. And I resisted putting anything in the white space because the beautiful card I CASED showed me it isn't needed. Right? 

I hope you will visit Lady Joyful's Instagram linked above and start following her there or on her blog or YouTube (or all of the above:) 

I am entering the first card in the Stamp It challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday.

More See Through Cards from My Newest Video

I had so much fun creating see through cards with acetate for my newest video that I made and shared many cards. This see through birthday card started with a piece of thick acetate scored in half to create an A2 card. I die cut Taylored Expression's background streamers die out of red mirror card from Tonic Studios and attached it to the front. I also die cut three stitched ovals with a die from Gina Marie Designs and attached them in the same place on the front and inside and back. "Celebrate" was cut with a die from Karen Burniston out of gold mirror card. 

Another fun technique you can do with acetate is to make a floating easel card. I made some of these a few years ago before I started using foil on my cards, but the use of the foil makes them even more beautiful. I applied Therm O Web's Transfer Gel Duo through a Simon Says Stamp stencil and when it was dry (but tacky) I pressed down some Amber Watercolor Deco Foil to create this floating image. The sentiment was created with a die from Sue Wilson and the easel is held up with a Tim Holtz Sizzix Laurel die. Here is a look at the card laying flat and ready to mail: 

These cards are soooo much prettier IRL and in the video because the acetate is hard to photograph. Hope you can watch the video and see what I mean.

I am entering the second card in the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday.