Dragon Greeting Cards

Well, I already showed you the mermaid birthday cards I made for the Kards for Kids at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.  Ever since I made them, I've been trying to design something for the boys.  Here it is!

I used a High Hopes Stamps dragon image on this one.  High Hopes is a sponsor of the Kards for Kids project.  Their current stamping challenge is to use borders.  I used my Accucut Craft Fence border die on this card and also created a fringed grass border by hand.

These were quick and simple and I really enjoyed colouring the dragon with my copics.  I used lipstick red and some brown for shading.  I lightened the wings with pink and I dotted the dragon's body with the colourless blender to give him a mottled scaly look.

Handmade Cards For the Dogs

These cards were made by my co-worker, Debbie.  She made them to donate to a local dog rescue: the Southern Ontario Animal Rescue (SOAR).  SOAR uses them in new adoption kits and on one-year adoption milestones.

Here's a birthday card with an adorable C.C. Designs bear stamp:

And a friendship card with a free-hand dog.  Debbie claims I gave this to her, but I cannot remember!  I think the little picket fence is a nice touch.

This next card we made when Sheri from Close to My Heart stamping came to teach us some techniques earlier this year.  I think it would work well as a homecoming card for a newly adopted dog.

Debbie used the sprinkles we got from Annabelle Stamps in Australia on this thank-you card.  I cannot say enough how beautiful these little baubles are!  I really like all the repetition of circles in this design.

On her last card, Debbie used a large Birthday embossing folder and inked it up.  This card is monstrously large!  It fits in a 6 x 9 (or so) envelope!  It is perfect to hold a picture of the pup.

Thanks, Debbie for your contribution to SOAR!  I'm sure your cards will bring lots of smiles to happy dog rescuers!

Rose Birthday Card - GrandeMark Challenge Entry 1

It's that time of year again: time for the 2013 GrandeMark Challenge.  I entered it last year too.  I think I will do the same: take a week off work in May to crank out some projects before the deadline.

My sister's birthday was this month, so I made her a card.  I have enough of the background paper to make two.

For the one on the right, I used a border punch but on the other I used the Theme Album die from Accucut Craft.  I put my paper over just the section I wanted and it created a fancy bracket-shaped border for me.  I distressed the edges of the background paper (from Die Cuts with a View) and applied Walnut Stain Tim Holtz ink to the edges of them and the edges of my borders.

On both, I used the Flourish die from Accucut Craft to accent the flower. The flower and sentiment are from a Close to My Heart stamp set.  I also added some sprinkles from Annabelle Stamps for a bit of bling.

I coloured the flower with my red Copic marker (lipstick - I only have one red).  Then I used a brown to add the shadow and then ran over it heavily with the red again.  I used Bazzill double think white paper to colour and cut out the roses because I knew I would be soaking it pretty well with the red.  A Sakura stardust gel pen accents the flower centres. (TIP: I used my black Copic marker - but any black marker will do - to line the edge of my cut out rose so that it would not show white.  I think it helps finish the look a little better.)

My aunt isn't well.  She is home from the hospital now, I'm told.  She is all the way out in New Brunswick.  I made her a card today and I used one of my newest Accucut Craft dies.  Once I get it photographed, I'm going to enter it too!