New Year Card, Starring the Meerkats!

It's Tuesday, which means it's time to share a project created for Topflight Stamps. This week my teammates and I are sharing projects to celebrate the new year!  In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I had a shaker card planned with five of the six meerkats included in Katzelkraft's adorable Meerkats Unmounted Rubber Stamp Set. The image panel was completely stamped, stenciled, colored, and die-cut. 

However, things went awry when I sealed the shaker. The black foam was showing and screaming, "Look! Kathi messed up. Again!". When I tried to peel the image panel from the foam, the left part tore. 

So I started another card with completely different stamps because I do have lots of ideas. Then I stamped part of it sideways. Near tears, with two hours to go before this post was due, I rescued part of the fubarred shaker card. Or I think I did. Thank heavens for my collection of cutting dies. The instructions have been written as though the card below was my original intention. Hahahahahaha.

Anyway, here's my Meerkat New Year's card! You'll have to admit that they look like they're having fun!

Topflight Products Used:
Meerkats Unmounted Rubber Stamp Set by Katzelkraft

Classic Sentiments by Heffy Doodle

Super Hero Rays 6x6 Stencil by Paper Rose Studio

Stones Stencil by Lavinia Stamps

Blending Brushes by Time for Tea Designs

Onyx Black VersaFine Ink by Tsukineko

PSA: There are lots of fantastic new products at Topflight Stamps, so you should definitely click on over there after reading my instructions! BTW, if you'd like to get 12% off your order at Topflight Stamps use THIS LINK!

Other Products Used:
Solar White Classic Crest® Cardstock by Neenah Papers
Grey Cardstock by Bazzill Basics Paper®
Tuxedo Black and London Fog Memento™ Ink by Tsukineko®
Picked Raspberry, Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean Distress® Ink by Tim Holtz® for Ranger Ink
Copic® Markers: 

   Meerkats Left to Right: E41, E42,E43, E44, B21;  C0, C1, C2, C3, C4, C5,C7, E04, RVV43, B21, B60;  E51, E53, E55, E56*, E57, E59, B21

Fancy Folded Banners Lawn Cuts by Lawn Fawn®

Dot-Stripe Petite Prints 6x6 Patterned Paper Pad by Doodlebug Designs, Inc.™

Powder Blue Double Dot Paper from the Bold and Bright Patterned Paper Pad by BoBunny Press®

Sunray Venus Layering Basics die set (Tonic Studios)

STAY-tion by Wendy Vecchi for Ranger Industries

Stamping Platform
Removable ID Labels by Avery®

Post-It® Notes by 3M

Instructions:

1. Use magnets to secure a piece of white cardstock onto the stamping platform.
2. Position the dancing meerkat facedown onto the cardstock.
3. Press the lid of the stamping platform onto the stamps, lift, ink the stamps, and stamp. Repeat inking and stamping if necessary for a clear impressions.
4. Place a piece of Removable Label paper onto the platform (over the image panel), re-ink the stamps, and stamp.
5. Fussy-cut the label version mask and place over its counterpart on the image panel.
6. Remove the stamp from the stamping platform.
7. Position the other two meerkat face-down onto the image panel, press the platform's lid into the back of the stamps, ink, and stamp. Repeat inking and stamping if necessary.
8. Stamp the two meerkats onto removable label paper, fussy-cut them, and position the masks over the meerkats.
9. At this point all the meerkats should be masked because these days wearing masks is very important.
10. Remove the image panel from the platform and use magnets to secure it to the STAY-tion.
11. Place the magnetic ruler horizontally over the meerkats' feet/paws.
12. Brush Tumbled Glass Distress ink over the masked meerkats onto the image panel.
13. Use magnets to secure the Super Hero Rays stencil over the image panel and brush Shaded Lilac Distress ink from the center of the stencil outwards. 
14. Brush Picked Raspberry from the edges inwards to the center of the stencil.
15. Blend the inks to your liking.
16. Use Post-It Notes on each side of the ray to extend the ray to the outer edges of the image panel. Brush Picked Raspberry Distress ink between the Post-It notes, then blend the ink colors.
17. Repeat Step #17 to extend the rays as necessary so that the rays extend to the image panel's edges.
18. Move the ruler so that it covers the top part of the image.
19. Brush Salty Ocean Distress ink over the ruler to the bottom of the image panel.
20. Secure the Stones stencil to the image panel using rulers, then brush 
21. Remove the stencils and the image panel from the STAY-tion.
22. Remove the masks from the image panel and reserve for a later use.
23. Color all of the meerkats with Copic markers.
24. Continue to work on the shaker card by die-cutting the champagne glass, trimming the image panel, adhering acetate to the back of the image panel, created a Super Hero Rays stenciled back piece, add dimensional foam adhesive, fill the aperture with shaker goodies, peel back the adhesive, and put the image panel askew so that the black foam tape is showing. 
25. Use one of the dies from the Sunray Venus Layering Basics Die Set to cut the image panel. 
26. Use the next largest die to cut grey cardstock.
27. Trim patterned paper to 4" x 5.25" and edge with a V01 marker.
28. Adhere the patterned paper onto a grey A2 card.
29. Adhere the image panel as shown.
30. Use one of the dies from the Fancy-Folded Banners dies to cut blue patterned paper.
31. Use magnets to secure the die-cut onto the stamping platform.
32. Position the "Happy New Year" clear stamp face down onto the banner. 
33. Press the lid of the stamping platform onto the stamp.
34. Ink the stamp with Onyx Black VersaFine ink and stamp. Repeat the inking and stamping if necessary.
35. Adhere the sentiment to finish the card.

Thanks for visiting today1

You've Got This!

 It's Tuesday, which means it's time to share a project created for Topflight Stamps, so I've got a card to share with you today.

I've created a card using the Little Critters Clear Stamp Set by The Card Hut, which is an fabulous new clear stamp set featuring squirrels and their antics. I used the set with the Tree Branch Clear Stamp by Lavinia Stamps and a sentiment from the wonderfully versatile Classic Sentiments by Heffy Doodle.

Here's the card.

Topflight Stamps Products Used:

Little Critters Clear Stamp Set by The Card Hut

Tree Branch Clear Stamp by Lavinia Stamps

Classic Sentiments by Heffy Doodle

Onyx Black VersaFine™ Ink by Tsukineko®

PSA: There are lots of fantastic new products at Topflight Stamps, so you should definitely click on over there after reading my instructions! BTW, if you'd like to get 12% off your order at Topflight Stamps use THIS LINK!

Other Products Used:

Solar White Classic Crest® Cardstock by Neenah Papers

Tuxedo Black Memento™ Ink by Tsukineko®

Toffee Crunch Memento™ Ink by Tsukineko®

Copic® Markers:

   Red Squirrels: E13, E15, E17, E27, E29, E97, YR31

   Blue Tit (on left on hanging feeder): Y02, Y13, B34

   Great Tit (on right on hanging feeder): Y00, Y11, B91, B93

   Robin (on top of the platform): YR18, R04, C4, E31, E33

   Long Tailed Tit (on coconut feeder): E70, R00, R01, C7

   Grey Squirrel: C1, C2, C3, W1, W2, W3

   Nut Feeders: C00, C0, C1, C3, E41, E42, E43

   Coconut Feeder: E43, E44, N0, N1, N2

   Feeder Stand: E21, E23, W1, W2

   Branch: E55, E59

   Grass: YG03, YG05, YG11, YG17

   Leaves: YR16, YR23, E97

   Sky: B21, RV000

Very Vintage 6x6 Patterned Paper Pad by BoBunny Press®

Fancy Folded Banners Lawn Cuts  by Lawn Fawn®

Brown Cardstock by Bazzill Basics Paper®

Stamping Platform

A note: I was an avid bird watcher when we lived in England so I remembered the bird species and their coloration. We never had a red squirrel visit us and they're not native to New Jersey, so I had to use Google to figure out their coloration, though I could have used the packaging from the stamp set, if I had found it under the piles of detritus on my table. Oops! I have since found it. Yay!

Instructions:

1. Cut brown cardstock to 8.25" x 6.25". Score at 4 1/8" and fold to form an A6 card. 
2. Cut patterned paper to 3 7/8 x 6" and edge with a brown marker.
3. Adhere the patterned paper card front to the brown card.
4. Use Toffee Crunch Memento ink to stamp the Tree Branch on the upper left. 
5. Placed the image panel onto a stamping platform and secure with magnets.
6. Use the stamps to figure out the placement for the elements of this little scene.
7. Position the stack of red squirrels and the bird feeding platform stamps from the Little Critters Clear Stamp Set face down on the image panel. 
8. Press the platform lid into the back of the stamps, lift, and ink the stamps.
9. Stamp the images onto the image panel. Repeat if necessary. It wasn't! Yay!
10. Remove the stamps from the platform and clean.
11. Figure out where to position the hanging peanut feeder in relation to the tree branch and the squirrel stack.
12. Repeat steps #7 - #9.
13. Use Copic markers to color the branch, birds, red squirrels, the grey squirrel, and the bird feeding platform. I also used the markers to color the grass, the few freehanded leaves, and the sky. 
14. Since I didn't have a sentiment that said "Teamwork makes the dreamwork", I decided to use the sentiment, "You've got this", from the Classic Sentiments Clear Stamp Set since it was pretty clear that the squirrels had their treats within reach.
15. White cardstock was cut with one of the banners in the die set. 
16. The banner was placed onto the stamp platform and secured with magnets.
17. The sentiment was positioned face down atop the banner. 
18. The platform's lid was pressed onto the stamp, lifted, and the sentiment was inked with  Onyx Black VersaFine Ink. 
19. The sentiment was stamped and the banner was folded.
20. The image panel was trimmed, then adhered to the card.
21. The sentiment was adhered using glue dots and a dimensional foam square to finish the card.

Thanks for visiting today!

Happy Halloween!

Here's my card featuring Tworki, one of the Rick St. Dennis rubber stamps that is exclusively available at I Brake for Stamps.

I decided that Tworki would make a fabulous ghost, so he was stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink (Imagine Crafts) onto a piece of very old patterned paper from a 6x6 pad, then colored with Copic markers. When Tworki was fully colored, the patterned paper was sponged with Wild Honey Distress ink (Ranger), then edged with Black Soot Distress ink. 

The image panel was matted with green cardstock, which was then adhered to a black card. A scrap of the leftover green cardstock was die-cut with one of the dies from the A Birdie Told Me die set (Lawn Fawn). "Happy Halloween" from the Gothic Remnant Rubs (Idea-ology) was added to the speech bubble to finish the card.

I Brake for Stamps has a huge and varied collection of rubber stamps that you ought to check out right now. Just so you know, I Brake for Stamps ships internationally!

Click HERE to be whisked I Brake for Stamps to check out all of the goodies! Best of all, if you buy something, you can get a 10% discount off of your purchase if you use this coupon code:  SAVE10KATHI .

Thanks for visiting today!