Using Craft Stamps and Some Fun Rubber Stamping Techniques to Make a Handmade Greeting Card

It’s been a while since I made a greeting card with my craft stamps.  I have been using my Cricut Expression machine to make my greeting cards lately and I wanted to go back and use some of my craft rubber stamps that I have, and boy do I have craft stamps.  One day I will post some pictures of all the craft stamps that I have.

Anyway, for this birthday card I wanted to share with you first of all a really cute craft stamps, some cool rubber stamping techniques and all this while I am making a birthday card for my father-in-law.  When he was at my home in March, I took him to his first ever craft rubber stamps convention.  He couldn’t believe how many different craft stamps they had as well as how many ladies were all in one convention center.  It was great and where we found some special craft rubber stamps, so I thought I would show him what I can create using some rubber stamping techniques that I have learned over the years.

I just love craft stamps that pertain to cats, and this particular craft stamp reminds me of my cat Tapioca.  He is so cute.

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What you will need:

Cat craft stamps (Stamps by Judith)
Sentiment – Happy Birthday ~ Perfectly Clear craft stamps (Stampendous)
StazOn Black Solvent Ink Pad
Watercolor pencils (Loew-Cornell)
Water Brush
Flower Pot paper punch (Emaginations)
Paper from Stampin’ Up:  Really Rust, Sage Shadow, Barely Banana, and Basic Black.  I have no clue where I got the white card stock from.
Adhesive pop dots and tape runner

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How to make it:

First I cut all the card stock listed above to get the layered look that I wanted for this card.
Then I stamped the cat craft stamps image with my Black StazOn ink pad.  I then put embossing powder on the wet ink and heat set.

The reason why I used the solvent ink and embossed is that I am now going to use my watercolor pencils to color in the image and I did not want the black ink to run into the colors.

I used watercolor pencils along with my water brush, to color the cat and the stem and leaf.  I then used another of my great rubber stamping techniques and that was to color the flower with an embossing marker and then put on the embossing powder.  Using my heat gun I then made the flower have a shiny finish.

I punched out of brown paper the flower pot.  I put the pop dots only at the rim of the flower pot, and then used my tape runner for the bottom of the flower pot.  I wanted to give a three dimensional look like the cat was really sitting in the flower pot.

I then used Tulip Color Point Stitch paint to make the dirt.  I really got inside the rim to get the effect that the cat was in the pot.  I again used my heat gun to set the paint and give it the uneven puffy look.  (When I was cleaning my craft closet a few months back I came across all of these Tulip paints and all of my craft stamps and I wanted to start using them for fun projects like this one).

For the inside I used one of my Perfectly Clear craft stamps and stamped Happy Birthday.  Nice and simple.

I almost forgot, I finished him off with a little black and white ribbon that I tied around his neck, for a fun look for my cat.

I hope he like the card, since I used the craft stamps that we bought together. I sure had a lot of fun making it.  I think now that I had so much fun with this card that I will start using more from the collection of my craft stamps for upcoming birthdays and holidays.  Hope you enjoyed it too!

Make it a Great Day and don’t forget to leave time to Craft!

Yippee, Six New Cricut Cartridges

I have been receiving a lot of emails from various companies saying “Start Saving Your Money” or “Time to Break Open your Bank”, I don’t need to go on you get the idea.   The reason is that there are some new Cricut Cartridges on the horizon.  To be exact, there are six new Cricut Cartridges:  Everyday Paper Dolls, From My Kitchen, Picturesque, Sweethearts and Winter Wonderland these are all fully functional cricut cartridges.    There is also a solutions cricut cartridge called Serenade.

No one is saying when they will be released; I am just hoping that they will be available for Christmas.  But, there is one really cool thing; they are all on the Cricut Design Studio software ready for download now.  The Cricut Message Board posted the announcement last week.  You can read all about the announcements and also get to the download page by clicking on this link for the Cricut Message Board.

You may be saying so why is this so cool, it is because you will be able to see what is available on each of these new Cricut Cartridges using your Cricut Design Studio software, you will be able to start designing cards and scrapbook pages and when they are released all you need to do is purchase, install and press print.  Now that is cool!

You can use these new Cricut Cartridges on all of the Cricut Die Cut machines.  Cricut Expression, Original Cricut, and the Cricut Create.

I know already that I will be purchasing one of the new cricut cartridges and it is the ‘From My Kitchen’ Cricut Cartridge.  My husband and I love to cook, and also love to invite friends over for dinner.  I always have my camera handy to take pictures of our gatherings.  This new cricut cartridge will be great for my scrapbook making.

Here is my quick review of the new cricut cartridges that I put together while looking through what will soon be released and tells you a bit about what is in each cricut cartridge.

Everyday Paper Dolls – people figures, clothes, accessories such as cell phone, crutches, dumb bells, karaoke machine, golf cart, scooter, ski chair lift…..

From My Kitchen – utensils, pots, pans, tea pots, bowls, blenders, food shapes such as chicken drum sticks, spaghetti, vegetables…..

Picturesque – all kind of scrolls, swirls, flowers, lacey picture corners, birds, swans, butterflies…..

Sweethearts – couples, wedding, engagement, valentines, hearts, and bicycle built for two, love sentiments, wedding cakes, churches…..

Winter Wonderland –ice skates, sleigh, reindeer, skis, fun winter sentiments, evergreen trees, snow man, mittens, scarves…..

Serenade – birds, bird cages, butterflies, vases, flower pots, trees, branches, flowers, fruit…..

So, I am not going to tell you to save your money or break open your piggie bank.  What I want to suggest to you is to download some of these new cricut cartridges onto your Cricut Design Studio Software and start seeing what you are missing.

What?  You don’t have the Cricut Design Studio Software yet?  What are you waiting for?  Just use this link to get the Cricut Design Studio Software right now!

Make it a Great Day and don’t forget to leave time to Craft!

A Cricut Project Using the Hello Kitty Greetings Cricut Cartridge

I needed to make a birthday card for my niece Nicole.  She really loves cats, so I decided to use my Hello Kitty Greetings Cricut Cartridge for her card.  There was so many cute kitty’s to choose from, but I decided to use the one with the balloons so that I could Rubber Stamp some sentiments on.

I cut the Hello Kitty on my Cricut Expression Machine.  I set my size to 5″, and you can see it was the perfect size.  I added some happy birthday wishes and a candle and present with “perfectly clear stamps” and black color box pigment ink.  I also used Star Dust Stickles around the bow and clothing  for a little sparkle.

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Make it a Great Day and don’t forget to leave time to Craft!