It’s hip to be square! So, this week we’re challenging everyone to break out of the rectangle card-making rut and create a square-shape card. If you need a little inspiration, take a peek at Judy Talley’s 5 x 5-inch Oceans of Joy card shown above. I love the whale and sweet fish featured on this design and it’s perfect for this time of year! Find full instructions on page 64 in our summer issue.

Remember to post a photo of your challenge card on the CardMaker Facebook page! And for your viewing pleasure, click here for a little musical “Hip To Be Square.”

Good morning! Today I am making a card inspired by a photo, home décor or fashion. Well, my inspiration is the image shown above—it’s a photo AND it’s fashion! When this gorgeous example of ombre arrived in my inbox last week, I knew it was perfect for the technique I want to share. Let’s get inky!

Place your stamp faceup on your work surface. Drag three different colored ink pads (hot pink, light pink and orange) across the stamp to cover the surface, leaving a small space in between each swipe. I don’t have a white ink to recreate the palette above exactly, so I placed my lightest color (pink) in the middle like the dresses.

Take a mini mister or spray bottle and mist water in between the stripes of ink to blend them.

Instead of turning the stamp over to stamp on paper, which would cause the water to run, place your card facedown onto the stamp and press on all sides.

Remove and add greeting!

I wish you could see this card in real life. When you do this technique, the watery stamped areas raise up to create a gorgeous textured, debossed look. 

TIP: Use a heavyweight cardstock like 120 lb when adding water to your stamping so the stamped paper doesn’t warp.

Hope you enjoyed this very simple technique! It’s such a great casual look for summer, and looks gorgeous in a variety of shades. Have a fabulous day!

-Melanie

Supplies used: Pure Luxury white baseweight cardstock, Wild at Heart stamp set, Gina K. sweet mango, innocent pink and passionate pink premium dye ink pads from Gina K. Designs; Mini Misters from Ranger Industries.

Fashion image from Altar’d State

June always brings lots of occasions that require thank-you cards. It’s the end of the school year, the end of dance classes, piano classes and countless other “year end” things that require a thank-you card. I found that having some cards on hand before June arrives makes life a lot less stressful.

One of my favorite tips to make cardmaking quicker is to buy products from the same collection. When you buy coordinating products, that takes the guess work out of matching patterns and colors, so the cards almost make themselves!

For my cards today, I found this beautiful vintage collection called 75 Cents from Kaisercraft. I fell in love with the serene colors. These 3 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch mini cards came together even faster using the photo frames page from the collection, some paper flowers, and of course some stickers.

Aren’t they cute? I think the teachers will love them.

-Ivanka

Supplies used: 75 Cents collection cardstock, photo frames and paper flowers from Kaisercraft; ribbon from Stampin’ Up!; Fancy Sticker Sentiment-Thanks stickers from SRM Stickers; adhesive foam squares from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L™.

I switched up the colors as the teacher I’m making this for LOVES bright cheery colors, and her retirement party is going to be decorated with bright flowers.

Using Avery Elle’s Petals and Stems stamp set makes creating this card a breeze. The petal and stem images in the set are all separate, allowing you to stamp them in their own color.

I hope this inspires you to pull out your older CardMaker issues and create!

-AJ

Supplies used: Petals and Stems stamp set from Avery Elle; VersaFine onyx black ink pad and Memento rose bud, dandelion, pear tart and tangelo ink pads from IMAGINE Crafts®/Tsukineko®; gemstones from Kaisercraft; On The Edge die templates (#S5-168) from Spellbinders Paper Arts™; E-Z Runner from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L™.

Editor’s Note: If you don’t have a copy of the March 2010 issue featured in this post, purchase a digital back issue here!

One of my favorite gifts to give is card sets. They are easy to make, and come from the heart. For some reason I have way too many square envelopes so I decided to start on my next card set focusing on square cards and using a few Avery Elle stamp sets.

The script font used in the Oh Happy Day stamp set is so beautiful! There are also a few small flowers in this set, so with a few different shades of pink and green inks for the flowers, I am loving the way this card turned out. When stamping, I use the mantra less is more.

Supplies used: Oh Happy Day stamp set from Avery Elle; Memento ink pads from Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko; adhesive foam squares from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L™.

For my next card, I used the stamp set called Oh Yeah. It is designed to create fun speech bubbles. After I stamped the sentiment at a diagonal, I used the heart image to create a custom background. Custom backgrounds are great because you get to pick the color palette. I love the basic colors in a rainbow so those are the colors I chose (red, orange, yellow, green and blue).

Supplies used: Oh Yeah stamp set from Avery Elle; Memento ink pads from Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko; adhesive foam squares from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L™.

The last card I am showing uses stamps from the Simply Tags: Everyday set. At first glance, I thought I should make a tag with this set. However, I am making a card set, so I chose some great cardstock colors to create this fun Happy Birthday card. Stamps are so versatile, and have such a great function.

Supplies used: Simply Tags: Everyday stamp set from Avery Elle; Memento ink pads from Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko; baker’s twine from Lawn Fawn; adhesive foam squares from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L™.   

Thank you for joining me today. I hope I have introduced you to a great stamp company! Not only does Avery Elle produce stamps, but they have an entire store which includes coordinating dies for the stamps, cardstock, sequins and more!

-Latisha

Spotlighting is a favorite of mine, always makes such an impact, and saves the time of having to color stamped images in their entirety-bonus! I have a short video for you demonstrating this technique. It’s not perfect, but it’s me! Hope it inspires!

Supplies used: Pure Luxury white and dark sage cardstock, Inspiration Mosaic and Stately Flowers 6 stamp sets, Gina K. black onyx and dark sage premium dye ink pads, and scissors from Gina K. Designs; Copic® markers (E43 and E37) from Imagination International Inc.; E-Z Runner permanent adhesive from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L™.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Melanie

I love curling up at night and watching a good movie. I’ve watched 27 Dresses more times than I can count. For anyone else who enjoys a relaxing evening getting lost in a good storyline, you’ll love this issue’s Movie Night feature where designers created cards inspired by their favorite movies. Tanya and I loved looking through the submissions for this feature!

Twilight card by Penny Ward, page 39

Whether or not you make it to the beach this summer, you can at least imagine you are there with the Down By The Sea feature. There are so many wonderful cards in this section; they make me wish I was sitting out by the water right now. I love how designer Kristine Reynolds used embossing enamel on this mermaid card!

Mermaid Kiddo card by Kristine Reynolds, page 66

And of course, we couldn’t forget about the Fourth of July! We invited designers to celebrate this season by using the patriotic color palette of red, white and blue to create a variety of all-occasion cards showcasing the versatility of this classic color combo.

Banners for Baby by Kristie Hartfeil, page 84

On top of all that, we’ve also included a fun color feature, a scoring board article with projects from Tami Mayberry and Keri Lee Sereika will show you how to create gorgeous paper beads! Plus, you’ll find all of your favorite regular features, too. Pick up your copy at your local newsstand or purchase a digital copy of the issue here.

What’s your favorite movie? Whether it’s a romantic comedy, drama, sci-fi or cartoon, use it as your inspiration this week for the Card Challenge Corner. There are so many possibilities and we can’t wait to see your designs for this one! Remember to post photos of your cards on the CardMaker Facebook page.

Can you gues what movie inspired Carolyn King’s Just Keep Swimming card shown above? Check out page 42 in the summer issue of CardMaker, now on sale, for full instructions on making this adorable design! Plus, pages 32-45 are filled with movie-inspired cards!

My daughter has several friends graduating this year so I chose black and gold, her school’s colors. as the color palette for this card.

I started by making banner pieces out of black glittered cardstock. Many graduates belong to honor societies so this represents the cords that hang around the robe. I then stamped “best wishes” in black ink and then caps above the “b” and “h” in the sentiment. There was no rhyme or reason—I just felt that it gave the card an extra cute factor. I used yellow and black glitter glues to color in the caps. American Crafts makes great glittered foam letter and number stickers so I knew I was going to use them to represent the year, and also to spell out the word “grad” on this card. I rounded the right corner just to soften and balance the card a little bit, and to draw your attention from the left top corner down to the right bottom corner.

-Latisha

Supplies used: Black glittered cardstock from WorldWin Papers; white cardstock and Daiquiri gold glitter foam letter stickers from American Crafts; So Much to Say stamp set from Lawn Fawn; black ink pad from Gina K. Designs; corner-rounder punch from Creative Memories; yellow and black Stickles glitter glue from Ranger Industries Inc.; 3D foam squares and E-Z Runner from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L™.

Scoring tools such as Crafter’s Companion’s Ultimate Tool make it super easy to create perfect score lines for all of your paper-crafting projects, like this fun mini lantern:

-Becky

Supplies used: Pool party cardstock, Tea For Two Designer Series Paper, basic gray/basic black 1 1/4-inch-wide two-tone ribbon, pool party 3/8-inch-wide ruffled ribbon, pool party baker’s twine, vanilla 5/8-inch-wide flower trim, Pearl Basic Jewels and Bitty Butterfly and Elegant Butterfly punches from Stampin’ Up!; Ultimate Tool and Boxer Board from Crafter’s Companion; E-Z Dots® Mini Repositionable adhesive dots and Dodz Medium from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L^TM.