Back to the Mini Cards…..

This first card was a swap that I received at convention from my friend Linda Madison.

It is such a beautiful little card.  The technique is a marker technique – you color directly on the stamp with the Stampin’ Write Markers.  For this card the leaves are Old Olive and the flowers are More Mustard and Poppy Parade.  After you are done coloring you re-moisten the stamp by huffing on it.  Then stamp on the paper.  The greeting is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.  A thin mat of Poppy Parade was added between the stamped piece and the base.

This next card uses the cute stamp Elebration from the A la Carte section of the catalog.  I love this little guy….

Somewhere around the age of 10-12 I started collecting elephants.  I had many in my collection from all over and all different types.  In one of my school classes we even hand carved a stamp and guess what mine was – an elephant – that was so long ago and who would have thought then that now many years later I would be stamping every day.  I still have that elephant stamp in my craft room – maybe I need to put some ink on it and make a card with it.  Or at least take a picture of it to show everyone on my blog.  While I don’t really collect new elephants any more I still am drawn to them and tempted to buy every stamp set that I see with an elephant I am tempted but I haven’t actually done it.  I did however get this little guy since he was all by himself – he is cute for birthday or baby and I have a couple of other ideas for him that I have yet to try out.

Anyway on to the card itself.  The base is Old Olive with a layer of Pacific Point that was embossed with the new Stripes Textured Embossing Folder.  I don’t think you can see it well in this picture – but there are stripes on it.  I stamped the elephant on Whisper White card stock using JetBlack Stazon ink.  When I watercolored him with an aqua painter and watercolor crayons – a little bit of grey and some pink in his ears, bottom of his feet and tail.   Then I cut him out.  I also stamped again on patterned paper – the cake on a striped piece and the balloon on a polka dotted piece and cut those out just exactly on the outline and pieced them on top.  The candle is colored just with Stampin’ Write Markers.  Here is a close up –

One little trick to tell you is how to cut the small area between the arm, trunk and string of the balloon.  The easiest way to cut out small places like this is to first punch a hole with the 1/16″ handheld punch inside the space.  Then insert the tip of your paper snips and work your way around the space.  This is how I do all small spaces rather than just trying to poke the scissors in which tends to bend the paper.

That’s the two I have to share with you today.  Have a great weekend!