Bubblegum Paper: Saturday Special: "Childhood Memories" card featuring Art Impressions Stamps

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Saturday Special: "Childhood Memories" card featuring Art Impressions Stamps

Hello everyone,

I was debating whether to wait until Tuesday to post these cards for NPT, but decided to post a little "Saturday Special" instead. I was SUPER excited to use this cool "front and back" stamp and die set from Art Impressions featuring a cute little girl and little boy stamp set. At first, I was inspired by my goddaughter who always wears bright and pretty colors... and occasionally animal prints (her mom's influence). I didn't have an animal print stamp for the leggings, haha... too bad.

As I started to get deeper into the creative process, I started to weave some of my own childhood memories into the card. I used to look outside our dining room window and waved at my mom when she drove off to work. As we got older, the roles reversed and now she stands at the same window and waves to me as I drive away.

If you look at the inside of the card, the little girl is standing on a log. Seems random, right? Well, we used to have a balance beam that my father made from an old log. I wish I had a picture of it. It wasn't a normal "flat" balance beam... instead it was rounded at the top which made it even harder to balance. My brother, little cousin and I used to have balancing contests on this beam. The three of us would stand there for hours... (okay, maybe it just seemed like hours). I usually lost because one of them would say something to make me laugh uncontrollably and cause me to lose my balance and fall off. Anyhow, that's a long explanation of why there's a log on the inside of the card.

After I made this card, I decided it would be more fun if this little girl had a few friends. So I made two more cards. Each hand colored with Copic markers... yes, this project took me several hours.

Front

Inside

Here are the mini girl and boy stamp and die sets from Art Impressions. Aren't they cute? I'm going to make a card with the little boy image (eventually).

The design of this card was inspired by this week's My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge (#221). I used the MFT Blueprints #14 scalloped die for the top border. The template looks like this:

Materials:

White card base: 4.25"W x 11"H, scored at 5.5" mark
Patterned paper: 4"W x 5.25"H (Echo Park Paper)
Scalloped border at the top: MFT Blueprints #14, partial die-cut using scalloped border
Square frames: Sizzix Square Flip-its dies
Stamped Images:

Little girl (Art Impressions - Mini Girl and Boy Stamp Sets)
Birds (Lawn Fawn - Let's Play)
Sentiments (Lawn Fawn - Let's Play and Milk and Cookies)
Log (Lawn Fawn - Joy to the Woods)

Copic Markers (many different colors... if you want to know the details, feel free to email me)
Pearl Embellishments (Queen & Co)
Corner Punch
Adhesive (tape runner, foam adhesive)
Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Directions:

Stamp all the images using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. This is the best ink pad to use with Copic Markers. It doesn't react to the alcohol in the marker.
Color all the images with Copic Markers
Die cut or fussy cut the images
Die cut a window on the front of the white card base and in the patterned paper
Glue the scalloped border to the top of the patterned paper. Add a tiny strip across the top for an accent. Round the upper left and lower left corners with a corner rounder or scissors.
Add three pearl embellishments to the top.
Glue the frames on the front and inside of the card.
Add the sentiment and birds to the bottom.
Use foam adhesive to attach the girl's head to the back image.
Place her on top of the log.