Caly Person

Happy Friday!!!

I’m so excited to have a 3 day weekend!  My husband will be off for the first time in 2 weeks and I can’t tell you what a relief that is!  My kids are out of school for the summer and it has been a LONG week.  It only occurred to me two nights ago that I have not made any cards for leisure since Mother’s Day.  That’s how pre-occupied my mind has been!  I also picked up pointed pen calligraphy for the first time in a very long time time this week with every intent to practice the Copperplate script.  I’ve been hesitating for a while because there is so much involved.  So many different pen holders, inks, nibs, papers – it’s quite overwhelming.  I chose the wrong ink to start with and I struggled for hours the first evening I tried.  So I’ll say this – I HATE Higgins Calligraphy Ink (supposedly Higgins Eternal Ink is great though…I wouldn’t know at this point).

You can click on the images above to  enlarge – but I tried to write the letter a with the Higgins ink and struggled for a few hours before I decided to switch to a new ink.  I had tried three different nibs and they did not make a difference at all.  I do have an instagram account for my lettering if you’re interested in following.  The handle name is Calygraphy – clever, right?  😉

So about my cards.  I thought after a long hard week that I should make some encouragement cards.  Anyone else shop with Ellen Hutson?  I’m going to have to endorse this amazing company for a second…because they are AMAZING.  First of all – they are wonderful people who reward loyal customers.  I thoroughly enjoy using their 10% off discount to have an excuse to place an order monthly.  🙂 . To honor some special women in their lives, they created a stamp set to benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF).  It’s a beautiful set and $25 from each set sold goes to fund the BCRF.  What a wonderful cause, right?  It’s also a beautiful stamp set that comes with coordinating dies with some powerful sentiments.  You must see it for yourself – the link will be provided below in my supplies.

I stamped a lot of images.  I love layering stamps as well – they add lots of dimension with little effort.  These images are smaller so it’s nice to have coordinating dies.  I made lots of passes through my big shot to cut out all of them.

I need to start making more than one card when I pull out supplies to make a card. That’s what I did this time.  The color variation makes it fun.

I sponged some distress ink in the background to give the card some color and embossed the sentiment in clear powder using Versafine Onyx Black Ink.  The sequins finish off the card with a bit of shine.

Last week, I also made a graduation card for my neighbor – she graduated from Elementary school so I thought I would make a fun card using their school colors.  I used Lawn Fawn’s Smart Cookie stamp set and some punches to make a banner.   I got this idea straight from the Lawn Fawn website and cased it – I couldn’t come up with an original design!  Very basic but I made it fun for her by using a Mini Action Wobbles.

That’s all for today!  I hope you enjoyed my two cards!  Supplies for the Courage card will be listed below!  Have a wonderful weekend!

XOXO,

SUPPLIES:

*Disclaimer: I am not being paid by any company to promote their products. I make cards using stamp sets and materials which I love and I love to share. To view where these items can be purchased, click on the linked abbreviations below (SU for Stampin’ Up!, SSS for Simon Says Stamp, EH for Ellen Hutson, AMZN for Amazon, LF for Lawn Fawn, MFT for My Favorite Things, etc.).

EH Courage brcf	EH Courage Dies	SU Heat Tool	EK Success Powder Tool EH | SSS | AMZN
Versafine Onyx Black EH | SSS	WOW Clear Gloss Superfine SSS | AMZN	Pink Pirouette Ink	Blushing Bride Ink
Crisp Canteloupe Ink (Retired)	Flirty Flamingo Ink	Garden Green Ink	Old Olive Ink
Wild Wasabi Ink	Wisteria Wonder Ink	Perfect Plum Ink	Melon Mambo Ink
Rose Red Ink	Soft Sky Ink	Marina Mist Ink	ATG Gun EH | SSS | AMZN
MFT Wonky Stitched Rectangle STAX EH | SSS | MFT	Mini Multi Medium Matte Glue EH | SSS	MSP Mini MISTI EH | SSS | MSP	PPP Sparking Clear Confetti Mix EH | SSS | PPP
Flirty Flamingo Cardstock	Mint Macaron Cardstock	Neenah Solar White 80 lb EH | SSS	Recollections 110 lb