I spy... a retro birthday card

Who doesn't remember hours of fun with these amazing 3-D viewers? I loved to watch Flinstones cartoons as well as learn about national parks through my viewfinder. It was amazing magic. And then I grew up. I now see how it works. But, you know what? I still find it magical, I love to share the magic with my own kiddos, even with a new style viewfinder that will project the image.
Great cards are specific to the recipient, and with this one it works well with grown up kids looking for a smile. I love retro items that bring back marvelous memories.

Celebrate You Card.

Start with red cardstock in the following sizes:

11x3.5; 5.5x3.5; 2.25x3.5

Score the largest piece at 5 3/8th and at 5 5/8.
Score the smallest piece at every 1/8.
Set the medium size aside for later.

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Once you have scored the small piece you will cut it in half (1). Using a straight edge to draw (on the back) from the left corners to the third score from the top and bottom (2). This will be your cut line.




On the large piece you will want to center a large notch. If you have a large circle punch you can simply punch into the card using about one third of your punch. I used a handy small jar to draw my partial circle and cut by hand (3).

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  You will need two plain photo wheels. On the second one you will glue the spokes as well as a smidge of glue in the middle. Attach it to the other with the glued spokes showing through (4). This will allow you to get your squares in place. I used a red polka dot and cut out a third wheel. Setting aside the wheel portion for another project I places the squares on top of the glued 'spokes' (5). I then stamped celebrate you in the squares using Impression Obsessions distressed alphabet (6).      

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The penny spinner is a fun trick I like to use in both card making and scrapbooking. It works perfectly for this particular card! You will want to center your wheel, using the hole in the middle of the wheel mark your perfect placement. Cut a hole here that is just the right size for a pop dot to peek through (7). Place your wheel upside down and lay the card over so the pop dot pokes through (8). Now you will add the penny to the pop dot (9).

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Lets work on the fake clicker now. I used a 1x5/16 piece of silver cardstock and a 1 3/4x1/2 piece of black. I simply folded the black over the silver (10). I am sure a supreme card maker would make it all move using the clicker, but for now we will just have this stationary one for looks.

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I was lucky to recently acquire these fantastic Circle Of Friendship stamps by Stampin' Up! which included a birthday saying. I stamped those on white cardstock and using 1" circle punch (upside down for perfect placement) I punched out my viewfinder 'eyes'.Glue them on the angled eye piece (11). Again, a true pro would probably have the perfect size punch and make windows to view the wheel, however, I am perfectly happy with this.

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I added pop dots to the four corners, and went ahead and tucked my clicker under the upper right hand pop dot (12). Close the card, pressing those corners to be sure they are stuck.
Next, I used pop dots to pop up those angled pieces with the 'eye' (13). You can see I considered punching the hole in the angled piece, I just didn't have a good small circle punch.

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Now you will use that extra panel of red to cover the penny on the back (14). This also give you a nice clean surface to write your message for the recipient! 

Spring Into Strawberries

I'm tired of winter, you think all this 'stuff' will get done because you are trapped inside, but the truth is it's cold, you're mildly depressed, and you just want to eat. Any creative spirit is used up in the kitchen coming up with new comfort foods, and any energy is used up cleaning up after cabin fevered kids. You don't even read as much as you think you will, because your brain has shut down due to the grayness of the world. So, yeah. I am ready for spring. The sun has woken my spirit, and the rain has stirred strawberry girl in me.

I made this card using a card sizzix that is shaped like, yes, that is a strawberry. I colored a lovely image of a strawberry girl from Mosdigitalpencil.com who I adore. Stamped some strawberry themed add-ons from Unity Stamps, and added bling from Prima. 

Not too complicated, but I am a simple girl. I thought let's just plug right in and get started. What you might hope to learn from this card is how to color a stamp, using artist pencils, mineral spirits, and blending stubs. 

First you must color in-line, using the stamp as your guide, you will follow the lines with your color of choice, do not fill in. Color only along the inside line. It does help to do one color at a time, finish the process and then move onto the next color. I also prefer to start with skin and then move to darker colors, mainly because I will re-visit the skin. So, you have in-lined the skin portions with some shade of human color. (I like to store my mineral spirits in a jar that is stuffed with a natural sponge, this way a can dip the tip of the blending stubb easily without over saturation) Take you clean blending stubb and moisten the tip with mineral spirits. Working in circles pull the color from your in-line into the image. Lighter areas will occur centered, which is a natural lighting affect, if you were an artist. Using a fine sand paper sharpen/clean your stubb between colors. While coloring the skirt I used excess color on the stubb to blush her cheeks. you can also do an eyeshadow affect this way. When you master this you will start to blend colors right there on your image.