Caardvarks (mojolicious) SRM Stickers Challenge!

It is completely unnatural how much I love these SRM sticker sentiments...

...I'm sure you're hearing this all over the place, but seriously people!...they're fabulous. I just can't tell you how happy I am that I can take a break from stampin' those stinkin' sentiments! LOL. (I'm really bad at that.) ;o) I love the quality madly & I was quite surprised at how they give can give ideas for cards that can take you out of a wee mojo rut.

1... Caardvarks Challenge!
2...SMR stickers (enabler alert)
3...images used here (Hero Arts Digi & my birdies)
4...freebie: birdies digital image or for use as a photoshop brush
5...Fred She Said flowers (a brief how-to)
6...Altered MFT digi paper (how-to)

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This card is one of my crew cards
for the latest Caardvarks Challenge:

The new challenge at...

...is a very inclusive one (Just use stickers to
make a new project.) Hope you can play with us!

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The fab sponsor of this Caardvarks
challenge is SRM stickers...

Click to visit the yummy store



This sentiment "It's Your Day to Shine" is a sticker is from the SRM sticker set "Thinking of You" #51006. I've coloured it with Copic Markers (that works so well with these! I've also shaded underneath it with Copics & stitched with a row of blue-green beads under the sticker.

(I quite like this saying, because like so many of the SRM ones, it let's you cheat & use this as a wedding card, graduation, birthday, whatever shiny day the recipient has. LOL.

Last but not least (in the least)
The SRM Design Team blog
has THE most incredible projects on it here.

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The images are all digital...

A...the bird cages (one image from Hero Arts Your bird can sing (digital kit)-$2.00, man! I pasted 3 times: I used the plain bird cage from the set as a Photoshop brush & made three cages (one dark in the foreground & two in a small & medium size (and in light colours) in the background behind the dark cage in the foreground.

There's a sweet solid black bird that comes in one of the Hero Arts cage images, but I wanted the birdies to have some colour (and fly free of their cages to suit the sticker sentiment) so I used these,with the plain cage, instead:

B... the birds I doodled, scanned, & used as a photoshop brush--(Birdies are linked below here as a freebie, if you think you might like to use 'em.) I re-angled them... (You can see the originals in this older Caardvarks post) ...and turned them into Photoshop brushes. It's SO handy to learn how to use PS brushes since it means your images can be used at different sizes & paler or darker and in all colours...quickly too.

I printed the altered image & chalked it, then coloured the birds with Copic markers & Prismacolour Pencils. After colouring, I used a Quickie glue pen to add glitter to them.

PHOTOSHOP LINKS: (There's a great tutorial for how to make PS brushes here by Dani & I have a post here if you want ideas for Photoshop brushes & homemade digital paper etc.)
After pasting the birds over the cages, I erased the sections where the bird cage showed through. Suzanne shows you how to erase properly in PS in her amazing tutorial on how to alter digital images here. (I learned a great deal that I can't wait to practice. Thanks Suzanne!)

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(birds for use a digital image/Photoshop brush)

Click the photos to go download the PNGs
(OR if you'd like other formats, please just let me know in the comment
section & I'll add them for you.) :o)


download #1 Birdy PNG


download #2 Birdy PNG


Download #3 Birdy PNG

(Personal use only please & if you use them please link back here,
so I can see your creations. Thanks!) :o)

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how-to

The flowers are made by using Fred She Said's digital set Smelling Cherry Blossoms..

1) Paste many FSS flowers on a page & Print it out on 100# cardstock
2) Glue book paper on the back of that page (I used mod podge)
3) Paint the book paper thinly with white acrylic paint (no water)
4) Punching the round bits at the end of each cherry petal with small hole punches
5) Cut the flower out & shape it on a fun foam mat/mouse pad with a stylus
6) Stitch them on with beads & black thread
7) Make leaves from the scraps (Copics coloured & scored for veining)

They end up looking like old beat-up wallpaper. (Wait, is that a good thing?) ;o)

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how-to

The dotted paper (top of the card) is digital paper. I find making DIY paper is saving me money--saving me from being broke and from being bored by the same old papers, LOL. It's made by:

1...Opening MFT's Digital Paper Simply Spring Collection: Dots Gray Dots in Photoshop
2...Adding a fairly translucent layer of text (a photoshop brush of a scanned book)
3...Recolouring it (to have more yellow & green)
4...Printing on a light taupe cardstock (neenah classic crest 120# sawgrass/natural white)

The scallop-edged paper (bottom of the card) is store-bought & is from Creative Imaginations (it's Narratives #21891 Journal)

and there ya have it...

Click-able Blogger photos

• Hero Arts Your bird can sing (digital kit)
• Smelling Cherry Blossoms Digi flowers from Fred She Said
• MFT's Digital Paper Simply Spring Collection: Dots (Gray Dots)
• Birds (my freebie linked above)
• Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 100#
  
• Book pages, Mod Podge, White Acrylic Paint
• Seed Beads (and larger), Paper piercer, needle & black thread
• Hand-held Circle punches: 1/8 of an inch & 2/8 of an inch
  
• Ivory organza ribbon, Black & White dotted patterned paper
  
• Neenah classic crest 120# sawgrass/natural white
• Copic markers, Prismacolour Pencils, Chalks
• Sakura Quickie glue pen & glitter
• Creative Imaginations (Narratives #21891 Journal)

There's a tutorial for how to make
the mod podge
book page flowers here:

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