Making a “Me” Card with Cathie Allan

Hi Everybody, Cathie Allan here today to share with you a card I made for myself. Yes …. for me! I love making these types of cards because it allows me to get my photos off of my phone or my computer and share them by displaying some of my favorites in my home. I make cards like this all year but most of them “go away” to a new home as I am always creating them for someone’s birthday, graduation, wedding etc. How I love creating one of a kind, very personal cards … I tend to always add photos in my cards …. for my special peeps but today …. that special peep is “me”. This “Me card” focuses on some amazing photos sent to me of my youngest “Grandhandsome son” Max. They simply could not just be on my phone …. they needed to be out and about so I could see them every day.

I decided to use a 6X6 card format for my “me card”. This size gives me enough “real estate” so I can add those decorative possibilities and yet leave me lots of room on my shelf or mantel for more “me cards”.

The background was created with a stencil that I made myself with a set of dies and of course, my “Art Impressions” stamps were perfect to embellish these photos. I am sharing “a coloring technique” that marries my markers, pigment stamp pads, and pigment re-inkers together. After cutting out the individual letters for “Falling In” with Art Impressions, “Block Letter Die Set”, I base colored with my pigmented marker and then using a tiny blending brush I shaded with my Versamark, cardinal pigment ink. Let your markers play together on your projects. You will love the result! You can even use this idea on detailed images if you have some “disposable eyeliner brushes”. As per the photo, I colored the “love text” in the very cute teddy bear, stamped image from the Art Impressions, “Valentine Bear Set” with my pigmented marker. Then, after placing a bead of pigment re-inker on my pigment pad I was able to pick up the shading color and apply and shade the image using one of my disposable eyeliner brushes.

I am sure you noticed that I have a pigment pad “Cardinal” from Versamark and the bead of ink that I placed on the pad was from my “Colorbox” re-inker for Chianti (this was a very close match, close is good, lol). I did this because Versa color pigment pads can be re-re-inked with my “old, Colorbox” re-inkers & vice versa (color match as close as you can) as Tsukineko manufactures both of these amazing products and of course, unfortunately we no longer have Colorbox products. You can also base color your image with your pigment ink & again using the disposable eyeliner brush to apply the color to the teddy bear and then shade with your marker. The pigment ink will create a surface where the marker color will stay “open” long enough that you can shade ever so effortlessly with. Practice this on some scrap pieces of your “Super Stock” to get the feel for this. Creative Scrapbooker Super Stock is the cardstock of my choice for “Oh” so many reasons” …. 130 lb, white matte cardstock, that simply will take all the altering I through at it and come back for more. You can also work on both sides of this cardstock which as in most cases what I do on one side does not affect the other. My completed “me card” is now visually entertaining me each and every day. I love that I get to look at “little Max’s” happy face each and every day! So, take an afternoon for you and create a bevy of cards to share with your favorite people.
Grab a coffee and watch me create this gorgeous background!!!! I am practicing do live videos! I hope you enjoy it!
CLICK HERE to watch!