Welcome to Valley Oak Paper
I design handmade greeting cards.
No Tricks
I started by stamping the two witches from Trinity Stamps Hocus Pocus Gnomes Stamp Set and coloring them with my Ohuhu Alcohol Markers. See the tables below for the markers I used. In addition to alcohol markers I used white and silver gel pens.
Then I cut out my witches with the coordinating dies.
A Monster Study in Teal
I’m still trying to reclaim Halloween tropes from the overdone, traditionally-discordant colors. Halloween cards can be tasteful, really! This time I picked cardstock in teal tones from my scraps. Once you’ve figured out which dies from the Scream & Sugar Die Set belong to Frankenstein’s Monster, it’s pretty straightforward to put together.
Dainty Ghost
I glued the first vellum piece to the back of the pattern paper slightly offset, so it looks fuller. Then I added a layer of Accent Opaque to the back for stability. Next I glued the second vellum piece offset in the other direction to the back. I finished up with the second Accent Opaque layer. The two layers of Accent Opaque provide some separation between the vellum layers. They also make the ghost super sturdy, which is important when you use an action wobbler.
Trinity July Haul
My haul from Trinity Stamp’s Birthday Sale. I went mostly for Baby and Halloween products this time.
Paradise Birthday
I’m stamping a pattern on vellum with the hexagonal stamps in the set. Stamping with white pigment ink and heat embossing in white gives a wonderfully crisp and fresh result.
Summer Lantern
I wanted to create a quick summer card with some of the supplies I got from Kat Scrappiness. The lantern shaker die is intended for Christmas cards. But with some ink blending I thought I could make it work for a summer night too.
Watercolor Envelope
To go with my wobbling reindeer card, I’m making an envelope. The envelope dies I use are by Trinity Stamps. It’s a big die set, but you only need three of the dies to create a regular A2 envelope.
Tea-riffic Birthday
This is the card I’m creating in today’s video. It has this fun, wobbling effect, created with an action wobbler. I’ll give you tips for helping your mug wobble better in this video. I’m also using Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Pencils to achieve a loose watercolor effect when coloring.
Jaycee’s Cards
I was going for a cyanotype effect and used Ranger Archival Ink in the color Cobalt. Archival ink on a firm linen ink pad is pretty easy to work with.
Shaped Shaker Card
Today’s card is a shaped shaker card, so I’m starting with the card base.
Single-layer gnome card
The adorable little gnome with her poinsettia is from Trinity Stamps’ From Our Gnome To Yours stamp and die set. Because it had to be a single-layer card, it took a couple of tries to get right.
Happy Lunar New Year
Here in Silicon Valley the Chinese New Year is celebrated almost as much as Valentine’s Day. Next year is the year of the dragon, so there are lots of dragon toys and dragon-shaped sweets in stores right now. The Lunar New Year is on February 10, 2024. Traditionally red and gold are associated with the Lunar New Year.
Trinity Stamps Birthday Witch
With the lunar eclipse happening on October 28, I thought a witch flying in front of an eclipsed moon was a fitting motif.
Halloween Gift Card Mugs
This is a quick and easy way to dress up gift cards for Halloween. The paper I used is scrapbook paper pad from Michael’s. I paired it with glitter paper in matching colors, also from Michaels.
Halloween Makes for Tomorrow
Tomorrow, Saturday October 7th, I’ll be at the De Anza Flea Market in booth O45. I hope to see you there! For this market I’ve changed my pricing structure to hopefully sell more. I’ll report back if it worked.