All Kinds of Embossing

This card was inspired by the Tuesday With the Team: A Watercolour Card post on the Canadian Scrapbooker Blog this week. I loved the look of the card on that post and decided to try to recreate it with my own twists. I love the watercolour technique used for the focal point on the card and I had a new stamp that I thought would work perfect for it.

I cut a 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 piece of Watercolour Paper and stamped it with the flower from the Best Thoughts stamp set using VersaMark. I then sprinkled it with White Emboss Powder and set the powder with my Heat Tool. It's hard to see the image on the paper but it's there.

Then I used a paint brush, water, and ink pads to colour the image. I squeezed my ink pads before opening them to get a little ink on the inside cover and then used my paint brush to mix a bit of water in with the ink to use to watercolour. Someday I'm hoping to get the Aqua Painters for this, but my paint brush works for now. I used two of the 2014-2016 In Colours, Mossy Meadow and Lost Lagoon, and two of the 2015-2017 In Colours, Watermelon Wonder and Delightful Dijon.

I cut a 8 x 5 1/2 piece of Watermelon Wonder card stock and scored it at 4 1/4 to make a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 card base. I stamped a greeting from the Best Thoughts stamp set onto the card front using VersaMark. I then sprinkled it with White Emboss Powder and set the powder with my Heat Tool.

Then I embossed the card front with the Lovely Lace Embossing folder using my Big Shot. I stamped and heat embossed the greeting before using the embossing folder because it would have been harder to get a clean, clear stamp and heat embossing on top of the textured surface created by the embossing folder.

Before adhering the watercolour piece to the card, I ran all of the outer edges of the piece over the VersaMark ink pad and then dipped each edge in the White Emboss Powder and set the powder with my Heat Tool. This gave the piece a nice finishing edge all the way around. I adhered the watercolour piece to the card front with Stampin' Dimensionals.

The Best Thoughts stamp set I used on this card is one of five special stamp sets that are exclusively available for purchase by those that host a Stampin' Up! party. You can see all five of the Exclusive stamp sets on pages 179-181 of the 2015-2016 Annual Catalogue.

If you would like to host a party and become eligible to purchase either one of these beautiful sets, let me know and we'll set up a party. All you have to do is invite your friends and provide a snack. I'll do the rest. We could even make this card at your party. I'd love to hear from you.

New Embossing Folder Technique

I was browsing pinterest and came across a pin from Robin's Craft Room's New Stamps 1: Circle of Spring post. She had layered some card stock and then embossed all the layers at once. This was a new idea to me and I had to try it. I used her card design as inspiration, but I did change it up a little.

I cut a 4 x 5 1/4 piece of Whisper White card stock, a 1 x 3 1/2 piece of Watermelon Wonder, a 1 x 3 1/4 piece of Delightful Dijon, and a 1 x 3 piece of Mint Macaron. I adhered the coloured strips on the Whisper White and stamped a greeting from the Sprinkles of Life stamp set with Tip Top Taupe.

I then used the Zig Zag TIEF (Textured Impressions Embossing Folder) and the Big Shot to embossed the whole thing.

Next I used the new Tree Punch to add some decoration. When I first got this punch I was a little frustrated with the thought that you had to punch everything out of the one piece of paper at the same time. I knew I would want to punch the different items with different colours and I thought it was very wasteful to punch the whole thing out of each colour. I played with it a bit and figured out earlier that you could cut little strips of paper to punch just the part of the punch that I wanted in whatever colour I wanted without having to punch the whole thing. I put a note on my punch so that I would remember what size strip I needed for each item. You still get some waste but it's not too bad.

I cut a 1 inch strip of Tip Top Taupe and stamped the tree trunk from the Tree Punch with Tip Top Taupe on the strip before placing it in the punch to punch it out.

I cut a 1 1/2 inch strip of Cucumber Crush and stamped the tree leaves using the Cucumber Crush before punching it out.

I used part of the 1 inch strip of Watermelon Wonder that I had cut earlier and stamped the flower a couple of times using Watermelon Wonder before punching them out.

I adhered the tree and flowers and added tiny pearls to the flower centers before adhering the piece to a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 card base.

The Sprinkles of Life stamp set is extra special because for every set that is sold Stampin' Up! donates $3 to Ronald MacDonald House Charities.

The Fun Continues!

I love when people put their own creative touches on projects.  That's what I was trying to show in the above picture, but I really should have taken pictures showing the different sides of the bags to show all of the different creative touches. These are some of the creations from last night's Stampin' Up! Open House at the Glynmill Inn.

The bags were made using the new Gift Bag Punch board. They were stamped with stamps from the Bohemian Borders stamp set before being adhered together using Tear & Tape Adhesive. The little piece of Hello Honey card stock was embossed using the Big Shot and the Boho Chic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (TEIF). One of the stamps from the I Think You're Great stamp set was stamped onto whisper white cardstock using Watermelon Wonder ink and then the 2" Circle Punch was used to punch the image out before adhering it to the embossed piece.

Notice the bag missing the string? I forgot to add it to my bag. It was interesting to see how everyone else used their string slightly different.

It was another fun filled night, and I had a special guest - my little granddaughter Lucy. She looks like she's amazed at all the great stuff Stampin' Up! has.

Card for Grad - spread your wings and fly!

The focal point of this card was started while I sponged the colour onto the butterfly for the Ode to the Blue Morpho card pictured below. If you click on the coloured words in this paragraph you will go to the post about that card and see how the butterfly is brown when it's closed.

Just before I started sponging the butterfly for that card I had the idea that just maybe I could use the butterfly as a stencil while I was sponging it. So that's what I did.

I got a piece of whisper white card stock and laid the butterfly (which I had cut out using my Big Shot and one of the dies from the Butterfly thinlits dies) in the center of the piece of card stock.  I sponged one side of the butterfly with Tempting Turquoise. Then I turned the butterfly over and laid it out in the same spot and sponged that side with Baked Brown Sugar*. I actually turned it over a few time working on each side of the butterfly to get the look I wanted on the butterfly, making sure each time that I laid the butterfly out in the same spot so that I would get a nice stenciled look of the butterfly.

This is what it looked like when I was done. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I laid it aside knowing that I would do something with it eventually, and last night I had an idea.

I decided I wanted to piece to be 4 3/4 x 4 1/8. Using my Stampin' Trimmer, I scored, instead of cutting, where I wanted to trim it. Then I folded along those scored marks until it I could easily tear along them, giving it nice, soft edges.

Next I sponged more Tempting Turquoise and Baked Brown Sugar* to fill in the rest of the white that was showing around the edges.

I stamped the greetings using Memento and a stamp from the B.Y.O.P. stamp set. The stamp is actually one stamp but I masked off the bottom part of the stamp and inked only the top part to stamp the greeting and the top of the butterfly and then masked off the top part of the stamp and inked only the bottom part of the stamp to stamp the greeting at the bottom of the butterfly.

I cut a 5 x 4 1/8 piece of Baked Brown Sugar* card stock and adhered the finished piece onto it. Then I cut a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 piece of Tempting Turquoise card stock and adhered both piece to it, before adhering the whole thing to a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 whisper white card base.

*Baked Brown Sugar was one of the 2012-2015 In Colours and is no longer available for purchase, but I think Soft Suede ink and Soft Suede Card stock could be used for a similar look.

Ode to the Blue Morpho

Butterfly closed

The Blue Morpho

So bright and beautiful

when you are in flight,

but when you stop to rest

you disappear from sight

That's my lame attempt at an ode to the Blue Morpho.  I wanted to title this post Ode to the Blue Morpho so I felt the post should include a poem. That's the best I could come up with in a couple of minutes.

This card was inspired by the beautiful Blue Morpho butterfly, which we learned about at one of our favourite places to visit in the summer - the Butterfly House at the Newfoundland Insectarium. If you are ever in the area, you must go visit.

When we were visiting there a couple of years ago we were fascinated by these beautiful blue butterflies that were fluttering all around, but when we tried to get a sight of one pitched it was like it just disappeared. One of the employees explained to us that this is because one side of the butterfly's wings has this beautiful blue colour, but on the other side it is a molted brown colour. You can only see the blue when the butterfly is flying, because when it pitches it closes up its wings, showing only the molted brown side of the wings.

When I was making the butterfly decoration/stands that I shared in yesterday's post, I had to fold in half the butterflies that I cut using my Big Shot and the Butterfly Thinlits Dies. I really liked the look of the butterflies folded in half and decided I wanted to incorporate a folded butterfly into a card.

When I was playing with that idea I thought about the Blue Morpho and decided to attempt to make a butterfly similar to the Blue Morpho, brown on the outside, and blue inside. I cut the butterfly out of whisper white cardstock, laid it flat on a paper towel and sponged one side of it with Baked Brown Sugar and then flipped it over and sponged the other side of it with Tempting Turquoise. Then I went along the edges of the butterfly with my Early Espresso Stampin' Write Marker and coloured the body of the butterfly on both sides with the same colour.

I folded the butterfly in half and adhered just one wing to the card front, allowing the other wing to flap freely.

Butterfly Open

I would put this card in an envelope with the butterfly closed and then allow the butterfly to flap open when the card is taken out of the envelope.

The patterned paper on the card front is actually a piece that I made a while back when I was making the Flowers and Butterflies for a Card Swap. You will find directions on how I made it on the blog post linked in this paragraph. I made one more card front than I needed at that time so I tucked the extra one away to use another time, and I thought it worked perfectly for this card. I simply adhered the piece to a whisper white card base.

Fluttering Butterflies Birthday Card

So, it didn't come out quite like I had it pictured it my head, but it's not too bad. Don't forget to check out the video at the bottom to see the butterflies flutter out of the card when you open it.

While browsing recently I came across the Floating Butterflies Video and I just had to try it. I didn't have some of the supplies she used in the video so I improvised.

I made a card base by scoring an 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 piece of Calypso Coral at 4 1/4.  I used my Big Shot and the 3 3/16 die from the Circles Collection Framelits to cut a hole in the card front.

I used my Texture Boutique and the Lovely Lace embossing folder to give texture to the card front.

I used my Big Shot and the 3 5/8" die from the Circles Collection Framelits to cut 2 circles out of a Window Sheet. I adhered one of this circles to the inside of the cut out circle shape in the card front.

The other window sheet circle I cut spirally.

I cut a 5 1/4 x 4 sheet of Best Year Ever DSP (a Sale-a-Bration item which is no longer available for purchase) and adhered it to the inside of the card base.

Sadly, I didn't take pictures of the rest of the process, so I just have to try to describe it to you.

I stamped a greeting inside using Baked Brown Sugar and one of the stamps from the Butterfly Basics stamp set.

I stamped the outside greeting on a 1 x 3 piece of whisper white cardstock using Coastal Cabana and one of the stamps from the Butterfly Basics stamp set. I made a mat for it out of a 1 1/4 x 3 1/4 piece of Crushed Curry. I rounded the corners of both pieces using the corner rounder on my Envelope Punch Board before adhering to two together then adhering them to the cardfront.

I put a glue dot, actually two glue dots, on the outside end of the spiral and adhered it to the outside edge of the back of the front of the card. Sounds confusing.  I had to stop typing and go take a picture of the finished card to show you what I mean.

Then I lay the spiral flat on the card front and put a glue dot right in the center of it before closing the card so that the center stuck to the patterned paper inside the card.  I wish I had taken a picture to show you, and it kind of hard to see it with the card all put together. If you watch the video I linked above you will understand.

I used my Big Shot and the smallest butterfly die from the Butterfly Thinlits to cut butterflies out of the Best Year Ever DSP.

I used glue dots to adhere the butterflies at different points along the spiral cut window sheet that was adhered to the card. When you open the card, the butterflies appear to fly.

I adhered one of the butterflies to the front of the card.

Here's a video showing how it looks opening up.

It's late...

...and I'm only just now starting to play. I have an idea in my mind, but who knows how it will turn out. Stay tuned!

Black and White Shadow Box Card

Black is my favourite colour. I know, I know, some of you are cringing because black is not an actual colour. I don't care. It's my favourite colour, so there! :-)

A few days ago while browsing the SplitcoastStampers gallery, some black and white cards by GeekGirl101 caught my eye and I just had to do a black and white card. It is destined to be the first of many.

The card base was made by cutting a 4x8 piece of black cardstock and scoring at 4 to make a 4x4 cardbase. The black frame I made using my Stampin' Trimmer, but it would have been much easier to make if I had the Squares Collection Framelits Dies. It is a 3 1/2" frame with a 2 1/2" opening. The white mat is a 2 1/2" square.

The sentiment was stamped with a stamp from the Good Greetings hostess set from 2014 using Memento Ink. Unfortunately this stamp set is no longer available for purchase.

The leaves and big flower were cut using dies from the Secret Garden Framelits dies, which are no longer available for purchase, but the little flower was cut using a die from the Wonderful Wreath Framelits Dies.

I added some shape to the flowers and leaves using the paper-piercing tool and the Stampin' Pierce Mat.

I used dimensionals to pop the frame and the 2-Way Glue Pen used to adhere everything else.

The final touch was the Rhinestones.

Card Inspired by a Shirt

I grabbed a few minutes today before cooking supper to make this card, copying the design on this shirt belonging to my granddaugther.

Yesterday, well late last night (in a post titled No Finished Product, But Inspired by a Shirt Design) I shared how I used my Big Shot and Butterflies Thinlits Dies to make stencils and experimented with filling in the stencils with different stamps. I still haven't used the materials I shared in that post on cards yet, but I got to thinking that just maybe the stamps in the Butterfly Basics stamp set would work, so I experimented. They worked! Here's some of the experimenting I did. 

I used stamps from the Butterfly Basics stamp set for three of the butterflies on the card.

Oops! Looks like I forgot to take a picture after I stamped the butterfly with Pumpkin Pie and the honeycomb stamp from the Basic Butterflies stamp set. It's probably because I was frustrated because I had made a smear on the card with the blue. I'll tell you more about that in a bit. 

For the last butterfly I decided to sponge the ink in the stencil for the last butterfly, to mimic the full coloured butterfly on the shirt.

Next I stamped the greeting.

Okay, back to the smear.  Notice how the stamp pads are placed strategically in the same spot in each of the photos after I stamped with the blue? That's to cover up the lovely smear of blue ink I somehow managed to place there. I was so frustrated with myself! And I even had another little smear of blue where I stamped the greeting. I was tempted to throw the card out, but then I had an idea! 

I decided to make the smear part of the design of the card. I dabbed a corner of a clear block in each of the colours and then touched them to the edges all around the card. Then I dabbed my finger on each of the colours and touched my finger lightly to the card here and there. 

I have to say, I think it added to the card. It was kind of plain before I did that. I'm still thinking it needs a little something so I may add something to it yet.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

No Finished Product, but Inspired by a Shirt Design

Yesterday I was inspired by a shirt my little granddaughter was wearing. Here's a picture of it -

Isn't it cute? I decided to try to make some similar butterflies with my stamping supplies.

I used my Big Shot, some copy paper, and my Butterflies Thinlits Dies to make stencils.

I adhered the stencil I wanted to use to a piece of cardstock. I used sticky tack to adhere it.

In the picture below I am using a stamp from the All Shook Up Paper Pumpkin Kit to fill in the stencil. The picture at the top of this post shows the end result when the stencil was removed. I think it turned out pretty good. What do you think?

As you can see in the picture above, I had tried a different colour ink and a different stamp earlier.  Here's how that turned out.

I wasn't crazy about the end result in this one. I thought a more uniform stamp would work better, so that's when I tried the stamp above. I liked how it turned out in the top one better than this one.

Then I tried it again with a stamp from the Layers of Gratitude Paper Pumpkin kit. 

I think this one turned out pretty good too, but my favourite so far is the one at the top of this post.

I have more ideas for playing with this idea yet, but no time to play. Hopefully it won't be too long before I'm able to complete a project from this inspiration.

For now, I'm still pouring over the 2015-2016 Annual Stampin' Up! Catalogue, which will go live June 2. Tomorrow, however, Stampin' Up! demonstrators can place a preorder. I'm making my list and checking it twice.  :-) I'm really hoping to get my hands on some of the great stuff a.s.a.p.