Monthly Archives: October 2014

Double Emboss

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I have a pile of cardstock stacked up for later. It consists of partial ideas or leftover pieces from other projects that in the end, weren’t needed. Sometimes I go through the pile to let my subconscious have something to noodle on. I was feeling a bit blocked on Saturday and my autumn card that I’m working on just wasn’t feeling right so I picked up the pile and this card just fell together. When I was making Matt’s congratulations card last month, I’d planned to start with the lucky stars embossing folder but in the end, went in another direction. I’d also silver heat embossed the sentiment on a scrap and that was sitting in the pile. I thought that I could pull out my brushed silver cardstock for the first time and create a mat for the sentiment and it would work on the embossed stars. And it did.

congratulations night of navy embossed stars

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ night of navy

Mat: 4″ by 5.25″ night of navy

Small mat: 4 5/8″ by 2 1/8″ brushed silver (the odd size was because I trimmed the card stock around the sentiment until it looked “right” and then added 1/4 inch for the mat)

Top layer: 4 3/8″ by 1 7/8″ night of navy

Stamp set: Bravo

Ink: Versamark

This is a fun and easy card to put together and, if you needed a load of congratulations cards, simple to mass produce. I cranked the large navy mat through the big shot in the lucky stars embossing folder. I love the embossing folders – the texture that they create is wonderful.  I then stamped the sentiment onto the smaller piece of navy in versamark, sprinkled over the silver embossing powder and used the heat gun. All that was left was assembling all of the layers – rather more layers than normal!

Popped up side benefit

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Last week I showed a simple birthday card with a stack of presents stamp and said that I could see other possibilities. Here’s one of those:

cool cats present pear pizzazz pop

This card was inspired by the fact that I’d managed to get inky fingers over the bottom of the white cardstock. I had borrowed this set from my upline to make the Pink Cats card (I saw the dentist for a check on my implant earlier this week and she said that she loved it – I’m so pleased) and really liked the stack of presents. So I stamped a number of them in various colours and also grabbed my Stampin’ Write markers and coloured the presents in mixed colours. This card started with the image coloured in pear pizzazz, rich razzleberry and tempting turquoise and stamped on whisper white card stock. I’m not sure when the inky fingerprints were introduced!

I roughly trimmed down the whisper white and grabbed cardstock in the three colours. It occurred to me to try an oval window over the presents after having a scrap with an oval cutout accidentally sitting on top of the pile of cardstock stamped with these presents. I felt that the tempting turquoise was just too loud so settled on pear pizzazz on top of the rich razzleberry base. I used edge pieces from the stampin’ dimensionals to “pop up” the pear pizzazz piece but before adhering that, I used my fake white embossing powder (my real Stampin’ Up! white embossing powder is due to be delivered on Tuesday) for the sentiment. I ran the envelope liner framelits and the rich razzleberry backgrounds dsp through the big shot and attached the liner to the envelope using my snail adhesive. I just put the snail around  the top and side edges above the crease which seems to work well. It’s best to pre-score the liner.

Details:

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ rich razzleberry card stock

Mat: 4: by 5.25″ pear pizzazz

Stamp set: Cool cat (retired), Four You

Ink: Versamark

Other: pear pizzazz, rich razzleberry and tempting turquoise stampin’ write markers.

Santa and blendies

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Yet another cute Christmas card! This is a good card to make when you want to relax – stamping the image and then colouring in using the blendabilities is an excellent way to chill out.

Stampin' Up! Get Your Santa On

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ cherry cobbler

2.75″ by 2.25″ basic black

2.5″ by 2″ whisper white

Stamp set: Get your santa on

Ink: Memento black ink

Other: cherry cobbler blendabilities

This is another clean and simple card that is easy to happily mass produce. Just stamp the image from the Get Your Santa On set in memento black ink onto the whisper white cardstock and colour away with the blendabilities. Remember to start with the darkest pen and work to the lightest, going over the previous colour with the lighter one to blend. The back of your card should show that the ink leaks through so don’t do this on top of your grandmother’s prize lace tablecloth (no, I didn’t). On the earlier card that I did with this set, I coloured in santa’s boots – I’ve decided that I like them better left alone. Adhering all the layers together and using the trim the tree stack to line the envelope finishes this off. You can just see the envelope lining paper if you look carefully at the photo!

Snowy white Christmas

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I don’t mean to create panic, but Christmas is in 12 weeks. Normally this wouldn’t even enter my mind at this point, but if you’re planning to make Christmas cards – and enjoy the process – you can’t start too late. Not if you’re like my sister who needs to send 90 cards…

So without further ado, here’s another card using the White Christmas set.

white christmas snowman

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ whisper white

Mat: 4″ by 5.25″ cherry cobbler

Top layer: 3.75″ by 5″ whisper white

Stamp set: White Christmas

Other: sponges, 2 way glue pen, dazzling diamonds glitter

Ink: Memento black ink, pool party, pumpkin pie stampin’ write marker, cherry cobbler blendabilities

This was a lot of fun to put together – I really like this set. I used the mask I’d made a couple of weeks ago (although it’s not really necessary) and dabbed some pool party onto the upper part of the card. Then, after removing the mask I stamped the trees from the stamp set and then the bird and snowman in memento black ink. I like that the snowman appears to be looking at the bird! I decided that the bird was a robin, so gave him a red breast with the blendatility markers as well as colouring in the hat and scarf. The snowman obviously needed a carrot nose so I grabbed my pumpkin pie marker and sorted that out. The glitter doesn’t show brilliantly in the photograph, but if you look closely you’ll see that I ran my 2 way glue pen along the hill and on the branches before sprinkling the card with the dazzling diamonds glitter. After adhering the top layer to the mat and the card itself, I lined the outside flap of the envelope with paper from the trim the tree stack. This was easy – I used the tombow glue to stick on the paper and then trimmed off the excess with the paper snips. I think the envelope looks quite Christmassy!

 

 

 

Sponged lovely trees

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Eimear, my sister’s upline found a variant of this card online. I had the stamp set, the colours and sponges so thought I’d give it a whirl. It’s a completely different sort of card for me!

lovely as a tree sunset

I tried it out first on computer paper and then moved onto whisper white card stock. My first attempt wasn’t too great because I’d made a mask for the horizon and also of the trees (unnecessary) and forgot to remove the mask when stamping. Rookie mistake! Of course when I tried to stamp the trees again, it wasn’t perfect, even using the stampamajig. So I had to start again. This time, it occurred to me that the sky isn’t a single colour and my first attempt had been fairly monochromatic. So I purposely had streaks of different colours on this one – I think it’s rather effective.

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ always artichoke

Top layer: 4″ by 5.25″ very vanilla

Stamp set: Lovely as a tree

Inks: always artichoke. daffodil delight, pumpkin pie, real red and cherry cobbler

Other: 2″ circle punch, sponges

Firstly I stamped the trees on a piece of scrap paper and then drew a horizon line onto it. I snipped along this line and saved both pieces of paper.  Then I punched out a 2″ circle out of another scrap. I put the bottom mask onto a piece of very vanilla and started sponging in daffodil delight. I put the 2 inch circle in place  ( I think it’s most effective if it’s partially below the horizon) and then sponged some pumpkin pie, cherry cobbler and real red ensuring that the sky wasn’t a single colour. After removing the sun’s mask I carefully sponged wisps of colour over the top to give the impression of clouds. Next I put in place the upper mask and sponged always artichoke onto the bottom portion of the card – perhaps if I had the neutrals inks I could’ve added some soft suede or another brown for contrast. I’ll get them next month! Finally I stamped the trees onto the card and mounted it onto an always artichoke base. I really like how this came out – especially as it’s such a different sort of card for me. I see a lot more sponging in my future.