Blank Card Sets
Sometimes as card designers, we get hung up on every card having a message or sentiment on the front. Then I was playing with some old, but beautiful, patterned paper, and I realized that these cards just didn’t need any message. They are just beautiful alone, in their simplicity.
I hope you agree. A simple frame was die cut, and the floral panel added to it and popped up on fun foam. Did you know fun foam now comes with adhesive backing! Loving it!
And after cutting 5 panels from the 12 x 12 sheet of patterned paper, there was enough left to decorate the envelope flaps, either on the inside or outside of the flaps.
Delightfully Detailed
If you haven’t seen this beautiful laser cut specialty paper and the watercolor note cards that coordinate with this suite, you need to check these out. When I first saw the specialty paper, I knew I had to have it. And many of the designs are meant to be cut and layered directly onto the Delightfully Detailed note cards that measure 3 1/2″ x 5″ used in these samples as the measurements are the same.
Any of the
designs will work perfectly as stencils too. So, you can ink a pattern onto one card with a brayer or sponge dauber (as I did in this A2 sample card on the left), and then use the inked specialty paper as a layer on another card base (note card shown to the right). I even made a couple of A2 size cards using this specialty paper, like the card below.
The laser cut patterns in these papers are so delicate that any woman would love to get a card made with this paper.
So that’s what I came up with my first day playing with these products.
Read MoreBeautiful You – Shadow Box Card
One thing I love about designing cards is combining older, and even retired, stamp sets with new ones. This is one such example, but then I also discovered a unique way to combine them. So after learning how to make a shadow box card at a recent stamp class, using the Colorful Seasons set, I decided that the Beautiful You stamp set just screamed to be made into a shadow box card. I might have paired it with Serene Scenery, if I had any of that paper stack left (alas, no) along with the retired Wetlands set, but finally decided Lovely As a Tree was my best option for creating a backdrop for this card. And since I was using this design for a class, I wanted to make sure to use current products.
At first, I considered masking the girl out of the background on the inside panel, so it would have looked like this inside.
But then I decided to fussy cut her and secure her to the inside of the front of the shadow box giving the whole project more perspective.
You will notice that while she is attached below the circle to the inside of the front panel, she is leaning to the front through the die-cut circle, and her head and limbs rest against the outside of the circle.
The front and rear pieces of card stock are cut to 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ and scored at 1/2″ and 1″ on each side. The front is thick white card stock and the back is Berry Burst. The inside panel is 3 1/4″ x 4″. The circle was die-cut with the next to the largest of the 4 circle nesting dies, 2 1/2″. All of the stamping is done in black ink. The girl was colored with Melon Mambo marker and the background was sponged with Soft Sky for the sky, Wild Wasabi for the grassy area and Marina Mist for the water. (For those of you wanting to see the shadow box card that sparked this design, here is the link to my upline’s blog where she shares the shadow box that she created.)
For the amount of card stock used for this project, it definitely provides a bigger WOW value that many of the multi-layered, heavily die-cut cards.
Some of the new stamp sets in this year’s Holiday Catalog are going to be perfect for creating future shadow box cards. Can’t wait to get my hands on them.
Read More
Scrap Cards
How good do you feel when the card you make for someone fits them so perfectly? Well, actually that was a rhetorical question. But, it makes you feel really good, right! Here’s a card I made in such a hurry that I couldn’t believe how well it turned out. I had a ton of 1″ square scraps left from making a bunch of note cards using the Serene Scenery paper stack from last year’s catalog, along with a badly stamped panel that I thought I might be able to use for an under layer. After pasting the scraps all together on that panel and then onto the card base, I ran it through an embossing folder on the Big Shot. And voila, after adding a circle greeting, I had the perfect card for my sister-in-law’s birthday, who just happens to be an excellent quilter. Sometimes those small scraps drive me nuts and I toss them out. Just happy I saved this bunch for the perfect scrap card.
Oh, So Succulent
Oh my gosh, what a versatile bundle! And to think I was going to pass on purchasing this at first.
Last night my sister hosted a large group of ladies for a craft night to make potted echeveria and cacti.
With such a large group of 13, we decided to do all of the die-cutting ahead of time and assemble the pieces into individual bags. We utilized the Succulent project kit from Stampin’Up! and cut another dozen sets from the dies. Then all they had to do was the little bit of stamping or sponging they wanted before assembling. The ladies all loved the project and had a blast! Of course, I’m sure the wine helped.
To spur their creativity beyond the night’s craft, I brought several samples of things I had done with this bundle, i.e. as a decoration on a wine bottle, a napkin ring and an echeveria garden. One they particularly liked was the little hostess gift I made for my sister. This little bag was CASE’d from a video tutorial from Lisa at www.lastamper.blogs.com and you can watch the video tutorial here.
Enjoy the photos!
Feather Frenzy
OK, I may have gone a bit overboard, but I could’t stop myself. There were so many design ideas I wanted to try with these feather stamp sets. So I just spent a couple days, playing, stamping, sponging, die-cutting, fussy cutting, heat embossing. My favorite, by far, is the copper heat embossed feather card. Love, love, love this embossing powder used in the last card (in case, you hadn’t noticed from an earlier post).
