SURPRISE!

Yes, here I am, appearing out of the crafting void. Life has been keeping me busy doing things other than stamping and cardmaking, but I had to make cards for the holidays!


Here's what I made for this year's holiday card exchange (at an author fan site of which I've been a long-time member):

Since I knew that I'd be making a bunch of cards, about forty, I tried to keep it simple. HA! Never works out that way. I just had to keep embellishing and adding small touches here and there. I do like how this turned out though.


So I started with precut and prefolded cards from Michael's Recollections line, conveniently already on clearance. The snowman was made using a Sizzix Bigz die and embossing folder combo (Snowman & Hat)—make your die cut then run it through your machine of choice inside the embossing folder. Worked great! I'll just add in here that I used the Sizzix Vagabond machine for this part of the process and it made it extremely quick and easy. I even cut out the hat from black cardstock in the same pass. I just laid the white over the snowman and the small piece of black over the hat and ran it all through. The snowman was embellished with Glaze pens for the eyes and carrot nose and then a snowflake from the Martha Stewart line of punches. I added the silver hat band with a silver metallic marker and dabbed on a spot of Frosted Lace Stickles. Another Martha Stewart punch, this time a border punch, helped me create the plaid border. Martha's baker's twine formed the scarf. The final touch was a couple of spritzes of Perfect Pearls Perfect Pearl Mist. Love that added shimmer and snowy look! 


Happy Holidays!

Hello and enjoy...

Here are a couple of cards that I made before I was sidetracked by those new Cuttlebug folders.


To make this one I used Penny Black stamps and Memento inks. I made the decorative scores with my Scor-It.


I used the Scor-It and Scor-It ruler for the decorative scores on this card. I made the sentiment with the EK Success Paper Shapers medium square Punch & Stamp set. The wee bugs were punched using an EK Success punch and I embellished a bit with some Diamond Dust Stickles.

two more textured impressions cards

I made a couple more cards using the new Sizzix textured impressions embossing folders that I've talked about in a couple of previous posts. (Please note: these should not be confused with the Texturz texture plates or the Simple Impressions folders. These are different and are like the Cuttlebug embossing folders.) I just wanted to show more of the designs and again show how these folders will emboss an entire A2 size card front.

The background embossing of the above card was made using the A2 size folder of Wedding set 2. The sentiment is also an embossing folder from that set. The decorative borders were made using a Fiskars embossing border punch.

For this card I pulled out one of the Christmas sets. I thought this one could be a bit more winter than Christmas necessarily. Again, these snowflakes float over the whole card front. The image in the center was made using a smaller folder from that set. I accented the snowflakes in that image with Diamond Stickles. The sentiment is by Verve and stamped using Memento dye ink.

These embossing folders can make card-making a very fast process!

holiday ornaments

A few weeks ago I couldn't resist a clearance item that I'd found at Target--a bucket of thirty 2" diameter tins, the kind that are used for bridal or baby showers, for only $4.99. I didn't have a specific idea in mind at the time, but I knew that I could somehow fashion some ornaments out of these.

Here's what I came up with....


These are two of those tins. I'd embossed some sparkly cardstock using some holiday Cuttlebug folders, Winter House and Lace Tree. I cut 2" circles with my Martha Stewart circle cutter and then accented the snowy parts with Stickles in the ornament on the left and Liquid Pearls in the one on the right. The foreground image was made with the Martha Stewart train punch, and I added the smoke with a thin layer of Liquid Pearls.


This is a close up view. The sentiment is by Verve Stamps using Memento dye ink.


This is a close up of the second ornament. I attached the hanger by punching a couple of holes at the top with my Crop-a-dile. The embellishments are Primas and Brides flowers. The winter houses layer was popped out from the background using pop dots to give more of a 3D effect. Again, the train was made using Martha Stewart's train edge punch.

Had to play!

Got back from a week of vacationing and visiting family yesterday. I was thrilled to see that some of my Cuttlebug preorders had arrived while we were gone. Today I had to pull one of them out so that I could play a bit before tackling laundry, or heading to the grocery store, and that sort of thing. After all, I hadn't crafted all week!

Here are a couple of cards that I made using the new Friends Forever Cut and Emboss combo die and embossing folder.


The first thing that I noticed about this set is that the flowers are debossed, not embossed. Now usually that's not a big deal to me, but I really think that this would have been nicer embossed. I feel like that would have allowed me to do more with it. Yeah, I could flip it over and use the back, but of course that changes the layout--it's a mirror image--and it "feels" off as a card layout.

So, I tried a different approach. I ran Core'dinations cardstock through the folder instead. I used my sanding block to change the color of the non-debossed areas. Then I decided to try to add more "pop" to the flowers, and I ended up adding bling, Stickles, and Liquid Pearls. I finished by adding one of the die cut phrases from this set and embellishing with a small bow.

This next card was actually made with the first piece of paper that I'd put through inside the new embossing folder. I usually like the look of embossing on patterned paper, but the debossing seemed lost. This is patterned paper by Inque Boutique, by the way.


I ended up trying to bring out that debossed image a bit more, again. This time I used some EZ Tintz by FiberScraps. I applied it directly to my folder, gave it a very light misting of water, and closed the paper inside the folder to transfer some of the ink. It wasn't quite the look I'd been going for, but it was enough to add a little visual interest to the debossing. Again I added a phrase from the die that came with this set, and I distressed it with some Memento ink. I added the fibers for a bit more embellishment.

faux jewels

Before I go any further, I'd like to say that I didn't come up with this idea. This was a tip that was offered up on the Gingerwood stamping forum by Karen Lingel. I just thought it was a nifty idea and wanted to share what I did with it.

Here's how it works. You take a round paper punch and punch 1/4 inch circles out of adhesive holographic paper. You could do 1/8 inch circles or bigger ones, too. That's it! The holographic design makes it look like those 3D adhesive jewels that are so popular as card bling right now. The best part is that they're flat and won't require any extra padding or postage when mailing.

Here are some pics.


I used the clear gel glue and the Stickles to add some sparkle and dimension. I actually like them better plain, in retrospect. I used the blue holographic paper because that happened to be what I had on hand. I have the silver stuff somewhere, but I found this first.


This is just a close up of my first attempts at these. They're fun, but they could still use a little something. I decided that what was needed was some dimension. But how? I was pondering this last night when my eye landed on some packaging plastic that someone had left on the counter after opening something up. AHA! I guess sometimes it's a good thing that people don't always throw their trash away. Yeah, right. One time now it's been helpful. ;-)

So, this morning I did what any good crafter would do and rummaged through my trash for a nice pristine piece of transparent plastic. The one that I'd seen last night was mangled. I cut a piece and adhered the blue holographic strip to it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the back was.... silver!


That's the silver side showing through the plastic.


And here are the circles that I punched out using my Crop-a-Dile. I haven't tried this with a regular punch. A regular one might not add quite so much bend to the circles, or at least the bending might be more symmetrical. Don't know if it'd punch through the plastic though. They do flatten out with a little pressure using a stylus or bone folder. I hope you can see that they catch the light and do look like those little adhesive jewels.


They really are flat though. Here they are from a different angle.

And here's a card with them.


The stamps are by Inkadinkado and stamped using Memento dye ink. The embossing was done with the Floral Fantasy Cuttlebug A2 embossing folder. The flowers are Primas with Diamond Stickle centers. The bling below the sentiment are the faux jewels, silver side up.

I just love ideas like this. Something so simple to do, with items that a crafter probably has on hand already, and with a very practical application.

AHA! moment

Even though I've been playing around quite a bit with those Sizzix movers and shapers dies, I keep trying to think of different ways to use them. This evening I didn't so much come up with a different way to use them, but rather with a different set of stamps to use with them. It was an AHA! moment for me when it occurred to me that some of my Hero Arts Quatros, you know, the ones that have been gathering dust since clear stamps and unmounteds became more popular, would be great, particularly for the four-paned window die.


I made this card using cardstock and patterned paper by Autumn Leaves. I die cut the window and stamped flowers in the spaces using Adirondack pigment ink. I added the Primas with the Robin's Nest Dew Drops at the centers, adhered with Diamond Stickles. The sentiment is by Outlines Rubber Stamps.

Moving & Shaping with the Cuttlebug

Okay, I'd noticed that I was repeating myself when talking about the new Sizzix Movers & Shapers and the possibility of using them in the Cuttlebug. I put them to the test this morning. Here's the scoop--they work!

A card to prove it....


This card was made using the Sizzix Movers & Shapers horizontal A2 card kit and the four pane window add-on. I put these through the Cuttlebug. The images are all Hero Arts and stamped using Tsukineko Memento dye inks. The patterned paper is Basic Grey Sultry. The butterfly die cuts were made using Spellbinders dies. I embellished with Liquid Pearls and Diamond Stickles.

Here's the stack that worked for me.


From the bottom: plate B, card die with add-on in place, card stock, plate B. I ran this through window side first so that the add-on die would help hold my cardstock in place.


Here's how it looked after that first pass through the Cuttlebug.

Now I shifted the B plates to the other end of the card die, taking care not to move my cardstock since part of it has already been cut out.


Here's the other end just about to be run through the machine.


This is how it looks after making those two passes through the CB. That part near the fold was a little bent but flattened out with a little tinkering. I'm not sure if that's where an edge of a plate caught it or if the cardstock shifted a bit. That's a chance you take when you have to make two passes instead of one pass with those extra long clear cutting plates.


And there you can see what the folded card looks like.

Yes, if you look closely I've already done a little tinkering with my card die. I've marked the center of the metal plate that represents the cardfront so that I can see exactly where I'm placing my die. No crooked windows for me! ;-) Yeah, I'm going for foolproof again, as usual. Hey, this stuff is supposed to make my life easier, eh? Not more frustrating.

Okay, but what about the add-ons? They'll work, too, and by themselves without the card die, just like with the Big Shot.


In the photo above, you see two B plates, a Sizzix long clear plate, the flower add-on, and a scrap of purple cardstock.


And this is the stack that worked for me. From the bottom: plate B, plate B, lightweight chipboard shim, add-on die with cutting side up, cardstock, clear cutting plate--if you have an extra B plate, that would work in place of the long Sizzix clear plate that I used here. They're the same thickness. Depending on your machine, you'll need to experiment just a bit with shimming, and as usual, you'll want to start thin and gradually add shims so that you won't break your machine.

So, there you have it. The Sizzix Movers & Shapers can work with the Cuttlebug. :-)

Fun stuff!

I've been trying to fight off a particularly nasty cold for the last few days, so when I got up from a nap earlier I came down here and wanted to do something fun. I made a card. This card....


The stamped images are by Inkadinkado. The punching on the blue layer of card stock was made using the Fiskars read between the vines border and corner punch. I applied some diamond Stickles to some of the punched out pieces to add a little more embellishment. The window was made using the 4 pane window movers and shapers die from Sizzix.

As far as the window die, I used this without the big card die that I mentioned yesterday in my post about Movers and Shapers. What I ended up doing was using a stack as follows from the bottom up: two clear cutting plates, the die cutting side up, the card front on top of the die, another clear cutting plate, a lightweight chipboard shim. The extra cutting plate and the shim make up for the fact that the small dies are about 1/8" thinner than the regular Sizzix dies.

So, in answer to the question, can the smaller dies be used by themselves, yes, they can. This also means that they should be usable in the Cuttlebug or other manual die cutters. I'll add here that what I did was build my stack upside down, then flip it to place it on the platform of my Big Shot. That was the easiest way of making sure that I was putting the die where I wanted it to be. I admit it. I did try just guessing where on top of the die my card should go, and my window ended up way off. I blame that on my cold! ;-) So on my second try I took the top plate, put my open card on it, positioned the die cutting side down, and placed the other clear plate on that to make the sandwich. Then I deftly flipped that sandwich and put it on the clear plate that was already on my platform, added the shim, and rolled it through.

I'd also like to add here that I love the new border and corner punch! It works great and it's easy to make the turn at the corner to give a layer a nice finished look. The key is remembering that the cardstock or paper needs to be cut to a full inch increment, no fractions of an inch. That's how the design ends up looking continuous. So my blue layer in my card up above is 4" X 5", and the punched design makes a nice continuous border with the corners. Love it!

It was nice to craft for a while and forget about my cold. Now it's time for some chicken soup. :-)

Megabilities & scalloped A2 card edges

If you've followed blogs and posts about Spellbinders' Nestabilities dies, chances are that you've seen Nichole Heady's short tutorial on making a card with a scalloped edge. You can read that post if you click here.

What I did this morning was use the same technique, but with a rectangular scalloped Megabilities die, to cut scallops on the long edge of a full-size A2 card. This was kinda nifty because I know that some folks have mentioned that it would be great to have a simple scalloped border punch without the holes that you get with the Threading Waters border punch by Fiskars. If you happen to have this set of dies, you're all set!

I started out with my Big Shot, a 5 1/2" X 8 1/2" piece of cardstock, and the largest die of the smaller set of scalloped rectangle Megabilities dies.


I passed the card stock through the die so that only the leading edge would be cut.


I put the top cutting plate in place and got ready to run it through the machine.


Here's how it turned out.


I used this technique to make the following cards.


This first one was made with the card stock that was pictured in the example above. I embossed the card front with the Cuttlebug Stylized Flowers embossing folder. The images are by Inkadinkado and were stamped using the new Memento dye ink by Tsukineko. I colored the images with Prismacolor colored pencils and blended with the Goo Gone Mess-free pen. I then cut out, embossed, and layered that image using Nestabilities dies.


For this card I used the scalloped Megabilities dies to make my layers. The images are all by Pink Paislee and colored using Copic markers and a Copic blender. I added the sparkle with Diamond Stickles.

As far as the new Memento inks, they were definitely fast drying. I know that they're supposed to be good for detailed stamping, but they were perhaps still a bit juicy at this stage and bled a bit on the cardstock. I'd still opt for Versafine ink for when I want to be sure to pick up really fine details. The Memento ink did work well with the Copic markers and didn't bleed. I stamped using London Fog to make the lines a bit more subtle.

Painting with Alcohol Inks

I read something the other day about putting the blending solution for alcohol inks in a water brush. That was it though--just a suggestion for another way to use water brushes. Well, I thought it sounded interesting. I wondered how and why one might want to use the blending solution in a water brush. I use my alcohol inks for making polished stone backgrounds mostly. I might do an alcohol splash occasionally. Um, yes, I'm talking about a background technique. ;-) That's it though, and I didn't need a water brush for either of those. Naturally, I Googled to find out more.

Here's a tutorial that I found: Alcoholic Butterfly

I thought it was a neat look and wanted to give it a try. I have some solvent-based markers already, but I love the colors of the Ranger alcohol inks and the thought of being able to paint them on with a brush and maybe eliminating some of that streakiness or blotchiness that you can see with markers sometimes, particularly on transparency.

Here's how my card turned out:


I stamped the Inkadinkado images on the front of the transparency using Brilliance black ink and heat set it. I partially filled my water brush with blending solution, salvaged some plastic packaging to use as a palette, and placed a drop or two of each of the alcohol inks that I wanted to use on it. I painted away on the back of the transparency, then layered this on top of Basic Grey paper that I'd embossed using the Birds & Swirls Cuttlebug embossing folder. The sentiment is also by Inkadinkado. The flowers are Primas. A Robin's Nest dew drop is in the center.


I included a close up view of the dew drop because I attached this with a drop of Diamond Stickles rather than glue or a glue dot. It adds just a little subtle sparkle. I'll have to try this later, but using Diamond Stickles might also be a way to disguise those occasional dew drops, or the faux dew drops, that have a bubble in them. Hm, or it might make it worse. Dunno yet.

But as for this technique, I liked it! I love the vibrant colors of the alcohol inks, and I have a nice range of colors of those inks to choose from. When I do this again, and I will, I'll use one of my better water brushes. That would have made things so much easier. I had a few issues with too much blending solution leaking out at times--cheap brush, no valve. I figured that I was just experimenting, eh? But it was great to be able to go back and rework areas even after the ink had already dried, and it does dry quickly. The blending solution also gives a quick and easy way to get rid of ink that perhaps sneaked into areas it shouldn't have.

It's neat to learn new things. :-)

Purple - Wednesday Stamper

I'm late getting to this Wednesday Stamper challenge. The theme is Purple and any colors that go with it. I've made an ATC.


The background is polished stone. The stamp images are by Stampendous and Memory Box. I accented the bird in the background with some Diamond Stickles because I thought it was getting lost in the branches.

More spring happiness

I needed to make a card today that had bright, sunshine-y colors since it's gray here. Now at least it's not actually raining, but I still wanted to make something upbeat.


The border design was made using my Fiskars Lacy Days of Summer border punch. I just offset the two colors for a different effect. I also used the same border punch to accent the corners of that smaller layer. Dunno why it hadn't occurred to me to use my border punch that way before. It's an easy enough trick if you use the punch upside down so that you can see exactly where you're punching.

The images are by Rhonna Farrer/Autumn Leaves and were stamped using the Kaleidoscope Melon inkpad. I embellished the images and the punched borders with Diamond Stickles.

Happy Spring! :-)

More punch fun

I decided to make another card using the leftover Basic Grey Sultry cardstock pieces that I'd cut into the other day. I also wanted to use some new clear stamps and another Fiskars border punch that I hadn't tried out yet.


The stamps are by My Favorite Things. I colored the image with colored pencils. The border was made using the Give It a Swirl Fiskars border punch. I embellished with Brides flower confetti and accented the centers with Diamond Stickles.

A trio of Welsh barbers - DCM

I had to laugh when I read about the consternation of the design team on hearing what the theme would be on daring cardmakers. Hey, I wouldn't have had a clue, but apparently "a trio of Welsh barbers" is a way of saying, use three die cuts on your card this week.


Okay, there are actually four die cuts on my card. I used three from the Quickutz nesting flowers set to make my flower. The buckle is a Spellbinders ladies buckle die cut that I couldn't resist pulling out. I used patterned card stock for the flowers and craft copper for the buckle. The copper took the embossing nicely and is stiff enough that it doesn't lose its shape with handling. The flower stamp is by Hampton Arts. The other embellishments are Primas and Stickles.