accenting with the Scor-It

If you've arrived via the Scor-it newsletter where I'm featured "In the Spotlight" this month, welcome! The following post is essentially what was linked in the newsletter. I decided to post it here as well since the photos here can be clicked on and enlarged and the effects of the scoring can be better appreciated, I think.

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Originally I purchased the Scor-it because of the great scores it would make for my card folds. I use it for a lot more than that these days. I like to use scores as accents on my cards, and I really enjoy using the Scor-it in combination with some of my other crafting tools.

One of my more recent crafting acquisitions has been the Slice by Making Memories. This small electronic die cutter is fun for card making and pairs up nicely with the Scor-it and the sorts of things that I like to do with it.

Pictured above is a tag that I cut with my Slice and scored with my Scor-it.

This is simply a piece of card stock that I scored with the idea of using it later as an accent on a card. The Scor-it ruler made it really easy to score this quickly.

Here is the card that I made with the tag. I'd applied glue to the raised score lines with my Essential Glue Pad and then dusted them with Pearl Ex. The sentiment and die cuts were also made using the Slice. The additional scoring on the green layer was made using the Scor-it.

On this card I used the scored card stock to add some visual interest behind the flowers and the sentiment. Again the die cuts and sentiment were made using the Slice. The stamped image is by Studio G. The embellishments are butterfly shaped Robin's Nest Dew Drops.

Here I combined an accordion fold that I made using the Scor-it with a sentiment that I'd made by cutting out the individual letters with the Slice. I thought it was a fun 3-D look. The flower embellishments are by Prima.

Now for a quickie tutorial. Sometimes I like to make pretty edging even more interesting to look at and to feel.

The above border was made using the Garden Trellis deep edge punch by Martha Stewart. It's gorgeous, but I wanted more! :-)

I decided to try adding a little texture to it by running my scoring tool along the junctions of the trellis.

Here's how it turned out. I liked the effect! Gave it a little more pop.

Here's how it looked when I turned the whole thing into a card. The sentiment is by Hero Arts. The decorative paper is by Autumn Leaves. The background floral stamps and the sentiment were stamped using Memento inks. The flower embellishments are Primas with copper half-pearl centers added.

This is a closer look at that decorative edge. I thought the scoring was a fun addition. :-)

I hope that this post serves as a reminder that there are lots of great crafting tools out there--they can look even better when used to complement each other. Score lines made using the Scor-it can look particularly good when used to embellish die cuts made using manual and electric die cutters. I hope I've shown that scores can add some pop to punched edges, too. It's fun to think about the possibilities. :-)

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Thanks to Tim Hammonds for asking me to be featured in his newsletter. I was happy to oblige because I do love to use the Scor-it board and ruler in my crafting. And no, I'm not being compensated for saying that--I'm just a happy customer/crafter. :-) If you aren't a Scor-it newsletter subscriber, it's easy to become one. Just click over to the Scor-it, or rather, the Scor-it-All site, as it's now named. The sign up form is on their homepage. There are lots of great ideas in the newsletters and on the site. And just an FYI, I just published another post that I'd held until the newsletter came out. It features another card made using the Scor-it in combination with a border punch, if you're interested in seeing another example. :-) I also recently added a page to this blog that contains links to the cards/tutorials/info about the Scor-it and Scor-it ruler here on IndigoInklings. The link can be found at the top of my blog page, just underneath the header image.

thinking of you, part one

Ahhh, the urge to make some cards came on earlier. I pulled out the Making Memories Slice machine since I recently got my hands on the Studio Expressions design card and I wanted to play with it a bit. I also used some of my old stand-by techniques.

For this card I took a scrap of designer card stock and ran it through my Big Shot inside the Stampin' Up!/Sizzix Finial Press textured impressions folder. I accented the embossing with some Tuxedo Black Memento dye ink applied direct to paper and then adhered the layer to my card front. I added the score lines to my card using my Scor-it. I cut the labels using my Slice and a selection from the Studio Essentials design card, layered them and then attached them with foam tape to pop them out a bit. The stamped image is by Studio G and stamped and colored using Memento inks.

Interestingly, I'd made a second card with a similar sentiment, only in French. Sheer coincidence! I didn't even realize it until later. But I'm going to hold off on posting that one for just a bit. It ties in with something else that I'd worked on this week. Don't want to say more about that for the moment though. :-)

Now it's about time to see how Team USA will fare in hockey. I should be able to catch the 1st period before heading out on the afternoon drive to school.

I'm ba-a-a-ck! :-)

I took an unplanned hiatus from blogging for the past several weeks. Life got busy and unfortunately crafting and blogging tend to be the first to head to the bottom of the to-do list. Thanks to those who have written to ask how things are going or to mention that they've haven't seen any new posts lately. It's nice to be missed. :-) I did a lot of catching up this past week and made time to do some card-making today. Felt good to get all crafty! :-)

Here are some of the cards that I made....


This first card was made using a couple of the large QuicKutz border embossing folders. The sentiment was added using the Joy border punch by Martha Stewart. The cardinal was also made using a punch by Martha Stewart then set off with dimensional adhesive. I also added a score line at the top so that the ornaments wouldn't just be floating on the card front.


I got on a roll using the border punches by Martha. Here's another card using the Frosty Village punch. I scored and folded a small "card" to attach to that A2 size blue cardstock that I'd embossed using the QuicKutz snowflakes folder. I punched out the border (both layers at once, actually) then added the stamped snowflakes and sentiment by Inkadinkado before attaching it to the blue layer.


Here's a card that I made in similar fashion to the one I just described. For this one I used some Cuttlebug embossing folder designs instead of stamping. The background is Winter Trees and the other Season's Greetings. (These were RAK'd to me, btw.)

For this last card I decided to add a bit of a twist. Okay. To be honest, I was going to follow the same design as with the other cards but use the evergreen trees edge punch in the background instead. Well, the frosty village ended up looking backward to me because of the way I'd punched it. Looked good when I folded it the other way. Hm. So, I decided that I'd try to go with that. I think it worked out. I added the stamped sentiment by Studio G to the bottom corner and attached it to the front of a card that I'd embossed using a Sizzix textured impressions folder. It was a nice change from the typical A2 card and a fun departure from the other two cards that I'd designed earlier. I love it when "mistakes" like that work out. :-)

That's it for now. Again, thanks to those of you who've written, and thanks to those of you who are still visiting and reading here despite my absence. I'm hoping that the holidays won't become so busy that I won't have at least some time for crafting and for blogging. :-)

scored beams of light using Scor-It & Scor-It ruler

I'm hooked on decorative scoring, as you might be able to tell. On the following two cards I've scored some diagonals that all started at the same point and then flared out. I was going to call them sunbeams, but that wouldn't have fit this card....


To me it seemed more appropriate for these fairies to be out and about in moonlight, so here they're moonbeams. These stamped images are all by Studio G and stamped using Memento dye inks.


This is more of a sunbeams kind of card, I think. I just didn't feel like using super bright and sunny colors though. The flower image is by Hampton Art and the sentiment is by Stampendous.

So, those are my beams of light cards that have been made using the big Scor-It and the Scor-It ruler accessory. I'm telling you--that extra ruler makes all the difference. And for those of you who read about my Scor-It's missing foot, the replacement arrived in the mail today. That was speedy! Thanks again to Tim Hammonds, President of HAMMONDSgroup, maker of the Scor-It, and thanks to Vivian who gave him the heads-up on my missing foot.

Martha Stewart continuous edge system

I've mentioned before that I have this weakness for crafting tools. I saw this online and was intrigued. It's called the Martha Stewart continuous edge system, and it's called this because a corner punch and a border punch with coordinating designs are supposed to, when used together, allow you to punch a continuous pattern around your paper or card stock.

Here they are. This set is called Loops, for obvious reasons. There was also a spider web set, a leaves set, and one other that was also clearly seasonal.... snowflakes, as I recall. I went with this one because I could use it anytime.

Now the first thing I noticed was that these weren't like the usual Martha Stewart punches. The packaging was smaller! That's because the punches themselves fold up in order to make them easier to store. Now that's kinda neat! They are certainly more compact this way.

I can see how these could take up less space than the usual border and corner punches.

Here's how they look as they're opened up. The right sides are fully open. The left sides are only partially open to give you an idea of how they work.

So, the packaging had instructions describing how to open up the punches for use, even though that was rather self-explanatory. There were no other instructions, and believe me, I looked. Now, I'll admit that I played, and I tried measuring and being analytical about the whole process. It was late though, so I quit and headed for the computer and some internet surfing instead.

You see, the problem is that the border punch needs to meet up with the corner punch properly at each corner, so you need specific measurements. Sure would have been nice to have had some included with the punch! I did find my answer online. Basically, the continuous edge system is supposed to be able to handle squares from ranging from 3 1/4", increasing in increments of 1 3/4", up to 12". I would imagine that if you had bigger paper than 12" you could keep right on going, but I guess they're figuring most of us would max out at 12" x 12".

So, okay then. I cut some Georgia Pacific card stock, and I decided to include rectangles since that's what I tend to use most. I figured that as long as I stuck to the prescribed sizes, I should be alright. This was one way to find out. The sizes I cut were 3 1/4" x 5", 5" x 5", and 5" x 6 3/4", typical sizes that I might use for card-making.

Once again winging it due to the LACK of instructions, I decided that it made the most sense to punch the corners first. That was easy. No problem punching through the card stock at all.

Having done that, I set the corner punch aside and pulled out the border punch. As you can see, there are marks that show you exactly how you need to place the punched corner design so that it will line up properly with the border. HA! This is why I punched the corners first!

And just like that, I had the beginning of a nice continuous design running along one edge and two corners. Nifty! This border punch went through the card stock easily, too.

Did the same with the longer edge. It just required having to line the punch up twice to punch the full length. What I circled up above is what can happen when your measurements aren't quite exact. I was probably a shade over 5" when I cut that edge of the card stock. It wasn't anything that a little snip with some sharp scissors couldn't take care of, but it's something to keep in mind if you're planning to try this system.

You do exactly the same thing for the square design--punch the corners, then punch twice using the border design along each side.

This is a photo of the 6 3/4" x 5" size. That long edge needs to be punched three times to cover the distance.

If you look at the border punch, there are silhouette marks so that you can line up your design properly to make it continuous. By the way, it doesn't have to match up perfectly. I found that you can be a tad off and it'll still work, so there's a little wiggle room there.

That's the photo that shows the now continuous border.

And here's the whole piece. The whole process actually goes very quickly.

Just thought I'd mention that the corner punch can look quite nice by itself.

And if you get in a bind and can't remember what those card stock measurements are supposed to be, or if you didn't know because there were NO instructions included with your punches, you can still punch a fun non-continuous design.

And here's a card sample. The Loops design is a fun one to use with bright colors and with designer card stocks, too. The sentiment is by Studio G, the flower is by Bazzill and the leaves are Primas.

Overall my experience with this continuous edge system was positive. I like being able to punch a design around a corner for a different look. Fiskars has a system for doing this, too. Unlike this set though, they included instructions for how to use theirs and what size to make the card stock! That was my big gripe. There really should have been some mention of the dimensions that are needed to make this system to work. They're going to have some unhappy customers when they can't get the punched designs to line up properly.

It's a bit of a drawback that you have to go up in size in 1 3/4" intervals, too. If I remember correctly, the Fiskars went up by 1" intervals, so that's a bit more flexible in terms of sizes of layers that can be punched. It's a minor issue that you have to be somewhat precise in cutting your card stock or paper to size.

I did like that these punches are easier to store. They made it easy to line up the designs for continuous punching. The punches worked well for me, too. I know that some folks have had issues with punches not going through card stock. I didn't have that problem.

Hope that helps if you're thinking about buying one of these sets for punching continuous edges. I'm going to have to start making more square cards now so that I can get more bang for my buck. ;-)

dazzling

When I first heard about Versamark Dazzle, I was intrigued. It sounded like a fun twist on that very versatile watermark ink--the clever folks at Tsukineko added some sparkle to the ink. I wondered if it would really work, though, and if it would show up well.

This is a very quick card that I made using Versamark Dazzle Frost ink. I think you can catch some of the shimmer of the bird images, particularly the ones near the top of the card.


The blue background is DCWV blue cardstock. It's plain with no shimmer to it, just a bit of sheen. I stamped the bird image by Studio G multiple times, reinking each time. I've always liked being able to do tone-on-tone stamping with Versamark for a more subtle look. The dazzle ink now adds a little extra sparkle and shimmer, too! The sentiment is also a dollar stamp from Studio G that was stamped using white craft ink. I tried to tie all of the sparkle together with the metallic silver card and silver and blue ribbon.

I really like the Versamark Dazzle and think it has some fun possibilities. I'll be trying it out using some other techniques soon, I hope. We'll see if life cooperates. :-) Besides the Frost, it also comes in a Champagne color. Haven't tried that one yet.

Core'dinations & DIY embossing folders

I'm still intrigued by the notion of making embossing folders. I'd had it in mind to make one using butterflies, but hadn't gotten around to trying it until today. I pulled out my scrap chipboard, some heavy weight transparency and my Spellbinders butterfly dies. I seem to have quite a few of those dies. I constructed my folder in the same way that I've described before for DIY embossing, but instead of repeating one image several times--that had actually been my original plan--I decided to make it really easy on myself and use all of my butterfly dies at once. So, I made the cuts for this folder all in one pass. Gotta love quick and easy!

The next problem--what to make with this new folder. I'd tested it on text weight paper. I always do that first. Then I'd put folded paper through it. Finally I ran it through with cardstock inside. I figure that by then I've gradually made room for my cardstock to be embossed between those two sides of my chipboard 'sandwich'. Sometimes it's a tight fit starting out.

Now Pearl, if you're reading, this is your fault, you enabler! LOL! Pearl had mentioned the new Core'dinations cardstock a while back, saying that it would probably look really cool with some of the embossing I'd been playing with. I'd been resisting, but I finally did order some to try. No time like the present to try it!


I made this card very simple because I wanted the focus to be on the embossing. All of the die cut shapes that I used were by Spellbinders. I also used Black Magic Core'dinations cardstock and distressed the embossing with a sanding block. I like it! It's a neat effect! The sentiment is by Studio G.

I used more Core'dinations cardstock on this next card, but in a slightly different way.


I distressed the cardstock first by crumpling it then sanding it. I flattened it out a bit and then put it through my Big Shot inside the Perfectly Paisley Cuttlebug embossing folder. I then accented the embossing with the Adirondack Snow Cap pigment ink. The cardstock with the sentiment is the reverse side of the Black Magic, so it matches the distressed color exactly, which is fun. Since that part of the card didn't show up well, here's a close up.


There's a flower vine image stamped in the background with Versamark ink. The sentiment itself is stamped with Memento dye ink. Both stamps are by Hero Arts. The embellishments are Robin's Nest Dew Drops, and yes, this particular set is opaque, and there are white ones which look very much like the half pearls that people often look for only a bit more translucent. Just thought I'd mention that. Turnabout enabling is fair play, eh? :-)

a few cards

This is the busy time of year with the school year winding down. I hadn't really had much time to make cards, but here are a few that I managed to finish this week.

This first one is creatively Cuttled. I used a door hanger to leave the unembossed opening where I then used a modified small Cuttlebug embossing folder to add the zigzag circle with the Hero Arts sentiment stamped inside it. I used Fiskars corner edgers to embellish the layers and then added some bling.


This next card was first stamped with Hero Arts flowers and Versamark ink, then embossed using the Cuttlebug Bloom Dots embossing folder. I scalloped the bottom edge by partially running it through one of the long scalloped rectangle Megabilities dies. The other layers were made using scalloped Nestabilities dies. The sentiment is by Studio G and the penguin is by Imaginisce, colored with Prismacolor colored pencils and blended with the Goo Gone Mess-free pen. The scoring accents were made using my Scor-It.


This last card was also creatively Cuttled, again using a wooden door hanger to leave a round opening in the embossing. I used the Cuttlebug A2 Spots and Dots embossing folder. The stamped images are a mini set by Inkadinkado and stamped using Brilliance ink. The diaper was colored with the Ranger Inkssentials opaque white pen.


Can't believe that this is the first time I've posted since Monday. Feels good to get back in the swing of blogging.

a few more Cuttled cards

I seem to have a lot of Cuttled card fronts just waiting to have something done to them. I got around to doing some stamping, so I thought I'd post a few of those cards that I've finished.


This first card was made doing some diagonal Cuttling of a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. The stamped flower image is by Imaginisce the sentiment is a Studio G stamp. Both were stamped using Memento dye ink and then colored with Prismacolor colored pencils blended with Goo Gone and accented with Copic Spica glitter pens. The orange border was made with the Fiskars Lacy Days of Summer border punch.


This next card was made with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. I'd partially Cuttled to leave spaces for stamping sentiments. The stamps were all by Inkadinkado and stamped with Memento ink. The scalloped circle was made using a Spellbinders petite scalloped circle Nestabilities die.


This last card was made by creative Cuttling using the Mini Mosaic Cuttlebug embossing folder. The stamped images and sentiments are by Inque Boutique, stamped using Memento dye inks, and colored with Prismacolor colored pencils. The blending was done using Goo Gone.

Ahhh, it's nice to do some crafting. :-)

Double Cuttle

Yes, I'm still playing around with these Cuttlebug embossing folders. They're just so much fun! I tried something a little different today though. I've always liked the look of embossed patterned paper, so what about taking this notion a little further. I embossed cardstock with two different folders, or what I've been calling "double cuttle" in my head. Yep, I embossed my embossed cardstock.


This first card was embossed first with Allegro then with Birds and Swirls. I used my chalk ink cats eyes to accent the embossing. The sentiment is by Hero Arts.


For this card I embossed with the Distressed Stripes then the Birds and Swirls, again inking in different colors to give the embossing more "pop". Bird stamp by Hero Arts.


And just to prove that I could use a folder other than Birds and Swirls ;-), I did this card using the Perfectly Paisley and Diamonds in the Rough embossing folders. The stamps used here were Studio G clear stamps.

A couple of tips from my experiments of the morning: emboss with the busier design first, and don't be afraid to have the embossing from each folder overlap--it can add an interesting textural effect to the original embossing. I just thought this was another fun way to use these folders.

Markers this time

The main image in this card is by Cat Dancing Design, stamped with Versafine Onyx black ink and then colored with markers. I'm not totally comfortable coloring my images with markers, so I'm practicing using them. I feel like I'm gradually getting better at it.

The sentiment is a Studio G clear dollar stamp from Michael's. The flowery background is by K&Company. The embossed border was green cardstock run through my Big Shot with a texture plate. I think the narrow floral strip was from the DCWV glitter stack.