Friday, December 6, 2019

Simon Says Stamp 2019 Crafty Parcel Unboxing

Hey Procraftinators!

Today, I did a bit of a different video, I decided to tape me unboxing the Simon Says Stamp Crafty Parcel that I ordered on Black Friday. I got quite a few things in the box. Some I will use, some I won't. It's the gamble you take on mystery boxes. Did you order one? Were you thinking about it, but didn't know if it would be worth it? Well, let's take a peak at what I got and now you will know! If you got one, what kind of goodies did you get?


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Sunday, December 1, 2019

Christmas Recipe Book - Guest Design for Tayloremadecards4u.com



Hey Procraftinators! 

Today, I am so excited, because I am sharing my first guest design project. I am guest designing for Taylormadecards4u. Monica, the owner, has a bunch of fun stuff that she sells on her site - from the cards she makes to awesome digital kits.  You should check her out! Today, we are going to talk about one of her passport kits. The Santa's Workshop kit to be exact. I have included a picture of the kit here & will point out the elements that I used as we go along.  I was extremely impressed by the quality of the images when these came out of my printer. The colors were bright and crisp. They are gorgeous!



I chose to do a bit different project with this kit. I know, I typically make card videos. However, I am a woman of many talents and I do occasionally make things out of paper, other than cards. I thought it might be fun to make a Christmas Recipe Book with this kit. I know the images don't scream cooking. However, I had my mind set on making a fun, vintage inspired cook book for some reason and that is what I did. 



I started by ink blending my layering pieces for my cover. The largest layer piece measures 5" x 7". The Christmas Ad paper is from the Santa's Workshop kit and I used Ground Espresso on this one. For most of the papers in this book, I used Vintage Photo, but this paper was much darker and Vintage Photo wasn't showing up well, so I went with the Ground Espresso instead. I even ink blended the plain solid colored cardstock that I used. The solid cardstocks I used are Paper Accents brand. I find that it die cuts wonderfully in my Gemini and it cuts great on my Cricut too. For the green paper, I used black soot, as the browns did not show up. The red paper, I used vintage photo. On the inside of my cover, I used the Santa paper, instead of the Christmas Ad paper from the kit. For this paper, I used the Vintage photo (pictured below, along with the first divider in my cookbook, which we will discuss later).

Next it was time to assemble my covers. I am making this recipe book with the Happy Planner Discs and the Arc Punch. If you are not familiar with the Happy Planner or Arc Punch system. It is a neat binding system that allows for you to add or remove pages really easily. It's popular in the planning world, but I use it for all sorts of things. I made an art journal using it so I can remove the pages to work on them and not ruin the rest of the pages while I get messy. Anyways, it will make more sense as we get further, I think. I started by cutting the chipboard out at 7 1/2" x 5 1/2" and then punching it off screen. It barely fit in my Arc punch. So, covering it and punching it was not a good option. Ask me how I know! Yeah, this was my second try on a cover, that's how I know! Anyways, then, I cut my patterned paper to size and punched it. This plaid paper is from Hobby Lobby. It is the Paper Studio's Plaid Tiding's paper pad. All of the plaid paper in this recipe book is from that paper pack, so let's get that out of the way, so I don't sound like a broken record this whole video. Haha! I picked this particular pattern for the front, because it reminded me of an old Betty Crocker cook book that I am sure many of us have in our kitchens. I opted to attach the Christmas ad patterned paper from the kit to my plaid paper before adhering it to my chipboard, because I will be wrapping ribbon around this piece in a minute. After adhering the Christmas paper, I decided that the plaid paper looked too stark against the distressed Christmas paper, so I took some Vintage Photo and inked the edges of the plaid paper too. I really wanted this recipe book to look like it had been handed down through generations of family members. Plus, I figured that if it got dirty in the kitchen, this would make it less noticeable. My husband loves to cook, but he is literally the messiest cook I have seen in my life. I don't want to be too terribly upset with him if this gets messy! I did the same process to what will be the inside of my front cover, but instead of using the Christmas ad paper, I used the Santa paper to change it up a little.I used the same process to adhere my panels to my back cover as well.



Next, I took a Santa ticket stub from the ephemera that is included in the kit and I glued it to the green die cut that I ink blended in Black Soot. By the way, this die cut is from Spellbinders Grand Large Labels die set. You will see me use it repeatedly throughout this book. I did ink blend the edges of the ticket in Vintage Photo Distress Ink as well.  Now, here is why I didn't adhere my panels to my chipboard yet. I wanted to add this flannel ribbon to the front and tuck it around the front panel to the back. Then adhere the front panel it to the chipboard. I added 1/4" SCOR tape to the back of the ribbon. Once done with that, I glued the panels down. To glue my front panel to the chipboard, I started by only adding glue to the side with the punched edge. I find it easier to make sure everything gets aligned and properly adhered this way. I can focus on this part and only this part, which is the most important section to get adhered properly, as it will get the most wear and tear from sliding on the rings. Once I got it adhered properly, I just lifted the panel gently and squeezed glue under the rest of it to adhere down the remainder. 

After I adhered that down, I laid my pieces out to see what they looked like one last time to make sure I liked how everything looked. I was fine adhering down the Santa ticket and green die cut.  However,  I just wasn't happy with how the "Christmas Recipes" text looked. I felt like it didn't pop off that red background, since it was red text after all. I created the Christmas Recipes text on my Cricut using Sure Cuts A Lot & a Christmas Font called Christmas Sounds from 1001Fonts.com I foiled the font with my WRMK Foil Quill onto a shadow layer of the font I created in the program. I cut the red shadow layer pieces out of cardstock 5 times and layered those pieces for dimension. So, since I wasn't happy with how it looked, I went back into Sure Cuts A Lot, brought up my saved file and created another shadow layer just slightly larger and cut it out of green cardstock, only once this time. That way it would contrast from the red in the background and bring in more green from the Grand Large Label die cut. I am much happier with the way this looks. I didn't include a tutorial in my video for this, because the video is quite long as it is. However, I am happy to do a seperate video if anyone is interested. After adhering all my elements to the front cover, I adhered the back panel to the front cover as well. Once everything was adhered to the front cover, I covered the Christmas Recipes title in Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Pen in Glitter Gloss and then covered it in Glossy Accents.



Now, it is time to work on the dividers! I created the dividers using my Cricut too. These were extremely simple to make. If you don't have a Cricut or other electronic die cutting machine, you could make these several different ways. You could cut rectangles and attach tabs seperately or there is that WRMK tool that makes tabbed dividers too. Anyways, in Design Space, I made a rectangle 7" tall by 5" wide. Then, I went into the Elegant Edges cartridge, which I own and found an image that I liked for a tab. It was called the Branch Leaves Border ( #M471E4) I got rid of the top layer with the branch image and only used the bottom layer. I duplicated my rectangles for how many dividers I wanted. In my case 6. I centered them on top of each other. Then I duplicated my tabs as well. I placed them along the edge of the rectangles, making sure that one was at the top of the rectangle dividers and one was at the bottom of the dividers. Then, I aligned them so they were centered horizontally and then chose the distribute vertically option in the alignment tools. This spaces them out vertically along the edge of your dividers. Next, I went systematically through each divider and welded each tab to 1 divider. Next, I placed my text using a writing font on each divider. Since I chose rounded dividers, I curved my text slightly to make it fit better. I hope that makes sense.  I didn't include a tutorial in my video for this either, because again, my video is already quite long, but I would be happy to do one separately if something like this is of interest to anyone. 

For each divider, I cut a piece of plaid paper that is 4.5" x 6.5". I just cut this using my paper trimmer.  Every divider has a different plaid design background paper from the Paper Studio Plaid Tidings Paper Pack I mentioned at the beginning of the video. Each divider also has a piece of the one of the papers from the Santa's Workshop Passport kit cut with the Grand Large Label dies, I mentioned earlier. I rotated back and forth between the 2 designs. On top of that, I stuck a piece of plain paper in the opposite color of the tabbed divider, either green or red, which is cut out of various dies & on top of that is a piece of ephemera from the kit. I will only fully assemble 1 divider on camera. After that, I will speed through just putting on the plain paper and ephemera on and show you the finished product picture. At the end of the video, there is a quick final flip through as well. Again, as a reminder, pretty much every piece in this book I have inked the edges in either Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso or Black Soot. So, that changes the look of the printed materials in the kit slightly.

For this first divider, I used an old Creative Memories fancy corner rounder for the green cardstock piece and the ephemera piece

This second divider, I used Spellbinders Pierced Circles dies. I used the 2nd and 3rd from the smalles dies in the set. I fussy cut the ephemera. 

The third divider, I used a Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Stitched Rectangles Die. This is the middle die in the set. I trimmed the ephemera with my trimmer. 

For the fourth divider, I can't tell you the name or brand of this die. I got it in a large lot of craft stuff I bought off of Craigslist and I have been unable to figure out the origins of this die. I apologize for that. I used a Creative Memories corner rounder on the ephemera. I adhered this one to the die cut wonky to add some interest.

The 5th divider, I did end up repeating this die cut. It's the Sizzix Tim Holtz Stitched Rectangle die again. I just couldn't find another die I liked to fit this image. At least it is a different orientation, I guess. I trimmed this ephemera piece with my trimmer.

For the last divider, I used the Spellbinders Grand Labels 4 die set. I used the smallest die in the set for this one. On the ephemera, I again, used the fancy corner rounder from Creative Memories.

Now, we finally get to the recipe cards I was talking about earlier. This doesn't have anything to do with Monica's amazing kit, but they are an integral part of a recipe book. So, I did want to quickly talk about this process. I used a Stampabilies Stamp called Recipe Card Classic. It was a wood mounted stamp, but no way was I going to sit there and stamp a million recipe cards with a wood mounted stamp. Ok, a million might have been an over exaggeration.  However, I did stamp 60 of them, which was actually way more than fit in this book, but that's beside the point. Anyways, I cut these 4 7/8 x 6 7/8". Then I punched them, so I knew where I could stamp them. For the first one, I placed a piece of acetate in my stamp positioner so I could get the position right before stamping on my card, since this is a rubber stamp. This way you stamp on the acetate and can wipe it off until you get the placement right, instead of wasting paper stamping until you get it right. I like to use this trick with rubber stamps, since you can't see through them.

So, once I stamped my recipe cards, I decided they needed a bit of pizzaz. They were going to look way too plain in this awesome book I was making. So, I decided I wanted to stamp on them. However, I didn't want to forfeit writing space and I didn't want to not being able see what I wrote if I wrote over top of the stamping. I decided that 2nd or 3rd generation stamping would be my best bet. I bought this Stampers Anonymous - Christmas Memories Stamp Set last year and felt that it would be perfect for this project. The images have a great vintage feel. So, I pulled it out and got ready to do some stamping. I didn't want to waste a bunch of ink stamping on scrap paper, so I pulled out some card bases and stamped the first generation stamping on the front of a card base and stamped the 2nd generation stamping on the recipe card. I even got some 3rd generation stamping on some recipe cards too out of some of my juicier ink pads. It was a great way to pull double duty on a project. Now, I have some partially done clean and simple Christmas cards & jazzed up my recipe cards for this project! I did 6 different designs of these recipe cards. I used all the stamps in this set and then I also pulled out Spellbinders Snowflakes Stamps designed by Stephanie Low and Spellbinders Santa's Sleigh Stamp..  One of each design went behind every divider. I probably could've fit more in this book, if I had used a thinner cardstock. However, I used 80lb cardstock for the recipe cards because I didn't have any lighter weight white cardstock on hand and honestly, I didn't feel like going to store when I went to start this project. I was in the groove. So, I just used what I had on hand. It's a nice sturdy book that will last us a long time though. I will just swap out for bigger rings if we fill it up. No biggie.

Once I got done doing the stamping on the cards, I pulled out a very old Creative Memories Storylines Template. It was meant for journal writing, scrapbooking, etc. I'm sure there are those out there that don't have this template, but this could be done with a ruler too or there may be other templates out there like it. I used it to draw lines with an Extra Fine Line sharpie on the bottom half of my recipe cards. Since the lines on the template were spaced further apart than the original lines in the directions section on my recipe pages. I just shifted the stencil to draw a second set of lines in between the first. They were also longer than my recipe card, so I masked off the card to make it look like it was all stamped with the same stamp as well. The template has black marks on it for alignment guides. I used these to line it up with the edge of my paper to make sure I was straight. I also used the top cut line in the stencil to line up with the bottom of the stamped recipe card image and the bottom cut out line in the stencil with the bottom of my page. Using all these guidelines helped me keep the liens as straight as possible. I know this seems like a lot of work and you are probably asking yourself why I didn't just print recipe cards on my printer? I asked myself that a couple times too! But really, it was kind of satisfying at the end that I made these myself and got exactly what I wanted in the end. 
[No pics of the recipe cards, sorry! The stamping was so light that it was hard to pick up in photos. You can watch my video to somewhat see it, but even then, it didn't show up on camera real well.]

I do include a full flip through of the book towards the end of the video and much clearer step by step process of everything in my video. I hope you enjoyed the project today and make sure to check out Monica's shop, Taylormadecards4u & the Santa's Workshop Passport Kit!


Supplies

Stampabilities - Recipe Card - Classic - 1202365-PR
Spellbinders Grand Labels 4 - Smallest Die
Spellbinders Grand Large Labels - Smallest Die
Spellbinders Pierced Circles - 2nd and 3rd from the smallest
Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Stitched Rectangles - Middle Die
Unknown Brand - Label Dies
Neenah Solar White 80lb
The Paper Studio - Plaid Tidings
Red Plaid Scrapbook Paper that I had in my stash - No brand & I have no idea where I got it
Scor Tape
Distress Ink - Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso & Black Soot
Amazon Make Up Brushes
Chipboard
Happy Planner Mini Discs in Gold
Arc Punch
Stampers Anonymous - Christmas Memories Stamp Set CMS118
Spellbinders - Snowflakes Stamp set Designed by Stephanie Low
Spellbinders - Santa's Sleigh
Stampin Up Rose Red, Brilliant Blue, Handsome Hunter, Tempting Turquise, Lavender Lace,
Unity Stamp - Hybrid Ink  Brown
Encore Ultimate Metallic Ink - Champagne
Christmas Sounds font from 1001Fonts.com
Paper Accents Cardstock in Jackpot & Red Devil
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Saturday, November 30, 2019

DIY Red Nose Reindeer Light Up Card - Christmas Video Hop!

Hey Procraftinators! 
Welcome to the Happy Holidays Video Hop! In each video we will be sharing Christmas themed projects to get you inspired for your holiday crafting. It starts today, Saturday November 30, 2019 and goes through Saturday December 7, 2019, giving you plenty of time to watch and comment on everyone's videos. The giveaways will be announced on December 10th on each individual channel and a list of all the winners will be over at Taylormadecards4u.com/blog.
Please pay close attention as some will be giving away a prize on their channels and will each have their own rules for entering. For more information and a complete list of all the videos, head over to Monica’s blog over at Taylormadecards4u or the Crafter’s Castle Blog.
The link to the next person in the hop is here: https://youtu.be/boFiuiYS6Sk

Today, I have an easy, Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer light up card for you! You don't need any expensive kits to make light up cards and this circuit is extremely easy to make, I promise! The last light up card I made on my channel was definitely more complicated. So, I wanted to share something a bit easier this time. I started by making my background first. I ink blended Distress Inks in Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean & Wilted Violet onto Bristol Smooth paper with my make up brushes in a half circle pattern starting from the middle left edge of the cardstock and working my way out.

Then, I spritzed a DIY shimmer spray on it, using water and Perfect Pearls, in the color Perfect Pearl. I quickly dried that with my heat gun. After that, I took my water sprayer and splatter water all over the background, let it sit for a few seconds and then dabbed it up with my tea towel. I dried it off again with my heat gun and made sure it was thoroughly dry, as I needed it to be completely dry for the next step.

I wanted it to look like there was a large, glistening snowflake in the background. So, I took MFT's Captivating Mandala Background stamp, which I think looks like a large snowflake and stamped it partially hanging off the card front panel. I stamped it in VersaMark ink, covered it in Ranger Holographic Embossing powder and heat set it. I am absolutely in LOVE with this embossing powder. I think it might be my new favorite, especially for Christmas cards! 

Look at that close up picture of the embossing, isn't it just GORGEOUS?!

I'm going to leave out the directions for how to do the circuit and leave those to just the video. I honestly believe that this is more of a visual learning process, than I written learning process.

After getting my circuit complete, it was time to start getting this card ready to assemble. I realized that my reindeer had cut outs for his eyes and if I left those cut out, he would end up with one purple eye and one blue eye. So, i took a scrap of black paper and glued it to the back of him. I missed the mouth, but I will get this later.

Next, I used a small piece of SCOR tape to cover the back of Rudolf's red vellum nose. I trimmed off the excess SCOR tape and adhered it to Rudolf and then burnished it down to Rudolf with my bone folder. Vellum is one of those things that is tough to adhere without the adhesive showing, but I find that if you use dry adhesive and cover the whole thing, it shows the least out of any other method that I have tried.

I used Nuvo Deluxe adhesive to adhere Rudolf to my card front. I noticed just in the nick of time that I hadn't covered the back of his mouth with a black scrap of paper, like I did his eyes. I am glad that I realized when I did or he would've had a purple mouth...and that would've been....well, weird! 



My next task was to come up with a creative way to put a sentiment on my card. As usual, I hadn't though of what I was going to do with my sentiment and now the card was too thick to put into my stamp positioner. I was definitely too afraid to stamp it by hand. I didn't really want to cover over the holographic embossing too much....I kinda wanted to add to the beauty of this card. So, I thought about it for a minute and decided to pull out my Spellbinders Snowflake stamp & die set. I found the die that best fit the sentiment I decided to use, which was from Mama Elephant's Jingle Greeting's stamp set and said Merry & Bright. I die cut the snowflake and then put it and the negative piece in my stamp positioner to somewhat hold it in place. I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark and then covered it in silver embossing powder.

I ink blended the same colors I used for the background - Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean & Wilted Violet in a circular pattern radiating out from the middle this time. I wiped the ink from the embossing, dried it with my heat tool, put the snowflake die cut back into the negative piece in my stamp positioner and stamped the matching snowflake stamp in VersaMark. I covered it this time in the Holographic embossing powder that I used on the background. Since I couldn't get the details of the holographic embossing of that snowflake to show up on video very well, I took a close up of it. The camera still doesn't do it justice, but this close up turned out pretty well. I feel like my photography is improving, at least.

To finish off the card, I stamped an inside sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Iniside Christmas Greetings Stamp Set. I chose the sentiment "May You Enjoy the Magic of the Season, the Love of Family and the New Your Ahead of You." This is quickly becoming on of my favorite sentiments for the inside of my Christmas cards this year.

I hope you enjoyed my card today and I encourage you to check out the rest of the Christmas Video Hop. The next person is linked below my video towards the top of this post.If you enjoy my videos, I would appreciate it if you would go HERE and subscribe to my channel. As always, I hope you are having a great day!


Supplies

Crafter's Companion -Red Nose Reindeer dies (RETIRED)
Personal Stamp Exchange Silver Embossing Powder
Brown Pearlescent Cardstock from my stash - got it years ago on clearance at Joanns
Red Vellum from my stash not sure where I got it
Crop-a-dile big bite
SMD SMT LEDs
Panasonic Cr2032 3V Battery
MFT Captivating Mandala Background (RETIRED)
VersaMark
Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
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Friday, November 29, 2019

4 Easy Christmas Cards that WOW! Using Patterned Papers & Shaped Dies!

Hey Procraftinators! 
Today, I have my fourth video/blog in my Christmas series! 



"Christmas Rap" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
 
I designed 3 different, but somewhat similar Christmas cards for you. I was inspired by my friend Renee, at Delaney Jane cards and some of my friends at the Collective Creators who use a bunch of fun patterned papers on their cards. I don't know why, but for some reason, I don't use a ton of patterned paper on my cards, unless they are box cards or something fancy like that that I am cutting on my Cricut. I have a TON of patterned paper. Don't we all?! I tend to hoard it. So bad that my husband makes fun of me for it! Ok, so, he may have a right since he is the one that helps me figure out storage, often being the one building me storage in my craft room. And he even once had to figure out how to tie 2 of those large wire 12 x 12 paper racks onto the top of our car when we were coming back from a trip....oh and I forgot to mention that we had a total of 7 people in our car, my grandma's motorized scooter tied to the roof rack as well and everyone's luggage to contend with! Yeah, my husband deserves an award for putting up with me and my antics sometimes! 


Anyways, back to these cards for today. I am made 3 different designs and 3 of each design. So, for once, I actually planned this in an organized manner. Often times, I fly by the seat of my pants when making cards. That's probably obvious by how many times I have gotten close to the end and realized that I have too much dimension on my card to put it in my stamp positioner to stamp my sentiment. Haha! I started by stamping "Merry Christmas" from the Simon Says Stamp Inside Christmas Greetings Set in VersaMark on one of the Slanted Sentiment Strips from My Favorite Things. I covered it in black detail embossing powder and heat set it with my heat tool. Also, I cut out some Snowman patterned paper from The Paper Studio Winterland Paper Pack at 4.25" x 5.5". I cut a circle in some snowflake patterned paper from the same pack using a circle die from the Neat & Tangled Card Front Design Die Set. I cut a light blue cardstock strip just slightly smaller than half the width of the card front and die cut it with the Concord & 9th Wintry Edge Dies Lastly, I cut, ink blended and assembled the snowman from the Spellbinders Snowman Die Set.

I laid them all out on my work surface in roughly the layout that I wished to place them in and got ready to assemble them with my Nuvo Deluxe adhesive. I adhered these in assembly line fashion.. I glued the snowman to the middle of the snowflake patterned circle die cut. Then, I decided the exact placement that I wanted for my Merry Christmas sentiment and adhered it flat down to the snowman patterned card front. Next, I glued down the light blue cardstock with the snowflake bordered edge, making sure that I lined the straight edge of that piece with the straight edge of my card front. Before adhering my snowman that is attached to the snowflake circle, I wanted to add a smaller secondary sentiment. So, I popped the card front into my stamp positioner, added anti-static powder to the area in which I was going to stamp, applied VersaMark to my stamp and stamped the "Warm Wishes" stamp from Simon Says Stamp's Tiny Words Christmas stamp set. I covered that in Black Detail embossing powder as well and heat set that. Once done with that, I applied Xfasten foam tape to the back of my snowman piece and attached him to my card front in such a way that he covered up the little part of the banner that was showing behind the snowflake cut outs in the blue piece.

After I finished the card front, I stamped the inside of the cards with the sentiment "Joyful Wishes and Warm Holiday Hugs" from Simon Says Stamp's Inside Christmas Greetings Stamp Set in Stampin' Up's Bashful Blue ink. Then, I simply attached my card front to my card base, made out of Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb cardstock with Nuvo Deluxe adhesive. To finish off the card, I coated the snowman in Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Pen in Glitter Gloss, which didn't show up in my pictures.



Moving on to the Santa card, I started by stamping a "Merry Christmas" sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Inside Christmas Greetings Stamp Set on these fairly thin strips of striped patterned paper from the Craft Perfect Merry & Bright 6x6 Paper Pad. I cut the strips into 1in strips and then cut them in half using the strip dies in the Tim Holtz Alterations Stitched Rectangles set so that they had a stitched detail on them and were now, only a half inch or so.

Next, I cut my card fronts out of some Santa patterned paper from The Paper Studio Winter Wonderland Paper Pack at 4.25"x5.5" I cut a teal piece of cardstock using the Tim Holtz Alterations Stitched Rectangles Dies in which I stamped & heat embossed "Ho Ho Ho" from Simon Says Stamps Tiny Word Christmas Stamp Set. Lastly, I cut, ink blended and assembled Santa from the Spellbinders Santa Die Set.

I laid them all out on my work surface in roughly the layout that I wished to place them in and got ready to assemble them with my Nuvo Deluxe adhesive. Again, I adhered these in assembly line fashion. I started by adhering Santa to the stitched rectangle die cut, just slightly above the "Ho Ho Ho" embossed sentiment.  Next, I played around with the layout for a second to decided exactly where I wanted my placement. Once I made a final decision, I glued down the horizontal striped strip, then the vertical striped strip with the Merry Christmas sentiment. The vertical strip was cut slightly longer than my card front, so I will cut those edges off later. I applied Xfasten Foam Tape to the back of my Santa piece and adhered him to the card front.

Moving on to the inside of the card, I used Stampin' Up's Rose Red ink to stamp the sentiment "Wishing You a Wonderful Christmas" from Simon Says Stamp's Inside Christmas Greetings Stamp set.  Lastly, I applied my card front to the Neenah Solar White 110lb Card base.



Lastly we have the reindeer card. I started by stamping Merry Christmas from Simon Says Stamp Inside Christmas Greetings Stamp Set in VersaMark ink on a striped patterned paper from The Paper Studio Winter Wonderland Paper Pack that was cut with the Spellbinders Card Creator Scalloped Border Dies 2 die set. I covered the stamped sentiment in Detail Brass embossing powder and then heat set it. I probably should've done this in a different color, as it does blend in a little bit. It shows up better in person, than it does on camera, but it is what it is. 

Next, I cut my card fronts out of some Christmas character patterned paper from The Paper Studio Winter Wonderland Paper Pack at 4.25"x5.5". I cut a green cardstock piece with the Spellbinders Fluer De Lis Square Die Set. Lastly, I cut, inked and assembled the reindeer from the Spellbinders Reindeer die set. 

I laid them all out on my work surface in roughly the layout that I wished to place them in and got ready to assemble them with my Nuvo Deluxe adhesive. Again, I adhered these in assembly line fashion. I started by adhering the reindeer to the center of the Fluer De Lis Square die cut. I, then, adhered the Card Creator Scalloped Border die cut to the card front, making sure that I aligned the straight edge of the die cut to the straight edge of my card front panel. Next, I popped the reindeer piece up on some XFasten foam tape and adhered it to my card front.

Moving on to the inside of my card, I stamped the sentiment "May You Enjoy the Magic of the Season, the Love of Family & the New Year Ahead of You" from Simon Says Stamp's Inside Christmas Greetings stamp set in Always Artichoke from Stampin' Up. Finishing off the card, I adhered my card front to my Neenah Solar White 110lb card base with Nuvo Deluxe adhesive.


I had so much fun mixing and matching patterned papers and fun shaped dies. I hope that you enjoyed these 3 cards in my Christmas series and can take away some inspiration for your Christmas cards. How far are you on your Christmas cards? Are you done? Have you just started? Let me know in the comments below! As always, a hope you have a great day!


SUPPLIES
 
Snowman Card
Light Blue Paper from my stash - Most likely Recollections, but I don't know for sure
Circle Die from Neat & Tangled Card Front Design Die Set (RETIRED)
Concord & 9th - Wintry Edge Dies
Patterned Paper from The Paper Studio Winter Wonderland Paper Pack (5169958)
My Favorite Things - Slanted Sentiment Strip Dies
Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Pen - Glitter Gloss
Personal Stamp Exchange Detail Black Embossing Powder
Stampin Up Ink - Bashful Blue


Santa Card
Distress Ink - Hickory Smoke
Skin Tone Alcohol Markers
Teal paper from my stash - Most likely Recollections brand, but I don't know for sure
Tim Holtz Alterations - Stitched Rectangles Die Set - I used the middle rectangle and one of the long strip dies
The background patterned paper is from The Paper Studio Winter Wonderland Paper Pack (5169958
The strips of patterned paper is from Craft Perfect - Merry & Bright 6x6 Paper Pad
Stampin Up Ink - Rose Red
Personal Stamp Exchange Detail Black Embossing Powder

Reindeer Card
Green Cardstock from Stash - Most likely Recollections brand, but I don't know for sure
Both Patterned Papers are from The Paper Studio Winter Wonderland Paper Pack (5169958)
Spellbinders Card Creator Dies - Scalloped Borders 2 (RETIRED)
Spellbinders Fluer De Lis Squares Dies - I used the 2nd to the largest (RETIRED)
Personal Stamp Exchange Detail Brass Embossing Powder
Stampin Up Ink - Always Artichoke


***I buy all of my supplies myself and am not affiliated with any company. The links I provide are not affiliate links. I do not make a commission when you buy using these links. They are merely for your convenience or clarification of which supplies I have used. I do not guarantee they are the cheapest prices. I suggest you do your own research and shop around.***
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Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Cozy Christmas Fireplace Scene Card - Collab with Delaney Jane Cards - Christmas Series Video #3

Hey Procraftinators! 
Today, I have a fun Christmas collaboration with my friend, Renee, over at Delaney Jane Cards. If you aren't subscribed to her YouTube channel, you are missing out! She is a very talented card maker and has a fantastic Christmas card to share with you today here. Make sure that you check it out, after you get done here! I'm serious, you don't want to miss it! If you got here from her channel,  then welcome to my channel and I hope you enjoy what you see! I am so excited to have you here.

So, today, I made a scene card with the Stamptember Heffy Doodle Filled with Love Stamp Set. You guys, this stamp set is just so incredibly cute that I couldn't resist getting it! In my head, I envisioned those stockings hanging in front of a fireplace. I don't have any stamps or dies of a fireplace. So, my first thought was to use my Cricut. I hopped on Design Space to look there, but I don't pay for Access anymore. They had a couple fireplaces, but honestly, nothing really struck my fancy enough to pay a couple bucks for an image. I looked on google and didn't really see anything with a creative commons license that I felt would be worth the time to try to trace using Sure Cuts Alot either. So, I decided I was going to try to draw my own. Now, you have to understand that this is a BIG deal for me. I don't draw. Not even a little bit. I may be crafty, but I am not an artist in that sense. However, I figured most of the lines would be straight and I had a brick stamp from Tonic Craft Kit #14 that would at least save me from doing the brick work. So, I used some of those google images of fireplaces as inspiration, grabbed my T-square ruler and got to work! 

Now, when it came to the part of the fireplace where the fire goes, I needed something round to start the shape. So, I just used a mini pot of gilding flakes. However, anything round and the size you need will do. Then, for the actual fire part of the fireplace. That was a complete hot mess! I couldn't draw a fire to save my life. So, I went into Design Space, found a fire image and cut it out of some scrap paper to use a stencil. This image, happened to be Free in Design Space. It's from the 3 Birds - Life's a Party Cartridge. They rotate their free cartridges often, so depending on when you are watching this video, the file may or may not still be free. 

After I had everything drawn out in pencil to my liking, I traced over it with a black pen. I used an old Creative Memories fine tip pen that I had in my stash. I can't believe it still worked and wasn't dried out, considering there thing is ancient! Any pen that will work with the medium you plan to color with is fine. I had originally planned on coloring with Alcohol Markers and had tested the alcohol markers with this pen and they didn't smear or bleed, so I was set to go. I used a ruler to make sure I was keeping my lines nice and straight. However, I couldn't see through the metal ruler and got careless with tracing my lines. I put pen where I had erased a line, but obviously didn't erase it will enough! I decided I was too far in to start over now. No way was I drawing this thing over again. So, once I was done tracing everything else with the pen. I used my sand eraser to get as much of that pen mark off as I could. Most of it came off, surprisingly. However, there was one dot at the top of my mark where my pen first hit the paper that was still noticeable. Plus, my paper was a bit marred up from so much sanding. So, I decided to change gears and instead of using Alcohol Markers, which we all know are transparent. I decided to ink blend Oxides over my mistake. Oxides have that pigment property in them, making them opaque. Which lend themselves better to hiding boo boos like mine. Sometimes, as a crafter, you gotta roll with the mistakes and get creative. Unless you enjoy throwing cards in the trash and starting over.... And I do not. Not to say that never happens, because that would be a lie, but I do try to avoid it if I can.

Because I decided to do ink blending instead of Alcohol Marker coloring, this card became kind of a masking nightmare, but that's ok. I rolled with it. I started by masking off the fireplace and ink blending the "walls" of my scene. I used 2in strips of post it note tape to mask off the main portions of the fireplace as well as the back of my card base and then I cut up the post it note tape to mask off the mantle and the hearth of the fireplace.  I ink blended the walls in Old Paper Distress Oxide and then I decided I wanted a subtle pattern to simulate wallpaper. So, I got out my Tim Holtz Polkadot stencil and blended Antique Linen Distress Oxide through it. Since the stencil is not as big as my card front, I had to move and line it up a couple times to fill the whole card front with it. Once I was done, I carefully removed the masks. I thought the Old Paper and the subtle polka dots in Antique Linen looked like an antique wallpaper, you might see at Grandma's house. It's kind of comforting.

Next, I needed to mask off the walls and work on the fireplace. Since this was a custom drawn image, I needed a custom mask. So, I cut out a piece of Avery Removable Label that was slightly larger than my card base. Then, I got out my Cricut Bright Pad. I placed the card base on the Bright Pad and the Label Paper over the card base. I left the backing sheet on the label paper for this step. I traced the fireplace onto the label paper. I carefully cut the center of the fireplace out of the label paper, leaving me with the negative to mask over my walls. I saved the domed part where the fire goes inside, so I could mask off that portion as well. I probably should've thought about this when I did my previous masking, but honestly, I just didn't. I carefully adhered the masks to my card front. To mask off mantle and hearth of my fireplace I just used post it note tape again. I didn't leave those parts of my mask in tact, because I didn't want to have to remove the mask to cut them out and then have to replace the mask again.  Once the masking was complete, I started inking up my brick stamp from Tonic Craft Kit #14, but any brick stamp you may have would work here. I inked it in Fired Brick and then I tapped the edges of the stamp with my mini ink blending tool with Aged Mahogany to give it a little variation in color. I repeated this until I filled up the entire fireplace with brick work. Sometimes, I would just take the stamp and dab on some of the Aged Mahogany and stamp over a previous stamping with that to add in a bit more of that variation in color. As I have said in previously, I really don't like having to double stamp with an acrylic block though. So, I didn't do a whole lot of that for fear I would mis-align my stamp and ruin the whole thing.

Once done with the brick work, I removed the center domed mask and traced it onto some more of that Avery Removable Label paper. I cut the dome out and placed that negative piece on my card front to protect my brick work. Then, I carefully cut the fire out of the dome mask and placed it on the card front.  It was time to ink blend the glow from the fire. I used Distress Oxides in Scattered Straw, Squeezed Lemonade, & Dried Marigold. Looking back on it now, I wish I would've used less Squeezed Lemonade or none at all. I did not get the contrast I was looking for between my fire and the glow around it. I wish I had realized that I wasn't happy with the lack of contrast between my fire and the glow sooner, but I didn't really notice until the piece fully dried.

Next, I placed the mask around the glow, before removing the fire mask. This helps make proper alignment easier. I used Distress Oxides in Squeezed Lemonade, & Spiced Marmalade on my fire. I maybe could've used more Spiced Marmalade to help with the contrast. Every card is a learning experience, in my opinion. 

After I was done ink blending the fire, it was time to ink blend the wood parts of my fireplace. I moved the masks that were protecting those areas so that they now protected the brick work on the fireplace. I did flip the masks around just in case the ink was still wet on them, as I didn't want to contaminate colors at this point in my project. To color these portions of the fireplace, I used Walnut Stain & Vintage Photo Distress Oxides. I did not worry myself with getting a perfect blend here. Wood is not perfect, so I didn't really want perfect. I wanted variations of color. I started off with Vintage Photo and laid down most of my color with that. Then I went in with Walnut Stain and added a bit of variation here and there. Once done with that, I could remove all the masks and reveal the majority of my scene for this card.

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about those adorable critters in the stockings! We are going to stamp those out now! I used Gina K Amalgam Ink to stamp out the Snowman and Reindeer from this adorable set. I used the residual ink to stamp on a scrap piece of the Avery Removable Labels so I could mask off the critters and stamp the stockings for them to hang out of. I think part of the reason I was so drawn to this stamp set is that I have a stocking kinda like this. Mine is a panda bear though, as a play on my first name, because of course, when I was little I was Amanda Panda. I only needed to fussy cut the bottom portion of the masks, so that's all I did. Why subject myself to more fussy cutting than I absolutely have to, right? When I stamped out the Snowman's stocking, I was lazy and didn't want to clean the stamp. Usually, I have a dedicated piece of acetate that is cut to fit my stamping platform, but I couldn't find it. So, I just used the back of the stamp packaging. Works in a pinch. I ended up stamping the stocking  too low and I did not like it. So, I just stamped him out again, while I had all the stamping supplies out. No biggie, I had enough room on the piece of cardstock. I was much happier with my second try. I colored both of the images off camera with my Master's Touch alcohol markers from Hobby Lobby. I'm not really a pro at alcohol marker coloring and didn't do anything fancy. Once I was done coloring, I fussy cut both images out right on the outside of the black line. I was unable to purchase the images with the dies. I glued them flat to the card base with Ranger Multi Matte Medium.

To finish the card off, I stamped the sentiment "May all your stockings be filled with love this Christmas" from the same stamp set. I love this sentiment! I think it is adorable and certainly a unique Christmas sentiment to add to my collection.

I hope you enjoyed this Christmas video and don't forget to check out Renee's video over at Delany Jane Cards. If you enjoyed my card, please give me some love down in the comments. I would loved to hear from you! As always, have a great day!

Supplies
Creative Memories Fine Tip Pen Black
Heffy Doodle Filled with Love Stamp Set
Tonic Craft Kit#14 (just the brick stamp - you can use any brick stamp you have)
Fire Image from Design Space from 3 Birds - Life's a Party Cartridge
 

***I buy all of my supplies myself and am not affiliated with any company. The links I provide are not affiliate links. I do not make a commission when you buy using these links. They are merely for your convenience or clarification of which supplies I have used. I do not guarantee they are the cheapest prices. I suggest you do your own research and shop around.***
Music Credits for YouTube Video Above:

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Christmas Rap" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Christmas Theme 1" by Alexander Nakarada (https://www.serpentsoundstudios.com/)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Christmas Theme 1" by Alexander Nakarada (https://www.serpentsoundstudios.com/)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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Monday, November 18, 2019

Ways to Use Ribbon Series - Video #1

Hey Procraftinators!

Video link
https://youtu.be/sBxcVHysVks 
Today, I am sharing 3 ways to use up that ribbon that you hoard! Or is that just me that hoards ALLLLL the ribbon? Please tell me I am not alone! Recently, I had a conversation with another YouTuber about how she had gotten rid of all her ribbon and no longer goes to local craft stores so she can avoid buying things that she doesn't really need or use just because it's on sale or on clearance. I am a sucker for clearance deals and one of my super weaknesses is those small rolls of ribbon at Hobby Lobby for like 33 cents. I will admit, I don't use them as much as I really should. So, this got me to thinking. I should challenge myself to use them and see what kind of creative ways I could use them. So, I plan to do a bit of a series on this. This is the first video with 3 ways. I don't know what sort of time frame this will span over since it is the holiday season right now and I am trying to do a Christmas card series. However, I shot this video several weeks ago and thought I should edit it and get it up before I forgot all the details.

So, as you can see, the first way is the use your ribbon as a background. I applied a double sided adhesive to my card front. I used my Xyron for this, but any strong double sided adhesive would work here. I then started laying down my ribbon. It's a pretty easy process. Just make sure you lay your pieces right up next to each other so that there are no gaps in between them or you will have exposed adhesive and a sticky card front. No one wants a sticky card front. Once you have covered the card front, just cut off the excess ribbon hanging off the end of your card front.

Next, I took the Simon Says Stamp Birthday Mix 1 Stamp Set and stamped it out in Momento Tuxedo Black ink. Then cut it out with the coordinating dies. I just have to say that this stamp set and others like it are just brilliant! I picked out 3 of the small sentiments from this set - "Happy Birthday," "One Year Older," and "Make a Wish" and sandwiched 2 strands of the skinny yellow ribbon that I used on the card front in between the sentiment pieces and a piece of foam tape. Then I adhered them to the front of my card. I wrapped the excess ribbon around to the back of my card front. I thought that this way of adhering my sentiments added a nice touch of interest to an already fun card! To finish the card, I used Scor tape to adhere my card front to my card base.

For my second card, I am showing how to accent an embossing folder with ribbon. I used one of the We R Memory Keepers Geometric 6x6 Embossing Folders. This comes in a set of 2. I then used Broken China Distress Ink to lightly ink over the card front panel to give it a little bit of color. However, it didn't show up on camera very well. Next, I cut pieces of ribbon just slightly longer than I needed and applied 1/8" score tape to the back of them. I had tried a few different methods of adhering the strips of ribbon and this of the best method. I think the lattice effect on this card turned out so beautiful. 

Once done applying the ribbon to the card front panel, I applied several strips of 1/2" scor tape to the back of the panel and then adhered it to my card base. The panel buckled a little under the pressure of the ribbon. I probably should've used heavier cardstock or maybe I shouldn't have pulled so tight. Not sure which or maybe it was a combo of both. Either way, the score tape and applying it to the Neenah 110lb card base fixed that right up.

I stamped a butterfly from Gina K's Butterfly Kisses Stamp & Die set with the Foil Mates coordinating add on. I used Stampin' Up's Tempting Turquoise to stamp the butterfly and then foiled it in Silver DecoFoil. I also stamped "Thinking of You" from the same stamp set and die cut it with Spellbinders Vintage Pierced Banner Die Set. I inked the banner piece in Salty Ocean & Black Soot Distress Inks. I popped both the Butterfly & the banner up on foam tape.

Lastly, to finish this card off, I had to add some bling. I may have went a bit overboard, but once I got started, I just couldn't stop! I don't usually add this much bling to a card, I promise! What do you think, is it too much? Or are you the type that thinks there is NEVER too much bling? Let me know!

For the 3rd and final card for this video, I am using the ribbon as a focal element in conjunction with dies. I had these fun Graceful Brackets dies from Spellbinders. I thought they would make a fun corset type card. I wasn't really going for a realistic looking corset here, just the hint or an idea of a corset. I made my first cuts a 1/2" from each edge of my card panel and then the second cuts were 1 1/2" from each edge. I made marks on my panel with a pencil before I started die cutting so everything would be even. 

I also want to address this before we get too far. Some of you are probably wondering what the deal is with the anniversary card, as many of you know my anniversary was in October and I already made my husband a card for that. When I started making this card, I realized that it was starting to look a lot like my wedding dress. The colors were our wedding colors. Our theme was Damask. I had a corset dress. I made this before I made my husband's card, but I felt this card was too girly to give to him. So, I told him that I made my own anniversary card this year. BUT the catch was he had to stamp the inside. I pulled out a bunch of lovey dovey type stamps. I don't have many anniversary themed stamps and I left him alone in my craft room. I know, scary, right?! At the end of this post, I will show you how well he did. I was quite proud of him!

Ok, back to the making of the card. I used Antique Linen Distress Oxide to ink blend on these panels. I covered them completely. I dried them thoroughly with my heat tool and then I used my anti-static powder tool generously all over them. It's important to make sure they are dry for the next step, since Oxides have that pigment property of them and are slow drying. I stuck my panels a Sizzix Sticky Grid sheet so they didn't shift around on me and they stayed perfecting aligned. I placed a piece of post it note tape over my fingers as I place my panels on the sticky grid. I did this because I had already applied the anti-static powder tool to my panels and I did not want to get the oils from my fingers on the panels at this point. ok, back to the card.  I used a Stampendous stamp called Ornate Border to stamp in Versamark ink and clear heat emboss over it in Ranger Clear Embossing powder. I removed my panels from the sticky grid before applying the embossing powder. This may be obvious, but if you have never heard of the sticky grid sheets before, they are exactly like what they sound like - a re-useable sticky sheet with grid lines. So, the embossing powder would've stuck to it. I usually use this sheet when I am using my wreath builder, but it's handy for other things too, as you can see.  I, then, finished off the emboss resist technique with ink blending the entire panel with Aged Mahogany Distress Oxide. 

After I finished with my panels, I decided it would be fun to dig out a scrap paper from our wedding invites to use as a panel behind these 3 ink blending panels. The idea was that it would show behind the ribbon in the "corset" pieces. It didn't really work out this way though as my ribbon was too thick and my corset pieces were not spaced out far enough. Live and learn, right?

I struggled with exactly HOW I was going to lace these corset pieces. Do I do it on the card? Can I do it without it being on the card? I finally settled with it having to be attached to the card first, but that certainly did not make it easy to do. You have to have tweezers and more deleterious hands than I have. I was kind of a hot mess with hands that tremor a bit like mine, but I got it done.  After that I cut a black card panel to place behind it and then attached all of that to my Neenah Solar White 110lb card base.

To finish off the front of the card, I cut a heart out of pearlized vellum from the Spellbinders Vines of Passion Die set. It has a gorgeous vine heart, but I only needed a solid heart and I didn't have any solid heart dies. I could've cut one on my Cricut, but I didn't feel like dealing with all that at the time. I also cut several of the "On Your" and "Anniversary" sentiments from Tonic Craft Kit 17. However, for the "On Your" I chopped off the "Y" to make it "On Our." I layered both sentiments up to give them some nice dimension and then carefully adhered them to the vellum heart. To attach the heart to the card front, I carefully and strategically placed itty bitty bits of foam adhesive only behind the letters of my sentiments. To add the final finishing touch, I used a Nuvo Aqua Shimmer pen in gloss to the sentiment.

Here is my husband's stamping artwork. I will cherish it forever! What do you think? Have you ever let your husband's or significant other's loose in your craft room? I'd love to hear how that went if you did!

I hope this inspires you to use up some of that ribbon that may be collecting dust. Don't forget that I always enjoy hearing from you in the comments. Have a great day!
Supplies

Birthday Ribbon Card
Various Colors and patterns of ribbon
Momento Tuxedo Black Ink

Thinking of You Geometric Embossing Folder with Ribbon Card
Aqua Feather Edge Satin Ribbon from Offray Designer Ribbon
Distress Ink - Broken China, Salty Ocean, & Black Soot
Stampin Up Ink - Tempting Turquoise
Gina K Designs - Butterfly Kisses Stamp & Die Set with Foil Mates
ArtSkills Self-Stick Gemstone Variety Pack
65lb White Cardstock for card panel - unknown brand from stash

Corset Anniversary with Ribbon Card
Spellbinders Vines of Passion
Spellbinders Graceful Brackets (cut 1/2in & 1.5in from each edge)
Tonic Craft Kit 17 - Spring Frame Kit
Distress Oxide in Antique Linen & Aged Mahogany
3/8in Ribbon in Wine color
Pearl Vellum
110lb Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Card Base


BLOG DISCLAIMER

***I buy all of my supplies myself and am not affiliated with any company. The links I provide are not affiliate links. I do not make a commission when you buy using these links. They are merely for your convenience or clarification of which supplies I have used. I do not guarantee they are the cheapest prices. I suggest you do your own research and shop around.***
 
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Friday, November 15, 2019

Tonic Craft Kit #27 Inspiration

Hey Procraftinators! 
Today, I have 3 cards to share with you from Tonic Craft Kit #27. That's right, I am sharing inspiration from this kit pretty much right after I got it. Are you shocked and amazed?! Well, I am!







I thought this kit was perfect for a fun circle card. I started this card by doing some ink blending. For the frame of the card, I used 2 layers of Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb cardstock and the top layer is the champagne classic card included in the kit. The bottom layer is a solid piece and the next 2 layers are frames. I wanted those vine pieces to be fairly sturdy, as they are going to hang off the card base. I started by ink blending Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet, Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves & just a tiny bit of Black Soot around the edges on the bottom layer. Then on the top frame, I ink blended Brushed Corduroy over most of the piece and a small amount of Gathered Twigs along the edges. Then, I adhered all 3 layers together and sprayed them with a DIY mica mist that I made with Perfect Pearls in the color Perfect Pearl. Next, I took another one of the frame type dies and cut it out of black cardstock and layered it on the card front. I also cut the scene type die out of the Olive Green Classic Cardstock included in the kit and glued it on as well. I had ink blended some Forest Moss Distress ink on this piece off camera, prior to gluing it on. 
Next, I took a Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Pen in Midas Touch, covered the fairies that I cut out of black cardstock and I set them aside to dry. For some reason, I have issues with my gold Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Pen clogging. Only the gold one, so I had to squeeze it off to the side of my mat. I squeezed it a little too hard and ended up with a puddle. So, I decided instead of letting it go to waste, I would splatter some of it on the front of this card for even more shine.  It's a little hard to capture on camera, but you can definitely see the little gold splatters in person. Next, I popped up my fairies on foam tape, which was kind of a pain in the rear, since they are so small and have such delicate areas.
I finished off the card front by stamping the sentiment "Have a Magical Day" which is included in the kit. I should have stamped this before I added dimension, but I didn't think of it. I had to stand up and CPR stamp to get this stamped clearly, but I did get it on there. I always seem to forget about the sentiments, especially when adding dimension and find myself in this predicament.

I attached the card front the the circular card base. I made the circular card base by using the large circle die, included in the kit. I placed a small part of the cutting edge off of folded edge of the square card base that I made out of Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb Cardstock that I cut at 5.5in by 11in & folded in half. Lastly, as an afterthought, I did decide to stamp the mushroom image on the inside of the card in dusty concord archival ink. This card is so super sparkly. I wish the camera did it justice!


For the second card, I started by die cutting some flowers & vines from the dies from the kit. I am using some recollections glitter paint in Olive and Red that I got on clearance a little while back. I decided to use watercolor paper when I die cut these pieces, as the paint seemed awfully thin to me and I didn't want me die cuts to warp so bad that they were unusable. Again, the camera just doesn't do these pieces justice. I just kind of dabbed it on with a paint brush. The bottle says to use a flat brush for best results. I am not sure where my flat brush ran off to, but I couldn't find it so I used what I could find. 
Next, I die cut what I like to call the scene frame. I left the negative pieces in and stuck post it note tape to the back so they wouldn't move on me.  I did this to make it easier to color, since it has some rather delicate pieces. I just wanted to lay down a few different colors, instead of everything being all one color this time. I am used Master's Touch alcohol markers from Hobby Lobby.

After all my pieces were dry and ready to be assembled, I took a frame that I cut out of the Pink Chiffon Mirror card using one the the frame dies in the kit and I popped it up on foam tape. I probably should've glued it down flat, as there are some very skinny areas along the sides, top and bottom that I didn't apply foam tape to due to how skinny they were and now they are kind of sagging a bit. Anyways, I applied that frame to a light gray square card base that I had on hand from who knows where. Then I adhered my scene frame die cut in the middle. Which was a little tricky since I had to shimmy in down in the middle of that popped up frame. Another reason why I probably should've glued it flat, but I was able to get that scene frame in there. 
Now, here is where I made another mistake about not thinking about my dimension and how I applied things. I should've applied my vines BEFORE I adhered my popped up frame. Like I said in the last card, I always get myself in these predicaments by not thinking things through thoroughly. I solved my problem by using a stack of post it notes to support my frame while adhering the vines. The flowers were fully supported by the foam tape underneath. So, that wasn't a big deal. But when I was trying to adhere the vines, the frame kept trying to collapse. I did use a ball stylus and foam pad to give my flowers dimension. I love doing this to flowers. It makes them look so much better. 
I also applied my fairies to the card. I applied the sitting fairy to make her look like she was sitting on the mushroom and the flying one on the edge of the frame, again using the post it notes to assist. Both fairies were cut out of the Gleaming Lilac Pearlescent Card included in the kit.

Next, came the sentiment and again, I should've thought that through! This time, I decided to use an acrylic block, instead of my stamp platform. I held my breath the entire time stamping that sentiment, because if it didn't stamp right, there would've been naughty words said, because I am terrible at having to double stamp with an acrylic block and almost always ruin my stamping. By the way, I stamped the sentiment in Stampin Up's Orchid Opulence ink.

My third and final card was somewhat inspired by a friend of mine, Renee and Delaney Jane Cards. She recently did a messy watercoloring card on her youtube channel. If you haven't checked her out, you really should. I had commented on her watercolor card that I hadn't really done a card like that and that every time I see someone do one that I think "I should do that!" So, here I am doing a watercolor wash type background with my Pearlescent Sakura Koi Watercolors. I just felt with the fairy theme, everything had to be sparkly or pearlescent...of course! I found my flat brush, by the way and used it here to apply some greens, blues and purples from the palette.  I did 2 layers and dried after each one with my heat gun. Once I was happy, I carefully removed the tape, after it was completely dry and cut it down to 4 x 5.25in. 

I also cut some fairies and the scene frame again out of black cardstock. I layered these up several times. I think 3 or 4 times so it had some nice dimension & adhered them to my card. This time placing the sitting fairy as if she was sitting on the bottom of the frame. After adhering the fairies, I realized I forgot to make them sparkle! So, I fixed that right up by applying my Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Pen in Glitter Gloss liberally all over them.

 Next, I stamped my sentiment in black soot archival ink. It didn't stamp perfectly the first time. I should've stamped it out a couple times first. So, yes, bad words were probably said. So, I had to hold my breath & try to line it up right over the first stamping. Thankfully, I didn't screw that up! To finish off the card, I applied some Nuvo Dream Drops in Fairy Wings, which were included in the kit.


I love how soft and pearlescent this card turned out and think the silhouettes are a perfect compliment to the background.

That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed it and as always, I hope that you are having a wonderful day. If you enjoyed my video, please be sure to give it a thumbs up and leave me some love in the comments. I always enjoy hearing from you!

Supplies
Card #1 - Circle Card
Many of the included dies in the kit
Homemade Shimmer Spray w/ Perfect Pearls
Black Cardstock from my stash - unknown brand
Neenah Solar White 110lb for Card Base and layers to support the intricate frame
Wishing You a Magical Day Sentiment (Included in Kit)
Foam Squares (there are some included in the kit, but I used some I already had on hand & opened)
Ranger Archival Mini Distress Ink - Black Soot & Dusty Concord

Card #2
5in Premade card base in gray
Dies from the kit
Recollections - Glitter Paint - Olive
Recollections - Glitter Paint - Red
Stampin Up Orchid Opulence
Best Wishes Sentiment (Included in Kit)
Foam Squares (there are some included in the kit, but I used some I already had on hand & opened)

Card #3
Watercolore Paper
Sakura Koi Watercolors - Creative Art Colors (CAC) 24 Set
Black paper from my stash
Dies from the kit
Painters tape
Dream Drops - Fairy Wings (Included in kit)
Ranger Archival Ink - Black Soot
Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb for Card Base 

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