Showing posts with label Card. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Card. Show all posts

Thursday, November 13, 2008

My Favourite Things...Nestabilities

I've been neglectful of my poor blog this past week. Crazy work schedule and teething babies have unfortunately conspired against my creative pursuits...

Anyway - I'm back and I thought it might be fun to feature some of my favourite tools from time-to-time. I'm starting with Nestabilities from Spellbinder and over the next few posts I'll show you ten fun and fabulous things you can do with your Nestabilities.

The first time I saw these fantastic dies I was blown away and knew I had to have them as part of my tool collection. They are a great addition to any paper crafter's tool kit. Why, you might ask?

1. They are very easy to use - they work in almost all die cutting systems. The new packaging even has instructions for using them with different die cutter machines such as Cuttlebug, Revolution and Sizzix.


2. They are very light weight, small and easy to store. I can store between six and twelve of these dies in one CD case. Can you imagine translating that many die shapes into punches? The storage alone would be overwhelming.

3. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes - with usually five to six sizes of each shape in a package. They coordinate with one another so you can make double and triple mats.

4. Not only can you die cut the shape - but you can also emboss it! What versatility.


10 Great Things You Can Do with Your Nestabilities

#1: Make interesting card bases.

You can use your Nestabilities to make great card bases. There are a couple of ways to do this.


You can use a large Nestability die to make a card base. The Megabilities are great for this purpose. Here I'm using the largest of the long rectangle dies.


Die cut you paper, emboss if you desire and then fold your card in half. The card base is about 3 1/8" x 3 1/8" square.


Another way to make a card base with your Nestabilities is to place a pre-scored card over your die with the fold just below one edge of your die. I use removable tape to tape the card in place so it doesn't slip around when you make your Cuttlebug sandwich. Both layers of the folded cardstock should be on top of the die.


Run it through your die cutting machine and you have a great card base with a unique shape. I tend not to emboss these cards as the embossing won't go all the way around the front of the card (because of the gap at the top).


You can make card bases using any of your Nestability dies. Here is one using a large scalloped rectangle die.


And here is another using a large scalloped circle die.


Nestabilities are very easy to store. As mentioned earlier in the post, the majority of mine are stored in CD cases - usually two sets per case. I line the cases with adhesive magnetic paper and then pop the dies inside.

My larger dies (Megabilities) are too large to fit into CD cases so I've covered a hanging board with magnetic sheets and stick them up there. They hang over my craft desk so they are easy to access.


Here are a few simple cards I made using the card bases cut from the my Nestabilities.


Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzil, SU!, Papertrey Ink), Stamps (Technique Tuesday - Decoration an Rejoice sentiment, SU! - snowflakes, Amuse Artstamps - elf and Merry Christmas sentiment), ribbon, Cuttlebug embossing folder, embossing powder, Copic markers, ink (SU!, Adirondak, VersaMark)


Tomorrow I will showcase another fun way to use this great tool!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Ice Cream Penguin Christmas Card

I was very fortunate to receive a gift subscription of the Technique Junkies newsletter this year after they used one of my tutorials/techniques in the November issue. In any case, I thought it would be great to take advantage of the fabulous projects and techniques in the newsletter and try out some new tricks.

This Christmas card uses the "Cuttlebug Highlight" technique from the November issue. I sparkled it up a bit by added some warm highlight glitter to the white ink while it was still wet.

This is a pretty simple card but I always love the traditional white, green, red combination for Christmas. Its also the first time I've used my Argyle embossing folder! I know...its not traditionally Christmas but I think it works here.

Supplies: Cardstock (SU, Bazzill, PTI), Stamp (Whipper Snapper), embossing folder (Cuttlebug), epoxy tag (Making Memories), ribbon, die cuts (Nestabilities), Copic Markers, ink (SU! - white craft, Adirondak - pitch black)

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Christmas Countdown: Card Party

A few times a year I host a little card-making party/card class with some co-workers and friends. I always do one for the holiday season and my next one is coming up fast! Next week in fact. I've started putting together the card kits for the class and thought I would share the designs I'm doing for this year.


This is a technique that I've shown before - the masked glitter background, but I thought it might be worth repeating as the possibilities with this technique are quite exhaustive.


I went to my LSS today to pick up a very specific item - large chipboard snowflakes. Darned if I could find them but I'm glad I asked the ladies there because they suggested that I use the diecutting machine and make my own. Well, I guess I've been living in the dark, because in all the years I've been papercrafting, I've never used the big Ellison diecut machines in the LSS. In any case, I bought a bunch of grungeboard (if you've never seen this stuff -check it out - very cool) and cut myself a bunch of nice snowflakes. I was very impressed.


The grungeboard has subtle patterns embossed into it so its pretty fun stuff. You can ink this up with your stamp pad or paint it as I did to give it some colour. Colour it to match your project - its quite versatile that way. I'm using Adirondak dauber painters. Once you've painted them, leave them to dry while you work on the rest of the card.


For the glitter masking you will need a piece of cardstock about 2.75 x 5.5 inches and some double sided adhesive tape to cover it. This is scor-tape. You can purchase it from the Scor-pal online store. Put the tape onto your cardstock and press it down. Leave the cover on for now.


Cut out your mask images from another piece of tape cover using punches or die cuts. I'm using a variety of snowflake punches and small circles from my hole punch. Its important to use the tape cover for this step so they don't stick to your tape.


Peel off the tape cover and lay down your design using your cut out shapes. DO NOT TOUCH THE TAPE with your fingers!!! If you do, the oils from your hands will make it not so sticky. Use tweezers or other tools to place your images. You do not need to press them down - just lightly place them on the tape background.


Lay down your first layer of glitter. This will be your background colour. I'm using silver Glitter Ritz glitter. Once you have your background colour down, brush off the loose glitter using a makeup brush and pour back into the jar. Then peel off the next layer of images to put down your second colour.


I'm using Gunmetal Glitter Ritz glitter to create a shadow effect behind my snowflakes (which will be the foreground colour). This is quite subtle but adds a bit of dimension to your background. Brush off excess as above and peel off your final layer of images.


The last layer I put down was white Glitter Ritz glitter. Here is how the final background looks once the excess glitter has been brushed away. Be sure to burnish your glitter by rubbing your finger over the entire surface. That will really make it shine.


Make yourself a base card of 8.5x5.5" cardstock folded in half. Trim your glittered background to 2.5" and add a navy or dark blue cardstock mat to it (3x5.5"). Glue to the card front. Use glue dots to attach your large snowflake and then use a pop dot or foam square to attach another snowflake on top. I added a few spots of glitter to my large snowflake with a glue pen and then a clear rhinestone to the centre of the small snowflake. Add a sentiment and you're done!

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzil - swiss dot white, SU! - nearly navy), Grungeboard (snowflakes), glitter (Glitter Ritz), stamps (Sunshine Designs), punches, double sided adhesive (Scor-tape), paint (Adirondak), Ink (Adirondak).

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Go Glitter or Go Home


Just a short post tonight. I'm trying to get back into the swing of blogging (and crafting of course!) so I will try and post more regularly. This card was done for yesterday's Technique Lover's Challenge on SCS which was to create a glittered background with a background stamp and glitter.
I decided to use a Stampin' Up! wheel rather than a background stamp on this card. I wheeled on the design with Versamark ink and then sprinkled it with Heat and Stick Powder. After heating that I added the glitter (Glitter Ritz Regal Red).
I love this little "Deer Friends" set from Stampin' Up! I have the Halloween version of this set and I've used it a lot so I was dying to get this one. I received this as a gift from a lovely friend and I'm just adoring it.
Supplies: Cardstock (Stampin' Up!, Bazzill), Stamps (Stampin' Up, Paper Salon), Ink (Versamark, SU! Riding Hood Red and Kiwi Kiss - love 'em!), glitter (Glitter Ritz), ribbon, Nestabilities, rhinestones (Heidi Swapp)

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Baby Turns One! Birthday Party Invites


At the risk of being labelled weird (or worse), I want to admit up front that these are probably not your "traditional" birthday party invitation for a baby turning one... That being said, I love how these turned out and I'm so happy to be able to throw a Halloween themed party for my little cuddlepumpkin.

Because my daughter was born in mid-October, and Halloween happens to be one of my favourite holidays, I felt fully justified in putting together a Halloween party to celebrate her first birthday. After all, before I know it she'll be old enough to pick out her own theme and I'll probably be knee deep in Dora the Explorer or Disney Princesses or Soccer Stars (who knows what she'll be into...) and I won't have any say in the matter. Until then, its Halloween baby!

This is such a cute stamp from Stamping Bella. The pumpkin costume is flocked with Doodlebug Crushed Velvet. I used this in my last card (way back in August...) and I just can't get enough of this stuff. What's great about it is that while its thick and soft its also translucent so the black detail lines of my stamp still show through. Its really hard to show just how neat this stuff is in a photo but I would recommend giving it a try if you find some at your local LSS. I'm looking foward to using this on some Christmas cards - I think a red flocked suit on Santa would be fun, fun, fun!

I also had a good excuse to pull out my new Cuttlebug folders for this card. I love the new releases - there are some fantastic designs.

Supplies: Stamps (Stamping Bella, Paper Salon), embossing folder (Cuttlebug), punch (Martha Stewart), cardstock (Bazzill, Stamping Up!), ink (Adirondak, Stampin' Up!), flock (Doodlebug), Copic Markers


Here's a photo of my soon-to-be one-year-old. She's a ball of energy and just about as nutty as her mom (according to her Dad...). My husband likes to mess up her hair and take goofy pictures of her.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Flocked and Torn Halloween Card

Do you ever have that experience of going into a craft store and finding some nifty new product and then wondering to yourself "am I ever going to use this if I buy it"? So that was me today. Crazy day, needed to blow off some steam, went to one of my LSSs while waiting for my pizza and there I saw it...Doodlebug flock. Now, I've bought flock before but I'd never seen any in the beautiful assortment of colours that Doodlebug has put out. I had to have it. Four, five, six colours went into my basket. On my second trip through the store, some came out. Can't be greedy now...what if I don't like it... I settled on orange, black and lime green since my up-and-coming projects are mostly Halloween...

Anyway, long shopping story short, I really love this stuff. Its not like any of the flocks I've used before. Its fine and soft to the touch and leaves a beautiful texture on your project.
Here's my first attempt at using it. Forgive the blended colours - I'm experimenting here. Actually, it works with this card because I kind of have a grungy thing going on here. This card was also for today's "Ways to Use It" challenge on Splitcoast which asked us to use torn paper.
For the flocked bits I laid down a piece of double sided adhesive and then put diecut bats over top of it. I flocked with the orange first, removed the bats and then flocked with the black. The flock does adhere to itself a bit so its not a completely clean background but I like the texture it creates on the card.
Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzill), Paper (BoBunny Press), Stamp (Inkadinkado), ribbon (May Arts), Flock (Doodlebug), Diecut (Quickutz - bat), ink (Adirondak, Ranger)




Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Same Stamp, Same Layout, Three Cards

So in my re-entry into the blogging world I thought I might share with you a little dilemma that I often struggle with. For lack of a better term, let's call it "stamp fatigue". I have a large stamps collection...a very large collection. One might say that I have a slight addiction to stamps (okay, okay...maybe more than slight). Although I've been an idle stamper and blogger over the past month, I've been far from idle in my craft room as I've taken on the task of unmounting my entire collection to make some space. But more about that later...

I think its easy to fall into a rut with stamps and use them the same way over and over again. I thought it might be neat to try and use the same stamp, the same layout but different materials to achieve three different looks. I'm the first to admit that none of these cards is knock down fabulous - they are all very simple and I deliberately stayed away from embellishments for this exercise. The purpose of this experiment was to try and achieve a different and look and feel with the same image. I picked a Whipper Snapper Santa particularly because these stamps are so whimsical and fun and for that very reason I tend to pair them with bright colours.

This first example is typical of what I would do with this type of stamp. I've coloured the image with Copic Markers - nice and bright and sunshiney (is that a word even?). I've paired it with a whimsical Christmas printed paper, a bright yellow ribbon and a red card base. All and all very simple but fun. This would be an easy card to mass produce for the holidays (except for the colouring).

Supplies: Stamp (Whipper Snapper), Paper (Creative Imaginations), Cardstock (Bazzill, PTI), Copic Markers, ribbon, ink (Palette)

For my next attempt I wanted to try something a little more "elegant" which is not what I would normally do with a stamp like this. I started with a gold embossed Christmas paper because I thought it would lend a little "class" to the card. I've used a cream coloured paper for the stamped image and added accents of colour instead of colouring in the whole image. The moustache and eyebrows are filled in with Liquid Applique which was puffed up with the heat gun. The stamp is outlined in gold glitter and I also used the glitter to fill in the word "believe". Instead of a single ribbon I lined up three dark green ribbons in a row for a little more visual interest. I like how this turned out, although I would probably colour in the whole image next time - he looks a little pale... Mind you, I guess there's not that much sun up there in the North Pole.

Supplies: Stamps (Whipper Snapper, Amuse Artstamps), Paper (Sandylion), Cardstock (PTI, Bazzill), ribbon, glitter (Glitter Ritz), Liquid Applique, Nestabilities, Ink (Palette)



For this final card I wanted to try something a little more "shabby chic" so I kept to a black and white theme with a little red as an accent. The stamp is stamped onto a textured black paper and then I used a white detail embossing powder to make it pop. The ribbon behind the card is red with black edges and there are two pieces of black ribbon tied to it on the top and bottom. Again, very simple. You could really use any monochromatic colour scheme for this type of card.

Supplies: Stamps (Whipper Snapper, Amuse Artstamps), Paper (Scrapworks), ribbon, embossing powder, ink (Versa, Stazon)



Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

PTI Guidelines Thank You Cards...

Long time no post. I was four days away without access to internet but I do have to say - how lovely to just be able to spend time with family, enjoy the beautiful sunshine. We had a lovely long (well, sort of) weekend here on the West Coast of Canada. Canada Day fell on a Tuesday this year making for a somewhat weird holiday weekend, but judging from the traffic on the highways, I'm sure a lot of folks took the Monday off as well.

When I got home, I found my PTI order had made it to my mailbox so I was eager to open it up and explore my goodies. Just a little card tonight but I'm sure I will have more to share with the lovely sets I received.

I used the new PTI Guidelines set to make this card. This set must have been popular in the last release because I got a notice saying it was "back in stock". I suppose they must have sold out once already!

This is a really lovely and versatile set, although definately a bit more work then a simply stapming with a background set. The wonderful thing about this set is that you can make an infinate number of backgrounds with the stamps provide.

The cardstock (Plum Pudding, Sweet Blush) and the ribbon (Plum Pudding) is also PTI. For this card I stamped Guidelines on white Stamper's Select in Versa ink and then sprinkled it with clear embossing powder. I stamped the gridlines first, heat embossed them, and then added the image stamp for the pattern, sprinkling with embossing powder after five or six "stamps". After the image had been heat embossed I sponged Perfect Plum ink over the entire piece. The ink doesn't stick to the embossed areas when its wet, so by wiping it off you can see the white showing through from beneath.

I like how this turned out although I will definately need more practise with this set to be as skilled with it as Nichole Heady is. It didn't help that I created an extra challenge for myself by essentially stamping with a clear ink on white paper...

The scalloped edge was made with a long rectangle Nestabilities die.

Supplies: Cardstock (PTI), Ink (Versa, PTI), ribbon (PTI), stamps (PTI - Baby Blessings, Guidelines, Wordsworth - sentiment), Nestabilities die, clear embossing powder

On an entirely different note, here's a picture of my daughter showing off her first two teeth. Fortunately she's taken a liking to having her teeth brushed...

Happy Fourth of July to all my American friends who will be celebrating this long weekend!

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Inspiration Challenge - Faux Stained Glass

So I had almost a whole day of card making today as I took part in an afternoon shoebox swap. We made some great cards and I was so inspired that I decided to come home and make even more cards!!!

This is for today's Inpsiration Challenge on SCS. The inspiration source was stained glass windows by Frank Lloyd Wright. I am a huge FLW fan so this was especially meaningful as a challenge for me.

For this card I took a piece of 5x5 acetate/transparency and covered it in a double sided adhesive sheet. Then I laid down a design in nonstick punch outs and stips. The background is a cool highlight glitter. I took off the punch masks one by one and added layers of glitter colour to create the design. Afterwards I cut out a piece of black cardstock for an overlay and attached the window onto the card base with foam mount adhesive to allow light to pass through the "window".

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzill), Stamp (Amuse Artstamp), Ink (Adirondak), Glitter (Glitter Ritz), acetate, double sided tape, rhinestone (Hero Arts).

Friday, June 20, 2008

Card Tutorial - Copic Colouring, Scoring and Glitter Masking

I will warn you that this tutorial is long. I wanted to do a card that incorporated a lot of different techniques for a shoebox swap I'm doing tomorrow so I thought I would "document" its making for the benefit of the other participants. Since I took the photos I may as well post the tutorial to my blog as well.


This card uses three main techniques: scoring, colouring with Copics and glitter masking.


For this card you will need the following items: card base (5.25 x 10.5) scored in centre, card front (5x5), coordinating patterned paper (4.75 x 3 - it will be trimmed later), scraps of white and coordinating cardstock for card front, glitter (transparent base colour and coordinating opaque colour), scoring tool (I've used a scor-pal here), corner punch , stamp of choice, Copic markers (you can use another colouring medium if preferred), embellishments and ribbon of choice.


Cut your card base, cardstock and patterned paper to size. Score your card base in the centre and round the two bottom corners (the fold should be at the top). Use your scoring tool to score a 1/4" border around all four sides of your card front.


Turn your card front 45 degrees and score down the centre and every 1/2 inch in either direction. Start and stop each diagonal score mark at the 1/4" border score lines (don't go all the way to the edge).


Turn your card stock in the opposite direction and repeat the score lines every 1/2".


Your card front piece should look like this when you're finished scoring all the lines. You may want to go over the 1/4" border lines once again once you've finished the diagonal lines. When you have finished scoring, round the two bottom corners of the cardstock.


Select your stamp and find the appropriate sized Nestability to go with it. I usually just put my stamp on the table and hold my dies over it until I find the right size one. You want a size that fits your stamp but that doesn't leave an excessive amount of white space around it. Keep in mind that if you emboss the inner edge that will reduce your stamping space. Also pick out the "matching" scalloped edge die at this time. Die cut the rectangle from white and the scalloped rectangle from a coordinating piece of scrap cardstock with your preferred die cutting machine. (I use a Revolution but a Cuttlebug or Wizard are both perfectly good for Nestabilities)


Because I'm using a pre-cut piece of cardstock to stamp my image, I always use a stamp positioner to ensure that I get my stamp centred on the cardstock. This is not an issue if you are using clear stamps, but for wood mounted stamps these systems are a life saver. There are several different kinds on the market but essentially they all include a flat, clear piece to stamp your image on and a corner piece to push your stamp into. Put your stamp in the corner tightly and stamp down on the flat portion. Then you position your flat portion over your cardstock until the image is in the right place. Once its positioned, fit the corner piece in next to it and remove the flat piece. Be careful not to either move the corner piece or the cardstock. I often tape my cardstock down with removeable adhesive to avoid jostling it by accident.


Make sure that your stamp is butted into the corner of the stamp positioner again and stamp straight down onto your cardstock. And there you have it, a perfectly placed stamp.


These are the Copic markers I have used for the next section: Colouring the stamped image. Additionally I have used a blender pen (0) and two shades of grey.


Now for the colouring. There are probably as many different ways to colour with Copic markers as there are Copic owners so I will show you the way I do it for the purpose of this tutorial. I always start with the lightest colour and fill in the entire section to be coloured with that light colour. In this case I am using YG11 here.


Next I will add the next darkest shade I plan to use to create the shadow areas. A lot of Copic tutorials talk about defining your light source - where your light is coming from. This is important to determine where the lightest and darkest shades of colour will be on your image. In this case my imaginary light source is coming from the top right corner above my turtle. However, remember that shadows also should fall where one element of the image is in front of another. In this case the shell of the turtle is "shadowing" the tops of the turtle's legs and the head of the turtle is "shadowing" the turtle's neck. Make sure to add the darker colour to those areas as well.


Although not required, I have added a third, darker shade to this image to define the darkest areas of shadow - the tops of the legs under the shell and the very top of the turtle's neck.


Finally, take your lightest shade and colour over the entire area again to blend the three colours together. I usually do this with a circular motion of my marker. You can go over the area as many time as your require to blend the colours to your liking. Its hard to go wrong with these markers so don't worry about over-applying the colour.


Here's another example of colouring with the frog part of the image. Remember, the light source should be the same for all parts of your image. I recommend that you use at least two colours for each large area which are several shades apart. Don't use colours really close together or you won't get good shadow definition.


Continue colouring in each part of the image and shade as you go. Your final image should look something like this.


A final step in the colouring process is to "ground" the image using a shadow of some sort. This helps to prevent that look of the image just floating on a white background. I use two or more shades of grey to great a free form shadow under the image. Use the lighter colour to create your shadow, then use a darker colour very close to the image. Afterwards blend them together with the lighter colour. You can also feather the edges of the shadow by blending them with the blender pen so they fade into the cardstock without a defined edge.


After you have finished colouring your image, adhere the white rectangle to its matching scalloped rectangle. I've opted to "pop" mine by using a dimensional adhesive but that is completely optional.


The next step in this card is to create the sentiment and sentiment background which will go on the bottom part of the card. I am using a piece of 4.75" x 3ish" patterned paper for my sentiment piece. This glitter technique requires that you have some diecut letters to mask off an area of the background. I recommend that you take the letters you plan on using and place them on the paper to ensure you have enough space. I'm using Quickutz Cookie Cutter dies here (Rockstar) but you can use any letter dies (Cuttlebug, Sizzix) for this technique.


Place a piece of double sided tape over your patterned paper and press down to adhere securely to the paper. Take a SPARE piece of tape covering (don't use the one from the piece of tape you've just adhered as you will need it later), and die cut your letters from the tape cover. You must use the tape cover and not another material because its important that the letters do not stick to your tape permanently.


Remove the tape cover from your patterned paper and set aside. Place your diecut letters carefully on top of the tape in the position you want them. DO NOT TOUCH THE TAPE WITH YOUR FINGERS!!! The oils from your hands will prevent the glitter from sticking to the tape. Use tweezers or a Quickutz tool to carefully place the diecut letters.


Gently place the piece of tape cover you put aside back on the paper and rub to press the letters into the tape so they don't fall off when you apply your glitter. Be careful not to touch the tape with your hands.


Remove the tape cover and apply the clear/transparent glitter (here its Glitter Ritz warm highlight) over the entire surface of the tape. Pick up the piece and gently tap off the excess glitter. I do this over a piece of paper so that I can tip the leftover glitter back into the glitter bottle.


This is what you will end up with. The transparent glitter will highlight the paper while still allowing the pattern to show through. Where the diecut letters are there is still bare tape so you can apply your next shade of glitter. Remove the diecut shapes carefully with tweezers and apply your next shade of glitter (I used Glitter Ritz orange). Tap off the excess and use a makeup brush to brush any stray pieces. Pour the remainder back into the bottle.


This is what your glittered piece will look like. Use the tip of your finger to rub or burnish the glitter to a nice shine. Don't worry about rubbing it off - it will stick well to the double sided adhesive.


Trim your paper to just the glittered portion and use a corner rounder to round the two bottom corners


Adhere the patterned paper sentiment to the bottom of the scored cardstock front.


If desired, add a ribbon to the top of the patterned paper. There are probably a million ways to tie a ribbon on a card but this is how I do it. Run a line of adhesive across the area where you want to attach the ribbon. Leaving a slight overhang on each end, secure the ribbon and bring the excess into a loop above where you want your bow/tie to be. Clip the ribbon in the middle of the loop. Tie into a knot or bow and secure the overhang on the back of the cardstock with adhesive.


This is what it will look like.


Adhere your card front to the card base and then add your stamped image. Embellish as desired. On this card I've used Prima flowers with Dew Drop centres.


Supplies: Cardstock (Prism, PTI, Bazzill), Patterned Paper (Chatterbox) Ink (Adirondak), Nestabilities, Quickutz (letter dies), ribbon, Prima flowers, Glitter (Glitter Ritz), double sided adhesive, Dew Drops, Copic Markers, Scor-Pal, corner rounder.