Meow… the Book

Last year I made a going-away booklet for a friend who loves cats. This was so fun and easy! I gave all our co-workers pages to decorate, then put the book together using my (We R Memory Makers) Cinch binding machine.

Take a look at a few of the pages:

The front and back covers were made the same way. I cut down chipboard to 5×6 and covered them with pages from an old book. I cut out these fabulous cat pictures from a piece of Cavallini Vintage Cat gift wrap (bought at the Paper Source). The pages were edged with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress ink.

Here’s the inside of that cover:

And the back cover, inside and outside:

Here’s one example of an inside page. I used scraps to create the background then stamped this Magenta cat, cut her out and glued her on.

(for more on this mosaic background technique, go here and here.)

This was such a fun project, and a true labor of love. Sadly, I didn’t take any photos of the book when it was put together. Bummer.

Thanks for stopping by.

Fabulous Finds Friday — Lawn Fawn

I’m usually a “clean and simple” kind of stamper, but when I got this Let’s Play set from Lawn Fawn, I couldn’t resist creating a scene! (All products from *Lawn Fawn.)

Here’s my first card:

Who could resist?

The first thing I did was stamp everything (mostly on scrap pieces). The birds, dog, butterfly, swing and flowers were stamped in black VersaFine on white cardstock, colored and cut out using the matching dies. (Usually, I’m an avid “fussy-cutter,” I love to sit in front of the TV and cut out images! But the dies made this project so much easier!)

The tree was stamped twice — once on the brown paper, once on the green (from Let’s Polka. Mon Amie pad.) The tree and the top were hand cut (as opposed to die cut) so I could trim them as I wanted. The swing set and slide were stamped and embossed in black powder on silver cardstock. The flags were die cut using Stitched Journaling die, the grassy hill die cut using Stitched Hillside Borders.

Then came the fun part — putting it all together on blue cardstock.

First, I glued down the grassy hill shapes. Then I played with the pieces to see where everything fit. Once I was happy with the layout, I glued everything down. I popped up the tree top with foam tape, stamped the tail of the butterfly directly on the card front, and drew in the lines for the banner.

I don’t often create scenes, but this was fun. Stay tuned for another card using Lawn Fawn’s Stuck on You cactus set (which is featured in this month’s Craftideas magazine.)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

*Disclaimer: product provided by Lawn Fawn.

Today’s Technique — Bright and Cheery

Today’s technique is an oldie but goody that I learned years ago, then refined through the beautiful examples at Art Impressions. (More on Art Impressions to come in another post.) It uses the ink pad itself as the coloring agent. I gave it a bit of an update by using these delicate flowers from Altenew’s Persian Motif set.

I stamped the flowers in a random pattern using Imagine Crafts Kaleidacolor Spectrum multi-color ink pad. Then I used a water brush to carefully make the ink bleed into the design. Because the delicate outline design doesn’t hold much ink, the bleed here is subtle. You can see the difference on the “Hello” portion, where I dragged the edge of the die cut (Sizzix word label die) directly across the rainbow ink pad.

The “hello” sentiment is also from Altenew, from the Halftone Hello set. Love this set!

After the panel dried I edged it with black marker, added the self-adhesive Basic Grey paper ribbon on the left side and attached the panel to my card front (a discontinued Paper Source square card I cut down so it opens from the top). The sentiment was popped up with foam dots and I added a few Robin’s Nest Dew Drops to the bottom using Glossy Accents.

The next card uses the largest image from the same set:

The flower was heat embossed in black and colored with Distress markers (scribbled on a craft sheet and picked up with my water brush). I couldn’t resist adding a Wink of Stella glitter to the centers of the flower. The flower was then fussy-cut and set aside while I built the card using a papaya cardstock from the Paper Source. The lattice die is from Spellbinders. The sentiment was white embossed on a piece of scrap papaya paper, cut into a flag and mounted, aligned with the left side of the card front. The flower was the final step, mounted with Tombow Power Adhesive to the front of the card.

Thanks for visiting!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Technique Tuesday

I finally got to play with this fun license plate set (stamps with a matching die) from Technique Tuesday. I love this set because it is hip enough for any age or gender — great for kids, teens, men, dads, etc. And it’s versatile, useful for everything from birthday to graduation.

First, of course, I had to play with the die:

Isn’t that the cutest thing? I did a quick cut from a piece of scrap silver cardstock and stamped the coordinating image inside. (I made a card, but mailed it before I took a photo! Doh!)

Here’s another version I made using just the stamps (background stamped in Hero Arts Wet Cement ink:

The license plate was stamped in VersaFine Black and colored in with a silver metallic pencil (I’m not thrilled with that look, but live and learn). the “UR GR8” is from the die cut set.

I’ve just started playing with this set* and look forward to getting lots of use from it!

(*Disclaimer: this set was thoughtfully provided by Technique Tuesday. Thank you!)

Puzzle-icious Die Cutting

I love using dies that create inset pieces. Putting the pieces together reminds me of doing puzzles as a child, which I loved to do.

Here are some quick cards that show how fun and easy it is to create cards using simple die cuts.

I went crazy over these Highlight Frames from Simon Says Stamp.

First, here’s a look at the three shapes that come in the set.

I placed the dies on a piece of scrap silver cardstock and cut the shapes.

I then used the dies on various other scraps and inserted those pieces into the silver base to create this card:

(Sorry for the wonky photo!) To insert the pieces I first put a piece of packing tape on the back of the large silver piece. I put the tape so the sticky part would be face up as you looked at the card, showing through as you look at it. Then I carefully inserted the die cut pieces into the cut portion — just like fitting together a puzzle. The pieces stuck to the tape. (Hope that makes sense!)

I then attached the entire piece to the front of my card.

Here are two other examples:

This one is a bit different because I didn’t inset the die cuts, I just glued them to the front. As you can see, this method made it a bit tricky to get the lines down straight. I need to work on that!

The dies are quite versatile in that you can turn them to use in different directions.

After doing all that die cutting, I had some random leftovers. So what’s a gal to do? Make tags of course!

How cute are those tags?

Thanks for stopping by! Want more die-cutting insets? Check out these postings here and here.