Rose Are Red … and Yellow … and Easy

I am addicted to these Rose Flurries dies from Altenew. Absolutely addicted.

Now, you know nothing makes me happier than using up my paper scraps. And then making pretty things. These dies let me do it all.

First, check out the card:

(Cover die is Altenew’s Watercolor Stripes over a watercolored background. Sentiment is from Altenew’s Persian Motif set. Gems from Studio Katia.)

As you can see if you look at the dies, there are a LOT of them in this set. So here’s what I did to keep them straight:

First, I used a Sharpie to label the back of each die (yes, they are skinny!) according to their set (1, 2, 3, etc.). Then I added letters to show the layering order (a, b, c, d). So it looks something like this:

While I was cutting, I separated the dies and the pieces in a box top. This helped me keep track of the dies and the pieces:

After all that cutting, I stored them in little baggies, which makes putting them together so much easier!

And now I have a nice stash of dies for easy card making!

Altenew Floral Congrats Card

I am having so much fun with these dies from Altenew!

This card is almost all Altenew — the floral dies are from the Fantasy Floral 3D die set, the background texture is thanks to the Watercolor Stripes Cover die. The sentiment is from Altenew’s Persian Motifs stamp set. 

This card was so easy to put together, especially since I had a frenzy of die cutting of the floral dies (a great way to use up my scraps!). See here for more on this die. It’s so easy and fun to make the flowers ahead of time … and then you are ready to rock and roll when you need a card. They were layered with Therm O Web Zots.

The gems are from Studio Katia. I also added Nuvo Glitter Gloss to the top later of the front flower — but oddly enough, it changed the color and made it more orange. Hmmm…. interesting.

Thanks for stopping by!

Waste Not, Want Not with Foil

Here’s a quick card using foil “leftovers” — the part left behind from my first foiling. (See here, here and here for my earlier foil projects!)

(The celebrate sentiment was cut using a Technique Tuesday die. I cut it several times, stacked the pieces, added Ranger’s Glossy Accents and attached with some foam tape for extra dimension.)

The card above uses the leftovers from the background on this card:

See the foiled star background? That was from the first foiling. I love that the left-over foil could be used for another card. Cool, eh?

Like the others, I used Therm O Web products, in this case Gina K.™  Designs Foil-Mates™  

Thanks for stopping by … and hope you have a Fabulous Friday!

No Piece of Foil Unused!

It’s no secret that I haven’t met a scrap I don’t like. In posts here and here on foiling, I created some cards using various foiling products from Therm O Web. And lo, and behold, I had scraps of foil leftover!

What’s a gal to do? Why use them, of course!

From this card:

(The card above uses the Gina K.™ Designs pre-made Foil-Mates™ toner designs. Love these because I don’t have to worry about finding a laser printer to create my own!)

I had the leftovers of that pretty swirly pattern, which I used here:

™

To create the card, I ran a piece of black cardstock through my Xryon adhesive machine, then put the foil piece (shiny side UP) on top. (I carefully rubbed the piece to make sure it was completely adhered.) I then trimmed the piece and layered it to a black card front. The tag and gold leaves were die cut from bonus pieces in two  Therm O Web™ Gina K. Designs™ die sets.

I still had a tiny scrap left, so I did basically the same thing to create this fast tag:

The sentiment (from Stampin’ Up! Here’s to Cheers set) was gold embossed, the flourishes (from same set) stamped in black.

Thanks for checking in!

Terrific Tags!

Oh, how I love making tags! Check out this new set from Stampin’ Up!

The stamp set is called That’s The Tag and the matching dies are called Timeless Tags Thinlets™ (by Sizzix). I highly suggest getting both sets! These tags are addicting … and a great way to use up scraps. Make them for any occasion!

Here are some close-ups:

You can do simple stamping and coloring ….

… easy layering …

… more layering  (there are several word choices)…

… and use up lots of scraps!

Thanks for stopping by.

Fabulous Finds Friday — Balloon Bonanza

I love dies for so many reasons, but mostly because they make cutting easy and I can often USE UP MY SCRAPS!!!

Which is exactly what I did to with this set of balloon dies (*Party Balloons QF176) from Cheery Lynn. I gathered a bunch of scraps and did some serial die cutting.  Here’s my Cheery Lynn balloon explosion:

And a group shot of a few of the cards:

Once you have the dies cut, these cards come together quickly. Great to have in a card emergency.

A few close-ups:

(Cuttlebug embossing folder)

*(Sorry, I could not find a direct link.)

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Quick All-Purpose Card

Here’s a quick card I made while I was playing with some feather die cuts (from Spellbinders):

 

I haven’t added a greeting because I may use it for a fall birthday (this is a good masculine card) … or it may be for a Thanksgiving hello. The card base is 4 7/8 x about 7″, then folded in half. The bottom embossed design is from a Darice embossing folder. The leaves were cut from random scraps, then the tips were embossed in copper powder. This was so fast and easy!

Thanks for stopping by.

Simple Stories … Cards

Almost a year ago I received some journaling stamps from Simple Stories. These papers sat … and they sat … and they sat some more. This week I decided enough is enough! Use these! Since I am a cardmaker at heart, that’s what I did. And I found these journaling cards  made quick, pretty backgrounds.

I trimmed some the papers to fit the front of my A2 card, then I looked around for images to adorn them. I looked first in my stash of pre-stamped images. Here are two using the Stampin’ Up! layered cupcake set:

(Gave it some bling with yellow Stickles.)

And another using Tim Holtz’s Crazy Bird set (watercolored and hit with some Wink of Stella clear sparkle.)

And one more, using two of the same journaling cards, just using the opposite sides:

These are so easy I’m going to make a few sets to give away as holiday gifts.

Thanks for stopping by!

Book ’em, Again

In a previous post, I showed a book made using a coaster and the Cinch easy binding machine from We R Memory Keepers.

Here’s a different style made using the Zutter Bind-it-all:

I first covered chipboard with a pretty wrapping paper from the Paper Source, making pretty front and back covers.

Here are some inside pages:

I LOVE adding envelopes to these books.

I use this book for samples — here some samples made playing with (then) new inks:

Here’s another book, made using lots of envelopes:

And the cover of that book:

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Book ’em … the Easy Way

I love making little books for various occasions — some I keep, many I give away. But I also love taking the easy way, which I found using two machines: the Cinch by We R Memory Keepers and the Zutter Bind-it-all. Both are good and easy to use.

Here are some projects:

First, this one was made using the Cinch and coasters I picked up for $1!

Here’s a look at the inside and a close-up of the cover:

(I used a lot of scraps to make the inside pages — yay for using scraps!)

Stay tuned for a Zutter-bound book!

Thanks for visiting.