Fabulous Finds Friday: Easy Pop-up Card

Would you believe I have never made a pop-up card? My goodness! It seemed so complicated to me … until I got the Stitched Hillside Pop-Up die from Lawn Fawn:

Of course, I had to play with it ASAP … so I started this card completely backwards with no idea of what I wanted to do. I just wanted to see how the pop-up was created. I cut the die from white card stock and attached it to a white card base, just to see how it fit together and how easy it was to construct. It was so cute I decided to go ahead and create a winter scene.

Here’s the inside:

I stamped and fussy cut trees using some old Hero Arts stamps and stuck them on. Of course, it was still too plain so I added some silver snowflakes (also from Hero Arts). And then the greeting. Totally unplanned; I just kept building the card.

I felt kinda dumb, because now I had a plain white front that would be difficult to stamp on. But then … ta da! … I watched this great Lawn Fawn tutorial and I loved the way Kelly Marie created a belly band for the front of her card! So simple!

And now I’m hooked! It’s not the greatest card, but it was fun and surprisingly easy — a good learning experiment!

Thanks for tuning in.

 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here are a few more Valentines … enjoy! I hope your day is was sweet!

I’m so crazy about Tim Holtz’s Crazy Birds (Stampers Anonymous) and the accessories pack. I’m also crazy about my new *Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors (I have six, but now I want more!). What better time to combine these two products?

I started this card by playing around with these delicious watercolors. I used Deep Pink and a touch of Carmine Red to create the background on watercolor paper. The colors are so rich I found myself diluting them with more water to get softer shades.

While the background was drying I stamped the sassy bird on Tim Holtz Watercolor Card stock (smooth side) in VersaFine and painted her with the watercolors. The hat was stamped separately and painted with Distress Ink Fossilized Amber; the rose and the ribbon on the box with more red. (The rose, the ribbon, and the details on the bird were later highlighted with Kuretake’s Wink of Stella Pink and Dark Pink. Oh, how I Wink of Stella!)

I cut the watercolor paper to fit on a tan card, edged it with VersaMark and Judikins’ Egyptian Gold powder (love the sparkle!), and affixed it to the card front. For my last step, I die cut Technique Tuesday’s  adorable *Heart Strings from gold paper scraps and glued them on top. How sweet is this card? Oh yeah … and I stamped the sentiment using *Stampin’ Up’s! Bloomin’ Love set. (You’ll see the coordinating die set used in my earlier Valentine cards here.) The sentiment is perfect for my “gal-entine” cards that went to my BFFs.)

Here’s another version using the same materials (and the other die in the Technique Tuesday Heart Strings set. See how I got some extra hearts?)

One more quick card using the Heart Strings in a different way:

The adorable bird (Love Bird by Cath Edvalson) is also from Technique Tuesday. The sequins are from Lawn Fawn. The sentiment from *Stampin’ Up! Bloomin’ Love. 

 

*These products were generously donated by the companies. See this note.

(This post was written on Feb. 13, but then I lost it all!!! Aaargh. )

Valentine Heart

I’m taking a brief break from CHA reporting to delve into Valentine’s Day! This is probably my favorite card making holiday. (Last year I sent 40 Valentines, each one just a bit different) to my best gal buddies.

Here’s the first of this year’s batch, a quick-and-easy heart in non-traditional colors:

So easy! I die cut the heart (Hero Arts) three times from white card stock, glued the three together and embossed the top with WOW! gold glitter powder.

I built my card base (using some older card stock from Stampin’ Up!) and affixed the heart on top. The banner was stamped (old Hero Arts sentiment) on white scrap paper, trimmed, and affixed with thin foam squares. Easy peasy!

Fast & Easy New Year Card

I don’t always get my Christmas cards out in time (and forget Hanukkah … even though it’s eight days long, sometimes the days fly by! Especially if the holiday comes early …)

But, lucky for me, there’s always a second chance to send a winter holiday card for the … New Year!

Here is a fast and easy card I made with my new Simon Says Stamp Quadrangle Frame die:

I doesn’t get much easier. I die cut the frames from gold, black and silver scraps of card stock. Before gluing them down, I gold embossed the Hero Arts sentiment in the lower corner (using Zing! gold glittery powder). I glued the squares in place and added some Sulyn star sequins. My glue of choice for everything was ScraPerfect’s Best Glue Ever, which I have been using a lot lately, finding it a great glue for multiple purposes. (Check it out here and see more of ScraPerfect’s great products on the Web site. I’ll be talking more about their products in a future post.)

Thanks for stopping by, and Merry Christmas to all.

More Ornament Cards

Once I had my ornaments cut out from Stampin’ Up’s Delicate Ornaments die set (as mentioned in my last post!) it was fast, easy and fun to create the cards. Here are some more:

First, I created the holly background using a large Hero Arts stamp, stamped in VersaMark and embossed in Judikins Detail Metallic Gold powder. The inside (or base) of the ornament was die cut from an old greeting card, then covered with the red outer piece. A few punched pine sprigs (Tim Holtz punch) gives the impression that the ornament is hanging on a tree (although to be more realistic, I should have die cut the hanger piece that comes in the die set. Sigh.)

I started here by die cutting the ornament from the plaid paper (Paper Source) and again from a scrap of white card stock, which I then heat embossed using Zing! gold glitter embossing powder. I mounted the plaid paper to a white card base, glued in the glittery ornament and added some Ranger red stickles. The sentiment (from (Stampin’ Up’s Embellished Ornaments stamp set, which matches some of the dies) was also gold embossed, layered and added using foam tape.

Thanks for stopping by! But wait … there’s more coming ….

Ornament Cards to “Die” For…

I’ve been having way too much fun with Stampin’ Up!’s ornament stamps and dies (Stampin’ Up and Sizzix.)

The first thing I did was cut various ornaments from a bunch of scrap paper found among the ruins of my desk:

Here’s the first card I made:

When I first tried to cut this die out of self-adhesive glitter paper (Cosmo Cricket) it was a bit of a hot mess — the intricate die did not cut through in some spots. I worked on it with a craft knife but the center was still not clean. So I hid the messy portion behind a decorative piece that comes with the die set! (I also went for an ombre look using Ranger’s Distress Ink Broken China with mediocre success.)

And then I learned that I needed a precision cutting pad for these intricate pieces. And oh, what a difference that made!

Here’s a detailed look and the not-so-clean piece:

(I added some Ranger silver Stickles to the middle piece, which also did not cut cleanly.)

Look how much cleaner it cut using the Sizzix Precision Base Plate:

That pretty background is made using the Stampin’ Up/Sizzix Softly Falling embossing folder. (I edged the embossed piece with Delicata Golden Glitz, but I don’t really like the edging and will leave it off others.) (The Merry Christmas sentiment is from an old Hero Arts set; everything else is from Stampin’ Up!)

Stay tuned for more cards made with this ornament set.

Multi Media Valentine

This card started with the mess on my desk. I wanted to play with some new product from Faber-Castell and Ranger … and I wanted to make Valentine’s Day cards.

Here’s how it happened.

I started by playing with some Faber-Castell Gelatos (read more here, here and here). I rubbed some color on my craft sheet then spritzed with water to create a paint, which I spread on watercolor paper. I knew I wanted some texture, so I stamped it with Old Letter from Hero Arts:

Next step was to die cut the hearts (using an old Sizzix die):

I REALLY wanted to try the new Cracked Pistachio Distress Stain Spray from Ranger, so I masked a stripe along the edge of a piece of Ranger Watercolor cardstock. (I tore a long strip of low-tack painter’s tape to create the mask.)

You’ll notice there’s some background stamping goin’ on there, too. After I sprayed the card, it felt bland, so I used Wendy Vecchi’s Archival Watering Can and a Stampendous! stamp to add some interest.

Note that the stamp is a rectangle, but I didn’t want hard lines, so I inked just random portions.

Next, I needed a sentiment. I tried various inks and paints (including the new Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint) but finally went with the Watering Can grey for the contrast.

I edged the hearts with gold metallic marker and added some Doodlebug Designs sequins to finish the look. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Hannukah!

I’m a day late, but happy Hannukah to those who celebrate this fun Festival of Lights!

This card was so fast and easy to make!
White cardstock was run through a Cuttlebug swirls embossing folder. The Star of David (American Art Stamp) was embossed using Judikins Aegean Silver (one of my favorite silvers), cut out and popped up using foam squares. The little banner was a leftover scrap from another project.

Happy Hannukah!

Boo! Gearing up for Halloween

Yes, ghosts and goblins are in the air as card makers gear up for Halloween!

Here are some quick cards using Bella Blvd’s new Halloween Magic papers:

Simple, but cute (and hot diggity, I used up some scraps!) I cut out the Best Witches, punched a few circles from some leftover paper (from the same set) and added it all together, using a few foam squares for added texture. Trick or Treat was stamped using a set from Close To My Heart. The “Halloween Magic” strip is the title on the 12×12 sheet. (Way to use everything!!!)

The same sheet also gave me this cutie:

Happy Halloween is from the same CTMH set as the small trick or treat. Such a useful set!

More to come!

Hearts, Hearts Everywhere!

Can you stand a few more Valentines?

This card should really be a Fabulous Finds Friday because I love this new Stephanie Barnard banner die from Sizzix.
The background is made using a Tim Holtz embossing folder. And I’m sure you noticed my oopsie — the peek of a staple. Sigh.

Originally, I thought it would be cute to staple the banners on the top of my card, using my Tiny Stapler. But it looked too unfinished:

So I added a piece of ribbon. But it looks like one staple got the best of me. Oh, well. Warts and all, that’s what you get here.

This is a fun one made during a card making workshop at the Paper Source:

(Lousy photo — and taken of the wrong card!) In the original, the Hero Arts arrow background was gold embossed on white card stock. The Paper Source heart was punched with a heart punch then run through a Xyron. Stampendous! Gold Halo glitter was generously applied to the now sticky heart. A piece of red glitter paper was glued down on the card base and the glittered heart was placed so the red glitter showed through. The heart was placed using Therm O Web foam pop-ups.

Whew! Valentine’s Day is almost here… and I’ll have just a few last minute cards to show.
Thanks for sticking with me.