More Valentines, 2018 version

I love these unique dies from Altenew and couldn’t stop making flowers:

The layering die (this one is Fantasy Floral, but you bet the others are on my wish list!) comes in three pieces, plus the leaves. I just went wild cutting pieces out of various card scraps, then I matched up colors:

 

I even played around with embossing and tone-on-tone:

These two were cut from some painted background pieces. The one on the left has Nuvo Aqua sparkle; the one on the right has about three layers of clear embossing powder.

Here’s a close-up:

And a white-on-white (one with sparkles, of course):

Have a lovely Valentine’s Day!

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!

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!

 

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.

Inspired by … My Messy Desk

I think we all know by now that I am crazy about using up my scraps. And that my desk is usually a big fat mess of scraps and tools and ephemera.

Every so often I clean it off. I gather my little pile and challenge myself to use up at least half of it. (The rest I give to a friend or donate to a women’s shelter for art projects.)

Check it out:

This silhouette image (from Technique Tuesday) always makes me smile. Such exuberance! The speckled background is a leftover piece from another, long forgotten play time with color misting. The sentiment is an old one from Hero Arts.

Another leftover background … I believe it was made using alcohol inks. Images from Hero Arts.

Note: Just because these images are discontinued, don’t be discouraged! Substitute a similar image from your own stash!

Thanks for popping in!

More Random Cards

Two more leftover pieces that finally found homes:

 

Fast and simple!

And this one:

 

The backgrounds on the stamped pieces were brayered and the larger background is the same as in the last post.  The images (Stampendous!) were black embossed.

Now these can go off to someone’s mailbox!

 

Quick Cards from Leftovers

Time to clean the desk again … and use up some of those images and papers that seem to reproduce with wild abandon on my desk.

You’ll all recognize Tim Holtz’s Crazy Birds … well, this one is from a mini set. I love the smaller size — perfect for a 4Bar card (about 4 7/8 x 3 1/2, when folded). The background was made by spritzing Heidi Swapp sprays (mustard, chartreuse and sweet cherry). Layered, glued, added some Lawn Fawn sequins, and that’s a wrap! Oh, and a liberal dose of clear Wink of Stella on the bird. Bam!

These frolicking girls (by Crafty Individuals/Magenta)  have always tickled me. This was stamped a while ago on some leftover card stock that was colored using Faber-Castell Gelatos. The card stock, as you can see, is very textured, so the girls didn’t stamp as smoothly as I wanted. But a part of me is okay with the sketchy look. The paper is an old scrap from Paper Source. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Fast & Easy Layered Card

Who can resist a card that is fast and easy to make, and uses up some scraps? Heck, not me.

Stamp set is Hero Arts Color Layering Bird CL866. For the blue flowers in the background, I stamped the first layer with Hero Arts’ Unicorn white pigment ink, then over-stamped with ColorBox Stephanie Barnard blueberry blue die ink.

Tip: When I stamped the blue layer on top of the white, the stamp picked up a bit of the white pigment. To prevent the white from contaminating my pretty blue pad, I off-stamped it before re-inking with the blue. I started off-stamping on scrap paper, then saw how pretty it looked, so went for scrap card stock and created some tags:

Fun, huh?

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Fabulous Finds — New Embossing System

I found a fun new embossing system called Inside Out Embossing Plates (or IOEP for short!) that lets you create several embossed looks by simply switching out some plastic plates.

Here’s what they look like:

Created by Australian crafter Tasha E Armour, who wanted an easier way to do double embossing on her cards, the plates work with most tabletop embossing machines and with most embossing folders. (You can see some excellent videos on her website, teapapercrafts.com.)

Tasha has also created a versatile embossing folder designed specifically for the 9-piece IOEP set, which she promises is only the first of many future designs:

Here’s how it works: Say you want to emboss your card front with only the center oval. You load your paper inside the embossing folder, then use removable tap to attach the center oval piece of the IOEP set to the appropriate area on the outside of the embossing folder. (Sorry, I didn’t take a photo of this step!) The center oval piece presses down on that area so that the oval is the only thing embossed. Hope that makes sense!

Take a look. Here is an example of using the entire embossing plate:

Pretty, right?

But for my next card, I wanted space for a sentiment in the center, so I used the rectangle piece that covered the corners and the piece that covered the larger oval:

When applying the plates, think about which areas you want embossed. That’s where you apply the plates. (It almost sounds counter-intuitive, but picture it as if you are pressing down on those areas to get an impression — that’s what the plates do.)

I trimmed the piece, heat embossed a sentiment in the center and mounted in on tan card stock:

Playing around with the folder and the plates (which are made in the USA from a semi flexible plastic) I created a small decorative piece using the smaller oval and the inside design:

I cut the oval using Spellbinders’ Classic Ovals Small S4-112 (one of the first dies I ever bought!) and mounted it on a tiny tag (actually a pre-scored place card from Paper Source. Love these for tags!) The background was stamped using Hero Arts’ Unicorn white pigment ink and Hero Arts’ Pearl Strings Bold Prints stamp.

Tasha says there are 31 different combos for the IOEPs — but I think I found a 32nd design! Check out the two embossed lines on this card:

To create those lines, I used the outside frame. I put just one side of my card stock in the folder, ran it through, and repeated the step. I trimmed the piece and applied it to front of a 3 1/2 x 4 3/4 (4bar) folded card. The cute pot is one of my new favorite dies (flower pots B667) from Cheery Lynn and the flower stamp is an old one from Memory Box. I put a scrap of glitter paper behind the opening in the pot before mounting it.

I haven’t had a chance to try the IOEP set with other embossing folders, but that’s in the works, and I look forward to some new designs from Tasha!

 

 

Happy Craft Month!

March is National Craft Month! Imagine, an entire month to celebrate making things!

I’m starting the month right with some cards featuring new “layering” items from Hero Arts.

First up is this great layering die, Large Lotus (Hero Arts DI 161). This die, like the other layering dies in the release (pineapple, star, etc.) is designed to just partially cut an image. (Although it doesn’t have to be limited to  a partial cut, as I’ll show you below.)

In this card, I used the die as it was meant to be used, with just certain portions die cut so you can pop up the leaves. Cute, eh? After cutting the panel, I decided I wanted to layer on some color, so I created a mask by cutting the die on plain copy paper.

To get the center “hole” I simply cut the flower out by carefully snipping the edges of the outer petals.

Which led to an aha! moment … wait for it…

I colored the lotus using Stephanie Barnard’s ColorBox die inks Banana, Tangerine and Guava. Here’s a close-up:

I couldn’t resist adding some clear Wink of Stella for extra sparkle.

I edged the white panel with gold Delicata ink and glued it on this Stampin’ Up! card stock (being careful not to put glue on the popped up petals! I added some Doodlebug Designs sequins and the sentiment. “Sending,” (Simon Says Stamp die SSSD111432), was cut from white card stock then colored using a black Wink of Stella pen. The rest of the sentiment is from an old Hero Arts Mini Message set CL307.

OK, now I can show you how I cut out the lotus and used it as I would any other die cut piece:

I die cut the lotus from some watercolored scraps leftover from another project, carefully snipped where the petals were connected to the paper and layered it over this embossed background, the new Em-Bossing Fold’ers Grid from Spellbinders®… such a contemporary pattern! Love it! I edged that panel using a gold metallic marker, added a sentiment (Hero Arts) and some gems.

Here’s another version, again using leftovers (old alcohol ink coloring), and put it on a gift tag using Glue Dots™:

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy a month of crafting!