Layering With Dies

In the final issue of Craft Ideas Magazine, I wrote an article about layering stamps and dies. While layering stamps have been around for a while, layering dies are relatively new. I was wowed when I saw these layering dies from Birch Press Design. There are so many ways to use these three piece sets (which are sold separately or in a bundle. Spring for the bundle! Totally worth it!)

Here are two examples:

This uses the Sevilla set. The pieces were cut from peach, pale yellow and dark grey, then placed over a light grey A2 card (4 1/4 x 5 1/2″). Celebrate was die cut using a Technique Tuesday die.  (see that set here) You can’t really see the shimmer in the photo above, but using the Nuvo Aqua Shimmer brush pen on the die makes it sparkle. Yum. (And you can use the inside, leftover pieces, for other cards.)

This card uses the Dazzle die set. The sentiment circle was stamped with a Technique Tuesday Talking in Circles set. The design was stamped in Wendy Vecchi Archival Watering Can ink, the sentiment embossed in white.

I love playing around with different color combinations!

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!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Eastern Beauty

Who doesn’t love a stamp and die set with versatility? Not me! And that’s exactly what I love about the beautiful Eastern Beauty stamp set (and matching dies) from Stampin’ Up!

There are so many ways to use this release, which also has some lovely coordinating paper. The card above was created using a piece of the coordinating paper for a background. Then I used several dies to create the embellishment (trimming some pieces to create a design.) The sentiment is a die cut from Technique Tuesday.

Here’s another card that uses just the flower-like die and a stamped background using the images from the matching stamp set:

To create the above card, I stamped the rings from the Eastern Beauty set in various colors of ColorBox’s Stephanie Bernard inks. Two of the three flowers were cut from cardstock I had painted using Purple Flash and Aqua Flash from Plaid’s delightfully shimmery Folk Art® Color Shift™ paint. Love the subtle shimmer! And the leaves are from a Tim Holtz /Sizzix punch. Here’s a closer look:

Stay tuned for more ways to use this set!

 

Stamp, Color, Cut with Spellbinders

Today I’ll show two cards (that I teased in my last post) using the lovely floral bouquet from Spellbinders’ Designer Series Feather from the Earth Air Water Collection by Stephanie Low. (There’s also a cool feather in the set, which has stamps and coordinating dies.)

I stamped the bouquet in VersaFine black ink (from Imagine Crafts), then painted using various markers. (And cut it out with the matching die.) To get my color, I scribbled the  markers on a palette, then picked up the colors using my water brush. (I use this technique a lot when I want a watercolor look without a heavy saturation of water.)

When using markers, I use a variety, including Ranger Distress Ink, Faber Castell’s PITT Artist brushes, Tombow markers, etc. I also will dab water-based ink pads on my palette and pick up the color with the water brush. The sentiment was cut using a Technique Tuesday die from the Celebrate set.

Here’s a variation:

The components are mostly the same, but the frame is from Simon Says Stamp.

Thanks for coming back!

 

Pretty Poseys

I’ve always loved this big, bold, beautiful floral from Stampendous! And it makes an easy, fast card:

It’s just perfect for watercoloring. The image was stamped on Ranger Specialty Watercolor paper (love it because one side is smooth, great for stamping, but it still holds up to watercolor!) in VersaMark ink, then embossed with black powder. (By the way, before stamping with VersaMark, I used I used my  ScraPerfect Perfect Embossing Pouch to eliminate static and stray powder), and  Zig Kuretake Clean Color Watercolor markers for coloring. And of course, a dash of clear Wink of Stella … why not?

After it dried, the panel was trimmed, edged with a black permanent marker, and mounted on a moss green folded card. The sentiment (Technique Tuesday) and stamped in VersaFine black on piece of white scrap, edged in black, then mounted with foam tape. The sequins are from Doodlebug Design.

Here’s to a great weekend!

 

Wow! More Pearly Embossing!

In my last post I experimented with some pearl embossing powders from Wow! I loved the look on dark paper, but didn’t like my first try with the powders on light card stock.

I decided the powders needed some color in order to shine, so I stamped with various dark colors of ink (all Clearsnap ColorBox pigments).

Here’s my first attempt, on kraft colored stock:

The flowers are from an old Hero Arts set, and as you can see, I didn’t stamp cleanly. But I love the way the colors came out. I will probably cut these out or cover the boo-boos somehow … but I’ll use them, by golly! I stamped first with Clearsnap ColorBox Abyss (a deep blue) pigment ink then added various Wow! pearl powders: white, green, red, violet.

I had better luck with this flower set from Technique Tuesday (an old set, called Va Va Va Bloom.)

I used ColorBox pigment inks that matched the pearl powders: Turtle for the green powder, Cupid for the red powder, Abyss for the blue powder.

Before mounting the panel on my moss green card, I edged it in black permanent marker. Rhinestones and a sentiment (old Hero Arts set — do ya think I need some newer stamps???) finished the look.

Here’s a detailed shot:

Thanks for coming along, and thanks to Wow! for letting me play with some pearl powders.

 

 

Fabulous Finds Friday: WOW! Pearly Powder!

Wow, I’ve been having fun playing with WOW! new pearl embossing powder, which is especially effective on dark paper.

Check it out:

I used five different colors here, all pearl: red, violet, green, white and blue. (And don’t you love that big background stamp? Also from WOW!) I stamped the background using VersaMark ink, then sprinkled on the various colors to get the mixed effect.

Here’s a closer look that catches the light:

The piece is mounted on a shimmery blue-ish card. “Happy” (from Technique Tuesday) was die cut twice from a silver shimmer scrap and mounted on top. So easy.

Next, I wanted to try the powders on light card stock — a very different look. I wasn’t crazy about my first attempt:

 

It actually looks better in the photo because the background looks darker (not white) and I let the light reflect, but in reality, it was too faint for me. (In my next post, I’ll show how I used it in another way on lighter card stock.) So I added some watercolor just to see what would happen: (Not my best watercoloring efforts! Sheesh.)

Here’s a detailed look with reflecting light:

I punched the XOXO several times (from a Fiskars punch), stacked the pieces and glued them together using ScraPerfect’s Best Glue Ever. Because I stupidly punched the extra XOXOs from white paper, when they were stacked you could see the white edges. To fix that I colored the edges with a black permanent marker. And of course added that necessary touch of shimmer … black Wink of Stella from Kuretake/Zig. I don’t use the black often, but when I need it, well … )

I’ll have some other experiments in my next post. Thanks for stopping by!

Clean Desk, Random Cards

Yup, it’s that’s time again. Cleaning off my desk and going through my piles of scraps.

Pawing through the leftovers, it’s fun to see what cards I can make…

Found this fun background, made using an old (maybe 2004?) Stampin’ Up! set called What’s Your Type? I apologize for using a set that I think is discontinued, but the background was such fun, I couldn’t resist. And you can substitute other stamps. I’m showing it because these are great backgrounds to have around for quick card making.

You can also create some fun letters using this set! The OMG sentiment is from Hampton Art’s Studio G (and has a subtle Wink of Stella sparkle!)

I know it’s not fair, but here is another “retired” stamp — Lovely Lily — from Technique Tuesday. But again, the idea is that you can take a very simple image and create a fast, easy and eye-catching card.

I hope you use these ideas to spark your own creativity! I promise to get back to current stamps soon!

Happy Independence Day!

 

 

Fabulous Foiling!

Yes, I am obsessed with foil. I didn’t do a lot of foiling when it first became big because I didn’t have the right tools (including access to a laser printer for printing and foiling).

But my discovery of therm-o-web‘s wide selection of foiling capabilities rocked my world! And I’ve been foil crazy since then.

I started my experimenting by using my Fiskars XOXO punch (see here for more on this punch. My first experiment was to use the punch on  ToW’s adhesive foam. (The adhesive was a tad thick for the punch, but I managed to not mangle it too badly. My foiling was not perfectly smooth, but that’s ok!)

The background was made using Magenta‘s Nuance, a water-soluble powdered coloring agent (similar to Brusho, Ken Oliver’s Color Burst, Cosmo Cricket’s Pixie Paints, etc.) The butterflies were cut from a wonderful new Donna Salazar/Spellbinders die, Cascading Butterflies, then stamped and inked with Ranger Distress Inks (Fossilized Amber, Abandoned Coral, Peacock Feathers, Shabby Shutters). A light mist of Ranger Perfect Pearls gives them a subtle sheen (hard to see here.)

My favorite so far is therm-o-web’s self-adhesive toner sheets. For this card, I first die cut the Stampin’ Up Rose Garden from the toner sheet, then foiled it (using ToW’s iCraft® foils and a Royal Sovereign laminator.) I cut the leaves off and foiled them separately.

(sentiment by Kaisercraft, gold embossed. Black panel cut using a Spellbinders’ Cele’bration pierced rectangle die)

Never one to toss out a scrap, I used the leftover sheet (the negative left after foiling the rose die) to create this:

(Sentiment by Technique Tuesday).

I’m obsessed, so there are more foiled projects to come! Thanks for stopping by.

 

Happy Heart Balloon Bear

I know Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but I had to share this Valentine I made for a very special boy using this adorable balloon animal set, called Balloon Builders, from Stampin’ Up!

The set has various shapes that you mix and match to create designs. I played around a bit with the shapes to find the “formula.” (My first one was a bunny, but he came out a little creepy, so we went with the bear!)

I started with the largest balloon for the body then continued to build the bear. The main stamping was done in Stephanie Bernard’s ColorBox brown. The heart balloon was stamped in my old Marvy Matchables red.  The string, eyes, nose and inside the ear were hand drawn. Grass was added with watercolor pencils, then blended (I kind of made a mess of that….) and the sentiment (from the same set) was stamped in blue. The pierced panel is from the Richard Garay/Spellbinders Pierced Rectangles set. 

Oh, heck… here are two more cards I made for Valentine’s Day (but they can be used for other occasions, too!)

How sweet are those birds?

It’s the same die I used here, a Cath Edvalson design for Technique Tuesday. The paper is from Simple Stories and the sentiment from Stampin’ Up’s Bloomin’ Love set.

And this fast and easy card uses the Scribble Heart  Arrow die set from Simon Says Stamp. I cut a bunch from various brightly colored papers and glued them on this purple card stock (a discontinued color from Paper Source. You’ll see a lot of it because I bought a huge package when I found it on clearance!) The sequins are from Lawn Fawn, attached with Ranger Multi Medium. (I also used the inside of the hearts on other cards.)

These were so fast and easy I made a bunch (note the inside pieces, too) :

Thanks for stopping by!