Monthly Archives: February 2019

Happy Birthday for a Friend

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I love creating birthday cards for family and friends. I chose to make this card using some bright floral-patterned paper. It was something to help me get out of the winter doldrums and believe me, this Midwest winter has been far too harsh and LONG. I can hardly wait until Spring comes! This card will have to do for now.

This card design was inspired by one of my favorite card makers, Jennifer McGuire and her YouTube video titled “Rethinking Dies and Stamps”. This video is great and served as a reminder of how I can use my stamps and dies in conjunction to create some fresh designs. Jennifer made 22 amazing cards to prove her point. The card I made is just a small example of some of the ideas I learned from the video. If fact, I “cheated” a bit by using a piece of patterned paper for the background against my giant sentiment die. The die I used is big and cuts out the word ‘friend’, but leaves it attached to the top and bottom of the card piece you use. Thanks Concord & 9th for such a great die!

 

Hope you like this project. Have a great day!

 

How I made this project:

  • Take an A2-sized (4.25” by 5.5”) piece of cardstock. Use a color that will coordinate or accent the pattern that you will be using for the background. In this case, there were dark blue flower and leaf accents in my patterned piece, so I chose a dark piece of cardstock to make the patterned paper “pop” against the dark, but still pull together the entire card front. Note: I apologize if the cardstock here looks black. The photograph made the dark indigo color show up as black.
  • Die cut the cardstock using the die.
  • Adhere the patterned cardstock behind the die-cut card front. Note: the pattern can be from a piece of patterned paper or a pattern that you’ve stamped yourself. Also, the pattern doesn’t have to be a full A2-sized piece, but it must be big enough to completely cover the opening of the die cut card front.
  • For the sentiment: Chose a sentiment suitable for the occasion you want to express. In my case, I wanted to say happy birthday to my friend. I stamped my sentiment in embossing ink and then heat embossed it with gold embossing powder.
  • Embellishments: The card looked plain, so I used small flower punches to punch out flowers and adhere them to the card front. The flowers happened to coordinate with the complement the flowers in the patterned paper. I also added little dots in gold ink to the centers of the punched flowers to repeat the theme of dots in the flower centers of the patterned paper. This helped to tie everything together.
  • Adhere the completed card front to an A2 card base.

 

Supplies used in making this project:

  • Stamps:
    • WPlus9: And Many More (‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY’ sentiment).
  • Dies:
    • Concord and 9th: Peek-Through Pattern Dies (‘friend’ die used here).
  • Punches:
    • Small flora punches from my stash.
  • Cardstock:
    • Papertrey Ink: Dark Indigo (for die-cut card front piece), Hibiscus Burst (for small punched flower).
    • Patterned paper by Pebbles: Girl Squad collection (pattern behind the die-cut card front).
    • Neenah Solar White 110#: for card base and the white punched flowers.
  • Other:
    • Pilot Gold Marker (Extra Fine Point).
    • Brutus Monroe Metallic Embossing Powder in Gilded.

I Loaf You: Valentine’s Day Card for Carb Lovers

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Happy Valentine’s Day to all you lovers of carbs! This card is just for you.

This card was made using a cute stamp set that has loads of sentiment puns. I just love the set (I’ve notated the brand and stamp set name below).

How I made this project:

  • Lightly ink blend a piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock in pale pink ink. The piece should be large enough to die-cut heart from a heart die.
  • Die-cut the pink-blended cardstock with the heart die. Adhere craft foam or foam tape to the back of the die-cut heart.
  • Stamp the bread loaf and slice of bread in Copic-friendly ink onto white cardstock. Color the images and die-cut or fussy cut them out. Place foam tape on the back of these colored images.
  • Layout your Copic-colored images on top of the die-cut heart. Leave room for the placement of the sentiment.
  • Stamp the sentiment onto the heart in the desired location.
  • Adhere the images (bread loaf and slice) to the heart.
  • Add small red hearts (die-cut from a punch, etc.) or sequins to the heart.
  • For the card mat:
    • Cut a piece of A2 cardstock (4.25” x 5.5”) from red cardstock.
    • If you are using a rectangular stitched die like I used, then die-cut the red A2 piece using the stitched die.
    • Mount the heart onto the red mat cardstock.
  • Mount the card front (heart & red mag piece) onto the front of an A2-sized card base. Note: If you have die-cut the red cardstock using a stitching die like I did, you may have to trim the entire card down to a size less than A2.
  • Supplies used in making this project:
  • Stamps: Simon Says Stamp: Breakfast Buddies (images and sentiment).
  • Dies: Simon Says Stamp: Breakfast Buddies coordinating dies (loaf of bread and slice); Simon Says Stamp: Wonky Heart craft dies (second from the largest of the dies in this set); My Favorite Things Die-namics: Wonky Stitched Rectangle STAX (largest rectangle).
  • Inks: Versafine Ink: Onyx Black (for sentiment); Memento Ink: Tuxedo Black for images that were colored with Copic Markers; Distress Oxide Ink: Spun Sugar (for soft color blending of heart).
  • Copic Markers: E13, E53, and E50 for bread; Y17 (butter).
  • Cardstock: Neenah Solar White 110# (card base and stamped images); Papertrey Ink: Pure Poppy (card mat and red punched hearts); Strathmore Bristol Smooth for heart and ink blending.
  • Other: Heart Border punch (for the small red heart embellishments).

 

 

Totally Love You Valentine’s Day Card

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I love this Valentine’s Day card made with patterned hearts. The patterns were stamped onto the heart shapes using my MISTI stamping tool. I used a patterned swatch stamp set and a window heart wafer die both by Simon Says Stamp. The patterns in the swatch set are lovely!

How I made this project

  • Cut a piece of white wood-grained cardstock to 4.00” by 5.5”.
  • Center the heart windows wafer die onto the wood-grained cardstock and run this through your die-cutting machine. This will create a panel with 6 heart openings. Note: The hearts that are cut out can be saved for another project.
  • Using the heart window wafer die, and a piece of white cardstock, die-cut another set of hearts using the windows heart wafer die. This set of hearts will be used to stamp the patterns.
  • Stamp the six patterns from the patterned swatch set onto the six die-cut hearts. Note: It’s best to use a stamping tool such as the MISTI to get a good, solid impression on each heart.
  • Center and adhere the wood-grained panel onto an A2 (4.25” by 5.5”) piece of paper that is in a coordinating color as the ink used to stamp the hearts.
  • Adhere foam tape on the back of each of the 6 stamped hearts.
  • Inlay each of the 6 stamped hearts into a heart opening in the woodgrain cardstock piece. Note: the hearts will be slightly raised for dimension because of the foam tape behind each heart.
  • For the sentiment:
    • Heat emboss the sentiment using white embossing powder, onto a scrap piece of cardstock that is the same color as the cardstock used to mat the wood-grained panel.
    • Die-cut the embossed sentiment using a banner die, or hand cut the banner.
    • Adhere the sentiment banner to card front with foam tape.
  • Adhere the final card front onto an A2-sized card base.

 

Supplies used to make this project:

  • Stamps: Simon Says Stamp: Pattern Swatches stamp set; Simon Says Stamp: Simple Sentiments #2.
  • Dies: Simon Says Stamp: Windows to My Heart wafer die; Honey Bee Stamps: Sentiment Banner die set.
  • Inks: Catherine Pooler Inks: Party Dress; Versamark Ink (for embossing).
  • Cardstock: Papertrey Ink: Raspberry Fizz (for mat); wood-grained cardstock; Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock (for stamped hearts and card base).
  • Other: Hero Arts white embossing powder.

Hope you like this project. Have a great day!