Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Pink Christmas Cards 2019 Cards 1 - 3

Good morning

I bought a DCWV paper pad called Merry & Bright and I thought I would use this pad to make my Christmas cards for the year.

This post talks about the first 3 cards.


You can watch the video here if you would like to see how these cards came together.


I have used a cream pearlescent card for the base of these cards. I cut a piece of cardstock 5 1/4" x 10 1/2" and folded it in half.

All of the patterned papers have been matted on black cardstock that is 1/8" larger in each direction than the patterned papers

I cut a piece of patterned paper 4 5/8" square and run it through my Big Shot with a Cuttlebug embossing folder that created aChristmas bauble pattern. I ran a Versa Color Old Rose ink pad over the embossed pattern to help it stand out more.

A second patterned paper was cut to 2" x 5" and a third piece measures 1 1/2" x 5"


I used a Penny Black stamp set called Winter Wonderland to stamp a Christmas tree on a piece of the off cuts from the card bases. I then used Zing Black Glitter embossing powder to heat emboss the design. I trimmed the cardstock to a tag shape, added an eyelet and threaded some crochet cotton through the eyelet.

The 4 5/8" and the 2" pieces were added to the paper with double side tape, attaching a strip of lace under the 2" piece. The 1 1/2" piece was attached to the card using foam squares. The tag was then attached on top of the card using glue on one half and foam squares on the other half.

The greeting is created using my computer and printer, then I swiped my Old Rose ink pad over the greeting before mounting it on black cardstock. This was attached to thecae at the bottom of the tag.

A piece of patterned paper was cut to 5" square and attached to the inside right of the card. I stamped a verse inside the card using a thINKing Stamps stamp. It says We wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in the shape of a Christmas Tree.


The second card is very easy and straight forward. I have had the patterned paper that had the Christmas trees printed on it for about 5 years. I can not remember the brand of the paper but I think it could be Kaisercraft. The colour went well with this paper collection so I fussy cut three trees out.

I cut a piece of patterned paper to 5" square and attached that to the card base. On top of that I added a piece of Organze mesh with Glitter that I had trimmed down to fit.


The Christmas trees blended into the background more than I wanted so I mounted them on an off cut from the card base. I used foam squares and glue to attach the trees over the top of the mesh so the glue would hold the mesh in place also.

The greeting is computer generated once again, attached to a piece of cardstock and then attached to the card using foam squares.


The final card for today has two layers of patterned paper that have had their edges distressed and inked. The pink paper is 5" square and the black paper is 4 3/4" square. These have been attached to the card base using double sided tape.


I used a Magnolia stamp to stamp the trees on some white cardstock with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with Gold embossing powder. I fussy cut the trees and attached them to the card front with foam squares.

The greeting was generated on my computer and matted on the two patterned papers. This was then attached to the card with foam squares.

I used Starlight Rose Scribbles (similar to Stickles) and added spots to the trees to give the look of Christmas tree decorations, I also added gold star stickers to the tops of the trees.

Three simple but effective cards for Christmas.

Don't forget to check out the video here

Thanks for dropping by today.

Till next time
Hugs
Julie



Wednesday, October 23, 2019

70th Birthday Cards

Good morning

I was asked by a friend to make 2 birthday cards for her Mum who was turning 70 and she wanted to include some photos in the cards. One was to be from her and her husband and one was to be from her children.

These are the two cards I made for her.

You can see the video here.


The first card is the one for the children to give their grandmother. I made a twist and pop card using a tutorial I saw on YouTube by Alicia McNamara at Papercraft Secrets. You can see her video here.

Each of the cards are 6" x 6" and cut from 300gsm White cardstock.

The papers used on this first card are a 6 1/2" paper pad from Kaisercraft's Secret Garden range.

I chose 4 papers and attached them to the inside and outside of the card base.


Inside I have the pop and twist section that I have made from white cardstock. I cut a piece 4" x 12" and scored it at 3", 6" and 9" and then folded it so I had a mountain fold at the 6" score line and a valley fold at the other two score lines. 

I then covered three of the sections with patterned paper. I did not put any patterned paper on the first section because the photo I was going to attach there was the full size of the panel. The photos for the other sections were smaller so I attached white cardstock photo mats to the patterned paper so the photos would stand out nicely from the background.

I die cut a couple of different sized scalloped hearts using my Do Crafts Scalloped Hearts die and used them to lightly decorate the photo panels. I was careful to not add too much bulk because I wanted to be sure that the card would close properly when the photos were added.



The actual mechanism that attaches the pop out piece to the card is a bit difficult to explain and you can see it clearly in the video but I will try explaining it here.

Start by cutting a piece of cardstock 8" x 3", using a pencil make a mark at 2 1/4" and 5 3/4", rotate your cardstock and make a mark at the same measurements on the opposite edge. Score at 4"

Rotate your cardstock on your scoreboard and score at 1 3/4" on the 3" edge.

Use a pencil and ruler and lightly draw a diagonal line between two of the marks you have made on the cardstock. One mark at the top and one at the bottom. Do the same with the other two marks so you end up with a pencil line cross that intersects at the centre point of the mechanism. Score along both of these lines

Make a mountain fold of the centre score line that runs through the 8" length

Then make a valley fold for the two diagonal folds.

Fold the centre of the mechanism up into a mountain fold at the same time as you bring the two ends down and towards each other. This makes a shape like a house with a pointy roof. The bottom part of the house is in two sections

Measure up 1 1/4" from the bottom of one of the legs and draw a line across then flip the house over and draw a line 1 1/4" up on the opposite leg.

Attach double sided tape to each section from the bottom, up to the line.

Take your folded pop up section and place it between the two leg and lay it down. Use the tape to attache the two parts together being careful to centre the pop up piece between the leg section.

Using your ruler and a pencil make a mark at the 3" mark on the inside fold of the card base.

Attach the pop up piece with the point of the roof on this mark. I used both d/sided tape and glue just to be sure it would stick well. Once you have one side stuck down, close the card to attach the other side.

As I said this is a bit hard to describe and hopefully I have covered all of the steps but please if you are going to try this, check out the video first.

To decorate the front of the card I have covered it with some tulle, then used Tim Hotlz's Tattered Florals die to create a flower (the process for this is in the video as well) a doily, some leaves I have cut from patterned paper using Tim Holtz's Tattered Leaves die and some fabric leaves from Manor House.


The greeting is clear stickers from Kaisercraft that I have attached to some patterned paper, mounted on some foam squares and then attached to the card. The 70th was cut using Apple Blossom Large Numbers and Suffixes die and some of the patterned paper. To finish the card off I added a few blue sequins to the card front.

The papers for the second card are from 13@rts. The chipboard is from Little Birdie, the resin was made by me and the paper flowers are also from 13@rts I think. The lace is from my stash, given to me by my Mother


I decided on a "shabby chic" look for this card. I tore the two patterned papers so they were slightly smaller than the layer they were to go on top of and then inked the edges with a Cinnamon ink pad from Versa Colour.

I had a piece of velum with gold text on it so I added that as my top layer.

I trimmed the chipboard down to fit across the card and then attached it to a dark piece of patterned paper so it stood out from the background nicely.


I attached all of these layers to the card base, also attaching the lace under the chipboard backing as I went.

Using the flowers and fussy cut leaves I formed my floral cluster and attached it with my hot glue gun.

I also used my hot glue gun to attach the resin heart.


To create the greeting I used a stamp that came with a magazine I had purchased and my black Stazon ink and stamped onto a piece of white cardstock that had been die cut into a label shape. Once again I used my hot glue gun to attach this.

On the inside of the card I used some patterned paper to mat the photo and attached that to the left hand inside section and on the right hand section I attached some patterned paper where my friend can write her personal greeting.

Whoa what a long post. If you have read all the way to hear, thank you for staying with me.

Don't forget to check out the video. If you enjoy my videos I would love it if you would subscribe to my channel.

Until next time
Hugs
Julie

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Theatrebugs September 2019 Layout

Good Morning,

Today's layout uses a piece of cardstock that I actually created over 12 months ago.

I went to a Scrapbooking Retreat some time ago and one of the things I bought while I was there was some Colour Blast Colour Pastes. These are thick colours that hold their shape and have an iridescent sheen to them. I used my palette knife to swipe the pastes across a piece of white cardstock. I was going to use this sheet as the background for the layout but found it too distracting. The colours of the paste I used are Singing The Blues, Lipstick, Royalty, Sunshine, Sienna and Envy

You can see the process video here.


I tore the coloured cardstock into strips to use on the layout. To create the background I used a 12" x 12" piece of white cardstock and a 11 1/2" x 11 1/2" piece of purple cardstock which I layered on top of each other.

I then used The Crafters Workshop stencil called Dream Girl and some Mont Marte Modelling Paste to create some white texture on the purple cardstock.

When this was dry I used double sided tape to attach the pieces of torn cardstock to the layout so they would lay behind the photo.

The edge of the photo was filed with an emery board and the the edges were inked with Versa Color Violet ink. A piece of self adhesive craft felt is used behind the photo to give it some height when it is attached to the page.

I had recently purchased a tiny sewing machine from Aldi so I used that to stitch around the edge of the purple cardstock with white thread. I found the machine way too noisy and hard to use so went to my normal sewing machine and added the black stitching to the coloured strips and a zig zag stitch over the white stitching I had just done.


The background needed a bit more depth to it so I used an assortment of tiny stamps along with some Jet Black Stazon ink to stamp randomly over the page. The stamps are an assortment of hearts, arrows and flowers.

The title was cut from black cardstock using my Kaisercraft DD700 Alphabet Upper Case dies. I have attached the title so it runs vertically along the left hand edge of the layout. A coat of Glossy Accents gives the title a lovely glossy finish and helps it to stand out from the stamping on the background.


The final step for this layout was to punch some hearts from the purple strip of Colour Blast cardstock that I had not used on the background and add them to the right hand edge of the photo.

I am sure you would enjoy watching the process video. It is not very long, only about 7 or 8 minutes and will give you all of the detail.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Till next time
Hugs
Julie

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

We Can All Fly Art Journal page

Good morning,

Today's post is about an Art Journal page.

I really enjoy doing these pages and try to do at least one per month.

I created a process video and you can see it here.

I have used a page from my Happy Planner notebook. To prepare my page I stuck two pages together for some extra body to the paper as it is only notebook paper and gave the front a coat of white Gesso. I always leave the back of the page blank so I can write down the products I used because when I come back to it in the future I can never remember what products I have used. I have heaps of pages that I really like but can't repeat because I have not written on them what I have used.


The background of this page is created using Gelatos. I scribbled them onto the page and then used my finger dipped in water to spread them across the page and blend them. The colours used are Lime, White, Lemon, Green Tea, Pistachio, Blueberry, Mango, Metallic Blueberry, Spearmint and Cotton Candy.

I used a clear stamp that looks like circles of thread with Encore Gold, Stayzon Jet Black and Archival Fern Green, Watering Can & Cornflower Blue inks to stamp randomly all over the background

The next layer for the background was some Mont Marte Modelling Paste through a 13@rts stencil. I can never find the names on the 13@rts products so not sure what it is called


While I was waiting for the background to dry I used a sheet of white cardstock that had a coat of white gesso and Color Crush powders in Pineapple, Wheat Grass and Blue Heaven along with some Colour Blast powders in Lemon Zing, Olive Grove and Cool Mint to make a green mottled paper to create my tree. I drew a tree shape on the cardstock once it was dry and cut it out with my scissors. I ran it through my Big Shot with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and then gave it a spray with some Glimmermist - Iridescent Gold

Using the same cardstock I stamped two of the birds from Tim Holt's Crazy Birds stamp set using Stayzon Jet Black Ink. I coloured the birds with Distress Inks using Mustard Seed, Candied Apple, Dusty Concord, Picked Raspberry and Carved Pumpkin. I used a finger dauber to apply the colour.
I then cut them out using the matching dies.


I attached the tree to the page using Matisse Matt Gel Medium being careful not to get any on the background because the gelatos are water activated and will move around if I put matt medium on them. I cut a trunk for the tree from a piece of scrap paper and attached that as well.

I used Stayzon ink once again and stamped the birds onto the page where I wanted them to be so I would have the fine detail like legs etc and then attached the coloured birds on top of the stamped images.

Because I wanted to use my Faber Castelle Big Brush Markers to do some shading I sprayed the page with a Matt sealer and then shaded around each of my focal points.

I used an assortment of foliage stamps to create some grass at the bottom of the page to ground the bird and tree.

An assortment of black permanent markers were used to add details to the page as well as a border.

The quote was printed from my computer on normal printer paper and attached to the page using matt gel medium. The border around the quote was done with a black Fude ball pen.

Final step was to water down some white acrylic paint and make some splatters all over the page. I then used a baby wipe to wipe the splatter off of the birds.

So there you have it, a bit long winded but you can check out the video on my YouTube channel, it might be a bit easier to follow.

Thank you for spending a part of your day here with me today.

Till next time
Hugs
Julie

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Kaisercraft Wonderland Christmas Cards

Good morning friends.

Today I am going to share with you three Christmas cards I have made using Kaisercraft's Wonderland range.

I stumbled across Kaisercraft's store in Adelaide's city centre and couldn't believe my eyes. There are two other Kaisercraft stores in the Adelaide suburbs but they are a long way from my suburb and the city is only 15 minutes away. I love Kaisercraft papers so you can imagine I was doing a happy dance when I found the city store. I have already paid it a couple of visits.

Last time I was there I picked up the 6.5" paper pad and collectables from the Wonderland collection and the clear stamp from the Peace & Joy collection because I wanted to start on a few Christmas cards and I didn't want to use the traditional Christmas colours of red and green.

I have a video on my YouTube channel showing how these cards were made, you might like to check it out.


All of the cards are 5.25" square and made with card bases I have cut from cardstock.
I have used WorldWin Treasures - Sage for two of the cards and White for the third card.

All of the patterned papers and embellishments have their edges inked with black ink.


I chose a piece of patterned paper from the paper pad and trimmed it to 5" square. I then cut a piece of velum to the same size and ran it through my Big Shot using and a Cuttlebug embossing folder that gives the background an all over pattern of baubles.

I cut a Memory Box Snowflake Ornament die using gold cardstock and then mounted that onto some green patterned paper. I cut some thin strips of the same gold cardstock to make the "strings" that the baubles hang from. I attached the strips to the velum with glue and the baubles with foam squares. I also cut the Merry Christmas sentiment from the same gold cardstock and attached that to the velum with glue. Using glue behind the embellishments and sentiment I attached the velum to the card base on top of the patterned paper.

I decorated the inside of the card with a tag from the embellishment pack, that said "May all your Christmas wishes come true" and a gold heat embossed tree that I stamped using the stamp set onto velum and fussy cut.


This card uses one of the green card bases. I folded the front of the card back on itself to create a Z fold card.

I used the same patterned paper to cover the inside of the card and the front panel.
I cut a piece of the green cardstock to 2.5" x 4" which I covered with the same patterned paper that I had used on the rest of the card.

I chose three embellishments from the pack and layered them onto the left hand side of the card front.

The sentiment also comes from the embellishment pack. I gave it a light coat of Zig 2 way glue and then sprinkled fine glitter onto it.

On the inside of the card I attached another die cut from the embellishment pack which says "Believe in the Magic of Christmas and the word "Joy" from the stamp set that had been stamped onto velum, heat embossed with gold and then fussy cut.


The last card for today has got three layers of patterned paper as a background, each layer is 1/8" smaller than the one below it. The edges of each layer have been distressed using my Prima Distressing Tool before being inked. They are then attached on top of each other. I have used double sided tape to do this but you could use foam squares on one or all of the layers for more dimension if you wanted to.

A strip of green cardstock that is 1.75" x 5" has been added to the left hand side of the card front and a 1.5" x 5" piece of patterned paper has been added on top of that.

The Christmas tree, star and greeting are from the embellishment pack and have been added to the card using foam squares.

For a little bit of sparkle I covered the Christmas tree using my clear Wink of Stella brush.

The inside of the card has a double strip of patterned paper like the strip on the front of the card.

My three cards for today do not use traditional Christmas colours but I think they look very Christmassy. I hope you agree.

Thank you for spending some of your day here with me today. Don't forget to check out the video,
you will see just how easy it is to make these cards and hopefully be inspired to start on your Christmas cards for this year.

Till next time
Hugs
Julie