I hope you had a great weekend and are ready for some card making fun. I have a bright, fun, happy card to go with our beautiful spring weather.
To create this card, I stamped the floral wreath image on watercolor paper, using Versa Mark ink pad and then heat embossed the image using white embossing powder.
I sponged the whole stamped background piece using several colors of Distress Oxide Inks. I started in the center of the paper using Fossilized Amber ink, next Carved Pumpkin and finished with Picked Raspberry. With a dry tissue, I wiped across the embossed image to remove any ink left on top of the embossing.
Next, I removed ink from the leaves and flowers with a paintbrush and plain water. I loaded my paint brush with the water and painted inside the flowers and then blotted them with a dry paper towel. I continued this process for all the leaves and flowers. Not all of the ink will be removed, but they will be noticeably lighter. I saw a video that Jennifer McGuire did, and since then have seen many more on YouTube.
I dried my paper and then went in with colored pencils to add some contrasting color to the stamped image. This is a small image so you don't see as much detail as in a larger stamped imaged. I used a blender pen to soften the colored pencil.
I spattered the paper with pain water, blotted that it with a dry towel, and spattered it with gold ink.
I die cut the word "happy" from gold foil paper and glued this to a strip of vellum paper. I adhered this to the card front and gold embossed the word "thoughts" underneath the vellum strip.
To finish the card, I used foam adhesive to adhere the card front to a white cardstock mat, which I then glued to a pink mat. These I glued to a white card base.
Hello, hello.....Penny here today with one of my favorite style of cards to make. Monochromatic! I needed a Sympathy card and fast, so staying in the same color family is always easy. For a bit of interest, add a die cut embellishment that is just a few shades lighter or darker....like the bird in my example.
And here we go:
Start with a White cardstock base, then start building on.
Light Gray cardstock is the main background. I then stamped a sentiment from the Prayers Sentiment set in the bottom corner with a Dark Gray ink. I also embossed around the card front with a scoring board...gives it just a little something, something!
Die cut Bird Branch Circle Frame from Light Gray and Very Light Gray cardstocks. Adhere together slightly off center, then to the card front. I die cut 2 additional birds and popped them up with foam adhesive.
I really love how simple this card is to make, yet it provides such an impact to the receiver.
Happy Saturday! I hope you can get a little time for crafting this weekend. Today I have a simple yet elegant card using the beautiful Vine Butterfly die.
For this card I wanted the beautiful Vine Butterfly to stand out so I just cut it in a white paper. Along the side of the card I used a strip of the butterfly ivory handmade paper from Birch Press Designs.
So the paper is glued to a light blue card and then I added a piece of gold washi tape to hide the seam. Then I glued the butterfly to the bottom right corner and added a line of clear gems on the body of the butterfly.
Hello, Memory Box Fans ... Sharon Harnist here with you again! Today I'm sharing how you can watercolor your die cuts, to create a project quickly and easily, by cutting all the elements from white watercolor paper then watercoloring each of the pieces!
For this card, I used two different colors (deep blue and deep purple) of Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors on damp watercolor paper, let it dry, then splattered the background with white watercolor to create a starry effect. Next, I die cut the Starry Ring from the upper left corner of the background, then mounted the background to a white card base. The Roaring Rocket and its flames were die cut from white watercolor paper, then the rocket pieces watercolored with silver, white, black, blue and violet:
I finished the card by heat embossing the Outta this World sentiment in white onto black cardstock. Both the rocket and the sentiment piece were popped up with foam tape. Clear sequins were scattered over the background.
Thanks so much for joining me today ... I hope you'll give watercoloring your die cuts a try! Happy weekend!
The Glorious Floral Stem sets the scene for an afternoon of spring gardening with the Vintage Watering Can and Stitched Boots. Hello, Jean Okimoto here with a garden greeting today.
Cut watercolor paper with the 3" x 4-¼" Rectangle Basics die. Paint in shades of green, yellow and orange from the Melon Melody Kaleidacolor inkpad. Spritz it with water, dry it for a few minutes, then heat-set with an embossing tool.
Stamp the flowers from the Garden Sketches Clear Stamps Set on watercolor ink with Nocturne VersaFine Clair. Quickly emboss it with detail clear powder. Place the die from the matching Garden Sketches Die Set over the image and sponge it with Cheerful VersaFine Clair. Diecut it, and two more.
Cut Glorious Floral Stem from green cardstock, remove the flowers.
Cut Vintage Watering Can from copper metallic cardstock.
Attach glossy laminate over Key Lime Dots cardstock to create a shiny surface for the rainboots. Diecut it with Stitched Rainboots.
Stamp the greeting from the Garden Sketches set with Nocturne and emboss it. Cut it with the matching die.
Attach the diecuts to a top-folded A-2 card of green textured cardstock.
Add yellow-green gem stickers.
Mix and match your Memory Box stamps and dies as we did here - it gives you so many additional options for unique cards. Use your supplies in out-of-the box ways - you'll be surprised at how many combinations you'll discover!
Special thanks for everyone who took last Sunday's GREEN GREETINGS class. Recycling can be a creative way to add texture, dimension and interest to your cards. Thanks too - Ann and Becca - for helping everyone fill their baskets and take advantage of last weekend's spring sale.
Today I have a card that features another new die from the spring release, and a beautiful embossed background paper from Birch Press Design called Cabbage Rose red handmade paper.
To create this card I die cut the Cheery Flower Collage in the center of a white cardstock mat layer. Then I cut my red embossed paper slightly larger than the white card layer and glued that to the red paper.
I spattered the front of the card with gold ink and adhered my stamped sentiment using foam adhevesive.
To finish the card I added some black epoxy embellishments to the flower centers.
Hello and Welcome! It's Isha with you today. Last week was a bit warm here reminding me of summer and that is the inspiration behind this card :) Ocean layer frame from the new release is just perfect for the theme.
I started by creating a white cardbase. I then watercolored a piece of yupo paper for the background. I then die-cut the Ocean layer frame using atercolor paper. I really like how it cuts two square frames. I then used my zig clean color brush markers to color in the all the pieces. Once everything was dry, I simply adhered it all to the cardbase.
Hope you got inspired from today's card. Have a wonderful crafty day!
Hello Memory Box friends. Penny here today with...Oh.My.Word.....how gorgeous is this designer paper?!? Birch Press Design was kind enough to send me a sample of this handmade paper. I am in L O V E !!! Wanting to really showcase the the exquisite colors and texture, I went with some stacked frames in a complimentary color.
Let me show you:
I most always start with a White cardstock base of 5.5 x 4.25. Then I start adding on.
I die cut the Wrapped Stitch Frames from both White and Aqua cardstocks. As you can see, I snipped here and there on the frames for added interest.
I framed the small handmade paper with both White and Aqua.
I also die cut the Fine Cut Leaves (one of my favorites) from Aqua cardstock and tucked them beneath the frame.
Add a couple of pretty sequins and you have a finished masterpiece.
I usually put some kind of sentiment on the front, but with this little pretty, I wanted the Bouquet Handmade Paper to be the star of the show.
I am thrilled to share some "out of this world" slider cards in today's video - simple sliders that reveal messages, turn cartwheels and blast off! All of these projects are easy to do - and make sliders seem like a piece of cake.
The centerpiece of two of the projects is the astronaut - so I used the 99973 Astro Suit to create this nifty little space explorer. When I designed the suit, I knew that I wanted the arms to be separate from the body, so that the astronaut could make different gestures or be holding something. After working out the details, I created the die so that you could position the head and arms as you wanted onto the body with ease - just by adding a piece of scrap paper to the back (more details in the video).
I began with a sponged background of Distress Oxide inks - Broken China, Faded Jeans and Wilted Violet - and blended them a bit with Black Soot. The Black Soot tones things down a little - after all this is supposed to be outer space! - and then I sprayed everything with some water and bleach solution (1 tbsp bleach to 2 or 3 cups of water).
Adding a little foam mounting tape gave them some dimension - and you can have a little fun with the astronaut by having him hold one of the stars too!
And look what happens when you pull the slider open - a message is revealed! The 99851 Straight Slider Grooves are used to create the slider across the bottom - and I stamped a sentiment ("you're out of this world") on black cardstock positioned just inside the groove. The sentiments fit just right - it was serendipity!
I added the rocket ship from the 99976 Unbelievable UFOs to make it look like the rocket was cruising across the card as you pull the slider.
Adding some little dots with a White Gel Pen - it makes the background come alive a little - and adds some bright texture.
And can you see all the fine details on the astronaut suit? When I designed the die, I added cuffs, and little seams all around the suit and helmet so that it looked interesting. I made the face portion of the helmet so that it would cut out separately - I envisioned it in white, then black, with some sort of reflective look to it - or you could even use clear plastic and add a stamped person inside!
I positioned the astronaut's arms so that it looked like the astronaut was giving a thumbs up!
For the next project - I wanted to incorporate a slider tip that I learned awhile back. I wanted the astronaut to do cartwheels as it went left to right! I had this idea that the astronaut was sort of jumping from hill to hill in low gravity - spinning through the air!
To start - I needed both arms to be in the same position - so I cut the astronaut twice - and just reversed one of the arms. This way the arms are both raised up!
I used the CL5221 Outta This World clear stamp set to make the sentiment - just stamp and emboss with white embossing powder to make it really show up on the dark background.
Starting from the left side - you can see that the astronaut is in the ready position. And then when you tilt the card...
...it starts to spin! To see the original idea for this, take a look at my Zig Zag Slider video - I was able to capture the spinning in slow motion video and it's really fun to watch! You do have to use Foam Dots in order to make the astronaut spin - check out the details in the video!
I did some die cutting to spice up the background - 99970 Twinkle Breeze created a row of twinkling stars and I used the 99974 Deep Space Planets to create a fun planet!
For the slider groove, I used the 99840 Slider Grooves to create an arched opening - this gave the idea that the astronaut was jumping a little in the air as it was spinning. It was easy to create the hills - I sponged white cardstock with Iced Spruce Distress Oxide ink, sprayed with the bleach and water solution (this lmakes it look like the ground is full of little moon rocks!) and then cut it using the 99842 Stitched Curves.
For my last card, I was tired of using dark colors, so I decided to change things up. I wanted the colors of a fiery rocket blast off - and the card needed to have exciting colors since it could be used to wish someone a very happy celebration of their birthday! The slider mechanism is simple - just an easy pull tab that helps the rocket achieve lift off! I used the 99851 Straight Slider Grooves die to create a path. The background is sponged and spritzed - I used Worn Lipstick, Fossilized Amber and Spiced Marmalade for color - keeping the lighter color in the middle and the darker colors towards the edges.
I put together the rocket from the 99975 Roaring Rocket die for an out of this world space craft. There are plenty of fun little details on this - little rivets, a window, embossed fins - and flame coming out of the bottom!
I knew that the 99969 Swirl Switch Clouds would be perfect - little clouds surrounding the blast off would add some excitement and dimension to the card, plus the stitched swirl is really, really cool in person! Since all of the colors were so bright - I decided to cut out a black circle (my nod to an eclipse) using the 30087 Circle Basics Set and stamped/embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder. It looked a little simple, so I decided to surround the circle with stars - the 99972 Starry Ring made all the difference - and I even used one of the cut out stars as a little decorative star on the black circle!
Hope you are inspired to create some outer space cards of your own - these planets, rockets, UFO's, stars and astronaut can be used to create some amazing ideas! Have a blast!
Let's make some bright, glossy Forget Me Not Blooms with a VersaFine Clair inkpad for a quick accent on a colorful thank you card. It's an easy, economical way to customize matching accents for spring and summer cards.
Hello, Jean Okimoto here tonight - on my 500th post here on Outside the Box. No, I didn't really count them, but Typepad does. This card was created to thank you for visiting our blog - and for all of your sweet and thoughtful comments. I appreciate them - and you (!) - and hope you've been inspired to get the most from your personal Memory Box Collection of dies, stamps and papers.
Brayer vibrant orange Summertime VersaFine Clair onto smooth white cardstock. Quickly heat-emboss it with clear powder. Emboss the warm ink again with another layer of clear powder. Diecut several sets of the flowers from the Forget Me Not Blooms from the cooled embossed cardstock. They'll be glossy and bright, and great for layering onto the card.
Attach adhesive label paper or a sticker sheet to green cardstock and cut the Forget Me Not Blooms stem. The paper backing adds dimension - without the tedious layering and glueing of multiple pieces.
Press the inks from the Kaleidacolor Melon Melody inkpad onto a large acrylic block. Spritz watercolor paper with water, then paint it in loose, overlapping layers of ink. Air-dry it, then spritz it with water. Dry it with a heat-tool. Diecut it with the 2"x3-¼" Wrapped Stitch Rectangle.
Cut white cardstock with the 2-¾" x 4" Wrapped Stitch Rectangle.
Attach the diecuts to a top-folded white A-2 card - use foam dots for the greeting. Add lime green gem stickers.
Think of all the glossy, bright accents you can create with Memory Box dies and embossed VersaFine Clairs! Flowers, butterflies, leaves, fishes, hearts, stars, hexagons, dots - and more. Be sure to have your embossing powder and heat-tool ready - the Clairs dry pretty quickly.
BIG THANKS for stopping by - today, and for the previous 499 posts. I appreciate your visits - and the privilege of designing for Memory Box. Thanks Dave and Monica!
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