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31 posts from April 2018

Sat 21

Big Butterfly Wing and Glittered Honeycomb Square Hexagons
by Jean Okimoto


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Layer the beautiful Big Butterfly Wing over a watercolored background - then add glittery gold and iridescent glitter accents  for a card that's bright, dreamy, and ready for any occasion.  Hello, Jean Okimoto here with a design that seems to say "spring's here, now let's get ready for summer!"

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Cover a 6" square of watercolor paper with diluted Imagine Crafts Kaleidacolor Dye Ink Refills. Air-dry it for a few minutes.  Spritz it with water, then dry it with a heat-tool.  The 6" square is more than you'll need - but it creates an array of pretty colors to chose from, and some extra paper to diecut the little hexagons.

Cut white cardstock with the 3-¾" x 5" Rectangle Basics Die.  Cut it with the Big Butterfly Wing.  

Find a pretty section of the watercolored paper for your butterfly.  Cut it with the 3-½" x 4-¾" Rectangle Basics die.  It'll fit perfectly behind the butterfly cutout...no measuring required!

Attach the watercolored rectangle behind the white rectangle.  Attach the butterfly - slightly offset.  

Cut the antennae and center portion from gold glittered paper.  I've used a great new glittered paper that's 21"x30" - it'll be at Impress soon.   It's easy to cut and doesn't leave a big mess of loose glitter attached to your cutting plate, work area, hands or face!

Cover a scrap of the watercolored paper with Scor-Tape and diecut Honeycomb Square.  Remove the liner and brush the adhesive-covered tiny hexagons with iridescent glitter - like Sparkle Glitter from Impress -  for custom-colored accents.  I also cut Scor-Tape sheets with the Honeycomb Square to create little hexagon-shaped adhesive pieces to attach the glittered hexagons.  

Attach the diecuts to a 5-½" square white card.

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Hope you like watercolored designs, glitter and butterflies - and have fun creating this design in your favorite colors. 

A reminder...if you're in the Seattle area, be sure to stop by both Impress stores this weekend.  It's their annual Spring Sale - 20% shopping discounts, special displays and great samples to inspire you.  Join us for the GREEN GREETINGS class on Earth Day, April 22nd.  Green - the color and the concept - is the theme for colorful cards, recycled  and up-cycled supplies.  Everyone gets some extra supplies from my stash to make more class cards at home later.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jeansignature-3

 

 

 

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Fri 20

Watercolored Butterfly Parade 2 Ways
by Sharon Harnist

Happy Friday and weekend, crafty friends ... Sharon Harnist here with you again!  Today I have two styles of watercolored cards to share, because I couldn't make up my mind which I preferred!  I would love to hear which is your favorite, below in the comments!

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My first card boasts a new technique I haven't seen anyone else share, and it was a fun experiment ... I hope you like it!  I call this one "Textured Watercolor".  To begin, I painted gesso onto heavyweight white cardstock using a regular paint brush and let it dry. You will naturally get some paint strokes in the gesso and this is what you want ... it creates some great texture in the final project!  After the gesso was dry, I used Avery Elle Liquid Watercolors on top of the gesso.  My original intent was to apply the watercolor directly from the bottle to the top of the tilted cardstock panel and just let them run down the panel, creating whatever pattern occured. While this could create a really great background, it just wasn't what I was looking for the background for this card.

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Instead, I took a watercolor brush and smoothed the watercolor over the background panel and let it dry.  (Note: The watercolor takes a little longer to dry on top of the gesso vs. standard watercolor paper and since it can't soak into the paper, the resulting colors are a bit softer).  I love how the watercolor settled into the paintbrush texture, creating subtle shade variations!  For the background, I used a combination of Avery Elle's Mint To Be and Aquamarine liquid watercolors.  Next, I die cut Butterfly Parade from another gesso-treated panel and then started watercoloring each of the different elements in this pretty die cut.  I used Cherry (pink-red), Fizz (orange), Lemon Grass (yellow-green), Sapphire (blue), and Sugar Plum (violet), dabbing the color on with a paint brush so I would get some variations in the depth of color.  After the watercolor was dry I flicked some plaint water onto the background which dried and lifted some of the watercolor, creating a water droplet effect. It's not showing up in these photos very well, but more apparent in the top photo.

To finish the card, I added a white Wrapped Stitch Frame and gold embossed Thank You Sentiments.  Both the Butterfly Parade and the sentiment banner were added to the card with foam tape.

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My next card is a little simpler.  For this one, I cut the Butterfly Parade from plain white textured watercolor paper and also watercolored it with the same Avery Elle liquid watercolors.  I also die cut a Wrapped Stitched Circle Frame from watercolor paper and watercolored it with the Cherry Avery Elle Liquid Watercolor.  The watercolors here appear more vivid.  Both elements were glued flat to a white panel die cut with a Stitched Rectangle Layers:

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To finish the card, I gold heat embossed the Birthday Sentiments onto the white panel.

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So which card do you prefer?  Let me know in the comments below!  Thanks so much for joining me today!Sharon-Signature

SUPPLIES:

 

Thu 19

Long Dachshund, Dog Gone Clear Stamps Set and Wrapped Stitch Rectangles by Jean Okimoto

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The new Long Dachshund - and his mirror-image buddy - contemplate life on a simple little card today.  The washi tape background from Birch Press Design gets a quick trim with the Wrapped Stitch Rectangle die.  Hello, Jean Okimoto here with a greeting for someone needing a bit of encouragement and support during a tough time.   MemoryBoxLongDachshund-MemoryBoxWrappedStitchRectangles-MemoryBoxDogGoneClearStamps-BirchPressDesign-JeanOkimoto-DogCards-DiecutDogCards-WashiTapeCards-DiecutWashiTapeCards

Attach adhesive label paper or a sticker sheet to tan and dark brown felt.  It will stabilize the felt and keep adhesives from saturating the fabric.  Cut Long Dachshund from dark brown felt.  Cut him again from the reverse side of the tan felt to create a left-facing dachshund.  Switch their ears.  

Attach lime and turquoise duct tape to lightweight cardstock and cut the collars.  

Attach strips of washi tape (about 3" long) to white cardstock and diecut the cardstock with the 2-¾" x 4" Wrapped Stitch Rectangles die.  

Stamp the greeting - from the new Dog Gone Clear Stamps Set - with Verdant VersaFine Clair.  

Attach the diecuts to a side-folded A-2 card of textured green cardstock.  Add green gem stickers.

Simple strips of washi tape can add so much to a quick card.  See the great patterns and beautiful colors featured on the Birch Press Design site.  

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Big thanks to everyone who joined us for last weekend's THOUGHTS + THANKS class at Impress!  It's always nice to have a stash of thank you and thinking-of-you cards ready - hope you liked the designs that we stamped, folded and layered.  Thanks too - Ann, Erin and Laura - for helping everyone fill their baskets!

The Impress Annual Spring Sale starts today - and runs through Sunday April 22nd.  Bring your wishlist of Memory Box and Poppystamps items - and enjoy a 20% discount on the great designs you've been waiting for!  Stock up on VersaFine Clair inkpads too - they're my favorite inks for classes and here on Outside the Box.  

Hope you'll have a chance to take advantage of the 4-day sale - and join us for the GREEN GREETINGS class on Earth Day, April 22nd from 11:30-1:30.   Green - the color and the concept - is the class theme.  Lots of green - papers, inks, accents,  recycled items - and great techniques.  Everyone receives a bonus pack of some items from my stash to make more class cards at home later.  

Thanks for stopping by - have a great day!

Jeansignature-3

 

 

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Wed 18

Quick and Easy Cards
by Melissa Rusk

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Hi friends! Today I have two quick and easy cards for you today using some of the fun mini stamps sets. For these cards I used a lot of the fun washi tapes that are available at Birch Press Designs right now. For each card I just placed a few strips of washi tape and then I took one of the sentiments and stamped it on the card.
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For the bee card I stamped the sentiment below all of the washi tape strips and added one of the cute little bees from the stamp set.
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For the space card I added the sentiment to the lower left corner of the card and stamped the moon and some stars. These are so fun to make and are perfect when you need a card fast!
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Tue 17

Just a Note Card
by Isha Gupta

Hello and Welcome! It's Isha with you today. I love spring for it's fresh feel. Everything looks light and airy especially after all those dull, grey winter days. So today, I have a fun and cheerful card for you :)

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To create this card, I started with a white top folding card. I then cut a mat layer and sponged it using distress oxide inks. I then added a few splatters to it and let it dry.

I then die-cut the floral banner twice using white cardstock. I cut one of the banner in half and adhered it to the top and bottom of the card layer. I then colored the 2nd. banner using gold watercolor. Finally I stamped the sentiment to the negative of the banner and assembled everything together.

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Love this fun and delicate die. Hope you got inspired from today's card. Have a wonderful crafty day!

Ishasignature

 

 

 

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Mon 16

Bee Yourself Hexies Card
by Anne Thompson

Hexagons are everywhere on today's card--inside and out!  

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  • To fill in the holes left from cutting the hexies, I cut two pieces of the squash dot paper 5 1/4" X 4", glued them together with the dot sides out, and then adhered them to the inside of the card front.  One dotted side filled in the hexies and the other dotted side lines the inside of the card front.

Here's the inside.  I love that there is a surprise when you open the card and find the bee inside!

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  • For the righthand side of the notecard, I die cut a hexagon from the STUDIO HEXAGON LAYERS 30073 using more of the squash dot paper and glued it to the card.  
  • I die cut the INTRICATE BEE 99920 from black cardstock and adhered it to the hexagon.
  • I stamped "bee yourself" from the Bee Yourself Clear Stamp Set on one edge of the hexagon.

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I still have plenty of room to write a message or I can add a white box for a longer message over the dot paper that lines the inside front.  

Happy Crafting!

Anne Signature


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Sun 15

To The Moon
by Penny Ward

Moon

 

Hello Memory Box friends. Something fun today for all the little people in your life. Who out there doesn't say this to their kids?!? Such a fun and easy card to make and slip into a lunch box.

Let's get going:

 

Start with a White cardstock base. Now take a White cardstock panel trimmed to 4.25 x 5.50 inches. Ink it up with Distress Oxide Blueprint Sketch, Wilted Violet and a bit of Black Soot. Keep blending until you are happy with your night sky effect. Flick some White paint across the panel for your "stars".

 

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Stamp and heat emboss sentiment from the Outta This World set in the bottom right corner.

 

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Die cut all the pieces from the Unbelievable UFO's and Deep Space Planets from White cardstock, then color with Spectrum Noir markers or medium of your choice.

For the Rocket outline piece, I die cut two and colored both with Delicata Shimmery Silver reinker. Stack and adhere together except at the bottom where you can see I lifted the "wings" off the rocket to give it dimension.

Once colored, adhere to card front as shown using glue and foam adheisve for the moon.

 

Happy Crafting,

Pennysignature

 

 

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Sat 14

Spring Greetings
by Laura Fulcher

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Greetings friends.  I thought it would be nice to post a Spring card even though the weather feels a bit more like Summer right now.

The card itself uses some of the Cabbage Rose Olive handmade paper from Birch Press Design.  I really like the paper because it is really deeply etched and gives you more texture than an embossing folder.  To be kind of honest, I almost hated putting anything on top of it. 

For the flowers, I used one of the Wrapped Scalloped Rectangles as a frame for the design.  I cut out some white Forget Me Not Blooms and then colored them with Copic Markers (B21, BV00).  The stem that comes with the blooms is detached from the flowers, so it was easy to cut the blooms out with white cardstock and the stem/leaves from green cardstock.

To color the pots, I cut them out with white Copic XPress It paper and then colored them with Copic markers (E13, E15, E17).  I shaded the pot so that it looked like the sun was coming from one side of the card.  One of the things I wish I had differently was to shade the other side of the pots instead.  I didn't realize that the stem of the flower was going to curve in the direction that it did.  The way I have it on the card, the flowers are leaning towards the shade.  I wish I had them leaning towards the sun.  A small detail I know, but I would do it differently next time.

Here is a closeup of the textured paper as well as the Copic coloring on the pots.  You can also see where I popped up one of the flower pots:

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Have a great weekend!

Laurasignature

 

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Fri 13

Out of this World!
by Melissa Rusk

Happy Friday! Today I have a fun card that is outta this world!

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For the background galaxy I started with a white cardstock and placed several colors of ink on the background. I used teal, purple, pink and yellow and just placed the colors in a random order to fill the paper. Then I covered it all with the Black Soot Distress ink, starting lightly so that some of the colors come through the black. I placed some water drops with a mist bottle and then finished it off with some dots of gold that I splattered.

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I die cut the Astro Suit and the moon from Deep Space Planets in white and then colored them with my Copic Markers. I stamped my sentiment from the Outta this World stamp set and then glued everything to a black card. 

It's so much fun to get messy and make backgrounds like this, I hope you give it a try!

Melissasigimage

 

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Thu 12

Bee Yourself Clear Stamps with Tall Grassy Stems Border and Stitched Rectangle Trimmings by Jean Okimoto

 

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Stand out in a crowd - and bee yourself - like the tall  Paper Flower from Birch Press Design.  The new Bee Yourself Clear Stamps add a lighthearted touch to any spring card, especially with glittery little bees.  Hi there, Jean Okimoto here with a sunny yellow card designed to brighten a drizzly spring day.

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Cut 2-¾" x 4" Stitched Rectangle Trimmings from marshmallow chick cardstock.  Keep it in the die.   Attach narrow strips of Scor-Tape along the back edges to keep the outer frame and inner rectangle together.  Stamp the bee - from the Bee Yourself Clear Stamps Set - with Nocturne VersaFine Clair.  

Impress recently received their 3rd shipment of these great VersaFine Clairs.  They're perfect for large solid areas and detailed designs. You can even emboss with them - just be sure to have your embossing powder and heat-tool handy and ready.  The Clairs are easy to stack and the snug lids keep the inks fresh and ready for your next project!

Cut about 4" of Tall Grassy Stems Border from green cardstock.  Trim it to fit the yellow background using the same rectangle die.  No measuring needed!

Stamp the greeting and another bee with Nocturne.  Dry the ink and cut it with the ¾" x 2" Stitched Rectangle Trimming.  Keep it in the die and attach narrow strips of Scor-Tape along the back edges again.

Attach the diecuts to an A-2 card.  

Attach paper flowers from Birch Press Design  - these vintage-y beauties are from the Mine Flowers set.  Add some pretty yellow gem stickers.  Highlight the  bees with a clear glitter Wink of Stella pen.

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Looking forward to seeing everyone again at this Saturday's THOUGHTS AND THANKS class at Impress.  We're making 6 cards - 3 thinking-of-you-themed cards and 3 thank-yous.  Lots of diecuts, techniques, specialty papers, great inks and stamps.

Thanks for visiting...please join us again tomorrow for Melissa's great card!

Jeansignature-3

 

 
 

 

 

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