Large Double Peony and Little Dragonflies by Jean Okimoto

A trio of Little Dragonflies and a Large Double Peony create a simple summer card today.  Soft peach tones, gold and gray highlight the pressure-embossed peony.  Hello, Jean Okimoto here with a quick card you can use for any occasion.

Cut arroyo cardstock with the 2" x 3-¼" Rectangle Basics die.  Round the top right and bottom left corners.  

Pressure-emboss Large Double Peony using the embossing mat and plates required for your machine.  Attach the diecut to the embossed background, slightly offset for dimenson and shadows.

Cut Little Dragonflies from gold mirror cardstock.

Cut accent strips - ¾" x 3" of arroyo cardstock, ¾" x 3-¾" of textured gold paper from Shizen Design and ¾" x 4-½" of flintstone cardstock.

Score and fold a side-folded A-2 card of coral creme cardstock.  Round the top right and bottom left corners.

Attach the diecuts and strips to the card.

Big thanks to everyone from last weekend's HOLIDAY FAVORITES class at Impress - I appreciate that you drove, flew and ferried to join the group!   We discovered many new ways to use our Memory Box, Birch Press and Poppystamps dies and stamps.  Hope you'll find them in your stash too!  Special thanks too - Erin and Lynne - for always being there on Saturdays to help us fill those shopping baskets!

No classes this weekend - I'll be prepping for the August 11 AWESOME BLOSSOMS class.  We'll use the several of the just-released Birch Press and Poppystamps designs too...love the Sidekicks and Stacking Dies!  

Thanks for visiting - see you in August!

 

Supplies

 

94266 Large Double Peony craft die

30086 Rectangle Basics Set

99751 Little Dragonflies

Masked Stenciling by Laura Fulcher

Greetings friends.  Today I was inspired to make a challenge card.  I was over on the Splitcoaststampers.om site and the "Try a New Technique" theme was "Masked Stenciling."  The basic idea is to mask off part of your card front, add a stencil and then add some ink so that you end up with a decorative backdrop for the card.  You can read all about their current challenge here.

For my card, I started by cutting out a circle mask using Eclipse masking tape and a circle die.  I made sure to adhere the masking tape to some cardstock first so that it would run through my die cut machine:

Next, I placed my mask onto my card front so that it ran off of the bottom left-hand corner:

I placed the stencil on top of the mask and then made sure to tape it down really well:

Finally, I used my Copic airbrush to color over the stencil.  You could just as easily sponge the piece with ink.  Important..make sure that you airbrush or sponge the stencil with a straight down motion.  You don't want to have ink seep under the stencil if you can avoid it:

To finish the card, I curved a clear sentiment around my masked stencil area and added some flowers I colored with Copic markers.

Colors for airbrush- B02, B18, G07

Colors for poppy 1- R22, R27

Colors for poppy 2- YR15, YR07

Colors for stems and stamens of both poppies- G09, Y13, Y38

** Please note, I used an older Memory Box stencil that is no longer available.  However, there is a very similar Memory Box chevron stencil that is still available.  I will attach a link to that stencil at the end of this post.

What about you guys?  Do you do a lot of challenges?  Do they help inspire you to be creative and try new techniques?

 

 

Supplies

 

94251 Layered Poppy craft die

CL5239 Springtime Typewriter Sentiments clear stamp set

88572 Simple Chevron stencil

Christmas in July Rose Bouquet by Anne Thompson

Usually I spend a good part of July getting a head start on my Christmas cards.  Not so this year!  I have one, and here it is featuring the Rose Bouquet from the ROSE BOUQUET CLEAR STAMP SET CL5241.

I began this card by stamping the large Rose Bouquet image on a piece of off-white cardstock using VersaFine Clair Nocturne Ink (black).   I then got out all of my red and green PrismaColor pencils and began coloring the images, layering on a variety of shades and using different pressures and a small circular motion to color both the flowers and the leaves until I was pleased with the look.  I used just a bit of yellow for the many-petaled star-shaped flower center.  

To add some snow-like shine, I used a very water-wet brush and silver Finetec metallic watercolor paint available from Birch Press Design to spatter the image.

I trimmed the Rose Bouquet to a bit smaller than a standard A2 card, added a green mat under it which left a very narrow border, and adhered this to a dark red notecard.

I die cut the PEACE CHESHIRE SCRIPT 94017 twice from silver cardstock, glued the two together for more dimension and then glued it to the lower right of the card.

Voila!

This has made me think about other floral stamps and dies I have that might be treated to a red and green makeover for Christmas cards.  Hmm...

Happy Crafting!

 

CL5241

Copic Refills and Yupo Paper by Laura Fulcher

Greetings friends.  Today I am sharing a card created with Copic refills and Yupo paper.  Copic refills not only can refill your markers, but since they are alcohol ink, you can use them in any project that calls for alcohol ink.  One of the popular methods right now is to pair alcohol ink with a synthetic paper called Yupo.  Yupo works well because it is an incredibly slick surface that lets the alcohol ink blend beautifully on top without losing any of the vibrancy of the color.

To make my background, I started with a a piece of Yupo and then dropped green and blue Copic refill ink on top to make splotches of color.  I sponged the colors a bit with a piece of felt to help the colors bleed even more.  As a finishing touch, I spritzed the whole piece lightly with Copic blending solution to give the colors a splotchy look that I thought paired well with an underwater theme:

I cut out a circle of my background paper and layered the shells on top:

I liked the look of it, but I wanted space in the center for my sentiment, so I glued the white circle piece from the die on top of the center area.  I could have also embossed my sentiment in white.  Here is a closeup of the shell die with the background:

I popped up a nautilus shell that comes with the Seashell Circle Frame set and added my sentiment.  The phrase actually comes as a single line.  However, because the stamp saying is a clear stamp, I was able to cut my phrase in half and layer it as two lines instead of one.

Have you all been using alcohol inks on Yupo?  Do you have a favorite technique?

 

 

Supplies

 

94225 Seashell Circle Frame craft die

CL5240 Oceanside Typewriter Sentiments clear stamp set

Rearranging Your Dies by Laura Fulcher

Greetings friends.  I don't know about you, but sometimes I take my dies and use them exactly as they are when they are cut.  However, you can get a lot of different looks if you cut out your die and then rearrange the parts.

For today's card, I used the Delicate Orchid die, which is an orchid stem positioned inside a circle.  It looks great in that configuration, but I decided to cut out several floral circles, cut them out and make a new design with the pieces.

To make the background, I started with 140lb watercolor paper and painted it with a rectangle of water.  Next, I added some Peerless watercolor paints to my wet rectangle and let the colors bleed together.  The nice part about painting a wet rectangle base first is that it helps the colors blend and lets the paint move up to the edges of the wet area before stopping at the boundary:

Allow the paint to dry.  It will get lighter in color as it dries.

Next, add your die cut pieces and add a few rhinestones for flare:

I encourage you all to cut out some of your dies and play around the pieces to create lots of different looks.  Have a great weekend!

 

 

Supplies

 

94256 Delicate Orchid craft die

A Simple Hello by Melissa Rusk

Happy Friday! Today I have fun card using one of my favorite techniques, paper weaving.

I started with 1/4 inch wide strips of paper, I cut 7 blue and 7 yellow. I placed the yellow strips close together and taped the top of them to the table with washi tape. Then I took each of the blue strips and wove them into the yellow one by one. Once the weaving was finished I took the tape off and used some liquid glue to secure it before gluing it down to the card.

On top of my paper weaving I placed the pretty Layered Poppy that I die cut in white paper. I die cut it twice and glued them together to give the flower some more dimension. I finished the card with the stamped hello from the Big and Little words stamp set and glued down some little dew drop gems.

I hope you have a great weekend!

 

Supplies

 

94251 Layered Poppy craft die

CL5242 Big and Little Words lear stamp set

Say Hello with Scribble Roses and Scribble Fronds by Jean Okimoto

Say hello with embossed, layered Scribble Roses and Scribble Fronds...it's quick and easy and perfect for a simple summer greeting.  Hello, Jean Okimoto here with another design featuring the the versatile Scribble Roses Outline and Scribble Roses Background dies.  

Cut Scribble Roses background from watercolor paper.  Pressure-emboss the diecuts with the detailed Scribble Roses Outline dies using the embossing mat and plates required for your machine.

Brush Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide over the embossed diecuts.  Stack and adhere the three Scribble Roses.

Cut Scribble Frond Background and Scribble Frond Outline from Flintstone cardstock.

Cut the 2" x 3-¼" Wrapped Stitch Rectangle from white cardstock.

Cut ¾" x 4-¾" amd ¾" x 3-¾" strips of Coral Creme and Patina cardstock.

Stamp "hello" - from the Big and Little Words Clear Stamps Set - on white cardstock with VersaMark.  Heat-emboss it with detail clear powder.  Sponge the cooled cardstock with Morning Mist VersaFine Claire.  I think this is easier - and smoother - than white-embossing it on dark cardstock.  Trim the greeting.

Attach everything to a top-folded Kraft A-2 card - use foam dots for the greeting.  Add ¼" circles of silver glitter cardstock.

I love finding different ways to use my Memory Box dies - hope you do too!  We'll start making holiday cards at Impress this Satureday - and discover more ways to use the great holiday (and un-holiday) dies and stamps on unique cards.  Hope you'll join us if you're in the Seattle area.

Thanks for stopping by...see you again next week!

 

Supplies

 

94272 Scribble Frond Outline craft die

94273 Scribble Frond Background craft die

94271 Scribble Roses Background craft die

94270 Scribble Roses Outline craft die

CL5242 Big and Little Words lear stamp set

30094 Wrapped Stitch Rectangles

Raining Watercolors by Trina Pham

Hello there.  Today I have a clean and simple watercolor card to share.  Recent purchases of some water-based markers made me think of a fun and easy technique called Raining Watercolors.

Started by taping a piece of watercolor paper to a hardboard with painters tape.   On one end of the panel, high concentrations of each color were laid down.  So much so that the watercolor paper pilled.  No worries because that part can be cut away.

Next, held the board upright with a paper towel at the bottom to catch the drips and sprayed with water.  Water and gravity does all the work.  Sped up the drying process with a heat tool.

Because watercolors dry back, the process was repeated a couple more times to get the intensity I wanted.  

To complete the card, a panel was die cut from Bristol paper using Rectangle Basics.  A circle was die cut from that using Circle Basics.  Adhered the watercolor piece behind the opening.  The branch and boy silhouettes were die cut from black cardstock.  Confused where the boy came from?  He’s from Cupid with Swing with the wings trimmed off.

Black heat embossed the sentiment from Big and Little Words to finish.  Thank you for stopping in.  Have a wonderful week.

 

 

Supplies

 

94103 Cupid with Swing craft die

98187 Woodland Branch

CL5242 Big and Little Words lear stamp set

30086 Rectangle Basics Set

30087 Circle Basics Set

Pan Pastel Backgrounds Pt. 2 by Laura Fulcher

Greetings friends.  As you probably have noticed, I have been playing around with my PanPastel chalks a lot with the my diecuts.  I like the soft effects you can get.

For this card, I was inspired by a card by Dave Brethauer where he only glued part of his floral die.  I really liked the 3-D effect you get with having the petals curl away from the card.  Plus, it makes gluing a detailed die SO easy if you only glue part of it!

To make the card, I started with a white notecard and sponged some Violet PanPastel in the center and then added a little  Magenta followed by some Permanent Red Tint (the light pink). When I finished sponging the colors, I decided that I wanted a crisp circle rather than a hazy edge of chalk, so I took an eraser and removed extra chalk to form a circle.  One of the nicest characteristics of PanPastels is they are completely erasable:

To finish the card, I added my peony, my sentiment and a few black glossy dots:

I hope everyone has a great day!

 

 

 

Supplies

 

94277 Large Fringed Peony craft die

CL5239 Springtime Typewriter Sentiments clear stamp set

Simple Striped Cards with Scribble Leafy Branch Background and Scribble Frond Background by Anne Thompson

Need a really simple quick card?  Let the background paper do most of the work for you!  

I started with striped papers, cut them to 4 X 5.25, and adhered them to brightly colored notecards.

I then die cut the SCRIBBLE LEAFY BRANCH BACKGROUND 94275 and the SCRIBBLE FROND BACKGROUND 94573  from solid colored cardstocks in orange, yellow, and blue/green.  I used a glue pen to attach them to the three card fronts.

The leaves looked kind of plain so I added fabric flowers to the orange and yellow ones and a bow to the blue-green leaves, securing them with GlueDots.  There's still plenty of room on the front of each card to add an appropriate sentiment when I'm ready to send them off.

Look through your printed papers and match them up with pretty colored notecards.  Then add your favorite die cut images cut from coordinating cardstocks.  Maybe you'll add bows, flowers, pearls or sequins for a little extra bling.  Have fun!!!

Happy Crafting!