Create an Ink-Blended Grand Galaxy Birthday Card by Jean Okimoto

Dreamy blended colors and turquoise jewels transform a galaxy design from a guy-card to a special greeting for a birthday gal. Highlight the details of the new Grand Galaxy 3D Embossing Folder with soft layers of color, accent strips from the 6x6 cardstock collections and the sparkle of custom-colored Clear Jewels.

Hi, Jean Okimoto here with a quick, double-inked, embossed technique creates a different look each time you use it.  It's a variation of a technique Anne shared earlier - and a process we used for one of my spring card kits.

Cut smooth, heavy white cardstock to 4-¼" x 5-½".  Cover it with soft, blended overlapping layers of Distress Oxides.  A little white showing thru the colors is OK.  Colors used here are kitsch flamingo, cracked pistachio, wild honey, wilted violet and peacock feathers.  Use a brayer to apply peacock feathers to the top section of the Grand Galaxy 3D Embossing Folder.

 

Quickly spray 4 spritzes of water in the air - then catch the mist with the uninked backside of the cardstock.  Place the damp cardstock in the folder with the  inked side facing the inked half of the folder.  Run it through the diecut machine following your machine's embossing instructions.

Remove the cardstock and heat-set the inks.  Trim it to 3-¾" x 5" with a Rectangle Basics die.  Cut 4-½", 4" and 3" accent strips from the Fresh Aqua, Vibrant Violet and Sunny Orange collections.

Stamp the greeting - from the new Signature Greetings Clear Stamp and Die Set - on white cardstock with Warm Breeze VersaFine Clair.  Heat-set the ink, then cut the greeting with the matching die.  Don't cut the individual greetings apart - it's easier to tape the dies to stamped cardstock for cutting when everything is together.  And they're easier to find (and identify!) when they're together. 

Cut an extra layer from a teal 6x6 sheet - use it to add dimension and a shadow to accent the greeting.

Color Clear Jewels with a turquoise Sharpie or Copic Marker.  Attach everything to a 5-½" square white card - use foamtape for the greeting.

Try this double-inking technique with some of our other 3D Embossing Folders too.  Thanks for visiting - hope you're liking our Summer Daydreams Collection!

 

 

Supplies

 

EF1017 Grand Galaxy 3D Embossing Folder

CL5272D Signature Greetings clear stamp and die set

SP1004 Fresh Aqua 6x6 pack

SP1002 Sunny Orange 6x6 pack

SP1007 Vibrant Violet 6x6 pack

30086 Rectangle Basics Set

JWL001 Clear Jewels

Grand Galaxy Heat Embossed Embossing Folder Cards by AnneThompson

Today's cards are all about a technique using heat embossing with the GRAND GALAXY EMBOSSING FOLDER EF1017 to create cards that are out of this world!

I will do my best to explain the technique but if you are a visual learner  you might want to watch Jennifer McGuire's heat embossed embossing folder tutorial from 05-04-21.

These are the supplies that I gathered.

• GRAND GALAXY EMBOSSING FOLDER EF1017
• VersaMark Ink Pad
• brayer
• heat tool
• embossing powders:  gold, silver, black, blue blaze
• FAIRY JEWELS, BRIGHTS, JWL003
• HELLO STREAMLINED SCRIPT 94540
• white notecards
• an assortments of colored cardstocks from the various Memory Box Cardstock 6X6 Collections--purple, orange, gray/brown, light blue

the technique

Open the embossing folder and apply VersaMark Ink with a brayer to the side where the background is raised and the planets etc. are indented.  No brayer?  Apply the ink directly with the pad.  You will want to lightly cover the background of the image.

Select the cardstock you will use.  If you have a powder tool, use it on the cardstock before placing it face down onto the inked folder.  Close the folder and run it through your die cutting/embossing machine to apply the VersaMark to the cardstock.

Apply the embossing powder of your choice to the inked cardstock.  Heat it with a heat tool.  

to finish the card

Trim the image to cover the front of the notecard like I did on the silver one.  Or add a piece of cardstock the same color as on the image to cover the notecard before adding the embossed piece cut slightly smaller.

Add some Fairy Jewels for some extra sparkle on some of the stars.

For the sentiment I chose the new HELLO STREAMLINED SCRIPT 94540, cut each one twice and stacked them for more dimension before adding "hello" to each card.  For the silver and blue sparkle cards I used foil paper layers on the background cardstocks and for the orange and purple cards I used two layers of the colored cardstocks.

Here's a close-up to show off the shimmer and shine a bit more.

This technique works great with the Memory Box floral embossing folders, too!  On the cards below I used BLOOMING SWEET PEA EF 1020 and BLOOMING EF1014 with gold, white, and clear sparkle embossing powders.

Have fun trying out this technique with your embossing folders.  Happy Crafting!

    

 

Blessed by Michelle Bala

Hello there! Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  Michelle here,  sharing a mix of patterns and texture. 

Here are the steps I followed to create this card:

1. Fold and trim card base to measure 4 1/4 x 5 1/2.
2. Trim a piece of foil paper to fit the card base.
3. Emboss the foil paper with Pinpoint Snowflake Plate.
4. Adhere the embossed foil paper to the card base. 
   
5. Trim a piece of pattern paper, same size as base.
6. Secure the star die to the center of the pattern paper with washi tape. I used the largest star die from the Shining Star Set.
7. Run the die through a die cutting machine.
8. Adhere the die cut panel over the embossed foil base. 
9. Splatter with white paint.
10. Stamp the sentiment onto solid cardstock and trim to desired length. I used the stamp set Harvest Love and Kindness.
11. Finish with a twine bow.

Thanks for stopping by for a peek!

 

 

 

 

Supplies

 

94513 Pinpoint Snowflake Plate craft die

CL5262 Harvest Love and Kindness clear stamp set

FP1001 Polished Foil Pad pack

PP1009 Christmas Plaid 6x6 pack

94321 Shining Star Set

The Chandele Star on a Blended, Spritzed Background by Jean Okimoto

The delicately simple Chandele Star would look great anywhere.  Layer it over metallic artpapers, felt, wood, glittered or glossy cardstock - or a watercolored background.  Hi, Jean Okimoto here with an easy ink-blending technique that's great for creating quick colored backgrounds for your holiday diecuts.

Cut a 4-½" x 3" strip of watercolor paper.  Ink a 4" soft rubber brayer with Fresh Greens Kaleidacolor - lift and roll the brayer repeatedly (about 20 times) so it's fully-inked.  Spritz it lightly with water.  Roll the spritzed inks onto the smoother side of the watercolor paper.  Let the colors blend for about a minute, then dry the inks with a heat-tool.  

Spray it with Imagine's Gold Sheer Shimmer Spritz.  Airdry it for a few minutes, then heat-set.  Cut it with the 2-¼" x 3-½" Stitched Rectangle Trimmings die.  We're using just the inner rectangle here.  

Cut Chandele Star and the biggest Shining Star from smooth white cardstock.  

Stamp the greeting - from the Merry and Bright Mistletoe Clear Stamps Set - on a white A-2 card with the turquoise ink from the Fresh Greens inkpad.

Assemble the card.  Add ¼" punched circles of gold glittered paper.

Hope you're enjoying the fall and winter holiday ideas from our Design Team.  We love sharing our designs and techniques with you and hope they'll inspire you to create unique handmade holiday cards this year.

Thanks for visiting!

Supplies

 

94321 Shining Star Set craft die

94317 Chandele Star craft die

30082 Stitched Rectangle Trimmings

CL5246 Merry and Bright Mistletoe clear stamp set

Partial Die Cutting by Laura Fulcher

Greetings friends.  Today I want to talk about partially cutting out a die rather than cutting out the whole thing.  My card above partially cut out the solid star so that it remained attached to the left side of the card and opened up space on the right side so that you can see the white inside of the card.  Here is a close up:

The first step was to place my solid star onto the front of the card and tape it down with low-tac tape:

You want the run the card through the machine open so that the star won't cut through the back of the card.

Next, you have to place the paper and die into your diecutting machine so that the places you want to cut are between your cutting plates and the parts that you don't want to cut will hang over the edge (not sandwiched between plates):

The right side of the star was between the plates, so it cut.  The left side was not between plates, so it didn't cut:

I then put my card in my paper cutter so that I could cut from the top of the card to the top of the star:

I flipped the card around and then cut from the bottom of the card to the bottom of the star:

When you cut around the top and bottom of the star, you are left with this:

What you are left with is a star shaped flap that shows part of the white inside of the card.  All that was left was to die cut the detailed star die that fits on top of the solid star and then glue it on top before adding a rhinestones and some Stickles for sparkle.

I could have also cut out a solid star and glued it onto my card, but I wanted to show you the technique, because there are times that you want a single layer card or you just want to cut out one part of a die and not the whole thing. 

Let me know if you have any questions about the technique!

 

94321 Shining Star Set craft die

94317 Chandele Star craft die

CL5245 Tidings Wreath clear stamp set

Quick and Easy Cards by Melissa Rusk

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.

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.

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!

 

Supplies

 

CL5222 Bee Yourself clear stamp set

CL5221 Outta This World clear stamp set

Fabulous Snowy Sky Video by Dave Brethauer

Well, hello all you Memory Box fans!

I am so happy to share a video with you today that will teach you a background technique you will use over and over. The results are wonderful each time - and very creative.

I think this is one of my favorites because of this particular combination of color - the blues and purples, and then the small golden accent. This is truly beautiful in real life - you must try this so that you can see it in person!

(Watch this video in HD by clicking here)

I used Distress Oxide inks for the background - Wilted Violet, Faded Jeans and Broken China - all sponged together and overlapped. And then there is a small dab of yellow ink - Fossilized Amber - to create a little burst of light in the upper right corner.

I have been sponging backgrounds for a long time and by now, I can whip up a background in no time. To give it this bright spattered look I gave it a little spritz of water mixed with a bit of bleach. My portions change from time to time - the stronger the bleach solution, the brighter the white spots get and there is a more noticeable "halo" around the spots. Generally, I stick to a recipe of 2 cups water to one tablespoon of bleach, but you should try what suits you.

You can see the difference between the two cards here - the card on the left has the tiny drops and the card on the right has larger drops. This is just a matter of how you use your spray bottle.

I spritz it with a spray bottle - if I squeeze quickly, then the spray comes out in tiny drops. If I squeeze slowly, then the spray comes out in larger drops. As a bonus - you will be disinfecting your craft area!

 

I used the 99834 Single Deer Oval to create the first layer - and then the 99816 Batavia Snowflake Oval for the second layer. Both of these are cut out of white cardstock, which provides a bright contrast to the colorful background. Both ovals are exactly the same size, so they line up perfectly. And if you want to add some snowflakes to the card, the 99825 Batavia Snowflakes match the snowflakes in the oval!

In the video you will see that you have some leftover pieces - like the reindeer above. This is what is left over after you cut out the background - don't throw it out, this makes another beautiful card!

Adding a white background, and gluing on a few sequins - you'll have another card in less than a minute!

I have designed a lot of layered dies over the years, including the tree and branch collage dies in the Faerie Cards video I made awhile ago. It is a concept that I really have had fun with as I developed Birch Press Design Dies over the last few years - layering cut paper to create intricate artwork, like I did in my Peony Blooms video. I really enjoy assembling these layers to create some dimension on cards.

I ended up really liking the color scheme that I used for the background, so I made about a dozen background pieces, changing where I was putting the color until I came up with a composition that reminded me of the Northern Lights.

This turned out to work perfectly with a die that I hadn't played with too much - the 99822 Sheer Treescape. This die features some cut lines to create some texture in the paper - these extra lines do not cut out a shape but rather just add some extra detail to the image.

The treescape creates a perfect border - and the "Northern Lights" jump up through the treeline. The only change here is that I added Distress Oxide Ink in Black Soot to the border to darken the edges. A spritz of my bleach and water solution added the look of stars (or snow, depending on your perspective).

That beautiful sky was begging for something to be flying in it - so I placed the 99606 Small Reindeer Team in the sky for fun!

I hope you will try out this background technique - the bright spatters really make the background come alive and the colors seem to intensify. These quick cards are the perfect project to try this out on. 

I really hope you have fun if you try these cards! We'd like to give you a chance to make them by entering to win 3 dies! The Sheer Treescape die, the Batavia Snowflake Oval die and the Single Deer Oval die! Just leave a comment on the video or on the blog for a chance to win. Leave comments by October 26, 2017 at midnight Pacific Coast Time!

 

A Starry Thank Youby Melissa Rusk

Happy Saturday Friends! Today I have a starry thank you card to share with you using some new dies. Let's get started!

The Starry Lens die is so much fun! I die cut it in a white paper and then glued some silver glitter paper behind it. To add some extra fun to this card I die cut three sizes of the Stitched Stars die and glued them to the card.

I stamped the thank you from the Sentimental Iris stamp set in purple ink and glued the whole thing to a fun and shiny purple paper. Some gems finished off this thank you card. Change up the colors and the sentiment and it would make a great gift set for someone.

Have a great day!

Supplies

99808 Stitched Stars

99824 Starry Lens

CL5202 Snetimental Iris clear stamp set

Speckled Background Tutorial by Laura

Greetings everyone.  Today I wanted to talk about the versatility of the Speckled Background die.  It is a die that adds a nice dotted background to your paper.  What you might not know is that Dave designed the die so that you have the option of running the die once through a die cutting machine to get a few dots, or you can rotate the die 180 degrees and run it through a second time to get twice the number of dots.  He planned the location of each hole in the die in such a way that if you rotate the die 180 degrees to use it a second time, none of the dots overlap each other.

Here is a picture to give you an idea of what I am trying to explain.  I did everything in black and white for my card to try and make the process more visible:

In the picture on the left, you can see the die at the top and the number of holes it cut in my paper on the bottom.  I put a piece of tape on the side of the die to mark the initial position of the die.   In the picture on the right, you can see that I rotated the die 180 degrees.  Notice how the tape is now on the other side.   The paper stayed in the same position.  I ran the die through the machine a second time to get twice the number of dots.   You can see that none of the dots overlapped each other.

Here is the paper looks like when you die cut it once with the Speckled Background:

Here is what it looks like if you run it through a second time after rotating the die:

For my card today, I chose to use the background with more dots to look like stars.  I added large die cut star from the Stitched Star Layers Set and added a sentiment from the Words to Live By set.  I am planning to use this card as a bit of an nontraditional graduation card.  Because of the "shine" sentiment, I thought the card needed a few sequins to make it sparkle:

I hope the tutorial helped you figure out how you can customize your dot backgrounds using the Speckled Background die.

Have a great weekend!

 

30055 Stitched Star Layers

Speckled Background

CL5154 Words to Live by

InLinkz.com

 

Stitched Celebrate Circle Frame and the Starlit Breeze by Jean Okimoto

Let the Stitched Celebrate Circle Frame and Starlit Breeze come to  the rescue when you need a quick card!  Amidst the sweet prettiness of Easter and spring cards I almost forget about The Husband's birthday tomorrow.  

Thank goodness the Memory Box collection of dies includes some great designs for the guys.  I love how quickly this worked out - and it would be great in just about any color combination.

Cut Stitched Celebrate Circle Frame from purple cardstock.  Cut the Stitched Circle Layers background from yellow-green cardstock.  Attach turquoise duct tape to a scrap of cardstock and diecut Starlit Breeze.  It's as easy as cutting plain cardstock and adds shiny texture to any design.  

Cut the two stars - included with the Stitched Celebrate Circle Frame - from mirror cardstock.  Cut the smallest Stitched Star Layers star from mirror cardstock too.  Attach everything to a 5-½" square card of green cardstock - use foam dots for the silver stars.  No sequins here!

That's it - a guy's card in record time!

Thanks for stopping by this evening.  Please join us again tomorrow - Sherry Hester has another great design for you!

 

 

 

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