Stamping and Chalks 3 - Glitz it Up

This card boasts another focal inspired by the white stamping challenge on Paper Wishes Message Board.  This one was stamped on blue glimmer paper and once again colored with chalk.  A bit of Stickles helps glitz it up. The borders were cut and embossed with a Spellbinders die - the bottom one is what remained after cutting and embossing the top one.  The words were created using "innies" of the outline chain stickers that I used to frame the dark blue.

Purchased Thanksgiving

As I've mentioned before, I like to give cards at Thanksgiving that express my appreciation for the people in my life, so I need to start on them early.

This card demonstrates what one can do if the element you want for a focal is too small.  Matting it a couple of times makes it look bigger visually.  In this case the mats are framed with Peel Off stickers.  The focal and the border both make use of printed die cut elements from Hot Off the Press.

The card base is a printed one - also from Hot Off the Press.  Sometimes I find it a real challenge to create a nice card with these printed cards, but I DO like the way this turned out. This card also demonstrates the way that borders or mats around elements really help them stand out nicely.

Stamping & Chalks - Christmas in June

Here's my card for Christmas in June - continuing the idea of posting a Christmas card on the last Thursday of each month to remind us to keep working on our Christmas cards.  We don't want to have an overwhelming job at Christmas time! 

The Christmas tree was stamped with white pigment ink on a dark purple paper and then colored with chalks and Smooch ink.  As you can see, it's matted on a couple of die cuts (all die cuts this time come from Spellbinders dies).  The patterned paper and additional embellishments are from a couple of sets from Hot Off the Press.  Here's what the inside looks like:

Spellbinders Shapeabilities - Fancy Tags & Fancy Tags Two

Today's cards feature Spellbinders Shapeabilities - Fancy Tags and Fancy Tags Two.  I find myself using these quite a bit in my cardmaking. 

On this first card, in addition to the fancy tag mat for the dimensional flower sticker (from the dollar store), I used a motif from the Fleur De Lis set. I made a couple of die cuts using the small die, and then cut them in half, creating the corners you see here.  The sentiment is a sticker that I had on hand - no idea where I got it.

This card is a very simple one that is greatly enhanced by the use of the fancy tag mat.  Layering these tags with mats made from nestability dies often creates a nice look.  In this case, as you can see, I used a scalloped rectangle for the dark aqua mat.  Outline stickers provide the sentiment and corner treatment, and a dimensional sticker from the dollar store provides the focal point.

This last card makes use of a variety of dies.  It starts with a basic gate-fold card.  The colored paper is from a DCWV Stack.  As you can see, the focal greeting at the top of the card is created using several Nestabilities dies (Labels One) and a Fleur De Lis Rectangle die.  The sentiment at the bottom of the card is stamped onto a fancy tag and then layered on another fancy tag.

Use It Up - Stickers - Blue, Yellow, and Purple

Here are more covered notepads made with Dollar Store stickers as focals. These first two are matted with scraps of patterned paper cut with Spellbinders dies.  I don't often use patterned paper for mats, but these turned out fairly decent.  The middle mat of this first one is actually vellum, so you can see a light version of the patterned paper showing through.

The next three are pretty basic with plain colored mats.

This one uses an oval frame in addition to the mat to frame the focal.

This one uses a "motif" from one of the motif Spellbinders sets as a mat.

Several of these use fancy tags Spellbinders dies to create the mats for the focal stickers.

This one is layered with a "motif" mat.

This one really doesn't need a mat - the doily in the sticker serves as a bit of a mat instead.

These last two use one of the more fancy Spellbinders dies.  I love the lacy look of these!

Sewing with Doilies

Today's "Thinking of You" card was made in response to a challenge on the Paper Wishes Message Board.  There were a LOT of parts to the challenge, but the piece I want to focus on today is the sewing.  It was suggested that we use a doily as a pattern for piercing holes before sewing a pattern.  This is what was done for the "lily pad" in the example above.  It was also done for the elements in this next card, where you can also see part of the doily that I used as a mat (I added chalk to it to tone down the white to more of an ecru):

Here is a picture of the doily I used:

And here are the various sewn elements I made from various parts of it, with close ups following:

This is actually a fun technique - something to keep your hands busy while watching tv. ;)

Scrapbooking By The Numbers - 6

One technique I enjoy works great when I have 6 photos.  I print one of them as my page background!  Obviously this requires either a wide body printer (I have the HP photosmart B8550 and LOVE it) or pages that are no larger than 8 1/2" by 11", but it can allow for some great effects.  In this first example, I was able to "print" white text directly onto the background since I was printing the whole thing as a photo.

This technique, can make creating a focal point on your page more challenging, and you need to pay careful attention to ensuring there is a focal area for your eye to rest on.  This first example is a somewhat unusual layout where the background is also the focal - due to the large ibis that sits in the center of the page. The eye then naturally moves from that to the lower left corner, where there is a bit more color, before moving on around the page.

Using one of your pictures for your background works great with photos that have lots of plain background, or are somewhat boring scenery but set the stage for your photos.  However, it can take some work to figure out where to place your smaller photos so they don't take away from your photo background.

This example allowed me to print a large picture of the sunset, and have several other pictures of it on the page.  The focal, however is a picture of the photographer where she sat and watched the sun set.

Figuring out where to put my smaller pictures was rather challenging until I decided the main area of interest in my background picture was the cityscape surrounded by sunset clouds and water.  Thus, I could cover parts of the foreground tree and the right edge where there was "excess" sea.

This final example is another one where printing my own background allowed me to use white text for my journaling.  Using the photo as background gives context to the other photos that are close-ups of the comorants on their rocks.  In my focal photo, the comorants are larger than in most of the other photos, but I also matted the picture with a wide white mat to help draw attention to it. Stairstepping the other photos and matting them in white helps them to be better seen against the background.

Next week concludes this series with a look at placing more than 10 photos on one page!

Stamping and Chalks 2 - Vellum

I really love the way this card turned out.  It was based in a challenge on the Paper Wishes Message Board - using stamps with opaque white ink on a dark surface (I used a dark pink vellum here), letting it dry, and then coloring it with chalks, pens, etc.  In this case, I used chalks and a little dot of black enamel for the eye.  The white "stitching" is Dazzles.  The "Thank You" isn't very visible in this picture, but stands out very well on the actual card.  It is made with dimensional paint and a stencil.

Purchased Tag Slider Focal

Here is a quick birthday card.  The focal is a slider tag - not sure where I got it, but I think it was from Hot Off the Press. The papers were also from them.  Cutting off the upper corner of the striped paper adds interest.

Anniversary in Red & White

Today's card is an anniversary card and is pretty straight forward, with probably only one tricky part.

As you can probably tell, the sentiment is stamped on a white piece of paper that is then cut with a spellbinders nestability die.  The big white piece is cut with my new "Cut and Emboss Folder" from Marrianne Design (LOVE IT!)  I added dots of red stickles which don't show well in the photo (just look like dark dots) but look great in real life. 

The red background is where the tricky part comes in.  I wanted to emboss a piece that was larger than my embossing folder - in fact, it was about double the size.  It turned out to be a pretty easy thing to do.  I embossed one half with the folder, then the other.  I was careful to put it in my machine such that I only ran the folder through, not the other half of the paper which would have flattened part of my design.  In other words, I ran the paper in part way and then ran it back out again rather than running it all through my Big Shot.

This actually gave me a larger embossed piece than I needed, so I took a bit of it to use as a mat for the small white sentiment piece.

Spellbinder's Nestabilities - Fleur De Lis Squares

Today's cards feature Spellbinders Fleur De Lis Squares Nestabilities - another set that I really LOVE.  Once again they feature a lovely lacy edge that really sets off a card nicely.

This first example demonstrates several techniques.  The main mat was cut from vellum.  Too often I forget about using vellum, but it can really add a nice touch.  In this case, the card base was a bit "loud" and the vellum toned it down nicely.  As you can see, I also used vellum to make a pergamano butterfly. The pattern is one that came from a pergamano template I got from Paper Wishes website.  I used Smooch inks to color it. The flowers are dimensional stickers from the dollar store, and the sentiment is an outline sticker.  If you look closely, you will see that there is a white frame layered on top of the vellum mat.  This is the "leftovers" from the mat you can see on the next card:

This is so pretty IRL, but it was very simple to make.  A mat cut with this die set, a couple of dimensional stickers from the dollar store, and a sentiment cut from adhesive-backed cardstock with my Silhouette.

Here's another card made with a mat from this die set and a dimensional sticker from the dollar store.  The word "wish" was cut out of adhesive-backed vinyl with my Silhouette.  A gel pen was used for the rest of the sentiment, and a ribbon finishes it off.

Use It Up - Stickers - Pink Flowers

Here are some more covered notepads using dimensional stickers from the Dollar Store as a focal.  Once again, to see how these covers are made, check here. These first few examples all use a standard nesting Spellbinders die to cut a mat for the sticker, which is adhered to the embossed background.

The next few use more elaborate Spellbinders dies.  I LOVE these more lacy dies!

Note how this one groups three small stickers to make a larger focal.

Next I experimented with using some of the larger fancy label dies as mats for the stickers.

My last example uses a scrap of border bunched with an EK Success die.  It gives a hit of a mat without actually matting the sticker.