Glitter Blessings

I love the look of glitter on a card, but making this card showed me why I so seldomly use it!  

Materials:

• double-stick adhesive sheet
• plastic stencil (Roses by Paper Artist - HOTP)
• glitter
• green foil paper
• card stock
• cutting die (Our Daily Bread Designs)
• card base
• ATG

Method:

1. Cover card stock piece with double-sided adhesive.
2. Remove liner paper and lay stencil over top.
3. Apply glitter to visible areas that the stencil didn't cover (I used several colors for this part - green for leaves, mauve, pink, and purple for the flowers, silver for the swirls).
4. Rub glitter in well and brush off and excess.
5. Remove stencil & add another color of glitter to the newly exposed adhesive (I used a clear glitter for this). 
6. Rub well & brush off excess. 
7. Cut foil into strips & glue to perimeter of card base to form a mat.
8. Trim glittered card stock to size and glue in place.
9. Cut the word "Blessings" from foil paper and from adhesive backed foam sheet.
10. Glue foil on top of foam using a glue pen for adhesive.
11. Arrange diagonal stripes of foil paper & the word where you want them. 
12. Remove backing from word & glue in place.
13. Run ATG tape over foil stripes and glue in place.

A Different Napkin Technique

As I was playing with paper napkins, I checked out a few YouTube videos.  I came across one that showed using various glues and decided to try it. It showed using various glues on a craft mat - apply glue to mat, lay down napkin, apply glue on top, let dry, peel off mat.

(I've just spent an hour looking for the video I saw and I can't find it! If I find it, I'll add a link here.  )  In my looking, I came across this one by delygirl1961. It shows using much less glue than I did - would probably work better.  Another one by Kellie Colegrove showed that fabric stiffener might work even better.)  

At any rate, I hadn't seen those when I tried this technique, so I just used cheap school glue.  Here's what I found out:

   1) Cheap glue seems to work well BUT - you want the glue to be pretty thin - mine were WAY too thick & took FOREVER to dry!!!!

   2) The side closest to the craft sheet dries glossy, the top side dries to more of a matte finish.  I might have preferred putting my napkin face side down so the glossy side was the front side.

    3) Too much glue and it dries more opaque - not the translucent look I was going for (see 2nd card below.)

Anyway, here are the cards I made using this technique.  The first piece was somewhat translucent and I wanted to play up that look.  So, I cut a hole in the front of my card & covered it with the napkin.  I then glued a die cut from a Spellbinder's die on top.  The card front was finished with a "Color Me" tag from HOTP that I colored with Gelatos & heat embossed the "Thanks" in copper.

You really can't see from the picture, but in real life, you can somewhat see through the center part.  On the inside, I layered the pieces cut out of the center of the brown & the card base.

For my 2nd card, the napkin piece was not at all translucent.  So, I fussy cut around it & glued it to the front of my card.  The frame is cut with a couple of Spellbinders dies.  The "background" is really just a border pieced together from napkins and glued in place. The sentiment was stamped with a JustRite stamp.

Gelatos & Paper Napkins

Continuing with the gelato colored Color Me toppers, I decided I wanted to cut an aperture in the center of this card.  The question then was, what do I put behind it?  I started going through my drawer of stuff for Thanksgiving cards, and came across a small napkin with a turkey on it.  I decided that would make a great focal. for this card.

And it serves double duty since it is on the inside of the card but seen from the outside!  Here's the inside:

The tag was from my stash - stamped with a JustRite stamp from "Greatful Heart" stamp set.

For the second card, I was looking for other napkins to use as focals and came across another turkey one. Instead of messing with glue this time, I simply cut a piece of adhesive-backed fun foam to the size I wanted and then covered it with the napkin!

The background of this card was another gelato/baby wipe background.  I embossed it with an embossing folder, but did not highlight with ink this time.  I die cut a mat out of white paper using a Spellbinder's die.  Then I rounded the corners of everything to reflect the rounded corners of the die cut mat.  After inking the edges of the focal & background, I stamped the sentiment at the top & glued everything in place.  Sentiment stamp was from JustRite's "Good Friends" stamp set.

ColorMe Thanksgiving Toppers

All of that playing around with gelatos reminded me that I had colored some Thanksgiving "Color Me" toppers (HOTP) and should really make them into cards. Here are two of them. The coloring was gelatos & water color pencil.  The words "Blessings" were cut with a cutting die from Our Daily Bread Designs. On one card I cut 3 of them and layered them together.  On the 2nd card I cut one and then one from fun foam and layered them. 

As you can see, for the second one, I fussy cut around the lace edges and mounted it on a 5" x 7" card:

Mermaid

Today's card was one of those put together VERY quickly.  I was going to a birthday party for my grand-niece and suddenly realized I hadn't made a card for her!  

Her party was mermaid-themed, and I knew I didn't have any mermaids in my stash.  SO, I went hunting on the internet until I found something that would work.  I printed it onto glossy card stock (unfortunately my printer ran out of magenta ink part way through, but got far enough that it worked - I just had to color her lips), and then die-cut the focal using a Spellbinder's die.  I used the die as a stencil to color in around the edges with a Sharpie.

I cut out two more shapes using the same die set.  On one I stamped a message; on the other I stamped the greeting (from two different HOTP stamp sets - "Birthday Greetings" and "Birthday Cheer") - addint the same "Sharpie" embellishments.  

For the card itself I found some pearl patterned card stock and created a two-piece step card (technique described here). I used the same dimensions that Lee did - one piece that was 8" x 6" and scored at 3", 6" and 7" - a second piece that was 8" x 3" and scored at 4".  I had at first thought I would make a center step card, but when I decided on the message I realized a side step would work better.   The two-piece structure allowed me to make that change with minimal effort.  

A Word About Foam Squares

I've been making a lot of cards lately using layering with 3D foam squares.  I've been buying a 4"x4" sheet of 1000 small squares for $1.59, but that source is no longer available. The best I've been able to find so far to replace that source costs $1.99 (not including tax) and some are MUCH more expensive!  As many of these little squares as I go through - especially since family comes over and uses them too - I really needed to find a lower cost alternative.  And I DID!

I make them MYSELF using foam sheets (sometimes called fun foam) and double-sided adhesive (I use Elizabeth Crafts 6" wide double-sided adhesive roll). After applying the adhesive to the foam sheets (on both sides if using regular foam sheets, or on just one side if it already has adhesive on the other), I simply use my guillotine style paper cutter and cut into narrow strips.  If I chose to do so, I could cut these further into squares, but I find I prefer to simply cut them from the strip as I need them.  This saves a TON of money!!!!

Below you can see my price calculations.  They are based on the fact that I paid $1.99 for my purchased foam squares, $8.43 for 40 sheets of 6" x 9" sticky backed foam sheets, $5.63 for 12 sheets that are 11.81" x 17.7", and $38.45 for a roll of 6" x 27 yards of double-sided adhesive (Elizabeth Crafts on sale from Amazon). Note that none of my calculations include tax or shipping costs.

• Purchased Foam Squares: one 4" x 4" sheet = $1.99

• Using Regular Foam Sheets - Equivalent amount using non-sticky foam sheets, 4" x 4" = approx 25 cents (about 1/8th the cost of the purchased foam squares!)

• Using Sticky Back Foam Sheets - Equivalent amount using sticky back foam sheets, 4" x 4"  = approx 17 cents

Now, of course, what it costs you will depend on what you have to spend for the foam sheets & the double-sided adhesive, but I just bought the foam at the store yesterday (Zurchers) and the adhesive from Amazon today, so they're pretty current prices - though what I found at Amazon WAS on sale.

Update:  I decided to re-do my calculations so I could easily compare with other things like - a big roll of scotch foam tape.  These calculations show how many square inches of double-sided foam we can get for a dollar:

• Purchased Foam Squares: 8 square inches/$1
• Scotch big roll on sale (36 yard roll of 1/2 inch wide): 15 square inches/$1
• Regular foam sheets: 64 square inches/$1
• Sticky Back Foam Sheets: 94 square inches/$1!!!!

More with Gelatos

Here are several more cards made while playing with Gelatos backgrounds like the one I used on the "bamboo" card here (blending with baby wipes technique).  

This first card is the other half of the gelatos piece I colored for my bamboo card.  This time I used a fall leaf embossing folder & hit it with green ink (lightly with a circular motion to bring out the embossing).  The cat was one of my Stampendous Kitties, that I made some time ago & had in my stash.  I added her head with a bobble spring.  I decided to run a piece of ribbon across at an angle and put my die-cut sentiment above that.  I felt it needed a little more, so made the tag & added it like it was hanging from the ribbon.

Next is a piece that I did using orange/brown gelatos.  It really didn't look all that great when I was done with it, but by the time I embossed it & added the green ink on top, it looked pretty good!  The tag and die cut were from my stash.  I know the tag was from HOTP - not sure about the die cut.  I found a piece of peach colored paper that blended well & matted it on green for a border.  The background paper is a fern paper from HOTP.  The jewel dazzles were silver but I colored them with a light green Sharpie to get them the right color for the card.

The final card in this set is the other half of that orange/brown gelato background.  I used the same embossing folder, but this time I hit it with tan and brown inks.  The background plaid is old HOTP paper.  The die cut was one from my stash that I hit with some ink to get it a color that blended better.  The ribbon border gives it something to sit on.  The sentiment is a piece of printed vellum from my stash - backed with paper & framed with a Dazzles sticker (HOTP).

A Combo Bible Journaling Page

This page is really 2 Bible journaling pieces that were completed about 1 week apart.  The first is at the top.  You may notice that this page has a big "OOPS".  I was preparing the page with gesso & suddenly realized I was using WHITE instead of CLEAR!!!!  I immediately stopped and cleared as much as I could - then continued with clear gesso.  But you can still see the white. 

I made a heart template that I traced around, then colored with Inktense pencils, then added a scalloped outline with a marker.  Then I outlined the letters "GRACE" and pulled the color into the inside of color.  The "food" was stamped & colored gray to show it to be undesirable.  The rest of the lettering for this first piece was made with Pitt pens.

For the lower piece, I had letter stickers I really liked the shape of - but not the color as it clashed with what was already on the page.  So I lightly placed them, outlined them with Inktense pencils and then removed them.  Drawing the color to the inside with a water pen completed the large letters.  The small word was created with a Pitt pen.  Then the notes were stamped (using stamps from "Just a Note" small stamp set from HOTP) - colored with scroll & brush markers.

Just Bamboo

I am SOOO happy with this card!  

It started out as an experiment with gelatos.  I took a piece of white card stock & scribbled on it in various shades of yellow/green.  Then blended with a baby wipe.  

As I looked at the result, I thought of my bamboo embossing folder & just HAD to use it!  After embossing, I used applied green & brown ink lightly in a circular motion to enhance the embossing.  

Then I thought of this panda in my stash.  I had gotten a Spellbinders panda die some time ago & made him up and he was just sitting in my stash! He was perfect!  

I glued the panda to the panel, ran a black ribbon across near the top, matted the whole on a piece of black paper & glued to my card front.  Then I just needed a sentiment.  Another Spellbinder's die (Persian Accents & Motifs set) worked beautifully for that - along with a stamp (Botanical Swirls Labels - JustRite).

Another Spellbinder's die from the set cut the borders for this card.

Thank You Bunch

Unfortunately, several of these pictures are not great - still learning to get the light right in my new space - but this first one isn't too bad.

I needed a bunch of Thank You cards quickly, so colored some stamped images I had received in a swap to form several of my focals - not sure of the source of all of them. 

I fussy cut the leaf of this daffodil so it would hang over the frame - one of Marianne's Cut-Emboss folders (using a piece of aqua glimmer paper).  Sentiment stamp from HOTP SS "Flower".

This next card had the focal matted on a piece of card stock that had been colored with alcohol inks and embossed in an embossing folder.  I stamped the sentiment (Tiny Words & Images - HOTP) on a strip of paper & cut notches either end - attaching with foam squares in the middle & direct to the focal on the edges.

This picture is very bad.  The card itself is white with blue mat and yellow flowers in a blue vase.  Really pretty in real life!  The picture was colored with Inktense pencils.  The mat was cut using a Spellbinder's die, and the label was cut with a HOTP die.

This scarecrow was colored with inktense pencils & a stamped sentiment (Matching Borders & Focals - HOTP) added before matting it on black paper.  The background is an old HOTP design.

The colors are off on this one too - the card is white!!! Anyway, this is a gate fold card.  The card fronts are scored every 1/8" for a fun look.  The focal is from a stamp set I got from JeJe, colored with Inktense pencils.

This last card is a shaped card from an old PaperFlair card kit (HOTP).  The butterfly didn't fold back on itself like it should have, so I had to "fake it" a bit, but it still turned out pretty cute.  I add googly eyes & beading wire for antennae.  Here's what it looked like opened:

Wreath Builder Cards

Unfortunately, these pictures are rather poor quality, but I wanted to show some of the fun I've been having with the Wreath Builder set from Gina K Designs.  I was given the stamps & templates for my birthday, and here are a couple of cards I made using them.

First up is a Thanksgiving card.  The background is a dark brown glimmer paper embossed with an embossing folder.  The stamped card stock is matted with green card stock.  The design stamps all come from the set, but I used some other stamp sets for the sentiments.  They come from "Autumn Vintage Labels Three" set from JustRite.

The inside shows some more stamping & is matted similarly to the front of the card.

This second card can be used as either a Thanksgiving or Thank You card.  

Tools used: 

• Wreath Builder template & stamp set (reddish leaves - Gina K Designs)
• Autumn Vintage Labels Three (wheat - JustRite)
• HOTP small stamp set called "Leaves" (acorn, "Thanks")
• Heartfelt Creations "Woodsy Critters" stamp set (squirrel).  
• "Antique Autumn Tags One" (JustRite - "Miss You" and "You are a Blessing", also small image on the inside of the card).

Background: The card background was created using a rust-colored glimmer paper cut just smaller than the card front and run through an embossing folder.  (M-bossabilities).  

Border: A strip of tan paper as the mat was embossed using the Cuttlebug "Swiss Dots" embossing folder.  Strips of gold-edged ribbon run along each side.  The sentiment was stamped using stamping platform so it could stamp clearly over the embossed dots.

Focal: The stamped image was created using a variety of inks and the stamps mentioned above - then fussy cut with a small white border inside & out.  This was mounted on a mat (drawn with "Magic Matter" and the cut by hand) of tan (same paper as border).  The sentiment was stamped in the center of the tan mat and then glued to the background.  The stamped piece was added with foam squares.  The little "Miss you" tag was cut with a Paper Artist die from HOTP (9 Tiny Tags and Little Labels) from white card stock.  The tips of the wheat stamp was used for background foilage before the tag was inked around the edge.  After adding a bit of ribbon, the tag was glued in place.

The inside has a border created with the tan & burgundy papers (both embossed with dots).  Another tag was cut from white card stock and stamped, then colored with markers.  the edge was inked & ribbon added to finish it off.