Build a Scene

Previously I showed how you can make pretty cards by just cutting up the paper - even if you get partial animals that way!  Today I'm looking at how you can BUILD YOUR OWN SCENE using your patterned papers.  Again, I'm using paper from the Otterly Adorable paper pack.

Card #1 (above):  Unfortunately, I did not remember to get a picture of the panel BEFORE I cut it up. I started by fussy cutting pieces from the panel - one large scene, a log, and a pair of otters sleeping,  Then I started to decide what I wanted to do with them.  I created a bit of a sandy beach (or river bank) using a piece of white card stock and some Crumb Cake ink (applied with a foam applicator).  I nestled my sleeping otters in the lower corner, and glued the scene in place on the "sandy" cardstock.  The log nestled perfectly along the edge of the bank.  

I tried what I had against a white card front and decided I wanted some blue for the sky - so added a piece of Balmy Blue cardstock.  I wanted clouds in the sky and decided I wanted to put my sentiment on one of them.  That was a bit tricky, since I didn't have a stamp that said what I wanted to say.  So, I printed my saying onto white cardstock and die cut it with a cloud die (not easy since the particular die I used was not an "open" one, so I couldn't see where my message was).  Anyway, I got my message in the cloud and added another to complete my scene.

Then it was a simple matter of inking the edges of my panel and gluing it to my card front.  I sure hope my recipient likes it! 

Card #2:

 

This isn't as much of a scene, but what scene there is, I built using materials from two different papers from the pack.  The structure really makes the card, and is quite easy.  On the card front, I simply marked the mid-point of the right side, the left side, and the bottom.  Then I ran score lines from the top corners to the midpoint of the bottom, and then from the midpoints of the sides to the midpoint of the bottom.  I folded the first as mountain folds, and the rest as valley folds - creased them well, then glued them in place.  

It was pretty easy to cut the decorative paper, too.  I cut the paper to 4" x 5 1/4", then marked the midpoint along the bottom edge and sliced it from the upper corners to that midpoint (you may be able to see the results more clearly in the next picture.  I cut around some playful otters from another sheet in this set of papers, then stamped a greeting in Pecan Pie ink on a piece of Balmy Blue cardstock - matting it all on white before adding with dimensionals.  The stamp I used was from Spellbinders Typewriter Adventure Sentiments.  Here's what the card looks like when opened:

Card #3:

Here's another for which I didn't get any BEFORE pictures - which is a shame.  I'll still try to describe what I did.  

First, I fussy cut along the top of the scene - bushes and otters, then cut along the edge of the "river" - which was at a bit of an angle on the lower edge.  

I found some scraps in my stash of tan paper with some specks that I thought would look good as a riverbank and glued it in place along the lower cut edge.  Then I added a piece of Pool Party cardstock at the top to serve as sky.  

Then I fussy cut a small otter and die cut the pair of otters with weeds from another piece of the paper pack and added them along the lower edge of the "river".  I decided to add 3 Riverside Irregular Pearls (adhesive backed) - just because.  I inked the edges of the panel with Pecan Pie ink before adding a piece of Lost Lagoon cording across the top of the panel (taping it in place in back with regular transparent tape).  Finally, I stamped a greeting using Pool Party ink, cut the shape you see, and inked the edges before adding it in place over the cording using dimensionals. 

Card #4:

This time, I DID get a BEFORE picture:

 

You can see that at the top of this panel, the head is cut off of the otter.  This is the piece I focused on for this card!  I started by cutting off the bottom portion which was a nice scene. I saved this for a different card.

 

I used the top part of the panel and glued it to the bottom of a piece of Pool Party cardstock that was cut just a bit smaller than an A2 card.  Then I embossed just the top with the Soft Waves 3D embossing folder.  I inked the waves and the edges of the panel and it looked like this:

 

 

Then came the fun part!  I looked through my various cut-outs from a different page and found some pieces I wanted to use to cover up those otters that were missing , and die cut a few rocks and a bit of plants using dies from the Otterly Amazing die set.  I arranged all on my card as you can see in the picture below.

Before adding the panel to the card front, I criss-crossed some Lost Lagoon cording near the top of the card.  I created a sentiment piece using a stamp from the Otterly Amazing stamp set, some white cardstock, and Pool Party ink.

 

It's a lot of fun to take these gorgeous papers and make your own scene with them!

Chop Up Those Adorable Otters! - Part 2

My last post showed how I created some pretty cards using a single sheet of patterned paper from Stampin' Up! - their Otterly Adorable set.  I promised I'd demonstrate that it didn't matter how I cut up the sheet.  

This time I didn't pay any attention at all to the pattern (except to make sure the pattern was not sideways or upside down).  I simply cut the paper into 9 pieces.  For the first three pieces, I cut the paper horizontally at 5 1/4" - then cut that into 3 pieces each 4" wide.  The next three panels were cut the same way from the next 5 1/4" strip.  The final 3 pieces were cut from the remaining 1 1/2" strip - again cut into pieces 4" long.  I ended up with six 4" x 5 1/4" pieces and three that were 1 1/2" x 4" as you can see in the picture below:

So, what did I do with these?  Did I end up with fewer cards this way?  You'll see in the cards that follow.  

Chop Up Those Adorable Otters! - Part 1

Previously, I showed you one way of using a 12 x 12 scenic paper to make cards.  But what if your paper isn't a single scene like that one was.  What if it is instead a bunch of repeated smaller scenes all over the page?  I'm going to show you that it REALLY doesn't matter how you cut up papers like that!  To demonstrate this, I've used two identical 12 x 12 sheets of paper from the Otterly Adorable set of papers from Stampin' Up! ® ™  (All products used are from Stampin' Up! unless noted otherwise.)  

From the first piece of paper, I carefully cut out smaller scenes so they would fit on an A2 size card, but wouldn't necessarily fill it.  Here's a picture of the paper and how I cut it up:

Ignoring the smallest pieces, I had 2 panels from the first column, 4 panels from the 2nd, and 2 from the 3rd for a total of 8 which I used to make 9 cards.  Below you'll see the cards I made from this sheet.  I could have gotten pretty cards by just making standard fold cards, but I chose to make several into "fancy fold" cards as you can see below.

 

What's Wrong with this card?

Today I thought I'd talk a little about card composition.  As pretty as this 5 x 7 card is, there's something just a bit "off" about it.  I'll talk about what that is in a minute.  First, how did I make this card?  

The patterned paper and the light pink paper were printed from a digital download - not sure who made it.  The darker pink paper came from my stash.  

The focal panel was made with Stampin' Up! Products.  Here's what I did:

Flower: These were made using a couple of stamps from Stampin' Up!'s Sentiment Rose kit (no longer available).  I stamped the image with Real Red ink onto the pink paper.  The stamp is SO much fun because it basically shades the rose FOR you!  However, as I looked at it, I wasn't happy with how dark it was - wanted the petals to be a bit lighter - especially near the top.  NO PROBLEM!  I squeezed a little ink from my White Pigment Ink Refill onto a stamp block, picked it up with my Water Painter (water brush), and used it to lighten those petals.  Then I took a few very tiny dots of yellow card stock and glued them to the center of my flower.  Before I fussy cut my flower, I realized I wanted to add a bit of that Real Red to a small spot.  NO PROBLEM! (This is why I love Stampin' Up products so much!) I just grabbed my Real Red Stampin' Write Marker and drew in what I wanted to add, knowing the colors would match perfectly! 

Leaves: I stamped my leaves (same stamp set) using Garden Green ink.  Then, I grabbed my Old Olive stamp pad and touched it to a stamp block to transfer a bit of ink to that.  Using my Blender Pen, I picked up some ink from the stamp block and colored in the white parts of the leaves.

"Hello": This time I pulled out my new Thoughtful Moments Hybrid Embossing Folder. I didn't need all of the sentiments, so I just cut a piece of the pink paper that was big enough to cover the word "Hello" with plenty of space around it to allow for the embossing.  Then, before I put the cutting die inside the folder (YES! Emboss and die cut in one pass!), I first lightly inked the sentiment (again with my Real Red ink pad).  Then I snapped the cutting die into the folder, put my paper in place, and closed the folder.  After I ran it through my die cutting machine, the edges of the letters were inked, the letters embossed, and the word cut out - ALL IN ONE PASS!  I LOVE it!  What fun I'm going to have creating sentiments with this fun tool!

Background: As you can see, I layered my background paper on the red paper, then the pink, before gluing it to a white card base.  After gluing flower, leaves, and sentiment to a square white panel, I added it to a red paper mat before gluing it in place.

Border: I took a scrap of the flowered paper, matted it on pink, then white, then red (as you can see).  It needed a bit of extra something, so I pulled a trick I often use and punched three dots from the red paper using an ordinary hole punch.  I added them to the lower right corner thinking to balance the "Hello", but then realized they were really on the wrong size.  All the "weight" was in the upper right corner with that flower, so I really wanted the dots on the lower left.  I couldn't remove the ones on the right, but added them to the left in the hopes of achieving a bit of balance.

NOW, What's Wrong?: Unfortunately, the dots just blend into that busy patterned paper and are hardly seen, so my work of adding them to help balance the focal just didn't work!  What to do???

The Fix: This fix isn't perfect - some things could not be fixed - but it's better:

First, I brought a spot of green down by making another set of leaves to hang out by a strip sentiment that I added to the left side of the border.  This creates a 3rd spot of green on the card and helps move the eye around the card.  Odd numbers are generally preferred in situations like this - and if you look closely, you'll see your eye can draw a triangular shape between the three spots of green.  This "triangle" is part of what helps the eye move around the page. (Somehow they look a lot lighter in color than the ones by the flower, but fortunately that's not the way it looks IRL.)

More white - The sentiment stamped on white cardstock adds another spot of white and helps break up that strong pattern in the paper. Though it would have been better if the white was just a bit bigger, it still helps to bring some white into that space.  It also helps to tie the large white panel into the make as a whole.  

A minor thing is that I realized when I glued my focal in place, one of the leaves pulled away from the flower without my realizing it, leaving a small gap between the stem and the flower!  Once again, I had Stampin' Up! markers to the rescue.  This time I pulled the Garden Green marker from the same set and used it to draw in that stem so it connected to the flower. :)  I wouldn't have dared to do that if I didn't know the colors would match!

To be honest, if I were to make this card again, I would arrange the focal a bit differently.  I would put the flower in the lower right corner of the panel and the "Hello" in the upper left for even better balance.  That's not something I can easily fix without tearing the card apart.  I think I'll just leave it because it's still a pretty card for someone who's not quite as picky as I am! :)