Delightfully Detailed Laser Cut Designer Series Paper

Hello, Crafters.

I hope you've had a great weekend, and have recharged your

 batteries ready to handle this coming week in your stride!

 I know it's Monday today, and I shouldn't be here, but I do miss

 not blogging every day! I've decided to add another day on so

 I'll be blogging five days a week!

For today's card, I've used the fabulous Delightfully Detailed Laser-Cut 

Designer Series Paper (DSP), which is vanilla on one side and white on

 the other. I used the vanilla side on Whisper White Cardstock (CS), 

because it stands out in a very subtle manner! 

There are two designs in each DSP pack of eight sheets, with one

 sheet being one complete pattern on the whole sheet, and the

 second sheet with six different card-front size designs, plus strips 

of design. It's one of these second sheets I've used for today's project.

  I don't normally go for geometric designs, but with this design, it

 was calling out for small images to be stamped inside the empty

 "wheels". I chose three small flowers from the Beautiful Bouquet

 Stamp Set, and one from the Colourful Seasons Stamp Set. 

The sentiment is from the new Botanical Bliss Stamp Set, and the ink is

 Berry Burst. I added some Basic Pearls to the centre of all the

 stamped flowers, and two larger Pearls in the two flowers

 that didn't have any flowers in them.

 To decorate the inside of the card, I added two layers of CS 

the same as the two I'd adhered on the front! I stamped the 

same four flower stamps as I did on the front, but very randomly, 

and then I adhered a design strip that I had detached

 from my DSP sheet.

 A very simple card but a very striking card! I hope you've enjoyed 

my unexpected vist, as much as I have enjoyed visiting! 

I hope you have a great week, and until tomorrow, happy crafting,

JanB.

Colour Me Happy Birds

Hello, Crafters.

Yesterday I told you I wanted to work with the birds in the Colour Me Happy Stamp Set, but I had in mind more white heat embossing on Crumb Cake Cardstock (CS).

I have no idea how I made the leap from that idea to today's card, but it's a leap I'm glad I made!

We have a Flowering Cherry Tree in front of our house and it looks just like the branch on my card i.e. no leaves, a few full flowers but mainly half open flower buds!

For my first attempt at this card I stamped the branch which is from the Colourful Seasons Stamp Set, and I also set up my Stamp-a-ma-jig for the two birds.

As soon as I'd stamped one bird I realised I should have stamped the birds first!

I tried painting over the tail where it goes over the branch really dark to cover the fact I'd stamped it in the wrong order!

It covered pretty well, but not good enough for me. 

Then I stamped the two birds on Post It Notes, and cut them out so I could use them as masks. 

Next I stamped them in position on a new piece of Whisper White CS, then covered them with the masks, and stamped the branch in place.

I removed the masks, and this time it worked beautifully, except both birds looked as if the were floating mid air - their feet weren't touching the branch! 

To remedy this, I used my Soft Suede Marker Pen, and coloured in the area between the soles of their feet. 

I think this has worked well, and unless someone has this stamp set, no-one is ever going to know what I've done! LOL!

Using Marker Pens, I coloured one bird with Soft Sky, and the other one in Pink Pirouette. 

Next I chose to stamp the little blossom stamp from the Best Birds Stamp Set, and stamped it five times in Soft Suede Ink. 

I coloured half the branches/stems using my Soft Suede Marker Pen, and went over  from where I stopped the Soft Suede with Pear Pizzazz up to the salyx. 

I used my Pink Pirouette Marker Pen on the flowers, and although I was pleased with the image, it left quite a large blank area on the right-hand side.
 
I was well and truly stumped!

I just didn't have a clue what to do. 

My first thought was to do a branch coming in from the other side, but it would have had to be so short I think it may have looked silly!

I decided to stamp my chosen sentiment, which is from the Beautiful Day Stamp Set, in the centre, and then went through my small collection of embellishments. 

Eventually, I came across the Hearts & Stars Elements (page 196) and adhered three in a row.

This is the first time I've used wooden elements, and apart from samples in the catalogues, it's not often I see cards that feature this type of embellishment!

I added medium-sized Basic Pearls in the middle of all the flower blossoms, and tiny Basic Pearls in the top right-hand corner of the wooden hearts.

I finished off the card front by stamping the decorative corner stamp, from the Hold on to Hope Stamp Set, in all four corners using Soft Suede Ink!

I decorated the inside of the card by adding a layer of Pink Pirouette CS and a layer of Whisper White CS.

I stamped one flower blossom in each bottom corner, which I painted in the same way I did on the front of the card previously.

The only thing I would like to change about this card - if I knew how to - is that I'd make both birds smile, just to look a little bit happy would be nice! LOL!
 
That's about it from me today. ☺

I hope you have a lovely day, and until tomorrow, happy crafting!

JanB.

Daisy Tri Shutter Card

Hello, Crafters.

What a lovely fancy fold this card is, and it's so easy to make!

Earlier this morning I posted my video showing how I made this card - No.285 Daisy Tri Shutter Card.

When I made my first card, which was the Lemon Lime Twist and Tranquil Tide, I found myself getting very confused with what pieces I'd cut, and which designs were going where!

I decided to make my second card, but once I'd scored and cut the base, I thought I'd use it as a template, rather like a kind of jigsaw puzzle. With this as an aid, I found that cutting my layers for my second and third cards was a walk in the park! 

For the first card I used the new Fresh Florals Designer Series Paper (DSP) Stack, in Lemon Lime Twist. In this pack of DSP there are four different designs in each of the new 2017 - 2019 InColours, so I decided to use some of each design, which worked out really well.  

Once I had adhered all the layers in place, I started working on designing the sentiments and embellishments. This included using one of our Christmas stamp sets which I'm really pleased has been brought forward, and the co-ordinating punch! This was for the bow.

Everything went well with this card except for the round flower decoration on the long narrow strip that goes across the top and bottom of the card in the centre.

All the time my card was open, I was pleased with how everything came together and looked. The only disappointment I had was when I closed my card.  
Just half the round flower embellishment was visible. It's nothing major, but it was a lesson learned, and I pointed it out in the video, so crafters can decide for themselves, if it's a issue or not.

I chose Delightful Daisy DSP for my second card, and I found this to be a bigger challenge! 
 
I decided to use Wisteria Wonder as my card base, although this colour isn't on Stampin' Up!'s list of recommended co-ordinating colours. I struggled with deciding which designs to put together, because I wouldn't normally put two patterns together, let alone four! 

Although I'd used four different designs for my first card, they were all the same colour, but here I had a good selection of colours! But I persevered and when I'd finished, and looked at my completed card, I felt satisfied that I had achieved something that I would have said at one time, was impossible!

The card for the video was also made with Delightful Daisy DSP. The sentiments and the embellishments were more of a challenge with this card and I had to change my plan and do the opposite!

For example, I planned the large daisy would be in Daffoldil Delight, but it just disappeared against the daffodil DSP. I made another daisy in Tranquil Tide, and it just popped on the card. I found the same with the sentiments, too! 

My plan was to stamp the sentiment in Daffodil Delight, and then layer it on a scalloped oval in Tranquil Tide. When I tried it, I felt it was rather overpowering! I reversed it and it fitted in beautifully!

Although it took quite a long time to design and make these cards, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience! Photograph 8 shows my template, which is an idea you may like to copy so it's always handy!

The final photograph shows the two Stampin' Up! boxes that were delivered by UPS yesterday! Can you believe it, they sat unopened from midday until 8pm! How's that for will power? One of the boxes means I can spend today getting my happy mail ready for my wonderful customers who shopped with me during May! A big THANK YOU to you all! 

Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.