Floral Frames

Hello, Crafters.

Yesterday I had my first play with the Floral Frames Bundle; that

 is, the Floral Frames Stamp Set (wood or clear mount) and

 Foliage Frame Framelits Dies (page 135). 

This type of image is my favourite for colouring, and I used the Petal

 Pink Marker Pen for the flowers, and the Granny Apple Green for the leaves. 

The stamps include a large stamp which has the flowers and leaves

 around a circle as seen on my card, and one stamp each for the 

two flowers and the three flowers.

  This makes it easy for the main image to be stamped, and

then the flowers stamped and die cut, and layered onto 

the flowers on the circle.

 When I stamped the sentiment in the centre of my first stamped and

painted image, I stamped it slightly crooked! I decided I'd use the

 image to cut out the leaves, which is what I used to decorate the flowers

 that I adhered into the top right and bottom left-hand corners! 

I stamped and painted a new image, but this time I stamped the 

sentiment onto a separate piece of Whisper White Cardstock (CS)

 using Stazon Tuxedo Black Ink! Next I die-cut the sentiment using

 one of the Layering Circle Framelits Dies, and adhered it

 above the stamped image using Dimensionals. 

Finally, I adhered the additional flowers I'd stamped, coloured and die-cut, on

 Dimensionals, but with part of the flowers resting on the sentiment

 circle. To finish off the front of my card I added some Petal Pink

 Share What You Love Artisan Pearls.To decorate the inside of

 the card, I adhered one of the double flowers, plus leaves in

 the bottom, right-hand corner. 

 The HAPPY BIRTHDAY sentiment is from the Happy Birthday 

Gorgeous Stamp Sets which is one of my favourite go-to stamp 

sets for sentiments! 

That's about it from me today! Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Partial Die-cutting Video

Hello, Crafters.

The video I posted this morning is my second HOW TO video and 

it shows how to do partial die-cutting. I first saw this technique used for

 this style of card in a video by Jesse Larsson about five years ago. 

As far as I can tell Jesse wasn't a Stampin' Up! demonstrator at that time and 

stopped making videos about four years ago. She put I ♥ U in her

 three windows, and I thought it looked fabulous, which is probably

 why it stayed in my mind all this time. Many thanks to 

Jesse Larsson for the inspiration for today's card!

Although it isn't strictly necessary, I made a template that can be used 

again and again in the future. This made today's video extra long, but 

the template will make it a fairly quick card to make. 

I certainly think it's well worth the time and effort to make a template, 

not only for this style of card, but any card you want to make that 

has three squares either vertically, or horizontally.

The ribbon I used in the video - the Blackberry Bliss and Petal Pink 

card you see above - is actually Fresh Fig, but I think it goes with 

this colour combo brilliantly! 

My first order since the new 2018 - 2019 Annual Catalogue

 went live will be arriving tomorrow, and I have ordered this

 ribbon in all five of the 2017 - 2019 InColours!

The colour scheme I used for the card at the top is Night of Navy

 and the ink used also includes Melon Medley, which I found went really

 well with the retired Crushed Curry Ribbon you see on the first card.

That's about it from me today. I hope you enjoy the video, and

 until next time, happy crafting. 

JanB.

Never Ending Card Video

Hello, Crafters.

I hope you're enjoying your weekend. Today's video is an 

old favourite that totally fascinating i.e. the Never Ending Card! 

The first time I made one of these it was for one of my grandsons'

 birthday's. Stephen was totally bowled over by his card and forgot

 about opening by the parcels that were sitting on the

 table waiting for him! 

 Before I made today's video, I had a practice run with a 

masculine card to remind myself how to make the never-ending

 card. It only took me two card bases to remember what I used

 to do to avoid haveing the flaps catching on each other! 

After I made the masculine card, I started to plan a feminine design.

I knew this video was going to be a long one, so I made all the

 images and sentiments I want for every page beforehand, and 

made them beforehand. 

This meant I didn't know before I started what the finished card would 

look like so I was on a wing and a prayer. It all went very well, 

except for some reason, I didn't get the section of the card where

 only the top half is visible until the next part of the card is opened.

 It threw me for a little while but I carried on and was really pleased

 with the result. I would love to know how I avoided the partial

 panels! Any ideas?

 On Friday, when I said  was going to post my blog four days 

a week instead of seven, I should have said I will be posting a

 new card or 3D project four times a week. This allows me to

 post to my blog when I have news to share as opposed 

to a new project! I hope this makes sense! 

  I wish you a very blessed Sunday, and until next time, happy crafting.

JanB.

Message in a Bottle

Hello, Crafters.

This is such a fun stamp set, I can't understand why I this is the first time I've  played with it! 

I really didn't have a clue what I was going to do for today's card until I saw something in the demonstrator's quarterly magazine from Stampin' Up'. 

The magazine is jam-packed with ideas, tips and projects, and today I saw a card which had three strips of the Wood Textures Designer Series Paper (DSP) Stack, as the top layer - it looked fabulous! 

It struck me as an outstanding base for a masculine card, so next I started looking for something masculine to make it into a card. 

By the way, I'm really pleased that this DSP Stack will be brought forward into the new Annual Catalogue, which is very unusual for DSP, but it has been so amazingly popular, and has been selling like hot cakes!

I chose the Message in a Bottle Stamp Set as there are five different images to choose from that fit inside the bottle.

Mental note to self: come back to this stamp set again sometime soon!! ☺

When I was choosing which three strips of wood DSP to use, I decided I wanted two where the grain was going horizontal, and one was vertical, or vice versa!

Today I have been working on my swaps - for the Stampin' Up! OnStage Convention on 7th April - and I had Very Vanilla Cardstock (CS) on my desk, so I decided to use it for today's card, too!

As my main colour is Crumb Cake, I think all the colours workk together brilliantly!
 
For the pennant, I stamped the bottle using Early Espresso Ink, and then filled it with Marina Mist water, and next added the ship in Early Espresso .

I stamped the little sentiment that was obviously designed to go with the  image, just underneath it. and then I used the little spotty stamp from the Amazing Congratulations Stamp Set to finish off the pennant!

For the main sentiment, I wanted something that was a reasonable size, but not so big that it covered the wood panelling. 

After going through my Stamp Reference File, I picked out the Happy Birthday Gorgeous Stamp Set. 

I first tried painting the Happy using my Marina Mist Marker Pen, and then the Birthday using my Early Espresso Marker Pen. 

I wasn't happy with how it stamped, and decided to stamp it in Marina Mist Ink, without cleaning the stamp first!

I knew there would be a hint of Early Espresso on the stamp, and I wondered what it would look like! 

The Birthday came out a darker blue than the Happy, and I liked the effect, although it's not quite so obvious now that it's totally dry, but I still like it. ☺

To decorate inside the card I added a Very Vanilla layer, and then a bottle I had cut out by hand. 

This was the first bottle I did, but the sentiment was too far away so I couldn't use the pennant! 

I think this is the best masculine card I've made for a long time - I'm really pleased with it!

That's about it from me today, until tomorrow, happy crafting,

JanB.

Hanging Garden

Hello, Crafters.

Today's card was a very relaxing card to make because there was so much colouring to do!

There were four baskets in total as there's one inside the card as well as the three you can see here on the front. 


Although there are three different hanging basket stamps in this set, I chose to use just two of them.

I used Marker pens for all the colouring as follows:-

a). Small forget-me-not type little flowers - Tempting Turquoise

b). Leaves in two outside baskets - Wild Wasabi

c). Leaves in centre basket - Wild Wasabi and Garden Green

d). Daffodils - Daffodil Delight

e). Metal basket supports - Cajun Craze

f). Moss basket lining - Always Artichoke

I keep looking at my finished card and feel something is missing, I think because it has a plain white background; maybe I should have added some butterflies.

I like the clean look of this card and didn't want anthing heavy.

I started with a Shimmery White Cardstock (CS) card base, with a layer of Tempting Turquoise CS and then a top layer of Shimmery White CS. 
 
With the aid of my Stamp-a-ma-jig, and using our Basic Black Archival ink, I stamped the centre hanging basket first, which enabled me to judge the position for the outer two baskets.

I wanted them to be equi-distance between the edge of the basket, and the outside edge of the cardstock.

I wanted to tie three very small bows that I could adhere to the cord/chain that holds the baskets, but I didn't have anything in the right colour! 

It was this idea that made me think of having three small sentiments and putting them across the cord/chain. 

I chose the sentiment from the Happy Birthday Gorgeous Stamp Set, partly because it is small enough but also I love the font.

Using Tempting Turquoise Ink and some Shimmery White CS, I stamped three sentiments, and punched them out using the Classic Label Punch. 

They were about a half an inch too long, so I popped the sentiment back into the slot in the punch from the back, and punched off the excess. 

I laid the three in place but it made my card look top heavy, so I put two up and one down which made my card look well balanced. 

My final touch for the front of the card was to add a row of the very small pearls around the outer metal rim of the basket.

Inside the card I added a layer of Tempting Turquoise CS and a top layer of Shimmery White CS. 

On the right-hand side of this top layer, I stamped the same hanging basket as the two outside ones on the front of the card, and coloured them just the same.

If I do decide to add some butterflies today, I'll take some photographs and show you them tomorrow. 

I can't believe it's Friday again already.............as they say, time goes quickly when you're having fun! 

Many thanks for joining me today. Until tomorrow, happy crafting. 

JanB.

Lovely Words Video

Hello, Crafters.

Earlier today, I uploaded my video showing how I made the Lovely Words card I shared here on Tuesday.

I received feedback from some crafters that they hadn't seen the Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets in the Annual Catalogue!

It's such a shame when we have this amazing product, and crafters don't get to enjoy it because it gets overlooked in the catalogue!

I haven't seen any videos on YouTube showing how to use these sheets, which will also stop crafters from buying them.

I hope there will be more videos in the future as there are probably a lot of useful techniques and tricks to learn about using them.

With my card, I first decided which way round I wanted my Designer Series Paper (DSP) to be. I chose not to use two totally

different DSP's that introduced several colours.

If anybody does make one using an example of this combination, I'd love to see the result.

I'm sure they could work well, but I wasn't able to decide on two designs that I thought would work well together, so I stuck with the easy option! 
 
As well as using Whisper White, I stayedwith two colours i.e. Fresh Fig and Powder Pink; Crushed Curry and Basic Black; Lemon Lime Twist and Tranquil Tide.

With each combo I used, I used the design that had the colour as the background of the design as the top half of the background, and then I used that same design as the bottom half of the FRIEND image.

I love the contrast I achieved with the Crushed Curry and the Lemon Lime Twist cards, but I don't think there's enough contrast between the two DSP's on the Powder Pink card!
 
My video shows how easy it is to adhere the Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets to the back of the cardstock and DSP you want to use on your project.

I wish you a very happy Sunday, and until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Flirty Flowers

Hello, Crafters.

If you've ever wondered if I ever make cards that just do not work out at all, today's card proves yes I do get it totally wrong sometimes! 

Today's card is one of those that, if I'd had more time yesterday, I wouldn't be sharing it with you now, because I would have re-done it! LOL! 

I did consider put a Designer Series Paper flag strip over the poppy, but it would have looked like what it was i.e. me covering up a mistake!

If I were to re-make this card, I'd omit the green poppy and add some more Flirty Flowers in it's place. 

I would also use Pool party Ink for the sentiment, and I would have finished up with a card that I was happy with!

One of my ideas was to use one of the corner dies from the Card Front Builder Thinlits, to show that this set of dies will work all year round, not just at Christmas. 

If it's used with summer flowers as I have done here, the die cut flowers don't particularly look like poinsetties! 

I love the way the die cut flowers pull in the Pool Party Cardstock (CS) layer, too.

Photograph 2: I stamped the single bell-shaped flower using Basic Black Archival Ink onto the card front.

I stamped the image again onto a piece of PostIt Note and fussy cut it.

I used it to cover the stamped image on my card front, and then stamped the clusters of line drawn flowers twice, once just to the left of the image and then once to the right.  

Using Marker Pens I coloured the bell flower, and the bobble flowers in Pool Party, then the three "heart shaped" flowers in Sweet Sugarplum, and then all the leaves in Pear Pizzazz!

Photograph 3: the Pear Pizzazz poppy that sticks out like a sore thumb! I added the pearls in the centre, hoping it would help the poppy blend in a bit! Fat chance!!

Photograph 4: I used one of the two corner dies from the Card Front Builder Thinlits to demonstrate that these dies will be useful all year, not just for Christmas.

On their own, I don't think they look particularly like poinsettias - what do you think? 

I like how the cut outs bring together the Pool Party of the lower layer, as well as the punched trim above the sentiment. 

Photograph 5: I used the Happy Birthday stamp from the Happy Birthday, Gorgeous Stamp Set.

I die cut the sentiment using the second size oval die from the Stitched Shapes Thinlits Dies.

I used Pear Pizzazz Ink to try and tie the poppy in with the rest of the card!

Likewise, I added some Basic Pearls to the sentiment for the sma e  reason!

Photograph 6: Using Pool Party CS, I punched this border using the fabulous new Decorative Ribbon Border Punch. 

Photograph 7: to decorate the inside of the card I took a layer of Whisper White CS, and stamped three single bell flowers at decreasing heights. 
 
I coloured the flower heads using my Pool Party Marker Pen, and the stems and leaves using Pear Pizzazz Marker Pen.

As I said earlier, without the green poppy, I'd have been happy with today's card!

Oh well, today's another day. Until tomorrow, happy crafting!

JanB.

Lovely Words

Hello, Crafters.

Yesterday I had a lot of fun creating today's card!

It's an idea I've wanted to try for a long time but just never found the right combination!

I started with two designs from the Fresh Florals Designer Series Paper (DSP) Stack in Lemon Lime Twist and one piece of Tranquil Tide Cardstock (CS), all which measured 2.5" x 3.5".

I cut three pieces of Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets (144106 - page 203) that also measured 2.5" x 3.5". 

I removed one side of the backing paper from the adhesive rectangles and adhered them to the back of the DSP rectangles, and either side of the CS rectangle. 

I ran each piece through the big Shot with the FRIEND die from the Lovely Words Thinlits Dies making sure the die was on the front of the rectangle.

As I wasn't really sure where I was going with my design, I took a piece of Whisper White CS that measured about 4" x 5.5".

I cut the FREIND away from the body of the Tranquil Tide CS right on the actual curve, removed the other backing sheet from the Adhesive Sheet and adhered FRIEND onto the Whisper White CS. 

PLEASE NOTE: later on I realised I hadn't needed to detach FRIEND from the main body of Tranquil Tide!

I should have removed the top half above and the bottom half below FRIEND, and the bits inthe letters, F, E, and D. 

Then I should have adhered the remaining Tranquil Tide CS to the Whisper White CS. I hope this makes sense!

Next I chose which DSP I wanted above FRIEND, which one I wanted below, and adhered them in place. 

At this stage it became a bit fiddly, because I wanted to save the tiny pieces of DSP I pushed out from the inside of the letters F, E and D.

I saved the wrong one for the D - it should be white - but I can live with that! LOL!

Now was the time to plan the actual card layout! 

I chose landscape as it gave me more room to be creative. 
 
I reversed the two DSP designs.

I decided to die cut the FRIEND using the largset oval Stitched Shapes Framelits, and lay it towards the bottom of the card with some Tranquil Tide Ribbon wrapped around the top layer. 

The sentiment is from the Happy Birthday, Gorgeous Stamp Set. 

I took a piece of Whisper White CS and wiped over it with my Embossing Buddy. 

I inked the stamp in Versamark, then Tranquil Tide Ink, and quickly dipped it into Clear Embossing powder.

I heat set it to a really glossy shine. 

I die cut the sentiment using the second size oval die from the Stitched Shapes Framelits.

I die cut a scalloped oval to layer the sentiment on using the Layering Oval Dies. 

I placed all my elements onto my card front and calculated what height I wanted each piece of my DSP. 

I wanted the heights to more or less mirror the separation line on the FRIEND die cut. 

I inserted a layer of Whisper White CS inside my card and added a ready-made embellishment I found in my Tranquil Tide Ziplock Bag, which fitted the colour scheme and DSP I'd used for this card.

The stamp is from the Bloomin Love Stamp Set. 

I hope you've enjoyed following through with this card as much as I enjoyed making it yesterday!

Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.