Eclipse with a Twist?

Hello, Crafters.

Last week I saw a card on Pinterest, and wasn't quite sure how it was made.

Initially I thought the die from the Hometown Greetings Edgelits Dies had been used to die cut the houses from a Whisper White Cardstock (CS) layer, and then adhered back down having been moved over very slightly, so the coloured cardstock showed through, rather like a shadow. 
 
It was a very striking card, and it made me wonder if I could make an eclipse-type card using this die set.

Today, I'm sharing my first two attempts at this idea! 

Neither of them are quite right, but I'm still happy with the way they've turned out. 

The first card I made was the card with three houses and one Christmas tree, and between the two of them. 

This is probably my favourite! 

I had a problem when I was putting the Dimensionals on the back of the die cuts, because there were a lot of small intricate die cuts. 

In some places I found it almost impossible to cut such tiny pieces of Dimensionals to provide enough support for parts of the rooves!

For the second card I decided to use the die that has the Church, one house and two trees on it.

I'd looked closely at the other dies in the set to see which ones, if any, had less-intricate rooves, and therefore it'd be easy to fit small pieces of Dimensionals at the back.

Before I adhered the top half onto the Island Indigo CS layer, I ran it through the Softly Falling Embossing Folder. 

I stamped the sentiment, which is from Hearts Come Home Stamp Set before I started the die cutting.

I love the addition of the falling snow, and  for my third and final card, I want to take two top layers of Whisper White CS. 

Then I want to die cut the scene once from each piece of cardstock. 

My aim is to have some extra Whisper White CS that goes lower down, under the bottom half of the scene. 

Without trying this, I don't know if it will look any better or not. 

I have a slight criticism about my Church scene card, and that is, aesthetically, the die cut scene is too high. 

It would have looked better had the Church not been almost touching the top, and if there was less spare space around the sentiment. 

As I said, it's just a small criticism - I still think it's a great card!

I have my class today and must go and get myself organised! 

I hope you have a great weekend, and until tomorroow, happy crafting!

JanB.

Hearts Come Home Video

Hello, Crafters.

Earlier today I uploaded my video showing how I made the Hearts Come Home card  - version 2!

When I shared version 1 last Friday, I explained that I cased the card from a swap I'd received the previous weekend at Convention.

I was disappointed that I hadn't been able to achieve the same result as the original creator had, so I emailed her and asked how she did it.

I followed her process in the video, and oh boy, what a difference! 

Whereas I'd sponged the sky first, and then stamped the small hearts on top using Clear Embossing Powder, Laura  - www.lauramackie.co.uk -  did her stamping and heat embossing before she did her sponging.   

The difference is amazing.

The splodge stamp Laura used for her sky was from the Swirly Bird Stamp Set, which I don't have, so I had to find an alternative.

As the stamp set is call Hearts Come Home, I thought the hearts stamp was a good idea. 

The colour I used for the video was Wild Wasabi with Very Vanilla, although I think it looks alright, I wouldn't choose it again.


As always, before I started making the video, I made another card to remind myself of the process I had to follow. 

For this card I chose Crumb Cake, partly because I wanted to know what this design would look like in a light colour; I think it looks great with Very Vanilla. 

On this card, I also tried the smoke stamp for the chimneys, and really didn't like it at all! 

We're told to work in odd numbers, but I couldn't bring myself to put the third smoke spiral on a house without a chimney! LOL.

I also pleased with the way I've learned how to use the Metallic Thread without making my card looking untidy! 

One of my demo friends, Rebecca Willmore - www.facebook.com/catnipcrafting - who had made a cat match book with a cat scissor charm inside as her swap, and embellished the tail with some Silver Metallic Thread. 

www.lauramackie.co.uk

She had cut several short lengths, rather than leaving them as unruly loops, and I thought it looked great. 

Whenever I've tried making unruly loops I've always eneded up with an unruly mess! 
Thanks for sharing this idea Rebecca - I love it!

That's it for today. I hope you enjoy the video. Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Lovely As A Tree

Hello, Crafters.

It's no wonder that the Lovely As A Tree Stamp Set is the longest-serving stamp set in Stampin' Up! range of crafting products. 

The versatility that comes with this stamp set is just amazing!

I was playing with it again yesterday, and came up with today's card, which could have been darker, but I'm still pleased with it!

The main black tree at the forefront of the card has been fussy cut, which I think has added a lot of depth to this card.
 
I think this can still be seen through to the photographs.

I started my card with a Whisper White Cardstock (CS) card base, with a layer of Tranquil Tide CS, and a top layer of Whisper White CS.

I took a piece of thin - 80gsm - computer paper the same size as my top layer, and cut an oblong out of the centre. 

To do this, I used my trimmer and allowed a 7/8" margin all round. 

I used temporary adhesive to attach this mask to my top layer of cardstock.

I cut another piece of computer paper to make a hill, and placed the top piece where I wanted my hill to end.

Using a Dauber with Tranquil Tide Ink, I sponged the area, leaving a lighter area in the centre which looks like the moon shining on to it. 

I'd like to say I'd planned this, but it was a fluke! LOL! 

When I was happy with the depth of the colour, I removed the mask, and took the  other half of my hill mask, and placed it over the hill so I could sponge the sky. 

Before I started, I took a 3" x 3" square Post It Note and sandwiched it in between a piece of folded computer paper, with the sticky edge against the fold. 

Using my 1" Circle Punch, I punched out a moon.

I do it this way because I get a much better result when punching Post It Notes. 

I placed the moon where I wanted it to be, and using another Dauber with Soft Sky Ink, I sponged the remaining visible Whisper White CS area. 

I removed the moon, and stamped the Father Christmas, plus the reindeer, flying through the sky. 

The stamp is from the Hearts Come Home Stamp Set, and was inked in Basic Black Archival Ink. 

Then I took the long stamp with five trees on it from the Lovely as a Tree Stamp Set, and inked it in Tranquil Tide Ink. 

I stamped the image once, moved it over slightly and stamped again without re-inking.

Finally, I stamped the single fir tree onto a piece of Whisper White CS, and, after giving it a few minutes to dry, I fussy cut it.

I assembled the front of my card, and added the sentiment, which is from Iconic Christmas Stamp Set.

Although I don't think it shows in the photographs, I finished the main tree with Wink of Stella Clear Glitter pen.

For the inside of the card I took a layer of Tranquil Tide CS and a top layer of Whisper White CS. 

Before I adhered these into the card, I stamped the top two thirds of the main tree in the bottom right hand corner of the Whisper White layer using Basic Black Archival Ink.

As I said at the beginning, this card could have been a bit darker, but my imagination sees this as morning is breaking, and Father Christmas is returning home. 

I think maybe I should add some Dazzling Diamonds Glitter to the trees to make them look frosty!

I remember when I was very young, about 6 or 7 years old, one of my very first school reports read "........has a very vivid imagination"!

Not much has changed! LOL!
 
That's it from me today. Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Hearts Come Home - CASED Swap

Hello, Crafters.

Oh, boy! How quickly the pre-order Stamparatus sold out last night! 

If you missed out, make a note of the next pre-order which is from 5th - 30th December 2017 at 22:00CET/21:00GMT, for delivery from 19th March 2018.

There will be a third and final pre-order between 15th - 30th January 2018 for delivery on or around 15th April 2018. 

After that it will be available for normal purchase in the new 2018/2019 Annual Catalogue which goes live on 1st June 2018.

Today's card is a card that I've CASED from one of the swaps I received at OnStage last weekend. 

The swap was made by Laura Mackie, and I loved the simplicity of the card, as well as the shiny "splodges" in the sky behind the houses.

Reading the recipe Laura had put on the back of her card front, I thought I knew how she had created her splodges, but I was wrong! 

As I was making this card, I was confident my card was going to be the same as Laura's, so I resisted all temptations I had to make little changes. 

As it turned out, my card finished up looking rather bland, and I had to add something to change this! 

The main point of swapping is to share ideas and to inspire, which Laura's card certainly did, although I'd still like to know how she achieved her "splodges"!

I started my card with a base of Whisper White Cardstock (CS), a layer of Island Indigo CS, and a top layer of  Whisper White CS.

I took another piece of Whisper White CS that was the same width, but not as high, and die cut the three houses from the Hometown Greetings Edgelits Dies. 

I cut curved lines on either side to make the houses appear to be on a hill. 

On the other Whisper White layer, I used a Dauber, with Island Indigo Ink, to create a blue sky background, which turned out a lot bigger than I had intended it to be, but it wasn't a problem.

Next, I had assumed Laura had used Versamark, and the spotty stamp from the Swirly Bird Stamp Set to create her splodges, so I followed suit. 
 
The only change I made was to use the heart stamp from the Cheers to the Year Stamp Set, but I didn't get the lighter colour I was expecting. 

I carried on and put my card together, and made one more change.

This was inking the sentiment stamp in Versamark, then in Island Indigo Ink, before dipping it in Clear Embossing Powder, and heat setting it.

Next, I did the same on the Whisper White layer for the inside of the card using the Father Christmas and reindeer stamp from the Hearts Come Home Stamp Set.

I die cut a Whisper White CS heart using the die from the Trim Your Stockings Thinlits Dies, and adhered it by the side of the sentiment using Dimensionals.

I put some cut strands of Silver Thread under the heart.

 It was at this point when I sat back and looked at my card that I decided it looked rather bland.

I toyed with the idea of stamping Father Christmas and the reindeer in the top left hand corner, but I didn't want to repeat what I'd already done it inside.

I finally decided to add Dazzling Diamond Glitter along the hill top and all over the houses - it worked a treat! 

You can see what I mean about the splodges on Laura's swap, which I've shown in the last two photographs.












This is Laura's website: www.lauramackie.co.uk  

This evening, Hubby and I are going out for dinner to celebrate 116 Top Demonstrator in the World - it still hasn't sunk in!

That's it for me today. 

So until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB. 

Let It Snow

Hello, Crafters.

It's now ten months since I first started sharing the decorated insides of my cards, and most of the time it's not a problem deciding what image or pattern to use on the inside.

I've seen this Let It Snow stamp used on quite a lot of cards and I wondered what would I do inside a card. 

So I decided to make a card to find out - although I'm sure I've already used this stamp, but I just can't think what I did for the inside!

The fun started when I wondered if I could stamp the bottom half of the stamp without the edge lines showing!

I inked my stamp using Old Olive Ink, having masked off the top half of the stamp.

To remove the green ink from the curved tail of the letter S, I used a Blender Pen, and also all the ink on the parts I thought would be stamped as straight lines i.e. the outlines. 

The stamp looked very moist so I stamped it onto a piece of scrap paper without huffing on it.

I was surprised to see feint outline edge lines all around, even though I had cleaned my stamp properly. 

The problem was most likely I need to wash my cleaning mats! 

I was also disappointed at how many straight edges had stamped on the bottom half of the image, proving I hadn't removed as much ink as I thought I had - so glad this was on scrap paper!

I gave up this idea, and had a look through all my stamps to see if I had a small image of a reindeer that I could use to decorate the inside with! 

The closest I found was in the Hearts Come Home stamp set; it's three reindeer sailing through the sky with Father Christmas. 

This is when I had the idea of following through with what I had done on the front of the card, which was white heat embossing the image on Old Olive Cardstock (CS). 

If I did this it would mean the sentiment and greeting would both be going on coloured cardstock.

I decided that Old Olive is light enough for this, and decided to go for it, because it would make a pleasant change from the usual white!

This is a first for me as all my inside layers so far have been white, but it won't be the last!

I started my card with a base of Whisper White CS, a layer of Old Olive CS, and a top layer of half and half Whisper White and Old Olive Designer Series paper from the Merry Little Christmas Designer Series Paper (DSP).

I adhered the DSP to the Old Olive CS layer and then wrapped a piece of 3/8" Mini Chevron Ribbon around this layer and adhered at the back using Fast Fuse.

I wiped a small piece of Old Olive CS with my Embossing Buddy, and then stamped the Let It Snow Stamp from the Merry Little Labels Stamp Set using Versamark.

After I'd covered it with Whisper White Embossing Powder, I heat set it using my heat tool. 

I used Tombow to adhere a Gold Foil Snowflake in the centre of the card, and then added the Let It Snow Tag which I'd punched out using the Everyday Label Punch, over the centre using Dimensionals. 

I adhered the Old Olive layer with the white embossed sleigh and reindeer image inside the card. 

As I'm sitting here writing I'm looking at my card, and I've decided I need to add some Basic Rhinstones to the round snowflakes on the Let It Snow Tag on the front of the card - just to give the card a bit of sparkle! 

I hope you like today's card! Today's the last day I have to get ready to go to OnStage tomorrow. 

All I have to do is to make three team gifts, a video, and a few other small jobs, and then I'm done. 

I don't think I've ever been this well organised before! LOL!

I feel very relaxed and am looking forward to the Convention. 

Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.