Autumn Spice Gate Fold Card

October 13, 2010 under Cards, Techniques

Today I wanted to share with you another card we made on our technique night.  For this card, we used the Gate Fold style.  This style can be implemented in a various designs but the most common is the version we used below where you take a standard sized card but score your paper to enable the front to open at a split in the middle.

IMG_4935 (647x800)To make this card, you want to cut a piece of paper your standard 5 1/2” x 8 1/2”.  Then score the paper at  2 1/8” and 6 3/8”.  This will give you the Gate fold and you can then embellish the card front as you desire. 

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Typically folks will create some cardstock or embellishment piece that overlaps both of the front flaps.  Adhere this element to one front flap.  Then on the other flap, adhere a punched piece or 3d element that will overlap the corner of your center piece to help hold the card closed.  In this case, I used an Old Olive button and positioned a glue dot on the lower right of the button back.  This allows me to slide the Cajun Craze paper behind the button.  

Hope you enjoyed this card!

Autumn Spice Gate Fold recipe:
Stamps:  Occasional Quotes
Paper:  Always Artichoke CS, Very Vanilla CS, Cajun Craze CS, Early Espresso CS, Autumn Spice dsp
Ink:  Cajun Craze
Accessories:  2 3/8” scallop circle punch, Corner rounder punch, Ticket Corner punch, Bold Brights buttons (old olive), Glue dots

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Thanks Joy Fold Card

October 11, 2010 under Cards, Techniques

Tonight was another fun technique night with my meetup group and we spent the night creating three different “fancy fold” cards.  Specifically, we made a Joy Fold card, a Gate Fold card, and an Easel card.  Here is the first card we created -

IMG_1563 (3) (800x568)

This is a Joy Fold card.   That means, instead of the typical folded in half card, you use two pieces of card stock to create your fold.  Here is what it looks like when open:

IMG_1562 (800x779)

This is actually a very easy card to create.  Here are the dimensions to create this card yourself:

  1. Cut your base cardstock (in my card it is Poppy Parade) 4 1/4” x 8 1/2”.  Score at 5 1/2”.
  2. Cut one piece of DSP at 4” x 5 1/4” (the Greenhouse Gala blue flower paper above)
  3. Cut a second piece of DSP at 4” x 2 3/4” (the Greenhouse Gala green flower paper above)
  4. Cut your inner cardstock piece at 3” x 8” (I used Daffodil Delight).  Score at 4”.
  5. Adhere your DSP, then position the base cardstock piece in the center of your large DSP.
  6. Decorate your inner cardstock as you wish.  We stamped the ala carte So Many Thanks stamp on a piece of Whisper White paper and then sponged the edge with Daffodil Delight.
  7. Use a punched or cut element to hold down the corner of your inner cardstock on the outside flap.  I used dimensionals on the heart from the Heart to Heart punch out to make a pocket for the corner of the cardstock to fit into.

These are fun cards to create and gives you a chance to be creative as you play with color combinations of cardstock and different designer paper patterns.  What are your favorite combinations?

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Tons of Tools Card and Embellished Envelope

September 29, 2010 under Cards, Techniques

Sunday was this month’s Technique Night with my meetup group and by request, I did a night that was focused on going over many of the tools you might encounter on your crafting journey including:

  • The BigShot
  • Aqua and Blender pens for water coloring
  • Crimpers
  • Bone Folders
  • Paper Piercing tools
  • Heat and Dry Embossing
  • the Crop-a-Dile for eyelet setting and hole punching
  • the Stamp-a-ma-jig for exact stamp image placement
  • Color spritzers
  • And paper punches

So, we ended up using all of these tools on the following two projects.

First we used a Whisper White envelope (since it uses the same type of paper as Whisper White CS, these envelopes take ink and stamping really well!) Trim off 1 1/4” from one of the short sides of the envelope.  Then we used the scallop edge punch on the smaller piece.  For the larger piece, we stamped and used the color spritzer to scatter Soft Suede ink on both sides of the envelope.  Then we ran the big piece through the crimper.  Watercolor the stamped image using the covers of classic ink pads and a watercolor pen, add a punched out scallop square, and adhere and you are pretty much done.  We punched two holes through both the top and bottom pieces of the envelope so we could run ribbon through to tie the envelope closed.

Next we made this card:

This card used the BigShot for making the dots on the white paper.  Then we used the brayer to lightly go over the dots to give them some color.  We did dry embossing on the Rich Razzleberry CS using some holes I punched out some Chipboard with the Simple Alphabet Dies for the BigShot.  We stamped the flower image from the Vintage Vogue stamp set, used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to place the text below the flower and then heat embossed using black embossing powder (don’t forget to use the embossing buddy to ensure you don’t get stray embossing powder flecks!).  Used the crop-a-dile to set the jumbo eyelet; and then finally used the super, awesome mat pack and paper piercer to punch the row of holes below the Rich Razzleberry CS.  Oh, and we used the bone folder and the groove in the paper cutter to score the card so we had a nice crisp fold.

Whew!  That’s a lot of tools, but it was lots of fun.

If you are interested in any of the tools used for these projects, you can get them now through my online store .  Plus –  if your total is $25 or more you will be entered into my drawing for a $50 gift certificate!

My favorite tools are the BigShot and the Mat Pack.  What are yours?

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Experimenting with the Stampin’ Up! Letterpress Dies

September 21, 2010 under Big Shot, Cards, Techniques

As I mentioned last week, I received the new Letterpress Dies and made my first card using the method recommended on the packaging.  However, I’m not always good with rules and recommendations and so I had to start experimenting myself with how these dies worked with different inks, paper, and BigShot “sandwich” combinations.

I wanted to share my results with you so you could try some of these ideas out yourself or avoid the methods that didn’t work so well.

But first – a new sample using the bigger Trick or Treat letterpress die:

The green ribbon in the Pumpkin Pie button is actually the 1/4” Old Olive grosgrain ribbon cut in half.  If you do this to thread through a button, I highly recommend using a needle to thread it through the holes.  I was using the “wet the end of the ribbon, twist, squint, shove, and hope enough gets through to grab with your fingernails” technique.  Lets just say the ribbon frays much more easily that way.

Experimenting with Paper, Ink, and BigShot techniques

Click Read More to see my experiments with the Letterpress dies including photos for the different papers, inks, and techniques I used. Click here to read more.. »

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Sponging up a No Layer Card

September 19, 2010 under Cards, Techniques

Each week, the Late Night Stampers group has some kind of challenge.  This week was particularly intriguing to me as the challenge was to create a single/no layer card.  When I first read this, I thought, “won’t these cards be boring?”  Well, boy was I wrong!  Folks came up with all kinds of cool ways to make a card look interesting without needing lots of layers of paper and embellishments.  So, I took up the challenge and decided to create one myself, no paper layers, no embellishment layers, just paper and ink.

Here is what I came up with:

Using scoring lines and sponging, this card turned out much better than I expected.  I scored the outer frame at about 1” in from the top and the bottom of the card and about 1/2” in from the sides of the card.  Then I scored the inner frame about 1/4” in from the outer frame.  I then masked at the inner frame lines and sponged with Pink Pirouette ink and stamped my flowers using Blushing Bride and Rich Razzleberry.  Next I masked the inner part of the score lines so I could sponge the outer areas with Pink Pirouette and finished it off by sponging the edges of the card in Rich Razzleberry.

Tip:  Did you know that it is easy to score at precise measurements that don’t go to the edge of your paper using a paper cutter and a bone folder?  For a frame like I created above, grab a paper cutter that uses a grooved track for cutting like this one and position your paper to the dimension you want to score.  So, if you were scoring the sides of the frame above, you would put your paper at 3 3/4” so that you are scoring 1/2” in from the side of your 4 1/4” card front.  Then use the bone folder instead of the cutting blade and use the ruler on the cutting track to help you score the length you want – so in this case, from 4 1/2” to 1”.  Keep doing that for each side of your frame, and voila!  You are done!

Need a bone folder or a grooved paper cutter?  You can order them here!

No Layer Card Recipe:
Stamps:  Petal Pizazz, Just Believe
Ink:  Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive
Paper:  Whisper White CS
Accessories:  Paper cutter, bone folder, sponges

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A Letterpress Card for the Stamping 411 Challenge #168

September 13, 2010 under Big Shot, Cards, Convention 2010, Techniques, Tools

If you’ve seen the holiday mini, you’ve seen one of the new products Stampin’ Up! just released – the Letterpress Plates.  These plates are made to use with your BigShot and instead of embossing your image by causing the pattern to raise up off your paper, these plates deboss your image – making empressed images that go into your page.  Add some craft ink, and you get imprinted colored images to spiff up your project.

At convention this year, Stampin’ Up! unveiled the plates and then offered a special convention bundle of all the letterpress plates at a discount for convention attendees.  Yet another awesome benefit of being a demo (see even more benefits here).  So, I decided to try them out and after getting my bundle, spent some time this weekend playing with them.  So, today, here is the first card I made with the Northern Trim plate for the Stamping 411 sketch challenge.

I’ve also been playing with different types of papers and inks, so check back later this week as I’ll be posting my results and offering tips for what I’ve found from using the plates.  Until then, here is the video Stampin’ Up! released to show you more possibilities with these plates.

Oh, P.S. – if you are a demo or become a demo when attending their regional seminar, they have another special bundle just for attendees!  Contact me at jennifer@nwstamper.com for more info or find out how to be my guest when I go to the Portland Regionals in October.

 

Demonstrating the Letterpress Dies

Kind Thanks Recipe:
Stamps: Thank You Kindly
Ink:  Always Artichoke Classic ink, Always Artichoke Craft Ink, Rose Red Craft Ink
Paper:  Elegant Soiree DSP, Basic Black CS, Rose Red CS, Confetti White CS, Always Artichoke CS
Accessories:  Basic Black Satin ribbon, Scallop edge punch, Basic Rhinestones, Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware, Modern Label punch, glue dots, Stampin’ Dimensionals

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Kicking it up with Interactive Scrapbooking

September 5, 2010 under classes, Promotions, scrapbooking, Techniques

At convention this year, I had the chance to participate in a class taught by Sherrill Graff on Interactive Scrapbooking.  It was one of those times when I found myself going, “WOW!” over something that was fairly easy but so cool.  So, when I got home, I knew I had to share it with others.  So, today I held an interactive scrapbooking class.  We made two 12×12 pages consisting of layering page protectors and filling them with designer paper.  It was so much fun and since everyone had picked different designer paper, it was cool to see how everyone put their pages together.

So, here is the first layout we did.

I loved this page because I thought the hinge using the Round Tab punch was so clever!  We cut a 9 1/2” x 11 inch piece of paper and glued that to our base 12×12 paper.  Then we punched 4 tab punches and folded them in half to make our hinges.  You glue half of the tab punchout to half of your 2nd punch out, then make the part that is not glued together (so it looks kind of like a mouth) glue it down to either side of your 6×6 page protector.

Then we did the mother of all interactive layouts!  This uses one 12×12 page protector and 5 6×6 page protectors.  Is like a mini-album in your scrapbook!

You adhere your 6×6 page protectors to the 12×12 page protector and then glue a 1”x6” piece of paper over the tab of plastic that has the holes for putting it in your album.  Its so fun because you can have elements from the lower pages be exposed on the right side when you first open to this page.  In my case, I have a curly label punch that says “Party Hearty” on page 2 and the CKC from page 3.  Here is what it looks like from the inside:

Too much fun!

And while we’re talking about fun and convention – did you hear that when you join the Stampin’ Up family you get this uber-cute tote bag for FREE!

crafttote

Yep, that’s right… not only do you get stamps, ribbon, buttons, adhesive, paper, and possibly even My Digital Studio for only $175 (a $330 value!), but you now get this awesome tote and shipping for it all FREE!  Check out all the details and everything you can get in the starter kit here.

Whether you are looking for 20% off everything you buy, or you want to start earning extra money doing what you love.  Stampin’ Up! is an amazing company filled with so many opportunities to expand your creative horizons.  I’d love to tell you more!  Contact me if you have any questions or you can get started now (recruit password – nwstamper)

Project Supplies:

  • 1 pkg 12×12 ring page protectors – item 104522 ($10.95)
  • 1 pkg 6×6 ring page protectors – item 104521 ($ 6.95)
  • 1 pkg designer series paper – I used Celebrations, item 117164 ($9.95)
  • round tab punch – item 119864 ($16.95)
  • sticky strip – item 104294 ($6.95)
  • snail – item 104332 ($6.95)
  • paper cutter – item 104152 ($24.95)

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Technique night – Masking and Reverse Masking

August 21, 2010 under Cards, classes, Techniques

Last night was my August technique night with my meetup group and we focused on masking and reverse masking.  For those of you not familiar with masking, this is the technique for using paper to cover (or mask) the area you don’t want to get inked.  So, in this first card we did, you stamp the colored cupcake on your paper and then stamp another copy of the cupcake on scratch paper.  Cut out the scrap cupcake and place over your original stamped image and then stamp your next cupcake, overlapping the scrap paper and your original image.  This gives the illusion of one cupcake being in front of the other without seeing the overlapping ink.   We also used the scrap cupcake to mask the frosting area when we stamped the candle so that you could choose the height of the candle and not have it overlap the top of the cupcake.

Next we did reverse masking.  This is where you cut out your scrap image and set your image aside and use the cut-out frame to let you add ink to the inside of the framed area.  In this case we sponged first and then while still keeping the frame in place, stamped our leaves images. This card was inspired by a card I found on the Stampin Up demo resource – Stampin Cconnection.  The origional was created by Allison Ohran. 

Finally we did one more card that combined both techniques.  We used reverse masking to make the sun and then placed the cut-out circle back on the sun and a scrap cutout of the treetop to mask the areas before sponging our sky.

Now, some tips:

Tip: When cutting out smaller shapes and circles, post-it notes work great for giving you something that can stick in place and then come up without leaving a mark.  For bigger shapes and frames, use a little bit of Dotto.  This adhesive lets you put your mask down and then pull it up an rub off any adhesive that gets left behind.

Tip: While I normally recommend stamping on Whisper White cardstock because it holds ink much better than standard white cardstock and computer paper, for the scrap image you are going to use for your mask, I would recommend in that case to use computer paper.  Because the paper is thinner, you tend to be able to get ink closer to the edge of your mask and so get a cleaner look.

Card Recipes:

Cupcake Card Recipe
Stamps: Party Hearty
Ink:  Early Espresso, Crumb Cake
Paper:  In Color pattern pack – Hostess set, Daffodil Delight CS, Whisper White CS, Pacific Point CS
Accessories:  Peach Parfait marker, Daffodil Delight marker, Pacific Point marker, Early Espresso marker, Dotto

Thank You Card Recipe:
Stamps:  Just Believe
Ink:  Wild Wasabi, Basic Black
Paper: Wild Wasabi CS, Basic Black CS, Whisper White CS
Accessories:  Dotto, Basic Black 1/4” grosgrain ribbon, snail adhesive, Stampin Dimensionals

Thinking of You Card Recipe:
Stamps:  Bouquet Bunch, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  So Saffron, Old Olive, Bashful Blue, Soft Suede
Paper:  Bashful Blue CS, Soft Suede CS, Old Olive CS, Whisper White CS, So Saffron CS
Accessories:  Adhesive back pearls, Dotto, 1 1/4” circle punch

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Punch Art Flower for my August Meetup

August 9, 2010 under Cards, punch art, Techniques, Tools

Yesterday was the August meet and greet for my Meetup group here in the Bay Area.  A few of us got together and had some pie at Marie Callender’s and I brought a free make and take for everyone to do.  This month I decided to do some punch art and so I modified a past card I had made to use some new stamps and colors and came up with this card.

This was an easy card that used 7 punches in all, though you could modify this card to use fewer punches or more stamps.  Here are the steps to create it yourself:

  1. Punch the base of the flower using the extra large Fancy Flower punch
  2. Stamp the five petal flower image from Punched Posies hostess set, once on colored cardstock and once on white cardstock
  3. Punch out stamped images using the Five Petal punch
  4. Stamp the smaller six petal flower image from the Punched Posies hostess set on white cardstock and punch out the center using 1/2” Circle punch
  5. Layer these punched images together and glue
  6. Punch the leaf using the Small Oval punch
  7. Fold the oval in half and trim one side to form a point
  8. Stamp the vase using one of the ornament images from the Delightful Decorations stamp set on white cardstock
  9. Punch out using the ornament punch and trim the bottom of the ornament to form the flat base of the vase
  10. Stamp the sentiment from the Because I Care hostess set on white cardstock
  11. Punch out sentiment using the Large Oval punch
  12. Punch corners of base white cardstock with the Ticket Corner punch
  13. Stamp the stem using the stem image from the Punched Posies stamp set on base white cardstock
  14. Glue down onto your card base and your done!

Punched Flower Recipe:
Stamps: Punched Posies, Delightful Decorations, Because I Care
Ink: Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive
Paper:  Old Olive CS, Whisper White CS, Poppy Parade CS, Daffodil Delight CS
Accessories:  Fancy Flower punch, Five Petal punch, 1/2” circle punch, Ornament punch, Ticket Corner punch, Small Oval punch, Large Oval punch

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Stampin’ Up! Convention 2010– Punch happy swaps

August 6, 2010 under Cards, Convention 2010, Techniques, Tools

I had a few more swaps that I had to share so here is one more post including my second swap I took to convention.

So, you remember my first swap I showed you (recipe in this post) -

Well, after punching out the leaves and the flowers from the BigShot, I was going to recycle the scraps when I looked at them and said, “I could totally punch out stuff using these scraps”.  So, I started punching out little hearts using the small heart punch and managed to actually get 5-6 hearts per scrap.  So, from there was born the idea for my second swap.

This card uses the new Occasional Quotes hostess set.  It is a perfect set for an outside and matching inside sentiment for your cards.  Anyway, I had made 40 swaps and so had 40 of each color scrap, I watched a movie with my hubby and drove him crazy punching out hundreds of these little hearts.  Then, the night before I left for convention, I punched out the scallop rectangles using the new Scallop Rectangle Clearlits die and then did the assembly from my hotel room.  These took a bit of work to assemble but again, I felt very happy with them.

hearts swap
Finally here is another round of some of my favorite convention swaps.  Pretty cool huh?

card by Mary Booker                                       card by Valerie Taylor

card by Lorri Heiling                                     card by Jill Kelley

card by Kathy Kuffel                                      card by Diana Curtis

card by Terry Bolender

Hearts Swap Card Recipe:
Stamps: Occasional Quotes (hostess)
Ink:  Concord Crush classic ink
Paper:  Concord Crush CS, Pear Pizzazz CS, Whisper White CS, Crumb Cake CS, Chocolate Chip CS, Blushing Bride CS
Accessories: Small heart punch, Scallop trim border punch, Scallop rectangle clearlit

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