Northwest Stamper

Tag: Cards

  • Happy Birthday With A Cherry On Top

    Like other crafters out there, I’m sure, I have a huge pile of scraps that are more than just left over pieces of cardstock when I cut out a shape from a sheet.  But I have stamped images I decided not to use for one reason or another, punched images that I played with and set aside, and even card bases that I cut knowing they would be used sometime.  Well, I finally decided to do something about these random one-off pieces and started putting together some cards using them – including this card.

    This is a cute set called On a Pedestal that my mom got at one point that I just had to try out.  It is a “2 step stamping” set where you get a stamp of the pedestal and then different items you can layer on top, like a yummy cake with a cherry on top!  I grabbed this image and matted it and then started digging in my scraps for more pieces to go with it.  I had the Pixie Pink Top Note bigshot die cutout and the Happy Birthday stamped image (using the Create a Cupcake stamp set), so I layered them onto the River Rock card base.  When I was done, it still looked a little plain so I decided to try some faux stitching and grabbed my Signo white gel pen and added a little touch to the edge.

    What do you think of how it turned out? :) 

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  • Watercoloring Techniques: Watercolor Pencils

    Alright, today is the last day of my Watercolor Technique card shares.  At least for now.  But with this last card,  I wanted to show you the 5th technique we are doing in my watercolor technique class.  So without further ado:

    Watercoloring with Watercolor Pencils

    You may think, “yeah, yeah, I know what it is like to color in an image with colored pencils. I did that back in school.”  But have you seen the magic that is watercolored pencils? Smile The cool thing about watercolor pencils is that you have the control to color in fine details and spaces because you have the fine tip of the pencil.  And coloring with colored pencils is very pretty.  But you are left with pencil stroke marks that maybe you would rather not have.  Simply wave your magic wand (aka Blender pen or Aqua pen) over the places where you colored with the pencil and voila!  You get this beautiful, smooth watercolored look.  Here is an example… though I’m having the hardest time taking a good picture to really show you what I mean.  But in the image below, the flowers are colored using the same colored pencils and amount of coloring.  But the one on the right has been gone over with a blender pen.  You can at least see that the color gets more saturated and maybe see that it has a smoother look.

    That said, here is the sample for the card we are making in the class:

    Like I said, the pencils are great for detail work.  Especially things like the stamp border and the tiny flower bud.

    This technique is so pretty and so easy at the same time.  It was also probably the favorite the last time I ran this class.

    Well, I hope you enjoyed checking out some of the different ways to add watercoloring looks to your cards.  This is a good introduction to just the surface of what you can do and I’d love to hear what your favorite techniques are as well!  Leave a comment and let me know how you like to do watercoloring.

    Interested in trying these cards & techniques out yourself?

    In Person
    Do to multiple requests, I’m running my class again on March 28th in the Mountain View, CA area.  I’d love to have you join us. Check out the full details on my meetup site.

    Online
    Or, if you are not local, purchase the supplies for these techniques from my online store and send me an email.  I’ll send you written tutorial instructions for these cards for FREE!  Not sure what you need, email me at jennifer@nwstamper.com and I’ll send you a basic supply list and you can see what you have in your stash and what you would still need.

  • Fun Birthday Wishes Card

    While working on the sample for my upcoming Birthday Card Kit and Organizer class, I was trimming pieces from the cheerful Celebrations designer series paper.  After one of my cuts, I looked at the leftover scrap and thought it was the coolest accidental trimming I had ever done and I just had to use it in a card.  That scrap was the long skinny piece in this card with the colored circles making an awesome scallop edge down the paper.  How fun is that?

    I used the Party Hearty stamp set and the Sale-a-Bration set So Happy For You for the sentiments but mostly let the paper do the cheering in this card.   This isn’t one of the cards from my class but it definitely was inspired from some of the cards we’ll be making. 🙂

    Want to make some birthday cards with me?  I’d love to have you join us for the Birthday Card Kit and Organizer class.  If you aren’t in the area, I will also be offering this as a class by mail.  Email me for more details or to reserve your kit!

    Birthday Wishes Recipe:
    Stamps:     So Happy For You (SAB), Party Hearty
    Ink: Pacific Point, Real Red
    Paper: Bashful Blue CS, Pacific Point CS, Whisper White CS, Certainly Celery CS, Old Olive CS, Real Red CS, Celebrations DSP
    Accessories: Corner Rounder punch, 3/4″ Circle punch, 1 1/4″ circle punch

  • Heart Pressed and Filled with Love

    Today I thought I’d share with you one my first cards using the new Heart Pressed letterpress plate.  Most of the other letterpress dies are big, bold patterns that often are the focal point, so it was fun to play with a more subtle pattern.

    I used the Heart Pressed die as a textured patterned paper and wanted to let it provide a lot of the interest in the card.  Then I added a few, to me, vintage-y accents for a little extra flair.

    Filled with Love Wood-Mount BundleThis is also another example of why the Filled With Love stamp set is such a great set.  You look at the set and think Valentine’s Day, but I think this sentiment could really be used at any time.  Heck, even a birthday card for a loved one!  I really hope this set shows up in the next big catalog.

    Don’t forget, this stamp set bundle is only available for another week!  Plus, grab it now before its gone and you’ll get FREE Bitty Buttons too!  Check it out in the online store

    Hope you have a fabulous Monday!.

    Thoughts of You Recipe:
    Stamps:      Filled With Love
    Ink:  Old Olive marker, Melon Mambo marker
    Paper:  Old Olive CS, Crumb Cake CS, Melon Mambo CS, Very Vanilla CS
    Accessories:  Heart Pressed letterpress plate, Victoria crochet ribbon, Vintage Flower Adornments, Glue Dots, 1-3/4”x7/8” Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch

  • Clean and Simple Just Believe Card

    Happy December everyone!  Can you believe it is already here?  I swear I was just making plans for Halloween, but I guess that is how it is every year. 

    I just spent the last week visiting friends and family in Oklahoma, which was tons of fun I might add, and while I was there I had the chance to stamp with a few different wonderful folks.  In fact, a couple of the folks I stamped with decided to take advantage of the starter kit special and joined my team – so welcome Debbie and Kally! 

    I wanted to share with you today one of the cards I made while goofing off with the limited supplies I had brought with me.  This was one of those cards that starts off with one idea (having the grass and flowers be stamped off the edge of the card) and then you make a “mistake” aka “opportunity for embellishment” (I didn’t get the stamp over the edge of the paper and so the grass and flowers stopped 1/2” before the edge of the card); and so a new concept is born.  In the end, I like the simplicity of this card.

    I can’t decide if it needs something else like some bling or glitter on the Razzleberry flower.  What do you think?

    Just For You Recipe:
    Stamps:      Just Believe
    Ink:  Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry marker
    Paper:  Whisper White CS, Basic Black CS
    Accessories:  Stampin’ Dimensionals, Old Olive Satin Ribbon, Paper Snips

  • Have a Blue Christmas

    Today I thought I’d share the final card from my Holiday Stamp-a-Stack last weekend.  I wanted to get away from the traditional reds and greens and ended up playing with some blues instead. 

    Marina Christmas Card sm

    I don’t know why I always forget about using white craft ink on cardstock, but thanks to a sample I saw on the demonstrator Stampin’ Connection site, I knew i just had to have some white snowflakes.  I also had seen some layering of ribbon with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Punch and wanted to try that as well.  So, we ended up combining Whisper White, Bashful Blue, and Marina Mist to make this cute little winter flurry card.

    Blue Christmas Recipe:
    Stamps:      Northern Hearts, Christmas Classics
    Ink:  Chocolate Chip Classic ink, Whisper White Craft ink
    Paper:  Bashful Blue CS, Marina Mist CS, Whisper White CS
    Accessories:  Dotted Scallop Ribbon punch, Marina Mist taffeta ribbon, Large Oval punch, Decorative Label punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals, adhesive back rhinestones

  • Royal Blog Tour – Sharing Northern Hearts and Blog Candy!

    Welcome to my little stop here on the Royal Blog Tour!  I hope you’ve been enjoying all the amazing and creative projects the princesses have been sharing along your journey.  For my stop, I wanted to share with you some simple yet fun ways to use the Northern Hearts stamp set.

    This stamp set is a hostess set available in the 2010 Holiday Mini.  I originally thought it was just a nice simple set, but the more I started playing with it, the more I saw how it coordinates with some other new and super cute items.  I guess the fact that they are all named “Northern something” should have tipped me off, but I can be a bit slow sometimes.

    Northern stuff thumb

    Anyway, first I noticed that the large snowflake from the stamp set was the same as the large snowflake in the embossing folder.  So, I tried combining the two.  I added some shimmer paint to the stamp before I stamped to give it a bit of shine like snow when I stamped it on the Whisper White base.  I also sponged some of the shimmer paint onto the embossed image to sparkle up the Baja Breeze paper.

    Next, I started playing with the wreath stamp from this set.  I had some fun with different color markers to give it a more mottled, natural look.  Then I started playing with punches but didn’t like how it was turning out so I ended up hand cutting out the wreath.  It was cute but a little bare, so I added in on of the birds from the love birds stamp.  Finally, what is a wreath without somewhere to hang it from, so I used the branches from that same bird set and after coloring with markers, stamped a few times to make it look like tree branches.  Add some DSP and fun ribbon, and you have another fun little card.

    Finally, I decided I wanted to make one more project and so I went for a 3D gift box that you could decorate for the holidays or really for anytime.  I used the Snowflakes and the Love Birds stamps from this set to decorate this 3 1/4” x 3 1/4” box.  This is perfect for a stash of 3×3 cards or to fill with treats for your favorite someone.

    I will be posting the instructions for this box on my blog when the tour is over.  So come back on November 9th to see more details!

    Well, I hope you enjoyed viewing these projects since I sure had fun making them.

    Blog Candy Time!

    Leave me a comment letting me know what you think and you’ll be entered into a drawing for some BLOG CANDY (you must include your email address so I can contact you if you win).

    What’s up for grabs?  You will get this box filled with some cards, some card candy (embellishments for you to use on your own cards), and some actual yummy candy!

  • Stampin’ Up! Regionals Display Boards

    Since I’m still working on getting photos of some of the fabulous swaps I received at the regional on Friday, I thought I would share with you a couple of the display boards that I was able to photograph.  Hopefully these photos are clear enough that when you click on them to enlarge you can see the detail on the cards. 

    I’m always so impressed with the samples displayed at Stampin’ Up! events and then even more so when I realize that most of the cards and projects displayed are actually created by fellow demonstrators and not just the artists at SU headquarters!

    So, here is some inspiration for you:

    SU Regional display board 1

     SU Regional Display Board 2

  • Just Believe Easel Card

    Here is the last of the three fancy fold cards we made this week.  This final card was my first ever easel card.  I had seen lots of folks making them but never took the time to figure them out until this class motivated me to create one.  I started out thinking I wanted to make the card in Elegant Eggplant and that I wanted to use a Wheel stamp.  From there I picked the Just Believe stamp set since it match my Always In Bloom wheel and continued building and embellishing until I got to this:

    butterfly easel card (530x800)

    Now if you aren’t familiar with an Easel card, this type of card is called Easel because the base of the card acts as a stand so that you can have the card front permenantly popped up and on display if you want.  Here is a side view:

    butterfly easel card side (780x800)

    The nice thing is that the card lies flat for mailing.  Here are the steps to create this card:

    1. Cut a piece of cardstock to 4 1/4” x 11” for the card base. 
    2. Then cut a second piece of the base color cardstock at 4 1/4” x 5 1/2” for your card front.
    3. Score the 4 1/4” x 11 paper at 5 1/2” and 8 1/4”.  Fold the card in half at the 5 1/2” score line (like a typical card fold) and then fold the cardstock in the opposite direction at the 8 1/4” fold.  So you end up with the cardstock looking like a zigzag pattern when looking at it from the side. 
    4. Adhere the 4 1/4” x 5 1/2” card front piece to the smaller scored end of the paper so that when you fold the card flat, your card front completely covers your card base.
    5. Embellish your card as desired being sure to add some embellishment or paper layers to the inside of the card base to help “catch and hold” the card front when you open the card.  In the example above I used the Rose Red cardstock with the white stamped layer.

    Tip:  If you are using cardstock layers, you may want to curl/distress the edges so that there is more cardstock sticking up to catch the card front

    Tip:  When wrapping ribbon around a card front, especially closer to the open end of the card, use a bit of adhesive to tack down the center of the ribbon to the inside of your card front.  That keeps the ribbon from sliding when you are tying it as well as keeps it from sliding off the card entirely during handling. 🙂

    Just Believe Easel Card Recipe
    Stamps:      Just Believe, Always in Bloom wheel stamp
    Ink:  Old Olive, Rose Red, Elegant Eggplant
    Paper:  Elegant Eggplant CS, Rose Red CS, Whisper White CS, Blushing Bride hostess dsp
    Accessories:  Whisper White taffeta ribbon, self adhesive Rhinestones, Snail adhesive, Glue dots, Butterfly punch

  • Autumn Spice Gate Fold Card

    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. 

    IMG_4937 (643x800)

    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

  • Thanks Joy Fold Card

    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?

  • World Card Making Day Projects–Part 2

    Like I mentioned earlier this week, at my World Card Making Day event, I brought supplies for everyone to make cards based on two different layouts.  I shared the first layout in a previous post and so I thought I would share the second layout today.

    So, here is the card that I made as a sample:

    It is a super quick and easy card and it lets you feel like you are an artist (even if you are like me and can’t paint or draw worth anything Smile) by giving you space to color using markers and/or water coloring.

    So, given those card components, here are some of the cute creations the other folks came up with:

    Karolina’s cards

    Pam’s card –
    this is another example of why I love it when folks take my samples and do their own thing.  I love how she tucked the sentiment label between the designer paper layer and the scalloped edge.  It’s a different way of layering I probably wouldn’t have thought of on my own.

    Card Recipes:
    Stamps: Fun and Fast Notes, Teeny Tiny Wishes
    Paper: Real Red CS, Basic Gray CS, Crumb Cake CS, Bashful Blue CS, Greenhouse Gala DSP, Celebrations DSP
    Ink: Basic Black, Pacific Point, Stampin’ Write markers
    Accessories: Scallop edge punch, Scallop trim punch, Word Window punch, Modern Label punch, Blender pens, Watercolor pen

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