2015 Convention Swaps - Part 2

My second card made heavy use of the Big Shot for embossing and die cutting.

Stampin' Up! supplies used:
Stamps: Dots for Days, Tin of Cards.  Ink: Indigo Island, Versamark.  Cardstock: Cucumber Crush, Hello Honey, Indigo Island, Whisper White, Whisper White Thick Cardstock.  Tools: Big Shot, Boho Chic Embossing Folder, Lots of Labels Framelits, Banner Framelits, Magnetic Platform, Embossing Buddy, Heat Tool, Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder, Stampin' Dimensionals

Tips:

• I used the new Whisper White Heavy Cardstock for the background piece.  It has a nice, heavy weight that is great for the base piece of cardstock.
• Before die-cutting the banner, I embossed the Dots for Days stamp on the Cucumber Crush paper with clear Stampin' emboss powder.
• I wanted a longer banner than the Banner Framelits can cut.  I cut the banner in half and hid the cut behind with the Hello Honey piece.

2015 Convention Swaps - Part 1

Earlier this month, I went to the Stampin' Up! convention in Salt Lake City.  I had a blast!!  One of my favorite parts of convention was swapping cards with other crafters.  I made 40 cards each of 4 designs to swap with people.  Over the next week, I'll post each card I made to swap.

The first card was made using the new 2015-2017 In Colors.  

Stampin' Up! Supplies:
Stamps: Bordering Blooms.  Cardstock: Tip Top Taupe, Mint Macaron, Watermelon Wonder.  Ink: Tip Top Taupe.  Ribbon: Tip Top Taupe 1" Dotted Lace Trim.  Tools: Triple Banner Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals, Tear & Tape Adhesive.  

Tips:

• I embossed the Tip Top Taupe cardstock with the Large Polka Dot embossing folder.  I inserted the cardstock about 2/3 of the way into the embossing folder so that the top stayed smooth.  
• I liked the flower centers from the Bordering Blooms stamp set, but using the whole border strip was too cumbersome.  I carefully cut one bloom off of the stamp.  Since it's a polymer stamp, it's easy to line back up when I want to use the whole strip.
• The flag edges were done with the Banner Triple punch.  The strip is narrower than the smallest guide in the punch, so I just made sure the strip was centered and it worked perfectly.  

Thanks for visiting!  Come back in a few days to see my next swap card.  

Gift Card Holder Tutorial

It was brought to my attention recently that I never posted the tutorial for the gift card holder from this post.  So sorry!!  Here it is, I hope it helps!

Downloadable PDF:  Gift Card Holder Tutorial

Embossing Folder Background

Howdy!!  I know it's been a long time since I posted; I've spent a lot of time collecting these past several months and not as much time crafting.  But I spent Labor Day getting my craft on, and boy was it fun!

Today I wanted to share a fun way to make a background using embossing folders and ink.  I love embossing folders; they add a lot of dimension to cards.  But you can also use them to make colored backgrounds for your cards; it's fun and easy!!  

Here are three examples I made, using different Stampin' Up! embossing folders, each with a different color combo:

Colors used:

Honeycomb folder: Crushed Curry, Tangerine Tango, and Real Red.  

Vintage Wallpaper folder: Crushed Curry, Old Olive, and Midnight Muse

Stylish Stripes folder: Rich Razzleberry and Midnight Muse

To do this technique, you will need the following:

• Embossing folder
• 1 or more Ink pad
• Sponges or ink daubers
• Spray bottle or mister with water
• Watercolor paper
• Paper towels

And here's the instructions:

1. Determine which side of your embossing folder you want to use.  If you aren't sure what it will look like, you can experiment first with some paper towels to get an idea of what it will look like.
2. Using a sponge or ink dauber, tap ink onto the inside of your embossing folder.  You can use a single color, or you can mix two or more colors that blend well together. Make sure you work from the lightest color to the darkest, to avoid color transfer to your daubers or ink pads. 
3. When you are happy with how the folder is inked, mist it lightly with water.  Make sure it is wet enough to activate the ink, but not too wet.  If you get it too wet, the pattern will blur.
4. Place the watercolor paper in the folder and close the folder.  Rub it all over with your fingers or a brayer.
5. Open the embossing folder and carefully remove the paper.  Depending on how saturated you would like the color, blot the paper with a paper towel
6. Let it dry, and you have a beautiful background!

You can get different looks, depending on whether you blot the paper and how long you let it sit before you blot:

The longer you let the ink sit before blotting, the darker and more saturated it will be.  If you blot it as soon as you remove the paper from the folder, you will have a more muted, pastel look.  

Finally, each embossing folder can do two different looks, depending on which side of the embossing folder you use: the embossed side or the debossed side.  Both can be fun, it just depends on what you need for your project!! 

I hope you enjoyed this technique.  Happy crafting!

Stampin' Llamas Holiday Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Stampin' Llamas Holiday Blog Hop!!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Merry Christmas!  OK, it's a little early for that.  But it's time to start thinking about holiday cards; if I don't start soon, I won't be mailing them until after New Year's!

Following the order of the seasons, I will show you my fall/Thanksgiving card first.

 

Stampin' Up! products used:
Stamps: French Foliage, Day of Gratitude.  Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla.  Ink: Riding Hood Red, Old Olive.  Accessories: Antique Brads.  Tools: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, 3/16" Corner punch, Decorative Label punch.
Other products: twine.

I love, love, love the French Foliage set.  And I had so much fun playing with this set with Watercolor Wonder Crayons.  For this card, I used the crayons directly on the stamps.  I used Real Red, Cajun Craze, a tiny bit of More Mustard, and some Old Olive and Garden Green and blended the colors together to look like fall leaves.  After you've colored the stamp, lightly spritz it with water to activate the watercolors and stamp on watercolor paper.  It takes a bit of practice to figure out the right amount of water to use; too much and your image is blotchy.  Too little, and not all the color transfers.  So if your first try doesn't look right, don't give up.  Practice a little and you'll soon have beautiful leaves!



This next card uses the Christmas Lodge set from the Holiday mini.

Stampin' Up! products used:

Stamps: Christmas Lodge.  Cardstock: Brushed Silver, Night of Navy, Whisper White.  Ink: Versamark.  Accessories: Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder, Whisper White Organza Ribbon.  Tools: Big Shot, Top Note Big Shot die, Heat Tool, 3/16" Corner punch.  

I heat embossed the lodge stamp and the Happy Holidays stamp with Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder.  When you stamp the lodge on white paper, the "snow" is the correct color.  However, on the Night of Navy paper, it doesn't look like snow.  So I used Dazzling Details to color in all the snowy areas.  I think it's perfect since a new snow glistens anyway!  I used the Top Note die to cut both the Night of Navy and the Brushed Silver cardstock.  I then carefully cut along the dotted line on the Night of Navy piece so that I could mat it with the Brushed Silver.  For the Happy Holidays piece, I used the corner rounder punch so that it "matched" the flowing lines of the top note die.  It looked a bit naked on its own, so I used a bit of Whisper White Organza ribbon to help set it off.



My last project is a gift card holder!

 Outside:

Open the first fold:

Fully Opened:

Another angle, to see the fully opened card:

Stampin' Up! Products Used:
Stamps: Forest Festivities.  Cardstock: Old Olive, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White.  Ink: Black StazOn, Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede, Tempting Turquoise.  Tools: Simply Scored Scoring Tool, 1-3/4" Scallop Circle punch, 1-3/8" Circle punch, Word Window punch, Sticky Strip, Blender Pens.  

I used several images from the Forest Festivities set and colored them with Blender Pens.  I will post a (free) tutorial later this week on how to make this gift card holder.

I hope you enjoyed my projects!!  Next up on the Stampin' Llamas Holiday Blog hop is Jackie!  Thanks for visiting and have a great day!