The Upside to Playing

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The upside to playing with new materials is you don’t have to perfect, just have fun with the materials and be creative.  This little pop-up box card has gotten embellished when I’ve gotten some new materials. First, the brown box was just to test out the Lawn Fawn Scalloped Box die set. I had a jar full of tiny rubber stamps I gotten from one of the big craft store chains and used the “Hi!” “celebrate” and “smile” stamps to decorate the side flaps. A new box of neon colored pencils came into play around the stamps.

I set the box on my Inspiration Shelf and forgot about for several months until I got a new box of Prima watercolor pencils (the kind you color and then go over with a wet brush to blend the colors.) I needed something to color and found the Lawn Fawn Little Town Hillside die cut in my bits and pieces stash to color.

Again the box went back on the Inspiration Shelf until I got a tiny snow fall stamp which I tried out on the hillside. (Not sure of the brand or where it is on my crafting desk at this point.)

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My Inspiration Shelf of cards people have sent me, purchased or test cards like the box.

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Lots of Love

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You can never send enough love.  This card was created to send to family far away.  The recipient is very musical so the musical score embossing folder was the basis for this z-fold card. I took the rest of my inspiration from the magazine that the dies came from Papercraft inspirations issue 176.

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I used the pink and red cardstock from my January 2019 Hero Arts kit and a white piece of cardstock cut diagonally from one corner to a point about 2 inches from the opposing corner. The pink hearts were cut from cardstock I had embossed with the folder from the Cardmaking & Papercraft issue 178 “Make an Impression” set. I used the “lots of love” stamp from the same set to stamp and then heat emboss with white embossing powder on to a brown craft paper. The heart stamps were from a  rubber Lil’ Stamps of hearts by Inque Boutique (c)2007. Cards from a Tea Room Memories & More Card Pack were also used for the inside sentiment.

Other Supplies:

  • Scotch Foam Tape
  • Tombow Mono Aqua Liquid Glue
  • Colorbok Glitter Craft Papers
  • Recollections Detail Embossing Powder – Snow
  • Hampton Arts pigment inks of red and silver

Thank You for Your Service

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Thanking our military for their service is the theme of this card using a Karen Burniston’s pop-up die set from Elizabeth Craft Designs. The glitter stars are 3D by folding on the score lines and placing a double thickness of foam tape under the center of the star.

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Because this was the first time I had assembled the star accordion card, I accidentally placed the center section with the start being upside-down and the connecting tab on the wrong side. My solution was to cut off all the stars’ tabs and connect them using a yellow ribbon.  My heat embossed “Thank you” was a bit messy so I fussy cut it out and used a white gel pen for emphasis. A red and white checked gingham paper was used to back the stars and cover up the ribbon.

Supplies:

 

 

 

Just For You

 

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Here is a birthday party in an envelope. The recently released Sizzix Birthday Shadow Box by Courtney Chilson is a great deal of fun to create. Because I love chocolate cake with a thin glaze of icing, I used wax paper for the icing. White gel pen and Nuvo Drops help create the 3D look on the card. Foam tape between the window frames and under the decorations, cake, gift and shelves create the shadow box.

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The inside carries on the window theme with additional part decorations. I used the yellow window cut-out from the card front as the bottom mat for the computer-generated greeting.

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Materials:

 

Flutterflies for Birthdays

Butterfly time flies card outside

This was my first attempt at using the Uchi’s Design Animation Card DC101.  The animation comes from the opening of the card that pulls the black bars of the grid strip plastic sheet across the dragonfly stamps to make them flutter. I recommend watching the videos on the Uchi’s website before trying to assemble the card.

Items Used:

  • Uchi’s Design Animation Card DC101  – Butterfly die, window die and mechanism
  • Motion Crafts by Uchi’s Design distributed by American Crafts – Dragonfly stamps
  • Layered flowers – “Card Making Magic” by Christina Griffiths from Die-cutting Essentials Issue 37
  • BirthdayDie-cutting Essentials Issue 36
  • happy – Reflections Cutting templates
  • Ebony Black Gloss Nuvo Crystal Drops
  • Blue Babe Gloss Nuvo Crystal Drops
  • Tombow Mono Aqua Liquid Glue
  • Scrap paper and cardstock

Easter Flowers

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I love playing with the shaded tulip Stamp & Layer set by Susan Bates for Papercraft Inspirations magazine, issue 182. I stamp a full page of white cardstock with flower heads and then another page with just leaves and stems. I keep them in a small plastic bag with the stamp set so when the mood strikes I can create. I pulled papers and ribbon from my stash. The uppercase letters were die cut using Recollections cutting templates. Limoncello colored Nuvo Jewel Drops were dotted on the letters while Blue Babe Gloss Nuvo Crystal Drops were used for the dots in the background.

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Sea of Joy

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Seahorses are so calming. Blues and greens with glittering air bubbles and starfish make you think of the slowly undulating water, with an occasional streak of sunlight peaking through.

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I based this card off of the colors in the printed paper from Love Cardmaking issue 4 and the Seahorses I had stamped using Hero Arts Color Layering Seahorse stamp set. Using a gate fold A7 base card and envelope from Park Lane allowed me to create the asymmetry of the opening by cutting the layered stack of print paper and seagreen textured paper using only the outer edge die of Tonic Studios for Scrapbook.com’s Paisley Edge Dot & Drop Die.

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Inside the card, I used the sentiment stamp from the Color Layering Seahorse stamp set on a white scrap of cardstock and tore the edges to suggest waves. By using three layers of red backed permanent tape I created the effect of the white card floating above the blue cardstock. The seashell is also stamped from the Hero Arts stamp set. The bubbles were from the Lawn Fawn Rub-A-Dub-Dub stamp set.  The envelope flap was all stamped using the Color Layering Seahorse stamp set.

Other Materials:

Textured cardstock by DCWV

Ink pads by Hampton Art

Ink pads by Craftsmart

Tombow Aqua Mono Liquid Glue

Tombow Mono Permanent Adhesive

Nuvo Crystal Drops – Metallic-Carmel Cream

Nuvo Glitter Drops – White Blizzard

A Card for Dad

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Cards for men are sometimes hard too come-up with ideas to begin a design.  I had started this card with the idea that it would use one of the Uchi’s Design Motion Crafts animation sets to make gears move inside the pocket watch, but I ended up liking the watch  face too much. I used some Tim Holtz passport-design tape to bind the edges of the ms. sparkle & co. woodgrain neutral paper pad.

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The banners were cut and pieced together from another of the Uchi’s Design Animation die cut sets. Letters are die cuts from Recollections.