Having made this hourglass card once before, I realized it would make a lovely winter Valentine with the Penny Black’s stamp sentiment “I love you to the moon and back” if I added a 3/4 inch moon to the scene. The Greetery’s Hourglass dies make this an easy card to create, but time consuming to cut and color all the pieces.
You can read about how I created my first hourglass card by clicking here. The video below will show you more on how I created this card.
Valentine’s Day is coming and a handmade card in masculine colors with a bit of stitching and soft bling, maybe just the thing for your loved one.
In playing around with the Spellbinder’s Layered Stitched Background dies, I realized that if put side-by-side, two of the backgrounds would fit on a slimline card for a #10 business envelope which would go well for the masculine card I needed to make for Valentine’s Day. The card is to be attached atop a chocolate bar.
I had enough large scraps of pearlescent coordinating green cardstock and a pale celery green textured paper to cut two each of the layers. (I saved all the out-cut pieces and tiny dots to use in other cards.) The card base is a brown flowery patterned cardstock with a white back cut into a 6 ½ inch x 9-inches rectangle, scored and folded in half.
The stitching was done with three strands of brown embroidery floss. Using clear tape on the backside to adhere the thread tails to the card.
A fine tipped glue bottle is the easiest way to apply glue to the fine lines of the top two layers of the die-cuts. (I cut the thicker, middle layer from the lightest color to add contrast to the two other shades of green and to make the medium green fine line detail pop.) Once the lattice layers were glued together it was easy to adhere them to the stitched layer.
Hot foiling the inside of the card needed to be done before the stitched panels could be adhered to the card base. Spellbinders calls their hot foiling system glimmering. (Here are two videos explaining the hot foiling process – Jennifer McGuire and Yana Smakula) I have found their Quick Trimmer to be much easier to cut the foil with than scissors. I usually do a batch of hot foiling when I get out the Glimmer Hot Foil System heating plate and my die-cutting machine as it takes time to heat-up and cool-down. (I use a die-cutting machine that can take an 8 1/2 x 11 inches sheet of paper but the system can use a smaller 6-inch wide machine too.)
I did some small sentiments first on scraps of the green cardstock and a piece of cream cardstock using scraps of different foils. Some worked well, but some had issues. (I do these as practice runs as I only had one shot at the card inside.) I positioned my foiling plates and rose blush foil on the inside of my card and taped them down using low tack tape. (The plates moved slightly when I ran them through the die-cutting machine and made the sentiments a bit wonky. I should have taped both sides of the plates down.) A sand eraser is good for removing errant foil bits but be careful when using white corded cardstock as the eraser will wear away the color to white.
Once the foiling was completed, the stitched card layers were glued to the front of the card base.
The front sentiments “FROM ME TO YOU” (in Speckled Aura foil on cream cardstock) and “XOXO” (in Aura foil on dark green cardstock) are glued to other scraps to give them some firmer stability before being adhered to the card front with foam squares. Ten gold sequins were added to the tops of the stitching and where the lattice frames meet for a bit of sparkle.
A gold heart rub-on transfer was added to the back of the brown envelope. A chocolate bar will be bundled under the card-stuffed envelope and tied with a white ribbon for presentation.
Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, icons of British baking and favorites of the person this card is made for, have been hosts for The Great British Baking Show from 2010-2016.
Stove Doors: I wanted the oven doors to have the look of enameled iron, so I cut set of blue doors. (Save the out-cut of door openings for stamping and stove knobs for later) I cut a tiny white circle for the oven gauge and glued it in place on the one door. Next I covered all but the hinges on the doors with Glossy Accents gel and let them dry overnight. Once they were dry, I cut and glued the silver latch and hinges on to them before gluing them on to the doors I had already glued to the stove.
Tile Backsplash: I cut the tiled back splash from white card stock and brushed a light coat of Glossy Accents over the rows of tiles, avoiding the deep embossed grooves between tiles.
Glass Jars of Fruit: To achieve the look of glass, stamp and color on white cardstock using permanent inks when dry cove with a thick layer of Glossy Accents. When dry curve around your finger or pen to create the curved glass effect.
Dresser: Cut one and use an embossing sandwich for your die-cutting machine to emboss the details into the cardstock. Cut a 1/4 inch x 4 1/2 inches strip of white cardstock for the shelve crossbar. Using an ink blending tool color the crossbar and dresser to bring out the embossed details using a yellow ink. (Don’t ink where the stove is as you will be stamping there.)
Oven Stamping: Using the stove out-cut from cutting the stove doors, trace with pencil where the door openings are onto the dresser back. Remove stove out-cut and using a stamping platform stamp sentiments or baking trays in oven openings. (I masked off the other openings that the rolling pin handles and baking pan that would cover with yellow paper tape.)
Stove Assembly: Cut another stove from blue cardstock. Glue all the doors to the backs of the “enameled’ doors from first step. Glue the stove front to dresser matching up stamped images with the door openings. Adhere two layers of the blue stove knob cut-outs to top of stove. (This will add some dimension to make the knobs be raised up from stove front.) Cut from silver mirror cardstock the knobs, thin line trim, door hardware, stove burners and utensil rack. Glue silver hardware onto doors and knobs and silver trim in place. Glue door hinges into place on to stove front being careful not to get glue onto stamped images. Once glue is dry, fold doors back to crease hinges. Cut a 1/2 inch x 4 1/2 inches strip of blue cardstock for the stove burners crossbar. Glue dresser on to card base after the shelf and burners step.
U-Fold Card Base: Cut a 6 3/8 inches x 6 15/16 inches rectangle from heavy white cardstock. Score on a scoreboard at 1 inch, 1 1/2 inches, 5 7/16 inches and 5 15/16 inches and fold the outer folds as mountain folds and the inner folds as valley folds. This should create a U-shaped card base.
Wallpaper: Cut pieces of your decorative “wallpaper” to fit the top half of each of the card base’s sections. Allow for black space over the folds. Glue decorative pieces in place. (Note: It might make the crossbars stronger if you glued the narrow inside strips of decorative paper on after the crossbars are attached, but before the dresser is glued in place.)
Wainscoting: Using the kitchen background embossing folder, emboss the wainscoting and floor from a piece of cardstock that is at least 7 inches x 3 inches. Using an ink blending tool, color the wainscoting and floor with yellow ink to match the dresser. Cut pieces to cover the lower half of the card base (two 1-inch panels of wainscoting and first row of floor tile and one 3 7/8 inches x 3 /4 inch of two rows of floor tile and bottom edge of wainscoting.) Glue the two 1-inch panels to the side sections of card base. Cut a 3 7/8 inches x 2 1/2 inches piece of blue cardstock to be glued in place as the back of the stove. With the card base open in the U-shape, position the dresser with stove over the opening and mark with a pencil where the shelf and stove burner crossbars should go on the narrow inside walls. Adhere the large blue stove back to the card base using the pencil mark for the stove burner crossbar for positioning. Glue remaining strip of flooring with wainscoting at the bottom of the stove back.
Shelf and Burners: Stamp color and cut out herb pot, utensils and kettle. With tiny dots of glue, attach the utensils to the silver rack and add tiny piece of foam squares to the back of the rack and utensils. Attach the kettle to the from of a stove burner. Fold 1/4 inch tabs blue crossbar at each end. Using scraps of blue, attach the burners to the blue crossbar centering them over the stove knobs. Glue the backsplash tile onto the card base above the burners. Adhere the utensil rack above the tile backsplash. Assemble the shelf and its contents in the same manor as the stove burners crossbar. Glue in place to card base using pencil marks.
Birthday Banner: Stamp onto a 3-inch x 5/8-inch paper strip a sentiment from the Simply Food stamp set. Cut notches on ends of strip and fold into a ribbon banner. Glue ends of ribbon to top of dresser.
Envelope: I used a 6 x 9 inches envelope for this card that folds flat into 5 3 /4 inches x 6 3/8 inches. The stamps are from the baking set of stamps.
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A favorite leather bag has a certain smell and memories of all the fun times with friends and family. This little faux tooled leather bag can add to those memories.
Made with the tote die set by Divinity Designs, a crafting company based out of Ohio, the bag goes together relatively easily. I looked at the assembly video before making, but I assembled the bag mesh pockets a little differently.
Cut two each of the front/back, side, mesh pocket, handle, pocket pleat, front/back layer and handle layer from brown Kraft cardstock. Cut one each of front pocket flap, front pocket flap layer, pocket layer, and stitched belt buckle set from brown Kraft cardstock. Cut two front/back layers from brown paper. Cut one each of the buckle and pin from orange foil cardstock.
Using the tote embossing insert plate and your embossing sandwich for your die-cutting machine emboss the two front/back layers and pocket flap and pocket layers.
With an ink blending sponge, darken the edges of all pieces, especially the stitched areas with brown ink. Rub the embossed layering pieces to highlight the “tooled” design. Glue the layers onto their base pieces.
To assemble, I glued the mesh pocket tabs on to the side tabs first, bowing out the mesh pocket. Next, I adhered the bottom side tabs to the bottom rectangle of one of the front/back pieces. Glue the other bottom rectangle over the top of the first rectangle to hide the side tabs. Next adhere the side tabs to the front/back pieces. Take your time to hold the tabs in place until the glue sets.
Shape the handles by running them through your fingers to bend them into an arch shape. Glue rounded ends of on handle to the front of the bag. Repeat with handle for the back side of bag.
To assemble the front pocket, pleat the two pocket pleats and glue one tab to the inside of the front pocket tab. Repeat with the other pocket pleat. Fold the bottom tab of Front pocket over the ends of pleats and glue corners. Fold over the front pocket flap tab and glue its corners to the top pleat corners. Glue assembled pocket to front of bag. Thread large brown stitched belt piece through foil buckle and glue pin in place. Fold tiny stitched brown piece around larger piece as the loop that holds the belt tongue in place. Glue top of belt piece to pocket flap and loop tabs to pocket. This belt with hold the pocket flap securely closed.
I used some tiny star brads that I had in my stash to reinforce the handles to the bag. I punched the starter holds with an old ice pick or awl and a sanding block inside the bag. Once the brads were in place, I glued the front/back layer over the inside of the bag to hide the brads and side tabs.
All of the glued layers make for a study bag that measures 6 ¼ inches high x 5 inches wide and 2 inches deep. I plan to gift a lovely scarf and earrings in this bag.
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Ully Cat's World 