Summer Cards . . .

This is a card I made for summer this year:

For the card base I used kraft card stock. Used the LDRS "Quilted Plaid" cover plate die for the white card front. Used a rectangle frame die from the stash and cut out the green gingham frame for the card front. For the half watermelon I used scrap card stocks and cut out a watermelon from an older Taylored Expressions watermelon die set. I die cut the "happy summer" summer border die from Lawn Fawn using silver poster board from the Dollar Tree for the "happy summer". I trimmed that to size for the card front. I added red and green gems from the stash. To add a little sparkle and shine to the card front I used clear Wink of Stella over the black seeds on the watermelon:

Fun to dig through the stash and use products on hand..... or so I thought..... off to the 4th of July cards....

Plan in place for the 4th of July cards and I wanted to use the WaffleFlower Postage Collage die and stencil set they have for the 4th of July. Simple plan.... or so I thought.... 

First night after work I die cut all the postage collage card fronts using the postage collage die. Using red and navy blue inks from Catherine Pooler I stenciled the card front. Set those aside. I then cut out the mat pieces for the front of the cards as well as the card bases. 

Second night the plan was to stencil all the stars and the background stars from the stencil..... First problem???  The red and navy inks bled when I would add anything over them - white ink, stencil paste, etc.... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Third night - let's begin again -- had to cut all new stencil collage die pieces for the card fronts and I used a red ink from another company and a blue ink from another company..... tried to keep my stencil paste to a minimum on these cards not knowing what would happen..... so on these cards I used a yellow ink for the little stars as accents rather than try a stencil paste or anything else. So happy I had in my stash a jar of the TCW Stencil Butter paste and here is a photo of one of the final cards that I made:

The TCW stencil butter paste was used for the stars on the flag, the hat, as well as the banner. This paste was easy to use and it did not alter the colour or texture over the second inks I used for my cards that other pastes I had in my stash did.... this process has been over 2 weeks so I am glad I was finally able to get card fronts I could use for the July 4th cards. Really like the postage collage stencil sets that are available - you can use it as a one piece card front or cut them apart to arrange on other card fronts or tags, etc.. Just happy I was able to find products that work well together so I could get these cards in the mail BEFORE the holiday.....

Crepe Paper BOO Day Embellishments

Crepe paper flowers were made following a pattern from Septeria I had seen on YouTube long ago. I made orange, black, pink, and purple flowers. (The camera shows the purple as dark blue but they are purple):

For my flowers I used 7 layers of crepe paper and used a 1 3/4" circle pattern I have in my stash to trace onto the crepe paper for my circle. Used scissors to cut the circle stack out:

As shown in the video I used a small stapler and stapled the center of the circle stack to keep them together. Then I scrunched up each layer and here is what the flower looked like before I opened it up:

Once all the flowers were opened I put them in a scrap cardboard box and sprayed them with a can of spray starch to help the flowers keep their shape since crepe paper is thinner:

The spray starch gives them some shape but they are not overly stiff. Once thoroughly dry I put the flowers in a box with the Witch Brooms I had made before for storage for upcoming BOO Day projects:

Also made two orange fringe flowers - shown in photo with pink flowers:

Also made some crepe paper fringe for gift bags or tags for future projects using 6 layers of the crepe paper - black, orange, and pink layered with hot glue and I used the fringe scissors by M Stewart for those:

The fringe strips do not have the spray starch on them as they hold the scrunched shapes well. Easy embellishments to make for Halloween projects ahead!