Swirly 4th Card

Used the Stampin Up Swirly Scribbles for this 4th of July card:

Card stock base is Stampin Up Real Red. Used white/GP for the card front. Real Red card stock used to cut out the long die in the Swirly Scribbles die set. "usa" is from an alphabet die set from my stash cut from scraps of Stampin Up Night of Navy card stock.. For the stars piece I used the USA Flag die from Our Daily Bread Designs and cut out the stars part of the die using the Stampin Up Night of Navy card stock. With that cut out I cut a piece of white/GP to fit behind that for the white stars.

For the Swirly Scribbles pieces - I cut four of the swirly die pieces. There are three full die cut pieces on my card front and I snipped off one piece for "filler" at the top of the card so not much of the white card front is showing. I used TomBow glue to put the swirly die cut pieces on the card front. Also used glue for the "usa". I used the ATG to put the stars square on the upper left corner of the card front. Used the ATG and put this card front onto a Real Red card stock base scored at the top.

The greeting "Celebrate" is from a patriotic stamp set from Taylored Expressions. Stamped that onto white/GP card stock with Night of Navy ink and cut that out using a banner die. The star die cut using Stampin Up Crumb Cake card stock and the star die set is from Our Daily Bread Designs. Put this star on the card front using double glue dots. Added a bow from red, white, and blue twine to the center of the star. TFL

4th of July Flag Card

Card stock base is Stampin Up Night of Navy. Red is SU Real Red, star is SU Crumb Cake, and white is GP.  Cut and scored the card base with the scored line on the left side. Used the bone folder to crease the fold and set this aside.

Using the USA Flag die from Our Daily Bread Designs I cut out a white/GP flag and a Real Red flag. For the navy stars piece I used scrap Night of Navy and cut that out. Also used the scrap Night of Navy for the "usa" letters. With all my die cut pieces cut I cut a piece of white/GP card stock to "build" the flag on. I ran the ATG over this white/GP piece for adhesive. Put the flag frame piece on this and then added the stripes and the blue stars corner. Added the tiny white stars last.

Using a stitched star die set from Our Daily Bread Designs I cut out a star from scrap Crumb Cake card stock. Used a patriotic stamp set from Taylored Expressions for the "Celebrate" word banner. Stamped that using the Night of Navy ink onto scrap white/GP card stock and used a banner die to cut that out. Put that banner behind the star using glue dots. Used larger glue dots and put the star over the navy stars corner. Used red, white, and blue twine for a bow and added that to the center of the star using micro mini glue dots.

For the "usa" I used scrap Night of Navy card stock and an alphabet die set to cut the letters out. Used TomBow glue to put the letters on the card front. Used the ATG to put the card front onto the Night of Navy card stock base. Easy card to assemble once all the die cutting was done. TFL

Mask and Merry Card

This is the first Christmas card I have made for the 2018 holiday season.... It is the first time I have used liquid mask on a card.... It is first time I used Stampin Up inks for sponging a background on a card....  A big thanks to Bibi Cameron and her video on Youtube for inspiration and how-to's:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oNWNHFpsZA&t=1043s

I choose one of her cards as inspiration for my card and here it is:

To begin with I used the masking fluid by Winsor & Newton that I bought at Hobby Lobby with a coupon. For the toothbrush I used to splatter the liquid mask I used a cheap one from the dollar store. The trees stamp set I used is Lovely As A Tree from Stampin Up. The card stock base is cut and scored at the top and it is Night Of Navy card stock from Stampin Up. The watercolour card paper I used is Canson.

To begin with I cut the watercolour paper 4" x 5 1/4". I wanted a 1/4" border around my piece so I used a ruler and made a light pencil line on the sides, top, and bottom of this piece. As suggested in the video I also used washi tape to keep my border free of masking fluid and inks. I used a craft mat to make this card on. With the washi tape on all sides of my card front I put this inside a card board box and then splattered the masking fluid all over it:

I put this in the box since splattering the fluid over it it will  get all over the place and the card board box contains that mess -- just like I do when using anything I spray or spritz. Dipped the toothbrush into the bottle of masking fluid and with my finger I splattered this over the card front piece. After the masking liquid was on this I removed this card front piece carefully from the box and laid it on the craft mat flat and let it dry. This is the key to using a masking fluid -- is letting it totally dry before continuing the project. While that was drying I cleaned the toothbrush under running water to get all the masking fluid off of it and set it aside to dry so I can use it again.

Once the fluid dried on the card stock I added two inks to my card front both from Stampin Up - Night of Navy and Pool Party. My card is much lighter than hers in the video but I only used the two inks. I also used a torn Post It Note for my hills and the circle piece for the moon as she suggests. This is not my first attempt and here is what I learned - be sure your circle for your moon is pressed down firmly so you will have a solid circle moon. Also when stamping the trees be sure to ink them well and press hard when you stamp them and do not lift them off right away as it helps to keep them pressed down for the watercolour paper to absorb the ink. When sponging over the torn Post It Note mask be sure to move it around so you do not have a "stripe" look for your hills.

Once again -- LET DRY. With my stamped trees and hills sponged I let this piece sit on the craft mat without moving it. I cut and scored the card base and set that aside. With the card front inks all dried I used my fingers -- after I washed all the inks off of them -- to gently remove the dried on masking fluid. Removing that reveals the snow effect on the card front. I also peeled off the circle for the moon. Made sure all fluid was off the card front.

Gently peeled off the washi tape from the card front.  As Bibi had I also wanted to use a word die from the Stampin Up Christmas Greeting Thinlits set and I decided to use "merry". Here is the card front and the SU die set - as with all my word dies I always die cut them out of scrap card stocks and put them on a piece of dark card stock using a glue pen. I keep this sample with the die set so I can easily read what words that die set has since trying to read them backwards is not always easy - haha:

I cut the word "merry" out of silver foil card stock backed with Stick It sheet for adhesive:

As Bibi had used I also used the Christmas stamp from the Stampin Up Holly Jolly Greetings for my stamped greeting on the card front. But I did not want this to be crooked and since it is a cling stamp I did not want to trust this job to the Stamp A Ma Jig... so using clear plastic sheet from stamp packaging I cut a piece larger than what I would need for the one word stamp.

For the card front I put it in the MISTI and held it in place with magnets. I put the packaging clear sheet over the bottom half of the card front and held that in place with a magnet. Using the Stampin Up Night of Navy ink I inked this word stamp and stamped it onto the clear sheet to be sure it would be straight for my card front and where it would stamp on the card front - The clear sheet allowed me to move the stamp for placement and the ink wipes off the clear sheet with a baby wipe. This is hard to see but this is the clear sheet once I had the stamp where I wanted it and I stamped it:

Happy with placement I removed the stamped clear sheet and inked the stamp again and stamped it onto the bottom of the card front. With that stamped I removed the card front from the MISTI. Peeled the backing off the die cut word "merry" and put this over the stamped word on the card front:

Always hard to photograph foil card stocks.... With the die cut word on the card front I used the ATG and put this piece onto the card base. Added small sequins to the card front for some sparkle as you can see in the above photo. Bibi also made a small banner/flag for the top of her card, adding gold twine to that. I used the Stampin Up Gorgeous Grunge stamp set and stamped a stamp onto scrap Canson watercolour card stock using the Night of Navy ink. Used the trimmer to cut that to the width I wanted and used the Stampin Up banner punch on one end. I put the banner piece on the card front using the ATG and added silver twine I had looped and tied into a bow and I put that on the banner using clear TomBow glue. Here is another photo to show the snowy effect the liquid mask gave this card front:

This was much easier than I thought it would be and IRL this card has dimension with the hills and the moon. Thanks to Bibi for making the unknown technique easy and fun. One holiday card down... so many more to go! :0)

Once upon a time . . .

Once upon a time, long, long ago, Stampin Up sold the Envelope Liners Framelits die set of three dies for $27.00. Too high for this crafter to pay for three dies so I did not buy them. . . But then, as time passed, more and more projects were featured on "internet world" here and there using this die set. Cute projects other than just envelope liners but still I did not buy this die set . . .   Which is not so good because they no longer sell it in their catalog. So another die set I missed out on.... Until...

A couple of weeks ago my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime) and I shopped a sale where crafters sold items they no longer wanted or needed (is that possible??) in their craft rooms. Great items, great prices, great finds. . .  Here is a photo of the Stampin Up Envelope Liners Framelits die set that I picked up for $4.00:

When I saw this die set for sale I remembered two of the projects I had seen made with them and always wanted to make them for myself and for the sale price I knew these would be projects I could make for the upcoming holiday season. The first project I wanted to make, and just finished, is a snowman. I had seen this Snowman Pouch/Giftcard Holder by Cindee Wilkinson on her blog:

https://justspongeit.com/snowman-pouchgiftcard-holder.html

Here is my version of Cindee's cute snowman and I made my snowman into a treat holder rather than just a pouch:

For my snowman I used 110# white card stock from Mikes - both for the front, back, and box insert piece. I used the middle sized die in the die set for the two snowman pieces I needed for the front and back of my treat holder - here is a photo of the die set:

In this photo is the clear bin I keep my Stampin Up die sets in - I made tabs as dividers using the We R Memory Keepers Tab Punch Board and I keep the die sets in alpha order by title. The die set I am using at the current time I keep in the front of the bin, rather than loose on the work table top, so I do not loose any die pieces.

After my two middle sized snowman pieces were cut out with the Big Shot I set those aside. Using 65# black card stock from Mikes I trimmed two pieces to 2 1/8" x 5". Cut those out using the middle envelope liner die piece with the die at the top of the stacked black pieces to cut a hat for the snowman. Like Cindee did I used a stripped embossing folder for the hat pieces. I used a folder I had on hand by Sizzix. With the two black hat pieces embossed I used Stampin Up white craft ink and sponged the longer straight edge of the hat pieces. Used the ATG and put these hat pieces onto the two die cut white snowman pieces. Again used the SU white craft ink to sponge the top and sides of the embossed black pieces. For the sides and bottom of the snowman face pieces I used Stampin Up Going Gray ink to sponge those.

With die cutting and sponging done I used red sticky tape and put a piece of red striped ribbon across the hat on the front of the snowman hat. (This piece will be the front/face of my snowman treat holder).  Here is a photo to show the plain hat on the back of the treat holder:

I wanted this treat holder to be free standing and I also wanted to be able to put larger candy treats in it so here is a photo of my box insert cut, scored, and clipped to make the box rather than a pouch:

For the box insert piece I cut a piece of 110# white card stock from Mikes 8 1/2" x 5 1/2". Scored it with the short side at the top of the score board at 2" and again at 3 1/5". Turn with the longer side at the top of the score board and score it at 2" and again at 6 1/2". Use the bone folder to crease all scored lines. Use scissors to clip for your box ends and make a wedge on each clipped part so the box will have a crisper look. Used tear and tape to put the box together. Put tear and tape on each long side of my box piece (front and back on the outside of them) and set this aside.

For the snowman face I used the 1/2" circle punch for the eyes and the 1/4" circle punch for the circles for the mouth. Put all of the black circles on the snowman face using TomBow glue. Used a dauber and put Stampin Up Pink Pirouette ink on the snowman face for cheeks. Used scissors and cut a long triangle for the carrot nose. Put his nose on again using the TomBow glue. Using a white Signo pen I made lines on the snowman eyes:

Used scrap green card stock and an old Fiskars squeeze punch for the holly leaves. Sponged the edges of those using green ink. Added a red foil berry cluster to the holly leaves using glue dots. Now for the wire -- my wire is 24 gauge wire (from big box home improvement store) and I used a pencil to wrap the wire around and then opened it up to made a random pattern. I used an awl and poked a hole on each end of the ribbon on the hat piece and put the wire through that and twisted the end around the wire to keep it in place.

Put the snowman front face piece onto one side of the box piece and put the back piece of the snowman on the other side of the box piece. As you can see in this photo my box insert piece does not go to the edges of the snowman face and back pieces. I wanted the box not as wide as the snowman pieces:

Filled the box with white shred and this will be ready for holiday treats! Like that it is free standing and this is sizable so a small gift and gift card would also fit inside with candy treats.  A cute snowman by Cindee W. and thanks to her for sharing her project on her blog. Have seen cute scarecrows made using this die set and am sure there are other ideas for more than just envelope liners. Will have to see what else I can make using this new-to-me at a great price die set !! TFL