Sunday, December 21, 2008

Triple Texture Card Tutorial



Here is the end result of using two different Cuttlebug A2 folders and a Fiskars texture plate on one piece of 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 paper.


Just a Note stamp (Stampendous)
oval die cuts (Spellbinders)
bow die cut (Bosscut)
Pink Pastel Fluid Chalk Ink (Clearsnap, Colorbox)


The pink ink is sponged around the outside edge of the card and the white oval.





STEP 1 -
Position your folders on either end of your piece of
4 1/4 x 5 1/2 card stock.
When using the Paisley and Dotted Swiss A2 folders
be sure that the printing on the folder is readable (up).
I used the dots of the A2 folder to position the card stock evenly.
Depending on how wide you want your dividing "ribbon", place your second folder. You will have a blank space for a narrow "ribbon" even if the A2 folders are touching each other.





STEP 2 -

The step 2 picture will show you how to feed your A2 folders
into your Cuttlebug machine.

I am sure that you can do this with other die cut machines a well.

Now turn the crank and see the results emerge from the other side
of your machine.

This is so cool. I just love these A2 folders by
Cuttlebug.

They are so easy to use and the end product is impressive.




STEP 3 -
To dry emboss the lines between the two different A2 folder textures,
I used a Fiskars texture plate. It is simply lines as you can see from the picture.

Position the dots on one of the lines of the texture plate and using the top of your bone folder, press into the first line closest to the dots.

I ran my bone folder up and down it several times to get a deep clean impression.


I found that the pointed end of the folder cut the paper rather than embossing.



Here is another card made with the same technique. I chalked the flowers, using the chalk eraser to remove any unwanted chalk.
Then sprayed it with Krylons Workable Fixative to prevent the chalks from rubbing off. (please spray outside, this product requires good venilation)

The white oval and the pink scalloped oveal were cut using Spellbinders Nestabilities. I used Pink Pastel chalk ink to sponge the edge of the white oval and the outer edge of the card.

The Bosscut bow was glued onto the ovals before the ovals were attached to the card. I wanted to be sure that I could position them correctly on the card. You can't clearly see the fine details of this bow die cut, but I am so glad I have it. It is the perfect finishing touch for this card.

The final step was gluing the whole to a card base of white cardstock. Now Charlene knows what I was talking about. LOL

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Nancy's Card

My friend and stamping buddy, Nancy Serres, sent me this card. I was wowed by how well all the elements blended to create a very attractive whole. A super design.

Note the rhinstones in the center of three of the snowflakes. Then there are the two types of snowflakes on top of the dry embossed snowflake background.
(Can you tell that Nancy likes snowflakes?? LOL)

The phrase (Hero Arts) is stamped in blue, with the same blue sponged around the edge of the phrase and the background. The final touch is that ribbon that can be seen on the inside of the opened card.

Gabriele's Card

This card was created by my long time pen pal, Gabriele Rebmann of Germany. She has done such a lovely job of combining coordinating elements.

The card base is a metallic silver cardstock.
The phrase on the little vinatge card says,
"Pray accept from me a hearty Christmas greeting and man the season prove to be as happy as its fleeting."

Those little silver Christmas trees on the right side are such a wonderful touch. All around it is a beautiful design.

I will use this card as part of my Christmas decorations this year. Thank you, Gabriele, for such a wonderful gift.





Sunday, December 14, 2008

Our Little Elf

Here is MacDuff our Scottish Terrier
on one of our morning walks.
It is very hard to get a good picture of
a black dog, so this one is special.
He is such a rascal.
Always into or up to something.
The frame was done in PSP X.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Butterfly and Flourishes In Green

This is one of my favorite designs.
Every once in a while you have a design that turns out
exactly like the vision in your head.
Since I did it in oranges, I had to try it in other colors too.
Here is the green version. It's yummy!











Christmas, Again!

I have had this background stamp by
Hero Arts for years and never used it.
It was so big and different that it intimidated me.
We can't have that!
So I grabbed backgrounds that I
had ready and began to stamp.
Some of them did not work at all
and other turned out great.
Card 31 is stamped on a Glimmer Mist background,
stamped with black pigment and embossed with
fineline black embossing powder.
It is layered on black, then gold gift wrap
and then a medium reddish brown card stock.
Card 29 is another Glimmer Mist background,
stamped in black pigment, then dark green
embossing powder is applied.
Now it is layered on dark green card stock,
followed by gold gift wrap, then yellow
card stock that has the edges sponged with
dark green dye ink.
Card 30 uses a polished stone background
made from Ranger's alcohol inks.
Talc the polished stone to prevent strays,
stamped with VersaMark and
apply fine line silver embossing powder.
Layer over navy cardstock, then
silver gift wrap and finally plum cardstock.
~Basic Stamping Tip~
Use metallic gift wraps for accent layers.
If you need a heavier metallic,
spray glue an entire sheet of plain white cardstock
and attach gift wrap.
It works great. I have been using gift
wrap on my cards for years.
Metallic papers are very expensive,
this will free up resources for other fun items,
like more rubber. (we can never have enough rubber)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Cari's Card

My daughter moved to Denver this past spring
to follow her dream.
She is now the charge nurse at the
University of Colorado Medical Center
Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic.
While I miss her terribly, I am
thrilled that she has been able to advance
in a profession that she has wanted since she was 5 years old.
I send Cari cards because I love her.
Her dedication to high nursing standards
inspires me to be all that I can be as an artist.
To not settle for just good enough,
but to strive continually for the absolute best.
This card was placed in the mail box this morning
and is on it's way to brighten Cari's day and remind her
that we love her and miss her.
The butterfly (Whispers, Sugarloaf Productions)
is embossed in fineline gold and painted
with Twinkling H2o's.
The fine floral flourish is stamped in black,
while the two bolder flourishes are stamped in
various Distressed Inks (Ranger).
I then swirled the orange, yellow and
mahogany Distressed Inks
around the edges, getting darker towards the outer portion.
The final touch was a "burn" of black sponged on the
the very very outer edge.

More Christams Cards

While I love the DCWV Debbie Mumm
Holiday Mat Stack,
by the time I had done 35 different cards,
most of them using this paper,
I was really really tired of Christmas cards.
So my next post today will be
my "Rebelling Against Christmast Cards" post.



Enjoy!!!
I hope that the cards found here
and on Stampers Quest,
in the Christmas Blizzard,
will inspire you.
These designs are not just for Christmas.
Break out of that box, and use them for
Valentine's, Easter or anything that tickles your fancy.



Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Views from the morning walk

This our farmstead. The picture was take from about
1/4 of a mile away, which is half
way down our driveway.
The cows are grazing on volunteer
wheat from a field that was harvested
in July. They consider if very yummy cow candy.

This local land mark is srtaight west of our home.
It is very dry looking right now, with touches of snow
left over from the last storm.
It is known locally as Twin Mounds
and some maps also show it by that name.

These buttes are to the northwest
of our farmstead.
I love to watch the play of light and dark,
sunrise and sunset on God's marvelous creation.

Below is my husband the "the boys".
Our boys love their morning walk and
get a little cranky if something prevents them
from getting it. It is a wonderful exploration
every single morning. We enjoy watching their
wanderings and discoveries.



One of the cows very obligatingly posed

for her winter portrait.

She was very facinated by the doggies.

The dogs kept very close to us as some cows

are very anti dog. LOL (dogs get chased by cows)




Penguin Trio

Part of my birthday present this year was
a die cut of this really darling penguin by Bosskut.
I would highly recommend this brand of die cuts
to anyone. For me they cut well in any machine that
I have AND they have some wonderful designs.


OH, those penguins are such fun to play with.

Above is the first card with a penguin.
The gift box is also a Bosskut die.
The paper is from DCWV Debbie Mumm Holiday Mat Stack.

Here is another penguin cutie.
The die cut corners are by Quikutz.
The stamp is by Inque Boutique.

And the final penguin.
These die cuts were just so perfect with the
DCWV Debbie Mumm paper that features
glittered penguins.
The "paper ribbon" on the left side of the card
has a layer of corrugated white cardstock.
The Christmas phrase stamp is by
Hampton Art Stamps.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Scenic Christmas

Scenic Christmas was inspired by Anne J.,
a stamper in our weekly group,
Wild Women of the West Stampers.
Now truly, the only thing wild about us is our name,
but I just love telling my husband that I am
going to spend the day with the Wild Women.
To recreate this card you will need
dark and light green cardstock, cut to A2 size.
Cut diagonally across each piece.
Now you have enough for two cards!
Arrange as shown in the picture and glue
to an A2 card front.
I glued narrow gold bands over the seams.
Below is a close up of the medallion that was
used in the center of the card.
I used an elongated oval punch (Emaginations) on white cardstock,
then lightly sponged the entire oval light blue,
flicking the edges to make them slightly darker.
A part of scenic stamp that had mountains in it
was used to create the light brown stamped background.
Punch pine trees from dark green.
This particular McGill punch has both trees on one punch.
I really like their product because it punches
easily and cleanly in cardstock.
Now punch out the deer (Martha Stewart)
in medium brown cardstock and lightly sponge
a little dark brown on it to add some texture.
I took a white pen (Inkssentials opaque white, Ranger)
and colored the antlers.
Glue it all together and attach to the card.
You can use pop dots (or whatever you use to create
3-d) and possibly add some sparkles to the trees
with a sparkle or glitter gel pen.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Faux 3-D Snowflake

This "looks" like it is a dry embossed snowflake.
BUT, it's not.
I stamped this Stampendous snowflake in
Blue Iris Fluid Chalk Ink (Colorbox by Clearsnap0
onto light blue cardstock.
Now for the faux part.
Note that all the white is on the upper part
of every piece of the stamped image
Like light shining on it.
I used the Ranger white ink pen and
drew in all those white lines.
You really can not tell that it is NOT
raised until you feel the surface of the card.
This technique takes a little time, but
the stunning results are well worth the effort.
The final touch is to sponge with the dark blue iris
chalk ink around all the edges of the white A2 card base.

Snowflakes In Blue

You will note that these cards are numbered 19 and 20.
There are 18 more cards with full tutorials to be found at
www.stampersquest.com in the Christmas Blizzard section.
Please visit Stampers Quest for many many
exciting and innovative Christmas ideas.
These cards are very very simple to make.
The white background card is stamped
with Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue (Tsukineko)
and embossed using Hologram embossing powder.
Using dark blue cardstock, punch a silhouette
snowflake (All Night Media) and carefully
trim evenly around the edge with a deckle scissors.
The blue background card is stamped with
VersaMark (Tsukineko) and embossed
with white sparkle embossing powder.
I was amazed at how fast and easy it
was to complete these cards.
While any snowflake stamp can be used,
this one is by Art Impressions, one of
my favorite companies for rubber.