Double Gate-fold Cards

Three variations for
the double gate-fold card.
This card is sooooooo easy and
can be as detailed as you want to make it.

I got this idea and the instructions
from Technique Junkies
Fancy Folds and Motion Paper Crafts CD.
Great CD. I can highly recommend it.

The base for the card is 5 1/2 x 12 inches.
Score for folds at 2, 4, 8 and 10 inches.

All of the papers used on cards in this post are from
DCWV Citrus Stack and Citrus card stock stack.
Punches are from EK Success and EK Success
Martha Stewart line.
Some Spellbinders Labels have been used as well.

Call to Me

The background paper is some old purchases
from the very first designs by Karen Foster.
I still love them, even if they are discontinued.

The phrase has been created by me in
Paint Shop Pro X and is from Jeremiah 33:3
in the Holy Bible, NASB version.
It was cut out with a Spellbinders Label,
attached to a lavender card stock
and a narrow border cut using
one of the Perfect Layers rulers.


I rounded the corners
on the embossing folder textured white square.
The lavender square was cut with a Big Scallops
square from Spellbinders.
The scripture layer was then attached to
these layers.

The lovely white scrolly thing under the scripture layers
is from a Martha Stewart EK Success punch.

The leaves are a Karen Foster green vellum.
The unknown leaf stamp was stamped
in Versa Mark and a moss colored
embossing powder was applied.
Then they were cut out by hand.

The flower is a punch from Punch Bunch.
After punching I placed the flower in the
palm of my hand and with a rounded ball type
tool (available from Punch Bunch) I gently rubbed
the center of each petal until they curved.
When the entire flower had been textured with
the tool it kind of curls up and around the tool
when you rub in the center of the flower.
Now I turned the flower over and
pressed the tool in the center of the flower.

The flowers were painted with silver Lumiere
and glitter was sprinkled on while they were
still wet.
My husband noticed the glitter on my face. LOL!
The two flowers were glued together with the petals
offset to create a more textured look.

The butterfly is from and old, old punch that
I got when I first started stamping.
That was almost 20 years ago.
I textured it with the tool by rubbing
the wings to get them to curve.
The butterfly was then painted with
grape Lumiere and sprinkled with
clear glitter while still wet.
A half pearl was place in the
center of the flower.

The leaves, flower and butterfly
were then place on the card.

Blast From The Past

I was leafing through my card stash and came across this old Valentine. I made it at least 5 years ago, but I still like it.

The card base has been covered with scrapbook paper.

The large heart is one that I made a template for. I took a piece of plain white card stock, folded it in half, drew the open heart, and cut it out. It took several attempts to get just the right look. Things do look different when unfolded.

Now take the paper that you want for the large open heart, fold it in half and draw around the template you just made. Cut it out and you are ready for the next step. By folding in half and cutting you get a perfectly symmetrical heart.

The phrase was computer generated. I had downloaded a font that had open spaces in the letters. A pink gel pen was used to fill in those open spaces. The are lots of free fonts on the internet. I did a google search for "free fonts" and came up with a multitude.

After cutting out the phrase with a straight edge, the edges were sponged in pink, the it was attached to another piece of white card stock and that layer was trimmed with a scallop decorative scissors. Again, sponge the edges with pink.

From the scrap that was cut from the inside of the heart I punched out three more hearts to finish off the design. Happy Valentines Day to all.

Another Valentine

The paper used here is from DCWV Rustic stack. The large scallop was cut with a Sizzix extended cut die. The smaller scallop was a Quickuts die. I carefully punched each heart in the smaller scallop. Another punch was used for the slightly larger hearts on either side of the stamped phrase.

Note that all the edges have been sponged. This really adds to the "rustic" look.

The main technique used in this card was layering. Having all the paper from one stack is a sure way to make sure that all your colors coordinate.

Ruffled Valentines

Now these really aren't ruffles, they are scallops.
The larger scallops are from a Sizzix
extended cut die and the two smaller ones
from Quikuts dies.
The papers in the top card are from
DCWV Madly In Love Stack and the lower
from DCWV Rustic Stack.

On the lower card all the edges have been sponged,
which fits very well with the vintage rustic look of
the paper.
The Valentine stamp is unknown.
Punches, larger heart, Punch Bunch,
other punch unknown.

Cowboys

Don't throw away that cardboard box!
It can become a rustic background.
I use a "floss pick" meant for dental use
to separate the top layer of flat paper from
the corrugated part.
Place the point of the pick in the valley
of the corrugation, hold it parallel, slightly tilt
towards where the paper is still attached
and slide the floss pick down the valley.
Keep repeating until the top
layer of flat paper is removed.

The mini corrugated paper on this card
was part the packing on a fragile Christmas gift.
It has been cut out with a Spellbinders Label,
as has the Wildlife Enterprises hat and gloves
image. Both have had the edges sponged
with dark brown ink to add depth.

The western medallions at the top and bottom
have been created using three different punches.

The oval rider silhouette image from Sutter Enterprises,
has been stamped in dark brown,
cut out with a Spellbinders oval
and the edges sponged.

The entire card base was sponged with
brown ink to give a mottled look.
Corners were stamped with B & J Art Stamp's
barb wire in dark brown ink.

Sympathy Cards

The top portion of the card has been
embossed with embossing folders from
Cuttlebug or Sizzix and the decorative punched
"ribbons" are Martha Stewart, EK Success or Fiskars.

These cards will be a gift to someone who is dear to me.
She commented that she was always running out
of sympathy cards.
Now I don't know about all of you,
but most of my family and friends have
pretty much every thing that they need,
so when they comment that they do actually
have a real need for something, I am
thrilled. I just hate buying dust catchers
for people or am item that is less than thrilling.
(you can tell by the look on their face when they open the package.)

The papers used on the lower third of the card
are whatever matched from my scrap box.

A Few Variations

These are variations of the design from the
last post. Fun, fast and pleasing to look at.

Move the flowers around, use different punches
and die cuts, use scrapbook papers and
unusual textures.

A few more thanks

Should be obvious by now that I went a little overboard this spring when it came to this particular design. What was really fun about it all was that NONE of the designs are exactly the same. Similar, but not the same.

A lot of die cut and punched flowers in various sizes and colors are used. That's it! Some sponging around the edges of the card bases and a Sizzix extended cut flourish.

I hope you are inspired to create your own version of this design.

Mom's Day

It finally dawned on me that Mother's Day was this Sunday.

Here are my quickly assembled designs.

The flower stamp is a clear design by Hot Off the Press,

while the elegant flourished phrase is from PSX.

I have used die cuts, punches and decorative

scissors to achieve the various decorative edges.

A Little Variety

As you can see I am still playing with my Cuttlebug "thanks" die cut. The flowers have been cut with a Quickuts die and a punch. Paper were all taken from the same stack.

Now why am I making all these "thanks" cards? I have given 15 cards and envelopes to the pastors wife and 10 cards and envelopes to my daughter, all using this die cut thanks. AND I have a bunch more sitting there waiting to be given or used.










Are you an addicted card maker with a huge stash? Give cards and envelopes as gifts. I have sister-in-laws that have everything they could every want. Buying gifts for them is absolutely impossible. The past few Christmases I have gotten out my card stash and told them to pick the 20 cards that they want for their gift.











Another use for all of those cards that you are making for your "therapy" is as a ministry in your church. I give cards to both the pastor and his wife and frequently send cards to members of the congregation that are ill or experiencing problems.

God Is My Salvation

I have been punching and die cutting up a real storm. This design uses DCWV Indian Summer Stack papers. These are NOT my normal colors or choice. It was fun to get outside my box and try some new combinations.

Spellbinders Label and Oval Nestibilites dies were used. The corners of the Our Daily Bread Designs phrase are from a discontinued Creating Memories punch. The branches are an EK Success Martha Stewart punch.

I sponged the edge of the card base and the leaf pattern multi color label.

Even More Blue Snowflakes

Cut up a dry embossed panel into three rectangles, mount them on some K & Company paper from the latest Christmas stack then layer onto dark blue. Dark blue ink was sponged around the edges.

A second example of my blue snowflake frenzy is also in this post. I created the multi-shaded various blue snowflake paper. You can read the basics of how it was done in yesterday's post.

More Blue Snowflakes

The white and dark blue card stock layers have been die cut with a Spellbinders Labels die. Now that white card stock has been a little "altered". I got out my snowflake stamp collection and went a little over the edge. (aka - out of the box) I also used some white sparkle embossing powder for one snowflake. There are also die cut and punched snowflakes floating around on it too.

The label was cut in half so there are two cards. Note the epoxy bubble over the snowflake on the phrase. It is left over EnviroTex from my last Friendly Plastic session. I used Crafter Pick Ultimate glue to attach it.

Wolfie

The wolf face image is from a company called Bear Rubber. I have not been able to find them on the web. There is one Bear Rubber Company on Etsy that make custom stamps and may have these images.

I stamped and embossed the image on cream leather. A Coluzzle template was used to cut the leather in a circle. The Coluzzle swivel knife will not cut completely through the leather, but makes enough of an incision that you can easily and cleanly cut with a sharp scissors.

The eyes have been colored yellow with a felt tip marker. The edges of the leather have been sponged with sepia ink (Ranger Archival, one of my favorites) The leather circle was then attached to corrugated cardboard. The cardboard was inked with the same sepia ink as well.

The decoration on the right side of the card was done with various punches, hand punches and decorative scissors. The turquoise half balls are plastic and from "I have no idea where I got them." You know......the stuff that has been waiting in your craft area for years.......the stuff that you bought because "someday" you just might need it. That is where those little half balls came from. If you can't find any, try clear embossing powder on a punched out circle of turquoise paper, or a glitzy turquoise embossing powder. (you know......punt, LOL)

Tri Fold Shutter Cards 2

The papers for these cards came from a DCWV stack. I love stacks for this type of card as the paper coordinates.

The tutorial for this card is on Split Coast Stampers, as great resource for stampers. I was going to tell you to do a search, lucky for all of you that I went into Split Coast and tried their search. It does not work. So here is the link to the Tri-Fold Shutter Card. Here is how I found it, I opened up the home page for Split Coast Stampers and left clicked on "Resources" at the very top and to the right side. This brought up a list of all their tutorials in alphabetical order. They even have a picture of the project to help you find the correct one.

The directions call for you to cut a piece of card stock 5.5 x 11 inches. With scrapbook paper that leaves you with a 1 x 12 inch strip. I drew a line down the center of the BACK of the strip and cut with the ripple decorative scissors. Those strips are the border trim on either side of the cards. From two pieces of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper I got 4 cards and the trim. Nothing was wasted.

Using laser printer acetate:

1. talc the acetate

2. stamp the Butterfly and Flourish (Heartfelt Creations, HC217D) and emboss with fineline

black embossing powder

3. Carefully cut out the image that you have just stamped and embossed on the acetate

4. Now stamp on acetate and emboss the single plain butterfly from the set, using EK Success's

Paper Shaper large butterfly, punch out this butterfly. Clever Heartfelt designer, Emma Lou

Beechy has sized the butterfly to the size of the punch.

5. I carefully applied glue from a glue pad and glittered the back of the butterfly. You could use

markers, or punch another butterfly from some glitzy paper and attach to the back, there are

are all kinds of options, use your imagination!

6. As this is a slick surface, glue does not hold very well. My solution is to rough up the butterfly

and flourish image on the butterfly portion. Both on the front and the back where I will be

attaching this gives it more "tooth" and the glue will hold much better. You can rough these

areas as they will not show on the finished card.

7. Attach punched out butterfly to butterfly and flourish image. After the glue has dried attach

it all to the card.

A few notes here: flowers and smaller butterflies are for the most part punched from glitter papers.

Why use laser printer acetate? The Laser Printer Acetate or transparencies is designed for a laser printer which uses heat to apply the ink. So you can use you heat gun to emboss the embossing powders with out warping the acetate.

What about inkjet printer acetate? These transparencies work fantastic for regular stamping. There is a rough and a smooth side to the acetate. Stamp on the rough side with most inks. As always, try the ink out first by stamping a small image in one corner to see how the ink and the transparency interact. Some inks will run or not dry. You can NOT apply heat to these acetate transparencies as you can the laser transparencies.

Medallion Punches

Here is yet another card created while I was at Charlene's. As you have been able to see over the past few days, we really did have a lot of fun and used every little bit of scrapbook paper that was pulled from the stack. It is almost like a challenge to use every last little piece of paper. (I know, I know, OCD)

The punch is by Punch Bunch. They have superior punches and are a favorite of mine. After punching out the medallion, I turned a square punch over so I could position it perfectly to punch out that medallion. Next I punced out one size larger square in the dark brown and glued the blue medallion to it.

The border on the left side of the card is a Sizzix extended cut. It has four long narrow borders on one die.

I used a dark brown ink to sponge around the edges to soften the look and to help pull the whole together.