Playing Around With Paper

Charlene asked me to please put the results of my

card making on the blog. So here it is.

These papers are from DCWV, Debbie Mumm,

Noah's Ark made for Joann's.

It is adorable glittery paper and

I had an awful time with it. I am not

used to making cards for kids!!!!!

Great to get outside my box and struggle a little.

The papers laid out on my studio work table for several weeks.

Bits and pieces, partial cards, borders, stamps, chip board, argh!!!!!

laying there looking at me, laughing I am sure.

It was hard. So here are the results.

Gift Wrap?????

This card front is made from gift wrap.

While in the local farm and ranch supply store I spotted

this roll of gift wrap. It is Charles Russell sketches and comments.

It is far too lovely to be wrapped around a gift, then

torn and thrown away, so it became a perfect man's card.

The whole front of the card is covered in gift wrap.

The die cut corners are even a leather look gift wrap

that has been carefully postitioned in a Cuttlebug A2

embossing folder for a tooled leather look.

Gift wrap is an inexpensive paper source

for card making. I am always scanning the

gift wrap sections in stores for new colors and designs

to add to my already healthy stash.

Anniversary Card

I almost forgot.

Gasp!!!! You would think that after 38 of them

I would remember, but I didn't.

If my mother-in-law had not called I would have

likely never remembered.

Today is our 38th wedding anniversary.

Here is the card that I made for my hubby.

Scanner trick -

It seems that half of the time my scanner cuts off the edge of my cards.

Grrrrr - very frustrating.

How to solve this little irritation:

behind the item to be scanned, put a

piece of black paper larger than the item.

Be sure the black is in a upper right corner or

it might scan crooked.

This is my fourth scan of this card.

Finally remembered all my little tricks to get it right.

I just open the scan up in PSP, crop it to the size of the card,

reduce the pixels and put on my watermark.

Tutorial - Metal Stencils and Glimmer Mists

Any stencil, be it plastic or metal, will work

for the spray mist color and stencil technique.

Here is a card made using Glimmer Mists

and a silver stencil that says Lynell Harlow - LJ849.

This positive portion is used for this card design.

1. As this stencil is a perfect quarter sheet size it is

possible to get four card backgrounds from one sheet of

cardstock. Place the paper on a craft sheet, then layer the

stencil over the paper.

2. Mist evenly with color. Note the beading of the

mist on the stencil.

3. Gently place a second quarter sheet of card stock

over the misted stencil and paper.

Hold in place with one hand and rub over the

entire quarter sheet with the other hand.

4. The negative and positive results.

I have noticed that with this stencil the negative is

has a much sharper image than the positive.

5. Mist both again with the lighter color of spray mist color.

6. Let dry. I prefer air drying and when the paper is still

very slightly damp, layering between scrap paper and

placing under a heavy book. Leave it at least over night, so

you have a nice flat background to stamp on.

Card Made With Glimmer Mists Background

There are all of these wonderful new products to play with.

So you buy the product, go home and make this lucious,

fabulous, shimmery, to die for background.

Now comes the hard part. Make it into a decent card

that you won't be ashamed to mail in a clear envelope.

Above is a very simple fast card. Note the black sponging on the

edges. Sponging adds a lot of depth and is often that tiny

little finishing touch that lifts an ordinary card into the elegant realm.

I have a rather large collection of Embossing Arts scripture stamps

that I seldom use. If they are left out and are in front of me

every time I stamp maybe I will use them more. At least

that is the current theory in my studio for now.

Same design as the first card, but different Glimmer Mist background.

I like both looks.

Tutorial - Stencils and Glimmer Mists

Glimmer Mist Smushed background stamped

with black and brown inks. The metallics in the Glimmer Mists

"float" over the black ink.

For a very detailed and cistinct image embossing is advised.

This technique looks so difficult, but trust me, it's easy,

maybe a little (ok, a lot) messy.

The results are spectacular.

I regret that the subtle shimmer of the Glimmer Mists

cannot be seen in these picture.

SUPPLIES

for this project I used

2 half sheets of white card stock

stencil (no idea where I got this, it is part of my "Someday" stash)

Glimmer Mists or any misted spray coloring, 1 each dark and light

craft sheet or old magnetic photo page

lots of newspapers

iron or heat gun if desired

1. Spread newspapers over a large work area.

These misted sprays diffuse over an amazingly long way.

Now place the craft sheet in the center.

Place 1 half sheet of cardstock on craft sheet

and then lay stencil over the paper.

2. Shake your bottle very well. Make sure all the glimmery goodie

is off the bottom of the bottle. Do several test sprays to avoid splotches.

Mist with darker color - note the liquid beading up on the stencil -

it is easy to apply too much.

Leave the stencil in place over the paper.

This is your POSTIVE image.

3. Carefully position the second sheet of card stock over the

already misted paper and stencil. This will be your NEGATIVE image.

4.Once paper is in place, hold with one hand and gently rub over

surface with the other to pick up all that color that is beaded up on the stencil.

5. Remove the negative image sheet and then the stencil.

There it is! It was so easy!

6. With the postive and negative image sheets side by side

you are ready to mist then again with the lighter color.

I used Glimmer Mists Huckleberry as my dark color

and Timeless Lilac as my light color.

7. Drying finished product - yup, it's going to be soggy.

It can be ironed, dried with a heat gun or air dried.

I prefer air drying until only very slightly damp,

then placing between mutilple sheets of scrap paper

and putting it under a heavy book over night. (great use

for the unused college dictionary) The scrap

paper absorbs the rest of the moisture.

This card shows will give you an idea of what you can do

with a little spray and a stencil.

The flourish stamp is by Basic Grey and the phrase by PSX.

The background was talced first to avoid strays,

then stamped with VersaMark and embossed with fineline black.

The edges were sponged with black in to softly

frame the whole and add that special "finishing touch".

The Challenge

Ann J., one of the Wild Women of the West Stampers,

had some paper that she just did not know how to turn into cards.

So she challenged us by cutting that 12 x 12 Luxury Stack

from DCWV into A2 sized cards and giving each of

the Wild Women some card blanks and scraps

to see what we could come up with.

The Wild Women of the West Stampers

rose to the occasion.

This design is not originally mine.

I saw the card sketch on Stampers Quest

and the paper and sketch just seemed to mesh.

The phrase stamp is by Art Impressions and the

flourish stamp is by Inkadinkadoo.

The scalloped rectangle is a die from Spellbinders.

The scan does not do justice to how well the blues

all compliment each other or the soft subtle

pearl of the papers.

Stationery Cigar Box

My dear friend Carole needed some cards and

I really wanted to make something special for her.

I have had some cigar boxes sitting around ever since

Jen Lowe, the queen of enablers, showed me her

local cigar store where she purchased them

for her fabulous purses. They sell the boxes for $2.

Who would resist such a bargain?

I did take this box to show my stamp group,

The Wild Women of the West Stampers,

along with my stash of "someday I'll do something with these"

cigar boxes. My stash is now sadly depleted and I

have orders for more cigar boxes that will fit stationery.

I can hardly wait to see what the amazingly

talented Wild Women,

Donna, Nancy and Eva, will do with their cigar boxes.

Oh, I am such an enabler and I learned it all from Jen Lowe.

The lace look paper is another discontinued Karen Foster design. (sigh)

It is cut to fit the raised area on the top of the box.

The edges of the paper are distressed with Ranger

Distressed Inks. Stamps by Stampin' Up (please no one

die of shock here) and die cut alphabet is Cuttlebug's Harmony.

I did use my trusty Stamp-a-ma-jig to perfectly position

the two stamps.

The flowers are painted with Twinkling H2O's.

Lightly sand the area that the paper is to be glued to

for better adhesion.

PPA is my glue of choice for this type of crafting

as the paper is so smooth when the project is dry.

Note here: Do your inked distressing before you glue your

paper to the box. In order to get enough glue brushed on

to enable the paper to adhere well you will have some

squishing out around the edges.

Even a little glue on the paper acts as a resist and

you distressing ink will not work on those area, no

matter how well you think you have wiped it off.

Spotty distressing is just tacky, LOL.

I will tell you with hard won knowledge,

that the sides of your cigar box may not be square.

It took me a while, but I finally figured it out.

The interior of the cigar box is nicely finished off

with adhesive backed black felt.

This insures that my carefully crafted cards

are adequately protected.

I also placed black felt strips on the bottom of the box.

One of my favorite things about this stationery box

is that the beautiful wood shows.

Most of the boxes that I brought home had

very nice finishes and leaving

them to sit open for several weeks totally

eliminated the cigar smell.