Tip for Using Stacked Die-Cuts with Housecats Stamps and Layers

This card was made for the Sketch Challenge this week at Splitcoaststampers where I have the pleasure of being a guest on their design team for the next few months!

I had fun with this card. This stamp set came in a card kit that I received just a few days ago. The kit reminded me of my daughter who loves cats, plants and the colors in the kit - I HAD to buy it!

While I didn't use the paper in the kit I kept my colors the same. I stenciled the largest diamond using Grey Granite then added the middle diamond which I embossed to add texture.

All the images were colored in Copics and then die cut with a small square. I always find it difficult to cut into an image I've colored but I really wanted these to be "partial shots", not full images. To pop these up from the card base I added two layers of Sahara Sand underneath.

A tip for when you are using stacked cardstock layers beneath a shape instead of foam - if the stack is not going to be on a solid layer but a one that is already layered (as here where the small squares are on both the card base and the textured diamond), the stack can be a bit wobbly.  Place a small, extra piece of card stock on the end that needs support.  Here, the upper and lower squares had two complete Sahara Sand layers under them and the top square had a third strip of Sahara Sand underneath at the top, the bottom square had the same at the bottom.  This allows those squares to be stable on the card! (I should have taken a photo....)

Lining everything up was probably the hardest part of this card. I definitely measured twice!

Products used:

• Stamps: My Favorite Things Housecats
• Dies: Cottage Cutz Stitched Squares
• Cardstock:  Whisper White, Sahara Sand
  
• Ink: Memento Black, Stampin' Up! Grey Granite
• Markers: Stampin' Blends Old Olive Light & Dark; Spectrum Noir Tri-Blends Aqua Blue Blend; Copics Y21, Y26, W00, W2
• Accessories: MFT Weave stencil, SU Tasteful Textures embossing folder
  

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Double Challenge Tuesday Using the Glimmer Hot Foil System

It's the fifth Tuesday of the month so that means a double challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches, a previous sketch combined with retired colors.  I will admit - YoonYoung really challenged me with these colors.

In the end I decided to get out my Glimmer Hot Foil system.  I'm not sure if that was a smart move.  I love the system but there is a learning curve and I hadn't used it in awhile.  So I had several misprints before I got anything useful.

A tip for using the system (which I forgot until I was almost done) - make the paper for whatever you are foiling larger than needed and cut down after you've finished.  It is very difficult to make sure exactly where you are foiling since it's all done upside down and things tend to shift while moving the plates to your Platinum machine from the foil machine.  Sigh. 

Anyway, I foiled the presents and sentiment in gold then water colored around the packages using the challenge colors.  Not sure I love, it but I'm pleased with how it came out.  Sometimes you have to say "it's good enough".

I think I need to play more with my Glimmer system!

Products used:

• Image: Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil System, Glimmer Gift Border, Glimmer Hot Foil Kit of the Month March 2021
  
• Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Peek-a-Boo Peach and Marina Mist

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Bitty Birdhouse Color Challenge

I hope you had a great weekend!  To start of this week I have a CAS card for this week's color challenge at Splitcoaststampers.  Karen gave us Pacific Point, Pool Party and Old Olive with a dessert of Spring.  I love the colors but I will admit it took a bit of thinking to come up with a spring themed card with these colors.

I thought about flowers or birds but the blues don't say flowers and I would have liked a red to use with a bird (bluebird).  But in thinking about birds, I decided upon a birdhouse!

Everything but the sentiment is die cut.  I did used a dark brown Copic marker (E47) to color the branch of the tree.  I did NOT want to paper piece that together LOL!  To add some texture I ran my back panel through an embossing folder.   Pearls substitute for the berries that would normally be on the branch.

A very simple card to put together.

Products used:

• Dies: Simon Says Stamp Bitty Birdhouse, Cottage Cutz Stitched Scalloped Rectangles, Stampin' Up! Birds & More
• Stamps: Simon Says Stamp Spring Birds
• Cardstock: Whisper White, Pool Party, Old Olive, Early Espresso
• Accessories: Stampin' Up! Tasteful Textures embossing folder, Stampin' Up! Pearls

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Flowers for Your Birthday Front Flap Card

This week I'm the color challenge hostess at Splitcoaststampers.  I wanted some fresh, spring colors so I chose Pineapple Punch, Granny Apple Green and Highland Heather; dots are my dessert option.  These are very floral colors to me and a friend who loves to garden has her birthday next week.

I also know she loves when I make fun fold or interactive cards for her.  This card is made with a die from the Stamps of Life.  It is a long die when assembled for the card - 11 inches!  So you need to cut this blade up to ensure you get the correct cut.  From there you just cut the layering pieces and assemble. It actually is quite easy.

My inspiration for the colors came from some enamel dots I received in one of their card kits (I knew I'd be able to get dessert in that way!)  Since I used a Stamps of Life polka dot paper , I substituted Stamps of Life cardstock for the Granny Apple Green (TSOL Apple Green) and Pineapple Punch (TSOL Lemonade).  Substitutions like this are allowed; we want everyone to play and not everyone has Stampin' Up! colors.

The graphic above links to the challenge - we would love to have you join us this week.

Products used:

• Die: The Stamps of Life Drop-in A2 Floral Happy Birthday
• Cardstock and paper: TSOL Spring Basics, Lemonade, Apple Green, SU Highland Heather

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Whimiscal Flowers Birthday Card

Team O has another challenge this week at Tic Tac Toe Challenge.  I chose the bottom row across - Die Cuts, Flowers and Slim Line Card.

 

These dies are so bold and fun that I knew they needed some bright, bold colors.  I picked out my background pattern paper first and then found some bright solids to go with them.  I added just a touch of ink around the edges to give a little shading and a bit of washi tape.

Die cut cards like this are fairly quick to make - once you have the layout and colors decided (seriously that can take the most time!)

Products used: (all The The Stamps of Life)

• Dies: Spring Flowers, Floral Slim Line Panel
• Paper: Thanks, Spring Basics

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Happy St.Patrick's Day!

I have two cards for St. Patrick's Day today.  My mother was of Irish descent and very proud of it.  We celebrated St. Patrick's Day in a BIG way while growing up.  When she passed, my sister became the family matriarch of all things Irish and after she passed, it fell to me.  SO...I have made a few St.Patrick's Day cards for today and earlier this month I made a pop-up box card.

These mice are part of the Anita Jeram collection from Colorado Crafts.  I think this is the first time that I have used every major image from a stamp set the first time I used it.  If you have kids of a certain age you will probably remember Anita as the illustrator of "Guess How Much I Love You", a wonderful children's book.

 

I'm still practicing my watercolor techniques but I'm pleased for a first effort with these stamps.  I used ZIG Kuretake Brush pens rather than actual watercolor (but I have some on order!)  I felt the style of these stamps didn't fit with my usual Copic marker coloring style.  Some people are fairly loose with Copics, but my style is a bit tighter.

The Shamrock Blessings card is also for the sketch challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week. 

I hope you've enjoyed my cards.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

An Irish blessing:

May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks,
May your heart be as light as a song,
May each day bring you bright, happy hours,
That stay with you all the year long.

Products used: 

• Stamps: Colorado Crafts Four Leaf Clover
• Ink: ZIG Kuretake Brush Pens: 047, 302, 041, 069, 900, 053, 901, (Shamrock Blessings) plus 903, 063, 061 (A Good Friend is Like a Four Leaf Clover)
  

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Watercolor Flowers

Time for another color challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches.  This post will be short as I have been up late trying to schedule my vaccine.  No availability yet, but hopefully soon.  (And nothing like waiting until the last minute to do my post - LOL!)

 

This card was very quick to make.  I decided upon using watercolor (or dyes, rather) since the style of stamps is loose and  sketchy.  Made a mask of the large flower so I could make the column up the side with the greenery behind them.

I used re-inkers in the challenge colors and at the end flicked some of the Pear Pizzazz to add interest to the background. 

I hope you will join us this week - the colors are beautiful!  Now it's time to go to bed.

Products used:

• Stamps: The Stamps of Life Flowers2layer
• Ink: Stampin' Up! Pear Pizzazz, Mango Melody, So Saffron
• Paper: Strathmore Mixed Media

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Die Cut Baby Card

My card today is for the sketch challenge this week at CAS Colours & Sketches.  When I saw the sketch I immediately thought of this die.

 

I cut the bear and moon from white cardstock and colored the bear with Distress Oxide inks.  I cut down the moon and used it as a stencil/mask to create the blue sky.  I knew where I wanted the moon, so I found that was the easiest way to know where I should place the sky.  Then I cut the moon from a pearlized paper to give it some shimmer.  Because the "stencil/mask" was smaller than the moon I just glued it over the uninked spot.

For some visual interest I used a scalloped rectangle for the top layer and embossed the bottom layer. 

Products used:

• Stamps: Lawn Fawn Little Bundle
• Dies: Cottage Cutz Bear on Cloud and Moon, TSOL Scalloped Rectangles
• Inks: Distress Oxide Victorian Velvet, Gathered Twigs, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Antique Linen, Faded Jeans, Stormy Sky
• Accessories: Stampin' Up! Tasteful Textures Embossing Folder

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Tiki Hut Birdhouse

What's more fun than a tiki themed card? One that's shaped card (always impressive) and has a surprise element (always fun)!

I used the Stamps of Life 5 x 7 Birdhouse Fold-It die as the base.  The Fold-It dies allow you to easily make shaped cards.  Most fit in A2 envelopes but this one is a bit larger.  The die creates a regular birdhouse which can be decorated for any occasion. I went tropical with mine.

Two items that make this extra special - the fun, handmade sign and the surprise parrot. For the sign, I stamped "aloha" on vanilla cardstock and then free-styled the sign.  I used snips to cut it out, not being super careful because I wanted it to look weathered.  After inking the edges I folded some "planks" and inked along those edges to make it look like wood.  Then I hung my sign using twine so it swings.

For my surprise parrot I used the Peek-a-Boo Round die.

It took some planning for this as the Peek-a-Boo die will across separate panels of the house.  These are all separate pieces that get glued next to, not on top of one another when you attach them to the card base.  But you need to cut the Peek-a-Boo flap before gluing the panels to the base.

To accomplish this, I flipped them over, lined them up and very carefully used thin double sided tape (I use Tear & Tape) to keep them together including the hole.  I left the backing on the tape and ran the taped panel through my die cutter.  I used the "PEEK" die at the same time so I would have that word in negative.  (I did not want to glue down those tiny letters!)

Then I cut out another Peek-a-Boo flap from scrap cardstock.  I clipped it off, trimmed it slightly smaller and adhered it to the underside of the flap on my birdhouse.  You can see that this gives a nice finish to the underside of the flap.  You don't see my tape and from the front you can read the word.

I stenciled the house using Distress Oxide inks to give it a vintage Hawaiian feel.  I was trying to get a thatched grass look.  I also edged the die cut flowers and leaves in colors close to the cardstock colors for a bit of depth.

I hope you've enjoyed my card today!  I love hearing from you, so please leave a comment below.

Products used:

• Birdhouse: The Stamps of Life Birdhouse 5 x 7 Fold-It
• Stamps: TSOL Tropical2stamp (aloha); Morebirds2stamp (parrot)
• Dies: TSOLTropical2stamp matching dies, Peek-a-Boo Round Set
  
• Inks: Distress Oxide Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso, TSOL Tangerine, Sunshine, Guava, Green Apple
• Cardstock: TSOL, Gingersnap, Guava, Tangerine, Sunshine, Lemonade, Green Apple, Kiwi
• Copic Markers (parrot): Y13, Y15, Y19; YG11, YG13, YG17; RV02, RV06, RV09; E59

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St Patrick's Day Box Card

My mother always celebrated St. Patrick's Day in a big way.  She had Irish ancestry and was very proud of that.  As a result I now put out decorations, cook corned beef and cabbage and celebrate the day.  Since  green is one of the choices on this week's Tic Tac Toe challenge I knew I had to make a St. Patrick's card.

Here is Tenia's board.  I chose Green, Sequins, Heat Embossing.

Although this could be mailed, I will keep this card.  I love making box cards both to give and to keep as decorations for a holiday.  This one will go up with my other St. Pat's things.

Here are a few other images:

 

I colored the leprechaun and pot of gold with Copic markers.  The shamrocks are all die cut. To make it look like some were flying up out of the card, I glued some to an acetate strip.

I wanted a bit more color than green, so I used a multi-color paper on the inside panels (it would have been so easy to just do more green) and then cut flowers in orange and pink.  To complete the challenge, the sentiments are heat embossed in gold and I used gold sequins as a substitute for gold coins.

Products used: 

• Stamps: The Stamps of Life (TSOL) Leprechaun2stamp
  
• Dies: TSOL Leprechaun dies, Shamrocks4us dies, Mini Flower dies, Box Card die
  
• Paper: TSOL Thanks Collection, TSOL Green Apple & Kiwi, dark green scraps
  
• Markers: Copic markers
• Accesories: Ribbon, gold embossing powder
  

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Hello Spring!

I have a quick card today for the sketch challenge this week at Splitcoaststampers.  This adorable bunny is all die cut and features a die from the new release at Cottage Cutz.

This card is very simple to create.  I started with a sketch from Splitcoaststampers.

I decided to use a ribbon for the horizontal stripe across the top.  Tying that bow was the most difficult part of the card for me!  LOL!  (Confession - I'm not good at tying bows.)

I had some decisions to make with the sentiment.  The purple that matched my ribbon seemed too dark and the white was a bit light and blended in too much with the background.  I decided to stack them.  I used two layers of the purple below the white.

That gave just enough "shadow" to make the sentiment visible but not overpowering.

I hope you have enjoyed my card today.  It was quick to put together (other than that bow!) and the bunny is adorable and so ready for spring.  It made me happy to create something so "sunny".

Products used:

• Dies: Cottage Cutz Bunny with Butterfly, Hello Spring Bloom, Stitched Rectangles
• Cardstock and paper: TSOL Kiwi and patterned paper.  Scraps
• Ribbon: Stampin' Up! Gorgeous Grape
  

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Color Challenge Tuesday

Happy Tuesday.  It's a new month at CAS Colours & Sketches and we have a new hostess - YoonYoung.

She gave us some very sophisticated colors for her first color challenge.

I struggled a bit at first but in looking over my stamps, this image seemed perfect for the colors.  It was super simple to create.  I used markers on an acrylic block and a blender pen. I love this technique for small "watercolor" images.

The card is pretty straightforward.  It's a CAS challenge so I couldn't add much to the card, but I do like to add the simple layer over a card base which I have lightly embossed.  To me, this adds a bit of interest while keeping the card clean.  Since I had iridescent sequins in Terracotta Tile, I used one for a bit of sparkle.

Products used:

• Stamps: Stampin' Up! Touched My Heart, Stampin' Up! Band Together
• Ink: MFT Hybrid Licorice, Stampin' Write Markers Terracotta Tile, Calypso Coral, Granny Apple Green
• Accessories: MFT Stitched Rectangles, Stampin' Up! Subtles Embossing Folder, Blender Pens
  

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TSOL Card Kit Dragonflies Slimline Card

This evening I have a card made using the February card kit from The Stamps of Life.  I'm not a kit person (usually) but I have made an exception here.

I have the coordinating stamp and die sets from their Die Hard Club, so when the kit came out with additional stamps and dies, plus paper and embellishments I couldn't resist.  It seems dragonflies are everywhere recently, but I find these ones particularly cute.

TSOL kits come with an idea card, but they are not the "this kit makes these 12 cards" type of kit.  More of a "here's what you could do" kit.  No card bases, no instructions - just coordinating products, cardstock and some ideas.  This card kit has made me a fan of kits!

The colors were so close to the colors for this week's Splitcoaststampers challenge colors I decided to use the kit and my dies.  No coloring here - I cut the dragonflies from the patterned paper.

The most time consuming part was deciding on the design.  I used two of their slimline dies for my layout.

This will be going to a close friend who also makes cards.  But she has limited space and time, and will NOT color a card - she hates it.  Everything is die cut or punched out with the occasional sentiment stamped.  Her birthday is later this month and I know she will appreciate this card!

Products used:  All products The Stamps of Life

• Dies: Dragonflies2stamp, Moredragonflies2stamp, Scalloped Slimline Card set, Stitched Square Slimline Drop-in
• Cardstock: Guava, Sunshine
• Paper: Take it Easy (Kit)
  
• Embellishments: Take it Easy (Kit)

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