More Sympathy Cards

Unfortunately I have needed quite a few of this type pf card over the last  three months.. We've lost four members of the family in the last twelve months, three in the last 3 months.
Just when we thought that was it,  one of our lovely  friends lost her mum on New Years Eve,

So today I've been experimenting  with hot foiling on black card using white foil, a black laser printer and a laminater.

 Here is another version using the same stamps and sentiment. 
But I changed the colours,  the composition  and the shape of the sentiment on each card.
This one is hubby's preferred card of the day. But for me there is something not quite right about it, but I can't tell you what it is.

I thought I 'd try something different for the  black tent fold card and put a black insert with white text in it. 

I found a lovely poem and  a few words online for the insert,  Once I'd  printed them off on black paper  I then hot foiled it in white to match the sentiment in the front. 

Now I have to dig out my white gel pen so I can write out this card and get it in the post.

30th Wedding Anniversary Card.

 I wanted to make something special for a lovely couple I know, that were very quietly celebrating their 30th anniversary.
But I have been struggling the last few days to come up with an idea for an anniversary card with the wow factor, that didn't require hours of work and  was not too fussy.

My lack of inspiration resulted in me chopping up card and trying different things for a few days  but I  still came up with nothing usable, until last night when I suddenly gained some inspiration.


The inspiration came from the Apple blossom, ornate heart  die I bought at the beginning of the summer and had yet to use.

This is the first card I have made in years that has absolutely nothing from Stampin' Up in it. 

Making this card reminded me of the type of cards I was making in my pre Stampin' up days.  So it was  a bit like stepping back in time while making this one.                                                                          

This card is one of the largest cards I have ever made, measuring in at around   7  3/4  x 9  1/2 inches.                                                                                                            

I  typed up the personalized sentiment for the centre of the heart and printed it off, using a (black only)  laser printer.

  

A laminator and some toner foil were used to turn the black text into gold.                         A simple,  but effective technique.  

The flowers were purchased from my local craft store.

I used a Heartfelt creations die to cut the backing  leaves .

There are an awful lot of pearls on this card that are not immediately obvious.

Thankfully the tiny pearls I used were on a sticky sheet that I cut into strips. This certainly made applying all these pearls much easier and quicker than applying them one at a time.  

   

                                                                                                                                                

Photocopying and Hot Foiling Your Dies

I hope you're sitting comfortably, I have a feeling this is going to be a long post.

I accidentally stumbled  upon a video that had me very excited. It's a technique I have never come across before and in the video it looks very easy. 

So I decided to give it whirl to see just how  easy it is and to see how well it worked with my limited equipment. 

I will share how I achieved the technique. I will also leave  the link to Becca's videos at the end.

Firstly,  Becca photocopied her spellbinder dies. This is by far the easiest option.

 My laser printer does not have a copier. 

 So I had to scan the dies using my inkjet printer, then print them  off using the laser printer.                                     

 The first problem I encountered was by doing it this way,  was  that somewhere along the way the size of the scanned dies changes, which meant I couldn't  line up the dies with printed copy. 

 So I had to re size the scanned images of the dies many times before getting a copy that matched up with the die.
After a lot of faffing and a ream of paper later, I finally ended up with an image about as close to the  original die size as I could get. 

The next step was to lay a sheet of toner foil over the photocopy, then cover with a sheet of paper to protect the foil and run it through the laminator.  

After laminating I removed the foil sheet and was left with these beautifully foiled frames..

Once foiled, I laid the die over the foiled oval and run it through the big shot to cut out the centre.  

I forgot to mention,  once I had scanned the oval die, I added a text box with a broad outline around the oval before printing.

Do save a copy of your scanned dies on your PC as a template, especially if you have sizing issues as I did.

If you don't have a laser printer, print off your template sheet in black ink using an ink jet printer, Then take it to a local copier company and get it photocopied onto card and hot foil it when you get it home.

When the oval centre has been cut out, you'll  have  a gold edged oval and a card front with a gold edge aperture in it.
You'll need to repeat this with all  the dies in the set so that you can mix and match ovals and card fronts.

It's unlikely that  you'd use both piece  from the same template on the same card. 

Save the part you are not planning to use.

You could stamp a greeting/ image on the cut out and use it as a topper.

Lay the outer piece of card with the aperture  over some pretty paper as a background to a card.

 As you can see, you need to be very careful about the die positioning before cutting. I was slightly out on this one. But I think I can disguise the fact that my border is uneven by covering it with  a sentiment or flowers.

I think this is a fabulous way to give a gold edge to to those die cuts.

Especially if you only want a narrow border on those fancy frames.








I usually find the die the next size up is much too big to create a nice  narrow borders.

I hope you will find Becca's tutorial as inspiring as I did.
Here  as promised is the link to Becca's video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAicoQBRt5Q

Becca  also has another video on foiling more intricate dies. She offers advice on which dies to choose for this technique. These  are real must watch Videos.

 Link to  Video 2    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqRoN-O889k

Handmade card for a one year old.

My fifth and final post today is this little card created for a one year.
I used a combination of  products on this card, martha Stewarts Doily punch, A tatty bear stamp bought from the Range dirt cheap. 

Copic Markers to colour the bear. Stampin ups DSP to mount the topper on.  My lazer printer to print of the the figure one and  the verse for inside the card.

A small amount of toner foil to hot foil the  verse and the digit.

Once I had practised colouring this damn bear,  I quite enjoyed  doing it so I stamped him onto the envelope too.

Faux Book Tutorial

To write a tutorial including every instruction, every material,  every tool used and tips for achieving best results would take me forever. Especially as there are two versions of this book.
 So I have decided not to include instructions for decorating. 
Which gives you free reign on how to decorate your faux box card.

For the Economy version of this book.....

You will need 
Materials

Three A4 sheets of cream card 
I find photocopy card is best as it is thinner.

Two  A4 sheets of  sturdy card
One sheet of acetate
 Glue.

For the full Version of this book
You will need 
5 sheets of cream  card
3 sheets of sturdy card, unless you do the top frame the same colour as the pages.

Further instructions for
the full version are in the tips at the bottom of this post.

 Decorations.

charms,  feathers, lace and sticky back crystals.and a large flower or something to                                                                      act as the focal point.






Tools
Stamps and of your choice.
A score board with 1/2" markings
A Bone folder.













Cut two squares 7 x 7  inches. Using a score board score lines down both squares every 1/2 inch to the end of the card.

Cut two rectangles size 5 X 7 inches  place the these pieces of card on the score board  so the short 5" side is flush with the top of the score board.Score every 1/2 inch to the end of the card.

Begin folding the card in a concertina  fashion. Use a bone folder to crease in the folds you need folds and they should all stack up neatly. This is  an important step... if you don't have a bone folder a small rule will do the same job.

All four pieces need to be folded in  this way. 

                Take your time over this step as any mistakes will show big time.

Lay the two shorter  pieces at top and bottom of your work space and bring in the two  longer side piece as in photo. 

Make sure that you have the concertina'd pieces all the same way up.

 By that I mean the last strip on the inside of each piece should be pointing up. 

This won't work out properly if they are all pointing in different directions. 

                       

 On the last section of the bottom panel, add a small amount of glue to the corners.

Bring in the side panels and overlap the corners of the sides and end piece making sure this joint is completely square.

 Repeat this on all four corners,  keeping the corners square.

 Begin interlocking the corners, by folding one fold of the top down then fold in one fold on the right side , then the one fold in from the bottom and finally one fold in from the left. Repeat this pattern until you have folded in all the folds.

 DO NOT apply glue to these folds.

 When you reach the top  apply a small dot of glue to secure the top folds  just as you did at the start to stop it coming apart.

OH Dear!!!  My corners could have been better here .

At this point I strongly recommend you measure the overall size of the frame as you now need to cut a sheet of card exactly the same size and shape as the frame. If your frame is slightly out you'll need to compensate for that.

To make this stand out better I chose to make the surround frame a different colour, so you can see it better.

On my original card it was the same colour as the pages with some additional inking.

 Cut a panel to go in the back of the frame and decorate anyway you want.
Just be sure to leave half an inch clearance on all the edges as you will be applying glue to these edges to mount the frame onto.

When you are happy with the back panel mount the page from onto your panel Checking  it's squarely mounted

Preparing  the cover.

 This may seem like a cock-eyed way of measuring up for the  book cover,
but it works for me and I don't waste half as much card getting it wrong now.

  A4  card stock in  colour of your choice put it on the score board in landscape position. Then score at   5  1/2 inches. 

Turn the card around 90 degrees and score again at  5  1/2 inches.  

This will create  a narrow  panel  in the centre of the card just over an inch wide that will act as the spine of the book.

 Cut a sheet of good quality acetate,  slightly smaller (about 1/4 ") than the outside edge of the page/ frame.

Apply double sided tape to the edges of the acetate and position very carefully over the page/ frame. 

Do take care to get this straight and square FIRST time.

 Once the acetate is on  it will look pretty untidy so this is where the top frame come in. Add double sided tape to the back of the top frame and very carefully position over the  page frame.

Decorate the cover  to compliment the inside and s don't forget the spine.

TIPS

For a fuller, deeper book cut the two side panels to 7 inches by the length of the A4 Paper and the top and bottom panels to 5 inches by the length of the 
A4 paper. you will need to do a lot more scoring and folding and  you will need 5 sheets of  cream card  and you will need  two sheets of card for the cover which will need to be joined together at the spine of the book. 

You'll need to  measure the size of your  page frame add 1/2 inch  to both measures. then add another 1 1/2 inches for the spine. Then cut your card to this final measurement. Repeat this for the back cover of the book. 

You will have two spine panels, apply adhesive to one of the spines then overlap the spines pressing them together firmly . 

The join s will be almost invisible  and this double spine will be much stronger than the economy version.

 I have to say  the results are worth it.


To make it look more vintage sponge small amounts of  ink on the edges and folds of the pages.

To make  the flower I cut 6 flowers from quite a thick lining fabric  4 large flowers and 2 smaller ones. and held them over a burning candle until the edges of the fabric started to melt and shrivel  up  at little. then I stacked them up in a pile and stitched through all the layers and added a sparkly 
button to the centre .

The background
I did lots of over stamping, sponging and heat embossing for a vintage feel background.

A video would have been quicker but unfortunately I am having big problems up loading videos on to my blog. I spent all day yesterday trying to get one video on there. So I am stuck with doing tutorials this way until I can get help with uploading.

C.A.S.E by all means... but 

 Credit the Creator!!!  

Two by Two Baby Card.

 You may remember  a few months ago I did a very similar  card for  a boy.


I rather liked the finished look of that  so when a friends daughter gave birth to a baby girl last I was inspired to make it again in girly colours.
 I have also changed the shape of the topper. 
 Last time, I used the Top Note die , this time I thought I would try the oval and scalloped oval. ( from Spell Binder.)

 The  stamp I used is called Two by Two which is now retired.
I used SU 's markers to colour most of the animals and boat,  but I confess to using my Copic Markers to colour the  elephants.



 I hot foiled the Grandparent Greeting on this card and added  some  Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the waves and the rim of the boat.

The DSP I use was pretty in pink and has unfortunately been retired now.

Tanya s 50th Birthday

This was  a card  I made for my friends sister  who was 50 over the Christmas Holiday. Allison wanted the card to have a  gardening theme as her sister's passion is gardening.                                                                                                  I chose some blue stripe  dsp paper from S.U. for the background and  mounted it  onto  silver foiled  card.    Then I wrapped a length of blue grosgrain   from top to bottom, adhering the ends to the underside of the topper  to  conceal the raw ends. The  background was then stuck to the base card.

The image was mounted onto a layer of silver card and using foam pads I stuck the image over the grosgrain.  The foam pads give a little dimension to the card.

 I added a bow in the same grosgrain using glue dots.                                       

   I printed off the greetings and hot foiled them, then cut them  out to resemble seed labels and tucked them behind the bow. The next step was to stamp, colour  and cut out the butterfly. I added some sparkles along the butterfly's body and glued it to the label.

The last tasks were to print and hot foil the insert and make the box.

Personalised 60th Wedding Anniversary Card

The card posted here was commissioned by a friend for her in-laws wedding anniversary.

She wanted something a little special as it is a special wedding anniversary.

This what I came up with after a lot of thought and planning.

I made the background paper by typing up the details of their wedding,  ie. place, date, names,  town. name of church. I then printed off two sheets and hot foiled  both sheets using gold toner foil.

Using a sponge dauber and S.U s crumb cake ink I daubed the edges for that vintage look.

I used my all time favourite stamp set from S.U  Baroque Motif  to stamp the  second of my background papers, again I used the sponge dauber to soften and age the edges infact I used this technique on each and every layer including the edge of the punched lace.

I printed off the wedding photo in several sizes and placed the frame over each of them to see which fitted best and cut the photo to fit the frame.

The frame is a metal frame by Tim Holtz. I love these frames and want to put them on everything from my cards to the furniture but that might be a tad expensive and look ridiculous.

I punched some fern leaves and daubed them with olive ink around the edges added a paper rose and a couple of leaves.

Using the baroque Motif stamp set again I stamped some tissue paper with the crumb cake ink and placed it in the box  as a wrap.

The box was made to fit the card and decorated with the second sheet of foiled background paper again daubed with ink and I added red roses.



Margi 's card

Margi 's card was an experiment with hot foiling on dark cardstock which was slightly textured.

This was the result. As anyone who follows the stars will know, I am a bit late posting this, as Leo birthdays are in the summer.

I found some wonderful Zodiac clip art on the internet and used the "Leo the lion" for Margi's card.

I hope she liked it .

Toner foil/ domestic iron trial update

Well, said I would update you on the toner foil, laser print, and the domestic iron technique....... WELL, IT WORKS!!!!!! Much to my surprise I managed to get the temperature just right first attempt. My paper didn't suffer too much either.
This is definately a technique worth a trying if you have a laser printer and want to spend £6 on a roll of toner foil.
This technique is easy, you print off your design or your greeting using a laser printer or photocopier (that uses toner, not ink jet. ) place your foil over your design ( shiny side up, dull side touching your design )
Lay a sheet of paper or very thin card over the top and iron the top sheet of paper/card for a minute or so. Do not press down too firmly , it's the heat you need to get the foil to transfer, not lots of pressure. You will damaged your paper if you press too hard. If you are using a steam iron.... use it as a dry iron ... NO STEAM.
Allow the foil and paper to cool , just a few seconds should be enough, then gently remove the foil sheet. Providing you have got the temperature setting right you should end up with a beautifully foiled design .
You will probably have to play a round and do some tests to work out what the best temperature setting is on YOUR iron.
On mine it was around the medium heat mark.
One final word of advice choose your designs carefully. Try black and white clip art, make sure the edges/ lines in your designs are crisp and clear and they don't have too much shading . Remember the foil will stick to every toner line in your design if there is alot of shading you will lose your design. Practise on very small designs to start with so you don't waste too much foil.
Hope you find this helpful.

Sue s retirement card and envelope

Only two Stampin' up products in this one. The water colour vine stampin' round wheel used with the preety in pink ink cartridge.

I used Cuttlebug's swiss dots embossing folder and embossed two peices of white card for the third layer and another piece for the fifth layer.

I used a circle punch to snip off the corners. Quick tip here...... if you want to layer and cut the corners as I have here... Cut your card to the required sizes.Then match up the two layers in one corner only and punch both layers together. Match up the other corners one at a time

and snip them off in the same way. When you have snipped off all the corners you can then stick your top layer in the centre and all four of your corners should be even.

( Just remember not to turn either piece of your card round )

For my greeting I printed it off and then hot foiled it in pink toner foil.

You could stamp your greeting and emboss it for a similar effect if you don't have equipment for hot foiling.

Cheers to you Trinity

During my visit to the Newbury show this year I discovered Hot foiling using an extra hot laminator, a laser printer and toner foil. This got me really excited but I didn't have a laser printer. After days of research I bought a laser printer, just a cheap one and some toner foil and thought I would have a go with my laminator before buying the laminator I saw at the show. Much to my surprise and delight it worked.

You can guess how chuffed I was at not having to pay out £140.00 for a laminator. I have read that a domestic iron works for this technique. I haven't tried this, but I have the feeling it may buckle the paper. maybe I will try it next time I do the ironing. I 'll let you know the results.

For this card I used Stampin up stamp set Cheers to you , pretty in pink and bashful blue ink with an aqua painter brush to colour in the glasses.

Anyway I do hope Trinity doesn't visit my blog before her birthday or she will see her card.