Don't be fooled by the front of this card... it's all happening on the inside.

This is a card I designed about 10 years ago, but never completed. Earlier this week I came across the prototype and decided to give it another go. It took three attempts but that was because I kept getting  ink on my fingers and it transferred to the card. But I persevered and this was the final result.

 

I started out with a sheet of basic white card  cut to  5  7/8 th  x 8 1/4 inches for the back panel. 

The front panel was cut to  8 1/4  x 5 inches. 

I stamped the balloons on both panels and masked them off before doing the ink blending.  

There are three score lines on the front panel and one in the middle of the back panel. But I'll come back to that later.

Warning!!  Do NOT score before completing the blending. The ink collects on the score lines making them much darker and unsightly and any stamping over the score lines will be patchy.

I  used torn paper and a blending brush and an assortment of green inks along with so saffron ink for the fields and blueberry bushel for the sky. 

The stamp sets I used are retired S.U  sets called,  Lovely as a tree and Up up and away. I used my cloud stencil, which is basically cloud shapes cut into the edges of a page from a glossy mag and blended ink over the edge to form the clouds. 

The front panel (The bit that folds out) I stamped the first balloon as close to the top as possible and masked it off.  I cut in half diagonally across the long side but in a wavy/hilly way, cutting around the red balloon.  After blending in the fields and a little sky. You may notice in photos that the sky disappears  later... I decided I didn't need it, so cut some off, then decided to do the front panel again without the sky.                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                   

 

The small trees are the single leaf stamp in the Lovely as a tree set.  

I began stamping the trees.  

Stamp the rest of the balloons  on the back panel and masked off before blending the sky.

  

With a the fine end of a dark brown stamp and write marker, I drew in branches  and thickened the leaf stem to turn it in to a trunk. I scribbled some shrubbery around the base of the trees to ground them.  Then coloured the leaves with Copic markers, a light  green at the top and dark green at the bottom and not forgetting to add some green on the shrubs.

The last thing to stamp were the trees in the foreground. 

On the front panel, I  scored a half  an inch in from each end to wrap around the back of the back panel and I scored a third line in the middle.

Score the centre of the back panel in the centre.

Fold the score lines and adhere the front to the back, by wrapping and gluing the the half inch flaps around the back of the back panel.

 I cut a 6x 4 1/8 th inch base  card in white and blended some clouds on the front to match the inside. Punched out a balloon  in white and coloured it. Confession Time... I did actually stamp the balloon on the front and then smudged it, hence the punched balloon. It was slightly bigger than the stamped one, so it covered my mistake well. Once all the blending and stamping was done I adhered the inside into the base card with Tombow mono glue.

 Push the front flap into the card to fit in a standard 6x4 envelope.

Snow globe cards

Four snow globe cards today, although I haven't actually put snow in all of them. I bought the stamp set and die bundle along with the acrylic domes quite some time ago, but I have only ever made two cards with them. so I thought I'd play with them today.

 I am afraid these cards were really difficult to photograph, the acrylic domes reflect everything and obscure the image.

For the card above I sponged a piece of white card with Real red,  Sunset yellow and Pumpkin pie inks to  create the impression of a sunset.

 Using the Lovely as a tree stamp set I stamped the trees and darkened the foreground  by sponging some Chocolate chip ink under the trees. 

The snow globe stamp set is from Stampin' up and is called Still Scenes, there is a coordinating die set called Still scenes snow globe and of course there are acrylic domes to go with the sets.

 The stag die cut is one of the dies in the set. I stamped and coloured the bases on these globes using Copic markers.  There is a die in the set to cut out the base of the snow globe, but I chose to fussy cut the bases on these cards as I didn't want the white border the die leaves.

For the rest of the cards in this post, I used the little  house scene stamp in the set and coloured them with copics. 

I embossed the top layer of the card above. I think a more subtle embossing folder may  have worked better as the design in this folder is large, maybe too large for this snow globe scene.

I did add a pinch of  fake snow before sealing the domes.

On the card below I used the dies for the base instead of stamping it.

I decided to add water and glitter to this shaker card. 

There are several pitfalls making this type of card.

One being, Getting the water in the dome and sealed without spilling the water on the adhesive strip is quite tricky and one drop of water on the adhesive will prevent it from sealing. Once you have filled the dome with the  water  mix , place a piece of acetate over the top and carefully seal the dome. Add your coloured image to the back of the  sealed dome. 

It's now ready to position in the aperture of  your card.

Here's  a TIP  I will share to make it easier to fill the domes. Find something to hold the dome secure and level while you fill it with water.  Remove the protective strip from the adhesive while it is still secured. I found the lid of the square- ish  sandwich  filler is perfect for this.  Most supermarkets have a selection of sandwich fillers in  square tubs with lids that are perfect for holding the domes .

Mix the water and glycerine in a small jug with a good pouring spout.

 A small  funnel may help with the filling of the dome, so as not to spill drips on the adhesive.

 And Two being, the weight of the water  makes the card front very heavy, meaning it won't stand up. So here are a couple of tips to help combat that. 

 1.  Place the dome  either in the middle or near the bottom of the card.

 2.  Using  300gsm weight  or heavier card for the base card helps.

3. Adding an insert  of some sort also helps.

 For the inside of this card, I cut a piece of green card 1/2 an inch smaller than the card and a  second piece of card in white 1/4 smaller than the green panel. I stuck the white layer on top of the green panel.

Then stuck the panels inside the card. This gives the back of the card more weight  which balances it out.

Another tip is to add a little glycerine to the water and glitter mix. The glycerine makes the water a little thicker which slows down the sinking of the glitter.

Hope you have found this advice helpful.  Good luck if you try this one.

Simple Sponged Card

Here's a simple card that was created by tearing an aperture in a piece of scrap paper to create a mask. 
Secure the  mask on to a piece of water colour paper. 
Apply inks over the entire area the area starting on the scrap paper and working towards the centre.
Once the entire area is covered with ink, remove the mask and over stamp with black ink and a stamps of your choice.
I saw this  card somewhere on the internet and rather liked it so thought I would have a go at reproducing it. 

Christmas card four

A centre step card  featuring the Pine tree from the "Lovely as a Tree"  stamp set and some retired DSP.  I was reminded of a technique the other day that I haven't used for years , so I decided to use it on this card. 

I cut the oval from cream card, but before removing the card from the die,  I sponged some green  ink over the die onto the card.  When I removed the die, the die cut edge was clean creating a frame for my little tree. I added a few glitter baubles to finish. 

Snow Scene in Purple.

I got bored with blue and wanted to try another colour, so I chose my  favourite shades of purple for this one.  Apart from these colours being  my favourites another reason I chose them is because  I remembered  many years ago all the photo's I took out and about in the snow always had a strong purple hue about them, so it seemed a natural choice.

I used SU's classic ink pads in Concord Crush and Almost Amethyst  both of these  colours have been retired unfortunately. Hopefully one day they will being them out of retirement so I can top up my cardstock and ink refills in these colours.

As you can see I added a moon to this card for some variation.
I also stamped the trees in black rather than green..
The black I ink I used  is from SU again  and it's the CRAFT ink not the classic. 
The ink is a pigment based ink which is much slower to dry  but the black is so much more intense than standard  dye based ink pads.

The instructions for this card are exactly the same as in my previous tutorial apart from adding the moon.

So I will just add a  few instructions for the moon

As in the  tutorial below,  stamp over the white card stock with Versamark clear ink and allow it dry off a little. 
If you don't own a small splatter stamp, try using a versamark pen and drawing dots and small spots over the card stock before you begin inking.

Sponge over the sky area lightly with  light coloured ink. It doesn't matter if your sponging is a little patchy it adds to the effect.

Punch out a circle  from scrap card or heavy paper ( this will be your moon mask ) 
I  strongly recommend you use  a two way glue pen and apply a little  glue to the moon mask and allow it to dry thoroughly. This will prevent your moon mask from moving as you work,  so you should get a nice crisp outline on your finished  moon.

Position your moon mask in the area of the sky where you want your moon to be. 
Position your snow drift mask (see tutorial below this post) over the lower part of your moon mask and hold firmly in place.

Ink up your sponge in the same  light colour as you used for the sky and  begin applying the ink starting in the centre of your moon mask and working outwards and skywards, gently onto your cardstock  around the moon mask and along the snow drift mask.This will create your horizon.

 (DO NOT INK  around the bottom of the moon mask if you want your moon to be partly hidden by the snow drifts.) 

Keep applying ink in the same manner until the colour has built up enough around the edge of the masks to give you a well defined moon. and horizon. 
Carefully remove the moon mask and start sponging your snow drifts. 

Inked Snow Scene Tutorial

 These cards have been much admired so I thought I would share the technique with you so that you too can make this card.
 Except it won't be this card as no two cards come out the same.
Which makes everyone unique.

The tools and materials used are very basic.

2 shades of blue ink 
2 sponges or daubers.
1 dark green ink pad and matching marker if possible (just incase)

Versamark clear ink pad

A pine tree stamp and a splatter stamp

I have used the pine tree from the Stampin Up  " Lovely as a Tree" stamp set.

and the splatter stamp from the stampin up "Gorgeous Grunge" set.

4x4  Whisper white card stock,   (it's so smooth and easier to sponge on.)

Scrap paper cut  a long curvy line across it. 

Lastly a glue pen and some Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

Let us begin....

 Ink up the splatter stamp with clear versamark ink  and randomly stamp the the top half of your white card and allow the ink to dry.  ( about 10 mins)

You won't see very much  on the card at this stage as the ink is clear.

 Cut a curvy line across a sheet of scrap paper. I am using a mask I have used before so you can see it.

This is going to be your mask for  creating the drifts of snow and I will refer to this scrap paper as your mask from now on.

Lay your mask across your 4x4 card stock
about an inch and a half down from the top and sponge the sky starting on the mask and work  upwards onto your cardstock.

Never start sponging directly onto the card stock as the ink is too intense and you'll end up with big circles of ink you can't disguise.  

Keep applying the lighter blue ink  (I used Stampin up's Marina Mist) until the whole area has been covered.
You will now notice the versamark ink starting to show through the blue ink. 
The Versamark  creates a  ghosting effect  giving the  impression it's snowing.

Apply more ink at the edges of the card and long the wavy line of your mask than in the centre.

Once you have covered the entire area take your darker blue  ink  (I used stampin up's Night of Navy) and sponge a little over the edge of your mask and around the edges of your cardstock,  this will give a little more depth to your snow drifts. Be careful not to over do the darker blue. 

Tip.... Try not to get hard lines of colour the key to success on this is softness ... BUT  if you do get the odd hard line  of  darker blue blend it out by adding more of the light blue over the area.

Work down the cardstock by applying the light blue  starting  on the mask paper  and working upwards onto the cardstock leave  a narrow white strip at the top of each drift.



Blend in until you reach the bottom.
Move your mask around to vary the direction and slant of the drifts.

Stamping the Trees. 
All the trees on this image have been created with the same stamp.

You will need your mask again for this.


Before I continue I will share a little tip.
Something I discovered many moons ago.

If you look to the picture on the right you will see the tree doesn't meet up with the snow drift and  looks  odd.
That is because I lined the mask up exactly with the snow drift before I stamped the tree.
Yes,  I did that on purpose to show you what not to do. 

If this happens to you, it can be rectified by drawing in the lower tree trunk and branches with a marker pen in the same colour ink. So it's not the end of the world.

My tip to avoid this happening in the first place is to position your mask about  1 or 2 millimetres lower than your sponged  snow drift.  (see photo on left)
With a little practise you'll become an expert at judging just how much space to leave.

Now you know how to position your mask for stamping the trees.

Line up your mask with your snow drift leaving the tiny gap and make sure your mask is large enough to cover the lower part of your work.

Ink up your tree stamp and  stamp your tree over the mask and onto your cardstock.   
As the mask is covering most of your work only the top of the tree will be stamped onto your card, creating what appears to be a small tree.
Move your mask down to the the next snowdrift  where you want your next tree to be and  repeat the process.  Make one tree in the foreground a complete or almost complete tree.




Ideally you want to have an odd number of trees. Odd numbers always look better.

When you have stamped all your trees  use a glue pen and add tiny dots of glue randomly over the trees and add  Dazzling Diamond glitter.

Finally ......
It has taken me three hours to do this tutorial, which is two hours and  forty five minutes longer than it took to make the card.
I have to say,   this all looks quite involved and time consuming  but it's not. I could have made a dozen of these in the time it's taken me to write this up. LOL

Round Easel Card Tutorial

Tonights post is a very long one and it's a  step by step tutorial on making this round easel card. It's one I have been meaning to do for a very long time,  but knew it was going to take me ages to do, so I have been putting it off.

Step 1
Fold a sheet of card in half and place it over a large circle die.  So that the folded edge is only partly cut, lay the card on the die and leave a little of the die exposed. This will create the hinge of the card.(see photo on left)
Run it through your die cutting machine.
The folded edge should NOT be cut completely. See photo below

Step two
Cut another complete circle in the same size and colour card.  (this will be the front of your card.)

On one half of your hinged circles, score a line about half across  the circle making sure it is straight and fold in half towards the center of the card.

Step three



Your base card should now look like the photo below.

Step four


Add adhesive to the outer edge of the folded circle.

Step five

Take your full single circle and place it over the glued section lining up the edges of the circles perfectly.

 Your base card is now ready for decorating.

 Step six.

option one
Cut two white circles one die  size smaller than the base card. 

or

Option two 

Cut, two  white lace doilies and one smaller white circle two die sizes smaller than you base card.

 Step seven
Ink up a  small tree stamp  in a light blue ink. ( I used stampin' up's Bashful blue) near the top of your circle.
 Make sure you leave room above for a  second row of trees.
Using the same ink and stamp  ink up the stamp and lightly stamp the image onto scrap paper then stamp the image again (without re inking)  above and between the first line of trees you stamped. Repeat this process until you have a pleasing arrangement of  trees.

The stamping off of the excess ink before stamping the second row of trees will make them look further away, increasing the depth of your card.

Step Eight .

Ink up a larger tree  or group of trees
(I used the line of tree s stamp from  stampin' up's set Lovely as a tree) with the same ink and stamp the image either side of the circle leaving a gap in the centre  for your focal point .

 Step nine

Take a sponge dauber and ink it up lightly with the same blue ink. Dab off a little of the ink onto scrap paper, then using the edge of the dauber begin making streaks starting at the sides and bringing the streaks in towards the centre and under the larger trees. 
Then draw soft streaks below the smaller trees. This will create the impression of snowy  land and anchor the trees to that ground.
( have a little practise on scrap paper if you have never done this before.)

You can now stamp your focal point.

 Step ten

Using a darker ink ( I have used Stampin' up's Night of Navy) 
The pine tree stamp is from the "Lovely as a tree" stamp set from S.U. 
Stamp the tree in the foreground.







 Step Eleven

Very Important!!!  you card has been handled a lot and has collected oils from your hands and moisture from the inks, so if you apply embossing powder now it is going to stick in places you really don't want it to stick.So the next step is crucial.

Once the inks are dry wipe over the card with an embossing buddy/ anti static pad.  If you don't have one DON'T DESPAIR, you can make one from several layers an old pair of thick tights and some talcum powder. But that's another tutorial.
Another option is to just sprinkle a little talc over the card and  brush or wipe off with a clean cloth or tissue. This method is a little more messy.

Step 12
Ink up a smallish snowflake stamp with Versamark ink and randomly stamp the snow flakes over the trees. 
You won't be able to see where you have stamped very well with this ink as it's clear, so have a good light available and you should be able to see the sheen. 


When you have stamped enough  snowflakes cover them with  a  fine silver embossing powder,  tip the excess back into the pot. 
Then gentle  tap off the excess powder from your work and heat until the embossing powder begins to melt. Don't over heat, once it is shiny move your heat tool to another area of the card.
Over heated embossing powder is not a good look.

 This is the front panel of the card finished.

Now you will need to create the bottom panel.

For option one

just recreate the top part of the front panel on the lower half of the bottom panel.  ( see above photo)
Then adhere this panel to the bottom circle of the base card.


 For option two

Adhere the doilies to the  front  and the base panels. Then adhere the stamped circle into the center of the doily on the front of the card.

So now you need something to stop the card collapsing  when it's being displayed.
This can be done by cutting two strips of card  the same length as the width of your card and layering them. 
Stamping a sentiment on the top layer.

This this then stuck across the middle of the base panel using sticky foam pads  to give it a little height  which will act as the stopper when the card is on display.

My final words on this card are  why not mix and match the options. I am thinking  I may like  one doily on the front and the tree scene on the base. That's  a project for another day as it's time to say goodnight.

Lovely as a tree sunset framed.

This a project I have been meaning to do for months and this afternoon I finally got round to actually doing it. It's a gift  for somebody I know who's birthday is coming up very soon.
I must remember to tell her not to position it in direct sunlight or it will fade quite quickly.
I do hope she likes it.
I created this by sponging on rather a lot of ink  then stamping over the sponging using the lovely as a tree stamp set in black craft ink. (both available from stampin' up)
the inks I used were  called daffodil delight, Pumpkin pie, real red and Cherry cobbler.

Inked Sunset Scene

Last week I had the urge to try something a little different and here it is.
I thought it may be nice to create something I could put on the wall rather in a drawer or box somewhere buried for eternity.


The  background was sponged using a variety of SU ink s in red  orange and  yellow then over stamped using the "lovely as a tree" stamp set and SU's  black craft ink. I then used a little craft ink on a sponge dauber to add the bushes under the trees and to black out the land.

I have yet to find a frame to fit this creation. This maybe a little more difficult than I first thought as I didn't think about frame sizes when cutting my mount board. 
I will have to remember to hang this in place out of direct sunlight or it won't be long before the sun fades it.