Faux Silk Paper Crafting Technique

My first attempt at creating " faux silk ".

Supplies from Stampin' Up!: 

Cool Caribbean and Whisper White card stock

Cool Caribbean ink

Snowflake Spot stamp set

Sincere Salutations stamp set

Scallop edge punch

Rhinestone brad

Miscellaneous:

White tissue paper

clear drying white glue

Large Circle Punch  EK Success

Large Scalloped Circle Punch  EK Success
Martha Stewart snowflake punch

This technique and sketch were found in a recent issue of Stampin' Success, the monthly magazine for Stampin' Up! demonstrators. You can find detailed instructions for the faux silk technique online.

Basic instructions: 

Crumple up a piece of white tissue paper that is larger than the piece of card stock you wish to cover. 

Carefully uncrumple and slightly flatten it out, you still want it to be wrinkled though.

Stamp with desired images.

Brush a light coat of clear drying glue onto the card stock piece. 

Smoosh the wrinkled tissue paper onto the glue, set aside to dry.

Once dry, trim and mount to card.

OR

Follow the same steps, but mount the wrinkled tissue paper to the card stock first, allow to dry then stamp. 

Thanks for looking =)

Origami Heart Folded Money - Gift Basket

I try to make something fun and useful for packaging/presentation as part of the usual gift card present the nephews receive from me every year. This past Christmas I thought I'd make a little fruit basket for them and stick in some heart shaped $5 bills on pencils. Probably not the best idea since the money could have easily been misplaced amongst the gift wrap mess. I did include an envelope to stick the hearts in so they wouldn't be lost.

This was my first time folding origami hearts. It took a couple of attempts until I got it just right. By the time I was finished, I was a "pro" and could easily remember how to do it ( I don't remember now though!).

The buckets I found on clearance for $1.25 each. I made name tags to insert in the front opening, hoping they would reuse them for something in their rooms.

I cut a piece of styrofoam from old packaging to fit in the base of the bucket.

I inserted fruit, treats, a coupon for a video game rental and the hearts taped to pencils that were stuck into the foam.

There are numerous web sites with instructions. I chose this one:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5277737_fold-origami-dollar-heart.html

Thanks for looking =)

Simple Valentine's Card + Thrifty Crafty Tips

Super simple card using items from Stampin' Up!

Whisper White card stock

Real Red card stock

Whisper White craft ink

(or white acrylic craft paint)

French writing background stamp

Texturz Plate Perfect Details

Big Shot

Large Heart punch

Stylus and Fiskars paper cutter

Home made shimmer spray

Dimensionals

The card is a 4.25" x 4.25" square

Punch a heart out of Real Red card stock. Stamp with Whisper White craft ink (or white acrylic craft paint will work).  TIP: Use a piece of decorative paper instead.

Run a small square of Whisper White card stock through the Big Shot with a Texturz plate.

Lightly spray with shimmer spray, let dry.

Score the dry embossed lines on the card front.

Adhere heart to small textured, shimmery card stock piece.

 Use dimensionals to mount in center of card.

Home Made Shimmer Spray

I used Lumiere paint, rubbing alcohol and distilled water to create my shimmer spray; it was a "recipe" I found several years ago. Do an online search and you will find many different "recipes" for shimmer spray / glimmer mist. One of the easiest is to use alcohol and a small glob of shimmer paint from Stampin' Up!, mix well and spray away ! 

You can use any of the colors of Pearl Ex / mica powders that were so popular with paper crafters years ago to create colored shimmer sprays. I have also read classic dye ink refills from Stampin' Up! mixed in with alcohol and shimmer paint create colored sprays. I have not tried this "recipe"  - yet

Dry Embossed Lines "Template"

 

I made a template to use for creating the raised lines around the focal point on the card. This is a great tip for those that do not have a scoring board.

I use chipboard or plastic sheets to create my templates. I measure out the size I want for the card front, for example 4.25" x 5.5" and trim the template material to that size. I then carefully measure along each of the sides and mark where I would like my dry embossed edge to be, for example 1/2" in from the edge. Once I have the lines drawn on my template, I use a 1/16" punch to punch a hole where the lines meet in each corner. The four holes I've punched create my guide.

To use the template, lay the card front face side down then lay the template on the back side of the card front. Be sure to line up the edges of the card with the edges of the template. Lightly mark through the holes with a pencil. Now lay the card front face down on the paper trimmer, carefully lining up the dots with the groove where the paper would be cut. Run the stylus along this groove starting and stopping at each of the marks. It is a bit tricky, but works.

You could also use a straight edge, stylus and magazine to dry emboss straight lines. Lay the card front face down on a magazine with a piece of scrap paper in between the card and the magazine. This scrap piece will keep ink from transferring to your card. The magazine is just soft enough of a surface for the card stock to "give" under the pressure of the stylus, creating the raised dry embossed lines. Line the straight edge up on the marks, hold firmly in place as you run the stylus along the edge. Start and stop at each mark, turning the card after each line is made. This technique can be a bit tricky as well, but it does work. 

Use this technique to make all sorts of templates for dry embossing straight lines and designs on your card fronts.

One of the new scoring boards would be much easier and faster to score straight lines, but I wanted to share how I am able to do it without one. One less tool to find storage for and money saved ! 

Thanks for looking =) 

Wire Heart Art

Pop Up Valentine's Card

Instructions to make a pop up card were found in the book

Cards That Pop Up, Flip and Slide

by Michael Jacobs

He called this type of card a "simple v card"

Basically you make the pop up part by marking 1 1/2" from the top down

along the fold as well as 1 1/2" across the top on each side of the fold.

Use these marks to score between at an angle to make 

the pop up portion when you fold along the scores.

Once you make the pop up portion, you will need to fiddle with the element

you want to pop up a bit before gluing in place to make sure it folds down into the card properly.

I made another card to cover the first, slightly larger,

to hide the "cut off" looking corner made by folding in the pop up.

The pop up portion measured 4"  x  5 1/4" when folded.

The cover card measured  4 1/4"  x  5 1/2" when completed.

Here are a few photos to help show how it works:

inside

close up of the inside -

obviously you wouldn't have markings on your card,

I only did this to help show the score lines

outside of pop up card

Thanks for looking =) 

Valentine's From Friends

Trifold Punched Hearts Card

This card was quite a bit of work, but I love how it turned out !


All items used on the sample above were from Stampin' Up!
 Riding Hood Red card stock and ink
 Very Vanilla card stock and craft ink
 several background stamps
 heart shaped punches



I started off with a basic trifold card. The base started at 12" long by 5 1/2" tall. I scored it at 4" and 8" so it would become a 4"  x  5 1/2" card when folded.

I punched dozens of hearts then stamped them (use decorative papers for a quicker project).

Starting on one side, I laid the hearts out in a diagonal line from near the lower left corner up to the top right corner. I found it easier to start with the larger hearts then add on the medium the nsmallest hearts, randomly placed and trying not to put two of the same on top of each other. Glue them in place.

Carefully trim away the excess vanilla trifold card base around the tops of the hearts. OR trim off a diagonal piece from along the top of the card before starting then adhere the hearts along the cut edge.

Flip the card over then lay out another row of punched hearts lining them up with the hearts on the opposite side; glue in place.

This is a fun, wow project that can be done with any sort of punched, die cut or stamped shapes.



The samples below use decorative papers

Front side with all hearts already adhered. I start with the largest then build them up

opposite side, unfinished

You could leave this side unfinished, but when folded the middle portion shows so you will want to at least cover up the hearts in that part so that it looks nice when folded.

Opposite side showing the starting process of matching up hearts. It is not really necessary to do the entire length if you don't want to, do the middle section at least so that when the card is folded you don't see backsides of the hearts as seen below.

Finished with the entire length of both sides of the card covered with hearts, 

folded then wrapped with light pink organdy ribbon. 

Thanks for looking !

Various Valentines

A few Valentine cards I've made in the past

I Won !

I'm pretty excited, after entering so many contests over the years, I finally won something: 

 this FANTASTIC new stamp brush set from Stampin' Up!

I won it for posting why I love My Digital Studio to my blog - new content available on a regular basis ! There were 5 winners chosen randomly, lucky me I was one, yippee !!!!

This set is going to be so much fun: each image is as shown above BUT they are also broken up into portions as well so it will be super easy to make multi colored images, use only portions of the image alone or combined with different images. This is going to be a fun digital set to play with , THANK YOU STAMPIN' UP!

You can now purchase this set for $7.95US/$9.95CAN  item # 124432

Here is the description from the company:

An image is worth a thousand words—but these words have quite a bit to say themselves. With some
font-tastic emphasis and a few images mixed in, they’ll express your feelings in a big way with
maximum meaning on scrapbook pages, cards, tags, and more.  Set includes 24 pieces and a 5-1/2" x
4-1/4" greeting card designer template. Imagery from the Word Play stamp set from the 2010-2011
Idea Book & Catalog.

Wii-mote Money Holder Card

I recently created a card from card stock, stamps and punches to resemble a Wii remote. It turned out okay, but I didn't take a photo of it before giving it away.

 I had a thought

 "Why not make a digital version that I can keep on hand ? "

It was designed on an 8.5 x 11 scrapbook page.

I used numerous digital punches, drop shadows and text boxes.

 Fold into thirds, trim, add a ribbon for the wrist strap and

if you have a clear plastic "bubble" to fit, add one to the A button.

I didn't have one; perhaps I could have tried to use Crystal Effects........

It fits in a business size envelope.

Be sure to see my "XBox" video game controller card

made from cardstock and punches.

FINALLY - Stampin' Up! has released a really nice, full color .pdf file of all available downloads plus what is included on the initial disc for My Digital Studio. It will be updated monthly. You can find it at www.mydigitalstudio.net on the Resources tab at the top of the home page.

Thanks for looking !

My Digital Studio - Bowling Pins and Ball

Instructions on how I made my digital bowling scrapbook pages with My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up!

To create the planks:
I started with a 12 x 12 background. I added the square punch then stretched it out to create the plank shape, filled with Kraft (reduced the opacity a bit). I added a Soft Suede drop shadow, reduced opacity, and centered on the image. I copied and pasted it a dozen or so times. I really like a look I was getting with this while playing around, it reminded me of beadboard - I have another project in mind now.








The bowling ball is the easiest:
Circle punch, adjust to the size you want and fill with black, add a drop shadow. Add three circle punches, but make them really tiny. Fill with black and add a Going Gray drop shadow before resizing. They are difficult to grab and move when this tiny, the easiest way is to use the arrow keys on the keyboard.








The bowling pins took quite a while to figure out what punches to use; this was the best I was able to come up with:

Oval punch, two heart punches, a circle punch all of them white for the pin then two more ovals for the stripe, one red and one white. Each punch will need to be adjusted in size to get the look you want. Drop shadow on the circle and base oval only. You will need to fiddle with the shadows a bit.



To get the flat bottom, I simply went off the page with the pin a bit rather than try to cover it up with another punch. Normally I would have tried to "erase" the part I didn't want with a punch made of the same background color, but it wouldn't work on this project since the background was already a reduced opacity color. To make the punch "eraser piece" it would need to be reduced in opacity to match the background, so it would become invisible. However by doing this, the pin would still show through. Hang the pins off the edge of the page, problem easily solved !



To make multiple pins, be sure to group all of the pieces together on your completed pin then copy and paste as many times as you'd like. NOTE: They can not be rotated. You will need to build each pin seperately at the desired angle if you want them to look knocked over. At least I didn't see a way to do it easily.

I entered these pages in a soshelli.com contest: they did not win.



Thanks for looking =)