Enjoy the Season

Finally, I started on some Christmas cards! Which is unusual in itself because I pretty much send only Christmas photo cards...just have to make one, then print out multiple copies. Again, reminds me that we haven't even taken our family photo for this year yet. But I thought I should make something because I actually won the Hero Arts prize from Kristina Werner's blog! I couldn't believe that, that was totally shocking. I randomly enter things like that here and there, but I don't really expect to win anything. So here's a card using the snowflake set, "Enjoy the Season." It is just PTI cardstock in Aqua Mist and Hibiscus Burst. (I should have used the Hero Arts cards that I also received, but I thought if I messed up, at least I have relatively more sheets of cardstock than wasting the real cards). I was mostly playing around with embossing powders, which got a little messy. I don't know how people keep their powder from sticking to the cardstock. It came with instructions to dust cornstarch over the paper prior to using the powder, but maybe I didn't use enough. I was being a little stingy with the baby powder since I have a cute little mini bottle which I don't think is refillable. Whatever the case, the sentiment is in a distressed type font so most of those extra specks of white are actually supposed to be there, I realized afterward. Not so much for another sentiment I tried to emboss in black, but that's another story for another day.

The snowflakes were stamped in Versamark ink, then I used Ranger embossing powder in Holographic. It's hard to get a photo of it, but it's kind of a cool effect. It's glittery and when you angle it in the light a certain way, it does indeed look shiny and holographic! So of course I didn't want to cover up my cool snowflakes too much (not, actually I didn't know what else to put on the card). But I figured a sentiment might be nice, and then remembering Eva's cute pink gingerbread matchbook, I picked pink. The die cut is from a Sizzix Sizzlit set that I got from Michael's on Thanksgiving Day. Yes, Michael's was open for about 4 hours in the evening and I was crazy enough to go shopping with my 30% off (mostly) everything coupon. Plus who am I to pass up an opportunity to go shopping without the kids! When I got to the Sizzix section, there were signs that said 40% off, so I'm thinking wow, plus an extra 30% off. But then when I got home, I realized they only gave me the 30% off. So on Friday, I thought I might as well return it and possibly use my 50% off coupon. But then I thought maybe I should ask if the Sizzix's were supposed to be on sale the day prior. Which the cashier didn't know so the manager or whoever that was actually there on Thursday had to come over and said the signs were mistakenly up...but they actually gave me both discounts! Maybe I should have bought more stuff then! Although I think they gave me the discount because I only bought that one Sizzix. I'm so bad, I'm a crazy shopaholic!

Anyhow, I'm going to try and make another card (while the hubby is home and at least one kid is napping). Bye!

Easter Blessings

Hi!  A little shout out from PTI (for my cards HERE) always makes my day!  I'm back with another card for PTI's Make It Monday #11 Embossing with dies.  I had actually thought of this idea first before my little 3x3 cards but somehow couldn't get it together until tonight.  I had a hard time with colors and then the layout and it just took me some time.  I don't know if I'm completely happy but I do love what I created with the dies.

I made a little Easter basket with dies!  The bottom portion of the basket was made with PTI's Mat Stack die 1.  I cut it out with fine linen cardstock and then trimmed it down to the size basket I wanted.  Then I took the rick rack die and embossed it to look like a woven basket.  Maybe you need to stretch your imagination a bit to see it.  Then I took some circle nestabilites to make a handle which I also embossed with the rick rack die but just sort of randomly for the woven look.  I also inked up the edges a bit.  I made the thin orange rick rack from felt but instead of cutting the whole width I just placed the felt lower to cut it thinly.  And I used removeable scotch tape to keep the dies from shifting when I cut.

I used the Easter egg from the Tag-its set and masked a whole bunch of the eggs together.  I layered the basket over the whole mat stack 1 die cut and over mat stack 5 as well.  I think if I had gotten my most recent order with the hibiscus burst felt I would have used that color instead of orange zest but I'm still waiting.

Thanks for reading and hope you're having a great weekend!  We'll be heading to Old Navy for what sounds like a great sale.  Hope it's not too crowded.

Gift Cards

Hi!  Here is my last post for PTI's Make It Monday Challenge to partially emboss/deboss.  My other entries can be found HERE, HERE & HERE.

I made a frame from fun foam.  This one used three 2 mm thick fun foam layers cut to 3x3 inch squares.  That was the size of the gifts cards I wanted to make.  I posted about using frames to partially emboss HERE.

I had some leftover Stampin' Up 3x3 cards so I used the colored ones as the base and used the cream ones to emboss and stamp on.

Here's a close up.  My stamping is a bit off.  But I think it's still cute.  I used PTI's Book Print impression plate.  I can't believe how many projects I made just with that one impression plate.  I just ordered the numbers one so I can't wait to get that one.  I have a lot more I want to order too.  The flowers are from PTI's Beautiful Blooms 2 dies and stamp set.  I used the medium sized flower die set for these cards.  The sentiments are from Tag-its #1.  They are the perfect size to fit in the center.

I made a set in blue too.

A closer view of the blue one.

I stamped some envelopes too.  The To/From is from Fillable Frames #9.  I used the little heart one from Tag-its #1 as a postage stamp.  At the top you can see the little box that all these cards/envelopes fit into.

This is a template called Almost Square Bag from Little Potato House.  It is the cutest box and one of my favorite templates that Sunghee has created.  I just printed it and cut it out.  Placed a simple label on front and done.

What I love about this box too is that you don't have to worry about using adhesive or anything to close it.  There are 2 small little tabs that tuck into the sides.  So smart!  So you can open and close it as many times as you want to.

Well, I think I've exhausted most of my ideas for this challenge.  I had one other but it's going on the back burner for now.  This challenge really did open up so many possibilities and variations for embossing/debossing.  

Thanks for reading!

Yay for Fun Foam!

Hi!  I've been a bit obsessive lately with PTI's Make It Monday Challenge to partially emboss/deboss.  I've made a bunch more stuff but will split them into separate posts just so it'll be easier to read.

My first project was posted here and actually got a shout out on PTI's sidebar!  That was fun and actually made all the work and attempts worth it.  But since then I've been thinking of ways to make it easier to come up with the same results.  I'm a little weary of placing a metal die on top of an impression plate to emboss.  I tried it very gently and it left slight scratches on the back side of my die and I'm afraid it would smash down my impression plate so I'll take the more conservative route.

I like the idea of creating a frame as found in this Splitcoast Stampers tutorial on double embossing.  For my first card I must have cut up 2 cereal boxes and some corrugated cardboard too.  But that was tough!  But because I'm a messy kind of crafter I still have lots of stuff from previous projects lying around and I saw my fun foam.  And I had this idea to use fun foam for my frame!  It's a lot easier to cut and a lot easier to roll through my Big Shot.  It's not perfect but passable and I had to still keep a layer of cardboard.

I started off with all my materials to reduplicate my first card.  I cut 3 pieces of fun foam to the size I needed. 

I taped the 3 layers of fun foam together and placed my die over it and also taped it with removeable tape.  I only had the 2 mm thick fun foam at this point (also tried it with the 6 mm thick fun foam).

Run it through and it cuts very easily.  And you get fun shapes to play with too.  I'll probably give those to my kids to craft with.

This is just to show how I layered it after moving both tabs up.  Clear plate, tan mat (which is the Spellbinders mat), impression plate that you want facing up, cardstock and the frame.  Clear plate over that.

This is how I actually run it through.  You can hold tape the frame to your cardstock and tape that onto the impression plate with removeable tape.  I also hold it up to the light so I can see that I have the cardstock straight on the impression plate.

This is how it comes out.  You can't see the Mat Stack embossing very well.  It's slight.  And there are some slight impression markings too which made me think a combo of foam and a layer of cardboard would help.

So I tape my die cutting side facing the front of the cardstock and run it through to emboss.  You can hold the cardstock and die up to the light to make sure it is lined up correctly.  Sandwich to emboss would be clear plate, die cutting side up, cardstock, tan mat and clear plate.  And I emboss with the first tab up.

Ta-da!  It takes some playing around to find the right thickness frame but once you make it you can reuse it to make more projects.  In any case, I hope this was helpful.

Thanks for reading!