Bird House Stepper Card

This week, Simon Says Stamp and Show... House Rules! Well the talented design team covered all my ideas and I do like to be a bit different (what do you mean you hadn't noticed? :-), so here's a Bird House. If you've never made this type of stepper card before, it's very easy and there's a tutorial with all the measurements.

"Bird House"

The colour scheme of blue, brown, grey makes a great Winter-themed card for any occasion. I'll be giving this one as a "new home" card. The background is patterned paper overstamped with various bird-themed stamps using sepia archival ink. I love the clear definition that archival ink gives when stamping. The birdhouse foamboard diecut is embossed in a folder and covered with layers of distress ink, starting with picket fence to lighten the colour, and including some purple to give it depth. The roof and base of the birdhouse are cut separately and coloured using Adirondack alcohol inks dabbed on with a felt applicator tool. A silver pen is used to highlight all the card edges.

The sentiment is stamped in sepia archival ink straight onto patterned paper, then heat-embossed in clear before matting onto some grey card to match the base card. It reads:

"Be like the bird that, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she has wings"  Victor Marie Hugo
 

"Bird in Branch"

The other diecuts are from patterned paper, and the dies are used as stencils to add inky details with a sponge and distress inks.

"Bird House Card"

Ingredients:

Sizzix Bigz Birdhouse die

Sizzix Tim Holtz embossing folder: Wood

Marianne dies: bird on a branch (small), bird on a branch (large), tiny birdhouse

Crafty Individuals stamp sets: CI-287, CI-234

Distress Ink Pads & Stains

Archival ink pad: Sepia

Adirondack inks & applicator tool

cardstock: grey 300gsm, white 200gsm, foamboard

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show - House Rules

Box of Christmas Gift Tags

I made this present for my friend Lee aka craftyloops who "doesn't do cards" :-) . She loves to go to town on the wrapping, so I thought some gift tags might come in handy.

"Box of Gift Tags"

If you're stuck for inspiration with your cards, a tag can be a great place to start. The smaller area can be much easier to fill and you can let your imagination go. All you need to remember is to add a little hole at the top with a length of string. The box and dividers are made from sturdy brown card. The acetate "lid" sits inside the box, and the ribbon holds everything closed.

"Bauble Tag 1"

This first tag is stamped with versamark and heat-embossed in white before colouring with gold aquamarker and Barn Door & Pine Needles distress markers. After colouring, quickly wipe the surface with a baby wipe. This removes ink from the embossing and mutes the colours making them more vintage in appearance. It also gives a slight colour to the background so the cardstock isn't as white. The tags are diecut before punching the hole and adding gold thread.

"Bauble Tag 2"

The other bauble tag is made in a similar way, but the embossing is in gold on a brown cardstock. Gold aquamarker is used around the edge of each tag.

"Snowman Tag"

I think the snowman tag is my favourite. The background is stamped with snowflakes from the Justrite Holiday Sentiments set using versamark, then heat-embossed in clear before inking. The diecut snowman is raised on foam tape. I make the tags with different patterns on the snowman's scarf so some have stripes and some have spots. Some tiny black gems make the coal "buttons" and a fine marker pen is used to add the face.

"Snowflake Bauble Tag"

Two different snowflakes and a circle are diecut from glitter card. The round tag is diecut from white card heat-embossed with clear snowflakes, then inked to match the glitter card. I make some with red inking & red glitter card, some with green inking & green glitter card, and some in gold like this one.

"Tree Tag"

Some more of the snowflake card is diecut into small Christmas trees and inked. A second batch of trees are cut from green glitter card. Thin green tinsel is wrapped around the inked diecut, then the inked diecut is stuck onto a glitter card diecut using foam tape and glossy accents, so that the tinsel is sandwiched between two layers of card and the back of the tag is left plain for writing on.

Ingredients:

Justrite stamp set: Merry and Bright, Large Fancy Holiday Sentiments

Spellbinders: Holiday Ornaments 2010, Frosty Forms, Labels 20, Create-A-Flake Four, Snowflake Pendant 2012, Holiday Tree

Sizzix Framelits: Circles

Sizzix Bigz Tim Holtz Tiny Tabs & Tags

Distress Markers: Barn Door, Pine Needles

Aquamarker: Gold

Promarker: Berry Red

Letraset Fine Marker: Black 0.1mm

Versamark ink pad

Distress Ink Pads: Peacock Feathers, Barn Door, Pine Needles

embossing powders: white, gold, clear

cardstock: white 300gsm, brown 300gsm, glitter card gold, glitter card red, glitter card green

gold thread

Holiday Tinsel Ribbon

tiny black gems

foam tape

adhesives: Pinflair, glossy accents, PVA

Entered for the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Try it On Tuesday - Christmas Sparkle

Melt Art Heart

This week, Simon Says Stamp and Show...a project with heart, so what better excuse for a luuurrrve card :-)

"Melt Art Heart Card"

The background is sponged with pink and red distress inks, dried, then overstamped using a heart stamp and brushed with perfect pearls to get that gold shimmer on the hearts. The decorated card is layered onto gold card for a frame before adhering to the card base.

"Melt Art Heart"

To make the heart, rub versamark over the inside of a heart-shaped cookie cutter and one end of a cocktail stick. Melt some UTEE in a melt pot and pour the cookie cutter on a non-stick mat. Place the cocktail stick on end into the UTEE before it has set, and leave for a few minutes until completely set before removing from the mat. The ink stops the UTEE sticking to the cookie cutter & the cocktail stick. Removing the cocktail stick will leave a hole for mounting the heart.

Carefully melt the top of the heart using a heat tool, sprinkle with gold embossing powder and heat until a gold colour is achieved. After cooling, stamp "LOVE" in black archival ink and mount the heart on a short chain passed through an eyelet set into the card.

"Cupid"

Some red mirror card is dry-embossed with a script embossing folder which is first swiped with a versamark ink pad. After passing through the machine, the script pattern is sprinkled with gold embossing powder and heat-embossed. The cupid is diecut from the prepared card together with an arrow and the diecuts are mounted on the card base using Pinflair for extra dimension. For a final touch, some small beaded self-adhesive heart embellishments were scattered over the background and a length of red velvet ricrac was glued along the bottom of the card to give cupid a base to run along.

I hope my friends in England are surviving the floods this week. We've had plenty of rain in Northern Ireland too but I guess we should be used to it!

Ingredients:

cardstock: white 300gsm & 200gsm, red mirror, gold 200gsm

embossing powders: UTEE clear, detail gold

Versamark ink pad

Archival ink pad, Jet Black

Distress Inks

Perfect Pearls, antique gold

script embossing folder

Sizzix Bigz Tim Holtz Love Struck

small beaded heart embellishments

red velvet ricrac

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show - A Project With Heart

Peacock Christmas

The justrite inspiration challenge this week is "Proud as a Peacock" and they want us to use peacock colours. Boy did I enjoy this :-). You might not realise at first glance, but every stamp on the project is by Justrite.

"Peacock Christmas"

This card has a standard book card construction. If you've never made one before, you might like to check out my tutorial. This one was made square for a change.

"Left hand inside panel"

It's a little hard to see the sentiment panel with all the reflection from the pearlised card, but the background shows up well in this photo. I took all the little snowflake stamps from the "Large Fancy Holiday Sentiments" clear stamp set and arranged them on a small acrylic block, then used it to stamp clear versamark all over a sheet of A4 white card and heat-embossed in clear. These little stamps are really detailed and stamp well, making a fab resist background. Then I sponged with Seedless Preserves, Peacock Feathers and Faded Jeans distress inks to get the Peacock coloured background. You get some fabulous purples when the colours blend together. Finally, the card is overstamped with the snowflakes using the same distress inks to add depth. A couple of snowflakes are diecut from white,pearlised card and added to the background.

"Sentiment Panel"

The next step is to stamp the panels from the "Thank You Labels Twenty" set onto white pearlised card and again heat-emboss in clear. Diecut and use the same distress inks to colour the panels while they are still in the dies, leaving a crisp white frame. Stamp the "Let it Snow" sentiment onto scrap white, pearlised card and heat-emboss in clear. Diecut using a frame and insert from a Fancy Tag die. Again, leave the pieces in the die to sponge the inks on. These pieces are layered with foam tape for extra dimension, and positioned in the centre of the panel so they fit into the aperture of the opposite panel, enabling the card to close properly.

"Snowflake aperture"

I really enjoyed making the centrepiece for this card. The 3-d snowflake is layered up from pearlised card, with the lowermost one having the centre inked whilst in the die and the layers separated with Pinflair dimensional glue. Extra snowflakes are added around the edges by slipping into the "book pages" and sticking with a little glossy accents. I've had the big teal gem in my stash for a while, and this was the perfect use for it, together with some smaller ones sprinkled about and in the background of the left hand side to tie the two panels together.

"Front cover"

The same stamps were used to make the background and sentiment panels for the front cover, this time embossing in silver on a black background to leave no hint of the inside colour, which hopefully will give the recipient a big "wow" factor when they open the card.

"Book Card"

Ingredients:

Justrite stamp sets: Large Fancy Holiday Sentiments, Thank you Labels Twenty

Spellbinders Die Sets: Labels 20, Create-a-Flake Four, Snowflake Pendant 2012, Fancy Framed Tags One, Fancy Framed Tags Two

Distress Inks: Peacock Feathers, Seedless Preserves, Faded Jeans

Versamark ink pad

Stampendous embossing pwder: clear detail, silver

teal ribbon

cardstock: black 300gsm, white 200gsm, pearlised white 300gsm

adhesives: PVA, Pinflair dimensional, Glossy Accents

coloured gems

Entered for the following challenge:
Justrite Inspiration Friday Challenge - #086 Proud as a Peacock

Thank You

Thank you to all you wonderful people who leave such lovely comments on my blog. You are very kind.

"Thank You"

Today's card is a triple stepper card with sidepanels. The old jalopy and gears are diecut from foamboard using Sizzix Bigz dies. This gives really thick diecuts with loads of dimension. The gold colouring is added by dabbing with gold mixative alcohol ink.

Ingredients:

Sizzix Bigz Tim Holtz dies: Old Jalopy, Gadget Gears

foamboard

Adirondack alcohol ink: gold mixative

Marianne butterfly dies

Kanban Industriana paper pad

cardstock: grey 300gsm, black pearlised

adhesives: PVA, Pinflair, glossy accents

silver thread

washers

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Thank You

A Dove Book Card for Christmas

This is my favourite card from the last couple of months, it has all my favourite things - vintage images, loads of ink & stamping, and above all lots of dimension. I hope you like it too.

"Dove Book Christmas Card Inside"

This card has the usual book card construction. If you've never made one before, I have a tutorial with all the construction details.

"Inside left panel"

The background paper is entirely handmade using a heat-embossing resist technique to stamp the snowflakes, with plenty of blue distress inks sponged on, and a few extra blue stamped snowflakes for dimension. Spellbinders snowflakes are diecut from pearlised card, together with a Venetian Motif decorated circle behind the sentiment. The sentiment is printed from one of those Christmas magazine CDs & sponged with distress inks to match, then mounted on a Fancy Tag diecut with Pinflair blobs to raise it. You can't see it in the photo, but the swirls have thin lines of glitter glue added for extra sparkle.

"Inside aperture"

The beautiful dove is a free image from the Graphics Fairy (thank you Karen!). It is printed three times, fussy cut, shaped & layered. The feathers on the wing edges and tail are feathered with scissors so they look more realistic. The image was glued into some old acetate packaging filled with tiny clear seed beads and white sequin snowflakes to make a shaker card, and fitted into the aperture. Extra diecut snowflakes are slotted in between "the pages of the book" and held in place with tiny dots of glossy accents. The front layer of the folded book pages is heat-embossed & inked to match the backing paper.

"Outside cover"

The front cover has some more of that patterned paper matted onto pearlised white card edged in distress inks, with some more diecut snowflakes.

Well, it's turned cold here in Northern Ireland and whilst they forecast snow, we didn't see any thank goodness. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas :-)

Ingredients:

Stampers Anonymous stamp set - Tim Holtz Reindeer Flight

Spellbinders - 2012 Snowflake Pendant, Create-a-flake 4, Venetian Motifs, Fancy Framed Tags Two

Distress Inks

Versamark ink pad

Stampendous embossing powder, clear detail

free dove image from the Graphics Fairy

recycled acetate packaging

seed beads & white sequin snowflakes

Papermania Persimmon ribbon

cardstock: blue 300gsm, white pearlised 200gsm, white 160 gsm & 300gsm

Hot Off The Press - vintage Christmas CD-Rom

Fine glitter glue

Entered for the following challenges:
Joanna Sheen - Cold and Frosty
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Stamp Without Ink

Black and Gold Bauble Madness

Back to the Christmas cards today, and I enjoyed making this one playing with inks, stamps and dies mmmm better than chocolate (no, really!). It's quick if you have a few to make in a hurry.

"Black and Gold Bauble Madness"

I like the way the baubles are falling like snowflakes across the background. A couple of the bauble images are stamped on spare card and diecut, then placed on the card with foam pads to raise them up for some extra dimension. Everything here is stamped, but gold embossing works really well too.

Ingredients:

Justrite stamp set: Merry and Bright

Spellbinders: Holiday Ornaments 2010, Frosty Forms

Brilliance Ink Pad: Galaxy Gold

cardstock: black 300gsm, gold glittery 200gsm (for reindeer)

gold aquamarker (for edging)

adhesives: foam pads

Entered for the following challenge:
Justrite Inspiration - Happy Holidays