Monday, February 23, 2015

Something's Coming!

Hey everyone!



If you've been keeping up with my videos, you'll remember that I posted a Stamping' Up! haul video about two weeks ago.  There were a couple of stamp sets that I was really excited about, and I said that I had some great ideas.

Well, I've finally decided what I'm going to do with one of them, and I'll have mini series using one set and one technique, creating 4 different cards that could be bundled into an adorable gift set.  I've done some trial runs and I'm so happy with the results!

Maybe I'll even throw in a card box!

Stay tuned!  This is going to be fun!

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Love Life

Hi everyone!

This weekend I had planned to play around with Ranger Distress Inks, so that's exactly what I did.  I love these inks!  They're like little dynamos - ready for anything you throw at them.  The list of things you can do with them is endless (almost... they won't scrub the floor for you).

The end result for this one had me pleased as punch, as my grandmother used to say.  I was thrilled with the colours, and the simple, straightforward image is fun and sketchy.




For this card I used another one of the stamp sets I got for free when I purchased a bunch of supplies from Stamping' Up!.  I swear I'm having more fun with the free ones than the ones I paid for!

This is a set of 4 stamps called "A Happy Thing"; a lemon, a bird and two sentiments.  You can find it in the Sale-A-Bration Catalogue which is valid until March 31st, so if you're loving this set as much as I am (I love the "Love Life" sentiment!), you'd better get a move on!


I used the Ranger Distress Inks to do a little watercoloring, which is one of the great things you can do with this stuff.  It behaves just like real watercolours.  Ranger's craft mat is a great tool for this technique, because you can put the ink directly on it, get it wet, then wipe everything off with a paper towel, cloth, baby wipe - anything works.

There are two types of watercolour paper that make me really happy.  Strathmore is a very well-known paper with great qualities, and I highly recommend it.  I use it a lot.  Strathmore has an off-white colour, and that's where the Tim Holtz Watercolour Card Stock comes in.

I had read about online and watched a few videos where it was used, so I thought I'd give it a try.  The main thing that drew me to it was the fact that it's white instead of off-white.  It comes in a package of 20 sheets and it really is white!  The quality of the paper is really good.  It doesn't pill or get fuzzy like some I've tried.  I was really happy with it, and use it often.



The nice thing about it is the size.  The measurements are 4-1/4 x 5-1/2".  Ranger also has a larger sized paper as well in case you're planning a larger card.


So if you want to see how I made this "watercolour" card using distress inks, check out the video below!

See you soon!
Beth




Some of What I used...

Stampin' Up! Basic Grey Card Stock

Find me on...

My Stamping' Up!® Website
YouTube

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Cheerful Critters

Hi there!

I came up with a snowy card for a snowy day, today.  It's been snowing like the dickens since sometime in the middle of the night which has made the driving atrocious.  I had to go out today, and there were those who insisted on driving about 10 km/hr and those who raced down the road at 80.  I'm not sure which is worse!

I made a trip out to my local fine art supply store to get some Gamsol.  (Can you tell what might make an appearance in an upcoming video?)

For those of you who aren't familiar with Gamsol, I'll just tell you that it gives your coloured pencils a whole new life.  You'll just have to come back and check it out!

So here's today's card.  Isn't this adorable?  I had so much fun making this card I didn't want to stop!  I would have been perfectly happy just making a few more.  But, I got control of myself instead, and got ready to start editing my video.



This card really has a little bit of everything.  There's heat embossing, watercolours, Copic colouring, and fussy cutting (for those who enjoy fussing cutting!).

This stamp set called Cheerful Critters from Stamping' Up!, and it's a really versatile set.  It comes with 5 sentiments, but you could use any you have on hand and stamp them into the little signs.  You could also make yourself a bigger sign for the critters to hold if you needed.

It would be great for just about any occasion!  I think this is one of the happier sets I've seen.  And who doesn't love egg-shaped animals!



I gave this card dimension by mounting the bear and the bunny onto dimensionals, and then doing the same with the banner.  The dimensionals on the banner are only at the bottom, as the bunny and bear are already higher up.  This way, the dimensionals on the banner nestle in nicely beneath them.

And finally, here's the video!  Thanks for popping in!

See you again soon!
Beth


Some of What I used...

Ellen Hutsen - Neenah Solar White 80 lb Card Stock

Find me on...

My Stamping' Up!® Website
YouTube

Monday, February 16, 2015

A Friendship Card - You Brighten My Day

Today is Family Day here in Ontario, Canada.  I thought this would be a great card to show considering the holiday.  It's perfect for a friend or family member.  I made this one for my daughter, Meaghan, since she really does brighten my day, each and every day.




This is a pretty simple card, and I've kept it plain with lots of white space because I wanted the colours and the sentiment to take centre stage without being crowded out or overtaken.  Cards with good white space are probably my favourite!

For this one, the list of materials is pretty short so it doesn't take a lot to recreate it.  You could use any stamp, although I absolutely love this set.  It has some great little images.  Check out the link below to have a look!

I've used dimensionals to give the lightbulbs some extra height and character, and I just love the finished piece!




Have a great day!

Beth

Some of What I used...

Ellen Hutsen - Neenah Solar White 80 lb Card Stock

Find me on...

My Stamping' Up!® Website
YouTube

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Happy Birthday, Suz!

Hi there!

Today is my good friend Suz's 50th birthday.  She's such a wonderful person, full of love and kindness.  So, in honour of her special day I thought I'd do a birthday card.

I met Suz when I started teaching at the same school as her, and I liked her right away.  I was only there for six months before moving on to another school and a permanent contract, but we kept in touch, thankfully.






This card is really simple, although there are a number of steps.   I'm such a huge fan of grey and, well, any colour, really!

The great thing about this design is that you can change so many things - colours, shapes, stamps, font - anything would work.  Personally, I love these adorable sentiments from Paper Smooches.  The font is just a happy font, and brings a playful character to anything they're used on.  Love, love, love them!

If you're wondering about the embossing folder I used, it's by Momenta and is a brand I stumbled upon.  I was walking through Wal-Mart one day - and believe me, I'm rarely ever in that store, so this was a definitely a find - I decided to take a wander through the craft section, but I wasn't expecting much.

This particular Wal-Mart has an amazing craft department.  There are fantastic patterned papers, stamps, ribbon, and some really great embossing folders.  This one was $5.99 believe it or not, and that's the everyday price!

So, needless to say I grabbed a bunch of things.  The prices were just too good to leave them, and the papers (I used some in a few earlier posts) are absolutely adorable.




Have a great day, and Happy Birthday, Suz!

Beth

Some of What I used...

Ellen Hutsen - Neenah Solar White 80 lb Card Stock

Find me on...

My Stamping' Up!® Website
YouTube

Post-It Note Holder

Hi again!

Today's project is a little different.  Although I love to make cards, sometimes I want to shake things up a bit and do something a little out of the card making box.

So for today, I chose to make a Post-It Note holder.  These are so cute, easy, and quick to make, and you can change it up and use any colour or style you can think of.



For this one I chose Soft Sky cardstock by Stamping' Up!®, and Neenah Solar White.  I added a circular embellishment with little tiny butterflies, but you can use any shape you want.  That's what so great about paper crafting - The sky really is the limit!

Here are the measurement you'll need:

  • Cut card stock to 6-1/4 x 3-1/4"
  • Score at 3-1/4" on both sides (meaning score it once, then rotate the card stock 180 degrees, and score again at 3-1/4")
That's it!  How much simpler could it get?



Check out my video to see how I made this one, and then let your imagination go wild!  Punches are a really useful tool what making things.  I used a circular and scalloped edge punch, but there are tons of different shapes and sizes you can try.  Check these ones out!

See you soon!
Beth


Some of What I used...



Ellen Hutsen - Neenah Solar White 80 lb Card Stock


Find me on...



My Stamping' Up!® Website
YouTube

Monday, February 9, 2015

Letting White be White

Hello again!

After the brightness of yesterday's card, I wanted to add something a lot cleaner and simpler.  There's something to be said for allowing white space to do its job.  There isn't always a need to colour every square inch of things.  White space plays an important role in design!

There are a few reasons to use white space.  One is that it draws attention to the focal point - in other words, what you really want your audience to see.  In this case, I wanted my image to be the focal point with very little distraction.  The hearts and ribbon serve one purpose - to balance the card.  Simple!  It helps that they're pretty on top of that!  Pretty or not, they don't overpower, crowd or take over the card.  This image is big enough, clear enough and detailed enough to stand on its own.

So, no video this time, as I want to enter this in the Lawnscaping Challenge, and I won't have time to get a video done, although that was my plan.  Maybe I can add that to my to-do list.  This is one of those times when life just happens work gets in the way of creativity.  And doesn't that just suck?



If I had my great new planner already I'd add it in there, but I'm still waiting for it to ship from Plum Paper, sadly....

However, here's the card!


For this card I used Cotton Candy card stock from Simon Says Stamp, and 80 lb Neenah solar white for both the stamped image and the heat embossed background.

I used the Big Swiss Dots background from My Favorite Things with Versamark, and then used a white heat embossing powder.  This gives it a little flavour, but keeps the white white - which was exactly what I was looking for.

The image is from My Favourite Things Overflowing Joy, and she's just so cute.  I coloured her with a variety of Copics, and I'd like to replicate this card using different pinks (maybe that's a good video idea!).  I'll list the colours I used below.

The three hearts are punched out of Tim Holtz watercolour paper.  When I first got the watercolour paper in an order from Simon Says Stamp I was so excited to try out a whole bunch of things, and so I used some Distress Inks and just painted a background with different shades of pink.  I kept it in my Ideas Box - I knew I'd be able to use it some point, and voila!  It was the perfect thing for the hearts!

I used the 0 Copic to draw some patterns in the "gift wrap", just to add a little variety from one to the other.

So there you go.  I'm sorry about the lack of video on this one, but you know...  Only so many hours in the day.

See you next time!


Copic Colours

E33, 35, 21
YR00
RV21, 23, 25, 29
W1
B21, 23, 24, 32
E37, 47


Find me on:

YouTube
Pinterest
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Family Love!

Hi again!  Video #2 is done and loaded on YouTube!  I think I've finally got the hang of it - it took a lot less time and a lot less hair pulling this time.  Here's the card for this video.  I used Family Home from Stampendous, and I also used a little heart from Lawn Fawn's Home Sweet Home set.

For today's card I really wanted something bright and sunny.  Our weather here in southern Ontario has been the absolute pits lately, and I'm really craving sun and warm temperatures.  This weekend we've had freezing rain and snow layered one on top of the other, and I'm not sure I've even seen the sun since Friday.

I'm also entering this one in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, which you can find here!



This card uses a bunch of difference techniques.  There's heat embossing, ink blending with Ranger Distress inks, and water colouring with Inktense pencils.  This is a pretty time consuming card, but thanks to the magic of iMovie, and I've shortened it down to about a 10 minute video.

Some of the things I cut out were the 3 times it took me to actually get the black card stock to the right size, the process of heat embossing, and the blob of water I dropped on the side of the almost finished card.  I went back later with more Distress ink and fixed it up after shaking my head in disbelief.  But really, who puts their water right above a card???

Me, apparently.

At one point my son came in the room and offered to get me a cup of coffee.  Sidetracked, I stuck my yellow ink blending tool in the Peacock Feather ink, and then had to clean it off.  That didn't make the final cut either, I'm sorry to say.

Now that that's out of the way, sit back, get comfy and enjoy!  I'll list the supplies I used at the end of this post along with links to buy them online.  Some things I bought locally at Curry's Art Supplies, like my Inktense pencils, but they're all available online.  While you're there, be sure to click the subscribe button!  And while you're at it, feel free to follow my blog right here too!

Oh!  And a quick shout out to Amy at Prairie Paper and Ink (a fellow Canadian, by the way, although a few provinces away) who was kind enough to answer a question I've had for a while now!  Thanks Amy!


Things I used...

Tim Holtz Watercolour Paper - SSS
Simon Says Stamp Black and Turquoise Card Stock - SSS
Inktense Pencils - SSS
Ranger Distress Inks - SSS
Ranger Distress Inks - EH

Lawn Fawn Home Sweet Home Stamp Set
Stampendous Family Home Stamp Set - Stampendous
Stampendous Family Home Stamp Set - SSS


Thursday, February 5, 2015

I did it!

Video Number 1 is now live!


My first video is now posted and live and YouTube.  It wasn't without some frustration, patience and a whole lot of learning.

I hope you'll have a look, share it, post a comment, and most importantly, come back to see what's new!



Here's a photo of the finished card.  I had a lot of fun making these cards.  I really like how the layering and borders give it a clean and elegant feel.



See you soon!
Beth

Monday, February 2, 2015

Giving New Life to Some Old Stamp Sets

Hi again!

Yesterday I created a 2 x 2 box using a retired Stampin' Up!® set called Delight in Life.  If you haven't read it, you can here.

There's so many great new sets available from umpteen different companies, but there's nothing wrong with dusting off an older one, and bringing it back to life with new energy.

Since we were the lucky recipients of about 35 cm of snow overnight, schools were closed and so I spent the day at home coming up with a few new cards using some "new to me" sets.  I'll include the measurements for the elements in the card at the end.


A great way to get your hands on older or retired sets is to search places online like Kijiji.  Another fantastic resource for everything paper and ink is splitcoaststampers.com .  This is a great resource and web-based community for people who are arty-fartsy.  You'll find not only card making, but pretty much anything having to do with paper.  There's also a great forum for selling and trading retired stamps and other materials!

I recently bought three sets of retired stamps from a great girl on this website, and made a new friend in the process.  (Just an added bonus!)

One of the sets I bought from her is Loads of Love and the accompanying accessories.  This is such a fun set, and has endless possibilities.  Of course, being me, as soon as I got my hands on it, the ideas started flying and this is what I came up with!



This is a really neat shaker card, and I'll definitely be making more of these.  There were all sorts of different techniques involved in this one, from Copics, to heat embossing, stamping of course, and ink blending.  They're fun to plan and to make.  I have some ideas for a video for this, so stay tuned.

Speaking of videos, thanks to Mother Nature, I had time today to sit down and try my hand at making a video.  If something could go wrong, it absolutely did, but I struggled through and I'm almost done.  At one point I forgot to turn the camera on, it wasn't focused, I ran out of adhesive, dropped an ink pad...  Yup, you name it, it happened.  But,  I'm excited (and yes, just a bit nervous) to start adding videos.  Come back to check it out!

Thanks for reading!
Beth

_____________________________________________

Where can you find me?


My Stampin' Up!® Website
Facebook

Measurements for Three Layer Cards

Card base: 5-1/2 x 8-1/2", scored at 4-1/4"
White Card Stock - 4 x 5-1/4", 3 x 4-1/4", 2 x 3-1/4"
Coloured Card Stock - 3-1/4 x 4-1/2", 2-1/4 x 3-1/2"

Have fun!




Sunday, February 1, 2015

A Little Tone on Tone Lidded Box





Hi again!

This time I wanted to do something that wasn't a card, and I love these little boxes!  They are perfect for so many things, and would be ideal for weddings.  They would be great to put treats for guests in, keeping the colour theme the bride has chosen.

For this little project you need two pieces of card stock.  I chose Soft Sky from Stampin' Up!® for the lid, and an 80 lb Neenah Solar White for the box itself.  Because this is tone on tone, I used Soft Sky ink, also from Stampin' Up!.


Soft Sky is such a pretty blue especially when used on the matching paper.  I used a stamp from the set Delight in Life  and just stamped randomly over both pieces of card stock. I didn't want the images to appears in a pattern, so I just plopped my stamp wherever, making sure to leave a consistent amount of white space between images.  This is a retired stamp set, but I love the floral images!


Next, using a scoreboard, I scored the smaller blue card stock at 1" on all four sides, and the larger white piece at 2", again on all four sides.  This creates the top, bottom and sides for your box.  I went over each fold with a bone folder ensuring a nice, crisp fold.

Once that was done, each corner piece needed to be cut to create the folded edges, and this is where it gets a little tricky to show this in pictures.




At each corner, I cut a slit along the scored line that ended at the perpendicular score line.  Then to create corners that aren't too bulky, those pieces were "whittled" by creating notches from the inner portion of the corner piece that met up with that perpendicular score line.  Along the outer edge, another cut was made, again from the inner side, meeting up with the edge of the paper.  The paper was then rotated to the next corner, and the process was repeated until all four corners were cut down.


This process was then repeated on the white box portion.  Additionally, these "tabs" were then trimmed to create shorter pieces which would fit nicely when folded and adhered.



Now on each piece, a good strong adhesive needed to be applied.  I laid down two strips of Scotch double sided tape.  One along the bottom, and one along one edge.  When the box is folded, the tape adheres the side together from the inside, so none of the tape is visible from the outside.



Finally, each side could be tucked and taped.  In the following picture, the "tab" appears on the outside, but it needed to be tucked inside so that the outside of the lip had nice straight sides with none of the cut pieces visible from the outside.




And, voila!  With both the box and the lid done, it was time to put the finishing touches on this little gem.



I chose a ribbon in different but complimentary colour.  I like the contrast it gives, but you could choose any colour.  Stampin' Up! sells ribbon that matches their inks paper.



I wanted to add a tag, but I wanted to keep the softness of the colours.  I punched a scalloped circle from the Soft Sky paper, and white circle from the Neenah card stock, and adhered them together.  I used Stampin' Up! Basic Pearl Jewels on tag as well to give it a little character.


These are fabulous little embellishments.  I chose a matching Copic marker colour and simply coloured the pearl so it matched nicely.



And there you have it!  Pretty little boxes that are quick and easy to make and can be used for any number of things.  With so many great papers out there, you can use any colour colour combination or pattern to create boxes with completely different looks and feel.

Thanks for reading!  If you're interesting in purchasing the supplies I used to make this box, be sure to visit my Stampin' Up! webpage where you can browse the catalogue and submit your order.  It will be delivered right to your door or mailbox!

See you soon!

Beth
_____________________________________________

Where can you find me?

My Stampin' Up!® Website
Facebook

Materials I Used...


Stampin' Up Sky Blue Card Stock
Stampin' Up Sky Blue Ink Pad
Simon Says Stamp - Neenah Solar White 110 lb Card Stock
Tombo Mono Multi Glue
Scotch Tape Runner
Fiskars SureCut Paper Trimmer
Martha Stewart Score Board