My Paper Creations

Elements of Style Gatefold

It's so easy to create a lovely gatefold card. Follow the link to Dawn's tutorial by clicking on the title. Scroll down to March 14, 2009.

I used Very Vanilla, Rose Red and Basic Black cardstock, Rose Red Classic ink, the Scallop Circle and 1-3/8 and 1-1/4 inch circle punches.

The Sun Is Setting On 2 Colours

We look forward to playing with the sumptuous new In-Colors in the Idea Book & Catalogue for 2009-2010. Regrettably, we wistfully say goodbye to Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, and 4 other neat In-Colors offered in the current catalogue on June 30.

This card is for today's Splitcoast colour challenge SC224, where we are to use these 2 colours and Summer Sun.

The stamp sets used here: Nature Silhouettes, Pocket Silhouettes, Lovely as a Tree, Bird on a Branch, and the brand-new set, Teeny Tiny Wishes, available starting July 1. The greeting is stamped on Summer Sun and punched out with the Word Window punch, then layered on the Modern Lable punch, also available starting July 1.

I decided to leave this bird off the branch, since birds of that shape are not native to Algonquin Park.Used a balloon filled with dried kidney beans, inked in Tangerine Tango, to create a tone-on-tone background on the base card.

I did the brayered sky with a small brayer in 2 stages: first using Summer Sun and Tangerine Tango; second, using Tangerine Tango and Pacific Point. See more tutorials on creating skies on Michelle Zindorf's tutorial site, here: http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststamp...s-ive-written/

The combination of the lighter 3 colours on the sunset brings back memories of camping trips in Algonquin Park. I have provided a link for those who would like to know more. http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/

Frugal tip: Use the Word Window and Modern Label punches, along with the Teeny Tiny Wishes set, to add a quick and easy greeting to your card.

Embrace Two Sizes of Grid

The technique lover's challenge, TLC177 on Splitcoast for Monday, June 14 is to create an item using the grid technique. My card also uses the layout challenge, SC36.

My base card is Blue Bayou, stamped tone-on-tone with the retiring background stamp, Print Pattern. The grids are on the Naturals White cardstock, overstamped in River Rock ink with the Twill background stamp. They're matted on Chocolate Chip cardstock. There are two silver brads at the ends of the Word Window punchouts in Wild Wasabi cardstock.

The Embrace Life leaves are stamped in Wild Wasabi, and the flower is stamped in Ruby Red Craft ink to hold the Heat & Stick powder then Dazzling Diamonds. Hopefully, the sparkles show up on the photo. Finally, a watercolour brush was used to apply Wonder Watercolor Crayons in Cameo Coral and Ruby Red. The cut-out flower was attached with mini glue dots.

Now for the grids. I don't have a Scor Pal, so I had to figure out a way to get these lines straight using my little black Fiskers scoring attachment. I used a good old-fashioned ruler and pencil on the back side of the larger Naturals White cardstock piece to line up evenly spaced lines at 1/4 inch, going both ways, then scored. I cut the smaller piece a perfect square, then scored both ways corner to corner. Then, I lined up the scored lines with the edge of the inner groove of the Fiskers cutting tool, and scored at 1/8 inch intervals going each way.

Here's a frugal tip: I cut out a frame from the larger chocolate chip cardstock to mat the leaves, then used part of the cut out part to mat the smaller piece with the flower.


Enjoy.

Cake Inspirations

Last Saturday's Splitcoast inspiration challenge was to view a site of a business selling cakes and cupcakes, and draw inspiration from one of these to create a card. I got inspiration for this card from a wedding cake seen on this site.

The base card is Naturals White, and the second layer is Chocolate Chip. The 3 flowers are all stamped onto, then cut from cardstock: Blush Blossom, Really Rust, Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip. Don't those last 2 names just make your mouth water for a piece of that cake!

The inks, except what's on the 2 swirls, are Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, and Really Rust Classics.




The 2 Doodle This corner swirls are stamped in Chocolate Chip Craft and embossed with Dazzling Diamonds. Hopefully, the glitter will show up on the photo.



The petals on the 2 large flowers are bent outward by coaxing between thumb and finger.

One Sheet Wonder Desk Set - WT173

I also made my very first desk set from a sheet Cranberry Crisp retired cardstock. The pieces are stamped tone-on-tone with Cranberry Crisp classic ink with a couple of stamps from the Always set. I CASE'd this desk set from Connie, who shares her template with Splitcoast here . Thank you so much, Connie. This will be my second upload for last Thursday's Splitcoast challenge, Ways To Use It.

Boho Suspense - TLC176

Today's technique lover's challenge on Splitcoast is to make a suspension card. My card is made with Boho Backgrounds and Sincere Salutations stamp sets. The cardstock is primarily Real Red and Apricot Appeal, with a bit of Ballet Blue on the base of the circle image. The backgrounds are stamped with Real Red on the base card and Ballet Blue on the Apricot Appeal strip. I used rhinestone brads for the circles and antique brads on the top left corner

Touch of Nature Explosion Card

This is my first attempted explosion card, as taught by Dawn in her Explosion Card Video (scroll down). Thank you, Dawn, for a well done video.

What I've done differently: instead of a 2 5/8 inch square piece of patterned paper, I used a whisper white square with 2 stamps from the Touch of Nature set, following part of a tutorial by Michelle Zindorf. Like Michelle, I love stamping nature scenes. What I did differently from Michelle's tutorial is emboss the bird using Versamark and Basic Grey Classic inks before colouring him in. I also used all Stampin Up markers rather than those used in the tutorial.

Touch of Nature is going bye-bye on August 10th, or once the supply runs out, whichever comes first. So, if you have your heart set on these stamps contact your local demonstrator.

Happy 4th of July to Our US Friends

This is my first spring card. I used retired designer paper to form the base, which measures 3 3/4 inches square. Then I added the white side of the same paper, cut to 3 1/2 inches square. The top layer is 3 1/4 inches square.


Further Instructions:

1. Punch out a large star mask from spare designer series paper and set aside; you will use this in Steps # 5 & 6.

2.On the top layer, which starts out as whisper white cardstock, clear-emboss the "happy" from the Polka Dots & Paisley set and the #232 from Best Friends Numbers.

3. Use the handy reverse mask to position the "it's time to celebrate" from A Little Birdie Told Me, and stamp it in Real Red Classic ink.


4. Then, stamp the small flower background in Versamark with the retired Fresh Fillers.


5. Lay down the large star mask, using temporary d/s tape and ensuring to cover the words in red but not the embossed "happy".


6. Brayer over all with Night of Navy Classic ink.


7. Punch out 2 Real Red shapes with the Word Window punch and position brads on one end of each.


8. Affix word window punch-outs around layer, as shown. I used Mini Glue Dots.


9. "Spangle" the star with silver brads placed randomly.


10. Punch out 2 stars out of Whisper White cardstock with the Small Star punch.


11. Put a mini glue dot on the brad on each word window punch-out and place the small star punch-outs.


12. Attach the layer to the rest of the card using adhesive of choice.

13. As mentioned in the Splitcoast tutorial, use a bit of d/s tape on the bottom of the point to hold the card in place.

Happy Canada Day

Time to celebrate. I'd like to wish my fellow Canadians a Happy Canada Day. This virtual card is the best way I know how to not leave anyone out. It's a beautiful day out there; I'm outta here as soon as I'm done posting here and uploading the card to Splitcoast. I hope everything is going well for you today.

The cardstock for this card is either whisper white or real red.

The left border was cut to 1 inch by 5 1/2 inches, then scallop-punched using the corner rounder punch with the guard removed. The tone-on-tone is stamped with the stars from Background Basics.

For the maple leaf I punched out several large stars from scraps of Real Red cardstock, cut off 2 of the points, then glued them together. I also cut the stem from the same cardstock.

The "happy" from Happy Everything and the 1, 4 and 1 from Best Friends Numbers are stamped in Versamark, then I added Heat & Stick powder and red Cosmo fine glitter. The 1,4 and 1 were punched with the 1 1/4 inch punch and layered onto 1 3/8 inch circles. Finally, I stamped the equal sign from Best Friends Numbers, then used the Stamp-a-ma-Jig to line it up at 90 degrees to make it a number sign.

Best Friends Numbers and Background Basics are set to retire in August. So if you have your heart set on them and haven't gotten around to ordering them, see your local demonstrator pronto. If you don't have one, I can help you if you're in the greater Toronto area.

Just click on this link, click on my Splitcoast name for a drop-down menu, and send me a private post.

Meanwhile, enjoy some music by Canadian artists, found at the bottom of the page.

Use Those Scraps

Do you have anyone with a milestone birthday coming up? Here’s a quick way to make a personalized card just for them. Perhaps something like this. For the Splitcoast Virtual Stamp Night challenge AUG08VSNMINIF we were to upload a card using numbers; I chose the card shown.

Frugal Tip: Use Up Your Scrap Paper Scraps.
On a Ruby Red cardstock base I affixed leftover designer series paper from Stampin’ Up, cut to the following dimensions, measured in inches, from largest to smallest:
3 ¾ by 2 3/8; 3 ¾ by 1 ½; 2 3/8 by 1 ½; and 1 ½ square
For the largest piece I made sure to use a light enough colour for a greeting to show up. This greeting is from the Hugs & Wishes set.

The “50” is from the soon-to-retire Best Friends Numbers set. A number with one to two digits fits just right into a round space 1 ¼ inch across. I used Versamark, Heat ‘n Stick powder, and red Cosmo glitter to create it. I made the medallion using 1 ¼ inch, 1 3/8 inch, and scallop punches. The holes in the scallops are done with the needle in the Crafter’s Toolkit.

The Best Friends Upper and Lower case letters and numbers are available through your Stampin’ Up demonstrator until August 10 or until the stock runs out, whichever comes first. They're shown on Page 159 of the Spring & Summer Collection 2008. If you do not have a demonstrator and you live west in the greater Toronto area, I can help you. Please go here, click on my Splitcoast name for the drop-down menu, and send me a private email.

Ways To Use Leftover Designer Series Paper

If you've ever scrapbooked, or used double-sided paper on your cards, surely you've got odds and ends stashed somewhere in your craft room. I'd like to share with you one of many ideas gleaned from Splitcoast on how to make use of them; the technique is called paper piecing.

This technique is best done with open images. Stamp your image onto your cardstock. Stamp once more onto scrap d/s paper then cut out the parts you'd like to apply to your cardstock. Glue them on, and you're done.

For this card I used the Wonderful You set from the Spring & Summer Collection 2008, CASing another great example found here on Splitcoast.

Brayered Landscape

This ATC was created using a small brayer and 3 Classic inks: Summer Sun, Old Olive and Bordering Blue, and a sheet of scrap bond paper torn in 3 parts. I labelled these Sky, Mountains and Foothills.

First, I brayered Summer Sun over the whole ATC layer. Then I would use the mountain piece to mask the ATC while I brayer the foreground in olive Next, I laid the Sky piece over the top part of the ATC and the Foothills piece over where I brayered with the olive then brayer the open part with Bordering Blue; this would form the mountains.

Now with the sponging: I take a couple of sponges and ink them with Cameo Coral and Bashful Blue to add the blue sky at the top and, using my Mountain piece to mask the mountains, add a bit of a sunset.

Next comes the stamping. Using the Foothills piece as a mask I stamped the trees, only from the image of the trees and skyline from Noble Deer. Sometimes I would add the grass from the 3 deer image from the same set.

The bird and branches on the right of the image are Versamarked and embossed in black detail.

Check out my Guestbook!

A New Gallery

I already have several cards, tags, ATC's on my Splitcoast gallery, and will be adding more as time and creativity permit. All are my original creations; for some of them I borrowed ideas from others' creations and then tweaked them around a bit. Enjoy.

Introducing My Current Passion

Why I love to stamp:

It's a great creative outlet. I've always had a passion to make things.

I was introduced to stamping nearly 11 years ago. Here's how it all began. One day I was strolling around in Queen's Quay and happened to pass Great Impressions. At that time they occupied a tiny space on the 2nd floor. There were several cards on display which were created with products that they sold. There was something about the beauty of these creations that made me stop and take a second look......and a third look......and a fourth......and on and on! By then I wanted to make that, too.

I walked out of there with my very first stamp purchase: a little box of 4 leaf stamps made by All Night Media. Since then, my collection has grown to the point where I needed to sell off a few and put a lot of thought into organizing the rest.