There’s more to masking than meets the eye! And masks are more useful than a disguise at a party.  But we are talking about making greeting cards and masking is a useful technique. In today’s blog, we are “masking off” or hiding parts of our card to create a space where we can put a sentiment or to call attention to a rubber stamped design.

Take a look at these cards:

In the first one, I’ve created a torn paper mask with irregular outlines to call attention to the center.

In the next one, another torn paper mask blocks off part of the bottom of the card to leave a space for the sentiment.

And in the third, two torn paper masks create space for the background stamp of music which ties in with the sentiment of “just a note.”

This is what the masks look like.

 

Here’s how I did it. I’ll give the instructions for the “Just a note” card here. Instructions for the other two will eventually be in the library.

What You’ll Need:

• Soft Suede card base – 5 ½ x 8 ½, folded in the middle
• Very Vanilla layer – 4 x 5 ¼
• Piece of copy or notebook paper
• Scraps of pink card stock for flowers
• Scrap of pink ribbon for the “knot” bow
• Background stamp – music
• Sentiment – Flourishing Phrases
• Soft suede ink pad
• Melon Mambo ink pad
• Rhinestones for flower centers
• Flower punch
• glue dots, Tombow glue

As usual, the important thing is to learn the technique, not necessarily to create a duplicate of my card.  So feel free to use whatever supplies you have on hand.

Instructions:

• Tear the copy paper to make a piece with a raggedy edge with largeish ups and downs
• Do it again for the second mask
• Put the masks on the Very Vanilla layer leaving a space in the middle. I used small bits of tape on the outside edge of the masks to keep the masks in place
• Ink up the background stamp with Soft Suede, and stamp it on the vanilla layer over the masks and the center space. I just carefully placed the large stamp over the paper, and then rubbed and pressed it firmly, especially in the middle.
• Remove the stamp and clean it. Remove the masks.
• Ink up “Just a note” from Flourishing Phrases and stamp it on the upper left corner  with Melon Mambo ink. Do the same for the second part of the sentiment on the lower right corner.
• Remove and clean the stamps
• Tie a “knot” bow and fasten it in the upper left above the sentiment .( Full disclosure: I hadn’t planned on having a bow here, but I got an ink smear and couldn’t get it off. So I covered it up.)
• Punch out the three tiny flowers, “cup” them by pressing down in the middle with the blunt end of the paper piercer or something similar, and then place the rhinestones for flower centers.
• Glue the flowers in the upper right or wherever it looks right to you. I used glue dots.
• Glue a piece of 4 x 5 copy paper on the inside of the card so you can write a message.

We’re Done!

This is a very simple technique, but it makes an unusual and lovely card. Try it out and see what you think. Any large patterned stamp could be used for the background stamp. I’m thinking of creating another card using a rose stamp. A geometric patterned stamp would work well too, as would  filigrees or flourishes.

Have fun with this technique! And thank you for you loyal support. I truly couldn’t do it without you.

Blessings,

Carole

This is a quick and REALLY easy handmade card technique that is almost impossible to mess up. This faux mother of pearl effect is lovely – prettier in person than the photos can show. It is useful not only for sympathy cards, but also for happy birthday cards, Mothers Day cards, thinking of you cards, get well cards, in short – just about any kind of handmade greeting card  except a very masculine card. Here’s two photos of what I’m talking about:       

Here’s what you’ll need to make them:

• Card base – any color, 8 ½ x 11 folded in half
• First layer – white, 5 ¼ x 4 inches
• Country Floral Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder – or any embossing folder that results in deep impressions
• Scrap paper the color of your card base for butterflies and label
• Ink pad(s) for sentiment, and for coloring
• Pearls or whatever for embellishing butterflies
• Tsukineko Frost White shimmer paint (mine was left over from Christmas; if you’re in a hurry or don’t have access to Stampin’ Up! stuff, you can get it from Amazon. But if you wait until June you can order it from the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog.)
• Big Shot or equivalent for embossing
• Butterfly punch
• Label punch
• Sponges or sponge daubers to apply the shimmer paint
• tombow glue, dimensionals, glue dots

Super Easy Instructions:

We’ll start with the purple sympathy one.

Fold your card base so it measures 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. Set aside

Take your first layer – white – and the Embossing folder and run them through the Big Shot. I spritzed the all white sympathy card one with water before I ran it through, and didn’t spritz for the pink one. I couldn’t tell any difference in the embossing, but the spritzed one expanded a little and was warped.

Take a sponge dauber or sponge, pour a little shimmer paint onto something non-absorbent (I used a clear block), and dab your sponge dauber in the paint and start smearing it onto the embossed layer. Repeat. You want to cover the whole thing, but not make it dripping wet. Set it aside to dry. 

here”s a closeup of the card. You can see the coverage of the paint.

Punch out the butterfly and the label from your colored scrap. Embellish the butterfly and fold up its wings.

Stamp your sentiment on the scrap and punch out the label. I sponged around the outside of mine.

By this time your shimmer paint should be dry. Use plenty of glue and glue the embossed layer to the front of the card base. Use glue instead of double-sided tape because the unevenness of the embossed layer prevents the tape from holding well. Because mine was sorta warped from being spritzed, I put it under a weight for about five minutes to make sure it would hold.

Add your label with dimensionals, and then add the butterfly with glue dots. I put my sentiment on the upper third center, and the butterfly on the lower third left. (Use the Rule of Three: Mentally put a big tic-tac-toe diagram over your card front. Where the lines cross is where we should place things for the best effect.)

That’s it! Really easy, huh. And really pretty too.

To Make The Second Card:

Follow the above instructions, except before you dab on the shimmer paint take a sponge or sponge dauber and some ink pads and dab some ink over the flowers and leaves. If I were making mine again I would use a darker green for the leaves – it’s hard to tell them from the yellow flowers. I used lemon-lime twist, and I think maybe “call me clover” (a medium green) would work better.

The glitter paper heart was just sitting there on my desk, so I stuck it on. I think the card would look better without it, but I left it so you could see for yourselves. 

These are super quick and easy to do, and something to remember when you’re in a hurry for a WOW card. I think I’ll make up a few embossed layer pieces so that I’ll have them ready when I need something in a hurry.

Thank you again, awesome friends, for reading my blog. You are the most supportive folks in the blogging universe!

See you next week!

Blessings, Carole

 

These are SO CUTE! and SO easy and quick to make. I originally thought they would be cute little Easter baskets, and they would also be cute little gifts for co-workers, committee members, hairdressers, teachers, and so forth. They would also be make nice Mothers Day or May Day gifts too.

When I was a kid, we made little cornucopias from construction paper which we were to fill with flowers (or weeds… we were kids, after all), and hang on door knobs. We don’t do that any more though.

Anyway, here’s a picture : 

I put my bottle of Tombow’s all-purpose glue in the picture so you could see how little they were.

Here’s a couple of closeups: 

I put some Easter grass in them, and some jelly beans. My “dollar store” didn’t have any paper Easter grass so I had to use the plastic cellophane kind, but I am keeping it away from the kitties who would love to play with the grass – and eat it too, which could be fatal.

Here’s what you need to make one Teeny Tiny Tote:

• Card stock – any color, cut 3 1/2 x 3 5/8 inches (I know, I know – using eighth inch measurements)
• another piece of the same color card stock 3/4 x 3 inches for the handle
• scrap of card stock for the flowers
• pretty printed paper – 2 pieces measuring 2″ x 1 3/8, and one piece 1/2 x 3 inches
• glue and glue dots
• embellishments for flower centers – I used rhinestones, but pearls would be nice too

Useful Tools:

• paper trimmer, of course
• scoring tool
• little flower punch, or tiny flower framelits (a punch is faster)
• scissors
• paper piercing tool – to pick up the rhinestones
• paper piercing pad, or mouse pad – to be a cushion for cupping up flower petals

Instructions

Cut all the papers

Lightly mark which side is 3 5/8 and which is 3 1/2; long side and short side, but it’s hard to tell unless you mark them

Using the scoring tool score the long (3 5/8) side at 1 1/2 inches, and then at 2 1/8 inches. This makes the bottom of the tote

On the short (3 1/2) side, score at 5/8 inch and 2 7/8 inches. These are the sides.

Fold up on the score lines and burnish

Cut the little square in the center of each edge up to the score line, and “wedge” it. Here’s a picture of what I mean.

Now put glue on the OUTSIDE (or backside, whatever…) of the small tabs, and also glue on the INSIDE of ONE of the rectangle tabs.

Glue the small tab to the inside of the  rectangle tab that has the glue on it, and then glue the rectangle tabs together. You’ll want to make sure the top of the two tabs are lined up nicely. If you get the sides lines up too that’s a plus, but not as important as getting the tops lined up.

Glue the printed paper strip for the handle to the plain card stock handle piece.

Glue the printed paper rectangles to the sides of the tote.

Put some glue at the very bottom of the handle strip, and glue it to the center of one of the sides of the tote. Mine is about 1/4 inch down from the edge. Repeat on the other side.

Punch out about six little flowers; put them on your mouse pad or paper piercing pad, and press the centers with the stylus from the scoring tool or the end of the paper piercing tool to make them “cup” up.

Put a rhinestone in the center of each flower, and then, using glue dots, put them on the base of the handle on each side of the tote.

Add Easter grass and jelly beans and that’s it.

All Done!

As usual, I didn’t make this up myself, but copied it from Sam Donaldson – aka “Pootles.” She also has a video where she is making a much larger tote. The video can be found here.

I think I’ll make some with butterflies instead of flowers, and gingham paper instead of flower paper too. I’m having Easter dinner with some friends, so I think I’ll make a bunch of these as place cards. Shouldn’t take too much time, and would look nice. I already checked with my hostess, and she said sure.

Thanks, dear friends, for reading all the way to the end. I hope you try them out. If you have any questions or get stuck, just send me a comment.

Thanks again for your support – you’re the best.

Blessings, Carole

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What??? What am I talking about??

Well, it’s a new  technique that’s showing up on the internet, and we can make some stunning cards with it.  I first saw it in the Facebook group Demonstrator Planning Place and it caught my attention. I did a little more research which led me to Jennifer McGuire’s blog and her guest artist Laurie Willison, who seems to have developed this technique. It is so so easy to do.

You would want to use this technique if you had a design that had lots of little pieces in it. Basically the Press ‘n’ Seal is used to hold down the elements so you don’t mess up your design or try to recreate your exact idea after you remove everything so you can glue everything down. 

The “floating” part is using dimensionals to glue things down so that the elements seem to float above the surface of the card. This shows up pretty well in the third photo above.

• Basic steps to creating a “Floating” Press ‘n’ Seal card:
• choose your stamps
• stamp a page full of images
• color images
• cut out images, using a punch, die, or pair of scissors
• arrange images on piece of card stock – or card base
• place a piece of press ‘n’ seal over the images and card stock
• trim the edges
• remove the card stock
• flip over the press ‘n’ seal and put dimensionals (LOTS of dimensionals!) on each image
• remove the backing papers on the dimensionals (tedious!)
• flip the press ‘n’ seal over and carefully place it and the images on the card stock
• slowly and carefully remove the press ‘n’ seal

Let’s try it out with the middle card – the one with a frame.

Instructions

I chose the Humming Along and Butterfly Gala stamp sets from Stampin’ Up!

I stamped a page of four flowers, three hummingbirds, and a bunch of butterflies in two sizes, and colored them with alcohol markers. Then I cut the flowers and hummingbirds out with the matching dies, and the butterflies with the butterfly punch.

Then I carefully arranged everything on a 4 x 5 1/4 piece of card stock. My idea was to put the hummingbird in the middle with flowers and butterflies around him, which would form a frame on the card stock. I planned to get two cards from this one design. here’s what it all looked like at this point. You can  see that I really needed more little butterflies or something around that hummingbird. 

 

So I pressed the press ‘n’ seal carefully and firmly onto the card stock, and then trimmed around the outside, saving the scraps. (There were large chunks of flowers and butterflies, and I didn’t want to waste them

 

)

Next I took a stitched rectangle framelet and cut out the hummingbird making a nice frame on the card stock. However, the hummingbird center was…not so good.  I put that aside for later.

Step three was to remove the card stock frame from the back of the piece of press ‘n’ seal with all those images attached just where I wanted them to be. I flipped the piece over and started to put dimensionals, lots and lots of dimensionals, on each image, using both regular size and mini dimensionals. Then removed the backing from each one.  This probably took the most time – maybe even more time than the coloring did. You can see that I really did use a lot of dimensionals. then I took my sentiment and stamped it in the center of my card stock piece. That was a bit tricky to get centered. I took the card stock frame that I had removed from the press ‘n’ seal and used that to make sure I stamped it in the center.

 Finally I took my piece of press ‘n’ seal and carefully placed it on the card stock where I wanted the frame to be and pressed down all those dimensionals. Gave it all a good press, to make sure they were all stuck down tight. (But don’t press down the press ‘n’ seal.) Finally I slowly and carefully removed the press ‘n’ seal, and it was (almost) done. it looked a little bare, so I glued a large butterfly that I had left over under the sentiment, and made a knot bow for the top. Except I hadn’t made the knot bow when I took the picture.  I think you’ll agree that I needed it. NOW it’s done!

I still had that not so good hummingbird left over a bunch of butterflies and flowers with pieces cut out of them stuck to some press ‘n’ seal, a card stock frame and a smaller card stock rectangle from the back of the butterfly. I did the dimensional thing for the hummingbird and put him and whatever was around him on another piece of 4 x 5 1/4 piece of card stock. No improvement. So I took the card stock frame and placed it around everything and – tada! it worked.  Or at least made it a lot better.

Now I’m down to a bunch of butterflies and flowers with pieces cut out of them. And two hummingbirds, which I’m saving for something else someday.  I took yet another piece of 4 x 5 1/4 inch piece of card stock and began arranging the flowers and butterflies on it. I had to cover up some gaping holes with butterflies, but I finally got it to where I liked it. I put the piece of press ‘n’ seal on, trimmed the edges, took off the card stock backing, put on a zillion dimensionals, pressed it back down onto the card stock, removed the press ‘n’ seal, and there it was! And I think it’s my favorite of them all. Here’s a picture of it again.    

So that’s it. It’s really easy, as you can see. Here’s a link to Jennifer McGuire’s  blog where Laurie Willison shows how she uses this technique. 

Just as an interesting aside, Jennifer’s husband invented Press ‘n’ Seal, and holds the patents on it. 

I hope you give this a try. 

Thanks for reading all the way to the end – you are the best! Thank you again for your support.

Until next time!

Blessings, Carole