Pigeon Toast Wedding Card

Hello everyone, I was totally inspired by Jennifer McGuire’s recent video on making simple pendulum cards. It was sheer genius and the minute I saw it, I thought about using her technique with Gerda Steiner's pigeons. If you haven’t seen Jennifer’s video, here’s a link to it - Cards with Simple Movement.

Now, I know this is not your typical wedding card, but it is a fun one!

To make this card, I used a 5 x 5" card base and also cut a card front from white cardstock that was the same size, as well as one from the background paper which is from the Belle Fleur collection by Craft Consortium.  I wanted the background to look a little like wedding card material! I adhered the white card front and the wedding paper together.  I also die cut a circle from white cardstock and one that was slightly larger from silver holographic cardstock.  The Bubble Circle is from Memory Box, and I cut three of these from white cardstock and one from the holographic cardstock.  These were glued together with the holographic one on top. I glued the silver and white circles to the card front in the upper third of the card, and then glued the Bubble Circle around it.

I stamped the pigeon which is from the A Toast to You stamp set by Gerda Steiner Designs, onto Neenah Solar Crest 80# cardstock twice.  On the second image, I only stamped the lower half of the pigeon, below the piece of toast, and just masked off the toast with a piece of Post It paper.  I used Copic markers to colour in the pigeon (N4, N2, N1, N0, E34, E53 and E30), and then fussy cut them out.  For the head image, I only coloured to the end of the toast and only cut this part out.  On the bottom portion of the pigeon, I slightly extended the lines of the body before colouring, and then cut this slight extension out with the rest of the lower half.

To create the pendulum mechanism, I cut a small strip of packaging acetate (about 2" x 1/2" wide), and rounded the top edge with my scissors.  I attached a penny to the bottom of the acetate with double sided tape. I positioned the pigeon pieces where I wanted them to go on the circle, and marked with a pencil just behind the center of the head.  Using a large paper punch, I punched a hole here, cutting through all the layers of the card front.  I also cut a circle of doubled up foam tape, using a regular paper punch which was slightly smaller than the hole I had made on the card front. I attached this piece of foam tape to the top of the acetate pendulum, and from the back of the card, pushed the foam tape through the hole I had made, to the front of the card.  I attached the pigeons' head over top of this foam circle, securing the pendulum to the card.  I then glued the lower half of the pigeon in position under the toast. The pendulum can swing quite wildly if you don't minimize its movement, so I figured out how far I wanted it to swing and put strips of doubled up foam tape on the back of the card to stop it swinging too far. Finally, I placed doubled up strips of foam tape all around the edges of the card, being careful to not interfere with the movement of the pendulum.  To attach the card front to the base, I used low tack tape on the front of the card to keep the pigeon in position, and then removed the backing paper from the foam tape and adhered it to the card base.

I created the sentiment on my computer and printed it out.  I've got a new laser printer, so although it doesn't show in the photo, I did foil the sentiment in my laminator with silver foil.  I matted that onto a strip of the holographic cardstock and attached that below the pigeon.  Finally, I added a few silver pearls because, well, it is a wedding card after all! 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you'll give this technique a try as it is a lot of fun!

See-Through Christmas Tree Card

Hello everyone, I'm so glad you stopped by.  I've got a Christmas card again to share with you today, and I must say I can never get these done early enough!

Supplies Used:  Christmas Fir Tree Large Metal Cutting Die 20589,  Poinsettia - Silver Foil 6x6 Paper Collection 27277, Crisp Christmas A5 12pc Sentiment Sheets 19772, holographic silver cardstock, gemstones, acetate (4.25" x 5.5").

I started this card by die cutting the tree out of white cardstock three times, and once from holographic silver cardstock.  I was very careful with the silver one and one of the white ones, to not loose the inset pieces, so I placed Glad Press 'N Seal onto the back of the diecut to keep all those little bits in place. The triple layers of the tree helps to give support to the acetate and keeps the card front from bending.  

I glued two of the white trees together, and then glued this onto a scrap piece of acetate.  The acetate gave me something to inlay the diecut pieces onto, but won't show up in the final card.  I trimmed this acetate so it didn't extend past the outside edges of the tree.  Then I used a fine tipped glue to inlay the white diecut pieces.  I only inlaid the non-circle pieces, as I knew I was going to put the gemstones in where the circles were.  The purpose of inlaying these white pieces was to make sure the holographic ones would show up better and not be lost in the depths of the tree.  I know that seems like an extra step, but I do think it was worth it and it really didn't take too long to do.  So the next step was to inlay the holographic pieces over the white inlaid ones. Then I glued the gemstones in place.  I also have a holographic tree now to use on another card. 

I used a top folding A2 sized card base (4.25 x 5.5"), and trimmed the front down to be 1.5" (or 4mm).  I also cut two strips from the Poinsettia silver foil cardstock, to be 4.25" x 1.5" ( 11 mm x 4 mm).  I also cut one of these strips from white cardstock.

On the card front, I used my tape gun to adhere the 4.25 x 5.5" piece of acetate over the remaining top front.  I found this easiest to do by lining up the bottom edge of the acetate with the bottom edge of the card base and then easing the acetate down onto the upper edge of the card.  

Next, I adhered the white strip of cardstock to the inside bottom edge of the acetate. I used my tape gun to apply adhesive over the white cardstock, then I lined it up flush with the bottom edge of the card base, and carefully lowered the acetate over it so it was all flush with the edges of the card base.  Finally, I adhered the silver foiled paper over the acetate, again using my tape runner.  Finally, I cut little strips of the metallic silver cardstock and glued them in place along the edges of the silver foiled cardstock.  I mounted the sentiment onto some more metallic silver cardstock.  To finish the card, I glued the tree onto the card front and added the sentiment above.  On the inside of the card front, I glued the third white cardstock tree shape over top of the front tree to give a clean finish.

Thank you so much for stopping by, and I hope you're having a very creative day!

Snowflake Christmas Cards

Hello again, I've got not one but two cards to share with you today, and they're both Christmas cards.  Here's a look at the first one:

Supplies Used:  Paper Rose Studio Large Christmas Snowflake Layered Die 17727, Paper Rose Studio Stitching Snowflake Set 26350, Paper Rose Studio Merry Christmas Script Clear Stamp 27301.  Other supplies: Ranger Alcohol inks - Cool Peri, Tranquil Pearl, Patina; Pinata Pearl alcohol ink; Nuvo Glacier Paste in Winter White, Cosmic Shimmer Ultra Sparkle Paste in Frosty Sparkle, beads, metallic foiled cardstock.

I thought that it would be easier to explain to you how I made this card in a video, so I hope you'll come check it out.  Although I made this one with snowflakes, it could easily be adapted for any occasion, and for Christmas, I think a wreath of poinsettias, gifts, or Christmas greenery would all be fun.  So just check your stash to see what you already have.  To watch the video, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

 

 

This is the second card, and I'm sure you can see how easy it was to create as I just used some leftovers from the wreath card above.  I adhered the alcohol inked acetate onto some white cardstock and then matted that with the silver foil cardstock, and repeated the matting a second time.  The snowflake is from the Large Christmas Snowflake die set, and I cut an outline layer from a light blue vellum.  The sentiment was embossed with white embossing powder.  It's a much more classic style of Christmas card.

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you're having a great day!

Scary Birthday Card

Hello crafty friends, I've got a fun birthday card today for someone with an October or fall birthday. It's an interactive card as the ghosts are all on swing mechanisms and move when the card is shaken.

I've used the "Ghosts" stamp set from Gerda Steiner Designs for this one.  My card is 5 1/2 " x 5 1/2" square, so slightly bigger than normal.  I started by creating the background.  I used Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Sparkles Powder in Wild Plum, Pumpkin Patch and Cut Grass.  These are those fun shimmer powders that you sprinkle on, mist with water and wait to see what happens.  It's a lot like alcohol inks - no two pieces turn out the same.  Once I had the colour that I wanted, I set it aside to dry.

I used some Copic markers in BV23, CO and C1 to colour in the ghosts, and then fussy cut them out.  The cemetary is from a "Graveyard" die set from Creative Expressions and I cut it from black cardstock.  I also cut a few clouds from white cardstock as they were needed to hide the swing mechanisms.  Once the background was dry, I glued the cemetary in place, and white heat embossed the sentiment which is from the Ghost stamp set. 

The swing mechanisms are easy to make and no special dies are required.  I used a piece of packaging acetate from a die set.  Using a regular paper punch, I punched a hole near the top left corner of the acetate.  I then cut a strip of the acetate just slightly wider than the hole, and just rounded the outside top edges around the hole.  The picture may help explain this better.

  

I then doubled up some foam tape, and used the same hole punch to punch out a piece of the tape. This foam tape fits inside the circle on the acetate, so if it feels too tight, you can use the paper punch to slightly enlarge the hole.  The acetate needs to be able to swing freely.  Next, I decided where I wanted my ghosts to go on the card front, and placed the acetate strips there.  I removed the backing paper from the circle pieces of foam tape, and placed them inside the acetate circles.  Then I used double sided tape to adhere the ghosts where I wanted them to go on the acetate strips, and trimmed the long side of the strips so they didn't stick out from behind the ghost.  If you want your ghosts to have a lot of movement, you can attach a penny to the back of the ghost which gives it more weight (I used regular cellophane tape to attach mine).  To prevent the strips from falling off the card, I attached the clouds over the foam circles and added a little more doubled up foam tape above the swing mechanisms to help support the clouds.  You want to be careful where you put the foam tape as you don't want to impede the acetate from swinging.  That being said, if the ghosts swing too much, you may want to put a little piece of doubled foam tape under the cloud to block some of the movement. Just play around with it until you have them moving the way you want them to.  It's not hard, I promise you, but it is a lot of fun.  

 

Before attaching the card front, I stamped the inside sentiment and added the extra two ghosts.  Finally, I glued the card front to the base and then played with the swinging ghosts.  I hope you'll give this a try as it's a lot of fun!  Thank you so much for stopping by. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flourish Wedding Card

Hello and welcome back!  I've got a wedding card to share with you today and it's a really sparkly one!  Much better in real life, but hopefully, you can see some of the sparkle.

Supplies Used: Paper Rose Products - Flourish Circle Metal Cutting Die 26917, Lydia's Blooms Stamp Set 25852, Juliet's Blooms Stamp Set 25840, Little Swirls 6x6" Stencil 19724, Black & White A5 12pc Sentiment Sheets 19023.  Other Supplies - Cosmic Shimmer Ultra Sparkle Paste in Frosty Sparkle, Cosmic Shimmer Colour Cloud ink in Lush Pink and Lemon Meringue, Prills for flower centres.  (Copic Markers used: Red Flowers - RV25, RV23, RV21 Yellow Flowers - Y38, Y19, Y 23, Leaves G46, G43, YG01).

I started this card by working on the background as it needed to dry before assembly.  I applied the Lemon Meringue ink, starting from the bottom of the card front with a heavier application, and blending to a lighter layer towards the top. Next, I placed the stencil over top and blended on the Lush Pink ink, again blending with a heavier layer towards the bottom and lighter at the top.  I cleaned off the stencil and reapplied it in the same position.  I then spread on the Ultra Sparkle paste over the entire card front, and then immediately removed the stencil and cleaned it off.  This paste is very aptly named because it really sparkles and I love moving this card in the light to see all that sparkle.

While the card front was drying, I used the Copic markers listed above to colour in the stamped images, and then fussy cut them out. I had yellow Prills for the flower centres, but used some Copic marker refill in a small piece of aluminum foil I had shaped into a pouch, to re-colour the Prills. I used BV08 and E79 to colour the Prills. Once these were dry, I applied some glue to the flower centres and added the Prills.

Next, I evenly spaced the Flourish circle dies (there are two) within each other and taped them down. Here's a little tip - I use Scotch Wall Safe tape for all my die cutting as it's the perfect tackiness and never tears my paper, yet holds up to repeated die cutting.  I then cut these circles out of white cardstock four times.  On two of the inside die cuts, I carefully cut out the flourish and glued these together.  I glued the other two complete inside circles together also.  For the outer circles, I glued three of these together for extra dimension.

To assemble the card, I adhered the now dry card front to my card base.  I figured out the arrangement I wanted, and then glued the cut-out flourish in place.  Then I glued the outer and inner flourishes down, before adding the flowers and leaves.  I added some double sided foam to the flowers to help them stay level with the frame.  Finally, I cut out the sentiment from the Black and White Sentiment  sheet and added glue to the outer edges before placing it over the circle.

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you're having a happy, creative day!