Sunshine Bear Mini Flip Slider Card

Hi there! Today I’ve got a birthday card that features the sweetest, little bear from the brand new “Hello Sunshine” stamp set from Gerda Steiner Designs. I chose to make this into a birthday card, but there are some really nice sentiments in the set that would make it suitable for a “hello” card as well. My card also has what I’m calling a mini flip slider mechanism which is quite simple to make, and there are no dies required. I had the thought - “What’s better than one smiling bear on a card?” Well, that would be four smiling bears on a card!! And so the mini flip slider came into play.  :)  

I’ve got a video for you of how I made the flip slider so if you would like to see how I created it, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

I borrowed that little bunny and his presents from the GSD “Birthday Bear” stamp set as I thought he would go so well with this bear.  The banner is from Whimsy Stamps and is called the Slimline Bunting Banner die set. I’ve listed the copic markers I used down below. Thank you so much for joining me, and I hope you’re having a great day! 

Copic markers used:

Light Brown Bear - E35, E34, E53, E51  Sign - BV04, BV02, BV01

Dark Brown Bear - E59, E57, E23, E31 Sign - G94, G82, G20

Black Bear - N6, N4, N2, N0 Sign - BG 72, B52, BG000

Grey Bear - W7, W5, W3, W1 Sign - YR21, YR31, YR20

Bunny - W1, W2, W3, E40, R00, R20

Shaking up Some Positivi-Tea

Hi everyone and welcome!  I’ve got a shaker card for you today that features the new Gerda Steiner Designs stamp set called Positivi-Tea.  This is such a sweet stamp set and makes such an uplifting card that can be sent to anyone during these difficult times when we’re all trying to stay healthy and sane. 

This is the front of the card and as you can see, it’s got a shaker element to it. I’ve die cut the shaker frame several times from a Sunny Studios Frilly Frames Herringbone die, but any frame die would work here. I backed it with a purple pearl cardstock and filled it with some coordinating shaker elements. Since I wanted to have a fun inside element, I’ve only added the sentiment and this sweet bear to the front of the card. I coloured him with alcohol markers (listed below), and mounted him just at the side of the card. I white heat embossed the hearts on the cup and teapot from a small heart stamp I found in my stash. 

So for the inside fun, I’ve added the little mouse with his tea set, complete with a used tea bag! I coloured and fussy cut them out before adding them to the card.  I love that inside sentiment and I think it’s just such a nice, inspiring message to send anyone. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you’re having a great day! 

Alcohol markers used:

Bear - Spectrum Noir in BG 7, BG 5, BG3. Copic markers in C1, C0, R00

Mouse - Copic C2, C1, C0, R00

Tea Set - Copic B66, B63

Tea Bag - Copic E25, E31, E53, Colourless blender 0. 

Acetate Embellishments from Laminating Pouches with Video

Hello and welcome! I’ve been on a bit of a laminating streak lately and I’ve got a few cards to share with you today that all use embellishments made from laminating pouches.  This is a slightly different post today because I mainly wanted to share with you how to create these embellishments rather than to make a card. I do have several card examples to show you though, so I hope you’ll hang in there with me. I’ve got a video of how I made these so if you would like to see it, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

I have an inexpensive laminator and laminating pouches, all from Amazon. I typically start by cutting my pouch in half lengthwise as I feel I waste less this way. I open the pouch and apply alcohol inks to one side of the pouch. I find the ink doesn’t move as easily as it does on Yupo paper or a glossy cardstock, so I probably use more blending solution than normal. I use a hand held air blower to help move the ink around and I try to leave about a half an inch to inch around the edges free of ink. Once the ink is dry, you can close it up, put it in a parchment carrier and run it through the laminator. However, I should note that you can also use a stamp and a pigment ink to stamp an image on the other half of the inside pouch.  The ink must dry though or it will smudge when it goes through the laminator. The other options I have found for stamping, are after laminating, to use a Stazon type ink, or to emboss a stamped image with Versamark ink and embossing powder ( don’t forget to use an anti-static powder bag before stamping). Also, if you stamp after laminating, check both sides of the pouch because often, one side is a little nicer than the other.  

Once you have laminated the pouch, you can die cut images from it or fussy cut around stamped images. I find I save even the small scraps to cut small butterflies or hearts from. On the example above, I stamped the butterfly with white Stazon ink, and after cutting it out, I creased along the edges of the body on my scoreboard. I found that when I folded along the creases and scored it, the butterfly seemed to separate slightly along the fold. I fixed this by putting it back in a parchment carrier and ran it through the laminator again. I have even made some see-through windows with these as well as shaker cards.  There are just so many possibilities!  I have some more card examples below to give you a few more ideas.  I really hope you’ll give this technique a try and share your work! 

Hedgehog Valentines Card

Hello everyone, I’ve got a fun little Valentines Day card to share with you today. I’ve used the sweet “Hedgehog with Gifts” stamp set from Gerda Steiner Designs to create this card. 

The background was made from ink blending on my card front with Distress Oxide inks in Worn Lipstick and Tattered Rose and then I splattered it with some gold and silver Starry Colours paints from Tsukineko. I die cut the border with one of the “Hearstrings” border dies from Sunny Studios. I mounted this on my card base and then stamped and clear embossed the sentiment below it on the card base.  The sentiment is from the “Valentine Penguins” stamp set from Gerda Steiner Designs. 

I copic coloured the hedgehogs and added a few eyelashes and a hair bow to the hedgehog I chose to be a girl. I also added a few hearts to the gift to add to the valentines theme. I used a craft knife to cut around the the hand that holds the gift on the male hedgehog, so I could put the ribbon behind his hand. I found the flowers as a small extra stamp in in one of my stamp sets and added that to his other hand. I mounted both the hedgehogs on foam tape and attached them to the background. Finally, I die cut some hearts from foiled cardstock and added them around the hedgehogs. 

I hope you’re having a great day and thanks for joining me today. 

Copic markers used: Body - C1, C2, E40, R00  Back - W7, W5, W2, N4, E53

Masculine Valentines Day Card with Video

Hello, and welcome back. I’ve got a Valentines Day card today that I think is a masculine one.  Every year I get excited about making some pretty pink and red Valentines cards with hearts and flowers, but come Valentines Day, none of these seem appropriate for my husband! So I tried hard not to get out the pink and reds for this one, except for a wee pop of pink on the inside. 

If you would like to see a video of how I made this card, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

I used the cutest frogs I could find, which were the “Frogs” stamp set from Gerda Steiner Designs and used copic markers to colour them in (YG11, YG03, YG17 and G20. For the spots, G94, YG67).  I had a background already made on my gel press so I used that for the background. I just ran it through a geometric 3D embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers after I had stamped on the sentiment which is from the Frogs stamp set. There is actually much more dimension on this card than the above image shows. The white frame is the Wood Frame from Hero Arts and once I had that attached, I adhered the card front to the base. 

For the heart, I dabbed the wet edges in some Distress Oxide ink in Tumbled Glass, Old Paper and Evergreen Bough. On the back, I spritzed the center with water and then carefully tore a hole in the heart. From the front, I kept pulling back the edges until I had a big enough hole for the frog to come out of. I was hoping to make it look like the frog was bursting out of the heart. After attaching the frog and his hands, I mounted the heart on foam adhesive and attached it to the front. Finally, I added some alcohol ink acetate hearts to make it look like the hearts were falling out of the bigger heart. 

On the inside, I used some packaging acetate to cut a 1/2 - 3/4” wide strip for the frog to be mounted on, and used another small piece to attach some hearts above the fogs’ head. I attached all of the acetate with double sided tape and then glued a second diecut behind the frog to sandwich in the acetate. 

For the border, I used two pieces of cardstock, each with a scoreline I made at 1/4” from the bottom, and die cut a cattails border. The back piece needs to be a reverse image, so I diecut this with the wrong side of the cardstock facing up. This border can be anything you want - I think grass, hills or even a heart border would be fun. When I had the border cut, I turned the flaps to the back and creased them with a bone folder. I placed 1/8” double sided tape along the flap. Next, I adhered the leaping frog to the back border piece, glueing it where it touched the grass, and using double sided tape at the bottom. Then I glued the front border to the back border by only glueing together the top third to half of the borders. You need to leave the bottom unattached so it will form the pop up. I stamped my inside sentiment next. Finally, I opened the flaps of both borders so they were straight, removed the backing from the adhesive on the back border, and lined it up so the edge ran along the inside crease on the top half of the card. After pressing it down, I removed the backing on the adhesive on the front border, closed the card and pressed down to make sure it was adhered. 

These inside pop up cards are really easy to do and they add so much fun to the inside of a card. I love that extra little surprise the recipient gets when they open the card. Thanks for joining me for this card and I hope you’re having a great day!

Bee Happy Birthday Card

Hello and happy New Year to all of you!  Hopefully, 2021 will be a much more positive, happy year for all of us.  

I’ve got a birthday card today that I actually made for my mom who has just moved into a new retirement home at the beginning of December. With two weeks of quarantining and not being allowed to visit family over Christmas, it’s been a tough start for her. So I wanted a cheerful, happy card for her and I hope you’ll think this one fits the bill.

I made the background by using alcohol inks in a laminating folder (I originally had intended to do something else), but the alcohol ink on either acetate or Yupo paper would also work.  I used Ranger inks in Teakwood, Pearl Alchemy, and Butterscotch.  Once it was dry, I ran it through my laminator and cut it down to fit my frame size.  I used a hexagon die from Papertrey Ink for the background and diecut it from gold cardstock. I trimmed out just a few of the hexagons to use on my panel.  The frame was cut from a Double Stitch Rectangle Frame die from Poppy Stamps and I also cut it from the same gold cardstock.

The bee and flower images are all from a Gerda Steiner Design stamp set called Happy Bee Day, and I just stamped multiple flower images and chose the “Bee Happy” sentiment to put in the message area on the bee. I also stamped the bee’s hands and message a second time, fussy cut it out, and then mounted the message on foam tape to give it some dimension.  Isn’t that just the happiest bee?!  I added some dark blue beads to the flower centers and a sparkle pen on the bee’s wings.  

To assemble everything, I added some foam tape to the frame and then glued everything else in place.  Thanks so much for joining me today, and I hope you’re having a great day.