Monthly Archives: November 2015

Lighthearted Leaves

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Today’s card is for a challenged at CanYouCaseIt where you have to use neutrals, yellows and browns. A good challenge for me since brown tends to stay in the box, unused.

Stampin' Up! Lighthearted Leaves and Sweet Li'l Things DSP

Here’s the banner for the challenge:

CYCI#95

I had started playing around with the DSP from Sweet Li’l Things and hello honey and I already had the DSP glued to the cardbase. But the card refused to continue in the direction of a congratulations card (possibly, in retrospect, because I’d mistakenly grabbed crushed curry and it didn’t look right with the hello honey) so I got out lighthearted leaves. I really like this set and am disappointed that it’s retiring at the end of the year. Another good reason to use it!

I stamped it in early espresso on very vanilla (to match the DSP) and cut it out with the framelits. I then coloured it in with hello honey, crumb cake and early espresso. I played around with different colours for the sentiment (I have spares cut out now for a future project) and finally settled on early espresso. This was cut out using the greetings thinlits dies using the precision plate which makes it so much easier than having to cut several times and use wax paper. It takes just once through the big shot and the sentiment pops right out. It still needs a little cleaning of the wispy bits of card, but it’s minimal. I used the fine tip glue pen to glue the sentiment on – another great tool that makes life much easier. If you’re trying to glue something that is.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Paper Pumpkin November 2015 Alternate

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Firstly I’d like to thank the ladies at CAS Colours and Sketches for selecting my card as a weekly winner. It’s a lovely surprise to go to the site to check on the next challenge and find that my card was one of the winners.

For anyone who knows my style of carding, today’s card may come as a bit of a surprise. Not only does it have ribbon, there’s also an embellishment!

Stampin' Up! Paper Pumpkin November 2015 Mistletoe and Holly

This card started with the stamp set from this month’s Paper Pumpkin and some spare time that I grabbed by leaving my brother to do the cooking! I had the card almost complete by the time our friend arrived for dinner. I gold embossed the JOY onto a scrap of cherry cobbler card stock and then cut it out with one of the square framelits. I then cut a piece of gold foil with the next largest framelit and glued the two together. Then there was a fair amount of thought as to what was going to happen next. The container of reindeer clips was close and that looked possible but there was still something missing. I’m still surprised that I grabbed ribbon – although it’s much easier to do so these days with my custom built ribbon holder right in front of me. Once I’d determined that I was adding ribbon, I decided that I needed another piece of cherry cobbler as the card front so that the ribbon could be attached between the front and the card base. I don’t like seeing the ends of ribbon inside the card. First I embossed the sentiment in gold (also from the Paper Pumpkin Mistletoe and Holly set) before wrapping the ribbon around the piece of cherry cobbler and attaching it securely with fast fuse. I then glued this to the card base. The JOY square is popped up on dimensionals giving room for the reindeer clip to be attached.

The card fits in with the theme at the Global Design Project this week, so I’m entering it there.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Paper Pumpkin November 2015

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I was really excited to get home and play with this month’s Paper Pumpkin; I left my brother to do the cooking and broke out the box! I pretty much had a card designed by the time our friend came over for dinner. I’ll share it with you tomorrow. But for today, here’s the video showing this month’s kit, Mistletoe and Holly. I think I’ll be making these cards up later today – unless I save them to make with some friends.

If you didn’t sign up to get this box of fun, you can sign up today and hope that this kit becomes available for purchase by subscribers. But at least you wouldn’t be missing next month’s box.

In case you’re new to Paper Pumpkin and aren’t entirely sure of the details, here’s what the monthly kit in a box subscription is all about:

  • Each month you receive a unique, surprise kit with a project. It’s colour-coordinated and everything is cut for you
  • Each kit includes stamps, ink, paper, and accessories – everything but adhesive.
  • Each kit gives you about a 30 minute creativity escape.
  • Your Paper Pumpkin ships around the 15th of the month.
  • You need to sign up for a kit by the 10th of the month to get that month’s kit. If you sign up on the 11th of the month, your first kit will come the next month.
  • A Paper Pumpkin membership is $19.95 per month (and shipping is included!) There’s no commitment, you can cancel your monthly Paper Pumpkin at anytime. You can also skip a month if you want.
  • Just click on the Paper Pumpkin button on the left to sign up.
  • The fun of it is that you never know what you’re going to get, but there’s always a stamp set. Once you’re an active subscriber you can also buy old kits and refills where available.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Holly Jolly Greetings

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There’s a great challenge on a the Paper Players this week – a CAS Christmas card, of which I’ve made a number of lately.

Stampin' Up! Holly Jolly Greetings and Christmas Greetings thinlits

I made this at the crop that I attended recently and the card all started with the red enamel dot. I was determined to actually use one. My fellow stampers were all waiting for me to announce that I was going to put the dot back in the package, (and I may have threatened it!) but I persevered. I first tried stamping a deer image and using the dot as the nose, but it was too big. I’m happy about that because I really like how this one came out. I heat embossed the snowflake from Holly Jolly Greetings using gold embossing powder on very vanilla (don’t forget the embossing buddy!). The new precision plate made quick work of cutting out the merry from Christmas greetings thinlits in gold foil. I used my pick me up tool to help position the enamel dot exactly where I wanted it. The tool has something like blu-tak in it so it holds onto embellishments but not so hard that you struggle to get it to let go. Perfect for this use.

I then mounted the very vanilla onto a real red card base and finished off the card by making the envelope coordinate. I’m still working my way through my retired backgrounds DSP, cutting out the liner with the Envelope Liners framelits. These are definitely my most used framelits since they are used on almost every card.

My Paper Pumpkin arrived yesterday. 🙂 I got a nice surprise when I emptied the mailbox around 9pm. I’m hoping to play with it tonight.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Paper Pumpkin October 2015 Alternative 7

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I found a piece of mossy meadow cardstock that I’d stamped with the leaves from Blissful Bouquet, the Paper Pumpkin October 2015 set. The plan had been to make some kind of DSP with it but other card had been put on top of it and it disappeared. Until last night.

Stampin' Up! Blissful Bouquet and Expressions Natural Elements

I took my gold marker (Stampin’ Up! have retired theirs but sharpies work) and coloured in a few of the leaves at random and I really liked the effect. Unusually I decided to mat it in black and glue that all to a mossy meadow card base before I’d figured out the rest of the card. Even more unusually – and in direct contradiction to what I said yesterday – after trying a few things to add to the front of the card, I settled on my unused pack of Expressions Natural Elements. Everything else covered up too much of my home made DSP.  The natural wood colour didn’t work so I pressed the wooden piece into my versamark and then sprinkled it with gold embossing powder. Apparently I wasn’t thinking ahead too much because this is when I went looking for what to put it on in order to heat it. I was going to use a punch since they’re metal, but my brother objected since there’s a plastic covering. Good call. Because when I got a metal lid and used that, the heat gun blew the word all over the place so the lip of the lid is what saved my piece. Martin suggested, once I was finished, that he has some fine sandpaper in the basement which I could use next time to hold the wooden word in place. Good idea. I’m really pleased with how this came out and even more happy that I have used a previously “hard to use” element. Should I try a wooden snowflake or Rudolph paper clip next?

See you tomorrow,

Liz