Can you believe we are nearly at the end of January. When I put my finishing touches on this set of card and started photographing, I nearly panicked thinking Valentines Cards need mailed!!! But I need to make them, oh well and so it goes. This month's challenge was to use a technique that had the impression of Batik. This is easy for me. If you look over my blog's history, you will see that this is my fail proof background technique. But I need to to change it up a bit so I could show you something new. Are you ready? Well first lets make sure you have the links for the hop. You should have arrived here from Jennifer. To start at the beginning: CLICK HERE. Your stop after mine is Cheryl.
Lets start with the first group:
Stunning you say!!! Well I started out with a stack of backgrounds, seems I really like blue, green and purple because that was the only ones I liked. Since they are so "matched" I think I will turn them into a set and give as a gift. They were made the same way generally.
From my dragonfly pop up card, 2 blog posting back, I had several cutouts of the stamped dragonfly. They made the perfect stencil.
I cut them apart, put them in my Club Scrap Pizza Box and sprayed them with adhesive spray. What I learned was don't leave them too long, spray, apply, emboss and get them off the background or they will be permanently adhered.
Next I arranged them on my papers and using an ink blending tool, embossing ink, covered the inside of the stencil. Moving from the outside in.
Closer view: I prefer the Ranger Embossing ink for this technique. One I have the reinker, makes it easier to get the goo where I want it and enough goo to do the job. Second it is a bit more sticky than other embossing ink. I prefer the other ink when I am not applying to a stencil. 3rd, it seems to allow the ink to move under the embossing. When I use Versamark for example, it is often solid. This is a batik like technique so I needed the bleed.
The top dragonfly shows that bleed the best. Next I sprayed inks or stains onto my craft sheet and dipped the paper into the inks. I used Broken China, Twisted Citron, Fresh Violets for my inks.
On tip that I often miss mentioning, is an important one. When I make my first pass through the ink, I stop and heat set it. Then dip into the ink again, heat set. Add any additional color and dip again. Many times I hear that "I just get mud", these inks are water reactive, so if you heat between dips, the color remains clear. Once dry I spray with water to distress. That is it!
The next step is to get rid of the embossing powder. I have been using my Minc Put a piece white copy paper around the card, and run through the Minc on a setting of 4. Takes only one pass to clean up the embossing.
The clear on the white paper is the removed embossing powder. Quick and easy!!
For the next background I tried something different. I used Distress Micro glaze. Instead of using the dauber, I just covered the inside of the stencil with the micro glaze, being careful to not add too much. The first 2 were on water color paper, for this one, I used plain white card stock.
This looks different, more splotchy and the images are not as defined. The paper curls but I like it and it adds interest.
To finish up, I added my die cut words that were cut from Heidi Swapp glitter tape or stamped in black ink. Added some sequins to complete 3 cards that are clean and simple and will be easily mailed.
Lets look at them up close!
This is the one that I stamped.
Final card is more of the same, but I inked the background rather than dipping it into the ink.
Started out the same, Stamped in Versamark on Watercolor paper. Heat embossed in clear.
Sprayed with water and ran through the Minc. Easy!!
Next I added a ribbon, sentiment, trimmed the corners and mounted it on an A2 Pink Card base. A few sequins, finished. Simple and easy but not ordinary.
That is it for this hop, stayed tuned for next months kit and another interactive pop up card, Remember to hop along to Cheryl's Blog.just Click Here
Time for another blog hop, seems like it was just Christmas and now it is nearly the end of January which means I had better get started on my Valentines. Oh well, so it goes. Before we jump into my cards, you should have arrived from Cheryl, and if you got lost along the way Click Here.
So lets get stated. The kit this month was color me happy. Included in the kit, besides the wonderful paper and stamps, was 2 sheets of 12 X 12 Yupo paper. Yupo is weird paper that is really a plastic that is porous. It accepts Alcohol inks like no other. So, after my laborious task of creating the pop up, in my previous post (take a look if you haven't) I decided to Yupo my way through this blog hop
I pulled out my Ranger Alcohol Ink and my Copic Various (these are the same as the alcohol inks, but ofter a bit softer, 70% isopropyl alcohol and my Copic Blending Solution. I had intended to use the ranger blending solution, bleach out areas, but unfortunately, I could find my bottle no where, oh well, I had plenty to play with. And play I did. I cut up my Yupo into useable pieces and just started dropping on ink. Some I blew through a straw, some I added alcohol or blending solution and some went into the trash. After a fun time, this is what I decided to keep.
Card 1:
I love this card, it is classy, elegant and perfectly flat for mailing.
I started with the top image, but 1/2 way through I lost one of my panels and started over with the bottom one. I should not be so messy and I wouldn't lose things!!
I cut this panel into 4th, then chose the parts that I like and using a 1.5 " square cute out the Yupo background. I mounted this onto slightly smaller fun foam and centered them on a blue cardstock from kit, using a 1.75 inch die. Placed the 4 squares onto a white card base and then onto the same blue cardstock in an A2 size. I added some sequins in blue. Lastly Stamped and embossed the Thank you on Velum and centered it between the top and bottom panels. Lovely I think.
Card 2:
Well this was the most fun and little "out there".
My Background!
My card.
I doodles all over the background with a black pen and a silver pen.
Then I glued little gems and enamel dots onto the "flowers".
Double click for a close up view.
I found a blue "dot or circle" in another panel, cut it out, doodled it into a flower and popped it into the corner on a wiggler. Added a dragonfly (made the same was as in the pop up blog post, added a sentiment. Placed it on a white A2 card base. Voila!!
Card 3:
The background on this card said it all. Nothing else required. That is often the hardest with these cards. When you just want it that background to be the whole card. Trying to add something, often detracts from the background.
Let's see what I did.
Not bad!!
How did I make this. First it is mostly Copic Various liquid. My secret tool to create this flowing image. . . . . .
A Straw!!!!!!
So you drop on your ink and blow like crazy. It dries rapidly and does not pool. A dry air can, the kind you use to clean electronics works as well, but moves things way fast, sometimes too fast.
Almost looks like a flower. Very soft, and subtle compared to the Ranger Alcohol inks.
Trimmed it up a bit, added a black ribbon and sequins.
The sentiment is perfect!
Stamped and fussy cut the tag, using the letters to guide the shape
Traced around the stamped tag and roughly cut it out.
Adhered the tag onto the shadow layer and trimmed it up more
This was popped up on fun Foam . Done!!
Thank you for stopping by. Your next stop is: Jennifer
As I have said before, I love popup cards or interactive cards. I am fascinated by the movement. There are many cards and dies available for simple pop ups, but I want movement. I have been collecting books on Pop Ups for some time, but I am basically lazy and have always relied on others to do the hard work, figuring it out. Karen Burniston is a master at Pop up cards. Her last major die release for Elizabeth began that journey of moving mechanisms, and I used that die on several of my recent cards and posting. Twist-circle-pop-up.
I have followed Karen as she moved from Sizzix to Elizabeth Craft, and as I was anxiously awaiting her new product line, hoping to have more dies that incorporated movement at CHA, I learned that there will be no new releases beause she is no longer designing for EZ and has yet to find a home.
So, I decided to forge a path and start a posting about how to make these magical cards. So over the next few months, I am going to teach you about the basic mechanisms and how they are created to make your cards move. Hope you will enjoy this exploration. There is much experimentation with this process, but that in itself is magical. . . . . . . .
Are you ready.
Here is a video of the card I made for this posting.
This card is based on Parallelograms, What you say? Simple little boxes but provide a foundation of movement for many different mechanisms.
The parallelogram is a rectangle with 3 parallel folds.
The folds can be anywhere just parallel and when folded must be rectangular and not square.
The center of the card is the gutter and is where all movement comes from.
By not placing the backing cards up to the fold and leaving this area open allows for increased opening of the card. If you look at the video, the first demo shows the large dragonfly popping up. This is because the fold is allowed to open up flat.
In this card the Parallelogram will span the center fold. With glueing flaps folded (the end tabs) place the center line on the fold with the shortest tab to the left
Mark the end of the tab.
The next step is the most critical. Flip the rectangle over and place the long end on the mark and glue down.
When glued down this will be flat and span the fold.
That is all there is to a parallelogram. Each of those folds now become another fold to add more mechanisms to. Or can be used to create action, which is what I did.
Here is the parallelogram in place. In the small box I fold two triangles and the back folded to create "arm placements". This was done before glueing down. So the first step discussed was to just create a platform. This folding step is optional and is used to create movement.
With me so far? Just get out some scrap paper and make the model and play with the paper and folds. It truly is magical that a simple piece of paper can make other paper move.
Here I made a simple parallelogram with the fold and added arms to check movement.
I knew that I needed movement at the top and bottom which is why there are two folds in my parallelogram. On which part of the triangle the "arm" is place will determine the movement.
Ok that is all for the details of parallelograms. In the next installment we will explore another mechanism. Lets get onto the finishing of this card.
The Process of Creating:
Before I started the card I made a rough model of what I wanted.
I basically take paper and start adding. I began with a single parallelogram with fold, shown holding dragonfly (small) and arm for movement. Then I cut an opening in another piece of paper for the large dragonfly and attached a dragonfly. Open and closed a few times and decided this worked.
Onto a white paste up model
Here the measurements are being refined. Everything must fit into the card. How much movement I needed would determine the finished card. Those dimensions are marked not the backing.
Measurements are penciled in. Everything works. I need a minimum of a 5 X 6 card. So my finished card will be based on that measurement. To make it less square, I added 1/2 inch to height and so the finished card is 5 X 61/2 inches.
With all the measurements in hand I started construction. I ended up adjusting only slightly. One major adjustment was moving the folds on the parallelogram so they met at the center and eliminated the arm for the large dragonfly.
The card:
Stamped and heat embossed in black the 2 dragonflies, these were cut out with my Brother Scan n Cut. I also stamped and heat embosssed in Platinum and a sparkling powder on Vellum and fussy cut. These were glued together over the body.
The larger Dragonfly wings were colored with a coating of Wink of Stella for glimmer.
Assembly begins. Parallelogram is cut from 80# white cardstock, the rest from the designer paper.
I cut a triangle into a piece of paper and this will fold down and elevate the Large Dragonfly.
This is the back side of this mechanism with all the score tape to hod it down.
This is the mechanism. We will explore this in future blogs as it is the bases for another whole array of movement. I just created a triangle. Cut on the straight sides and folded it on the other set set of lines. This will fold flat and move the dragonfly out of the way when closed and pop up when opened..
Almost done. Both Dragonflies fly and move. Last step is the sun. I Stamped heat embossed and fussy cut it out, then colored with copics. It is attached to the upper part of the parallelogram.
This folds in towards the center and the small dragonfly moves away from the center.
Ok, lets take a few looks at all the parts finished. What you can't see in the video, but get a hint at, is the wings on both dragonflies are loose, they flutter when the card is opened. A product of thin vellum and heaving embossing.
The rest of the card!!
The front. I cut a backing sheet that would cover the card and leave enough to fold over to create a pocket for the magnets. First adhered the back part of the base card to this base.
The flap has been covered with Score tape, magnets are stuck into the score tape and then flap folded over. A ribbon place into the Channel before sealing. The other side of the magnets are attached with glue dots to the front, then the backing sheet is attached to the card base, sealing in all the magnets and finishing the front.
The sentiment was created by by stamping the work happy and then using another stamp, masked out all the words except Be, and stamped above the happy.
Don't forget to remove the masking before stamping!!
All that was left was to die cut, add a bow and some embellishments, Finished!!!
Hope you enjoyed this long post and that I have inspired you to look at making your own Interactive Cards,
See you Soon,
Happy Crafting
Josette.
Links:
Book Used: Pops Up by Duncan Birmingham. He has many videos on face book that shows the creation of these mechanisms. Just Google Duncan Birmingham. There are other great pop up engineers on You Tube as well and a quick walk through he pop up box section in your local bookstore is an immense source of inspiration. The Harry Potter Pop up is my Favorite and of course Starwars. But it is the simpler pop up books that lend themselves to us card makers.
