Team Challenge Time at Club Scrap

This month the challenge was to create  projects using a stamp set that was included in out kit.  Lovely florals and sentiments that are always needed.    But first lets get our hopping instructions out of the way.  You should have arrived from  Jennifer or Click Here to start at the beginning.

Ok lets start by looking at the stamps.

Stamped Bouquet

I decided to stick with one layer simple cards, that are easy to mail.  I think I am stuck on pink.  I have to tell you a good story about Pink.  My daughter is a Paralympian and pink is her trade mark color.  Everything is pink, from her wheelchair to her clothes, for both her and her horse.  Well, her trainer complained and said she needed to wear red white or blue, pink was just un-American.  Her reply:  So is Victoria Secret  un-American?  Seems she is pretty well entrenched in the American Culture.  No response, so onward we go with Pink.. 

Card 1"

This is about as simple as it gets.  I used my baby powder trick, see this months blog hop and heat embossed in white.  Then using Distress Ink, Worn Lipstick, sponged on with the goal of an ombre effect.  Added the Sentiment, a few sequins for bling, done.  This was layered on an A2 white Card base.  Not much is needed for the happy card!!

Card 2

This is my favorite!!! I love it.  I used black card stock and Distress Oxide in Wilted violet for the beauty. 

I am starting to stamp here.  The thing about oxide, is they need a bit of water to "glow" but the challenge is to get just enough and not have the ink run and ruin the effect.  Took some time to get this right.  Distance is the key, get a good 2 feet away before spritzing.

Background finished and spritzed.  Hard to see in the photo, but look at the ends of the flowers, the color difference is the result of water misting.  

Final steps.  Die cut a butterfly, using score tape on the base, then adding the detail cutout in gold and sprinkling with warm diamond micro glitter from Elizabeth Craft. 

A sentiment, simple one, a little ribbon and a few rhinestones finishes it off.

Here is a closer look.  The Purple, Gold, with white on black is stunning.   And well, oops it is not Pink,  What was I thinking,  Well all the Blog Hop cards were mostly pink, so 5 out of 6 in pink, I'm Good!!!!

Card 3:

This one nearly went into the trash.  But maybe we learn from mistakes.  Lets take a look and talk about this one.

In this picture it looks nice, up close it looks nice, but when I first finished it, well not.  There is a "big" paper crafter that makes the most amazing florals with Real Markers.  She makes it look easy.  Well guess what , I seriously think photo shop or lighting is a factor.  Even when I use the very same paper and follow the same process, it never looks right.  Always a little "washed out".  That is what happened with this one.  So What Happened?  

I did not want a no line, so I stamped it on Bristol Paper in black and taped down.

Got out my markers and started in with marker and water brush in hand.  The ink did not move.  This was not going to be soft and watercolored, it was going to look like I took up coloring with markers and no intention of using it.  Trash!!!

Grabbed as many different papers as I could find and tried the markers and water on all of them until I found one that I could move the ink.  Turned out to be Aquarell by Canson, not my favorite paper, but the ink sits on top long enough to get it to move.  

So!!  I grabbed my Distress in Iced Spruce, stamped and started coloring.  Oh my Gosh!!!! I grabbed Oxide and not plain distress.  It blended and moved and stayed and didn't fade into the background.  But, it could be interesting, may be antiqued looking?

So I colored on.  But I lost all my detail and the flowers were just blobs of pale greyed out blobs.  Now what!!!!   Fine line markers to the rescue!!!

I doodled all over them.  The black pen is my favorite and was included in last months kit.  I also used a purple fine line sharpie .  Now it looks like art, not stamping and saved the day.  I did float some of the color onto the background.  

All that was needed was a little bling, a card Base and Mat.  This is also an A@.  But I cut the flower panel way down, so more of the mat showed.  Not my favorite but definitely not trash can material.  

Well that is it for me!! Your next stop is:  Cheryl  Hope you enjoy the hop!!!

Happy Crafting,

Josette

Link to Club Scrap

A Cherry Blossom Blog Hop at Club Scrap

Welcome to the April Blog Hop.  This month the Kit was Cherry Blossom and it is a beauty.  Before starting, some housekeeping.  You should have arrived from Cheryl or to start at the beginning, Click here!

This month I decided on not too complicated and hopefully simple.  To give a good punch, I added sparkle or shine or both.

Lets take a look at the line up.

Lets start with Card 1:

This is my favorite go to background.  It is easy and quick but needs a few tricks.

The first trick is to use some form of static reducing method on your card stock.  I just dump baby powder on my paper and knock off into the trash.

Then when I apply my stamping and embossing powder, I get nice clean images.

This was embossed with versa mark and white embossing powder.

Then using Distress oxide ink in Worn lipstick and Wilted Violets, and a blending tool colorized the paper.  Then I just sprayed droplets of water to set the and blend the ink, heat dried.  Cut it down to size and ready to move to the next step.  

Using a die, I cut the background die out of cardstock with score tape on one side,  Cut the detail die out of black and attached this to the score taped background die and added white micro glitter and burnished in.  Then using copics colored the glitter.  Very sparkly and is bold enough to stand out on that busy background.  

Here is another view showing the back ground better, there are sequins and a fan from the kit.  No sentiment on the front, the kimono needs to be the focus.  This was mounted on a purple mat (included in kit) and a white A2 card base, with black ribbon.  

Ok, now for Card 2:

Another very simple card.  White card base, A2 Size, top folded.  Mat is the soft cherry blossom paper from the kit.  Difficult to see here as very subtle.  Again the Kimono is the focus.

Stamped, heat embossed in clear and fussy cut out the images.  Now if you think I am a genius with scissors, I have to confess.  These were cut out with my Brother Scan N Cut.  Oh how I love that little machine.  Has made my life so much easier and saved me from scissor phobia, lol.

Next I colored them with Copics.  To get that linen/silk look, I used Nuvo Mousse to color in the white areas.  This gives a bit of gilding without overwhelming the image.  I tried coloring in the whole Kimono with copics, but it did not "feel right", this works.

All that was left was to mount this onto the card base, add the sentiment, and stickers of Cherry Blossom.   Happy Anniversary is stamped on the inside and more stickers finish it off.

Card 3:

This is the most stunning and again very simple, well it was once I figured out the details.

This view shows the glimmer back ground paper and the big flower.  The upper photo (at the beginning of the post) gives a better picture of the details.

Anyway.  I played with punches and dies and finally settled on these.

Cherry blossoms have 5 petals and that little notch.  I used the punch, and scissors to make the notch.  Used a stylus to curl the petals, glued down and then added a sticker to the center.  Voila! Cherry Blossoms.  The big die was used for the single large flower at the front, cut out  a stamen and added a very small sticker to the center.    The branch was created by using the digital file from Club Scrap and cutting it out with my Brother Scan n Cut.

All was placed on a 5X7 card base in white, with a pink card stock and silver Vellum mats (from the kit).  I mixed the gold and silver to give interest.  Silver mat, gold stickers, gold mat, coin and ribbon.  A very elegant card, that was mailed as soon as the ink was dry to my oldest daughter for her Birthday.  Lovely card in person.  The photos do not do it justice.  It is simple and elegant.    The paper I used for the flowers was a Pink Vellum of similar type as the Silver paper for the mat.  The entire mat is held in place with glue dots so to prevent the adhesive showing through.

Another view.

Well that is all from me!!  Your next stop is Jennifer.

Stop back later and see what I created for the Team Challenge.
Happy crafting,
Josette

LInks:

Club Scrap
Cherry Blossoms Kit

A challenge card for Freshly Made Sketches

This month over at Club Scrap, the kit is delightful.  What could be better than Cherry Blossoms in April.  With the Asian Flair, the minute I opened my box, I thought of my Kimono Die that I only used once, long ago.

So lets take a look:

This is for Freshly Made Sketches.  FMS #283

This card is very straight forward.  So simple I didn't write a tutorial.  Will tell what I did.

Using the kit from April Club Scrap. Cherry Blossoms

Using the paper at the top, I  laid a die along the umbrellas and die cut.  Then trimmed it down to fit onto an A2 card base.  The Card base is white and I layered the grey shimmering velum (included in the kit behind.   Using the same dye cut a white piece that fit above the curve and stamped a sentiment.

This is how I get my stamps to curve.  I cut a little wedge where ever it is trying to buckle and then formed it to the curve.  Stamped, and added happy on top.

All that was left was to finish  the Kimono.  This took some trial and error.  I wanted it soft and delicate but bold enough to stand out.  Ended up with the pink paper in the kit and gold foil tape both ran through the die cutter and layered.  This die is from Elizabeth Craft and after doing a search, learned it is no longer available, but her stickers are still available and are the same design. Kimono Sticker.  They could easily be used in this manner and fussy cut the backing card.  

Placed on top of the court with dimensional, and added the Cherry Blossom Stickers from the kit.  

Simple, soft and elegant.  

That is it, Visit Club Scrap to see the rest of the Cherry Blossom Kit and stay tuned for our regularly scheduled Blog Hops and Team Challenge.  

Also, vist Freshly Made Sketches to see what other card makers did with this month's sketch.

Happy Crafting,

Josette

Interactive Card Tutorial: V-Fold

Hello,

Finally I am going to post the Interactive Card I made with the Succulent Kit from Club Scrap.  The mechanism we will be using is the V-Fold.  This is one of the most basic of mechanisms but is very impressive in its final form.  Adding to this we will be using the Parallelogram from a previous posting to build up our Bouquet. This is the link to the previous posting dragonfly-wings-interactive-card-pop-up, but don't panic this is a very simple step.  Basically as trip of paper with tabs.

Are you ready, this is really simple, just looks complicated.

This is the basic mechanism.  A folded piece of card, with notches formed to create tabs.  The center fold is placed in the Gutter, center fold of card.  How far apart or rather how much angle is created when the tabs are glued, determine how upright or how laid down the mechanism will be.

So with this concept I created this:

In this model, the tabs are folded under, center fold is aligned at about 90 degrees. On the final, I glued the tabs outwards.   I have placed some parallelograms to get an idea of where I was heading.    I determined that this card will be 5X7" and created the card base accordingly.  When I create a card base, I leave the center open, this gives more room for movement and makes the fold less bulky.

A different view.  The measurements are not important, this was for a different idea that I scrapped.

Next:

Found this paper in the kit.  I am going to cut my mechanism for the far left image and actually will fussy cut it out.

Used the paper that I had cut the model mechanism out (above white piece), and used it as a window to determine placement.  Traced a faint line around the opening, and using this as a guide fussy cut the mechanism.  

Ignore the white box and succulent, focus on the mechanism.  The leaves were cut around and the bottom was scored to create the tabs.  This was glued down with the center fold on the gutter and tabs out.  

This the back view.  See how that fold is right along the gutter.  

I cut several succulents from another paper and these will be used to create the bouquet.  I also created several "muscles".

This is the work horse of this project.  Strips of strong card stock was cut at about 3/4" to 1 1/4" wide.     

This was varied based on size of the piece to be glued.  The tabs were scored and folded based on how far I need it to be from the base and how tall the piece was.  

One tab butts up to the fold.  

And is then attached to what ever it will move with.  The front of the tab is where the item is attached.  

                              . 

and you just keep repeating this until you like it.

View of the side and finished opened.  The " Happy Birthday" sentiment was stamped and adhered to card base.  

Lets look at the flag:

Started out by cutting out the banner die on a piece of white card stock.

I arranged the stamp into the opening in the paper until I had a perfect fit.  One of the benefits to unmounted stamps is that they can be very easily manipulated in this manner. I use a glue by Club Scrap on the back of my stamps.  This gives me a great hold and the stamp will stay put until I peel it off my stamping device.  

My favorite mounting glue!!!  I even tear my mounted stamps apart and use this on them.  Saves space and I like it better!!

Back to my card:

Once the banner was stamped , mounted on a shadow mat, I glued it onto  a strip of paper.  My tag was mounted to one end, then I figured out where I could place it and attached it to the back of my mechanism.

The front where the tag is, is free and will move with the opening and closing of the card.  We are done.  Now for some additional pictures so you can get all the views (these are hard to photograph)

For the front:

I die cut the words, 3 times, glued them together and colored with wink of stella.  This gives a glimmer which isn't evident in the photo.  Then I arranged the left over succulents, cut a mat and added a bow.

Amazing that all those florals fit and fold inside this card.  It is relatively flat but bulky.  

Hope you enjoy,

Happy Crafting,

Josette