A Birthday Booklet

 

I wanted to send something a little different from a card to someone when I saw this tutorial on the Twigs and Tomes Channel on You Tube. It uses 2 sheets of 6x6 paper and there is only a tiny amount of wastage. As it turned out I recently bought a 12 x 12 paper pad from The Works that I wanted to use so I cut a couple of sheets to size before I started.

I followed the very simple instructions - just a few cuts and folds - and then added some more tags/inserts to complete it. Here's a quick flip-through showing the completed project.

Everything was edged with Memento toffee crunch and the Versafine onyx black ink was clear heat     embossed.                                                                                                                                                     

Here's a shot of the tags and bits that are tucked away:

A Warm Card for a Wet Day

 As I type this there is a thunderstorm raging outside and it is pelting down with rain - so much for our glorious summer! This card will hopefully bring some warmth and sunshine if you are suffering similar weather.

The background was made with DOs - crackling campfire, wilted violet, fossilized amber and peeled paint. I sprinkled some water over it and when dry I overstamped with a TH background stamp in Stazon pigment white. The script stamp is by Paper Artsy as is the small circles stamp.

The yellow card was a small sample scrap that was sent with an order. I used a Sizzix staggered chevrons 3D embossing folder over it and added a TH wildflower die.

I mounted it all on a white card blank edged with a yellow alcohol marker.

Old School

Whilst trying to come up with a headline for this post the only thing I could think of was 'old school' because there's something about the layout of this card that feels very old school. I wanted to use this old Hero Arts stamp and cut flower which was one of the first stamp and die sets I ever bought. 

I stamped the image with Memento toffee crunch and  used a coral Triblend marker to colour the flowers. I diecut the coloured image and 4 others from plain card to stack. These were stuck onto a co-ordinating orange label die cut. Some orange dotted patterned paper was stuck onto half the front of a card blank and the label was added. The sentiment is from a Marianne die set, cut from white card and coloured with the darkest coral Triblend marker.

Monthly Tag Challenge - July

 

I'm quick off the mark this month because I knew what I wanted to do as soon as I saw the theme (which doesn't happen very often). The theme was 'Moon & Stars' and my first thought was a galaxy background. My second thought was to use a new die I bought recently - Birds and Stars by Pete Hughes for Sizzix.

I cut out my 8cm x 14cm tag and then used the star die. This die cuts the shapes into the card and gives you lots of small stars as well. I randomly applied mustard seed, picked raspberry, seedless preserves and cracked pistachio DIs with my blending brushes and then went over everything with Versafine onyx black. Some white acrylic paint was flicked over and then I backed the whole tag with silver card. I added a few of the white waste stars for a little contrast and used a scrap of silver card to cut out a crescent moon. The sentiment was a magazine freebie which I double heat embossed in silver. The tag was edged with black ink and a silver ribbon added.

It's been a long time since I've made any tags and I'm really enjoying it.

A Mopped up Thanks

 

I had a scrap piece of card that I used to mop up some spare Distress Inks that I had used for another project. I wanted to test out a Gemini word die and made the result up into a quick card. I cut the word out keeping all the waste and used foam pads on the back of the word. Having put it into place I fitted the small waste pieces and added a few sequins to finish.

I like the fact that you only see the message clearly when you look at the card from the side.

Stencils from Layering Dies

 Shortly after buying the layering die set I used in my previous post I watched this video by the awesome Jennifer McGuire on using layering dies as stencils. She always gives lots of alternative options on the main theme of the video but I decided to just try out the basic idea which is to die cut the layers and use them as stencils on a card. I used seedless preserves and picked raspberry DIs for the layers and also used stencils made from the 2 centre dies that I didn't use on my previous card. I thought a big bold sentiment would be enough and used a Gemini die with some sparkly purple sticky backed plastic that I've had for ages. I used a purple alcohol ink marker to edge the white card blank to finish it off.

Peacock Colours

 I bought a Sizzix layering die set called Kaleidoscope Layers recently. It's a set of 4 dies 2 of which I have used on this card (the other 2 are for the centre space). I went with peacock colours for the 2 layers and mounted it on a black card blank after trying various colours. The black gave the most impact and showed off the 2 layers the best. I added some gems and a Marianne die sentiment in the centre.