Thursday, December 19, 2019

Dreaming in Florida


Holiday greetings from sunny Florida!  We are actually having a relative cool snap with a low this morning of 39 and the high for today forecast to be 59 degrees.  Yay for sweater weather!  We might even get to have a fire in our fireplace!  

Last weekend our ukulele group got together to play/ring for the Salvation Army, so after singing all those songs about snow, snowmen and sleigh rides, I couldn't resist making a "dreaming of a white Christmas" card with pink flamingos for a little Florida humor.


I love these Consortium papers and the watercolor/grunge papers that coordinate with them.  I enjoy coloring but sometimes when time is short, it's nice to not have to!  Here, the only coloring necessary was to add a touch of pink and sparkle to the baubles on the already green Christmas tree.


More of that cute flamingo paper is on the inside, along with a matted sentiment from our Winter Poinsettia floral cluster set.

Supplies, all from Stamp Simply:

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Two-fer and/or His and Hers


Every once in a rare while, in that "twilight" between sleeping and waking, inspiration will strike!  That is what happened with today's Stamp Simply project!  I woke up with an idea forming in my mind and I'm excited that it turned out just as I had envisioned.  ☺️


From the outside it looks like any other top-folding standard-sized card...


...but once it is opened there's a surprise, and not just one but TWO!  It's a perfect two-fer for one person, or for his and hers gift cards.  Here's how it was made (much easier to do than it looks/sounds, so give it a try!). All you have to do is add the following to a standard sized card base.  


Score a 4 1/4 x 7 1/2 inch piece of card stock at 1/2, 2, 3 3/4, 4, 5 1/2, and 7 inches.  Fold and burnish the score lines.  The score lines near each end will be "valley" folds, and the wider sections will form the "mountain fold" pockets with two valley folds between them in the center.  


On the wrong side, carefully place a narrow line of glue along the sides of only the wider sections to seal the edges of the pockets.   


It should look like this when the glue is all set.


One pocket at a time, die-cut on the fold, centering the edge of the labels die to form the pocket opening.  You may need to run it through the machine twice to cut through the double thickness. You'll also need to snip through a small portion of the fold (not too close to the edge!) on each side with paper snips to widen the opening so that a gift card will fit inside.  


This is what the bottom of the pockets looks like.  This will be glued securely to the inside of the card with the fold of the lower pocket at approximately two inches from the bottom of the card.


I cut three pieces of designer paper to cover the mechanics of the pockets.   Here are those measurements:
  • 4 1/4 inches wide x a scant 2 inches 
  • 4 1/4 inches wide x a scant 1/2 inch
  • 4 1/4 inches wide x a scant 3 inches
Be sure to check that things open/close and lay flat before you adhere them, and if your paper is directional be sure to align everything correctly.  Isn't it kinda cool that it ends up looking so cleanly finished and almost like a single sheet again after it's glued in place?!  

Here are the supplies used for today's project:

And...I couldn't resist making an "everyday" version of this card, this time with a side fold just to see how that would work out.


The pears were stamped on a piece of Craft Consortium paper, so no coloring, just simple stamping, some clear Wink of Stella, and then fussy cutting.  Isn't the mottled color and that bit of blush just perfect?!  Serendipity.  


Again, I added designer paper to make the inside look more finished.  Here you can see the pockets without the gift cards inserted.  When cutting the decorative papers for the inside of this side-folding card, you will likely need to slightly reduce the width of the decorative paper as well, to accommodate the side fold.

If I were to do it again, I'd add another 1/4 inch to the width of the side-fold card and give it a "spine" like a book to accommodate the extra bulk.  That isn't as much an issue with top-folding as it is with the side-folding version.  

For my second card I used the same products as above, with these additions or substitutions:
I hope you'll try out a two-pocket gift card of your own!  You could easily even add more pockets if you wanted to!

Sunday, December 8, 2019

{906}


Hi y'all!  I'm back with an easy fun "Dutch Door" fold for another Yooper card.  My in-laws live in the {906} "Yooper" area code in the UP of Michigan so I'm having fun making cards with Stamp Simply's new UP stamp set.  


You can probably tell from the photos that the Dutch Door fold is simply a standard card with a portion of the front cut away so that the inside of the top half of the card is visible when the card is closed.

I die-cut a window through some snowy sky designer paper using the upper peninsula die, then aligned the stamp through the window to stamp the card base with Versamark ink.  White detail embossing powder keeps the road map bold, clear and clean against the dark green background.  


After stamping and embossing, I glued the designer paper to the card base, along with a coordinating plaid print along the bottom.   The little truck and quote is one of the many square and rectangular prints from this designer paper pad.  It was a perfect fit and definitely the perfect quote for The Yoop.  Easy peasy, fun, and CUTE!

Supplies:

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Farmhouse Christmas


Hi everyone!  Happy December!  I can't believe Christmas is so close already!  Have you gotten your decorations up?  I'm hoping to tackle that in the next day or two.  Usually they're up by the first weekend in December and stay up through Epiphany.  This weekend though, is an exceptionally busy weekend, so we shall see!

Here in Florida we can only "dream" of a White Christmas.  One year it did get very cold and even icy right before Christmas, but typically one is left wondering whether it will be shorts or sweaters. Today's Stamp Simply project is exactly what I envision when I'm dreaming of a White Christmas.  ðŸŽ¶ ❤️ 


I didn't bother measuring the three panels, just cut them randomly and matted them with harmonizing papers.  I love the way this button-trimmed bow turned out with the soft variegated silk, tulle streaked with Snow Tex,  an embossed tag, and splashes of gesso snow.  The soft pinks and beiges of the ribbon were just perfect for this snowy scene.


Inside there is another sentiment and an image from the same stamp set.  I used oxide inks and a baby wipe to carefully ink the tree stamp in two colors.  More gesso "snow" here too...and again, I wasn't too careful.  Just be aware that the gesso will smudge the water-based oxide inks, so if you care about that, you can put something over the sentiment to keep it from getting splashed and splattered.

Supplies: