Thursday, May 29, 2014

May ECD Challenge: Flat (Not Pop-Up)

The theme this month is "flat," as in no pop-ups. I wanted to have a pearly look to my card, which matched perfectly with the Shimmer Sheetz I used to accent the edges!


Making the Card

1. Cut card base from cream cardstock, 4 1/4 inches by 11 inches and fold in half.

2. Peel the "cutie" from the adhesive sheet and stick her onto the front of the card as shown. To create the ground line, cut one of the other decorations into pieces and place them extending from her feet.

3. Squirt some Liquid Pearls (LP) onto a non-stick surface (e.g. craft sheet, palette). Using a small brush and small amount of water, mix with LP and carefully paint each section of the cutie your desired color. I mixed different colors to create shading. Painting with more water creates a softer color; painting with less water intensifies the color. You can layer the LP (let dry between) to achieve the darkest most intense colors (close to what you see in the bottle).

4. Cut a strip of Ruby Red Shimmer Sheetz about a quarter inch wide. Adhere to side edge of card (starting below the fold) - cut off extra. Repeat on other side.

5. Cut a very thin strip of Pink Velvet, peel off backing paper, and adhere next to red Shimmer Sheetz on each side.

6. Die cut "Thank You" from gold Shimmer Sheetz; adhere as shown. (I used Glossy Accents to glue all Shimmer Sheetz pieces.)

7. (Optional) Adhere small half pearls, 2 under each flower "bell" as shown.

Thanks for stopping by!


Supplies

Elizabeth Craft Designs


Other Supplies

Cream Cardstock
Liquid Pearls (Ranger), in a variety of colors
Small Paintbrush, Water
Very Small Adhesive Backed Half Pearls

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Stenciled Flowers Birthday Card

I love Distress Ink. It is a great ink to blend and shade. I thought I would make a card with lots of colorful flowers using the ink and stencils made with flower dies. I didn't want to be too picky with the masking, which can take up a lot of time; I wanted to keep the flowers moving along both in time (i.e. shorter time to make the card) and in presentation. I'll probably use this technique again when I have a larger chunk of time to allow for a more planned arrangement, so some flowers will be purposely in front and others in back.


Making the Card

1. Cut card base from white cardstock, 4 1/4 inches by 11 inches and fold in half.

2. Mask beyond the fold (back of card) with Post-It Tape or other masking material.

3. Create flower masks: cut various masks using the flower dies listed in the Supplies list from Post-It Tape or other masking material. Keep both the positive masks (the flowers) and the negative masks (the outlines of the flowers).

4. Starting from the left and moving right across the card as shown: mask an area with a negative mask, use the blending tool and ink to fill in the mask working from the outside to the inside of the flower. Remove mask to reveal flower. To create the 2nd layer, use another negative mask, offset it from the first, choose a coordinating color and ink it. Hint: use paper or more masking material to cover the rest of the card to prevent mishaps.

5. Put the matching positive masks over the already inked layers and repeat the process until the flowers go all the way across the card.

6. Adhere enamel dots to the flower centers.

7. Cut Happy Birthday sentiment out of red cardstock. Cut a banner out of pink vellum. Adhere enamel dots and sentiment to banner as shown. Adhere to card using dimensional tape hidden behind dots and letters.

Also posted on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog (along with another photo).

Supplies

Elizabeth Craft Designs

728 Bunch of Flowers 1 Dies
729 Bunch of Flowers 2 Dies
701 Flower Set 1 Dies
725 Flower Set 3 Dies
717 Happy Birthday Die

Other Supplies

White Cardstock, Red Cardstock
Post-It Tape or other masking material
Pink Vellum
Distress Ink, various bright colors
Ink Blending Tool and Foam
Enamel Dots
Dimensional Tape

Thursday, May 15, 2014

New Craft Room Plans!

I've been a professional photographer for about 14 years. When I began my business, starting with Impressions Photography (mostly wedding photography) and now Acanthus Productions (portrait art and commercial photography), I had a full first-class darkroom complete with 9 foot Regal Arkay sink and color enlarger. (By the way, I'm selling all my darkroom equipment, in case you know anyone who might be interested!) Since most of my work is now digital or printed on a large format ink jet printer, I don't have much use for the ol' darkroom. Thus I decided to convert it to a craft room! Yay!

The darkroom was painted black, as you might expect, and had a few too many walls (forming a light trap) so some major renovations have been going on. I put in a pocket door to the hallway and enlarged the doorway to my office (I decided not to replace the door and just leave it open). One wall had to be kept due to pipes going through it but it worked out since I was able to add a knee wall from it and cabinets on both sides. Below are the final plans from Home Depot; the renderings below are also from Home Depot. Ignore the cabinets on the right side of the plans - those actually go to the laundry room.


The following rendering is shown drawn in the upper left of the plans above. I have two work desk areas (in case someone wants to come craft with me!). The pocket door to the hall is on the left; the other opening (partially shown) goes to my office.
Below shows the knee wall and cabinets looking from the hall through the pocket door opening.


Below is my sink area. The cabinets were updated to singles on the left side (you can see it in the plans above). Note: the colors of my walls are a pale pink now (no more black!). The entire wall that the sink is on is an accent wall in burgundy. The counters will be mostly black granite.


 I plan to post photos once everything is done (probably in July, sigh).

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Watercolor Splatter Flower Thank You Card


I wanted to make my own splattered background for die cutting flowers. I decided to use Tombow Dual Brush Markers but you could use watercolor, Distress Ink, or other paint. The layering of the word die, embossed background, and 3D flowers gives this card a lot of texture and dimension.

I wanted to make my own splattered background for die cutting flowers. I decided to use Tombow Dual Brush Markers but you could use watercolor, Distress Ink, or other paint. The layering of the word die, embossed background, and 3D flowers gives this card a lot of texture and dimension.

Making the Card

1. Choose three colors for your card. I used red, orange, and yellow. Color these randomly on a
non-stick craft sheet. Mist fairly generously with water. Lightly mist a white sheet of cardstock.
Run this through the colors on the non-stick craft sheet.

2. Add more color to the non-stick craft sheet. This time mist lightly. Randomly place the cardstock back into the color on the sheet. This will create some darker blotches and smears across the lighter background.

3. Let the cardstock dry completely (or use a heat tool). Die cut flowers. Run a matching color Copic marker (I used the R32 – Peach) along the edges of the flowers to hide some of the white cardstock. Shape petals.


4. Die cut “Thank You” 6 to 8 times (depending on how thick you want it) from black cardstock.
Glue the pieces on top of each other to form a 3D sentiment.

5. Cut black cardstock to 4 x 5 1/4 inches. Cut card base from white cardstock, 4 1/4 inches by 11 inches and fold in half. Cut another piece of white cardstock for embossed background about the same size as your embossing folder.

6. Open embossing folder and ink one side with Black Soot Distress Ink (I inked the thinner side of the Swirly Curves embossing folder). Emboss white piece of cardstock. This will impress the black into the background.

7. Cut embossed piece about 1/8 inch smaller than the black cardstock (so 1/16th will show around the edges). Layer and adhere to card base.

8. Assemble the flowers as shown. Add adhesive back pearls or color dots to center. I colored one of the pearls with Copic marker YR18 to match the flower (top right).


Supplies

Elizabeth Craft Designs Supplies
  • 778 Thank You Die
  • 725 Flower Set 3 Die
  • 728 Bunch of Flowers 1 Die
  • 729 Bunch of Flowers 2 Die
  • 119 Swirly Curves Embossing Folder
Other Supplies
  • White and Black Cardstock
  • Tombow Dual Brush Pens: Orange, Red, Yellow
  • Copic Markers: R32, YR18
  • Distress Ink: Black Soot
  • Tim Holtz Distress Marker Spritzer
  • Adhesive Pearls and Color Dots
  • Non-Stick Craft Sheet
  • Glue and Adhesive
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Sunday, May 11, 2014

Make Your Own Enamel Dots

According to the manufacturer, Perler beads are not meant to be melted in an oven. Since there are concerns about safety, I've decided to remove the content of this post. I'm very sorry about any inconvenience this may have caused!