Bug's First Birthday

This was a fun little (or not so little) project.  I was asked to design my grandson's first birthday invitation.  I was told it was going to be a "bug" birthday as our pet name for him is "Bug".  I began by checking Pinterest as it always has some great ideas.  After much searching I decided to put my own spin on a few different ones that I had seen.

I started out by looking for a nice verse to print onto the front of the invitation.  To do that, I put my 200gsm paper into landscape orientation and typed in the wording I wanted on the right and left of the paper.  I knew what the measurement of the front needed to be so I just played around with the verse moving it up and down and across until I was happy with the placement.  I printed 13 pages of these so I ended up with 26 verses.  I cut the paper down to 5 inches by 6 1/4 inches.  At that point I also measured a backing piece which I wanted to be green.  The measurements of that piece are 5 3/16 x 6 5/16.  

  

Next I stamped the sun and clouds onto some appropriately coloured scrap paper.  The sun and clouds are from a set by Simon Says Stamp called Happy Day.  I then die cut them with the coordinating die cuts.  The coloured parts are just me trying to decide whether to give them rosy cheeks or not.  

I also die cut some leaves from the Botanical Builder Framelits and stamped the veins using the Botanical Blooms stamp set.  I coloured the cheeks of the sun and clouds using my prismacolor pencil "Process Red" and my Odourless Solvent and paper stump to blend.

I stamped the number 1 from the Number of Years Stamp Set  using Baked Brown Sugar ink (I believe this is discontinued but you could substitute Soft Suede or Crumb Cake/Tip Top Taupe instead).  Once I had placed the number one, I used a stamp set from Penny Black called "So Lucky" to stamp the grass using Cucumber Crush ink.  When stamping the grass, just put ink on the first part of the grass and stamp along at varying heights until you get to the end where you can stamp the whole stamp to fill right to the border.

Next I glued the paper onto the backing card and used my scallop circle punch to "chomp" bits out of the card  to make it look like something was eating it.  I also got my "ant" stamp from a set called "Bugs and Kisses" from Stampin'Up! and stamped my ants randomly across the bottom with one crawling up the number one.  

I glued the leaves onto the number 1 so it now looks like a bit of a tree.  I stamped the bugs from a set simply called "Bugs" from Kaszazz and coloured using the stampin write markers.   

 




I used my stampin dimensionals to pop up the sun and the cloud.  I think they look freakin cute as.

At this point I thought it was still lacking a little something so I found another little bee from the Touches of Texture stamp set and decided to stamp him into the empty space in the centre.

I'll use a stamp on the back to give the date time and place etc.  Check out the youtube video for full instructions.

WATERCOLOUR NOEL

In this card, I decided that I wanted to do things just a little differently.  I had a card making kit from a couple of years ago called Watercolor Winter from Stampin'Up!.  This kit combined my love of watercolour and card making and I was really sad when I finished all the cards in the kit.  

I started out by cutting a standard size card base (5 7/8 x 8 1/4 ) and then cut a piece of the Candy Cane Lane DSP to fit exactly onto the front of the card base (4 1/8 x 5 7/8)  

Next I cut a piece of Whisper White cardstock to measure 3 1/2 x 5 1/8 and ran that through the bigshot using the Holly Embossing Folder .  I just love how defined this turned out.  You could also use your ink blending tool and some ink and colour the paper.  The holly could be green and the berries could be done in Real Red.  Oh the possibilities!!

After I finished with the embossing, I used the Santa's Sleigh Framelits and cut out the Christmas Tree out of watercolor paper.  I then watercoloured the tree using old olive ink.  

After that, I used some of my glitter paper and the Santa's Sleigh Framelits again and cut out some bows and a star. I used the Wonderful Wreath framelits and cut out the words noel and joy.

At this point, I couldn't quite decide whether I wanted to use "Noel" or "Joy".

I glued all the elements on the now dry tree and laid everything out on the card so I could try to decide which word to use.

In the end I went with "Noel" as it seemed to fill the space a bit better.  I'm really pleased with the final result.

Masked Card using Prismacolor Pencils

I've really been enjoying using the masking technique to create my own card backgrounds or interesting card fronts.  

              

                        

This experimentation led to the creation of the card in the video.  Hopefully you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Santa's Sleigh Front Step Card

I couldn't wait to play with the new products from the Stampin' Up! Holiday catalogue.  Especially loved the Santa's Sleigh Bundle.  Hope you enjoy watching my video.

Dinosaur Slider card

Card base is standard 4 1/4 x 5 3/4
Topper is 4 x 5 5/8

Use distress inks tumbled glass and shabby shutters and blending tool to ink the topper as shown

Next take a circle die and cut a circle from the top part of the topper

Take the next circle die that is a little smaller than the one you just used and cut another circle from the circle you just cut (this will create a small gap which becomes your slider track)


Next I took my stamp set and stamped all of my images and coloured them.  I used this stamp set

I coloured the images with the following copic markers: C3, C5, C7, E37, E71, E79, G82, G94, R59, V09, Y17, and Y06

I always stamp a few extra images as I don't really know at this point what my final project will look like :)

Next, I mucked about with the placement of the elements for a little while until I was happy with how they all looked on the page then stuck them down and stamped my sentiment into the centre circle

When you are happy with how the front of your card looks, turn it over and stick down your dimensional dots as shown.  It's important to know at this point what you are going to use as the "slider".  I usually use a button, but you can also use a coin or other small circle part.  
You can see from the photos that I place the parts face down and then place the button (slider) in the approximate right position before sticking down the dimensionals.  This is so that it will slide reasonably freely


Some might say that is a bit of overkill on the dots but I like things to stay stuck down and also you don't want your button to slip through and get stuck.  If you have dimentional tape, it is a lot smoother because there are no "bumps" to slide past but the dots work fine

Next I inked up the card to match the topper because some bits of it are visible underneath and I wanted it to blend in


Stick the topper down and then lay your button (or coin) into the hole and place the cut out circle in there as well making sure that the gap is fairly consistent all the way round



I usually use a pair of tweezers or something just to make sure that the button actually does move fairly freely before I stick the other bit on top of the button.  

Then, take your final piece (the sliding embelishment) and use a dimentional dot on the button and place that piece onto it.


and Voila!

Live Life front step card

Materials

Rich Razzleberry Cardstock (Brights Collection)
Whisper White Card Stock
Black Card Stock
Designer paper of choice ( I used paper from the Print Poetry Designer Stack and some scraps I had in my stash)
Corner Rounder punch
Stampin Dimensionals
Glue
Stampin Trimmer

Cut Rich Razzleberry Card to 12" x 4 1/2 "
Cut another piece of card at 4 1/2 x 5 1/2"  
Cut another piece 3" x 4"
Score the 12" piece at 1", 6 1/2" and 9 1/4"
Take the 4 1/2 x 5 1/2 piece and attach it to the 1" score mark to lengthen out the back.  Mountain fold, Valley Fold, Mountain Fold.
Cut pieces of Whisper White cardstock as follows
1 @ 4 3/8 x 5 1/4
2@ 2 1/2 x 4 5/16
1@ 2 7/8 x 3 3/4
Cut Black cardstock as follows
1 @ 4 3/16 x 5 1/16
2 @ 2 3/8 x 4 3/16
1 @ 2 11/16 x 3 11/16
Decorative Paper
1 @ 4 x 4 13/16
2 @ 2 3/16 x 4
1 @ 2 9/16 x 3
Corner Round the edges of all the larger pieces of paper and also the top of the card as shown
Glue onto card as shown

Creative paper bag mini album

Materials
2 paper bags (treat size or whatever size you prefer)
1 sheet Coastal Cabana Designer Series Paper 
1 Sheet Blackberry Bliss Designer Series Paper
SU Flower Shop stamps and punch
Paper tag
Eyelet
Ribbon
Piece of black card
Glue
Distress Ink
Decorative Chip board pieces
Cut outs as desired

Take one of the paper bags and cut out a small piece from one side of the bag as shown (only through one layer).
  
I used this particular brand (in black) purchased at Spotlight 

Line up the bottom ends of the paper bags turn over the top part of the bag as shown.  Cut the corners off and put glue on one side and slip this into the other bag as shown.
  

This forms the base of your mini album.  From here on, everything is embelishment and working out how many photo mats you would like.  I've made 18 if you count both sides of the tag.

Cut 2 pieces of chosen paper measuring 2" x 3 3/16"  and glue these on the base ends of the album.  (that's the bit that helps the bag to "stand up")  It's important to note that even in this packet of bags, they all measure slightly different so please check the measurements before cutting.

Cut a contrasting piece of paper measuring 51/4" x 31/8" and glue this onto the left hand inside part.

Cut another piece of contrasting paper (matching the other side if you like) measuring whatever length you like x 31/8".  It's a good idea to make it long enough to slip some of it into the bag itself.  See picture.
  

Now, you need to extend the right hand side front out a little bit so you can slip it under the lip created by the "bottom" of the bag on the left hand side.  This will help the album to stay closed.  I used black card and a scallop punch and made a piece.
  

I glued it onto the very edge of the right hand side piece as shown and then found a decorative piece to put on the back part to give it a bit of substance.  Make sure it's long enough to slip under that flap and not too long.  You could use other methods to close it such as buttons and ribbon or brads and chain.  The ideas are endless.

Next I took a piece of left over file folder from another project and stamped a random image at the top (post card top) rounded the corners and set it aside.  I then cut a piece of Coastal Cabana Designer Series Paper measuring 3" x 12" .  I inked the edges with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.  I glued this piece down onto the left hand inside of the mini and folded the excess to form 2 photo mats.

I then cut another contrasting piece measuring 3" x 12" .  I turned over a small bit at the top and glued just the top bit to the photo mat as shown.

I folded this piece 4 times so it would "concertina" into the other photo mat.The outside photo mat from the Coastal Cabana then folds over the top of that.  I glued the file folder photo mat onto the left side (coastal cabana page) as shown and folded the whole thing over.
  
Next I created the tag, which was just a piece of white card cut to size (to fit inside the bag) and embelished.

The back is decorated with a piece of Blackberry Bliss Designer Series Paper cut to 31/8" x 61/4"  which has had part of the top edge punched and has been glued down to make a pocket.  I then cut a piece of Coastal Cabana measuring 61/2" x 31/4" and scored the long edge at 1/2".  Cut the corners off on this piece, put some glue on it and slip it in between the top edge of the "wallet".  This forms a flap which you can also embelish as desired.
  

The front is embelished in any way that you would like.  I used some Graphic 45 "It's raining cats and dogs"  journaling and ephemera cards.  I also used a chip board piece that I had in my stash, some ribbon and made some flowers from the left over paper.