WOW Graduation Shaker Card

Posted in Cards, Interactive, Other by lisababitz

Join us this fortnight for a new challenge over at Perfectly Rustics. The challenge is “Letters or Symbols” where you are to make a letter or symbol the hero of your project. For example, if you were making a card with the word love on it, make the letters big, emboss them, have them in patterned paper etc. (http://perfectlyrustics.com/2015/06/01/prdc-no-49-letters-or-symbols/)

I created a graduation card featuring the word WOW. Each of the letters is its own shaker window filled with small, glass beads. I added a small graduation cap and sentiment to show it is a graduation card, but the main focus of the card is the word WOW.

The first version I did was a clean and simple design with a plain gold front.

Here is another view of the individual shaker window letters:

I used a Silhouette file called “wow! word art cog wheel, star tail, stencil” (Design ID #53295), and used just the letters from the stencil image. I closed up the w’s so they would only have one part for their shaker windows.

To create my shaker windows, I cut the letters out of white card stock (centered on a rectangular panel) with my Silhouette – 10 times. I stacked (and glued) these 10 panels on top of each other, lining them up perfectly. This created a very thick panel. I glued a solid panel on the back, added the beads, and glued a piece of acetate over the letters. I cut one more panel with the letters cut out from a piece of black card stock and another (slightly smaller) from gold paper to create my card front and mat. Since the cardstock I stacked was white, I used a black Copic marker to color the edges black to match the black mat and the black card base I used.

Then I created the outline letters (using the Silhouette software and the same file) to place on the card front to further highlight the letters.

The graduation cap is from an svg file called Graduation Cards and Tags from svgcuts.com (HERE).

I purchased the stamp from Ebay; it is unmarked so I have no idea what company makes it. The stamp actually says, “Congratulations, You did it!” but I masked the “congratulations” part and just stamped the rest using versamark ink and black embossing powder.

I really like the clean and simple design of the first card, but I was curious to see how it would look if I embossed the front panel so I made this second version (pictured at the top of this post also).

The embossing folder I used is the Sizzix Stars & Swirls. I covered the WOW outline and graduation cap with black embossing powder to make them more vivid on this version. Since I embossed the panel before I added the stamped greeting (I was waiting for the stamp to arrive in the mail!), I needed to stamp it on a separate panel so I created the matted banner. I’m wondering how it would have looked if I had stamped it first directly on the card front and then embossed it since I am not crazy about the banner (I REALLY like the stamped image directly on the card on my first version!), but I like the stars and swirls.

Now it’s your turn! Create a project making the letters or symbols the star of your card and share it over at Perfectly Rustics. I can’t wait to see what you create!

Over at the Mod Squad Challenge Blog, the challenge this week is “Masculine” where we are encouraged to make a Masculine card/project. This card was made for my (male) neighbor who is graduating this year, so I decided to enter. (Sadly, this site is no longer active.)

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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17May2015

Pop-Up Wedding Cake Card

Posted in Cards, Interactive, Wedding/Anniversary by lisababitz

Pop-Up Wedding Cake Card

Join us over at Perfectly Rustics for a new challenge. This fortnight, the challenge is to create a pop-up card. (http://perfectlyrustics.com/2015/05/18/prdc-no-48-pop-up/)

The pop-up portion of my card was created using the Sizzix “Cake, Three Tier, 3-D” Bigz Die and my Big Kick machine. The base pieces were cut from Gina K Innocent Pink heavy base weight card stock. The die provides the bases and supports for the three tiers, along with a bride and groom and a candle, as shown below. The sides are 1 inch strips (of whatever material you want the sides to be) cut with a trimmer.

It was suggested by the designer of the die (Karen Burniston) that the sides of the cake be cut from a material that is resistant to folding since these circular sides flatten somewhat when the card is closed, and you want these sides to become circular again once it is opened. Grunge paper and acetate are good choices. If you choose to use card stock, she suggests crimping the strips because it will hide any folds that may end up on these pieces when the card closes and opens.

With this in mind, I decided to go with crimped card stock, but I wanted them to be a little less likely to tear while still being flexible, so I covered my white card stock strips with crumpled tissue paper from Hallmark. (I had recently discovered the tissue paper technique and had posted a few projects using it HERE.) I covered my flat strips with decoupage, then placed the crumpled tissue paper on the strips, flattened them, trimmed off the excess tissue paper, and then sealed each of them with a top coat of the decoupage. Once the strips were dry, I ran each of them through my crimper.

Also at Karen Burniston’s suggestion, I cut a “plate” using one of the dies from the Spellbinders Stately Circles set, and assembled my cake on this piece before adhering it to my card base.

The bride and groom on the top of the cake were cut from Recollections glitter paper. The flowers on the top tier are by Offray which I found in the DIY Wedding aisle at the craft store. The leafy flourishes were cut from a die from the Heartfelt Creations (Spellbinders) “Cut Mat Create 2A Die” set and cut into smaller pieces. The hearts were cut using a Creative Memories Two Heart Punch.

The card base is two pieces of heavy chipboard covered with papers from the My Mind’s Eye Simply Delightful 12×12 paper pad and attached in the center with Washi tape. I needed to use the Washi tape to keep the center of the card base somewhat flexible to allow the card to open and close once the cake was glued to the inside. I think that building the cake on the “plate” panel was easier perhaps than building it directly on the card base, but I also think that this “plate” makes closing the card VERY difficult! I am definitely going to have to play around with this some more to see if the plate could be done differently or eliminated or if there is another way to make the base to better accommodate the plate.

My card is meant to be displayed opened with the cake popped-up. My card front is very simple with some of the same paper I used on the inside along with a couple of hearts. To keep the card closed until the recipient is ready to open it, I loosely tied a piece of white ribbon around the whole card. I left off a sentiment because this card could be used for a wedding or an anniversary. I don’t think a sentiment is needed, but it could always be added later if desired in the form of a small banner or tag, for example. Even though I chose to make my card front very simple, you can see that it is possible to display the card “closed” as shown, so you can make your card front as elaborate as you want.

Here are a few views of the card as it opens. The circular tops of each tier are folded when the card is closed and open flat when card is completely opened. Notice how the sides of each tier kind of fold together when the card is closed. You don’t want to see a sharp fold on the sides of the cake when it is opened. This is why using a fold resistant material or a crimped piece of card stock is recommended.

Now it’s your turn. Create a Pop-Up card, and enter it in the challenge over at Perfectly Rustics. I’d love to see your project!

Thanks for checking out my card post!

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22Mar2015

Easter Shaker Card

Posted in Cards, Easter, Holiday Cards, Interactive by lisababitz

Easter Shaker Card

Over at Perfectly Rustics this fortnight, the challenge is “Eggs” (challenge #44 ) where we are to make a creation with an egg or eggs on it. For this project, I made an Easter-themed shaker card with an egg-shaped (oval) window. (http://perfectlyrustics.com/2015/03/23/prdc-no-44-eggs/)

The cute chick, egg and greeting stamps are from the Inky Antics “Easter Chick” set (from the Honey Pop Collection). The speech bubble is from the Gina K Designs “Let’s Talk” set. I stamped all the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I then masked them and inked the background with Tim Holtz Broken China and Mowed Lawn distress inks. The images were colored with Copic Markers (Y13, V12, B04, YR15, and YG25). I used a Wink of Stella clear glitter brush pen on the egg, and I added texture to the chick with a piece of terry cloth towel and colorless blender solution. (I did a tutorial on this technique a bit ago which you can see HERE.) The card stock I used is Gina K heavy base weight pure white and sweet corn, and the printed purple paper is from the Recollections “All Girl” 6″x6″ paper pack.

Acetate, and thick fun foam were used to create the recessed window, and I filled it with a few Bead Girl Assorted Diamond Beads (by Cousin). There were different shapes in the pack, but I used the ones that looked like eggs! (In the past, I’ve created the edges of my window with pop dots, foam tape, and even a recessed window made with card stock (see StampTV tutorial HERE.) I’ve never used fun foam before to create my window, but it seemed the easiest material to use since the window didn’t have straight edges. Originally, I used 2 thinner pieces of fun foam that I glued together to make it thick enough and sequins and micro-beads for my shakers, but they kept getting stuck in the edges and between the two layers of foam. The thicker foam and larger shakers worked much better.)

I also used “an oldie but goodie” from my tool stash – my Creative Memories Oval Cutting Patterns from their Custom Cutting System. I usually reach for my Spellbinders dies, but the ovals just weren’t big enough to fit around my stamped images.

Join us over at Perfectly Rustics, and create something with EGGS!

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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14Feb2015

Pop-Up Hearts

Posted in Birthday Cards, Cards, Interactive, Other by lisababitz

Pop-Up Hearts

This card is being entered in the Mod Squad Challenge “Pop-Up Card” where we are to make a pop-up card of any kind. (Sadly, this site is no longer active.)

I made this as a Valentine’s Day Card, although with no greeting on the front, it could also be used for an anniversary, a wedding, or a “just because” card for someone special.

The inside pop-up element was made with the Sizzix “Hearts-a-Plenty 3D (Pop-Up)” die. Card stock used on the inside was Gina K heavy base weight white and cherry red along with Recollections silver glitter paper. The stamp is from the Gina K Designs “Bundle of Love” stamp set and was stamped with Memento tuxedo black ink. In addition to the sizzix die, a Creative Memories double heart punch was used as well. I used score tape to make sure the pop-up element was adhered well to the base. I didn’t have any “Happy Valentine’s Day” stamps that fit in the white space or on the white heart; I need to fix that!!! The card pictured is my sample; on the cards I actually sent, I hand-wrote that along with a short message in the upper left and lower right corners (before adhering my pop-up element – learned that the hard way!!!).

Here are a few close-up shots of the inside of the card:

Here is the front of the card:

For the front, I used patterned paper from the Gina K Fight Like A Girl paper pack. Gina K cherry red, black, and white card stock was used along with Recollections silver glitter paper. The embossing folders I used were Darice Heart, Darice Stripe, and Cuttlebug Swiss Dots. The giant crystal heart-shaped gem sticker is by Mark Richards. Spellbinders classic circle dies (large and small) were used for the focal panel, and a piece of ribbon was tucked behind.

This card, with the pop-up center and the big gem sticker on the front was so thick, it needed to be sent as a package! Ugh!!!

This card is a variation of a card I made for the StampTV MIUM “Put Your Heart Into It!” Challenge where we are to use a heart somewhere on our project, but it cannot be a Valentine’s Day card. (Sadly, this site is no longer active.) While my card pictured above could be used for a variety of occasions, I decided to change up the front so it was clearly NOT a Valentine’s Day Card! Here is the variation I entered instead:

Again, the patterned paper is from the Gina K Fight Like A Girl paper pack. Gina K cherry red and white was also used. The Stamp is from the GKD Sweet Tweets stamp set and was stamped in Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copic Marker R46 and a clear Wink of Stella glitter pen. A few silver heart spangles were added to the frosting. The greeting is a Momenta metal sticker. The embossing folder is Darice Heart. Spellbinders classic circle dies (large and small) were used for the focal panel. You can see the shine a little better in this close-up.

I used two tools to place and adhere those tiny heart spangles to my project. The first is the glue. Since I needed such a small amount for each heart, I used my Zig 2 Way Glue pen. It looks like a pen and has a fine ball point. You can squeeze or roll just the right amount of glue that you need with perfect placement. This glue can be used two ways. Use it when it’s blue and wet for a permanent bond or let it dry clear for a few moments to get a temporary bond.

The second tool I used is the Silhouette Pick-Me-Up tool. One end has a tacky substance on it that allows you to pick things up. The other end has a removable tool that has two ends that allows you to push the item off the tacky end and onto the adhesive on your project or to push the item in place. I found a “review” with instructions on how to use this tool online HERE that you may find helpful.

Thanks for checking out my card projects!

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11Feb2015

Baby Wobble-Head Card

Posted in Baby, Cards, Interactive by lisababitz

Baby Wobble-Head Card

The papers on this baby card coordinate with the Baby Crib Box Card project I posted yesterday. (I will be sending both of them together.)

The baby image was Googled and “traced” with my Silhouette software. The baby’s head is mounted on a spring, and it wobbles when the card moves. (Yes, the blurry head is supposed to show movement! lol)

The spring is called an “Action Wobble Spring” and is a plastic spring with adhesive on both sides so it sticks to your card project and to the element you want to wobble.

I used the following paper and card stock for this project: Core’dinations April Lovely, Colorbok Heidi Grace Designs bgirl buggy (double-sided), Core’dinations light pink plaid, Gina K bubblegum, ivory and white. I inked all the edges and stamped the greeting with Gina K bubblegum ink. The greeting is from the Gina K Designs “Bundle of Love” stamp set. The baby’s hair is made with a few strands of yarn and a ribbon, and I added a few pink pearls to finish it off.

Inspiration for this card came from two places. First, I used the same baby (as a boy) with the wobble spring on a card I made a bit ago. Here is the card that I had previously posted in my StampTV gallery. (Sadly, this site is no longer active.)

Secondly, I used a sketch from the StampTV Sketch Book which is under the “Freebies” section on the StampTV Site (HERE – scroll down; the sketch book is a little below the photo of the swimmer). This is a fantastic resource for layout ideas when you are stuck! You may need to be a member of StampTV to view this Sketch Book, but membership is free. (Sadly, this site is no longer active.) Here is the sketch I used as a starting point for my card project: