The Write Stuff

Archive for January, 2015

 

Happy New Year & welcome to the Serendipity January Blog Hop! We are showing off some beautiful new Border & Valentine dies! If you arrived here from  Jenny’s Blog ,  you are in the right place..if not, you may want to head over there first.

Prize info:

• A $20 gift certificate is up for grabs and the winner will be chosen randomly from one of the blogs.  
• Commenters have until Jan 4 to leave a comment.  The winner wil be posted on Marys blog on Jan 5.  

On my first card, I couldn’t wait to use the new Heart Scroll Border die. After die cutting it in white, I die cut the scallop part in a blue-violet designer paper and just a narrow border of the lime green dp from the same paper pad. The beautiful Tulip Vase was colored with Copics and die cut using an out of the box technique.

Here’s a picture showing you a bit about doing this out of the box using a die. Basically, lightly pencil the inside of the die and make cuts around the areas that will be above the die then lift them so they will not be cut. Then die cut & emboss as usual. Please see the link above for more detailed info. 

Here’s a part I rarely show…this collection of dp has some of my fave colors and I’m running low, so I die cut the fancy lime green layer behind the tulips out of the backing layer in order to not use another sheet. With the blue-violet layer on top of the larger lime green, the cut out will never be missed 🙂 The finished card is 4.25 x 5.50 and these are the Copics I used.

Here’s a peek at the inside.

My second card was pretty quick. Minimal coloring and mostly die cuts.


The Bird with Hearts was stamped with the greeting just below it then die cut. The hearts were stamped again on some red glitter sticker paper and fussy cut.

The Heart & Scroll border and the Mini Scroll Heart & Scallop Heart  dies were also die cut out of the red glitter paper. I die cut an extra scallop heart out of white then hand trimmed it close to the red glitter scroll heart. The dove was lightly shaded with a couple of cool gray Copics. Here’s a look at the inside.

Here’s the hop order in case you get lost:

 Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

 

Tulip Vase 443G	Love d ie 011DD	Happy Bg die 082ND	Valentine’s die 047ED	Day die 041CD
My Only Heart 190D	Bird w/ Hearts 176E	Valentine’s Day II 688C	Heart Scroll die 001GD	Heart Solid die 003GD
Copic Sketch Markers	Memento Inks	X-Press It Blending Card	Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics A S5-131	Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics B S5-132
SEI- On the Coast	Staples 110# White Card Stock	Spellbinders Labels 28 S5-127	Spellbinders Decorative Labels 28 S5-191

 If you’re like me, you’ve been seeing a lot of “gel plate” background techniques using ink or acrylic paint. I haven’t bought a gel plate yet, but then again, I don’t “really” need one. The gel plate backgrounds are a new version of what was called “mono printing”. I even did a tutorial for Splitcoast way back in 2009 on the technique (HERE). So for me it’s, No Gel Plate? No Problem! 

I have lots of pictures to show, so get comfy. And I’m going to show two different plates I used…one is a plain piece of glass (from an 8×10 picture) and the other is a 8×8 hot glue gun mat made out of silicone or something similar. Both work wonderfully and while I’m using pigment ink in both examples, you can also use acrylic paint. You can certainly try other mediums, but with dye based inks or watercolors, you probably won’t be able to do techniques like stamping or combing because the ink is just too thin and will run together. So let’s get started. I’ll show the two different plates and also some fun things to do w/ your brayer, stamps & stencils. The pictures are all annotated and just click to enlarge.

This is my finished card using the background above.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Our Daily Bread designs – Simple Things, Honeycomb Bg, Sentiments Collection 2

Paper:  Neenah white, dk teal

Ink: Versafine Onyx (for images), Colobox pigment inks in citrine, surf, seaglass, fresh green, evergreen, teal, celadon

Accessories:   ODBD clover die, Spellbiders mega oval & Radiant rectangles dies, Copic markers, Aegean silver embossing powder, stencil, sequin waste strip, combing tool, 8×10 picture glass, 8×8 hot glue gun mat, small brayer

Happy New Year!! Welcome to the January Release for Our Daily Bread designs!  We have some very cool sets and dies for you this month and we know you’re going to want them all! 

On my first card, I’m using the wonderful, grunge style Rock Star set. I know this set will look great on masculine and teen birthday cards and while it does have an edgy, grunge thing going, somehow it still looks a little clean when I get hold of it, lol. Guess I’m just not a grunge type, but it does show that you don’t have to distress it a bunch to have a fun look.

After stamping and adding a little color, I die cut the guitar using an out of the box technique and the largest star from the Sparkling Star dies. I used a smaller star for the greeting then added a little stickles to them. The layers behind the stars were fussy cut. The background was die cut on the right side four times w/ a curved die then strips of peach & aqua inserted underneath and few more die cut stars on top. The finished card is 5.50 x 4.25 and these are the Copics I used.

I usually forget to show you the inside, but I remembered on these. Here’s a little look at this one using some of the left over frames and pieces from the front.

On my second card, I’m using the Music Speaks, Just a Note sets along with the new Faithful Fish Pattern die.


The large treble clef was stamped, colored & fussy cut. I stamped part of the image on another piece, masked it a bit and stamped the bird & music bar. After coloring I die cut it and added the die cut & embossed fish pattern behind it. I actually die cut this twice out of the aqua and on the smaller one, I cut it across the middle and shortened it. Since the long oval covers the seam, you don’t even see it.

In between the two aqua layers, I put a piece of the Chalkboard paper collection. The finished card is 5.50 x 4.25 and these are the Copics I used.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous & Creative New Year!