Hi Friends! It’s EK, and today I am back with a hand colored card featuring the one of the new Beautiful Blooms stamp sets from Sonia and Diane. I am just loving this stunning design with it’s loose sketchy lines and realistic look.
Step One: Using an alcohol marker friendly ink, stamp the large bird and sentiment onto a trimmed piece of 90lb Soft Finish Cardstock.
Step Two: Color the image with an alcohol marker. I used copics. Around the edges of the cardstock, blend a dark blue water soluble ink. I used Distress Oxide Chipped Sapphire. Splatter the edges with clean water to create droplets.
Step Three: Die cut the image with the Stitched Rounded Rectangle die set.
Step Four: Using 10mm Clear Double Sided Adhesive, adhere the focal image onto a piece of dark blue cardstock. Adhere both of these pieces to an A2 card frame.
Step Five: Add a couple of dollops of Craft Drops in Clear Transparent around the sentiment.
If you love to color, you have to check out this new line from ECD. The Beautiful Blooms line is a colorist’s dream with large images that are just meant to be colored. How would you color this bird? Let us know in the comments below. Until then, happy crafting.
Hey Everyone! It’s EK and today I am playing around with a stamp set from the Way with Words collection by Suzanne Cannon. These stamp sets have such great sentiments that make such a great focal images. Make sure you go check out the full collection before they are gone.
Step One: Trim a piece of 90lb Soft Finish Cardstock to 4.25×5.5 inches. Hand stamp two of the heart images from the Love & Hearts Collection stamp set in repeating patterns in colored ink. I used Kitsch Flamingo and Seedless Preserves Distress Ink.
Step Two: Die cut the background with one of the Stitched Rounded Rectangle die set.
Step Three: Die cut two different sized banner pieces from the Diagonal Stitched Fishtails die set out of 90lb Soft Finish Cardstock. Line the fishtails die cuts up with the background piece and in a stamping platform, line up the heart stamps over a background stamp. Remove the background cardstock and stamp the image onto the fishtails in black ink.
Step Four: Adhere the background to an A2 card frame using 10mm Clear Double Sided Adhesive. Line up the fishtail banners and adhere them to the card frame.
Step Five: Stamp a sentiment from the Love & Hearts Collection stamp set onto some 90b Soft Finish Cardstock. Die cut the sentiment with the Stitched Rounded Rectangle and outline the die cut with colored ink. I used Kitsch Flamingo. Adhere to the card using three dimensional tape.
Step Six: Add some Craft Drops in Transparent Crystal to the sentiment banner. Let Dry.
What do you think of sentiment focal projects? What are your favorite ECD sentiments to use? Let us know in the comments below. Until then, happy crafting.
Hello everyone, it´s Sanna Lippert here again with another guest design team card project share. Today I´m stopping by to share a set of mixed media cards with plenty of white space on them – and colour. I love adding stenciling, droplets and a fun mixed media twist to cards and I´d tought I´d share one of those ideas today with you. Hope you like it!
And here is how created the cards:
Step 1: Take a small gelli plate and apply three colours of alcohol ink onto it. Then take a plain brayer and roll the colour onto the gelli plate to create a faded three-tone-look. After that take a mark making tool of some kind – I used a dotted and a striped brayer – and press it/roll it over the inked layer to create a pattern. Let dry a bit.
Step 2: Next apply a thin layer of white paint over the inked pattern and then place the pattern color down onto the paper and press down to paper with your hands. Then remove the gelli plate and you have a nice pattern to use for your cards. Repeat several times with various colours and mark making tools (you can use stamps, combs, printing tools or even items from your kitchen). Whatever you find suits your project. Next die cut the created patterns into circles using the Fitted Circles die cut die and your die cutting machine.
Step 3: Next grab the Make Your Mark stencil and create patterns to white card backgrounds using the stencil with Distress Oxide tones and an ink blending tool/brush. On some I used just one colour and pattern and on other backgrounds I added two ink tones and the same pattern vertically and horizontally. You can do whatever you find attractive for your project.
Step 4: Now apply a Clear Double Sided Adhesive Sheet onto a piece of Soft Finish Cardstock and die cut the leaves for each card using the Sidekick Essentials 7 die set. After that stamp sentiments using embossing ink and the Build Your Own Sentiments 1 stamp set onto black cardstock. Then add white embossing powder onto the stamped areas, dabb the residue off and heat set with a heat tool. Now adhere the leaves onto the card base. I arranged them around the circle piece to create a cluster, because I like it that way. It leaves plenty of white space to the card still.
Then adhere the circle using 3D foam adhesive pads. This creates a bit more texture and interest to the card. After that grab some water colours (I used black on my cards) and add droplets with the water colour to the cards. Let the droplets dry properly and then finish the card off by adding the embossed sentiment on top of the circle piece and if you want, add a few buttons for additional decor. I adhered the buttons with Clear Double Sided Adhesive Tape to the card. For additional decor you can also add some Craft Drops to the cards in various colours in the very end. Make sure you let the drops dry properly, before mailing your cards, otherwise they might smear.
Here are the finished cards:
When creating cards like this, I like to use the same basic idea, but do slight variations. That way every card is still unique, but since I already have all the tools out, I get more cards done at once. You never know when you need one!
I hope you enjoyed this idea and give it a try yourself. You can also replace the alcohol inks with paint, if you don´t happen to own any. Also if you don´t own a gelli plate (or you are not that much of a mixed media person), replace this step by just die cutting a fun patterned paper for the circle piece.
See you again next month with another card tutorial. Wishing you all a fabulous August!! xxx, Sanna
Supplies:
Elizabeth Craft Designs:
Other: Sizzix Big Shot A4 Distess Oxide Inks by Ranger Inc. Ink Blending tool by Ranger Inc. Nuvo Embossing Ink by Tonic Studios Paint Brush Gelli Plate by Gelli Arts Brayers (plain and patterned) Alcohol Inks by Ranger Inc. White acrylic paint Heat tool by Ranger Inc. White Embossing powder by Ranger Inc. 3D foam pads Scissors and buttons Acrylic block for stamping
Hey Friends! It’s EK, and today I am creating a little bit of a festive card using a Christmas die from designer Suzanne Cannon that really could be used year round. However, I am also using one of my favorite crafting techniques leaving the project all white for a touch of crisp elegance. I just love how ECD’s Soft Finish Cardstock makes this technique so flawless.
Step One: Die cut two frames from 90lb Soft Finish Cardstock. Use the Stitched Indented Rectangle die set for the large frame, and two of the Stitched Indented Square dies for the smaller frame.
Step Two: Using more 90lb Soft Finish Cardstock, die cut a third frame and the sentiment from the Love Joy & Peace Christmas Ornament die set.
Step Three: Using 10mm Clear Double Sided Adhesive, adhere the large rectangle frame to an A2 card frame.
Step Four: Using 3mm Clear Double Sided Adhesive, adhere the square frame to the card on a diagonal. Trim off excess.
Step Five: Using a liquid adhesive such as Kid Choice Glue, adhere both the ornament frame and the sentiment to the center of the card.
Step Six: Adhere a few white and iridescent sequins to the card frame for more visual interest.
Step Seven: Finish off the project with a few dollops of both Transparent Crystal and White Craft Drops.
I hope you enjoyed this super simply yet elegant project.
Do you ever create in just one color? Let us know in the comments below. Until then, happy crafting.
Hey Friends! It’s EK and I am popping in today with a fun card I created using my distress oxide sprays and designers Ilse and Charlene‘s line of crafting supplies. This project is super easy and incredibly quick to create, but the bold colors make it still exciting and unique.
Step One: On a piece of trimmed Watercolor Paper, spray a layer of Distress Oxide Spray and let dry. Then splatter more ink in different colors onto the paper and let dry. I used Carved Pumpkin, Chipped Sapphire and Speckled Egg.
Step Two: Spread a thick molding paste through the Mandala stencil onto the background image and let dry.
Step Three: On a second piece of Watercolor Paper, spray a second collection of colors and let dry. I used Iced Spruce and Shabby Shutters. Using the Budding Florals die set, die cut the leaves die two times.
Step Four: On a third piece of trimmed Watercolor Paper, spray a third collection of inks. I used Chipped Sapphire and Speckled Egg. Let dry. Die cut the floral die from the Budding Florals die set.
Step Five: Trim the background slightly, and using 10mm Clear Double Sided Adhesive, adhere it to an A2 card frame.
Step Six: Using trimmed three dimensional tape, adhere the Budding Floral leaves to the background.
Step Seven: Using a liquid adhesive, such as the Kids Choice Glue, adhere the Budding Florals floral onto the card frame onto of the leaves.
Step Eight: On the left over floral background ink, stamp the sentiment from the Words & Layers stamp set. Trim the sentiment and add to the card frame using a three dimensional tape.
Step Nine: For more visual interest, add Craft Drops on the background of the project. I used Metallic Gold, Metallic Silver, and Pearl Olive.
I hope you find this project just as fun as I do. Let us know in the comments below what color combinations would you use to create a card like this. Until then, happy crafting.
Hello everyone, it’s Sanna here today with another guest design team project. This card idea originated from a wish to have a die that could cut chevron type backgrounds, which I didn’t own. But then I figured, I actually could use my existing dies to create a chevron pattern as a card background. And while I die cut the “chevrons”, I had plenty of pieces left to create two more fun cards. So one basic idea led to a set of cards that I’m quite happy with.
Here is how I created this card:
Step 1: I first die cut “frames” with the Stitched Rectangles die set by using the largest and the third largest die from the set. This way I had a bigger frame than if I had used the next to largest with the biggest size. I picked yummy, summery pastel cardstock for die cutting. I also kept the stitched rectangle pieces for later. You will see how I used them on the two cards to follow. Step 2: After die cutting the frames I then took a card base and arranged the corners onto it in such manner, that they formed a “chevron” and marked the edges with a pencil. This way it was easier to know where to cut later. After that I just adhered the piece onto the card base with Clear Double Sided Adhesive Tape. Out of each frame I got two bigger parts for the chevron pattern and I also saved the smaller ones for the lower and the higher corners. So for this size of a card you only need 4 frames in total.
Step 3: After adhering all the corners onto the card base I took the Planner Essentials 21 “Note Pieces” set and die cut a focal point for the card from black cardstock.
Step 4: I then added a stamped and embossed sentiment using the Planner Essentials “Remember” stamp set with neon green embossing powder. After that I just adhered the sentiment with 3D foam onto the card to create more texture and interest. For finishing touches I added a few craft drops for decor. The residue pieces then let to the second card:
For this one I did the following steps with the residue papers I had left over from my first card:
Step 1 to 3: I placed the stitched rectangle cardstock pieces onto my die cutting machine and places a stitched oval die onto the middle of them and die cut 4 pieces to create the oval background piece for the next card. After that I took a leftover strip of the light blue cardstock and attached Clear Double Sided Adhesive Sheet onto it and die cut two “Budding Florals” for the card.
I then adhered the flowers on place, applied some liquid adhesive and loose golden glitter onto the upper area of the buds and let that dry. After the adhesive was dry, I just tabbed the residue glitter off. For the sentiment I used the General Sentiments stamp set with white embossing powder and a piece of black cardstock that was die cut with the Fitted Fishtail dies. Very easy, but still very colorful thanks to the multi-colored background piece. This then led to my last card project:
For this card I used the final stitched rectangle pieces, as shown in the steps here:
Step 1 to 3: I arranged the leftover pieces from the previous card onto the card base and cut them into size so that they filled the whole background. Then I die cut a focal piece from white cardstock using the Stitched Circles die cut die. I stamped and embossed a sentiment (using General Sentiments) and florals (using the Spring Fling stamp set) and golden as well as light green and pink embossing powders.
After embossing I inked the circle light yellow with Distress Ink. Next I die cut a piece of golden glitter carstock with the Scalloped stitched circle die to place under the sentiment piece and finished the focal piece off with some Fitted Fishtail dies.
So one idea led to a set of three fun cards and I basically worked with the same paper pieces from start to finish. Here are some close-ups of the finished cards:
I hope I could inspire you to take a second look at your basic dies to use them in a little different way! I´d love to see what kind of ideas you come up with. Wishing you a fabulous July and see you again next month with another card idea!
Happy crafting, xxx, Sanna
Supplies:
Elizabeth Craft Designs:
Other: Sizzix Big Shot A4 Pink, black, light green, yellow and blue cardstock Embossing powder by Ranger and American Crafts Golden glitter cardstock 3D foam squares Heat tool – Ranger Loose golden glitter
Hey Friends! It’s EK, and today I am creating a card featuring not only Joset’s sweet Koala die set but most of the sentiment stamps from the Bear Hugs stamp set. There are so many wonderful sentiments on this stamp set it is difficult to pick just one, so instead I created a background using them all.
Step One: In a stamping platform line up in a pattern the sentiments from the Bear Hugs sentiment stamp set into a block. Using a light blue ink, stamp the pattern onto some 90lb Soft Finish Cardstock.
Step Two: Slide the cardstock over and stamp the pattern again onto a clean section of paper.
Step Three: Slide the cardstock down, letting it hang out of the stamping platform, and stamp the pattern.
Step Four: Repeat step two and three until the whole piece of paper is inked.
Step Five: Die cut the cardstock using the Stitched Indented Rectangle die set.
Step Six: Using the same ink you stamped with, blend it around the edges of an A2 card frame.
Step Seven: Adhere the die cut sentiment cardstock to the card frame using 10mm Clear Double Sided Adhesive.
Step Eight: Using 90lb Soft Finish Cardstock, die cut the piece of the Koala die set.
Step Nine: Color the die cut piece with alcohol markers. I used my copics.
Step Ten: Using a liquid adhesive, assemble the Koala die set.
Step Eleven: Adhere the the Koala to the card frame, centering him onto of all the sentiments.
I hope you find my project as absolutely cute as I do. It was really fun to make, and I can’t wait to create a new one with a different sentiment stamp set.
Which stamp set would yo use to create your own sentiment background? Let us know in the comments. Until then, happy crafting.
Hello there everyone, it’s Sanna Lippert here again with another guest design team project. For today’s cards I created a set of two masculine, clean and simple, graduation cards. As my son finished high school level and exams this June, I need a nice card for his graduation festivities.
I used woodgrain patterned paper and instead of flowers, just leaves to add a special touch to the card. Also, the leaves are done out of Shimmer Sheets, to add just a touch of festivity to the card. Here is how the card is done:
Step 1: Take light blue Soft Finish Cardstock and using the Summer Fun Sentiments stamp set and grey Distress Oxide stamp ink, stamp the sentiment “well done” onto the carstock.
Step 2: Next die cut a piece of woodgrain paper using the Stitched Rounded Rectangles die cut die and then stamp “I´m so proud of you” with black stamp ink onto it using the Build Your Own Sentiment 1 stamp set.
Step 3: Take a darker blue toned cardstock to mat the stamped cardstock strip. This will make the stamped element stand out more from the background. Then adhere the pieces onto the cardbase.
Step 4: Take a piece of Shimmer Sheet and apply a Clear Double Sided Adhesive sheet onto it. Now run the sheet thru your die cutting machine, but don´t die cut the image thru (don´t use a metal plate in your die cutting machine). This way you will get an embossed image. Next take your precision scissors and cut around the edges of the “embossed” image.
Step 5: Adhere everything on place and add some faux stitching around the edges to finish off the card. Optionally you can also add a few Craft Drops for decor or leave the card as it is. You now have a easy-to-mail, flat, yet decorative, masculine card done.
Since I had all the products alraedy on my desk, I also did a second card using the same basic idea and the same products, but modified the idea a little. This is a great way to strech one basic idea and make several variations of it at once. Besides, it is always good to have a card or two for just in case as backup!
I hope I could inspire you to create masculine clean-and-simple styled cards yourself! See you again next month with another card tutorial. Until then, wishing you a lovely June.
Happy crafting, Sanna
Supplies:
Elizabeth Craft Designs:
Other: Sizzix Big Shot A4 Ranger Distress Oxide Iced Spruce Acrylic block for stamping Hero Arts Black Chalkboard stamp ink 3D adhesive foam
Hey Friends! It’s EK, and I have been playing around with cardmaking, molding paste, and stencils lately. I find that one of the best collection of stencils for this technique is the line from Ilse and Charlene with their vivid detail and clean lines.
Step One: Onto heavy cardstock, push heavy molding paste through the Spring Flower Mandala stencil. Peel back the stencil and let dry. Make sure to wash the stencil before any of the molding paste dries.
Step Two: Spray liquid ink onto the cardstock. I used a collection of Lindy’s Starburst Sprays. Let ink dry.
Step Three: Polish the ink off the molding paste. Splatter the ink once more onto the paper so it pools in a few places. Let dry.
Step Four: Push more molding paste through one of the stencils from the Pattern Stencil Pack stencils over the ink in several spots. As the paste dries it will absorb the color underneath.
Step Five: Hand stamp the texture stamp from the Make A Wish stamp set with black ink onto the cardstock.
Step Six: Die cut the cardstock using the Stitched Rounded Rectangle die set. Using 10mm Clear Double Sided Adhesive, adhere the die cut cardstock to an A2 card frame.
Step Seven: Stamp two feathers from the Make a Wish stamp set onto some 90lb Soft Finish Cardstock with black ink.
Step Eight: Fussy cut out the feathers.
Step Nine: Using alcohol markers, color the feathers. I used copics in both Violet tones and Blue Violet.
Step Ten: Adhere the feathers to the card frame using 6mm Clear Double Sided Adhesive.
Step Eleven: Die cut a sentiment from the Words 2- Think of You die set. Adhere the sentiment to the card frame.
I just love the way the metallic spray inks reflect around the molding paste of the Mandala stencil.
Let us know in the comments below if you ever play with molding paste and card making? If not, how do you play with your Ilse and Charlene stencils? Make sure to let us know. Until then, happy crafting.
Hey friends! It’s EK, and today I am popping in with a super easy, super quick birthday card using both my gel press plate and Suzanne Cannon’s A Way With Words dies. I just love how simple this card was to make, but yet how impactful the look of it is!
Step One: Die cut the A Way With Words Big Balloon out of Watercolor paper.
Step Two: Ink up a gel plate with ink and blend with a brayer. I used Crackling Fire, Ripe Persimmon, and Wild Honey Distress Oxides. Press the die cut balloon onto the gel plate.
Step Three: Die cut the A Way With Words Happy Birthday 3 die set out of Watercolor Paper.
Step Four: Ink up the gel plate and blend with a brayer. I used Scattered Straw and Mustard Seed Distress Oxides.
Step Five: Splatter an A2 card frame with liquid ink. I used Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide Spray and Rusty Hinge Distress Ink Spray.
Step Six: Splattered the Big Balloon inked die cut with liquid ink. I used Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide Spray. Let dry. Ink the round edges with a black ink pad.
Step Seven: Using some 6mm Clear Double Sided Adhesive, adhere the Big Balloon onto the A2 card frame. Let the straight edges hang off the edge of the card frame.
Step Eight: Using a craft knife or scissors, trim the excess balloon off the card frame.
Step Nine: Using a liquid adhesive, adhere the birthday sentiment onto the balloon.
Step Ten: Using a black pen, add shadows and details to the die cut sentiment.
I just love how easy this card is to create. Make sure you pop over to the store and pick it up while it is still in stock and on sale!
Let us know in the comments below if you ever use a gel plate to add splashes of color to your die cuts. Until then, happy crafting.
