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Adding a Subtle Sparkle to Your Image

September 7, 2022

Hello, Marla here with a quick Christmas card. Christmas creeps up on me every year, so I am bound and determined to get a good jump on my cards this year. I kept my card very subtle today with cool toned watercolors. I started off in one direction but changed my mind on the design midway through. Do you ever do that? Let’s jump into the card.

As I mentioned I kept this card pretty simple. I stamped my image from the Beautiful Blooms “Noel” stamp set onto watercolor cardstock with clear embossing ink. I used the same ink to stamp my sentiment and then add Brutus Monroe’s “Silver Sparkle” embossing powder and heat set. The secret ingredient in this embossing powder is the addition of glitter. The addition of glitter really steps up the end result and adds a wow factor that is difficult to photograph.

I used several types of watercolors to color the image. I began with my metallic Finetec watercolors. As you can see, as it dried it was pretty light in color. To add depth, I used my Karin markers and added more intense greens and teals to the leaves for deeper tones. The background needed color, so I added a beautiful blue from my ECD watercolors around the image. Even with the addition of the blue watercolor, the panel was still looking plain and needed more sparkle. I covered up the image and added water splatters to the background. Before the water could dry, I added more of the sparkle embossing powder over the water splatters and heat set. Did you know that you could emboss with water?

Here’s where my card took a turn. The single layered panel was still a little plain, so I used my Tim Holtz “Deckle Edge” trimmer to cut down my panel. I added “Weathered Wood” Distress Oxide ink around the edges to draw your eye in towards the image. I had cut off the sentiment and needed to add a new one. I pulled a smaller sentiment from my crafty stash and heat embossed it using fine silver embossing powder. Next, I added a navy blue 1/4″ mat behind the watercolored panel. I felt the addition of the navy mat helped the watercolored panel pop a little more. To complete my card, I adhered the layered panels to a red A2 card base.

As I mentioned, the sparkle was hard to capture in a photo, so I am sharing this video so you can see the impact the glitter in the embossing powder has on the card.

Thank you so much for joining me. I have added a link to the Beautiful Blooms “Noel” stamp below for easy shopping. Until next time… Marla

Paper Flowers Paper flowers Uncategorized

Christmas In July Bouquet

July 8, 2022

Hi, Marla here today, with a Christmas in July card. Can you believe we have already moved into July? Why not start the month out with a little Christmas inspiration? I know you’re what you’re thinking, “I can’t begin to think about that right now. I’m enjoying my summer.” We aren’t going to get frosty just yet. Let’s hit the hot house instead and build a Christmas floral bouquet. Here’s how my card was created.

1. Die cut your ECD “Flower Pot/Pail” from white cardstock and add ink. Add foam tape to the back.

2. Die cut two ECD “Berry Branches” from white cardstock and add ink. Then add wet glue to the top of each berry and add Prills. Set aside to dry.

3. Die cut the several of the smallest flower from ECD “Florals 14.” Add ink in desired color on both the front and back sides. Spritz with water and pinch the ends of each petal toward the center. Add Prills to the center with wet glue.

4. Die but two branches from white cardstock using ECD “Leaves 1.” Coat with Versmark Ink and add gold embossing powder, then heat set.

5. Die cut three pine branches, using white cardstock from ECD “Leaves & Branches” and add ink.

6. Add a 4.25 x 5.25 piece of patterned paper to an A2 top folding card base. Add decorative trim 2/3’s way down behind where flowerpot will be placed.

7. Adhere your flowerpot. Using the slit at the top begin to arrange the bouquet in the flowerpot.

8. Cut a small circle three times and glue together to create a chipboard circle. Stamp a holiday greeting in the center then add it to the center of your flowerpot. Tie a bow from thin ribbon and adhere to the top of your sentiment circle.

That completes my card for today. Thank you for joining me. Until next time…. Marla

Cardmaking Craft Drops Elizabeth Craft Designs General Els van de Burgt Studio Joset Designs Silk Microfine Glitter Soft Finish Cardstock Stamping

Sparkly Slimline Christmas cards

September 4, 2021

Hello everyone and happy Saturday! It´s Sanna Lippert here again today with my September guest design team card project share. Who does not love some sparkle in their holiday cards? Well I sure do! Thus, for today´s project I used the gorgeous new Holiday dies by Joset and created two cards. Here they are:

Here is how I created the card(s):

Step 1: Take the slimline background die and die cut a piece of Clear Double Sided Adhesive with it. Then remove the negative pieces.

Step 2: Next die cut a second – plain piece – of Clear Double Sided Adhesive Sheet in the same size like the slimline background die.

Step 3: Take a slimline card base and adhere the solid adhesive piece onto the card and carefully remove the protective layer without touching it with your fingers.

Step 4: Now place the die cut background adhesive piece on top of the first layer of adhesive, but leave the protective cover on for now.

Step 5: Pick three colours of blue-toned Silk Microfine Glitter and pour them onto the adhesive areas creating an ombré look with the colours. Wipe any residue off with a brush and polish the layer with your finger.

Step 6: Now remove the slimline background die cut piece´s protective cover and pour Silverado Silk Microfine Glitter onto the adhesive areas. Again remove any residue glitter with a brush and then polish the layer with your finger. Also save the protective cover pieces for later – you will need the for the second card.

Step 7: Stamp a sentiment onto a whipe piece of paper with two blue tones of Distress Oxide inks and then die cut it using the Fitted Circles die cut dies. Decorate with inked banners if you want. For finishing touches add a few Craft Drops to the card.

Now use the leftover protective cover from the slimline background die to create a fun, second card.

Here are the steps you need to do:

Step 1: Ink a slimline card base using two light shades of Distress Oxide blues. Then place the protective cover leftover piece on top of the inked card. Use painters tape or washi tape to hold the pieces on place while inking. Then add a darker blue shade of Distress Oxide thru the DIY stencil.

Step 2: Die cut snowflakes from a piece of Clear Double Sided Adhesive Sheet and adhere them onto the inked slimline card base. Pour Pewter Silk Microfine Glitter onto the adhesive stars and polish into place. Then stamp a stentiment onto carstock and die cut with banners if you want to. Adhere on place. Decorate the edges with “faux stitching” using a white gel pen. How fast and easy you can make this second card from leftover pieces of the first one!

Here are some close-ups of the finished cards. If you want to purchase the here featured Christmas special die and stamp kit, ask your local craft store or wait until it will be available at the online store. I truly adore this kit and cannot wait to create more Holiday cards with it!

I hope you enjoyed this card set tutorial! See you again next month with another card idea.
xxx, Sanna

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Desings:

Other:

Distress Oxide Inks by Ranger Inc.
Blending Brush
Sizzix Big Shot A4 die cutting machine
Signo uni-ball white gel pen

Cardmaking Craft Drops Elizabeth Craft Designs General Joset Designs Sidekick Essentials Soft Finish Cardstock Stamping Watercolor

Set of mixed media cards

August 4, 2021

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

Cardmaking Elizabeth Craft Designs General Els van de Burgt Studio Joset Designs Planner Essentials Stamping

Clean and simple cards with basic dies

July 9, 2021

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

Cardmaking Craft Drops Elizabeth Craft Designs General Joset Designs Soft Finish Cardstock

Miss you, Mom! – card

May 6, 2021

Hello, It’s Sanna Lippert here again today with my monthly guest design team project. Now, I haven´t seen my mom since Christmas 2019 due to the pandemic, so for this Mother’s Day I made a card that says what I feel. I could imagine that there are other people out there who a dealing with the same problem, so I thought I’d share this card with you all today. But if you would rather like to say that you love your mom, then just change the sentiment. Easy!

For this card, I’ve created an easy-to-follow photo step-by-step. Here is how you can create this card:

Step 1: Start by die cutting 3 sets of the Ginko leaves from White Soft Finish Cardstock.

Step 2: Use green, yellow and pink Distress Ink tones and ink the die cut Ginko leaves.

Step 3: Cut a piece of blue cardstock to fit your card base size. Then adhere the inked Ginko leaves onto the blue cardstock either with Clear Double Sided Adhesive or liquid glue – whatever you prefer. Next cut off all excess pieces with scissors.

Step 4: Take a piece of White Soft Finish Cardstock and using the Build Your Own Sentiment 1 stamp set, stamp the word “mom” with black ink onto it.

Step 5: Take a piece of white foam rubber and attach it onto Clear Double Sided Adhesive sheet, then take the Blackboard Alphabet die set and die cut the words “miss” and “you” with your die cutting machine. Arrange and adhere the words onto the background piece. Then fussy cut the word mom into a suitable size and add Craft Drops for decor. When the drops are dry, adhere the piece onto a card base. I also stamped and fussy cut a little heart from the same stamp set and added it to the card, but that is totally optional.

This is how the finished card looks like. And it is still flat enough to put into the mail! I hope my mom likes the card and I hope you enjoyed this little card tutorial. And like always, by changing the sentiment and the colours you can use the same basic idea for different occations!

See you again next month, happy crafting!
xxx, Sanna

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:

Other:
Foam rubber – white
Sizzix – Big Shot A4
Distress Ink – Twisted Citron, Kitsch Flamingo, Squeezed Lemonade
Ink blending tool
Black stamp ink
Scissors

Cardmaking Elizabeth Craft Designs General Els van de Burgt Studio Joset Designs ModaScrap Soft Finish Cardstock Stamping Videos

Clean and simple cards with basic fitted dies

April 7, 2021

Hello everyone, it´s Sanna Lippert here again today with another card tutorial share. Today I wanted to show you how you can use the basic fitted/nesting dies to create colorful, yet simple, card backgrounds in just a few simple steps.

You only need a selection of basic fitted dies (for exampe rectangles, stars, hexacons or squares), a stamp set and a selection of colored cardstock. I chose to do a more monochromatic pattern on the above cards, but you could do more variation by picking all colours of the rainbow for a background. Here is how these cards were done:

Step 1: Pick three colours of cardstock in similar tones (I used grey, teal and blue tones). Then pick three of the smaller sized nesting Stitched Rectangles and die cut two pieces each with the smaller dies from the cardstock and one bigger sized piece.

Step 2: Arrange the pieces onto a card base and adhere them on place with Clear Double Sided Tape. Flip the card over and cut any excess pieces with scissors.

Step 3: Take a piece of black cardstock and stamp a sentiment with the “Build Your Own Sentiment 1” stamp set using embossing ink and fine white embossing powder. Heat set the powder with a heat tool and adhere the sentiment onto the card with 3D foam pads. For additional detail you can add some embossed stars around the sentiment and a few Craft Drops, if you want to.

Here are some variations on you can do using other fitted dies – I used the Stitched Hexacons and Stitched Stars:

As you can see, by changing the color combination and the dies or the sentiments, you can create cards for various occations using the same basic idea!

I´ve also recorded the steps for you, so you get a better idea of each and every step:

I hope I could inspire you to make some fun card backgrounds with your nesting dies!! See you again next month with another card idea!!

Happy crafting,
xxx, Sanna

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:

Other:
Sizzix Big Shot A4
Heat Tool – Ranger Inc.
Embossing ink – Nuvo
Embossing Powder , white – Ranger Inc.
3D foam pads – Scrapbook Adhesives

Cardmaking Elizabeth Craft Designs General Els van de Burgt Studio Joset Designs Silk Microfine Glitter Soft Finish Cardstock Stamping Sue Smith Creative Designs Videos

Winter Wishes Snowman card

January 7, 2021

Hello and Happy New Year 2021! It´s Sanna here again with my January project share. I wanted to create a winter themed greeting card for this month and used the cute Jack Frost die by Joset with Planner Essentials Christmas Figures tree die to create the winter scene.

Here are the steps to the card:

Step 1: Die cut a strip of white paper with Adventure Edges to create a DIY stencil from paper. Use it to ink the background could pattern onto a white card base.
Step 2: Apply a Clear Double Sided Adhesive Sheet onto a piece of white Soft Finish Cardstock and die cut the tree from Planner Essentials 34 Christmas Figures die set. Make sure the adhesive is on the backside when die cutting the whole tree, but pointing towards you when die cutting the filigrane tree die piece. You will need the adhesive on top of be able to add glitter later.
Step 3: Now die cut the Snowflake from white Soft Finish Cardstock (also add an adhesive sheet on the back here too for easier adhering). Also die cut a few snowflakes using the Snow Globe die set, but this time again make sure the adhesive is on top.


Step 4: Using Distress Inks, apply color to the tree and the snowman parts. I used tones: Gathered Twigs, Old Paper, Black Soot, Evergreen Bough, Salty Ocean and Spiced Marmalade.
Step 5: Apply Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter onto the filigrane tree piece as well as the snowflakes.


Step 6: Adhere the green inked tree onto the card base and attach the filigrane, glittered tree piece on top. Now build the snowman together and adhere all pieces on place.
Step 7: Now use the For You stamp set by Sue Smith in combination with Joset´s Winter Sentiments to create the sentiment: “Winter Wishes” and stamp that onto the bottom of the card with black stamp ink. Apply the glittered snowflakes onto the background and the card is done.

I´ve again recorded a start-to-finish video for you to watch. I hope it gives you an even better idea on each and every step of this card.

I hope you enjoy this little card tutorial and get inspired to create fun wintery cards yourself! Wishing you all a nice January!!

Happy crafting,
xxx, Sanna

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:

Other:
Sizzix Big Shot A4
Distress Inks – Ranger Inc.
Ink blending tool
Black stamp ink – Hero Arts
Kraft sheet, Acrylic block
Black pen – Faber-Castell

A Way With Words Cardmaking Elizabeth Craft Designs General Joset Designs Soft Finish Cardstock Uncategorized Videos

Metallic toned cards

October 8, 2020

Hello everyone, it´s Sanna here again today with my October guest team member post. I am a big fan of white cardstock, because you can do so much with it. So this time I wanted to show you a simple idea how you can create different toned metallic shaded cards really easy with just a few steps.

Here is how this cards are done:

Step 1: Take the “Heart” background die and one or two “A Way With Words” word dies out. Take a sheet of White Soft Finish Cardstock and apply a sheet of Clear Double Sided Adhesive sheet onto the backside. Leave the foil on.
Step 2: Place the paper and the die cut dies into your die cutting machine and build a sandwich according to the instrucktions of your particular machine. Die cut 3 (or more) background pieces and as many sentiments as you have backgrounds.
Step 3: Now remove all negative elements from your white cardstock pieces.

Step 4: Place the die cut pieces on a kraft mat and apply a metallic paste with a blending brush in circular motion onto your die cut pieces. I used a pearl, a silver and a gold tone on the 3 cards I created and for the sentiments I tried to match each patterned paper tone, so I used bronze, pink and blue on those.
Step 5: Now adhere the tinted background pieces onto a patterned paper of your choice and adhere the sentiment on top. Decorate for example with half pearls, dimentional pearls or rhinestones. Finally, adhere to a card base.

This simple idea can be used with various background dies to add a little different look to your cards. The nice surface texture of the Soft Finish Cardstock also shows thru after tinting the paper which adds a really nice look to the cards.

I´ve again recorded a video to give you a better idea of the steps – hope you like it!

I hope you could inspire you to play more with your dies and white Soft Finish Cardstock. There are so many possibilities to add some color to it, this is just one of them.

I´ll be back with another card idea again next month! See you then.

Happy crafting,
Sanna

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:

Other:
Sizzix Big Shot A4
Kaisercraft half pearls
Blending brush
Nuvo Embellishment Mousse

Cardmaking Craft Drops Elizabeth Craft Designs General Joset Designs Videos

Fast and fun sentiment card

September 6, 2020

Hello everyone, it´s Sanna Lippert here again today with another guest design team project share. For my September project I created a fun and a super fast to make card. This card can be finished in under ten minutes.

Here is how to make the card:

Step 1: Take a green plain or polka dotted paper and attach Clear Double Sided Adhesive on the back. Now take the legs from the Frog die and die cut 11 paires (for this card size) of legs. The adhesive on the back makes the adhering process very fast.
Step 2: Arrange the legs onto a ivory toned card base in rows of threes.
Step 3: Remove the adhesive backing and adhere the legs on place.
Step 4: Take a Dymo and type on black tape the sentence “break a leg”. Adhere on the card.
Step 5: Decorate with black liquid pearls, let dry and the card is done.

I´ve also recorded a short video to show you how fast such a card can be done. I hope you like the idea!!

See you again with another card project idea next month. Until then,
Happy crafting,
xxx, Sanna

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:

Other:
Sizzix Big Shot A4
Black Liquid Pearls – Ranger Inc.
White card base – office supplies store
Dymo
Dymo tape – black

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