Christmas Z-Fold Card Insanity (Project 48)

Warning: this will be a really long post with lots of pictures and detailed descriptions of one card.

As promised, here is the second Z-fold card I made. And this was one of those ideas that sounded really good in my head and then about 1/3 of the way through, I realized that it was actually insane. I think I spent about 10 + hours making this card. And I'm not sure if I'm going to give it away or keep it for myself. I'm just not sure I like anyone I like enough to give this too. :-) I'm either going to put it out with my Christmas decorations or maybe add some squirrels and give it to my mom since she puts all the cards I've made for her over the years out with her Christmas decorations.

I started by drawing a triangle on each section to create a base shape for the tree. Since I improvised on the z-fold cut to make my tree base and insure that the whole tree lines up when the card is folded, I've included at the bottom of the posts photos and an explanation of how I did it.

Since I was going to use die cut pine needles to create the tree, I knew there would be gaps. So I used painter's tape to mark off the partial triangle on the front section and inked it with Distress Ink in Mowed Lawn and, what else, Pine Needles. I wished I had taken some pics while I was doing this.

 I die cut the pine needles from snippets of watercolor cardstock. It is an Impression Obsession die.  Then I colored them with Distress Ink in Mowed Lawn and Pine Needles. I know it would have been faster to color the paper first and die cut second but then the sides would still be white, which would have bugged me. I have slight crafting OCD tendencies. Then began the epic assembly process by attaching each one individually. Here's a pic of what the individual pine needles look like, with a dime for some perspective on the size. For non-Americans, a dime is about 1.8cm in diameter.

 

The trunk is a piece of brown floral tape attached at the top (before I added the pine needles). The bottom 2 rows of each section were attached with glossy accents and the rest were attached with rolled pieces of scor-tape to give some dimension.  There are 43 pine needle branches on the front section.

I couldn't decide if I liked the full sun or in the shade photos better, so included both.  For the garlanded, I attached pieces of ribbon that I folded the edges under the pine needles to give the illusion of it wrapping around the tree.  

 

Here's the middle section, with the front folded back, so you see the middle section and the bottom section.  There are 54 pine needle branches on the middle section.

 

And the full sun picture.

Here it is with the whole card unfolded.  This is the back of the card.  For the sentiment, I die cut the red and white cardstock with Spellbinders' nesties.  It is one of the label sets but I forget which one.  The sentiment is by Impression Obsession. I stamped with ColorBox Pigment ink in Evergreen and since it usually takes forever to dry, I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I realized when I went to attach it that it was a little to big for the section, so I had to attach it at a wonky angle to fit.  I added a couple of gems.  I think that was because I smudged some ink on the white cardstock. 

 

Here's just the middle by itself.  I realized as I was drafting this, I didn't have a pic of just the middle without the bottom layer showing, so I took another pic but by that time the sun was hiding.

Now for the bottom section (the inside of the card), which had the full tree on it.  The star on top of the tree is a die by My Favorite Things colored with metallic watercolor paint and with a gem at the center.  And this section has 69 pine needle branches.  So that's 166 individually colored and attached pine needle branches. Yep, I'm a little crazy. In full sun:

 

 

And in the shade.  I added a dime to give perspective on the ornaments.  

 

The ornaments are My Favorite Thing stamps. I used the pieces of cardstock cut off from the card base for stamping them. The first batch I stamped with Versafine. Since I didn't stamp nearly enough the first time, I stamped the second batch with Versafine and embossed with clear embossing powder, because after I colored the first batch, the lines on some of the ornaments didn't show up as well. On some of them I embossed a snowflake with clear embossing powder. It was part of a three snowflake stamp also by My Favorite Things that I did surgery on. I colored them all with metallic water colors, added glossy accents, cut each out and attached with rolled pieces of scor-tape. I also added sequins with a dot of Stickles in the middle and gems for sparkle. This close-up (of the bottom section) shows the ornaments better.

 

 

You can really see the sparkle in the full sun one. Again this is the bottom section. 

 

When I attached the trunk, I only adhered the top down because I wanted to be able to tuck the ribbon for the tree skirt under the trunk so that it would look like the tree skirt went around the whole trunk.  It took a bit of trial and error to get the tree skirt to work.  I used a snippet of wired ribbon to create the skirt, tucking it behind the trunk and then folded over the top. The presents are My Favorite Things stamp, except the gold one, which is Hero Arts.  I stamped all but the far left one on snippets of pattern paper, embossed, used the watercolor metallic paint for the ribbons and fussy cut. The far left one was stamped on snippets of plain white cardstock and painted with metallic paints.    

In this close-up of the front section, you can see that I got better at attaching the tree skirt as I went along.  The presents were a strategic choice to hide the worst of the lumps.

 

Here is the card fully open to show the inside.  The inside sentiment is by Stampendous.  Oh and the green pattern paper on the 2 non-tree panels were snippets as well.

 

Full Sun



 

 

Partial Shade

 

 

Since this card is literally covered with snippets, I'm going to share it over at the playground.

 

Pixie's Snippets Playground Weeks 181 and 182

 

Thanks for stopping by and please come again. 

 

Now for the detailed directions for creating the card base, which I figured I would put at the bottom so you didn't have to read through/ scroll through them to get to the good stuff, but you could look if you were interested.

 

For the Z-fold you need a piece of cardstock that is 6 inches by 12 inches (15.3 cm by 30.6 cm - I think I have conversions right).  I used a scrap piece for these pics because I forgot to take pics while I was making it and the piece was only 5.75 inches by 12 so if it looks a little off that’s why.  Here's a picture on the starting piece with all the measurements on it.  They will be explained in steps 1-3.

 

1) You are going to measure up 3 inches (7.6 cm) on one side and draw a diagonal line to the opposite corner.  That is your usual cut line for a z-fold line. 

 

2) Flip the paper over and draw the diagonal line again, making sure you measure up the 3 inches on the same side that you did on the front. This will give you a guide line for the middle section, which when the card is folded is actually the back of the piece of paper.

 

 

 3)  Then score at 4 inches (10.1 cm) and 8 inches (20.2 cm) across.  These are your fold lines.  That way each section is 4 inches wide.  Here’s a pic of the front with all the measurements and the diagonal cut line draw in.

 

4) Fold you card at the 4 and 8 inch score lines to make your Z. 

5) Now, on the front panel, find the center point of the top and draw a triangle with a ruler.  I also added the trunk and line for the tree skirt. The diagonal line is the cut line.  The straight line is showing that it is 4 inches wide.

 

 

 

 

6) Now cut just the front section along the cut line and then up the folded edge to the top.  That way you can see the middle section when the card is folded.

 

 

7) Line the ruler up using the edge of the tree on the front section to draw the top of the tree on the middle section.

 

 

 

8) Then on the front panel measure up from the bottom of the card to the bottom of the tree. 

9) Use that measurement to draw the bottom line of the tree on the middle section. 

 

 

10) Then connect the bottom of the tree to the top part you already drew. 

 

 

11) Again, cut along the cut line (for the middle section this time) and the fold.  This is where drawing the cut line on the back comes in handy.  Now you can see the bottom section when the card is folded.

 

 

 

12) Repeat steps 8 to 10 for the back section.  When you go to cut this time, cut along the cut line until you get to the tree top.  Then cut up the tree top then down the other side to the cut line, across the cut line to the fold and then up the fold.  Now you have a tree base.  

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

Now you too can join my insanity.  And I did warning at the beginning this would be a long one.  So thanks for hanging in there for all my long drawn out explanations. 

Playing with Distress Inks/ Valentines (Projects 1-7)

Hey everybody, long time, no blog.  I can’t believe how long it has been since I last posted. This past holiday season about did me in.  Between the beginning of November and Christmas, I made about 50 cards, 14 wreaths, 6 table top trees, 5 calendars, 6 dozen cupcakes, 16 dozen cookies, and I hosted Thanksgiving and a holiday party.  This left little time for blogging.   Then I spent January recovering.  I’ll post picks of some of the projects I’ve worked on while on a blog hiatus in the weeks to come.

Now, I have a confession, I fell off the no shopping wagon big time.  So I’m restarting my shopping moratorium.  No more craft shopping until I post 50 projects on this blog, unless I run out of something, like cardstock or adhesive.

Before I get to today’s projects, I want to point out that Artsy Inkers is getting ready to have another party starting on Saturday.  There will be challenges, and prizes and lots of fun to be had.  So you should swing by and sign up on the message board and join the fun.  Once again, I’ll be hosting a challenge called Color My World.  But if you want to know the details and play along, you need to join us over at Artsy Inkers.  We are a great bunch of stampers/cardmakers/crafter and we have lots of fun.

 

Now on to the main attraction.  I saw a post on the Hero Arts blog using a cool technique for creating backgrounds.  Here’s the link.   The jist is that you add color to watercolor paper, spray water on a stencil, and put the stencil on the paper so that the water leeches off some of the color.  Well, I did not have much success with it.  I wish I had remembered to photo the backgrounds I created before turning them into cards, but I forgot.

Here is one of my first attempts, and you can hardly see any of the hearts from the stencil, which I created with my silhouette. 

For the focal image, I stamped the heart with Versamark ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.  Then I inked it with Distress Ink in Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry.  I also spritzed it with water.  The image is by My Favorite Things, which is located not too far from where I live.  The ribbon and button flower are from my stash. 

On this one, you can’t see any hearts at all.

The images are by Inkadinkado and I stamped them with Brilliance ink.  I used Distress Ink in Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry for the background.  And the ribbon is from January's ribbon club by Really Reasonable Ribbon (RRR).  The gems are actually a light grey.

Given my lack of luck with the technique, I decided to start playing with the stencil and water.  On this one, I colored the base with Distress Ink in Spun Sugar and added Distress Ink in Picked Raspberry with the stencil and then spritzed with water before removing the stencil so the hearts would bleed a little.

 

The focal image is by Inkadinkado.  I added glossy accents and stickles to the heart.  The dies are by Spellbinders.  And this is another ribbon from January's Ribbon Club from RRR.

Then I took the stencil, flipped it and stamped onto another piece of paper to create this background.

For the focal image, I again stamped the heart by MFT with Versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I swiped Distress ink in Shabby Shutters, Picked Raspberry and Worn Lipstick.  The ribbon is from RRR's February Ribbon Club.  The heart is chipboard and I covered it with liquid pearls.

Then I made several backgrounds by doing basically the opposite of the HA technique I was trying.  I put the stencil down and spritzed the paper with the stencil in place.  So instead of leaching the color from around the hearts, the color was leeched from the hearts.

For this one, I used Distress Inks in Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry. 

Then I made a couple of cards in red, using Distress Inks in Barn Door and Fired Brick.

The image is by Inkadinkado and stamped with ColorBox Pigment ink in Cranberry.  I created the stitched hearts using the Sew Easy tool, which is a complete lie.  It does not do a very good job of punching the holes in cardstock.

On this one, the focal image is by Stampabillities (which used to have the license for House Mouse but now it is Stampendous).  I colored them with watercolors and added some gem brands to the corners.

Thanks for stopping by and please come back again.

 

 

Fall Inspired by Hero Arts (Projects 31, 32, 33 and 34)

Only 16 more projects before I can lift the shopping moratorium.

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I love going to the Hero Arts’ website for inspiration.  Well today's post is several cards I made that were inspired by Hero Arts cards.

 

Card 1

 

Let’s start with the inspiration piece Hero Arts Halloween Greetings which provided the inspiration for the layout and how I did the background.

For this piece, I started by stamping the acorn and leaves on a snippet of X-Press paper with Memento Rich Cocoa.  Then I colored them with Copics and fussy cut them out with my Fiskars fingertip craft knife. The image is by Inkadinkado. 

 

I don’t know about you, but white edges drive me batty when I fussy cut things out.  So I’ve got a tip for dealing with that.  After I cut the piece out, I place it on a piece of scrap paper and run a marker in the same/ similar color as the ink I stamped with along the piece.  Basically I trace the piece on the scrap paper.  That way the edges get colored.  Just be careful, I can’t tell you the number of times I slipped and add a line to the image.  Here are some before and after pictures.

Before

After

 

 

 

For the base, I took a piece of patterned paper and stamped with the background sentiment stamp by the Stampin Place with Versafine in Vintage Sepia and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I added the lace to the back of the piece and attached that to the kraft cardstock.

 

I used a Spellbinders die to cut out the piece for the sentiment.  The sentiment is by Impression Obsession and stamped with Versamagic in pumpkin spice. 

 

Copics:

Acorns -  E21, E23, E25, E27

Leaves - R05 & R08, Y15& Y17, YR04& YR18 

 

 

 

Card 2

 

With this one, I was inspired by the technique used on this really cool card.  Hero Arts Inchie Art

For this card, I took a three by three piece of cream cardstock and stamped it with the Inkadinkado flourish stamp with Versamark and heat embossed with clear powder.  Then I inked the piece with Distress Inks in Spiced Maramalde, Fired Brick and Wild Honey.  And wiped the ink off the embossed portions.  Then I cut the square into inchies (one inch square).  I took five of the inchies and added stamped images and the sentiment.  I added the squares to a kraft base.  Then I added the orange ribbon from August’s ribbon club assortment from Really Reasonable Ribbons.  I made the bow using my bow-it-all and added it with a glue dot.

 

The stamps used are:

butterflies – Stampendous

Acorn  - Fiskar

Big leaf – Fiskars

Small Leaf  – Stampendous

Fall –  Stampendous

 

Card 3

This card is my version of an absolutely beautiful card made by Jennifer McGuire. Jennifer McGuire Get Well.  You will notice that my piece is strikingly similar.  I used different stamps and different techniques but I just loved Jennifer’s piece, and as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Because it is so similar to Jennifer’s piece, I wasn’t going to post it but, I really like how the butterfly came out.  So I decided to share it.

To create this card, I started with two pieces of watercolor paper.  For the card base, I brayered on Distress Ink in fired brick.  Because the paper has some texture and I used the brayer to apply the ink, it created a cool effect.  I think I misted the brayer with a little water to get better coverage.  For the smaller piece, I used Spiced Marmalade and did the same thing.  I stamped both pieces with Inkadinkado flourish stamps with Memento Rich Cocoa ink.  After stamping, I used my corner rounder on the smaller piece. 

 

I inked a scrap of watercolor paper with DI in Fired Brick for the sentiment, stamped it with DI in Vintage Photo and dovetailed the ends.  I inked the edges with Vintage Photo as well.  When I attached it to the smaller piece, I put a foam square in the center and then used adhesive on the ends to glue them down. 

 

For the butterfly, I stamped the butterfly with Versafine in Onyx Black and embossed with clear embossing powder.  Then I painted the butterfly with twinkle H2Os. 

Once assembled, I added liquid pearls in Cantaloupe and Rogue.  To get them to flatten, I applied a couple of dots at a time and then thwapped (yes, I just made up that word) the card against my craft desk.  Basically, I tapped, with some force, the back of the card against my desk until I liked the look of the dots.  I figured out that given the heat in Florida, the liquid pearls start to set up fairly quickly.  So I had to apply the dots in batches or the thwapping wouldn’t work. 

 

 

Card 4

For this card, I finally gave die cut inlay a try.  I was inspired by this card: :Hero Arts Thank You Flower Branch.

I started by cutting the tag shape with my silhouette from watercolor paper and from plain cardstock.  I actually made a few of these because I donated several to Operation Write Home.   So for the first one, I cut the branch from the watercolor paper tag first and then the leaves.  But that meant when I cut the leaf that’s dangling off the branch, I didn’t get the full leaf.  So I had to re-cut it from a snippet of watercolor paper.  For the rest of the tags I made, I used the branch die to figure out the placement of the leaf, but cut the leaves first.  Hopefully that makes sense.   Then I ran the branch and leaves through my Big Kick again to emboss them.

 

I inked the background with Distress Ink in Mustard Seed.  Then I stamped the background sentiment by the Stampin Place with Tea Dye Distress Ink (I think).  I colored the branch with Tea Dye and Vintage Photo Distress Ink.   The leaves were colored with Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemon, Fired Brick and Barn Door.

I then attached the watercolor paper tag to the plain cardstock.   Then I placed the branch and leaves back into the tag.   To finish it off, I added some ribbon from my stash, pattern paper to the card base and the tag on top.

I'm going to enter these over at Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 152
 

Thanks for stopping by and please come again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inktoberfest Details (Projects 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18)

Let’s start by welcoming Di and Liz, my two newest followers.  You should go check out their fabulous blogs: Pixie's Crafty Workshop and Crafty Sunflower.  Ms. Di is the wonderful hostess of the Pixie's Snippets Playground challenge.

I’m sorry it has been so long since I posted, especially since I promised more details for my last post.  The last couple of weeks have been crazy.  About 2 weeks ago, I had a conference to go to for work and before leaving I went on a cleaning bender because my husband, who I’m currently separated from, agreed to dog sit while I was at the conference.  Then when I got back, my parents had returned from their vacation and brought my aunt back with them.  So I spent some time with her.  Around the same time (the weekend of the 18^th), I realized that I had agreed to have a table at the garage/ craft sale at my mom’s church this weekend but I did have anything made that I could sell.  So for the last week and a half, I’ve been working like crazy to get stuff made for the sale.  So my card making and blogging have been neglected.

 

On to the details from the Inktoberfest sneak peek:

My challenge sample:



This is the card I made for the challenge I hosted, called Starting Point.

 

 

 

 For the challenge, participants had to start their project by choosing 2 different embellishments and use them as the inspiration for the piece.  I started with the buttons, which are two buttons layered together, and the ribbon, which I used my bow-it-all to tie in a double bow.  They served as the guide for the colors I used for the rest of the piece. 

 

 

After coloring the angel image (Stampendous) with colored pencils, I stamped the image on a scrap paper and created a mask. I used Distress Inks (Dried Marigold and Spiced Maramalade) to ink around the image and then I used a firm bristled brush to flick Distress Stain in Chipped Sapphire on the piece.  I was being a bit lazy and didn’t do a close cut on the mask and when I got done inking, I did not like the ring of white around the angel.  So I went back in with a brush to ink the white area. 

    

The tag was inked with Distress Ink in Dried Marigold and Chipped Sapphire and splattered with Chipped Sapphire. The sentiment is by My Favorite Things.  I used a corner rounder on the angel and the tag.

 

A Master Board:

The master board was created for a challenge that required that you create a master board and use it to create at least two ATCs (artist trading cards).  I started by inking watercolor paper with Distress Inks in Broken China, Salty Ocean and Shaded Lilac.  I then wet the paper and sprinkled with salt to get the spotted effect.

 

Then I used a snowflake stencil I made with my silhouette and sprayed it with Shimmer Mist in Frost.  It is kinda hard to see.

 

Finally, I stamped the snowflakes with Distress Ink.  The stamps are by Impression Obsession and Inkadinkado.

 

Once done, I created two ATCs.  The snowman (Inkadinkado) is stamped with Brillance Ink and fussy cut and popped up on the ATC. I created the embellishment by die cutting a circle and stamping the sentiment (Studio G). I added some stickles. Once dry, I covered with glossy accents.  Then when that was dry, I popped it up in a bottle cap.

Combining 3 Challenges:

For this card, I combined three challenges: the Paper Towel challenge , the Lighten Up challenge and the Mixed Media challenge.  Check out the links for details on the requirements and techniques required for each challenge.

 

I created the side panel by using my Big and Juicy ink pad in Hydrangea to ink up a piece of paper towel and then stamp on paper with it using a brayer. I added some stickles to accent the swirl pattern of the paper towel.

 

For lighten up, I stamped the bubble image by the Stampin Place with Distress Ink in Broken China. The tree is by Hero Arts. I colored it with Copic and Spica markers. I added stickles to the branches of the tree but it doesn't show up very well in the picture and stickles for the ground. I added some snowflake stamps by Hero Arts and some stickles for snowflakes. The corner punch is by Fiskar.

 The mixed media pieces are the large snowflakes. I added a snowflake charm to the bottom one and a sequin and gem to the top one.  You should definitely check out the link for the mixed media challenge, which has a link to Sadie's wonderful blog post with detailed explanation of how to create the pieces.

 

Bookmark:

This one combined the Lighten Up challenge and the Book'em challenge.

 

I used watercolor paper as suggested by Heidi. It took me 3 tries to get the stamping right. The first try was too dark and on the second, the image didn't come out completely. The stamp is by Heidi Swapp and I used Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.

 

 Then I stamped the squirrel and sentiment by Studio G. It is actually one stamp and I cut it apart. The sentiment is next to the acorn so it was too wide for the base. I stamped with Memento Ink in Rich Cocoa, but the squirrel didn't come out solid enough. So I used some reinker to fill him in with a paint brush. The acorns in the corners are by Inkadinkado.

I wanted to put a heart around the sentiment because in needed something. None of my heart stamps would work so I decided to draw it in. Unfortunately, I did it in pen and I hate it. So after taking this picture, I used a Spellbinder scallop heart to cut out the heart. Then I cut another heart , restamped the sentiment, and did an inlay.  Here's the redone book mark. 

I plan on putting it in my Mom's Christmas stocking because as I've previously mentioned, she's the crazy squirrel lady.
 New Technique:

This is the card I created for the Shadow Knows challenge, which involved using a technique new to me.  The link has a more detailed explanation, but the idea is to make something stamped on dark cardstock with white ink stand out more by outlining it with a Versamarker.  

I stamped the turkey with Hero Arts Unicorn Pigment Ink.  Since I didn't have a Versamarker, I used my Zig Emboss Writer, which worked. I did the same with the sentiment. Both stamps are by Inkadinkado. Here's a close up where you can better see the outlining.

 

 

The base was made with Distress Inks in Spiced Maramalade, Mustard Seed, Barn Door, and Aged Mahosgany, I think. I made it awhile ago. I wet the paper and then sprinkled it with sea salt, which pulls out some of the ink and creates a spotting effect.  I used a Spellbinder die for the sentiment and added liquid pearls.

 

 

Mixed Media Fun:

 

I created a bunch of pieces for the mixed media challenge.  I really had fun with the technique. 

 

I decided I wanted to do something other than a square or circle.  So I pulled out my Spellbinder poinsettia and snowflake dies.  And I've got a pack of chipboard I bought at Michael's.  Well, that chipboard is a bit thick for a Spellbinder die.  So I had to pull out an Exacto knife for the poinsettias.  For the snowflakes, I pulled out a macaroni box from my recycling bin.  That worked much better.  And I used metallic acrylic inks to give the pieces some shine. 

 

 

I used the snowflake on the triple combo card above.  And here is what I did with the poinsettias:

I wanted the poinsettia to be the focus, so I kept the rest fairly simple. The background stamp is by Hero Arts. I stamped it with Versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder. I added a gold ribbon. Then I stacked the pieces of the die. I added liquid pearls in gold to the center.

I had so much fun with this technique on the die cuts that I decided to make some backgrounds with it. I decided to keep the image small so that the background could show.

 The image was stamped with Versamark and embossed with a green metallic embossing powder. I added stickles for the star and ornaments. Because I got embossing powder in spots I didn't want it and it left a mark when I wiped it off, I fussy cut the tree. The tree stamp is by the Stampin Place.

Thanks for stopping by and please come again.