Creative Expressions

Color Throwdown Guest Designer Week 1

Hello everyone!

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to say that I have the honour of being the August Guest Designer over at one of my favourite challenges, the Color Throwdown. I’m so excited!

I have to say that this week’s fabulous colour palette of green, yellow, pink and lavender was a little challenging for me… It’s a beautiful palette with some amazing possibilities BUT I have a bit of a difficult time with lavender! Whenever I try to use it for a colour challenge, I always end up with a shade I feel is too purple or too pink!

So, for this week, I played it safe and used Milled Lavender distress ink!

I thought this palette would be perfect for a flowery card and decided to use a somewhat neglected background die that I bought last year (Daisy Mosaic by Creative Expressions) and one of my favourite techniques – inlaid die cutting. I started by creating four ink blended panels (in addition to Milled Lavender, I used Spun Sugar, Scattered Straw and Mowed Lawn). I then cut each of these panels using the background die. I also cut a piece of white card with the die.

I removed all the little pieces from the white die cut panel, adhered the negative to my card base and got to work inlaying all the little bits from the ink blended die cut panels. It’s time consuming but I think it’s totally worth it!

I had originally planned to add a green frame to the card, but as I was about to cut the frame, the green negative die cut panel fell onto my card base. I really liked the green outline and so I adhered the whole green negative panel on top of the inlaid background, effectively hiding all the white!

I added a Winnie & Walter die cut sentiment and a Penny Black butterfly to complete my card.

For full details of how to enter this week’s challenge, please head over to the Color Throwdown challenge blog. As usual, the design team has some amazing inspiration:

Amy Rohl

Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders

Broni Holcombe

Jodi Collins

Lisa Henke

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put

Vickie Zimmer

Wanda Cullen

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Stretching background dies

Good morning friends!

It’s time for a new Crafts-U-Love Design Team post! This month I received the amazingly intricate Organic Tim Holtz background die *  and a pack of paper by the Paper Boutique *. You can find how I made the card on the right in my earlier post here.

I absolutely LOVE background dies and have amassed quite a collection over the past few years! They are a big investment but I justify it by thinking of alternative ways of using them! As you can see, today I have created two cards from one die cut background.

For both cards, I used some paper from the Paper Boutique pack and added distress ink around the edges. The papers are such good quality that the ink blends beautifully and very quickly!

So, on to the front of the cards! I cut the background from a black panel and stuck the whole die cut to a piece of Press’N Seal to ensure that I didn’t lose any little bits later. I then used an oval die to cut out the centre. I put that die-cut centre to one side and got to work on assembling my first card.

I covered the die cut in glue (seriously this is what took the longest time out of the whole process) and then adhered it to the pink background paper. This is where the Press’N Seal comes into its own – as soon as all the elements of the die cut are adhered to the base, you simply peel off the Press’N Seal! It’s a little pricey on Amazon, but the roll has lasted me for ages and makes it so easy for these sort of cards.

I took two oval dies and used them to create a frame from a piece of black card. (Set aside the rest of the black card, you’ll need it for Card 2!) I adhered the oval frame to the centre of the card. To finish off my card, I used the Belated Birthday Wishes sentiment die from Creative Expressions. I love these sentiment dies! There’s a huge variety and the price point is brilliant. The dies cut all sorts of card (including glitter and mirror card) beautifully!

I then turned my attention to the second card, which is essentially made from ‘leftovers’!

First I trimmed down the black cardstock I had used when I cut the oval frame and adhered it to the second paper background panel. I covered the reverse of the die-cut oval in glue and adhered it to the centre of the frame before removing the Press’N Seal. I used the Just for You sentiment die from Creative Expressions and a few Papermania gems* to complete this card.

These cards came together very quickly, I don’t know how long they took, but definitely less than an hour!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Products marked with a ‘*’ were sent to me by Crafts-U-Love for DT assignments.

Semi Shadow box card

Good morning friends!

It’s time for a new Crafts-U-Love Design Team post! This month I received the amazingly intricate Organic Tim Holtz background die *  and a pack of paper by the Paper Boutique *.

I immediately started pondering a way of showcasing the beautiful die with the papers… and here’s what I came up with – I’m calling this my semi shadow box card! I knew I wanted to raise the die cut background and while I probably could have used a couple of layers of foam tape, I decided to adapt a pop-up shadow box card. There are tons of tutorials online – Jennifer McGuire has a super video here,  but I decided to create a quick step-by-step too!

Step 1 – Die cut the background die on watercolour paper

As this die is incredibly intricate, I used a metal shim when I ran this through my cutting machine. . You can see that this background die doesn’t create a frame, so you can easily create a bigger die cut panel if you want one.

 

 

 

Step 2 – Colour the image using distress inks

I chose a few distress inks which I smooshed onto a craft sheet, diluted with water and started to colour. So relaxing!

You can see that I didn’t poke through all the waste pieces at this stage as I prefer to colour with those in situ. At the end of the process, I removed all the spare pieces and coloured any bits that I had missed (there’s always the odd branch here and there!).

Step 3 Create a frame and prepare a card back

I chose a piece of paper from the Paper Boutique pack and cut a frame for the die cut piece from it. I used this frame as a guide to create the back of my card which I cut to the same height. I added 3cms to the width of the frame for the base as the two sides would be folded twice.

I then made four scoring marks on the card base – 1cm and 2cms from the left and right side.

 

Step 4 Score along card back twice on each side

Although I do have a scoring board somewhere, I find it easier to use my trimmer to score card stock.

 

 

 

 

 

Step 5 Fold in the sides of the card

I then folded along the score lines to create a ‘Z’ on each side. I folded inwards at the 2cms score line and then the other way for the 1cm score line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 6 Attach the die cut panel to card back

Before attaching the panel, I added some more paper to the back of my card to provide even more of a contrast for the die cut.

I added some strong adhesive to the sides of the panel – I always reach for Scor-tape which is super strong and has stood the test of time for my cards!

 

I then added the frame on top of the card and finally adhered the Thank You die cut from Creative Expressions to finish off my card.

Although it is only half a box card, it really is amazing stable and I didn’t need to used anything to prop it up!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Products marked with a ‘*’ were sent to me by Crafts-U-Love for this DT assignment.

Birthday Pomander

Hello all!

Today I’m playing along with the current Case This sketch challenge. It’s one of THOSE sketches this week – you know when you have a thousand ideas but have to choose just one!

In the end, I decided to use my new Altenew Prettiest Pomander set. I played with this set at the Simon Says Create Make and Takes and of course I HAD to have it after!! I don’t usually stamp the outline image when doing layered stamping, but this one need it because there’s at least one berry that wouldn’t have a stem otherwise. I used a black ink outline for the card I made at Create and I felt that was a little too heavy for the delicate image. This time, I chose a very light grey Altenew ink (Limestone) and a very gentle touch and I’m happy with how it turned out this time!

The sentiment is by Hero Arts and the embossing folder that I used is Radiant Rays by Creative Expressions. I saw Jennifer McGuire use this folder at the weekend and started to hunt for it online afterwards! And then I discovered that I bought it in January!! Honestly! Well at least I made that discovery before I bought it again!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Peek-a-boo card

Hello!

I’m back with my second Crafts-U-Love DT post for the month.

As you may recall, I received the sweet My Favorite Things Spectacular Birthday* stamp set and a pack of Lawn Fawn ink cubes*. The first card I created with these is here.

While the stamp set could be used to create some amazing scenes, I decided to do something a bit different again… I rarely make interactive cards, but I love seeing Anita Chang’s cards on Instagram and a peek-a-boo card has been on my ‘to make’ list for quite a while. So I decided to leap in and attempt one.

Let me reassure you – it’s super simple!

There are some amazing video tutorials out there – Jennifer McGuire created one last year that you might want to check out. My video skills are still pretty basic, so I’ve written a rather photo-intensive tutorial for you instead! But, I have managed to upload a very quick video to You Tube showing how it turned out!

Steps 1 and 2 – prepare your card components

 

I created a UK A6 card (105mm x 148mm ) with some heavyweight cardstock.  First of all I created and scored three panels as follows:

Back of card – 105mm x 158 mm – score at 148mm, making a thin strip on the right side

Centre card – 105mm x 210mm – score at 105mm, making a square card

Front of card – 105mm x 220mm – score at 148mm, making a 70mm ‘flap’ (note the reverse of the panel is shown in the photo above)

Steps 3 and 4 – create the front

For this card, you need to die cut a shape in the right hand side of the card front (the crease should be on the left hand side).

After adhering some Lawn Fawn paper to the front of the panel, I found it helpful to place the sentiment I wanted to use on top of the panel (Creative Expressions Happy Birthday) to help position the die. Once cut, line up the square centre card to the right hand side of the front panel (the crease of the centre card should be on the left hand side).

Steps 5 and 6 – die cut the centre piece

Draw around the die cut to create a die placement guide on the square centre card. Keep the square centre card folded so that you can cut through both sections… although you might need to run this through your cutting machine a couple of times!

Then put the front panel to one side.

Steps 7 and 8 – begin assembling the card

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Taking the back of the card, add a piece of strong double-sided tape to the small creased strip (which should be on your right hand side).

Open up the centre square card and decorate as you wish – this will be what your recipient will see when they open the card. I simply stamped a sentiment from the set.

Make sure the crease of the centre square card is still on your left hand side and then adhere the right side of the centre square card to the back of the card.

Steps 9 and 10 – adhere the front of the card

Close the square centre card and cover the top of it generously with adhesive. Then adhere the card front, ensuring that the die cuts line up.

Step 11

 

 

Tuck the flap from the front panel behind the square centre card and close the card.

 

The base peek-a-boo card is complete and now we can think about how to decorate it!

 

 

Steps 12 and 13 – create the images

I stamped a couple of the stamps from the MFT set and coloured them using the Lawn Fawn inks diluted with some water. I actually re-stamped them on watercolour paper which worked much better for me as I found I had more control over the ink! Once I was happy with the colouring, I added a generous layer of Nuvo Aqua Shimmer.

Steps 14 and 15 – Slot the images into place

Select the image that you want the recipient to see when the card is closed and adhere it to the back of the card.

The other image (which will be seen when the card is open) needs to be adhered to the small flap (from the card front) that sits behind the square centre card.

Et voila! The card mechanism should be finished! See how it works in my very short You Tube debut here!

If you find that the card is getting caught on the images, add some Scotch tape to the edges of the image – fabulous tip courtesy of Jennifer McGuire.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Products marked with a ‘*’ were sent to me by Crafts-U-Love for this DT assignment.

Fabulous Flowers

Hi everyone!

It’s the 15th of the month and after a bit of a break, I’m back with a card for the Crafts-U-Love Design Team.

This month I received two Julie Hickey stamp sets: Family Sentiments and Floral Fusion.

I pulled out my distress oxides and started stamping! Once I was happy with my background, I spritzed the card generously with water to activate the Oxides and cause the inks to bleed a little.

For the sentiment, I combined some words from Julie’s set and added a die from my collection (Creative Expressions Happy Birthday die – brilliant price point on these!).

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.