NUTTY SNOWFLAKE

You might be asking yourself, "Why did Linda give this post the title 'Nutty Snowflake'?" You will have to read on to discover my reasoning.

I have been doing a lot of online shopping this season. When a package for my son-in-law arrived, I was annoyed at the multitude of packing peanuts that were in the oversized box. Grrr. I hate those things.

But, wait! They are actually ART SUPPLIES! Yessss!

Look at the background of my snowflake card.

I used a few of those pesky packing peanuts as STAMPS! By picking up Pacific Point ink with the ends of the peanuts, I created my unique background.

I thought my peanut stamped background sort of resembled snow flurries. Yes? So adding a crispy white diecut snowflake to a backdrop of diecut Pacific Point, I added a focal point to the snow storm.

Follow my tutorial to see just how you can upcycle those annoying peanuts in a good, useful way.

SUPPLIES:

White cardstock

Pacific Point cardstock

Pacific Point ink

Die Cutting Machine

Snowflake die

Encircled in Beauty dies (page 159, Annual Catalog)

Pastel Pearls (page 143, Annual Catalog)

Stampin' Dimensionals

Packing Peanuts

DIRECTIONS:

This card measures 4 1/4" x 4 1/4". Take a piece of white cardstock that is cut to 8 1/2" x 4 1/4". Fold it in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

To this, add a 4" square of Pacific Point cardstock. Set this aside for now.

Cut a 3 3/4" square of white cardstock. Use a styrofoam packing peanut -- yes! A packing peanut! -- for your stamp. Gently dab one end of a peanut in the Pacific Point ink and stamp it anywhere onto the white square. Keep reinking your peanut stamp and continue adding to the white cardstock, leaving a bit of white space between stamps. You don't need to add the snowstorm to the center of the cardstock as that portion will be covered up.

NOTE: Sometimes the peanuts have funky ends. Either turn it to the other end, or choose another peanut to work with.

From Pacific Point cardstock, cut a piece with one of the dies from the Encircled in Beauty dies. 

Using a snowflake die that measures about 3 1/2" in diameter, cut out a snowflake from white cardstock. Use glue sparingly to add the snowflake to the blue background.

Use Stampin' Dimensionals to add the snowflake panel to the center of the nutty snowstorm.

Add a pearl to the center of the snowflake.

Have you ever used a packing peanut as a stamp? What do you do with them when they arrive in a package? 

Nutty

Smiles.

THANKFUL BUNCHES

Thanksgiving Day is over, but it's always appropriate to be thankful. So I thought I'd share one more thankful card. But, this one definiately does not have a fall feel.

Are you familiar with Cloisonne? This card reminds me of the cloisonne art form. Click on the link to see what I mean.

The background of this card started out its life as a simple piece of gold printed Designer Series Paper. I colored in all the flowers with Stampin' Blends, leaving the gold showing prominently at the edges.. 

The colors of Blends that I used were: Light Melon Mambo, Dark Just Jade, Dark Mango Melody, Light Cinnamon Cider and Light and Dark Misty Moonlight. 

It took awhile to color in so many flowers, but I think the time and effort were totally worth it.

I decided that, after all that effort, I wanted as much of it to show on the finished card as possible, so I opted for a simple die cut sentiment. Once I cut out the "thankful", I adhered it to a small piece of the gold foil cardstock that I had matted the flowers with. Once it was adhered, I cut around the letters, leaving a nice gold border and added that to the bottom of the card with Stampin' Dimensionals.

This was a fun and completely satisfying project. What are your feelings about coloring a solid piece of printed cardstock? I find coloring with my Stampin' Blends to be so relaxing. And it always turns out so lovely.

Faux

Cloisonne 

Smiles.

GEOMETRIC THANKS

Today's card features another Dollar Tree find!

I've always been a huge fan of a technique from long ago referred to as Faux Silk. This technique utilizes some form of a tissue-like paper. Commonly crafters use tissue paper used for gifts. However, there are other materials that work equally as well, and often give an even more interesting look. 

When I found this pack of geometric patterned napkins in the party aisle of Dollar Tree, I thought they would make a wonderful background for a fallish card.

Adding a sunflower made with the Sunflowers Dies against my geometric faux silk background yielded a lovely autumn card. As seen below, by using a few Stampin' Dimensionals on the flower against the background, you get some charming 3D feeling.

Because I love the results of using the Sunflowers dies,  I thought I would show you a closeup of the look of it against the napkin background.

Are you interested in learning how to do the Faux Silk technique using a party napkin? Read on for the detailed tutorial.

Of course, the colors you use in your own card will depend on the color palette of the napkin you choose. So, the following supplies are based on my card.

SUPPLIES:

Cajun Craze cardstock

Early Espresso cardstock

Marigold Morning cardstock (retired, but a great color if you still have some around!)

Geometric napkin.

White scrap cardstock for the base

Die Cutting Machine

Sunflowers dies (page 166, Annual Catalog)

Thanks die

Stampin' Dimensionals

Glue Stick (a glue stick really does work best for this technique)

Old Olive ribbon

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of Cajun Craze cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Add to this card base a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Early Espresso cardstock.

Take a scrap of white cardstock that measures 3 3/4" x 5". You will be adding crumpled designed napkin to this piece. 

Crumple a piece of napkin (the top ply only. Separate the plys before beginning this project.) that measures about 4" x 5 1/4" in your hands a few times, slightly flattening it each time slightly. Cover one side of the entire scrap of cardstock with glue stick, from corner to corner and edge to edge. This is very important. Carefully lay the napkin, design side up, onto the glued piece. Without rubbing the napkiin flat, simply press it down until it is completely glued down. YOU WANT CREASES AND VEINS! When it is thoroughly dried, use scissors to trim the napkin to the edge of the cardstock.

A note here: Normally when doing this technique, I cut the napkin or tissue large enough so I can fold the edges onto the back side of the scrap piece. But the design on this particular napkin was very narron. I didn't realize that when I purchased the pack. So I didn't have much design to work with. Thus I needed to trim with scissors. If you find a napkin large enough, I would recommend creasing the edges to the back of the glued piece and fastening them in place. It gives a neater, more finished look.

Take a 5" length of Old Olive ribbon and, after adding a dry adhesive to the back of the ribbon, place it over the napkin piece about 1/2" from the bottom, taping the ends on the back side. Add this piece over the brown on the card base.

From Early Espresso cardstockk, die cut the word "thanks". Using glue sparingly on the back of the word, adhere it to the ribbon.

From Marigold Morning cardstock, die cut the solid portion of the sunflower. From Early Espresso cardstock, die cut the open portion as well as the center of the sunflower. Turning the petals of the two pieces of sunflower until you make them match, adhere the two parts together. Add the sunflower center with a Stampin' dimensinal.

With a few Stampin' Dimensionals, add the sunflower to the upper portion of the napkin, leaving equal borders at the top and the sides.

Have you ever tried the Faux Silk technique before? If you have, what tissue-like paper did you use? Were you happy with the result? Do you use the technique often?

Faux

Smiles

(No, they're REAL smiles!)

BURLAP THANKS

 Do any of you enjoy going to dollar stores? I love visiting Dollar Tree. I almost always find some sort of surprise there that I can use in my papercrafting. 

A couple months ago, our retail-starved community was treated to a new Dollar General. Recently I was there, browsing through all the autumnal offerings, when I came upon these rolls of burlap "ribbon" in a few fallish colors. And they were a delightful price: $2.00! I immediately was especially taken with this rustic looking teal color and snapped it up, knowing I would find some use for it.

Sure enough, once I got home, I discovered some retired Designer Series Paper in a gingham check with the exact same color in it!

Yay! A Thanksgiving card idea was born.

Awhile back, if you remember, I'd gone a little nuts die cutting from autumnish DSP a plethora of fall leaves. Well, obviously I had a lot of them left over from other projects I'd used them for. Once I'd decided on the notion to use some of these leftover leaves I was set. The card, from there, practically designed itself.

I had cut some of the leaves with a greenish hue, but I wanted the rusts and tans for my card to complement the teal of the burlap ribbon. So, I sifted through the supply, declining the greens.

Shown below is a closeup of the main portion of the card.

Seen from an angle, the card is blessedly flat in dimension, 

making it perfect to put through the mail, a real plus in my mind. 

With the cost of mailing, I always hate having to add additional postage 

to accommodate a little bit of bling. 

Following is a tutorial on how to create a card similar to this. If your Dollar General doesn't carry this burlap ribbon, I'm sure you could find something similar at a craft store. 

SUPPLIES:

Burlap Ribbon (This measures 2 3/8" wide. If you can't find that exact width, simply adjust the size of        the DSP to make it work.)

White cardstock

Designer Series Paper to coordinate with the burlap ribbon

Pool Party cardstock (this goes behind the burlap; find something that works with your color.)

Cajun Craze ink

Thankful Forest Friends stamp set (retired)

Die cutting machine

Tasteful Labels Dies (page 166, Annual Catalog)

Leaf dies

Burlap Ribbon

Tear 'n' Tape

Stampin' Dimensionals

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of white cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

The 2 3/8" wide burlap ribbon I used in my sample I found at Dollar General. If you can't find somthing similar to this, replace it with a complementary Designer Series Paper to the one you are using on the lower portion of the card. Cut the ribbon to about 4 1/2". I used Tear and Tape along the wired edges of the ribbon, then attached it to a 4" x 2 3/8" piece of Pool Party cardstock, trimming the ends of the burlap once it's all adhered in place. Set aside.

Just to reiterate: The burlap is adhered to a piece of Pool Party cardstock, then attached to the card.

Cut a piece of coordinating Designer Series Paper to 4" x 2 3/4". Having even edges on the bottom and the sides, adhere this to your card base.

Leaving even edges at the top and the sides, add the burlap covered Pool Party cardstock, overlapping the DSP if you need to.

From white cardstock, cut the largest label from the Tasteful Labels dies. In the center, stamp the sentiment in Cajun Craze. Surrounding the label, add tiny fall leaves. I cut mine with dies from scraps of fallish DSP. Before adhering them in place, lay the out so you like the arrangement.

Use Stampin' Dimensionals to add the sentiment to the card with the center straddling the seam created by butting the burlap and DSP together.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Burlap

Smiles.

IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE

The purpose of this post is to emphasize just how blissful it can be to work with dies. This card may be somewhat complicated looking, but that's all thanks to this wonderful piece cut with an A2 card sized die that covers up the entire front of a card.

I love the look of lots of foliage, so as soon as I spotted this die, I just had to have it. 

Unfortunately, it is not a Stampin' Up! die. But . . . right now you can get a handful of Stampin' Up! dies for 20% off that would accomplish the same thing. They are Artistic (page 158), Many Layered Blossoms (page 158), Brilliant Wings (page 158), Penned Flowers (page 159), Layering Hugs (page 161), Banner Blooms (page 162), Flower Market (page 163), even Sunflowers, although not A2 card size, would look lovely (page 166). But, hurry, this sale is only November 16-18!

The simple addition of a sentiment on a Stampin' Up! tag, along with a little trim, 

finishes off into a blissfully flat card with lots of personality.

Very simple to do, following is a brief tutorial to make a die cut based card yourself. You can substitute the large die I used with any I've mentioned above.

SUPPLIES:

Mossy Meadow cardstock

Very Vanilla cardstock

Through It Together stamp set (page 72, Annual Catalog)

Mossy Meadow ink

Die Cutting Machine

Die of choice

Tailor Made Tags dies (page 166, Annual Catalog) THIS DIE SET IS ALSO ON SALE 20% OFF!

Mossy Meadow Braided Linen Trim

Stampin' Dimensionals

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of Very Vanilla cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Using a die that would fill up the entire front of a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card, cut this from Mossy Meadow cardstock. Using small, carefully placed dots of adhesive, adhere this diecut to the card front.

In Mossy Meadow ink, stamp a suitable sentiment onto a small piece of Very Vanilla cardstock.

Using a Tailor Made Tags die, cut out the sentiment using one of the square cornered dies from Very Vanilla cardstock. From a small piece of Mossy Meadow cardstock, die cut the little piece that surrounds the hole in the tag. Adhere this piece in place.

Slip a 5" piece of Mossy Meadow Braided Linen Trim through the hole. Trim the ends as needed.

With a couple Stampin' Dimensionals, add this to the lower right corner of the card.

Have fun with all sorts of color combinations with any die you choose to utilize in your card. It is a quick and easy -- but stunning! -- card to make.

Diecut

Smiles.

 

OSW

 I know. I'll bet you are all wondering what the significance of the title of this post is. Go ahead. Take a second and see what it's called if you hadn't already noticed.

OSW.

Do any of you know what that means? It stands for One Sheet Wonder.

Someone long ago came up with this nifty concept. Meant to be a quick way to create a great quanity of cards quickly, it doesn't work that way for me. 

To create 17 cards (one is missing from this set because I sent it to a friend before I took photos), I spent several hours over two days to complete them.

To do a One Sheet Wonder, you start with a single sheet of Designer Series Paper. In my opinion, not all DSPs create lovely cards. The design has to be fairly dense and not all that uniform in order to have a diverse look to the cards, but yet to maintain continuity.

If you look on Pinterest for One Sheet Wonders, you will find a plethora of diagrams for cutting up your single sheet of DSP. I've tried a few different templates over the years, and they all work well.

For me, once I get the sheet of DSP completely cut up, I always mount a coordinating cardstock -- in this case, I used Soft Seafoam -- to the back of each piece. This also reaffirms the cohesiveness, giving you a common color to which you can match the rest of the components for the cards. As you will notice, I brought bacck the Soft Seafoam cardstock in various forms throughout  the set.

My problem is that, with each section of DSP a different look and size, I must spend time to figure out the best way to present each one. 

So, each card becomes a unique design. 

A close friend and I got together virtually and worked on this set of cards. She used a different Designer Series Paper design than I did, and even flipped some of the pieces to the opposite side, so her collection had a much more varied look than mine did.

All that stuff out of the way, following are photos of my 16 (of 17) cards:

By incorporating a variety of ribbons, dies, and sentiments, you end up with a wide array of cards.

Have you ever tried a OSW? Did you consider it a success? Did you have fun? Was it more work than it was worth? Please share your experience(s) with a One Sheet Wonder project.

OSW

Smiles.

YOU ARE LOVED

Occasionally I will go back to check out leftover components of Paper Pumpkin kits I'd done. That was the case with this pretty gold foil trimmed vellum paper from the Bouquet of Hope set of February 2021.

That's one of the cool things about the Paper Pumpkin kits. Stampin' Up! is very generous with the supplies they put in each kit. And, if you change it up at all from what the original intent of the kit was, adding in other supplies besides the contents of the kit, you may even have MORE left over.

I had a few sheets of this lovely vellum from the kit, so I thought I would experiment with it by doing some coloring on it. One of the stamps, this darling bouquet, seemed perfect to try for this. 

In Memento Tuxedo Black ink, I stamped the bouquet on the reverse side of the vellum.I then used the following Stampin' Blends to color it in, also on the reverse side: Light Polished Pink, Light and Dark Just Jade, Light Soft Succulent, Dark Flirty Flamingo, Dark Mango Melody and Dark Highland Heather. Doing all my work on the back side made for a fairly delicate look when viewed from the front.

For the sentiment, I used a stamp from the Through It Together stamp set found on page 72 of the Annual Catalog. The sentiment was actually stamped on the reverse side of one of the labels that came in the kit. I love the little scalloped edge to it.

Although it doesn't show up too well in the photos, I added two loops of fine golden thread on each side of the sentiment label, as well as a couple of the gold metallic pearls, and popped it up with a couple Stampin' Dimensionals.

The photo below shows the card facing sunlight. Doesn't it look delicate with an almost ethereal feeling?

Do you ever do anything quite unlike what the directions tell you to do? I'm glad I did in this case, because I think the result is feminine and quite striking.

Ephemeral

Smiles.

THANKFUL SUNFLOWERS

I know I have gotten a lot of <good> use out of the Jar of Flowers stamp set. Consisting of a mason jar, a shorter vase-type vessel and four wonderful bouquets of seasonal flowers, plus a few other coordinating stamps, it is lots of fun to work with. Completely charming. 

Anyway, I couldn't resist using it once again on this card. The quintessential autumn bouquet was fun because of the presence of lush sunflowers. And, who doesn't love a beautiful sunflower?

As you can see in the photo below, the bouquet has a little bit of a three dimensional look, 

making it seem more realistic.

I colored everything in the bouquet and in the jar 

-- the stems and a touch of Pool Party for the water -- with my Stampin' Blends.

The richness of the bouquet deserved a dark palette of colors. Luckily I had a few sheets left from a retired set of Designer Series Paper with the perfect colors/ It featured Blackberry Bliss and Cajun Craze. I used those two colors for the rest of my card.

Do you notice the little strip of cork along the bottom holding the diecut "thankful"? That is REAL cork adhered somehow to ribbon. I got a spool of this nifty stuff at Dollar Tree, and I absolutely love how it draws everything together, also adding to the autumnal flavor.

Here's a tutorial on how to create a card similar to this one. Hopefully you can locate some of this cork ribbon, because I think it adds such a wonderful touch!

SUPPLIES:

Basic White cardstock

Autumnal Designer Series Paper

Blackberry Bliss cardstock

Jar of Flowers stamp set (page 16, Annual Catalog)

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Stampin' Blends in:

  Light and Dark Soft Succulent

  Light and Dark Mango Melody

  Dark Granny Apple Green

  Light Cajun Craze

  Light Pool Party

  Light Blackberry Bliss

Die Cutting Machine

Scalloped Contours dies (page 158, Annual Catalog)

Cork Ribbon (Dollar Tree)

Thankful die

Stampin' Dimensionals

Paper Snips

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of Basic White cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Cut a piece of Blackberry Bliss cardstock to 3 3/4" x 5". Wrap a piece of cork ribbon around the bottom of this piece, leaving 1/8" of Blackberry Bliss showing below the ribbon. Tape the ends of the ribon to the back of the cardstock,. Add this to the white card base. Set it aside for now.

On white cardstock, stamp in Memento Tuxedo Black ink the jar with the stems stamped inside the jar, the sunflower bouquet, as well as a portion of the bouquet once again. (Just s stupid note here: When I was proofing this post, I discovered that, instead of typing SUNFLOWER, I'd instead typed FUNSLOWER. I just thought that was funny and had to share. The weird things our minds/fingers can do.)

As you wish, color in all these components. I used Stampin' Blends. When the coloring is finished, fussy cut the bouquet and jar. OPTIONAL: I chose to make my bouquet a bit more dimensional. So I cut out the front sunflower as well as the solid part of the branch way at the back from the second set of images. I added those over their original stamped ounterparts with bits of Stampin' Dimensionals. You can slightly lift the petals of the sunflower to give even more of a bit of realism. This is optional. If you don't want to do all this fussy cutting, just keep it to the original bouquet.

When all the cutting is finished, set the flowers over the jar so the stems seem natural. Glue them together where they meet. Set aside.

From a piece of coordinating Designer Series Paper, use one of the Scalloped Contour dies to cut a mat for your bouquet.

Add the finished bouquet to the center of the DSP with Stampin' Dimensionals. Adhere this panel to the card front above the cork ribbon.

From Blackberry Bliss cardstock, cut the word "thankful" with a die. Adhere this to the cork ribbon.

Thankful

Smiles.

#dailycreating JUNE 2021

Time for a monthly installment of my journey with the #dailycreating group on Facebook, hosted by illustrator Terry Runyan. Terry and our family on this group are so inspiring, encouraging and loving. I so enjoy being a part of the #dailycreating group!

We members of the group are encouraged by Terry to create something -- anything! -- each day. I originally joined #dailycreating back in August of 2018 with the intent of honing my drawing skills. Last night I did my 1096th drawing. 

While I don't draw something every single day -- you know how life can sometimes get in the way -- I would say 98% of the time I produce something creative. The days I miss I feel sort of bereft that something is missing, that I let myself down on a commitment I'd made.

Each Sunday afternoon, Terry posts a list of prompts for the upcoming week. She tells us the prompts are optional, that we should create what we are comfortable with. Sometimes though her prompts are a good starting point. I try to follow her prompts, although sometimes I will go off prompt.

I must have really enjoyed my drawing during June 2021. I have 16 pieces to share with you. As always, I will insert the prompt above the drawing if I've followed it. I will also include any other pertinent information I may have about my subject matter.

 #thing on thing

saddle billed stork

off prompt

tree frog

#whiskers

#thing on thing

red faced star finch

#sandals

#thing on thing

ornate hawk-eagle, belize

#crocodile

off prompt

tarsier - indonesia

#giraffe

#rainforest

proboscis monkey - malaysia

#thing on thing

california quail

#pink flamingo

#caturday

#bird watching

puffin - scotland

#swimming

spotted seal

#frogurday

I guess a few notes are in order here in case you have any questions about the prompts. Wednesdays are always designated as #thing on thing day. For #thing on thing, Terry does a head with a cat on it. You should check out her art at her website, https://www.terryrunyan.com/ You will love her whimsy!

Anyway, I have deviated somewhat in doing my #thing on thing creation each Wednesday in that I usually find a bird with some sort of appendage, hairdo, weird bill, to draw for this prompt. 

Initially, Terry had designated all Saturdays as #caturday. She then extended it to include #dogurday for those who aren't big fans of cats, but prefer dogs. In the past several months, she has now also included any animal at all for animalurday. I love this and often take advantage of these extended prompts.

Please respect that this is my personal original art. I ask that you don't reproduce it in any way without my express permission.

I thank you heartily for allowing me to showcase a month's worth of my drawings at the beginning of each month. I know this doesn't fall under my original goal of planting Paper Seedlings, hoping to inspire you in your papercrafting journey. But, I cherish this opportunity -- and more importantly, I love your comments and encouragement of my drawing journey. Thank you!

#dailycreating

Smiles.