May Very Special Class Cards

I just finished teaching my May classes at Harts n Scraps and wanted to share the cards here before I forget. This class was called Special Cards for Very Special Occasions. They included cards that are a bit harder to make like Karen Burniston pop ups and a lace glitter technique plus a fan fun fold that is not mailable so we made a matching box. 

We have fun at our classes, so if you are local I encourage you to check them out. 

Easy Beautiful Cards with Spellbinders 3D Embossing Folder of the Month

I know so many people who love to read so I really needed to get this month's 3D Stacked Stories 3D Embossing Folder from Spellbinders. All I did to make this card is emboss it with brass mirror card, do a little sanding and add the Be You die cut from Riley and Company. The embossing folder 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 so it is big enough to make larger cards easily, and these two cards are 5 x 7. 

Simple white embossing is the perfect background for these layered books and teacup from another Spellbinders set called Stitched Read and Sip. I did a little stitching and layering and then added a sentiment. Easy and perfect for any book or tea lover. 

I did have to join the 3D Embossing Folder Club at Spellbinders to get this one, but it was not a tough decision- my favorite 3D larger folders are all from Spellbinders. 

Amazing New Stencils and Stamps from Blue Knight Rubber Stamps

Blue Knight Rubber Stamps has new stamps, stencils and gorgeous scenery paper that I discovered in their booth at the Novi MI stamp show last week. I am a huge fan of their Stencil and Stamp stencil sets in which you get two different weights of the stencils- a thicker one for blending and a thinner one for stamping through. I used their Buffalo stencils on this card and added some trees with a stamp called Tall Pines. This card is a shaker and an easel card. 

 I started with the beautiful Cloud Sky set of Designer Papers on all the cards I made and am sharing today. The card below is a vertical floating easel card made with the Day At the Lake stamp set from Blue Knight Rubber Stamps and their Sun/Moon stencil:

Here is another easel card I made in just minutes with the Sailboat stencil and Silhouette Dolphins stamp set. The stencil sets not only have two weights of each image, but you also get the punched out images themselves so you can stencil in or around the images. As on all the cards, I started with the gorgeous Cloud Sky Set of A2 card fronts. 

Here is another easel card I made with Mama Bear over a Fenced Pasture stamped scene. Many of these scenes remind me of my state Wisconsin, so I created this last card with a new Barrel of Fun stamp set from Scraps of Love:

This one is a twisted easel and I used the USA Blue Knight Stencil and their Moon/Sun set. The small deer trio and birds are also from Blue Knight Rubber Stamps and you can find all of their stencils and stamps here on their website. 

Waffle Flower Sneak Peak Club Crab-u-lous Crab Card

I belong to Waffle Flower's Sneak Peak Club so early each month I get a package with dies, stencils and sentiments that will be available with their next month's releases. This month we received these adorable Happy Crabs dies, the Coastline Die-n-Stencil set and the sentiment strips shown here. I will be playing more but wanted to share this card before sending it out.

Milestone Cards For Classic Guys

Guy's cards can be hard to make but not if you have classic cars and speedometer dies like the new ones in the Classic Road Legends Collection by Mindy Eggen and Spellbinders! I share the cards above in my new video here and show step by step how to make a Double Diamond Fun Fold for milestone birthdays or anniversaries too. 

How old is the birthday boy? 29 again like in the first pix above or more like 50? The dial on this Speedometer moves to any age between 20 and 80 and the speedometer is secured on a piece of acetate so it seems to be floating between the top and bottom pieces. The Speedometer Die Set is from the new Spellbinders collection as is the Muscle Car shown below on the card I made step by step in the new video:

Our 35th anniversary is coming up so I made this card for my husband in his favorite colors. This and the card below feature the double diamond fun fold, and the pictures below show the front and side of this fun fold that shows the Speedometer and Muscle Car so well:

65 is indeed a milestone birthday and this card is perfect for celebrating the special guy! I love how all these cards turned out and hope they inspire you to give some of the ideas and products a try!

Soaring with Dina Wakley Embossing Inspiration

I have a new favorite embossing folder and it inspired me to make a bunch of cards which I share in my new video here. The 3D embossing folder is called Soaring and is from Dina Wakley and Spellbinders. It is a 3D mix of inspirational words and soaring birds. I also received inspiration from a new die set from Spellbinders called Rainbow Slice Tunnel and the color guidance is from a kit by Club Scrap. 

There are two things I struggle with in my cardmaking sessions - finding the right colors of cardstock to use with or without patterned paper and leaving any white space. I just need texture on my white or colored cardstock and I am ok with that. Especially when I can easily emboss the backgrounds with gorgeous embossing folders like this one. And I am  getting help with the color choices with kits from Club Scrap. They release a new kit each month for cardmakers as well as scrappers and I received this kit at a cardmaker's gathering I recently attended. I show in the new video how to die cut the different layers of the Rainbow Slice Tunnel and emboss the off white cover to make this gorgeous card. The lighthouse and soaring bird are dies from IO. 

I love that when you cut out the tunnel pieces, you  can use the positive and negative images to create a rainbow tunnel and on these cards I did use rainbow colors too. Of course the backgrounds on both were embossed with the beautiful Soaring 3D embossing folder from Dina Wakley so I added some die cut birds in rainbow colors to both cards. 

Also part of the Dina Wakely release at Spellbinders is a Press Plate with dies called Feather Dream, and I made these two cards with hot foiled feathers, script and of course the beautiful Soaring embossing folder. Below are  two more cards I made in masculine colors with the feathers BetterPressed not foiled, and one I brayered color onto the embossed background and highlighted some of my favorite inspirational words:

As you can see I was super inspired by these products to make many cool cards and I hope my cards inspire you to give some of the ideas and products a try!

April Class Cards with Clear Views Transparencies

I love to design with Clear Views Transparencies and so am so happy that Harts n Scraps is now carrying them and I can teach with them every other month or so. Here are the cards I taught in the April class which focused on various ways to frame them:

I love to teach new techniques and fun folds so none of my cards are just put a transparency on a card base and call it a card. Wait until you see the Christmas in July cards!

Foil and Stenciled Colors on Glitter Paper- Who Knew?

Glitter paper - can we stencil, BetterPress and hot foil on it? The answer is YES as I show in my newest video here featuring Alex Syberia Designs Abstract Background Press Plate and Layering Stencils. 

The minute I saw this gorgeous press plate with layering stencils that make coloring it so easy, I knew I had to get them both. They have been very popular and sold out many places but you can sign up here for notices to get them if you too can't resist.

In the new video I show how to make the card above choosing Christmas colors and a favorite Mega Joy die from Frantic Stamper. But as you can see in the cards below, this press plate and layering stencils can be created in any color and any orientation which makes them so versatile! 

These two cards were created with Distress Oxide inks -one with gold foil and one with black BetterPress ink. The butterflies, greenery and sentiments are from Spellbinders. Below are two more cards created with silver foil, black BetterPress ink and two colors of blue ink blended with the layering stencils:

The Kindness Matters die is from Ellen Hutson and is a new favorite of mine as it is how I try to live. The shape dies on the second card are from PinkFresh Studios. 

These cards were all so easy to make with glitter paper, inks and the Abstract Background Press Plate from Alex Syberia Designs as you can see in the new video here. I hope my cards encourage you to give some of the ideas and products a try and then send some joy out in this world!

Halo Light Cards With Club Scrap and 49 & Market

I recently discovered Club Scrap, a company out of Wisconsin (too!) with monthly kits of gorgeous papers for card makers and scrappers and received my first box not long ago. In exploring their Facebook page, I found a challenge to make a card with this sketch: 

Sketches are a great place to start when designing cards, and I designed to take the challenge. I used all papers, a sentiment strip and some floral outline stickers from the Club Scrap April '25 kit on my card. But I added one fun item to make this card really special:

The velum flower is now lit up! I have used many One Lights and EZ Lights from Pear Blossom Press, but recently decided to try their Halo Lights for the first time. I had a set here and made this card and the next one with their circle of lights called Halo Lights.

I used products from the new 49 and Market Birdsong Essentials release on this card and once again a halo of lights from Pear Blossom Press. This card is pretty below, but IRL much prettier with the halo of lights. 

It is really hard to show the Halo Lights beauty with still pictures, so I filmed a mini- video to show you:

More Amazing Taylored Expressions Layered Stencil Cards

When I saw the new Perforated Paper at Taylored Expressions that I used in this week's video on their website, I also saw some new layered stencil sets that I could not resist. This lovely floral set is called Boho Botanicals and I layered two together creating a shadow for a fun look. All the sentiment strips are from Taylored Expressions too. 

Many of Taylored Expression's stencil sets also have optional Foil It sheets that add foiling highlights to the stenciling and I used two of them on this card. I raised two of the flowers and also cut out a frame from Kat Scrappiness for dimension in some parts. 

Another layering stencil set just released at Taylored Expressions is called Quilted and  I made this card with some dies that seemed perfect for the quilted look. 

After finishing all the cards for my new video this week, I had some extra layered stencil pieces from the Flit and Flutter Create in Quads and they were just two beautiful to waste. Above are two more cards I made with that amazing set of stencils.