More New Ways to Eclipse

In my new video here, I shared many eclipse cards made with new slatted dies I bought from Ebay out of the UK. The dies are in high demand and often out of stock, so I went through my dies and made some eclipse cards with layering dies like this one:

I used some stitched layering pennant dies from Gina Marie Designs on this one and one of the pennants and some stitched strips from Taylored Expressions on this card:

I made this card with some new layered Essential Triangles from Ellen Hutson and the layered sentiment dies are from Crealies. Evan a picket fence can be eclipsed like I did on this card:

The Picket Fence die is from Fabulous Folded Cards (Hot off the Press) and here is a bonus card I made also with this die set:

More Solar and Lunar Paste Beauties from My Newest Video

Solar Pastes from Simon Hurley make gorgeous backgrounds and are so easy to apply through a stencil for patterned shiny looks like the stars on this card. I used a Falling Stars stencil from Kat Scrappiness and then added a die cut background cut with a die from Gina Marie Designs. These are just a few of the many cards I share in my newest video here.

I had fun with a Spellbinders Diagonal Buffalo Plaid stencil to make this card. I applies Simon's Royal Flush purple Solar Paste through the first layer, then shifted the stencil and added some blue dye reinker to the same purple Solar Paste so the color shifts to blue or purple depending on how you look at it. I added some white spatters and pink Lunar Paste larger spatters before cutting it for a fun card front. 

Mixed media cards like the two above are not my typical style but I did have fun making them with these amazing pastes and some stencils from A Colorful Life Designs and Stamperia.

I hope my cards encourage you to give some of the ideas and products a try and then send some of your handmade joy out into our world!

More Embossed Die-cut Cards From My Newest Video

I am very excited to share that we can double the use of our dies by embossing them in addition to die cutting with them and then mix and match those on our cards! I am now able to do that technique so much easier because I gave myself a new Spellbinders Platinum 6 die cutting machine with the Universal Plate System for Christmas. I show in my new video here how easy it is now to emboss with dies. I am also finding this machine makes it so much more easy to emboss with any 3D or regular embossing folder without any extra shims, etc. I made this mixed media look card with Picket Fence's Falling Brick Wall die both embossed and die cut and added some white and black spatters.

I have used this Taylored Expressions frame die in the traditional die cut way on many cards but for this one I embossed a light green background with it, then added die cut cream pieces in the center and sides as well as a foliage piece, gems and die cut sentiment. 

In addition to embossing with our dies, we can create stencils with them and I added color to the embossed rays created with a favorite die from Gina Marie Designs before adding the perfect sentiment. 

I had great fun embossing with my dies and hope my cards and video encourage you to try this technique and then send some handmade joy out into this world!

Sharing Sewing Memories on Special Slimline Cards

The memory of my mother at her sewing machine with her red tomato pin cushion brought a smile to my face when I saw the new Handiwork Collection release at The Greetery. I knew I wanted to share those memories with my sisters, and immediately bought that die set as well as several others in the release and am featuring them in my newest video here.

This is the slimline fun fold card that I show how to make step by step in the video. My favorite die from the collection is the tomato pin cushion as I can see it in my memory of my Mom at her sewing machine. I do not sew with a sewing machine, but did do counted cross stitch on Aida cloth, and the new Aida Cloth Texture Plate from The Greetery brought back those wonderful memories too. The scissors in the Notionable die set look so realistic and can be opened and closed if made with a brad as I show. Here is a look at this fun fold slimline card opened:

The scalloped stitched rectangle dies used are from Gina Marie Designs and Karen Burniston. Here is another slimline fun fold card I share in this video:

The tomato pin cushion, movable scissors, thimble, pins with colored heads in a pin holder, needle and thread as well as the spool of thread are all from the Notionable die set at the Greetery. This easel card also features the Aida Cloth Texture Plate which I easily extended for the slimline size, and the Stitched Sentiment die and stamp sets. I know my sister is going to love this birthday card! 

The new video also shows many other slimline cards I made with the wonderful dies and stamps in this release at The Greetery, and I hope my cards will encourage you to try some of the ideas and products for yourself!

Easter or Spring Cards at Send a Smile 4 Kids

It’s the first Saturday of a new month and time for another fun challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids! The theme for this challenge is Easter or Spring Cards 4 Kids, but you can choose to participate in our challenge with any card appropriate for a child.

I am sharing a sweet slimline shaker card I made with dies from Impression Obsession, Dies…to Die For and Gina Marie Designs.

Be sure to check out the rest of the cards from TEAM SAS here and we would love it if you entered our challenge.

 

Wax Seals Tips and Ideas for Special Occasions and Holidays Video

Well Spellbinders did it! It is all their fault - OR should I say their brilliant enabling that made me buy all the products I am featuring in my newest video here. I show how to make wax seals with lots of tips and how to make this slimline z-fold pop up card:

I learned how to make this card from Karen Aiken and it is much prettier in the video where you can see the pop up movement. The Mr. & Mrs. die is from Tonic Studios and layered forever die is from Gina K Designs. I added a heart wax seal and one I made with a plain wax stamp and some dried flowers. I also will put a wax seal on the envelope when I give this wedding card to the special couple: 

I saw an idea I loved by LaRetta Madsen where she put a mini envelope with a wax seal on a card for a gift card and just had to try it. I made a pretty patterned envelope with my Mini Envelope Punch Board from WeRMemory Keepers and used the beautiful Sealed Twine die from the Sealed by Spellbinders release to hold the envelope. I added a Christmas tree wax seal with gilding flakes. The envelope can be removed by the gift card recipient. Here are a couple more cards I made with the lovely wax seals I made:

I used some pretty foiled acetate on the first card with a wax stamp that was blank so I could rub on a Christmas 49 and Market rub on and add some gems. The second card was another made with the gorgeous kirigami dies from Anna Griffin on patterned mirror card. Showing in the inside is another beautiful wax seal and a Happy Birthday message on a Gina Marie Designs leaf die. 

I had great fun making cards and other projects with the many wax seals I made and hope you will watch the video here and give some of the ideas and products a try.

Sealed By Spellbinders With and Without Wax Seals

I was recently contacted by Spellbinders and asked if I wanted to help promote the new dies from the Sealed By Spellbinders release and of course I said yes. This release includes many dies, wax beads, wax seal stamps and everything you might need to make gorgeous wax seals and cards. My choices were the limited to the dies you see on the two cards, but I am thrilled with the delicate beauty of these dies. The Sealed Twine die created the delicate strings that hold this bouquet together, and the Sealed Gingko and Sealed Squiggles dies are just perfect for this elegant birthday card. The background was created with the debossed side of Spellbinders Geo Screen Embossing Folder and  the stamp and circle die are sneak peaks from the upcoming Floral Reflections release at Spellbinders. (Note all the new products can be seen simply by clicking on the highlighted titles in the text.) 

I was intrigued by the wax seals in the new release and will be ordering some this week now that the release is available to be ordered. I had some very old wax beads and had read on line that stamps can be used (without harming them) to stamp the hot wax to form an impression. I tried that on this card with more more of the delicate beauty of the dies I received from Spellbinders and the same Geo Screen embossed background:

Isn't that pretty? I used another stamp and die from the upcoming Floral Reflections release (going live November 8th) and some gems from Gina Marie Designs to complete this card for a special young lady. 

I love how these cards turned out and hope you will join me shopping the new Sealed By Spellbinders release and then playing with these gorgeous dies and the wax seals. Watch for a new video coming soon!

Last Four Faux Rice Paper Cards and a Napkin Alternative Readily Available

Here is another of my favorite cards from my newest video which shares how to do the Faux Rice Paper Technique with many cards I made. On the 2nd and 3rd layers from 2 or 3 ply napkins, I liked to add glass glitter to add some sparkle. On this card I added some specialty embossing powder mix and like the look, but did find I cannot heat set the napkin and rice paper before removing it so the heat gun apparently melted it too much. The glass glitter stuck well but the embossing powder was not sticking so I heat set it before removing the napkin (after dry) and that did not work. I am going to play with that again. But I love this card with the translucent faux rice paper showing the "Thinking of You" sentiment (from Papertrey Ink) inside and the pretty two layered butterfly (with a Hero Arts die).

Here is a mini-slimline card with two layers of faux rice paper and a floral two layer "hello." 

The faux rice paper can be attached with glue dots or skinny two sided tape or mixed media medium as I did on this card. The floral spray die is from Gina Marie Designs. 

I experimented with patterned vellum (did not work) and patterned gift tissue paper which did work great! The napkins for this technique have to have lots of white space and those can be hard to find, so I was happy to discover patterned gift tissue paper worked great! I created this slimline card with a card base made of the faux rice paper with feathers on it, so I added some die cut feathers from Tim Holtz and Sizzix. 

These cards are so much prettier in real life or in a video than still pictures, so check out the new video here to find out how easy this technique is and how to make great cards with it. 

I am entering the first card in the Summertime Blues challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday. 

Arrow Fold Card With Altenew Wide Washi Tape

I would love to be a guest designer at Altenew and one of the prizes in their monthly challenge is that opportunity, so I pulled out my favorite Altenew product - wide washi tape - and made this arrow fold card. One thing I really love about Altenew's wide washi tape such as this Teal Shadow is we can get different looks with them depending on what the wide washi tape is attached to. On this card I attached it to a blue woodgrain cardstock and it can be seen through the washi tape pieces. Here is a look at the inside of this arrow fold card:

The die cut circle on the top inside was cut out out the blue washi tape covered cardstock with a circle die from Gina Marie Designs and "thank you" is a die from Karen Burniston.

I am entering this card in the July Inspiration Challenge at Altenew.

Stepping Up The Floating Strips Technique For My Newest Video

I love to take a technique or idea and expand on it and make many cards with different ideas, and that is what I have done in my new video here with the Floating Strips or Floating Elements technique. I have seen many lovely cards in Pinterest and Instagram with this idea and traditional shapes like circles with strips of paper over a raised die cut shape of acetate with tiny slits so the image appears to be floating. I decided to try many different shaped dies and then move on to try embossing and stencils as well. In last week's video I demoed some edger dies from Made to Surprise and had a lovely lilacs piece of paper from Paper Wishes sitting here so I made this card with it:

The stitched flower die is called Vivid Bloom from Birch Press Design and check out what I did on the inside with the negative of the acetate strips flower:

I will write a message and sign the card inside that pretty floral shape. Here is another of my favorite cards made with the Floating Strips technique and dies and papers from Paper Wishes called Foggy Forest:

The border oval pines die is from W Plus 9. After making many cards with different die shapes, I decided to try embossing folders and stencils on the acetate and paper strips and here is another favorite card made for the video:

I cut the marble strips in three different colors and sizes and attached to a piece of acetate then embossed the whole piece in a 3D embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp. The sentiment is a die from Sue Wilson and the floral sprig die is from Gina Marie Designs. Here is the card I made in the new video:

This card features the gorgeous Split Rose Flourish Stencil from A Colorful Life Designs on both the background and on the oval floating image piece. I show how to add ink through the stencil, cut the strips, add to acetate with foam adhesive strips, cut with the stitched oval die (from Dies...To Die For) and then attach where the pattern flows from the backgrround in the oval front in the new video here. 

I love how these cards turned out and hope they encourage you to give this technique a try and then send your cards out into the world to spread the joy!

I am entering the 3rd card in the Layer It Up challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday.