Twist and Pop Kitty Card

We love cats in our home and so when I saw this beautiful Zen Kitty in the Seaside Stampin' Ink booth at the Rockford stamp show recently, I knew she had to come home with me. I dug out some old designer paper and die cut the edge with a Penny Black die. I stamped the Zen Kitty with my MISTI to make sure I got a good image and colored her eyes and nose with some markers. I own many kitty stamps and dies so I decided to use lots of them in the twist and pop center: 

The twist and pop card has many tutorials and pins all over internetland, but I saw one card where the pop up panels were turned to go vertical and I decided to turn mine that way. I have tried many tutorial instructions of how to make a twist and pop card and the easiest one I learned from this video tutorial by Jen Evers. I cut my four panel piece out of red cardstock and cut a couple white pieces to stamp the fun sentiment from Crackerbox Palace. I die cut the paw and "meow" with a new set of dies from Kat Scrappiness. The kitty on the bottom panel is a Fiskars punch and the two cats on the top panels were cut with dies from Tonic Studios. 

I am entering this card in the use more than one die or punch (I used six) at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

Crackerbox Palace Graduation Thank You Card

It's Crackerbox Palace Friday and today I am sharing a graduation thank you card I made for my sister and nephew with Crackerbox Palace stamps. In fact I made 50 of them! Thank goodness for my MISTI! After I did all the cutting and die cutting, I lined up the three graduation stamps from Crackerbox Palace and stamped each of the 50 card fronts easily and quickly. I used my nephew’s school colors and dies from Tim Holtz and My Creative Time. Loving the great graduation stamps from CBP that can be found here on the website!

Stamping with Brushos and Woodgrain Easel Card POTW

Happy Monday! Today it is my turn to share a Project of the Week at Repeat Impression's blog, The House that Stamps Built. I am showing you an easy way to get the look of watercolor in your stamping, how to get an awesome woodgrain look, and how to make an easel card (just in case you have never made one.) Ready?

I highly recommend using a MISTI (Most Incredible Stamping Tool Invented) for this and any technique where you want to be able to stamp a second or third time in the exactly the same place. I stamped Repeat Impression's Heart Shutters Window with brown ink using the MISTI for placement. Then I mixed Crimson Red and Orange Brusho Coloured Crystals with a little water and painted the colors onto the stamp, then stamped again with the MISTI. The result is an easy watercolor look to the stamping.

Next I started working on the woodgrain look on the card front above. I learned both these techniques from the talented Karen at her Snippets blog here.  The woodgrain look starts with ordinary school glue drizzled on in lines on a piece of white cardstock.

Waiting for the glue to dry is the hardest part and hurrying it along with a heat gun does not work well. I let mine dry several hours or overnight. After it is dry, I scored every 1/2 inch from the back of the glued piece.

The next step is to choose some distress inks and rub directly on the glued scored piece, then spritz with water to mix the colors a bit. I chose Vintage Photo, Aged Mahogany and Weathered Wood Distress Inks (by Ranger) for this weathered woodgrain look. I cut the inside of the Heart Shutters Window out with a craft knife and then attached it to the woodgrain front, and cut it out again.

I stamped "Some Bunny" inside the window on a green piece the same size as the wood grain front (5 1/2" square.) I created a square green card 5 1/2" x 11". The top half of the card is scored at 2 3/4" and folded down. The woodgrain window front is attached to the bottom half of the folded front. I stamped and cut out Repeat Impression's Cottontail Rabbit, and attached it to the bottom inside with pop dots. The front of the card is held open by the popped up rabbit. Here is a picture of the completed easel card standing up:

I had fun playing with Brushos and glue and distress inks and Repeat Impression's great stamps to make this card. I hope you give them all a try!

Take a Stamp Challenge at Craft Stamper Magazine

I am loving the serene "Snowy Grove" stamp from Penny Black and designed this snowy scene card featuring it recently. I started with spattering masking liquid frisket all over a piece of watercolor paper and letting that dry. Then I masked the moon and the snowbank and created the night sky with Indigo Color Burst powders spritzed with water. After that was dry, I removed the moon mask and stamped with Penny Black's Snowy Grove stamp several times using my MISTI. The MISTI (Most Incredible Stamping Tool Invented) allows me to stamp repeatedly when needed to get a good image keeping the stamp in the same place each time. I removed the snow bank mask and stamped the sentiment from CTMH, then rubbed off the snowflakes masking liquid frisket.

 I am entering this card in the Take a Stamp challenge at Craft Stamper Magazine and the Let it Snow challenge at Crafting with Dragonflies.

Boo! I'm Back!

The last couple weeks have been scary busy but lots of fun! I hosted a couple technique workshops with a friend and then hosted a large family gathering celebrating 3 major anniversaries. But now life will get back to normal which means blogging more frequently and playing with stamps, dies and other toys:) Halloween is this week so I am posting a card I made with black Bister powders and a spooky stamp called Crowscape from Stampendous. Black Bisters sprinkled on watercolor paper and spritzed with water creates a spooky stormy sky perfect for a Halloween card. After the Bister watercolor background was dry, I masked off most of the sky leaving a circle for the moon and applied bleach on that circle. I love creating a moon this way - it looks much more real this way than masking first leaving a white moon. I used my MISTI and stamped the Crowscape stamp from Stampendous several times, then layered it on light yellow and black cardbase. I added a "Boo" cut with Die-Versions alphabet dies and a couple small bats cut with an IO die.

I am entering this card in the Halloween challenge at Sweet Stampin' and the Anything Goes challenge at 613 Avenue Create.

Living Life - and Stamping - Without an Eraser

I wanted to make a card with an awesome new zentangled leaf stamp from Stampendous and they include a free stencil in the stamp set so I used my red and orange distress ink to color the leaf shape using the stencil. Then I pulled out my MISTI to line up the stamp perfectly with the colored stencil shape, and this was the result:(  Then I remembered this awesome new stamp from Impression Obsession and decided to use it on the card and save the piece. I layered the leaf piece on black and then on red crackled cardstock from Core'dination and ended up loving how the card turned out.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Amuse Studio and Lil Patch of Crafty Friends.

Boooogie Nights with Crackerbox Palace and Bisters

It's Crackerbox Palace Friday and today I am sharing a Halloween card I made with Crackerbox Palace’s awesome stamps, Bister powders and some new dies. Black Bister powders sprinkled on watercolor paper and spritzed with water results in a background that looks like a cloudy stormy night. I just purchased the bats dies (Impression Obsession) and the bare trees die (Penny Black) and I thought they would be perfect on a Halloween card cut in black. I stamped Crackerbox Palace’s “Booo”gie Nights and the trick or treating kids using my MISTI so I could easily stamp them several times in black ink on the stormy Bister background. I love how this card turned out!

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and 613 Avenue Create, and the "Get your Boo On" challenge at Dies R Us.

Holiday Bows Merry Christmas Card

I am trying so hard to resist buying more stamps or dies because I have so many I have not even used yet. But when I saw this new Christmas bows stamp/die set from The Ton and the Merry Christmas die from Die-Versions, I knew there was no resisting- they just had to come and live here in my craft room with me:) The bows are two step stamps and they are so realistic looking you swear they are two dimensional. I used my MISTI to line them up and made a red, blue and green bow in the different sizes. I cut two negative bow shapes out of a white piece with the matching bow dies from The Ton, attached a gold washi tape strip, and then embossed with a Sizzix snowflake embossing folder. I popped that piece up with pop dots and put the red and blue bows on the cardbase showing through the die cut bow shapes. I die cut Die-Version's Merry Christmas, attached it and added a popped up small green bow to complete the cheery Christmas card.

I am entering this card in the No DP challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and the "Lots of Texture or Layers" challenge at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long. 

Fall or Autumn Designer's Choice Challenge

It’s another Designer’s Choice Challenge at The House that Stamps Built, Repeat Impression’s blog. It is Deonna’s turn and her theme is Fall or Autumn. Why don’t you join us in this challenge and enter your project for a chance to win some awesome Repeat Impressions rubber? Please visit the blog for all the details and to see the other Rock Star's projects for this DCC challenge. I have seen them and you do not want to miss them!

I heat embossed Repeat Impression’s falling leaves several times on a watercolor piece for a resist. Then I sprinkled on fall colors of Brusho Crystal Colours and spritzed with iridescent gold Glimmer Mist for the lovely background on this card. Repeat Impressions now sells Brushos in a kit of my favorite colors! Check out the website here for all the details.

I stamped RI's larger maple leaf with Versamark and heat embossed it with a glittery embossing powder from Stampamania. I tied a baker’s twine bow before attaching. I am sharing another sneak peak of a fabulous word set soon to be released by Repeat Impressions. The “Happy” and “Hello” sets are available here. I stamped “give” and “thanks” with the aid of my MISTI since it needed to be stamped several times on the watercolored background. The MISTI allows you to stamp as many times as needed always in the exact correct spot. I am finding I cannot live without it. It is available here.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Crafting from the Heart and 613 Avenue Create.

And don’t forget: For a 10% discount on any size order at Repeat Impressions, just make a note of my discount code (rr10kh), click on the blog badge on the side of my blog and go to the website here to shop and save! 

Project of the Week - Piano Card with MISTI

It is my turn to share a Project of the Week at Repeat Impression's blog and I am sharing a piano card I made with Repeat Impression's stamps and a great new stamping tool I recently purchased. Over the years I have admired and pinned many piano cards but when I went to try to CASE them, there were no instructions. So I recently made this one and will share all the dimensions and details so you can make your own if you wish. I decided on the measurements of this larger card after creating the keyboard section with black and white keys to look like a piano. The nine white keys are 1/2" by 2 1/4". The six black keys are 1/2" by 1 1/2". The black card base is 9 3/4" wide by 7" tall and folded in half. I hand drew a template on cardboard to look like the top of a grand piano and my template looks like this:

I traced the template on the back of the black card base front and cut it out. I attached the white keys with just a little black showing in between each one and then attached the black keys with mounting tape to raise them. I stamped the "For Someone Special" sentiment on a 3/4" x 5" piece and attached it just above the keys, then trimmed. I added a few black gems to complete the front.

The inside of the card features Repeat Impression's large musical background stamp on a white piece of cardstock which is 4 1/2" by 6 1/2". When stamping a large background stamp that needs to be placed perfectly on the card stock, I highly recommend a new tool I recently purchased called MISTI (Most Incredible Stamp Tool Invented.) It was designed by and is available on line at My Sweet Petunia.  I just got mine and find myself reaching for it very often to help getting a perfect stamped image every time- and if you don't, you can stamp it again and again in the exact same position. How many times have you almost completed a card and then you go to add one more stamped image or sentiment and it doesn't stamp well and the card is ruined or it has be salvaged some way? If you were using a MISTI, that would not happen. Here are some pictures I took showing the MISTI tool with the musical background large stamp lined up and then stamped repeatedly if need be:

(I "index" my Repeat Impressions stamps with black Stazon when I mount them on cushion and in this case, I drew the arrow to help me remember which side is up on the musical notes background.) I stamped the musical notes background several times using the MISTI and it turned out perfect.

I love how this card turned out and will be sharing it with my in home classes in the next month. I hope the tutorial I shared helps if you want to make one yourself.

Sailboat at Sunset Card with Brushos and Cling Wrap

I was playing one day with Brusho Crystal Colours, cling wrap and gold spray from Heidi Swapp on glossy paper and this background was the result. I thought it looked like a sunset so I stamped the sailboat scene from Creative Vision Stamps on the left side of the colored piece. I tried to bleach out the sailboat and then planned on coloring it, but the gold spray from Heidi Swapp would not bleach out, so I paper pieced the sails and boat. The stamped scene is about 4 inches wide so the right side of the card front was blank. I masked part of the stamp and using my MISTI tool, I added some more birds and weeds in just the right place. I am a MISTI newbie but am definitely seeing what all the raves are about. It would be a shame to ruin an almost finished card adding a sentiment or part of the stamped scene and with this handy tool, that does not happen. 

I am entering this card in the Anything Creative challenge at Love to Create and the Anything Goes challenge at Scribble and Scrap.