MFT Sketch Challenge 343

July 31, 2017July 29, 2017 curlesuecardsLeave a comment

Welcome to my attempt at this week’s MFT Sketch Challenge!

Here is the sketch for this week:

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I normally don’t participate in sketch challenges when I don’t have one of the elements, but I decided to get creative this week. I’m missing ovals and oval frames. But I can work with this 🙂

Instead of the oval, I decided to use a square frame. Next I got out all of the MFT images that I had already colored and die cut. I spread them out on the floor and thought about what to do. I took the dragons out as I always use them.

I really like the cats, but I decided on the otters. They are hard to resist!

Using Spellbinders Classic Small Squares, I cut out a frame. Then I laid out my die cuts.

I adhered the rocks behind my frame with scor-tape and adhered that to a MFT Sno-Cone cardstock panel. I adhered the otter and the fish with foam tape. I decided the scene inside the square was a little bare, so I added some clouds using foam tape. I cut a 1/2″ strip for DCWV blue glitter paper and a 1/4″ strip of DCWV white glitter paper. These strips were layered together and added to the right side of the card. I used the MFT Stitched Fishtail Sentiment Strip for the sentiment (I used the die to trim it down by die cutting it a second time, placing the right edge at the width I wanted). The Sno-Cone panel was adhered to a Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110 lbs card base.

I finished the card with some Lucy’s Cards Pool Jewels and some Wink of Stella clear shimmer on the heart.

He is soooo cute!!! How can you not adore otter?!?!

Thanks for stopping by!

Nicole

Hero Arts July Kit-Cards

July 28, 2017July 25, 2017 curlesuecardsLeave a comment

Hello! I hope your week is going well! I wanted to share a couple of cards I created with the new Hero Arts kit. I’ve really enjoyed working with this set!

The first thing I did was to stamp and color all of the flower images, and a lot of the containers with Copic Markers. Then I played around with pairing up the images.

My first card used the large Sweet Pea image, along with the mason jar.

Instead of stamping and masking, I used an X-acto knife to cut along the lines on the jar around the top, so I could slide the stems in. I cut the large white panel from the MFT Stitched Rectangle Scallop Edge Frames and the smaller Sno Cone panel from MFT Stitched Mini Scallop Rectangles. I adhered the large white panel with fun foam, and the Sno Cone panel with a tape runner. The flower images where adhered with foam tape. I stamped the sentiment from the HA kit with Altenew Jet Black ink. I finished the card off with Wink of Stella clear shimmer on the flowers and Grape Jewels from Lucy’s Cards. I also covered the mason jar in Glossy Accents. You can see all the shimmer here.

The next card is rather similar to the first one. I used the large Lilac image and wrapped the bow around it instead of using a container.

The main difference on this card is that I stamped the single lilac image and the butterfly on the white background in MFT Gray Grout ink, and I used vellum for the smaller panel. I also stamped the sentiment from the set in Versafine Onyx ink and heat embossed it with the Wow Hologram embossing power. Check out the color below.

The third card is very different. I knew that I was going to have a hard time wrapping my head around putting flowers in a rain boot. So, I didn’t. Instead I used the image on it’s on. Well, I added the butterfly.

I used one of my Distress Oxide ink panels for the mat. I tried some patterned paper, but this was the best fit. I stamped the sentiment from the kit in Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink to tie in the color. Both the boot and the butterfly are ahdered with foam tape, and I adhered the Distress Oxide ink panel with fun foam. I covered the boot in Wink of Stella clear shimmer before covering it with Glossy accents. The butterfly also has Wink of Stella clear shimmer. I used a kraft card base. Orange and yellow Lucy’s Cards jewels finish it off. I love how the rain boot turned out!

My last card features one of the add-on items. This is the Butterfly Confetti Fancy Die and it was love at first sight! There are so many options with theses card size dies. You can use it for confetti for shakers, use the negative space for a quick background, or inlay some of the die cuts.

Here I used one of my Distress Oxide panels. I die cut the butterflies and saved the butterflies (always save the confetti!). I also die cut the butterflies from Silver Sparkle Paper and from white cardstock. I used MFT ‘s Mini scalloped Stitched Rectangle Frames to trim down my main butterfly panel. That was tricky as the frame ended up with butterflies that overlapped, and I had to put it back together. A lot of this card was like a puzzle!

My plan was to put some of the butterflies back, inlaying them. I wanted to use the original butterflies and some of the silver sparkle die cuts. The reason I cut out an extra butterfly panel from white cardstock was because I wanted to layer some of the butterflies to add interest and dimension. Some of the butterflies were just inlaid, some had 2 layers, on up to 4 layers! I ended up putting a strip of silver sparkle up the center of the card.

I added Wink of Stella Clear Shimmer to the colored butterflies and stamped the Thank You from the kit in Versafine Black Onyx ink on vellum and used Wow Hologram embossing powder. I love how it takes on a purple color when tilted.

I had planned on the sentiment strip spanning the width of the card, but my first attempt failed (the embossing powder flaked off the vellum because I was handling it too much). At that point I was tired and already a couple of hours into this card, so I took the easy way out. I think next time I will use white embossing powder. Even though I love the Hologram powder, white would have been a better match.

Now to figure out what to do with the rest of the images!

Thanks for stopping by!

Nicole

New Products

New to Me-Mica Spray

July 26, 2017July 13, 2017 curlesuecardsLeave a comment

Hello! Today I would like to talk about Mica Spray. Yana Smakula has used mica sprays in her card making and I loved the results! She made a card with Simon Says Stamps’ Seeing Stars that is just gorgeous! I recently noticed that Micheal’s carries some of the sprays, so with coupons in hand I decide it was time to take the plunge!

I was able to get the Tim Holtz set and the Dylusions set:

The Tim Holtz kit includes Brushed Pewter, Antiqued Bronze and Tarnished Brass. The Dylusions set has Bubblegum Pink, Vibrant Turquoise and Crushed Grape. The first thing I did when I got home was to “swatch” them on black card stock. They are gorgeous! I could totally see just spraying the Pewter on black card stock and using that for the night sky (thanks Yana).

I had been meaning to make a card with MFT’s Heart Shaker and Window Frame. After I cut the heart out, I decided to spay the card stock with the Bubblegum Pink and Brushed Pewter. I used Neenah Solar White card stock and had no issues with excess moisture. I used a shallow mailing box, and misted the card stock from about a foot away. You can see the box below.

As you can see, its like a spray paint effect. The coverage is pretty good from about a foot away and it did saturate the card stock. I think I sprayed it two or three times tops. You can also see the pearliness in the last picture.

Then I had this great idea to try masking card stock and getting a more concentrated color. I wanted to use the turquoise as it’s such a pretty color. So I cut circle out of masking paper and placed it over the paper. I put it in the box and started spraying, only a couple of inches from the card stock.

I don’t know why, but all that happened was that I soaked the paper. I was sure to shake the spray up, but it just didn’t show up on the card stock. I wiped off what I could, and hit it with the Brushed Pewter instead.

Since the card stock was already pretty wet, I didn’t want to spray too much more. I ended up with the card above. It still gave a dense coverage, but not as solid as I had planned. As I wrote earlier, I used the panel for the Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge.

I”m going to watch some You Tube videos on the Mica spray and see what other techniques are out there. I can’t wait to use this more. The colors are really vibrant on black card stock, and I like the effect. I’ll be sure to share what I find!

Thanks for stopping by!

Nicole

Challenges · New Products · Techniques

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge-Stars and MFT

July 24, 2017July 24, 2017 curlesuecards2 Comments

Happy Monday! The Simon Says Stamps Wednesday challenge for this week is Stars, and using MFT products. It’s almost like they knew I just bought that adorable star shaker window and frame die set!

I actually have two cards for the challenge this week. I just so happened to make a card using Simon Says Stamps Seeing Stars kit, with mica spray and a sentiment from MFT’s Counting Stars. There are also some Liquid Perfect Pearls dots in Pewter, and Sparkling Clear Confetti sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. The black panel was layered on the Gray Grout card base with black fun foam.

The second card is a card I made for my Niece’s 16th birthday. I used the new Star Window and Frame die set from MFT, along with the star pouch. I used the technique where you adhere acetate to the back of the shaker element, to make it easier to line up. I did this because I wanted to use the piece cut from the inside of the frame as the background for the shaker.

I also used the Celebrate die, and the Number Confetti dies to cut out 16. The were a little bit much for the shaker size, but still worked out. I glued one each of the 1 and 6 to the shaker background so at least one set of the numbers would be readable.

I decided to use small confetti sequins due to the size of the numbers and the lack of room. Plus, they are tiny stars :). I finished off the card with some Pool Jewels from Lucy’s Cards. I used MFT’s Silver Sparkle paper for the numbers, and Cornflower Blue Sparkle paper for the celebrate, which I layered on three white die cuts first.

Oh, the panel I used for the shaker frame and background was one of the panels I made with Distress Oxide inks. My Niece’s favorite color is green, so I used the Cracked Pistachio and Broken China panel. And the white panel was mounted on the Sno-Cone card base with fun foam.

Both cards came together pretty quickly. The shaker elements from MFT really speed up the process. I’m glad I had the opportunity to use it this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Nicole

Techniques

Playing with Block Watercolor Stamping

July 21, 2017July 21, 2017 curlesuecards1 Comment

One night a few weeks ago I was blending panels with Distress Oxide ink for backgrounds. Since I had my supplies out, I decided to try the Block Watercolor Stamping technique Jennifer McGuire shared on July 3rd (here).

I was just playing around, so I didn’t take any pictures while I was doing it, which I regret. I guess I didn’t think it would work this well (I tried this when I first started making cards and utterly failed).

I watched Jennifer’s video, so I already had an idea of what it would look like, but that’s nothing compared to seeing the magic in real life!.

My acrylic blocks have grid lines on them, to help you stamp straight. I didn’t really think about it in terms of how it would effect the outcome. It gave a pretty neat affect on some of the backgrounds.

I used Distress Markers instead of ink pads, and I used Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor paper. On the first panel I used Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers and Seedless Preserves, and colored the block pretty heavily. Then I hit it a couple of times with a water spray bottle. I placed the block on the watercolor paper and then placed my mini binder full of dies on top. I let it sit for 5 minutes. When I took the block off, I blotted the panel. Then I sprayed it with Sparkle Spray.

You can really see the grid marks on this one. I think the ink traveled up and down them. I love how it’s so different.

On the second example, I took a smaller block and just used Picked Raspberry. I sprayed it with water and put it on the watercolor paper. Then I put the water bottle on it. I put the bottle down a little hard and got the splatters out of the side (not intentionally but love it). After 5 minutes I repeated the same steps with Seedless Preserves. This time I hit it on purpose which resulted in bigger splatters.
I blotted the panel when I took the block off and then I sprayed the panel with Sparkle Spray.

The Sparkle Spray made the color run a little, where the purple and pink overlap. This one is my second favorite!

Here is the finished card. You may recognize it from my shaker card post. I used the Big Hugs from MFT Stamps. I wanted to keep the watercolor as intact as possible, so I adhered the cut out letters to the inside of the shaker.

On this panel I colored a rainbow with Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, Cut Grass, Peacock Feathers and Seedless Preserves. I sprayed it with water, but not as much as the other panels (again, unintentionally). I placed it on the panel, put something heavy on it and left it for 5 minutes.

As you can see, less water means less movement. I’m still happy with the look. I sprayed this one with Sparkle Spray too. This one was perfect for a Stamping Bella Unicorn. This card makes me so happy, with all the color, AND my favorite unicorn.

With my last panel, I used only Broken China. I inked the block up and sprayed it with water. I placed the block on the panel and let is sit for 5 minutes with something heavy on it.
This one is my favorite! I love the shape from the block and the soft color. Adding Sparkle Spray made it gorgeous! I wish the Spray photographed better.

I know I’ll be repeating this for more cards, it will make a lovely sky. This time I added a mermaid from the Hero Arts May 2017 kit.

I’m really pleased with the outcome of “just goofing around.” I need to play with ink more often and I recommend this technique. It’s super easy and even if you don’t “get it right,” it still has amazing results. The key is to make sure you let the block sit for at least 5 minutes. The first time I tried this I didn’t wait and it didn’t work at all.

Thanks for stopping by!

Nicole

New Products · Techniques

MFT New Items and Shaker Cards

July 19, 2017July 19, 2017 curlesuecardsLeave a comment

First off, Happy Birthday MFT!!!

I’m afraid today’s post is going to be a looong one! I wanted to do something special for MFT’s new release, but I can’t review the whole release, as I didn’t purchase everything (must stick to budget, must stick to budget). Since this release was full of shaker elements (and I did buy all of them), I thought I would go over the shaker items, and different methods to use for making shaker cards.

These are a couple of the shaker cards I have made, using different techniques. Let’s look at some of them.

Foam Tape

Let’s start out with the method you’ll see the most when you search for shaker cards on the internet, foam tape. This method involves cutting an opening in your cardstock, using acetate to cover the window, applying foam tape to create a gap for the sequins to move, pouring in sequins, and then sticking it all onto your card base, or any background images you want to use. There are a couple of different variations on this style.

1. Using one layer of foam tape. You do not get as much movement, as the space is narrower. But, your card isn’t as bulky as if you used two layers of foam tape.

See, the sequins doesn’t really move around.

2. Two layers of Foam. This provides more room for the sequins to move around, but it results in a really bulky card.

3. The amount of sequins you add can also affect the amount of movement with your sequins. Lots of sequins means little movement, fewer sequins means more movement. Sequins size plays a part as well.

4. You can use Tulle instead of acetate, but be sure to use sequins that won’t fit through the tulle.

5. You can use vellum instead of acetate.

6. A tip I learned recently (thank you Simon Says Stamps) is to use acetate on the back of the shaker instead of adhering it to the card base. It helps the sequins to move, and it makes it easier to line the shaker element up on your card base or background (I did this with the pink and blue Hugs card).

A down side to the foam tape style is that the cards can be really bulky, and you use a lot of foam tape. You also have to be very careful about the sequins sticking to the tape (I have yet to make a card with this method and not have sequins stick to the foam border, even after buying the EK Success Embossing tool just for this).

Fuse Tool

Another method used is utilizing the Fuse Tool by We R Memory Keepers (Project Life has a tool as well). This tool heats up, allowing you to melt plastic sheets together. You can use page protectors, or I think acetate as well. I’ve only used page protectors and stamp storage envelopes.

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The fuse tool comes with two different types of tips (one to seal and one to seal and cut at the same time), a metal ruler to use as a guide, and a stand for the tool. I purchased extra tips for the tool, which leave different patterns when it seals (you can see them in the picture), and a heat resistant mat.

This method is great because you can create any shape (I’ve used metal dies as “guides,” such as the star die in my picture). You use the tool to seal the shape you want on three sides, leaving one side open so you can add the sequins. Once you add the sequins, you seal the pouch shut.

Once you have the pouch made, cut the window in your cardstock, and then adhere the plastic pouch you made to the back of your cardstock.

The down side is that there isn’t a lot of room for the sequins to move around in the plastic pouch. I don’t have an example to demonstrate the movement, just a picture of a finished card. But you can see how the plastic in the window is flat towards the outside. And the sequins look a bit squished.

This tool is great for making individual plastic pouches. Make sure you get a good seal with the tool and don’t trim the excess plastic down too close to the seam. It does take practice. This pouch below ended up splitting open on me when I kept playing with it, but it was my very first one.

You can also use the tool to seal pictures or paper as well. I recommend Googling this tool and techniques. I used it to modify some of my stamp storage pockets to fit my storage bin, after I bought the wrong size bin and didn’t want to spend money on a new one (that’s stamp money!).

Preformed Pouches

A third method is to use preformed plastic windows that stick out from the front of the card, and allow sequins to move around. MFT originally only had these plastic pouches in circles and squares. They added hearts last month, and stars and balloons with this release. I think they are absolutely fantastic!!!

These pouches make shaker cards so much easier to create. Instead of using all that foam tape, all you need is some good double sided tape. This means that the cards aren’t as bulky as when you use two layers of foam tape. And you get really good sequins movement.

MFT also makes frames to fit around the pouches. I skipped the frames on the cards I made, but you’ll want to use the frame for the balloons.

Here are the frame and window die cuts, as well as the pouches themselves. I do not have the circle window and frame dies yet, and I only have the Stitched window for the squares instead of the window and frame.

The downsides are you are limited by the available shapes and the pouches stick out from the front of the card, if that bothers you.

I decide to walk through the process with the balloon die. It’s so easy!

1. Run the balloon window die through your die cutting machine

2. Then run the balloon frame die through the die cutting machine

3. Put double sided adhesive around the lip of the plastic pouch that faces up (with the protruding part of the pouch up)

4. Remove the release paper on the tape, and adhere the pouch to the back of your cardstock, with the pouch part sticking out of the front

5. Use double sided tape to adhere the frame to the front of your card

With this release, MFT also added Number Confetti dies, which are perfect for the shaker pouches. The number dies cut out several of each number at one time, so you don’t kill yourself running one tiny die through the machine a ton of times. Below I cut out some confetti numbers, as well as the shaker elements that are included with the balloon die set (cakes, stars and ribbon curlicues). The balloon die set also includes dies for the balloon strings and a little ribbon curlicue, which I did not die cut, but I included in the picture, to the far right.

MFT also has a maze shape that fits into the circle pouches. How fun is this?! Add the metal spheres and you have an instant, interactive card! These mazes have been around for a couple of months, but I just now got my hands on the new rainbow colors. A friend asked me to use them for invitations to her son’s birthday party. I’ll be sure to share the finished cards with you (it’s my first time making invitations yikes).

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The sky is really the limit with shaker cards. Between the different shapes, and the different kinds of sequins, there are so many options. There are micro beads (don’t use with tulle), 6 mm and 4mm sequins, shaped confetti, glitter, and card stock confetti. And shaker cards aren’t just for kids. Adults love them too!

What is your favorite method for making shaker cards?

Thanks for stopping by and sticking with the long post!

Nicole

P.S. I almost forgot this gorgeous thing! MFT has a flower frame for the circle pouches!

Challenges

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge-Plaid and Lawn Fawn

July 17, 2017July 14, 2017 curlesuecards6 Comments

Well, if you remove the Plaid, this challenge is right up my alley. I practically live and breathe Lawn Fawn’s fairies and I can’t seem to stay away from their Dad and Me set either!

However, plaid is not really my thing… I had to really dig to find plaid paper. I thought for sure one of those pads of patterned paper I’m always buying and never use had to have some plaid. I found some in the very last pad I looked at. It’s a weird pad full of paper for all the different holidays. I liked it because a lot of the pages have glitter on them :). And of course, my plaid paper has glitter. It’s like it was meant to be.

I used my favorite Stitched rectangle die (Simon Says Stamps) to cut down my plaid paper. Then I used MFT Stitched Rectangle Scallop frame to cut out a white frame as well as a vellum panel to fit inside the frame.

I had some flowers from Lawn Fawn’s Fab Flowers that I had stamped and die cut a few weeks ago (I spent a whole weekend stamping and die cutting images). It just so happened that a weird color combo I used for the stamp layering fit perfectly with the colors on the plaid paper. The combo was so funny looking when I first made it I almost threw it away. I’m glad I kept it.

Since I was using Fab Flowers I decided to use the sentiment from that set. I stamped it in Versamark and heat embossed it in white on the vellum. I put some double sided adhesive behind the letters and stuck it down.

I used foam tape to adhere the flowers and the butterfly. I accented the card with some Lucy’s Cards orange jewels from the Rainbow pack, and different color Nuvo Drops.

This card came together pretty quickly once I found the paper. I meant to just hunt up some plaid paper and make the card another night, but next thing I knew the card was done. Having the images made ahead of time helped a lot. Even though the colors are not something I would normally do, the paper pulled it together. I need to step out of my comfort zone more often!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed the card!

Nicole