Hello and welcome back, our challenge this fortnight is: all you need is love.
Our sponsor is Uniko stamps and I have used the All occasion sentiments #5 for my "be mine". I stamped it with Versafine onyx black ink. onto a cardpanel, slightly smaller than my cardbase. Let it dry.
Meanwhile I diecut the Simon Says Stamp hearts alive die from red, and two tones of pink glitter paper. And then also from the cardpanel.
I traced the window onto the cardbase, and applied Elizabeth Crafts double sided tape on the spot. I happen to have the 2" wide one and that fits perfectly.
I added taperunner to the cardpanel cardbase. then inlaid all the glitter bits back into the window.
and
adhered in on the
I chose to keep all the hearts red and the pink as a backdrop, but you can , of course, mix and match as you have three sets of these pieces now, you could make three cards.
I didn't ;-)
I didn't add any more gems, rhinestones, enamel dots or alike as I thought the glitter paper is pretty much the performing diva here ;-)
For more information on the AAA cards challenge, or to play along and see what the other DT members made, see this
This month we got this cute bunny couple, at least I made it a couple, of friends as the sentiment indicates, you never know what might blossom, But because the man bunny is holding a flower I thought it went nicely ;-)
I prepared the image and sentiment in Photoshop and then printed it both on normal printer paper and the Crafter's Companion Neenah paper.
I cut out the printer paper one to create a mask. In hindsight I should probably have made two masks, one for each bunny or cut out in the middle more, but frankly I was afraid it would compromise the integrity of the mask, so I chose not to, I will regret that later ;-)
I've put Tombow mono multi glue on the back and let it dry overnight. I did quite a thick layer, so it needs time. I also covered it as cats are shedding their coats and it's crazy how much hair I find everywhere, even dusting and vacuuming won't help.
Anyway after I woke up I continued with the card, masking the printed image and also masking a sky and grass border. To color those I used painter's brushes and Distress Inks (mowed lawn and Mermaid lagoon).
This is where your careful cut out mask poses a problem to ink in between, I tried my best, but in the end I ended using a marker.
Then I colored the bunnies with a
combination of alcohol markers (Decotime, Spectrum Noir and Spectrum Illustrator).
Added gel glitter pen dots to the tulip and an enamel heart as a bow on the white bunny as well as lashes, to reinforce the feeling of a female bunny.
Mounted the panel with foamtape and adhered it to the cardbase.
It could well have been a Valentine card, but as I film my Youtubes ahead, it wouldn't have made sense on February 25th when the video will go live, so please come check back then.
As I want to enter it into the Gerda Steiner monthly challenge, I felt I shouldn't wait that long, as I might forget.
I've teamed up with some brilliantly creative ladies to celebrate this milestone.
We're all smaller channels on YouTube and I invited them to help promote them and myself of course.
At first I wanted to do this at 2500, seeing 1000 celebration has just passed, but due to changes in the YouTube policy there was a sense of urgency.
YouTube has decided if you don't enough views in a set amount of time, you can;t make any money with your videos anymore.
Now I will be brutally honest and say in the last 3 years I had 3 payments of 70 euro or dollar, I'm not sure, peanuts, but still greatly appreciated as I use this money for these giveaways.
To make a video takes hours to film, edit, upload, and that's without coming up with the ideas, working it out in your head or on try out sessions, without an hourly salary.
I put out 3 videos a week and it does take a lot of commitment and frankly I do it for my faithful viewers.
I don;t get endorsed by companies, not do I get paid otherwise, so if this money were to disappear, so will my and lots of other channels and I don;t really want to quit, but I feel we're not given other options.
So please go and hop along and support these super nice and fabulously creative ladies, like, comment, share to help us get our minimum quota.
I feel bad I have to beg almost, but it's so important I feel I must.
On to the hop and the giveaway.
I have a few prizes up for grabs, you can see them in the video.
If you're a subscriber and you comment on the video, you will have a chance to win one of said prizes, I will draw these at random, so this time you can't choose.
The giveaway is open for 48 hours. We ladies will all choose our winner(s) on Monday.
Once I have received all winners from the other blogs, I will post a video on Tuesday (February 6th). the winners will then have another 48 hours to claim their prize, otherwise others will be chosen, they will then also have 48 hours, so make sure you're available/reachable.
I got a lot of requests to show how I made the embossed background on my bunny card.
It's really simple actually, I use a set of nesting dies, in this case Marianne design basic shapes cr1351 and stick them together with painters tape, so they don't move in the Big Shot.
I also us 140lbs card and it might wrinkle, usually it helps to spray it with a bit of water, but my cardstock also doesn't like water and or sticky tape , it's so spoiled ;-)
First I stamped the whiskers my Scan N cut chopped off the image onto the background, as it might be hard after embossing the cardbase.
I made sure all the open bits in the tail were closed with pencil so the Scan N cut wouldn't get "confused" by the open lines..but then it chops off the whiskers lol....
To emboss the heart shapes into the cardbase I use my embossing machine on the embossing folder settting, for my Big shot that's tab 1. I then put down one cutting plate and my silicone baking sheet, the cardstock and the dies on top, with the cutting side towards the cardstock.
Pass it through the machine, once would be enough, but I have to go backwards due to space, that might also increase the wrinkles more.
I thought the words on the stamp were enough and I didn't add a sentiment. There's one in the Penny Black stampset.
I colored the image with Spectrum Noir and Spectrum Illustrator markers. Nuvo shimmer pen on the chocolate boxes.
Mounted the kitty with foamtape and adhered it to the cardbase.
For my card I wanted to use my new stampset from Gerda Steiner, that I got with the black Friday deal.
I stamped all the images on the Crafter's Companion Neenah paper and had them cut out by my Scan N cut.
For the "maze" I used my nested circles dies, mine are from Nellie Snellen, but any will do. I skipped one every time, to get a reasonable rim.
I used the largest circle in the set to cut out the maze from the card panel and I stamped the sentiment from the same Gerda Steiner set with Versafine Onyx black ink, set it aside to dry.
Colored them with Spectrum Noir and Spectrum Illustrator markers.
I mounted the panel and circles with foam tape.
To go round I peel off one side of the backing, push it down and then peel off the other backing sheet, you can then manipulate the foamtape like magic.
So if you're really good at this you could made it a spinner card, but I am not and there is just not enough room to put the coin or disc on the back, it's either would fit or it would fall out.
So I opted for the illusion together with the sentiment I think will carry across the message of a helpful friend.
To give the illusion of the maze I cut a slit in the smaller circles and positioned them inside the big circle in the panel.
Stuck the penguin in the middle of the maze, as if she'smade it ;-). Some Nuvo shimmer pen on the hearts and tape runner to stick her down.
I showed you the magnets sheets in a haul video, and said I wasn't going to use them to make magnets, just for organizing my dies. But then I made magnets lol...
Mostly because I was curious as how the different glues would hold up under the glass cabochons.
You can get these glass domes pretty much anywhere, mine where from the home decor section and came in a mixed bag, which was a shame as I only need the clear ones, but hey...I cleaned them with some rubbing alcohol, to make sure there's no residue that might make the glue not stick, just a precaution.
I used: Ranger texture paste transparent gloss, Ranger Glossy Accents, Collal tacky glue, Aleene's fast grab tacky glue, Decor Art Liquid glass and Tombow mono multi liquid glue.
The last one is repositionable ans was still tacky after letting it dry all night, so I wouldn't recommend that one, but they all dried up nice and clear and are a strong hold as far as I could tell. I used some Nuvo Shimmer pen on the green bugs as I like how glossy accents amplifies the glitter, but I think squishing the glass down, kinda smooshed out all the glitter as I couldn't find much of it, except on the sides.
Hey it's all part of the experiment!
To make the bugs I traced the glass shaped onto Crafter's Companion Neenah paper and colored them with alcohol markers. I do recommend alcohol, as I think water based markers might reactivate with the wet glue, haven't tried it, but it's a gut feeling :-D
If you do, tell me if it works .
Cut out the shaped then glued the glass on top. and let it dry all night.
In the morning I cut the magnet sheet to fit the glass domes and after trimming the paper I stuck the magnet sheet down and trimmed again, I guess you could do it in one go, I just didn't ;-) My head is still heavy from the flu.
Then I glued googly eyes on top, I used the Aleene's fast grab tacky glue for it as I found the glossy accents didn't work as well.
For the box you need a piece of paper that is 3,5"high and 3, 3/8" wide. Make sure if you have a directional pattern it's like in the pattern (flowers right side up).
Score on the 3,3/8" side at 1/2"and 2 7/8" (or 1/2" from both ends)
Score on the 3,5"side at : 1/2, 1 1/2", 2"and 3"
Burnish your scorelines and notch as show in pattern/video
Glue your box together and place your magnets, with or without the little round magnets to hold them in place.
This fortnight the theme of AAA cards challenges is: chilled. Our sponsor is CAS-ual Fridays. And you could win a $25 dollar gift certificate.
I am using their set Must love snowflakes, sadly it's discontinued, but now they have snowy sayings and bring on the snowflakes as well as some snowflakes dies.
For the card I cut a kraft base into a panel. I didn't realize it, but it turns out it's not exactly A5 sized...should have measured!
I started by stamping the thank you with Simon Says Stamp's you matter set in embossing ink, and then used the Wow metallic silver regular to emboss the sentiment.
Then I placed all the snowflakes from CAS-ual Friday's must love snowflakes on acryllic blocks. I stamped a variety of sizes and colors using Memento inks (gray flannel and Paris dusk and also embossing ink)
The little star is from Simon Says Stamps (birthday balloons) and I used it as an embellishment instead of rhinestones or alike.
Adhered the panel to a cardbase with tape runner and cleaned up the size difference.
For more information or to play along with the AAA cards challenge, see this
