Linda Vich Creates: fussy cutting

I realized yesterday that I had a LOT of crafting to do in a very short time, the least of which was to create a card for my mother's birthday this week.

Luckily, I knew exactly what I wanted to use–the Corner Garden stamp. I had a brief play with it this week but nothing that was card worthy. However, I did find a technique done with the stamp that I thought would be perfect for my mother's card.

I started by cutting and scoring a Whisper White card base. I did not yet fold the card but I needed the score line so I could tell where the fold would be. I used a large post it note to mask off the back of the card so it would not get inked.

Because this stamp is large, I turned it on its back; after inking it up with Versamark I carefully placed my card front down onto the stamp and placed scrap paper over top to allow me to smooth over the entire surface of the stamp. I then heat embossed it with Whisper White embossing powder.

I used my Blendabilities to color in all the flowers and foliage. Because the spaces are so tiny, I did not worry about blending with the markers; I simply colored with them, like coloring in a coloring book, making sure I had scrap paper below my card stock.

As I colored, I realized that what was to be my card front would show the marks of the markers on the inside of the card. Due to this, I decided to create an inner card of Bermuda Bay which I adhered to the card base when it was completely colored and dry.

The next step in the technique was to fussy cut around the flowers where there was a large white space on the card.

Fussy cutting is definitely not for the faint of heart! You need to have a very good pair of sharp scissors (this is where my Stampin' Up! paper snips came in handy) a LOT of patience and a LOT of time.

Actually, I think that the term fussy cutting is a misnomer; the technique should really be called, Cutting Out Something That Was Never Meant To Be Cut Out!

Of course, I knew going in that this would be labor intensive and somewhat frustrating but I persevered, even using my favorite tool, the Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife, to finish up the most difficult bits. I highly recommend this tool. The knife fits comfortably over your index finger, allowing you to wield it comfortably.

When I finished, I needed to add a few bits of glue to adhere the little bits of the front to the Bermuda Bay interior card. I was quite pleased with the results!

I then added the sentiment and a daisy-like flower from the Flower Patch stamp set to the inside of the card where it could be seen in the cut out area. These were both heat embossed with Whisper White.

I used a glue dot to adhere a bow made from the now retired Pumpkin Pie 1/8" ribbon (why do they retire this stuff?).

The finishing touch was to use the medium marker from the Mambo Melon Blendabilities to color a rhinestone for the centre of the flower.

Some close up details.

I think my mother will enjoy the card. What do YOU think? Let me know in the comments below.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Friday and Saturday, I was able to attend the Creative Gathering in Friedensfeld, Manitoba, organized by the Scrapbook Cottage. There was a wonderful group of ladies there—Scrapbooking, card making, experimenting with mixed media and generally just being creative!

Since the Friday night session ran until midnight, Charlene and I chose to stay at a wonderful Bed & Breakfast known as Calder House. Here we are on the front porch.

Lovely place to stay and what a wonderful breakfast we had–a fresh-made juice concoction and crepes with fresh berries, granola and Greek yogurt.

I was definitely pleased with what I accomplished. Though I may work slowly (I play a lot and try different variations with my card making before I decide on the final design) I felt that my finished cards were well worth the time it took to create them!

Here is one of the cards I created on the weekend.

This was a fun yet simple card to create. I knew I wanted to use a technique to create my own background. Here's what I used to create the effect on the Smoky Slate card stock matte.

That's right—a stamp pad and a crumpled piece of paper! I simply dabbed the crumpled paper on the stamp pad and then pounced it on the card stock to produce this effect:

I think the result is kind of funky and organic looking!

After creating this matte, I used Fuse Fast to adhere it to the Blackberry Bliss card base. I then used the Banners Framelits, along with my BigShot and Magnetic Platform, to cut out a banner. I used Versamark and a non Stampin' Up! silver embossing powder (to get a glittery silver effect) to heat emboss the edges of the banner. Because it was difficult to get the stamp pad into the "V" of the banner, I used a Versamark pen (now retired from Stampin' Up!) to ink that area. The pen was not as juicy as the stamp pad so I had to ink and emboss the area several times until it looked like the rest of the embossing.

I did not have any gray twine so used my lightest Smoky Slate Blendabilities marker to recolor Whisper White twine. After it dried, I tied two lengths around the top of the banner.

I stamped the typewriter from the Tap, Tap, Tap stamp set with Blackberry Bliss onto Smoky Slate card stock and then fussy cut it. The sentiment was stamped with Rich Razzleberry and then the typewriter was adhered to the banner with Dimensionals. I also used Dimensionals to pop up the banner on the matte.

I really like the Tap, Tap, Tap stamp set and plan to use it again soon!