Punch Art Valentine

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, I sat down today to work on my personal Valentines. Of course, the first one I wanted to create was for my granddaughter, Raine.

I knew that I wanted to make a shaker card and I also knew that Minnie Mouse would be involved but I wasn't yet sure of the design.

In the last couple of days I had scoured Pinterest in search of Minnie Mouse punch art. I pinned a few but the best I found was at Sharon's Scrappy Space.

I grabbed a bunch of punches as well as Basic Black, Whisper White and Blushing Bride card stock and got ready to create. I started by punching shapes from scrap paper. Once I had settled on my design, I started punching the real stuff.

Here's the list of the punches I used to create Minnie Mouse:

1. Head–2" Circle Punch
2. Ears–1" Circle Punch
3. Face–Large Oval Punch
4. Cheeks and Snout–Small Oval Punch
5. Whites of the Eyes–Large Oval Punch trimmed two times with the 1 1/4" Square Punch
6. Eyes and Nose–1/2" Circle Punch
7. Hands–Mitten Builder Punch trimmed with the 1 1/4" Scalloped Circle Punch
8. Eyelashes–Word Window Punch trimmed with the 1" Circle Punch and scissors
9. Arms–1/2" Basic Black strips

All parts of Minnie were adhered using Multipurpose Liquid Glue. Basic Black 1/2" strips were used for arms and The Dress Up Framelits Dies were used to cut a dress, which was later trimmed, from the Brights Backgrounds DSP Stack. A glue dot was used to adhere a Melon Mambo 1/4" Cotton Ribbon bow.

After assembling Minnie, it was evident that a 5 x 7" card was needed. I chose Basic Black for the card base. I cut a matte from Whisper White and used a strip of heart paper from the Have A Cuppa DSP Stack on the bottom of it. I chose to use Bermuda Bay card stock on the upper portion of the matte to match the designer paper.

I used the Happy Heart Embossing Folder to emboss the Bermuda Bay card stock and then sponged on some Bermuda Bay ink to bring out the texture of the raised image. I adhered both it and the designer paper to the matte using Fast Fuse.

Using Minnie and a heart die from the Hearts Collection Framelits to determine placement, I die cut a heart from the matte. In addition, I used two heart dies together to die cut a heart frame from Melon Mambo card stock. I embossed it using the Decorative Dots Embossing Folder.

I used my Fuse Tool and a square die from the Squares Collection Framelits to create shaker pocket. I inserted a piece of Melon Mambo card stock and an assortment of sequins. I used tape to adhere the pocket to the back of the die cut matte.

A length of Melon Mambo 3/8" Stitched Ribbon  was cut and it was laid across the seam made by the two papers. The ends were taped at the back of the matte and then scissors were used to cut the ribbon in half in front of the heart shaker. The excess ribbon was cut off and Tear & Tape was used to adhere the remaining ribbon pieces to the card front.

I adhered Minnie to the die cut heart frame and then used both liquid glue and Dimensionals to adhere them to the matte. The matte was adhered to the card front using Dimensionals.

The sentiment from the Bloomin' Love Stamp Set was stamped with Basic Black Archival ink on Bermuda Bay. It was die cut with the banner die from the Large Numbers Framelits Dies. The sentiment banner was adhered to the card front using Dimensionals to complete the card.

I'm pleased with how it turned out though I regret not sponging the heart frame. Oh well, I don't think Raine will notice!

Close up showing the sparkly sequin shaker mix

I hope you enjoyed reading about my process for this card. I'm off to create more Valentines!

90th Birthday Bash

On Saturday, we had a 90th Birthday Party for my mother, Joyce. Besides our immediate family, also attending the party was my mother's cousin, also named Joyce, who was also born on the same day!

Though at times my mother was quite confused, she seemed to enjoy herself and the party. I was in charge of food for the event, though my brother had been in touch with people regarding what we could use at my mother's nursing home.

When we got there, of course, things weren't exactly as we had anticipated and I ended up running around like a chicken with her head cut off! Suffice it to say, the food was later than we had planned it to be! Grrrr! Luckily, my brother snapped lots of pictures because I didn't have the chance to do so. I'll be getting some of those from him in time.

The card I designed for my mother was cased from the card in this video by Becca Feeken. Because we had decided to use the colors of purple, silver, and white for the theme of my mother's party, I altered the colors in the card accordingly.

I used Elegant Eggplant to create a gate fold card base, 5 x 6" in size. I cut the decorative panels from Silver Foil and embossed them using the Leafy Vine Embossing Folder from Taylored Expressions. Almost any type of embossing folder produces amazing results when you use foil paper but this turned out especially nice! The panels were adhered to the "gates" using Fuse Fast Adhesive.

Using the Banners Framelits dies, I cut the largest banner from Whisper White Thick card stock and a smaller one from Vellum card stock. On the vellum banner, using Versamark, I stamped the sentiment using both the Project Life Day to Day and the Four You stamp sets. I heat embossed using Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder. I also used a Versamark pen around the edge of the banner and heat embossed that with silver.

I used the Bow Builder Punch to punch out the bow pieces and also heat embossed the edges using the Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder. For the tails and the centre of the bow, I used Silver Foil paper.

A trick I used for the centre piece for the bow was to punch out a foil piece using the Word Window punch and trim it down a bit. I have always found the centre of the bow piece just a little small to work with but the Word Window punch worked great for a centre piece!

I adhered the vellum banner to the white one using glue dots which I then hid by mounting the bow on top. The banners were adhered to one side of the gate fold using Dimensionals. I placed Dimensionals on the opposite side as well so that the popped up banner would look equal but I did not remove the paper piece from the Dimensionals.

I cut a matte of Whisper White for the inside of the card and use the "swoosh" stamp from Everything Eleanor to stamp the edges in both Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant. I used sponge daubers to ink the edges in the corresponding inks.

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For my mother's cousin, Joyce, I created a card using one of my favorite patterned papers from the now retired, Fresh Prints Designer stack.

I cut two balloons using the Balloon Framelits Dies, one from Coastal Cabana and one from Real Red to match the designer paper. After establishing the placement I wanted, I used the framelits again to cut an opening in the designer paper for a "shaker" balloon.

Using my Fuse Tool and a page protector, I created a balloon filled with sequins that coordinated with the designer paper. I taped the shaker piece to the back of the designer paper and then adhered the panel to a piece of Baked Brown Sugar card stock. This was first inked with Bermuda Bay ink and then mounted on a Real Red matte that had been inked with a fine line of Basic Black Archival ink. This was then mounted onto a Coastal Cabana card base using Dimensionals.

Using a Two-Way Glue Pen, I ran a fine line around each balloon die cut and then added Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I then tied a piece of thick Coastal Cabana twine to each die cut and used a glue dot to attach a third piece to the "shaker" balloon.

I used "Celebrate" from the Expressions Natural Elements and used a paint dauber to paint it Real Red. I covered it with Versamark, half at a time, and heat embossed it with Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder to make it shiny. The strings from the balloon were tied to the "C" and the sentiment was adhered to the card front using the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

On a Whisper White matte I stamped the balloon from the Celebrate Today stamp set using Coastal Cabana and my MISTI. MISTI definitely came in handy because I had to re-stamp a few times to get the balloon to be completely stamped. I stamped the string in Smoky Slate.

I then stamped in Versamark, using the project Life Day to Day set, and heat embossed in silver. I inked the edges of the matte with Real Red and adhered the matte inside the card.

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Two totally different birthday cards but I loved creating each of them. Hope you have enjoyed reading about my process!

Pretty in Pink Poinsettia

I often wake up with an idea for a card. Today was no exception and since it was one of my days off, I was excited to create what I had envisioned!

I started by stamping the petals for a poinsettia using Pink Pirouette ink on Pink Pirouette card stock. I punched them using the coordinating Festive Flower Builder Punch. I also punched out three larger petals from Silver Glimmer paper for leaves and the centre parts of the flower.

Though you won't be able to see it in the photos, I used my Wink of Stella pen to trace over the stamping on each petal, giving each a subtle yet noticeable shimmer. I then folded each leaf in half and out again to give each petal a bit of dimension.

I used my 3/4" Circle Punch to punch out two Pink Pirouette circles to act as bases for the petals. Using my Silicone Craft Sheet and a glue gun, I proceeded to glue four larger petals to one of the 3/4" circles. Once the four were in place–clock fashion at 12, 3, 6 and 9–I glued the remaining four large petals in between the first four.

I glued the four smaller petals to the second 3/4" circle, again in clock fashion, and then topped them with the two double petals criss-crossed on top. I then glued the base for these petals onto the larger petals.

Next I glued the silver centre parts of the flower and finished up by gluing the three silver leaves to the back of the finished flower. What a pretty flower this made!

I cut a 5 x 7" card base from Whisper White Thick card stock. I glued a 3/4" strip of Silver Glimmer paper down each side, using the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

Using the Softly Falling Embossing Folder, I embossed a 5 x 6" piece of Whisper White Thick card stock. This card stock really holds the embossing very well!

On a 1 1/2 x 2 1/4" piece of Whisper White card stock I stamped the sentiment from the Embellished Ornaments stamp set. I first inked the stamp with Versamark and then Pink Pirouette and stamped using the MISTI This allowed me to re-stamp again using the Pink Pirouette to get a nicely colored sentiment which I heat embossed using Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder.

Using a sponge dauber I inked the edges of the tag in Pink Pirouette. I then used my Fuse to create a plastic pocket for the sentiment from a page protector, first fusing the bottom and sides and then adding in a selection of pink and silver sequins.

I left the top plastic about 1" in length but trimmed the back piece of the plastic even with the top of the tag. I then threaded the plastic through a jumbo size of silver paper clip and folded the long top plastic piece down the back of the tag. I fused three lines on the back, starting nearest the paper clip and spacing down about 1/4" each time.

An important tip about sequins . . . because they are so full of static, and the plastic pocket also holds a lot of plastic, I take a few precautions to try to eliminate as much static as possible. I pour my selection of sequins onto a dryer sheet and rub them down good with it. Before pouring them into the plastic pocket I stick a rolled up dryer sheet in there and rub it around. Finally, I pour the sequins into the plastic pocket from the other dryer sheet. This seems to help a lot!

I took my completed sentiment pocket and clipped it onto the top right of the embossed sheet of Whisper White. I applied Mounting Tape to back and then adhered it to my card base. I used a few little pieces of the Mounting Tape to adhere the poinsettia to the bottom left of the card.

My last touch was for the inside of the card. Using the poinsettia from the Reason For The Season stamp set and Versamark, I stamped a poinsettia on the bottom right of the card. I heat embossed this with Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder.

I love how this card turned out! The glitter of the Glimmer paper, the Wink of Stella shimmer on the poinsettia and the twinkle of the sequins all combine to produce a beautiful Christmas card!

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Autumn Leaf Shaker and Four Fuse Tool Tips

With Autumn in the air, I decided that my next shaker card made using the Fuse tool would have to have a leaf (or two) in it!

I chose a leaf patterned paper from the now retired Color Me Autumn DSP and adhered it to a piece of Crushed Curry card stock to give it strength.

I then used the Leaflet Framelits Dies to cut a maple leaf in the bottom left. I used the same die to create my shaker from a piece of a page protector. I filled it with an assortment of sequins, including some from Pretty Pink Posh.

As I created the shaker for this card, I realized that there was a bit of a learning curve for the Fuse tool.While my first shaker with the Fuse had been a straight-sided window, a leaf shape was much more complicated!

As I tried to trace the outside of the leaf die, I found it very tricky to fuse all the little angles of the die. It was then that I decided that my first piece of advice for the Fuse Tool was:

1. Don't choose complicated shapes. With that said, there is a caveat to this piece of advice; though a die shape maybe somewhat complicated, your fusing doesn't have to be ie. because the fused edge of the shaker will be generally hidden from view, you can fudge the fuse line a bit so that it is not so complicated to create.

I also had to create the leaf shaker a second time because the first time I was actually trying to fuse the INSIDE of the leaf die! I found it somewhat difficult to wrap my mind around where the die would cut the shape and where I would fuse it. This brings me to my second tip:

2. Die cut the inside of the die; fuse the outside of the die. The fused area of the shaker has to be OUTSIDE of the area where the opening is die cut, providing you with an area to adhere to the surrounding card and allowing you to keep the actual fused line hidden.

As I played more and more with creating the leaf shaker, my Fuse was still plugged in but sitting idle. when I used it to fuse again I actually ended up melting my plastic instead of fusing it! :( So my third tip becomes:

3. Unplug the Fuse when you are not planning to use it for awhile. On my iPhone, I have Siri set a timer for 15 minutes when I first plug in the Fuse so that I get it heated to its optimum heat setting. When I unplug it, I use the stopwatch function on my phone until I am once again ready to work with the Fuse tool. I then set a timer for the elapsed time on the stopwatch (or 15 minutes if it has been longer than 30 minutes) to reheat the Fuse.

4. While the Fuse is plugged in, use a heat safe container in which to hold it. I found that the little stand included with the tool to be somewhat useless. Because of the cord is so short, trying to rest the Fuse on its stand seems to be a very wobbly accident waiting to happen! Instead, I use a squat little canning jar to rest the Fuse in when I'm not holding it. Makes me feel a whole lot safer!

After my shaker was created, I taped it in place on the back of the card stock and then adhered the matte using mounting tape to a Crushed Curry card base. I used a Project Life journaling pen to create a stitched line around the leaf shaker.

The sentiment was die cut from Cajun Craze card stock using the Hello You thinlits and glued in place using the Fine Tip Glue Pen (my newest favorite adhesive!).

I'm going to keep playing with my Fuse to learn more about how it works best. Hopefully you will find the tips I have shared today useful in your fusing endeavours!

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Hearth and Home: Fused

I had just the best day today on my day off!

For the last three days, I've been sick with a bad cold and had to take two days off work but finally started feeling better today. Usually if I get a cold, it always seems to strike on my day off–but not this time!

Today I was able to play with a lot of Stampin' Up! goodies from the new Holiday Catalog and I paired them with my new We Are Memory Keepers Fuse Tool.

After reading a lot of posts about this tool and seeing the creations that people were making with it, I decided to take the plunge! Am I ever happy I did!

I decided to use the window from the Hearth and Home Framelits to create a winter scene, suitable for a Christmas card. What could be cheerier for Christmas than a Real Red window frame?

I used the Fuse with a page protector to create the little pocket which I filled (too full, but it's hard to stop!) with a mix of both Stampin' Up! and Pretty Pink Posh sequins.

On a piece of Watercolor paper I sponged in a sky using Marina Mist and then stamped the conifers using Mossy Meadow ink. I adhered this scene to the window using Sticky Strip.

To create the wall for my window, on a Whisper White matte I adhered a Mistletoe-filled paper from the gorgeous new Home For Christmas DSP. On top of that I adhered a piece of Whisper White which I had embossed with the Stripes Embossing Folder to resemble beadboard. A tiny strip of white laid across the top gave the illusion of a chair rail. The completed matte was then adhered to a Real Red card base using Dimensionals.

The window was adhered on the card front using Dimensionals. I added a small wreath to the top of the window.

The wreath was created by first punching a hole in Mossy Meadow card stock with a 1/2" Circle Punch and then putting the 7/8" Scalloped Circle Punch over the punched hole to punch the wreath.

I added flowers to the wreath by using a Memory Box die called Flower Mound to punch tiny white flowers which I adhered using the Fine Tip Glue Pen. I added some red Stickles to the centres and completed the wreath by adding a bow made with 1/8" Real Red ribbon.

The Sparkly Seasons stamp set provided the perfect sentiment for my card! It was stamped with Versamark on Mossy Meadow and then heat embossed using White Stampin' Emboss Powder.

I used the Washi Label Punch to punch the sentiment and it was adhered to the card bottom using Dimensionals. A couple of rhinestones completed my cheery winter scene!

Have you made shaker cards? Have you tried the Fuse tool? Drop me a comment below–I'd love to hear from you!
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Blossom Shaker

At long last, my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers arrived in the mail from Japan! I have been drooling over these markers for a long time and finally bit the bullet and ordered the 48 pack.

These markers are SWEET! They are unlike any other marker I've used. They feel like a paintbrush (thus the real brush) but in a marker form. The colors blend wonderfully well, wet or dry as long as you use watercolor paper.

My first task was to create my swatch list to show each marker in both dry and wet states on watercolor paper. Once this was done, I stamped a slew of images on watercolor paper using Ranger Archival Ink.

I spent the day coloring; such fun to try blending colors together to create new ones and to add depth and dimension to colored images! Coloring with these markers really is a breeze!

For the image on my shaker card, I used a stamp from Indescribable Gift. I used Light Carmine, Carmine, Pale Green, May Green, Brown and Dark Brown.

I would scribble a little with a marker and then blend the rest using my Aqua Pen. If needed, I would go back over a section to give darker shading.

I die cut my image using the Squares Collection Framelits and also cut a polaroid-type frame from Early Espresso card stock as well as a square of Window Sheet.

I adhered the colored image to a Watermelon Wonder card base using Fuse Fast Adhesive and put strips of foam tape around the image.

On the under side of the Early Espresso frame, I put a strip of Sticky Strip and pleated a length of Cucumber Crush Dotted Lace Trim. I also used Fuse Fast Adhesive to secure the window sheet.

I placed a selection of sequins on top of the colored image, inside the foam tape. I then removed the protective strip from the tape and adhered the frame over the sequins to form the shaker.

I stamped the sentiment from the Watercolor Wings stamp set on Cucumber Crush card stock using Archival Ink and then punched it using the Washi Label Punch.

The sentiment was adhered with Dimensionals at the bottom of the frame.

What have you colored with the Zig Clean Real Brush Markers? Leave me a comment below!

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Time To Catch Up

Wow! It's long time since I've been here! So busy this time of year with work, shopping, and prepping items for my Stamping Group which met last Friday for our last time before Christmas. I couldn't show you any of these items beforehand because it would have ruined the surprise but now I can!

I made some Tea Light Holders for each of my ladies, using both the Silver and Gold Fancy Foil Designer Vellum and the Curvy Keepsakes die. I made a different type of tea light holder in Candle, Candle, Burning Bright.

I also prepared Christmas cards for each of my ladies using the Festival of Trees stamps and punch bundle. That set is getting quite a work out this season! You can view another card using the bundle in Trimming The Trees.

Next are the two cards which we made at our stamping group on Friday night.

This first card was cased in entirety from Justin Krieger's wonderful creation. Justin's card was lovely and I just didn't want to change anything–colors, design, etc.

One thing I did do, though, was to use the digital version of the Designer Paper he chose from the Motley Monsters pack. When I read his list of materials, I was quite surprised that the Bermuda Bay star paper came from that package. Because I knew I would not use the other papers, I opted to purchase the digital version and printed it off on Whisper White card stock, a much cheaper alternative at $5.50 instead of $13.50.

The second card was cased from Stampin' Up! demonstrator Jan McQueen. I loved her card and as I had never made a shaker card before, I decided that this would be the one to try! Instead of using the muted colors of the All Is Calm paper pack, I opted for traditional Christmas colors of red and green. I had to add a few non Stampin' Up! sequins into the shaker because there were none available in the two greens or the red that I chose. The other sequins came from the Frosted Sequins pack. (My shaker card below does not have any red sequins because I didn't have any at the time I made my sample card.)

My ladies definitely had fun working on these two cards:

After completing their cards, it was time for our annual Christmas Tag Exchange! Each lady designed one tag and reproduced it for each member of the group. We lay out all our tags so they can be viewed and then we take turns describing how our tags were made and what materials (doesn't have to be from Stampin' Up!) we used to create it. This is my favorite part of our Christmas meeting!

Here are some closeups of the tags. Mine are the shaker cards after the snowflakes.

Of course, the evening would not be complete without some Christmas goodies:

And a group shot:

A fun evening was had by all!


Tea Light Holders Supplies

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Christmas Card Supplies

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Tag Supplies

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Card #1 Supplies

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Card #2 Supplies

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