Bokeh

Like most card makers I have an abundance of craft supplies which don't get much use, such as my Distress Inks. I saw in a magazine recently a tutorial of Bokeh. I couldn't believe how simple this technique is! So I pulled out my neglected inks and gave it a go. To say that I was overjoyed with the results is an understatement! Its such a fun technique and a great way to add colour to any CAS background.

   

Card ingredients include:

Stamps: Kaszazz Baby Elephant & various sentiments

Papers:  Watercolour paper, cardstock

Dies: Miscellaneous magazine freebie large butterfly, Dies R Us Butterflies
Distress Ink: Pink cards: Worn Lipstick, Aged Mahogany, Vintage Photo
                     Blue/Green cards: Green Moss, Stormy Sky, Broken China

Other: Twine, sequins, rhinestones, Circle Stencil, Frost White Colorbox Chalk Ink

   

Technique:

- Press the 3 colours you are going to work with on a craft sheet and spritz with water. Spray the watercolour card and smoosh into the craft mat. Lift and rotate card to pick up different colours. When happy with it, set aside to dry.

- Place a circle stencil over the dried coloured watercolour paper and sponge white ink inside the circles. Reposition the stencil and repeat, overlapping some circles for the bokeh effect. If you do not have a circle stencil, use various sized circle dies and some plastic film to create your own stencil. Build up the strength of the circles to be slightly darker than others.

- That's it, it's that simple! Finish card as desired.

I'm playing along with:

AAA Cards #72: New to you technique

Sweet Stampin Challenge: No Designer Papers

Tuesday Throwdown #308: Make it Sparkle

Deep Ocean #136: Things with Wings

House of Cards #August: Twine

My Time To Craft #328: Something that Flies

Creative Craft Cottage #70: Things with Wings

Unicorn Challenge #12: Animal Kingdom

Inky Chicks #71: Lots of Butterflies

Crafty Catz Weekly #335: Anything Goes

Tent Card Tutorial

I'm excited to be the Guest DT for Die Cut Divas this week and today I'm going to share a tutorial for these sweet 'tent cards'. I used these as a treat bag for my daughters teachers for the end of the school year, and they would look great with a Halloween or Valentines theme too, or simply as a card. They are quick and can be kept simple or detailed depending on what dies you choose. You can leave them undecorated and they would still look just as striking! Here is what they look like once completed.

Dies used include:

Memory Box Star Garland

Spellbinders Curved Rectangle

1) Cut cardstock to the sizes below. This card can be created to any size you like, however my card will measure 5" x 6" once complete.

2) Score the 5" x 4" at 1" intervals down the card. This will create the bottom of the card. Fold score lines into a valley, mountain, valley style

3) From one of the 5" x 6" pieces, use any shaped die you would like for the 'window'. I've used  Spellbinders Curved Rectangle. Be sure to leave room at the top and bottom to attach to the bottom piece. 

4) Attach both 5" x 6" pieces to the scored card, with the scored card on the inside.

** If you find that once you've attached the scored card to your 'window' piece it shows through the window, carefully replace your die and re-cut it.

5) From the same coloured cardstock, die cut one Memory Box Star Garland.

6) Carefully attach the die cut Memory Box Star Garland to the front window. Due to the fiddly, delicate sections of the die cut, I found using a glue pen to be very effective as compared to adhesives like tape or glossy accent.

7) If you will be using this as a 'treat' bag like I did, I found that I had to add a couple of splints of thick cardboard (cut from a cereal box) to stop it from falling over.

8) Fill your zip lock bag with treats and attach zip bag to the top of the card with tape before pressing together. You can either leave it here or punch a couple of holes up the top to thread some ribbon through and decorated with sequins and Kindyglitz.

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm playing along with the following challenges:

Crafty Creations #278: Something to Die for

Cute Card Thrusday #351: Bells &/or Bows

Creative Knockouts #67: Tis the Season

Chocolate Coffee Cards #80: Christmas

Crafting by Designs #December: Anything Goes Christmas

Pile it on #49: Anything Goes Christmas
Papertake Weekly: Last Christmas 
Sparkles Forum #63: Anything Goes

Swan-Hearts

This week's inspirational DT card for Dies R Us is for a beautiful couple who've finally got engaged (after 13 years together!)

I created the 'moon background' paper by cutting out a Docrafts Xcut Nesting Circles and attached it to white cardstock with re-positional tape before blending with numerous Distress Inks. Once I'd created a level of colour I was happy with I spritzed it with water and Smooch prior to cutting with Spellbinders Label One and layering on a folded card cut wtih the Spellbinders Grand Label One.

      

I coloured the moon in with some acrylic pearl paint and this beautiful Imagine That 'Love Swans' stamp with Copics. I used some beautiful shimmer paper to cut the Memory Box Heart Flourish to add to the top, and used a couple of the inner heart off-cuts to add some interest to the bottom right corner of the card. I finished it off with some ribbon which I stamped with a simple 'Engaged' sentiment and framed it with some metal tags.

Card ingredients include:

Stamps: Imagine That 'Love Swans'

Copics: Swans: B60  C1  C3  C5  C7  C9  YR14  YR18

             Flowers: BG11  BG13  RV11  RV32  RV17

Papers: Create Paper 'Love Notes' paper pack, Pink shimmer cardstock, cardstock.

Dies: Memory Box Heart Flourish, Docrafts Xcut Nesting Circles, Spellbinders Grand Label One, Spellbinders Label One

Other: Distress Inks (Vintage Photo, Iced Spruce, Stormy Sky & Broken China), Acrylic Pearl Paint, Sea Kiss Smooch, ribbon, metal frame & brads.

Here is a photo showing the moon background paper I created with all of the shimmer & sparkle of the paint, sprits & shimmer paper.

     

And here is something special Dies R Us are doing to celebrate 1000 likes on Facebook. All of the details are below. Only comments left on our Facebook EVENT page will qualify for the prizes. Goodluck! 

I'm playing along with:

4 Crafty Chicks #221: Make it Sparkle

Creative Card Crew #75: Stripes

Loves Rubber Stamps #127: Things with Wings (DT Fav!)

CCC Digi Creations #13: Digi + Animal Antics

Creative Knockouts #64: Bling is the Thing

Crafty Little Fairies #November: Not a Square

Dream Valley Challenge #95: Anything Goes

Clear It Out: Anything Goes

Above & Beyond!

I've been stuck home all week with a nasty head cold, but thankfully I was able to spend a bit of quite time in my studio uninterrupted to have a play with a couple of new techniques I've been meaning to test out for some time.

This is my first effort at a tri-fold shutter card and I love how easy it was to create! After visiting a number of blogs to find dimensions for a larger sized card, I upped the ratios to create my own. As I like to work with central images, I only used a narrow top and base band unlike many others I looked at.

 

Here are the dimensions so that the finished folded card will fit nicely into a standard C6 envelope. 

• Overall measurements are 6" x 12"
• Score lines (dotted) are made down the entire card at 2", 4", 8" & 10" (the score lines in the middle of the card at the 2" and 10" marks are covered once complete)
• Two cuts (red lines) are then made from the 2" to 10" score lines

Designer paper measurements are as follows:

• Front/Rear Vertical Panels (x2) = 4.5cm x 14.5cm
• Centre Squares (x3) = 9.5cm v 9.5cm
• Short Internal Band Strips (x3) = 4.5cm x 2.2cm
• Long Internal Band Strips (x2) = 9.5cm x 2.2cm

Here is my card closed up.

Here is a close up of the stamp 'Wonder Regan' from Sassy Studio Designs. I used the following Copics to colour her.

Skin: E50  E51  E21  R20

Hair: YR14  YR18  YR09

Outfit: B04  RV09  RV19  R39  BV000  BV02

And a couple more close ups of the inside of the card, of the Memory Box Cityscape Silhouette and Die-Versions Pow dies, cut twice (once with glitter cardstock and once with black) to give shadow and depth.

  

To create the sky background I cut a number of Impression Obsession Clouds from heavy cardstock and attached them to another piece of card to create a cloud border. After colouring I masked my image before creating the cloud background. I used Broken China Distress Ink and a blending tool to lightly shade over the cloud border. Starting at the top, I moved the border down the image rotating the cloud border slightly to different angles and along different sections of the border so that is wasn't uniform.

   

Thanks for stopping by and reading through my long blog. I hope it was informative without being overloading and I hope I've inspired you to give it a try!

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown #197: Wild Coloured Hair

Addicted to Stamps-Challenge #97: Make Your Mark

Love to Create Challenge #117: Cute with Dies

Use Your Stuff #137: Bling

A Creative Romance: Girly Creations

The Pink Elephant #252: Anything Goes

Fan-Tastic Tuesday #37: Anything Goes

Love to Scrap Challenge #30: Anything Goes

Scribbles & Scraps Crafts #19: Anything Goes

Creative Fingers Challenge #37: Anything Goes

This card has been used as inspiration for Outlawz Saturday Paper Al a Mode challenge for 'Superheros' sponsored by Sassy Studio Designs, and for Dies R Us.