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Stamps & Scraps ~ Die Cuts to “To Die For”!

Posted by: Ally Cope | June 17th, 2013

Hello Flourishes Fans!! I’m Ally and I’m your hostess for Stamps & Scraps!

Die cutting and digital cutting are all the rage right now in the paper crafting world. If you have already jumped on this marvelous band-wagon, then you will truly understand the addiction! There is something spectacular about starting with a simple piece of shaped cardstock and bringing it to life… Ahhhh! It’s become one of my paper passions indeed. So today I’m going to share a few fun ways of taking those paper shapes and making them come alive. Grab a cuppa joe and come along for my creative journey…

My journey began with some simple cardstock…

First I digitally die cut my shapes out of cardstock. The above shape is the base for my layout’s title block. I used the Flourishes “Spring Breeze ” cardstock from the Color Made Easy collection ~ Pistachio as my base colour of cardstock.
Then I stamped the top part of the die cut using the pine branch from the “All That Glitters” stamp set using Memento “Rich Cocoa” ink. For the bottom part of the die cut I used the NEW “S’More Fun” stamp set. It contains the cutest camping images… awww!
Then I added some “Walnut Stain” Distress Ink to all the edges and I also air brushed some Copic BG13 from the Copic Water Collection.
For the final touch, I added some simple machine stitching using a yellow thread for a pop of colour.

Don’t you love how in only a few short steps your cardstock just becomes magical!?!

To complete my title block, I needed to add my actual title…

The first step was to cut out my title. I used the Flourishes “Desert Marigold” cardstock from the Color Made Easy collection, Sunflower.
Then I stamped some of the cute stars from the “Make a Wish” stamp collection using Memento “Tangelo” ink. So cool!!
I then took my Copic air brush and applied Copic Y35 & Y38 from the Sunflower Collection to give it that glow.
Then I added some foam adhesive to back of my title and adhered it to my title block. Voila!

So super simple and now I’ve created a fun and dimensional embellishment all using cardstock and stamps!

Next I wanted to added another source of the yellow and orange colours to my layout so I created another unique die cut shaped embelly for my layout…

First I die cut this beautiful Flourishes Perfectly Pierced Classic Frame from the same “Desert Marigold” cardstock from the Color Made Easy collection, Sunflower as my title.
Leaving the cardstock inside the die, I then airbrushed the back ground using the same Copic markers as my title.
Again, I stamped the beautiful star stamp from the “Make a Wish” stamp collection repeatedly all over the back ground of my die cut. Those pretty little paper pierced patterns are actually built right into the die! Yum!
Finally, I added a touch of machine stitching around the edge of my die cut shape. I cut my die cut to allow me to place it in two different areas of my layout ~ another great way to stretch out those die cuts (no pun intended! LOL).

I knew I needed one final addition to my page so…

First I die cut my multiple pieces of cardstock that will create my final embellishment. I used the Flourishes “Spring Breeze ” cardstock from the Color Made Easy collection ~ Pistachio and Flourishes Classic White Cardstock.
For my green circle, I stamped the compass part of the Antique Map stamp set onto it. For the rounded corner rectangle, I stamped the cute sentiment and the marshmallow sticks from the S’More Fun stamp set. I coloured each image using Copics to make them pop!
I added one final bit of machine stitching and some fussy cut marshmallow sticks and it was ready for my layout!

At last… all of the elements were complete for my layout. Here is what I created with my die cut embellishments…

Happy Campers

So the next time you are stuck for a perfectly themed embellishment or a clever title, think about using your die cuts or your digital cutting machine and creating your own!

If you would like to learn more about about how I created my stamped back ground, please visit the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog for a step by step tutorial today.

Happy stamping everyone!

Ally.

Adding Dimension, Anything But a Card, Copic Markers, Copic Markers Tutorial, Finishing Touches, In Nature, S'more Fun, Scrapbooking, Silhouette Cameo, Stamps & Scraps | 10 Comments »

10 Minute Thursdays and Doodling

Posted by: Christine Okken | May 30th, 2013

Sometimes a really great image can speak for itself. You don’t have to add a lot of extras to make a great visual statement. Other times all it takes is something simple to add that bit of pizazz you need. Today I thought I’d show you an image that can really stand on its own – this very fun phone from our new Call Me set. All I added was a wee bit of colouring, and then leaning on the theme of the design – a bit of doodling to pull it all together. In a few short minutes!

Just a few extra supplies for this project, your copics, a copic multi-liner (this one is .3) a ruler and a pencil.

I began by stamping the phone and sentiments onto Flourishes Classic White card stock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, and then colouring in just the phone in a vibrant red with Copics. Then I added a light pencil line around the image with my ruler linking the spaces between the sentiments.

As I was looking at the image I thought how cute it would look to create that windy phone cord to link the edges of the design and the sentiments around it, so I used my multi-liner to do a little doodling along the pencil lines. Then after it was dry, I erased the pencil.

And there you have a very cute card for a friend. Just a few minutes, a pop of color and some doodling! Thanks for joining me today!

10 Minute Creations, Call Me, Copic Markers, Stamp Sets, Tutorials & Techniques | 8 Comments »

Stamps & Scraps ~ Magic Masks!

Posted by: Ally Cope | May 20th, 2013

Hello everyone! I hope you are enjoying your long weekend. Welcome to the May edition of “Stamps & Scraps“! I’m your hostess Ally and today we are going to be venturing into the land of masks! I’m going to share with you the evolution of a layout were I use all kinds of different masks. Let’s begin…

I began my layout by trimming down a piece of white cardstock to 11 1/4″x 11 1/4. I knew I wanted to mat it so I decided not to waste ink and just stamp on the size of cardstock I was going to use.

I grabbed my favourite black ink, Momento’s “Tuxedo Black” ink and the fabulous “Moments in Time” stamp set and I began by stamping the clock image all the way down the right side of my cardstock. I stamped some images with full ink but then some images I “stamped off” first onto scrap paper and then stamped my clock, hence the lighter clock images. I decided to overlap my images here and not mask them off.

I created a quick mask for the clock image by stamping the image at the sticky end of a Post-It Note (on the front side of course!) and then fussy cut it out. This is one of the easiest ways to create a mask. Sometimes I use copy paper, stamp my image on that and then run it through my sticker maker using reposisitionable adhesive ~ that works good too!

Then I grabbed one of the lacy rounded images from the “Lace Edges” stamp sets, masking off one of my many clock faces and stamped the lacy image around another clock face.

I decided to stamp only a few clocks with the lace…

I knew I wanted some kind of vertical lines or patterned area next to my clocks, so I grabbed the “Just My Type” stamp set and decided on the “Life is a Journey” stamp.

Once again I used my clock face mask and began stamping my image right up against all of my clocks.

Next I reached for my “Seaside Life“ stamp collection. I chose 3 of the beautiful shells shapes and stamped a strip full of shell images to the right of my words.

I again, created masks for each of the shell shapes and began to fill in the empty gap between the shells and the wording. I used a scrap piece of Post-It Note to ensure I didn’t stamp over top of any of the shells behind the ones along the edge.

Lastly, I stamped one more clock face and then filled in the last remaining white space with the script poem from the “Sweet Nature” stamp collection. I love using this script stamp!!! I made sure to mask my clock face but not the shells. I wanted the script to go right over top of all those images.

I know it looks like just some random mess of images but just wait! Let’s begin adding some colour!!

Next I grabbed my Ranger “Wild Honey” Distress Ink and my clock mask and began to work in some orangey goodness into my page using a Tim Holtz Ink Blending Tool. Working in circles, I began adding my ink…

Next, believe it or not, I added some Ranger “Worn Lipstick” Distress Ink.

I used the pink ink to intensify the Ranger “Fired Brick” Distress Ink that I added next.

Seeing that the inks weren’t quite blended to my satisfaction, I added some Ranger “Spiced Marmalade” Distress Ink too! I used it to blend the oranges into the red better.

As one final piece to my cardstock, I added some “Walnut Stain” and “Vintage Photo” inks to the edges to deepen and age the colour a bit.

One last thing I added was some water. Since Ranger Distress Inks are water based, water moves the ink around. So I sprayed a toothbrush down with good ol’ water and splattered my layout. I also loaded one of Copic markers into my airbrush with the brush tip showing and added some dark grey splatter.

Finally finished with my back ground, I printed out my journaling.

TIP: To get white writing on a black strip (or any other colour for that matter…), print your white journaling out on top of a black box and then cut if desired.

After added a cute tag from the NEW “Simply Charming” stamp set, some fun washi tapes and cool patterned paper, the final layout revealed itself…

Find Your Calling

by Allison Cope

I hope you’ve enjoyed this step by step tutorial. So the next time you play with paper and stamps, pull out some stamps and think about what fun you could have with masks.

Happy stampin’ everyone!

Ally.

Anything But a Card, Backgrounds, Copic Markers, Masking, Scrapbooking, Simply Charming, Stamps & Scraps | 7 Comments »

Sunflowers!

Posted by: Kathy Jones | May 13th, 2013

Hello Everyone and welcome back to another Create With Me Monday!! Today’s Copic tutorial is all about Sunflowers!! I’m going to show you how to colour this beautiful image, not just once…..but three times! For today’s tutorial I’m using Flourishes’ beautiful Sunflowers set!

Start by stamping the sunflower in Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto blending card and lay down the base colour of your petals in Y21 from The Sunflower Collection.

Next flick some Y35 from the center of the flower outwards. Follow the curve of the petals for a more realistic effect!

Next flick out some Y38, but not as far as the previous colour!

Lightly blend these colours by using the flicking action and finish all the petals. Start on the stem/leaf by laying down a base of YG91 from The Evergreen Collection.

Next darken the shadow areas with YG93.

Deepen them again with YG95.

I’ve deepened the shadows again with a little YG99 and lightly blended the colours together. Don’t over blend, the eye is always drawn to an image with lots of contrast!

Colour the center of your flower with a base of YR24 (from The Beehive Collection) – let it dry! Then add dots of YR27 and E37 to give texture to the center. Colour the ladybird with R24, R27 from The Poppy Collection and a touch of C7.

If you enjoyed colouring your sunflower this way, perhaps you’d like to try something a little different while still using the same colours as above?? For a watercolour look, stamp your image in Memento Desert Sand and once again lay down a base of Y21 on the petal.

Once again use Y35 for your shadow areas.

Add a little Y38 – you’ll notice that the darker colours look so much stronger when they don’t have to compete with black ink – in fact, you’ll need to use your darker colours to show where the ‘lines’ should be since they don’t show with a pale ink.

Continue to follow the colours as in the steps above and complete your image!

What about a different type of paper?? Stamp your sunflower onto White Tissue Paper with Memento Tuxedo Black and once again start colouring the petals with Y21 make sure you have a piece of scratch paper underneath, the black ink and Copic ink does go through!

Follow the steps as above.

It’s OK to colour your image darker because we are going to melt it into a candle! Once you’ve completed colouring, trim it closely with scissors, place it onto your candle and hold it in place with some waxed paper and heat it with your heat gun and watch your coloured image melt into your candle! You’ll be left with a beautiful, one of a kind present or perhaps a lovely piece of decor for your own home!

I hope you’ve enjoyed todays tutorial and that you’ll be inspired to try these tips and make your own creative art!

Colours used in today’s tutorial are…

Thanks for popping by and happy colouring!!

Kathy

Copic Markers, Copic Markers Tutorial, Tutorials & Techniques | 8 Comments »

The Amazing Blender!

Posted by: Kathy Jones | April 8th, 2013

Hello Everyone and welcome to another Copic Tutorial on Create With Me Monday!! Today I’m going to talk about that amazing Copic marker……..The Colorless Blender!! In my opinion, EVERYONE should have a Colorless Blender AND a Blender Refill because the possibilities are endless and you never want your ’0′ (Blender) to run dry!

Today I’m using the Flourishes stamp set called Garden Picks and I thought I’d use those tiny blossoms as a basis for my Fade To White technique. I’m sure many of you are familiar with the Tip to Tip or Palette technique where you add a dark colour to a light coloured marker and it changes from one colour to the other. (You can find the Flourishes Tip-to-Tip Tutorial HERE!) For the Fade to White Technique, instead of using a light coloured maker to pick up a darker colour, you use the Colorless Blender!

I’ve used a piece of acetate and scribbled a little BV02 and then used the Colorless Blender to pick up some colour.

Apply to your image. The colour will be darker where you start and fade to white as the Colorless Blender doesn’t have any colour. This is perfect for when you are colouring flowers like frangipanis that yellow or pink in the centres and white on the edges.

I’ve dotted the BV02 in the centres and you can see how the petals are lighter at the ends. You can make the colours as light or dark as you like and continue to apply until you are happy with the finished result.

IMPORTANT – make sure you scribble off any excess colour on your blender!! If you don’t, the colour will seep down into the reservoir and then your Blender will no longer be colourless!

The Colorless Blender is also fabulous when you want to lighten your base colour, or you are colouring a large area but want to make sure you don’t get any streaking! In this case, I’ve ‘coloured’ or ‘primed’ the water area of the jar with the Colorless Blender.

I’ve then flicked in some B000 from each side of the jar.

I’ve then coloured over the middle of the jar again with the Colorless Blender, which will lighten the middle, push the blue more to the edges giving the effect of translucent water!

A little extra tip for you! I wanted to close in the jar top around the flowers (this set has 3 mix and match flowers for the jar), so I’ve used the 0.1 Black Multiliner and drawn in the edge – no-one would ever know!!

Now, this would probably be the most used applications for the Colorless Blender………..Fixing Mistakes!! As you can see I’ve gone outside the lines with my Y21 marker, which doesn’t look so great.

Take your Colourless Blender and place it BEHIND the colour you want to correct. This is because you are using the Blender to MOVE the colour, not erase it. I’m a country girl, so I think of it like herding cattle inside a gate, the blender is the cattle dog and you use it to push the colour inside the line! You can use either the brush end or the chisel end, it’s your preference.

Hey presto – the colour is back inside the petal!! Now a word of warning – this doesn’t work with reds or very dark colours! Those are stubborn and are more likely to move into the area that you’ve dampened with your Blender instead of the other direction making quite a mess!

You can also use your Blender to create pebbles under your jar – you can find that Flourishes Tutorial HERE! Finish colouring your image and make your card!!