Hello stampers. Have you ever forgotten something? Well I have had this card sitting in the wings for almost a year!! I made it, meant to blog about it and do a class on it and then it never happened. Until today! This is a shadowbox card, or at least, that is what I am calling it. I love that from the outside it looks like an ordinary card, but when you open it you get a surprise. I have made a small photo tutorial and a video to show you how it is done. Then it’s your turn! Be sure to get those framelits if you don’t already have them since they are retiring. This is a total coincidence mind you, I had no intent on luring you to buy more stuff. Honestly!! Here is the card, I cased it from the very talented Lynn Starzl. Here is her card.
You can see the inner mechanism of the shadowbox card at the top. The card is made using dapper denim which I did know is retiring, so if you love this colour, make sure you enough cardstock and reinker to last you a while! The Color Theory Paper (and yes, I hate spelling it the American way) is also retiring. Here is a peek at the inside of the card:
You can see from the picture exactly why it is called a “shadowbox” card!! Here is a handy little shot of the dimensions used to make this card. You can get two cards out of one 12×12 sheet of cardstock.
After running the card base through the Big Shot with the label framelit you are going to put a piece of tear and tape on the little half inch flap. Before doing that make sure you use your bone folder to crisply score all your fold lines.
Now make sure that you do NOT adhere your card yet. Trust me, I have gotten ahead of myself before. The next thing you need to do is stamp your scene. This is also tricky. You have to make sure that your scene can be seen through the “window”. That means your sentiment needs to be in the middle and the birds have to be stamped very close to your words. Do you notice my accidental rhyming here in the last two sentences? Sorry, you don’t really care about that. Back to the card. Here is how I made sure that the images were in the right place. I did use my Stamparatus, it will be available in the new catalog on June 1.
So after I took this picture, I put the Stamparatus plate down and pressed it onto the stamp which is now positioned correctly and then I could move the card so I could stamp on the patterned paper without any overlap. Make sense?
One of the nice things about the Stamparatus is that it allows you to stamp the same image repeatedly and accurately to get a nice dark image. This great tool will be available in the new catalog on June 1. It is a must have in any stampers toolbox. After you have finished stamping this panel you can adhere it. The next step is to adhere the flap (see the video on how to do that most effectively). After that you can put on the white panel and lastly the front.
I had shared this card on my Facebook page yesterday and a follower shared a card that she had made after watching my video. I love her card so much. She added the lighthouse to the inside panel. Way to go Sharon Dalton. Sharon is from Australia and here is the link to her blog. Here is her card:
Finally, a reminder to get those items that are on the retiring list before they disappear. Today I used the following retiring products: dapper denim cardstock and ink, Color Theory designer series paper stack as well as Lots of Labels framelits. Here is the video showing you how to make this card. Happy stamping and have a super day!
Hello stampers. It is always fun to stamp in unexpected ways, and using your acrylic block as a stamp is a very quick and easy way to make a visually interesting card. You can keep it very plain and simple like I did in this card. No misting with water, no dry brushing, just inking up the block and stamping it on plain whisper white cardstock with a “foamie” underneath. In case you are not familiar with that term, it is what I call my stampin’ pierce mat. Here are my cards:
I used soft sky for inking up the block, old olive for the grass, marina mist for the waves and basic grey for the saying and the birds. One card base is basic grey and the other one is daffodil delight. Here is a video showing how I did it:
For this next card I was inspired by Jane Allmark to use Beautiful You to make a bikini clad girl. I also used the block that is included with the Soft Sayings kit because it has rounded corners. I was going to use the Muskoka chair thinlet for her to rest her arm on, but it the wrong proportions, the chair is too big. I used the envelope punch board to round the corners on my card. It is a fantastic corner rounder punch!
The saying is from the Soft Sayings card kit that will be available starting June 1. I stamped and cut out the bikini girl. Here is the link to Jane Allmark’s tutorial video on how to make this classic beauty. I did spritz the block with water after I inked it up with soft sky for a slightly softer look. The saying is stamped in calypso coral to match the card base and the colour on the bikini. Happy stamping. You probably won’t hear much from me on the blog till the end of July as I am leaving on an epic trip to Europe and then Thailand. I am visiting my daughter Rachel who is on a Rotary exchange to France, then I am visiting family in the Netherlands and from Amsterdam I fly to Thailand. One week will be spent exploring Bangkok and then I will enjoy the free trip that I earned with Stampin’Up! Have I told you how much I love my job? I do not want to have a working vacation, so I know you will be in fine hands until I get back, there are lots of other blogs to check out, but I will miss you!!
Well…..this was supposed to be published while I was gone, but for some odd reason, that didn’t happen. So I am back from my wonderful trip and now I have a blog post all ready to go and that does make me very happy. Enjoy!
Hello stampers. I’m still super excited about all the new products we got to see and play with this past weekend at OnStage Toronto. One of my favourite suites was the Color Theory Suite that Alison Solven presented. I am sharing her samples here for you to enjoy. My product should be arriving today. That is definitely one of the big benefits of being a demonstrator, whether you do it to build a business, to earn a few extra dollars or just to get your own discount. You get to see and buy product before anyone else. So much fun. Here is the display board that shows you everything that is included in this fabulous suite.
I love that we also now will be offering Memories and More cards that can be used for memory keeping (aka Project Life or scrapbooking) AND for card making since it all coordinates so beautifully. There is a stamp for a sling-back lawn chair, but there is a framelit for a Muskoka (Canadian eh?) or Adirondack (for our American friends) chair. I love those chairs, in fact I will have two red ones arriving at my house soon.
Please do remember that the card samples featured here are to the best of my knowledge all the work of Alison Solven. Click here is a link to her blog. She has posted more of her samples there of course. We were so blessed to have her at OnStage Toronto all the way from New Westminster BC.
The sayings in this set are great and useful for both card making and memory keeping as well as home decor. Can’t wait to play with them. If you are a Stampin’Up! customer and need a little nudge to get your own discount all the time, this is it! You can get all this product as well as the Birthday Memories suite in your starter kit and on pre-orders beginning May 1, so take a moment and think about that awesome opportunity. I love sharing it since it so wonderfully changed my life is so many, many ways.
This emboss-resist technique works great with the snowflake images on this card. Did you know that glossy white cardstock is coming back to the annual catalog?
The following sample I am sharing uses the “paint chip” inspired paper included in the suite. Now we don’t have to go to the paint store any more to liberate paint chips.
One last sample…I guess I really do love snow flakes as most of the photos I took were from Alison’s snowflake cards!!
The last photo is not a very good one as it was taken in a dark room of the screen from the live feed from Amsterdam, but it does show a great scrapbook page. When purchasing product, you will save money and time by focusing on suites. Just like buying clothes, it makes sense to buy coordinating products because they work together so well. This makes it easy to make beautiful things and takes the work out of it. Just spread it all out on your work surface and the creativity will flow. Try it. You will be amazed.
Don’t forget to check out the retiring list, there are lots of great deals on there- anywhere from 15% to 50% off including items from the Occasions catalog. Click here to see your options, remember there are three categories to go through, there is a LOT of stuff. If you order online, please remember to use the current host code: S4M6VSZZ
Alison kindly sent me her pictures of her samples which are much nicer and also have her watermark on them. A lot of work goes into making the samples for OnStage because you have to come up with every idea totally on your own! If you pinned any of my pictures earlier that had my watermark on them, please delete them and repin these ones instead. Thanks for understanding. I am learning as I go!!
