Tag Archives: die cutting

Handcolored Succulents on Vellum Cards

November 24, 2021 R'Chel Leave a comment

A couple of weeks ago was Stampin’ Up!s Onstage at Home event. This yearly conference was tons of fun and we always get to see new projects, new supplies, and interact with other demonstrators. For the Stamp and Share project this year I grabbed supplies I already had on hand. I was working at my store that day and knew I wasn’t going to have as much focus as I wanted to have, and that I wouldn’t have long concentrated periods of time. With that in mind I grabbed some vellum and markers. I can color in short spans of time between customers right? It worked!

Any time you want to turn the ordinary into extraordinary just reach for the vellum. Vellum is a media that I absolutely adore working with. If you have a paper that is too bold then layer vellum over it. Super bold? Add dimensionals and move the vellum farther away from the paper to diffuse the image or color even more.

These cards were done with the layouts shown to all of us. It’s always intriguing to watch a room full of people use the same cut sheet and watch them create vastly different projects. That’s what happened this time as well. As I watched the images for cards created I admired the diversity and beauty. I was far from being the only one who wasn’t using the stamp set demonstrated.

The vellum die cuts were colored with Stampin’ Blend markers. Stampin’ Write markers could also be used, though I’d have colored on the back side of the vellum to diffuse the image a little more with them. I realized when I was assembling the cards that I had forgotten embellishments so I grabbed the little stash of random embellishments that I keep in my office desk drawer. These cards really created a warm spot in my heart. I know it’s not the season to create with summer succulents…or maybe it’s exactly the right season to do so!

This card fits in an A2 sized envelope with standard postage.

For more cards and Live demos, stop by My Inky Paws Facebook page The Supplies list for this card is here. Thanks for hanging out with me! Happy Crafting to You and see you next time with a new project!!

Artistic, Card Tutorial, Fun Techniques, Quick & Easy

I’m With You – Polar Bear Card

November 16, 2021 R'Chel Leave a comment

As soon as I saw the Arctic Bears Bundle this card was in my head. I knew this combination of stamps and dies would lend itself perfectly to the highlighting blending brush technique I used for the Winter Storm and Watching You Watching Me cards last year.

I love the look of whisper white used with a blending brush to lighten up a focal area of a design. It really elevates the card to art status for me and provides some added drama to create depth. The center area of this Pacific Point cardstock base was lightened to several shades paler using Whisper White Ink. Blend out from the center carefully to avoid any lines of demarcation.

Using Basic White cardstock for the foreground pieces adds more depth. I chose to use Memento Black for the contrast and starkness that echoes in the landscape.

The stamp set and dies are rich in imagery. This is the largest bear. There are cubs, and a smaller bear in the die cuts. There are a couple more detailed background images in the stamp set, a sun/moon die, and a variety of landform dies to stage your bears on. I can’t wait to play with this set some more. I will probably combine the bears into some holiday cuteness as well. This card is a little somber in sentiment, though I needed to make this card for personal use. I hope you enjoy the technique and post me pics of anything you create, too!

This card fits in an A2 sized envelope with standard postage.

Watching You Watching Me Spanner Peekaboo Card

Card Tutorial, Holiday, Quick & Easy, Tags & Gift Boxes

Frightfully Cute Treat Boxes

October 13, 2021 R'Chel Leave a comment

Have you used mini pizza boxes to create treat packaging with? While Stampin’ Up! recently discontinued theirs, I had a few packages left to play with and designed a cute windowed box for Halloween treats. These little boxes are very versatile, having both a glossy side and a matte side that let you customize your look, and at 3.5 inches square and 0.8 inches tall they are a great size for gifting to your special recipients. If you don’t have any on hand, you can find them easily with an online search.

The first thing I did was cut a scalloped circle window using the Circle Nesting Die set. Cut from the back (for me this was the glossy side) to avoid a little indentation from the edge of the die, unless you want that look as part of your design.

Next, grab your blending brushes, a Stampin’ Spritzer filled with water, the ink pads you want to use, and a little bit of a shimmery or metallic acrylic paint. With a toothpick, just pick up a bit of the shimmer paint and swirl it into the Spritzer and then shake. It might not look like much until you get it spritzed onto your project and then you’ll see lots of shimmery goodness!

Since we’re doing watercolor, we need to wet the matte side of the box (pre-wetting) to give our ink a buffer to slide across before depositing dye into the surface of the paper. Give your box a good spritz where you are going to begin, swirl some ink onto your blender brush, and add some color! Change colors (I use a different brush for different color families) and repeat, blending colors together as you wish. Even Memento black will work with watercolors so you can get some lovely depth of color that way, too. When you are done, place your box between some scrap paper and add a book or other weight to the top and let it dry.

While you’re waiting for the box to dry and flatten, cut a piece of window acetate to 3 inches square and set it aside. You can take this time to create any die cuts you wish to use for decoration and stamp your sentiment/name tags, too.

Once your box is ready, it’s time to flip it over and adhere the window pane to the back side of the scalloped hole. Then stamp your box as you wish, and add your die cuts, embellishments, sentiment bar as you wish! Once you are finished decorating then fold your box and fill it with a favorite candy. Treat boxes are always a hit when I gift them. I hope yours are too!!

The Live tutorial is up on My Inky Paws Facebook page and Supplies list is here. Thanks for hanging out with me! Happy Crafting to You and see you next week with a new project!!

Card Tutorial, Fun Techniques, Holiday, Quick & Easy

Spooky & Festive

September 28, 2021 R'Chel Leave a comment

This week we started exploring some Halloween cards with the Festive & Bright Bundle and also brought in the spider web as a guest star from Frightful Tag dies.

This is a card that combines a lot of fun techniques, looks like you spent hours on it, and comes together super quick so you can make several in one sitting. I love it when that happens!

Crumb Cake is what I chose as the card base, with Very Vanilla writing panel and card front. You can see I used a Basic White Envelope as I need to place an order and restock my Very Vanilla envelopes. whoops! It’s ok though as the spider web is white so coordinates just fine.

The hats die from Festive & Bright Bundle is stamped along one side of the card front. Affix the card front to the card base and then die cut both layers with the right side of the hat die from the Festive Finishes Dies. I love how thoughtful Stampin’ Up! was with these dies. You can use the right and left sides together to create a stand-alone die cut, or use use one to create an edge!

While I was die cutting the card edge I also cut a matching piece out of scrap paper to use as a mask. The edge of the writing panel on the inside was masked with this scrap and blending brush used with Cinnamon Cider and Cajun Craze to give some depth and shading to the edge before it was adhered to the inside of the card.

The spiderweb was cut from Basic White and I gave it a shimmer with some Wink of Stella. Alternately you could cut this piece from some shimmer card stock. Spooky is one of the sentiments in the Festive & Bright bundle and it’s stamped with Versamark on a piece of Basic Black cardstock from my scrap bin. I chose gold embossing powder, but it would also look great with any of our metallics or white. Affix the sentiment to the spider web and then a couple of dimensionals on the back side of the spider web hold it up off the card to give some shadow behind it.

I gave the hats and brooms a bit of color with Crumb Cake light and dark Stampin’ Blends and then added a few touches of shimmer with Wink of Stella (because isn’t everything better with WoS?)

That’s it! The Live tutorial is up on My Inky Paws Facebook page, and start to finish with me chatting is only about 27 minutes. Told you it was a quick card! Supplies list is here.

Thanks for hanging out with me! Happy Crafting to You!!

Artistic, Card Tutorial, Fun Techniques

Just Breathe

September 3, 2021 R'Chel Leave a comment

A Sunday Cards & Coffee Live tutorial from Stampin’ Stuff with My Inky Paws Facebook Page.

This card was actually created at the same time as Missing You at Home. As I was die cutting that card I was seeing this one come together in my head. That’s kind of a thing with me and it’s both a blessing and a curse. Oftentimes I look at a stamp set (or a die set) and a card pops into my head fully formed right down to the embellishments. That card has to get out of my head, aka become physically crafted, before I can move on to see other possibilities. Does this happen to you, too? I’d love to know it’s not just one of my (many) idiosyncrasies.

So….as did MYaH, this card started out with 3 successively smaller die cuts using Diorama contour nesting dies on 3 colors of card stock. I used Pacific Point card stock for the card base and did a front only embossing with the paint texture embossing folder. I like the paint texture as it lends itself to many different applications (and I could digress and expound on its virtues for a whole post…maybe I will, but not this one…)

The trees are punch art in two colors of card stock using the Evergreen Border punch. One of the stamps in the Evergreen Elegance Stamp Set is a small tree that is just the right size for adding some texture (I used Evening Evergreen ink) and giving it more of a tree-look rather than just plain cardstock paper-doll-type trees.

The why of this card (which maybe should have been the intro of this post) and the reason I couldn’t get it out of my head is this: I have a couple sisters, and we are ALL workaholics. We all have different careers (though 2 of us had the same for awhile) and we basically hand ourselves over completely to our careers. It’s how we’re wired. I was one of the 2 of us with same job and in a sudden moment of clarity, inhaled one day and looked around me and basically said “F this S, I’m going back to working for me,” and so here I am. I have always definitely liked my boss and working conditions better when I am self-employed but I’m no less a workaholic than when I am paychecking in my more traditional career path.

But back to my workaholic sisters. One in particular….she needs a break. She needs a real vacation. She’s not going to get it, and so when I cut out those cardstock diorama pieces I saw an island. With this card I created her an island surrounded by deep blue water with peaceful forests of trees to get caught up in. She can keep this on her desk and go there in her mind when she can’t physically get away from her work life.

As is my personal signature, the envelope and the inside of the card are stamped with a small grove of trees from this set. I never leave an envelope naked as I feel the joy of receiving a card should start the moment it touches the recipients hand with just a hint of what waits inside!

I hope this card inspires you to create and I’d love to see your cards and hear their stories, too!

Come on over to the My Inky Paws FB page and give me a Like and Follow for more Cards & Coffee Live Tutorials.

Artistic, Card Tutorial, Fun Techniques

Missing You at Home

September 2, 2021 R'Chel 1 Comment

A Sunday Cards & Coffee Live tutorial from Stampin’ Stuff with My Inky Paws Facebook Page.

While the subject matter might be a touch melancholy (for when aren’t we a little sad when our loved ones are away) this card is a fun one to create by channeling the joy they bring you into the image!

This card started out with 3 successively smaller die cuts using Diorama contour nesting dies on 3 colors of card stock. The image was stamped from the 2021 Fall Sale-a-Bration Feels Like Home stamp set (free with $50 purchase.) Sentiment is also from Feels like Home and punched with 1-1/2 inch circle punch.

I love the Diorama dies for their versatility! We’re not going to let the part we cut out go to waste either. Next time we’ll make another card using those pieces.

In coloring this card there are any number of ways to approach it. I chose a subtle colored pencil palette to just bring hints of color that tied in the cardstock diorama tones – enough color to draw the eye to the image without getting fussy over the shading.

Dyeing seam ribbon is one of my favorite “prep” things to do, and so I gently spotted damp seam ribbon with a few of the colors (use your markers for this) used in the focal image. As the ribbon dries the ink travels and blends and softens in tone. You can create the perfect ribbon for any project this way.

As is my personal signature, the envelope and the inside of the card are stamped with the coordinating pot of flowers stamp from this set. I never leave an envelope naked as I feel the joy of receiving a card should start the moment it touches the recipients hand with just a hint of what waits inside!

I hope this card inspires you to create and I’d love to see your cards, too!

Come on over to the My Inky Paws FB page and give me a Like and Follow for more Cards & Coffee Live Tutorials.