Halloween spells

 For the final time using the amazing Halloween Spells pattern papers and sticker sheets let me introduce you to Frankie the cutest little monster of them all! Inspired by the sentiment on the sticker sheet he is super easy to create!

All you need is cardstock,  scissors, a corner rounder, a black marker pen and googly eyes 👀.  Start with a green rectangle of cardstock and a smaller piece of black cardstock.  The black needs to be the same width as the green but shallower. Cut a zig zag edge along one of the sides that is the same width as the green cardstock.  Adhere the black to the green and round the top corners.

Now give Frankie his cheeky features with the marker pen . Next adhere his eyes. If you don't have googly eyes then small black circles with slightly larger white ones adhered together will work too.

The gorgeous stripy pattern paper works so well with the solid blocks of colour from Frankie and the sentiment don't you agree?

For the non-halloween version of the Frankie card I have used the same layout but rotated it 90°. Now in a landscape orientation but still keeping the larger rectangular blocks. The background paper is actually the reverse of the stripy one! Isn't double sided paper great!

I used the stripy paper for the rectangular focal piece. By stamping and then colouring the beautiful single flower from the Simply Zinnia bundle in the same colours of the paper it brings it all together.

Using the corner rounder on the paper and sentiment strip also makes it look cohesive.

Both cards are quick and easy to achieve but which do you prefer?  Cute Frankie? Or pretty Zinnias? 

Halloween Spells

 Today's halloween card is a very simple fun fold that is just great for showing off  those gorgeous pattern papers in your stash! The Halloween Spells papers and stickers are great for such easy folds! 

Take a top folding C6 card base and cut a 4cm x 15.85cm  strip off the front. Next cut mats for the inside and the outside. This layout is in a landscape orientation. Take the large halloween sticker and mount it onto a mat of cardstock.  Positioning it at an angle and then adding more of the sentiments stickers. The fun bat stickers on the sheet come in various sizes and are a such fun 🦇.

This particular pattern paper is not only a gorgeous bold shade of green but it has a great bubble and sparkle pattern! 

With this pattern in mind the Simply Sparkling dies and sadly sold out stamps sprang to mind.

These fun dies have bubbles as well as the fizzy pop can which work so well with the buzzing papers 🍾.

Rotate the layout of the halloween version to a portrait orientation to create the non-halloween version. 

Which version do you prefer 🤔? 

Halloween Spells

 

More Spooky fun with the Halloween Spells pattern paper and sticker sheet. Today's card is an easy split front card .

 It starts with a standard card base then cut 2 strips off . On a standard A6 card base that means cut two 4.85cm x 3.5cm strips off the card front. Next cut a piece of pattern paper into 3 strips 14.4cm x 3cm each.  Adhere the paper onto the 2 strips and the narrow strip still attached to the card base. 

Carefully adhere the center panel to the inside of the cardbase. Next take a large sentiment from the sticker sheet and adhere it to a piece of cardstock the same colour as the cardbase. Now fussy cut the sticker out leaving a small border around it. This sentiment is what is going to anchor the bottom strip to the top piece.

You can't see it in the photos but I added some sparkle to bats from the sticker sheet using the ever so sparkley clear wink of  stella pen. In real life they really catch the light and shine.

For the non-halloween version I rotated the layout from landscape to portrait. I also used a die cut sentiment from the Wanted to say dies to act as the anchor. 

On the sticker sheet there are some black stars. I added glimmer with the clear wink of stella pen to some and added them to the inside of the card.

 

A fun lay out that works well both landscape and portrait. Decorated with some bright and funky pattern paper. All in all 2 great cards 😀

Halloween spells

It's a  Spooky scary skeletons time of year and this song goes round and round in my head!

With this on my mind I have decided to share some inspiration using the Halloween spells paper and sticker pack that is part of the new scrapbook offering from Stampin' Up! Now scrapbooking is something that I'm planning on exploring in the new year but these papers just caught my attention! The bright bold colours and fun patterns spoke to me.

Now you can buy the papers without the sticker sheet but if you , like me , don't have any Halloween stamps these will work perfectly! 

Here in the UK we don't do halloween as much as they do in North America. But I love the cute cards that I've been seeing on the Internet and wanted to have a go too! 

So here is the first halloween card made using the pattern papers, stickers and other bits from my stash. The card has a simple fold back front panel. This is made by taking a standard A6 card base and folding the front right hand side back. The measurements are a piece of cardstock 14.85cm x 10.5cm scored at 4cm and 10.5cm. Then folded as a mountain and a valley. 

Isn't he just the cutest ghost 😍 he's made using 2 different die sets. One called Lifetime of love and another called Around the bend

Now neither of these sets have anything to do with halloween but they had the shapes I wanted to create the ghost 👻 

The sentiment on the inside is from the sticker sheet and the boo was created using the Mini Alphabet dies.

Don't want to make halloween cards? Don't worry I've got you covered too! For every halloween card shared there will be a non-halloween version! Made using the same papers and layout and various items from my stash.

For this version of the card I have used the same dies and the coordinating stamp set for the sentiments. I also used a different colour cardstock than the halloween version.

Isn't this dotty paper so fun? The bold background purple and the softer shade of lilac for the dots is lovely 💜 

Hopefully you'll agree with me that these papers don't just work for halloween! 

Snowy Wonder

 A fun fold card for the last card using the wonderful Snowy Wonder stamps and dies and the fabulous coordinating Snowy Scenes pattern papers. The fold is a simple Gatton the outside.

Decorating with the pretty papers is so easy! The main image is from one of the papers too! The ribbon acts as way t keep the card closed as well as being pretty. 

The fun continues on the inside with the snowman and penguin popping out to say hello. The pop out mechanism is very simple.  Take a piece of cardstock measuring 7.5cm x 3cm. Score at 1.5cm, 3cm, 4.5cm and 6cm. Then cut into 2 strips each measuring 1 5cm x 7.5cm. 

Now fold the strips into 2 cubes. Adhere them on on each side to the inside panel of the card. Then add adhesive to the outer side of the card base. You now have 2 plinths for you characters to be adhered to that will fold flat when closed and pop out when open.

The sentiments for this card come from another gorgeous Christmas set called Reindeer Fun. 

Whilst making this card I had the joy of my grandson's company. He's always been fascinated by the tools I use to make cards especially die cutting and stamping. 

Here he is proudly showing his first Christmas card.

He had to decorate the inside because as nanny say's no surface goes undecorated 😉

Joining offer October 2024

 Hey, friend!

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Snowy Scenes pattern papers

 A fun way to use up your pattern paper in your stash is to make and or decorate treat/ gift boxes. There are lots of fun tutorials/ ideas out there to choose from. Today's post is a quick tutorial for a cute rocking box made using the Snowy Scenes papers and the Snowy Wonder dies.

It all starts  by making the box part.  Take a piece of cardstock measuring 19cm x 17cm. Score at 5cm, 8cm, 13 cm and 16cm on the short side. Then score at 5cm, 13cm and 18cm along the longer side. ( diagram not to scale)

Next follow the cutting guide below. ( diagram not to scale)

Below is a photo of the final piece.

 Then adhere the 1cm panel to the opposite side to create a tube. Then fold the 2 long sides in at the bottom.  Next secure the 2 short sides to give a nice strong base to your box.

The lid end of the box is the end that had the notch taken out on the narrow side of the box . This will mean that the box is easier to open when decorated.

Choose your  snow globe from the Snowy Scenes paper and die cut out using the Snowy Wonder dies. Also cut 4 of both parts of the globe and stand out of cardstock to coordinate with your box. 

Use a small piece of tape to secure 2 of the cardstock globe and base pieces together. Then adhere the other pieces to the back covering the tape. You'll now have 2 snow globe shaped pieces made up of 2 layers each.

 Next adhere the paper pieces on to the front of one of them. This is the front decoration of the box. 

Now on the reverse side carefully adhere your box making sure that it lines up just above the curved edge of the snow globe base. Once secure repeat with the other side. You can decorate this side to but it also works as a place to write a message.

The finished box is now a rocking snow globe box!

The recipient of the box are certain to have a smile almost as much as I did designing it 🤣

Can you relate?

 Can you relate? I sure can 🤣🤣🤣

Snowy Scenes papers card

 Hi today's inspiration is a card made using the oh soo cute Snowy Scenes pattern papers. Sometimes you just want to make a card that doesn’t involve lots of stamping and pattern paper is the perfect answer.  Especially when the papers have sooo many cute images and scenes to choose from! And that's the hardest part choosing from these fab images....

 

Many of the images can be die cut out but if you enjoy fussy cutting this is a fantastic paper to sit down with and cut out the images!

Today's card has one of the snow globe images and a penguin image fussy cut out but there are dies that coordinate if you prefer 😉

Top tip when cutting images out from pattern paper is to not dismiss the partial images around the edges. Cut them out and use them to decorate the inside of your cards. Along side any of those narrow strips of paper left over.

Think that your card looks too plain 🤔 well then look no further than your embellishments stash! A few White loose snowflakes and a scrap of Pompom ribbon and the card came alive.

The sentiment is from the coordinating Snowy Wonder stamp set.

Snowy Wonder contemporary Christmas card

 Hi 👋 welcome to my blog if you're new here I'm  Cary and I just love to share what I love doing ... making cards with stamps, paper, ink and embellishments.  I'm  a Stampin' Up!  Demonstrators here in the country of West Sussex in the UK .  If you've been here before thank you for popping back it's great to have you.

On Saturday I held a World Card Making Day event and we used the amazing A Little Bit Festive speciality paper pack. This fun pack has both pattern paper and die cut sheets in lovely designs. The colour palette of the pack is predominantly traditional Christmas reds and green. Everyone loved using this great product it makes making card so easy!

After all that traditional Christmas I felt the need to create something a little different for today! So today I'm sharing a fun card using the Snowy Wonder bundle of stamps and coordinating dies in a less traditional colour palette. 

Shades of teal and soft pink is where my mind went to when thinks of what to make for today's inspiration.  So here it is...

The trees are stamped using a technique called masking.  Stamp your first image then cover it and stamp another image. The part that is covered with the mask doesn't get stamped on so you have images that appear too  be behind one and other.

My top tip for this style of masking is to create multiple masks at one time. I used simple sticky notes. Stamp the image onto the note pad as much as possible over the part that is sticky on the back. Then fussy cut the image out but here's the tip part cut throught 3 or 4 layers of sticky notes at the same time! Stamp once, cut once but get multiple masks 😀. 

Another technique I used was with the sentiment. Want a shiny sentiment but don't have the right colour of embossing powder?  Well take your stamp ink it up with versamark then ink it again in the colour of your choice. Next stamp your sentiment and cover it with clear embossing powder and heat. This will give you a glossy look in the colour of your choice!

Do you decorate the inside of your cards? Well it's definitely worth the effort! 

The use of the small tree die cut out of  silver foil also add a little touch of luxury don't you think?

The snow flake elements also add a little something with out being over the top. These ones are White Loose Snowflakes that are great for shakers but can be used by placing a small dab of liquid adhesive onto the card and then carefully placing the Snowflakes on top. Give the glue a minute to grab and they're good to go!

I do hope you like today's card . Please join me next time when I'll be sharing more samples to inspire you. 

Snowy wonder shaker card

 Happy Friday everyone 😀 today's inspiration using the Snowy Wonder bundle is a fun shaker card using the White loose snowflakes.  

The background behind the shaker is made using pearlized enamel effects.  It give a beautiful shimmer to behind the snowman. You can watch the video of how the background was made  here.. 

The pictures really don't do justice to the pearlized effect behind the snow man sadly but what about the gorgeous Pompom ribbon ? Isn't it just the cutest?

The pretty check paper is from the coordinating Snowy scenes pattern paper. Do you like the colour palette for today's card? With it's soft turquoise bluey green and red and pink colour ways? It certainly has a contemporary feel even though the design is quite traditional. 

Snowy Wonder Bundle

 Today's card is a fun wintery scene made using the fab Snowy Wonder bundle.  It made my day a little brighter because here in my small part of the world it's grim,  grots and grimy 🫣. The use of lots of whote on the card helps to give it a very crisp and clear feel. The Snowy Wonder bundle of stamps and coordinating dies make creating scenes so easy!

To make the card start by tearing a piece of copier paper to act as a mask. Place the mask onto a panel of white cardstock covering the bottom 3rd . Now using a blending brush apply colour lightly to the top area.

Next take a snow flake embossing folder such as the Snowflake Sky folder and emboss the panel. Whilst you have the folder and machine out also emboss another piece of white cardstock.  The size of this piece is up to you as you will be tearing to give you the deckled edges so it may be 2 scrap pieces or 1 larger piece it's up to you .

These 2 pieces will become the layers across the bottom 2 thirds of the card.

Next stamp and die cut out your images for the scene. 

Layout the pieces so that you are happy with the scene.  Then start at the back and working forward adhere the images and Snowy torn cardstock. The bottom layer can be adhered to the card using 3d foam as this creates more depth to the piece.

The Snowflake embellishments are called White loose snowflakes. There are great for shaker cards but can also be added as here with just a dab of adhesive behind them. Top tip apply the adhesive to the panel rather than to the Snowflakes themselves as they are quite small 😉.

 

For the sentiment chose a small diecut and stamp the sentiment on it. Adhere to the card from using 3d foam so that it is prominent on the card.

A fun card full of texture and great images 😀 

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New beginnings

 Hello and welcome. Today I'm sharing some news as well as a card. Gill has decided to retire from 2 Big Girls Crafting.  Gill's decision will of course bring changes. Change can be hard but they are often the start a wonderful new adventures. I'm looking forward to continuing my creative journey with you all here and on Facebook. 

The name of the blog and page are changing to Cary@2BGCrafting. I shall still be sharing projects and inspiration with you all but it may take a few weeks for changes to take places and settle into place properly. So please bear with me during this time of change.

OK so let's get to the really important stuff .. the crafting! 

Today's sample is a clean and simple card made using the oh so cute Snowy Wonder..and yes it is the same stamp set that I used for last week's inspiration 😀 It's just tooo good to stop using !

The card uses just 1 image stamp, 1 sentiment stamp , 1 card base and some scraps of white cardstock!  This is a clean and simple card that is both contemporary in look but also very quick and easy to make in multiples!  Perfect for Christmas cards! But the design would work for many different occasions just swap out the image and sentiment. 

Well that's it for today from me. Please join me in wishing  Gill well in her next adventure. I hope you will pop back and see what's happening tomorrow as my adventure continues.

Thank you 

Cary xxx