Technique Tuesday Men's cards

As I said yesterday, this week I am going to concentrate on making men's cards using different stamp sets. Today's set is Bamboo Beauty. This lovely, subtle stamp set is so pure and simple. I have used a technique that I occasionally like to do and this time is using some of the Silver Foil Speciality Pack of foiled papers. There are 3 different tones of silver foil and I often have difficulty deciding which to use.  

For today though, I chose 2 different shades. I cut 2 C6 card mats 10cm by 14.4cm and embossed only 1 of them using the Metal Plate embossing Folder. I then cut each one in half diagonally, in both directions. That gave me 4 triangles in each shade. I took the 2 sides from one and swapped them with the 2 matching sides from the other mat. It is as simple as that! I laid them face down and added tape to the back of them to re-join them into the C6 mat again. I used the third design of the foils with a 6cm by 6cm square which was turned diagonally too. The sentiment was centralised across the diagonal square before mounting onto the card. A few of the little bamboo shoots stamped and fussy cut to add the simple decoration on each one.

Fun FOld riday - Bamboo Beauty

 Welcome back on this very warm Friday. We are due for a 'mini heatwave' supposedly in the UK but with our weather as it is, I'll believe it when I see it! Using Bamboo Beauty stamp set again, today's card was inspired by one that I made for my daughter in law's dad, Roy, for his birthday last weekend. I'm not sure what the fold is called but it's a Z fold with a flap on the front of it. Call it what you like but I've had lots of fun making this one. Please click HERE for a link to the stamp set and all other products that I used on these cards. It will open the link in another page to save where you were.

 I found a retired stamp set from a few years ago called Party Panda. I thought that the card needed a little whimsical touch to it so I've added a few sentiments and Pandas to the card too.  

         

THE CARD BASE

I started with a piece of card 14.85cm by 27cm. (fig 1) I scored along the long edge at 10cm, 15cm and 25cm. Using a bone folder I burnished all of the folds really well in both directions. I like to burnish from both sides to make sure that the card will happily fold without tearing. If a fold is scored nicely and burnished in both directions, it will usually give a really good crisp fold. I then added a piece of card 14.85cm by 14.85cm. (fig 2) This panel is then adhered behind the 2cm band on the left hand side after I gently tore the front edge of the 2cm wide strip. I tore the edge as it gives a softer feel to both layers when adding another mat to it. If you should have any difficulties making this card? Please don't hesitate in contacting me as I would be more than happy to help you. :)

fig 1

     fig 2

  

fig 3 the folded card

 

 fig 4 the 'planter' 

Once the panels were decorated, I cut a piece of card 5cm by 12cm and scored that at 1cm, 6cm and 11cm. Again, the folds were burnished in both directions. I added DSP to the front and side of this with pieces 4.5cm by 4.5cm.I cut 3 strips of card 1cm by 7cm. These were then scored at 1cm on each side then these squares were fixed to the top edge of the 5cm high panel on the left hand side. The opposite side of these strips were folded in the opposite direction to the first side to enable the pices to stretch out when the card is folded. I find it easier to decorated with leaves/ flowers etc while it's not stuck to the card. See picture below. Once the leaves were added to the strips it was time to add the whole panel to the 5cm panel on the card. I started with the right hand side and fixed the edge to match the panel front on the other panel.

fig 5

fig 6

                     

 Tip... When adding the piece above, fold the 1cm flap under after placing adhesive on then fold the card in half at the mountain fold and fix the panel down into place.  

 fig 7

DSP and decorating

I used the In Good Taste Designer Series Papers and added a 14.4cm by 14.4cm mat to the front and the inside left front. 9.5cm by 14.4cm to the 2, 10cm wide panels and last but not least, 4.5cm by 14.4cm to the 5cm panel.

I used the Potted Succulents dies to add a little more texture behind the sentiment mats. I stamped in Crumb Cake then fussy cut several of the Bamboo sticks. The leaves were stamped onto the In Colour range of Vellum papers and of course I once again fussy cut them out. The vellum has a matt side and a shimmery side, so I stamped onto the matt side and they are shown in the shimmery side. 

My inspiration

 

Here is some pictures of Roy's birthday card. As with many fancy or fun fold cards, sometimes they may take a little longer than the norm but I hope that you think they were worth the time it took?

Well, that's it from me for this week. I do hope you have found some ideas for making your own cards in one way or another. Cary is back to share her creations next week so please remember to stop by and see what she has made. Until I return, Take Care, Stay Safe and Keep on Crafting :)  

😍😍😍

Throwback Thursday - Bamboo Beauty

Today's throwback Thursday is reminiscent of several cards that I have made but even more importantly, sent to me. My favourite colour is red but I do love the mix of black and red or navy with red too. Today's Bamboo Beauty card has been coordinated with the black. 

I heat embossed the front black mat with the bamboo, leaves and Versamark and gold embossing powder. Completed with the sentiment on black in gold onto the red backing mat and it is completed. Tricky? No not at all. I love to watch the heat embossing process when you have poured powder onto the ink and then the heat gun does it's work in seconds. The changing from the dull powder to the glossy effect once heated is amazing. It takes only seconds to heat set and watching it change is brilliant. I know, little things please little minds!

 

 

 

Watercolour Wednesday - Bamboo Beauty

Hello for this lovely Wednesday for the watercoloured card. As you know, I am using Bamboo Beauty stamp set this week and I can say that I have really enjoyed playing with this stamp set. There are no dies to co-ordinate with the stamps but that really doesn't bother me at all. The pure simplicity of this stamp set, for me, just makes it perfect. 

Today's card started with 2 mats. I cut one of them by cutting a section out of it and used the hole as the mask. Using the ink pad Balmy Blue, I added some of the soft blue ink into the lid of the pad and soaked it with water from my water brush. Once the colour was ready, I washed the colour through the mask. It was that simple. After that, I die cut a circle, stamped several of the Bamboo sticks and several leaves. Then I did what I have to do. I fussy cut the lot out! 

I just love fussy cutting. I know many people think that I'm mad as they really don't like cutting out things. Not me! Then it was a case of fixing them into position. I used the new in colour Evening Evergreen for the leaves and the card mat, Crumb Cake for the Bamboo and a piece from the In Colour Vellum pack in the lovely Pale Papaya for the sun. The ribbon is also Pale Papaya and is one of the new range of In Colour ribbons.

 

 

Technique Tuesday - Bamboo Beauty

 Thank you for stopping by our blog post today. Continuing with the Bamboo Beauty stamp set, today's technique, such as it is, is layers. Japanese culture I understand is calm, ordered and structured and I have attempted to show all of these today. The strong gray, otherwise known as Basic Gray, is              co-oordinated with Basic White card for the pure simplicity of monochrome which I love to see.  Bamboo Beauty has been a real pleasure to play with already this week. 

The design on my card is so simple but my family say it looks classy! Whether it does or not is up to you but my only thing to say is that no matter how simple a stamp set looks, look beyond what you first see and play with all of the stamps. I really have enjoyed all of the stamps in this set and at only £20 it's a brilliant investment. Have fun with all of your stamp sets, they really are worth playing with all of the time.  More information on the stamp set HERE  it will open up in a new page.

 

 

make It Simple Monday - Bamboo Beauty

 Hello again on this very wet Monday. The weather is supposed to be scorching for the UK at the end of this week so I will enjoy seeing the plants and trees fill up on the water as they';ll not get any next week! So, this week is the turn of Bamboo Beauty, a very understated stamp set in my opinion. The simplicity of these stamps is just beautiful. I thought I have done enough of the flowers for a few weeks so I'm going to go down the simple route this week.

Just an C6 tent-fold card base and a white mat is all that I have used for this very quick card. Just by stamping the 2 leaf stamps around the edges of the mat and leaving a space in the centre for the lovely message which brings the meaning perfectly to the recipient. Voila!