Tips, Tricks and Techniques Tuesday - Simply Zinnia

 Hello again, Today I have made a really orange card. Very unlike me as I'm not into orange very much. Fortunately, this is a soft orange called Calypso Coral and it's rather lovely. Using the lovely Simply Zinnia stamps, I started the same way as yesterday by covering a card mat with lots of the single flowers and a few leaves here and there using a very soft grey of Smoky Slate ink pad. I then coloured them all in using my Blends pens in the gorgeous colour of Calypso Coral and Granny Apple Green for the leaves. I love the name of the green! :)) Then I took another card mat in white and embossed it using one of the lovely trio of embossing folders called Basics 3D. I chose the one that looks like lots of flowers. I then die cut all of the flowers out of the first piece of card and mounted them onto the new card mat which was cut to size in advance. I used dimensionals, foam, double sided shapes. I added them all over the mat to give the effect that they are all floating. Another very simple technique only it takes a little longer. 

Fun Fold Friday - Butterfly Brilliance

Hello. For my last card this week I have of course made a folded card. Not just a fun fold but a box fold or Diorama (I think that's how it's spelled). This isn't my fold it's one that I saw on another site made by Julie DiMateo. It is her template that I am using today.  I have made box cards before and thoroughly enjoyed making them but it was quite a long time ago now I think of it! I am obviously using Butterfly Brilliance Stamp for this project with Whisper White and Calypso Coral card stock for the box to deliver or post it in. 

For more information on the stamp set or any other products, please click HERE and it will take you to our shop. It will open up in a new page so that you don't lose your place here.

I started with a 21.5 cm squared piece of White card and scored it all around at 1.3 cm, 2.6 cm, 3.9 cm and 5.2cm. Julie uses Imperial measurements so follow her instructions if you prefer to as they are include here too. Once you have scored all 4 lines on each of the 4 sides you will need to score on opposite sides down to the 2nd horizontal line @ 6.4 cm and 15.2 cm. For Imperial measurements, you will need to follow the cutting instructions on the chart. Basically trim off the greyed out areas on each of the corners in Julie's diagram. Trim a little notch on each of the corners that will be folded to join the corners together. Then fold and burnish all of the score lines, tape or wet glue the little tabs and feed them into the hollow ends. Decorate as you wish. I chose the large Swallowtail butterfly from the set in the end. It was too hard to decide! 

I stamped the whole set of 6 butterflies using my Stamparatus. I have arthritus and cannot hold the very large blocks in my hands so I find the Stamparatus the most fantastic tool ever! Once stamped, I die cut them all out using the single die, oh that is so very clever! Then using Blends alcohol marker pens, I coloured several of them in and decided which one I wanted to use.

I took some DSP (double sided paper or in Stampin'  Up! terms, Designer Series Paper. It is exactly both in fact) and cut a square 11.5 cm squared then cut out or gutted the centre at 1.1 cm all around. That gave me a perfect frame to add to the front of my box. The piece from the inside was trimmed down a little to fit into the centre of the box. The rest is purely decoration. I finished the front by adding a vellum butterfly too. 

Julie has added a kick stand to hers, I added a card base. I cut a piece of card 23 cm by 11.5 cm and scored along the long edge at 11.5 cm. A mat in Calypso Coral of 10.8 cm squared, a message and another small butterfly to complete. It stands really well with the card base too.

Here are Julie's instructions in inches

Below is the measurements for the box and lid that I made to hold it. The box is 16 cm squared and scored at 2cm on each of the 4 sides. I made little notches in the corners to join them together so make the notches and tabs as shown..

The lid is similar to the box only 0.5 cm bigger at 16.5 cm. Again score at 2 cm on all 4 corners and make the notches and tabs as shown.

Below is the completed box. I will add a gift tag when I get around to sending it.

Thank you so much for joining me this week, please stop by next week to see Cary's creations. 

Until then, please stay safe, keep well and Carry On Crafting. 

xxxxx Gill xxxxx

 

Fun Fold Friday - Lovely You

Well today is my last time with you this week. I have made one of my favourite folded cards and that I believe is called a Gate fold card. Very simple and very straight forward to make the gate fold card base. Each outer edge of an A5 sheet of card is folded into the centre point of the piece of card. In the UK it is 10.5cm from each end. So that should give you approximately 5.25cm fold on each side. I started by cutting 2 white mats to go onto each of the sides the same measurements as the card folds. Then I stamped randomly over each piece until I was happy with the design. I tool some of the gorgeous soft orange or Calypso Coral card for the backing of the stamped papers and cut it slightly smaller than the front panels. The white stamped panels were then trimmed down too. I like to see a small border around each of the layers or mats as we call them. 

I then decided the focal point needs to a circle as there are enough straight lines on it. I die cut a circle and a frame using the Stitched Shapes dies from Stampin' Up! I stamped some  more flowers and the leaves and placed them together on the inner circle. Once done, I added foam shapes under 1 half of the circle and outer ring and placed them where they are. A simple message for the front and another for the inside with a few more of the flowers and that's it. 

 

 

 

 

 

I do hope I have given you some ideas to get you crafting this week? Cary will be here on Monday with some of her amazing creations to show you. 

Until I return, please take care, stay safe and KEEP ON CRAFTING! 

Gill :)) 😍😁😍

Tips, Tricks and Techniques Tuesday - Delicate Petals

 Well, I have had great fun today. One of my favourite techniques which was probably one of the first things that I learnt is One Sheet Wonder. Now there are many types of one sheet wonder. Many people cut the A4 sheet of paper or card into lots and lots of mats. As many as 24 or more can be made! That's not what I like to do. I like to take all of the stamp images from the particular set and randomly stamp them in different colours all over an A4 piece of card. Sound simple? Yes, it totally is. 

I stamped my sheet then cut it in half portrait style. Then I just started cutting it up! Here's the resulting cards from less than half a sheet of A4. You can see the remainder of the sheet in the last picture. Such a quick and simple technique, I think everyone should have fun doing it! 

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Here is the whole A4 sheet once I had finished stamping all over it.

Card 1

Card 2

Card 3

All 3 cards and the remainder of the card.