SkyPaperScissors

Hooray From Concord & 9th

April 3, 2018July 17, 2020 SkyPaperScissors

Hi there!

Today I have a celebration card to share. It uses a few items from Concord and 9th: Triangle Turnabout for the background, Birthday Stacks for the balloons, and the Hooray die.

For the background, I used Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock and three ink colors from Altenew (Dew Drops, Aqualicious, and Teal Cave) as well Ranger Silver Ultra Fine embossing powder. If you haven’t seen how Concord & 9ths turnabout stamps work, I encourage you watch their tutorial on YouTube. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a hundred thousand!

On a separate piece cardstock, I stamped balloons using three stamps from the Birthday stacks set. I stamped the set of circles and the two types of strings in Versafine Onyx Black ink. Then I used the same three ink colors and embossing powder to add color and shine to the balloons. I made a mistake here in that I stamped the set of circles upside down so I had to fussy cut the balloons since the matching die didn’t line up.

For the sentiment, I ran the Hooray die through my Sizzix Sidekick five times. Once using Neenah cardstock, and four times using white 110# scrap cardstock. I placed the Neenah die cut back into it’s negative space to make it easier to hold in place while I blended Aqualicious and Teal Cave onto it, using the lighter color on the top half and blending it into the darker color on the bottom for an ombre effect. Then I adhered all five layers together using scant amounts of liquid glue to create a dimensional sentiment.

Then it came time to assemble the card. I trimmed the triangle background in half, saving the other half for a future card, and adhered it to an A2-sized card base. Then I trimmed the balloon panel so that the height of the balloons revealed some of the triangle background and still left room for the sentiment. I used foam tape to adhere it to the card base so that it stood up from the background.

Before I adhered the Hooray sentiment, I pulled out some inexpensive silver thread from my stash and wound it around a few fingers. I added a liquid glue to the back of the Hooray die cute and then adhered it to the card, sandwiching the silver thread in between. And that finished the card!

Thanks for stopping by!

Feel Good Cards, Just Because Cards

You Are Crazy Beautiful

April 2, 2018April 1, 2018 SkyPaperScissors

Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

I just received my first order from The Ink Road Stamps and I couldn’t wait to use this sentiment from the Compliments Volume I stamp set. I just love the expression and the simple, open font. Because the font is so uniform, I wanted to pair it with a softer image so I chose this large spray of flowers from Concord and 9th’s Hello Lovely stamp set.

Because this flower stamp is so large, I used my Misti stamping tool so that I would be able to re-stamp the image in the exact same place if I didn’t get a perfect impression the first time. I used Hero Arts Extreme Black ink, which is Copic-friendly, and Neenah Solar White 80# Classic Crest cardstock.

I chose colors and a coloring technique inspired by (copied from, really) this post by Kay Miller. I’m not great at coloring so I liked that her coloring has distinct strokes and doesn’t require perfect blending. I used three colors from three color group (I don’t own much more than that) but I think I could have gotten away with using just two colors from each group. I started with the lightest colors, then added the middle and then darker colors, and then returned to add more of the lightest colors to do a bit, but not much, blending. The colors I used were YG17, YG25, YG67, RV29, R22, R24, Y11, Y15, and Y19.

I then stamped the sentiment with VersaMark ink onto a strip of vellum. I poured Ranger Super Fine Gold embossing powder over it, tapped of the excess, and hit with a heat gun to melt the embossing powder. Since you can see a lot of the flower image through the vellum, I felt that the sentiment was a bit hard to read so I flipped it over and colored in the letters with R29, another red Copic marker. I colored on the back of the vellum because I’ve read that using Copics directly on heat embossing can damage the markers. I’ve also seen some crafters not heed that warning with no ill effect on their markers. I just prefer to not to risk damaging my markers since they’re already a bit of a splurge.

I finished by laying the vellum strip over the card front and folding the ends of the strip over the back where I adhered them with a bit of tape runner adhesive. Then I glued the entire card front to an A2-sized card base.

Thanks for visiting!

Easter Cards, Spring Cards

Happy Easter

April 1, 2018July 17, 2020 SkyPaperScissors

Happy Easter!

I pulled this card together at the last minute using the only remotely Easter-themed item in my crafting stash: Simon Says Stamp Oval of Flowers. An oval is egg-shaped, right? This pattern is also available in a die, and I purchased the set that includes the stencil and the die.

To start, I lightly hand wrote the Happy Easter sentiment in pencil, erasing and adjusting until I had it properly centered. Then I went over the pencil with a Sakura Pigma Micron Pen (03, black). I let it dry before erasing the pencil.

I then used Post-It Tape to tape down the stencil onto an A-2 sized piece of Neenah Solar White 80# Classic Crest cardstock and to my work surface . This tape is less sticky than painter’s tape and won’t damage your paper when you remove it.

I used foam blending tools to blend three Distress Oxide Inks (Picked Raspberry, Wild Honey, and Squeezed Lemonade) over the stencil, taking care to blend carefully between the colors.

Then I removed the Post-It tape and stencil to reveal my flower “egg.” I used the largest die from the Lawn Fawn Outside In Stitched Rectangle Stackables set to trim the panel and add the stitching detail.

To finish, I adhered the card front to an A-2 sized piece of yellow Recollections cardstock, and then adhered the finished card front to an A-2 sized card base.

Thanks for stopping by!

Encouragement Cards

Keep Your Head Up and Your Heart Strong

March 31, 2018March 31, 2018 SkyPaperScissors

I can always use some encouragement, what about you?

This card starts off with a background using Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock and Simon Says Stamp Center Cut Heart background stamp. When I use a background stamp, I always lay it etched side up, ink it, and then lay my paper down onto it. I put a piece of scrap typing paper over the top to keep my hands from getting inky and then burnish the surface to ensure I get an even impression. I did that here with clear, sticky, VersaMark ink. Then I sprinkled the panel with Hero Arts white embossing powder and hit it with a heat gun.

I chose two soft Distress Oxide Ink colors, Tattered Rose and Hickory Smoke, to blend. I had originally planned to pick a third color to blend between the rose and smoke, but I really wanted the heart to stand out. I’m still not sure if I made the right choice to use just two colors. I applied and blended the ink using foam blending tools, taking care to follow the design of the heart in the center of the panel. When I finished, I rubbed a paper towel lightly over the panel to pick up any ink that was sitting on top of the heat embossing to restore its bright white color.

The sentiment comes from Simon Says Stamp You Got This stamp set. The stamp is actually a single line, but I wanted to break it up into two lines. Rather than cut the stamp apart (which I can never bring myself to do even though it doesn’t harm the stamp), I used a Post-it note to cover a few of the words when I inked it up so I could stamp one line at a time. I used Versafine Black Onyx ink which gives a nice crisp impression.

To finish, I trimmed the panel down to 4″ x 5.5″ and adhered it to an A-2 sized card base, leaving a border on the left and right sides. Then I adhered the sentiment using foam tape to add dimension.

Thanks for visiting!

Encouragement Cards

You’ve Got This

March 30, 2018March 29, 2018 SkyPaperScissors

Happy Friday, I hope you had a good week!

Today I have a quick card to share using one of my favorite standalone dies. The You’ve Got This die from Concord and 9th is big and bold and the sentiment is a good reminder when I’m feeling challenged.

I started by taping down a panel of Canson XL watercolor paper to my work surface with painter’s tape. This helps prevent warping. Using an inexpensive 3/4″ wash brush, I wet the paper with clean clear water. Then I dropped three colors of Dr. Ph. Martin’s Hydrus watercolors (9H Cobalt Violet, 8H Ultramarine, and 7H Phthalo Blue) onto the panel and brushed left to right and back to blend the colors into each other for an ombre effect.

Once the panel was dry, I trimmed it to about 3.75″ x 4.75″ and then die cut the sentiment out, saving the fallout pieces for a future card. Then I added foam tape all over the back of the panel to add dimension and adhered it to an A2-sized card to finish.

Thanks for stopping by!