Words of Encouragement

Deanne has used the main image plus one of the sentiments from the Frog and Oleander digital stamp set to create this beautiful card. She coloured the image with Copic markers on blending card, choosing soft, muted greens and pinks. Deanne has kindly shared a colour chart for anyone wanting to reproduce her colour palette.

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More is More

Sometimes you just want a little more, and one way to get it is to stamp an image several times and harvest parts to add to the original. In my example, I printed and coloured the flower from the Frog and Oleander set two additional times, fussy cut and added both to the original image. Although it's possible to do this technique with traditional stamps, digital stamps have a little more versatility in that they can be resized, skewed and flipped to prevent the flowers looking exactly the same.

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Anesha's Studio

We're visiting Anesha's studio today to see the beautiful card she has created with the Frog and Oleander digital stamp set. She printed the full-colour version of the image a couple of times, fussy cut one of the flowers and layered it over a base image for even more dimension. The lovely crystals in the centre of the flower add just the right amount of sparkle.

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Digi Know-How

You don't need expensive software or photo editing programs to use digital stamps. I personally open all my digital files in Microsoft Word, which I'm familiar with and find easy to use. For this card, I opened one of the images from A Drover's Life, resized it to 9cm in height and then played around with the picture editing tools that are right inside the program. I started by changing the colour to blue and then added an artistic effect called line drawing, which made the image look as though it had been coloured with a pencil.

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Hubba Hubba

Colours on opposite sides of the colour wheel, known as complementary or contrasting colours, make a great combination for your papercraft projects. Unless you're after a really jarring effect, remember to keep the tones of both colours the same - for example, pastels with pastels and neons with neons. 

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All The Beasties

I've piled up the pre-coloured versions of each of the beasties to make an epic beastie card for one of my young nephews... he still likes all things stinky, gooey and gross! Since the files are in png format with transparent backgrounds, the images can be easily merged without obstructing parts of the other pictures. 

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Everything Papercraft - Watercolour

Watercolour is a painting method in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water soluble binder.  In modern times, watercolour paints are sold in a wide variety of forms including pencils, cakes, bottles of liquid and pigment pads.

Paper-crafters generally use watercolour pigments on stamped images or apply them directly to watercolour paper with a brush or pencil.  The colour can be considerably softened or diluted with the addition of more water, or intensified with the addition of more pigment.  This helps to give coloured images a shaded or shadowed look.

Tutorial - Pop-Up Flower Card

The "WOW!" factor in today's card is definitely the fabulous bouquet of flowers that spring up when the card is opened. They can be created from plain or coloured paper, embellished with fancy edges or coloured to have a darker centre. These wonderful pop-up cards would be perfect for birthdays, Mother's Day, Get Well cards or just to cheer up a friend.

1. Begin by making the bouquet centre. I used double sided patterned paper to cut seven squares measuring 3". I wouldn't advise going any smaller than this unless you're using very light weight paper as the folds can become a little bulky. Use the lightest weight paper you have in your stash as the bouquet is quite bulky when assembled.

2. Fold one of the squares in half, then fold again in quarters. As you work, make sure you press firmly on each fold so you get nice crisp lines and reduce some of the bulk.

3. Fold one side back on the diagonal, making sure the paper stays at a nice point at the bottom. Turn the paper over and fold the other side back in the same way.

4. Holding the paper by the end where all the folds meet, use a pair of sharp, sturdy scissors to round the top. You're aiming for a tear drop shape, which will form the individual petals on each flower.

6. Use the scissors again to cut along one of the score lines into the centre of the flower. Make sure your cut starts between two of the ovals and ends where the score lines intersect.

7. Cut along the score line immediately beside the first and remove one whole petal as shown in the photo below.

8. Apply some glue to one of the petals on either side of the cut. If you're using double sided paper, make sure the side you want visible is facing up.

9. Bring the petal on the other side of the cut over to the glue, line up the score lines and secure one petal over the top of the other. This will form a wide cone shape. Hold the paper in place until the glue dries, then press flat.

10. Repeat steps 2 - 9 for each of the squares of paper so that you end up with seven flowers.

11. Now, this is where things can get a little bit confusing, so please pay careful attention to the photos and written instructions. Lay your first flower flat on the desk with the point facing toward you and the three petals facing away. Apply a small amount of very strong glue along the top of the left-hand petal as shown in the photo below.

12. Take a second flower and lay the right hand petal over the glue. Hold in place for a few seconds so the glue can grip.

13. Apply glue to the right hand petal of the first flower in the same manner as before.

14. Lay the left hand petal of the third flower over the glue and hold in place. Now you have three flowers joined together with just the centre petal of the first flower showing.

15. Apply a small amount of glue to the three petals in the centre - there will be one petal from each of the three flowers.

16. Secure a fourth flower over the top of the glue lining up all three petals.

17. We're repeating the same pattern again by adding glue around the top of the left hand petal on the fourth flower and adding flower number five...

18. ...and glue around the top of the right hand petal on the fourth flower and adding flower number six.

19. The final flower is secured over the three centre petals in the same manner.

20. While the flowers dry thoroughly, you can work on your card base. I've created a square card measuring 51/4". You might need a larger or smaller card depending on how big your flowers are. They need to fit in the centre of the card with nothing protruding when the card is folded.

21. Lay the flowers in the centre of the card so that the ends are flush with the card fold.

22. Apply a small amount of glue around the top centre petal as shown in the photo below.

23. Carefully close the card taking care not to move the flowers as you do so. Hold in place for a minute so the glue has a change to work.

24. Open the card. The bouquet should be secured to the left hand side of the card.

25. Add some more glue to the centre petal of the bouquet in the same way as last time. Close the card and hold in place until the glue dries.

26. Don't be tempted to play with this card until the glue has a chance to dry completely. Because we've used so little adhesive there's a chance the bouquet will come apart if you don't allow it to dry thoroughly.

Have a go at using different types of papers for your flowers. Add some colour with pencils or makers, or maybe draw in some stamens with a black or brown pen. Just remember not to add any bulky embellishments otherwise the card won't fold flat. Enjoy!

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