Encore Set - Hibiscus

Our January Encore set is bound to bring visions of white sandy beaches, balmy evenings, and palm trees swaying in tropical breezes. While half the world shivers in the cold, those of us who live "down under" are enjoying the summer weather and, hopefully, one or two of those little umbrella drinks!

Hibiscus Set

Selected, retired digital stamps at an incredibly low price for just 48 hours.

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Bear With Me

digital stamps

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Koala Swing Tag

The koala from the Must Be Love set is the perfect image for creating a cute little swing tag. Pop an eyelet through one of those fabulous, big ears, thread with twine and you have a sweet mini-card to adorn a gift or handmade project. Here's a simple picture tutorial to show you how easy it is to create one of these tags:

Stamps:

With Love, Judy

Judy is preparing nice and early for Valentine's Day next month with these two cute cards created with the Must Be Love set of digital stamps. She's added some fabulous red, pink and white paper and an assortment of little embellishments to complete each card.

Judy's Blog

The Basics of Colouring II

Part two of the Basics of Colouring focuses on the "push and pull of colour", giving you practical advice on shaping your images using light and dark tones, as well as adding texture and movement to your colouring.

The Basics of Colouring II

The Basics of Colouring I

2020 was the year I finally learned how to make videos for YouTube, and now I'm ready to present my first tutorial on the Basics of Colouring. It's a four part series that I'll be posting over the next couple of months. I hope you enjoy it and learn a little something along the way.

The Basics of Colouring I

Hello Sunshine

Sunflowers seem so happy with their golden petals, wide open flowers and long stems that reach up to the sky. It's hard not to feel cheerful when you see some. I often think of the quote about turning your face to the sun so the shadows fall behind you... a lovely thought that can be interpreted in so many ways. 

Stamps:

Row Of Hearts

I have a little card-making tutorial to share with you today, using the row of hearts from the Must Be Love digital stamp set. The card base is a slimline design, made from black card stock and measuring about 3" x 81/4".

Open the coloured image in MSWord or a photo editing program and resize it to 8" long (most programs will adjust the height automatically so the image doesn't get stretched). Add a sentiment in the top right hand corner, then print. 

Use a craft knife to cut around each heart. I kept the blade to the inside of the heavy black line and simply ignored all the stitches. Take care in the area between hearts as the card stock becomes quite narrow.

Secure the card stock strip to the card base with liquid glue or tape. I've left a thin border around the edges of my image panel by trimming it to fit.

Now add foam tape to each of the spaces and secure the hearts in place. I finished my card by applying a liberal coat of Nuvo aqua shimmer on each heart and around the edge of the card base.

Stamps:

A Touch of Sunshine

Karin is bringing a little touch of sunshine from her studio to our computers today with two pretty cards she made with the Hello Sunshine set of digital stamps. She's used lovely bright yellows, reds and oranges to colour the blooms and then teamed them with vibrant green and burnt orange card stock for fabulous seasonal creations. 

Karin's Blog

Everything Papercraft - Faux Finishes

Faux (pronounced “foe”), is derived from the French language and means artificial or fake. The term “faux finish” refers to decorative techniques that are applied to a surface to replicate the appearance of other materials, such as rock or wood. It’s most often associated with painting techniques, but in papercraft, we also apply faux finishes with stamps, embossing folders, inks and a variety of mixed media products. One of the most popular faux finishes in recent times is created by sponging alcohol inks and blending solution on to glossy card to create a marble-look. Veins of gold are sometimes painted or dripped onto the finished piece to help enhance the completed piece. Another popular finish is wood-grain, which is often applied with a stamp and ink or even by swiping colour directly onto a piece of card stock.

Sending You A Smile

I love big, happy, yellow sunflowers, but every now and then you just want to change things up a bit, if only to see what will happen. I really enjoyed working with this colour palette, it's not one I choose very often but it sure is eye-catching!

Stamps:

Hot Tip Tuesday

Today's hot tip -

GO BIG!

One of the benefits of digital stamps is that you can control the size at which they are printed. Have a go at printing the images at a much larger size than you normally would, and don't worry about trying to fit the whole thing on your project either...

I started by setting up a 1x1 table in MSWord that was the same size as my card blank - in this case 3" x 81/4". I inserted the three flowers and manoeuvred them into place so that they were overlapping each other as well as the sides of the table. Once they're coloured I'll simply trim away the lines of the table and layer my coloured image onto a card blank.

Stamps:

Tutorial - Asymmetric Box Card

If you love funky, mind-bending, pop-up cards then today's tutorial is right up your alley! The asymmetric box card has a central section that pops up in a most perplexing way when the card is opened. Once you've figured out how it works you'll want to create lots of different variations just to test how far you can take it... the last photo in this post is the result of a happy afternoon spent cutting, folding and measuring!

CUTTING TEMPLATE: 

SCORING TEMPLATE:

1. Since there are so many cut lines, score lines and measurements, I created two templates to make it a little easier to follow. Place a 6" x 8" piece of card stock horizontally on your desk and use a pencil and ruler to mark in the cut lines - refer to the cutting template for placement and lengths. Use a craft knife and ruler or a trimmer to cut along all six lines.

2. Now place the card stock on horizontally on your score board and score in all the lines indicated in the scoring template. In most cases, the score lines begin and finish at the ends of cuts.

3. Folding each score line is the tricky part as you don't want to add any folds where none were scored. Take your time and carefully manipulate the card stock to fold along the lines indicated. Refer to the photo below for the direction of each fold.

TOP VIEW:

4. Decorate the inside of the card with patterned paper or stamps. Due to the difficulty of cutting the paper to fit the shape of the card, either piece together the background with small rectangles of paper, which is what I did, or create a template with a piece of printer paper.

5. Add an image and sentiment to the right hand pop-up section. I left the remainder of the right side clear so I'd have a place to write a personal message, but you can decorate with patterned paper or stamps if you prefer.

6. Create a card base for your pop-up section by scoring a 6" x 81/16" piece of card stock in half. The extra 1/16" is to allow a little more room in the spine of the card to accommodate the pop-up section. Place the card stock horizontally on your score board and score at 4", then move it slightly to the right and score again so you end up with two score lines side by side (see the photos below).

7. Decorate the front of the card base as desired. I stamped and coloured one of the large sunflowers from the Hello Sunshine set and layered a sentiment over the top.

8. Flip the pop-up section of your card and add glue to the outside sections only (see below). Position it on the inside of your card blank, taking care to line up the right, left, top and bottom edges. Use clips to hold the card stock in place as it dries.

Once I figured out the basics of this card I spent some time playing around with different designs. It was fascinating to see how many variations I could create using the basic principles of the pop-up section!

Stamps: