Saturday, January 28, 2017

Altering Dies (Kendra Sand)




Altering Dies

by Kendra

So I am in love with many of Frantic Stampers Dies!  And like many when I get them am SUPER excited to dive in and use them that sometimes I forget to sit back and first think "outside" the box!

When I was posting my tag using the Handmade with Love die a light bulb when off in my head!!

First, here is the tag I had created:



A beautiful tag to add to a handmade gift! The font of the handmade and love, I absolutely love!

But what if I wasn't giving a handmade gift but still wanted to use this die?

Well I decided to die cut the Handmade with Love die and alter it a little bit!  I carefully cut the "Love" away from the rest of the words so that I could create this beauty:



You would have never guessed the word Love was attached to other words!

I LOVE it!

This die can be used in so many other ways!



Another die I have altered a lot lately, is the fun Fishing Pole die.

Here's a look at the entire die:
Frantic Stamper Precision Die - Fishing Pole

Super fun die!  But keep in mind you don't always have to use the entire die. Look at what I did with this card:



I wanted to feature the awesome Fancy Fish die on this card!  What an amazing die!! I cut the die to make it look as though the fish was chasing the line!



Oh so fun!  I hope I have inspired you to sit back and look at your dies a little differently!!  Alter them a little!  Create new die cuts!!

Have a happy day!


*** Materials for this project available at www.franticstamper.com.
 
FRA-Die-09855
 
FRA-Die-09882
 
FRA-Die-09877





Friday, January 27, 2017

Superhero Birthday (Jen Carter)




Superhero Birthday
by Jen Carter



I want to remind you that Frantic Stamper has a wonderful  Super Hero themed set of dies & stamps!  I have really gone overboard creating with these products because they are just SO FUN!  Today I am sharing one card with you and a video as well.  I also hope to have another video showcasing more of the release at a later time.

Jen Carter Super Hero Washi Skyline


So this card...FUN to put together!  This features a couple of the Superhero dies & an older one as well but the focus is that adorable super girl!  That is from the die set called Super Hero Kid.  Oh the fun that you can have with this set!  There are SO MANY choices on how to dress the super hero, what sex to make him/her, what hair style to use, what masks to wear, etc.  So. Fun.


And can you just imagine the fun that your kids/grandkids will have mixing and matching with these pieces?  I also made a magnetic fridge set with this die that I'll share at another time.


Jen Carter Super Hero Washi Skyline Closeup 2


To make the spotlight for the super hero I used a die called Corner Sun Rays Quilt Panel.  I used the circle to fit in the corner of the patterned paper and one of the stitched sun rays for the beam. It was the perfect size!

Jen Carter Super Hero Washi Skyline Closeup

This skyline is another die that I am very excited about as well, called Cityscape.  I die cut it twice, once in white and then a second time in vellum and I used washi tapes to highlight some of the buildings.  I have a video to share with you that shows how to easily create the washi tape buildings.





Thank you for joining us today!

Have a great day!


*** Materials for this project available at www.franticstamper.com.
 
FRA-Die-09905
 
FRA-Die-09886
 
FRA-Die-09730

Friday, January 06, 2017

Mom's Card-2016 (Kathy Berger)



Mom's Card 2016




The time has come for me to share my mom's 2016 Christmas card. As you may or may not know, my card for mom is the first card I tackle when I start to make my Christmas cards. It is always the most challenging one to make, and the most unique.

This year I decided to jump on the chibi light band wagon and make a card with lights. I wanted to make the card a pop up, with back lighting for each of the main elements on the inside of the cards. And, of course, I wanted to use only Frantic Stamper Precision Dies!

I decided I wanted to make a village for my card, so I started off by die cutting several of the buildings and multiple trees from the FranticStamper "village" dies, using 110lb white cardstock.

I also die cut a few tree and hill edgers for the background.

Next I die cut Santa's Sleigh and his reindeer out of black cardstock, and punched a 1.25" circle out of pale yellow card stock.

It is far too complicated to fill in all of the tiny details of how I made the pop ups, and how I wired the chibi lights but I will give you a brief of a description of the steps I took.

Since the card is 5 1/2" x 7" I knew I could easily get away with about 2.5" of pop up elements without having to worry about anything extending too far. So, the four pop-up bases are each 1/2"x7" box mechanisms. I started with a 7"x2" strip of cardstock and scored it lengthwise at every .5". I used strong tape on the first and last of the four areas of the mechanism created by the scores. I aligned the two edges of the box piece with the fold of the card and closed the card to affix them in place. When the card was reopened, there was a 1/2" tall and 1/2" deep box across the base of the inside of the card. I glued the very bottom of the church to the center of the front of the box, very close to the top of the box. I then repeated the process with more 7"x 2" panels, creating boxes that become attached to the base of the card and to the box behind it, and adding buildings and evergreen trees to the boxes. I used a total of four box mechanisms. On the last box I attached a few trees and a hill cut with the stitched hill Edgers.

The wiring followed the Chibi directions for multiple lights on a circuit, with the positive and negative copper tape winding in parallel lines from the top right of the card inside down the inside of the card front, then meandering through the village. I covered the wiring with strips of 1/2" 80lb card stock with 1/8" holes punched at each light.

I created the snowy base with texture paste smeared onto the scene with a finger, and then sprinkled liberally with diamond dust.

The battery is housed in a pocket made from a rectangle of card stock folded over the battery. The copper tape connects to both inside sides of the folded rectangle. The battery itself sits on the negative lead but is surrounded by 3 layers of foam tape, ensuring that the connection to the positive side of the battery can only be made by pushing the top of the folded rectangle.

The blue layer was made by sponging blue inks onto white cardstock. It is attached with 3 layers of foam tape at the top, to align the top with the level of the tape around the battery housing. The panel was attached with glue tape at the bottom. The tree lines and snowy hills were attached with foam tape, building up to 3 layers of foam tape thickness, making the top and bottom of the card flush with each other. The moon was place over the battery to mark its position as well as to add another feature to the image. The stars were cut from white cardstock (covered with Tulip glow-in-the-dark paint) using the starfall  and the Northern Star dies and then were affixed randomly.

The last element I added to the inside of the box was the Script Merry Christmas, die cut from deep red cardstock.

The front of the card was made by layering a piece of glow-in-the-dark painted cardstock onto a dark blue piece of cardstock, and then layering on top of that a piece of cardstock that I sponged dark blue and die cut with the same star dies as used inside of the card. Finally, the Peace on Earth was diecut from white cardstock and added to the card front.

I hope you enjoyed the card. I know Mom did!
*** Materials for this project available at www.franticstamper.com.

Village Church

FRA-Die-09540

Village School House

FRA-Die-09542

Village Candy Shoppe

FRA-Die-09543

Village Grocery Shoppe
FRA-Die-09544

Village Book Shoppe

FRA-Die-09545

Village Victorian

FRA-Die-09546

Village Cottage

FRA-Die-09547

Village Shrubs and Trees
FRA-Die-09546

Hill With Pine Trees Edger

FRA-Die-09178
Evergreen Forest Edger
 
FRA-Die-09446

Stitched Scene Builder Edgers

FRA-Die-09403

Santa's Sleigh

FRA-Die-09622

Northern Star

FRA-Die-09246

Starfall Background

FRA-Die-09614

Script Merry Christmas

FRA-Die-09249

Large Peace on Earth

FRA-Die-09248

Thursday, January 05, 2017

Frantic Stamper 2017 Design Team Introductions

Returning to the 2017 team from our 2016 team are:

 
Jen Carter
 
Karen Oliver
 
Michelle Leone
 
Kia Gibson-Clapper
 
Kendra Sand
 
Monica Edwards






And now please welcome the new members of the 2017 Frantic Stamper Design Team.


Jeanette Cloyd

"I am delighted that as an adult I get to continue to embrace one of my favorite childhood activities - coloring - and now I’ve added stamps, designer papers, dies, embellishments, and more to my creative endeavors. In addition to this enjoyable hobby, I love traveling, writing, leading conferences, and hanging out with my husband and my three young adult children. I am so excited to be part of the 2017 Frantic Stampers Design Team and look forward to see what this year brings."


Mary Dimercurio Prasad

Mary Dimercurio Prasad is a professional photographer with interests in arts & paper crafting, board gaming, martial arts, and P90X. She created her blog, Awash with Color, to inspire others, share tips, and have fun! Mary is a Certified Copic Instructor at the highest level currently offered. She used to be a Class Instructor for Michaels (PaperEd: scrapbooking, card making, Copic coloring) and has been on several design teams. She is married to Ravindra Prasad, an anesthesiologist at the University of North Carolina.


Nancy Hill

"My name is Nancy Hill. I have been retired for the past two years and been creating cards and projects as my main hobby. I have seven grand children in the local area and have three successful sons and one daughter. I have a doctorate degree and a career as a teacher, professor and coordinator for infants and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities.

I have been blessed to be able to work with many fabulous stamp and die companies and challenge blogs. When talent and passion are blended together, magic is certain to happen. My goal as a scrapbooker and card maker is to continue learning new techniques and to grow as an artist. This hobby is my creative outlet and I take pride in every piece I create. I enjoy trying new products and techniques, experimenting and creating in different styles. I love the Frantic Stampers’ dies and stamps. "


Kate Dachovska

"My name is Kate Dachovska and I am from Czech Republic. I live with my family in lovely village. I love cardmaking, mixed media, scrapbooking and sewing. My big passion is colouring with Copics or watercolour markers. I cannot sit in front of TV with empty hands. My best crafty friend is Big shot."


Agnieszka Wolnicka-Pawlikk

"Hi! My name is Agnieszka, my nickname is chanya13 and I live in Poland. My husband and I have 4 cats and a dog. I have been scrapbooking for 3 years now and I’m totally crazy about this hobby! My favorite things to make are cards, ATC’S and notebooks but most of all, I love to make multilayer cards. I also like making exploding boxes and scrap book layouts.

I have my own style and I love to use flowers. I sometimes make my own, either from paper or I crochet them. I add butterflies, different media and lace of all kinds to my projects. I have a weakness for purple and pink and use them quite a lot. Promarkers are my favorite way to color images. Vintage and romantic styles are my favorites and I make a card almost every day. In my free time, I like gardening, rock climbing, hiking and traveling. I also love photography.

If you want to see my work, look here:
http://cardmakinghobby.blogspot.com/
or FB: https://www.facebook.com/cardmakinghobby/

Hugs, Agnieszka chanya13"



Lastly, please join us in welcoming the first Guest Designers with the 2017 Frantic Stamper Design Team. They will be with us through April.


Karen Letchworth

"Hello, friends of Frantic Stamper! My name is Karen Letchworth, and I'm happy and blessed to be a Guest Designer here at Frantic Stamper. I've been crafting in different ways since I was a very little girl. But nothing quite compares to my love for card-making; and since I love creating with fabulous die-cuts, Frantic Stamper is the place to get the best variety and selection....plus they carry SO many of all our other favorite products. I've been married to my Police Officer hubby, Darren, for over 31 years; and together we've had the privilege and blessing of raising three wonderful children (two married daughters with wonderful husbands, and our "baby boy" who is a Senior in High School this year). I'm a Northern girl who moved out to sunny Las Vegas in 1989, and we now call it our home. I look forward to getting to know you all, and I invite you to stop by my blog, My Cup Runneth Over, to say hello. I hope that my creations will inspire you to get LOTS of of new Frantic Stamper dies, and I look forward to seeing your creations as well. "


Pat Barton
 
I'm so thrilled to be a Guest Designer on the Frantic Stamper Design Team. I've been married to my wonderful husband Bill for 44 years, we have 3 grown children, and the most amazing granddaughter. We live on the central coast of California and are both retired and love to travel.

I have been stamping for 15+ years. I love all kinds of techniques and mediums. I will try any new technique once to see if I like it. I still like old standbys but love trying new things. I love all kinds of paper. I think that's why I like dies so much. I can use my paper stash in so many ways with dies "


Holly Brown
  "Holly Brown has been stamping for about 15 years and she loves to play with all kinds of dies, stamps, and coloring mediums. Whether it was coloring with crayons as a child, doing counted cross stitch, or playing the piano, Holly has always loved the creative arts. Nowadays you can find her covered with glitter or testing out a new technique. Check out her personal blog at Glitter, Stamps, and Ink. "

<--Holly asked us to share her avatar in lieu of her photo.


Vickie Yeakley
"Hi, I'm Vickie Yeakley and I'm excited to be joining Frantic Stamper as a guest designer. I live in Indiana with my very supportive husband. We are empty nesters but enjoy visits from our children and grands! I've been a crafter and cardmaker for several years and LOVE using dies to enhance my cards and projects. I especially enjoy learning new crafting techniques and look forward to sharing my creations using Frantic Stamper dies. "