As my kids head back to school I thought it would be the perfect time to get some teacher thank you cards made for my stash. I pulled out two sets of dies and markets to get to work on making a couple of clean and simple thank you cards. For the first card, I die cut the pencil dies three times coloring the pencils in different colors. I tied them together with a touch of twine to give them a bit more symmetry on the card. Finished off the card with a simple thanks sentiment.
For my second card, I had fun coloring the apple with water color pens. To add a touch of color I put a small strip of rainbow striped paper to finish it off. I love how the water color on the apple provides a sense of texture to the design.
For today's card I thought a little outside the box. I love the new Frantic Stamper Snowflake Reverse Cut die! As soon as I saw it I knew that this is one I'd go back to time & time again. But, since I'm looking forward to FALL and not winter, I thought that I could put this die to another use as well! Yep! I turned those little snowflakes into eyeballs! :) After I cut out the die from black paper, I backed it with a bright yellow cardstock. I used a black marker to make a little dot for eyeballs on some of the yellow circles. I think it looks like monster eye balls. Then, I heat embossed the sentiment from the cute Monster Mash Up stamp set in Neon Purple embossing powder. I could see using this die and doing something similar with the eyes with the Birch Trees & other tree dies (like this one)!
When you open up the card you have a very simple message and a little guy greeting you! :) I thought about adding a lot of monsters to the inside, but thought that this way was so much cuter.
White on white is an elegant combination when making a wedding card. Love how rich, yet clean a design looks when there is white on white. So, to start off this wedding card, I used the Lattice Flower Square Panel on a square card base. I wanted to make the card extra feminine so I die cut the Princess Die Cut two times. The first time I cut it in a soft pink. The second time it was die cut using a soft polka dot vellum. The two layers were glued together to finish off the dress form. The final touch was a happily ever after sentiment. A perfect card to have on hand for a wedding or wedding shower.
In the past few days I have shared two different cards using the Flip Card #1-Coved Label die, and I have shown you a way to create a long thin label using the same die. Both of the cards I shared were "Z-fold" cards. On these cards the card front is folded back on itself.
Today I am going to share a different style of card. For this card, the shape is cut out of the back of the card so that when the card is folded the tab sticks out beyond the fold, as you can see in the card above. The black tab behind the grave stone that sticks up at the top of this fun Halloween card was cut with the die. The grave stone itself was created using the stitched coved label that comes with the flip card die. It was cut from gray card stock, and then the bottom was cut off with a pair of scissors.
I cut the little ghosts that haunt the card using the Large Cute Ghost die out of both velum and white card stock. I layered them and glued them in place only where I attached the google eyes. To finish the card I added the Fun Happy Halloween cut in orange, making sure to let just a little bit of the vellum ghosts spills over onto it.
I had so much fun making that card that I decided to make another. This one is for a baby girl and uses the Baby Icons as decoration, along with pieces cut from a DCWV paper pack.
I almost forgot to mention that the finished card measures 4.25" x (almost) 5.5" and will fit into a standard card-sized envelope.
I think you might want to try making a card like this one, too. If so, you can get your template here.
In keeping with our sharing holiday cards on the 25th of each month here is a card by our Design Team Leader, Kathy Berger
Happy Holidays
by Kathy Berger
Hi!
I promised you a couple of days ago that I would have a couple more posts showing how to use the Flip Card ##1 - Coved Labels die from Frantic Stamper. This die is so versatile; once you get the hang of using it, you will absolutely "flip" for it!
To make today's card I started with an 8 1/2" x 7" piece of card-stock. I scored the card to make an 8 1/2" x 3 1/2" card. Though scored, I didn't fold the card, though, because I wanted to die-cut the card before folding.
To make this card I did a bit of calculating to come up with the spacing I needed, and I created a template for it. Basically, I placed the die first so that the cut would be centered on the card. I then measured the space remaining on the top of the card and centered the die in that space, and repeated that on the bottom of the card. To save you from the calculations, you can get my template by clicking here.
To use the template and cut the card, first cut the center tab by aligning the top tip of the die on the line labeled "1". Next cut the top tab by aligning the bottom tip of the die on the line labeled "2". Finally cut the bottom tab by aligning the top tip of the die on the line labeled "3".
I then reinforced the score lines that were created by the die, but only between the tabs, and then I folded the card on the scores, with a valley fold on the card center line, and a mountain fold on the scores between the tabs.
I cut panels of Christmas paper to fit the card back (3.25"x 8.25") and the front panel of the card (1.5" x 8.25"). I also cut a strip for the inside front panel (1.5"x 8.25"). I then glued all of the panels into place.
I used the small stitched Coved Label die that comes with the Flip Card die to cut 3 red labels that I then glued into place on the tabs. I cut the small ornate piece that comes with the Flip die 4 times out of gold and glued them to decorate the front fold line. I then cut the Joy, Christmas Tree, and Snowflake round vignette inserts out of gold and glued them onto the card front.
Next I used the Flip Card Die to create a long coved label to put inside the card. I started with a strip of red card-stock just a little wider than the tab portion and 8.25" long. I aligned the die so that the straight part of the tab on one long edge and aligned flush with the short edge. I ran it through my machine. Then I aligned the die on the opposite end of the strip, with the straight part of the tab on the same long edge. Once cut I then used my paper cutter to trim from cut to cut.
I glued that in place on the inside back panel so it is hidden by the card front, and glued a golden "Happy Holidays" to that.
A couple of days ago Fran got a request from a customer asking for a card and instructions using the Flip Card #1 die.
The Flip Card die is a very versatile die. In the next few days I will show you three different ways I have used the die, with detailed instructions of how I used it.
For this first card in the series, which is a standard 4 1/4"x5 1/2" card, I wanted to center the cutout on the card front. To make it really simple for me to make this kind of card (with the cutout centered on the front of a standard card) I created a guide out of scrap card stock. I made the guide the same height as my card (5 1/2") but only half as wide (2 1/8"). I then marked one edge of the card 7/8" from each end. You can get a copy of my guide here.
(To come up with the 7/8" I subtracted the length of the die from the height of the card (5 1/2" - 3 3/4" =1 3/4"). That gives me how much space is left over once the die is placed on the card. Since I want to center my die I would need to divide that left-over space in two equal pieces and put the die between them. 1 3/4" divided by two is 7/8".)
My card blank is 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", scored at 4 1/4", but left flat.
I line-up my guide with the top and left edge of the card, and then place the die at its edge, in between the two marks, and tape it into place.
I then ran the card through my die cutting machine. When done cutting, I used my Scor-pal to finish scoring my card along the line scored by the die, at the 2 1/8" mark, being careful not to score across the cut-out portion.
Now, for this particular card I wanted to create a field of stars, so I used my starfall die on the right side of the card. I glued a piece of yellow card behind the right side of the card, and then another piece of black behind that.
It was finally time to fold my card. First I valley folded the card on the center score line, and then mountain folded the score around my cutout.
I reinforced the folds with my bone folder, making the card lie flat.
All that was left to do was decorate the card. I cut extra yellow stars for my project with the Starfall die.
I cut my "aliens" using the Monsters die and white card stock. I stamped their corresponding image onto them, and colored them. I set them aside.
Using an old Stampendous clear stamp set called "Hot Rocketz", I stamped rockets and flying saucers onto white card stock. I colored the images, fussy cut them, and set them aside.
Using my largest plain circle die I cut a circle. I colored it gray with my Copics and added a small crater to it. I glued the circle in place on the inside of my card and trimmed the circle so it was flush with my card's bottom edge.
I glued my rockets into place. I cut a small slit in the saucer and inserted one of my monsters into the slit. I glued the saucer into place. I glued two more of my monsters in place. (It turned out I only had room for three of the four monsters, but that is okay, I'll use the other on a different project sometime.) I added google eyes to each of the monsters' eye(s), and a banner to the hand of one of the monsters.
I stamped my sentiment (from the same Stampendous set).
I glued on a few of my extra yellow stars on the front and inside of the card.
Ta Da! I hope you agree that this card is just "Out of this World"!
If you would like a little more help on using the die in this manner, I have a little video for you. Please don't mind my voice. We have a lot of smoke in our little valley because of all the wildfires, and the smoke has really irritated my throat.
Flowers are my all time favorite types of dies and stamps, so whenever there is a new set...they quickly get added to my cart! I was itching to play along with these fabulous new Scribble Flowers. Coral is also one of my favorite go to colors...so a double favorite of coral and flowers!
I die cut the flowers and leaves and then added a small strip of patterned paper to ground the design. The card was finished off with a sentiment from the coordinating stamp set.
