Frantic Stamper Happenings: Rail Fence Ribbon

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Winter Cottage in the Evergreen Forest (Kathy Berger)

Winter Cottage in the Evergreen Forest

by Kathy Berger

I promise this will be the last card from me for a while. I really want to let you see more stuff from other members of the design team, and I have a lot of drawing to do, but I did want to share one last card that I made and then I will go lock myself in my drawing room.

Most people who know me know that I absolutely hate snow. It is just cold and wet and gets dirty and melts and refreezes. It is just horrible stuff! And with my bum leg, there is just NO way I would want to experience it ever again! (I grew up in New England, so I had my share!)

But as much as I hate snow, I love snowy scenes and snowmen...and I especially love to create snowy Christmas cards! And this is definitely a snowy one!

I started by cutting and assembling my log cabin. I have to tell you this was REALLY fun! I had so many options, but I opted to go all out and use all the structure pieces and one window die and a door. Once I had it assembled I added my snow (a product made by Aleene's) to the roofs of each of the parts of the house. I then set the cabin aside while I prepared the background.

I cut the distant background out of white card-stock using the Evergreen Forest Edger die. I colored the trees with a blue-green Copic marker (things in the distance are bluer than things in the mid ground). I tapped my snow onto my trees using my favorite applicator.....my index finger!

Next I cut my trees for the mid-ground and foreground out of pine green card using the Small Oregon Fir tree and the Small Pine. I added some variation to the color of the card stock with some Copic markers, and then tapped on some snow.

Next I cut my Rail Fence Ribbon out of white card-stock, and colored the rails and posts with brown Copics. I added snow to it, too.

I then cut a snow drift for the foreground out of white card-stock using the Stitched Scene Builder Edgers. I covered that piece with snow.

I wanted a cardinal in the scene, but my cardinal die (part of the Small Birds die set) is too big, so I used a trick. I cut the bird out of red craft foam and used my heat tool to shrink it until it was just the right size.

Finally, it was time to assemble. I cut a card panel of white card-stock and sponged a cloudy sky on it. I then added the background evergreens. All the layers above that one were added with foam tape, from the background to the foreground.

Here is another view of the finished card. I hope you like it!

Now don't forget that Frantic Stamper has a Giveaway going. Be sure to visit this post for details!

*** Materials for this project available at www.franticstamper.com.

FRA-Die-09651	FRA-Die-09492	FRA-Die-09493	FRA-Die-09446
FRA-Die-09456	FRA-Die-09084	FRA-Die-09403

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Countryside Forsythia Bushes (Ann Greenspan)

Countryside Forsythia Bushes

by Ann Greenspan

I used this photo of my neighbor's yard as inspiration for my card:

Every year my neighbor's yard blooms with various colors as the season progresses. First come the yellow daffodils and forsythia bushes, then the cherry blossoms, red buds and magnolias, and then it's time for the azaleas. My card is a little late for the season but I wanted to wait for the Rail Fence ribbon die to make the card complete, and I didn't own that die until just recently.

I find it easier to make scene cards when adhering the scene dies to a card panel just slightly smaller than the actual card base. This way the sky doesn't go right up to the top of the card; there is a little bit of white framing behind it. I used a card base that was A2 sized or 4.25 x 11" folded in half giving it a folded size of 4.25 x 5.5". The top white panel was cut to a size of 4 x 5.25".

Once the top white panel was ready, I die cut the hills using the Stitched Scene Builder Edgers. I then cut one of the Medium Bare Elm and Medium Base Ash trees, manually cutting both down to a shorter height so they looked more like shrubs.

I used the tiniest of the Petite Layering Posies for the flowers on the bushes, cutting them out of yellow card stock and filling in the centers with a white gel pen. Next I used the Rail Fence ribbon die and ran that through a wood embossing folder to give it just a little texture, but that is hard to see in the photo. I added the tiniest of the birdhouses and the hummingbird from the Small Birds collection. The final step was to cut out the Little Clouds and adhere them with foam tape to give a dimensional look.

*** Materials for this project available at www.franticstamper.com.