Let It Shine

Hey there! So glad you are back.  I hope you and your family are well.                                          

I have completed another Altenew Academy class.  The title for this class was Let It Shine!  And although I’m not a blingy shiny type of girl, I really enjoyed making this card.  I got to pull out some products and tools I haven’t used in a while, like toner card stock and my Heidi Swapp Minc Machine.  My inspiration for this card was Altenew’s Birthday Greetings Stamp and Die Bundle.  I wanted to do some shiny balloons…and so I did!  One of the things I learned in this class was the possibilities of what I could use to make something shiny.  Normally, the first thing we think of is loose glitter and embossing when we want some shine.  Loose glitter and I do not get a long well at all, so I try to avoid using it as much as possible; it has to be a customer driven request…lol.  This class made me think of other products that have some shine to them.  The level of shine just depends on how much shine you are trying to achieve. 

For this class submission I did a birthday card.  My card started with a small piece of self-made toner cardstock (you can purchase toner cardstock, toner pens, etc). I have a laser printer, so I made my own.   I used the die from the Birthday Greetings bundle and die cut 5 balloons from the toner cardstock.  I cut a couple more than I needed just in case.  I used some rainbow coloured foil sheets and my Minc Machine to cover all 5 of the balloons.  I anchored some metallic gold floss to the back of the foiled balloons then added a small piece of foam tape for dimension.  I centered and overlapped the balloons on to a 4 x 5 ¼ inch white card front.  I stamped one of the Happy Birthday sentiments on to a scrap piece of white cardstock with black ink, trimmed it down a bit, added some foam tape to the back and used the sentiment to hold down the balloon strings.  I took a 3 ¾ x 5 inch piece of Fun Foam attached it to the back of the card front and mounted the card front on to an A2 sized tent fold card base.  The white on white keeps the card sharp and professional looking without dulling down the fun of the card.  This card would be good for any age.   This is my favorite card so far!  This is a simple card to make even if you don’t have a foiling machine.  Altenew’s Birthday Greetings was the perfect stamp and die bundle for it.    Click HERE to start Crafting Your Life! 

Altenew Products:

Birthday Greetings Stamp & Die Bundle 

In this photo you can see the rainbow colouring of the balloons, the dimension on the balloons, the sentiment, and the card front. 

See you next time…Joyce

Waffle Flower Marbled Masculine Card

Hello Everyone,

I hope your day is going well.  Just under two weeks before the greatest day in the world…My Jesus’ Birthday!!!  Whoop-Whoop, go Jesus, go Jesus!!!  Given the focus of the season, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to try a layering technique using Waffle Flower’s Marble Stamp Set to make a masculine set of cards.  I saw this on Channin’s You Tube channel, you can find it here.  As usual I started with 110# (white) card stock.  My card base started out at a A2 size but to make sure all the sides were nice and even, the finished cards ended up being 3 ½" x 4 7/8".  I used some Stampin’ UP! Cherry Cobbler card stock scraps and some (Michael’s) black cards stock scraps.  I used the Waffle Flower Marble stamp set to make the marble look on the cards.  To stamp the images I used Momento’s  Flannel Gray, London Fog, and Tuxedo Black.  I used Spellbinders Die-D Lites for all the greetings.  I cut each die out 4 times, one of which I foiled using my Heidi Swapp Minc Machine and the other 3 I stacked together to create the dimension and then glued the foiled piece on top.   I created small white envelopes for each card.   The insides are blank.   FYI: This is a really cool stamp; however, this is not the most user friendly stamp.  All the videos I watched about the stamp do their best to make it easy to use by giving as many tips and tricks as they can. There is also some instruction sheet I saw on the internet but the stamp set (at least mine) did not come with those instructions.  I had a great deal of problems lining up some of the images, especially D3…ugh!!!  I almost gave up on that piece but I kept practicing until I got one that I could tolerate.  So, I am saying this to say just be patient.  Luckily, I wasn’t in a hurry and could take my time.  All-in-all at the end I was pretty okay with how my cards turned out.   I would still encourage you to give it a try.

 

Joyce