Monday, July 31, 2017

Sunshine, Freedom & a Little Flower- Guest DT at Quietfire Creations



I have the great honor of returning to Quietfire Creations as a guest dt today and this is the fun fold card with Quietfire Design's beautiful stamps and dies that I am sharing. To see the complete instructions and more photos, please visit the Quietfire Creations blog here.

Comments are always greatly appreciated:) Over there, so click and visit there please.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday. Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Oh my! Just had to share!



Shop Your Fav Brands at Scrapbook.com

I am so excited to share that I am now an affiliate with Scrapbook.com! I have been exploring their website and you won't believe the deals I found! So many fantastic sales - all Tonic and Nuvo on sale! Sizzix and Umbrella Crafts and WeR Memory Keepers also on sale to name just a few! Click on the picture above or on the side of my blog to begin exploring. Be sure to check out the "Coupons" tab to get a free magazine and sale info and also the New Products tab. And here is a direct link to my all time favorite glue- Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive- perfect for attaching dies cuts and anything else to our cards! And they have the new Tim Holtz Stamp Platform on sale right now for $36.99!  It really is the best stamp positioner on the market!

My order today shipped on the same day I ordered it and I am scheduled to receive it on Monday! What great service!

As an affiliate, I do make a little bit of commission when you click on some links in my blogposts or on my YouTube channel or the picture of either Scrapbook.com and Therm O Web on the side of my blog and then buy something. I will be re-investing what I earn into more new dies and stamps and cool products I can share with you here and in my new adventure opening soon. So Thank You!

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Fidget Spinner Birthday Card for my Grandson


My grandson, like all kids nowadays, loves his fidget spinner, so I created a birthday card with one that moves and spins especially for him. I printed the image off the internet on cardstock and cut it out. I die cut a channel with a die from Lawn Fawn called Slide on Over and put the spinner on a penny with several small pop dots. The fidget spinner spins and moves along the track. I printed up the sentiment and cut it out with a circle die. Here is another view of the spinner and also of the surprise on the inside:




I love interactive cards and so do kids, so I die cut a pop up happy birthday greeting from Concord & 9th called Party Pop Ups and personalized it with an alphabet die set from Tonic Studios. Here is the birthday boy and I frosting his favorite cake- note he is 11 and as tall as me now!



I am still working very hard on a major creative project that means I will not be blogging as much as usual until I get done. But it won't be long now until I will reveal my new adventure here on my blog and on my other social media accounts. In the meantime, thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday and Scrapy Land.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Watermelon Sweets Gift Boxes



Everyone loves watermelon and candy especially my grandkids! I made these candy boxes for them that look just like sweet pieces of watermelon, and am sharing how you can make them too using Tonic Studio’s Cake Slice Box Die and Nuvo Ebony Black Crystal Drops.


Supplies used to make this card:


Other: Fired Brick, Worn Lipstick and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide Inks, Tim Holtz Blending Tools, black checked ribbon, small glue dots, 1/8” red liner tape, paper towel, candy 

Here are the steps to make these watermelon sweets gift boxes:

1. Die cut two main cake slice box pieces out of thick white cardstock. (As you can see from the die set picture above, there are 16 pieces in this cake slice die set with lovely floral layers, but I am using the main cake slice and the round tag pieces only for this project.) Fold all scored lines on both pieces and apply very thin red liner tape to the thin side folds. Remove the cover on one of the skinny tape pieces and attach the two cake slice pieces together as shown:



2. Create the watermelon seeds by shaping them with Nuvo Ebony Black Crystal Drops on release paper. These could be done directly on the finished boxes, but it is easier to make a bunch of the watermelon seeds on release paper, let them dry and then apply your favorites to the completed boxes with a glue dot. The crystal drops seeds are larger than a typical crystal drop embellishment and take at least an hour to dry.


3. Sponge green Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide Ink along the top of the two attached box pieces and Fired Brick Distress Oxide Ink along the bottom of the box pieces. Fill in with Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide Ink blending with the red and leaving a little white under the green.


4. Spray the sponged pieces with water in Nuvo’s Light Mist Spray Bottle and blot with a paper towel. The water creates spots on the Distress Oxide inks as shown here:


5. Remove the last thin line tape piece and fold together to form the watermelon slice box. Seal the bottom of the box with Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive.




6. Attach the watermelon seeds with small glue dots.

7. Slide the tabs on the top of the box to close and tie a black checked ribbon bow through the holes after filling the box with candy.


8. The Dimensions Cake Slice Box Die Set includes a cute “Eat Me” tag that you can choose whether or not to include on your watermelon sweets gift box. I sponged a couple scraps of white cardstock with Fired Brick and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide Inks and die cut the scalloped stitched circle, the regular circle and the “eat me” sentiment out of a black scrap in my Tonic Tangerine die cutting machine. My orange die cutting plate is worn with thousands of cuts but it never bends and still cuts beautifully every time.


9. Attach the black sentiment circle to the red circle and then to the green scalloped circle with Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive, and then attach to one of the watermelon slice boxes. Fill the boxes with candy and the sweet watermelon treat boxes are done.


My grandchildren are going to love these sweet candy filled watermelon boxes. I hope they will think “they are the juice!” I was inspired to make them by the watermelon box shared on this blogpost using a different box die.

Monday, July 17, 2017

My Favorite of the Altenew Layered Floral Cards


I love this set of layered flower dies from Altenew and made one more card with it. The top layer was cut out of a pretty sparkly blue cardstock that is even prettier IRL. The second layer is a light blue subtle patterned paper and the card base is a bright yellow. Here is another look:


I die cut a pretty Happy Birthday using a new sentiment die from Memory Box for the inside of the card:
I am busy working on some deadlines and a new creative adventure along with some family visits, so there will not enough time to blog regularly. But I will be back soon so check back for more new cards, techniques and tips.

I am entering this card in the Altenew Facebook Anything Goes Challenge. If you like this card, please click on the link and give it a thumbs up. Thanks!


Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!

Saturday, July 15, 2017

Christmas in July 4 Kids at Send a Smile 4 Kids!

It’s Saturday and time for another fun challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids! This time our challenge is: Christmas in July 4 Kids! Create and link any Christmas holiday card appropriate for a child and you could win one of our great prizes.


We have two very generous sponsors for this challenge: Little Blue Button Stamps is giving their winner a $10 gift certificate! And the winner from Die-Versions receives a $15 gift certificate! TEAM S.A.S will also be choosing their favorite cards for our top three and the winners will receive a blog badge and an opportunity to be a guest design team member on a future challenge.

I printed a colored digi from Little Blue Button Stamps called Santa Bottlecaps for the featured image on my Christmas card. I started with a white A2 cardbase and embossed two shades of green cardstock in a Sizzix Christmas words embossing folder. I layered the vintage Santa scene on a scalloped red rectangle cut out with Tonic Studio's Mixed Rectanges. I attached a pretty snowflake ribbon die cut with a die from Poppy Stamps and added a gem to complete the card. 

Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Prayers Duo of Thoughtful Cards


I watched a video of Jennifer McGuire's recently and was fascinated with her idea of stamping on word dies and behind them so the image continues flawlessly. I do not have any alphabet dies like the ones she used, but tried the technique with a lovely "prayers" die and stamp set from Simon Says Stamp and a gorgeous stamp from Visible Image and love how the cards turned out.


I stamped the feather and birds stamp on 2 pieces of white cardstock using my stamp platform so the image was stamped in exactly the same place both times. I die cut "prayers" out of one of them and also out of white fun foam and glued them together. I stamped the prayers sentiment and attached the raised "prayers" in exactly the place where the stamped image was. Here is another example of this lovely technique:



Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

A Butterfly Hello


I have been fascinated lately with cards that feature alphabet letter dies that are cut out of the same designer paper and attached so the pattern continues on the letters and on the background. Does that make sense? Jennifer McGuire showed this technique in a recent blog post with a video tutorial here. I cannot afford the set of alphabet dies she used, but searched through my dies and found a block letter "hello" die from Kaisercraft that worked great. 

 I started with two identical pieces of pink floral designer paper from The Paper Studio. I die cut "hello" out of one of them and also out of black fun foam. I used my favorite glue from Nuvo (Deluxe Adhesive with the fine tip) to attach the pink floral hello to the black fun foam and then onto the card front so the flower pattern continues on both. I attached that piece to a black cardbase. Then I added some pink punched butterflies decorated with Ebony Black Nuvo Crystal Drops. Here is a close up look showing the dimension and a look at the inside where I attached another piece of the gorgeous floral dp with gold foil:





I am entering this card in the Layers challenge at Dies R Us and the Anything Goes challenge at Scrapy Land. (The "hello" die is from Kaisercraft.)

Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!

Monday, July 10, 2017

I Am Back and All Shook Up


Yeah- my blog issues have been solved thanks to my computer whiz friends, Michael and Sara! I have been very busy working on a new adventure in my creative life. Stay tuned here for my big announcement. But in the meantime, I am sharing a fun shaker card featuring Tonic Studios lovely Floral Blooms Patterned Panels Die Set and the perfect stamp set for shaker cards from Studio Calico. I simply cut out the Floral Blooms background out of a purple polka dotted cardstock, attached a layer of acetate behind it and two thin layers of mounting tape all around the back. I dumped in a bunch of chunky glitter and floral sequins and attached to an eggplant colored card base. I stamped "shake it" with purple ink and "you know you wanna" with black ink on a vellum strip and attached it with glue dots. The glue dots were covered up with gold floral sequins and I added a couple pink floral sequins for fun. Here's a peak of the card all shook up: 



I am entering this card in the Layers challenge at Dies R Us and the Anything Goes challenge at Scrapy Land.

Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!

Saturday, July 8, 2017

A Floral Hello Shaker Card on the Tonic Studios USA Blog


I have been wanting to try a tulle shaker card ever since I saw Jennifer McGuire do it in a video a while back. I created this see through shaker card with tulle and red, green and gold mirror card using Tonic Studios dies, stamps and embossing folders as well as their Christmas mirror card pack. Christmas colors now? Why not? For complete instructions and more pictures, please visit the Tonic Studios USA blog here. 

I love comments- especially when they are on the blogs I am designing for or guest dt for or on the AllFreePaperCrafts.com articles I have written.  So thanks so much for taking the time to leave some joy when you can.

I am entering this card in the Layers challenge at Dies R Us and the Anything Goes challenge at Scrapy Land, as well as the Win & Tonic Challenge.

Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Couple Things to Share



First the fun news:) A mixed media card I designed with Nuvo mousse on a gel press plate and other Nuvo and Tonic Studios products was published today here: https://www.allfreepapercrafts.com/Card-Making/Butterfly-Garden-Mixed-Media-Card/

Please click on the link to see the complete card and instructions and I would greatly appreciate it if you took a minute and left a comment there. You know how it is - the more clicks and comments, the more likely they will say yes to future articles. Thanks!

You may have noticed I have not been blogging as much as usual lately since my signature and many of my pictures on this blog and on my Send a Smile 4 Kids blog have been replaced with an ugly picture from Photobucket. I do not have an account there, but my computer whiz friends who helped set up those blogs did. Without warning, Photobucket decided to start charging a huge amount for accounts that were previously free. While my computer whiz friends try to find an alternative and fix the issues, I will not be posting new blog posts except when required.

Thanks for your continued support and understanding. I truly appreciate all of you who subscribe and follow my blog!


Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Glitter and Sparkles Guest DT at Quietfire Creations


I was so happy to meet Suzanne Cannon of Quietfire Designs at this year's Creativation (CHA) and when she asked me to be a guest design team member this month, I jumped at the chance. To see all the details of how I made this sparkly and glittery card, click on this link to the Quietfire Creations blog.

Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!





Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Happy 4th of July!



I have a quick card to share today on our nation's birthday. I received a pretty stars and stripes napkin from a friend and I thought it would be perfect for a 4th of July card. I was hoping my laminator would be hot enough to melt the cling wrap and hold the napkin in place, but it was not. (I had heard Mincs do work for this technique, so tried my less expensive laminator, but with no success.) So I pulled out my old iron, heated it up on dry high setting and ironed the napkin onto a piece of cardstock using cling wrap and a couple pieces of scrap thin paper. I die cut Happy 4th using Tonic Studios Windsor Numerals, Attraction Lower Case Scrip and Birthday Script dies. I die cut two gold stars with a Tim Holtz Sizzix Dimensional Stars die set. The stars pop up with great dimension as shown here:



I am entering this in the Red, White and Blue challenge at Monday Simon Says Stamp and the Anything Goes challenge at Wednesday Simon Says Stamp.


 Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!

 

Saturday, July 1, 2017

Birthday Fun 4 Kids at Send a Smile 4 Kids


It’s Saturday and time for another fun challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids! This time our challenge is: Birthday Fun 4 Kids. Create and link any birthday card appropriate for a child and you could win one of our great prizes.

We have two very generous sponsors for this challenge: So Suzy Stamps is giving their winner a $15 gift certificate! And the winner from Stampendous receives a $20 gift certificate! TEAM S.A.S will also be choosing their favorite cards for our top three and the winners will receive a blog badge and an opportunity to be a guest design team member on a future challenge.

My kid's birthday card features some sweet cupcake, ice cream and sentiment stamps from So Suzy Stamps. The cupcake frosting is colored with Nuvo Shocking Pink Neon Glow Drops and pops up on some labels cut with Karen Burniston's 1011 Katherine Label Pop Up Die. Here is a look at the inside of this fun interactive card:



The label pops up when the card is opened  and fits in the front label opening when it is closed. I cut another dotted label from the same Karen Burniston set of dies and printed a sweet sentiment from So Suzy Stamps on it. 

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at Wed. Simon Says Stamp and the Layers challenge at Dies R Us.

Stamping smiles 4 our kids,
Karen