Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Floral Hello

Happy Wednesday!  Today you'll find me posting over on the Dies R Us blog.  I have a sparkly, monochromatic any occasion card to share with you.  I do hope you will check out all the details.  Click HERE for the post.


Have a fabulous day!
~Kristina

Friday, February 22, 2019

AECP Level 1 Final Challenge

Hi there fellow crafters!  As you all know, I have been working my way through level 1 classes for the Altenew Educator Certification program.  Well, now it's time for my challenge level so that I can graduate to level 2.  Here it goes!

The requirements I was given were fairly straight forward.

1)  Pick any 3 components from any level 1 classes
2)  Create two cards.  One suitable for a birthday/graduation/encouragement.  The other one, something suitable for teenagers or men.

Seems simple enough, right??  LOL.  I *may* have stressed out a bit but I final got a plan laid out and I felt much better.

I think the thing that helped me out the most was the notes that I took during each class.  Anything that popped out at me or seemed important got written down.  Complete with some quick idea sketches if they came to me.  I pulled it out and started flipping through it.  I went over it until I decided which components appealed to me the most.  I will explain them as I go along but I thought you might like to see what my notebook and card plans look like.  You'll have to excuse my messy writing!


Now that I had a plan, it was on to execution!

I started with the masculine card as those are always more of a challenge for me.  My components come from Let it Shine, Easy Die Cutting Techniques and Irresistible Inking Techniques.  The major component I'm using on both cards is inlaid die cutting.  It is one of the techniques shown in the Easy Die Cutting Techniques class. This is the process of cutting a die out of the paper but then putting it back in place.  You can put the exact same piece back in OR you can put something totally different in it's place.  I chose to put different pieces back instead.  Let's see it in action.

Before I could get to the fun part, I had to do a fair amount of planning, measuring and marking on my card stock.


I needed to make sure that my dies were going to be straight across and an even distance from the edge of both sides of the card stock.  Tip-Keep the lines as light as possible and have a kneadable eraser close by.  I find these work the best for erasing my lines easily.  Once I had all of my marks in place, I moved on to adding the dies.  I am using the Caps Bold Alphabet die set for all of my letters.


Even though I planned on using my magnetic base plate in my die cut machine, I still used a low tack tape to hold the dies in place.  I need my placement to be just perfect.

Here is my panel once I had all of the letters cut out.


I put all of the gray letters away but kept out the center for the Os, the A and the R.  I'll need them once I start putting it all together.  Now, I needed the pieces to fill the die spots.  For this I'll be using some white card stock and burgundy card stock.  Both of these were cut to A2 size.  I laid the Pattern Play - Hexagon stamp on top of my card stock I had in my Misti.  Then I closed the door to pick up the stamp.



Next I inked it up with Altenew Silver Stone gray ink.  I stamped it a total of three times to make a nice and crisp image.  Next I used some anti-static powder all over the burgundy card stock.  Then I put it into the Misti.  I did use a bit of temporary adhesive on the back of the card stock to hold it in place while I worked.  Here is where I am incorporating another component from a class.  This one comes from Let it Shine.  It showed how you can add a bit of extra shine to a card pretty easily by using metallic embossing powders.  I inked up the Pattern Play -Hexagon stamp with the sticky Versamark ink this time.  I removed the card stock from my Misti and held it over a large coffee filter.  Then I liberally sprinkled silver embossing powder over it until I had it completely covered.  Tip-using a large coffee filter to catch your embossing powder makes it really easy to put the powder back in the jar.  Not to mention you can use it over and over again!

I let my heat gun warm up for a few minutes so I could melt the powder with a minimum of heat.  This helps to protect your card stock from warping.  Now I had my two panels ready to die cut my letters out of.  I didn't need to worry as much about spacing but I was very careful to keep them lined up.  I wanted the stamped patterns to line up as much as possible once I put them in the gray card base.

Now it was time to incorporate my third component.  This one comes from the Irresitible Inking class.  Direct to paper inking or stamping.  It has been around a really long time but I admit that I forget to use it!  It really is easy to do AND adds a bit something extra.  In my case, it also helps my letters to pop out from the base panel.  I took my mini Vineyard Berry ink cube and rubbed on all the edges of the white letters.  I also rubbed it a bit more generously on the original gray card panel.  I love getting inky!  You should probaby wash your hands before you move on - don't want to mess up your project!



Here is the test run of putting the pieces into the panel.



Now it's time to put it all together!  Before I reveal the front, I wanted to show you the work I did on the backside of the panel.


I used low tack tape to keep the letters in place.  When I go to put it on a card base, the letters won't fall out!  I also decided to add foam tape to the three burgundy letters as I really wanted them to stand out.  Then I mounted the complete panel onto an A2, to fold gray card base.  As I final touch, I stamped the numbers 2019 on a very small piece of gray card stock.  I went around the edges with the Vineyard Berry ink pad, added foam tape and put it on top of the Y.  Here is the completed card!


While I chose to make it a masculine graduation card, you could take of the year and easily turn it into a birthday card or an encouragment card!




It was really had not to add any extra bling but I absolutely love how it all came together.  Now let's move on to card number two.  I am going for a same but different vibe.  Let's make a feminine version!

This one went together a lot quicker.  Before I put my gray card I used the panel with the open letters to trace the letters onto three other pieces of card stock.  I chose light coral, dark coral and ivory.


It made it super easy to line up my dies!  Plus it gave me an idea of the area I would need to cover with stamping for the letter dies I would be putting back in place of the light coral card stock.



I picked three small stamps from the Adore You stamp set.  I randomly stamped a pattern on the ivory card stock using the Pink Pearl mini ink cube.  For the dark coral card stock, I randomly stamped the same three stamps but this time I used Versamark ink.  I did apply anti-static powder before stamping.  This time I chose to use a gold embossing powder.  Again, don't forget to let your heat tool warm up to minimize the warping as you melt the powder.  After that I went around the edges of the ivory letters and the light coral card stock with the Coral Bliss mini ink cube.


Now to put all the pieces of this card together.  I pretty much repeated the same process I used on the gray card.  Put the ivory letters in place, put the light coral centers in place and tape them on the backside to hold them.  Added foam tape to the dark coral letters.  I then glued the panel onto and A2 sized, top folding, light coral card base.  Then I peeled the backer off of the foam tape and carefully lined them up on the panel.  Check out this beauty!




And here they are side by side.


Thanks for hanging in with me all the way to the end!  

Crafty hugs to you all,
~Kristina

Supplies used:

Pattern Play - Hexagon stamp set
Pattern Play - Hexagon stamp set
Shop at:
Altenew
Adore You stamp set
Adore You stamp set
Shop at:
Altenew
Caps Bold Alphabet die set
Caps Bold Alphabet die set
Shop at:
Altenew
Tea Party 4 mini ink cube set
Tea Party 4 mini ink cube set
Shop at:
Altenew
Rock Collection 4 mini ink cube set
Rock Collection 4 mini ink cube set
Shop at:
Altenew

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

With Sympathy

Hi gang!  It's my turn over on the Dies R Us blog today.  Come on over and check out all the details.  Two for one sympathy cards.  You can find the post right HERE


Hope to see you over there.
~Kristina



Sunday, February 10, 2019

Just a Note

Howdy to all my crafty friends!  Thank you for stopping by today.  I completed my next class in the Altenew Educator Certification program.  This one is called Irresistible Inking Techniques.  It is filled with several great ways to add ink to your projects.  It was really hard to choose which one I liked the most!  I decided to use stamp block inking as my main technique since I haven't done that more than once or twice before.  I also used some direct to paper inking techniques.  Check out this beauty!


Let me walk you through the steps of how I created this card.

First I cut a strip of Canson watercolor paper to 1 3/4" x 4 3/4".  The width of my piece had been deteremined by the acrylic block I planned to use for the stamp block inking technique.  My block measures 1 1/2" wide.  I chose to use the four different shades of brown inks included in the Altenew Coffee Break mini ink cube set.  

I started with Sand Dune.  I just stamped it all over the block, spritzed it a few times with water and then laid it down on the watercolor paper.  I applied pressure and held it there for a bit so the ink could soak into the paper.  Then I pulled it off and dabbed up any excess water that I didn't want.


I stamped with the Sand Dune ink twice and worked my way through the other three colors until I had covered the strip of paper.


I set the strip aside to air dry.  I moved on to the background.  I cut another piece of watercolor paper down to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  I laid the Leaf Burst stencil on top and taped it to the paper.  I do want to mention that I actually used the less textured side of the paper for this step.  I had also tried it with the rough side but got a better result with the smoother side.


I squished the Rocky Shores ink cube down onto my craft mat several times.  Then I sprayed it liberally with  a pearl shimmer spray.  I mixed it together and applied it lightly over the stencil with a flat watercolor brush.    A round brush would work just as well.  Here it is after I removed the stencil.


I used my heat tool to dry it so I could move on to the next step.  I mixed a bronze metallic acrylic paint with water until it was thinner.  Then I used a larger round brush to tap against a block to create a splatter all over the background.  I did use a splatter box for this because I was really making a mess!


I just love the extra shimmer and interest it adds to the panel!  I set it aside to dry.  Next I had a couple thin strips of watercolor paper that I wanted to watercolor to match the other colors.  I squished the Espresso ink pad on my craft mat and added water.  I then painted the color onto two different strips.  I wanted one to be darker than the other so I dried it and painted it again three times.


Now I went back to my original block watercolored piece.  I went over it with anti-static powder first.  Next I stamped one of the flowers from the Wonderland stamp set with Versamark ink.  Then I sprinkled on a rose gold embossing powder and melted it with my heat tool.


The rose gold embossing powder just went so well with these colors!  The inks are definitely brown when you stamp with them directly.  It's when you add the water that the pink undertone really shines through!

Now to put it all together.  I did go around the edges of the background panel with the Espresso ink  before I glued it onto a white A2 sized card base.  Next I cut the darker strip of watercolor paper to be shorter than the other one.  I did cut it at an angle to give it a little more interest.  I glued it close to the left side of the card.  Then I glued the lighter strip on top of it.  I went around the edges of the floral panel with the Sand Dune ink, applied foam tape to the back and glued it over the strips.

The sentiment also comes from the Wonderland stamp set.  It was too big for the area I wanted to put it so I carefully cut it apart.  I was then able to stack the sentiment instead.  I stamped it using black Versafine ink.  It's still my favorite black ink for dark and crisp black sentiments.  For my finishing touch I added a couple of Copper Penny Nuvo drops to the floral panel.  All done!



This finishes up all of my classes for level 1.  Now I get to see what my challenge project will be!  Eep!  Thanks for stopping by today.

~Kristina

Supplies used:
Wonderland Stamp Set
Wonderland Stamp Set
Shop at:
Altenew
Leaf Burst Stencil
Leaf Burst Stencil
Shop at:
Altenew
Coffee Break Mini cube set
Coffee Break Mini cube set
Shop at:
Altenew