Tweet slimline birdhouse

Howdy and hello!  Today's project features several new products from the latest Scappy Tails Crafts release.  Have you had a chance to check out all the great new goodies from the Home Is Where Mom Is release?  You can see them all right HERE.

Let's take a look at my project.

How fun is this??  

I cut the main house die out of a piece of light purple cardstock.  Next I used the Slimline Woodgrain die to cut a light and dark piece of purple cardstock.  I glued the light purple layer onto the main house piece and then inlaid all of the dark purple pieces.  I trimmed off the ends that hung over at the top.  I used a dark purple ink and a blender brush to go around all the edges of the house panel.

Next I took the large heart and the letter dies from the Birdhouse die set.  I lined them up on the front of the house panel.  I ran the whole thing through my die cut machine and removed the cut pieces.  On the back side of the house panel I glued some gray cardstock just behind the letters.  I also cut the roof piece out of the same gray cardstock two times.  One piece I adhered straight to the panel.  The second piece I used a texture embossing folder on it to give it some, well, texture.  I added bits of foam tape only on parts of the back before adhering it over the piece on the house panel.  I rubbed my teflon folder over it so the cardstock would bend a little between the pieces of foam tape.  

Next I added silver splatters.  I also used the same silver to lightly paint the roof piece.

I cut another light purple panel using the main house die.  This will be the back.  I grabbed a stencil from my stash and applied purple ink with a blending brush.  This way it won't just be plain when you look through the heart shaped hole.

I set the panels aside and stamped out several elements from the Oopsy Daisy set and the Spring Birds set.  I used a Copic markers to color them all.  I scoured the internet for pictures of yellow birds.  I used a yellow Finch and a yellow Oriole as my inspiration.

I also can't stop using the adorable bees from Oopsy Daisy!  I added tiny touches of Unicorn Stickles to the bee wings and the flower centers.  

I cut the tweet word die out of gray cardstock 3 times and once out of metallic silver cardstock.  I glued all of the layers together.  I then played around with the placement of everything until I was happy with how it looked.  I cut two side panels out of the same purple cardstock and got to building!

I just love the Slimline Birdhouse Pop Up die!  It's so unique!

We've made it to the end of my post and I hope you found something you can't live without! ;-)Don't forget you can use the code STCBLOG10 for 10% off your order.

See you soon!

~Kristina

Supplies used:

Compensated affliate links may be used - I may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you should you make a purchase using my link.

Teflon bone folder Shop at: EH	Antiques Silver Spray - Altenew Shop at: Altenew	Neenah Solar White Shop at: SBC | EH	Tombow Mono Multi Liquid glue Shop at: SBC | EH
Tonic Studios-Retractable Craft Pick Shop at: SBC | EH	Silver cardstock - Lawn Fawn Shop at: SBC | EH	1/4 inch double sided tape Shop at: SBC	Zig 2-way glue pen Shop at: SBC | EH
Therm O Web Foam Tape Shop at: SBC | EH	Catherine Pooler Blending brushes Shop at: SBC | EH	Unicorn Stickles Shop at: SBC | EH	Cutter Bee Scissors - EK Success Shop at: SBC
Oopsy Daisy Stamps - Scrappy Tails Crafts Shop at: SCT	Oopsy Daisy dies - Scrappy Tails Crafts Shop at: SCT	Slimline Bird House Pop Up die - Scrappy Tails Crafts Shop at: SCT	Slimline Woodgrain die - Scrappy Tails Crafts Shop at: SCT
Spring Birds - Scrappy Tails Crafts Shop at: SCT	Spring Birds dies - Scrappy Tails Crafts Shop at: SCT

Metallic Alcohol ink slimline cards

Hello and welcome!  The other day I sat down to play with some new goodies.  I recently purchased the newest colors of alcohol inks from Marabu Creative.  They have been just sitting on my desk waiting for me to crack them open.  So...I did!  I used the new metallics and color shifts inks.  I also had a piece of Grafix Opaque Black Craft plastic to try out.

I really just started out for fun.  I wanted to see how the colors looked and moved on the Grafix Opaque black.  Let's take a look shall we?

Aren't they absolutely gorgeous?!  You can find the Grafix Opaque Black craft plastic HERE and the Marabu alcohol inks HERE

I let them dry completely overnight and came back to them the next day.  I happened to have a new die also laying on my desk (sense a theme here?) and I thought let's try it out.  And here is what happened!

If you enlarge the photo above you can see I added texture to some of the foil petals using a stylus.

I love getting two cards out of one piece!  I carefully inlaid all of the cut pieces and added die cut sentiments.  I was pretty pleased for something that started out just as a test piece.

Here they are together.

The die is from Divinity Designs and is called Slimline Flower Petal Background.  I'm glad you popped in today!

~Kristina

Supplies used:

Compensated affliate links may be used - I may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you should you make a purchase using my link.

Neenah Solar White Shop at: SBC | EH	Tombow Mono Multi Liquid glue Shop at: SBC | EH	Tim Holtz Idea-ology 8x8 Metallic - Confections Shop at: SBC	Tim Holtz Idea-ology 8x8 Metallic - Jewels Shop at: SBC
40lb Vellum Shop at: SBC | EH	Bold Thanks Die - Altenew Shop at: Altenew | EH	To A Dear Friend die - Creative Expressions Shop at: SBC	Glitter Cardstock Stack - DCWV Shop at: SBC

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