Interactive – My Crafts are Like a Box of Chocolates

Art Deco Cupcake Celebrate Card

July 1, 2019 beccreates1

It’s the last Crazy 4 Challenges of the month! I’ve seen so many fun fold cards around lately that I decided we would make trifold cards this week. There are a lot of different types so if you play along, find one you like and join us!

c4c 19 trifold cupcake

If you’ve never made a trifold card before, it has at least 3 panels and 2 folds. Mine is made with a white card base and an aqua card base nested together. The front of the white card base is cut with the same die as the black cardstock. This makes it see through. I added some gold glitter vinyl to the inside. I was inspired to go for this art deco look because the cupcake set from Altenew included sentiments in a font that looked art deco to me. Then I remembered this die by Hero Arts from a previous card kit.

c4c 19 trifold cupcake2

I was also inspired by see-through cards by Jennifer McGuire. The open area in the cover die made it kind of flimsy which is why I used two layers of cardstock but adding the cupcake helped too. There is a second cupcake die cut behind the front cupcake so the cover die is sandwiched between them. I hope that makes sense. Then I also added a plain cupcake die inside the card with the fun sentiment! To get it lined up, lay the card open on your table and place the sentiment die cut face down on the back of the front cupcake die cut. Make sure it already has adhesive on it. Then close the card while leaving the front panel on your table. It should stay lined up perfectly.

c4c 19 trifold cupcake3.jpg

For finishing touches, I added a celebrate die cut to the inside and some gold confetti to the cover die. I thought the confetti really added to the art deco vibe. If you are interested in trying some trifold cards, check out the links over at C4C. I found a ton of inspiration on Jennifer McGuire’s blog so pop on over. I hope you’ll find one you line and join us this week!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Cards

Welcome to a New Year!

January 5, 2019 beccreates1

And a new challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges! This week we were asked to make our favourite kind of card. My faves are always interactive, in particular shakers, and summertime themed. I combined both into this card.

This fun little shaker element uses dies from WPlus9, Making Waves. There is enough room for some foam under the top edge of the waves so I could make the shaker with two different colours of fillers. The top has plain white confetti and the bottom has a mix of sequins and beads from Lucy’s Little Things. I created a circle mask for the sun. If you do this, be sure to keep the negative portion of your mask too as you will need it. The circle part to keep the sun white while you ink the sky and the surrounding paper to keep the yellow for the sun from getting into the blue sky.

The little fishy is from an older Echo Park die set with a sailboat. The sentiment is from Hello Summer from Neat & Tangled, both the die and stamp. I make summer cards even in the winter, clearly, so I agree 100%.

I hope you will join us at C4C for this first challenge of the year. What challenge could be easier? Actually, I had to decide what was my favourite! I do have a lot. That’s why this blog is called what it is! I can never decide what my favourite is! I thought about making a shabby chic or vintage card. Or maybe one with watercolouring. Or how about some Copic colouring? ooh, or maybe some Prismacolour or Faber-Castell pencils? oh, I know, what about a mixed media masterpiece? See, hard for me to decide! I went with using a new-to-me stamp set and die.

Thanks for reading. Please pass my blog address on to anyone else you know who enjoys card making! I’ve got a HUGE bunch of cards I made this week to show you using the October Spellbinders Watercolour Card Kit. Can you believe I got 13 made with one kit and have a ton left? Never mind the stamps and dies which never run out! What a value! Stay tuned…

Enjoy, Rebecca

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Time for Fiesta!

May 5, 2018 beccreates1

Last month Hero Arts sent a really fun Mexican-themed card kit. When I first saw it, I was hesitant as it really isn’t my style. But I get card kits for a reason, to challenge myself, and the images looked fun to colour. Also, the large ornate die was amazing!

My kids had been begging me to make a Chibitronics card so I combined the kit with some fun lights. The concept was that in the day, the sun in the desert is so hot, it’s practically white hot. But later in the day, it glows orange as it sets. The mouse is coloured with Rather than colour the cacti, I used Distress inks, some Oxide, some regular, to sponge on some colour. After, because the Oxide somewhat covered the stamped lines, I re-stamped using my MISTI.

In this photo, you can see that pulling out the tab both completes the sentiment and actives the lights with a switch. I’m not thrilled with the obvious three lights rather than an overall diffused light so I may try to add some vellum over the two layers of tissue I used to see if I can get it to diffuse more. Once you get the switch set up properly, it works really well.

I’m not into scrapbooking much anymore though I always intend to go back to it some time. I kind of stalled out after my second son turned about 18 months. I never got a decent photo of him because he was obsessed with my camera; so every photo has his face next to the lens, massively blurred out, his arm in front of his face as he reached for the camera or was crying from being told he couldn’t have the camera! But it is International Scrapbook Day so I thought I’d wish you a good one!

Enjoy, Rebecca

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Happy World Card Making Day! 2 Mini Product Reviews

October 7, 2017 beccreates1

Crazy 4 Challenges is happy to have a challenge right on WCMD! Awesome right? For such a happy celebration, our host this month, Bonnie Sharp gave us the best challenge of all! Just make a card! Since that’s what we all usually do, though tags, ATCs, packaging, mixed media pieces and other crafts are all allowed, it made creating super fun!

It only made sense to create a happy celebration card to go along with this holiday! (I wish it was an official holiday! Wouldn’t that be cool!) I used some balloon dies by MFT and my Gansai Tambi water colours to create the balloons on Bristol smooth paper. I added some foil by using a brush (an old one) and some glue that dries tacky. The kind you can use to make your own glue dots. Ooh, note to self: adding this glue in dots would have made for pretty foiling too! I am usually foiled by whatever foiling technique I use. But I love it so I was determined to get it to work. I’m quite happy with the perfectly imperfect way this turned out, exactly as I had pictured in my mind before starting. The frame was created with some fun Happy Day dies by Concord & 9th. It’s easier to show you than to describe them.

So, see how there is an outer frame then an inner one with a section missing? It allows you die cut a second time adding in either the flower die OR the happy die! Cool right? It’s partial die cutting ON PURPOSE! What??? 🙂 In addition they have another set with a similar love add on and it includes a smaller frame, the word fits in a landscape position. If you are wondering how versatile dies like this are, you have to watch their excellent videos. Another C&9th set includes the word ‘Day’ which I die cut from some Tim Holtz glitter paper. I added the word to the bottom left, tossed in some sequins (Lucy’s Cards) along with some Martha Steward micro beads and dotted on some silver glitter Nuvo drops. Ta da! All done!

So back to the Tim Holtz glitter paper. It doesn’t shed at all, not even a bit. Which is awesome. But I smile every time I see glitter on my cheek so that’s not as big a deal for me as it is for some people. It is very thin so you’d think it would be easy to die cut. Nope! Unless you back it with cardstock, which kind of negates it being thin and self-adhesive, it refuses to cut cleanly. If you look at the bottom of the paper in your die you will think it’s cut cleanly. But that’s just the backing paper. It would work well with steel rule dies I’m sure but I have very few of those. My final thoughts; I will use it up but likely not buy any more.

Enjoy! Rebecca

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Let’s Make an Interactive Card!

September 24, 2017 beccreates1

This was my challenge on Crazy 4 Challenges this week! I love making them so I’m thrilled there are so many dies and stamps coming out to make creating them easier!

So for my card this week. I channeled my inner Sandy Allnock. She creates the most awesome backgrounds for the stamped images she colours. It was actually pretty fun to add ink to the entire image. The park bench took me a while to draw, I had to remember all the lessons I’ve read about perspective and vanishing point! It would have been much easier to create a background if the two dogs could kiss without one being up higher than the other. Because her face is tilted up, she needed to be lower than him so he needed to be up on something. I thought of a rock first but that was too boring.

Don’tcha just love his blushing cheeks! I created the slider with out using dies. I just drew two lines with pencil, added a curved line at each end by using a small circle die then cut it all out with a craft knife. A die would be much easier but it worked out just fine. The dogs and sentiment are by Avery Elle from the More Furry Friends set.

Come on over and join us this week at Crazy 4 Challenges. If the linky isn’t working, just add you link to the comments.

Enjoy, Rebecca

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A Glittered Hello

September 9, 2017 beccreates1

It’s my second week hosting over at the Crazy 4 Challenge blog! This week I chose glitter as my challenge! You get bonus points for using more than one kind/colour or use it in more than one way!

I was inspired to make a shaker card using two Project Life cards and some little embellishments that came with the kit. The shaker was sewn shut with acetate on top using my sewing machine. I sewed it about 2/3 of the way shut then added the little chipboard pieces, sequins and glitter then finished sewing it closed. The chunky glitter unfortunately blocks the view of the goodies inside but I found with another shaker I made that the static dies down after a while. I’ve no idea why but that shaker looked amazing after the glitter settled. Even IRL it looks better than it does here.

I also used glitter in another, more subtle way. If you look closely at the aqua heart, it has a glitter star inside it. I added some bits of doily under the smaller PL card and a tulle puffy bow over the whole card. At the very bottom is a stamp from a new set I bought recently. Heffy Doodle is a new company who recently sold their first stamps via Kickstarter! What a great idea! The little stamp seen below is just one of dozens of small stamps meant to accompany all the awesome shaker cards we’ve all been making lately! So smart. I have a set like this but it is tiny and not nearly as cute! I highly recommend you check them out.

I hope you’ll pop over and play along with my challenge. If you hate glitter, use glitter embossing powder, a glittered embellishment or glitter paper. Jennifer McGuire had a great post earlier this week with some ideas to corral glitter. My own card was shedding quite a bit from between the stitches so I sealed the edges with some glossy accents. Just a tiny bead where the acetate met the paper. Ta Da! All better!

Enjoy, Rebecca

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Penguin Wobble & Shaker Card

April 8, 2017 beccreates1

You know how a duck seems so still above the water but is paddling like mad underneath? That’s how I feel lately! I’ve been working really hard on cards for the SplitcoastStampers Dirty Dozen but I can’t show them here yet. I can’t wait until I can! (Want to see them now? Sign up today!) My blog totally doesn’t reflect all the work I’ve done and cards I’ve made! I haven’t forgotten about all you faithful readers! I promise!

Today however, I have a cute card for you for Crazy 4 Challenges. Our theme is zoo animals or just animals in general if you don’t have any wild ones.

This is a super fun, double interactive card! The penguin looks slightly distorted because he is perched atop a Wobble Spring! This one for some reason seems to angle upwards with the head close to the card base and the bottom up in the air! (maybe I played with it a little too much??? hee hee!!!) The ice floe was hand drawn, I don’t have a stamp to use for it but I think it turned out ok!

Who says you have to stop with just one fun thing to play with on your card? I added a shaker to this card as well! It’s even a double sided shaker. What you see through the window is the inside of the card. To make it look finished inside, I added a reverse ice floe behind the one on the front. I just traced the first one flipped over and drew in the interior lines. When I write a message I’ll use the inside ice floe and the mirrored space next to it (where you would usually write your message) and just be careful that my writing doesn’t go into the shaker area. But my 5 yo insisted and I make him a card (he made me one) so this may be appropriated well before I have a chance to send it to anyone else.

The shaker is full of snowflakes, blue and silver sequins, tiny silver confetti and some clear gems that to me look like ice PLUS a couple of penguin friends for my wobble penguin! I hope you had fun seeing my card! Do you have time to play along with us this week! I sure hope so because this was so fun! (Have I said it enough?? Fun Fun FUN!!!) If you get the SSS card kit, this penguin was in this month’s kit along with some other adorable WILD!! critters!

Enjoy, Rebecca

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Coffee Cup Spinner Card

February 15, 2017 beccreates1

I LOVE making spinner cards. Some require a lot of detailed and difficult measurements and cuts. They can be worth it but I think the best ones are the simplest. This one requires almost no planning and no measuring!

All you have to do is cut or die cut 2 symmetrical images or shapes, sandwiching a thin cord or two strands of thread in between using strong adhesive. Next cut a window in the front of your patterned paper. Then layer your patterned paper on your cardstock and die cut the cardstock layer too. Use some temporary adhesive or washi tape to hold it together if you need to but don’t permanently adhere it together. Once the window is die cut, take apart the layers. Again using strong adhesive, lay the thread or cord on the cardstock as shown. Lastly, adhere the patterned paper down.

Now for the fun part! Before placing the card in the envelope, twist the image around about 6-8 times. Don’t over twist or your thread might pull from the adhesive and get a bit slack. I’m not usually into the little cutesy faces but the paper was adorable so I figured the coffee cup should match!

Enjoy, Rebecca

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Guess What? New Design Team!

January 20, 2017 beccreates1

I am thrilled to announce that I was asked to be on the Splitcoaststampers Dirty Dozen Design Team! The alumni are some of the biggest names in stamping and I feel so privileged!

I also had a tutorial and video for a Surprise Shaker Card for SCS a couple of weeks ago and I hope you will check it out. You can see another card I made in this style Twins Surprise Shaker. You might also want to check out my SCS Gallery!

Enjoy, Rebecca

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NEW! A Fun New Type of Shaker Card!

December 5, 2016 beccreates1

I have a new shaker card for you today, one I invented. Or at least I’ve never seen it anywhere. Neither had Dina of Splitcoast Stampers who has scheduled me in for a tutorial the first week of January! So exciting.

Fortunately for me, I don’t have to wait for my tutorial to come out to show you my idea! This is a card I made for a friend who had twin baby girls. Before you open the shaker portion, this is what the card front looks like.

Here you can see the shaker emerge as the front panel is removed. The shaker window is underneath it.

And finally with the front panel fully removed, you can see the entire shaker. I filled the shaker with lots of sequins and confetti, a bit too much really. The little onesies are held by stretchy clear jewelry cord (clear thread works just as well) so they don’t go sideways or upside down. That idea came from Jennifer McGuire. I did find that they don’t move much as the sequins underneath them hold them in place so next time, if I use larger items held in my the clear stretchy cord (like the onesies), I will use a double layer of fun foam.

I thought this was a clever idea and I hope you do too. Please share this idea on your blog and share the link with your friends as long as you give me credit. Please keep on eye out for my Splitcoast Stampers tutorial and video on the first Wednesday of January!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Altenew Baby Zoo, Card Directions-Clear Dollar Stamps (pull)
Ink: Versafine black
Paper: Echo Park
Accessories: tab die-PTI, stitched rectangles-SSS, sequins-Lucy’s Little Things, confetti-Martha Stewart, fun foam, clear jewelry cord-Michaels, onesie die-Lifestyle Crafts