Paper Recollections

Today's card is a tri-fold shaker card designed in Cricut Design Space and features the Concord & 9th Brighter Days Stamp and Die Set. The first step in making this card was to design the tri-fold card in Cricut Design Space.  For the yellow card base, I used a 9" x 4.4" rectangle and placed a score line at 3.5 inches.  For the blue circular piece, I used a 5.5" x 4" rectangle and welded a 4" circle to the rectangle.  I added a score line where the rectangle and circle meet.  I curved the words "Sunshine" and Rainbows" around a 3.2" white circle and welded the text to the outer edge of this circle.  To create the red ring around the shaker elements, I used a 3.2 inch circle and sliced a 2.7 inch circle out of the center of the larger circle.  The white rectangles used for the front and inside panels measured 3.2" x 4" and 5" x 3.8" respectively. I stamped the inside white panel with the "Sending Sunshine and ...

Today's card features an alcohol ink background and a die cut flower from Tim Holtz's Wildflower Stems #2 die set.  I was inspired to get out my alcohol inks and make several backgrounds after watching Tim Holtz's alcohol ink Facebook live session.  I decided to turn one of the backgrounds into an anniversary card. To make the card, I cut a 5x7 piece of Yupo paper in half and applied Red Pepper and Sunshine Yellow alcohol inks.  I used blending solution along with Tim Holtz's handheld air blower to blend and mix the colors together.  I applied a silver metallic mixative and used isopropyl alcohol to separate it and thin it out.  I allowed the background to air dry a bit and then applied gold Deco Foil to the areas that were slightly tacky. I wanted a simple design for my card that allowed the background to be the main focus.  Out of red cardstock, I cut my favorite flower from Tim Holtz's Wildflower # 2 Sizzix die set.  I die cut an oval from gray card...

Today's layout features a paper from the My Mind's Eye On Trend 2 collection by Jen Allyson and Project Life die-cut shapes from the Explore collection.  The colors and gold accents on the paper and the die-cut shapes paired perfectly together. I used an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of gold foil cardstock and adhered the white side of the paper to the top 3/4 of the gold foil cardstock.  I found a coordinating striped paper in my stash and adhered it to the bottom of the gold foil cardstock.   I took the pink side of the paper and turned it on its side and adhered it to the dark green cardstock.  I cut thin strips of the gold foil cardstock and adhered them to the edges of the pink paper.  I used my 12 x 12 Tonic guillotine trimmer to cut off the pink paper that was hanging over the edge of the green cardstock. The 8.5 x 11 inch block of gold cardstock was glued to the center of the layout.  I placed the photo in the lower left corner of this block.  The P...

Today's card was designed in Cricut Design Space by combining a couple of free images.  Its simplistic design uses only three colors of cardstock and a small amount of foam tape.   In Design Space, I saw a Father's Day card that I wanted to recreate for my Dad, however, I wanted it to say Grandpa instead of Dad so I searched through Cricut Access to find images that could be used to redesign the card to suit my needs.  Here are the free images I used to design this card (Cricut Access image references can be found in the supply list).                I took the Grandpa font from the free Grandpa card, sized it down, and repeated it several times across the blue card front.  I replaced the profile of the man on the Dad card by a Cricut Access face of a Grandpa from a free Grandparent's Day image.  I used a couple of ovals to create the neck and shoulders.  I grouped these together with the face and sliced them...

This layout was inspired by a Shimelle sketch and came together quickly using papers and embellishments from the Jen Hadfield Home + Made collection.   I cut 7" squares from three different patterned papers.  I glued the three photos across a piece of black and white polka dot paper.  I used a strip of wood-grained patterned paper on the top of the layout and a strip of green arrow patterned paper at the bottom of the layout. I adhered the three squares of paper diagonally across the middle of the layout and then glued the photos across the center.   I embellished three of the corners with ephemera from the Home + Made collection.   I used a small piece of foam to pop up the butterflies in order to add a little dimension to the page.  I finished the page by adding a title towards the bottom made from chipboard Thickers.   I love the beautiful color combinations in this layout and can't wait to use some of the other patterned papers ...

This layout features the Amy Tangerine Slice of Life collection. When I saw the collection's This Town paper, I knew it would be a perfect background paper for the photos of the different places we visited while in Portland.  In order to make the photos stand out against the busy background paper, I toned it down by applying white gesso, Then, I painted over the gesso with Black Soot Distress Paint.  I sprayed the paint with a fine mist of water and let it dry overnight.  I matted the photos using the Fields of Gold yellow patterned paper and embellished the page with coordinating ephemera, cardstock stickers, Thickers, and flowers cut from the Flower Power paper. The glitter accents on the ephemera and stickers add the right amount of sparkle to the page.   This is such a vibrant collection and I can't wait to use it again. Enjoy The Now Supplies: American Crafts Slice of Life Collection by Amy Tangerine Paper - This Town, Fields of Gold, and Flower Power Ephem...

The weather has quickly turned from spring to summer and it is the perfect time to have a popsicle. Today's card was inspired by the Lawn Fawn I Scream, You Scream die set and a piece of popsicle paper from Amy Tangerine's Stay Sweet collection.   I wanted to mimic a tricolored popsicle on the Amy Tangerine Popsicle Summer paper. To make the popsicle, I ink blended Distress Oxide inks in the colors peacock feathers, abandoned coral, and spun sugar on Strathmore Bristol smooth cardstock. I die cut out the tri-blended popsicle shapes.  I also die cut the popsicle stick out of kraft cardstock and inked the edges in vintage photo Distress ink.  For the purple popsicle, I repeated the process using wilted violet Distress Oxide ink.  I die cut a stitched circle from a lime green piece of paper from the Stay Sweet collection.  The sentiments were made from a combination of Heidi Swapp sentiment stamps.  I heat embossed the "you are" sentiment in white on...

I finally had some time to experiment with my first Concord & 9th Turnabout Stamp Set.  I started out by stamping 4 different Distress Oxide inks onto white cardstock using the Sprinkles Turnabout stamp set.  The cupcake stamps included in this set were too small for the type of card I wanted to make, so I searched through my stash and found a Recollections Cupcake stamp and die set that I knew would be the perfect fit. I wanted to create a shaker card with sprinkles, so I used some small bugle beads in coordinating colors as the shaker bits.  I also made a coordinating card with some of the leftover cupcake die cuts and confetti background paper.  To add a little bit of sparkle, I brushed a Wink of Stella clear glitter marker over the pink frosting and sentiment. For the next set of cards, I wanted to go with a pastel color scheme.  I used the same colors of Distress Oxide inks but this time I stamped them on kraft colored cardstock.  To create the cup...