Back to School for a New Teacher

It is time for a new challenge over at Retro Rubber Blog Challenge.  Check it out!

We have a brand spanking new teacher in our family, my niece who just graduated with a Master’s degree in Music Education.  She is off to a small town in Southeast Alaska and will be teaching choral, band, and orchestra to K-12!  The school colors happen to be green and yellow, hence the color choice of my card to send to her to congratulate her on her new job. 

First I reverse pressure embossed a section of Core’dinations green/black cardstock and sanded away to highlight the musical design.  Then I die cut it with Sizzix 560147 to create the scalloped card front.  The “back 2 school”, and “teacher” sentiments are from the Unity Smarty Pants set from September 2015.  The “new” is from a VERY old All Night Media Rubber Stamp Poet set that used to be foam mounted, it is from before 2000 if I am guessing right!  Amazingly you can still find it on eBay!  The images are stamped in Memento Cottage Ivy.  The die cut is from the same set as the scalloped card front.  I added a bit of paper twine with a knot on the front and then adhered the card together. 

This card will be in the mail very soon!

Do have some back to school fun yourself and join us at Retro Rubber Blog Challenge.

Hanging Charm Pull Tab Butterfly Card

The challenge at Imagine for August was to create motion and what better way to have motion in a card than to create a mechanical Pull tab card with a Vertigo Butterfly charm?  Making mechanical pop up and cards with motion is one of my favorite things to do.  The directions are organized to allow for the various dry times and maximize your crafting time to work on other steps during the process, but do check the pieces before proceeding to avoid smearing your project.  These cards are so fun to create and bring so much joy to the recipient. 

Level:  Intermediate

Time:  90 minutes plus dry time

Step 1

Trim a heavy weight cardstock to 5” x 6 ½”, this will fit a standard 6 Bar envelope.  Strathmore Bristol Board 100-pound weight is used throughout this project.  Position stencil and apply Creative Medium in a thin layer with a palette knife.  

Step 2

Apply various weights of glitter to Creative Medium and set aside to dry.  The Creative Medium will hold all kinds of fun embellishments in place. 

Step 3

Die cut mechanical parts of the Hanging Charm Pull Tab card: one base, two pull tabs, and two frames.  Before cutting one frame apply Xyron permanent adhesive to the cardstock for later assembly.  Die cut one butterfly charm from Taffeta Vertigo.

Step 4

Color butterfly charm with Fabrico Markers.  Pea Pod, Bubble Gum, and Wisteria are used here.

Step 5

Ink base mechanism with Memento Luxe Lilac Posies and an Ink Blusher.  Ink one pull tab with butterfly stencil and Memento Luxe Lilac Posies.  Ink both frames fronts with Memento Luxe Pear Tart and an Ink Blusher.

Step 6

Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for opposite edge of base and set aside to dry. 

Step 7

Trim corners of butterfly pull tab, cutting off the tabs.  This will now fit over the second pull tag perfectly when assembled.

Step 8

Trim a section of Taffeta Vertigo to 3 ¼” x 4 ½”.  This will be the base for the mechanism.  Gently place Tear It Tape on recycled plastic bag packaging and trim in half length-wise. 

Step 9

Tear It Tape is placed on the mechanism where shown, both long edges closest to the outside to allow the tabs to move along the track and behind the notched opening for the pull tab.  Center and apply to the Vertigo base.

Step 10

Apply Tear It Tape to open end of the mechanism.  There is a slight indentation to train the fold.

Step 11

Place tag with tabs through the notch and tuck tabs under mechanism.  Center in the slot and adhere mechanism to the tag. (This tag was spritzed with Fireworks! in Pear Tart but doesn’t really show in the finished card.)

Step 12

Spritz card base with Fireworks! in Pear Tart and set aside to dry.  

Step 13

Use metallic craft thread to fashion a hanger for the butterfly charm. 

Step 14

Tie a knot in the metallic thread just above the edge of the frame. (At first I tried to hide the knot and it pulled out of the frame!)  Lift the Xyron permanent adhesive liner and center thread.

Step 15

Center second frame over the adhesive and slowly remove liner to adhere the two sides of the frame together.

Step 16

Trim Tear It Tape length wise to fit the small sections on the front of the mechanism.  Place it between the two folds.  Adhere frame with butterfly charm.

Step 17

Pull mechanism into full upright position with tag fully extended out the back of the mechanism.  Apply Tear It Tape around the edges.  Adhere butterfly tag over the base pull tag.  A small section should extend past the bottom tag.

Step 18

Apply Tear It tape around the three edges of the Vertigo base opposite the mechanism.  Don’t put tape on the fourth edge as it will show when the tag is in upright position. 

Step 19

Open mechanism and stamp sentiment in StazOn ink.  Royal Purple is used here with a sentiment from Joy Clair’s Butterfly Kisses stamp set.

Step 20

Adhere Vertigo and mechanism to card base.  Punch a hole in the top of the pull tag and thread decorative fibers through the hole and loop to hold in place.

Imagine

Creative Medium

Memento Luxe—Lilac Posies, Pear Tart

Fabrico—Pea Pod, Bubble Gum, Wisteria

Fireworks!—Pear Tart

StazOn—Royal Purple

Ink Blushers

Palette Knife

Vertigo—Taffeta

Tear It! tape

Other

Strathmore Bristol Board 100 pound

Recollections—Glass Glitter

Art Institute and Pastel Glitters

Elizabeth Craft Designs—1104 Hanging Charm Pull Tab die, S022 Butterflies & Stars stencil

Joy Clair—Butterfly Kisses

Fibers from my stash

Step Birthday Card featuring the color Teal

What pre-teen boy doesn’t like blues, greens, and teals?  For our teal challenge this month at Imagine I wanted to try mixing two different Kaleidacolor ink pads to see if shades of teal could be created.  I think this card illustrates success!  

 Kaleidacolor Blue Breeze and Fresh Green are alternately brayered onto glossy 8 ½ “ x 11” cardstock taking care to have the lighter hues line up in the fade.  A light spritz of Ink Point No. 9 helps the inks blend neatly on the glossy cardstock.  Half of the sheet is die cut with the Sizzix Framelits Step Up Card die.  The remainder of the sheet is used to die cut the coordinating elements.  The gifts were cut twice each so the bows could be trimmed for contrasting colors then adhered with On Point Glue. 

A few days ago, I accidentally split part of a bottle of Fireworks! Dandelion on my craft mat, not wanting to waste this pretty ink I pressed Bristol Board cardstock into the inky mess and set it aside for later use.  This little incident provided the perfect contrasting color for the candle flames and my son’s name.  Each candle die cut is cut twice, once in Fireworks! Dandelion and once in the Kaleidacolor mix.  After trimming off the top to the top of the Kaleidacolor flames they are adhered together with On Point Glue.  The sentiment and cupcake layers adhered together with On Point Glue.   Some elements are popped up with dimensional foam adhesive.   The banner is held together with paper cord before it is adhered to the card front.  I am pleased with the results of my little experiment and think my soon to be twelve-year-old son will be too!

Imagine

Kaleidacolor—Blue Breeze, Fresh Green

Ink Potion No. 9

Fireworks!—Dandelion

On Point Glue

Other

Glossy cardstock

Sizzix—Framelits Step Ups 660142 by Stephanie Barnard

Judikens—Decorative Paper Cord

Brayer

Lifestyle Crafts—Stiletto Alphabet

Dimensional Foam Adhesive

Eighteen with Stick It Down

I am pleased to be sharing a new double page layout for Stick It Down.  We have great sketches to start with for every month.  Go check it out!  For August this is a great sketch for when you have just a few photos for an event.

My oldest son just turned 18!  We had a very small family dinner as it has been busy around here.  So I picked the 3 photos of 5 that he let me take on that day.

I decided to work with the red from his shirt and pulled out an old Fancy Pants Designs collection from 2009, Rough & Tough by lili.  I die cut a few circles from the collection with Elizabeth Craft Designs 1116 Stitched Circles for the background.  Clear Scraps Shattered Glass stencil and a bit of Bronze Creative Medium by Imagine added the grungy splattered look to the background red.  My first mats around the photos didn’t stand out well against the other patterned papers, so a very thin mat of black was added.  My really old Quickutz Newsclips alphabet came in handy to die cut the title.  Over all I am pleased with the simple layout, and am glad to have this memory preserved for his album!

Please stop out by Stick It Down and check out all the sketches for the month of August and come play along!  Thanks for stopping by!

Heartfelt Thanks for Retro Rubber

We have another fun challenge for you at Retro Rubber BlogChallenge, colors that are often associated with another season but are used for a summer project.  Please join us and have a little fun!

I went with just the three colors: white, Candy Red, and Pearlescent Ivy for this thank you card.  I used Fancy Pants Designs Bella Brush set.  This set was a sheet of 12” x 12” acrylic stamps, and it was retired for several years when I bought it in about 2008.  So many options and I’ve not even scratched the surface!  I started with some foliage stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  Next I added in a few of the flowers in Brilliance Rocket Red but heat embossed with Candy Red embossing powder.  The sentiment is from Inkadinkado Thanks set from 2011, which is stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  Elizabeth Craft Designs 1120 Stitched Rectangles provide the perfect frames for the stamped images.  I added a bit of SEI bakers twine across the top and threaded it through the little pierced holes.  A tiny bow attached with a glue dot finishes off the top layer.  I love the shimmer of the Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy which I inked on with an Ink Blusher.  The card base has the Brilliance Rocket Red to add the last little zing of color for the card. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Do go visit Retro Rubber and play along with our challenge.  Remember to use at least one stamp that is more than a year old and let us know how long you’ve had it in your stash!  Enter up to 10 challenges including ours and you are good to go!