Background Inspired Card Using Altenew Vintage Roses

Hello. I created this card to participate in Altenew's July 2018 Inspiration Challenge. One of the things that motivate me in cardmaking is to work for the products that I like and want. I do that by joining blog challenges.

I am giving layered stamps another try. I am using the Altenew Vintage Roses stamp set. I wanted to create a background using this beautiful flower stamp set. To help me out, I Google'd blue gray rose background and chose from the images which one I feel is close enough to the design I want to create.

Here is where the struggle starts. I stamped the Vintage Roses on gray cardstock using various inks from what I have on hand. I always have difficulty lining this layered stamps. I know you come up with an artsy look if the layered stamps are not lined up. The problem is I have OCD,  and I don't want to go for the artsy look. Let me tell you, after stamping a lot of these layered Vintage Roses, I gave up on the project. I even thought about giving this stamp set and coordinating die away. But knowing myself, I also don't give up easily. Maybe I just need to walk away for a minute and think of how I can make it right. So, I changed my ink color choices and just stuck to one rose. I stamped this  rose multiple times using the Misti Stamping Tool. After all, I am a not really good layering stamp stamper, might as well make multiples while I am at it.. I also stamped the stemmed leaves but I only used the base and one layer to make the stamping quick and simple since I am running out of time before the challenge ends.

I die cut the roses and the stemmed leaves using the coordinating die. I positioned the roses and the leaves on a 4 1/4"x5 1/2" dark gray cardstock. When I was happy with the placement of the roses and the leaves, I used a Glad Press N' Seal to pick up the flowers and leaves off the cardstock to keep the placement intact in the lay-out.

Using a Simon Says Stamp Tiny Dots stencil, I pounced a mini dauber to apply Avery Elle Silver Fox pigment ink to the tiny dot openings on the dark grey cardstock. Once I was done with the whole panel, I set this aside to dry.

Going back to the roses and leaves, I applied glue on the back of the stemmed leaves and foam tape to the exposed back of the roses. I lifted this up carefully and placed it on top of the dotted grey cardstock. I lifted off the Press N' Seal gently. Some of the leaves fell off with the transfer. I just tucked it back in place and put more adhesive. I added more foam tape to the back of the roses to keep the dimensions even on all of the flowers.

For the sentiment, I used the Altenew Super Script stamp set. I heat embossed this sentiment three times to make it more raised. I used a Misti Stamping Tool for precise stamping. The first two times I heat embossed the sentiment, I used Hero Arts Silver Embossing Powder. The third and last time, I used Wow! Primary Blue Topaz embossing powder just to add a little blue tint to the silver color. I fussy the sentiment leaving a small border around it. I used a craft knife to cut inside the loops of some of the letters. I adhered this on a vellum and fussy cut around the sentiment leaving a border around it also.

For the secondary sentiment, I am using the Label Love stamp set. I heat embossed this on vellum using Hero Arts Silver embossing powder. I uses a Ranger Guillotine paper trimmer to cut straight the embossed sentiment. To make the sentiment pop since it tends to get lost on the embossing, I traced the letters with a small tipped white marker.

I adhered the sentiments on the center of the flowered background using foam adhesives. I trimmed a bit off the edges and adhered this to a 4 1/2"x5 1/2" vellum. To finish off the card, I adhered this to a white top folding A2-sized notecard.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Have a blessed, brilliant and creative day!

Maria Giselle

I am sharing this creation at

Altenew Card Blog

#Altenew

Repeated Embossed Tri-Panel Image Card

Hello! This card is created for my 3rd son who is celebrating his 12th birthday on Sunday. One of his passions is geography, thus, explains the map as being the focal point of the card. I am also creating this card for Concord & 9th's Mixed Media Challenge.

I am using the Concord & 9th Map Love stamp set. I got this as a free item as part of the order. Unfortunately, this stamp set is now unavailable. I am using a Ranger Watercolor paper, using the smooth side for better image impression. I am using the Misti Stamping Tool as well since I will be stamping this image multiple times with a Versamark ink. I treated the area with an anti-static pouch. I stamped the image then poured Wow! Metallic Gold Rich Pale Regular embossing powder over the impression. I heat set this making sure that the heat gun is warm enough before zapping heat on the powder. I allowed this to cool down and repeated the process two more times. For the fourth stamping, I switched to a The Essential Glue pad and a Wow! Metallic Gold Rich Ultra High embossing powder but I just poured the embossing granules on certain areas of the image to add texture to the embossed image. I repeated this one more time.

I ink blended Tim Holtz Black Soot Distress ink on the background. I inked the background about three times. I buffed off the ink from the embossed image using a cloth. I heat set to dry the background being careful not to apply heat to the embossed image.

I picked up some color from the Finetec Pearl Colors paint and placed it on an acrylic block. I flicked this on to the inked panel using a paint brush. I set this to dry.

I trimmed a patterned paper from My Mind's Eye to 5 1/2"x4 1/4". I trimmed the map panel into 1 3/4"x3" to create a tri-panel map. I had to trim off some of the sides of the end panels to fit all three on the patterned paper panel. I should have used a guillotine cutter instead of a rotary cutter in cutting through the embossed image. Some of the embossed impressions came off with the cutting but no worries. I used a Versamark pen and applied ink to the warped areas. I poured the embossing powder to this area and heat set it. Once melted, this newly applied powder blends it with the previously embossed powder. I applied foam adhesive to the back of these tri-panel then adhered it to the patterned paper.

For the sentiment, I heat embossed this using the same embossing powder on black cardstock. I wanted the sentiment to be a one-line sentiment and not in three-lines as in the original stamp. After heat setting the sentiment, I carefully cut the words apart and positioned them straight with the use of a ruler on the bottom of the tri-panel image.

I adhered this panel to a top folding, wide A2 white note card.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Have a blessed, brilliant & creative day!

Happy Birthday to my son, Yrwin!

Maria Giselle B.

Concord & 9th

In-lay and Dimensional In-lay Card

We are celebrating two birthdays this July. My eldest and third son's birthdays are next to each other. Rudy, my eldest, will be celebrating his birthday in the Philippines this Saturday with his grandparents. I created this card for him. I also created this card for this month's Sugar Pea Designs Mix It Up Challenge. It is my first time to join in their challenge blog.

I have two Sugar Pea products in my supply. I have these items for a while and have not had a chance to use it. Using the SP Harlequin cover plate, I die cut a red cardstock to mimic the strawberry color in the photo inspiration. I am trying out Jennifer McGuire's Background Die Cut Technique in this card. After I die cut the red cardstock, I carefully applied liquid glue to the outline die cut while the die cut is still in the metal die. I adhered a side-folding A2 card to this, making sure I lined up the edges, and placed something heavy on top of this while the glue is drying.

Working on the main element of the card, I cut strips of cardstock in different colors at 4 3/4"x 3/4". This imitates the candy sprinkles on the inspiration photo. I die cut the SP Heart Beat die on these colored cardstocks. I kept both positive and negative die cuts. I traced a Simon Says Stamp Bramble heart die on a white cardstock. I don't have a solid heart die with the same heart shape as this SSS heart die. I fussy cut this heart. I applied liquid glue to the whole heart die cut. I adhered the negative die cuts to this, covering the heart. I then adhered the positive die cut. Using the heart as a guide, I cut off the excess. I added glitter to the Heart Beat die cut using a Sakura Clear Dust Gelly roll pen. I adhered this heart to a vellum. I cut the vellum leaving a small border around the paper pieced heart. I wrote stitched lines around the heart on the vellum using a white Uni-Ball Signo Broad pen. The sentiment is from Hero Arts. I heat embossed this on a black cardstock strip using a white HA embossing powder.

Back to the front panel, I carefully lifted the metal die off the note card. I removed the negative die cuts using a Cricut Weeder tool. I applied foam tapes to the negative spaces, omitting the area where the heart will be adhered which is on the right end of the card. I pieced back each die cut.

I applied double layered foam adhesive to the back of the heart. I adhered this to the right end of the card just like in the inspiration lay-out. I cut off the overang.

I added Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear Confetti mix to the heart.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Have a blessed, brilliant & creative day!

Maria Giselle B.

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Fresh Inspiration

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Blog~Use A Die and/or Punch

July 2018 Linky Challenge

Simon Says Stamp & Sugar Pea Designs Collaboration 2018

Stitched Sentiment and Stitched Accent Card

Hello everyone. It is time for a new challenge at Incy Wincy Designs Challenge blog. We are featuring a Tic-Tac-Toe board as seen below. I marked off the elements I chose to feature in my card to make a diagonal  line across the board.

Our sponsor for this challenge is Fabrika Fantasy. I am using a free image I downloaded from their website called Little Dragons. I have two (or maybe more) inspirations in creating this card. Since the image are dragons and there is another sequel to the How To Train Your Dragon, in which a new dragon is being introduced, I got inspired to color these dragons based on the main dragon characters of this animated movie. The other inspiration is the Polychromos coloring of Annabel Haines of The Blog @ Cartaway Cards and the owner of Knitty Kitty Digis. I just got to try her technique.

I printed the image on Neenah Kraft cardstock and just colored away with my limited Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils. I only have a 12-piece set. With Anna's encouragement, I was able to color this image with this 12-piece set! I made several discoveries using these pencils. To make color variations with these pencils, especially if you only have few, color the image with the white color pencil then color the image with the desired color. How heavy you color also creates color variations. Since the Polychromos is a highly pigmented pencil, the heavier weight you put in while you color, the darker and bolder the color will be. Coloring while holding the color pencil in an angle creates a light touch of color. Another way to create variation. Adding details to the colored image using colored Sakura pens also adds a different look to the colored image.

I was in a look out for a striped rainbow patterned paper in my supplies. I cannot believe I have none. I can just create one, right? Using a Neenah Solar White cardstock and a stripe stamp from Simon Says Stamp Basic Stripes set, I stamped this stripe stamp using different colors of dye ink. I used a Misti Stamping Tool since I am using a solid stamp image, I had to re-stamp the image a couple of times to get good color coverage. At the same time, the Misti made the stripe stamping easy. Instead of moving the stamp to create the stripes, I was moving the paper upward and downward. The stamp remained aligned and straight throughout this repeated stamping.

The other element I chose to complete my tic-tac-toe is the stitching. I have an American Crafts Amy Tangerine Embroidery Stencil Kit for stitching letters. I lightly drew a line using a T-ruler and placed a mark on the center to guide me in positioning the letters. I poked holes on a Neenah Kraft cardstock using the template. I poked the holes again using a We R Memory Keepers needle to make the holes bigger to be able to thread a embroidery floss through it. I cut around the stitched letters, leaving a small kraft border around it. I adhered this to a pearl paper and cut around it again with a border around it. I applied clear Wink of Stella to the stitched kraft cardstock.

I die cut a square window on the striped panel using Lawn Fawn Stitched Square die. I adhered foam adhesive to the back of this window panel. I positioned the window so as the digital image is centered in the window. I created a strip of inked cardstock to mimic one of the stripes. When I was creating my striped panel, I did not like the red dye ink I used. I changed it to a pink ink later on. I inked a strip of white cardstock using the same pink dye ink. After the ink has dried, I cut this into a strip with the same width as the stripe stamp. Using the stitch stencil, I poked holes to create a cross pattern. I stitched the cross using a similar colored embroidery floss. I adhered this to the stripe I wanted to cover, then adhered the stitched sentiment on top of it.

After I got to this part, I felt something was missing. A supplementary sentiment is what will complete the card. After treating the area with an anti-static powder, I carefully stamped the sentiment using Versafine Onyx Black ink. I was very happy not to make a mess at this point since a lot of of my time has been invested into making this card already. I applied clear embossing powder to the area. I made sure that the heat gun is warm enough before zapping the powder with heat to avoid warping the foam adhesive behind the panel. The sentiment is from Avery Elle Peonies stamp set.

To finish the card, I adhered this panel on a top folding A2 note card. Thank you for visiting my blog and bearing with my long narrative as I share my journey in creating this card. I hope to see your lovely creations in the challenge blog.

Have a blessed, brilliant and creative day!

Maria Giselle B.

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July 2018 Linky Challenge

Digi. Stamp on Colored Cardstock

Hello! I am running late on my blog post for the Incy Wincy Designs Challenge blog. The challenge for the next two weeks is on flowers. I printed the image on different colored cardstocks from Stampin' Up. I re-sized the flower image to 1.5" and printed it four times in each colored cardstock. I colored the images using Prisma color pencils using the same color for the corresponding cardstock. Since I am layering these images, on two of the images, I only colored the petals. And for the other two, I colored the flower centers. Although, I end up not using the flower centers.

Next, I fussy cut the flowers. This is the step where I would say took most of my time in creating this card. I re-colored the images after fussy cutting to try and hide any cutting imperfections. I die cut a small circle using felt and Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circles Wafer die. I used the small circle for this since it closely matches the size of the floral circle of the digi. I color matched the felt to the colors of the flowers. I layered the two same colored flowers on top of each other by adding a blob of Tim Holtz Distress Matte Medium to the center of one flower, then lightly placed the other flower on top of it making sure it is slightly offset. You can also use a foam adhesive for this step. I set this aside to dry.

I stamped the denim pocked on blue cardstock. The stamp is from Paper Smooches Denim & Daisies stamp set. I used a Versamark ink and heat embossed this using Wow! Metallic Gold Rich Pale embossing powder. I fussy cut around the stamped image, leaving a small border around it. I heat embossed a sentiment using Hero Arts white embossing powder. The sentiment is from SSS What's Brewing stamp set. I punched holes on the top corners and hammered in some Making Memories Snaps. I love it when old embellishment put to good use.

I die cut leaves using a pearl green cardstock and SSS Beautiful Day wafer die. I did cut the leafy stem into two so I can distribute the leaves around the flowers.

For the background paper, I have some thin scrap grid patterned paper from Martha Stewart. I embossed the SSS Stitched Rectangle Wafer die. The impression is hard to see in photo but in real life, you can feel the impression created by the wafer die to the paper. I trimmed off the edges leaving a small border around it.

Onto assembling the front panel, I arranged the pocket die cut, the flowers and the leaves. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I started applying liquid glue to the back of the die cuts. Using a liquid glue allowed me to have some time to adjust the die cuts before the glue dries. The center flower was adhered using an foam adhesive.

For the note card, I am using a top folding white note card. I was going to mat my flower panel with a red cardstock but opted to use a red washi tape instead. I adhered the washi around the edges of the front of the white cardstock. I used a craft knife and a ruler to cut the inner corners and create diagonal lines for each corner where the tapes meet. I could have skipped this step since it is hardly noticeable once the flower panel was adhered on top of it.

I cut a fun foam and adhered it to the back of the flower panel then adhered this to the washi taped note card. As last detail, I added Nuvo drops to the flower centers and randomly to the the grid patterned paper.

I hope you find inspiration in my created card. Please join us in our latest challenge at Incy Wincy Designs. Thank you for visiting my blog. Have a blessed, brilliant and creative day!

Maria Giselle B.

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Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog~Anything Goes

Challenge #142~Anything Goes

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