Month: February 2015

Someone Special From CTMH

On By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Crafts, Stamping8 Comments

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome.

Gosh these weeks fly past and it is time for yet another blog post.  This week I will focus on another stamp set, Someone  Special, that is available only until the end of March through the Seasonals Expressions catalogue for just NZ$25.  This is such a pretty stamp set and I can see myself using this set a lot for cards and layouts.  I love the fact that CTMH use clear acrylic stamps so it is really easy to stamp over base images to create a lovely 2 dimensional look.

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For these cards I have kept to the lovely Canary and Flaxen combination.  For the first card I have embossed White Daisy cardstock with the Quatrefoil embossing folder which I had inked first with Canary and Flaxen ink.  I have got this technique from a fellow CTMH consultant, Karen Pedersen here and there are more ideas about using the CTMH embossing folders on this post.  I did not sand the cardstock at all and the ink stamped the background of the embossing with the white embossed edge standing out more.  I was thrilled with the outcome and I hope you like it too.  The embossed cardstock has been matted on Flaxen cardstock and another strip of Flaxen cardstock has been placed over the bottom third of the card.  I have topped with this with the coordinating Flaxen Paper Fundamental paper .

The flower and bud has had the base stamped with Canary ink and then overstamped with Flaxen ink.  The leaves base has been stamped with Flaxen ink  and overstamped with Olive ink.  These colours go so well together and I found it to be a very restful combination on the eye. These were very easy to fussy cut and I have used the thin foam tape to add a little dimension.

The sentiment has come from the Artfully Sent Just to Say stamp set and I have stamped it in Flaxen ink.

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For my second card I have used another piece of the lovely pearlised cardstock that I did several weeks ago.  I have embossed the Flaxen cardstock with the Stripe embossing folder and then edged the card with the chevron border punch similar to another card I featured earlier.  This time you can see the lovely background of the painted card.  The sentiment has been cut from the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and stamped using Frame Flair stamp set, and the sentiment came from the Someone Special stamp set.

 

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Materials used:

Cardstock – Flaxen, White Daisy

Paper – Whimsy Paper Fundamentals 

Stamp set – Someone Special, Frame Flair, Just to Say

Inks – Flaxen, Canary, Olive

Embossing Folders – Stripe, Quatrefoil

Pearl paint (NLA unfortunately)

Cricut Cartridge – Art Philosophy

Punch – Chevron border punch

This stamp set is only available until the end of March so make sure you get in quick if you would like it.  You can visit my website here to purchase this stamp set.

Have a good week and Happy Crafting

Patricia

 

 

 

CTMH Bring on Spring

On By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Stamping9 Comments

Welcome back

Today I would like to share with you  a very quick and easy card that I have made using the A Little Note stamp set that is available for just NZ$12 through the Seasonals Expression catalogue which is available until 31 March from my website here.  I know the Northern Hemisphere are going through some very cold weather at the moment and I thought this might cheer them up as they look forward to spring.  Daffodils always herald the start of spring for me and they are so cheerful after the bleak days of winter.

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When I first started paper crafting many years ago I started with wet embossing.  I was fascinated with how the powder changed to a lovely embossed edge in no time with just a little heat.  I was so thrilled to see that CTMH brought out a range of basic colour embossing ink and I love using them on all sorts of cards and embellishments.

A little trick with embossing is to use a stamping buddy or a pad made from cornstarch or something similar.  This helps stop stray strands of embossing powder ruin your work and also helps the embossing powder stick to the versamark inked image.

For this card I have made a base card by cutting a piece of White Daisy cardstock 8″ x 4″ to make a 4″ square card.  I cut a piece of White Daisy cardstock 3″ x 3 1/4″ and after using my stamping buddy I have stamped the image with Versamark ink and then sprinkled the Ranger gold embossing powder generously over it.  After shaking the excess powder off I then used my heat gun to melt the powder to give the lovely embossed finish.

I used my ShinHan Touch Twin markers – Marigold, Golden Yellow and Sap Green – to colour in the images.  As my hands haven’t been very good lately, embossing and then colouring in was a good option for me.

I then matted the image with Pear cardstock 3 1/4″ by 3 1/2″  For the base card I have placed a strip of yellow chevron paper from the Whimsy Paper Fundamentals Papers – 1 1/2″ x 4″ and then placed two strips of Pear cardstock 1/4″ x ” on either side of it.  I then embossed the sentiment below it from the same stamp set using the technique outlined above.

Before placing the stamped image on the base card I placed piece of Topiary Chevron Ribbon to tie the image together and add some dimension.

Materials used:

Cardstock – White Daisy, Pear

Paper – Whimsy Paper Fundamentals

Stamp set – A Little Note

Ink – Versamark

Embossing Powder – Gold

ShinHan Touch Twin Markers – Marigold, Golden Yellow, Sap Green

Topiary Chevron Ribbon

These cards and others are available for sale at my shop Gift Hutt.  I will be moving shop to a larger shop at the end of this month and will be looking at starting to do some workshops and classes from next month.

Happy Crafting

Patricia

 

 

 

Box Envelope Card Tutorial

On By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Crafts4 Comments

Welcome

As promised here is the tutorial for the box envelope for an embellished card and here is the template that I have created for future use.

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Cut one piece of cardstock at 12″ x 9″

Using a score board or your trimmer and embossing tool score down the long sides at 2 1/2 “, 3 14″, 8″ and 8 3/4″

Score down the short sides 3/4″, 1 1/2″, 7 1/2″ and 8 1/4”

Trim off the excess following the above template.

Use a corner cutter clip the long flap edges (or on the longer side I have used a fancy edge punch to finish the edge off).

 

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Here is the box folded and ready to put together.  I have used liquid glue to create a stronger bond.

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Here is the box ready to put the card in.

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I have then used the small hook and loop dots that are available from CTMH here to close the envelope.

I hope that you find this tutorial useful.

Happy Crafting

Patricia

CTMH Valentines Day

On By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Stamping2 Comments

Welcome

I apologise for being a little late this week but it has been a very busy week.  I am aware that I have not done a tutorial on making the box envelope and I will do that as soon as I can.

This week I have a couple of cards using the lovely Amour stamp set and Heartstrings papers that is only available until 31 March through the Seasonal Expressions catalogue.  These go so well together and would be suitable for both a Valentines Day card and also a wedding card.

 

 

 

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For this card I have cut a piece of cardstock at 4″ x 8″ to create a 4″ x 4″ card for something completely different.  I stamped the background script stamp with Bamboo ink on Colonial White cardstock and then stamped the Eiffel Tower and Armour stamps in Slate ink over the top.  The lovely silhouette stamp was stamped with Black ink.  I love how the inks do not smudge and I can used the stamped cardstock straight away.  The stamped card has been matted with the red paper from the Heartstrings paper pack and then matted again with Black cardstock.

DSCF2278For this card I have made the card look like a postcard as the stamps fit that so well.  As before I have used the script stamp to create the background in Bamboo ink on Colonial White cardstock.  I have used a mix of different stamp to create the postcard and this time they have all been stamped with Slate ink.  The background is made from the red Heartstrings paper and Hollyhock cardstock embossed with the Damask embossing folder.  I have added a trim of Black cardstock.  The sentiment is stamped in Black ink on Colonial White cardstock and then matted on a mix of Hollyhock and Black cardstock.  The hearts are from the January SOTM This Moment stamp set and I have stamped them in Hollyhock ink on Colonial White cardstock and then fussy cut them out and placed them on the card.

The Heartstrings paper packet and Armour stamp set are only available until the end of March when the Seasonal Expression catalogue is retired.  All these products (except for the This Moment stamp set) are available from my website here.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Colonial White, Black, Hollyhock

Paper – Heartstrings

Stamps – Armour, This Moment (NLA)

Inks – Bamboo, Black, Hollyhock, Slate

Embossing folder – Damask

Have a good week and Happy Crafting

Patricia

 

 

Australasian SOTM Blog Hop – A Happy Hello

On By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, CTMH SOTM, Stamping33 Comments

1255207_10202500725937312_859120681790975122_nHello and welcome aboard our Stamp of the Month Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop. If you have arrived here from Mandy’s Blog, Hall of Indulgence,  then you are in the right place. If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

Today I would like to share with you some cards which features February SOTM – A Happy Hello which is available exclusively throughout February for NZ$33 or for just NZ$5 when you spend NZ$75.  This stamp set is very versatile and you can mix and match the flower shapes together to make a lot of different flowers and shapes that would look great on cards and also to embellish scrapbook layouts.

As I said in my last post I have had a lot of fun making my own background papers and decided to use the backgrounds for this gorgeous stamp set. For further information on how I have achieved this background please visit here.

 

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For this card I have used the pattern from Make It From Your Heart Volume 2 pattern 28 and turned it around on the side. I have used the Triangle Border Punch to cut the Cotton Candy cardstock and backed it with Canary cardstock with the Brushed diamond patterned paper helped to pull the two strong colours together.  I have mixed and matched the shapes using the 1 1/4″ circle punch (in the while supplies last category) for the round shapes and fussy cut out the top pattern and the large flower on the bottom and used the thin foam tape for some dimension. The gold sequins finished off the flowers nicely.  The sentiment is from the Artfully Sent Just a Note stamp set.

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For this card I have used the ink and pearl paint background technique using Flaxen ink and I then stamped the stem with Desert Sand ink to show up.  I have kept to a simple colour scheme with the rest of the cards – Flaxen and Canary on Colonial White cardstock.  I found this to be quite a restful combination.  For this particular car I have fussy cut all the images and layered them to create some flowers.  The bow is left over from the Ariana complements and just fitted perfectly with this card.  I have again used gold sequins for the centre of the flowers.  The sentiment is from the Artfully Sent Just a Note stamp set.  I used a small sentiment so as not to take away the attention from the flower.

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I just had to use the large half circle stamp and here I have used it as a border and placed a flower in the centre of the middle shape.  I love the tinge of Pixie ink on the top of the background paper and used a piece of Pixie cardstock to balance the colour scheme.  You can see the slight pearlescent sheen on the background and to me the card resembles a lovely old fashioned brocade blind with a trim.  I have finished the card with the sentiment from the A Happy Hello stamp set and some Glitter Gems.

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For this card I have used another piece of Flaxen background paper and stamped the leaves as a background for the flower in Flaxen ink.  For the base of the card I have edged a piece of Flaxen cardstock using the Chevron border punch and then embossed the bottom of the cardstock with the stripe embossing folder.  There is a slit in the middle of the embossing folder to make it so much easier to partially embossing cardstock.  Can you see a small piece of green patterned paper from the Hopscotch papers behind the punched border?  I have fussy cut out the large flower and then using the 1 1/4″ circle punch I stamped the middle of the flower with the stitch stamp and flower stamp.

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Finally for this card I used the Flaxen colour paper from the Whimsy Paper Fundamentals Paper Pack – this has two sides to the paper with one side being tone on tone and the other side being a pattern.  Again I have used the same embossing and punching technique for the Flaxen cardstock and it looks great over the patterned paper and looks a little like a balustrade so I did some random patterns to create the effect of flowers in the front.  The frame for the sentiment is from the Frame Flair stamp set and the sentiment is from Sincere Expressions.  The butterfly is from the Your Own Kind of Wonderful.  I have stamped the base of the butterfly with Canary ink and then using Flaxen ink I have used the outline butterfly stamp  over the base.  I fussy cut out the butterfly and then added some liquid glass to make it stand out.

The Happy Hello stamp is only available until 28 February from your CTMH consultant here.  I’d love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop,  the very talented Shaunna’s Blog  Passionate about Pages

Materials used:

Cardstock – White Daisy, Colonial White, Flaxen, Pixie, Canary

Papers – Whimsy Fundamentals, Hopscotch, Brushed

Inks – Flaxen, Pixie, Canary, Desert Sand

Stamps – A Happy Hello. Artfully Sent Just a Note, Sincere Expressions, Frame Flair, Your Own Kind of Wonderful

Punches – 1 1/4″ and 1″ circle punches, Chevron border punch, Triangle Border Punch

Embossing Folder – Stripe

Gold sequins

Glitter gems

Cricut Cartridge – Art Philosophy

Thin foam tape

Pearl Paint (NLA)

Happy Crafting

Patricia