A couple of years ago Blogger stopped allowing blogs to have subscribers. This meant there was no way for followers to be notified of new blog posts. As a result I am no longer regularly adding new posts but am keeping my blog available for people to see past posts for inspiration. I am still here to answer any questions or provide help with your projects. You can email me at cottagepaper@bellsouth.net. If, for some reason, I miss your email please don't hesitate to contact me again.
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Welcome to InKing Royalty's October Blog Hop! Boo! Today we are sharing scary and sweet projects perfect for Halloween. We are excited to share our creations and hope you love them! After you read my post, I hope you'll hop over to the next person on the list at the base of this post.
Every year I make Halloween cards for my four
granddaughters. They are all now basically almost grown – 2 in college and 2 in high school - but
they still enjoy getting fun cards from me at Halloween. I don’t always buy
every Halloween bundle that Stampin’ Up! offers but when I saw the Scary Silhouettes dies I knew they would be great for making some really cute cards.
Then recently I saw a several examples of fun fold cards similar to this and
thought they would be a great design to use with the Scary Silhouettes dies. I
combined several ideas and here is my card.
The Front -
The Inside -
(A video is available at the end of these directions.)
This card has a number of steps but it really isn’t hard to
make. I started with an A2 Basic Gray card base (4.25” X 8.5” scored and folded
in half.) I decorated the front with a 3.5” X 4.75” piece of the Pumpkin Pie
diagonal plaid paper from the Gingham Cottage Designer Series Paper and layered
it on top of a piece of 3 5/8” X 4 7/8” Pumpkin Pie cardstock. The die set
contains multiple bat dies in three different sizes so I cut out a bunch of
black bats to scatter on the card.
I decided I wanted to put a large BOO on the
front of the card but didn’t have a stamp for that. I got the idea to use a B
and an O from one of the stamp sets to make the word BOO. I checked my sets and
locked on to the Biggest Wish set. Which is a great set and only $17. I choose the B from BIRTHDAY and the O from HELLO. I
grabbed a 1” piece strip (although in hindsight I think a .75” might be better
so experiment) of Basic White card stock to try out my idea. In order to only ink
my chosen individual letters I used the Basic Black marker to add ink to the
letters I wanted and I used a piece of Scotch Removable tape to block off the
letters I wasn’t using. You could also use a Post-it note or Post-it Tape. Once
the letter has been colored with the Black ink you may need to huff on the
stamp in case some of the ink has dried.
I stamped the B and it looked great. I then stamped an O and
saw that the image was far from a solid black. I thought - I need to use my
Stamparatus so I can stamp a number of times to get a solid black image and
then quickly realized that the distressed look I got was perfect for Halloween.
Every time I stamped a letter I got a different look. After stamping a number
of letters I had a bunch of Os with a look I liked. The B was a little more
difficult. After some experimenting I reached several conclusions. I think the
O was distressed initially because it was from a stamp that had never been used
whereas the BIRTHDAY stamp had been used previously. When the photopolymer
stamps are manufactured they initially can have a coating from the
manufacturing process which can result in the ink not sticking well the first
time or two it is inked up. For this reason Stampin’ Up! recommends that you
stamp a new photopolymer stamp a couple of times on scratch paper before
stamping on your project. I remembered that a stamp that has picked up oil from
our hands will not stamp as solid as a clean stamp. So to get multiple
distressed letters each time I stamped I would rub the stamp with my fingers.
Then sometimes I would let the ink sit on the stamp for 5 minutes or more. When
I looked at the stamp I could see the ink bead up like in the photo below. When
I thought it looked “good”, ie distressed, I huffed on it and stamped. I had to
stamp several times to get one I liked but it didn’t take long. I would do
other things while I let the inked stamp sit. Once you finish you should wash
your stamps to remove any oil on them. I then diagonally cut apart the letters
on the strips and was very pleased with the results. I arranged the letters on
the card and added some bats. Or you can skip all this and just stamp the
letters the way you normally would!
For the inside I started with a regular size card base (5.5
X 8.5) in black. I scored it at 4.25 along the long side as you would a
standard A2 portrait card and then flipped it over and scored at 2.25 from each
end. That way your end scores are indented one way and your center score is
another. I then used the branches silhouette die from the Scary Silhouettes die
set to cut out a window in the center of the Black piece along the center score
mark. Next cut .25” off of the top and bottom of the Black card. (You could
have started with a smaller piece of cardstock but I found it easier to start
with the standard size piece and then cut some off.) Then fold on the score
lines accordion style so the center one becomes a mountain and the end scores
are valleys. My Black piece was then divided into 4 equal size sections.
Then I
decorated my Black piece. I cut a frame for the window from Pumpkin Pie
cardstock using the same Scary Silhouette window die and the outline die that
goes with it. This will result in a Pumpkin Pie frame with branches. I used my snips
to cut off the branches leaving the frame and adhered it around the window
opening. Next I decorated the left and right quarter pieces. I used a Pumpkin
Pie 2” X 4.75” layer and a Basic White 1 7/8” X 4 5/8” piece on the left side
to create a place to right a message. Then on the right I first cut out the cat
from the Scary Silhouettes die and adhered a tiny piece of Cajun Craze glimmer
paper from the Metallics and Glimmer Specialty paper behind the opening for the
cat’s eyes. The glimmer piece should be cut larger than the eyes because
glimmer paper can be hard to adhere so you need more surface area. The Fine-tip
glue pen is great for this but Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue worked fine for
me. Just make sure it has time to dry. I adhered the cat to a piece of Pumpkin
Pie 1 3/8” X 1 7/8” and placed it at the bottom of the right side. I then
placed a 1 3/4” X 3 1/8”piece of the Gingham Cottage Designer Series Paper on
to a 1 7/8” X 3 1/4” layer of Pumpkin Pie and centered it above the cat. I
added two Matte Black Dots to the Gingham Cottage paper on the right.
Next I moved to the design for the window. Using the house
die from the same set I cut out a Black house and adhered a small yellow piece of
Daffodil Delight behind the top left window of the house. Then I adhered the
house in approximately the middle of the Basic Gray piece of cardstock. To
center the house left and right I placed the point of the roof on the middle
score line. To place it top to bottom I measured from the bottom of the Black
cardstock piece to the bottom of the window opening and added .25”. I placed a
pencil mark there. That should be the distance from the bottom of the gray
piece to the bottom of the house but please note for the placement of the house
these measurements do not really have to be exact. You do need to center the
house left and right but top to bottom you have some leeway since people will be
looking through the window at different angles. Next add a Daffodil Delight quarter
moon and a bat or two cut with the dies from the same set.
Now you need to put it all together! First I adhered the left
quarter of the Basic Black card to the Basic Gray base card. To do this I applied
adhesive to the back of the left quarter of the Basic Black piece and placed that
piece about .25” from the Basic Gray card on three sides – the top, bottom and
left side. Then I applied adhesive to the back of the right quarter of the
Basic Black piece and accordion folded the Basic Black piece so it is all
stacked up on the left quarter piece and fold the Basic Gray piece over the
Black accordion folded piece. This should result in the correct placement of
the Black piece on to the Gray card base. Open the card and you should be
done!! If you have any trouble you can watch the video above and see me make
the card.
Here is a video of me making the card. Sorry it is so long but feel free to fast forward to what you want to see.
Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you'll hop along to the next stop on the bloghop, Jan DuFour at Stamp Me Silly.
I ♥comments and would love to hear what you think about this Fun Fold and the Scary Silhouettes dies.
Katie
Thank you for hopping along with us. If you get stuck during the Blog Hop, please use this line-up as a guide:
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Welcome to Inking Royalty's September Blog Hop! This month's blog hop is dedicated to leaves. As the weather begins to cool, the leaves begin to change colors and fall from the trees. We are excited to share our creations and hope you love them! After you read my post, I hope you'll hop over to the next person on the list at the base of this post.
I recently came across a sketch for a double card fun fold from Alisa at the Call Me Crafty Al Youtube channel and I thought it was really a very neat sketch. It is not at all hard to make but I think it makes a big impact. Here is my card.
First you need to pick out three patterns from a collection of Designer Series Paper. For my card I used two patterns from Stampin' Up!'s Texture Chic, one with a leaf pattern and one a geometric design plus a piece of the coordinating Distressed Gold paper. This Distressed Gold paper is wonderful and can be used in all kinds of papercrafting situations.
Next you will need to choose and cut your cardstock. I used Stampin' Up!'s Blushing Bride (Stampin' Up! lists Petal Pink for the pink color used in the Texture Chic paper but I thought Blushing Bride was the best match for the specific pink panel that I used in my card). I cut a sheet of 8.5 X 11 in half along the long axis giving me a 4.5"X9.75" piece and then scored and folded it at 4.5". Then I cut a piece 3.5"X8.5" and scored and folded it in half at 4.25". You now have two cards, a large one and a small one. See the sketch below.
I then decorated the inside of the large card with a 4"X5.25" piece of Distressed Gold and the front of the large card with a 4"X4" piece from the Texture Chic collection. I then attached a different piece of 3"X4" DSP to the front of the small card. You should note that the small card opens with the fold on the right so that the front of that card might not be exactly where you expect it to be. Notice the front of the small card on my finished card above.
Now you want to put the two cards together. To do that you add adhesive to the back of the small card and center it in the middle of the Distressed Gold piece.
For my sentiment I choose Wishing You the Happiest of Birthdays from the Charming Sentiments photopolymer stamp set. I stamped it with Versamark ink on to a piece of Pool Party cardstock and embossed with Stampin' Up! Gold Embossing Powder. I decided not to use the coordinating dies to cut out the sentiment because when I did try that I felt that the gold embossing did not pop the way I had hoped so I just used a retired label die but you could just cut the piece in a rectangle.
Once you have finished the card you can add a piece of Basic White cardstock to the inside on the small card to write your message. You can also add more Basic White to the right and left pieces on the inside if you want more places to write a message.
Here is the video explaining how I made this card. I hope you try one.
Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you'll hop along to the next stop on the bloghop, Ann Murray at Murray Stamps Ink.There's lots of inspiration to be found in this group - and you don't want to miss it!
I ♥comments and would love to hear what you think of the Double Card Fun Fold.
Katie
Thank you for hopping along with us. If you get stuck during the Blog Hop, please use this line-up as a guide:
(Please note - If you are reading this post in an email some of the text may not display properly. Please click here to see this post on my blog.)
I usually send my grandchildren Halloween cards but since I feel there is generally plenty of candy floating around I don't usually do candy. This year due to the pandemic restrictions I decided to send treat boxes containing candy. Many years ago I purchased some carry out boxes to use for gift packaging. I decided to use those and decorate them for Halloween. I really struggled with how to decorate them. I came up with a few ideas that I was not excited about but thought they would be OK. I had started to make the various pieces but had not glued anything to the boxes when I checked out Mary Fish's Wow Picks on the Sunday before last (October 18) and stumbled upon the perfect solution! Here is what I created.
I love punch art and there are lots of ideas online for using punches in ways you never dreamed of! For this project I CASED a design from fellow Stampin' Pretty Pal Kat Chancellor who in turn had gotten the idea from Graciela Valdez Vera a Stampin' Up! demonstrator in Mexico! Each of us made our Draculas a little different depending on what we had on hand. They both did videos that you can watch. Just click on their names.
I will list some of the items I used but if you want to make one just look in your punches and see what you have on hand. This is how I made mine.
My box was shorter than a standard 4.25"X5.5" card so my Dracula needed to be shorter. That meant the Stampin' Up! Apple punch that they used would not work. For the head I just drew a similar shape on white cardstock, cut is out and used that for a template for the head. I used a 1 3/8" circle for the hair because that size worked best with my head and then ends from the classic label punch for the ears. I drew in the eyebrows and mouth. For the eyes I punched out red circles with a hole punch and used the retired Iridescent Pearls for the centers. You can't really tell in the picture but I used a black gel pen for his hair part (my chalk pen which they used is very old and it was not working). For the fangs I used the very tip of the retired Stampin' Up! Tree punch but next time I would free hand them and make them skinnier. Then I went overthe fangs with Wink of Stella so they would stand out from his face. I used the retired owl punch for his vest and made the bow tie using two pieces from the tip of the Tree punch used earlier. Since the pieces were made from glimmer paper I adhered them together with glue dots. A hole punch created the knot which covered the seams of the bow tie which was again adhered with a glue dot.
I used the owl punch to create the vest and added tiny black glimmer paper buttons. The pants were made with the same Tree punch but any narrow triangle would work. I drew a line down the center with the black gel pen to create the two halves of the pants. The shoes were made with the small feet from the retired elephant punch but a half circle would also work.
I made the cape with the retired Oval Collection dies but you could also use the Stitched Shapes oval dies. I first gave the cardstock texture using the Tasteful Texture 3D embossing folder and then cut three ovals for each cape and cut them to the right length across the short axis. I then cut staggered sized ovals out of two of the three shapes to create the look of pleats in his cape. For his collar I used the wings of the large bats from the Halloween Magic dies. This is a great die set! In addition to two sizes of bats there are two really wonderful frames dies that can be used year around and a large spider that I put on the box lid. I attached the Dracula to the box with a Wobble. I purchased a pack of these years ago and still had some left. They are fun to have on hand. Here they are on Amazon. I am sorry I didn't think to record of video of the wobbling Draculas in action before I mailed them.
I decorated the boxes with small bats and a spider from the retired Wicked die set and added the sentiment using an old wood mount stamp I purchased many years ago.
Here are the three different colors of Draculas that I made. Look at your punches and see what can you come up with!
Hope these have made you smile and that you enjoy your Halloween. 🎃
I ♥ comments and would love to hear what you think.
Welcome to InKing Royalty's October Blog Hop! During this year's blog hops, we are enjoying a year of celebrations. This month's projects celebrate Thanksgiving, so prepare yourself for Autumn landscapes, warm colors and sweet reminders of all the reasons we have to be grateful this time of year. We are excited to share our creations with you today! After you read my post, I hope you'll hop over to the next person on the list at the base of this post.
Last fall I went to a Stampin' Up! event in Huntsville Alabama and received a swap card from Joy Hall a fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator. The card consisted of two individual pieces, one fitting inside the the other like a card in an envelope. I thought it was a really neat design and decided that I would make a similar one sometime for my monthly card class. During the pandemic my class has been meeting on Zoom and making cards with the materials they pick up from my porch. As a result we don't use any Stampin' Up! stamps. Instead we do lots of interesting things with Designer Series Paper and dies. This month i decided to make Joy's card using my favorite new paper from the current mini catalog, Gilded Autumn Speciality Designer Series Paper. That paper was so loved by everyone it is currently out of stock but the good news is it will return - probably at the end of November so check back. Here is my card.
This is the card with the inside piece pulled out.
During this pandemic I have been sending thank you type cards to just regular people trying to do their jobs in these difficult times. That is where this card will go.
With some trial and error I developed the template below to use to make the envelope piece. To make the card start with a piece of Designer Series Paper that is 11 1/8" long by 4" wide. This measurement produced a completed piece that will fit easily into a mailing envelope without having too much play. Score it at 2 7/8" from each end and then cut a triangular piece off the top corner of each end as shown.
Then fold along the score lines. You will see that the two side pieces overlap each other about 3/8. If you use a pattern paper it is unlikely that your pattern will match at the center seam so experiment with the fold of your paper having each side on top to see which way looks the best. A busy pattern will make the seam less noticeable. Once this is done add Tear & Tape adhesive all along the very bottom edge of the center of the paper. Then add Tear & Tape along the side edge of the paper that you decided looks best on top. Remove the paper backing from the Tear & Tape and fold, lining up the bottom edges. Burnish along the adhesive lines.
For my card I did use the So Grateful sentiment from the Ornate Thanks photopolymer stamp set and masked off the "So" and only inked up the Grateful. I love the large bold images in this set plus all the wonderful smaller phrases that can be used individually or along with the larger ones.
Stamp your sentiment on a piece of Very Vanilla and cut with the die shown from the Hippo & Friends die set. I used the middle size die. Then cut a piece of Early Espresso cardstock with the largest matching die from the set. I totally overlooked these dies until one day I saw a card made using the exact dies I used on this card. After checking the catalog and seeing all the great dies in the set I immediately added it to my order. I encourage you to check it out!
For the inside I cut a piece of Very Vanilla 3 7/8"X5 1/8" and adhered a 1/2" strip of the DSP that was left over from the "envelope" along the side. I put the reverse side up.
I decided it needed a little something more. I looked at all my leaf dies and nothing caught my eye so I decided to check out some of my past Paper Pumpkin kits and discovered some perfect leaves in the September 2017 Layered Leaves kit. That is the wonderful thing about Paper Pumpkin kits. There are always lots of pieces left over which can be added to projects later. It is a great way to add to your supplies.
Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you'll hop along to the next stop on the blog hop, Jackie Beers at Blue Line Stamping. There's lots of inspiration to be found in this group - and you don't want to miss it!
I ♥ comments and would love to hear what you think!!
Katie
Thank you for hopping along with us. If you get stuck during the Blog Hop, please use this line-up as a guide:
Welcome to the Pals’ August Blog Hop! We’re so glad you’re here because we made some great projects for “Special Occasions” – cards or projects that adds beauty to the special occasions we all love to make cards for! You may be starting the hop here or coming from a previous Pal’s blog. Either way, you’ve come to the right place. You’ll find the full line-up below to help you move, or “hop” along from Pal to Pal.
A birthday is a very special occasion, especially for teenagers!! I made this card for my grandchild who turned 14 yesterday.
I went to a Stampin' Up! demonstrator event in June and some of the attendees participated in a card swap. I did not participate but I looked at my table mates cards. One of the cards by Joy Hall used the Noble Peacock DSP (click on the name to see a Stampin' Up! video of how gorgeous this DPS is). I immediately realized I needed to add this paper to my next order!
To make my card I used a piece of the Blueberry Bushel DSP and combined it with Granny Apple green cardstock and ink. The sentiment is from the Everything Amazing photopolymer stamp set. You can not tell from the photo but I used clear embossing powder to emboss the sentiment. Unfortunately the shininess of the embossed sentiment does not show in the photo but I think the embossing really makes this sentiment pop! To emboss it I used the Stamparatus. I stamped a Whisper White piece of cardstock that I cut with the Stitched Rectangle dies, first with the colored ink (and if you wish to have the sentiment a little darker you can even stamp it a 2nd time with the Stamparatus). Then once I stamp it with the colored ink I stamp it again with Versamark ink. Versamark is a clear sticky ink that will allow embossing powder to adhere to it. Then I sprinkle it with clear embossing powder and melted it with a heat gun. This is another fabulous use for the Stamparatus.
The candles are stamped with the candle stamp from the the same stamp set. I stamped them with Versamark on Blueberry Bushel cardstock, embossed them with clear embossing powder and snipped them out. I also stamped the candles with Versamark on Mango Melody cardstock and cutout just the flames. I then glued the flames on top of the Blueberry candles and colored the flames with a clear Gelly Roll pen. You can get two of the pens here on Amazon.
More inspiration awaits! Use the Blog Hop Line-up below to visit the rest of this month’s Design Team. My fellow Pals are excited to show you what they’ve created! Don’t forget to show us some love by commenting on our creations. Mark your calendars for Wednesday, September 11, 2019 when our Hoppin’ Pals share their “It’s the Sentiment that Counts” projects. Don’t miss the fun!
I ♥ comments and would love to hear what you think!!
Leave your thoughts below! Thank you!!
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Welcome to InKing Royalty's July Blog Hop! This year's Blog Hop themes are inspired by a single word - and this month our projects are centered around SUNSHINE. The Sun is the single most important source of energy for life on Earth - it guides our clocks, calendars and planting schedules. We may be enduring a heat wave this week, but we still associate the Sun with positivity, joy and renewal. We are excited to share our creations with you today! After you read my post, I hope you'll hop over to the next person on the list at the base of this post.
In June I attended a Stampin' up! demonstrator event in Huntsville. One of the things Demonstrators do when they get together is participate in card swaps. I decided not to participate in any of the swaps but I checked out the swaps that my table mates received. I took pictures of some of the ones I thought might serve as an inspiration for future cards. One of the swaps was for cards made with the Daisy Lane Bundle and one the Daisy Lane cards particularly caught my attention. I decided I wanted to CAS (Copy and Share) it. I loved the bright flowers punched out from two different colors of cardstock. They looked like Black-eyed Susans to me and really said summer and sunshine! Here is my card.
Here is the card I CASed. I am sorry it and the following one are so dark! I just had better lighting when I took the picture of my card. :-) I took this picture at the event. It was in a cellophane envelope which resulted in the glare at the top of the card.
There were three things that caught my attention on the swap card and that I wanted to use on my card. 1) I really liked the look of the wood background and was puzzled as to how it was done and it took me a while to figure it out. I realized that the grain pattern matched the pattern on the Pinewood Planks 3D Embossing Folder so I knew that was used. I then decided that a Soft Suede Ink Pad was drug over vanilla cardstock to create the wood design. I discovered after the fact that Kimberly Parker, the maker of the original card, had used several more steps to create her background but I had already used my shortcut worked and decided that it looked quite fine. (FYI Stampin' Up! is currently awaiting a shipment of the Pinewood Planks folder and it will soon be available to order. The item # will be 143708.) 2) I also thought having the flowers stamped on two different colors of cardstock (Very Vanilla and Crushed Curry)made them really pop. 3) I liked the Hello sentiment and really loved that it was tucked into the flowers. I added Gold Faceted Gems to my card and colored them with a Dark Soft Suede Blends. I used some brown grosgrain ribbon I had but you could also use a narrow strip of Early Espresso cardstock embossed with the Subtle 3D Embossing Folder in place of ribbon and added some leaves. I used a retired Christmas die set to create the leaves but lots of die sets would work. I stamped the Hello from the Free as a Bird set and cut it out with the Stitched Rectangle Dies. My monthly card class made this card on last Sunday. Sometimes they make cards that look exactly like mine but at other times they change things around. Thought I would show you one of the CASes of my card. This one is by Kay Cole. It is always fun to see what they do!
Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you'll hop along to the next stop on the blog hop, Pam Morris at Tap Tap Stamp. There's lots of inspiration to be found in this group - and you don't want to miss it!
Thank you for hopping along with us. If you get stuck during the Blog Hop, please use this line-up as a guide:
