Spellbinders Sunflower and Ladybugs dieset

 I've admired these Spellbinder's Sunflower and Ladybug dies for a while. I watched the Susan Tierney Cockburn YouTube video on how to assemble these realistic flowers. The most time consuming part is the center of the flower, all those little pieces are glued one at a time. It isn't the most fun part about making this flower but it really adds to the overall die. I just watch something as I glue the pieces in the center. 

The cutout background was on my desk for a few days, an extra from another card I made. Often I have extras on my desk that end up being used just because I want to clean up my desk. I wanted some color behind the diecut, so I went to my box of already inked panels and tried 3 I thought would work. It's often hard for me to decide what looks best, so I photograph all 3 and then look at the pics on my Ipad. I don't know why I find this useful, but it is. Here are the 3 photos I took:

For the sentiment, I chose a stamp from an old Hero Arts set and used a banner diecut on it.

Time Out Challenges #214 is a Word Prompt which inspired me to look for a sentiment that went with this sunny card.

We are challenging you to be inspired at Time Out by a quote from Steve Martin!

"A day without sunshine is, you know, night." 

Here is the link to the challenge 

/https://timeoutchallenges.blogspot.com/

Gel Plate with Distress Oxides and Diecuts

Lately I've been experimenting with my Gelli Arts Gel Plate and Distress Oxide inks. It's a simple way to blend inks, sometimes I do this because inking a piece of cardstock with a blending tool can take so long. I just drag the ink pad directly onto the gel plate and then use a brayer to smooth out the ink and blend the colors. I use a traditional Speedball soft brayer with a small Tim Holtz brayer. The 2 brayers combined fit the length of the gel plate, so I don't have to clean off the brayer to blend the entire panel.

Here are the 3 colors I placed on the gel plate. To the right are the diecuts I used, by Momenta, called Lemon Layers, available at Hobby Lobby.

This is a video I made for Instagram and Tik Tok showing how I used the gel plate.

I diecut these 2 dies 3x out of 110 lb. cardstock and glued them together. I pressed these onto the gel plate, which removes ink from the plate. I did this in a pattern, having some of the diecute going off the plate.

The diecuts get muddy from pressing the ink into all the colors, so either discard them or save for another printing session. I diecut a new set of the lemon slice to use on the card.

Thanks for visiting! I'm on Instagram @susanbcards where I post several times a week.

Gel plate, Distress Oxide inks and Altenew Peony Sunshine Embossing Folder

This wasn't my intended end result but I'm so happy with it! I originally wanted to make some gel print backgrounds using Distress Oxide inks. I saw Jennifer McGuire had a video on this, you drag some ink pads across a Gelli Plate, use a brayer to smooth out and blend the inks a bit and you have a great background. My idea was to take an embossing folder and press it onto the inked Gelli Plate and pull a print. The print was a bit too subtle for my taste but when I saw all the ink on the embossing folder I knew I had to try to emboss a piece of white cardstock to see how the ink would look. Gorgeous!

I posted this card on Instagram and received so many questions and requests for a video, I decided I could easily do it since this technique is straightforward. Below is my video. If you can't view it, you could see it on my Instagram account, @Susanbcards.

These are the results of the printing and embossing. I did find that a bit darker ink works well for the printing, anything too pale is hard to see against the white cardstock.

Thank you for visiting!

This folder is also available at Altenew.

 

Momenta Boho Border Dies

It seems like everybody is stitching dies on their cards! Here I used the Momenta Boho Border dies (available at Hobby Lobby). These are simple to stitch, I diecut each border 2x and glued them together, just to make them sturdy while stitching. I used inexpensive embroidery thread (my daughter has tons of this from when she used to make friendship bracelets.)

 I started on the outer edge of each petal, you can knot the thread on the backside, or tape it down or weave it through the other stitches to secure it. Each stitch starts on the outer edge and goes through the center. Simple stitching.

Here is the side view of the completed sewn die. You can see it's a bit puffy, this would be difficult to adhere to a card. So I diecut 2 more of these Boho border dies glued them together and cut out the part that has no stitching.

I'm attaching these so I can build up this area to match the thread area. You could also use small pop dots, or just put glue on the thread to attach it to the card. I just thought it was easier to apply glue to cardstock than to thread.

The top border is the frontside, the bottom border shows the backside.

I put the cardfront onto my stamping platform BEFORE I attached the borders. I wanated a sentiment to peek between the borders, so I placed the borders down, then placed the stamp, carefully took the borders off and then closed the stamping platform door to accurately place it. I inked it and stamped it, and then glued the 2 borders down. Lastly I attached a few pretty gem stones on the borders.

I like to diecut these borders and stitch them while watching a movie or sports so I can craft while sitting with my family.

Thanks for looking! I'm on Instagram @susanbcards where I post several times a week.

Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog Guest Designer!

Hello! Today I am a Guest Designer on the Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog for the current challenge, "Sunday in the Park"! I won the challenge for "April Showers Bring May Flowers". If you'd like to see that entry, I posted it on my blog on April 11.

For "Sunday in the Park", I thought of the large park near my house where "No Dogs Allowed" signs greet you at every entry point. Of course my dogs pull to go in there but we just walk the perimeter.That's okay, they like walking around it too.    

I cut the Tim Holtz "Gate Keeper" die 3x in black cardstock and glued them together, added a bit of gilding wax to a few areas. I chose this Paper doll, exactly what I had in mind.

I have a shoe box filled with paper I inked, ready to be used. This one is a mix of Distress and Distress Oxides in shades of browns.

I rubbed a mini Distress ink pad in Black Soot over the full size "Cobblestone" 3D embossing folder.and ran it through the Big Shot. The ink highlighted the texture. I sprayed Distress Resist Spray over it to give it some shine.

I started to lay out the image, the sky is another piece of Distress watercolor paper from my stash, I used Distress Paint on this one in Speckled Egg, Picket Fence.

I wanted the cobblestone to look like a path, so I traced a dinner plate and salad plate to create the curve and cut it out with scissors.

I diecut the Tattered Florals and Funky Florals from inked scraps. I gave them dimension with the Tim Holtz Shaping Kit. 

I ended up using a Tim Holtz Idea-ology Vignette Tray because it gave it a great 3D effect. I placed the road so that it looks like it leads out of the tray. The gate frames the boy and dog. Doesn't it look like he's a bit miffed that "No Dogs Allowed"?

That's about it, I hope you go visit the Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog and check out what the talented designers created and enter your version of  "Sunday in the Park". You could be the next guest designer or win the $25 gc drawing. 

Thank you to the Funkie Junkie design team for asking me to guest design! It's always fun to be challenged.

I'm on Instagram @susanbcards where I post several times a week.

Thanks for looking!

Susan

Envelope Liner and Notecard using Momenta Stamps #2160489

 

This is a standard A2 envelope for a 4.25" x 5" card (so it's slightly larger to easily fit the card). I took a piece of cardstock and cut it in half length wise, it'll be 4.25" x 11". (see photo, it fits into the envelope).

I trimmed the paper to 4.25" x 2.5", you don't really need the liner to fit all the way to the bottom of the envelope since you can't see it. 

I stamped the paper near the top with the Momenta envelope flap stamp (available at Hobby Lobby) in Pine Needles Distress ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I randomly ink blended the flap with Twisted Citron and Mowed Lawn Distress inks, fading it out near the edges. I think this is a nice way to color the flap without having to color all the leaves seperately. 

Using my envelope as a template, I penciled in an outline of the flap shape and cut it out with my scissors. I placed it inside the envelope, positioning the peak of the flap liner below the envelope adhesive.

After lining it up, close the envelope to make a fold line on the liner. Pull it out and using a bone folder, make a sharp crease. Place it back into the envelope (under the glue line) and adhere the liner above the fold line (DON'T put adhesive below the fold line, the liner needs to be able to move when opening and closing the envelope.) 

Easy right? It's a very nice touch to a card or invitation. Wouldn't it be so nice to give someone thank you notes with matching cards and envelopes? You can also use up some of that patterned paper stash for envelope liners.

All the stamps used for these cards and envelopes are by Momenta #2160489, available at Hobby Lobby.

Thanks for visiting! I appreciate it. I post on IG @susanbcards quite often, so visit me there!