PAPERLICIOUS

Project 100: 41 - 44/100: Die Cut Flat Note Cards

Yesterday's post was classic stamping. Today, just paper and glue...

Love flat note cards. 

The first 4 on this post are for my son away at college.   (Project 100 is my plan to send him 100 cards while he is at college. I chose these messages just for him!)  All are A2 size. 

Designed these using the Silhouette digital cutter.   The words and strip are cut into Neenah Solar White Classic Crest 80 lb. cardstock.  Bottom layers are  Lime, French Roast, Ocean, and Onyx cardstocks from A Muse Studio. 

Had so much fun making the first 4, I decided to use a houndstooth cut on the white layer and see what happens.  The bottom layers are A Muse Studio Buttercup and Onyx cardstocks and a bright pink Stampin Up layer.  Loved the bold and graphic result.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Happy I got the Silhouette. 

For Janelle

Janelle is a lovely woman who is struggling with a brain tumor.  Her husband, Ken, is her support.   Today I am participating in a blog hop organized by Laurie Willison and Dana to show Janelle and her husband Ken how much we care.  Thank you Laurie and Dana for doing this.  Thank you Janelle for being an amazing example of faith and optimism. And thank you Ken for being a wonderful husband and for keeping us posted on how Janelle is doing.  You are all an example of how stamping and the internet can build us up.

Would you like to participate?  Or see the other cards?  If so, click over to Laurie's blog here and check out the details!

This is just for you Janelle --

Card Construction Details:

1.  Using my Silhouette digital cutter, I designed a layer with Janelle's name embedded as shown.  Silhouette tip below.**

2.  Stamped flowers and colored with Prismacolor Pencils.  Nice and bright for a nice and bright woman.

3.  Adhered with dimensionals on a white card.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Hopeful

Supplies:

Stamps:  Paper Smooches
Cardstock:  A Muse Studio Sugar
Ink:  Memento
Other: Prismacolor Pencils, Silhouette, dimensionals

 

**For those of you with a Silhouette/Cameo, once you learn how to do this, you won't stop. I have cardstock with words all over the place! 

These directions assume some basic knowledge of how to make a design with the Silhouette/Cameo. I taught myself over the course of a few weeks -- one of the things I meant earlier when I said I wouldn't be posting as often because I was practicing.  This is a great way to avoid spending money on dies that spell out words.  Or alphabets.

1. Type the word.  A simple block font seems to work best.  Remember that all the letters have to be on the same plane -- meaning a lower case "y" won't work in this design because the bottom of the y will disappear.  For example, instead of "happy" use "HAPPY". 

2.  Resize the word so that the width is what you want.  Use character spacing to spread out the letters for small words if you want the word to span the width of the cardstock. 

3.  Draw a rectangle above and below the word.

4. Move each rectangle so that each one connects slightly with the top and bottom, respectively, of the word.  Remember that every letter in the word has to connect with the top or the bottom.  Don't cover up too much of the letters -- just a bit of each letter needs to overlap the rectangles. 

5. Resize the rectangles so that they are the exact width you want.

6.  Align so that your word is centered (if that is what you want).  Group everything together, press modify and then weld.  The weld functions is what makes the letters connected to the rectangles.

7.  Practice with cheap typing paper until you are happy or HAPPY. 

Bubbles in That Glass

As I was making this card (peace, love, smooches) I was thinking about the discord over some of Papertrey Ink's customer service policies and practices.  And that got me to thinking about how our personalities affect how we view and react so differently to the same set of facts (that's why jury consultants make so much money).

But first, the card --

I cut the peace heart with my Silhouette and stamped a sentiment from Paper Smooches.  The cardstock is a textured white Bazzil and using Distress Ink to stamp on it gave me a smooth finish (just hold the stamp down for a few seconds and the wetter distress ink will fill in the gaps in the cardstock). 

I love this card.  A heart. A peace symbol.  A flower with bling.  A happy card!

But, as I said before, while I was making it I was thinking about the turmoil at Papertrey.  For those of you unfamiliar with PTI's issues, the company has had some problems with its new website, some delayed packages, and has not sent out anniversary sets and prize packages in a timely fashion.  It also has fabulous products and a terrific design team.  (And I know Jenn, an employee of the company, who is a very nice woman put through the wringer over the internet.  Not a good situation and I am sending her good thoughts here.)

Some customers see these facts and are irate, spending (what appears to be) huge amounts of time pounding away at the issue.  Others love the company and are happy to overlook what looks to them as small glitches and are spending (what appears to be) lots of time expressing fury with the folks who are angry.

I have a glass half empty personality.  I see a prize package not delivered and I see all sorts of bad things.  I don't want to have a world view that sees the negative over the positive but I do.   As someone once put it to me "the scale of your reaction is out of proportion to what has happened."  (Cost for that observation $125 an hour...).  In other words, even if you are right, you are paying a high price for how strongly you are reacting.  So, I  try and wait things out until I can shake the glass and see bubbles peeking out over the half way mark or decide that my negative view is warranted. 

I was thinking about this as I viewed and reacted to the Papertrey issues.  None of it makes any sense to me.  The company. The customers.  None of it.  And then I realized that each of these parties brings themselves to the game.   The sunny personality who loves the products and naturally sees only the good in people can overlook what someone else finds fraudulent.   Trying to destroy a company because someone else didn't get a prize package seems a bit much.  Ignoring legitimate customer complaints seems a bit much.  Aacck -- enough to make a normal person run for the hills!! 

So I'm sitting back and hoping that the company resolves its policies and practices that have triggered the concerns.  I hope it does and I think it will.  So, I'm waiting until I can shake the PTI glass and see those bubbles again. 

 

Boat Load of Stuff on One Little Tag

Here's a card that uses a ton of supplies, including my beloved Silhouette.  Had lots of fun making it.  By keeping most of the supplies on a small area and leaving lots of white space, it isn't toooo busy.

Card Construction Details:

1.  Cut tag (with the cute heart cutout) with the Silhouette and some cheap white thin cardstock.

2.  Resized the tag and cut another one with black cardstock for a mat, but removed the heart cutout piece before cutting (it would not have aligned with the white tag).

3.  Stamped the daisy image from Flourishes twice as shown in Memento black ink and colored with very sharp Prismacolor pencils.

4.  Colored around the flowers with a Copic -- not the whole tag, just the parts inside the flowers.  Did this because once I embossed the flowers, the clear embossing powder would cover beyond the flowers and make it impossible to get blue right up next to the flower.

5.  Stamped By Definition (SU) background and sponged with Distress Inks.

6.  Added White Bic "Wite Out" on top of center of daisies.

7.  See that black heart shape with the gloss?  That's white cardstock, colored with black Copic and covered with Ranger Glossy Accents. 

8.  Matted with larger tag, added the ribbon and adhered to white cardstock embossed with a folder.   Then adhered to a white card.

9. Oops. the sentiment?  From PTI Birthday Basics -- added as shown.  Whew

MOOD WHEN DONE = Tired, Inky and Happy

 

 

hello, Silhouette Style

A card with no stamps and no ink.  Call the blog police!

Just paper, glue, black embellishment, and the Silhouette.

Card Construction Details:

1.  A2 card with A Muse Studio Sage cardstock.  Trimmed one inch off the side.

2.  Cut out flowers, some smaller than others (easy to resize with the Silhouette).  A Muse Studio Blush cardstock (exact same color as Papertrey Blush).  Placed on Sage card as shown and adhered  with Mono Multi glue.

3.  Cut "hello" with the Silhouette (Ariel font) making sure to size to less than 1 inch high so that the letters would fit.  Adhered by using the leftover cardstock as a mask.  Added glue to back side of letters and fit into the spaces on the mask and then lifted off the mask.  I'm either a genius or I saw this somewhere on a blog.  

4.  Decided this beauty needed more black.  Added black plastic dots.  Then added black cardstock as shown:

MOOD WHEN DONE = Satisfied + with the card. 

Blue and White Silhouette Style (and a stamp sale is coming...)

Stamped up a storm (meaning actual stamps and ink) last night, but not this card! 

This is a very simple "cut and glue" card -- sized the white woodblock type shape from the Silhouette store to a 4" square, pressed cut on my Silhouette and adhered the shape to a blue card base.  Die cuts are such a great way to get solid white images on a card without dealing with ink and embossing powder.

It would be very easy to make a quick set of cards with this die cut.  Someone do it and let me know how it works out!  Thanks for dropping by....

MOOD WHEN DONE = Graphic

ps. the inside of this card is white, not yellow.  had a devil of a time photographing this card.

About the stamp sale -- stay tuned for the big sell off of 2012!

Project 100: 40/100 - Big Block Letters

Title says it all!  (For those of you newish to the blog, Project 100 is my plan to send 100 cards to my son, who is away at college.)  Since he is in the middle of his 3rd year, I better step up the program!

Card Construction Details:  (inspired by a card made by Kristina Werner in the Clean and Simple card class)

 

1.  Die cut 4 layers of Daffodil cardstock by Stampin Up.  Used my Silhouette to cut the letters.

2.  Adhered the top layer of letters with temporary tape onto scratch paper, stamped with Onyx Versafine using the By Definition background by Stampin Up.  Embossed with clear powder.

3.  Removed embossed letters from scratch paper and adhered all 4 layers.  HINT:  when stacking layers, use liquid glue so you can move them around.

4.  Used Ranger Distress Inks to color each letter.  This soaked through the edges.  Went to bed and let the letters dry.

5.  Woke up.  Everything dry.

6.  Added stitching with a white gel pen to letters.

7.  A2 A Muse Studio Onyx card, rounded corners and added more stitching.  HINT:  Place paper on gridded paper and add one "stitch" per grid.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Awake and Colorful

 

Iced Spruce Holly

This card is all about the colors...

Card Construction Details:

1.  Wanted to use the new Ranger Distress inks -- Iced Spruce and Festive Berries (the ones I swore I wouldn't buy). Love them. The Iced Spruce is a gorgeous gray green.

2. Took the white holly leaves left over from a die cut with my Silhouette machine and covered them with Iced Spruce ink.  Stamped the leaves with a Penny Black crosshatch background in gold.  Ditto with the berries (used Festive Berries ink). Sponged edges of leaves and berries with more ink.

3.  Stamped white strip of cardstock with one of the border stamps from Waltzingmouse Nordic Winter and covered another piece with Festive Berries.

4.  Stamped sentiment (from A Muse Studio) in Iced Spruce.  Was glad to get a decent image from distress ink as those inks are not meant for sentiments. 

5.  Adhered as shown and layered on a white card, with the left edge moved all the way to the edge of the card.  Just felt like doing something different from my usual.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Festive!

Holly Card, Silhouette Style

This card uses some of my favorite card making supplies -- my Silhouette, felt, dimensionals and Distress ink. 

The Silhouette cut the wonky square with the holly inside and I backed it with felt.  Martha Stewart tag punch and a bit of twine finish it off.

MOOD WHEN DONE = happy

Thanks

to you.

Your emails, comments, facebook posts and general support are most appreciated -- more than you know. (Since I'm not going to send this card to each of you, I plan on giving it to the staff on floor of my Mom's nursing home (along with some donuts...).

Card Construction Details:

1.  Using white cardstock, cut a turkey with the Silhouette, placing the word thanks inside the turkey, so that cut too.  I'm so clever I can't stand it.

2.  Sponged the turkey with Distress inks and glued brown cardstock behind the sentiment.  Glued the little pieces inside the letters also. 

3.  4.25" square kraft card and inked the cover with an Impression Obsession background (some kind of paint splatter) and Corduroy distress ink.

4.  Trimmed a 4" kraft square  and sponged with inks, outlined both the Mr. Turkey and the layer with a white gel pen.

5. Tied a twine bow around his scrawny neck and adhered a rhinestone for his beady eye.

6.  Adhered the glorious bird with very thick dimensionals.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Grateful and a tad hungry