Fun Fold Card to display a Mini 2021 Calendar

To welcome in the year 2021 I designed a card to hold a mini calendar. 

I created a special fold so that when the card is opened the mini calendar on the inside can be displayed on a desk or countertop.

If you love dragonflies you'll love this card as I used the new Dragonfly Garden stamps and matching Dragonfly Punch to cut out the large and small dragonflies from the Dandy Garden designer series paper.

You can find these new products in the 2021 Mini Catalogue by Stampin' Up!

This is perfect as a thank you card for a friend, however you could make it for anyone by just removing the sentiment on the left side of the card.

You can use it as a gift as well since the mini calendar can be displayed easily when opened.

I used my Wink of Stella Glitter Brush to add some bling to the wings of the dragonflies.

When I first made this design I stamped two dragonfly images and coloured them with watercolour pencils to match the background designer series paper before punching them out with the new dragonfly punch.

I stamped some of the smaller images on the mini calendar pages as well as on to the dsp. Be sure to stamp off the image on scrap paper before stamping on the calendar or it will be too dark to see the dates.

The card base was 10.5 cm x 29.7 cm -- I cut an A4 sheet of cardstock in half lengthwise.

I scored it at 7.5 cm and 9 cm from the short edge on both sides to create the special fold.

I cut four pieces of designer series paper to 7 cm x 10 cm -- two for the front and two for the inside. You could cut four pieces of the same dsp and use the opposite side on the inside of the card or choose complimentary designs and colours. The large dsp for the inside centre section is 11 cm x 10 cm.

I cut some cardstock slightly larger than the mini calendar and die cut the numbers from the centre of it before sticking it down on the inside. Don't forget to attach some ribbon or cord to the front before attaching the dsp so you can close the card.

I made a video showing how to make the 'Thank You' card as a participant of the Global Monthly Video Hop. You can see it here and I've put links to the other members of the GMVH in the description of my YouTube video so you can see more 'Thank You' projects from demonstrators around the world.

I hope you like my special card and have a wonderful New Year!

#KeepCalmAndCraft #ComputerAndCraftDesigns #StampinUp #CreativeTherapy #KeepStamping #RubberStamping #FunFoldCard #CardMaking

Power of Hope Vellum Lantern

I love the look of paper lanterns and when I saw the Power Of Hope stamp set, available for free during Sale-A-Bration, I immediately thought of making one. I looked at some paper lanterns I had left over from attending the Auckland Lantern Festival in previous years and attempted to copy them in miniature.

I used a piece of petal pink vellum 5" x 4" (12.7 cm x 10 cm) for the little lantern and stamped the images in Memento back ink all around it between two 1/2" (1.25cm) score lines.

After the ink dried I cut 1/4" (0.5 cm) slices between the top and bottom score lines to create the curved lantern effect. I then glued the lantern sides together, overlapping one of the 1/4" (0.5 cm) slices.

I used a couple strips of petal pink cardstock 1/2" x 5" (1.25 cm x 12.7 cm)  to give it stability on the top and the bottom.

I hung a petal pink Best Dressed Tassel using gold thread at the bottom of the lantern. This also created a way to hold the battery-operated tealight. I also used a 1/4" x 6" (0.5 cm x 15.24 cm) piece of petal pink cardstock to create a handle at the top. 

Using three flowers from the Seasonal Layers Dies, I die cut the petal pink cardstock and vellum to decorate the little lantern, thus hiding my joins on the top and bottom strips.

I love the way this lantern came out and it was so easy to make. If you'd like to make one yourself, have a look at my video for instructions.

If you make a lantern I'd love to see it. Please post your pictures in the comments or on my Facebook page.

#Vellum #Lantern #Tealight #PowerOfHope #KeepCalmAndCraft #ComputerAndCraftDesigns #StampinUp #creativetherapy #StayHome #SaleABration

Emboss Resist Technique with a Twist!

I have tried the emboss resist technique many times in the past and there are lots of videos online to show how to do it. For those of you who don't know what it is . . . you heat emboss an image using white or clear embossing powder on to white card stock and then rub ink all over the paper so that the image 'resists' the ink. It looks like a magic trick when the image suddenly appears! I remember doing this as a kid with waxed crayons and paint to make 'secret messages' appear on paper.


Recently I tried a little twist to this technique which I have seen a few times online. There is one extra step to achieve this effect. Before embossing I coloured the glossy paper with a few different inks to go with the image I wanted to use. For the leaf card I chose regal autunm colours and for the daisy card I used bright summery colours.

I decided to try two different ways of colouring the glossy card. For the leaves I put a few drops of reinkers (Calypso Coral, So Saffron, and Pear Pizzazz) on the cardstock and then used my heat tool to dry the ink while moving it around the paper. This gave me more colours when the ink mixed on the page which resembled the colour of autumn leaves.

For the daisy card I used sponge daubers to rub three different inks (Lovely Lipstick, Grapefruit Grove, and Pineapple Punch) in various areas on the paper. I started with the darkest colour and them moved up to the lighter colours because I could always add more of the darker colour if I needed. I rubbed the lightest colour (Pineapple Punch) all over the top of the other two to blend any hard lines.

After waiting for the inked pieces of glossy cardstock to dry, I rubbed the cardstock with the Embossing Buddy to prevent any embossing powder from sticking where I didn't want it to go. I then used Versamark ink to stamp my images from the Daisy Lane and Rooted in Nature stamp sets all over the paper before sprinkling clear embossing powder over those images and heat embossing them. This protected the coloured background under the stamped images for my next step.

To make the embossed images more visible, I inked over the entire cardstock with a darker colour. This can be done with a sponge or just pressing the ink pad all over the card stock. After it was all inked up I then took a dry cloth and rubbed the ink off the top of the embossed images just like the traditional emboss resist technique. Then the coloured background showed through the clear embossed images, giving me multi-coloured daisies and leaves!

Once I had finished the emboss resist technique I then had to do something with the pages I had made. This took the longest time as I wasn't happy with the dark green background or the placement of the daisies. I did love how the leaves turned out but I needed to find accessories to create a card for that page.

I then concentrated on the easiest part of the cards, the inside! I stamped a flower on Pineapple Punch cardstock for the inside of the daisy card and then tried to replicate the mixed leaf colours for my autumn card. I used another technique to stamp a different leaf image from the Rooted in Nature set. Using Stampin' Write Markers I coloured different parts of the stamp and then sprayed a little water on it with the Stampin' Spritzer. This made the ink merge and when I stamped the leaf it had a watercolour look to it which matched the embossed leaves on the front of the card.

For my other card, I cut circles out of Grapefruit Grove cardstock to let the daisies show through and I fussy-cut one out of the embossed page to create a bit of dimension. I have since ordered the matching daisy punches so I won't have to fussy-cut daisies again! It's not the best card I've made but I was able to use a lot of images from the Daisy Lane set.

I always learn something new every time I create a papercraft project and this time it was that I should decide on my background colour carefully when doing this technique as you cannot change it once you put the ink down. However I was so excited to try it that I just jumped right in without thinking of what the finished card would be . . . lesson learned!

#ComputerAndCraftDesigns #StampinUp #creativetherapy #PaperCraftIdeas #HandmadeCard #EmbossResist #CardTechnique