Glitter Cards Tutorial - Part I

2012.09.30 - Edited to answer Elisa's Questions
"Would it work if you removed every second strip, glitter, and remove the remaining ones and glitter them?"

In Step 3, I actually work from top left to bottom right, one strip at a time, because when I shake the excess glitter, I tap it so that the excess glitter falls from top left to bottom right (never over an area where the glitter has been applied already). Sometimes the glitter gets "stuck" onto the back of the tape, or I brush it so that it does not touch a glittered section; I think your technique could work. In theory it makes sense, but I am rather conservative and a perfectionist, so I wanted to work through it methodically. Maybe you can start with the darker glitter so that when you tap the excess off the lighter color, it doesn't run into your lighter color. If I try it, I'll report back with images.

Hello there! I am so glad it's the weekend. It's still quite brutal at work and I have trying to catch up on some much needed sleep and rest. But I should also take the time to catch up on a few things crafty related.

I mentioned I would post you a tutorial for some glitter cards that were showcased as part of the of Scrapbook Steals Blog Hop. We'll let's get started!

Remember this Xmas Card?


Stamps: (Seasons of Love) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Paper: (Paper Basics Card Stock - Pure Poppy) Papertrey Ink; (Card stock) scrap bin
Ink: (Versamark) Tsukineko
Embellishments: (Double Sided Ultra Sticky Clear Tape - 3.5mm) Stix2; (Perfect Pearls - Perfect Pearl) Ranger; (Iridescent Glitter - Cherry Popsicle, Sugar Cube) Martha Stewart; (Christmas Twine) The Twinery; (Alphabet Stickers) Prima; (Kris Kringle - Felt elements) SEI; (Nestabilities - Labels Eighteen) Spellbinders

The tutorial will only focus on making the glitter panel focal point, but I will write a little summary on the bottom how to make this card.

To make the glitter tag

1. First die-cut a scrap piece of card stock into Label Eighteen.
2. Adhere double-sided tape onto the label.
   
   Tip: Scor-tape also works well here, but I had some Stix2 lying around, which is the same.
   
   Tip: I start at the center and estimate which diagonal would be longest and adhere that one first. Then I work from the center out. This way I can insure that your diagonal is perfect. I have difficulties starting from the top left corner, because the angle to cover is quite small and if the diagonal is angled wrong, the error won't perpetuate onto the entire label. Does this make sense? If not, let me know in the comments and I will demonstrate in another picture...
   
   
   
   The finished label should look like this:
   
   
3. Peel one strip off and apply glitter, alternating colors to each strips.
   
   Tip: After peeling one strip back, I apply the glitter, tap the excess off, and then brush the excess off. Then rinse & repeat with the second color. To minimize the glitter mess, I just work methodically, slowly, and always dump the excess back into its tube.
   
   

To assemble card

1. Cut card stock in portrait view to 4.25"; score at 5.5" for vertical fold card
2. Stamp card stock with Snowflake stamps in Versamark
3. Dust snowflakes with Perfect Pearls - Perfect Pearl color
4. Create glitter tag (see tutorial)
5. Wrap Christmas twine three times around Label Eighteen Tag; adhere twine in back with adhesive
6. Add alphas to tag
7. Add felt elements to tag
8. Adhere tag to base card stock

So I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any clarification questions - i will answer them on this thread or email you. Just leave me some contact information...Stay tuned and I'll post up steps for the Celebrate shaker card next!

[Scrapbook Steals] September Blog Hop - Glitter

Good morning, lovelies! It's Friday. And I'm breathing a sigh of relief. Can you hear it? Today I have a special post up for you. If you know me, you know I can't resist great crafty products. And if you know me even better, you know I can't resist a good sale. So what happens if you combine both of these loves? An addiction named Scrapbook Steals. This site have many a lovely products, including the whole line-ups of My Mind's Eye, Crate Paper, Studio Calico, October Afternoon...basically products that I love to use on projects, so this site really wins it for me.

When Scrapbook Steals was asking for guest designers, I thought "why not?!" Miraculously I got picked. So a big thank-you for letting me guest design with the Scrapbook Steals group. 

Today we're showcasing some yummy Martha Stewart glitters. Now, what girl doesn't like a little bit of bling or sparkle, right? We have a great line up of very talented girls bringing you some inspirations on how to stretch that glitter. If you followed along the blog hop, you should be arriving from sweet Julie's blog. If not, you might want to start from the beginning.

I have a few creations for you today, and I promise to post up a follow-up tutorial. I received three colors of Martha Stewart Iridescent glitter: cherry popsicle, ice cube, and sour apple - it screams Christmas, doesn't it?



So the one thing that sometimes makes me not a fan of glitter is that it gets everywhere. And when I mean everywhere, I mean everywhere...I think some of it came with me to work, some of it may even be stuck in between my keyboard keys. Sometimes I'm convinced I see a fleck of it in my hair or still attached to parts of me...but it might be the glitter paranoia speaking. So when I work with "messier" products, I like to be in as much control as possible. What does this mean? Contain it, tape it down... please just don't come off ;)

One of my favorite techniques is to combine glitter with scor tape. I will post up a step-by-step tutorial soon to show how you can get the glitter on and save yourself the mess...


Stamps: N/A
Paper: (Paper Basics Card Stock - Pure Poppy) Papertrey Ink; (Card stock) scrap bin
Ink: (Versamark) Tsukineko
Embellishments: (Double Sided Ultra Sticky Clear Tape - 3.5mm) Stix2; (Perfect Pearls - Perfect Pearl) Ranger; (Iridescent Glitter - Cherry Popsicle, Sugar Cube) Martha Stewart; (Christmas Twine) The Twinery; (Alphabet Stickers) Prima; (Kris Kringle - Felt elements) SEI; (Nestabilities - Labels Eighteen) Spellbinders

I knew I wanted to make a peppermint striped color scheme and couldn't resist this little felt bird I had in my stash. A little alphas here, a bit of snowflake stamping & dusting with Perfect Pearls, and I pronounce this my first Christmas card of the year...The twine was actually a cool find by my DYSU buddy Jan, which we split three ways. A great frugal way to share some products, right? And twine is also so light to ship...



Look how clean the glitter lines up with the scor tape? I'm just tickled how this came out...more tips & tricks on another post, I promise!



My second card of today is a fun birthday card, using more glitter! And it's a fun little interactive card, because you can "shake it, shake it....like a polaroid picture." (If you can name the song and the artist...leave 'em in the comments ;)


Stamps: (Celebrate Special Edition) Studio Calico & Hero Arts
Paper: (Paper Basics Card Stock - Dark Chocolate, White, Aqua Mist; Stamper's Select Vellum) Papertrey Ink; (Acetate)
Ink: (Jenni Bowlin - No. 11 Brown Sugar) Ranger; (Perfect Match Pigment Ink - Hawaiian Shore) Papertrey Ink
Embellishments: (Iridescent Glitter - Sour Apple, Sugar Cube) Martha Stewart; (Saddle Stich Ribbon - Hawaiian Shore) Papertrey Ink; (Wood Veneers - Stars) Studio Calico; (Nestabilities - Standard Circles Small; Classic Scalloped Circles Small) Spellbinders; (Inkssentials - Glossy Accents) Ranger; (Cuttlebug A2 Embossing Folder - Swiss Dots) Provocraft; (Soft-core Color Pencils) Prismacolor

I can post up more detailed shots about how I put this little shaker card together if you're interested, but it's pretty straight forward. I created a pocket by cutting out two circles (larger than the window) in both acetate and vellum. After lining them up back to back, I sewed around the edge and left a little opening. Since I have always loved the color combination of aqua and a nice crisp granny-smith green, I filled the little pocket up with some glitter (of course), a few little wood stars and aqua confetti to make it a party inside the pocket.



The cupcake is stamped, colored with color pencils, and then finally iced with a layer of Sugar Cube glitter, followed by a nice generous layer of Glossy Accents. It gives the top layer of the cupcake a little more dimension by making it into an home-made (inexpensive) epoxy. A little bit of ribbon (that I stapled together), a fun little sentiment backed with vellum, and voila. Easy peasy card that you can make...and the best part? The glitter is contained ;)


Thanks for letting me share these two projects with you. I hope you enjoyed them.

Now off you go to the ever so talented Lisa. Just a small reminder that prizes are to be had. Leave a comment by Sunday September 16 11:59pm MST, and a lucky random winner from one of the eight blogs will be drawn to receive a $20 gift certificate. How awesome is that?

Here the blog hop details in case you get lost:

• (Scrapbook Steaks)
• (Erica Bass)
• (Julie Ann Cordero)
• Ren-Yi Lo <---------- you are here
• Lisa Bankes-Lahiff
• Neela Nalam
• Amy Brock Coose
• Becki Adams

On a last note, if you're a regular reader, don't forget to answer the survey in the top right panel. The second QuAC poll is up and if you want to link up and please feel free to participate in the first QuAC challenge  :)

You're Invited

The next Embellish challenge calls for an invitation card. I had never made one before and was immediately stumped. All the while, I was staring at this challenge picture:

The first obvious choice was Christmas, but I do not generally send invitations out to my family for Christmas (seeing that I generally go spend it at my parents' house). So what kind of invites do I generally make? Game Night, Girl's Night In, Cooking Session, Dinner Parties (with the whole nine yards), Crafting Session. Maybe it was the incessant growling of my stomach, but the idea of a Dinner Party invitation was the way I wanted to go, since a paper invite next time would probably give it that extra charm.

My poor dinner party guests generally bid adieu by rolling out the front door. Somewhere between people being too polite and asking for seconds, or the Asian-ness in me to cook with a buffer as well as my incessant in-born chirping of "eat more" while ladling yet another helping may have something to do with it... I also read somewhere that the color Red was a appetizing color that engages people to eat more. In addition, the Chinese culture emphasizes red and gold colors in their festivities, and had already decided these two colors to my focus. Here is what came about with the help of my oh-so-appropriate Waltzingmouse Asian Gardens:


Stamps: Asian Gardens (Waltzingmouse Stamps), Very Vintage Label No. 4 (Waltzingmouse Stamps), Stamps from Heat Embossing Kit (Martha Stewart)

Paper: Paper Basics Card Stock - Kraft (Papertrey Ink), Winnie's Walls Card Kit - Red Card Stock (Taylored Expressions)

Ink: Gold (Recollections), Brilliance - Pearlescent Lime (Tsukineko), VersaMark - Watermark (Tsukineko)

Embellishments: Corner Punch (EK Success), Nestabilities - Label Four (Spellbinders), Morning Meadows Card Kit - Ribbon: Olive Green (Taylored Expressions), Embossing Powder - Antique Gold (Martha Stewart)

Contrary to the picture, there are green elements that I picked out: the ink and the ribbon. The olive green ribbon, when I pulled it out of it's Taylored Card Kit, was convincingly green, but managed to chameleon itself into a gold; the pearlescent lime green managed to pull off its silver sheen unto the red card stock, but left everything else untouched. Utter fail on the green standing out, but I love how the card came out true to it's Asian flair!

So who is coming over for a dinner party? What kind of foods would you love to taste?

Waltzingmouse Stamps - The Biggie Challenge

Claire from Waltzing Mouse Stamps turned One! So if you have not given her your congrats, hop on over and leave her a comment.  Claire, in celebration of her company's 1-year, is releasing EIGHT(!) new, magnificent stamp sets this May and has offered a very generous challenge, allowing us all a chance to win each of her new 8 sets! So I couldn't pass up the opportunity to play...We're talking about high stakes here!

A friend's birthday was just around the corner and i took it as an opportunity to make a fun card for my dear friend. With no circle die cut or punch around, I took the liberty of interpreting the sketch in my own little way. Here is what I came up with:


Stamps: Flowers Bouquet (Martha Stewart), Butterfly from Embossing Stamp Set (Martha Stewart), Sentiment (?)
Paper: White (Recollections), Off-white (Recollections)
Ink: Momento - Paris Dusk, Summery Sky, Blue Danube, Bahama Blue (Tsukineko), VersaMark - Watermark (Tsukineko)
Embellishments: Gold Embossing Powder (Ranger), Sparkling Diamonds (Memory Box), Golden Rod (Prisma Markers), Blue - Art No. 88/41 (Stabilo)

I've been wanting to make my own pattern paper for a while now, and decided to go crazy and make some blue flowered paper. I knew that I wanted to create one bold flower and pop it off the page after I looked at the sketch. Therefore, my darkest blue ink was set aside for that. The nice thing with the MS's flower stamp set is the versatility of solid and line flowers. I tried to balance the blues with the solid and line types of flowers, but I'm not completely happy in how it turned out. Next time, I want to try less ink shades (i.e., maybe just pick two or three colors, rather than four) or stick with one type of flower (i.e., all lines or all solids).

Next I stamped the sentiment with Paris Dusk, but didn't like that it was not bold enough. To make the sentiment darker, I took a dark blue Stabilo pen and traced the sentiment over with the pen.
The butterfly was a natural accent to tie the flowers together. And I did have to satisfy that top circle in the sketch somehow ;) So, off I went to heat emboss it in a nice, rich golden color to complement my bouquet of blue flowers. To balance the gold butterfly, I added a few clear gems, that I dutifully colored with my Prisma marker to match. So all in all, a fun card!

The one revelation that I came to, as a n00b (or newbie) to paper crafts, is the quality of card stock paper. The 65 lbs. paper does not cut it anymore for me. I easily get frustrated when mounting things to the base, and everything feels too unstable. A good card, after all, should be able to prop up and stand on its own, right? So my question to you, what kind of card stock do you use? And what were your first revelations when you started crafting that made you frustrated?

[Stamping Around] SA05 - WMS Inspiration Challenge

There is this hilarious "Up in the Air" scene, where the stewardess asks George Clooney's character "Would you like the can, sir?" and he understood "Would you like the cancer?" These week seems filled with many such "hard of hearing" moments during my many meetings. So when trying to write up meeting minutes from my notes...well, you can see where my creative deciphering has to come in.

Last weekend I was desperately trying to juggle all the cleaning, laundry, re-packing for my business trip, when I realized to my horror, that I more friends' birthdays looming around the corner. In fact, one of my local girl friend's birthday was last week and I threw a card together that I will save for another post (after she has surely gotten it). 

Another friend lives abroad -- and I wanted to throw a fun card for her together, but I also didn't want it to be bulky. My crafty gals reminded me that there was another fun WMS inspiration challenge which I looked at last week during a quick lunch break. Here is what I threw together


Stamps: "Can Ya Dig It" (My Favorite Things), Flowers from Embossing Stamp Set (Martha Stewart)
Paper: Beige (Recollections), Amy Butler Lotus Faded China Pad (K&Company)
Ink: Momento - Paris Dusk (Tsukineko), Momento - Summery Sky (Tsukineko)
Embellishments: 1/8" Spool o' Ribbon - Light Blue (Offray), Sun Yellow Eyelet (Making Memories), Threading Waters Border Punch (Fiskars)

The horrible thing with this card is that when I looked at the inspiration challenge post (a very long time ago), I remembered "flowers" "a lime green accent that exuded freshness" and "round." Lesson learned? Look up the challenge post again ;)

The focus was on the Amy Butler pattern paper (swoon!). The lime green jumped out at me when I was going through my stash and everything just fell into place from there. Since I tried to keep the card as flat as possible I tried to add dimension by stamping my own pattern paper with different hues of the same color. It's hard to tell on the picture, but I pulled a Martha Stewart flower and a matching blue ink and went at it. The "Sun Yellow" eyelets were actually more lime green, but who am I to judge color. I just cared that it matched and added a little accent ;) The threading ribbon through the Threading Waters Border Punch seemed like a way to end the whole card.

Let me know what fun techniques you use to make a flat card look amazing.