Card Factory 2015–Two Bee Cards

My next collection of cards for the Card Factory is on the theme of bees. I have made two so far.

I began by inking up some backgrounds cut from offcuts of card from other projects in the Card Factory, using my new Fossilised Amber distress ink, smooshing and spritzing it on my craft sheet and dragging the card pieces through the wet ink. I always keep my offcuts in case I want to make something smaller with them – waste not, want not!!

First Card

The first card has a die-cut window with a bee in it, with its wings embellished with Glossy Accents.

I embossed one of the inked backround pieces, using a Fiskar’s texture plate in a honeycomb pattern, using my Cuttlebug.

It didn’t show up very much, so I inked over the top, using my brayer to apply Vintage Photo distress ink to the raised pattern, and then I distressed the edges with the same ink, using a home-made ink blending tool.

I cut a window in the top, using one of my new Dorice circle dies. It was really funny about these dies. I ordered them some time ago on Ebay, and was told there was a fairly long delivery date on them. I was convinced I had received them, and couldn’t find them anywhere, and got very frustrated looking for them, turning the place upside down and wasting lots of energy in the effort! Then I got an email last week saying they’d been dispatched, and a few days ago, they arrived! Did I dream them? Anyway, I am glad they did eventually turn up, and I hadn’t lost them after all!

After cutting the window, I stamped my medium bee from Stampotique Originals onto another offcut of card, using sepia archival ink.

I inked the background with more Fossilised Amber distress ink, using an Inkylicious Ink Duster.

Here is the window with the bee in it. I embellished its wings with Glossy Accents.

I matted and layered the honeycomb piece onto some thin brown card with a slightly marbled effect, and then mounted it onto a white A5-folded-to-A6 sized piece of card which I had previously distressed around the edges with Fossilised Amber distress ink. Here is the card completed card.

The sentiment was stamped on another offcut of card, using one of my clear sentiment stamps that I got when I first started, and I’m afraid I don’t know the name of the set or the manufacturer. This small strip was matted onto the same brown card as the main part of the card, after I’d inked it with a little Fossilised Amber and distressed the edges with Vintage Photo distress inks.

Second Card

For the second card, I wanted to make a grid background, stamping with the tiny bee that came with the medium bee stamp I used for the first card. I worked out a suitable spacing for alternately spaced rows of bees and I’ve kept a note of this in the packet with the stamps so I can refer to it again. It took quite a while to work out, and then a little while longer to draw out on the background piece, but at least this way I get a nice even result, and it’s worth the trouble, I think.

I stamped the small bees using sepia archival ink, stamping right over the edges of the background piece to give a nice overall effect. You can see the grid lines I have drawn.

I took the circular piece of honeycomb that I saved from the first card after I’d cut the window, and inked the edges, and those of the background piece, with Fossilised Amber distress ink, using my home-made ink blending tool.

I stamped the circular piece using the medium bee stamp, and heat-embossed it in gold. I made another sentiment strip the same as for the first card.

As before, I distressed the edges of the A5-folded-to-A6 white card base with Fossilised Amber distress ink, and assembled the card.

I have got several more background pieces inked and ready to be made up into more bee cards for this set.

Diamond Wedding Anniversary Card

My hubby reminded me we were invited to a diamond wedding tea party today. When we were invited some time ago I wasn’t sure I’d be well enough to go, because it would be less than a week after a chemo treatment, but because I am doing so much better on the reduced dose, I felt just about able to go.

I had forgotten about it in the meantime, and suddenly realised I needed to make a card! This is one of the reasons for wanting to start my card factory – to avoid having to make cards at such short notice as this.

Even though I am feeling better than usual at this stage in a cycle, I am far from 100 percent, and this morning I was suffering badly from chemo brain and made soooo many mistakes, it was driving me nuts! I did succeed in making a card, but managed to leave out one bit which I found after I’d finished! Also, recently I bought some circle dies which I simply cannot find, and I thought I had a music embossing folder, which I didn’t, so I had to rethink the thing on the fly! It was rather a frustrating morning all round, but I got there in the end.

It was rather difficult to photograph because it is white and sparkly. The glitter and silver don’t show up as much as in real life.

This card is not my usual style, but I wanted to do something silvery and sparkly for a diamond wedding. The couple are retired musicians, so I decided to add something to give a musical theme. The wife later said, when she opened the card, “Oh! It’s a record!” I hadn’t thought of it like that, but it does look a bit like a CD!

I began by creating some mat layers, using silver mirror card and some white card which I inked around the edges with Hickory Smoke distress ink, using a home-made ink blending tool. I got this distress ink quite recently (one of the new ones for this year) and am surprised how much I am using it already – it’s a lovely soft grey, and a very useful colour.

Not being able to find my circle dies, I had to resort to my Martha Stewart circle cutter, a tool I really don’t much like. The die would have produced a nice embossed edge, which of course this does not.

I cut a 4-inch circle and stamped and heat-embossed it using the “Music Background” stamp from the Artistic Stamper, using Cosmic Shimmer glitter embossing powder, which came out slightly pink from one direction, and a shimmery green the other way – very pretty! I haven’t used this for ages and had forgotten how nice it was.

Here is the circle mount. Rather difficult to see but you can just see the pinkness of it!

I made a circle with “60” in it to go in the centre. I used stamps from the Stampin’ Up set “Memorable Moments” – a very useful set because it has separate words for the sentiments, and numbers, and “rd,” “nd” etc. so that you can mix and match, and a nice little scalloped oval shape to stamp them in as well. I chose the number 60 for the front of the card, stamped it on white card and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. I then went over it with a glue pen and added some Hunkydory Diamond Sparkles Angel Whispers fine glitter. I cut out the circle using a plain 2-inch circle punch.

I find the best way to make sure that glitter is well stuck down is to put a piece of paper over the top, and then run a brayer over it several times. I find very little loose glitter falls off that way.

Here is the completed “60” layered onto a slightly larger piece of silver mirror card punched out with a scalloped circle punch.

Turning back to the background again, I found some ice sparkly silver and organza ribbon in my stash and stuck this down vertically across the mat with double sided tape.

Using two sizes of butterfly stamps from the Stamping’ Up “Papillon Potpourri” set, I heat-embossed two of each, using the same glitter embossing powder as before, and silver embossing powder respectively, and then fussy-cut them out with fine scissors.

I added the Diamond Sparkles glitter with the glue pen as before, to the silver-embossed butterflies.

To stamp the inside of the card, I used stamps from the Stampin’ Up “Memorable Moments” set, using Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink in Watering Can, which tones very well with Hickory Smoke distress ink.

I stuck down the two glitter-embossed butterflies using Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive in the centres so that the wings were loose, and attached the antennae using the glue pen.

The finished card, showing the glittered silver-embossed butterflies, attached in the same way.

We got to the party OK and it was great. I was so glad I went – the couple were surprised and delighted to see me as they didn’t think I’d be able to come. It was lovely seeing lots of other old friends too, and catching up. A very happy time. The card went down well, too!

I felt a lot better when we got home, and spent the evening relaxing on the recliner. We’d had plenty of gorgeous canapes at the party so we just had some stewed apple and cream later in the evening. I’m hoping to feel better again tomorrow, but I am not pushing it. I intend to rest and get over the busy day I had today.

Card Factory 2015–Purple Embossed Birthday Card with Tag

I have started my latest card factory. My stash is empty, and I am fed up with realising it’s someone’s birthday in a few days’ time, or someone needs a get well card or whatever, and having to work to a deadline. I thought if I could make up a good collection of cards I’d always have something ready when I need it. Most of them will be relatively simple.

My first effort is as a result of the pieces I cut before, to make finished cards 5 inches square. I embossed a whole sheet in error and didn’t use it, so that is my starting point for this card.

The first step was to ink the embossed piece of white card. The embossing was done with my Cuttlebug, using Tim Holtz’ “Damask” embossing folder, and I inked it with Shaded Lilac distress ink, using an Inkylicious Ink Duster.

Next I heat-embossed the raised surface with clear embossing powder, applying the Versamark with my brayer.

I inked the piece again, this time with Seedless Preserves distress ink, using the Inkylicious Ink Duster, and went around the edges with Dusty Concord distress ink, using a home-made blending tool. I rubbed the ink off the embossing resist using the purple kitchen paper, very slightly dampened.

Now it was time to start on the tag holder, to be stuck down to the bottom part of the card. I took a piece of scrap white card, an offcut from when I was cutting the blank 5 x 5 in cards, and trimmed it to size.

I took the piece of kitchen paper which I’d been using to mop up purple ink, and which had matured to the state when it was usable for backgrounds etc. I separated the two layers of kitchen paper (you get double for your money that way!!) and cut one piece in half. I laid down a fairly thick layer of regular matt gel medium onto the piece of card, and scrumpled up the piece of kitchen paper as I laid it down on top. I added more gel medium to the top surface, making sure it was well stuck down.

I dried it a bit with my heat gun and when it was ready to be handled, I trimmed off the excess with scissors, and then dried it fully.

I inked around the edges and on the surface, by rubbing the Seedless Preserves distress ink pad directly onto the surfaces, and then blended in the ink with the Inkylicious Ink Duster, to cover up any white, and any gel medium that was showing. I dried it again with my heat gun.

The final step was to rub on some Treasure Gold gilding wax lightly with my fingertip to highlight the raised surface of the piece. It has a lovely deep texture and a lot of lustre.

I cut a tag using my new Tim Holtz “Labels” die set, using some of the purple paper that I’d stuck down onto card, for my recent purple projects for our neighbour.

I inked the back of the tag with Seedless Preserves distress ink, using the Inkylicious Ink Duster, and the edges with Dusty Concord distress ink, using the home-made ink blender. I flicked water onto it with the tube from my water spritzing bottle, left it to stand for a minute or two and blotted it off.

I felt that the edge of the tag holder needed something to give it more definition against the card background, so I took a scrap of recycled cream gold-edged ribbon from my stash, and cut it to length, and then cut it in half lengthwise. I think this ribbon came off an Easter egg! I never throw anything like this away – it all goes in my stash.

I used the extra-sticky red-backed double sided tape to stick it around the edge of the tag holder. Tip: to store these rolls of tape, whose edges get extremely sticky and make the rolls stick together, I always separate them with a square of waxed paper.

The gold-edged ribbon in place along the top edge of the tag holder.

To neaten the back, I stuck down a strip of card to cover the frayed edge of the cut ribbon.

The tag holder glued in place onto the card. I used Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive which is a good strong wet glue. I slipped the tag behind the holder to show how it would go.

Next the matting and layering of the card. I inked the edges of the card base with Shaded Lilac distress ink and the Inkylicious Ink Duster, and then matted the card with gold mirror card and two shades of purple cardstock.

Stamping the inside of the card. I used a “Happy Birthday” sentiment stamp from the Stamp Barn (No. CHSH 238E), using Dusty Concord distress ink, after I had lightly inked around the edges of the inside of the card with Shaded Lilac distress ink and the Inkylicious Ink Duster.

To stamp the sentiment on the tag, I heat-embossed in gold, using the “Birthday Greetings” sentiment from my Stampin’ Up set “Wetlands.”

The completed tag. I added some purple ribbon and some fancy yarns with a touch of told in them.

The completed card, with the tag in place.

This card was slightly more complicated to make than most of the others I am planning on making in the Card Factory, but I wanted to use the embossed sheet I had, and I already had all my purple stuff still out!

Purple Basket

Yesterday I made a little basket to put all the purple goodies in to give to our neighbour. I found the instructions for making this basket via Pinterest, which directed me to this blog. I decided to alter it somewhat – making it twice as large (a 12 x 12 in sheet rather than 6 x 6 in, and even so, it comes out quite small) and also to make a single handle rather than the two in this design. I am grateful to Rachel Ricks for her template.

Here is my piece of purple 12 x 12 card, scored and cut as per the instructions.

I cut several strips and panels to embellish the outside of the box. I made a bit of a booboo over this (more later) because I didn’t fully visualise how it was going to work!

I began by embossing these panels, using one of Tim Holtz’s embossing folders, “Damask,” and my Cuttlebug.

After this, I inked the raised embossing with Seedless Preserves distress ink, using my brayer.

I wasn’t happy with the result as the background was too pale, so I inked it with Dusty Concord distress ink, which looked a lot better. I did most of the inking on this project using Inkylicious Ink Dusters.

Turning to what would be the inside of the box, I thought the plain purple card was far too boring, so I smooshed a background using Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves distress inks, rubbing the ink pads on my craft sheet and spritzing it with water.

I felt it needed something extra so I decided to put my new Brushos to use, and sprinkled on some purple, and spritzed it with water. I am not sure whether this was a component part of the purple or whether the crystals had got contaminated with another colour, but some little gold flecks appeared which I really liked! Unfortunately the photo doesn’t do this justice – it looks really rich in real life.

This is a set of butterfly stamps I got a few months ago.

I heat-embossed these on the inside of the basket, using gold embossing powder.

Returning to the panels for the outside, I heat-embossed the raised embossed surface of the panels, applying Versamark with my brayer and embossing with clear embossing powder.

After this I added more Seedless Preserves distress ink to darken the background still further.

The final touch was to add some Treasure Gold gilding wax very sparingly over the embossed surface. Just the effect I was after!

It was at this point that I realised that I had not made any panels for the ends of the basket. I tried to remember what I had done, and they didn’t look the same at all! What I should have done was to look at the photos I’d already taken but I didn’t think of that… chemo brain… Anyway, I quite liked the result even if the panels did come out lighter than the rest – let’s call it “contrast” lol!!

I also realised that I should have cut the strips into short lengths to cover only the cut strips of the template, and not to have a piece going across what turned out to be the ends of the basket, so I cut off the embossed parts and disposed of the middle part. I stuck them down with my ATG glue gun. I had cut them 1/8 in smaller all round (apart from where they joined the fold) to give a matted appearance. The pale square in the centre is the bottom of the outside of the basket.

The next step was to assemble the box. If you look at Rachel Ricks’ blog you can see how it all comes together.

I glued the strips to each other in turn, and to the triangular flap underneath, trimming off the excess to give a nice neat edge.

Here is the basket being assembled. I used Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive which is a good strong wet glue. When I make this project in the future, I shall use this to attach the panels too, because as I flexed the strips to assemble the box, some of them started to come away at the edges and I had to squirt some of the adhesive between the layers to secure them.

I punched two pairs of circles to cover the join where the strips all came together, and also to cover the backs of the brads to attach the handle.

The larger circles were cut with a 2 1/2 in scalloped circle punch and the smaller ones with a plain 2 in circle punch. I embossed and inked these as before.

I folded each circle in half before sticking them together, and then stuck half the circle to the outside of the basket on each side.

To make the handle, because my Cuttlebug embossing folders are not long enough, I placed the narrower (1 in wide, 11 3/4 in long) strip onto the opened embossing folder and hand embossed it with a ball embossing tool. I could probably have folded it in half and embossed it in the normal way because the fold wouldn’t have shown once it was stuck down to to the other piece, or embossed each end in turn, but it looks OK. This narrower strip was cut from the same pale mauve cardstock that I used for the panels.

The wider piece was 1 1/4 in wide and 12 in long, cut from the same purple cardstock as the basket. I rounded all the corners with a corner rounder punch and stuck the two layers together with Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, curving the handle as I went, so that the two layers would stick together in the correct curve without any separation or buckling. I chose two decorative brads to attach the handle to the basket.

I made a hole on each side through the half circle and all the layers, and discovered that it was much too thick for the brad to go through and its ends be spread apart to attach it. I therefore got my craft knife and carefully trimmed away some of the layers until I was satisfied that the brad could be attached securely.

Once this was done, I threaded the brads through the ends of the handle and attached the handle to the basket. The final step was to fold down the other half circles and glue them in place, hiding the trimmed away layers and the brad backs.

This finished the basket apart from a few little embellishments to go on the handle.

I punched three butterflies with my Stampin’ Up butterfly punch from some of the altered purple paper stuck to a layer of card, and chose the Tim Holtz Bitty Grunge set of background stamps to heat emboss them in gold.

Here are the completed butterflies. I had inked them on the backs with Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves distress inks, rubbing the butterflies directly across the ink pads.

I made a bow from purple ribbon, using my bow maker, and stuck this to a cream and gold bow I already had in my stash. The final touch was to add a little “made with love” heart charm in gold. All the embellishments were attached to the handle of the basket with Pinflair gel glue and left to dry overnight.

Here is a detail of the embellishments.

The completed basket with the gifts inside.

Today I made the lavender bag to go in the little box, and picked some lavender from the garden to make a nice little spray to go in the basket. I was hoping to make a small notebook with some of the purple paper I have left, but unfortunately there was no time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This afternoon we went across to see our neighbour and she absolutely loved her little basket full of goodies – she said her favourite colour was purple and she loves butterflies – both of which I knew! So nice to hit the spot and shed a little happiness – she’s had some hard knocks recently.

I am delighted that this little basket is just large enough to take the square card I made, and the other bits and pieces too. It makes a nice presentation of a collection of small gifts, and it’s definitely a project I shall be doing again. Thank you again, Rachel, for your lovely design. I hope you approve of what I have done with it!