Saturday, May 26, 2012

Masculine Birthday - with DIY Washi Tape

Washi tape is the new craze in paper crafting! I've never used it before, but have been quite curious about it. I've recently ordered some small amounts of washi tape to see if I'd like it, but I find it can be rather pricey! Then....I found this fantastic video on DIY washi tape, and thought I'd give it a go!! So, here's my card with my homemade "washi":
The washi I used on this card isn't as bright (colorwise) as most of the washi tape you can buy. However, I still liked the subtleness of the colors in combination with the kraft paper...and the fact that I wanted to make a masculine card!

Here's how I did it:
First I created my washi tape by applying adhesive sheets to white tissue paper (Canvas Corp Tissuestock). I used a bone folder to smooth out some of the wrinkles. I still ended up with a few wrinkles I couldn't get out, but I figured I could work around them! Once smoothed out, I cut my adhesive backed tissue paper into 1" strips. Then, I used various stamps and distress inks to create my patterned tapes. 

To let you in on a little secret, my middle strip of washi tape was a flop that I tried to fix. Originally, it looked horrible, but once the ink dried, I kind of liked it. Here's what happened: I stamped this strip with HA Dots and Lines stamp, which was inked with Faded Jeans distress ink. I apparently didn't ink the stamp evenly, or didn't apply even pressure, because the stamping turned out terrible. So, I decided that - once it was dry - I'd swipe it with Frayed Burlap and Faded Jeans Distress stain just to see what would happen. I was concerned about it destroying the tissue paper from the extra moisture, but that paper held up really well. Once all the ink was dry, I really liked the effect. The actual stamped image is a little faded out, but if you look really close, you'll see it! :D

The car stamp and the sentiment were inked with HA "Cup O' Joe" ink and stamped onto kraft cardstock. Both pieces were then distressed with Walnut Stain distress ink.

To make the background, I cut a 4.5x6.5" piece of kraft cardstock and ran it through the plaid embossing folder.  I ran it through twice to cover the whole piece. Then, I distressed it with Walnut Stain distress ink.

The background was then adhered to my 5x7" white cardstock base. The washi tape was adhered on top of that. Then the stamped images where adhered with foam tape. Finally, the circles (which were cut with a 1" circle punch and distressed with Walnut Stain distress ink) were adhered to the card.

Needless to say, I'm pretty stoked about creating more of my own, private washi tape!   ;D

Here's the supplies:

InLinkz.com
Entered into CASE Study Challenge #92 (CSC92)

90 Minute Scramble!

I just participated in a super fun 90-minute Scramble on the Hero Arts Flickr site, hosted by Dasa. The way these scrambles work is that you are given a specific theme, then you have 90 minutes to create a card with that theme and incorporating at least one Hero Arts stamp. Today's theme was WEDDINGS. For this particular challenge, we were also given a photo inspiration. This was the photo:

And....here's my card:
Here's how I did it:


The size of the card is 5X7". First, I inked the HA "Canvas" stamp with Faded Jeans distress ink and stamped onto white cardstock. Then I distressed it a bit with Old Paper and Faded Jeans Distress inks.


Then, I used my brick embossing folder and embossed a piece of white cardstock. I distressed this embossed piece with Pumice Stone and Black Soot distress inks.


For the middle strip, I inked my HA "Envelope Pattern" stamp with Walnut Stain distress ink and stamped onto kraft paper. Then I distressed the strip with Walnut Stain distress ink.


The couple, as well as the sentiment, were stamped onto kraft cardstock with the stamps inked with Versamark, then heat embossed with white embossing powder. The sentiment strip was then distressed with Walnut Stain distress ink.


The heart (an old Stampin' Up stamp) was inked with Versamark, stamped onto white cardstock, and heat embossed with red embossing powder.


The couple, balloon and sentiment were adhered to the card front with 3D squares/tape.


Here's MOST of my supplies:


InLinkz.com

Thanks for taking a look!! :D

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Masculine Birthday Cards

Recently, my husband asked me to make a couple of masculine birthday card to send to friends. I'm not sure why, but masculine cards continue to be a creative challenge for me. However, I did come up with a couple that were actually quite fun to make! This first one was quite easy:


Here's how I did it:
All patterned paper is from the Bo Bunny "Timepiece" collection. I basically used scraps of paper from this collection for my card. The portion with the off-white grid and flourish was made by inking my HA "Grid Pattern" stamp with Versamark, stamping onto the patterned paper, and heat embossing with off-white embossing powder. The tan colored rectangle with the brown flourish (already printed on the patterned paper) was accentuated by inking my HA "Envelope Pattern" stamp with HA "Cup O' Joe" ink and stamped on the patterned paper. I then arranged the different sizes of paper in a random pattern onto my white cardstock base. For the sentiment, I inked the stamp with my "Cup O' Joe" ink and stamped onto coordinating patterned paper. The edges of the sentiment piece were lightly distressed with "Walnut Stain" distress ink. Gold brads were added to the corners of the sentiment piece. Finally the sentiment was adhered to the card with 3D foam squares.


Since I used some Hero Arts stamps that I haven't used in a while, and one I've never used, I entered this into the current challenge @ A Blog Named Hero.


Here's my supply list:


InLinkz.com
My second card uses the same patterned paper. Here's the card:
Here's how this one was made....also very easy!:
I cut a 4.5 X 6.5" of patterned paper from the same paper collection as the prior card. This piece of paper actually was a door frame with a rounded top, but I simply cut the rounded top of the doorframe off, because I liked the look and the texture of the actual door. 


The sentiment was stamped with black ink onto a piece of the patterned paper. The frame around the sentiment is a die cut piece from the paper collection. I simply cut out the center part of the oval frame so that I could apply my frame over my sentiment with 3D foam squares to give it some dimension. Then the sentiment piece was adhered to the front of the card with foam tape.


Prior to adhering my large piece of patterned paper to my cardstock base, I added some twine, then adhered the entire piece to my card base.


Finally, the wood veneer vintage bicycle (which was purchased here) was adhered to the card with 3D foam.


Supplies:


InLinkz.com
Thanks for looking!