Monday, May 14, 2012

Chevron Card Tutorial

I know Mother's Day is over, but I still wanted to share with you the card I made for my mom. (I had to make sure she got it in time before I shared and luckily she did...whew!) 
This card can easily be adapted to any holiday or occasion, just by changing the stamped sentiment. 


Supplies:
8 1/2inches x 11 inches White Cardstock: for card and mat
Two cordinating colored Cardstock or patterened paper (5 1/4 inches x 4 inches & a scrap piece for sentiment)
Ink Pad: I used black
Craft Knife
Ruler or straight edge
Stamp for sentiment
Fabric Flower
Scrap Fabric for leaves
Scissors
Adhesive
Hot glue gun. 
Chevron template or you could use Chevron printed paper
(Download the Chevron Template Here) *I've updated it so it will hopefully download on own. Please contact me if you have any problems.) 
Optional: Sewing Machine and Thread



First you will want to trim your cardstock down to 5 1/2 inches x 8 1/2 inches

This will give you a standard card size of 5 1/2 inches x 4 1/4 inches when folded in half. 

Next you will want to cut a mat 5 1/4 inches x 4 inches

The mat is where you will be putting your chevron background on. 

Use your choice of Chevron pattern, it should be the same size as your mat (5 1/4inches x 4 inches). This one was hand drawn by me so it is by no means perfect, but I think it still worked great!

The next thing I did was mark in pencil B=Blue and W=White so I wouldn't lose track of how I wanted the pattern to be on the card when I cut it out. 

Apply adhesive to a couple of the different "white" spots on the back of your template. 
Adhere the template to the blue piece of cardstock (or whatever paper you chose).

Using a craft knife and straight edge, start to cut out the chevron shapes. Trim the blue cardstock down to the mat size.
Once cut out, lay the chevron pieces out and adhere them to the white mat. 

Now cut two-three leaf shapes out from the scrap piece of green fabric ( I free-handed my leaf shapes). 
You could use paper here if you want, I just wanted to use fabric leaves to go along with the fabric flower. 

Now you could stop here and be done and just assemble your card, or you can add stitching all around like I did on the right. I just used yellow thread and my sewing machine and stitched along the edge. I didn't want it to be straight, I wanted it to be messy. 

I stamped my sentiment on a scrap piece of coordinating card stock then cut it out and made a banner shape.
I then inked around the edges of the now assembled and sewn chevron mat. 
And now I have everything ready to assemble. 


I used hot glue to adhere the fabric flower and leaves to the mat. Then using regular scrapbook adhesive attached the sentiment under the flower. Once everything was on the mat I then adhered it onto the card front using scrapbook adhesive.  

I ended up only using two leaves, but I really like how it turned out.
 I think I'll be making this one again. Maybe for a birthday or friend. What do you think? 





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Saturday, May 12, 2012

Happy Mother's Day!

I just wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Mom's out there! I hope you are all able to enjoy your special day. 
I know I will be enjoying mine with my two little blessings.


I also wanted to say a BIG "Thank You" to my mom! 
Thanks for all you do, you're the best! 
Happy Mother's Day!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Stamping Technique: Stamping With Different Colors

*Before you read, please just know that this was one of those posts that no matter how much I proofed it and re-read it, it was all just words. I had a little "help" while typing this up. So if you have any questions or something isn't' quite clear, just let me know. Thanks!*

I thought I would share with you how I stamped the image that I used on the Teacher Appreciation Gift I shared with you all last week. 


I'm sure this technique isn't something new to some of you and there may even be an easier way, but this is the technique I use. I'll throw a little disclaimer out there,  I'm definitely not a stamping expert...Gasp. But I do love the way it looks on cards, scrapbook pages and other crafty projects and I do what I can with the stamps that I have ;-)

Stamping can be kind of overwhelming to some and, like most crafts, can get expensive. You shouldn't let it overwhelm you, just do what you can do even if that means you stamp a simple image with black ink. That is PERFECT for sentiments on cards! 

If expense is a factor check out your craft store's "Dollar Bins." A lot of times they will have ink pads and stamp images for $1. And it is a great way for you to see if you are really going to like stamping or just want to use it occasionally. 

I should also tell you that if you don't have any stamps or inks you can always purchase "digital stamps"or google "free clipart"  The work is already done for you and you can use the image over and over. (Always check the Terms Of Use (TOU), especially if you are wanting to use the image for commercial use.)

There is a lot more that can be said of stamping and getting started. You can google or check YouTube for tutorials. 

Sorry for the little info lesson, hopefully it will help someone. Now on to the fun stuff. 

Supplies: 
Inks: I used red, green, and black-the smaller inks are from the dollar bin
Stamp: The "Inspire" stamp is from the dollar bin
Tape: I used clear transparency tape so I can see through it to line up the stamp
Cardstock


Line your stamp up on your clear block. 
I'm going to stamp the words (sentiment) in black first so I applied the tape to cover all the parts of the apple. 


Ink your stamp. I placed my stamp into the ink pad trying to get as little black on the stamp as I could.

Then use a baby wipe to wipe up any areas that aren't supposed to be stamped. 
The image on the left shows where I got a little messy inking. 
The image on the right shows it all "cleaned" up and ready to stamp the sentiment. 

Now you can stamp your image. When working with clear stamps that have little letters (like the bottom row) be careful to not "smoosh" them when stamping. If you "smoosh" it the words may show up a bit blurry, you'll see in the example below. 

Once you stamp the black sentiment, clean your stamp off with a baby wipe. 
Now you are ready to stamp the red for the apple. Cover the sentiment, the leaf and stem with tape
(Make sure stamp is dry from cleaning it with the baby wipe, it won't stick if it's wet :-) )
Repeat the steps of inking and cleaning as previously mentioned above. 

When you stamp the apple, you will want to make sure that it lines up correctly. 
 Place the stamp on top of the stamped image. Now Stamp away!

For the leaf, you will repeat the same process. 
Clean the stamp with a baby wipe, allow to dry.  
Tape over sentiment and apple leaving only the leaf and stem portion untaped. 

Then line the stamp up the same way as mentioned before
(this time you will also have the apple as your guide.) 
Stamp away, and Ta-da, you have your stamped image!

You can do a couple of more steps to get more of a dimensional step. 

Using the steps mentioned above, go ahead and stamp just the apple image.

Then using your scissors "fussy cut" your image. Or cut your image out as close the image as possible. 

Then apply 3-D foam dots or squares to the back of the image. 
Yes, you see a piece of tape on the back. No, it's not part of the technique. 
That's just what happens when you are trying to "fussy cut" and keep an eye on your two-year old ;-)

Stick the cut apple image directly onto the apple of the first stamped image and there you go. 

This is an example of how I used the dimensional stamped image. I stamped the image on kraft paper, then just added a red mat and some green ribbon to the apple stem to give it even more dimension. 

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial! I would love to know if this helped or if you have any tips or questions for me! 



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