All Your Wishes

The final day's lesson of Session 1 of My Favorite Things' Summer School was on "Symmetry." Basically, make a project where the elements on one side mirror the elements on the other side.

I first die cut my quilt squares, using the largest die from the "Blueprints 20" set by My Favorite Things (discontinued). I ran the die through 6 times, using 6 different colors of scrap cardstock for the blocks. When I had finished, I adhered each piece to a scrap of white cardstock, just so I could play with each square with its decorative piece adhered inside the negative space. Then I cut each square out with scissors, making sure to angle the blades under the colored cardstock layers so the white beneath wouldn't show.

I had cut my squares with the idea of putting them basically in rainbow order (by the color of the outer square part). I played around with the arrangement, finally deciding on a landscape orientation. I also cut a banner from "Blueprints 20" for my greeting. Remarkably, it ended up being almost the same length as my block grouping!

For the background, I cut a 5.5x4.25" piece of white cardstock. I stamped it with MFT's "Denim" background stamp (also discontinued) & Hero Arts Pool ink. I missed a couple of spots with the first go-around, so I just inked up part of the stamp & carefully stamped just those areas, making sure to run the diagonal lines in the same direction. This stamp is relatively random in design, so I didn't have to be spot on anyway.

I wanted to cut the sides of the card with a border die, & chose one of the dies from MFT's "Stitched Scallop Basic Edges" set. After I adhered my background panel to a white A2 card base, I die cut one end of the card. I had to run it through a few times, because the die wouldn't cut through all 3 layers of cardstock at first.

At this point, I decided I'd better adhere my squares & greeting banner. I first stamped my greeting, from MFT's "Big Birthday Sentiments," in Versamark ink & heat embossed with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. I adhered my squares & banner to the card, and measured where I needed to die cut the opposite side to make an even border on either side of my focal elements. Then I die cut the other end with the same die as before. Even with all the fussing around I had to do to come up with a design, once I got the arrangement of my elements worked out, this card wasn't too hard to pull together.

Stenciled Happy Birthday

Day 4 of My Favorite Things' Summer School (Session 1) dealt with complementary colors. I chose yellow & violet for my color scheme. I also used a technique I'd learned from Jennifer McGuire, on using masks with stencils.

I cut a piece of masking paper to 4x5.25", the same size as my white card front panel. After I marked the vertical center on the masking paper, I lined up a "Straight Heart" die from Nellie's Choice, and die cut a heart. I adhered the negative part of the mask to my panel, laid the "Star Grid" stencil from MFT over it, and taped the stencil in place. I inked part of the heart with Squeezed Lemonade Distress ink, and the other part with Wilted Violet Distress ink. I made sure to leave a soft-edged narrow gap between the colors, so I wouldn't end up with brown from the two colors mixing.

After I removed my stencil, I adhered the positive heart mask in place inside the opening of the surrounding masking paper. I removed the negative portion, and repositioned the stencil. I was able to see the stenciled design through the mask well enough to line up the stencil with what I'd already done. Without reloading my blending foams with ink, I inked over the the rest of the panel, leaving a softer, paler look.

When I had finished the outer stenciling, I replaced the negative portion of the mask around the heart, removed the heart mask, and inked over the stenciling with the same colors of ink (leaving the stencil off this time), just slightly, to make sure the heart shape stood out from the background design. Then I removed my mask and worked on the greeting.

I die cut the greeting from plum cardstock that I'd backed with Stick It adhesive. I used MFT's "Cause for Celebration" die set. After I'd die cut the words, I carefully removed them from the negative space, and adhered them lightly to my card panel. Once I had them centered, I burnished them with my bone folder, to make sure they were really stuck down firmly.

After I matted my panel with a 4.25x5.5" piece of cream cardstock, I adhered that to a white A2 card base. I used Nuvo Crystal Drops in Buttermilk, Dandelion Yellow, & Crushed Grape, to add some faux enamel dots around the greeting. I let those dry for about 24 hours, and my card was done!

Happy Birthday to You

Day 2 of My Favorite Things' Summer School (Session 1) was all about primary colors. I must admit, I really struggled with this one. I just couldn't get past thinking about bright, saturated colors, which I really didn't want to use. My struggle ended when I saw the video that Stephanie Klauck did for the lesson. She used more muted tones of red & blue, with a bright yellow, for her card. That finally allowed me to break through my block!

I decided to use the argyle design stamp from My Favorite Things' "Diamonds & Dots Border" set (discontinued). I began by determining where I could place it in my MISTI so that I wouldn't have to move the stamp with each impression. I began a little bit in from one end of the cardstock with Lawn Fawn's Wild Rose ink. I followed that with Hero Arts' Butter Bar, and finally Hero Arts' Cornflower, cleaning my stamp in between each color. I still had a bit of space at the top & bottom, so I filled that in with Butter Bar.

For the greeting, I used one from MFT's "Birthday Greetings" stamp set. I stamped it in Versamark onto a piece of an old shimmer vellum from my stash, and heat embossed with Ranger Super Fine Detail Gold embossing powder. Once the embossing had cooled, I die cut it with a Spellbinders "Scalloped Labels One" die (discontinued). I ran it through my Xyron Creative Station 250, to apply adhesive to the back, then adhered it to the middle of my panel. Finally, I mounted my card front to a white A2 card base. For my having such a struggle, this card really came together quickly once I had a direction to go in!

I'm also entering my card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Red, White, and/or Blue" challenge.

Happy Birthday

Lesson #3 of My Favorite Things' Summer School is on "Repetition." I used the "happy" die from MFT's "Cause for Celebration" set repeatedly on my background, along with a "birthday" stamp from Altenew's "Birthday Builder" set.

I die cut the "happy" multiple times from the same peachy-pink cardstock I was using for my background panel, that I had backed with Stick It adhesive. I also cut it from a scrap of teal cardstock, also backed with Stick It. I stamped the "birthday" in Versamark ink onto a scrap of darker pink cardstock, and heat embossed with Recollections Snow Detail embossing powder. I had to repeat the heat embossing to get really good coverage. Finally, I cut the pink cardstock into a strip, and angled the left end.

I played around with the placement of the peachy "happy" die cuts on my background. When I had an arrangement I liked, I carefully picked them up one at a time, removed the adhesive liner from the back, and stuck it down onto my background. I repeated this for each die cut. I was also able to use a few pieces that I cut off that were overhanging on the edges to fill in some gaps. Finally, I adhered my birthday banner & the teal happy, and burnished all the die cuts to stick them fully to the background. I mounted my card front to a white card base, and I was done!

Butterfly Happy Birthday

My Favorite Things' Summer School Session #1 is in full swing this week! Lesson 1 was on using white space as a design element. I decided to make a (much-needed) birthday card, using an MFT "Flutter of Butterflies - Solid" die & their "Big Birthday Sentiments" stamp set.

I began by dry embossing a piece of Strathmore Smooth Bristol paper with the "Abstract" stencil, also by My Favorite Things (but apparently discontinued). After running it through my die cutting machine, I kept the stencil in place on the paper, and inked over it with Squeezed Lemonade Distress ink, letting it fade to white as it got to the top of the card panel.

I die cut a butterfly & its coordinating body from a scrap of bristol paper. I wet the wings with clean water, and dropped in Tumbled Glass Distress ink in the center. I moved the ink around with a paintbrush, to get it to be present, but still light and soft-looking. I smooshed Hickory Smoke Distress ink onto the body to color it, then glued it to the main butterfly piece.

For the greeting, I used Wow White Pearl embossing powder. After heat embossing it onto a strip of bristol, I inked over the whole strip with Dried Marigold Distress ink. I wanted to keep the color soft, to go with the rest of the design, but still have the heat-embossed greeting show up.

I matted my panel with a piece of light teal cardstock, that kind of matched the Tumbled Glass ink I'd used on the butterfly. I adhered the greeting strip, and glued the butterfly over that, so its wings kind of "hugged" the end of the greeting. Finally, I adhered the card front to a white A2-size card base.