Thursday, July 22, 2010

Merry Christ"Mouse" in July by Laura C.



This sweet little mouse is coming to wish you a Merry Christ"mouse" in July!!  Made with a standard 5 1/5x4 1/4 base of red cardstock, inked with black chalk ink.   Next is white bazzill prisma cardstock a 5 1/4x 4" piece, embossed with the A2 swiss dot cuttlebug folder and then the corners rounded. I colored the Stampabilities "Dear Santa I Ate Your Cookies" stamp with copics, added some flower soft to the little hat for some extra texture, and a bit of diamond stickles to the flame.  I layered this with some paper from my stash, and added a border with a 1 1/4" piece of patterned paper, a ribbon, and another piece of the red cardstock cut using the Spellbinders scalloped rectangle die (I just trimmed off one long edge to use as the accent).  If you type up a cute sentiment like "Hope you have a Merry Christ"mouse" for the inside, you'll
have a card ready to give a special someone!

Available at Cutter's Creek:

Bazzill Prisma Cardstock (white)
Copic Markers
Stickles (Diamond)
Stampabilities House Mouse ("Dear Santa I Ate Your Cookies")
Flower Soft (Polar White & Red)
A2 Cuttlebug Folder (Swiss Dot)
Spellbinders Die (Scalloped Rectangle)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Lantern Shaker Box Card by Laura C.



Have you seen the new Oriental Weave A2 folders from Provo Craft?? So many options so little time!! This card wasmade using the lantern folder from the set. It's embossed on vellum and then I brushed/dabbed it with a sponge loaded with the Tim Holtz distressing inks "Dusty Concord" and "Bundled Sage". Then I cut them out and put them aside while I made the shaker box.

The shaker box was made in the following layers: It's attached to a 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" purple cardstock base. Next, a 5 1/4" x 4" piece of glossy cardstock that was dabbed with purple and green alcohol inks. While that dried, I made the top frame, which is cut from the Labels 8 Spellbinder die, trimmed to 5 1/4" x 4" and then dabbed with the Tim Holtz distressing inks (see above). The "window" is made with a piece of acrylic from one of my Cricut cartridge clamshells (I ALWAYS save this!) and I used regular adhesive to attach it to the back of the frame. To put it together, I used 3M foam tape around the edges of the glossy cardstock layer (on top of ink side make sure the foam tape forms a complete sealed rectangle). The lantern strings are stuck to this 1st layer. The second layer of foam tape goes directly on top of the first. Then I added the glass beads--remember to do this BEFORE you remove the backing on the foam tape....otherwise, you can get beads stuck! So then remove the backing, place the window frame on top, then add a few embellishments to finish it off.

This is actually a super simple project, that has a BIG impact if you give it as a gift. You can even make it into a picture frame!! Enjoy!!

Available at Cutters Creek:

Ranger Alcohol Inks & applicators
Cuttlebug A2 folder (Oriental Weave set)
Tim Holtz Distressing Inks (Dusty Concord & Bundled Sage)
Spellbinders Dies (Labels 8)
3M Foam Tape

Monday, July 19, 2010

Dream Card w/ Cuttlebug Folders



Kim at Cutters Creek has these great Oriental Weave Embossing Folders from Cuttlebug. She was so kind, and sent me one to try. I love this folder. The others in the set of four are amazing, too. I gathered up a few supplies I thought would work well with this folder, and got to work.

I made my standard card base out of black cardstock. I used a piece of Black Magic Core'dinations paper for the embossing. I then sanded the image to reveal the blue color under the black. I also sanded the edges to give the piece a framed look. I love the way this looked done in the Black Magic with Blue undertones Core'dinations.

If you haven't tried Core'dinations for embossing, you really should. I love the look of the dual tones, and the amazing texture. Core'dinations papers have one color on the front, and another on the back. When you emboss, the back color comes up through the textured cardstock. There are many great varieties of this paper. Be sure to check them out on the Cutters Creek Store site.


I added the embossed piece to my card with my ScorTape. Next I made strips of patterned paper and layered them on top of black cardstock. I layered them on my card using my Glue Glider Pro, and my Foam Tape. Lastly, I cut out a Kanji for Dream out and then layered it with patterned papers and black cardstock.




For the inside of the card, I used a piece of Bazzill Prism White cardstock. I inked the edges and then adhered it to my card using ScorTape. Next I layered a sanded strip of the Core-dinations paper to a strip of black cardstock. I layered patterned paper and black cardstock on a larger piece and then I layered the word "Dream" on patterned paper and black cardstock. I added the dream using foam tape to give it dimension.

This was a fast simple card that will fit for a variety of occasions. I love the beautiful embossing folder, and the simplicity of this card.

Products available at Cutters Creek:

Cuttlebug Plum Blossom Embossing Set of 4 Folders
ScorPal
ScorTape
Core'dinations Black Magic Cardstock
Bazzill White Cardstock
Glue Glider Pro
Foam Tape Squares

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Beach Babe by Laura C.



I love summer, don't you?? This card is a sunny way to say hi, happy birthday, just about anything!

The base is chocolate brown in standard 5 1/2" x 4 1/4". I layered on a 5 1/4" x 4" piece of Core'dnations from the Vintage "Flower Power" collection. The sweet little girl is from the "Lily at the Beach" Pink Cat Studio collection. She's colored with Copics, and I added some Inkssentials Glossy Accents to her goggles.

And guess what?? Flower Soft isn't just for flowers!!

Polar White Flower Soft is the "white caps" on the waves with a touch of Ice Stickles in "Arctic Ice" to add a bit of bling! Last, a bit of ribbon from my stash, and the sentiment (from the Lily collection, too!) stamped in black Memento ink on a tag made with the "Fancy Tags" Spellbinder die.

Hope you enjoy this fun summer card!

Be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Available at Cutters Creek:

Core'dnations cardstock (Vintage Flower Power)
Pink Cat Studio stamps (Lily at the Beach)
Copic markers
Inkssentials Glossy Accents
Flower Soft (Polar White)
Ice Stickles (Arctic Ice)
Memento Ink
Spellbinders dies (Fancy Tags)

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Sympathy Card by Vicki



It's always a sad day when someone passes away...and it's hard to create a card in the heat of all those emotions. I can never come up with an idea that is subtle and sensitive, but still shows some originality and creativity. Then, I got my hands on one of the Cuttlebug Oriental Weave folders, and I knew that it was perfect for just these occasions.

I made my 5 x 7 card base out of some paper I had on hand. I cut a piece of Bazzill card stock a half inch smaller than my card, and ran it through the Cuttlebug. I ran it through several times, just to make sure I had a sharp emboss.


Next, using a simple foam brush, I used my Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads in Walnut Stain to darken up the bamboo shoots. I used a Copic marker to color the bamboo leaves. My sentiment was cut with the Wild Card cartridge. This cartridge has some great sayings, but it can be difficult to size them when using them separate from the cards. I like to use Design Studio, even when just cutting a simple image, because I can make it exactly the size I need, without having to fuss with the settings on my Expression. I mounted the saying with my Sakura Quickie Glue pen on a simple piece of vellum, with a few corners rounded with my Corner Chomper to give it a little style.


The final product is a simple, subtle card that relays my thoughts and still allows me to be a designer.



Cutters Creek products used:



Bazzill card stock
Cuttlebug Oriental Weave folders
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads in Walnut Stain
Cricut Expression/Cricut Wild Card cartridge
Design Studio
Sakura Quickie Glue Pen
We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Koi Pond Card by Lori B.

Get out your Cuttlebug Plum Blossom embossing folders, and your Stickles to make this fun Koi Pond Card.


For this card, you will need a scrap piece of plastic packaging (acetate), sized 4" x 5.25". Place this in your koi pond embossing folder and run it through your Cuttlebug. On the back side, you will use your Stickles to fill in the embossed areas. NOTE: do the blue & orange from the back. After it dries, you will flip it over and do the black and white from the front.

Use a black card base and mount a 4" x 5.25" piece of blue cardstock to the front. Then use Glossy Accents to glue your embossed plastic to the blue cardstock. (You will "hide" the Glossy Accents by putting it only on the areas where the Stickles will cover it).

Items available at Cutters Creek:
Other item:

  • recycled plastic packaging (I used part of a Cricut cartridge package)

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Fairy Card by Mandie


Today I have created this adorable fairy card using one of my favorite stamps sets and my much neglected Cuttlebug! I always forget how much I love the texture that it adds to my projects. So I dusted off my Cuttlebug and pulled out the folders and was inspired by the texture of the one from this Cuttlebug Plum Blossom Embossing Folders Set.

I embossed a piece of 4” x 4” Core’dinations Cardstock and then sanded to reveal the green underneath. Next I stamped my fairy from the Enchanted Lily Stamp Set onto a sheet of white card stock with my Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored her using some markers from my stash as well as my favorite flesh toned Copics. I bought the flesh colors first because they are so hard to get right. The colors I used here were: E00 and E11 for the flesh and R20 for her cheeks.



After I had her colored just right I added a little bling with my favorite Sakura Jelly Roll Pen! I use it to add a little sparkle to a lot of my projects! Then I used a oval cutter and cut out my image and used the next size up to cut the frame from the reverse side of my cardstock.

Then I cut a 1 ½” x 4” strip of patterned paper from the Basic Grey Origins Paper Pack. I am in LOVE with the gorgeous papers in this pack! Then I adhered it all to the card base along with that gorgeous green ribbon. Then I stamped my sentiment and added the little brackets around it by hand. Then for the finishing touch I added a few Twinkle Jewels along the side of my card with some Glue Dots. I hope I will inspire you to dust of your Cuttlebug and play with those embossing folders!


Products Featured:

Cuttlebug Plum Blossom Embossing Folders Set
Core’dinations Cardstock
Enchanted Lily Stamp Set
Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
Copic Marker E00
Copic Marker E11
Copic Marker R20
Sakura Jelly Roll Pen
Basic Grey Origins Paper Pack
Twinkle Jewels
Glue Dots

Friday, July 9, 2010

Oriental Weave All Occassion Card by Chris


Here’s my second project with another Cuttlebug embossing folder. This time I used the bamboo shoots from the Oriental Weave set. I started out thinking this would be a thank you card (and it still could), but I decided to leave the inside blank. Sometimes I just need a card with a quote that just speaks to me at the moment. When I came across the Kahlil Gibran saying on the internet, I knew I wanted to use it and felt it was perfect with the serenity of the bamboo.


I used Core’dinations again (I just love the two for one colors of these papers), ran a 5x7 piece through my cuttlebug and then sanded the image. I used SCAL and my gelpens to write the sentiment. I kept fiddling with how to put the saying on the card. Initially, I was using green Core’dinations paper and I tried using my gel pens right on the Core’dinations, but it didn’t show up enough. I tried a rectangular piece of cardstock on top of the Core’dinations and didn’t like that either when a brainstorm struck. I used my Deckled Small Rectangles and reverse cut the leaves of the bamboo so they would spill over the opening, which would frame the sentiment. To cut the leaves I used my Fiskars fingertip control knife and the healing cutting mat on my ScorPal; then I wedged the deckle nestability under the leaves (cutting edge facing away from them) and ran through my cuttlebug.



The sentiment was “cut” on green copier paper. I glued the embossed cardstock over the sentiment and trimmed the paper. Next I cut white cardstock 10x7, scored at 5 inches and inked the edges (inside and out) and the fold line with Weathered Wood distress ink. All that was left to do was mount the card front with my ATG, stamp the back of the card with one of Image Tree’s “made bys” and glued a 6.5x9.5 piece of beige copier paper into the card. Not necessary, but I just feel this gives a more finished look to some cards.

Cutters Creek Resources:

SCAL

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Asian Inspired Birthday Card by Chris


I have several embossing folders and hardly ever use them. So, I challenged myself to put them to good use on upcoming projects. Here I’ve made a birthday card for my DIL, using the cherry blossoms from the Plum Blossom set.

I love to work with smaller A2 cards so put my A2 template down. Using my planning template, I pulled out my scraps and started laying pieces until I found a combination I liked--Core’dinations and a floral print. (I keep handy a set of white cardstock cut to different card sizes (just the front—4.25x5.5, 4x4, 5x7,etc) to use as planning templates when laying out a card. I just find this an easy way to fiddle around and not worry about marking up the final card base.) I cut the floral scrap to 2x4.25 and the Core’dinations to 3x4.25. I ran the Core’dinations through my Cuttlebug and sanded. Using my ATG, I glued the pieces next to each other on a white card base.

Digging into my ribbon stash, I found a quarter inch ecru ribbon, which I adhered with ScorTape. The card was looking a bit too blah for me, so I pulled out my various cricut cartridges and searched for a flower that would set off the embossed side and repeat the image of the cherry blossom. I found it on the Home Décor cartridge and cut it out of a pink scrap at 2.5 inches.

I found the sentiment on the internet and then decided to use SCAL and gelpens to write it on Prism Ivory cardstock. I then used Labels 10 Nestabilities to cut around the sentiment and make a shadow of it. I then edged the labels using the cricut color markers and mounted the sentiment with popup dots on the shadow and the whole label over the ribbon. An Asian all occasion card—wow, just imagine the possibilities.


Cutters Creek Resources:

Monday, July 5, 2010

Copic Mondays - The Color Chart - What does it Mean? By Laura Burleson

So do you really understand the color chart? I thought I did, but then I went to my certification class, and I realized I really didn't get it, yet.





We all pretty much know that Copics are numbered using a letter code and two number codes. The letter represents the color family:


Primary Colors:



  • B = Blue
  • R = Red
  • Y = Yellow

Secondary Colors:


  • G = Green
  • V = Violet
  • YR = Yellow Red

Tertiary Colors:


  • YG = Yellow Green
  • BG = Blue Green
  • RV = Red Violet
  • BV = Blue Violet

Earth & Tonal Colors:


  • E = Earth
  • C = Cool Gray
  • T = Toner Gray
  • N = Neutral Gray
  • W = Warm Gray




The first number represents the tone of the marker of the color. The zero means pure color. There is no gray tone added to the color. A marker with the first number of 2, contains a bit of gray along with the pure blue color from the 0 series. A B9 marker contains the most gray tone mixed with the pure blue.

The second number is the intensity of the color. The smaller the number means the marker has a lighter color. There is more alcohol than ink in the lighter colors. The larger the number, the higher the ink concentration.

A B09 marker is a pure true blue marker with the least amount of ink in the color. It is the deepest true blue color. All of the markers from B0000 to B09 contain the same ink color, the concentration of the color is just lighter or darker.

So what does all this mean? Well, if you wanted a nice blue ball, you may use B05, and then the shadow of the ball would be more gray (since there is less light on the shadow of the ball). For the shadow you would use either B45 or B95. Both have the same intensity of the B05, but they have more gray in them (approx 40% gray for the B45, and 95% gray for the B95.

Say you wanted to color a beach ball. Beach balls usually have bright pure colors. You would want to choose colors with the closest numbers possible. In this example, I would use the primary colors of red, yellow, blue and green for my beach ball. I would use marker numbers B05, G05, Y06 (since there is no Y05), and R05. Those colors are bright and clear. They are perfect for a beach ball.

If you are looking to add normal high and low lights to a color, you want to use colors a few numbers apart. There isn't enough visible color variance with colors whose numbers are only one number apart. For example, it is difficult to see the difference between E31 and E32 in a small image. You would want to use E31 and E33 for the difference to be visible.

Well, that covers the colors and color chart, but what about the gray scale markers and toners? What gray scale toner family should you invest in first? If you select the neutral gray color family, you can use it with your warm and cool colors.

When you really understand what the color numbers mean, it is much easier to select colors that compliment, contrast, and shadow each other. You can make wise choices on colors to maximize your budget. Like we discussed before, when you select any color family, you want to choose at least three markers from that color family. You want a light color, a medium and a dark to allow for contrast and shading on your images. In previous articles, I have given many examples of color family choices for the most popular colors and applications.

Next time, we will be talking about the fun and techniques you can achieve with the Colorless Blender and the Blending Solution.

Please, ask questions or make suggestions for any topic you would like to see covered in Copic Mondays.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Emboss Plus Cuttlebug Folder In Action From Cutters Creek



Okay so were you totally intrigued by the new Emboss Plus Folders?  Well, Kim had so much fun making her first video, she made a second one!  Here is another of the Emboss Plus Folders in action.  Wouldn't these be great for card windows?  The oval cut-out would make an amazing accent for your card.  I can also see this as a picture frame on a scrapbook page. 

You can ink them up (Ranger Distress Inks would be cool on these) or chalk them with Pebbles Chalk sets.   How about spritzing them with the Shimmerz Spritz or Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists?  The folder would work as a great mask.

I am sure you all can think of many more great ideas for these!

Be sure to check out the complete line of Emboss Folders at the Cutters Creek Store.

Emboss Plus Cuttlebug by Cutters Creek




Check out Kim's Video on the new Cuttlebug Emboss Plus Folders!  These are so cool!  You can emboss, ink, and cut using the same folder.  I can just imagine so many possibilities for this product. 

Use some Core'dinations cardstock to emboss and cut the image, sand it, and then place it back in the folder to ink it.  Wouldn't that look so cool?

Check the Cutters Creek store site for all the folders available.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Birthday Treats by Laura C.


Give a special someone an extra Happy Birthday, with a handmade gift set! The card is a 5”x5” base in sky blue with a dark pink 4 ¼” x 4 ¼” layer next, a light pink 4”x4” piece embossed (I used the Cuttlebug Victoria A2 folder), then the dark pink and white cut with Spellbinders Scalloped Square and Classic Square. The cupcake was stamped on the American Crafts Pink Glitter paper and sky blue cardstock and cut out. Then the card was assembled, adding finishing touches of a candle, bow and bling, and the happy birthday sentiment framed by the Spellbinder Fancy Tag die cut made with pink cardstock.



The box is a recycled ribbon package. (Mine was from Cosmo Cricket.) The lesson here: never throw out your packaging! It could be your next project base. I cut my cardstock pieces to fit this package specifically, and “blinged” it up with Twinkle Jewels, Rhinestones, a Sakura Stardust pen (LOVE!!) and Sakura Glaze pens in blue, red, and yellow. I used the same Spellbinder Fancy Tag die cut to top off this box of chocolately treats!

This is another great way to recycle. Anyone would love such a wonderful gift!

Cutters Creek Resources:

Cuttlebug Folder - Victoria
American Crafts Glitter Paper
Spellbinders Die Sets (Scalloped Square, Classic Square & Fancy Tags)
Sakura Stardust Pen
Sakura Glaze Pens (Blue, Red, and Yellow)
Twinkle Jewels
Rhinestones

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