Christmas in July Light-Up Box Pops Card

Hello again friends!

I am so excited to share with you the Christmas in July Light-Up Box Pops Card that I created today! I played with i-crafter's Box Pops, Holiday Truck Add-On die set and decided that I wanted to do something a little different by lighting it up with EZ-Lights.

I started by die cutting white shimmery cardstock using the Box Pops, Oval Base twice. Once cut, I placed one piece into my MISTI 2.0 and covered it with my Fern Berries stencil. I used Catherine Pooler Cranberry Fizz ink and ink blended it onto the base front and bottom sections of my Oval Base using my red i-Brush Blender Brush. I love these brushes, especially for fine, detailed stencils like this one. Next, I stamped the "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" sentiment from the Christmas Sentiments stamp set to one of the halves, making it my front half.

Next, I cut out the pieces for my truck and trees from the Holiday Truck Add-On set. For my truck, I used a black base and then used a thin shiny paper (almost wrapping paper in thinness that I picked up secondhand) for the bumpers and tire hub caps. The tree that I wanted to light up, I backed with vellum that I colored with Copics because we like colored lights in our house!

 

I glued my colored vellum to the back of one of the three green Christmas trees that I had cut out. I added some Narrow Double Thick Foam Tape to the back of this tree to trap my light in when I built my card.

I was a bit silly and did the next steps in the wrong order, in order to avoid confusion I am going to tell you what I should have done rather than what I did. I should have creased all of the fold lines on my Oval Base pieces using my i-Press, then glued the individual pieces together so that I had my two halves of the base. I should have added the little stand piece that would eventually hold the two front trees that I hid my EZ-Lights base/switch piece in. 

Next, I should have glued my Holiday Truck die cut to the front half of my base and punch hole in the bottom so that I could weave my lights through. I had already punched a hole in the tree on top of the truck. I got snow happy and used a Snow Marker too early so ignore that for now, I promise to come back to it!

I slid my three LED lights from my EZ-Lights through the front slit, then pulled them through the hole punched in the bottom back and back to the front through the hole punched in the tree. Most of my wires hid in the bottom half of the card. 

I cut out two extra trees from the truck outline and simply cut them off the truck. I tested to see where to position them in order to allow me to hide the battery holder/switch on them. Once my wires were threaded, I mounted the battery holder to my tree backs using glue dots. Then I glued the two halves of the base together.

I then backed the two additional trees that I had cut out previously with more green cardstock since I didn't want to add lights to these. Once I had built them, I glued them together and used more Narrow Double Thick Foam Tape to adhere them to the two black glued together trees and the battery holder/switch.

I positioned my EZ-Lights LEDs to the tree on the truck using glue dots. I covered this with my original tree backed with colored vellum. 

This is when I should have broke out my Snow Marker and went snow happy. I hit the base, several parts of the truck and even the trees with my Snow Marker. There were sections that I added snow to after the fact, I had to be super careful so that my EZ-Lights didn't get affected or melted.

Now, the only downfall to this card is that because of how close to the base I put the EZ-Light battery/switch the card does not fold up, so it's more of a home decor piece than it is a card. Otherwise, I am completely obsessed with how this card came out and was pleasantly surprised with how few hick-ups I had creating it, even with doing several things out of order so to speak!

You can see here that I used black foam adhesive squares to bump the tires out from the truck body.

This side angle shows how much Snow Marker I really did use (I'm obsessed). It does mask the white of the foam tape nicely as well.

To add a frosted look to the truck windows, I added a small vellum piece to the back side of the truck.

Here she is all lit up! I like to take these pictures in the dark to really show how well the lights shine.

Here is a short clip of the card lit up in the light and in the dark!

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my cards and that you feel inspired to go create! Be sure to join the i-crafter Facebook Fan Club! We love seeing all of your creations using the i-crafter products so don’t forget to tag us or use #icrafter when you share!

Until next time,

Rachel

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Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Crabby Card

Hello again friends,

I am so excited to show you my card for today! I played with Sassy and Crafty's Sassy but Sweet Stamp set. This set features an adorable mermaid and fantastic "king" crab along with some amazing sentiments.

I decided to stamp the crab from Sassy but Sweet for my card today. I stamped him using Ink On 3's Fade Out Ink and colored him with Copics. To add a bit of extra fun, for the gems on his crown, I used clear rhinestones colored red using a Copic. I also stamped each of the shells from Sassy but Sweet a few times to color in different fun bright shades, again using Copic markers.

Once I had finished coloring, I focused on the background next. I used black cardstock and the Mermaid Tails Stencil for this. I used my i-Brush Blender Brushes and Distress Oxide inks in various shades of blue and one purple to create a watery feel. I added a few spritzes of watered down Ink on 3 Liquid Pixie Dust to add some shimmer to the background.

Next, I cut out Kindred Stamps "Sorry" word die. For the bottom layer I used a purple scrap with a kind of watercolor or bubbled look to it, and for the top layer I used a blue glitter cardstock scrap. The sentiment I stamped on to a silver cardstock scrap and heat embossed it with a metallic light purple WOW embossing powder. I trimmed this down.

When it came time to build my card, I layered my dark watery sheet over a light purple card base. TIP: I like to buy card bases and envelopes in bulk from box stores when I find them on sale, this saves my energy so I'm not constantly cutting and scoring card bases. Once the card front was adhered to the card base, I glued the "sorry" layers toward the top center of the card. I added a strip of Thin Double Thick Foam Tape to the back of my "I've been crabby" sentiment strip and positioned it under but crossing into the "sorry" layers.

I added my king crab to a mini wobbler to give him a fun little interactive element and positioned him towards the center(ish) of the card. To finish the card, I added the shells that I had previously colored up and a few clear sequins.

Here is a short video of the crab in action!

Well, I hope that I've inspired you to check out Sassy and Crafty for yourself and look forward to seeing what you create next! 

Until next time,

R. Winn

Grandma Dot's Mini Album

Hello again friends!

I am excited to share my take on the new i-crafter Mini Divider #2 die set! This set pairs perfectly with the Mini Album, Accordion die set. My project was inspired by photos I found of my Grandma Dot, Dorothy Jean Gabel. I turned my pages sideways to make it feel like opening a file, or at least that's what it seems like to me.

I started by picking out some scrapbook paper that felt vintage to me and die cutting out the divider page from Mini Divider #2, and distressed the corners using some Distress Ink in Vintage Photo using my i-Brush Blender Brushes. On the tab, I hand wrote "Memories of...", then used the Alphabet, Heather Upper and Lower dies to spell out Grandma's name.

The final touch for this page was a flower from the Mini Divider #2 set. I used solid cardstocks to die cut it, then used the i-Press Burnisher & Pad to add a soft curve to the petals.

The first four interior pages were cut using the Mini Album, Accordion die set and scrapbook paper. Next, I used the frame from the Mini Divider #2 and cut the picture of grandma down to fit in the frame. I had scanned the original images and printed them out using my Sprocket Plus printer. Then I used a deep pink cardstock for the actual frame in Mini Divider #2 and the small banner in the Mini Album, Accordion die set. I kept it simple and just wrote her age on the banner. This page was finished off by a few flower embellishments that have been in my stash forever!

My next page is of my grandparents on their wedding day. The image is a bit blurry but for 1940, I think that may be common! I love how sweet my grandma's dress was and my Grandpa Don's suit is SO dapper!

I added the layering page from the Mini Album, Accordion die set that I cut out using a piece of lace scrapbook paper for under this page. To write on, I used the hexagon in the Mini Divider #2, I added my grandparent's names and the date. I learned making this project, that my grandparents were married on my birthday! I used a light Distress Oxide ink and my i-Brush Blender Brushes to distress the heart in the Mini Album, Accordion die set to fill the blank space below my hexagon.

The page above their wedding day image shows my grandparents on celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. For this page, I used the deep pink cardstock leftover center from the frame in Mini Divider #2 to write on. I added a small heart cut from the lace scrapbook paper, and brushed the edges with the Antique Photo Distressed Ink. I die cut a space for the heart in the deep pink paper, this made the lace heart inlaid. I added the "Adorable" word die from the Mini Divider #2 set here as well.

The next two pages were the back of the "book" created by Mini Album, Accordion die set and then another divider page from the Mini Divider #2 set. On the top page, I added a picture of Grandma and her 12 children, they were celebrating Dorothy's 80th birthday. The divider page I distressed the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. 

For the bottom page, I added a tiny banner cut from scraps that coordinated with the color palette I used throughout the book and the banner dies from the Mini Divider #2 set. I handwrote the names of Grandma's kids on a kraft scrapbooking sticker from my stash and added tiny flower embellishments to the corners.

Close up of my banner, I was struggling to thread the twine and didn't have a needle to help me, instead I glued the twin down and then layered the banner pieces on top of it.

My grandma had a special connection to her daughters, so my next page is the Gabel Gals. I used the frame die from the Mini Divider #2 set to cut down the picture, and added the frame to the outside. I used the center piece from the frame to write out their names in white gel pen. For the flower, I took one of the flower dies and cut it out 7 times, and glued them together. Then used the page die to cut the flower down so the corner was rounded to add to the top left of the page.

The last page that I completed (because I left it open to be able to add on to in the future) is of Dorothy and her sister Delores, my Auntie. For this page, I used the layering page from the Mini Album, Accordion die set to cut out a cream dotted piece of scrapbook paper. To add some texture to the page, I used the die strip of three lines of holes from the Mini Divider #2 set, this allows the light blue paper to peek through. I added the "this is" piece from Mini Album, Accordion die set and wrote below that. To complete this page, I used the negatives from the "this is" to add "sis" to the bottom left.

Here is a flip through of the book! I apologize in advance for it being shaky! 

Head over to i-crafter to get the Mini Divider #2 set and check out the other wonderful new release items too! Be sure to join the i-crafter Facebook Fan Club, then follow us on Instagram, and Pinterest too! We love seeing all of your creations using the i-crafter products.

Until next time,

R. Winn

Annie's Adventures: Happy Hanukkah

 Hello again friends!

Today, I am sharing my project for the Kindred Stamps Monthly sets. I used the new Annie's Adventures Happy Hanukkah stamp set. 

I started by coloring up Annie using Prismacolor and Chameleon colored pencils. I wanted a soft look and really find that colored pencils give me just that. I used a circle die from The Stamp Doctor's Circles #1 set to cut her out and layered it with another circle from the set and used a die from Stitch Circles #2 to add a bit of detail to the bottom layer.

Next, I placed the Kindred Stamps Blizzard Stencil on a sheet of blue cardstock and covered it with a layer of the DecoFoil Blanco Transfer Gel with my Stencil Pal. This I foiled with a Heidi Swapp Iridescent Silver Foil. I cut this down and layered it onto a white card base.

 I used an extra piece from The Stamp Doctor 's A2 Card in a Box to cut out the sentiment "Happy Hanukkah" from the Annie's Adventure's set. To add a bit of  interest to the die cut piece, I used i-crafter's i-brush Blender Brushes and Skysail Blue Hybrid Ink around the edges of the rectangle.

I'm excited to send this off to my friend Laura this holiday season since I colored Annie up in her likeness! Be sure to check out all of the new monthly sets available on the 16th at Kindred Stamps!

~R. Winn 

Blonde and Ambitious

Welcome back!

I am sharing two projects using the new Kindred Stamps stamp set, "Blonde and Ambitious." I love how sassy and smart this set is and just had to make a few things that really felt "RIGHT" for it. 

I started with a bookmark, I bought a big pack of plain white bookmarks on Amazon a while back, and used one as the base for this project. I used i-crafter's pink i-brush blending brush to dust Radiant Neon Electric Pink Ink around the edges of the bookmark. 

Next, I colored up my brilliant fashionista using Copic markers on X-Press It card stock. I fussy cut her out and set her aside. Next, I used scrap black and gray card stocks with Frantic Stamper's Stack of Books die and cut just the top book off of 3, the whole stack was a bit overwhelming for the bookmark. 

There are some really cute sentiments in the "Blonde and Ambition" set, but for the bookmark, I felt like "You're like really smart" was perfect for a bookmark though! I stamped that in i-crafter's Hushed Darkness Black ink using my Mini MISTI. I finished the project off by adding some fun pink ribbon to the top.

My next project, I wanted to do a gift card holder. I have a Sizzix Bigz die, and used it to cut out my base with some bold pink card stock, then a white inner piece for the gift card holder. 

Again, I stamped my expert shopper from "Blonde and Ambitious" out and colored her with Copic Markers, then fussy cut her. 

I used a Sweet Stamp Shop die to cut out a cityscape in gray, then a Sizzix die to cut out a film negative in black and layered these both over a white piece of cardstock. I tilted it and cut it down a bit, then glued it to the top of the box. 

I added the "Snaps to you!" sentiment from "Blonde and Ambitious" stamped on the same pink card stock as the box in a Circle die cut from The Stamp Doctor.

The last step for this gift card box, was stamping the sassy shopper from "Blonde and Ambitious" using Ink on 3's Fade Out ink for a second generation stamping look, and the "You're legally awesome" sentiment from "Blonde and Ambitious" in a bright pink Catherine Pooler ink.

"Blonde and Ambitious" and the entire Kindred Stamps May release will be available Friday, May 22 at 8am PST/11am EST. Be sure to subscribe to the Kindred Stamps blog to see a daily line up of sneak peeks from our amazing Design Team and see the full product release on Friday! Come join the Fan Club and release event to be part of the release fun, and you may just win some Kindred Stamps credit!!

I hope you enjoyed my projects, and will see you next time!

~R. Winn

#spreadjoynotgerms

Hi friends!

I'm extremely pleased to be joining this MEGA blog hop that Catherine Pooler and Hedgehog Hallow put together to help inspire cardmakers to send out some of the cards we all stash in order to make another person SMILE in the midst of the crazy world we find ourselves in. 

Today, I am showing off products from some of my favorite companies, Pear Blossom Press, I-Crafter, and The Greeting Farm, who are all sponsoring this hop.  I knew that I wanted to make a light-up card using Pear Blossom Press's EZ- Lights. I love how easy they make creating stunning projects.

The Greeting Farm put out these fun digis of delivery drivers and their truck. I chose to color the male driver and the truck in shades of brown. We have a favorite delivery man at our house, he works for UPS and he walks up our rather long driveway fairly frequently. I thought rather than sending this card off in the mail, we would Social Distance deliver this card to him "in person." I used Copics to color both up, then moved onto my background.

I used I-crafter's i-brush Blending Brushes and Hybrid Inks to ink blend a background. These inks are smooth, blend beautifully, and are rich in color! The brushes are small, but mighty and SO soft!

Next, I used my PenBlade and a hole punch to cut out the head and top lights on the delivery truck that I wanted to light up. Using a pencil, I traced the place on my background these would line up with so I could cut through for the lights to shine through.

After cutting the holes in the background, I used my pencil to mark where the lights should lay and chose where I wanted my base to lay and outlined it with the pencil as well.

I used thin glue dots on the bottom of my base, and small glue dots on the locations that my lights needed to lay.

 Next, I used washi tape to keep the wires all in place. There are 3 lights pre-wired on each EZ-Lights, which was perfect for this. One for each headlight, and one for the top bar.

I used doubled up foam tape and made boxes around each light. Then I went a little foam tape crazy and made sure that the card is propped up REALLY well.

After that... I got to put my masterpiece together! It took 2 tries to get the back on correctly, because foam tape is stickyyyy. Once that was there, I put down my truck, making sure to line up headlights and top lights that are backed with vellum that I colored with Copics, and topped with Nuvo Glaze to give a glassy look. I also used the Glaze on the truck windshield.

Next, my delivery driver was backed with a single layer of foam tape and put on the crease where my "grass" and "street" met.  I used I-crafter "Tropical Pool" ink and "Hushed Darkness" ink with stamps from Heffy Doodle's Interactively Your's set to create a "Push Here" arrow that I fussy cut and glued on. Finally, I added "Thanks" to the top left using I-crafter's Pop-Up Wiper Insert die set.

I'm pretty pleased, I can't wait to give it to our driver with the gift card for a favorite local sub sandwich shop inside, as an extra token of our appreciation. 

This blog hop is huge, so in order to enter for the prizes, all you have to do is comment, and each blog you comment on adds up so don't stop here! You can comment now through April 24th.

Next in the line up is Stephanie Beauchemin with The Greeting Farm! 

Be sure to also visit my friends at I-crafter who has donated a $20 Gift Certificate and Pear Blossom Press who has donated a $25 Gift Certificate that are up for draw in the giveaway! 

The winners of over 40 prizes will be announced on Catherine Pooler and Hedgehog Hollow's blogs on April 27th. Be sure to leave some love for these bloggers who have joined us and rack up those chances to win!

Until next time,

~R. Winn