RACCOON TENT TOPPER

Do you like tent topper cards as much as I do? 

Don't know what a tent topper card is? Well, a tent topper card is when a portion, often the focal point, sticks beyond the fold of the card. 

The way I make tent topper cards, they always seem to be a little bit of a smaller card. The one I'm showing you today measures 4: wide by 5" tall, including the protruding part. The card base itself is an adorable 4" square. 

With the raccoon from the Special Someoneset  (page 93 in the Annual Catalog) as the focal point, it makes for a really adorable card. Don't you agree?

The most important aspect of this card is, of course, the raccoon. To make him even more special, I used a die to cut him out, then used a larger coordinating die to cut a mat on which to mount him.

Do you see the tent-like look of the card shen it's standing at an angle?

Follow along to enjoy a tutorial on how to make your own tent topper card.

SUPPLIES:

White cardstock

Black cardstock

Plaid Designer Series Paper

Pretty Peacock cardstock

Black ink

Basic Gray ink

Special Someone stamp set (page 93, Annual Catalog)

Die cutting/embossing machine

Stitched So Sweetly dies (page 179, Annual Catalog)

Tasteful Textiles Embossing Folder (page 185, Annual Catalog)

Stampin' Dimensionals

DIRECTIONS:

Cut a piece of white cardstock to 4" x 8", folding it in half and creasing it well with a bone folder.

Run a 3 3/4" x 3 3/4" piece of white cardstock through a die cutting machine inside the Tasteful Textiles Embossing Folder. Adhere this to the card base.

Cut a piece of black cardstock to 3 1/4" square, and adhere this on top of the textured whilte.

On top of this, add a 3" square piece of the plaid DSP.

On white cardstock, stamp in black ink the detailed portion of the raccoon. Follow this with the solid raccoon stamp in Basic Gray ink.

Using a die from the Stitched So Sweetly dies, cut out the raccoon.

Froom Pretty Peacock cardstock, die cut the mat portion of the frame with the appropriate die. Adhere the raccoon piece to this.

Put Stampin' Dimensionals on the lower portion of this piece, and add it to the top of the card, letting the raccoon section extend about an inch above the fold line.

On a scrap of white cardstock, stamp a small sentiment in black ink. Use the small scalloped rectangle die from the same die set to cut this out.

Add the sentiment with a few Stampin' Dimensionals below the raccoon piece.

Now, if you have never created a tent topper card, I hope you do give it a chance. For some reason, these little treasures seem even more special.

Raccoon

Smiles.

OUTSTANDING FLAMINGO

 Do you know of anyone who is outstanding and deserves some sort of recognition? Well, here's the card for that someone!

I used a bit of symbolism in planning this card. 

First of all, I stamped the flamingos as close as I could across a 3 3/4" x 5" piece of white cardstock using FLIRTY FLAMINGO. Notice they are all crammed together, going in the same direction. In essence, following the crowd. 

Then HERE comes the outstnanding one. In a HOT PINK (Marvelous Magenta) traveling in the oppostite direction. The diecut flamingo has more definition, what with the wing and just being more prominent overall.

To make our outstanding one even more outstanding, I mounted him/her onto a black curlicue frame cut with one of the Ornate dies. Then popped up with Dimensionals to face the crowd.

Since I needed to show enough of the crowd in the background for this card to work, I didn't want to cover too much of it up. So the final touch -- and "punchline" -- is the small sentiment mounted onto a thin flagged piece of black cardstock.

The Friendly Flamingo Bundle on page 43 of the current Mini Catalog makes this card so fun and easy to put together.

I love the color combination of pink/black/white. So, working with those colors made it even more of a pleasure to create.

Do you have this Friendly Flamingo Bundle? If so, how have you used it?

Friendly

Smiles.

#dailycreating OCTOBER 2020

 A week late, here is the October 2020 installment of my #dailycreating journey. 

Visual Artist and Creative Encourager Terry Runyan started a Facebook Group several years ago. As members of this group, we are encouraged to create something every day. Every Sunday afternoon Terry provides a list of suggested prompts for the coming week. The prompts are considered optional. However, most of the time I follow the prompts, just as a starting point for something to draw each day. At times, I am quite the rogue and go off prompt, doing whatever moves me on a particular day.

In going through my pieces I'd drawn during October, it became very apparent that this was not a wonderful month for my personal work. I was happy, however, to discover two of my all time favorites among this month's pickings. I won't tell you which two they are.

I only came up with nine drawings that I was somewhat inclined to share with you all. As always, above each drawing, I will include the prompt. If it was a day I didn't follow the prompt, I will simply add "off prompt". I will also include any additional information I may have about any of the characters in my drawings.

#mouserday

#sweater for the season

#octopus

#armor

#sloth

#thing on thing

bluebottle fly

#RIP

#thing on thing

#shoes

blue footed boobies

Huh. Now that was interesting. I guess I was a very good girl, and followed the prompts during October, at least, with the nine drawings I've chosen.

Pretty pathetic. Only nine out of a month of 31 days?!?

These are my personal drawings. They are not to be reproduced in any way, other than with my specific approval. If you'd like a copy of anything, please let me know, and I will have a high quality Giclee print made for you. Thank you for your respect.

#dailycreating

Smiles.

MORE CANDLES

 An old stamping technique that I would like to revisit in this card is Faux Cloisonne. 

The definition of true cloisonne is "decorative work in which enamel, glass, or gemstones are separated  by strips of flattened wire placed edgeways on a metal backing." It is often used in jewelry or decorative pieces. To see examples of true cloisonne, check out these images.

Looking at the panel on the left of my card below shows you what Faux Cloisonne looks like.

Starting with an interesting portion of a magazine page, add stamping over the images with VersaMark ink. After covering the stamping with embossing powder, use a heat tool to set it.

In my card, I did this embossing step twice, first one stamp in gold, 

followed by another stamp in silver.

A closeup of my faux cloisonne. 

Please note that my phone is bright red and the reflection in the embossing picks up the red color.

The reddish portion is just a continuation of the gold.

Yuk.

The magazine page I started with.

Admittedly I could have chosen something a little more exciting. 

I paired up the Faux Cloissone with a section of Balmy Blue cardstock that had been embossed with the Old World Paper 3D Embossing Folder, found on page 185 of the Annual Catalog.

I have used this technique many times over the past years, but with more vibrant and exciting images to start with. I would then use a swirly decorative stamp to do my stamping and embossing, usually in gold. I have even die cut these shapes into elegant Christmas ornaments to use on Christmas cards.

A post with examples of these cards can be found here.

Starting out with little happy circle shapes (the ad) I thought it would be cute with little closed and open circles as my stamping. While the end result was satisfying enough, it isn't the stunner that is possible with this technique.

The technique is simple enough, only requiring a little advance planning in your base magazine page and an appropriate stamp to give the proper effect.

I truly think this example falls a little short.

Have you ever tried the Faux Cloisonne technique? Are you always satisfied with your results? Does the possibility of creating with this technique make you look at decorative magazine pages in a different light?

Back to the drawing board for me.

Faux

Smiles.

EMBOSSED STENCILING

I'm not sure what made me think of this particular idea. Hmmm. But, it turned out to be a good one.

Being a collector of stencils to use with my Gelli Plate, I do have a lot of stencils, some of them more expensive than I'd like. When I discovered the Stampin' Up! Basic Patterns Decorative Masks, found on page 146 of the Annual Catalog, I was excited. Why? Because you get FOUR 6x6 stencils for SIX DOLLARS! 

By looking at today's card, can you tell where I used one of the stencils? And how I used it? 

I'm sure you realize that the beautiful gold pattern in the background of this card 

is where the stencil came in.

I laid the stencil onto Mossy Meadow cardstock, taping it in place. I then sponged through the stencil with VersaMark ink.

Once I was fairly certain that I had it evenly sponged, I went to the Heat Station and poured gold embossing powder on top of the stenciling. After tapping the excess embossing powder back into its container, I used the heat tool to do the embossing. 

When embossing a full piece like this, it can be tricky. One, so you don't burn yourself, two, so you don't get your fingers into unheated embossing powder, thus ruining it.

I guess if I did this again -- and I'm certain I will! -- I will make a piece larger than I need, trimming it to my desired size once the embossing is done. That way, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I (or you!) brushed off some of the powder by mistake. 

I thought the gorgeous sunflower from the Celebrate Sunflower set (page 13, Annual Catalog) would work well with this background,

After stamping the flower in black, I used Stampin' Blends to color it. The Blends I used were: Light and Dark Soft Suede, Light Pumpkin Pie, Dark So Saffron, Dark Mango Melody and Dark Daffodil Delight.

Once the coloring was finished, I fussy cut the flower, cutting right up to the stamped line. 

I tried several ways of presenting the sunflower, but none of  them really appealed. 

Finally, I adhered a piece of gold cardstock to the back of the flower, then fussy cut that, leaving just a smidgen of gold sticking beyond the black stamped lines. I loved the way that looked, but when I held it against the embossed background, it seemed to get lost somehow.

To remedy that situation, I mounted it to a diecut black circle. This turned out to still not be the answer.

The answer came by me crisscrossing some thin black ribbon (from a Paper Pumpkin kit) along with some gold cord (from another Paper Pumpkin kit) and attaching the ends on the back of the embossed piece.

Then, when I added the sunflower with Stampin' Dimensionals, everything was happy. Including me.

In trying to preserve as much of the embossed background as possible, 

I decided to forego any sort of a sentiment. 

To finish the card, I added a thin border of black cardstock to the embossed piece, then to a card base of Mossy Meadow.

What do you think of this technique? Are you tempted to give it a try? 

Embossed

Smiles.