Category Archives: tool tips

Hello Hugs!

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mmbellabronteHello everyone!  I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  2010 – can you believe it?

I know I have not posted in a while – things have been so busy – with you too I’ll bet.  

One thing I want to mention up front – I had a total hard drive failure on my main computer over the holidays and I’ve spent the last 4 days trying to restore everything from back up (yikes! what a mess!).  If you contacted me by e-mail and I have not responded, please send your mail again.  It might have gotten lost in the restore process.

On the plus side – we got to spend time visiting with extended family over the Holidays - which was great (although I have to admit that my pants are all a little tighter after all the partying!). 

chester1We also added a new little member to our family!

Meet Chesterton (Chester for short) – our new puppy.  He is very cute and really quite a gentleman for a puppy. 

(In case you are wondering, he’s named after G.K. Chesterton, the writer.   We are really hoping he has common sense too!)

 He is a mix of golden retriever and poodle.  We have some allergies in our extended family so I wanted a poodle mix to help prevent any problems.

Right now he is a kitchen dog  (till he learns proper bathroom etiquette). 

If you are allergic to dogs, don’t worry.  Chester is not allowed in the store (although I bet he’d love to chew on the paper crafts!  You should see him go to town on newspaper).

Hmmm…  maybe a little about the card…..

mmbellabrontecopicsI used the Bella and Bronte clear stamp by Mo Manning (my oldest DD simply ADORES this dog – just like Bella.  The other girls like him but J is head over heels).

The image is colored with Copics.  Here are the colors I used. 

One thing I wanted to mention – sometimes it can be hard to blend red copics – especially the darker reds.  They are very heavily loaded with pigment and can travel outside the lines more easily when you blend.  It can also be harder to “correct” mistakes with the colorless blender with the reds.  The pigment is so saturated that it tends to travel everywhere instead of nicely going back where it is supposed to. 

One thing to try is to color your red, and then use a lighter shade to remove color where you want highlights, instead of coloring lighter and then blending in the darker.   I did this with Bella’s boots on the card. 

You just need to be careful not to over saturate the red with alcohol and push it outside the lines.  If you do the color removal while the base red is still damp, the highlighted area will have soft edges.  If you want harder edges, wait for the red base to dry.  

mmbellabrontepic1It just a technique to try and see if you like it or not.  I use color removal for highlighting quite often (and not just with red).  Maybe because I don’t plan ahead enough???

 To make the ribbon slide tag,  I just cut and embossed my ribbon slide die once in white and once in blue.  Then I used a sharp craft knife to cut around the inside on the tag.  Then just layer the white in the blue.

Here are all my card pieces.  All of the supplies came from the Frosted Winter Paper kit.  The kit has patterned paper, cardstock, ribbon and embellishments.  The colors are really great.

mmbellabrontepic2

 

Well, that’s my news for today.  Stay tuned for some exciting new happenings in the Paper Garden Projects store.  We are going to be 2 years old in just a couple months!

chester2Say goodbye Chesterton….

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Playing with Impressibilities – Post 2

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impress1I tried a couple more techniques with my Impressibility dies.  Both involve getting inky!

First, I tried the “Letter Press Technique”. 

I first saw this on the Spellbinders blog, but since have seen it other places as well. 

 

 

letterpress1Basically, you just coat your Impressibility die with ink before you do the embossing.  The “debossed” (pressed in) part of the paper ends up coated with ink. 

I have had the best success with opaque pigment or chalk ink.  I like to use Versamagic or Colorbox Chalk ink. 

letterpress2In the sample card, I used Versamagic Cloud White on Prism Nautical Blue Medium paper.  While its not completely opaque, I was very happy with the ink effect.

I have done this with Spellbinder dies before.  I like to ink the Tag and Ribbon Slide dies before I cut and emboss – so I can get a colored frame.  I do like the opaque inks best for this because the thicker inks give more even coverage.

letterpresssentFor the sentiment here, I used the Labels 4 die and inked it before cutting and embossing.  I used Memento (Danube Blue) ink because it was the best color match, but I don’t think the ink coverage is as even as with the Versamagic inks. 

I’ve tried a technique like this with the Cuttlebug folders – but I think these Impressibilities are much easier for this technique.  They ink up very easily and I got good ink transfer.

One thing though – if your inked die is bigger than the paper, the ink will transfer to your tan mat.  You can also get ink outlines when you cut inked tags.  My tan mat is stained but it does not bother me.  Just letting you know in case it would bother you.

forestsquirelThe other ink technique I tried is kind of the opposite.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

inkedsteep1I embossed the Impressibility Die- this is the Paisley Die after is was embossed on Prism Island Mist Medium cardstock.

I spritzed the paper very lightly with water before I embossed.  I think it makes a deeper, sharper impression.

 

 

 

 

 

inkedstep2 Then I applied Versafine Vintage Sepia over the top, first by pressing the pad over and then touching up with a duster brush to get more ink into the tiny corners.  This was quicker and easier than it sounds.

If you wanted a more subtle effect, you could just use the brush to ink lightly.  Or choose an ink color only a little darker than the base cardstock.

I also want to play with some of the Brilliance metallic inks – bet that would look great.  Or what if you used Versamark and them embossed the background?  Or maybe the glue pad and glitter – huh? huh?   Oh… the possibilities!  Still more experiments to do!

By the way, the image on the card is from the Greeting Farm Forest Friends set.  Those squirrels are cute!

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Playing with Impressibilities

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beehiveI had some time to play with my Impressibility dies this weekend and thought I’d share some of the things I learned.

The dies are cleanly cut metal and are in a square frame. 

I decided to clip my dies out of their square frames to make them a little more flexible (I did not want to have the square frame around the edge when I embossed a whole card front).  

I just used cheap every day scissors (not my good Cutterbee’s!) to clip the design from the frame by cutting throught the metal connectors close to the design. 

This makes the die a little more delicate (especially the paisley pattern), but I did not have a problem embossing.  I store the dies in their folders to keep them flat.  From what I have read, you can cut the dies in pieces and use just parts of the die to emboss, but I have not been brave enough to try that yet.

embossedbgOne tip – try spritzing the cardstock very lightly with water before you emboss.  I found I got sharper embossing when I did. 

Here is the background in the card sample above (this is the Butterfly Impressibility).  The die is embedded in the paper and leaves behind a pretty crisp impression (but it pulls off easily).

I embossed with the Wizard Machine (but other die cut machines can be used).  The sandwich I used is:

  1. white plate
  2. Impressibility die
  3. Prism paper (lightly spritzed with water)
  4. Tan embossing mat
  5. 2 sheets of cardstock (for a shim – my Wizard is old and overworked so you may not need a shim)
  6. top white plate

For my sample, I used the Impression Obsession stamp Bee Hive and used the Sentiments I Add On to create the “Hi Honey”. 

embossedmarkersIts stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa and colored with Copics.  Here are the marker colors.  I added a little clear Copic glitter pen to the bee’s wings, but it does not show up in the photo

 

 

sandedbgI also used the dies on the Core’dinations color core cardstock and lightly sanded the raised areas.  The process is the same (I still lightly spritzed the cardstock).

I don’t know why, but I always get a little kick out of sanding that stuff .  Easily amused I guess LOL! 

 

forestowlHere is the finished card (with the cute little owl from The Greeting Farm Forest Friends set.

I had a lot of fun playing with the Impressibility dies.   I have another post for you tomorrow with 2 ink techniques using them.

 The kids are off school tomorrow (election day and the schools are polling places).   Somehow I ended up with the worlds largest playdate planned over here.  I think 9 girls will be here (I hope the neighbors are prepared for all the high pitched screeching – man some of those girls can yell.  I have my ear  plugs anyway).  I’m REALLY hoping for good weather.

 Here are the card details – in case anyone needs them.

Bee Hive Card:

Owl Card:

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