CSI Design Team Call

I just wanted to share that CSI:Color, Stories, Inspiration is having a design team call. I love being on this team, it is very friendly, very creative and very inspiring. Every week I am amazed at the variety of layouts created by the team. The challenges are so much fun, each week is different.

You can find more information in this thread on the CSI site, and you can also ask questions there.

The combination of a color combo, the always wonderful inspiration photo and the prompts is just the best and I particularly like the focus on meaningful journaling, since that was always important for me. Telling a story.

I hope you will apply! I'll be back tomorrow morning with my CSI layout for this week.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Anna-Karin

Four Flowerpots Tutorial

Hi everyone! Today I am sharing a step-by-step tutorial on the Sizzix blog. When I first saw Eileen Hull's Candy Cup ScoreBoards die, I immeditely thought it would make a fun flowerpot. I had so many ideas so I couldn't just make one pot, but ended up making four pretty different ones, one of them is the home for a little bird instead of a flower.

These would make fun little gifts and are perfect for people who don't have green fingers, since these flowers certainly do not need any water or special care.

If you want to see how I made these, and close-ups of all the flower pots, head over to the Sizzix blog for step-by-step photos (its a pretty long tutorial!).

Thank you for stopping by! Have a fabulous day!

Anna-Karin

Summer Distress Suitcase

Happy Monday and time for Simon Says Stamp and Show inspiration! This week the challenge is to be inspired by the new seasonal Summer Distress Inks: Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry. Gorgeous happy DT projects on the blog, so don’t miss checking them out. I love the colours of the summer distress ink and used them in several different ways on this project:

I used the great Sizzix Eileen Hull ScoreBoards Suitcase die for this project. This is such a fun die and you can put a lot of different things into the suitcase. I did a tutorial using this die a while back, but placing a mini-book inside the suitcase instead, you can find it here if you are interested. In the tutorial I also show how to assemble the suitcase.

A piece of Little Sizzles mat board (Simon Says Stamp will have this in stock soon), was covered with kraft resist map paper using multi-medium. When dry, the suitcase was cut from this, making sure to get the part of the paper that I liked the best on the front of the suitcase. The handle was cut from mat board that had been covered with Core’dinations cardstock. The Suitcase die works perfectly in the BigShot. I was asked if it is a Pro die, but it is not. It is an XL die, so you need extended cutting plates, but you can use your BigShot to cut it.

The outside of the suitcase was inked with Salty Ocean and misted with Biscotti Perfect Pearls mist for some shine. The mini vintage globe was cut once from grungeboard and once from watercolour paper. The grungeboard was painted with cream paint, sanded and inked. I only used the globe part of the watercolour die-cut, smeared some Mowed Lawn and Salty Ocean on my craft sheet, misted with water and painted on the globe using a paint brush.

The banner was cut from watercolour paper and painted with Picked Raspberry and water. The sentiment was stamped on top with Archival Jet Black Ink. The plane was stamped with Archival Ink Coffee and I also added a little wood veneer bike and a boat. The boat was inked with Salty Ocean. A luggage tag was cut from mat board with the Tiny Tabs & Tags die, inked a bit and stamped.

I decided to build a little scene inside the suitcase. The inside was inked with Salty Ocean and Mowed Lawn. Mat board inks beautifully, I love it. It was stamped with an Artistic Outpost tree and a music stamp and then misted generously with Biscotti Perfect Pearls. I inked the part of the suitcase that opens too, and stamped with a sentiment, a bike and the same music stamp.

Here's the finished inside of the suitcase. The Artistic Outpost Kudzu Kafe house and the girl from Lovely Day were stamped with Coffee ink on watercolour paper, and watercoloured with all three summer distress inks, adding a bit of Scattered Straw for the flowers. The house and girl were adhered with foam dots, layering several dots on top of each other for the girl, to create dimension. I like the contrast between the more grungy outside and the bright and happy inside of the suitcase.

I love the main sentiment of this project, from the Lovely Day set. I stamped it on acetate, leaving extra space underneath. Then I folded the acetate at the bottom to create a flap that could be used to attach the sentiment in front of the rest of the scene. There is about 1.5 centimeters between the sentiment and the girl.

Three strips of Terminology tissue paper were inked with Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry and Scattered Straw and die-cut with the Tattered Floral Garland die. I layered a whole bunch of small flower together, scrunched them up and added a brad in the centre.

Assemble the suitcase with strong tape and brads. The top flap keeps it close.

The back of the suitcase.

I hope you will play along with us this week, as always Simon Says Stamps supplies a $50 gift voucher to one random participant, so you can do some shopping!

Thank you so much for looking! Have a great week!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Dies: Sizzix Scoreboards Suitcase, Vintage Fan & Globe Movers and Shapers, Tattered Floral Garland, Tiny Tabs & Tags, Tattered Banners
Stamps: Artistic Outpost: Lovely Day, Ephemera Backgrounds, Home, Kudzu Kafe, Typography, Windows and Doors; Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Warehouse District; Hero Arts Basic Lowercase Letters
Inks and paint: Distress Inks: Summer Seasonal, Scattered Straw, Frayed Burlap; Ranger Archival Coffee, Jet Black; Adirondack paint dabber Sandal; Stazon Jet Black
Paper etc: Sizzix Little Sizzles mat board 6x13; Tim Holtz idea-ology kraft resist, Idea-ology Terminology tissue wrap, Idea-ology grungeboard
Other: Studio Calico Transporation Wood Veneer Shapes, Wood Veneer Birds; Perfect Pearls Biscotti; Hemptique Thick Natural Hemp Cord

Relax: CSI case file #34

Hello Saturday! Another awesome CSI challenge, case file #34, went live yesterday evening. One of my favourite things with CSI is how it makes me do new things. The combination of the inspiration photo, the colour combo, the journaling part and the inspiration part is just the best. At the moment there is a DT call at CSI, it is a wonderful team to be on, you can find all the info here.

This week’s colour combo is soft and muted, here’s the case file:

The inspiration photo made me want to use some watercolour paint:

From the evidence items I used: wet medium, birds, waves, watercolour. From the testimony items: journaling about ways to relax.

I painted a basic watercolour background, using a bit of masking fluid on the water, and to mask spots for the flowers. The horizon line was masked with masking tape. I don’t think I managed to get the colour combo spot on when mixing the paint. Watercolour paint also dries lighter, which makes it a bit harder to get the colours right. After the sky, water and sand was dry, I removed the masking fluid and painted the flowers and the grass, a few birds in the sky and added some texture to the sand with dry-brushing. I scratched out pebbles with my craft knife and added a little shadow at each one.

I developed the photo in two sizes, but I think the perfect size would have been somewhere in between. I am slightly too large on this one, but looked like a Lilliput person on the other photo. On the original photo, I am sitting on a rock looking out over the sea. I added a paper flower to my hair, a stamped butterfly, some pearls and a word band. After gluing the cut-out photo to the background, I painted a rough shadow, so that it didn’t look as if I was floating above the grassy hill.

The journaling is at the back of the layout, it reads:
‘There are no better places in which to relax than out in nature, next to the sea on an empty beach, listening to the waves and looking at the birds in the sky. The smell and sound of the sea. Such a perfect day should preferably begin and end with a bike ride through a forest to go to the sea, no car driving whatsoever – in fact, there should be no cars in sight anywhere along the way’

Thank you for looking! Have a great weekend!

Anna-Karin

Supplies: Hero Arts alphabet stamps, Hello There CL553; Jenni Bowlin Spice Tin ink; Daler & Rowney watercolour paint and paper; Tim Holtz idea-ology word band; Prima flower; pearls.

Pop-up card: A little birdie told me

Hi everyone! Today I have a fun card to share using Sizzix Karen Burniston’s Pop’n Cuts 3D Label die. The pop-up dies are so much fun to work with. I love acetate cards and wanted to do a pop-up with a clear base and a clear pop-up insert. This is the result:

This card was hard to photograph, with all the dimensional and clear elements. I kept the outside pretty simple. I wanted to use the great Birds on a Wire die and since I am using a silhouette stamp on the inside, I thought I should use a silhouette on the outside too. The birds were cut from black modeling film. The film is pretty thick and the die didn’t quite cut through (it probably would have if I had run it through my BigShot a few times), but it was easy to just cut the birds out with scissors along the cutting lines. I heated up the film and shaped one bird at the time. It cools down quickly, so it is easiest to do one bird at a time. Love the dimensional silhouette birds.

The acetate cardbase was embossed in a swirl folder and I cut a little window for the sentiment with a label Movers & Shapers die. The paper is Specialty Stamping Paper, a matte coated paper, lots of fun to ink. The cloud was stamped twice with Versamark for a subtle resist effect. After drying it with a heat gun, the front was inked with Adirondack Aqua, Stonewashed and Distress Ink Salty Oceans, starting with the lightest shade. The sentiment was stamped with Archival Jet Black ink, using a stamp positioner for precise placement.

You might see the dimension of the birds a bit better here.

I used a second piece of acetate to cut the 3D label pop-up, placing it in my base tray. I embossed the front edge of it with a butterfly border die, and cut the top with a scalloped On the Edge die. The top and bottom of the matte cardstock was cut with the same die. The matte paper was cut the same width and just a bit longer.

I wanted to build a little scene on the inside and the Musical Walk silhouette stamp fit perfectly behind the pop up label. I stamped it with Jet Black ink using a stamp positioner – now working on the back of the same matte cardstock you see on the front. The flowers were inked with Distress Markers and stamped. Then I inked the sky with the same colours as the front, masking off the grass. The grass was inked with shades of green (Adirondack Willow, Distress Ink Bundled Sage, Shabby Shutters and Mowed Lawn), using a torn piece of paper as a mask to create soft hills. I should have taken a photo of the inked and stamped background before addnig the pop-up portion, but I forgot.

I left the top the clear label unembellished, because it would show on the front and I couldn’t think of a good shape that would work for the scene and look good up-side down too. The bottom part was embellished with a fence cut from kraftcore cardstock and sanded. I found some distress ink watercoloured scraps in my stash, from my Chest of Drawers project (you can see the inks that were used to create the papers there), and another piece of pink watercolour paper. I cut two blue birds (from the Birds on a Wire), a few leaves and swirls and some small flowers with the Tattered Floral Garland die. They were layered on the fence to sort of frame the focal image. I didn’t add pearls of bling to the flower centers, because I wanted to keep them flat so that the card would close.

The sentiment was stamped just in front of the pop-up label, on the matte cardstock. The rest of the matte cardstock was inked with the same shades of green as above. Here you can see the dry embossed butterflies too, but they are kind of hard to see.

Attaching things is often tricky with clear cards because adhesive will show through. First, I planned to stitch the matte cardstock and the pop-cut acetate to the base acetate, but then I decided to use my tiny attacher instead. The staples holding the front piece are hidden at the front by the birds.

On this photo you might see the dimension a bit better, and the distance between the label and the the children. A musical ribbon showing through to the front when the card is closed was glued to the base acetate.

The back of the card.

Thank you for looking! Have a great day!

Anna-Karin

Supplies: Dies: Sizzix: 3D Label Pop-Up, Birds on a Wire Sizzlits, Birds & Butterflies,Tattered Flower Garland, Mini Labels Movers & Shapers, Mini Scallops On the Edge, On the Fence, Swirls texture fade; Stamps: Hero Arts Musical Walk F5468, Please Note 331072, Many Birthday Messages CL611, Flourish Background CG119, Tall Circle Flowers K5581, Halloween Moon CG369; Distress Ink: Mowed Lawn, Salty Oceans, Shabby Shutters, Bundled Sage; Distress Ink Markers: Worn Lipstick, Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage; Adirondack: Aqua, Stonewashed, Willow; Archival Ink Jet Black; Ranger Specialty Stamping Paper; Stamper’s Anonymous black modeling film; mini attacher; Creative Imaginations ribbon; Core’dinations kraftcore cardstock; watercolour scraps.

Mini-book: Anything Goes

Happy Monday! And the best thing about Mondays is that a new Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge is revealed. This week we have a 'no rules' challenge, so anything goes. I've decided to try to do more mini-albums, because I often want to include too many photos to fit into a layout - and instead, those photos never get scrapped.



The mini-album is about an outing to an old farming community which has been turned into a museum, also including the surrounding farm fields. The title translates 'Postcards from the past'. I cut the covers from chipboard and covered with woodgrain paper. They were stamped with the chicken wire stamp from the Stamper's Anonymous Mixed Media set. I used this stamp throughout the album. The one edge was die-cut with the On the Edge Brackets and I adhered some printed masking tape on the other edge.

The girl from Artistic Outpost Kudzu Kafe looked like she could belong in this village. She was stamped on manila cardstock (a left over from the inside pages) and coloured with pencils.

The Idea-ology timepiece and game spinners were coloured with alcohol inks to give them a faux patina, aged look. I used the same inks on some glossy cardstock and die-cut shapes as embellishments for the inside pages.

The idea for the mini-book came from wanting to use the Stamper's Anonymous Folded Paper Background stamp as the base for pages in a book. It looks just like an old post card with a 'post card' stamped on top (from the Letters to Santa set). The pages are made from manila cardstock which was aged by misting first with water and then dipping into Distress Stains (Weathered Wood, Frayed Burlap, Stormy Sky) smeared on my craft sheet. When all the papers were dry, I stamped them with the Folded Paper stamp on the front using Archival Ink Coffee and then stamped the post card stamp with Jet Black ink. I didn't stamp the Folded Paper on the back of the pages.

The pages were stamped with lots of different relevant images, after I decided where all the photos would go, so that the stamping could be planned to fit with the photos. The stamping was done with both Archival Inks and Distress Inks and some of the images were softly coloured with coloured pencils.

The album has 12 inside pages, decorated front and back. As you can see, I used the chicken wire stamp on most of the pages, to bring the book together. It was stamped without an acrylic block for a more random look.

All the edges were inked and distressed.

I used a wallpaper looking pattered paper for the inside of the covers. Here are some of the pages:

I love old stone walls.

I always take photos of information signs, to help me remember the sites.

Lots of old farming equipment standing around.

Here I used one of the alcohol inked glossy cardstock pieces, a key hole from the Hardware Findings die.

The back pages were perfect for adding some 4x6 photos, I just needed to trim them a little bit.

A may pole that had been used earlier in the year to celebrate Midsummer.

The inside of the houses were kept as authentic as possible.

The key is another die-cut glossy cardstock accent. I didn't want to use any bulky embellishments.

There was a re-enactment of an old village meeting.

The back of the book. I messed up a bit with the spacing of the white embossed stamped flowers.

The last step was to punch the holes, using my Cropadile. Here you can see the book from the top, just to give you an idea of the look of all those distressed post cards together.

I hope you will play along with us this week! You could be the lucky one to win a $50 gift voucher to Simon Says Stamp.

Thank you so much for visiting! Have a great week!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Stamps: Stamper's Anonymous Folded Paper Background, Letter to Santa, Spring Sprung, Mini Ornates, Mixed Media, Going Somewhere, Warehouse District; Artistic Outpost: Kudzu Cafe, Country Life, Blue Bird, Birds of a Feather, Home; Prima Songbird; Hero Arts Playful Letters
Ink: Distress Ink: Frayed Burlap, Weathered Wood, Vintage Photo; Distress Stain: Frayed Burlap, Weathered Wood, Antique Linen, Stormy Sky; Ranger Archival Ink Coffee, Jet Black; Adirondack alcohol ink: Raisin, Snow Cap, Silver, Lettuce, Juniper, Stonewashed, Stream, Ginger
Dies: Sizzix: On the Edge Brackets, Hardware Findings
Paper: Ranger manila cardstock; My Mind's Eye: Miss Caroline Dilly Dally and Fiddlesticks 6x6 pads
Other: Tim Holtz idea-ology Timepieces, Game Spinners, Trimmings; 7Gypsies Paper Tape Ledger Numbers Writing, Ranger Seafoam White embossing powder
Tools: BigShot, Cropadile

Earth laughs in flowers

Hi everyone! Today I am sharing my second card for this month Craft a Scene challenge: any outdoorsy scene. There is still lots of time to play along!

I felt like doing a watercolour scene:

First, the trees, fence and stones were stamped with Ranger Archival Jet Black ink on watercolour paper. After letting them dry for a while, I applied masking fluid to the Birch trees, and many dots of masking fluid in the grass, because I wanted to add flowers there later. I was happy to discover that the masking fluid didn’t affect the Archival ink at all, lots easier than cutting out a mask for the tree. Let the masking fluid dry completely before continuing.

I painted the scene with watercolours, starting with the sky. The hill in the distance is lighter than the grass areas at the front, which adds to a sense of distance. When it was dry, I added some birds to the sky, shadows at the oak tree and the fence and grasses. Texture was added to the grass by dry-brushing. After everything was dry again, I rubbed off the masking fluid and painted the flowers pink and red, and added a bit of grey and green to the Birch trees. Finally, the sentiment was stamped on the scene, using Jet Black ink and a stamp positioner.

Thank you for looking!

Anna-Karin

Supplies: Stampscapes: Oak Tree Sm. 177B, Fence 289D, Old Fence 293C, 3 Rocks and Grass 299B, Rocks and Grass 301A; Sutter Right Birch stamp; Daler & Rowney watercolours, watercolour paper and masking fluid.

CSI case file #33

Hi everyone! Time for another CSI case file, an awesome nautical looking one. Don't miss the stunning layouts by the DT and guests:

Love the clean lines and where inspired to do a rather clean-lined double layout. I just had to scrap these photos after seeing that inspiration photo:

From the evidence I used: clouds, woodgrain, white background, triangles, nautical elements. From the testimony: journaling strips.

I am sorry about the poor quality of some of the photos of this layout, I couldn’t get even lighting for some reason, even though I tried on three different days. All the white areas, are equally white in real life. Here are shots of the individual pages:

Lots of photos on this double layout, and I am adding even more on a paper behind the layout. I took these photos on an outing to a coastal little town, love all the different wooden houses, built pretty close together.

I embellished the layout pretty simply, just some stamping and some die-cuts. The boat, light house and birds were stamped and coloured lightly with coloured pencils. The clouds and nautical stamps were stamped with French Ultramarine Archival Ink. For the title, I used some quite old Making Memories cardboard letters, and dry-brushed some red paint on top.

The cute banners are made with an off cut piece from the Harlequin die (thank you Shelly for this tip!). The twine was attached with mini stapels.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you can play along with us this week!

Anna-Karin

Supplies: Crafty Individuals and Beeswax stamps; Sizzix Harlequin Sizzlits die; Versafine Onyx Black ink; Ranger Archival Ink French Ultramarine; FabScraps, BoBunny and Kaisercraft patterned papers; Core’dinations cardstock; Making Memories letters; twine; Derwent coloured pencils.

Chest of Drawers Tutorial

Hi everyone! Today I have a step-by-step Sizzix tutorial to share of a chest of drawers, which is made with Eileen Hull's Candy Drawer Box Scoreboards die. I also used the Borders & Hydrangeas Bigz die and several Sizzlits dies which are part of the same Sweet Treats line. I had so much fun making this and I am using it to store some of the small embellishments that I reach for often. It works great for storing buttons, charms, brads, jewelry and a lot of other little things.

The finished project:

Here's how I did this:

These are the basic pieces to make one drawer box. Die-cut six of each from cream mat board, you need the extended cutting pads to cut this die. You can use white mat board too, but I thought the undecorated inside of the drawers looked nicer in cream than in white.

First, we are going to build the structure of the chest. Place strong tape (I used Ranger's Wonder Tape) on the notched flap, fold along the score lines (which is easy since the Scoreboards dies both cuts and scores), press together. Here you see one example showing where to place the tape and one of a finished unit. Assemble all six rectangles.

Use the same strong double-sided tape between all the units. It is easiest to do the two in the bottom layer first and then build the others on top. Place the 'closure side' (where you connected the two sides of each separate unit together) on the outside - then all the joints consist of two layers of mat board and are are equally thick, giving an even appearance to the chest. Make sure you line them up neatly and press them together.

Ink all the edges of the main structure and the front of all the drawer units. Don't assemble the drawers yet, I just folded one up and placed it in the unit to show where to ink.

Measure the sides and the top of the unit and cut patterned paper to fit.

I wanted to inky and did three different watercolour backgrounds with Distress Inks, coordinating with the colours in the patterned paper. Just smear the inks on your craft sheet, mist with water and dip/drag the paper into the ink. Watercolour paper works the best, but other papers, such as manila cardstock can also give a great result.

Cut two rectangles of each colour to fit the front of the drawers. I stamped them with some background and sentiment stamps using Archival Ink Coffee, Salty Oceans and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks. Keep in mind that there will be a handle in the centre of each, so don't stamp anything important there.

Die-cut a bunch of butterflies, flowers, leaves and flourishes from the remaining inky papers and from some old book and dictionary papers with the Birds & Butterflies, Sweet Treats For You and Borders & Hydrangeas dies. Those great birds come from Karen Burniston's new Birds on a Wire die. Stamp some of the shapes with a text stamp and Archival Coffee ink.

Ink the edges of the papers for the front of the drawers and embellish them. Again, keep in mind where the handle will go. The flower was layered and ruffled a bit.

The other three drawers. The butterfly consists of three layers and is only attached at the centre, to create dimension in the wings.

First, I was planning to use buttons as handles, but I wanted something which would be easier to grab, so I went searching through a bead box and found these fun beads made from glass marbles (we used to call these specific marbles 'spaghetti marbles' as children, because of the spaghetti like strings of colour inside them). Make two holes in the mat board with a needle tool.

Thread some thin twine through a needle. The twine is strong, so will handle all the use this little unit will get.

Make a strong knot on the inside and cut the threads.

Place strong double-sided tape as shown. I don't think the small, thin pieces I added are necessary, but I rather wanted to use too much than too little adhesive since I am planning to use these drawers a lot.

Time to assemble all the drawers. Fold them along the score lines and first adhere the side flap shown on the photo.

Next, adhere the base of the drawers, lining them up neatly.

Originally, I wasn't planning to add a back piece to the chest, but I thought the drawers fell through too easily, so I cut a piece of mat board the right size, rounded the corners, inked it and attached it with Glossy Accents. I placed a book on top and left it for a while so that it would stick down well.

Then I cut a piece of patterned paper to cover the back. I liked the finished look the back piece gave to the project.

Here's a view from the other side.

Decorate the side panels and ink the edges. I added a few stamped words with Coffee ink, before adhering the papers to the chest.

Layer several flower die cuts together and ruffle the fringes a bit.

The other side panel. I love the sweet butterfly die. As on the drawer, I layered three butterflies together and only attached them in the centre, so it looks like it is flying. The sentiment was stamped with Salty Oceans Distress Ink.

Shape the Hydrangea flowers a bit, layer them together and put a rhinestone in the centre, add some leaves and swirls around them.

A view of the finished project with three of the drawers open.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!!

Thank you so much for looking!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Dies: Scoreboards Candy Drawer Box, Borders & Hydrangeas Bigz, Birds & Butterflies Sizzlits, Sweet Treats For You Sizzlits, Birds on a Wire Sizzlits, Kites Framelits set, cream mat board
Stamps: Hero Arts: Wonderful World 331068, Calico Borders 331074, Please Note 331072, Grid Pattern ST503,Magical Background CG211, Painted People Background CG402, Cling Dots CG139; Stamper's Anonymous Classics #5, Newspaper Scraps
Ink: Distress Ink: Salty Oceans, Mowed Lawn, Shabby Shutters, Wild Honey, Scattered Straw, Frayed Burlap, Tumbled Glass; Ranger Archival Ink Coffee
Papers: BoBunny patterned paper; watercolour paper, old book paper and dictionary paper
Other: Ranger Wonder Tape, Glossy Accents; Tim Holtz Idea-ology chit chat stickers and word bands; Studio Calico wood veneer shapes; beads; Kaisercraft rhinestones; twine
Tools: BigShot with extended cutting pads; needle tool

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