Party Time tutorial

Hi everyone! Today I am sharing a fun step-by-step tutorial on the Sizzix blog. My son wanted a monster & spider party for his birthday, and I made him some party decor, a gift box, cupcake monster and a fun pop-up card, using Eileen Hull's Scoreboards dies and Karen Burniston's pop 'n cuts dies.

This was a hard to photograph, you will see the different projects better on the Sizzix blog. I wanted to make quick and simple projects, that he could handle on his own, and use as toys and to store toys in after the party - excluding the pop-up card which busy three-year old fingers would demolish quite quickly. On his birthday, I placed little gifts inside the vase, bag and square box and hid everything under a towel for him to discover. The favorites were the bag which is fun to carry around holding the little handle, the cupcake monster and seeing himself run around among the monsters on the card. The box is now the home of little cars.

These could easily be adapted to fit any theme by changing the colours and the stamps used. You could make one, or all of them. To see the step-by-step photos, head over to the Sizzix blog.

Thank you for stopping by!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Metal-ology Tag

Hello! This week our challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show is 'metal-ology', so we are focusing on anything metal: real of faux metal, metal paint, embossing, metallic embellishments, anything you can think of. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with for this great theme. You mustn't miss the projects of my fellow DT members, simply stunning.

I love using metal on my project, both real metal and techniques that produce faux-metal effects. I made a heavy metal tag, and it was so much fun to make.

This whole tag is basically metallic, either real metal or faux-metal effects: foil tape, metallic alcohol ink, metallic embossing and metallic embellishments. I took some photos while I this. First the background, which is inspired by Tim Holtz:

I die cut gears, a flourish and a number from grungeboard, and also kept the little dots from inside the gears. They were all glued to a manila tag.

I covered the tag with foil tape and pressed it down in between and inside the shapes as well as possible.

The tag was completely inked with alcohol inks (pitch black, juniper and ginger), letting it dry a short while and then going over it a second time. Let dry completely,

I removed most of the ink with steel wool, until I was happy with the result. Black eyelets were set inside some of the gears.

The wings were lots of fun to make. First I die cut them using Tim Holtz Layered Angel Wings die, from one of my favourite surfaces, Wendy Vecchi's Clearly for Art modeling film. The die coordinates perfectly with the Wings embossing folder (to the right on the photo).

The three pairs of wings were embossed. Love this look.

I inked them with Silver alcohol ink and just a tiny touch of black.

I wasn't sure what would happen to the embossing when I heated up the wings to shape them a bit. You don't want to heat them too much. Work on one at a time and shape it quickly, don't heat it up again. If there was no embossing you can reheat modeling film until you are happy with the result, but if we keep reheating these, the embossed pattern will become less and less visible. Cool, aren't they? I layered them together and stapled them in the centre with my tiny attacher.

A heart and an arrow were die cut from grungeboard and embossed with maybe three layers of UTEE, finishing with one layer of Platinum embossing powder, creating faux-metal embellishments. I carefully let a game spinner fall into the hot UTEE on the arrow (be careful, it is hot, don't touch the UTEE at all). I stamped a sentiment into the heart.

Even the crinkle ribbon got a metallic treatment. It was dyed with Black Soot and Brushed Pewter Distress Stain.

I also used some metal embellishments. Black paint was rubbed into the sentiment of the Word Band. I attached it by wrapping a wire around the tag. I also found a broken ball chain on my desk and inked it with Pitch Black alcohol ink.

Black paint was rubbed into the words on the heart, but I almost regretted having done it, I liked the heart better before. The wings look really cool in real life.

The bulb was inked with Pitch Black alcohol ink and I also added some gears and another game spinner.

Another close up of the arrow.

I hope you will show us your projects using metal this week, as always, our great sponsor Simon Says Stamp gives a $50 gift voucher to one random participant.

Thank you for coming by! Have a great week!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Dies: Sizzix: Layered Angel Wings, Mini Hearts, Mini Gears, Cargo Stencil Numbers, Mini Old Jalopy & Arrow, Mini Flourish

Embossing folder: Sizzix: Flourish & Wings

Stamps: Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Stuff to Say

Surfaces: Tim Holtz Idea-ology Grungeboard; Wendy Vecchi Clearly for Art Modeling Film; Ranger Metal Foil Tape

Ink: Ranger Clear Emboss It Dabber,

Stain: Distress Stain Black Soot, Brushed Pewter

Alcohol ink: Adirondack Juniper, Ginger, Pitch Black, Silver

Paint: Adirondack Pitch Black, Juniper

Embossing powder: Ranger Clear UTEE, Liquid Platinum

Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Game Spinners, Crinkle Ribbon, Light Bulbs, Word Bands, Mini Fasteners, Mini Gears; We R Memory Keepers Cool Metal Eyelets,

Tools: Big Shot machine, Cropadile

Follow the river

We are continuing our February 'Let your light shine' lighthouse theme at Craft a Scene. Still time to play along! I wanted to do a lighthouse scene, without really including the sea and I was happy to ink up some of the new Stampscapes stamps:

This card is a odd size since I simply took a piece of glossy cardstock from my scraps and used that as the base. All the stamping, except the birds, was done with Archival Jet Black, starting with the new Rocky Waterside stamps. They are awesome and can be used to build many different scenes. I used a a torn scrap paper as a mask when stamping the lighthouse, since I wanted it to be behind the grassy hill. The scene was coloured with dye inks applied with a Colorbox Stylus Tool (see this tutorial). I left the sky and a large part of the river pretty light.

The birds were stamped twice with Denim ink to add some life to the scene. Some highlights were added with a white gel pen and just a little bit of mistiness with white pigment ink.

Thank you for the visit!

Happy stamping!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Stamps: Stampscapes: Migrating Birds 152D, Water Pattern 231C, Light, Rocks, and Waves Sm 306E, Beaver Sm. 316A, Beaver Lodge 317C, Rocky Waterside (left) 324G, Rocky Waterside (rigth) 325G, Hanging Branch Sm. 356D, Sentiment Sheet 5
Ink: Adirondack Aqua, Lettuce, Pesto, Stonewashed, Denim; Distress Ink Antique Linen; Memento: Bamboo Leaves; Colorbox Frost White
Surface: Kromekote glossy cardstock

CSI case file #59: Love

Hello! I am continuing this week's love theme on the blog today with my layout for CSI:Color, Stories, Inspiration. The other two love posts were my Blueprint Accordion Card and a Love ATC Box tutorial. Thank you for all the sweet comments I got on these two projects, I really appreciate it.

Here's this week's CSI case file:

And my layout:

As you can see, I was very inspired by the inspiration photo. From the evidence items I used: frame, distressing, bird, number, branch, flourishes, embossing. For the testimony, this is a love story, since I wrote the story of how my sister met her fiancee at the back of the layout.

I used Black Soot Core'dinations cardstock for the base and distressed the edges. The thin ledger paper was crumbled, white embossed with a love letter stamp and white embossed around the edges - which is very easy to do with Rangers Emboss-It dabber. I used a new Thinlits die to cut the flourish frame from pink cardstock, layering the pieces up so that they formed a continuous frame. It was dabbed with white paint.  

The birds were die cut from Black Soot Core'dinations cardstock, with the Love Birds die and sanded. I tucked to little hearts under the wings.

The two hearts were die cut with Eileen Hull's new Label & Heart die and sanded slightly.

The sentiment was cut from red Core'dinations using Karen Burniston's Love Set Sizzlits, I also cut it from white cardstock, using the coordinating pop-up die, which forms a perfect mat for the word, if you just cut out the parts connecting it to the pop-up. I also added a border with velvet hearts, black tinsel and lace.

Thank you for the visit! Enjoy you weekend!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Dies: Sizzix: Borders Thinlits, Heart & Label, Love Birds, Word Play, Love Set Sizzlits, Love Phrase, Brick Wall,
Stamps: Reprint Letter from Toscana
Surfaces: Core'dinations Tim Holtz distress Color-Core cardstock; Bazzill ledger paper
Ink: Ranger Emboss-It dabber; Versamark
Embossing powder: Ranger Seafoam White
Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-olgy tinsel, Seasonal chitchat stickers; Panduro velvet heart ribbon; lace trim

Love ATC Box Tutorial

Happy Valentine's Day!! Today we are having a special blog hop on the Sizzix blog where the DT members have used dies from Eileen Hull's brand new collection From the Heart, together with dies from her previous collections. There are prizes to be won on the Sizzix blog too and the team has done a wonderful job as always. Don't miss all the other projects, so much inspiration!

If you follow my blog, you probably already know that I love Eileen's dies and all the things you can do with them. This time, I made an Artist Trading Card Box, filled with ATCs. I also used quite a few of other dies and lots of ink and stamps.

Here's the finished project. The Artist Trading Card Box die is such a great die, I can think of lots of things to do with it. I kept changing my mind about what colours to use on this project, finally deciding on a pretty traditional love colour combo. I made a step-by-step tutorial for how I did this:

 

The Artist Trading Card Box die is a movers & shapers die, so you can place other dies inside it and cut out a window. I used the label from Eileen's Heart & Label. Die cut the box from white mat board.

Stamp the vines from the Hero Arts Friend Collage stamp set and clear emboss, on both sides of the box, just remember to turn the stamp around when you stamp the back of the box.

Ink with Distress Inks and an ink blending tool. I used Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet, Barn Door, Fired Brick and Vintage Photo. The embossed image resists the ink. Mat board inks beautifully.

Put a little bit of Picket Fence Distress Stain in a mini mister together with a small plastic bead (see this video by Tim Holtz for this fun technique). Shake and unscrew the mister. Tap the mister on your finger so that the ink splatters on your project. Dry with a heat gun, but be careful of burning the embossing powder.

When dry, stamp with a love definition stamp and Fired Brick ink. Hold the stamp in your hand instead of mounting it on a cling block, for a more random impression. I stamped it twice before inking it again.

Sentiments were stamped with Archival Jet Black ink on both sides and on the lid of the box.

I glued a piece of mica behind the label window, if you don't have mica, you can use vellum or acetate instead. For a vintage look, stain the acetate with alcohol ink. Place adhesive on both flaps. I used Wonder Tape. Assemble the box, which is very easy since the die both cuts and scores the mat board.

Time to make some flowers! Eileen has designed many flower dies, and it is fun to mix them with each other. I used the Wrapped Flower and cut a whole bunch of flowers from Core'dinations Kraft-Core, Tim Holtz tissue wrap, old book pages and dictionary page and tulle. I also die cut some flowers using the new Flower Layers w/Heart Petals die.

The Kraft-Core flowers were sanded, inked and shaped a bit, the dictionary flowers were inked and crumbled and the book page flowers were just inked. I crumbled up the tissue wrap flowers too, but didn't ink them (forgot to include them on this photo).

I used mainly Glossy Accents to assemble my flowers, starting from the flower centre and adding layer after layer, shaping the petals as I went a long. The last two layers are Heart Petal flowers and were glued to the rest with a hot glue gun, making sure some of the hot glue seeped up into the centre of the flower too.

I made two flowers and had enough to make a third one too. First I planned to use the bigger one on the ATC box, but it looked a bit too big on the box, so I picked the smaller one to the left instead. It has a flower trimmings centre.

The flowers were smeared with Distress Stickles Antique Linen.

Die cut leaves, a banner and a key from white cardstock, using the Hearts & More Sizzlits set.

Coat them with embossing ink and emboss with platinum embossing powder, melt and directly cover with a second layer of powder and heat again. Do one at a time and you'll have great little faux-metal embellishments. I did a heart too, from the same set of dies.

Glue the leaves to the box with Glossy Accents and the flower with hot glue.

I wanted the banner to just spell 'love' so I covered up everything except the heart with letter stickers. It was inked and glued over the label window.

 Here's a view of the box from the side.

The back of the box. I found different quotes about love, and used them on my ATCs.

Cut ATCs from smooth cream cardstock and stamp with Archival Jet Black ink. I used stamps from Tim Holtz, Darkroom Door and Artistic Outpost.

Ink the images with Distress Inks. I used a marker on the tiniest areas (the alphabet), a craft nib for the slightly larger areas (such as the flowers, birds and number) and an ink-blending tool everywhere else.

To add texture and bling, I applied Platinum Stickles and Crackle Accents on a few places on the cards. The quotes were printed on ledger paper and cut into strips.

You might see that there is Crackle Accents on the flowers. The crinkle ribbon was dyed with Distress Stains Victorian Velvet and Barn Door.

The lace trim was dyed with Antique Linen Distress Stain. There is Crackle Accents on the number and Platinum Stickles on the crown.

The flower trim was dyed with Antique Linen.

On this ATC I used an embossed key and a piece of twine. There is Platinum Stickles on the 'a'.

I am fond of using quotes, and this project was perfect for that.

Crackle Accents on the flowers and a pen nib pointing at the letter in the man's hand.

I am finishing the post with this lovely qoute and two happy birds.

These are the blogs you'll want to visit:

Eileen Hull

Amy Friend

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here!)

Gretchen Schmidt

Hilary Kanwischer

Jan Hobbins

Jeanne Streiff

Richele Christensen

Shelly Hickox

Tammy Roberts

Tammy Tutterow

Tiffany Johnson

Sizzix Blog

Thank you for looking at this long post!!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Dies: Sizzix: Artist Trading Card Box, Wrapped Flower, Flower Layers w/Heart Petals, Heart & Label, Hearts & More Sizzlits set,
Surfaces: Sizzix Little Sizzles Mat Board white 6x13; Core'dinations Tim Holtz Kraft-Core cardstock; Tim Holtz Idea-ology Melange tissue wrap; Neenah cream smooth cardstock; old book and dictionary paper; tulle
Stamps: Hero Arts: Friend Collage AC022, Be SIlly CL635; Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz: Stuff to Say, The Boys, Love Struck; Darkroom Door: Love Letters Vol.1, Love Letters Vol. 2 Artistic Outpost Think & Wonder, Windows & Doors, Bluebird
Ink: Distress Ink: Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet, Vintage Photo, Barn Door, Fired Brick; Archival Ink Jet Black; Ranger Emboss-It clear dabber
Stain: Distress Stain Antique Linen, Victorian Velvet, Barn Door, Picket Fence
Stickles: Platinum Stickles, Antique Linen Distress Stickles
Embossing powder: Ranger clear and platinum
Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-olgy trimmings ribbon; US ArtQuest Mica; lace trim; pearls
Adhesive: Ranger Glossy Accents, Crackle Accents, Wonder Tape; hot glue