DT Thursday, Blog Candy, And Our Flower Power Challenge Winner

As you know, our DT member, Daniela Dobson, had IO Blog Candy to give away as part of her hosting for DT Thursday, week before last.  Her winner was Peg K.  Congratulations, Peg!

Our winner for the Flower Power Challenge is Craftyfield at Cardmaking, Scrapbooking and Other Paper Crafts.  Congratulations, Crafty, and thanks for contributing and joining in the challenge fun!

This week's "DT Thursday" hostess is Julie Koerber.  Check out her sneak peek below, and then head on over to her great post, HERE!!  Let her know what you think by leaving a comment and you will be eligible for her IO BLOG CANDY.  While your are there you can check out her other IO creations too!!  I'm on my way over there right now.  The link is set up so you can go right on down the page to see what other IO creations she has done in her past posts if you missed any!!

Our next challenge will be the "Summer Celebrations" Challenge (anything Summer) on Thursday, May 3.  It will continue until the following Wednesday evening, May 9, at 10 p.m.  The guildelines are listed below:

• Impression Obsession stamps only.
• We use Inlinkz format for entries.
• Entries are accepted from the starting Thursday until the following Wednesday,  midnight, EST.
• All participant cards will be posted here and in our IO Customer Gallery, under the Card Galleries Tab.
• The winner is chosen by Random.org for a $25 Gift Certificate for use at our Online Store.

So have some fun, invite a friend to play, and create your own card for our "Summer Celebration Challenge" using all IO stamps, and then post it using the Inlinkz at the bottom of the May 3 post.  We will be previewing our new stamps at the same time!  If you have questions please email me.  My email is right under my name in the sidebar.

Get busy out there and join us for our next challenge and invite a friend to enjoy it with you!!!  Thanks for stopping by to look and share!

 

 Shirley

 

Tuesday T &T Easy Faux Distress Floral Background

A lot of people don't realize all of the things that can be done with Tsukineko Brilliance inks.  This tutorial will include a couple.

CARD FRONT BACKGROUND:

• Inked CAC Thick Stripes with Memento Angel Pink and stamped on white cardstock.
• Inked CAC Floral Lines with Brilliance Moonlight White.  After stamping the ink was covered with Stampendous White Detail Embossing Powder (I keep my powder in a plastic sandwich container.  I can put the leftover powder right back into the container as I shake it off the cardstock.  I have a little scoop I use to apply it.)
• I heated the embossed areas.  Later you will see that Brilliance ink has a semi-fast drying quality.  So some areas are embossed and other are not.  It gives it shiny and flat white areas (A FAUX LOOK).

• Next the largest Spellbinder's largest Romantic Rectangle was put through the Cuttlebug with White cardstock for both the die cut and embossing.
• The die was then placed over the Faux Distressed background and traced.
• It was then cut out and set aside.

• Next the flower and leaves from the CAC stamp were inked with Brilliance Galaxy Gold with a dauber.  I used the dauber with ink from the re-inker to do just the spots I wanted.  Then I used leftover scraps of white cardstock to pick them up as shown.  (I like Brilliance because if you stamp with a well inked pad and heat emboss while it is wet it will raise up and you can actually feel the texture....and gold is pretty!!!)  It will also pick up the colors of my watercolors and have a shine too.
• The flower, the center, and the leaves were painted with Twinkling H2O's and then cut out.
• They were turned over on a Pergamano mat and embossed with a stylus.

 

• They were turned back over and the center of the flower was mounted.
• Another Romantic Rectangle was put through the Cuttlebug for cut and embossed too.  The embossed flower was laid in place to see where to stamp the sentiment.
• The sentiment, from All Occasion II, was was stamped with Brilliance Galaxy Gold and heat embossed to set the ink and set aside.

THE CARD FOLD:

• The die cut was lined up with the right-hand and bottom margins of the cardstock.  The open areas were used as guides for the edge of the card being created.
• The open spaces on the left and top were used for guides for marks with the stencil
• The left marks were used to cut the height of the card.

• The penciled marks at the top were used to find the middle fold and scored with the Scor-Pal.
• After folding the excess was trimmed to match as shown.  Then the Rounded Corner Punch was used on the corners.

ASSEMBLING THE CARD:

• A strip of ribbon was placed on bottom third of the Faux Distressed Background.
• The flower was mounted on the sentiment die cut.
• The sentiment and flower with leaves was mounted as shown.
• The bow was done with the Bow-Easy, a button and a pearl sticker.
• Viva Decor White Pearl pen was used to accent the flower.

A really fun card.  Hope you enjoyed reading about it. 

I will see you back here the second Tuesday in May.  We still have DT Thursday this week and a new winner for our Flower Power Challenge.  Get busy out there.  You still have 2 more days for your chance to win a gift certificate for some stamps in our new on-line store!!

 Shirley

SUPPLIES:

Flower Power Challenge (floral)

Welcome to our "Flower Power Challenge" (floral).  I can't wait to see what everyone creates.  So let's hop on over the Design Team blogs below and see what they have for us:

• Daniela Dobson - SHE HAS BLOG CANDY!! (Check her post for details)
• Dina Kowal
• Jeanne Streiff
• Jenny Gropp
• Jullie Koerber
• Laura Fulcher
• Vicki Garrett

For those of you who aren't familiar with our challenges, they are open to you too as participants using the Inlinkz thumbnail format.    The dates for this challenge and guidelines are below.  The rules are with the thumbnail format at the bottom of the post:

• Ending time for this challenge is next Wednesday, April 25, at 10 p.m. EST.
• Impression Obsession stamps only.
• We use Inlinkz format for entries.
• All participant cards will be added to the IO Customer Gallery.
• The winner is chosen by Random.org for a $25 Gift Certificate for use at our Online Store.
• The winner's name will be posted with the DT Thursday post on April 26.

We will be having our third New Stamps and Stamp Set Release on May 3.  It is also the beginning of our "Summer Celebrations Challenge".  Invite a friend and stamp up a storm!!

If you would like some ideas, you can check out the 2012 SPRING and SUMMER STAMP Galleries under the Card Galleries Tab at the top of the page.  There are:

• Direct links to each DT member's post on their blogs or
• Click on their names in the sidebar. (The links show their latest IO posts  in chronological order.

Hope you week has been great so far!! Can't wait to see your creativity with this challenge, and thanks for stopping by to join in the fun and say hi!  If you have any questions, please click on the EMAIL link under my name in the sidebar.

 

 Shirley

 

CHALLENGE GUIDELINES BELOW:

 

DT Thursday And Our Summer Fun In The Water And Sun Challenge Winner!

As you know, our DT member, Laura Fulcher, had IO blog candy to give away as part of her hosting for DT Thursday, week before last.  Her winner was Shirley Deatcher at Paper Creations By Shirley.  Congratulations, Shirley!

Our winner for the Summer Fun In the Water & Sun Challenge is Katie Bondroff.  Her card is shown HERE in her Flickr Gallery.  Congratulations, Katie, and thanks for contributing and joining in the challenge fun!

This week's "DT Thursday" hostess is Daniela Dobson.  Check out her sneak peek below, and then head on over to Daniela's great post, HERE!!  Let her know what you think and check out her other IO creations while you're there too!!  I'm on my way over there now.  All she gave me was a sneak peek too!! ;-)  The link is set up so you can go right on down the page to see what other IO creations she has done in her past posts if you missed any!!

Our next challenge will be the "Flower Power (floral)" Challenge on Thursday, April 19.  It will continue until the following Wednesday evening, April 25, at 10 p.m.

We will be having our next MONTHLY STAMP RELEASE on Thursday, May 3.  It will also be part of our "Summer Celebration Challenge (anything Summer)". It will continue until the following Wednesday evening, May 9, at 10 p.m.

Participating gives you a chance to win a $25 gift certificate.  So have some fun and create your own card for our "Summer Celebration Challenge" using ALL IO stamps, and then post it using the Inlinkz at the bottom of the May 3 post.  You will be able to see our wonderful new stamps at the same time!  If you have questions please email me.  My email is right under my name in the sidebar.

Get busy out there and join us for our next challenge and invite a friend to enjoy it with you!!!  Thanks for stopping by to look and share!

 

 Shirley

 

An Envelope For Any Size Card And Inside Decor Too!

Phoebe needs an envelope that will fit.  Ever had that problem?  A friend showed me some time ago what to do when that happens. After you've done it a couple of times you will be able to eyeball it and not bother with the measuring, etc.  Not only that, the Cover-A-Card^TM stamps are great for the inside as a liner.  Below is a picture of the tools I used for this envelope.

1.  WIDTH - A piece of paper that is at least 2" wider than the card (Width) or Card Width+2", as shown above in the supply area.

2.  HEIGHT - I folded the bottom of the paper up past the middle of the card and brought the top portion down at least 1" over that folded up portion (for the flap).  This means Height X 2+1.0". 

(Width = Card width + 2.0") and (Height = Card Height X 2 + 1.0")

Once I got used to measuring the width and folding over to make sure it overlaps, it got easier and easier.  In my case (5.5"+2.0" = 7.5" Width) and (5.0"X2=10"+1.0"=11.0").  It also means if I had wanted I could have used a piece of computer printer paper.  Because I make a lot of odd sized cards, I buy a ream of 11"X17" at the nearest office supply store 80lb. text weight.  Of course, I prefer Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, if they have it. 

3.  Crease Sides - After I cut the paper to the width and height I needed I made my creases.  It is really important the creases are very tight (flat):

• I did the sides for the height first and used the card as my guide.  That way if I can allow for bows, pop dots, etc. 
• Next using the first photo under height above, I folded my bottom upward and creased it along the bottom.
• Next I did the top flap.

4.  Trim SIDES of BOTTOM and FLAP - I trimmed the extra from the bottom and flap sides and then rounded the corners with my punch as shown in the photos below:

• Those tight creases I made helped me guide my scissors for a straight cut on the sides of the flap and bottom as shown.
• The round corner punch is used on all but the bottom corners of the side flaps.

5.  Then I stamped the inside with Cover-A-Card Sketchy Flowers - CC093 and Brilliance Coffee Bean ink.

• Next I taped the bottom flap on each side.  This causes less problems than doing the middle side flaps. 
• Then I place my card inside the top portion with the side flaps on top and bring the bottom up to make the pocket.  (That way if I have 3D Pop Dots, etc. I can allow room, and because of my measurements and an 1" on each side of flap it's okay for a little 'give and take'.
• Last, but not least, I use my ATG gun, etc. for the flap.

Below are samples I did of different corners for the inside and raised the stamped area up or down a little to show the different things you can do, depending on what you want.  If you would prefer the type of envelope that has a V flap, you would just turn your Cover-A-Card stamp so the corner would fit in the V and still fill a portion of the bottom inside of the card.

Below is the finished card and envelope from the outside.  The trim is leftover from when I made the card itself.

If you would like to see the stamps I used and how I created the card you can check that out HERE.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial.  Have a great week and if you haven't joined in the current "Summer Fun In The Water and Sun Challenge", get busy out there.  Go HERE to find out the details and how your could win a $25 Gift Certificate for use in our New Online Store.

Thanks for stopping by to look and share!!

 

 Shirley

 

It's Another Great Release And Wonderful Cards for You Too!!

We are celebrating another great release with our "Summer Fun In The Water and Sun Challenge", and the stamps in the release are shown below.  But before we do that, head on over to the Design Team blogs and give them a high five on their great creations:

• Daniela Dobson
• Dina Kowal
• Jeanne Streiff
• Jenny Gropp
• Jullie Koerber
• Laura Fulcher
• Vicki Garrett

When you are done hopping, check out the stamps you've seen on your hop down below where they will be appear with direct links to the NEW IO ONLINE STORE.

The sentiment stamps in the clear sets are also available in red rubber too.  If you would like to take a look, just click on one of your favorite images.  It will take you to the new store site!

APRIL RED RUBBER STAMPS:

APRIL CLEAR STAMP SETS:

We are also having a challenge for you too.  The dates for this challenge and guidelines are below.  The rules are with the thumbnail format at the bottom of the post:

• Ending time for this challenge is next Wednesday, April 11, at 10 p.m. EST.
• Impression Obsession stamps only.
• We use Inlinkz format for entries.
• All participant cards will be added to the IO Customer Gallery.
• The winner is chosen by Random.org for a $25 Gift Certificate for use at our Online Store.
• The winner's name will be posted with the DT Thursday post on April 12.

The new widget with the challenge dates is posted in the sidebar to your left.  Notice that our next New Stamps and Stamp Set Release is scheduled for May 3^rd.  You won't want to miss out on some more fun, creative and wonderful images.  The Design Team will be here with more great cards with all of the new designs and we will still be having our challenges for you too, just like today.

Hope you week has been great so far!! Can't wait to see your creativity with this challenge, and thanks for stopping by to join in the fun and say hi!

 

 Shirley