Stamp-n-Stencil with Gina K Designs and Scrapbook Nerd

Hi everyone!

Can you believe Christmas is only one month away? I'm finally getting into the holiday spirit despite the fact that we are in the middle of a major kitchen renovation and my house is upside down. To keep from going insane, I've been spending a lot of time in my craft room making cards and getting some online Christmas shopping done. Have I told you how much I despise the malls at this time of year?

Anyhoo, I took a break from making Christmas cards this week because this beautiful stamp set from Gina K Designs was calling my name. Gina K has a few of these Stamp-n-Stencil sets, where you first stamp the image, then you go over it with the coordinating stencil to add texture and sparkle to the flower centers using Nuvo Glimmer Paste and a pallet knife. This one is called Crazy Daisy. The results are so pretty! I loved it so much that I made five cards for the Scrapbook Nerd Design Team this week!

All my cards use Altenew Inks except for the leaves. Those were stamped with Lawn Fawn inks. I have listed all the colours at the end of this blog post.

My first card uses a yellow polka dot patterned paper from the Sunny Studios Polka Dot Parade 6x6 cardstock pack. The black/white patterned paper strip is from My Favorite Things Black & White Stripes 6x6 Paper Pad. And the card base is Neenah Desert Storm cardstock.

My next card is a shaker card. I created the opening using Lawn Fawn's Outside In Stitched Scalloped Rectangle die onto some kraft cardstock. The sentiment is Pinkfresh Studio's Classic Word Dies. 

I added double sided foam tape around the perimeter of the rectangle, placed some sequins in the middle of a white A2 sized cardbase, and carefully adhered the panel to the card base.

I love shaker cards so I couldn't resist creating another one! This time I created a circle using Lawn Fawn's Outside In Stitched Scalloped Circle Die. The sentiment is also from Pinkfresh Studio's Classic Word Dies. 

I mounted it to a teal card base in the same way I did the rectangle shaker card. I just love that stitched detail you get from these dies!

On this next card, I inked up the background panel using a Vicki Boutin stencil and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide Inks. I applied it with a blender brush by Picket Fence Studios.

The sentiment is from the Gina K stamp set which I heat embossed in black using Versafine Onyx Black Ink and Ranger Clear Embossing Powder.

My final card also features a stenciled background. For this one I used Altenew's Broken Chevron Stencil. I had this panel in my stash of pre-made backgrounds so I can't remember which ink I used.

The sentiment is also from the Gina K Crazy Daisy stamp set which I heat embossed in black.

Ink Colours Used:

Altenew - Pink Flowers - Pinkalicious & Raffleberry

Altenew - Blue Flowers - Aqualicious & Galactic Stream

Altenew - Yellow Flowers - Fresh Lemon & Maple Yellow

Lawn Fawn - Leaves - Noble Fir, Cilantro & Jalapeno

One last thing to note. I stamped all these flowers and leaves onto 110 lb. Neenah Solar White cardstock using my Misti Tool. I then used my Brother Scan-n-Cut machine to cut them all out. This machine was the single best purchase I made this year! It has more than paid for itself based on the amount of dies that I don't have to purchase anymore. I would strongly recommend it if you are an avid cardmaker/stamper like me.

Thank you so much for stopping by! As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave a note in the comments section below or shoot me an e-mail. 

Hope you're having a wonderful day! :)

Quick & Easy Christmas Cards with Scrapbook Nerd

Hi friends!

My Christmas card making mojo is in full swing and I'm taking full advantage of every spare minute I have to create them! I have quite a long list of cards I send out each year and I'm not the mass production/assembly line type of gal. I like to create individual cards for every person on my list. I know...you must be thinking..."Is she crazy?" Why yes. Yes I am lol. I just like sending different cards to each individual. It feels more personal that way.

One thing I do try to do to make the process go faster, is to design a card that isn't very involved. The cards I'm sharing with you today may look like I put a lot of time and effort into them, but the truth is they took me less than 1/2 hour each to create. And that my friends is because there was no stamping whatsoever involved. I only used dies and one stencil. Let me show you how.

The products I used today are the Hero Arts Christmas Message Fancy die, Hero Arts Snowflake Pattern Cover die and Altenew Fine Frames Cover die.

First I die cut the snowflake background out of white textured cardstock. As you can see from the image of the die, it cuts out the snowflakes as one solid piece with a thin frame around it, sized perfectly for an A2 cardbase (4.25" x 5.5"). I decided to cut the snowflakes apart and adhere them along the edges of my card so as to create an open space in the middle for my greeting.

I sprayed the snowflakes with Thermoweb Glitter Dust. This stuff is awesome to add shimmer to paper. A staple in every craft room IMO. The photo above just doesn't do it justice. In real life, it's stunning. I then set them aside to dry. Next, I die cut the sentiment from Tonic Studios Gold Pearl Mirror Cardstock. Another item I recommend for your crafty stash. 

I die cut the Fine Frames from the same gold cardstock. And then I adhered everything down to my white card base using liquid glue. As a finishing touch, I added jewels from Pinkfresh Studio.

For this card, I used the Hero Arts Poinsettia Stencil to dry emboss onto red cardstock. You can see the beautiful texture in the picture below. I can't say enough about the versatility of stencils. They're definitely not just for stenciling!

I did the same die cutting as above, except this time I used silver glitter cardstock I had in my stash. I used some of the leftover snowflakes from the first card and adhered them around my sentiment. Once again, I added some jewels for a final touch.

For my last card, I die cut another Snowflake Pattern from Lawn Fawn Pixie Dust Sparkle Cardstock and decided to leave it as is. I think it's so pretty when it covers the entire background of your cardbase. The card stock I used is Lawn Fawn Rainforest.

I die cut the sentiment out of red cardstock three times and adhered them together to add dimension. Once again, I sprayed it with the Glitter Dust. I adhered it to the center of my card, added a few jewels and called it done!

I hope these quick and easy Christmas cards will inspire you to create your own. All the products I used today are available in the Scrapbook Nerd shop if you are interested in trying them out.

Thank you for stopping by and as always if you have any comments or questions, please leave me a message below.

Hope you are having a wonderful day! :)

Peace, Love & Joy Christmas Cards with Scrapbook Nerd

Hi friends!

I'm back with another card project for Scrapbook Nerd. This week's theme is Christmas and I was only too happy to start making a dent in my Christmas card list.

I have three cards to share with you today featuring beautiful products from the Hero Arts 2019 Winter Catalogue, all created in traditional Christmas colours. I absolutely love the classic look of red, gold and silver for this holiday season.

My first card is a festive shaker card. I trimmed Raspberry cardstock by Lawn Fawn to 4" x 5.25" and ink blended the edges using Fired Brick and Black Soot Distress Oxide inks.

I then die cut the outer ornament shape using the Hero Arts Poinsettia and Ornament Fancy Die from the middle of the red cardstock. Next, I die cut the poinsettia shape from the same die set out of silver glitter cardstock from the Holiday Sparkle Cardstock by Lawn Fawn.

To create the shaker portion, I adhered a clear piece of acetate over the opening on the back of the card. I then added strips of foam tape around the ornament shape so that it could house my sequins. I added more foam tape around the rest of the card. I took an A2 sized white cardbase, dropped some Silver Lining Sequins by Simon Says Stamp in the center and then adhered the card panel on top.

The Peace sentiment is from the Hero Arts Peace, Love & Joy stamp set which I white heat embossed onto vellum using Versamark Ink and Brutus Monroe White Alabaster embossing powder. I then fussy cut the sentiment and adhered it to the center of the ornament. I did the same with the "on Earth" sentiment this time onto plain black cardstock. As a final touch, I adhered some of the same sequins to the front of the card.

For my next card, I cut the card panel out of Lawn Fawn Fog cardstock and then embossed the Hero Arts Noel Print Bold Prints Cling Stamp using Ranger Silver Embossing Powder and Versamark Ink.

I die cut the ornament four times. Once from red sparkle cardstock and three times from plain red cardstock. I adhered them all together to create a dimensional ornament. The sentiments were white heat embossed onto plain black cardstock and popped up with foam dots. I tied a bow out of some Christmas ribbon and adhered it with glue dots to the top of the ornament.

For my last card, I dry embossed the Hero Arts Poinsettia Stencil onto white cardstock using my Big Kick machine and a rubber pad. You can see the pretty texture it creates on the close-up photo below.

The ornament die was cut out of gold sparkle cardstock and the Joy sentiment was white heat embossed onto vellum. I adhered both to the red card base using liquid glue. I added some Metallic Gold Jewels by Pretty Pink Posh for a finishing touch.

And those are my completed card projects for today. All the products I used in this post can be found in the Scrapbook Nerd store.

Thanks for stopping by. As always, if you have any questions, please leave a comment below or feel free to e-mail me.

Hope you're having a wonderful day! :)

Embossing & Simple Masking Technique

Hi friends,

The two cards I'm sharing today came together in a real jiffy. That's because I let go of the notion that all floral stamps need to be coloured in. You can achieve equally stunning results (and finish a card in no time flat) just by simply embossing and forfeiting the colouring altogether.

I took a 4" x 5.25" white cardstock panel (Nina Solar White) and using Therm-o-web Purple Tape I masked off the area that I wanted to ink blend. For my sympathy card I used Tim Holtz Distress Oxide ink in Peacock Feathers. I then removed the tape and used my heat gun to speed up the drying process since distress oxides take a little while to dry.

Once it was completely dry, I took an anti-static powder bag and applied it all over the panel. This helps to ensure that the embossing powder only sticks to the areas that you want it to. I then stamped the gorgeous floral from the Sketched Flowers stamp set by Simon Says Stamp (SSS) using SSS clear embossing ink and SSS Antique Gold Embossing powder.

The sentiment is from the same stamp set which I embossed with Versafine Onyx Black Ink and Ranger clear embossing powder. I decided not to add any bling to the card since it's a sympathy card and I feel those types of cards should be more subtle and classic looking.

For the birthday card, I followed all the same steps as above. I used Distress Oxide Victorian Velvet ink on this one. The sentiment is from the Daisy Bouquet stamp set by SSS. As a finishing touch, I added some gold pearls from Fun Stampers Journey. The white panels on both my cards were adhered onto an A2 sized cardbase from SSS Fog cardstock using fun foam to add dimension.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you give these simple techniques a try on your next floral card.

Have a wonderful day! :)