Is Tasnim the new Queen of Fussy Cussing???

Firstly let me say how much I LOVED my Altenew card classes at my #SCTbigboxevent but I sincerely hope Altenew brings out a die to cut out the lily from the Bold Boutique stamp set and 3D embossing folder if they release this set. I'm sure there will be 2900 stampers wanting one. 2900 is the number of people attending this virtual event from around the world.

At the last event I took part in, Vicki Boutin had us cutting out so many images and I heard the saying fussy cutting is fussy cussing for the first time and it sounds like she is infamous for making you do it in her classes. 

VB was not one of our tutors this time but Tasnim Ahmed one of the co-founders and designers for Altenew was and even though the lily is biggish it is very detailed, especially when just an embossed image on white card stock but it was worth the extra effort these are fabulous cards and I love them all.

These were the fab class supplies we received:

And the sneak peek of Tasnim's cards:

As always we have to work with our own inks for each class (everything else is provided), the first card we embossed a panel using the 3D embossing folder and then using the four piece stencil blended colour through the stencils. 

Colours I used were Puffy Heart (ALT) and Apricot (CP) for the lily. Apricot and Ginger (CP) for the roses. Fresh Pear (PFS) and Pear Pizzazz (SU!) for the leaves, these 2 colours worked really well together as a blend. We have used a gold Signo gel pen to highlight the stamens.

The second card was interesting and no way was I cutting the lily out but I didn't mask off the stencil on the RHS and had a blue line, which is why I have done a watercolour wash, so thought if I popped up the lily I might distract from my bad watercolour washing which I did in a rush as trying to keep up with the live lesson on screen. 

We had actually decided beforehand we were going to go rogue and have lilac/violet roses until we saw the class and realised we were using the teal blue ink on the leaves as well, so back to blues. I have no idea what colours we used but they came from my Pinkfresh stash. I can see one of the greens used is Grassy Knoll looking at the image and I think one of the blues maybe Blue Jay. Glitter drops are PFS Lagoon. The sentiment comes from a SU! retired set as I needed a card for an colleague that is retiring.

This is what the card looks like as a monolayer:

And it makes a huge difference IMO adding the cut-out lily. Tasnim said she only did it as she got ink on her "white space" and had to cover it up. Good mistake to make a great card FABULOUS.

The last card didn't work out on the day, so I actually made it last night and it is actually my favourite of the three. We had to die cut out a lily (AGAIN) and it was actually really hard without a stamped line.

Swipe "cream" ink on the raised portion of the lily on the embossing folder, place die cut in the debossed area and run though your embossing machine. 

Tasnim was using Altenew pigment inks which are the same colour as their dye inks but to me look chalkier like distress oxides. We never tried doing the lily on Sunday as we weren't happy with our go trying Candied Apple distress oxide on a pink card stock. 

I think we were both too hasty to say it hadn't worked, we just needed to let it dry. The test piece from Sunday was the wee strip on the RHS and it looks fab now. The one on the LHS I added shims when embossing last night trying to get a deeper impression, it looks good but too dark for my liking. Next try and oops I have lines so not smooth enough with my swooshing. Fourth time I think I got it, i.e. that's the one on the card :)

I ended up using Sweet Sorbet (SU!) on Blushing Bride cardstock for background and Shortbread (CTMH) ink for the lily. It's not as pretty as Tasnim's example above but it looks magnificent IRL. I have used a word from a set we got in our Spellbinders class kit along with their sequins which were creamy but also opalescent. I have made a wee mat of Blushing Bride using my Waffle Flower A2 layering and more layers dies.

Isn't is just heavenly. I'll be trying this technique out on other big 3D flower embossing folders I have bought from Altenew.

✿ Karen ✿

#cropandcreatedelivered #SCTbigboxevent

Next level layered florals

This was the name of the class taught by Gina Krupsky for Gina K Designs

The sneak peek for this class was one of the first sneak peeks SCT revealed to us and at the time I was wow how did she do that?? Well like everything Gina K does it is so easy and the good news for YOU, this kit will be available for purchase in the April release for GKD. I think the colours Gina has used epitomises "spring". 

UPDATE 5/4/23 (NZST): This set is now available for purchase on the Gina K website

This set is very clever everything is ink blended through a stencil onto a Curved Floral die-cut.

We received in our kits the Curved Floral die set and layered stencil set, mask and fillers stencil, Sweet Sentiments stamp set and some very opalescent sequins from Gina K that had a touch of purple in them, as yet also not released.

Close up look of the fab cards; the first card I used the oval stencil and Buttercream (ALT) and Mango Melody (SU!) inks to do a very light blend. The colours for the curved floral spray were Mango Melody (SU!), Poppy (C9), Grassy Knoll (PFS).

The second card uses Bubble gum (PFS), Poppy (C9), Grassy Knoll (PFS), Bermuda Bay (SU!) and the striped stencil to make a plaid. 

This card I'm not sure about, it's nice but not my style - anyone that knows Gina knows she likes black tiny borders - she said in the class it really pops with a white frame so will try that soon. It is very dramatic, again Poppy (C9), Warm Sunshine (ALT), Grassy Knoll (PFS) and Bermuda Bay (SU!).

This was an awesome class and I love the class cards. Jennifer McGuire in her wrap for the end of the event used these curved florals in some amazing ways which hopefully I'll be able to create soon and share (just in time for you to play with your own set). Just a word of warning the ends of the die cut are very fine and you can think it all doesn't line up but it's just a "bent" stalk.

#cropandcreatedelivered #SCTbigboxevent
✿ Karen ✿

Glitter all the things

This is the catch phrase of Jenn Shurkus aka Creative Chick. 

Jenn was our teacher for the Lawn Fawn class with my SCT big box event. This is my favourite class of the event, though there are some close seconds but I thought I would start the blogging journey with my favourite class.

It was a very magical class with fairies, rainbows, unicorns and lots of glitter!! Our class kit was very cool with a stamp set, matching dies, 3 stencils, stitched rainbow and cloud dies plus a jar of Prisma glitter.

We used the cloud stencil to make a rainbow of clouds I had to grab a "matching fairy" from another Lawn Fawn set that was facing left to cover up a whoopsie with my stamp jumping on me whilst I was stamping the wee stars. One of my sayings is " a whoopsie moment is an opportunity for a gemstone" or moving the sentiment to a popped up strip to cover it all up. This whoopsie was at the every end and it just about broke my heart, all that work but the wee fairy covered it up perfectly and she looks like she is meant to be there if you ask me!

Our background card base has also been coloured in the 3 inks we are working with to make the 5 colours of our rainbow. Yellow down both sides, then the pink from the top and the teal from the bottom. Very easy to do as only covering the edges. The clouds have also been stenciled in with only 3 inks as well with the same "equation" to give you 5 colours.                                                                      

This card also uses the same technique of using the 3 inks to make 5 colours. You first lay down a broad band of yellow in the middle on a diagonal, then blend in pink from top LHS to make orange where the blend meets and from the bottom RHS an (aqua) blue to make a green. We've also stenciled through using the sparkle stencil and then I have also sprayed the background with my bottle of Shimmer Spritz (Imagine Crafts) to make it more sparkly and dabbed it off. And check out those cute faces on the cloud, look at the cheeks, is that not the cutest thing you have ever seen!!

Then we made a rainbow coloured rainy background with our raindrop stencil and created a cute stitched rainbow. The colours for the rainbow card are all blended backgrounds.

All the wee images are Copic coloured Jenn has such an easy technique for Copic colouring small critters it is well worth doing a paid class or just joining in with a free Lawn Fawn Create with Us class, she always provides a colouring guide "how to" with all the classes.

Jenn used Lawn Fawn's Sunshine, Bubblegum and Merman ink - I used Catherine Pooler's Catching Rays, Do-Si-Do and Cummerbund inks. I also stamped my images on Xpress IT blending card stock as I tried Copic colouring an image on the cardstock we were provided for classes and I had major bleed.

#cropandcreatedelivered #SCTbigboxevent

✿ Karen ✿

Checking in after making 25 cards in 3 and a half days

We tried to make over 40 cards in 4 days, 2 of the 18 classes on offer at my Crop and Create Delivered were not floating our boats, so Sarah and myself set ourselves an alternative timetable for the event which if we had achieved it would have left us with 42 cards completed of the 48 cards. We achieved exactly half the number of cards PLUS one. The event's kick off each day was 10am EST which equates to 2am kiwi time (EEK),  so we started at 7:30am kiwi time.

Here are my 25 cards in a box (the plus one is sitting on top).

This is what my kits for class looked like before the event started:

And as you can see I have made a big dent in my big box of class kits:

We started late afternoon on our Friday as I babysit my grandchildren on Fridays and the first day was a "Thursday afternoon half-day event in the States".

Day one really only had two full classes and the one we chose to do was taught by Meghann Andrew for Scrapbook and Cards Today plus a few mini demos. This was our sneak peek of the cards we were being taught.

We weren't too sure about the class but in the end ended up loving it! The stamp and stencil plus die had so many possibilities what you could do with it - we really only scratched the surface but were given a whole lot of extra ideas. We were provided with a Colourful Quatrefoil stamp, stencil and die bundle for the class. The stencil was such a clever design with what you do with it either by blending or stamping through it.

My 3 cards together:

And the cards up close, card one I have used the following inks: Sparkling Rose (PFS), Crushed Curry (SU!), Pool Party (SU!) and Bermuda Bay (SU!). Card stock is Pool Party (SU!)

Card 2 uses Night of Navy (SU) ink and cardstock, Petal Pink (SU!), Grapefruit Grove (SU!), Poppy Parade (SU!) and Crushed Curry (SU!).

Card 3 uses Night of Navy (SU) ink and cardstock, Crushed Curry ink and cardstock (SU!), Pool Party (SU!) and Bermuda Bay (SU!).

We were feeling pretty under control and decided that we could have a play with our new Lawn Fawn goodies now we finally had them, shipping and our local shop being on holiday we received our Spring release goodies one month post-release.

 

One of the cool things Lawn Fawn does is share lots of inspiration and videos for all their products and we had a go at one of the DT's Chari Moss's pull and pop pull tab card, so lots more blending this time with Distress Oxides but what a FABULOUS card, we both loved it. Thank you Chari for such a cool card.

As yet I don't own Tiny Friends but my crafting buddy for the weekend Sarah did so it "was meant to be" that we could recreate Chari's card. Sarah's card has an extra cloud but as were using the same inks etc it is no wonder "they look pretty similar".

So at the end of "day 1" we were at 4 cards made (3 plus an extra). For the first time in ages I slept like a log which was just as well as the next 3 days were fun and amazing and I loved it but it was also pretty grueling, we may have to try and not be so ambitious for the next event in September.

I'll catch you soon with the next report on the journey to make 22 more cards ;)

#cropandcreatedelivered #SCTbigboxevent

One sleep to go....

My BIG BOX event starts tomorrow, this is my nickname for Scrapbook and Cards Today Cardmaking Spring event - what a mouthful, you can see why I say big box event.

I think I signed up ie paid end of November for this and it's ouch at that time of the year but the box we received this year is the biggest ever at 12lbs (some of that is the paper for our card bases and panels) but the majority of the weight is swag and our class supplies (stamps, inks, dies, stencils and even 6 mini ink pads for one class). Last time it was guesstimated the actual cost of the items received would be twice what we paid, this time the guesstimate is three times the value.

This was my box when it arrived early in March being guarded whilst I awaited for my crafty buddy Sarah to finish work so we could have an unboxing together.

And the 2 very happy representatives from the Waikato with our boxes.

There are 2900 crazy crafty ladies and some gentlemen doing the event worldwide. I think there are FIVE of us from New Zealand that I know of (Paula, Lisa, Megan, Sarah and I). 

This is a snap from SCT of the 2900 boxes waiting to be packed!!

One of the ladies in the group Yuko Neal snapped all the bootie we received including the paper fans to decorate our rooms.

Yuko looks like she has a great work space. I have been tidying mine up heaps as Sarah is coming to stay tomorrow and we hope to do the majority of the event over the next 4 days plus we have time to spare tomorrow night so we are going to also play with the new Lawn Fawn pull and pop die and make a card. 

So wish us luck. 16 instructors, 48 cards here we come........................and do check back regularly as I will have lots to share :)

#cropandcreatedelivered #SCTbigboxevent

✿ Karen ✿

First go at Decofoiling with transfer gel

I took the plunge and bought a glimmer machine last year from Spellbinders and love it when I use it. At the time I was tossing and turning between that and the Minc (laminator) system with Decofoil. Minc uses heat and the foil sticks to toner images, so quite a few companies sell you images to foil or you can use special inks or use a photocopier. I went with the Spellbinders glimmer machine as even though the plates are expensive, once I have them they are mine and I don't have a photocopier at home.

At my Crop and Create event last year we used Decofoil in our Brutus Munroe class where die cuts had adhesive sheets on them and then you burnished the foil on with just rubbing and the foil transferred and it certainly looked shiny, see HERE for those examples I created and probably a better explanation on "how to do it".

My day 2 class with Online Card Classes was glazes and pastes and Laura Bassen used Deco transfer gel through her stencil, set aside to dry and then put the deco foil on top and ran it through her Minc machine and they looked fab. So I thought OK it's time to break open that pot and the 2 packs of Deco Foil transfer sheets I have bought; Mystic Rainbow and Emerald Watercolor. The 2 stencils I used I know the brand but they have "no name" on the packaging. The leaf one is from The Crafters Workshop and the big spots was a 9 x 12 stencil from Dylusions.

I transferred the gel through the stencil and then set aside to dry (they recommend 60 mins) I was more like 90 mins. My first problem was the transfer sheets are 6" x 12" and rolled in a tube, so you have to remove them all and I thought I was only cutting one but I had actually cut 3 when I went to place on my panel as 2 of the 3 fall off and stuck to bits of the sticky gel and I was holding the "one" I thought I had cut so that was kind of hilarious. I ran it through my Big Shot and it sort of messy looking with bits missing and lines. When I did the leaves I took more care and definitely only cut one sheet but when I went to pull up the transfer sheet after passing through my Big Shot it obviously wasn't dry as I had to tear the cardstock to remove it. The great thing about this OCC is we have a Facebook page and as much as I think Facebook has a lot to answer for a lot of social problems it is great for crafting groups and the main reason I keep it going. Consensus from other attendees is my layer of paste was too thick and to scrape more of.

I have a tutorial happening in my SCT Crop and Create with Therm-o-web and foil and transfer gel this coming Friday as a mini tutorial so I will wait and try again after that.

OK that's a lot of talking let's have some pictures!!! I used Neenah Natural White; which I bought by mistake but it's cream coloured and 110lb, so nice and heavy weight. This is what my pieces looked like after foiling, the torn card stock is bottom RHS for the leaves.

I knew what I wanted to do with the spotted background as I had been wanting to mount up my Crazy Bird I watercoloured in Jenn Shurkus's distress watercolor pencil class a few weeks ago. I must have known he was going on something colourful and crazy as I had a really fine wash of the seedless preserves on the top of his bowler hat so I added some peacock feathers last night too. I also die cut out of one of the big pinky/purple spots that were cut off a "HI" and have mounted it inside the card.

Just so you can see the shimmer and shine it is really pretty IRL, the bird was embossed with clear EP on Versafine black ink, which is why he also looks sparkly in places too.

Just a simple sentiment die-cut on a Vellum shadow:

And all shiny too:

Together so not really a disaster but when I had transfer sheets sticking to my sticky fingers and the card being ripped I was thinking OMG what a mess but definitely "better than horrible".

#OCCStenciled2 #creativechickclasses

✿ Karen ✿

Start of Stenciled 2 Online Card Classes

This is the name of the new Online Card Class that Kristina Werner and Jennifer McGuire run and I just love these classes as they are really reasonable $30USD for 10 days of videos and inspiration, not only from Jennifer and Kristina but other fab card makers. You also save $5 if you sign up when first released, so even though I am really time poor at the moment I signed up the moment I received my e-mail notification. You have life time access to the classroom, videos and PDFs. You also get to work with your stash. Now I thought I had too many stencils, but after day 1 I see I have too many of the wrong sort of stencils. Our teachers on day 1 were Jennifer McGuire and Cathy Zielske. The things they did with stencils I would never in a million years think I wanted or needed, was sensational. I'm guessing after 10 days I will have a big wish list of stencils I now need to buy but they are a relatively cheap crafting supply.

Looking at all my stencils I thought I could do one of the techniques with a "Mandela" type stencil I had in my stash. It was part of a set of 4 pattern party decorative masks (#144103) from SU! in 2019.

In essence we were supposed to put down a thick band of yellow, leaving inner and outer edge clear. Then ink blend in middle with a pink and go over the yellow to make orange. Outer edge blend in with an aqua blue and again blend over yellow to make green. Looking at my try I would take my yellow out further as too much aqua blue but as my stencil was a circle, maybe it was about right as I had to chop of the edges.

Then we cleaned up our stencil and placed over our original blending and then moved the stencil ~45 degrees, reink very lightly with same colours in "same orientation", we were supposed to clean the stencil again before adding glitter paste (Hero Arts) but I just wiped down my stencil with my microfibre cloth and smothered on hopefully an even layer of the paste with my palette knive. Lift the stencil gently and clean everything with water ASAP. 

I was able to use my new stencil drying rack I received as part of my swag for the SCT Cardmaking event which I am an attendee at next weekend virtual event (which is why I am time poor getting prepped and ready for the 4-day event). 

 

I then sprinkled on a tad more fine glitter which will stick to the glitter paste and leave to dry. Jennifer said the card will warp but mine warped heaps - I should have used a heavier cardstock than 801bs, but we live and learn and I flattened it out heaps by stacking some books on top when the paste had dried.

I then die cut out using my Waffle Flower A2 layers die some of my stenciled pattern and used the "additional layer set" to make a black mat. I didn't like it when I added to a white card so used Concord and 9th Parsley card stock for my card base.

I have used my Pinkfresh Studio inks as below for my blending.

The stamped images come from Best of Friends add-on (Elle's Studio) and both have been embossed. The iridescent rhinestone jewels came from SU! but seemed to work well as an orangey-pink colour.

Well I am rapt with my card and looking forward to the next lesson. You can sign up anytime to do the classes but it's really good to partake when "live" as even if you can't make a card at the moment you can ask questions at the live chats or in the Facebook group.

TODAY'S BEST HACK I LEARNT was from Jennifer was to tap off my blending brush in the inkpad lid so you don't get ink all over your work space and it works great

✿ Karen ✿

#OCCStenciled2