You Make Me Happy

Today’s blog post features a card made with the absolutely stunning Stampers Anonymous stamp by Tim Holtz called Glorious Bouquet CMS325 with a touch of Ornate Trimmings CMS326, two of my immediate favorites!! Both of these stamp sets will be shipping THIS WEEK! Yay!!

This is a very simple card, but it isn’t quick to make. I stamped  a corner of the Glorious Bouquet stamp onto the corner of some Distressed Mixed Media Heavystock in Ground Espresso Archival Ink. Then I watercolored with Distress Markers in all the various greens and purples. The water coloring is what takes all the time, but it is so worth it! I added one of the sentiments from the Glorious Bouquet set, and added a couple of the Ornate Trimmings stamps along the right side in Antique Linen Distress Ink.

 I LOVE the Ornate Trimmings!! I have so many plans for them! They can be so versatile - lovely, lacy, and feminine or bright, bold, and masculine. Stay tuned for more cards I’m currently working on with this set. If it isn’t on your wish list it should be. :-)

Making Plans with Side Orders

I don’t know about you, but I thoroughly enjoyed all of the videos and photos from Creativation 2018! What fun and so much great inspiration! If you missed anything, Tim Holtz has a fantastic recap of all of his booths and demos on his blog here.

Today I wanted to start sharing some of the samples I made for some of Tim Holtz’s product lines. I’m beginning with some Sizzix Alterations dies that are released and shipping THIS MONTH!

With so many planner artists out there, Tim added a die called Stitched Slots to his die cut line. This die has several uses.

1. My first thought was that it would be perfect for mini albums. You could tuck additional photos, journaling tags, and souvenir tickets, and other ephemera into the various slot spaces.
2. It could also be put into a card for a loved one with gift cards, notes, even photos.
3. I used it as a place to hold tags and decorative paper clips for a planner exchange. I’m not a planner, at all, so I just pretended that if I was, I’d be in a group that does exchanges and this would be what I would bring to the exchange. :-)

To make my little Planner Exchange Gift , I folded a piece of cardstock and cut out a card using the largest Stacked Deckle die. Make sure you place the fold INSIDE the cutting edge or it will cut out two separate shapes.

Then I cut out three of the next size smaller Stacked Deckle dies out of patterned paper for the front and insides of the card. Adhere them to the front and insides of the card.

Then cut out two of the Stitched Slots. Adhere them to both inside pages of the card. The key to adhering these pieces is that you ONLY PUT ADHESIVE ALONG THE OUTER EDGE, not on the Slots.
Using the Side Order Dies that go with the Sidekick, I cut the various pieces for the shapes I wanted for planners. The only difference when making the paper clips is that you need to cut an additional one of the base shape so that you can sandwich the paper clip between the shape and the extra base piece.

The Side Order dies really are perfect for planners!  And although these are all cut from paper, I was able to cut out shapes from felt, fabric, and fun foam as well. So many possibilities!

Since I knew these would probably take a beating in a planner, I covered them front and back with a layer of Distress Collage Medium.

Then I attached them to various slots along with some small tags, and it is ready to give to a friend for a planner exchange.

Would you like a Side Order with that Sidekick?

Adding to all the fun that is the Sizzix Alterations Sidekick, Tim Holtz has released six sets of Side Order dies and the best part is that they are available TODAY! How cool is that? You don't even have to wait!

Below are the sample tags I had the privilege of making for Tim's live Facebook reveal. There were several questions about how I made the frames for the shaker tags, so I took a few pictures that are at the end of this post that I hope will explain how I made the frames.

 

Making the frames for the shaker cards is actually really easy! I started by pulling out the following die sets: the tag that comes with the Sidekick, the Labels set and the Gift Tags set.

If you take a look at the dies in the Labels  set, you will notice that most of them are too big or small for the shaker tag frames, but there are two in this set that work well. The large postage stamp and the one I've termed the bulging rectangle.

As you can see in the image below, the bulging rectangle and the large postage stamp fit within the tag and leave a nice border or frame.  The ornate oval is too wide and doesn't leave a sufficient frame.

I cut several tags first, since you need two for each shaker tag. Keep one whole and the other, the one that is going to be your frame, center the smaller die in the center of the tag and tape it down with removable tape. Run it through the Sidekick, and voila, you have a shaker frame. Now you just need to cut foam to go around the outside of the tag, add your shaker items, acetate and adhere it to the bottom tag. 

The Gift Tag dies all fit on the Sidekick but not all will work for a shaker tag frame. Some are too wide or too tiny, so check carefully to see which fit on the tag.

These three are the best fit for the shaker tags. Now these tags have holes in them but that's of no consequence since we just need the outside shape. Cut them out the same way you did the labels.

As you can see from the image below, each of them make a fun shaker window in the Sidekick tag.

 

For the birthday shaker, I cut a bunch of the stars from for the hat

 

For the Valentine tag, I cut a bunch of the tiny hearts that go on the envelope. 

 

I colored some of the Rock Candy Distress Glitter with Butterscotch Alcohol ink 

and added that as sand in the Summer shaker tag.

 

I cut a bunch of the stars from the banner for the 4th of July shaker tag.

 

This shaker has a bunch of little "eggs" that are actually the bird's wings. I speckled them

 by using the Distress Sprayer with the Ground Espresso Distress Marker.