Snow Scene Tutorial

Hi guys its Natalie on the CDD blog today and I'm going to show you how to make a quick snow scene Christmas card using those cute racoons from the Snow Day stamp set.

There are so many ways to create a snow scene and I found it so hard to pick a technique but I was thinking its Christmas and you have got to this time and you are thinking wow I have so many cards to make...eeep! So I decided on a quick and easy one that is perfect for production line stamping!
If you read my blog posts you will probably have come to realise that I'm going to start with my crazy stitched frame dies to cut out my base card. I just love the size of it and its just so quick and easy to cut out giving you a perfectly cut rectangle. After cutting my base card I placed it in the Misti and got my stamps positioned  perfectly ready for colouring. Using the misti method means you can keep stamping the same layout over and over again for quick cards!

Then it was time to grab the copics and colour it up, I started on the sky starting at the bottom with B97 then fading into B95 making sure to flick the nib rather than a harsh line so it looks smooth and then I went onto B93 this gives it added interest rather than being one flat colour. The wooden house I used a base of light brown all over the wooden parts and then added a grain effect with two different darker browns. I always like to keep my colours limited so used the same reds for the heart on the door as the racoon scarf and again the roof tiles are the same cold greys that I used on the racoon. Now for the snow although its white we need to add some shading to give it some depth and dimension. Your shadows will be underneath the log cabin, raccoon and snowman so this is where you need to decide where you want your light source to come from. I chose the right hand side so made my shadows darker on the left hand side directly underneath the log cabin, snowman and raccoon the shadow would be darker so I used the c-3 marker and then blended it out using c-2 and then C-1. I coloured the snowman in the exact same way putting the shadows on the right hand side of his face and blending it out. This will help you achieve a more 3 dimensional look. I finished off the snow by adding some clear wink of stella over the top to give it some shimmer.

The last things to do were to add the sentiment I chose the merry and Christmas stamp from the Sending Sentiments stamp set and heat embossed it with white wow embossing powder. the last thing to do was add the snow to the sky using a white gely roll pen and my card was finished.

Crazy Stitched Frame Dies

Snow Day

Sending Sentiments

    

Slider card tutorial!

Hi all It’s Natalie on the blog today sharing how to make this fabulous pull tab slider card!

I couldn’t resist using the little bear and the kitten from the new Holiday Sweaters stamp set. The kitten is playfully pulling a thread from the bears jumper and slowly unravelling it I just had an image of  this thread getting longer and longer and a slider card seemed the perfect way to do it. I started by cutting out the base for my card using the crazy stitched frame dies. Then I coloured up my images for the scene I didn’t want to add too many colours so stuck to a base of red, green, brown and greys. I knew there would be lots of little details so didn’t want to distract from the main scene. After the images were coloured up I could begin to lay out my scene I have to admit it’s the first time I have made one of these cards so it was a bit of an experimentation for me. Having laid out the images on the base card I could figure out where the cut had to be for the slider I measured it with a ruler and rounded off the ends cutting it out with a craft knife, using the ruler as a guide to cut a straight line I find metal ones the best for this. 

I then lightly added some cracked pistachio oxide ink on the top and spritzed it with water to add some texture doing the same for the slider tab which I cut roughly 5mm bigger than the slit either side and quite long so I could cut it down to size when I attached it to the card. I wanted to get the final layout out planned before sticking anything down just in case I wanted to stamp my sentiment on to the card base this can be a be tricky if you have already stuck it with foam tape as it’s not as sturdy to stamp on, however I ended up using the flag banner dies instead to add a little added dimension.

I felt like there was a lot of space going on at the top of the card so cut out the lights from the Holiday Border Dies and added the bow from the inside scalloped Rectangle dies. After adding the sentiment and bear and the trimmings for the top of the card I added the foam tape to the back.  This is where  I made a boo boo and didn't add the foam tape close enough to the slider strip so it wobbles a bit too much instead of running smoothly when you pull it out.  You also want to rememeber to leave a gap at the edge of the card at the side where you pull the tab to make the slider work like this.

The next step was to add the top part to another background which was another piece of card cut from the crazy stitched frame dies and blended with the cracked pistachio oxide inks. Once they were attached together I could slide in the slider piece and attach the cat. I used two layers of foam tape to help it pull better and it also stops the tab from coming out fully when you pull it. I could then add my Christmas tree and presents too at the end of the slider now I knew where the kitten would stop.
The edge of the tab looked unfinished though so I cut out two semi circles using the die from the stitched in circle die and handwrote pull onto it. I then realised the black line I had drawn on my slider tab for the cotton looked odd so I drew a line onto some white card and cut it out really carefully and stuck it onto the slider tab it made it look more like the string was extending as opposed to just a line stuck on. That's my card finished up for the day and it was surprisingly easy to put together so I hope you share some with us in the Craftin Desert Divas Gallery!

  

Stitched In Circle Dies

Holiday Sweaters

Inside Scalloped Rectangle Dies

Flag Banner Dies

Crazy Stitched Frame Dies

Cracked Pistachio Oxide Ink

         

  

Don't Open Dead Inside!

Hi everyone it's design team member Natalie on the blog today and I'm here to share with you my The Walking Dead inspired Halloween themed card. I liked the idea of zombies trying to break out of wooden door like the scene where Rick awakes in the hospital to find "Don't Open Dead Inside" written on the hospital doors with zombie hands clawing their way out.

I started out by cutting out a base piece of card using the Crazy Stitched Frame Dies.

I the began to draw out the background for which I wanted create a boarded up wooden door look.

This was the basis of my card I originally wanted the door to open in the middle but couldn't figure out how to get it to look neat and fold properly with the card base. After I started colouring though I found the dark spots were perfect for cutting out to stick my zombie hands and heads out.

I used a range of brown copic markers to draw a wood effect on the planks adding a warm grey copic to create darker shadows to add depth and dimension. Next it was time to colour those awesome zombies from the Zombody stamp set. I chose two different zombies and cut off there heads then coloured in lots of tiny zombie arms so they looked like they were trying to claw there way out! I added the heads and arms by cutting out slots in the base so it looks like they are crawling through gaps in the wood. I popped the card onto a card base that I had coloured with a warm grey marker using foam tape. Then added the sign that I drew and wrote myself I coloured it with the same wood effect then drew an outline and added the sentiment with a copic multi liner.

I hope you like my Halloween card and I cant wait to see what you all create with those awesome Zombody stamps!

Zombody

Crazy Stitched Frame Dies 

Dino Dig

Hi everyone it's design team member Natalie on the blog today and I'm going to share with you my glow in the dark card using the awesome Dino Dig stamp set. As soon as I saw this set I fell in love with those dinosaur skeletons.  I knew I had to do something cool with them so I mulled it over for a while when I then stumbled upon some glow in the dark embossing powder. It was perfect I could make a glow in the dark dinosaur bone card!

I cut out the main frame using the crazy stitched framed dies then I heat embossed the dinosaur bones and eggs using the glow in the dark embossing powder. I wasn't sure how much ink I could put over the top of the embossing powder without affecting the glow in the dark effect so I started off  by lightly painting yellow, purple, brown and black distress inks over the entire background. I let this dry and then ink blended over the paint using the same colours as before. This gives the galaxy sky more depth. I was still wary of getting ink over the heat embossing and felt the two layers still looked a bit too light and I wanted it to be a lot darker so I added another layer using the warm grey's and a dark purple copic markers.

I chopped off the sides of the background panel to slim it down and added some silver tape to the sides and then mounted it onto some black card. The sentiment was created using the flag banner dies and the You're How Old sentiment stamp from the Dino Dig Set. I then mounted it onto the silver tape and mounted everything onto my card base.

Time to see if it glowed...

Look how awesome it looks in the dark, I'm so pleased how this card turned out and I hope you enjoyed it.

Crazy Stitched Frames

Dino Dig

Flag Banner Dies

Monsters Fun Day

Hi everyone its Natalie on the blog today sharing my adorable monster card using the Monster Carnival stamp set alongside the Picture This stamps.

I started my card by die cutting the base using the fancy frame dies a firm favourite of mine which if you follow my work you will see I use all the time! This enabled me to see how much space I had to work with and decide which stamps to use. The first item to stamp out was those photo frames, I used a grey ink so it was a little more subtle and didn't distract the attention from the monsters in the frame. I then wanted to stamp one of the carnival monsters inside the frame, to do this though I needed to mask off the frame so that the monster didn't stamp outside of the box.

As you can see above I stamped the photo onto some post it tape then cut out the square frame using a craft knife to enable me to stamp the monster inside. Whilst I had the stamp tool out I also stamped out the washi tape stamp so I knew I would have an even coverage of ink and could stamp it repeatedly in the same place to increase the colour intensity. I repeated this process using the smaller photo frame in the stamp set and then it was ready for colouring.

I used copics to colour in my monsters using different shades to add depth and dimension. These were then cut out positioned and stuck down, finishing off by adding the sentiment a fun heart at the top and some nuvo drops. Then I added it to a orange base and popped it on a card base.

 I hope you like my card it was like these two stamp sets were just meant to be used together!

                                

                                         Monster Carnival

Picture This

Fancy Frames

                          

Craftin Desert Diva's

Hi everyone,
I'm up on the blog today to share my newest card, where I used the Garden bug stamps adorable garden bug stamps, aren't they the sweetest!

I have been loving working with the new oxide inks and I thought they would be perfect to get me started. To make this lovely garden scene card, I cut two rectangles using the fancy frame dies. The first rectangle I used to make a sky blending the oxide inks, faded jeans and broken china. The second I used for the mud, blending oxide inks vintage photo and walnut stain. To give it an added texture, I sprinkled water on the two leaving for a few seconds then drying off with some paper towel. Next it was time to cut the soil to give the card extra layers using the garden border die. I also cut out some flowers from the garden accessories die and clouds using rainbow die colouring them with copic markers.

Here you can see the 3 layers of soil and how I placed the flower in the cut outs so it looks like it's really growing out of the soil! The bee and ladybird were coloured with copic markers, then finished off with a Copic liner pen and white gelly roll pen to make the eyes really pop and add three cute dots on the cheeks.

When the card was put together, I added to some water droplets to give the effect of it raining and the watering can sprinkling using glossy accents. I hope you like it. I can't wait to colour in these cuties again they will forever be a firm favourite in my stamp collection!