Dysfunctional Space Family

Hey there! Welcome back :)
Father's Day came and went, but I hope everyone took the time to celebrate the awesome men in their lives. I am fortunate to have not only a loving husband and father to my own children, but a dad and step-dad in my life.
As it was stated before, we are a big family of nerds. Huge. My husband prides himself in 'neducating' (nerd-educating) our children. I am sure that's why he agreed to have kids in the first place, just to have someone to share his nerdiness with. I know I have given them shout outs before, but finding Kindred Stamps and their pop culture stamps, especially a certain space-themed movie that my husband is a huge fan of, was destiny.
Unfortunately, these guys from the "Galactic Adventures" sets are retired. I definitely get my use out of them with my family, and with my Scan n Cut I was able to stamp and cut and color a bunch out for these fun Father's Day shaker cards.
I started out with the characters and built the card around them. I did a basic A2 card base and cut a large frame out with some rectangle dies. I did a layer with the same rectangle window and then used some acetate and 3D adhesive strips from Stampin' Up! to create a shaker window. I wanted the window to be huge so I could have a fun, dynamic card front.
I wanted to create an inside that was showcased by the window but not over shadowing it. Kind of like one of those 3D glass layered paintings. The different elements by themselves are pretty, but together they are gorgeous. I used Tim Holtz distress oxide inks and blended them together for a galaxy feel. I then took some Frost White shimmer paint from Stampin' Up! and mixed it with water in a spritzer and sprayed over the blend. The cool thing was the water reacted to the ink, as it does, but then the shimmer paint added an extra element by creating some shimmer. Absolutely loved the effect. Then the card was finished off with the sentiments (printed with a Star Wars free font) and shimmer paper stars. The card has different layers with the star shakers, the characters, and then the galaxy background/inner card. I really love this card and it was perfect for any nerdy dads out there. I can't wait to use this technique with other ideas and occasions. I hope you are inspired!

~Brandie~

Peek A Boo!

Hello Everyone! Welcome Back. Today I am featuring these newer stamps sets from The Greeting Farm. There are a handful of designs, 3 little ladies (Anya) and 1 dapper dude (Ian). The neat thing about these sets is that they come with a couple of cute sentiments AND they have a back side to each character. If you haven't already,  I would recommend checking out their website. They not only have clear and rubber stamps- high quality and crisp images- but they have a new litany of digital images that you can create these fabulous scenes with. A lot are perfect for what's going on, from thanking essential workers to working from home. You can even see a tutorial on YouTube on how to create those scenes.

But I digress. I don't own them myself (yet) but I definitely had to get my hands on these lovely ladies for now. With all the social distancing in the past couple of months, I had the idea of these girls peeking through a window to say 'hi' because they miss you! I first tried the layout for Mother's Day to see how it would work. I loved the grey wood panels and I just love pink with grey. I started by stamping Smokey Slate ink on Smokey Slate cardstock with the Woodgrain stamp from Stampin' Up! I then cut a rectangle through the card base and woodgrain layer. I had this window die from a Stampin' Up! Christmas set (retired). It came with a floral window box that I thought would be great for this card. I cut 2 window frames out and added acetate on both. I put one on the inside of the card (to hide my rectangle) and added some 3D adhesive strips from Stampin' Up! to create a shaker with the window. Once the shaker was completed,  I used a variety of flowers and dies from different Greeting Farm and My Favorite Thing sets. Add some pop of color with pieces of DSP and embellishments and it finished the card front off nicely. Then you got your character on the inside peeking out. You could even make this a double page card so you have more room to write a sentiment. I loved the idea of this card so much that I used Crumb Cake and Blushing Bride and Granny Apple Green for the next one for a more mod color scheme. Then, instead of Mother's Day, did a thinking of you/miss you which would be great for someone you haven't been able to see during quarantine.

 
 I just love the hat on this girl! Plus her little coffee cup. Wouldn't she be perfect with a coffee gift card? I have so many more ideas in store for her. Now with my new toy (still giddy over the Scan n' Cut) I can avoid fussy cutting her and do the whole front/back thing like these stamps were intended.
The colored plaid paper for both cards is from various packs of My Favorite Things 6x6 packs. The epoxy hearts are from Recollections at Michaels. All coloring was with Copics and the sentiments were from the the retired Family Ties stamp set.

Hope I inspired you to create your own missing  you cards! Thanks for stopping by.

~Brandie~

Super Dad

Hey all! Welcome back.

Life is all blending in to itself, I swear. I work, same shift every day. Come home. Chris and the kids are home. Clean. Cook. Craft. Eyes blurring, head swimming. And the weather up here is all dull and wet and I am pretty much just exhausted. 

But then something comes along my desk and whether it's a story idea or card idea, the inspiration just invigorates me. That was the case with these fun fold cards. I got myself a scan and cut (LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!) and it's made my crafting life so much easier. Now, I haven't been much of a fussy cutter, so I just avoid it and work with stamping straight on my page. Just sucks cuz it limited what I could do and if I ever wanted to build a scene I had to do a lot of masking. But with my new toy, I was able to cut a bunch of images out and just color them- which was easier than I thought it would be.

I had pre-cut a bunch of images from Kindred Stamps for Father's day coming up. 

Unfortunately, all of these images are from sets that have since been discontinued. The heroes were from 2 separate limited edition boxed sets and then the space guys are from Galactic Adventures that have been sold out as well. I would highly recommend following Kindred Stamps for different pop culture icon stamp sets. They are beyond incredible. I have missed out on a few and have kicked myself.

Anyways, I digress. I had cut and colored a bunch of images out for Father's day cuz, well, the father of my children is a big nerd (and I love him for it). I figured he's not the only big nerd in the world, so I should prepare myself.

After cutting and coloring I was left with....now what? I had a few go-to's that were popular last year (stay tuned!) but I also like doing different things and challenge myself. I found on Pinterest something called a W-fold. I thought it would be fun to create something that looked very comic-esque and wound up coming up with these.

I was able to cut out the letters from my Scan and Cut. I need to work on my measurements a little bit better, I wanted to do a shadow effect. It's not perfect close up, but it does the job. I found some Super Hero paper from Recollections and downloaded a free font from 1001fonts.com called Crimefighter. It's not cheesy like comic sans and works really well for that Comic look. Then at the bottom I stamped and embossed the cityscape background from the retired You're Super set from My Favorite Things.
Then you open this simple front of the card and BAM! - we have the W-fold into a lovely comic themed 3D layout.
I also used the same font and sized it so it would fit the POW die cut that matched the You're Super set. I cased the idea that has been all over Pinterest for Father's Day gift ideas and just wrapped it up into a card form.
Here's a few different angles for you to see just how fun this card is.

Well that's it for me tonight. I hope you've enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by!

~Brandie~

Floating Florals

Hey guys! I'm back after a month's hiatus. I really didn't mean to be gone that long, but sometimes you need a social media break, especially with everything going on in the world today. That and getting accustomed to a new 'normal' with the kids not being in school, husband being laid off, and focusing on crafting crafting crafting (and occasionally writing).
That being said, I hope to combine the two now that I have so many items to showcase.
I found this wonderful technique from the amazingly talented Jennifer McGuire. Her tutorial can be found here: https://www.jennifermcguireink.com/2018/12/floating-die-cut-frames.html
and though I don't know her personally, or professionally, I have followed her awhile now and I completely blame her for my new obsession with the company Altenew (and most others I haven't heard of and now need ALL their products!)
So not only did I get myself these Totally Tropical stamp and die sets, but I just had to CASE this technique for myself.

The awesome thing about this technique is that, though it can be a bit tedious, you can make a bunch of cards at once, and with the floating technique, you can also do an outer frame and inner piece and get 2 cards for one.
The stamp set is a layered set and I used different color families for each flower. I found this part the most tedious, each floral had at least 3 layers and I did a bunch at once to make a lot of cards. I believe this netted me 5 frames which, in turn, became 10 cards. To stamp that many flowers, especially when they are layers, it's best to have a stamping tool. I have a Stamperatus from Stampin' Up! and I know a lot of people use and swear by Misti.  If you don't have one of these tools, I would highly recommend that being your next purchase. It was so easy to line up each layer and just stamp, rotate the page, stamp, rotate. Then you line up the next layer and stamp, rotate ect. Then going ahead and cutting each piece out with my Big Shot. Again, for ease you could always scan and cut if you have one of those machines. When it comes to stamps with dies, I really like doing it the old fashioned way myself. So long as I don't have to fussy cut!
Now that we are done with the most time consuming part, we head into the more intricate part. Using a 4.25 x 5.5 base (or smaller if you wanted to layer it- mine are 3.75x5), you then take the pieces that you've cut out, cover the entire base with out overlapping any of the pieces. This is where it gets fun, and tricky.
You'll need a kitchen item- Glad Press and Seal NOT cling wrap, but the press and seal (its important). Press a piece of Press and Seal over your piece/base combo, carefully so as to not shift the pieces too much. Press all over and hard enough so you are sticking it to the pieces and the base. Then trim the overage (the Press and seal and all the pieces that hang over the edge of the base). I like to press the Press and Seal against the pieces again to make sure they are good and stuck, then peel the base away and set it aside. I keep my pieces/Press and Seal upside down and set it on my Big Shot. I then use a basic shaped die (I used the rectangle from the Geo Frames set from Altenew) and just cut through the pieces and the press and seal. You'll carefully peel the die away and gently place the 2 separate pieces down- you'll have a 'frame' and a 'center'. Then using some 3D adhesive (I like stampin dimensionals) place a bunch down on every single piece, but leave the gaps empty to achieve that floating illusion. I find I am not very good at lining up the frame with the base, so I don't bother turning the frame over, but I place the base along the frame while it's still upside down so as not to shift or screw it up (I've done that before). Then when the frame piece is adhered to the base piece, flip it back over and peel away your press and seal. VOILA! you now have a floating frame!
Another technique I learned was to cut a bunch of layers of a sentiment (like the YOU here from Crazy About You from Stampin' Up!- now retired). I cut 4 or 5 of them out, used a glue pen to glue them all together and then they were about the same height as the frame. Add some Stickles and Wink of Stella and you're done! The solid frame above was just framed with some cardstock layers and then used the THANKS sentiment from that same stamp and die set.
The color combination is Mango Melody, Melon Mambo and Bermuda Bay- all available from Stampin' Up!
Make sure to swing by and check out their NEW in colors- now available for the 2020-2022 season.

Thanks so much for stopping by, hope you were inspired!

~Brandie~