A Gracious Floral Slimline by Janet Katz

There is so much to love about the new Gracious Floral release from Memory Box Open Studio. I'm a big fan of slimline cards, so I decided to use these big blooms to create a high contrast card of mostly black and white. I used the Gracious Floral 3D Embossing Folder with heavy white cardstock. Here's a tip: spritz your cardstock once with water on one or both sides just before you send it through your machine sandwiched inside the folder. This will relax the paper fibers, allowing them to bend instead of crack. Of course, if your cardstock has ink on it, just do the back only.

 

 

After I had dry embossed 4 of these super detailed flowers, I laid the die from the Gracious Floral Stamp and Die set on top and cut out all 4 of the dry embossed images. This flattened out the dry embossing some, which I expected. I simply put the die cut piece back into my embossing folder (no need to spritz again with water) and made sure it was sitting in the "grooves" where it was before. I ran it through again and got these gorgeous results. I had the idea of putting my embossed die cuts on a black background and I chose a pearlescent black cardstock.

 

I knew I needed a pop of color to bring out parts of the flower - I could have chosen virtually any color and I picked a deep pink. A bright curry-like yellow would have looked just as good. I used a fingertip blending sponge (they sit on your finger like a thimble) and swiped the deep pink ink on the flower centers. I glued the flowers on the black background and then used my trimmer to cut the entire thing down to 3" x 8.5". My card would be 3.5" x 8.5", so I used a matching dark pink piece of cardstock as the base and glued the black cardstock with my embossed flowers in the middle of it, leaving a stripe of pink on each side.

 

 

 

There are SO many great sentiments in the Gracious Floral Stamp Set and I thought the 'just for you' sentiment could work for almost anything. I stamped it in Versamark on heavy black cardstock and then heat embossed with white embossing powder. I used the matching die that came with the stamp and die set to cut it out. I used foam adhesive to pop it off the card. I'll attach this entire piece to a white cardbase to finish off my card.

 

Give the Gracious Floral line a try. Everything goes together and the stamps are so very versatile.

 

 

 

 

Supplies

 

EF1026 Gracious Floral 3D Embossing Folder and Die

CL5280D Gracious Floral Clear Stamp and Die Set

A Gracious Floral Slimline by Janet Katz

There is so much to love about the new Gracious Floral release from Memory Box Open Studio. I'm a big fan of slimline cards, so I decided to use these big blooms to create a high contrast card of mostly black and white. I used the Gracious Floral 3D Embossing Folder with heavy white cardstock. Here's a tip: spritz your cardstock once with water on one or both sides just before you send it through your machine sandwiched inside the folder. This will relax the paper fibers, allowing them to bend instead of crack. Of course, if your cardstock has ink on it, just do the back only.

 

 

After I had dry embossed 4 of these super detailed flowers, I laid the die from the Gracious Floral Stamp and Die set on top and cut out all 4 of the dry embossed images. This flattened out the dry embossing some, which I expected. I simply put the die cut piece back into my embossing folder (no need to spritz again with water) and made sure it was sitting in the "grooves" where it was before. I ran it through again and got these gorgeous results. I had the idea of putting my embossed die cuts on a black background and I chose a pearlescent black cardstock.

 

I knew I needed a pop of color to bring out parts of the flower - I could have chosen virtually any color and I picked a deep pink. A bright curry-like yellow would have looked just as good. I used a fingertip blending sponge (they sit on your finger like a thimble) and swiped the deep pink ink on the flower centers. I glued the flowers on the black background and then used my trimmer to cut the entire thing down to 3" x 8.5". My card would be 3.5" x 8.5", so I used a matching dark pink piece of cardstock as the base and glued the black cardstock with my embossed flowers in the middle of it, leaving a stripe of pink on each side.

 

 

 

There are SO many great sentiments in the Gracious Floral Stamp Set and I thought the 'just for you' sentiment could work for almost anything. I stamped it in Versamark on heavy black cardstock and then heat embossed with white embossing powder. I used the matching die that came with the stamp and die set to cut it out. I used foam adhesive to pop it off the card. I'll attach this entire piece to a white cardbase to finish off my card.

 

Give the Gracious Floral line a try. Everything goes together and the stamps are so very versatile.

 

 

 

 

Supplies

 

EF1026 Gracious Floral 3D Embossing Folder and Die

CL5280D Gracious Floral Clear Stamp and Die Set

Three Little Birthday Pandas by Janet Katz

There aren't many cuter images than panda bears to put on a card front. I used the Whittle Panda Pickup Kit to put together this slimline card. The panda bear die is a single solid die that cuts out 4 different panda bears with etch marks on them. As another design member has shown, you can use the bears as is, cut from a solid color; to make black and white pandas, you will have two choices. You can cut the pandas from white cardstock and take a black pen or marker and color the ears, eye area, nose, shoulders, arms and legs. I found this pretty tricky to do, so I tried another method used by a fellow team member. I cut the bears from both black and white cardstock and then carefully trimmed off portions of the white bear and glued them onto the black bear. I used a black marker to color the nose and the eyeball only. Once I got going using an Exacto knife to remove the eye ring and scissors on the rest of the bear, this became very easy to do. For a final touch, I added a bit of pink blush with an R30 Copic marker.

 

 

 

I used the bamboo die from the kit to cut out 2 colors of green bamboo. I glued parts of this together to create longer bamboo plants. I glued the bamboo onto a white cardstock panel measuring 3.25" x 8.5". I used a yellow green Copic marker to draw in some grass at the bottom of the bamboo.

 

 

 

Next, I placed my sweet little bear cubs in the bamboo, as though they'd climbed up it. Then I cut two balloons with the die that came in the kit. I ran two pieces of black thread from one panda's hand up towards the top of the card and taped it in place with a tiny piece of washi. Next, I glued the balloons on over the tape. The bottom of the threads are barely secured in place, so I might need a dot of glue later on.

 

My next step was to glue this panel onto a slimline cardfront measuring 3.5 x 8.5". I had already glued strips of black and white striped paper to the right edge of this cardfront to give it a nice little striped accent.

 

 

Finally, I added a sentiment stamped with a stamp from the kit and backed it with a small piece of cardstock the same color as the balloons.

 

Think of all the fun and cute things these little bears could do on your cards.

 

Supplies

 

KT005 Whittle Panda Pickup Kit

Three Little Birthday Pandas by Janet Katz

There aren't many cuter images than panda bears to put on a card front. I used the Whittle Panda Pickup Kit to put together this slimline card. The panda bear die is a single solid die that cuts out 4 different panda bears with etch marks on them. As another design member has shown, you can use the bears as is, cut from a solid color; to make black and white pandas, you will have two choices. You can cut the pandas from white cardstock and take a black pen or marker and color the ears, eye area, nose, shoulders, arms and legs. I found this pretty tricky to do, so I tried another method used by a fellow team member. I cut the bears from both black and white cardstock and then carefully trimmed off portions of the white bear and glued them onto the black bear. I used a black marker to color the nose and the eyeball only. Once I got going using an Exacto knife to remove the eye ring and scissors on the rest of the bear, this became very easy to do. For a final touch, I added a bit of pink blush with an R30 Copic marker.

 

 

 

I used the bamboo die from the kit to cut out 2 colors of green bamboo. I glued parts of this together to create longer bamboo plants. I glued the bamboo onto a white cardstock panel measuring 3.25" x 8.5". I used a yellow green Copic marker to draw in some grass at the bottom of the bamboo.

 

 

 

Next, I placed my sweet little bear cubs in the bamboo, as though they'd climbed up it. Then I cut two balloons with the die that came in the kit. I ran two pieces of black thread from one panda's hand up towards the top of the card and taped it in place with a tiny piece of washi. Next, I glued the balloons on over the tape. The bottom of the threads are barely secured in place, so I might need a dot of glue later on.

 

My next step was to glue this panel onto a slimline cardfront measuring 3.5 x 8.5". I had already glued strips of black and white striped paper to the right edge of this cardfront to give it a nice little striped accent.

 

 

Finally, I added a sentiment stamped with a stamp from the kit and backed it with a small piece of cardstock the same color as the balloons.

 

Think of all the fun and cute things these little bears could do on your cards.

 

Supplies

 

KT005 Whittle Panda Pickup Kit

A Bouquet of Tulips by Janet Katz

The new Layered Tulips die is so much fun to work with! If you like flowers (how many cardmakers don't?) it offers so much texture and dimension. I created this colorful bouquet with some Memory Box paper and Layered Tulips.

 

I started by choosing my cardstock from both the Twilight Purple and the Vibrant Violet Memory Box 6x6" paper pads. These pads are ideal for this die because each color has 3 different shades and there are 4 shades in a package. You are guaranteed colors that go together.

 

I cut out all the parts for every tulip from 3 different colors and rearranged them to make a total of 7 tulips. I used the same tulips dies to cut out green shapes to use as leaves, and stems all from the Lush Green Memory Box pad. I also used a big piece of greenery from the Floral Vase Pop Up Easel Set in the background. I loved the idea of a bouquet wrapped in brown paper, as though from a streetside flower vendor. I simply grabbed a lunch sack from my pantry and freehand cut out a shape that was sort of a semi-circle. I trimmed it down so it would fit correctly and still show some stems at the bottom. I folded it into a cone shape and glued the back to a piece of White Woodgrain Paper cut to 3" x 8". Next I arranged my stems, greenery, leaves, and tulips to be just how I liked. I started gluing everything down on top of the open brown wrapper. I used some foam tape to give some of the flowers even more dimension.

 

 

When I was satisfied with my bouquet and greenery, I folded the brown paper closed, securing it with a dot of glue and folding back a little so it showed the flowers and stems well. Next, I took a very short piece of yellow ribbon and tied a piece of twine around the middle. This served 2 purposes - it cinched the ribbon to make it appear as though the bow was tied from it, and it gave me something to tie the tag to. I wrapped it around the front, tucking it under the brown paper and gluing it to secure it. If I had been thinking ahead, I would have glued this down underneath my brown paper and wrapped it around. Next, I printed the Happy Easter sentiment onto white cardstock from my PC. I used a small tag die from the Basic Junk Journal set to cut it out. I punched a hole through it and strung it on the twine. When the glue was dry, I made a bow with another piece of ribbon and glued it on top of the cinched center of the other ribbon. I adhered the tag to the card with foam tape.

 

 

I matted the entire white piece onto a piece of dark kraft paper and then onto a pink-mauve card base. This tulip die set screams Mother's Day to me also. Wonder what I will make.

Supplies

 

2557 Layered Tulips

2552 Floral Vase Pop Up Easel Set

sh44001 White Woodgrain Paper

2451 Basic Junk Journal Set

 

Supplies

 

sp1008 Twilight Purple

sp1007 Vibrant Violet

sp1003 Lush Green

A Bouquet of Tulips by Janet Katz

The new Layered Tulips die is so much fun to work with! If you like flowers (how many cardmakers don't?) it offers so much texture and dimension. I created this colorful bouquet with some Memory Box paper and Layered Tulips.

 

I started by choosing my cardstock from both the Twilight Purple and the Vibrant Violet Memory Box 6x6" paper pads. These pads are ideal for this die because each color has 3 different shades and there are 4 shades in a package. You are guaranteed colors that go together.

 

I cut out all the parts for every tulip from 3 different colors and rearranged them to make a total of 7 tulips. I used the same tulips dies to cut out green shapes to use as leaves, and stems all from the Lush Green Memory Box pad. I also used a big piece of greenery from the Floral Vase Pop Up Easel Set in the background. I loved the idea of a bouquet wrapped in brown paper, as though from a streetside flower vendor. I simply grabbed a lunch sack from my pantry and freehand cut out a shape that was sort of a semi-circle. I trimmed it down so it would fit correctly and still show some stems at the bottom. I folded it into a cone shape and glued the back to a piece of White Woodgrain Paper cut to 3" x 8". Next I arranged my stems, greenery, leaves, and tulips to be just how I liked. I started gluing everything down on top of the open brown wrapper. I used some foam tape to give some of the flowers even more dimension.

 

 

When I was satisfied with my bouquet and greenery, I folded the brown paper closed, securing it with a dot of glue and folding back a little so it showed the flowers and stems well. Next, I took a very short piece of yellow ribbon and tied a piece of twine around the middle. This served 2 purposes - it cinched the ribbon to make it appear as though the bow was tied from it, and it gave me something to tie the tag to. I wrapped it around the front, tucking it under the brown paper and gluing it to secure it. If I had been thinking ahead, I would have glued this down underneath my brown paper and wrapped it around. Next, I printed the Happy Easter sentiment onto white cardstock from my PC. I used a small tag die from the Basic Junk Journal set to cut it out. I punched a hole through it and strung it on the twine. When the glue was dry, I made a bow with another piece of ribbon and glued it on top of the cinched center of the other ribbon. I adhered the tag to the card with foam tape.

 

 

I matted the entire white piece onto a piece of dark kraft paper and then onto a pink-mauve card base. This tulip die set screams Mother's Day to me also. Wonder what I will make.

Supplies

 

2557 Layered Tulips

2552 Floral Vase Pop Up Easel Set

sh44001 White Woodgrain Paper

2451 Basic Junk Journal Set

 

Supplies

 

sp1008 Twilight Purple

sp1007 Vibrant Violet

sp1003 Lush Green

Slimline Adelaide Snowflakes Card by Sphoorti

 

Hello Poppy Peeps!

 

It's Sphoorti, and I only have one card for you today, and it's such an easy one to make - you can whip it up in 30 minutes, tops!

 

I started off with the 2531 Adelaide Snowflakes craft die and cut some silver mirror, copper mirror, silver glitter, and gold glitter card stocks from the Glitter and Mirror pad assortments Poppystamps has.

 

 

I took a card base long enough to fit the five snowflakes and adhered the gorgeous snowflakes in a staggered fashion along the x-axis.

 

 

I hot foiled PSF808 Modest Greetings 2 on some white card stock with copper colored foil and chose the "You are the best" sentiment from it. I matted the sentiment with some silver glitter card stock.

 

 

 

I had some glitter washi tape that slightly matched one of the snowflakes, so I lined the card base with it along the top and bottom edges.

 

 

And you know what? That was it! So easy, yet so elegant and festive!

 

Thoughts? Questions? Epiphanies? I'd love to hear from you! Thank you for visiting! See you soon!

 

Love,

Sphoorti

 

 

Supplies

 

2531 Adelaide Snowflakes

PSF808 Modest Greetings 2 Hot Foil Plate and Die

FP1002 Vintage Pastel Mirror Pad 6x6 pack

FP1003 Rainbow Reflections Mirror Pad 6x6 pack

GP1007 Glitzy Glitter Pad

GP1006 Festive Glitter Pad

GP1008 Majestic Hues Glitter Pad

Slimline Adelaide Snowflakes Card by Sphoorti

 

Hello Poppy Peeps!

 

It's Sphoorti, and I only have one card for you today, and it's such an easy one to make - you can whip it up in 30 minutes, tops!

 

I started off with the 2531 Adelaide Snowflakes craft die and cut some silver mirror, copper mirror, silver glitter, and gold glitter card stocks from the Glitter and Mirror pad assortments Poppystamps has.

 

 

I took a card base long enough to fit the five snowflakes and adhered the gorgeous snowflakes in a staggered fashion along the x-axis.

 

 

I hot foiled PSF808 Modest Greetings 2 on some white card stock with copper colored foil and chose the "You are the best" sentiment from it. I matted the sentiment with some silver glitter card stock.

 

 

 

I had some glitter washi tape that slightly matched one of the snowflakes, so I lined the card base with it along the top and bottom edges.

 

 

And you know what? That was it! So easy, yet so elegant and festive!

 

Thoughts? Questions? Epiphanies? I'd love to hear from you! Thank you for visiting! See you soon!

 

Love,

Sphoorti

 

 

Supplies

 

2531 Adelaide Snowflakes

PSF808 Modest Greetings 2 Hot Foil Plate and Die

FP1002 Vintage Pastel Mirror Pad 6x6 pack

FP1003 Rainbow Reflections Mirror Pad 6x6 pack

GP1007 Glitzy Glitter Pad

GP1006 Festive Glitter Pad

GP1008 Majestic Hues Glitter Pad

Soaring Tree Valentine by Janet Katz

 

I am still totally smitten with the Soaring Tree Frame from Poppystamps. It is adorable and oh-so flexible on regular, slimline or mini slimline cards. Here I used it as the centerpiece on a mini slimline Valentine. First, I cut the tree frame out with heavyweight, white cardstock. Next, I wanted some small hearts to look like the leaves of the tree. I found exactly what I was looking for in the Whittle Adorable Kitty Kit. One of the included dies cuts both a small and a large "whittle" heart. I cut a lot of these out from a big variety of pink and coral cardstock including some pearlescent cardstock from the Memory Box Vintage Pastel Mirror Pad - the 6 x 6" pad has both shiny, mirror paper and pearlescent paper in the same color. I found some beige, dotted paper and some pink, gingham paper in my stash and decided on those for a background.

 

 

 

After making all my die cuts, I used foam tape on the back of the Soaring Tree Frame and attached it to the dotted paper that I had cut to the same size. Next, I added all my hearts, minus the one on the sentiment. I used tweezers to get things just in the right spot. I adhered a rectangle of the gingham paper to a blush pink cardbase and then adhered the framed tree with hearts to the front. Finally, I stamped the sentiment from the Whittle Adorable Kitty Kit on a piece of white cardstock and cut it with angled edges as shown, leaving a bit extra on the right end to glue the final heart. I attached the sentiment and the last tiny heart to the front.

 

 

Small valentine cards are so much fun to make, but probably more fun to send.

 

Supplies

 

KT006 Whittle Adorable Kitty Kit

2289 Soaring Tree Frame

FP1002 Vintage Pastel Mirror Pad 6x6 pack

Soaring Tree Valentine by Janet Katz

 

I am still totally smitten with the Soaring Tree Frame from Poppystamps. It is adorable and oh-so flexible on regular, slimline or mini slimline cards. Here I used it as the centerpiece on a mini slimline Valentine. First, I cut the tree frame out with heavyweight, white cardstock. Next, I wanted some small hearts to look like the leaves of the tree. I found exactly what I was looking for in the Whittle Adorable Kitty Kit. One of the included dies cuts both a small and a large "whittle" heart. I cut a lot of these out from a big variety of pink and coral cardstock including some pearlescent cardstock from the Memory Box Vintage Pastel Mirror Pad - the 6 x 6" pad has both shiny, mirror paper and pearlescent paper in the same color. I found some beige, dotted paper and some pink, gingham paper in my stash and decided on those for a background.

 

 

 

After making all my die cuts, I used foam tape on the back of the Soaring Tree Frame and attached it to the dotted paper that I had cut to the same size. Next, I added all my hearts, minus the one on the sentiment. I used tweezers to get things just in the right spot. I adhered a rectangle of the gingham paper to a blush pink cardbase and then adhered the framed tree with hearts to the front. Finally, I stamped the sentiment from the Whittle Adorable Kitty Kit on a piece of white cardstock and cut it with angled edges as shown, leaving a bit extra on the right end to glue the final heart. I attached the sentiment and the last tiny heart to the front.

 

 

Small valentine cards are so much fun to make, but probably more fun to send.

 

Supplies

 

KT006 Whittle Adorable Kitty Kit

2289 Soaring Tree Frame

FP1002 Vintage Pastel Mirror Pad 6x6 pack

Joy Throughout the Year by Kim Singdahlsen

Poppystamps has so many amazing dies that I was able to put together a slimline card full of joy throughout the year!

I started with Stacked Joy but instead of using the full stack, I used the insides of the "J" and the "Y". Then I went through my stash looking for dies to represent the seasons that were appropriately sized for the letters. With the wide variety of dies often with images in multiple sizes, it turned out to be easy.  The snowflake is the new Adelaide Snowflakes which has four sizes of snowflakes. Then Intricate Cut Butterflies also with four sizes. The Fanciful Fall Leaves doesn't have four sizes, but it does have four shapes (plus a couple of acorns) so I used the one that most looked like an "O". For Christmas, I used the Layered Holly Leaf Trio but I didn't layer it and I only used one of the leaves.  I adore the look of the holly with its layers, but it wasn't a consistent look with the rest of the dies.

I used slightly different proportions than a standard slimline card.  First, I did not want the JOYs getting lost on the card so I cut the woodgrain slightly narrower at 3". Then I wanted a bit more color so when I cut my card base, it is 3 1/2" on the bottom, but the top is trimmed to 3" to fit the card front which leaves 1/2" showing. Then I got a bit lazy, top to bottom the card is 8". I did this so my little 1/2" wide colored strips could each be 2" long and they would fit in an 8" card. Here's the inside along with the sentiment from Christmas Sparkle that inspired all of this.

I love the meaning of this card. The sentiment was my inspiration and the beautiful dies made it all come together!

Don't forget - there are sales going on!  Both at Poppystamps and our sister company Birch Press Design! Enjoy!!

 

Supplies

2548 Stacked Joy

2531 Adelaide Snowflakes

2367 Intricate Cut Butterflies

2493 Fanciful Fall Leaves

2536 Layered Holly Leaf Trio

CL511 CL511 Christmas Sparkle

SH44003 Kraft Woodgrain Paper

SP1004 Fresh Aqua 6x6 pack

SP1001 Berry Red 6x6 pack

SP1002 Sunny Orange 6x6 pack

SP1003 Lush Green 6x6 pack

Joy Throughout the Year by Kim Singdahlsen

Poppystamps has so many amazing dies that I was able to put together a slimline card full of joy throughout the year!

I started with Stacked Joy but instead of using the full stack, I used the insides of the "J" and the "Y". Then I went through my stash looking for dies to represent the seasons that were appropriately sized for the letters. With the wide variety of dies often with images in multiple sizes, it turned out to be easy.  The snowflake is the new Adelaide Snowflakes which has four sizes of snowflakes. Then Intricate Cut Butterflies also with four sizes. The Fanciful Fall Leaves doesn't have four sizes, but it does have four shapes (plus a couple of acorns) so I used the one that most looked like an "O". For Christmas, I used the Layered Holly Leaf Trio but I didn't layer it and I only used one of the leaves.  I adore the look of the holly with its layers, but it wasn't a consistent look with the rest of the dies.

I used slightly different proportions than a standard slimline card.  First, I did not want the JOYs getting lost on the card so I cut the woodgrain slightly narrower at 3". Then I wanted a bit more color so when I cut my card base, it is 3 1/2" on the bottom, but the top is trimmed to 3" to fit the card front which leaves 1/2" showing. Then I got a bit lazy, top to bottom the card is 8". I did this so my little 1/2" wide colored strips could each be 2" long and they would fit in an 8" card. Here's the inside along with the sentiment from Christmas Sparkle that inspired all of this.

I love the meaning of this card. The sentiment was my inspiration and the beautiful dies made it all come together!

Don't forget - there are sales going on!  Both at Poppystamps and our sister company Birch Press Design! Enjoy!!

 

Supplies

2548 Stacked Joy

2531 Adelaide Snowflakes

2367 Intricate Cut Butterflies

2493 Fanciful Fall Leaves

2536 Layered Holly Leaf Trio

CL511 CL511 Christmas Sparkle

SH44003 Kraft Woodgrain Paper

SP1004 Fresh Aqua 6x6 pack

SP1001 Berry Red 6x6 pack

SP1002 Sunny Orange 6x6 pack

SP1003 Lush Green 6x6 pack