Flip-It Card!

Wow, has it been a LONG time since I posted anything!  I could list a million excuses, but I won't.  I'll spare everyone the {boring} details and just get on with this post! :)

This past weekend I actually had some time to spend in my craft room making a few cards.  I decided that I wanted to try to make a flip-it card (some call them swing cards or flip flop cards).  When I went to look for a tutorial, I realized that there really aren't any picture tutorials on how to make these cards.  So, I decided that I would give it a shot.  Please, please, PLEASE let me know in the comments if I've helped you make a flip-it card or if I completely confused you.  And hopefully I don't!

Ok, here goes... You will need to gather your supplies first.  For the card I made, I used two different colors of cardstock, Memento Tuxedo Black ink, SU's Yo-Yo Yellow ink, the Stamps of Life Bee4Me stamp set, my ATG adhesive, a Nestabilities scalloped circle die, low tack tape, my scoring tool from Martha Stewart, and my Cuttlebug.

Step 1:
Cut a piece of cardstock so that it is 4 1/4" x 11".  Score the cardstock at 2 3/4", 3 3/4", and 5 1/2".

Step 2:

Turn the cardstock over so that the "raised" side of the score line is facing you.  Using low tack tape, tape your die over the score lines so that the die is centered over the 2 3/4" score line.  After you've taped the die over the 2 3/4" score line you will notice that the die extends over the 3 3/4" score line by a little bit.  This is ok- it's exactly what you want.  Look at the picture below and you might be able to tell (sorry- I guess I should have used another color cardstock or altered the image somehow).

Step 3:

For this step, you are going to cut ONLY on the side where the die extends past the 3 3/4" score line.  What I did was place the cutting mat only to the score line.  If you notice in the picture below, the mat covers that small area of the die extending past the score line- that is the only section that will be cut.  Carefully run your die and paper through your machine. 

Step 4:
For this step, you are going to repeat the process in step 3, but it will be on the other side of the 2 3/4" score line.  Leaving the die taped to the paper, flip it around so that the half of the die extending past the first score line is able to be cut.  Line your cutting mat up to the score line (see my picture below).  You'll notice that the one inch between the 2 3/4" and 3 3/4" score lines will not be cut.  That's exactly what you want.  Run your paper with the die attached through your machine.

Step 5:
Remove the die and tape from your cardstock.  You should have two cuts- one on either side of the 2 3/4" and 3 3/4" score lines.  Like I said in the previous step, you will not have a cut mark in that one inch between those two score lines.

Step 6:
Fold your card in half at the 5 1/2" score line and be sure that the cut side is on top.  If you can see it in the picture below, you'll see what I meant in the previous step about not having a cut through that 1" space between the 2 3/4" and 3 3/4" score lines.

Step 7:
Fold the card at the 3 3/4" score line as if you are opening the card.  Be sure to NOT fold the shape you cut- that should be laying flat as seen in the picture below.

Step 8: 

Fold the card at the 2 3/4" score line as if you are opening the card.  This time, you will need to make sure that the shape is laying flat, but the back side of the shape will be facing you.  See the picture below.

 Step 9:
At this point, I wanted to make the shape for the flip-it portion of the card to really stand out, so I cut two more scalloped circles out of white cardstock.

Step 10:
At this point you will want to stamp your image on the circles.  Once your image is stamped, you can adhere the circle to the front of the shape on your card like you see in the picture below.  You'll notice that I'm holding the left side of the card down.  This is how the card will be when it's closed.

Step 11:
Stamp your image of choice on the shape that will be on the opposite side (the back) of the front, and then adhere it to the card as shown in the picture below.  I know my image isn't stamped here; I was demonstrating how it would look and I forgot to stamp the image first.  Sorry!

Step 12:
At this point, you can add any other decorative touches to the card that you would like.  I added stamping to the front of my card in the form of a sentiment and I added some bees in yellow in so they look watermarked (but you can't see them in the picture very well, if at all).  I also cut out a third scalloped circle to add to the inside of the card.  To adhere that circle, I just matched it up with the flip it shape on the front and then made sure to carefully lay it on the inside of the card.  (It'll show at the end when the card is opened all the way.)

 Here is an image of the card as it's being opened.  You can see the bee on the front, and you can see how it's "flipping" as the card is being opened.

Here's the final look at the card after it's opened.  The card is open and the image "flipped" so it's also on the back.  And the third scalloped circle is where the sentiment is located inside the card.

I hope this wasn't too terribly confusing.  Please let me know in the comments if it was and/or what I need to change, add, take out, etc.
Thanks for looking, and I hope you have fun making a flip-it card!  They're very interactive and fun- and this is only one way of making them!

It's been too long...

Yes, it's been too long since I posted last!  I really don't have an excuse other than I have been UBER busy, but isn't everyone?  **sigh** Well, being busy is my excuse for not posting, but I have made time to do a little crafting here and there.

There are two challenges I am taking part in each week.  One is a Last Scrapper Standing Challenge and another is a Last Stamper Standing Challenge.  The first is for page layouts and the latter is for cards.  It's much easier to post the cards right now, so that's what I'll stick with for this post.  Here are a few of the cards I have done over the past ten weeks of the challenge:

 This card is from week 10.  I love the way it turned out!  And I hope "ewe" are doing ok, too! ;)

 This card is from week 8.  It turned out that it worked perfect for Father's Day and my children and I gave this to my husband for Father's Day.  He really liked it!

This card is from week 9.  Personally I don't find this to be one of my favorites, but I followed the sketch and the technique requirements, so I submitted it. ;)

 I can't remember what week this card (or the others after this) are from, but they are all part of the weekly challenges.  I think this princess one would be perfect for a little girl's birthday!

This ballerina card... ah... this little ballerina card was made as part of the challenge, but I also decided to give it to my little girl the night of her very first dance recital.  She loved the card so much she hugged it! 

 This card was my favorite from the challenge that week.  I love the Cafe Ian image from The Greeting Farm and I just think the papers and the gems worked beautifully together!  I'm not sure who this will go to, but right now I'm not worried about it because I'm a little more interested in keeping it around (LOL!) for a bit!

This last card was made for my daughter's dance teacher.  She gave it to her the night of the dance recital.  Of course, I used the same sketch for the challenge that week... I just love how each of these last three cards are all a little different even though the same sketch was used!  And I must admit that I absolutely adore the Aspire stamp set from Close to My Heart that I used for the card above!

Well, that's a little bit of what I've been up to when I've made the time to complete my challenges over the past few weeks.  I'm hoping to post more regularly, but this summer isn't even half over and it looks like I'll be going nonstop the rest of the way through!  That's ok, though- it'll slow down... eventually!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing a few of the cards I've made!  Please leave me a comment and share your thoughts!  I'd love to hear from you!

The Latest Cards

Once again I joined a swap, so I found myself needing to make 14 thank you cards.  I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do, so I looked for inspiration on the Splitcoaststampers galleries and then among the various cards I've pinned and repinned on Pinterest.  Here are the two cards I came up with:

 This first card was inspired by one I saw on the Splitcoaststampers galleries.  I ended up pinning it to my boards on Pinterest, so you can see the original card where I got the inspiration from here.  I didn't have any patterned paper that suited me, so I decided to use stamps and coordinating cardstock colors.  I pulled out my Hero Arts Old Letter Writing stamp to do the background along the bottom strip and the background in each of the squares along the top.  The CTMH For Every Occasion set is where the "Thanks" comes from that you see at the bottom.  I used my cuttlebug and an embossing folder (sorry, can't remember which one) to emboss the top background piece, and I used my Nestabilities Lacey Squares dies to cut the scalloped squares.  I also used the Nestabilities to cut the two label shapes that hold the word "Thanks" at the bottom.   The ribbon is Certainly Celery from Stampin' Up, and the coordinating cardstock is called Pear Crush- I purchased it at Archiver's.  Honestly, I can't remember if it's by Bazzill or American Crafts.  The butterflies were punched from a MS butterfly punch, and I added a dot of Perfect Pearls to the center of each one after I adhered them to their squares.  I apologize if the card looks washed out- I really need to work on the lighting in my craft room!  All in all, though, I was pleased with the way the first card design turned out- even if it did take me longer than I thought it would to make 8 of these (I made one to keep for myself)!

The second card was inspired by one I repinned on Pinterest.  The original card can be seen here.  I used the Fiskars stamp set called Latte Love for both the coffee cup and the sentiment.  The base of this card is made from kraft cardstock.  I used a dark brown card stock as the background (from Archiver's), and then Basic Grey patterned paper for the other two pieces.  Brown Baker's Twine is wrapped around the card, and the coffee cup is adhered with Stampin' Up dimensionals to give it a little more... dimension.  I colored in the coffee cup with my copic markers, but I didn't note which colors I used (sorry!).  I really like the way this card turned out, too!  Isn't it great when you can get inspiration from other cards you see?

Well, that's it for now.  Hopefully I will be able to make some more cards and scrapbook pages soon!  Thanks for stopping by!  Feel free to leave a comment- I love hearing from visitors!

Have a great day!

A Few Valentine's Day Cards

Since Valentine's Day is next week, I've been working on making a few cards.  In years past I haven't given cards out, but I'm giving a handful out this year.  Here are the ones I've made:

 For this card I used The Greeting Farm's Stella.  I colored her with copic markers and then used my Lacey Squares Nestabilities to cut her out.  Once I had her cut out, I sponged distress ink around the edges to help the image pop out a little.  I used Spun Sugar, which seems to coordinate perfectly with the papers!  The patterened paper is from My Mind's Eye, and the coordinating cardstock is from Bazzil.  I added three heart gems to the bottom of the card- after I colored them with a copic marker (R89) to get them the color I wanted.  Here are the colors I used to color Stella:
skin:  E21, E00, E000 & R20 for the cheeks
hair:  E53, E55, E57
clothes & shoes:  R81, R83, R85
envelope: a little N0 to shade it in

 This little card is one I came up with for my kids.  It's a 4x4 square card.  I used my cuttlebug to emboss the red square, stamped "love" on a small strip and placed it near the bottom, and used punches to get the scalloped circle and heart in the upper corner.  I adhered the heart with a pop dot and then outlined it with stickles to give it a little shine.  Nothing much, but I'm sure my kids will like them!

This last card is one I just made today.  Surprisingly, I didn't use a sketch to make it- I just went with what felt right as I was going along!  The paper and the image are the same as in the first card (I had colored a few of the images the same so I could make multiple cards) shown above.  The ribbon on the card is from Stampin' Up!- it's Rose Romance 1/4" grosgrain ribbon.  I once again colored the gems so they would match the colors in the patterned paper.  For this card I used the Lacey Ovals from Nestabilities to cut out the image of Stella, and I adhered it to the card using pop dots for just a little dimension.  I used Gathered Twigs distress ink along the edges of the card and the top patterned paper to help them stand out, too.  It seemed to give it just the right amount of "pop."

Well, that's the latest.  I hope everyone who gets these Valentine's Day cards enjoys them!!

A few cards using The Greeting Farm images

Life has been... well... LIFE lately!  I have not had much time lately to make cards or scrapbook pages, but I do have a few things I want to share that I made before Christmas (yikes! almost a month ago already!).  So, here goes...

The first card is one I CASE'd from a card I saw on Bee Craftee's blog a while back.  I loved the simple elegance of her card and I was able to adapt the design so that it became a birthday card for my Dad.  I admit I visit Bee Craftee's blog often- I just adore her clean style and how well she colors with those copic markers!!  I used the Greeting Farm Edward stamp and the sentiment is from a Hero Arts set.  Here is the card I made for my Dad:

This next card is one I made for my husband for Christmas.  On this card I used the Cheeky Christmas image.  My awesome friend Amy stamped a few for me (thanks, Amy!!!) a few months ago and I thought it was perfect for this card.  Of course, when I saw the ribbon with the saying "Naughty or Nice?" on it, I KNEW I had to put it on the card, too!  It just fits, don't you think?

The next card is one I made for a card swap.  I actually made four of these cards.  They were part of a "Teen Girl Birthday" group of the swap, and I had SO much fun making them!  I used Creeper Leslie from The Greeting Farm's Creeper Crew Collection I.  The sentiment comes from an Oliver and Amelia set called Summer Fun.  When I made these teen girl cards I was hoping to capture a little bit of sass and teen attitude, yet still make the card youthful and fun.  I *think* I accomplished that (well, I hope I did, anyway!).

This last card was also made for a card swap.  It's actually part of the same swap for which I made the previous cards.  This group just happened to be "Teen Boy Birthday."  The image I used for this card also comes from the Creeper Crew Collection I; it's Creeper Jack.  The sentiment is from a set for which I cannot remember the name or manufacturer (sorry!).  I had so much fun making the [four] cards for this set! 

I have to take a moment to apologize; I don't have the copic colors listed for the images I colored on these cards.  Normally I would list them, but I didn't keep track of them on these cards for some strange reason.  I don't even have one of these cards for myself as I totally forgot to make a copy for me!  Oh well- at least I have the picture so I can recreate them later.  Anyhow... my apologies for the lack of supplies and copic colors being listed.  I'll do better next time!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a great day!

It's been a busy past few weeks...

But that's because I've been learning how to decorate cakes.  My sister wanted me to take a cake decorating class with her, so I did.  The past four weeks have flown by because of how busy life has been, but add to that making multiple batches of buttercream icing and a few cakes and, well, it was busier!  I do have to say that in the middle of all this cake decorating I was able to go see my WONDERFUL friends for a weekend of scrapbooking, laughing, and hanging out together in Pennsylvania.  That weekend was definitely NOT long enough, but I am so thankful I got to go!  And it gives me something to look forward to since we'll definitely be getting together again!

But I digress ;)... 

So the last cake decorating class was this past Tuesday and we had to bring a cake to class.  It just had to be iced since we were going to be doing the decorating during class.  This was how my final cake turned out:

 I was pleased.  The roses need a LOT of work, but for my first attempts I don't think they're too awful.  My icing was just a little too stiff for even my drop flowers on the top layer of the cake, but they didn't come out too awful, either.  The cake itself is a yellow cake and I torted it with the same chocolate buttercream icing I frosted the cake with, so when the tallest pieces are cut, there are four layers of cake.  YUM!  Michael and Megan were very sweet and told me that this cake was the best they've ever tasted (I highly doubt that), and Jeremy just wanted more.  So I guess you could say the cake was a hit and the class paid off!

Speaking of the class paying off... My sister's birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year, but rather than celebrate ON Thanksgiving, we're celebrating tonight at my house.  I'm cooking dinner and she requested the daisy cake for her birthday since she liked Megan's so much back in August.  Well, I worked on the cake last night after our Thanksgiving meal was finished, and I must say that I impressed even myself with her cake!  She wanted purple and pink, so I did the sides and top in a light purple and the outlines in pink.  The center is golden yellow with a white swirl, and there are white dots on the petals, too.  The colors don't seem to come through as pretty in the pictures as they are in person :(.  Here is a top view of her cake:

And here is a side view of her cake:

Yeah, I admit that I am proud of the decorating I did on her cake!  (If you look back at Megan's cake in August you'll notice just how sloppy it was... Oh well- at least it won't be next year!)  I think I'm done with cake for a little while after tonight, though.  I've had enough to last me quite some time ;). 

CAS-ual Friday challenge- CFC19

Yay!  I had time to make a couple of cards this week.  I was hoping I would be able to make one to enter into a challenge, so I looked over on the CAS-ual Friday blog.  The challenge was to use paper piecing on a fall-themed clean and simple card, so I gave it a whirl. 

This is what I came up with:

The stamp I used is from EK Success, and I used paper from KI Memories to paper piece the chicken.  I wasn't sure how I would like the card considering there is really nothing around the chicken and it's a white background, but I really like it!  Chickens can be considered fall, right (work with me here... ;)...)?  I mean, you wouldn't "turkey in" on someone... (bad, I know... oh well- I tried!!)  This little chicken makes me smile every time I look at it.  I think I'll use this stamp a little more often!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Please feel free to leave a comment- I enjoy hearing from everyone who stops by!