Smooth out those ‘bumps’ on cards!

Hello Crafty Friends!

I am back again to share a simple little trick to make your die cut items look a bit better.

Many of us use die cuts to create dimension on our cards. There is a huge selection of dies from so many different companies, which makes us happy crafters!

We use all types of papers to die cut items for our cards. Some of the papers are easy to remove from the die, while others need a bit of ‘poking’ to release them. When I have to poke through the tiny holes on a die to release the paper, there is usually a tiny indentation on it. Some dies also have little embossed impressions (‘bumps’ ) that are visible on the paper.

I have found a nifty way to smooth these bumps on the papers after they have been cut. I simply put them in between a folded piece of printer (or any lightweight paper) and run it through my die cut machine. I either use another piece of paper as a shim, or run it through my machine twice.

Goodbye bumps, (sometimes it still leaves a faint impression, but that’s OK.). Sometimes I may want to keep the bumps on the paper, but this gives me another option when I create a card.

I hope this gives you another trick to add to your crafting world. I get lots of great ideas from other crafters, so I like to share a few ideas I have discovered too! 

Thank you for visiting today, I really appreciate your loyalty! 

~~Vickie Horsfall~~

Ink + Emboss + Die = Cards!

Hello Crafty Friends!

Most of the cards I have been creating have been made using patterned papers from my stash. There are so many new inking techniques that I would love to try, but have told myself I need to use up the papers I have before I venture into all the new techniques. Well, that didn’t last long. LOL

I inked up one of these two papers with some colors that I thought I could blend together to create a nice background, using blending brushes. Well, I was not crazy about the colors. The ‘broken china’ ink was much better, in spite of my streaks. (I embossed the card first, then took the ink pad and lightly added ink to it.)

I decided to emboss the ‘blended’ sheet to see if that made them better. In my opinion, it did not help. I put in a bit of time thinking about these and did not want to waste them. So I decided to die cut flowers from them and make different cards.

I found some patterned paper that matched the color of the broken china background and added flowers on this card. I decided to use up some of my many brads, so the centers of the flowers had a bit of sparkle. The message ‘Celebrate All that is Good Today and Everyday’ added to the linear look of the card.

I layered some flowers from the second background sheet and added some brads and ‘candy buttons’ in contrasting colors for the centers of the flowers. I decided a solid white embossed background was best to make the flowers ‘pop’ on the card. I added the message ‘Be True, Be Brave, Celebrate You’ and was happy with the result.

So, I did not waste the backgrounds I began with on this creative adventure! I even used some patterned paper and some brads and candy buttons that I had in my stash to create these two cards. (If you are like me, I am very thrifty with my papers and supplies. That probably explains why I have so many items in my crafting room stash! )

I hope this inspired you to think of other ways to use backgrounds that you are not very happy with and create something new and different!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit! Enjoy your creative time!

~~Vickie ~~

Christmas Tissue Box Cover!

Welcome, Crafty Friends!

The holidays are over for 2022, however I wanted to share one last Christmas post.

I have a quick idea for covering an acrylic tissue box. During the holidays I used some Christmas paper from Graphic45 to cover this tissue box. Once covered, it blended in with my other decorations.

I simply cut and creased the four sides of the tissue box, then cut a whole in the top which was slightly larger than the hole on the acrylic box. I attached the card stock papers using a double sided adhesive. (I used the adhesives from Miracle Tape.). Large scraps of this paper were used, so unfortunately the head of one of the ‘Milking Maids’ was left off. I still think the papers work for this.

I have several packs of 12 x 12 patterned papers and plan on using this idea to decorate my tissue box throughout the year. Better than a plain box!

Thanks for visiting and I hope this idea is helpful to you!

Enjoy your crafty day! ~~Vickie~~

Airplane Pop-Up Card!

Hello Crafters!

Life keeps us busy and my posts are not as frequent as I would like, but I do try to post a card daily on my Instagram account. I would appreciate you visiting my other social media sites ~ just click on the icon on the side bar below.

Today I am sharing a card using older patterned papers from American Crafts. I have so many patterned paper packs I’ve ‘collected’ over the years and was glad that this paper worked for this card.

This stamp and die set from Lawn Fawn (Plane and Simple) was perfect for creating my card.

I used the images of the plane and banner for my card. I filled in the plane windows with my clear star gel pen. I popped the plane using a small folded piece of acrylic. (Thanks to Jennifer McGuire for this handy and easy way to pop items on a card. ‘New Pop-Up Die-Cut Technique”)

This is the card I created for a friend living several states away from me. I used coordinating paper to make a card protector to keep the plane and smile sign safe during its journey. It will also allow the plane and banner to ‘pop’ when taken out of the envelope!

I also stamped the envelope, which I do for most of the cards I mail. It adds a bit of something when the card is delivered, and the mail carrier may enjoy the images too!.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I hope to have another post up later this month. Enjoy your creative days!

~~~ Vickie Horsfall ~~~

Fussy Cutting Tips!

Hello Crafty Friends!

Die cuts for images are very handy, especially if you are not fond of fussy cutting. I happen to enjoy cutting images and would like to share a couple of tips.

When you are cutting an image, turn the paper – not your scissors! I learned this effective technique years ago from a dear friend. It really helps with the ‘flow’ of your cutting and makes the finished images look sharper. It is also very helpful to use good quality small scissors!

Good quality small scissors help make fussy cutting images much easier!

Some stamps or digital downloads of images have very fine outlines. I have found that taking a marker and tracing the outline to make it larger helps with cutting the image. This adorable dog bone from Inky Antics had fine lines, but using a brown Sharpie made fussy cutting easier.

Tracing the fine outlines of stamped images with a larger marker makes it easier to cut!

Another tip for cutting smaller papers has helped me use up most of my small paper scraps. I wanted to cut a strip from this smaller paper, so I taped it to a larger scrap so it would fit in my trimmer. You can see the line I drew so I would line up my dog bones just right!

Attaching smaller papers to a larger one helps to cut strips with your paper trimmer.

Adding papers on the inside of cards helps use up papers and carries the theme from the card front.

These tips were used when I created this adorable card! This cute puppy stamp is from Dare2BArtzy

I hope these tips help you with your crafting projects. Thank you for visiting my blog today! Enjoy your crafty day!

~~Vickie~~