Junk Journal

Today's post is a little bit of a different project. I wanted to showcase the versatility of Stampin' Up products. I was recently inspired by Sheryl from Sheryl Schnmidt Artistry and dove in head first to her junk journal tutorial. Now I don't like the look of distressed and old stuff on my cards so I kept my junk journal very clean and crisp looking.

I followed her tutorial for the binding method, so I am not going to talk you through that. You can find her tutorial here.

I started off by making a document in Word with notebook lines. You can use publisher or any other program like that. Now I printed my journal pages on regular paper but I recommend printing on 32lb printer paper or even Stampin' Up Basic White cardstock depending on what you are planning on doing. I followed Sheryl's tutorial so I scored and folded all my paper and let in rest while I figured out my cover.

I didn't have any old legal sized file folders nor did I want to spend money on that so I went hunting in my house and found some 11"x13" yellow manila envelopes and thought that it would be the perfect cover. I did think it was going to be a little flimsy so I did slip a piece of  cardstock in the envelope. If you are going to use this idea make sure you put the cardstock in the envelope before you punch the holes.

As you can see I cover the cover in kraft cardstock but I did that after I had the journal all assembled. It doesn't really matter at which stage you do this. I then layer a piece of Fresh Freesia cardstock on top of that.

I spent about an hour and a half stamping and die cutting flowers and hummingbirds to use on the cover and throughout the journal. You can stamp directly onto the pages if you want but if you go that route you will want cardstock so that the ink doesn't bleed through.

I was worried that the edge of the craft cardstock would get wrecked and it was at this point in the design process that I truly chose a purpose for this journal and I dug out my box of Bible Journaling supplies from when I was in college. I will use this a prayer/scripture journal during my devotional time. I used some wahsi tape from Illustrated Faith to just protect the edges.

A good portion of my bible jouranling supplies were in a black and white design which allowed me to incorporate my favourite colours - Fresh Freesia, Pale Papaya and Soft Succulent.

I stamped on some banner and index cards and just used washi tape to tape them into my journal. For the die cuts I just glued them in. You can use whatever adhesive you want.

I put the opening of the envelope as the back cover of my jouranl and when the journal was all bound it ended up being a pocket that had a divider in it because of the cardstock I slid into the cover!

Here is a look at some of my favourite pages:

I used the Hand-penned Petals stamp set and the A Touch of Ink stamp set for all the flowers and the hummingbirds.

Let me know in the comments below are you going to make a junk journal for yourself.

Happy Paper Crafting!  

*Contact me directly to place an order or search for Blaze Tully under 'Find a Demonstrator' to shop under me on the Stampin' Up Website.*

Hand-Penned Petals Sympathy Cards

I am always sad when I have to mail out a sympathy card to someone. I created a couple of cards to have in my stash ready to go. These cards are so simple and beautiful if you changed the sentiment out they could easily be a birthday or thinking of you card instead.

I wanted to dress up this already gorgeous DSP by just adding the large floral image from the Hand-Penned Petals stamp set. Let me know which version you like more.

Supplies

1 - 8 1/2"x 11" sheet of Pink cardstock

1 - 5 1/4" x 4" piece of DSP

1 - 3 1/2"x 3/4" piece of Basic White cardstock

Hand-Penned Petals stamp set

Heal Your Heart stamp set

Memento Black ink

Versamark Ink

Embossing Powder

Heat Gun

Banner Punch (optional)

Stamparatus

Instructions

Take the 8 1/2"x11" sheet of cardstock cut it down to 8 1/2"x5 1/2" and score that at 4 1/4" on the long side.

I then took the piece of DSP and stamped the largest floral image from the hand-Penned Petals stamp set in Versamark ink in the center of the DSP. I highly recommend using a stamp positioning tool like the Stamparatus, this will allow you to re-stamp the image if it doesn't come out perfectly the first time ensuring a nice solid image for heat embossing. I did one card with clear embossing powder and the other with white embossing powder but you can choose whatever color matches the best. I generously poured the embossing powder over the image making sure I had covered the Versamark ink completely. You can do this over a scrap piece of paper or coffee filter make sure to dump the extra embossing powder back into the container and put the lid back on (you don't want it to go flying all over when you turn on the heat gun). You'll want to let the heat gun heat up for 5-10 seconds before you start blasting the paper. Hold the heat gun about 6-10 inches away from the paper and keep it moving over the image you are embossing. When the powder goes from grainy to smooth and shiny you're done embossing the image.

When I had finished heat embossing the image I adhered the DSP to the card front. I then took the strip of Basic White cardstock and stamped a sentiment from the Heal Your Heart stamp set in Memento Black ink. I then used my Tailored Tag punch to cut the bottom in to a banner end. You can use the Banner Pick a Punch or do it by hand with a pair of scissors.

I then adhered that strip to the front of the card. I kept it closer to the left side of the card. I really wanted to show off the heat embossed flowers.

Again let me know in the comments what version of the card do you like best the clear embossed or white embossed one?

Happy Paper Crafting! 

*Contact me directly to place an order or search for Blaze Tully under 'Find a Demonstrator' to shop under me on the Stampin' Up Website.*

Batch Cardmaking

Sometimes I create a design that I absolutely love and I just want to recreate it over and over and over again. In the card making world we call this batch card making and this is a really nice system to implement if you send a lot of cards but don't always have the time to sit down and create a card each time.

For this method of card making you can use a design that you come up with yourself or you can find a One Sheet Wonder or like a couple of weeks ago I used a Sheetload of Cards template. Now with the last two ideas the template can yield quite a few cards and sometimes the pieces for each card can end up strewn across your desk, the floor and sometimes even your chair. What I like to do  to keep all the pieces contained are put them inside the card base.

For example I will cut all the pieces I need, I might even stamp on the pieces as well but I always start with my card bases. I cut, score and fold each base and then gently slide each piece of cardstock or DSP into the card base followed by my sentiment piece and any other diecut pieces I might need. If you like to store your cards and envelopes together then you can slide each piece into the envelope.

This way allows you to make sure you have all the correct pieces you need and contains them so they aren't floating around your desk.

Happy Paper Crafting!  

*Contact me directly to place an order or search for Blaze Tully under 'Find a Demonstrator' to shop under me on the Stampin' Up Website.*

Biggest Wish Masculine Birthday Card

We all need Birthday cards for those special guys in our lives and in honor of my Dad who doesn't mind having a glass of Forty Creek Whiskey mixed with a coke on a Friday evening I created this card. His Birthday was this week and this is the card I made for him.

Supplies

1 - 8 1/2"x 11" sheet of Grey cardstock

1 - 5 1/4"x 4" piece of Basic White cardstock

1 - 3/4"x 5 1/2" piece of Sahara Sand DSP

Scrap Basic White cardstock

Whiskey Business stamp set

Biggest Wish stamp set

Memento Black ink

Instructions

Take the 8 1/2"x11" sheet of cardstock cut it down to 8 1/2"x5 1/2" and score that at 4 1/4" on the long side.

I then took the piece of Basic White carstock and the Biggest Wish stamp set and stamped the block letter versions of happy and birthday. Using a tool like the Stamparatus allows you to line these words up and stamp them without errors.

I then took the scrap piece of Basic White and stamped the decanter and whiskey glass form the Whiskey Business stamp set in Memento Black ink. I then fussy cut the images out.

I then adhered the piece of Basic White cardstock to the card front. I then layered the strip of DSP to the left side of the card leaving about an 1/8" front the edge of the white cardstock layer. I then adhered the stamped images to the front of the card.

You can always use dimensionals to adhere these pieces but I chose to adhere them flat to the card front.

You could always trade out the DSP strip for some baker's twine wrapped around the card. And the Happy Birthday can always be customized to the persons favourite colours.

Happy Paper Crafting!  

*Contact me directly to place an order or search for Blaze Tully under 'Find a Demonstrator' to shop under me on the Stampin' Up Website.*

Truly Tailored Masculine Birthday Card

Sometimes to keep a card looking and feeling masculine the best thing you can do is keep it simple. I kept this card very simple with very few elements.

Supplies

1 - 8 1/2"x11" sheet of Night of Navy cardstock

1 - 5 1/4"x 4" piece of Wood Grain DSP

1 - 5 1/4"x 2" piece of Night of Navy cardstock

1 - 3"x 2 1/2" piece of Basic White cardstock

Wrapped in Texture embossing folder

Truly Tailored stamp set

Memento Black ink

Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine

Instructions

Take the 8 1/2"x11" sheet of cardstock cut it down to 8 1/2"x5 1/2" and score that at 4 1/4" on the long side. Adhere the DSP to the front of the card.

Stamp the sentiment in Memento Black ink on the piece of Basic White cardstock.

Then take the strip of Night of Navy cardstock and run it through your Stampin' Cut &  Emboss machine. I chose the Wrapped in Texture embossing folder because I felt that it had a more masculine feel to the texture.

Adhere the strip of cardstock to the left side of the card front leaving about 1/4" on the left side. Then adhere the sentiment to the front of the card.

Happy Paper Crafting!  

*Contact me directly to place an order or search for Blaze Tully under 'Find a Demonstrator' to shop under me on the Stampin' Up Website.*

Stamping Basics - Pt. 6

Last week I took a break from my Tuesday posts but today I am back with another post in the Stamping Basics series. When I started making cards I had a really hard time remembering all the measurements for my card layers. Over time I have managed to memorize the sizes but sometimes I want layering pieces that are slightly smaller or bigger than normal. I solved my problem by making templates.

Anytime you sit down to start crafting you will probably be dealing with 8 1/2"x11" cardstock and either 6"x6" or 12"x12" pattern paper. Sometimes it is hard to know how to cut this paper. In my very first post in this series I talked about how to cut your cardstock for card bases. You can check it out here.

Now I actually bought Kylie Bertucci's card template pdf file. This was my jumping off point. If you want to purchase her templates you can do so here. Now there are quite a few layering pieces in her file that I don't use, but that doesn't mean I won't use them someday.

Since making my templates I have added quite a few of my own sizes to it. If you want to make your own templates you will need some cardstock. You can make your templates rainbow or monochromatic, or you can even dig out that colour you never use.Next you're going to need to label them so you can remember what size it is. I just wrote on sticky notes and stuck it to each piece of cardstock. But if you have a label maker this would be a great time to pull it out.

If you are staring out the only templates you really need are your card bases, one of each. The most traditional layering size - 4"x5 1/4", I would also cut 3"x4", 3 1/4"x4 1/4", 3 1/2"x 4 3/4", 3 3/4"x5", 5 1/4"x 2". I like to keep all of my templates together on a binder ring that I hang on my ink pad holder.

If you make these templates when you are designing a card you can lay it out and decide what size you want your paper to be before you cut into your gorgeous DSP. Doing this will also help you remember the measurements you use the most.

If you have been crafting for a while you may have already done something like this. Let me know in the comments below what are your go to layering sizes?

Happy Paper Crafting!  

*Contact me directly to place an order or search for Blaze Tully under 'Find a Demonstrator' to shop under me on the Stampin' Up Website.*

Thankful Thoughts Square Card

I had a piece of square DSP leftover and I was trying to decide what to do with it and I thought what better to do with it than make a square card! I enjoy creating cards outside of the standard size and I always feel like they can be on the simpler side. I hope this inspires you to create other sizes of cards.

Supplies

1 - 8 1/2"x 11" sheet of Basic White cardstock

1 - 3 3/4"x 3 3/4" piece of DSP

Scrap piece of Basic White cardstock

Scrap piece of Blue cardstock

Forever Greenery Gold Trim

Thankful Thoughts stamp set

Memento Black ink

Layering Circles dies

Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine

Instructions

Take the sheet of Basic White cardstock and cut it down to 4"x 8", then score it at 4" on the long side. I then adhered the DSP to the front of the card.

I then found the 2" circle die from the Layering Circle dies and cut it out of the Basic White cardstock. You can always stamp the image or sentiment before you die cut it. But I chose to stamp it after I die cut and I chose a sentiment from the Thankful Thoughts stamp set and I used Memento Black ink to stamp it.

I then found the coordinating scallop circle die. I didn't want a lot of scallop showing so I chose the one that fit the closest to the circle I cut out. I then die cut it out of the scrap piece of Blue cardstock. I then adhered the the white circle on top of the blue scallop circle.

I then placed Stampin' Dimensionals on the back of the circles. I cut a length of gold trim and wrapped it so that the loops popped out from behind the circles on both the top and bottom. I then adhered that piece to the bottom left corner of the card front.

Step It Up

Instead of making a ribbon nest behind your sentiment you could run a strip of ribbon behind the sentiment but wrap it around the piece of DSP.

Some enamel dots or pearls would also be a cute addition to this card.

Let me know what you think of this card in the comments and let me know what you would like to see next.

Happy Paper Crafting! 

*Contact me directly to place an order or search for Blaze Tully under 'Find a Demonstrator' to shop under me on the Stampin' Up Website.*