Birthday Card - Ombre Blue Background Spinner Card

 

This card was designed to meet and enter this month's AAA birthday blog card challenge. The theme was 'For a Child' and you can navigate to the challenge via the following link:

https://aaabirthday.blogspot.com/2020/11/game-19-for-child.html

For the process video click the following link or the video below:

 

For this card I decided to use up some diecuts I had leftover in my stash. In this case a couple of birthday cake diecuts. Since I had two, I decided to make a spinner card and because I'm really into using my recently acquired blending brushes, I went for a blue ombre background.

Anyway here's how I made the card.

First step, I blended the blue ombre background. For this I use Altenew crisp dye ink stamp pads in 'Dusk,' 'Ocean Waves' and 'Seaglass.' I just blended them using my blending brushes.

Secondly, I cut out the circle/window or hole where the spinner would be spinning. This meant cutting the circle into the card front as well as the front side of the card base, making sure the two holes lined up. To do this I used a circle diecut, attached the card front to the card base and cut the both circle out at the same time - this made sure they would line up.

Thirdly, I stuck down the red string that the cake diecut would spin on. I used double-sided tape to do this making sure the string was really taught and securely attached. 

Fourthly, I put double-sided tape onto the back of the die cut images, removed the release paper and sandwiched the string in between them; making sure that the images lined up with another. 

Fifthly, I used double-sided tape to adhere the card front to the card base, making sure the holes still lined up.

Sixthly, I glued a 'happy' die cut underneath the spinner window and stamped 'birthday wishes beneath that using Ranger Archival Ink in jet black and my stamping platform.

All done!

Enjoy and happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

"Hippo Birdie Two Ewe" Birthday Card

 

This is a cute card I made for a boy turning 5. The inspiration came from a background I created using a turnabout stamp I got off Aliexpress and a AAA birthday card challenge which I you can link to here.

If you just want to watch a card process video on how I made this card then please click here or the link below...

 

The first step was to trim my background to fit an A6 card base.

Next I grabbed the black circle and die cut animals from my stash that I wanted to use and arranged them onto the background to get an idea of how I wanted it to look. The die cut animals were made using a stamp set I got off Aliexpress - I loved the play on words that the sentiment 'hippo birdie two ewe' presented and the stamp set came with stamps for the animals to match. I had already colored these animals in using my STA dual tone aquarelle watercolor brushmarkers; click here for a link to a review I did on them.

I took the 'hippo birdie two ewe' sentiment and placed it onto the black circle - I decided the critters would 'dance' or sit above the main sentiment. The position of everything also needed to accommodate the recipient's name below the main sentiment.

Using silver heat embossing powder, I heat embossed the 'hippo birdie two ewe' sentiment onto the black circle.

After that I used double-sided tape to adhere the black circle to the background. Ideally in the middle of the background but I'm lazy so I just eye-balled this one.

Then I arranged the die cut creatures around the circle and sentiment again to make sure I was happy with the arrangement before using double-sided tape and liquid glue to adhere them. I used liquid glue to lessen the chances of the tiny little details on the edges of the animal diecuts to catch on something and rip off the card front. For my review on the glue pens I use click here. To make sure that images stuck down flat whilst the glue was drying, I placed an acrylic block on top.

I decided to stamp the recipent's name "Robert" using the capital letters from my Concord and 9th perfectly penned stamp set and my ranger archival ink in jet black. I just used an acrylic block to this, stamping each letter individually onto a yellow sentiment strip of card that matched the cardstock used for the background. To finish it off, I cut banner edges to each end of the sentiment strip.

Final step was to adhere the front notecard to the card base using double-sided tape.

Of course my laziness meant I had to re-trim my card front because it overhung the cardbase. Don't be like me and eye-ball trim your background, just measure it properly otherwise all your work might end up with an unbalanced looking card front.

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

 

CAS Engineering Tree Christmas Tree Card

 

This is a very simple CAS christmas card. I used the Altenew stamp set "Engineers Rule" so it is a more masculine christmas card perfect for engineers or handymen. The motivation for this card was to enter the CAS Christmas card challenge which you can find here.

If you prefer to watch a video on how I made this card there is a link below or just here.

The first step was to mask the triangle for the tree. On a standard note card I used a ruler to mark the centre of the card then used purple masking tape to form a triangle. I taped the notecard to my 'We R Memory Keepers Precision Press' (just a stamping platform!) then arranged the small engineering images from the Engineers Rule stamp set inside that triangle.

Using Gina K Designs Amalgam Ink in Jet Black, I stamped the images onto the notecard a few times to make sure I got a good impression.

I then removed the masking tape. I used a ruler and a black ink pen to draw a dashed line to outline the tree.

The tree needed a stand or trunk and I found a 'Merry Christmas' sentiment from Simon Says Stamp's Clean Line Christmas stamp set that lined up perfectly with the base of my 'tree' to give a metaphorical stump. I decided to stamp that sentiment using Stampin' Up Cherry Cobbler ink and my precision press stamping platform.

I then trimmed down the edges - mainly to trim off the tear in the card (caused by my impatience when removing washi tape in an earlier step). Then I used double-sided tape to adhere the notecard to a navy blue card base.

In hindsight, I think it would have looked better had I heat embossed the sentiment and spotlighted some of the images making up the tree. However, it was a very quick card to make and I'm sure one of the engineers in my life will appreciate it.

Happy Crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Birthday Card - Watercolor Galaxy Space Themed

 

Once again, another space themed card. This time I'm using a galaxy background created using watercolors with space themed embellishments. I needed a birthday card for a gift to my nephew so used a happy birthday sentiment with 'Whoa' in front to give it a bit of an 'out of this world' feel!

As per my recent trend, I made a process video of how I put this card together and a link to it is below or you can click here.

First step is to create the galaxy background. I was playing around with some watercolor paints I recently got and decided to make a galaxy. It's made by brushing shades of yellow, green, blue hues near the centre the piece then surrounding it with a dark purple hue then very dark blue (almost black) was painted around the outer edge. I then let the piece dry overnight before using a paintbrush to flick white acrylic paint flecks all over the piece for stars - I added a little water at times to help dilute the paint and make it easier to flick the white specks of paint everywhere. Again I let that dry overnight before adding my sentiment strip and space themed embellishments.

So, once the watercolor galaxy background piece was dry, I arranged the space themed die cuts I found and had hanging around in my stash on top of the galaxy background. I had already coloured these using alcohol makers (a review of the markers I used can be found here) so they were ready to use.

I also decided that I wanted to make a birthday card for my nephew who I was going to give a gift to soon. I found some stamps in my stash to create the sentiment "Whoa. Happy Birthday" The 'whoa' part is to give the sentiment a bit of an 'out of this world, kind of feel to match the space theme I was going for.

As I wanted to heat emboss the sentiment I place the black cardstock sentiment strip in my stamping platform then used it to stamp the sentiment 3 or 4 times with clear embossing ink. I then sprinkle white embossing powder over the sticky ink sentiment and tap off the excess. I do this over non-stick baking paper so I can easily recollect the excess powder for use next time. 

I then use my heat gun to heat set the embossing powder. I decided I wanted the rocket die cut to cover the end of the sentiment strip so it looked like the sentiment strip ends at the rocket so I trimmed off a bit off the end of the sentiment strip.

I stick the sentiment strip down using double sided tape over the nebula part of the galaxy background. Using foam tape behind the rocket die cut, I stick it down over the right hand side edge of the sentiment strip ensuring the end is covered by the rocket.

Standard double-sided tape is used to adhere down the rest of the space themed die cut elements.

Last thing to do is to adhere the card front to a card base. For this I decided a black cardbase would suit the space theme and used double-sided tape to adhere the card front to the card base, ensuring that there is an even border of black around the card front before pressing it down.

And its all done!

Happy Crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Touchfive Alcohol Markers Review

Touchfive Alcohol Markers

Sorry for taking a while to post another blog, I have been distracted with other things and lost a bit of motivation but now I'm back and happy to finally post a review on the Touchfive alcohol markers I bought off Aliexpress for about US$18 last year. For the video review head over to my youtube channel "Mel Crafting" or just click here or view the link below.

First impressions are OK. I bought a 60 piece set and the Aliexpress seller threw in a couple of cheap pens. The listing said a colorless blender would be included but I didn't get one so I was quite disappointed with that.

Some of the tips were poking out and needed pushing back in so consistency of assembly of the markers isn't great. However, they did come in handy zip-up Pouch to hold the makers and it fitted a few extra markers I bought to complement the set so that was a bonus; again though the material of the bag is quite thin and does have a cheap kind of a feel to it.

Touchnew 60 set zip pouch

The markers have a bullet tip and a chisel tip for each color. The caps feel very secure when you take them off and they give a nice click when you put them back on so I felt their was little chance of them drying out due to a loose cap. Holding them and drawing/coloring them was comfortable in my hand, I would have preferred a round barrel rather than the square profile but I didn't get a sense of any control issues.

Touchfive bullet tip

Touchfive chisel tip

I swatched both the bullet tip and the chisel tip ends, noting down both the number and name printed on the cap of the markers. All the markers were juicy when using the bullet tip. I found marker 99 "Bronze" had a dried out chisel tip whilst marker 69 "Prussian Blue" had feathering issues with its chisel tip.

Touchfive 60 Marker Set Swatching

Marker 69 Prussian Blue Chisel Tip Feathering

Marker 99 Bronze Dry Chisel Tip

Moving onto some alcohol marker blending. I tried out sets of three in colors that I would commonly blend together when I make my cards. What I found was that some markers were easier to blend than others; so that missing colorless blender would have come in handy...

Testing out the Blending

I'm mostly happy with the color range for what I use them for (cardmaking/coloring), but I would have liked more in the purple range because, well, purple is my favourite color. The set has a great range of reds, blues, greens and brown/yellows with quite a few greys so really only limited by your imagination.

Overall, I recommend this 60 marker set of Touchfive alcohol markers as a first set for someone looking to try alcohol markers out but who also does not mind having a limited purple color range and can live with imperfect blending.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Birthday Card - Starry Space Shaker Card

Starry Space Shaker Card

This card was another inspired by the stars and moons background I made earlier. Click here to go to the blog post on how I made that background or watch the following video:

I wanted to make a shaker card so I grabbed my Sizzix big shot and cut a rectangular window out of a white card front.

Before I get too far ahead of myself (and if you prefer) - here's a link to the process video for this shaker card:

So I cut the window at an angle to give it a bit of interest.

I found this sentiment strip from a moon stamp set I bought off Aliexpress that said "You're out of this world" that I wanted to use. I decided to stamp and heat emboss that sentiment above the shaker window using black embossing powder.

'Moon' Stamp Set

Sentiment Stamp Positioning and Angled Window

Heat Embossed Sentiment

 Using an old presentation report cover, I cut out a clear plastic widow big enough to cover the window and stuck it down using double-sided tape.

I grabbed my stars and moons background to check the look before placing foam tape all around the shaker window.

Foam Tape

The foam tape lifts the card front higher above the background so that the shaker elements have somewhere to move around in. I made sure the foam tape was placed as close as possible to the window to prevent the loss of my shaker elements.

I then removed the backing paper on all of the foam tape and filled the window with a sprinkling of glass beads (which I was using as my shaker element). You can use anything as your shaker element, I just decided to use these beads as I found them in my stash and I had no other plans for them.

Filling Window with Beads

Now I grab my stars and moons background, stick it down on top of the foam tape placing it over those beads to enclose them in the window. I then use scrap cardstock to cover up the remaining exposed sticky foam tape and to make sure the back of the card front is all level.

Placing Background Over Window

Covering the Exposed Foam Tape with Cardstock

Shaker Window!!!

 
Time to make my 'Happy Birthday' Sentiment strip. I grap a strip of black cardstock and a 'Happy Birthday' sentiment stamp from Simon Says Stamp Greetings Mix 1 stamp set.

Simon Says Stamp Greetings Mix 1 Stamp Set

 I place the card strip into my We R Memory Keepers Precision Press Stamping Platform and proceed to stamp the sentiment onto the strip using clear embossing ink. Then I heat emboss it using silver embossing powder and a heat tool.

Placing Card Strip and Stamp into Stamping Platform

Clear Embossing Ink

Stamped and Silver Heat Embossed Sentiment

After deciding I want this sentiment strip to sit across the bottom right hand corner of the card. I bring in my stamped and die cut space themed images which I've already colored using alcohol markers and arrange them on top of the card front.

Arranging Sentiment Strip and Space Images

Then I adhere everything down using double-sided tape and trim off any excess using scissors.

The last step is to adhere the entire card front to a black piece of cardstock using double-sided tape to finish the card. This card doesn't have a standard opening card base so it is intended that your card message is written on the back - I would use a white or silver gel pen in this case because I have used black cardstock as my final backing.

Many thanks for visiting my blog, if you'd like to see another card where I use the same background click here to see my starry window space themed card or click below for the process video:

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting