Shaped Lava Lamp Card Tutorial

My husband's birthday was yesterday.  He loves everything retro.   I have been planning this birthday set for a while and finally got to give it him.  He got a kick out it!

This is made with the Crazy Mixed Up Love digital stamp set and My Digital Studio.  I had this professionally printed through Stampin' Up; I find the colors are truer and more vibrant than I can do on my home printer.  Because I wanted this to be a shaped card I needed to choose the 6"X6" card style which has the fold at the top.    

Also I used retro-looking Green Galore which is a retired color.  The nice thing about My Digital Studio is it has all the retired colors so you have a large color palette.  Notice I have a punched heart in Green Galore on the candy bar to match?  Here is a nifty little trick.... use the extra space at the side to add swatches of color for punching!  

Here are step-by-step directions: 

Finished layout

1.  Start with a blank 6 X 6 square card.

2.  Add the lava lamp stamp and stretch it so it touches the top and bottom of the page. 

3.  Use the coloring tool to "paint" the elements.  (I used Concord Crush, Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise and Green Galore.)

4.  Add the sentiment at the side and color.

5.  Add two square punches at the side.  Fill with Green Galore and Tempting Turquoise to be used for punching.

Showing the card on the fold

6.  With the card folded, cut through both layers along the side outlines. (I left a tiny border of white.)

Cut card open

The finished card: 

I cut the sentiment with the Paper Trimmer and put it on a candy bar wrapped with Wisteria Wonder card stock and a bit of Melon Mambo taffeta ribbon.    I used the retired Hearts Trio punch for the hearts.

Fifty Nifty Sketch Challenge

Negative thirteen degrees tonight!   BRR!!  With all the frigid weather I decided to work on a layout with pics of our warm weather Florida vacation last year.  Just looking at them is encouraging!

This also fit perfectly with the current MDS Monday sketch challenge to use a map plus an arrow or chevrons.  (This is my first time participating in this challenge--thank you design team!!)

For my take on the layout I put things at wonky angles to reflect the idea of self expression.  Our family has a collection of strong individual personalities!   When I saw the Be Yourself digital kit I knew it would be perfect for our family with the tie-dye like papers and retro looking elements.  

One fun thing about this page that I had not tried before is attaching text to a punch shape.  See how the words fit nicely inside the state of Florida?  Super simple to do!   Holly Lindford from Stampin' Up has a nice video that shows how to do it.

My Digital Studio Supplies: Fifty Nifty Kit, Be Yourself Kit, Game Day Kit (arrow)

A Year Celebrated- Valentine

This will make seven posts in a row that have been My Digital Studio projects.  There are a couple of reasons for that.  One, my stamp room has been too cold to stamp in and two,  MDS is rather addicting!

My stamp room is a three seasons room which I try to pretend is a four season room.  Two walls are windows which is beautiful but with the extreme cold weather we have had this winter it has been too cold to be in it some days.

So I have been cozied up to my fireplace with my computer creating things!

All the elements on this card except for the thought bubble and sentiments are from the A Year Celebrated calendar kit.  I am always drawn to retro images and colors-- love pink and turquoise together!

For the inside and back of the card I often use the same DSP as the front of the card but turn down the  opacity so it is not distracting to write on.  I also repeat some element from the front on the inside.

Then on the back I use a coordinating image with my name and blog info.

Digital Embossing Tutorial

Today's post wraps up my "mini series" of My Digital Studio technique tutorials highlighting projects from the One Big Sale-A-Bration digital ensemble.

The green panel on this card is digitally "embossed".

It has the illusion of having raised dry embossing.  

One of the stamps included with the download is called Decorative Dots.  If you are not specifically looking for it, it is easy to miss.

TO DIGITALLY EMBOSS:
The key is to have the background layer and the stamp the same color then add a light colored drop shadow.  As an example here is how I did the piece for my card:

1.  Fill a punch with Pistachio Pudding
2.  Add the Decorative Dots stamp on top.  Change the color to Pistachio Pudding.  (The stamp will seem to disappear.)
3.  While you still have the stamp selected click on the "Drop Shadow" button.
4.  This screen will appear.

5.  Change the Opacity to 60% and change the color to Whisper White.
6.. Click OK and the embossing will appear!

Here is an additional tip:  I really like the quality of the cards when they are printed through Stampin' Ups print service; they are a heavy weight card stock and the colors are vibrant.  Since I wanted this to be a hybrid card with raised layers I had two cards printed with just the background on the card front.

I also had one card printed with these images on both the front and inside of the card:

Once I received the printed product, I trimmed these pieces with my paper trimmer and put them on the card fronts with several layers of Stampin' Dimensionals.  (I had also have two extra Happy Birthday images for other projects.)

In the end, I had three cards printed to make two completed cards with layers.

Supplies: 
Decorative Dots and Petal Parade digital stamps, Sweet Sorbet digital Designer Series Paper (all included with the One Big Sale-a-bration Digital Ensemble.)

Painting in Layers Tutorial

Today I have a My Digital Studio tutorial showing how to use LAYERS to fill "holes" in stamps and "paint" outline stamps.  These cards were part of the weekend Stampin' Addicts Sale-A-Bration blog hop.  (Click HERE to view the blog hop post which has more ideas for using the One Big Sale-A-Bration Digital ensemble.)

First -  HOW TO FILL IN HOLES:  

The alligator stamp on this card has areas where the background shows through.   Pretty distracting!

One solution is to use the freeform tool.  Start by clicking on the "Add Brush Layer"

Click on "Brush" and then "Change Color" to pick the color you would like to use.

Cover the open areas with the Brush tool making sure to not go beyond the stamped image.

Click on "Arrange"-then "Order" and "Layers".  Move the paint layer behind the stamp and the holes will be filled in with color!

Painting an outline stamp is essentially the same.  You just need to work with a few more layers building the colors one upon another.

HOW TO PAINT OUTLINE STAMPS:

Start with an outline stamp.

Think about what would be the very back layer of color.  (In this case I wanted the inside of the design to be white.)  Add a Brush Layer.  Change the color and paint over the stamped image stopping at the black outline.

Send this layer behind the stamp.  Add second Brush Layer.   Determine what would be the next level of color.  (For this card I painted over the flowers in blue and the stems in green.) 

Send this layer behind the stamp.  Continue adding brush layers of additional colors.    (I added a third layer of lighter blue to highlight the center of flowers and a fourth with tiny dots of pink for the stamens.)  

Arrange the layers with the outline stamp at the front and your image will be beautifully painted!

I will have one more tutorial tomorrow showing how to "emboss" with digital stamps!

Banner Blast Shaped Cards

Over the next three days I have series of mini tutorials detailing some of the techniques I used to make the My Digital Studio cards from the Stampin' Addicts Sale-a-Bration blog hop.  If you have not already gone through the hop, you will not want to miss it.  We have ideas for every single Sale-a-Bration product that is available!  So after you have checked out today's post you can click HERE to start the blog hop.

I have to say this is one of the simplest cards I have ever made but I think it is its simplicity that is so appealing.

To make it:
1.  Start with a blank 5" X 7" portrait card in My Digital Studio.
2.  Enlarge one of the Banner Blast digital stamps (found in the One Big Sale-a-Bration ensemble) so that it touches the top and sides of the card.
3.  Change the color of the stamp.
That is it!  Once the card was printed.  I used my paper cutter to cut away the bottom to make it a shaped card.

Here is another version with a different orientation:

I wanted one with the fold at the top so I started with the 6" X 6" card template.   This one required trimming at the sides as there was extra white space.

Prior to trimming

After trimming

Here is one with the "Hi" stamp:

I add my blog and name to the back of cards.  Because of the cutout at the bottom that had to be a bit higher on this card.

I had multiples of these printed so I did a stepped-up version of each:

Bits of twine tied around DSP cut with the Tasteful Trim die

Gliiter paper hearts and Triangle Punch

Banner Punch and Itty Bitty Punch Pack punch

I can't decide which is my favorite, the simple versions or the stepped-up ones.  What do you think?  I would love your opinions!

Sale-A-Bration 2014 Blog Hop

Welcome to the Stampin' Addicts Sale-A-Bration blog hop!  As you have been hopping along, I am sure you have been oo-ing and ah-ing over the great new products available.  Have you picked a favorite yet?   What?  You can can't choose just one you say?  Well I have a solution!   The One Big Sale-A-Bration Digital Ensemble has ALL the SAB stamp sets, the lovely Sweet Sorbet DSP AND an accessory pack too!  Woo Hoo!!

One of the best features of digital stamping is that you can change the size of the stamps.  Make them tiny or make them HUGE!  In the original See Ya Later stamp, the alligator is smaller than the words.  By cropping the stamp I was able to enlarge one part and make the other part smaller (and change the colors as well!)  This is the 5" X 3-1/2" tri-fold card from SU!'s print service which folds out to almost 15 inches.  A pretty good-sized gator!

You can also "paint" a picture digitally.  Later this week I will have a tutorial to show how I colored the outline flowers from the You're Lovely stamp set on this delicate card.

And if you like the look of embossing but don't have your Big Shot handy you can do that do with this ensemble too!  The light green Pistachio Pudding layer is "embossed" with the Decorative Dots stamp.  (You may need to click on the picture to enlarge it to see it.)  Make sure you don't miss this stamp set that comes with the download!   The other stamp set used here is Petal Parade.  The coloring tool was used to change the colors of the petals.

The above card is a hybrid.  It was printed on two halves of a card which I then cut up and reassembled with dimensionals.  The funky little bow is a bit of frayed Starfruit Stitched Satin Ribbon.

I don't know about you but I sometimes struggle to get my bows to lay right.  Well with a digital bow from the Accessory Cord Pack that is not a problem!  Also on this card I love how the Banner Blast stamps have the negative space for the words.  Layering it over the Sweet Sorbet DSP allows the paper to show through!

One more fun thing with this set...  the stamp can used to make a shaped card.    This would be really cool with an e-cutter but since I don't have one (yet!) I trimmed this one with my paper cutter.

Be sure to stop back later this week.  I will have details of how make each of these projects plus I have a few more variations to share too!  (Once I started with this set I didn't want to stop!)

Now it is time to continue with hop either backwards for more My Digital Studio inspiration from Debra as she shows us the Hooray for Parties Digital Ensemble or forward to Holly's Petal Parade projects.

       

Blog Hop Order:

1) Tanya (tanya27) -- Petal Parade -- http://tinkerin-in-ink.blogspot.com/
2) Heidi (hlw966) -- Sweet Sorbet DSP
3) Rhonda (rhondag) -- Sweet Sorbet Accessories Pack -- The Stampin' Bunny
4) Tina (tina123) -- Decorative Dots Embossing Folder
5) Sara (lilyinkpad) -- Good as Gold
6) Kim (s1itcher46) -- Banner Blast
7) Holly E. (HollyBeary Creations) -- Banner Punch -- http://www.hollybeary.com/
8) Paula (scrapshappen) -- You're Lovely
9) Twila (tjdstampsalot) -- Twisty Treats
10) Mary (nuhddad) -- Heartfelt 
11) Yapha -- See You Later
12) Debra (WebDeb) -- Hooray for Parties Digital Ensemble 
13) Betty (kittystamp) -- One Big Sale-a-Bration CD
14) Holly K -- Petal Parade

My Sweet Potato

A silly card today.  Incredibly simple too!

The little potato is an embellishment from the digital Hooray For Tags download.   The entire card is  just the sweet potato embellishment with a background of paper from the Convention 2013 Designer Kit.  I also put the paper on the inside and back of the card.   Then I had it printed through Stampin' Ups print service.  One of the fastest cards ever!

Perfect Blend My Digital Studio Cards

As a gift for my brother and sister-in-law who own a coffee cafe,  I made a set of cards using My Digital Studio.  

One of the best things about using digital stamps is that you can make them any size.  One big cup is the focal point on the first card.

To color the cup, I added a paint layer on top of the stamp.  I painted over the areas with colors that matched the background paper and then rearranged the layers with the stamp on top again.

The next one has rows of smaller stamps.   To make this I copy and pasted the cup stamp five times then used the "Space Evenly- Horizontal" function to align them.  I added a rectangular punch with a small mat.  Then all I had to do was copy the group, paste it two more times and change the color of the rectangle.

For the next card, I used a rectangle punch again to create a pattern and then filled the punches various DSP patterns.

I had these professionally printed through Stampin' Up's print service.   I like to add color to the inside and back of the cards (like the one above where you can see the light blue green peeking out) or DSP as in the card below.

I repeated the label embellishment on the inside with a small coffee cup for the writing area.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up downloads)
Main stamp set: Perfect Blend
Card #1:  "Warm Winter Wishes" stamp from Snowy Soiree Ensemble, DSP from 12 Days of Christmas
Card #2:  DSP from 12 Days of Christmas Kit
Card #3: DSP from Muted Notes Kit
Card #4:  DSP and embellishments from Jingle and Joy Kit