Hand Made Cards Archives - PageThe Maine Stamper

Grace’s Garden Double Easel Fold Card

May 8, 2020

I created this Grace’s Garden Double Easel Fold Card as part of my April Showers Bring May Flower Cards Exchange. Swapping cards is so much fun, and my recent theme was flower cards!

As promised, I am sharing the card recipe today along with a list of items I used to create my Grace’s Garden Double Easel Fold Card. There are also pictures of assembly and great tips, so read on for more.

Double Easel Fold Card Recipe

Thick Whisper White CS Base: 4 1/4 x 11″, score at 5 1/2″

Sahara Sand Easel CS: 4 x 10 1/4″, score at 2 /1/2″ and 5″

Balmy Blue CS: 3 7/8 x 5 1/8″, 2 3/8 x 3 7/8″

Whisper White CS: 3 3/4 x 5″, 2 1/4 x 3 3/4″

Whisper White CS: 2 3/4 x 4 1/4″ for gate die, 1 1/4 x 2″ for sentiment

Smoky Slate Scrap: for cat die

Whisper White Scraps: for flower sprays (2) and punch

Balmy Blue DSP (Subtles): 3 7/8 x 2 3/8″

Additional Supplies Needed

Grace’s Garden Stamp Set (and clear blocks for stamping)

Garden Gateway Dies (and die cutting machine)

Inks: Memento Black, Balmy Blue, Soft Sea Foam, Basic Gray, Smoky Slate

Assorted Stampin’ Blends for coloring

Sponge Roller or sponges

Score Tool

Classic Label Punch

Adhesive

Assembling Grace’s Garden Double Easel Fold Card

The Bases

The card base is important for this card, as it holds a great amount of weight. I used the Thick Whisper White Card Stock, as it has the ability to hold up under pressure. This is a tent fold, so be sure to cut your sheet of cardstock in half portrait style instead of landscape style.

When I use the thick cardstock, I like to fold it in half after I score it using my Paper Trimmer. This helps break up the strong fibers that are holding the paper together. I am always careful to use the scoring blade (lighter gray) rather than the cutting blade (darker gray, blending in at the top). This score is done at 5 1/2″. I follow up with my bone folder to get a crisp crease.

Another great tool to score your cardstock with is the Simply Scored Scoring Tool. I like that the peg markers are movable, and you can easily position them on the exact spacing you need to score. This is the Sahara Sand CS, scored at 2 1/2″ and 5″, landscape mode. My picture also indicates the folds needed here: peaked up first, followed by valley second.

A word of caution when using the score tool, the stylus included has 2 tips, one smaller and one larger. Use the small tip on thicker paper and the large tip on thinner paper (like DSP). Just think in terms of opposites attract to remember this.

It is also best to go slow and steady along the grooves! If your stylus jumps the track and leaves dents in the wrong places, flip your paper over and use the stylus head to smooth out the wrinkle from the back.

Double Easel To Card Base

After the scoring and folding was completed, I put the double easel cardstock onto my card base. This is done easiest by folding the easel up and adhering glue or tape (the strongest you have!) to the 5 1/4″ area. Next, center it on your card base.

Double Easel Fold Card, closed front — When attached to the front of the card base, and in the closed position, your card will look like this (minus the clear acrylic block to hold it in place for a quick photo!).

Double Easel Fold Card, easel open position — When your double easel fold card is adhered together and in the open position, it will look like this.

Flowers From Grace’s Garden

Now that the major assembly is done, it is time to decorate the card. I began with the front tented section, as this is what is noticed first on the card, and requires the most work.

I used Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and stamped flowers from the Grace’s Garden Stamp Set on the 2 1/4 x 3 3/4″ white cs.

Stamping Grace's Garden Flowers in Memento Black Ink

Next, I colored them in using my Stampin’ Blends in a variety of light spring flower colors.

Coloring Grace's Garden Flowers with Stampin' Blends

After that, I used Soft Sea Foam Ink and Balmy Blue Ink with my Sponge Roller to fill in the green grass and blue sky. This was done lightly, right over my stamped and colored flowers, no masking required.

Sponge Roller with Soft Sea Foam and Balmy Blue Ink — When using the Sponge Roller, I start off my cardstock and work my way in. The first bit of ink off the roller may be dark. It is easy to add more color, impossible to take it away.

The Elements of Grace’s Garden

The coordinating dies for Grace’s Garden Stamp Set, Garden Gateway, offer a variety of fences, flowers and critters. This adds up to scenic fun for assembling the Grace’s Garden Double Easel Fold Card.

For the 2 flower sprigs that climb the arched garden gate, I stamped on scrap white cs using Memento Ink. Following a die cut in my Big Shot, I used the Stampin’ Blends to color my flowers, then rolled some Balmy Blue ink over the remaining white outlines.

My garden is home to a small gray cat. I stamped the cat image in Basic Gray Ink on a scrap of Smoky Gray CS.

Next, I die cut my kitty and sponged the edges to soften them, using Smoky Gray Ink. By using the same ink color as the cardstock, I eliminate the harsh transition to the darker gray outline.

Sponging the cat die cut with Smoky Gray Ink

The arched garden gate is easily the sweetest die in the set. It looks divine in white. I wanted my sentiment to imitate a hanging sign from the top of the trellis, so I used the Classic Label Punch and white cs to make a faux “board” topper. After stamping the sentiment on the 1 1/4 x 2″ white cs, I sponged it with Balmy Blue Ink for consistency.

The Many Layers Of Grace’s Garden

I adhered the floral stamped and sponged white cs to the 2 3/8 x 3 7/8″ Balmy Blue CS. When I attached the gate, I added it toward the left side, centering it between my stamped flowers.

Next, I glued on my 2 flower sprays to artfully climb along the sides of the gate. This was followed by the little cat, peering into the garden. Lastly, I placed small amounts of glue to the upper trellis and placed my punched “board” in position. I adhered the sentiment and admired my work.

Lower Layer of Grace's Garden Double Easel Fold Card — This assembly is now ready to go on the card. I centered it on the bottom layer of the double easel fold partition.

The really hard work has been done! When I stamped the 3 3/4 x 5″ white cs with additional flowers, I repeated my steps of coloring and sponging.

Back Layer of Grace's Garden Double Easel Fold Card — This beautifully stamped, colored and sponged piece gets layered with the 3 7/8 x 5 1/8″ Balmy Blue CS, then adhered to the card.

Putting it all together is easy. I adhered each layer in position. For the fold that is barely noticeable, I added a piece of Balmy Blue DSP from the Subtles Collection. I chose the checkered pattern for its sweetness. This paper in coordinating color blends beautifully into the card as a needed continuity.

The adhered layers of Grace's Garden Double Easel Fold Card

Flowers and Friendship Are Sweet

Grace’s Garden Double Easel Fold Card is so wonderful, it doesn’t even need additional embellishments. I left the inside blank, so the recipient of this card in the April Showers Bring May Flower Cards Exchange can do whatever she wants with it. Lucky her for participating!

This card was not difficult to make, but it gives the appearance of great time and effort. If you haven’t tried this fun fold card yet, please do so. You will be amazed with your end results. If you need any stamping supplies, like the Grace’s Garden Stamp Set or coordinating dies, Garden Gateway, stop by my online store, https://juliemakson@stampinup.net.

Be sure to follow me, and be in the know for my next card exchange, Fall For Cards, coming in September. More details will follow.

April Showers Brought…May Flower Cards

May 7, 2020

Flower Cards In Exchange

My latest card exchange just took place! In April, while the showers fell around us and we gathered in our crafty places, flower cards were being made. All this, in an effort to share sunshine and exchange a flower card with a fellow papercrafter.

This exchange was similar to my Val Pal Card Exchange for heart themed cards in January/February. The directions were simple yet again. First, make a card with a flower on it. Next, mail it to me with a self-addressed stamped envelope. Lastly, receive another card-maker’s work in exchange. So fun to swap, even more exciting to see what flower cards everyone came up with!

The Flower Cards

Without further ado, let me introduce the flower cards of May, and delve into the intricate details of each!

Isabella’s Card

Isabella started with a round card base, from a previous Paper Pumpkin kit, that is silver-light blue (blue is her favorite color!). On a punched out pink heart, she drew a lovely flower design, coloring with markers.

The inside of Isabella’s card tells the story. April showers bring May flowers is her theme, with plenty of stormy clouds and rain in April, and beautiful spring flowers, triumphant in May. Besides flowers, Isabella loves to draw dragons. Her card is a masterpiece in art!

Ginny’s Card

The sentiment on Ginny’s card, “you can do it” is so encouraging! As is the bright Daffodil Delight yellow of her fabulous card. The delicate lacy overlay provides an exceptional back-drop for the bright pop of posy.

The leaves on Ginny’s card are stamped and die-cut. The flower is multi-layered, in the die cuts of designer series paper and stamped image, as well as punched cardstock. The center of her flower is a lovely pearl. Altogether, this flower card gives off feel-good positive sunshine-day vibes!

Dolores’ Card

Dolores used the Tulip Builder Punch (one of my favorites!) for her flower garden. The beautiful colors, yellow, red and pink, portray these tulips perfectly. She used a white gel pen to create outlines and dots, creating unique patterns on each one.

The spring green card base and layering piece are corner rounded on all four sides. Dolores’ flower stems and leaves are hand-drawn and colored, a perfect shade, complimentary to the card base. The sentiment, in red, is sweetly placed above the flowers. This card captures the essence of spring in the best possible way!

Jane’s Card

Even though Jane’s card is blue, it certainly doesn’t make us feel that way! Her card base is created with the retiring In Color, Blueberry Bushel. Jane hand-stamped flowers directly, then stamped off for the patterned background.

The leaf sprig on Jane’s card is die cut, with intricate vein detailing. Her gorgeous blue flowers were punched from cardstock and then shaped and curled by hand. The center of each flower is a carefully placed golden seed pearl. This card is such a lovely rendition of the classic blue and white combination!

Linda’s Card

Linda used the popular March Paper Pumpkin kit, No Matter The Weather, to help her create her exchange card. To the adorable girl in the rainboots with the umbrella card front, Linda added some additional, cheerful rainboots, using dimensionals to add depth. She hand-stamped a flower and flourish swirl, popping a perfect pink heart in the center of the latter.

Linda continued her floral theme on the inside, creating two baskets overflowing with stamped and colored flowers. To the top, she added an additional die cut spray of flowers, using dimensionals to give it a lift. Her card has undeniable charm!

Alisa’s Card

Alisa created a card in fun and bright colors on a Crushed Curry card base! Her background lays the foundation, with hand-drawn flowers done in watercolor pencils. A wash of water softened the pencil lines and blended the pinks, yellows, oranges and purples wonderfully.

Alisa hand-stamped and punched the top flower, then watercolored it. The neighboring flowers were punched in pink cardstock. She added additional flowers in tiny stature randomly, and accented her card with yellow, orange and pink embellishments. This card is a real pick-me-up, happy day card!

Holiday’s Card

Holiday created her flower card, starting with a soft gray-blue base. She used excellent layering technique, starting with the yellow and white stripe design paper. Her next layer is done in bright yellow, covered in a variety of hand-stamped flowers that really draw the eye!

For her focal flower, Holiday added a soft orange watercolor washed die cut as a backdrop. On top of that, sits the fun, open-looped 5 petal flower, in a peachy orange color. The center of her flower is an adorable, perfectly sized yellow sticker. The color combinations used here are well chosen, making this card a complete joy to behold!

Steph’s Card

You may be looking at this card and wondering what this one has to do with flowers. Steph took a unique and quirky stab at this, for sure! The April Showers theme plays out well on the front, with a stormy Granite Gray card base and a dozen-and-a-half crystal raindrops. There is even a cloudy sentiment above the pile of (flower embossed, upside down heart) shaped poo that is sitting on die cut grass. But inside…

Steph suggests if life hands you, well, you know…Grow A fresh start. Make the best out of what you are given! The individual letters are hand-stamped in gradient rainbow colors before she die cut them. There are 6 daisy’s, each inked differently, then hand punched. The bees are from a Paper Pumpkin kit, as well as the silver foiled banner. Let’s remember that rain and fertilizer grow the best flowers. This is a laugh out loud, memorable card full of countless details!

Julie’s Card

I chose the stamp set, Grace’s Garden, and the coordinating dies, Garden Gateway, for my flower card. I wanted to create a fun-fold card that would accent the die cut garden gate, and the double easel fold card came to mind.

While it may look technically difficult, it is simple scoring, folding and layering. There was a lot of coloring and die cutting, as well as some sponging, to bring it all together. Tomorrow’s blog post will feature the card recipe and pictoral how-to of the making of this flower card, so come back for more details if you are interested in seeing how this card was created.

Friends Are Flowers In The Garden Of Life

My April Showers Bring May Flower Cards Exchange was so much fun! My request for you to join me in making a flower card for exchange gave me something to look forward to, as cards were received by mail.

Now, as I mail these cards randomly to the participants in return, you have the sweet anticipation of wondering which one of these cards will show up in your mailbox soon!

I truly appreciate all who took the time to participate and share their love of cardmaking with others. There is great joy in the simple sending and receiving of a thoughtful, homemade card! Please continue to craft, create, and send sunshine to others. Be the unexpected flower in someone’s day!

Look forward to the next card exchange, Fall For Cards, with a fall theme, coming this September. I hope to see your participating card, then! More details will follow later…

Sharing Sunshine Digital Stamp Set Part III

May 1, 2020

Creating With Digital Stamps

My Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set review is coming to its conclusion. We have covered purchasing the stamp set and donating to the COVID-19 charities in Part I. In Part II, I gave suggestions on printing and storing the digital stamps. And, each post has offered examples of cards I made using the Share Sunshine Digital Stamps, and insights of creation.

Today, I continue my tips on using the Share Sunshine Digital Stamps. I will also add some pros and cons of these kinds of stamps.

My Number One Tip

I have been learning how to best use digital stamps. And, I have discovered that crazily chopping up all the images is not the greatest idea.

In the included index for the Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set, there are recommendations as to which punches and dies will coordinate with the stamps. If you want to use some of them, you need enough paper surrounding your image to do so. Pre-chopping images may hinder the use of a die or punch.

Therefore, I highly suggest you carefully choose and then cut to suit your intended purpose. (Or, just print out more images. There is always that option, too!)

Other Great Tips:

Use your cutting tool to get straight lines. In order for you to to use dies and punches, you will be required to cut your paper.

You can also select an image from the file, then copy and paste to print single items. This will give you plenty of room to work with too.

Pros of Digital Stamps

You can print these stamps ahead, store them and use them quickly and easily. There are no limits to the amount of times you can print from your purchased file.

There are no stamping errors here. Gone are smears, shady outlines and crooked images.

I love that these stamps won’t fall off their blocks, or get lost in my crafting piles of creativity. No need to clean them up after using them.

Less inky fingers. I only say less because you may still be inking other stamps to go with these digital images. Still, less inky fingers.

Cons Of Digital Stamps

You aren’t actually stamping. We love to stamp, don’t we?

While the images come in options of black or color, the colors are pre-determined. You don’t get to chose a specific color.

You will need electric, a computer, the internet, a printer and most importantly, printer ink. Makes grabbing a physical stamp and ink pad sound easy, right?

The images are great, but…there are techniques that don’t work. For example, you can’t mask them to use partial images like you could with physical stamps. These won’t work for second generation or shadow images. You can’t heat emboss these images. I bet you can think of even more limitations if you put your mind to it!

Is There A Stamp For That?

There are so many occasions and thoughts, words and phrases that we, as cardmakers, want to express artistically. Digital stamps, like those found in the Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set, give us the opportunity to voice our feelings.

A digital stamp set is much less expensive than the typical red rubber or photopolymer, manufacturing costs are nil. And a digital stamp set has the ability to pack so much more imagery into the included offering. Space is not limited to a stamp case or two.

Digital stamps may be perfect for beginner crafters with limited supplies. After printing the stamps, they can be simply cut and added to cardstock. Maybe a little designer series paper and some ribbon complete the look, and you have yourself a card! Now, it’s time to share sunshine, by giving that card away…

Have Another Quaran-tini!

Quarantini card made with Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set

All the images on this happy hour card are part of the Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set. The “martini” is a perfect example of an image that is not exclusive to social distancing. Long term value, there.

Old Olive was the perfect choice for my cardstock base, and Terracotta Tile embossed with the Eyelet Lace Embossing Folder helped mimic the martini olives. I added Crushed Curry to spice things up, and Old Olive Stitched Edge Ribbon as my embellishment.

A quick coloring job with my Stampin’ Blends make this beverage good enough to get a chuckle out of, without actually imbibing.

There’s No Place Like Home (For Now)

No Place Like Home card made with Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set

The Gray Granite color in the sentiment was replicated in my card base and Neutrals 6×6″ DSP. I wanted “home” to be represented in colors we associate with love: pink and red. Therefore, Blushing Bride and Poppy Parade moved into my neighborhood.

I created the houses using the retired stamp set, Holiday Home, and the retired dies, Homemade Holiday Framelits. When I culled my stamp stash for housing choices, they were indeed vast. In The City, Pop On By, Cozy Cottage and At Home With You were almost used.

As is my tendency, I like to use small strips of leftover cardstock as embellishment. I also punched 2 small hearts using a retired mini punch, to show additional love here.

Things I Miss:

News flash! There is a list of things I miss. It is actually a lot longer than this list, however we only have 5 1/2″ of vertical space to work with on our card front.

I chose the black image from the Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set, and kept this one on the dark side (much like the humor here) by using a black card base. I am a huge fan of newsprint type DSP, and I picked a piece from the Call Sail Away Collection.

This card is kept simple on purpose. The focus remains on the list of missed things. I want my recipient to know “YOU” are missed.

What A Year This Week Has Been

And how! We can all relate to this sentiment. I will use this one for any difficult times. I wanted to keep this card extra fun, so I used bright pops of color, Pretty Peacock as my base, and adding in Granny Apple Green and Gorgeous Grape.

The DSP is from the Brights 6×6″ Collection. My fair lady is from the retired stamp set, Just Kidding. She has wonderful opinions to share at any time. I did some great coloring of this image using my Stampin’ Blends.

I stamped the calendar images from the retired set, Project Life, Day To Day. This stamp set also has images of January-December, and Sunday-Saturday. If I could have incorporated more on my card, I would have. (I do have self-control issues from time to time in that regard.)

Share Sunshine!

Regardless if you purchase the Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set or not, the important thing is to share sunshine. As cardmakers, this is easy to do. Make a card, mail it, and cheer someone up.

Digital Stamps may be a thing of the future. We could see more and more of them being offered by Stampin’ Up!. Taking the time to learn a little about them now will make it easier for you to decide if they are something you want in your craft arsenal.

As always, my online store, https://juliemakson.stampinup.net, is open for business. Get the supplies you need to create the sunshine you will be sharing. Someone will be very glad that you took the time to show them you care!