Fetching the Christmas Tree

Here's another Magic Picture Changer card I made using the Lawn Fawn Die. I'm putting this one into the Interactive Card challenge for Lawn Fawn too. For this one, I used Lawn Fawn's row of houses snow-capped from the Simply Celebrate Winter stamp set.

I don't have a Lawn Fawn car, but I have one from Hot Off the Press. So, that's what I used to put in front of the houses. I coloured everything with my Copic Markers and I used my newest holiday die-cut sentiment.

I set the card on glitter snowflake cardstock and used a gorgeous red glitter cardstock for the sentiment. I got the snowflake glitter in a paper pad from Michael's one year (on sale after Christmas) and the red cardstock was from Dollarama. I really like the contrast between the snowflake paper (especially the navy stamping I did) and the red sentiment.

Now, the Magic Picture Changer die is a little pricey. So I did not buy the add-on die that creates a nice front panel with a window for the mechanism piece. (I'm glad Lawn Fawn separated those pieces to help keep the main die cost down.)

I have a set of stitched rectangles from Your Next Stamp. So, I used the one that matched the width of the Magic Picture Changer, but it's a bit longer. My panel is the piece with the navy blue snowflakes. I stamped white cardstock with a background snowflake stamp to make that piece. I cut a window in it with a 2 inch square die. Then I used the frame from the main Magic Picture Change die set to cover the window. That inside space is about 1.75 inches.

I really like my homemade cover panel. The extra length makes it fit with an even border on the front of the card base.

This picture changer is next level! I love having an interactive surprise waiting for the recipient. I have seen tutorials on how to do it with an Xacto knife, but my blade skills are not nearly good enough do that! Especially after colouring up the images, you want something that is sure to cut perfectly! I definitely would not ever attempt a card like this without the Lawn Fawn die!

Birthday Presents for you!

Lawn Fawn is having an interactive card challenge (Challenge #58)! I recently bought the Magic Picture Changer Die and made a few cards from it. This one is a birthday card that is going to my nephew. The raccoon is from a Your Next Stamp woodland set. The row of gifts is from Lawn Fawn.

I coloured each image at the same time (i.e. the raccoon's head on both the before and after picture, then the raccoon's body, then his tail, etc.) to try to make them look as similar as possible. I used my Copic cool greys on this critter. I tried to leave the area around his eyes and snout as light as possible, based on looking at some raccoon faces online. They do have a white rim there above the eye mask.

I used a medley of sentiments: A Recollections die for the "happy", a Frantic Stamper stamp for the "birthday", and a Hello Bluebird stamp for the "for you". I drew the grassy hill in myself. I wish I had used pencil crayon for the blades of grass. I would have gotten finer flicks. Oh well! You can't see the grass on the "after" picture anyway with all those gifts in front!

It was a bit finicky to work with this die. I have some suggestions of how to make this die better:

1. Make the pull tab longer with a crease fold so you can fold it over in two to strengthen it. I had to cut two (the second one slightly longer to tuck in past the slit opening) to reinforce it.
2. Make the "tracks" wider. It's hard to fold 1/8th strips and you need ultra precision with your tape or glue. I would have made them at least 1/4 inch. OR, make them cut out with a die as separate strips to adhere as tracks instead of folding them over. I have a 1/8th strip cutter die from Accucut Craft and I did use that on one of them. I had done something wrong on the folded bits and tore them back up but then they were mangled. So, I cut new strips with my strip cutter and adhered them down. That was easy.

I would also like to see a bigger one. The changer window area is quite small. Based on the success of this die, I wouldn't be surprised to see it get a big sister in the future!

Dragon's Birthday Gift

Here's another challenge card. This one is for the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Challenge #492: Green. I will be going to my first Kraftin' Kimmie stamping/scrapbooking retreat this year. I have a few Kraftin' Kimmie sets and one is these Darling Dragons. Dragons + Green works perfectly for this challenge entry!

I used Paper Craft Crew Card Sketch # 325 for this card. I added a little gift from the dragon using a stamp in a Hello Bluebird set of stamps that I have.

(Click photo for larger view.)

I used a scrap strip of patterned paper. The sketch called for a bigger piece at the bottom but my strip was narrower. I chose to place it higher and border it with two 1/8th strips of metallic black cardstock. I used my 1/8th strip cutting die from Accucut Craft to make the strips perfect.

I coloured this dragon with Copic markers and also added the iridescent medium to its spine and tummy. I used a Sakura sparkly pink gel pen on the gift's ribbon.

(Click photo for larger view.)

I masked the gift first and then stamped the dragon after so that the gift would be in front. I heat-embossed the sentiment in white on the dark navy paper. The paper scrap has glitter in it as well, but I didn't get it in the photo. A tiny scrap of silver glitter paper finished the card off.

Shimmer Dragon

It's been a long time since I have participated in any card challenges. I saw the current CASology challenge #348: Shimmer and knew I had lots of stamps I could make shimmery! I like the CASology challenges because clean and simple is my style. I like to minimize bulk so that my cards are more mail-able. I am too late to actually join the challenge, but it's fun to play along nonetheless!

I have fairies, unicorns, and dragons that I can add shimmer to. I chose the very cute C.C. Designs Rubber Stamps dragons for this card. I've seen many rainbow ink-blended cloud backgrounds and I decided it was time to try one myself! I used my homemade cloud stencil and 3 colours of dye inks. I coloured the dragon with my Copic markers.

For shimmer, I used an iridescent medium by Liquitex that is designed to be mixed with acrylic paint. I applied it with a paint brush to the dragon's spines and wings. I tilted the card in this picture so you could see the shimmer. I also splattered some among the clouds. It comes in a large bottle and you can get it at Michaels with a coupon. When my Wink of Stella pen runs out, I think I'm going to put this stuff in it! It has the same effect. The only differences to me are that 1) it doesn't come in a waterbrush, 2) it has more of a white or silver shine, 3) it's cheaper by volume.

The bottom section of cloud is a panel I used a cloud border die on and then popped up on foam tape. The sentiment is from a Hello Bluebird stamp set with a Yeti. I stamped it on vellum and and ran it through my Xyron 1.5 inch sticker maker to adhere it.

It was nice to be inspired by a challenge to make this card. I think it turned out pretty cute!