Using stencils – crazyforpaper

Better Days to come card

Spring showers new H2O

Hi Crazy4Challenges fans! I hope everyone is staying healthy during this Covid 19 thing! I don’t know about you, but being forced to stay home in my craft room….well, I’ve had worse things happen. But then again, none of my loved ones has been infected. So my prayers go out to those of you who have been more personally affected. It’s interesting that today’s challenge is to put rain or a rainbow on your card this week. We’ve had a good amount of rain in CA this week!

The Steps:

Step 1: I stenciled the rain drops on a piece of white cardstock with blue ink. Next I cut out a square from this stenciled white cardstock using a nested square die set.

Step 2: Using a Pink and Main stamp called “Puddles”, I stamped the little girl out twice Once on white card stock and again on yellow cardstock with a tiny white heart print on it.

Step 3: I colored the stamped image on white cardstock with Copic Markers and added clear lacquer to the puddle area. Then I “fussy cut” out the Umbrella and Hat out from the stamped yellow cardstock and glued it onto the Copic colored image. Then I “fussy cut” out the entire image after the lacquer was dry.

Step 4: I cut out two grass pieces. cloud and the little yellow flowers from an older couple of Karen Burniston die sets called “The All Season Tree” and “The Garden Bench”.

Step 5: I cut a scalloped square mat for the finished scene piece from light blue cardstock from a nested set by Elizabeth Craft Designs.

Step 6: I created the sentiment on my computer and cut it out with a nest fishtail die set.

Step 7: Create a base card by scoring an 8.5″ x11″ pc. of white cardstock and folding over for a tent fold card. Trim down to 5″ x 5″. Now adhere the finished little rain scene to the base card.

That’s It! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Here’s another look:

Spring showers new H2O

Put A Drink On It!

Drinks H2O

Drinks inside H2O (2)

According to our Hostess, Frances Byrne, it’s Beer Drinking Day! The challenge this week is to put some kind of a drink on your card. I made this card for my best friend, Jeanine, who is also my boss at the beauty salon I’ve worked at for the last 16yrs. Our birthdays are 2 days apart! She is 10yrs. younger than me however! I just love her and we often spend our lunch hour picking up fast food and spending the hour chatting and laughing.

The Steps:

Step 1: I made the pop up inside the card first. I used an older die set from Karen Burniston called 780 – Garden Bench. I like to try to use currently available products but this bench worked so well with the Art Impression’s stamp of these two ladies. 4407 – Coffee BFF’s

Step 2: The card is a 6″x6″ square. I cut two 5.75″ x 5.75″ squares from white cardstock. I stamped one with the tree from this stamp set I bought from:Amazon link to stamp set

Tree stamp

I have purchased several sets from this seller on Amazon. They all have not disappointed me. The seller is GIMITSUI. They don’t spend on fancy packaging and the buyer benefits. This set is priced at $6.59 They are a Prime Member store and offer free shipping and free returns! What! I know! You will not want to return them. All of the stamp sets I have purchased from them stamp very well. Here are two more sets that I adore and have already used.

You may remember the elephant set used on another C4C Sketch Challenge:

Aug sketch Elephant H2O (2)

Then I used PanPastels to stencil the clouds and hills behind the bench. The other 6″ square I also used PanPastels and stencils for the grass and path: Snow storm and Clouds & Mountain and Split rail Fence

Drinks inside H2O (2)

Next I trimmed them to fit behind and around the bench. Wait to adhere these two stenciled squares until later.

Step 3: I stamped the Art Impression BFF’s stamp. I colored them with Copic Markers and fussy cut them out. I glued them to the front of the bench just on the back side of their legs which makes them really look like they’re sitting on that bench! I’ve had the AI stamp for awhile and have used them a lot. But I really believe I saw Frances use this stamp exactly like this when the Garden Bench first came out.

Step 4: Cut two 6″ squares from a sky blue cardstock for the front and back of the pop up. Now take a scrap of white cardstock that is about 2″ x 4″ and stencil this strip to continue the hills behind the bench. Do the same thing for under the bench. Adhere the strip that is for behind the bench to the bottom of a blue square. (Make sure it is positioned to fill in where the bench cut out is). Do the same thing for the piece that is attached to the path/grass layer and adhere it to what will be the back of the card.

Step 5: I used 3 die sets for the front of the card: 1434 Calligraphic Elements – 3

1161 – happy birthday and Coffee Charms. I cut the “Elements” from silver mirror cardstock. I cut coffee cup with white cardstock and colored with Copic Markers. I cut the top from Velum. The happy birthday is from dark blue cardstock. Adhere them all to the front of the card as shown:

Drinks H2O

Adhere the other blue square to the back of the card and it’s done! I can’t wait to see what you make this week!

Other Products use:

Beacon’s Kids Choice Glue

CutterPillar Pro

Michael’s Craft Store: All cardstock

Sizzix Big Shot Pro

Put A Bird on it!

Pink House H2O (2)

It’s a new month with new challenges! This week’s challenge is put a bird on it. There’s 3 on this card! I recently acquired Art Impression’s Holiday Mansion 4926 and HM Garden Set 5096: 4926 – Holiday Mansion 5096 – HM Garden Set

Ai Holiday House dies stamps

Both of these sets include the stamps and matching dies. Ai also has a “Holiday” themed stamp and die set, as well as a Valentines Day set too, giving you so many different looks.

4927 – HM Accessory Set: 4927 – HM Accessory Set

4977 – HM – Valentine Set: 4977 – Valentine Set

I am nuts for this set because it looks different depending on however you color it or decorate it. Here’s a picture of the same two sets but in a different color scheme:

Blue ai house H2O

Pink House H2O (2)

The blue one I made right away and gave it to my best girlfriend. The pink one I made for this challenge and went a little nuts with the decorating. I do have some tips that will help you get better results with stamping and cutting these adorable stamp and die sets.

The Steps:

Step 1: First stamp the “house” stamp on white cardstock. I knew I wanted to fussy cut the house to be adhered to a hand made background. Also, there is no die in the set that cuts out the outline of the house. This is what the house dies do:

House white template

They cut out the windows and doors. There are two shutter stamps and matching dies. So here’s TIP #1: If you look close at the stamped house on the right above, when I taped the dies to the stamped image and ran it through my cutting machine, I was off just a little bit. In particular, the arch on the door. You’ll see, at the top of the arch, I cut off part of the bottom of the stamped “porch cover”. So the tip is to tape these dies to a strip of white cardstock in order to make a template. This allows you to use this template to see exactly where to tape the dies. It’s hard to see when the die is upside down on your projects because you know longer can see the blade

Tip #2: You can stamp the house on white cardstock as well as the accessory stamps on this same layer and create a scene using only the stamps. Or, a combination of both, like only cutting out the house dies but not the accessory stamps in the scene. In this case you will REALLY want to use a template.

Step 2: I stamped the “flower pot” accessory stamp a bunch of times on white cardstock. This gives you lots of options for not only how many you’ll actually use, but what colors you like best with the rest of the scene. Any you don’t use you save for another project! I stamped colored and cut all the rest of the accessories once.

Step 3: This step is optional but I think is what makes it so fun, is to have a little surprise behind the two doors that open, and also that you see through the windows. For this I used Ai: 4745 – Talk Much Set

2018-07-01 20.14.32

I stamped this little tea scene and then cut the colored scene in pieces so I could place the table scene through the front door and the Chandelier through the top left window.

Then I put a couple of stamped, colored and cut flower pots in the other two.

Step 4: I used this set from Elizabeth Craft Designs:992 – CountryScapes – The Woods 1

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I only used the left side of the tree. I cut the trunk from brown cardstock and the leaves from green.

The fence was cut with an Elizabeth Craft Designs 1134 – CountryScapes Nantucket Arbor & Picket Fence. As of this day they didn’t show it available now. However, I cut two of the fences out of white cardstock.

Picket Fence die

The last thing is to cut two “grass edges” from this set that is also no longer available but is a set by Karen Burniston 914 – Outdoor Edges – 3 die set

2018-03-19 14.44.39

From green cardstock, I cut one edge with the wavy one and one with the Grass edge.

The last step is to assemble your little scene as shown below:

Pink House H2O (2)

Thanks so much for taking a look. I just think this set is adorable and I will be buying the other two decorator accessory sets because I can’t wait to use this set for Christmas, Halloween, and Valentines Day!

Other Products Used:

Michael’s Craft Store: All cardstock

Beacon’s Kid’s Choice Glue

Sizzix Big Shot Plus

CutterPillar Pro

Fancy Fold Challenge

Fancy folds are fun and all the rage!

Neighberhood front H2O

Neighberhood open H2O

As this month’s hostess Rebecca Ednie said “fancy folds are both fun and all the rage now”. So this week’s challenge is to make a card with at least 2 or 3 folds over at Crazy4Challenges

I got this set from Sizzix years ago, but just never used it and forgot about it. Then while looking for something else I ran into this set. So I decided to use it for this week’s challenge.

Sizzix houses and dies

The Steps:

Step 1: Cut a 8.5″ x 11″ piece of white cardstock down to measure 11″ x 5.5″. Score this cut pc. at 5.5″. Then turn it over and score one end at 2.5″. Now it should look like this:

Folds

Flip this piece back over and stencil clouds on it with PanPastel and Elizabeth Craft Designs stencil called “Clouds and Grass”. Leave 1.5″ on the lower edge white.

Step 2: Using Elizabeth Craft Designs 914 – Outdoor Edges – 3 die set (the plain wavy die in the middle) cut about a little more than a 1.5″ x 11″ strip out of green cardstock twice.

2018-03-19 14.44.39

Step 3: Cut a strip of either the same green cardstock or white that measures 1.5″ x 11″. Now score it the same way you did for step 1.

Step 4: Using a green PanPastel, color the bottom white edge. Now adhere the step 3 strip to the bottom of the card with the longer panel of the strip attached to the shorter panel.

Finished folds

Step 5: Stamp all the images you want to decorate with and color them. Now cut them out with the coordinating dies.

Step 6: Add all your finished elements to create a little neighborhood. I added sea gulls from a set by Frantic Stamper called Flying Gulls.

Here’s another quick look:

Neighberhood open H2O

Thanks for taking a look. I answer all questions, so don’t hesitate to ask.

Other Products Used:

Beacon’s Kid’s Choice Glue

Michael’s Craft Store: all cardstock

Sizzix Big Shot Plus

C4C – Fall Themed Challenge

An October Birthday Card

My youngest daughter’s birthday is in October. I have never made her a card that represented her month of the year. So this weeks challenge theme gave me an opportunity to do just that.

The Steps:

First cut a rectangle from white cardstock that measures 5.25″ x 6.75″ then using the stencil from Elizabeth Craft Designs called: S016 – Earth and Sky stencil clouds on the upper third of this rectangle. The picture shows me using this stencil on a different project. I forgot to take a picture of this one.

Earth & Sky - Stencil - ElizabethCraftDesigns.com

2018-05-23 13.26.28 Next, using Elizabeth Craft Designs: 1366 – CountryScapes – Land & Sea

2018-03-19 12.18.29 and the edge die that has the barn and trees, tape it to the top of a 2nd piece of white cardstock that measures 6.75′ x 5.25″. Color the barn and trees and the top edges with Copic Markers. Then I used PanPastels to color the rest of this layer. Adhere this layer to the stenciled clouds layer, matching up the two bottom corners.

Next, die cut all the elements from these die sets:

Cut all the pcs. that make up the scarecrow, and the bale of hay pc. I didn’t use the pumpkins from this set.

Instead, I used the pumpkins from this set that I just discovered may be no longer available.

Corn stock Flora 4 I cut the stalks out twice, the pumpkins several times to have enough and 3 times for the sunflower pcs. I also cut the vine pc. twice. All these pcs. were cut with white cardstock and colored with Copic Markers.

The last die set was also from Elizabeth Craft Designs: 1084 – CountryScapes – New England Stone Wall & Gate

Cut the little fence piece twice. The last element is the “happy birthday” sign. I stamped the sentiment on another pc. of wood grain cardstock and glued it to a leftover pc. that looked like a stake to me.

Now adhere all the cute little elements to make your “October” fall scene and adhere to a side fold base that measures 5.5 ” x 7″ Here’s another look:

That’s it!

Thanks again for spending some precious time over here! I hope you’ll take this week’s challenge and I’ll see you in October when I will host the blog and have a special guest designer planned.

Other Products Used:

Elizabeth Craft Designs: Soft Finish Cardstock Dove Gray 12′ x 12″ (base card), Clear Double Sided Adhesive 10mm

Beacon’s Kids Choice Glue

Sizzix Big Shot Plus

C4C – A Birthday card with Numbers

I love interactive cards!

C4C numbers open

Everyone who knows me, knows I love interactive cards. For this card I chose Karen Burniston’s 1042 – 1042 – Spinner Square Pop Up

This die set is so versatile. It can be used for almost any theme you want. I always recommend that you watch Karen’s: Spinner Square Pop Up assembly video It will really help you make the “spinner mechanism” work properly the very first time.

The Steps:

Step 1: I chose a digital designer paper from a shop on Etsy called “The Digi Rainbow” that’s called 100 Number Digital Papers. Yes, there are 100 different colors of this same paper that’s included in the Sale price of $1.40 for all of the colors! What? I used this blue one for the front, the inside left, and the back of the card.

Step 2: I stenciled some clouds on the right inside as well as some die cut clouds from a set that has been discontinued.

Step 3: I stamped and colored with Copic Markers this stamp from Art Impressions:

Art Impressions

Once colored, I fussy cut the “couple flying in the plane” to spin up on the square when the card is opened.

Step 4: On my computer I created the two sentiments that is a quote from Abraham Lincoln! (“It’s not the years in your life, it’s the life in your years”)

Step 5: The “Happy Birthday” sentiment on the front is: 783 – Happy Birthday

That’s it!

Other Products Used:

Elizabeth Craft Designs: Clear Double Sided Adhesive 10 mm

Michael’s: Light Blue Cardstock

Beacon’s Kids Choice Glue

Sizzix Big Shot Plus

C4C -446 National Mountain Climbing Day!

Who knew we have a National Mountain Climbing Day?

2018-07-23 C4C446

Yep, It’s National Mountain Climbing Day! First, let me say you’ll will never get me to climb a mountain. But I do ride a tricycle! My dog rides in the back (pic. on right).

Here’s how I made this card:

Step 1: Cut a pc. of white cardstock in a rectangle that measures .25 x 7″. Using a stencil by Susan Tierney Cockburn called S016 – Earth and Sky stencil clouds with PanPastels 520.5 Ultramarine Blue on the top half of this rectangle.

Earth & Sky - Stencil - ElizabethCraftDesigns.com

Step 2: I used this die set from Elizabeth Craft Designs called Western Edges which is no longer available. It is a Karen Burniston die set. Cut both the mountain one and the horse one from white cardstock. The mountain one was cut by putting the die at the top of a 6 x 5.25″ white cardstock rectangle and colored with PanPastel’s 780.5 Raw Umber and 250.5 Diarylide Yellow. The horse die was cut from a white cardstock rectangle measuring 5.25 x 4″. I colored the horses with Copic Markers and the rest was colored with the same two PanPastels as the mountain layer but with less of the Raw Umber. The 3 grass pcs. were also cut from scrap white cardstock and colored lightly with the Raw Umber also. The barbed wire was cut from Silver Mirror cardstock.

2018-03-19 12.18.45

Step 3: Make a base card by scoring an 8.5 x 11″ at 5.5″ and fold over for a book fold card. Now start layering your 3 western edges as shown on top the stenciled “clouds” layer. Add the 3 grass pcs. and the barbed wire pc.

Step 4: I created the sentiment by using stamps from this set from Elizabeth Craft Designs: CS077 – Sentiments 2 – Just Because I love both the size and font in this set. Plus, it’s on SALE for 5.95!

2018-08-02 15.32.46

That’s it!

Thanks so much for taking a look. I love visitors and comments or questions. I hope you’ll take the challenge this week and show us you version of the “Mountain” challenge.

Other Products Used:

Elizabeth Craft Designs: Clear Double Sided Adhesive 10mm

Sizzix Big Shot Plus

Walmart: Reflections 110lb. white cardstock

Beacon’s Kids Choice Glue

Hello Spring!

I spent the weekend potting up some flowers for my backyard patio. The birds were singing their hearts out! It reminded me of two adorable die sets from Joset for Elizabeth Craft Designs: The first one is: 1250 – Birdhouse

This set is so cute and comes with a pc. that makes snow for on top of the roof. I cut the roof and stand from brown cardstock, the house from blue, and the “lines” pc., and extra “heart” pc. twice, from white. Color one of the white hearts yellow with Copic Y08.

The second one is the coordinated set: 1249 – Birds

I cut all the pcs. in this set from white cardstock and colored them with PanPastels Burnt Umber and colored the tiny eye circles with Black Copic Marker. The birds feet were also colored with Copic Y08 Put a foam dot behind the birds head centered over the eye holes but don’t remove the protective paper back yet. The birds bundled up for winter with the snow on the roof of the birdhouse makes an adorable winter card.

Next cut two ovals. Cut one blue oval from the largest die in this set by Elizabeth Craft Designs: 1173 – Dotted Scallop Ovals

Cut a white oval from the largest die in this set from:

Elizabeth Craft Designs: 1113 – Stiched Ovals

The next step is to color a back ground on the white oval. Using Elizabeth Craft Designs stencil called “Clouds and Grass“, I stenciled Clouds using PanPastel’s Ultra Marine Blue and Dairylide Yellow. I placed the assembled birds where they would be glued down to know where to stop the clouds and stencil the grass.

I made a stencil for the grass that matched the grass dies I used. I adhered double sided adhesive to cardstock and cut out this die: Elizabeth Craft Designs 914 – Outdoor Edges – 3 die set This is a way to get more from your dies. As you can see from the picture below, you use the negative pc. for the stencil.

Assemble the birdhouse but don’t insert the yellow heart yet. Put a little pc. of paper behind the heart space. Put a drop of glue into the heart space and then the yellow heart. Put a large foam dot behind the house. Color the tiny eyes with Black Copic Marker. Color the grass pcs. with green Copic Marker.

The picture above shows the bottom third of the white oval where I first stenciled the grass and then added PanPastel Burnt Umber here and there amongst the grass. The two little grass pcs. are from a die set that has just recently been discontinued. The DiesRUs Store carries a lot of little grass die choices for this step.

The blue corner pieces were cut from this die set from: Impression Obsession Brick House

The finished card measures 5.5 x 7″. Make a base card by scoring a piece of 8.5 x 11″ pc. of white cardstock at 5.5″. Fold at the score line for a book fold card. Cut a background mat from blue gingham cardstock that measures 5.25 x 6.75″ and adhere to the front of the white base card.

Assemble the Oval focal point. Adhere the birdhouse to the stenciled white oval but leave the one slanted brace on the right side loose to slip a pc. of grass under it then glue down. The house it’s self will be adhered by now removing the back of the foam dot. Now adhere this completed oval to the blue scalloped one and adhere this stack to the front of the card as pictured. Glue the little blue corner pcs. to the corners of the gingham mat. I added a “Hello” sentiment I had in my stash but this project could be for almost any occasion. The little hearts are from the birdhouse die set.

That’s It

Thanks for taking a look at the tutorial and don’t forget to stop by daily at the DiesRUs Inspiration Blog. We love to see what YOU make for the challenge blog!

Other quick links:

Dies R Us Store: DiesRUs Store Home Page

Dies R Us Challenge Blog: Dies R Us Challenge Blog

Dies R Us Facebook Page: Dies R Us Facebook Page

Other products used:

Elizabeth Craft Designs: White soft finish cardstock 8.5 x 11″, Clear Double Side Adhesive. Retired Karen Burniston’s Garden Bench Pop Up (grass pcs.)

Sizzix Big Shot Plus

Beacon’s Kids Choice Glue

C4C – 434 Train Day!

A cute birthday card for a child.

2018-05-07 C4C 434

2018-05-07 19.22.02

Yep, today is apparently Train Day! So the challenge today is to put a train on it! Now there probably is a die set of a train somewhere, but I haven’t seen it. So I went for another digital stamp. I found this cute circus train on Etsy from an artist’s shop called Pretty Grafik.

2018-05-05 22.31.42

The Steps:

Step 1: Size, print and color up the image:

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Step 2: Using a stencil from Elizabeth Craft Designs called Earth and Sky:

Earth & Sky - Stencil - ElizabethCraftDesigns.com

Stencil clouds on the upper half with PanPastel’s 520.5 Ultramarine Blue. Using a small sponge dauber and Panpastel’s 780.5 Raw Umber and a little 250.5 Diarylide Yellow.

Step 3: Using the die set below cut all pcs. with white cardstock and color with Copic markers or cut with green cardstock.

2016-11-08-19-07-36

Step 4: Cut the words Happy Birthday with green cardstock.

Step 5: Make a card base by cutting a pc. of 12 x 12″ cardstock in half. Score one half at 6″ on the long side. Fold over for a top fold card and trim to a 5.75″ square. Adhere the finished scene pc. onto the card base.

Step 6: The inside balloons were made with this die set Lollypop:

The strings for the balloons came from a set that has since been discontinued. You could use a pc. of real string or yarn and glue in place.

The sentiment inside “Make it as fun as train full of circus animals!” was created on my computer and printed on yellow cardstock and cut with the 2nd largest die from this set:

2018-05-07 22.01.35

That’s it!

Thanks so much for taking a look. I know your time is valuable and I appreciate it!

If your interested in purchasing some of the products used, click on the blue words and it will take you right to the store. I receive no commission of any kind.

Other Products Used:

Elizabeth Craft Designs: Soft Finish Cardstock 12 x 12″ white, Clear Double Sided Adhesive

Beacon’s Kids Choice Glue

Sizzix Big Shot Plus

Tag: Using stencils

Better Days to come card

Like this:

Put A Drink On It!

Like this:

Put A Bird on it!

Like this:

Fancy Fold Challenge

Like this:

C4C – Fall Themed Challenge

Like this:

C4C – A Birthday card with Numbers

Like this:

C4C -446 National Mountain Climbing Day!

Like this:

Hello Spring!

Like this:

C4C – 434 Train Day!

Like this: