Jen Johnson's blog

Scalloped Square Mini Album

I just finished my second mini album! I'd show you the first one, but I handed it off for Father's Day already and its sitting on my husband's desk at work. This is the second one that I made:

 

(Click on images to see them larger)

Its a fun little project that makes a perfect gift for anyone! I got the idea from a blog that I follow written by SU demo Julie Buhler. There are a couple of things that make my album different, mainly that I don't have the SU Sizzix Scalloped Square, I have the version that you can get at JoAnns. Its a smaller square so I had to change the dimensions. I also decided to go with just two pictures and a full page for the names. Not that I think the person who receives this will forget who is who, but it was fun to make those names and I thought it would be easier than coming up with more pictures! Oh, and one thing that makes mine more original is that I created a little "kick-stand" for the middle of the album to help it stand up straighter. This is something I didn't do with the first album that I made, but the first complaint that I got was that it didn't stand up properly without putting something in the middle, so for this one I built it in. 

For products in this I used the Sizzix Scalloped Square (non-SU), Kraft CS (SU) for the base, DCWV patterned paper, various other CS for matting, the SU bird punch from the Spring Mini catalog, Scalloped Square punch (for the kick stand), ribbon and various adhesives. Oh, and I used Cuttlebug dies for the letters, which I ran through my Big Shot. 
 

CASEing a "Double CASE" card

So I don't know if this counts as a triple case, or if it just goes back to a regular case... but I copied another one of Chris's cards! Today she posted a card with a great flower on it, and I stared at it for a good while before coming up with what I think looks pretty darn close! Usually when you CASE a card you have instructions and just make it yours, but this was definitely a challenge for me since I had to eyeball it. Plus, I know the dimensions of my tools are slightly different than Chris's, so that also would have made copying a tutorial hard!

Here's Chris's version of the card (it also links to her blog):

 

And here's what I came up with:

I can't say exactly how Chris made hers, but I can explain how I made mine. First of all, I decided against making mine a square card and I made it a standard A2 size (4.25x5.5"). Other than that I used a Sizzix scalloped square die and I created 4 smaller squares inside. The patterned paper is from the DCWV Summer Dream pack (both the pink and the blue). For the flower I used six each of a large and small heart punch, and I folded them in half and then in half again to create the pleats. I glued the smaller hearts onto the larger heart "petals". I was a little baffled at how to adhere the petals to the card, but I decided on a large Zots glue dot, which is a very thick glue dot. I basically stuck the tips of the petals into the glue dot, and it held pretty securely. The button in the middle has a bow tied with twine and is also adhered with another Zots glue dot. The button is a little small to use such a large glue dot, but hopefully thats ok! 

No, its not a card...

No, its not a card, but it is something that was cased (CASE = Copy And Share Everything) from a Stampin' Up thing that I saw. There is this new trend to use the Sizzix Flower Folds die (exclusive to SU) to make fabric flower pins or bows. Well, that is an expensive die, so I decided to improvise and see if my Spellbinders Dahlia dies would do the same thing. Turns out you actually can cut fabric with the spellbinders dies, although cutting two layers works better than one, adding a paper shim helps, and running it through about 4 times also seems to help. All of this considered, there were still some parts that I had to trim with my scissors, but it did a really decent job considering. Oh, and I used the 3 largest sizes of dies. What made this project even better is that I got to FINALLY open up the 4"x4" quilt squares that I bought off of ebay many years ago when I got into quilting. 

 

This is my first attempt, and I like it a lot! I used random cotton fabric and a corduroy button from Stampin Up. Since I wasn't sure what to attach it to after I finished it, I decided I needed to come up with another one that matched my handbag that I use every day. 

(Sorry that these ones are so blurry, I couldn't get it to focus properly!)

Such a fun project! It didn't take very long to make either. I used some fabric glue to help hold it together. I tried hand stitching but I just felt like it needed something more. A small dot of fabric glue under each section did the trick. After sewing the button on the blue flower I did some extra stitches from the underside to help hold it together so that I wasn't just relying on the glue. If I actually had a chance to sit down and do it without stopping, I'd say it took less than an hour to make one, maybe even as little as 30 minutes.  

Here's a version made by my friend Chris Twing with the Stampin Up die:

 

Colors and things

I was sorting through my paper supply when I realized that a color that I once thought I didn't like was nearly gone before colors that I thought were my favorite. As a challenge to myself I had tried to use that color more than others so that I wouldn't be stuck with a color I didn't care for, and as it turns out I really like it now that I've used it a bunch. Now I'll likely have to reorder this color when I make my next purchase! Oh, and the color is Ocean Tides from Papertrey Ink.

In other news, I have decided I definitely will try scrapbooking. So far I've concentrated on card making, but I have a lot of things that I'd like to put into scrapbooks too. I bought a couple of albums to fill up, so hopefully I'll get on top of that sometime soon! I'm a little intimidated by dealing with pictures, which makes cards so easy for me, but once I get some pictures printed out and some pages all made up I'm sure I'll be hooked.

I'm also interviewing for a job at Archiver's today! I'm excited to work there and get a discount. It will either be a really good thing, or possibly a really bad thing (if I spend more than I make!) Either way its a chance to get out of the house and be around crafty things that I enjoy. I don't know if I'll be able to create displays or anything, but maybe after some time I can do that stuff or even teach some classes! 

Holographic Embossing Powder!

I really love this holographic embossing powder that I got from Archivers recently! I'm such a fan of glitter that I guess there's no way that I wouldn't like this stuff, but now I'm thinking I wont use loose glitter anymore! Here are some of the cards that I've made using it:

 

 

  

The glitter seems to either turn green or orange/red after it is embossed. I think the color has something to do with the amount of heat it gets during the embossing process, or else I wouldn't have been able to control it when I did this:

You can see that the left side of the label is green and the right side has the orange/red color, yet it is the same embossing powder on both sides. You can even tell that there are both colors present in the design in the lower right corner. I think it gives it a neat fire-like look. The pictures cant even do justice to how neat this looks in person.  
 

So how does it work? Well, its basically a clear embossing powder with glitter built in. Or at least thats what it looks like! Pretty simple stuff, actually. Maybe someday I'll try mixing some clear embossing powder with some glitter to see if that would really do the same thing. Until then, the premixed stuff from Archivers is still my newest favorite thing!
 

Color Challenge and Cased Card

The other day I made a few cards that I posted on Facebook with the titles of "Color Challenge" and "Cased Card" and those of you who aren't deeply involved in the world of card making probably have little clue as to what those labels actually mean. 

The color challenge was something I found on Splitcoast where they had three Stampin Up colors that had to be put together on a single card. The colors were Lovely Lilac, Gable Green and Cameo Coral. I had 2 of the three colors, and it was ok to improvise for the challenge so I came up with this card:

Since I only had Lovely Lilac and Gable Green, I picked a random pink that I had and made what I thought of as a "backwards" colored flower (pink leaves, green petals) I realized after I already cut out the purple that the CS I used was the wrong shade of purple! It was Orchid Opulence (a lighter shade) so I stamped it with the Lovely Lilac. The background purple is something else all together. I just had to keep working on it to make it look nice enough... but it just didn't seem right. I had to try again and this time I made sure I used the right colors! Here's what I made:

  

I like this one a lot! Its very simple and it has all the colors that it needs to have! I also really like the watercolor technique that I used in this one. This card uses the Asian Artistry set from Stampin Up which is only available as a hostess set. It makes me so glad that I hosted a workshop and that I was able to get it! There are some really beautiful stamps in that set. 

The other thing that I mentioned was the Cased Card. My Stampin Up demonstrator, Chris Twing, makes a lot of really neat cards that she posts on her blog. After looking at some of her recent posts, and a video tutorial she posted, I decided to take her advice to recreate a card using what we have, and at the same time I "cased" one of her cards.

 (My card)
 (Chris's Card)
  

I don't have the stamps that she used in her card, so I used the closest stamps that I had. I think the colors are really similar in these cards, but my camera doesn't really do it justice. I really like how mine turned out though. I'll have to try making this layout of card again, it turned out so well! The silver pigment ink that I used got kind of smudgy though, so I think I will just use white craft ink next time. It would look pretty similar in the end!

Trying something new!

Sometimes I will just poke around on Splitcoaststampers.com or click on one of the posts by them on Facebook and come up with ideas. Tonight I ended up finding a card that I just had to try! It was the "Surprise Pop-Up Card". The directions were a little confusing, and ultimately I ended up having to fix a step that I skipped, but all things considered it turned out really well!

 

 

I did have some technical difficulties, but I suppose that is to be expected when trying a new technique. I'm really happy with how I got all of the colors to match. The front and back of the card are cardstock from my Papertreyink order, the striped paper was from a DCWV paper pack that I got at JoAnns, and the ink is Stampin Up. I'm very much looking forward to trying this again! Now I know what to expect for next time. :)
 

 

My First Card Party!

I was very excited last week to hold my very first "card party" or workshop. I had two card layouts for everyone to make and a fun little freebie that I made mostly as a thank you to my guests. I realize that most of the friends I have from my moms group haven't tried this sort of craft before, but I decided to go with cards that I thought were cool and different instead of simple or basic cards that would be very easy. The first card that we worked on was the flower pot card.

The second card is an easel card that I made up after playing with my Scalloped Scallop border punch by EK Success. The punch made the white paper look a lot like the top of a fence, so I went with that and tried out a new flower sizzix die that I wanted to use for the first time. 

This card is actually still held together just with temporary adhesive because I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep it the way that I originally made it, but I just haven't made it permanent yet!  At the very last moment, right before I had my friends start the second card I mentioned an idea that came to mind just a moment before I voiced it. I suggested a totally different color scheme for the card. I wanted to try out a blue/green flower with brown leaves. Not really an opposite color scheme, but just something a little different. They loved the idea! I was really excited! I didn't have a sample of the new color scheme to show them, but they did such a great job with it I had to take a picture. This is the card that Lindsey made:

 

I think it turned out awesome! I'm excited to do this again for making a father's day card. 

The little bonus that I made for everyone was a variety of little flower bookmarks. There were all different colors, but this is the only one that I took a picture of! I thought they were pretty cute. I hope everyone liked them!

Hope you all enjoy looking at these things! I'm having so much fun with my new hobby. What will I come up with next? :) 

 

The Card Swap

A little over a week ago I tried out a new (to me) meetup for scrapbookers and stampers. It was actually a technique club similar to one I already go to on a monthly basis, but since I need more of a "fix" from my new crafty hobby I wanted to join a new group. Anyhow, they are planning a card swap for May and it is due this Friday. For this card swap we are to make 12 identical cards and they must follow the theme of flowers, which is extremely vague. I wasn't sure if I wanted my flowers to be discreet or not, I actually had no idea what to do for this project at all! I have a lot of stamp sets, so I wasn't sure which flowers to use either. There's also flower punches, flower dies, flower designer paper, flower themed sentiments... lots of options! This time I used one of the cards from my group's technique club as my motivation. I didn't entirely case it as much as just get inspiration from it. This month's theme was embossing, and my card actually has no embossing, but here's the original card that I made at Chris Twing's technique club:

 

I just got the Stampin Up French Script background stamp from another member of my technique club who wanted to upgrade to the current version called En Francais. Its very similar but the new version looks a little more formal and has some more loopy letters on it. Anyhow, since I don't have the clear embossing powder to copy the emboss resist technique used above, I thought I'd just simplify it. I used my French Script background stamp, used flower stamps in a pigment ink, tore the edges and embellished from there. Here's what I came up with:

Can you see the similarities? So maybe there isn't really all that much. I did use similar but different colors in mine and kept it pretty simple and mellow. I didn't want to put on a sentiment since I never know what I'll use my cards for, so I figured I'd leave them blank for the recipient too since its a card swap. I really had a hard time coming up with embellishments for this card, but it just needed something. There is some glitter in the center of the stamped flowers, and then I played around with a new tiny flower punch that I got and some brads. I think the result is pretty nice! I also like this new idea of blue/green flowers vs the standard pink flowers.  

Love getting new stuff!

Ok, so its actually kind of a problem sometimes that I like buying new things. I heard someone the other day mentioning that they tend to be drawn to hobbies that require the collecting of tools or spending lots of money. I think I am one of those people too! Anyhow, in my previous post I mentioned some of the items that I recently ordered, and they have finally all arrived, so I can talk about them!

First I got the Paper trey ink purchase (papertreyink.com). I ordered 4 packs of colored cardstock (12 sheets each), 3 stamp cubes (1"x1" ink pads), 1 pack of white cardstock (40 sheets), 1 pack of clear cardstock (not sure how many sheets are in that one) and some clear rhinestone brads. I haven't tried it all, but I've tried the cardstock and I've tried the ink. I must say, I LOVE the hybrid pigment ink! I got it in two colors, the third color was just regular dye ink. The pigment ink hybrid is part pigment ink, but it dries almost instantly just like dye inks do. Thats huge! I like the look of it, the pigment ink makes really nice sharp images with crisp lines. With normal pigment ink you either need to heat set it, or just wait a long time for it to dry. The cardstock is also really nice. Its a heavyweight cardstock, 110lb. This makes a nice sturdy card, and is much thicker than other cardstocks on the market. Its also dyed all the way through, unlike some of the DCWV cardstock (at Michaels or JoAnns) which mostly has the "white core". My only complaint so far with Paper Trey Ink is that its hard to tell if the colors match in real life like they seem to on my computer screen. I think 2 of the 4 colors I got are beautiful (by chance they are the ones that I got matching pigment ink for) but the other 2 colors of carstock are not what I expected. I wont return them or anything, but the "Lavender Moon" color was much more pink than I expected, it doesn't really look lavender at all. The "Ocean Tides" on the other hand was much darker than I expected. I was still able to use them and be satisfied with the results though. Its not the fault of the company that its hard to represent the colors on everyone's computer screen.

 

The lighting wasn't the best in the photo, but I used 3 of the 4 colos in this card. Hawaiian Shores is the lighter turquoise color, Ocean Tides is the darker one. The flower is in Plum Pudding. The stamps and punch are both Stampin Up.

Another purchase that I made was the Tiny Typewriter set from Close To My Heart. This is the very first purchase I ever made from CTMH, but they seemed to be the best place with the best price on this type of stampset (small letters for writing short phrases or words). The set included upper and lowercase letters in addition to numbers and symbols. I haven't yet made a card with it, but if there is some sentiment that I want to add to a card that I don't have a separate stamp for, I can just create my own! I can also use it to customize cards with names or things that there just wouldn't be another stamp for. I tested it out last night and the clear stamps had a good cling to my acrylic block. For the most part they even hung on while I cleaned the stamps afterward, but I did have a couple pop off. I'll try to make a card very soon to use this set! 

The last purchase was of the Scrapbook Encyclopedia. I've never actually done scrapbooking, but instead of taking a very expensive class on the subject, I figured I could teach myself. I figured that between my technique club and this book I could fill the gap of what I know about and what I have yet to learn. I can always use new ideas for creating cool things. Anyhow, I haven't had a chance to look all the way through the book yet, but I did at least start. It looks really nice! It helps tell you about what tools do what and what kinds of accessories you might need to embellish a card or scrapbook page. I guess the only concern I have so far is that the book is a few years old and there may already be things or techniques that are not mentioned in the book. I guess thats why there are craft blogs and sites like Splitcoaststampers.com!

In other news, I joined a couple of scrapbook and stamping meetup groups online. I met with one of them for the first time on Wednesday for a morning "crop" session. The scrapbook group is WAY different than my stamping group! I guess that makes sense since scrapbooks require a lot more effort than a card, but I kind of expected to find people bringing in lots of supplies rather than just papercutters, adhesives, and a scrapbook. Don't get me wrong, they embellished too and had some things to stick in the books, but it was basically a free for all group of crafters just doing their own thing in a group setting. Its totally fine, just not quite what I expected. On the plus side, most of the ladies have young kids like me, and the childcare during the crop session was just $3 for 4 hours! You really cant beat that price for that much time to be crafty. I'm definitely going back. I just need to print out some pictures and take a stab at actual scrapbooking.