Techniqued

I took a little time during the past coupla days to actually read my blog feed, which is filled with yummy craft sites, so by the time I got around to starting a project my head was filled with ideas. And they all poured into this one card...

Now that I've discovered slider cards, I'm going to have a difficult time going back to flat ones! I love the way you can layer elements but still see each element when it's in the "up" position. I have a cheat-sheet with the dimensions taped up in my craft space, and once you get the hang of the folding/gluing part, it's really easy.

I started with Curtain Call's Act 68 color combo (Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Pink Pirouette), even though I knew I didn't really have great matching marker nor ink colors. I did, however, have an gorgeous Core'dinations cardstock that was a great match for the Melon Mambo, so I dry-embossed it with one of my new Fiskars texturing plates. I did the same with a white cardstock for the slider strip and pop-up pieces.

I had taken the energy to watch a video tutorial on making a Go-To-Sentiment card at Papertrey Ink (with the sound on, which sometimes I don't bother with, because I'm at best a visual learner. As mom said about the SuperBowl Commercials, "Some were really great, but of course we never watch them with the sound on. We're not interested in advertising.") The concept behind the Got-to Sentiment card is simple: put together all of your similarly-themed sentiments to create one image. However, if you know anything about stamping, this is a real trick of stamping skill and luck. Because I have few sentiment stamps (I'm still looking for a good, affordable collection), the largest group I have is Made for You themes. I started by printing a TLC Creations digi stamp sentiment, to mix it up. I printed two, in case I messed one up, but I ended up using both. I had lots of fun lining up the stamps, but the fact that 3 of them were rubber made it a bit more exciting...

For the pink "framing" on the front sentiment piece, I used the old Post-it trick, inspired by a tutorial at There She Goes. Ah, where would the crafty office worker be without Post-its‽ I once helped a student use them for a stop-motion animation project; Brilliant! I used this trick years ago when I was dabbling in spray-paint art, but really felt like the tutorial helped me see it in a new way. I deckled the edge of the Post-its before I stamped the paper with chalk ink.

I thought that the sentiment group really lent itself to a Valentines card, so I added PaperFacesDesigns' I Heart U Couple. The moment I saw Mad for Markers' Crazy Hair Colour Challenge, I knew I wanted to make something that my husband would like, since his #1 suggestion for my coloring is "Bright Hair". He never suggests Bottled Blonde or Auburn, rather fluorescent blue or Chartreuse. So, I gave these kidlets Wild Wasabi-inspired tresses. I can't decide if this is my official entry into this challenge, just because it's really fun and I'm only 75% satisfied with the result.

Digi Stamp: I heart U couple by PaperFacesDesigns
Digi Sentiment: TLC Creations

There She Goes Wednesday Trends: Post-it Notes
Mad for Markers Challenge: Crazy Hair Colour
Curtain Call Color Challenge: Act 68: Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Pink Pirouette
Papertrey Ink Make It Monday Series: Go-to Sentiment Card

Sliding Pop-Out Card Tutorial: Kim Score for Splitcoaststampers

Supplies: Hammermill and Core'dinations cardstock, MS detailing scissors, ZipDry glue, HP printer & ink, Fiskars papercutter, deckle scissors, corner punch, texturing plate & tool, Copic Ciao markers, HP printer & ink, Memento ink, ColorBox chalk ink, stash eyelet, CelebrateIt! ribbon, sentiment stamps from gstudio, Hero Arts, Alice in Wonderland set, Beatrix Potter Two Bad Mice set, and Bentley the Bear set from Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine, Post-it notes