Wild Whisper - Using Non-Christmas Paper for Christmas Cards

Hi everyone,

It's December, and time to push the cardmaking into high gear!  

So what do you do if you don't have any Christmas paper, and you're in the mood to make Christmas cards???

I'm going to show you how to use a pack of non-Christmas paper and challenge you to try it!

The collection I started with is Simplicity by Pam Bray.  At first glance, it doesn't look very Christmassy does it?

Flipping through it though, there was a wreath that caught my eye.  Next step was to find some background paper for the wreath and I loved this lattice piece.

The reverse side of the wreath had the perfect shade of green to mat it.

If you prefer a more simple style of card, you could have stopped right at this point...

but me... I love lots of detail and embellishment, so I continued to build and add layers to the card.  The stamped word, Joyful, is from Wild Whisper's "Home for the Holidays" set. 

Every year I seem to find one stamp that speaks to me, and this year, this is the one!  I love the font and the feeling of joyfulness that it imparts.  Hopefully you have the set in your stash, as it's no longer available in the Wild Whisper shop.

I splurged and bought Bekka Feeken's "Christmas Cascade" set of dies this year, and using it I cut poinsettias, ribbons, and snowflakes out of the piece of red paper below.  I placed my dies where the reddest parts of the paper were.

The little deer, I merrily cut out of this piece below, forgetting that I wanted the pretty paper on the other side for a layout.  *slapping forehead*  Do you ever do that?  

The deer was a little light in colour, so I inked up her edges with some Fired Brick Distress Oxide ink.  The oval piece she is matted on, has pop up foam underneath it, to give it some dimension.

For the inside of the card, I used the negative piece of one of my diecut snowflakes, and the Merry Christmas dies that came with my die set.

It was fun challenging myself this way.  Give it a try and surprise yourself with what you can create with non-Christmas paper!

I hope you will have a "Joyful" time as you embrace the new type of Christmas we are going to have this year.  It will be one for the memorybook!

Check out the Wild Whisper store and to get a 10% discount, use my DT Code - DTLINDA.

Happy Creating!

Linda

Wild Whisper - All is Calm

Hi everyone,

I pulled out my Wild Whisper Christmas stamps... Christmas Comfort, Woodsy, Home for the Holidays... and combined them on a pretty, sparkly card today.

I used them to create a scene within this pretty Christmas Snowflake Bauble stencil from Sweet Poppy Stencils, which was sponged with Hickory Smoke and Tumbled Glass distress oxide inks. 

I then took a piece of paper from an old collection called "Small Patterns", and to sparkle it up and make it Christmassy, I embossed the edges with Ranger's Silver Tinsel embossing powder, and trimmed it with a sparkly silver ribbon.

Above, you can see how I also embossed the edges of my stamped image with the same silver tinsel embossing powder.  To make it sparkle even more, I added CTMH clear gems here and there.

The finishing touch is a beautiful bow.

The inside is stamped with the sentiment from Christmas Comfort and trimmed with silver CTMH Shimmer Trim.

I hope this has inspired you to pull out your stamps and paper and create some Christmas magic!

Happy Creating!

Linda

Wild Whisper Triple Pop Up Cube Card - Play in the Dirt

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

Today, I'm sharing an A2 Triple Pop Up Cube card that I created using the new Wild Whisper collection "Play in the Dirt".



I've seen a lot of different varieties of the Triple Pop Up Cube Cards, but I liked this version where the two smaller boxes are different heights and widths, so I went with it. This video is the one that inspired me to make this card: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3qlnPXN09A&app=desktop 

These cards look complicated, but they are based on the simple principle of gluing 3 different boxes together. I used Bazill's heavyweight 100lb cardstock for the card bases. It is very sturdy and stands up to all the bending and folding without sagging.

                       

I started with the tallest box first. Measurements for cutting were:

Card base - 5-1/8" x 8-1/4" - cut one. Score it at 2", 4", 6", and 8". The remaining 1/4" will be the tab that you will glue the box together with. Mitre each of the glue tab corners.

Outer patterned paper pieces - 5-1/16" x 15/16" of an inch - Cut 4

Inner patterned paper pieces - 3" x 15/16" of an inche - Cut 4.

Glue box together with glue tab on the inside of the box. Cover your box with the patterned paper inside and out. 

 *I made a mistake when making mine. You shouldn't be able to see the glue tab as you can in the upper corner above. Be sure and place your patterned paper on this side AFTER you have glued the box together and it will cover up that tab. I corrected this flub by fitting another piece of patterned paper over top of the glue tab but it still bugs me! :)



This photo gives you a clear view of the different sizes of boxes, all glued together.

Measurements to cut the box on the left are:

Card base - 2" x 61/2" Score it at 2", 3", 5", and 6". The remaining 1/4" will be the tab that you will glue the box together with. Mitre each of the glue tab corners.

Dark coloured patterned paper pieces: 1-15/16" x 1-15/16" - Cut 2. 

Dark coloured patterned paper pieces: 1-15/16" x 15/16" - Cut 4. 

Light coloured patterned paperpieces: 1-15/16" x 1-15/16" - Cut 1.

Measurements to cut the box on the right are:

Card base - 2" x 61/2" Score it at 1-1/5", 3", 4-12", and 6". The remaining 1/4" will be the tab that you will glue the box together with. Mitre each of the glue tab corners.

Dark coloured patterned paper pieces: 1-15/16" x 1-15/16" - Cut 6. 

Light coloured patterned paper pieces: 1-15/16" x 1-15/16" - Cut 1.

I found it easier to glue on all the patterned paper pieces, before I glued the smaller boxes together. This time the glue tabs can be glued on the outside, as that side will be the side that gets glued to the tallest box. (That's why there is no patterned paper on one side of the box - that's the side that glues to the tall box.) The left photo above, is the outside of the boxes. The right one is the inside of the boxes.

Glue your boxes together and glue them to the taller box as shown above.

Now the fun starts, as you begin to decorate your card. I found it was just like arranging furniture in a doll house! :)

I started by placing all the background images, using pieces from the "Play in the Dirt" ephemera pack. Then I added the mechanisms on the corners of the tall box, that will hold the ephemera sentiments.

You can see a closer look at the mechanisms above. They are super simple to create. Mine are 1/4" x 1". Cut two, fold them each in half, and glue one on each side of the corner as in the photo. This leaves you with a flat surface to glue the 'Urban Jungle" and "Home is Where the Plants Are" ephemera to.

You could stop here and you would have a great card, but to make it even greater and add extra dimension, create some pop up features that sit on the ledges of the small boxes as seen below.

The mechanisms that you need to do this, are very simple to make. 

I started by cutting 1/4" strips of paper. Score at 1/2" to create the tab that you will glue to the ledge. Then figure out how tall you want the portion that will glue to the piece of ephemera, score it at that point. Score it 1/2' from there, and score it again for a quarter inch glue tab that will attach to the tall box. 

It's quick and easy to do, and gives your card a very dimensional look.

When you're gluing on your ephemera, don't forget the bottom of the boxes!

This is why.... the bottom folds up to flatten the card, and you still have a pretty card in the flattened stage! The size at this point is 4.25" wide and 5.5" tall.

I added one of the border strips to the top of the box to give it a more finished look. 

Last but not least, the above photo shows the back of the card. The left side is where you could add a piece of cardstock to write your greetings on.

Whew! You've done really well if you've made it to the bottom of this tutorial!! I hope you give this type of card a try. They are a lot of fun to do!

If I've put you in the mood for shopping on the Wild Whisper site, enter my design team code (DTLINDA) in the coupon box for an extra 10% off your purchase!

Happy creating!

Linda

Wild Whisper "Sensations" Birthday Card

 Hi everyone!

I'm here today with a slimline birthday card to share with you. 

I was fishing through my leftover bits and pieces and found this lovely piece from Pam Bray's "Sensations" line to use as a base for the card front.

I cut it down and layered it over top of another rectangle that was 3-1/2" x 8-3/4".  Then I added a couple of pieces from this page of super cute die cuts.

I distressed the edges, added some twine and popped up the die cuts for some dimension.

For the inside, I used up more of the patterned paper and embossed it with this birthday stamp and die set from Close to my Heart...  Wishing You Everything Stamp + Thin Cuts  Z3779.

I love the "artsy" look that Pam's beautiful paper gave to the card.

Happy Creating!

Linda

Wild Whisper - Fall Sunflowers

 Hi everyone!  I was playing with the Strength of the Season stamp set again this week, and ended up creating a card that is a personal favorite of mine. 

I have to admit though, it seemed to take me longer to photograph it than it did to create it!  For some reason it was hard to capture the true colours of the card and the glitter on the sunflowers and pine cones that is so pretty in real life!  You can see a bit of it in this side-shot below.

I zoomed in on the sunflowers to share a close-up of how I coloured them.  Using golds and yellows just seems so right at this time of year when all the trees are turning colour.

To colour the petals I used the following copic colours in this order: Y11, Y19, YR24, E17,  & Y17.  I painstakingly coloured the centers with:  YG00, YG13, E47, E37, E34, E49, & E34... then I covered them all up with Nuvo "Fresh Snowfall" Glitter Accents!  It might seem like a waste of all that colouring, but the coloured centers still show through... the glitter just gives them some dimension and sparkle!

For the leaves I used: G28, G21, and G20.  The acorns were: E17, E37, & E47.

I used these flowers in this blog post... and you can see I coloured them quite differently!  That's the fun of stamping!

The burlap paper came from a past collection called "Forever and Always".  I made the rust coloured mat by colouring the border of a piece of X-press It paper with E37, and I inked the burlap with "Gathered Twigs" Distress Oxide ink.

Here's a look at how I finished the inside.

Happy Fall everyone!  We're being blessed in Alberta with warm temperatures and an extended flowering season so life is good!

Don't forget, Wild Whisper has just filled the store with new releases!  Go here for some shopping therapy and enter my code:  DTLINDA in the coupon box to get a 10% discount!!

Happy creating,

Wild Whisper - Magical Moment

Hi everyone!  

I have a different style of card to share with you today.  It has been inked up with lots of Distress Oxides and I used several different Wild Whisper stamps to create the scene.  Stamp sets used are:  Adventure, Home for the Holidays, Christmas Comfort, and World's Best.

I started out with a piece of cardstock 2-3/4" x 7-3/4" and did the technique I'm sure most are familiar with, squishing Distress Oxide ink pads onto my mat, spraying the ink with water and blotting and drying the cardstock over and over until I was happy with how it looked.  The colours I used were Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans, and Blueprint Sketch.  

I used SazOn Pigment Ink to stamp the bear, mountains, and antlers, and this was a mistake. This ink isn't designed for paper (as I found out afterwards) and you can see it didn't do a good job of stamping.

For this type of card you want a deep black image, so in future I would use an ink like Black VersaFine.  I didn't want to throw my card away though, so in the end I coloured over the images with a sharpie marker, and that saved the day!

To stamp the various branches and snowflakes around the edge of the card, I used Dusty Concord Distress Archival Ink.

To give a little shadow at the base of the mountain, I used Iced Spruce.

To highlight the bear, I created a mask using my roll of tape that was handy on my desk.

Holding the mask over the bear, I sponged Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide, sweeping it from the mask outwards.

After masking, there is a lovely glow around the bear.

The card was matted with silver glitter paper and mirror card by Crafter's Companion - Morning Mist Pack.

Finishing touches were to add snowflakes cut from the same glitter paper, and a little bit of sparkle here and there with Fresh Snowfall Nuvo Glitter Accents.  I also stamped and heat embossed the title "Magical Moment".

I find slimline cards are fun to create scenes with.  Pull out your stamps and give it a try!