Z- Fold Birthday Wishes - WWC83 Penny's Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Welcome to the last Wednesday of August. Hope you've had a good month and are looking forward to everything September has to bring. 

I’m very excited to be hosting this week’s Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #WWC83. My theme for this challenge is a Tic Tac Toe project. Whoo Hoo!  Are you ready?  This is going to be fun, and I hope you'll join me and the Watercooler Wednesday Design Team by trying your hand at this challenge. 

The fun thing about using the Tic Tac Toe outline is that you're not restricted to a sketch or image and you get to choose a variety of different elements to build your design. So put on your thinking caps because you'll begin today's challenge by selecting three elements in a row, either horizontally, diagonally, or vertically, and use those elements on a project. You can use other products as well, but you must use the three in the row you choose.  What fun!

Here's My Z-Fold Birthday Card:

"Z Fold Cards are a very popular trend in card making right now.  You see them all over Pinterest and other sites. There are several variations on the Z Fold, but whichever one you choose, you're guaranteed to make a great card that's quick and easy to assemble.  For today's card I'm CASEing Dawn Griffith's Z Fold Pop Up Card with Balloon Bouquet Punch because I simply couldn't wait to try out her balloon pop up idea.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge, Boys Will Be Boys (R), Party Pants (R), Stylized Birthday
Inks:  Emerald Envy, Peek A Boo Peach, Flirty Flamingo, Sweet Sugar Plum, Versa Mark, Momento Tuxedo Black
Card Stock: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Emerald Envy, Flirty Flamingo, Peek A Boo Peach
DSP:  Playful Palette 6 x 6 Designer Series Paper Pack
Accessories:  Big Shot, Trimmer, Heat Gun, Copper Embossing Powder, Balloon Bouquet Punch, Balloon Framelit Dies,  Bunches of Banners Framelit Dies, Basic Rhinestones, Glue Dots, Window Sheet Strips, Sequins, Dimensionals

Directions:
1.  For the card base cut a 4 1/4 x 11" piece of Basic Black card stock and score it at 5 1/2 and 2 3/4".

2.  For the Z Fold band cut a 1" x 11" piece of Basic Black card stock and score it at 5 1/2" and 2 3/4".  This band when folded should fit completely across the front of the card starting at the left edge and running the width of the card to the far right side.  Mine is adhered about 3/4" from the bottom.  I attached the left edge first, only applying glue on the DSP and then placing the strip across the adhesive.  Make sure this strip is straight and then adhere putting adhesive on the back of the 2 3/4" part and holding it down to the card.  Watch Dawn's video to see placement. Note:  Before attaching the band to the card complete step #6 and finish the band with step #9.

Here you can see the Z fold Banner stretching from the left hand to right hand side of the card.  Because the Playful Palette DSP was 6 x 6 I cut it into 1" strips to extend across the Z fold. See note in Step #6.

3. Cut a 2 1/2" x 4" piece of Very Vanilla for the front panel. Adhere.

4. Cut a 5 1/4' x 4" piece of Very Vanilla for the inside panel. Adhere.

 

5. Cut two pieces of DSP 2 3/8 x 3 7/8". Using Versa Mark ink, randomly stamp the small splotch from Gorgeous Grunge on the DSP and heat set with Copper Embossing Powder. Adhere these DSP pieces to the front and inside Very Vanilla panels.

6. Cut a strip of DSP 1/2" x 5 1/4", and 2 pieces 1/2" x 2 1/2". Using adhesive attach these strips to the Z fold band. Leave even strip of Very Vanilla showing around the edges. Note: If you are using 12 x 12 DSP you can cut this strip to measure 1/2" by 11 and then just score at 5 1/2 and 2 3/4".

7. Punch large and small balloon shapes from DSP and card stock with the Balloon Bouquet Punch as follows:  1 large and 1 small Flirty Flamingo, 3 small Emerald Envy, 2 large and 1 small DSP, 1 small Sweet Sugar Plum, 2 large and 1 small Peek A Boo Peach.  

 

I used a stylus and a foam mat to round the edges of my balloon and I distressed the edges with a sponge dauber and the corresponding ink. You can see the balloon technique by clicking here. I stamped the words "Cake Time" from the retired SAB set "Party Pants" on the Peek a Boo Peach large Balloon.

8. Using the Small Bow Framelit from Balloon Framelit Dies set cut out 10 bows in a variety of the card stock colours (see card) once the balloons are attached to the window strips and card add the bows with mini glue dots and basic rhinestones. Note: The glue dot will over lap the bow, so before attaching to the bow roll the glue dot a bit with your fingers to make it fit.

This wonderful little Framelit Die set coordinates with the Celebrate Today stamp set.  Never be without a perfect bow with this framelit!

9. Stamp the "happy birthday" sentiment from Boys Will Be Boys (R) stamp set three times in Versa Mark ink on 2 3/4" x 1" strips of basic black card stock. Emboss each strip with Copper Embossing Powder and cut into banners using the straight banner from "Bunch of Banners" Framelits. Attach these banners with 2 dimensionals per banner to the center of the DSP strip on the Z Fold Band. Attach two banners to the 5" strip centering between left and right sides, then attach the remaining two banners to the center and end of the band. Note: These banners can be attached after the Z Fold Band is adhered to the card front, see step #2. I put a large rhinestone between the first two banners for a bit more sparkle.

Bunch of Banners Framelit die coordinates with the Birthday Banners and Banners for You photopolymer stamp sets.  

10. Attach the balloons with strips of window sheet cut 1/4" by 3 inches. Use large Glue Dots to attach the window sheet strips to the center Z fold band.

In this view you can see the window strip attached with the large glue dot.

Attach the balloons next using large glue dots and dimensionals. The front of the balloons are puffed out (see #7). The center balloons were finished with an additional flat balloon face on the back side so you can't see the glue dots and window strip when the balloon is opened and shut. 

In this view you can see the backs of the balloons are covered with the extra balloon images I cut out because they are visible if the card is turned around.  I also finished off the Peek A Boo Peach balloon with an extra green bow to hide the glue dot. 

11. I finished the inside panel with a few balloons and some sequins.

Because there wasn't any room for writing a greeting on the inside panel once it was decorated, I added a piece of Very Vanilla card stock to the back of the card and stamped "Happy Birthday" with the Stylized Happy Birthday stamp in Momento Tuxedo Black Ink. 

Well I think that just about does it for today's card challenge. I'll leave you with just a few more shots of this fun card. If you try out my tutorial let me know if it was easy to follow. Thanks for dropping by and make sure you visit all the other Watercooler Wednesday Design Artists to see their fabulous Tic Tac Toe creations.

 

 

Happy Stamping!
Penny Token's Stamping Spot

Ending on August 31st, 2016:

• August Hostess code EZGKEM73
• July Bonus Promo - Last chance to redeem coupons
• Thoughtful Blooms Photopolymer Stamp set - last chance to purchase, once all the supplies are gone it's fully retired 

Starting September 1st, 2016:

• New Catalogue launches September 1st to January 4, 2017
• Special Deals - replaces last year's Weekly Deals - starts Sept 1st each special runs for 7 days.  

WWC72 Jean's Colour Challenge

Have you been waiting for this week's Watercooler Wednesday challenge?  If so, I know you're not going to be disappointed.  This week's challenge is brought to you by the fabulous Jean Fitch and she's chosen to use the new amazing 2016-2017 Incolours for her theme.  

Click here to go to the Challenge

Here's My Card:

The challenge says you can use 3, 4 or all 5 of the colours in your project and there was no specific theme, so it was a really open field to begin with.  Believe me I stared at those colours and played with them for a while before I decided to make a birthday card and showcase the colours in the balloons.  I think this was a good choice.

Supplies: 
Stamp Sets:  Gorgeous Grunge, Balloon Celebration and Birthday Blooms
Ink:  Dapper Denim, Emerald Envy, Flirty Flamingo, Peek-a-Boo Peach and Sweet Sugarplum and Momento Tuxedo Black
Card stock:  Dapper Denim, Emerald Envy, Flirty Flamingo, Peek-a-Boo Peach and Sweet Sugarplum and Whisper White
Accessories:  Balloon Bouquet Punch, Basic Rhinestones, Dimensionals, Tom Bow Glue.

 
The card base is an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of Flirty Flamingo scored at 4 1/4".  This is followed by a 5 1/4 x 4" layer of Emerald Envy and a 5 1/8" x 3 7/8" layer of Dapper Denim.  

I don't know about you, but I love those fat little "splats" or blotches in the Gorgeous Grunge set and the lines so I used both of these to create a background for the balloons.  

I began by stamping the lines vertically in Dapper Denim on a 5 1/8" x 3 6/8" piece of Whisper White card stock.  I then stamped a "splat" in each of the Incolours in an arch across the Whisper White card stock.   Originally I had planned on just stamping the balloons on the Whisper White panel, but I decided to punch balloons from the Incolour card stock and then layer them across the splats.  I was happy I did this because it really worked.  It was so easy punching out the balloon shapes with the Balloon Bouquet punch. 

To make the balloons look like they really were in flight I tried out a technique I've seen recently that plumps the balloon up and adds dimension to it.  This is easily achieved by running the fattest ball on your stylus around the edge of each balloon until the edges began to raise and take shape. 

I sponged around the edge of each balloon with the corresponding ink

I added a little crescent on the left hand side of each balloon with a white gel pen.

With the balloon face down on the sponge piercing mat I ran the stylus around the outer edge of each balloon until the edges started to curl up. 

Once I had the shape molded around the balloon I mounted the balloons  over their corresponding colour splat using dimensionals. I drew the balloon strings free hand with a neutrals black marker and I stamped the sentiment "Happiest of Birthdays to You" from the Birthday Blooms stamp set in black ink at the base of the card.

When I was finished I felt the balloons needed just a bit more "something" so I stamped some star clusters from the Balloon Celebration stamp set on the face of the balloons and added a Basic Rhinestone at the base of each balloon.  Perfect!

Well I guess that's it from me for today's challenge.  I hope you enjoyed it and will try this technique. I'd love to hear how yours turned out.

Oh and while you're at it, grab your ink and card stock and make a card of your own to enter into the challenge, we'd love to see what you come up with. You can go back and check out the other designers at this link.

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot

JUNE'S HOSTESS CODE IS:   XUB7WFD2

Celebrate Today & Make a Wish

Hi everyone!  Hope your Sunday is a little brighter and sunnier than ours is.  

It's currently cloudy and on the verge of rain.  One good thing about the weather not being so enticing outside is that I get to play in my stamp room today...........yeah!

Last Tuesday when I was making cards with my bestie Sheri, we were working on a Colour Challenge put out by Just Add Ink.  The colour mix was Calypso Coral, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party and Crumb Cake. Nice combination right? 

Well, as I sometimes do, I suckered myself into using Pear Pizzazz for the background on my card, even though my better judgement was screaming "go neutral" keep it "clean and simple".  

In the end because of my misguided decision followed by my indecision and dissatisfaction, I missed the post time for this challenge.  Urrrrrrrrgh!!! The final birthday card was finally finished a few days later after much creative angst and major revisions, but the good news is it did get finished and even though it was late for the challenge I decided to post it here.  


Here's the card I came up with: 

The card in MHO is overwhelmed by the Pear Pizzazz background which I tried to make more interesting by embossing with the Lovely Lace embossing folder.  I'm pretty sure that if I'd stuck to a Whisper White background for the card base and the stamped layer I think it would have worked better. Sometimes as the saying goes "less is more".

Along with the colour challenge we were eager to try out a new to us fancy fold technique called a "corner fold card".  This is a great card technique and takes very little time or effort to accomplish.

I'm not going to give you the dimensions and details for completing a corner fold card in this post as you can find several good examples on Youtube .  The one we chose to follow was done by Linda Bauwin.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Celebrate Today, Perfect Pennants
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Pool Party
Card Stock: Calypso Coral, Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake and Whisper White 
Accessories:  Balloon Framelit Dies, Lovely Lace Texturized Embossing Folder, Trimmer, Big Shot, Basic Rhinestones, Dazzling Details Glimmer Adhesive in Dazzling Diamonds, Note Tag and 1/2" Circle Punches, Snips, Crystal Effects, Adhesive, Dimensionals

Some Details:

Originally I stamped the birthday balloon from Celebrate Today in Pool Party ink on the whisper white layer, and coloured in the word happy with Calypso Coral blendabilities.  I also stamped the sprinkled stars image over top of the balloon and added some Dazzling Details glimmer adhesive to the stars.

One thing about the 17-piece Celebrate Today set is that you get so many creative options and can combine individual stamps to build the final image you want in the colors you want.  I decided to use some more of the images  to dress up this card.  I stamped 4 of the shaker images on Pool Party card stock with the matching ink.  I layered two of the shakers and then cut small strips below the tab part to make them look 3 dimensional.

The banner was stamped in Calypso Coral on Whisper White card stock and then cut out using the Balloon Framelits (love those).  To add a lacquered look to the banners I covered them with Crystal Effects and let them dry before adhering some small rhinestones. 

I fussy cut the balloon tail which was stamped in Calypso Coral on Crumb Cake cardstock and used dimensionals to adhere it to the card base.   I finished it off by adding basic rhinestones in every second tail.  

I stood back, looked at the card and I still wasn't satisfied.   By now I'm sweating because time is ticking on the challenge clock and I so wanted to enter my card.  "What's a girl supposed to do?"

Well, I'll tell you, in frustration I went back to the drawing board, removed all the added details from the card front, that's right stripped it right back down to just the balloon image, and then I stared at it.   I hummed, played on the computer, looked at other stamp sets, planned dinner, and still nothing.  

Then, failing inspiration and in desperation, I did what all good stampers do when they get stumped............. I went and ate a bunch of chocolate and pondered what to do.  And finally the "ah ha" light went off in my head as inspiration hit me!  

It was while I was "wishing" for an idea to hit me that I remembered the "Make a Wish" sentiment stamp in the Perfect Pennants stamp set.  

Bingo this would be the perfect sentiment to layer onto the balloon and I could use my Note Tag Punch to cut it out.  I stamped the image in all four of the colours from the challenge to see which one would work best on the card front and chose to use a Calypso Coral on Crumb Cake.  I punched out the "a" from one of the tags I'd stamped in Pool Party with a 1/2" circle punch and then  mounted it with a dimensional to the center of the tag.  

The rest was easy peasy.  I re-attached the shakers, banners and balloon tail, and stamped the inside of the card with another balloon image.  I missed the challenge but, I did finish the card and that was important to me, along with being satisfied with the second attempt. 

I hope you enjoyed this card and the journey I took to finish it.  How about you, have you experienced my "I'm not satisfied" feeling, and if so what did you do about it?  I'd love to hear your story.  Please share and links to your card if any.  

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens

May Hostess Code is in effect Until May 31st:   BD37E4S4

Celebrate Today - Birthday Balloons

I recently purchased the Celebrate Today Photopolymer stamp set from the Occasions Catalogue. Unfortunately life gets in the way, so I hadn't had any "me" time to ink it up and play with it.  All that changed however when I was checking out my stamping friend Diane Ison's class invite on her Face Book page Teach To Stamp. I took one look at her featured class card and began to smile.......no change that, I began to "grin".......... very widely!

Her delightful card featured a monochromatic card face filled with the balloons from Celebrate Today. From my first glimpse I wanted to CAS it. This is just totally a fun card, and one I would personally like to receive.   Here's Diane's version:

Diane stamped the balloons in Soft Sky, Pool Party and Bermuda Bay inks on a Whisper White card base, working from lightest to darkest ink, and centering her first balloon image. You couldn't get much easier than that, and oh my, what an impact this card has.  Easy to mail too!  Thanks Diane for always inspiring!
Here's My Version:

To make this card my own I started with a Bermuda Bay card stock base that measured 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 and was scored at 4 1/4".  Because I wanted a little glitz, I added a 5 1/4" x 4" layer of dazzling diamonds glimmer paper (which I can't get enough of).  And finally I added my stamped Whisper White layer which measures 5 x 3 3/4".  

I used Lost Lagoon, Pool Party and Soft Sky inks to stamp the balloons and went from lightest to darkest overlapping the balloons as I went. Note:  Quite truthfully, I had a little difficulty with my balloons stamping as evenly as Diane's did, but it appears there was a fine film or fluff on my stamp which blocked the colour application, and I don't believe my stamp pads which are the originally ones were juicy enough.  I've since cleaned the stamps and re-inked the pads and experienced instant stamping success.  The moral of this note is make sure you have clean stamps and juicy pads before you start your project.

To finish off the card face I added three basic rhinestones and stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment with two separate stamps from the Celebrate Today Photopolymer Stamp set, mounted on a clear block.

This is the Celebrate Today Stamp set and coordinating Balloon Framelits bundle.  The stamp set has 17 photopolomer two-step stamps that can be layered to give you many different images for your projects.  

Here's a view of the inside of my card I made.  The framelit that I used for the sentiment is from the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Die. I know I'm going to be using these sentiments a lot because they're fun to make and they say it all!

 

Here's some additional cards I made with Blushing Bride, Pink Pirouette and Regal Rose inks and cardstock.    What fun!

Any one up for a class?  If so contact me by email.

I hope you enjoyed these cards.  The Occasions catalogue is only available until June 2nd so if you are interested in this stamp set don't delay, order today. 

Happy Stamping!

Penny Tokens