Friday, July 24, 2020

To a Friend That Makes Me Smile Swap Card (featuring the Forever Fern Bundle) & Mass Producing Card Tips

Hello and welcome to my blog; today I am going to share with you the card I designed for a card swap that I took part in May or June one I can not remember when it was.  I think it was May and I got them back in June, but anyway that's neither here nor there.  For the swap card that I decided I used some of the products in the Forever Greenery Suite on pages 108 - 110 of the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalog.  Here's a look at my super cute little card.  


Tips & Tricks: 

When you are mass producing cards for any reason the best course of action is to do the following after you figure out your design.  Gather your supplies.  This way you can see if you need to order additional supplies and have them in time for your project to be complete.  Once you have everything gathered like a little squirrel in the Fall that has stored enough food up for the winter months, it's time to start cutting.  Yes, this is the long drawn out part of the process that takes the most time.  But it's also the most necessary part of the process.  This is what I need for my card.  I cut all the supplies for the twenty-one cards I had to make for this design.  


Next I did all my die cutting and embossing work even before I put stamps to ink and to paper.  I cut all the circles for my cards which I used my Layering Circle Dies to create what would become the sentiment and the vellum layer behind.  After I had all those cut I die cut all the fern pieces from Just Jade Cardstock using the Forever Flourishing Dies from the Forever Fern Bundle.  I had to use a couple shims underneath my cutting pads to get everything to cut out nice and smooth.  So just be aware of that you may need to add a few shims under this die to get a nice smooth cut.  After the die cutting was complete I cut my card bases and all the layering cardstock and designer series paper.  I then took my Just Jade Cardstock layer and used one of the Greenery Embossing Folders and embossed each one.  


After all the hard work was complete it was time to do my stamping, putting together and embellishing.  For the stamping I stamped my sentiment in Soft Sea Foam Classic Ink.  I picked the sentiment that read "to a friend that makes me smile" I thought that that would be a wonderful sentiment to recieve on a card.  I then added my embossed Just Jade Layer to my Thick Whisper White card bases all at one time.  I did everything for each card at one time to make the process go faster.  So remember that when you are mass producing.  You are going to do each step for each card once and not create each card one at a time.  You are going to add all the layers for each step to ALL of your cards at the same time.  I had to say that again because it's so important and makes the process so much faster.  


Next in the process was building up the focal image.  So I layered my Shaded Spruce, Soft Sea Foam, and Forever Greeny Designer Series Paper pieces together.  After that I added the die cut fern pieces to the focal image.  I then added the vellum circles and the sentiment layers.  To finish my card off I added a few basic rhinestones and then decided that it needed just a little more something something to enhance the card.  So I sat down and tied twenty-one bows with the gold metallic thread from the Forever Greenery Ribbon Combo Pack and attached each with a Mini Glue Dot that I made smaller by rolling them into a little ball.  After that all I had to do was place them all in their little Clear Envelopes from Stampin' Up! and drop them in the mail to the Swap Coordinator.  I am actually working on two more sets of swap cards from the new August - December Mini Catalog now that will be going out soon.  

Project Recipe: 

I have created a little graphic for you to save to your Pinterest Boards that will show you and help you shop for the main products for this card design.  If you would like to see more of my Project Recipe Cards you can find them on my Project Recipe Board on my Pinterest Page by clicking here.  

Thanks for dropping by today I hope that you found some great tips for mass producing your cards and you found a little inspiration here.  If you need any of the supplies that you have seen today you can order them in my online store by clicking on the items in the Stampin' Up! Shopping List below.  

Happy Stampin' 
Rick Adkins 


Use the Host Code on any order of $50 (before taxes & shipping) or more during the month and receive a gift from me in June as a Thank You. If your order is $150 or more, please do not use the host code.  You will forfeit your Stampin' Rewards if you do; and I want you to get those rewards.


If you place any size order with me during the month of July, you will receive the July Creative Stampers Tutorial Bundle from me as a little thank you.  This month's tutorial bundle has ten project tutorials that feature our favorite new products from the 2020-2021 Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog.  The Creative Stampers Tutorial Bundle can either be earned for FREE with any size order or Can be purchased for $22 from me.


Don't forget about Bonus Days are going on now!  You get reward for shopping now with every $50 qualifying order. and you get to spend the $5.00 coupon codes when you shop in August.  


If you enjoy card making and love to play games I have a fun event for you coming up in August.  I always loved playing Bingo as a kid, and even as an adult.  This is a card class but we will be playing a few games of Bingo for fun as well.  You can find out all about my Online Stampin' Bingo and Card Class along with Register by July 31, 2020 by clicking here.  


Stampin' Up! Shopping List: 

Thursday, July 23, 2020

Fancy Phrases Birthday Card Tutorial - Facebook Live Replay

Hello and welcome to my blog; today I am going to share with you the card that I made last night during my Weekly Facebook Live.  This week I shared a card using the Fancy Phrases Stamp Set from products form the Boho Indigo Product Medley On my card today.  I am featuring the Fancy Phrases Stamp Set in my upcoming Stampin' Bingo Card Class online next month.  I think it's just a wonderful stamp set.  I normally don't go for the sketchy looking stamps but I thought this was very cute.  Here's a look at my card.  

Tips & Tricks: 

This is really a easy card to make, if you follow me you know that I love easy simple cards that pack a punch.  For this card I stamped the flowers from the Fancy Phrases Stamp set onto my Very Vanilla Cardstock in the top left and bottom right corners in Misty Moonlight Classic Ink.  I then stamped the sentiment Birthday Wishes in Night of Navy Classic Ink in the center between the two flower clusters.  I added this to a Misty Moonlight layer that was cut just 1/8" bigger than the focal image.  

I really wanted to showcase both the Fancy Phrases Stamp Set and the designer series paper that came in the Boho Indigo Product Medley. So I cut the Designer Series Paper to be larger than the card's focal images.  Once I had the designer series paper cut and ready for my card it needed a mat layer as well.  So I added another piece of Misty Moonlight cardstock cut just slightly bigger than the DSP.  I layered this on my Very Vanilla Thick card base using Stampin' Seal Adhesive.  The focal image was layered with Stampin' Dimensionals before it was added to the mat layer.  I then added a few of the flower embellishments from the Boho Indigo Product Medley (which by the way are a felt type flower) using Mini Glue Dots.  

The centers on the little flowers are almost like a sea bead from jewelry making but they do not go all the way through the flower.  I wonder if they have an opening all the way through.  Something that I may have to check out and let you know.  I picked my color combination right from the Designer Series Paper which came from the Boho Indigo Product Medley.  I used Misty Moonlight, Night of Navy and Very Vanilla only for this card.  The little flowers are closer to Whisper White but they still work well on the card.  


Sizes & Dimensions: 

Here are the sizes and dimensions of my card.  If you are in a Metric A4 country I have given you the measurements that you will use for A4 cardstock as well as the imperial measurements that I used.  I have added the A4 Metric measurements in the parentheses below.  
  • Very Vanilla Thick Cardstock - 4 1/4 x 11 (10.5 cm x 29.7cm)
  • Misty Moonlight Cardstock - 4 1/8 x 5 3/8 (14.7 cm x 10.3 cm), 2 3/4 x 4 1/8 (10.3 cm x 7.5 cm)
  • Very Vanilla Cardstock - 2 5/8 x 4 (10 cm x 7.2 cm)
  • DSP - 4 x 5 1/4 (14.4 cm x 10 cm) 

Video Tutorial: 



If you are viewing this post by email you may have to click here to view the video.  Not all email servers will show the embedded videos.  

Pin It!: 

I have created a pin for you to pin to your Pinterest Boards with the key materials for this card.  You are more than welcome to pin it.  You can see all the other Project Recipes I have on my Product Recipe Board here.  

Finishing Touches: 

To finish off my card I had to create a matching envelope.  There are a lot of different ways you can do this but for this card I decided to just do a little stamping on the envelope flap so that it would match my card.  I love to add a little decoration to my envelope to create a matching presentation.  

I used Misty Moonlight Classic Ink and the same floral bouquet that I used on the card to stamp all over the flap.  Thanks for dropping by today If you need any of the supplies that I used today or would like to sign up for my Stampin' Bingo Card Class you will find the products listed in the shopping list below, and the link to register for my Stampin' Bingo Class below.  

Happy Stampin' 
Rick Adkins 


Use the Host Code on any order of $50 (before taxes & shipping) or more during the month and receive a gift from me in June as a Thank You. If your order is $150 or more, please do not use the host code.  You will forfeit your Stampin' Rewards if you do; and I want you to get those rewards.


If you place any size order with me during the month of July, you will receive the July Creative Stampers Tutorial Bundle from me as a little thank you.  This month's tutorial bundle has ten project tutorials that feature our favorite new products from the 2020-2021 Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog.  The Creative Stampers Tutorial Bundle can either be earned for FREE with any size order or Can be purchased for $22 from me.


Don't forget about Bonus Days are going on now!  You get reward for shopping now with every $50 qualifying order. and you get to spend the $5.00 coupon codes when you shop in August.  


If you enjoy card making and love to play games I have a fun event for you coming up in August.  I always loved playing Bingo as a kid, and even as an adult.  This is a card class but we will be playing a few games of Bingo for fun as well.  You can find out all about my Online Stampin' Bingo and Card Class along with Register by July 31, 2020 by clicking here.  


Stampin' Up! Shopping List: 


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