Author: craftybit

I'm a computer engineer in my 40s, but my passion lays in crafts. All kind of crafts :)
Slimline card closeup for top image
Uncategorized

Happy Valentines Day | One Idea Two Cards | Slimeline Card with Banners

craftybit

Hi! Sometimes you make a card and the finished product isn’t the way you imagined. You feel it’s lacking something. That was what happened to me for this card. I re-made the card and really liked my second card so I thought why not turn this into a learning experience.

Todays video is showing you how I made the first card and then also how I made the second, letting you know the changes and why I made them. It’s a little bit longer but I hope you still like it!

The idea behind this card is simple. I wanted to use the Bitty Banners and Alphabet Die-namics for my sentiment, I felt it would be fun to let the kitties from the Mini Meows stamp set play with the strings from the banners and I choose to do this on a slimline card base because I needed the width of the card.

Feature image showing Slimeline valentines card

I really wanted to have a simple textured pattern paper as the main panel, however most of my pattern papers are 6×6 and isn’t wide enough, so I settled with the white background. For the banners I went with a rainbow color scheme, I went with a mid tone so the white letters would show up against the flags. I did do a white banner for the word day and those letters I colored black.

Close up of left side of Slimeline card showing a colored cartoon cat and the letters on rainbow banner flags

When attaching the flags that I added to two strings, the world VALENTINE was a little to spread out and there for to get the string ends from the HAPPY down to the lower part of the card (so the cats could play with them), I let them go between the letters in VALENTINE. I added glue to the strings and placed them on the card in two curls, and the placed the cats so it looked like they where playing with the strings and that finished the card.

Close up of right side of Slimeline card showing a colored cartoon cat and the letters on rainbow banner flags

When looking at the card I felt it looked a little bit flat with the white background but at the same time a little too busy with the strings crossing each other. Also I didn’t like the black letters on the word DAY as it stood out to much.

Close up of middle of Slimeline card showing a colored cartoon cat and the letters on rainbow banner flags

So I made card number two. I started by giving the panel some color and texture by blending Weathered Wood and Iced Spruce first just on the panel and then over the Burlap stencil. Then I made the banners, by accident I picked up a darker red than before but I really like it! For the day word I used the blue marker that I used in the banner to make it more cohesive. I placed the flags closer to each other so that I could run the strings on the outside of the VALENTINE banner, making them frame the whole card.

Slimeline card with a flag banner sentiment spelling HAPPY VALENTINES
Close up of left side of Slimeline card showing a colored cartoon cat and the letters VALEHAP on rainbow banner flags
Close up of middle of Slimeline card showing a colored cartoon cat and the letters HAPPYLENTI on rainbow banner flags
Close up of right side of Slimeline card showing a colored cartoon cat and the letters PPYTINES on rainbow banner flags

With those small changes we got a whole new card. I feel the card is more balanced now. What do you think?

Copic:

Banner: BG13, YG05, Y13, YR04, R32/R35, V05, B05
Cats: W0, W2, W4, R30, R32

Supplies:

When possible affiliate links are used, this means that I receive a small commission when products are purchased through the links (at no extra cost to you) I use the money to support my blog and youtube channel. If you like my projects and tutorial please consider supporting me by clicking through these links when you shop. Thanks!

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708
top image for blog showing part of love splash card
Uncategorized

Love You More | Clean & Simple with Smootching

craftybit

Hi! I’m back with the last card in the series of my Alphabet Die cards. I wanted to make one with one of my favourite techniques, smootching. It’s super simple, you make a small puddle of ink and water and then you kiss a water colour card stock piece to the puddle. You get different result depending on the amount of water vs ink and also the amount of liquid in total. I usually do four to five layers making sure to dry the card stock in between.

Full image of splash love card

For the layout I paired mine with the My Favorite Things Sketch Challange. Turning the sketch on it’s end and replacing the oval with my little smootch. For the smooch itself I used Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick in both Distress Inks and Distress Oxide inks. Makeing sure to use the dye ink on the bottom layers and the oxide inks on the sop layers. I cut out the panel with the Blueprints 27 dies and then cut out the letters in love with the Impact Alphabet Dies.

Closup of sentiment on splash love you card

The panel and the inside of the O was glued directly on my card base, while the letters was put on with foam tape to give them that slight dimension. To finish the sentiment off I use the the Love You More stamp from Bitty Hugs and Kisses which I stamped in Cotton Candy Ink. I used my Mini Misti to stamp with so I could double stamp, as I knew it could be hard to get a good impression due to the texture in the water colour card stock. I then used the thinner flag die from the Blueprints 27 to cut it out.

Closup of bubble sequins on splash love you card

To finish the card off and follow the sketch, I added some drop sequins and the card was finished. Thank you for coming to blog, hope you enjoyed it and want to be back.

Supplies:

When possible affiliate links are used, this means that I receive a small commission when products are purchased through the links (at no extra cost to you) I use the money to support my blog and youtube channel. If you like my projects and tutorial please consider supporting me by clicking through these links when you shop. Thanks!

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708
Feature image of card for the header of the blog post
Uncategorized

Prehistoric Birthday | Build a Scene with Alphabet Dies

craftybit

Hi! Sometimes you have the perfect stamp set for a card but it doesn’t have the perfect sentiment. Another great time to use the alphabet dies! As you can see todays card have the same layout as yesterdays card but it has a completely other feeling. Much more child friendly, or for your quirky friend like mine, with a funny joke about being prehistoric on the inside.

Full image of birthday card depicting a prehistoric scene with a dinousaur and letters looking like mountains

I struggled a bit with this card, I sort of had an idea when I started but it just didn’t want to come together. It wasn’t until I got the idea to colour the letters as the little mountains that everything fell where they should. And I knew that I wanted it to be a little scene, with the mountains on a little hill. The stamp set that was the idea behind the card was Prehistoric Fun by My Favorite Things Stamps.

Close up of prehistoric Birthday Card showing a stamped dinosaur

I coloured the dinosaur green, I don’t know why I always colour my dinosaurs green, maybe I just want to see them that way. The mountains is in a neutral blue violet and I used the same blue violets on the letters. To finish the card I used some pattern paper from Doodlebug Designs. I love the doodlebug papers as they do the tone on tone patterns, where the pattern is more like a texture.

Close up of prehistoric Birthday Card showing letters coloured like mountains
Close up of inside if card saying you don't look a day over prehistoric

Thank you for visiting, hope you come back soon!

Copic:

YG01, YG03, YG05, YG07, YG09, G16, B19, 0, BV20, BV23, BV25

Supplies:

When possible affiliate links are used, this means that I receive a small commission when products are purchased through the links (at no extra cost to you) I use the money to support my blog and youtube channel. If you like my projects and tutorial please consider supporting me by clicking through these links when you shop. Thanks!

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708
Closeup of Happy New Year card with alphabet dies
Uncategorized

Happy New Year | CAS with Alphabet Dies

craftybit

Hi! As promised here is the video showing how I use the Impact Alphabet Dies to create a clean and simple card. This was the card that started it all. I really enjoyed playing around working with the limited supplies. Having made cards for over 12 years I have a lot of supplies. And I like many other also love playing with new stuff, so I do add to my stash regularly. Sometimes that makes me little overwhelmed, too much to choose from. So with this I decided to reduce my choices and I really like the outcome.

Clean and Simple Happy New Year Card with the Happy of the sentiment done with alphabet dies.

I ended up doing four versions of this card even though I only used two colour schemes. The video below will show how I put this together in one of the colour schemes, white and Summer Splash.

The idea started with the alphabet dies. I have seen these cards out there with these bold and big sentiments, I have done some myself, like THIS one. I wanted to do a super clean and simple one that was easy to be made in bulk, but still had enough details to be interesting. So I limited the colour scheme to white + one colour.

Clean and simple card, White base with blue as accent colour. Sentiment created with alphabet dies.

I knew I wanted to add a panel to my card base, it helps with framing. So I choose the one in the Blueprints 27 as it also have the little scalloped edge for extra detail. When layering the letters on the panel I felt it looked a little plain, so I decided to switch one of the letters to the other colour. This helped the eye to stay longer on the sentiment.

Clean and simple card, pink base with white as accent colour. Sentiment created with alphabet dies.

To finish off the sentiment I needed somewhere to stamp the New Year. So I cut a flag in white using another die from the Blueprints 27 set. I did shorten the flag, and I show you how to do this using the die in the video. I stamped the New Year stamp in coordinating ink in the flag. The only New Year stamp I had was one from a Hero Arts stamp set I had for years. When I cut it apart I accidentally cut a little too far in the A, but I didn’t mind. But for next year I’m definitely picking up another New Year stamp (or two).

Clean and simple card, white base with pink as accent colour. Sentiment created with alphabet dies.

The card was almost ready, but needed that little extra. So I created my own popup sticker by layering die cuts from the Sweet Snowflake die together, mixing the colours. I ended up making about 30 of these cards, I took my big shot with me to the living room and was watching movies while cutting out all the die cuts.

Thank you for coming to my blog. How are you liking it so far? Hugs Marika

Supplies:

When possible affiliate links are used, this means that I receive a small commission when products are purchased through the links (at no extra cost to you) I use the money to support my blog and youtube channel. If you like my projects and tutorial please consider supporting me by clicking through these links when you shop. Thanks!

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708
Top image shows selection of card
Uncategorized

Somebunny Misses You | CAS with Alphabet Dies

craftybit

Hi! Let’s start this year with a Clean and Simple card using alphabet dies. I love alphabet dies and try to collect them when I can. And in my latest order from My Favorite Things I picked up their Impact Alphabet Dies. They are these bigger capital letters that are perfect for big short sentiments. They are perfect to combine with the stamp sentiment you already have.

Shows a clean and simple card with alphabet diecuts

Todays card is a “Misses You” card. Through out the week I will show how you can use the Impact Alphabet Dies for many other kinds of cards. I will also share a video showing how I put together a similar card but with another sentiment.

But back to todays card. The card is inspired by the BB Somebunny stamp set by My Favorite Things. I was looking through my stamp sets to find sentiments where I could capitalise a part of it. Where the word where shorter than 7 letters. I was super happy when I found the “Somebunny Misses You” sentiment. And the idea and colour scheme came together.

I just recently also picked up the October Card Kit. It was winter/Christmas inspired and contained the Gift Wrap 6 x 6 paper pad. I really liked the Tickled Pink coloured paper. It also came with a coordinating sheet of card stock in the kit. I wanted to use the pattern paper as the letters. But holding the paper over the coordinating card stock, I felt it blended in too much. So I decided to use the coordinating card stock for the base of the card. And to add a panel from some Neenah Solar White card stock. Which I cut out with the scalloped panel die from the Blueprint 27 Dies.

Closeup of the sentiment on the card

To finish off the sentiment I used on of the flag dies, that also came with the Blueprint 27 dies, and cut out two flags also in Neenah and stamped Somebunny and You on them. As the SOMEBUNNY was capitalised I wanted the YOU also to be capitalised. After some digging I found a capitalised YOU in the same font on the BB Birthday Chicks. I stamped them on the flags with the coordinating ink (i didn’t have the dye ink but I did have the hybrid on). If I redid this card I would either use the Misti to stamp the sentiments so that I could double or triple stamp them. Or I would use the coordinating card stock for the flags and heat emboss the sentiment in white.

Shows a closeup of the colored bunny

When I had finished the sentiment all I had left was the characters. I picked both stamps from the Somebunny stamp set, the chick I colored in a light yellow. For the bunny I decided to do some paper piecing to give the dress the same pattern as the big sentiment, and then color the rest of the bunny in some greys.

Shows closeup of the chick on the card

Then I put the card together, using my tape runner to glue the the panel to the card base and then added the sentiment and characters with some foam tape to give them a natural shadow that makes them pop a little from the panel.

Thank you for coming to my blog. Hope you liked this card! See you soon!

Supplies:

When possible affiliate links are used, this means that I receive a small commission when products are purchased through the links (at no extra cost to you) I use the money to support my blog and youtube channel. If you like my projects and tutorial please consider supporting me by clicking through these links when you shop. Thanks!

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708
6 Mini Halloween Cards In A Row
Uncategorized

6 Mini Halloween Cards | Simon Says Stamp

craftybit

Today I have 6 Mini Halloween cards for you. I love making mini cards, may it be just to attach to present, give tips in when I visit the US or as in this case to be abled to give a little note of encouragement for trick or treaters.I had two more halloween stamps left from my stamptember order that I just had to use! Decided to make some quick and simple cards that can be used for any trick or treaters (if that is still something you can do where you live).

These 6 Mini Halloween cards all use the same color story, white and purple. I also use the coordinating cardstock and ink Grape Jelly by My Favorite Things, which really makes the cards come together. And for a final touch some of the images get flat layers of copic coloring for that little extra.

We start off with a cute little mummy. He was the start of the idea, I wanted to use the character stamps but I didn’t have time to give them that detailed coloring I usually do. So I opted to not color them at all, just color theme in the coordinating ink on the coordinating cardstock. Adding a soft white line with a color pencil and finally adding a heat embossed white sentiment.

Mini Halloween Card With Mummy
Mini Halloween Card With Mummy At Angle

And as I was playing with my heat embossing I knew I wanted to make a background, I saw that little ghost but I felt white ghosts on purple cardstock would have too much contrast. So instead I heat embossed the ghosts in some holographic embossing powder instead. Stamping the sentiment in the coordating ink, but on white cardstock this time, and then fussy cut it out and attached it with some foam tape for some dimension.

Mini Halloween Card With Trick Or Treat Sentiment And Glittered Ghost In Background
Mini Halloween Card With Trick Or Treat Sentiment And Glittered Ghost In Background At Angle

I knew I wanted to use the outline sentiments, and add just a little bit color. So I stamped the Spooky sentiment in some Memento Tuxedo Black Ink on some neenah cardstock. Then I picked out 6 purple markers and flatly colored each letter going from light to dark. Quick and simple.

Mini Halloween Card With Spooky Sentiment
Mini Halloween Card With Spooky Sentiment At Angle

Then I gave the Halloween outline stamp the same treatment, but adding a orange and a yellow for the candy corn A.

Mini Halloween Card With Colored Halloween Sentiment
Mini Halloween Card With Colored Halloween Sentiment At Angle

But I wasn’t finished with the Halloween outline stamp, I had another idea, very much inspired by my mummy card. I just stamped the sentiment in some coordinating ink on some coordinating cardstock, added a white outline with my colored pencil. And the card was done! Very quick and very simple.

Mini Halloween Card With Halloween Sentiment
Mini Halloween Card With Halloween Sentiment At Angle

My last card is definitely my favorite, bringing together my favorite techniques from the earlier cards. I stamped the spider web in coordinating ink on coordinating cardstock to create a background, and then I stamped the Boo Crew sentiment on some white neenah in Tuxedo Black Ink. I only colored the lollipop and left the rest of the sentiment white, then I fussy cut it out and popped it up on some foam tape in the middle of the card. A little more time but still very quick and very simple.

Mini Halloween Card With Colored Boo Crew Sentiment And Spider Web Background
Mini Halloween Card With Colored Boo Crew Sentiment And Spider Web Background At Angle

Hope you enjoyed all my cards today and all my halloween cards through out October. These were my last Halloween cards for this season, but I have new ones for you next year. For the rest of the year I will concentrate on christmas, with a couple of birthday /get well soon cards as they will be needed! Happy Halloween!

Copic:

V0000, V000, V01, V12, V15, V17, E42, Y17, YR16

When possible affiliate links are used, this means that I receive a small commission when products are purchased through the links (at no extra cost to you) I use the money to support my blog and youtube channel. If you like my projects and tutorial please consider supporting me by clicking through these links when you shop. Thanks!

Supplies:

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708
Closeup of slimline card made with stamps by clearly besotted
Uncategorized

Slimline Halloween | Clearly Besotted

craftybit
Closeup of slimline card made with stamps by clearly besotted

I finally have created a slimline card! This slimline Halloween card was born more out of wanting to use all the super cute stamps of my 3 Clearly Besotted stamp sets than anything else. The slimline card had enough space to be able to fit in the most stamps but also had the space to create almost like a little story.

The first thing that I did with this card was to create a color story. I knew with that many characters I needed to limit my color scheme to make sure that it doesn’t look to busy. And then I just went to town coloring all the images, and a couple of more, it’s always better to have a few to choose from.

Closeup of slimline card made with stamps by clearly besotted
Closeup of slimline card made with stamps by clearly besotted

The background on the card I left fairly simple, just some simple and uneven blending using two stencils for a little bit of texture. I ended up mounting the finished panel on a black slime line cardbase that I made. Hope you enjoy the cards!

Copic:

YR20, YR21, YR15
YG01, YG05, YG09
V000, V01, V12
E40, E41, E42, E43, E44
N0, N2, N4, N6, N8, N10

When possible affiliate links are used, this means that I receive a small commission when products are purchased through the links (at no extra cost to you) I use the money to support my blog and youtube channel. If you like my projects and tutorial please consider supporting me by clicking through these links when you shop. Thanks!

Supplies:

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708

Uncategorized

1 Stamp 2 Dies 3 Cards | Batty Halloween

craftybit

Hi everyone! Do you love halloween as much as I do? Well this year threw me for a loop, not only didn’t my supplies arrive as they where supposed to, I also had surgery that was expected but nor the timing. But I’m working through the stamps that finally came and making all the Halloween cards before the season ends. Today i use 1 Stamp and 2 Dies to produce 3 slightly different cards going from simple to a little more busy.

The first card is just a simple blended vertical band, using to inks in the same color family. Finished off with the batty die and outline halloween in white and black cardstock.

The second card is again that vertical blended band, this time with som overlapping blend to get a mid color. To break that band up a little bit I did some black gouache splatters, choosing gouache to get that mat finish on the dots, and stamped some bats overlapping the band to give the card some more dimension. Finally adding the bat and the sentiment again in some white and black cardstock.

The third card got a little more bling. The vertical border has a three ink blend to give it some more depth. I stamped the little butterfly in versamark ink and heat embossed in some black glitter embossing powder. And to finish the card, I cut out the black part of the bat and the sentiment in some black glitter cardstock.

Which was your favorite of the three? Hope you have an awesome week!

When possible affiliate links are used, this means that I receive a small commission when products are purchased through the links (at no extra cost to you) I use the money to support my blog and youtube channel. If you like my projects and tutorial please consider supporting me by clicking through these links when you shop. Thanks!

Supplies:

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708
Uncategorized

Bride of Frakenstein | Creative Color Placement

craftybit

Do you ever look at a stamps silhouette and see something completely different than the motive of the stamp? Well I did! I had stamped Patricia by Stamp Anniething in a very light ink on some craft cardstock, and what I saw was the Bride of Frankenstein! So decided to play with some severe creative color placement and make Patricia into the bride.

Creative Color Placement is when you stamp a stamp in a very light ink, I’ve used Insulation Pink Hybrid Ink by MFT (which is sadly retired). I then changed the silhouette by coloring over the lines, transforming Patrica into the Bride of Frankenstein.

After coloring her I clean and simple card together by masking off my cardbase with some diecut masking paper and blending on top. For sentiment I used some white and black alphabet stickers, which I then covered in some enamel accents and nuvo drops to make them more dimensional and shiny to stand out a little bit better against the cardbase.

Hope you enjoyed the card and the video tutorials. Have you ever done creative color placement? Please share your links in the comment box 🙂 Have an awesome day!

Copic:

Skin: E0000, E000, E00, E21, E11
Eyes: B60, B63, E49, E47, E43
Hair: C00, C0, C2, C4, C6, C8, C10 Clothes:
E40, E41, E42, E43, E44

When possible affiliate links are used, this means that I receive a small commission when products are purchased through the links (at no extra cost to you) I use the money to support my blog and youtube channel. If you like my projects and tutorial please consider supporting me by clicking through these links when you shop. Thanks!

Supplies:

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708
Uncategorized

Fall Thank You Build A Scene Card | Mermaid

craftybit

Today I share a thank you card with you. A Fall thank you card where I build a scene with a bunch of pumpkins and a mermaid. I’m extra excited to share this card with you because for the pumpkins I use my very own digital stamp! You can get it over at my etsy store, and for a short time I have added a 20% sale on it!

When making this card I was looking through my stamp collection, and even tho I have a whole bunch of pumpkins, none was the perfect size for this card. So I decided to make a bunch for myself. I ended up with 7 versions that I liked, and I made all of them in 4 different sizes so that it would be easy to find a size for all different kind of projects. While I was at it I made a couple of compositions, or groupings, that you could use out of the box incase you didn’t want to make it yourself.

But back to the card. It’s a very simple card fall thank you card, using some tone in tone pattern paper as the background. The paper is discontinued, but Doodlebug Designs has come out with a new pattern paper pack in the same color scheme, called Pumpkin Spice! For the rest of the card I used the products from the Under The Sea Theme Bundle by Stamp Anniething, a mermaid and a sea bottom die. Have you seen the rest of the cards I made with the bundle? So far I used the Merman and the Octomerm. I also found a nice thank you sentiment for the fall thank you card from the Fall Friends stamp set by My Favorite Things.

Hope you enjoy the videos and get something out of this card. Do you want to see me make more digis? What kind of digis would that be? Hope you have an awesome day.

Copic:

Pumpkin & Hair: E19, E09, E08, YR18, YR16
Eyes & Top: YG09, G19, G29, B60, B63
Tail: E33, E35, E37
Skin: E04, E11, E21, E00, E50, R30, R32
Pumpkin branch: YR01, YR63, YR67

When possible affiliate links are used, this means that I receive a small commission when products are purchased through the links (at no extra cost to you) I use the money to support my blog and youtube channel. If you like my projects and tutorial please consider supporting me by clicking through these links when you shop. Thanks!

Supplies:

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708