Tutorial - Snow-covered fir/pine trees

This is a tutorial to make something like this.

This was done free-hand. I learned how to this from the 'glitter lady' at a demo night that our local stamp store was having I think a couple of Christmases ago.  (That lady, I later learned, was Deanna Pannell, creator of Dee's Distinctively Dies and Glitter Ritz.)  This is so cool and so amazingly easy that I want to share this with you. These are the tools and materials that you need: 

1. Craft glue – most regular type of craft glue will work I think, e.g. Aleene’s Tacky Glue, Elmer’s Glue All, etc.—we do NOT want the thick kind. I used the Sobo glue pictured above. 

 2. White acrylic paint (you only need a small amount – approx. 25 drops). Any brand will do. I use the one above, because it was on sale--LOL. 

 3. A small empty bottle with a very fine tip (.9 mm aperture). You can buy these at your art or craft store. Got mine at Michaels (in their fabric paint section). 

 4. Glitter—white and/or transparent with highlights--I prefer cool highlights. (Or any colour glitter you want.) The type of glitter is used is Jewel Glitter Ritz Micro Fine Glitter. 

 5. Card stock—the heavier the better. It is ALMOST impossible to find a glue that dries white. Although your craft glue is white in colour, they will dry clear—which is preferable at any other time, as you don’t really want to see globs of glues on your craft projects. But for our purposes here, we want a glue that dries white. The small amount of white paint is required to make your own dries-white glue. If you want the snow on your trees to look white, you need this glue. Otherwise your trees will have a tint of your paper colour. I've taken pictures to show you the difference. This was done using white glitter. The one on the left is with clear glue and the

 

one on the right with white glue.

This one was done using tranparent glitter with cool highlights.

Again the one at the left is with clear glue and the right-side one is with white glue. See what I mean?

If however you want to do your trees in any other colour of glitter, then clear glue is just fine to use.

So a little preparation ahead of time. Fill your bottle about ¾ full with the craft glue and add about 25 drops of the white acrylic paint. Shake it well to mix. 

 Basically the trees are made by making teardrops of glue placed haphazardly to form a picture of a tree and then covering it in glitter. Practice a few strokes of forming tear drops on a scrap piece of paper, by squeezing out a small dot and then dragging it to make the tail. Now, it’s easier to drag down than up, so they’re upside-down teardrops. So what you will be doing is making the tree upside down. ( If you find it easy to do it the other way, by all means, do so. There’s no set rules to this–whatever works for you.) The first 3 dabs of glue you’re going to place on your paper is a guideline to how tall and how wide you want the tree to be. Since it’s easier to SHOW you how to do this rather than tell you, I’ve done a couple of short videos here. I've taken these with my camera, so they're amateurish. I mounted my camera on a tripod, focus it on my craft table and stood behind the setup. I was trying to set my eyes both on what I was doing on the table and on the screen a the same time. LOL. This was fun to do. Had to do several retakes before I ended up with these 2 vids. (There's no oral instruction --I don't like the sound of my own voice. Whenever I hear it coming out of some kind of device, I think I sound...funny, lol.  

For the first tree:                    

                                            

The paper will buckle a bit due to the wet glue, that’s why the heavier the paper the better. But when the glue dries, the paper will flatten itself out...not 100% though. Ideally, you should wait until the glue dries before adding more trees, but I was too impatient. For additional tree(s):                                                                                   

 And you just keeping adding more trees until you get the picture that you want.

When the glue has dried, you can brush the excess glitter back to your container. This is what my end product looks like.

I used this group of trees as a background for Tilda in this card. If you want to see the posting for this card you can click here. I hope you've found this tutorial informative. Have fun with it. PS. Make sure you clean your glue bottle tip as soon as you're not using it. The glue dries fast, but its water soluble. Unscrew the tip from your bottle and put it under running water until all the glue is gone.

PPS. If you decide to give it a try and make a card or cards with your trees, I would love to see it/them. (Send me a link.)

Have a Great Birthday

Hello!

I haven't been very productive lately, but finally, finally got this one card done.

This card was done using this sketch of Kirstin for Just Christmas and Birthday Cards.

I've made the center square where the image sits into a sort of pocket, so that instead of attaching the tag permanently, you can slide it in and out of the pocket.

This card is also for Simon Says Challenge. This week's challenge is..... Buttons and Ribbons !

And I'm also including a third challenge from Dutch Dare Card Challenges. This weeks challenge: use LACE on your card.

The Magnolia image I'm using here is the adorable Tilda with Apron. The designer papers are from Paper Pizazz, Green w/Daisies and from Basic Grey, Wisteria Violet.
The sentiments are from rubber stamps from Inkadinkado, Have a Great Birthday and from Greatt Impressions, Have a beautiful and special day.

And that is it! Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful weekend.

Just a note ...

Happy Monday!

I wan't sure I could get a card done today. It's a statutory holiday here today and I thought I had extra time to spend to make cards, but instead I ended up with extra chores to do--isn't that always the case? LOL. Anyway, I did manage to finish this.

I did this card for the Passion for Promarker challenge. The challenge - the colour combo of Pastel Pink & Cool Aqua was chosen by Maria and she has also given a sketch to use.

This card is also for Roses on Paper Challenge. Their theme: use hearts in your creation.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Stamp: Magnolia Tilda with letter.

DP's: My Mind's Eye Irresistible Love in Bloom, KI Memories Choices Collection Organized Tailgate, Sentiments inside card from Hampton Art G Studio Kolette Hall Design.

Tools: Martha Stewart border punch, Marvy Uchida scallop circle punch, Colluzle circle template, Martha Stewart snowflake punch.

Let it Snow

Happy Sunday!

This card was made for the Magnolia Down Under Challenges. This fortnight Challenge #19 is: Winter is here...

I am also using this card as my entry to the Winter Wonderland challenge blog. The theme for their Week #10 is Winter Wonderland.

The idea for this card came from Claudia at Pretty Pressings. I totally copied her Harmony card that she posted (or rather scheduled to be posted while she was on vacation) last week. I just changed the theme.

What I love most about the card is the surprise element of it. You think that you are getting a card without any cute/adorable character. And then you open it and there it is--in my case, there's Chilly Tilda sitting on a pine branch.

I wanted to add some snow to that branch, but I didn't have any of that snow stuff. I've tried using glitter just on a stamp image on a scrap piece, but it didn't look right. I didn't want to ruin this, so I'll wait until I buy the snow stuff and will add it on then.

The snow covered trees on the side panel is done free hand with just glue and glitter. It's amazingly easy to do. Perfect for background scenes if you don't have any fir-tree stamp. Leave me a comment if you're interested and I may do a short tut (isn't that just a sneaky way to get comments? hee hee).

The DP I used actually have white swirls and snowflakes on it, but they can barely be seen, so I practically had to make my own DP by stamping my own swirls and snowflakes with navy coloured ink.

This is a full picture of the card inside. The image is placed on the left side leaving a blank space on the right to write Christmas greetings on. I've added transparent micro-glitter to the white trims of Tilda's winter suit.

Please have a look at the other cards created for this challenge by the ladies at MDUC. They're simply wonderful. You can also click on their individual names on the side panel to hop over to their blogs and see all the other wonderful cards they've created.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Stamps: Magenta Let it Snow, Magnolia Chilly Tilda, Inkadinkadoo clear stamp set Season of Swirls, All Night Media Snowflake.
DP: K&Company Brenda Walton Peppermint Twist.
Misc.: Jewel Glitter Ritz micro fine glitter, EK Success snowflake punch .

XOXO

Hello!

I've made this card with a few challenges in mind.

The layout is from the sketch that Heidi’s provided for her Little Stamp Shoppe.

Stamp With Fun’s Challenge #17 this week is Pearls.

At Simon Says Stamp Challenge, their current challenge is LETS GET DISTRESSING !!

And wouldn’t you know it, Distressing is also the theme for Just Magnolia's Week 16 Challenge.

I've put some folds in Tilda's blouse. What do you think? I'm still trying to figure out where the highlights should be. Hmm...

I've gone pearl-crazy as you can see.

Did some heavy distressing, but in the picture the distressing looks lighter than in real life. The flowers are also distressed.

Here's the inside of my card, which took me a while longer to finished (this picture is posted on the next day. Had to have some shut eyes in between--LOL.)

A small announcement here. Kellie from Magnolia Down Under Challenges has asked me if I would like to stay on for another 6 months. Woo hoo. Of course I would!!! I am very honoured to be asked to join the DT ladies at MDUC. Thank you, Kellie. I feel humbled by this.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Stamp: Magnolia #214 Tilda with Hair Flower Garland, #501 Shabby chic fence, Hampton Art G Studio Kolette Hall Design hugs & kisses.
DP’s: KI Memories Pet Shop Yarn, Chatterbox Tangerine Gingham and Sunny Pinwheels.
Tools: EK Success border punch. EK Success retro flower punches (large & medium), Martha Stewart flower punch .

Embelishments: Making Memories metal XOXO, Kaisercrat Pearls yellow, Gartner Studios Brides ivory pearl.

Thank You

Happy Sunday!

This card was made for Stamp With Fun Challenge. This is the sketch provide by Maria Bell for their challenge 16.

This card was also made for Colour Create Challenge. Their Challenge 23 - blue and white. The optional extra this week is VINTAGE.

Most of the time, I do distress the pieces of paper on my cards, but this time I heavilly distress them to give it a vintage look (hmm... I don't think I'm quite successful there...oh well).

Yesterday was such a crappy day for me! My computer crashed!!!!! And after talking to the support person (I asked her which part of the world she was in and she said the Philipines--isn't that amazing?) for a couple of hours (thank God I don't have to pay for that long-distance call), and trying everything to restore it, worse came to worst and we ended up having to restore my laptop to its original condition, as it was when I bought it. So, rats, darn, ...(insert here every swear words known to mankind), I lost every files that was in my laptop! Aghhhh!!! Looking at the bright side, I didn't have any important documents. And all the pictures I lost are still in my camera. Phew! Old e-mails are gone I think. Anyway, I have lots of work now to do to restore my files. Sorry for my rambling on here.

Thanks for dropping by.

Stamps: Magnolia #342 Spring Tilda, sentiment from Penny Black Flower Gallery clear stamp set.
DPs: Chatterbox Sky Bloom adn Courtyard Blossoms, Provo Craft Stone Washed Denim-wavy Plaid

Just Because

Happy Friday!


This card was made for 2 challenges:

The first one is for Kellie Winnell. Her first blog...sketch challenge--she's got a new blog! There is a secret prize and a sketch to follow. Click here to hop over to get the details to Kellie's challenge and also to take a look at her new blog and... the gorgeous cards that she's created.

The 2nd challenge is from Cute Card Thursday. Challenge 70 - Eye to Eye!
... use eyelets on your card or project.

I saw these DP's at the local scrapbook store and they caught my eyes right away. The color combination really appeals to me. They're double-sided paper from the Paper Loft--I think it's a new line--Grandma's House, and the 2 designs are Hankie and Herb Garden. I already have a paper with similar colour combo at home (that's the one at the right on the inside of my card) from K&Company. I don't know the design name--it's been cut out.

Have a wonderful day, people. TGIF!

Stamps: Magnolia #209 Standing With Hair Bow.

Happy Birthday

Hello!

I've made a birthday card, but it can actually be used for any occasion. I've stuck the sentiment inside the card.

I'm using this card as my entry to 3 challenges:
Papertake Weekly Challenge -- Take Your Pick Colour Combi. It's very easy peasy and all you have to do is to create your card using a colour combi from the following - pink, black, white, yellow, green, grey and lilac You can use as many or as few of those colours as you want and of course, you can use your own preferred colours for skin tones and hair etc.

I've decided to use pink and green, but of a particular shade of each colour, because over at
Passion for Promarker Challenge, their colour challenge for Week 9 is rose pink & lime.

The 3rd challenge is Dutch Dare Card Challenge #56: Use cutting dies and/or punches.
I love punches. I've got punches coming out of my ears, LOL.

This is another one of my favorite Tilda (ahem...I guess I do say that about a lot of my Tildas, don't I? Well, they're ALL favorites. LOL. I love them all!!!) . This Tilda I think has the sweetest espression and just a touch of sadness or sorrow, as though to say I'm sorry. Well that's exactly the sentiment I want to express, because this is going to be a belated birthday card. Ouch!! I've been a bad girl. I keep putting it off. I just hope the recipient of this card feels it's better late than never.

I actually couldn't decide which colour to use for her dress and which for the scarf and which would look better. So I coloured both combinations. They both look okay to me. It was a coin toss. I put one Tilda on the front of the card and stuck the other one inside sitting on a present.


That's all folks. Have a wonderful day!


Stamps: Magnolia #310 Waiting Tilda, Imaginisce Snag 'Em Stamps Present, MSE! M126 Birthday Circles.
DP's: Basic GreyBasic Grey Archangel, Momenta A Family Affair Relations.
Tools: EK Success Retro Flower punches (large & medium), EK Success Photo Corner Curved punch, Martha Stewart border punch, Marvy Uchida Scallop Circle punch, Colluzel circle template.

Wishes & Kisses

Happy Sunday!

I'm still in a Christmasy mood. I've got another Christmas card. This one made for the Next Level. Their challenge of the week (which closes in, yikes, less than an hour, so I'm rushing through this--LOL) is Sketch with 3D Image.

This is the sketch that was provided.

I've carried the decoupage feature to outside the circle also, and use it for the poinsettia.

Frontal picture of the card doesn't really show the stages of the cutout pieces, so I hope you can see them here.

For the final/top pieces of the cut-outs (the face, the bell with glove, the pockets, etc.) what I've done is give them a bit of a curl--looks better than just having them laying flat.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

Stamps: Magnolia #322 Tilda with Bell, PSX G-3341 Poinsettia, Sentiment from Anna Griffin Christmas stamp set.

DP's: Provo Craft Winter Berries, K&Company Christmas Ivory Blind Embossed Paper.

Winter Wonderland

Hello everybody. I hope you're enjoying your weekend.

This is my last Guest DT card for the Magnolia Down Under Challenge. The theme for this week is: Christmas in July.

This seems to be a popular theme, as it also the theme at the Cute Card Thursday, their challenge #69.

I just love Christmas. This is the earliest I've ever started on my Xmas cards. I'm always procrastinating and leaving it until the last minute and then had to scramble to get all my cards done. So this is a good opportunity to get started.

One new thing that I used for this card, that I haven't used before for any of the cards on my blog is my brass stencils. For this one, I used a Dreamweaver stencil with those bare trees, along with some white embossing paste and transparent micro glitter. You can't really see the shimmering glitter on the picture, but in real life it looks like there are snow crystals in the air. I love working with these micro glitters. It can be really messy--with glitters all over the place, on you clothes, in your hair, LOL--but the effect on your cards can be quite stunning.

The huge snowball that Tilda is sitting on is from a Penny Black stamp that has a hedgehog on top of the snowball rolling along. I stamped it by masking the hedgehog.

Before I sign off, I want to express my sincere thanks to Kellie for the opportunity of being a Guest DT. I have enjoyed myself tremendously, Kellie, and I hope that you were pleased with my work.

Enjoy you weekend!

Stamps: Magnolia #275 Winter Sled, #268 Chilly Tilda, Penny Black 3759 Snow Joy, sentiment from Inkadinkadoo 8305 Snow flake trails

DP's: American Crafts A La Carte Florentine,KI Memories Choices Collection Organized Tailgate

Toolsl: EK Success border punch.

Misc.: Dreamweaver brass stencil, embossing paste

Bunch of Roses

A good Sunday to all! Hope you're enjoying your weekend.

Just got another card done. This one using this sketch for the Friday Sketchers Challenge Blog, for their week 60, provided by Heidi.

Now, instead of having the card opening at the side (or at the bottom), my card's opening is at the middle as I wanted to make a gate card for another challenge blog, Roses on Paper. This symmetrical sketch is perfect for a gate card. (How sneaky is that! LOL) . This is the theme of their challenge #15... A Gate Card including Stitching!

I've used this adorable Magnolia image of Tilda with Huge Bunch of Roses. The 2 flower charms I've put on heavy-cardstock circles and placed them on the card on foam tape so that they are slightly raised. This way you can tuck the front panel under the edge of the left circle when you want to keep the card closed.

I've decorated the inside of the card very simply.

That's about it. Thanks for visiting my blog. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Stamps: Magnolia #349 Tilda with Huge Bunch of Roses.
DP's: Chatterbox Sunny Bias Plaid and Tangerine Pinwheels.
Tools: Martha Stewarat border punch.
Charm: Blue Moon Beads Bits & Baubles Metal Charms

From the Heart

Happy Saturday! Ladies, thank you for all the lovely comments that you've written me. I really do apppreciate them. They make my day.

I've created this card using this marvelous sketch that Sharon herself has provided for the Truly Scrumptious Challenge Blog, their challenge 11. This week there's an added theme to this challenge: "...to use only black, white plus one other colour (excluding skin & hair)." How simply wonderful, since that colour scheme is one of my favorites.

And that is exactly the challenge at Papertake Weekly Challenge: My Favorites Things -- "use anything you want as long as there is something favourite of yours on there. So it could be a stamp, or your fave colour combi or papers. Or all of them put together." Now, I can't truthfully say that the black-and-white-plus-one-other-colour colour scheme is my absolute favorite, but it's right up there. I also have a favorite stamp that I want to use, the Tilda with Heart from Magnolia.

With that stamp, I've snuck in a third challenge, A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge 58 - Hearts. "...you could use DP with hearts on Heart border punches etc, anything goes as long as it has a heart somewhere on the design."

The additional colour, as you can see, is red (or rather shades of red, from deep pink to red--oh let's just say pinkish red or redish pink. LOL. Take your pick!). The black and white DP is a self-stamped paper using a clear stamp from Autumn Leaves. I've added the flower again, that I learned how to make from StampARTic tutorial provided by Marianne.

And this is how I decorated the inside of the card.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely weekend.

Stamps: Magnolia #281 Tilda with Heart (from the Pink Collection), Autumn Leaves Stampology Block Stamps 1 clear stamp set; Hero Arts From the Heart Greetings stamp set, Hampton Art G Studio Kolette Hall Design For you.
DP's: Basic Grey Bittersweet Raspberry Cream, Hot Off the Press Mixing Masculine papers (black stripe).
Tools: Martha Stewart border punch Hearts. Marvy Uchida scallopped circle punch. EK Success retro flower punches.

Bee Happy

Hello. Happy Wednesday!

I had started this card for 2 challenges, but when it was finished, I ended up with 3.
At Cute Card Thursday, this is their current theme: “Challenge 67 - Stitch in Time! This week we want to see some sewing, either faux of real, on your creation!” I’ve been doing more and more stiching on my cards lately, so this was no sweat. I have only done straight sticthes so far though, but on this card I’ve added some decorative stiches. And if that wasn’t going to be enough, I’ve added some buttons by sewing them on to the card.

And at Just Magnolia, for their week 12 , “The challenge this week is So Charming - we want to see some charms on your creations so dig your metal out and get creative!“ Since the Magnolia image I’m using is the Tilda with Bee, I’ve got the perfect bee charms for this card.

The 3rd challenge is from the Next Level. “This week we have a THEME for your CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK - BUTTONS AND BOWS. That is it - you can be as creative as you like, make anything you like, but it must have BUTTONS AND BOWS on it - the more the merrier!!!!!!!!!!!!” Since I had already planned to have numerous buttons on the card, I just had to add a bow to the card--only room for one.

With all the embelishment, I needed a simple layout. So just 2 pieces of DP's would do. Since Tilda is sitting at an angle, I thought it would look better if I perched her on a wavy line rather than a straight line.

I have the perfect sentiment for this card, but no place to put it on the front of the card, so I've stuck it inside. It's the title for my card. Don't ya think it's cute?

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day!

Stamp: Magnolia #208 Paris Tilda, Stampendous E192 Happy Word.
DP's: Chatterbox Violet Dahlias and Light Parlor Stripe.
Tools: EK Success Retro Flower punches.

Enjoy Your Day

Happy Sunday to all!


This card was created using this wonderful sketch provided for The Next Level Issue #5 challenge.

At the same time, I have also used the colours chosen for the Stamp with Fun colour challenge, their Challenge #13, which are: turquoise-brown.

The image I used is the Magnolia Paris Tilda. I only had to choose one DP from Chatterbox , a double-sided one which has the 2 colours I wanted. The rest are cardstock paper--sorry, I wouldn't be able to tell you what they are as I don't keep track of the names of particular shades. (I dumped all my cardstocks together in a wooden box.)

I did a lot distressing for this card--just about everything except for Tilda herself. Used Tim Holtz distress ink pad Vintage Photo for the brown and also Colorbox pigment stamp pad turquoise.

Both the Tildas, on the front and on the inside, were cut out and then mounted on foam tape for a 3-dimensional effect.

Do you like my flower? Check out this StampARTic tutorial provided by Marianne on how to make this flower and a few others. It's cool!

That's all.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Stamps: Magnolia #208 Paris Tilda, Stampendous perfectly clear stamps set Everything Happy.

DP: Chatterbox Botanico Blue Oak.

Tools: EK Success border punch and flower punches, Tim Holtz distress ink pad vintage photo, Colorbox pigment stamp pad turquoise.

Tulips say hello

Hello! I hope you're enjoying your weekend.

It's time for me to post another Guest DT card for the Magnolia Down Under Challenge.

This week, MDUC Challenge #17 is a sketch challenge. This is their first sketch challenge and the sketch, which was provided by Kellie, is fabulous. I like this sketch so much that I've followed it almost to the letter in creating my card.

The adorable Magnolia image is the Tilda with Tulips from the Easter 2009 Collection. This is the first time I've used lace on a card. At first I added the lace without any background paper, but it looked kind of lost, so I've added the dark background--now you can see the details.

I've chosen this particular DP because of this shade of pink and green combination. The design is actually of pink roses. I know, I know...roses don't actually go with tulips. But you can't actually tell on the front of the card, because the roses are mostly covered up--so that works...LOL. It's only when you see the inside of my cards that it's a bit weird.

In hindsight, I guess I should have chosen a different Tilda image, but I sooo....wanted to finally use this Tilda on a card. Oh well!

Please hop over the MDUC blog and see the other cards from the DT members. They are simple wonderful!!!

Enjoy your weekend.

Stamp: Magnolia #338 Tilda with Tulips.
DP: Hot off the Pree Joy's Vintage Papers.
Tools: Fiskars Read Between the Vines border and corner punch, Marvy Uchida circle and scalloped circle punches.