Monday 19 November 2018

Floral Squares Card

Floral Squares Card
Featuring Couture Creations Le Petit Jardin Collection



This is a really quick card (yes even with all that foiling).  I've used pages from the 6 x 6 Paper pad, and just one hotfoil stamp to create the square foiled panel.  I've foiled a sentiment, but you could die cut or stamp and emboss a sentiment instead.

I've used a sheet of A4 card to create my card blank, so its 14.9cm square, which is a little smaller than 6 inches, so I've trimmed my paper down by 4mm on each side so that it fits onto my card blank with a small white border from the card blank showing.

I've used the centre of my 6.x 6 page for my sentiment - If you are going to do this, do the foiling first before cutting the circle out of the centre of the page.  See my video (link at the bottom of page) for great tips on positioning your hotfoil stamps.



Cut the sentiment out of the centre of your paper using a round die.


Die cut an 11.5cm square piece of white card.

Position the Primrose Flower hotfoil stamp on your GoPress & Foil so that the flower will be in one corner of your card with the end of its stem in the centre of the square.  See the video.

Foil the flower (I've used Phantom Purple foil), leave the hotfoil stamp on the GoPress & Foil, add more foil and turn the card 1/4 turn and foil in the next corner.  Repeat this process for all four corners.


Remove the hot foil stamp from the GoPress & Foil and allow it to cool for a minute or two.

Position the Primrose Flower so that the flower is in the space between the corner flowers, along one of the edges.  I used Blue/Green Iridescent foil for these. As before, foil the flower on each side by turning the card 1/4 turn each time.


Cut a mat layer for your sentiment using a slightly larger round die, from a contrasting paper from the pad or some contrasting card.

Stick down your foiled square in the centre of your patterned paper, and add the round sentiment in the centre of the square.






CO725435 - Le Petit Jardin  - 6 x 6 Paper Pad
CO725424 - Le Petit Jardin  -  Primrose Flower Hotfoil Stamp
CO725289 - Anna Griffin     - With Love Hotfoil stamp  
CO725392 - Heat Activated Foil - Blue Green (Iridescent Finish)
CO726053 - Heat Activated Foil - Purple (Deep Mirror Finish)


Wednesday 14 November 2018

Golden Flourish Card


Golden Flourish Card
featuring Couture Creations Le Petit Jardin Collection



For this card I've used some gold card stock and two of the papers from the Le Petit Jardin 12 x 12 pad, along with the Midday Corner Decorative die and the Jardin Doily Mini die to create the background.

For the topper, I was undecided which way to make it, so I've made several versions.  In the photo above, I've used the Frame from the Ooh La La Framed Owl set, and the With Love sentiment hot foil stamp from Couture Creations Anna Griffin collection, but I also had lots of other ideas for the topper - shown below.



As you can see it works well with plain nested ovals, with the oval frame or other layering die sets as a frame; and the sentiment can be foiled, die cut or heat embossed using gold embossing powder, using whatever you have.

I've made an A5 size card (21cm x 14.9cm) so start by cutting a piece of gold card to 20.6cm by 14.5cm (4mm smaller than A5).

Die cut 2 of the Midday Corner from gold card.

Cut a piece of the dark purple paper to 20.2cm x 14.1cm (8mm smaller than A5) and a strip of the floral paper 9.5cm wide.  

Lay out the corners on the purple paper in the top right and bottom left corners - but don't stick them down yet. 

Position the strip of floral paper diagonally across the backing paper, between the corners, and use some low tack masking tape or repositional tape to hold it in place on both of the long edges as shown below.




Then the corners can be taken off, and the papers turned over so that some of the excess can be trimmed away from the corners - but don't trim away all of the excess at this stage.


Turn the papers back over so that you can see the front and release one of the pieces of tape holding the diagonal strip in place.  

Fold the strip back (hinged by the remaining piece of tape) and add double sided tape (or glue if you prefer) to the back.  Remember that you still need to trim off some of the excess at the corners, so don't go right up to those edges.


Lay the strip back down across the purple backing paper, and stick it in place.  The second piece of masking tape can now be removed.


Turn the papers over to the back again and trim the excess off the diagonal strip, flush with the edge of the purple backing paper.


Layer the papers onto the gold card and stick down on your card blank, and then stick the corner die cuts in place. 

Cut 2 of the Jardin Doily mini die and trim so that they have a square corner.  Stick these in place in the corner of the diagonal strip.

Create the topper using the purple paper as the background with either a sentiment cut from the same gold card as the corners, stamped and embossed with gold embossing powder, or foiled.  Cut out and add to the decorative frame, or just layer up some plain ovals cut from gold card and more or the purple paper.

To save some of the purple paper, I cut my smaller oval out of the larger one and backed the larger one with some black card.



And here is what the card looks like with some of the versions of the topper.

  


CO725434  - Le Petit Jardin  - Le Petit Jardin 12x12 Paper Pad
CO725933  - Le Petit Jardin  - JARDIN DOILY MINI DIE
CO725943  - Le Petit Jardin  - MIDDAY CORNER DECORATIVE DIE
CO725289 -  Anna Griffin     - With Love Hotfoil Stamp







Friday 2 November 2018

Le Petit Jardin - Sunflowers and Roses

Sunflowers and Roses Card
using Le Petit Jardin Collection from Couture Creations


For this card I've used a mixture of vibrant and more muted papers from the 12 x 12 paper pad.

This is an A5 (21cm x 14.9cm) card, so you need to cut a piece of the floral paper to 20.2cm x 14.1cm.  You also need a piece of the dark purple paper 5cm wide and 20cm long and a piece of the striped paper 4cm wide and 20 cm long.

Stick the strip of striped paper in place down the middle of the dark purple strip, with an even border on either side.  

Cut the layered strip into two pieces about 4cm from one end.

Stick the layered strip in place about 1cm from the left hand edge of the floral paper as shown below, leaving a gap where the strip has been cut so that it can over hang the edges of the floral paper a little at both ends (so that it can be trimmed flush with the floral backing paper).


Turn the backing paper over and trim the ends of the strip flush with the edges of the paper.

The backing paper (with the attached strip) can now be stuck down on our A5 card blank.

Use the Floral Wreath hot foil stamp to foil onto the dark purple paper, and cut out using a 6.5cm square die.  Mat onto a die cut squire of lilac card.


Foil using the Floral Arrangement 2 hot foil stamp onto some smooth white card, positioned so that it will be in the bottom right corner when you cut a 9cm square from the card.  You get a neater edge if you foil first and then die cut the square so that only the flower and part of the leaves are on the topper.  There's a link to my video of how to do this at the end.


Stamp a sentiment in black onto the foiled card, and use the sunflower stamp to add more decoration.  I used pigment stamping pads to stamp in colors that coordinate with the colors in the backing paper, then pressed the ink pads onto my glass mat to release some ink which I picked up with a water brush fill in some color on top of the stamping.  I used the same inks to add subtle color to the foiled sunflower.

Once dry, mat the foiled topper onto some Lilac card.

Cut 2 of the Sunlit Rosebud mini die, one in lilac and one in white.  Stick the white one down on lilac card and cut around the edge, and stick the lilac one onto white card and cut around.  

Cut 2 of the Evening Branch Mini Die in white card.  

Stick the toppers in place using foam pads.

Arrange the roses and Evening Branch die cuts in the bottom right hand corner of the card.



Topper Video

CO725434  - Le Petit Jardin  - Le Petit Jardin 12x12 Paper Pad
CO725426  - Le Petit Jardin  - Floral Wreath Hot Foil Stamp
CO725427  - Le petit Jardin  - Floral Arrangement 2 Hot Foil Stamp
CO725937  - Le petit Jardin  - Evening Branch Mini Die
CO725940  - Le Petit Jardin  - Sunlit Rosebud Mini Die
CO725437  - Le Petit Jardin  - Sunflower mini stamp.