Aquarium card with Angel Fish

Hi, it is Timi here today. I am going to show you a quick and fun tutorial on how I created this "aquarium card".

A few things you will need:
Angel Fish Digital Stamp
blue cardstock
piece of acetate

Cut a piece of card stock 4x12 inch. Score it at 4, 4 1/8 and 3 7/8. Cut a window out of the card stock as show in the picture.

Print the Angel Fish twice and only colour one in.

Fussy cut the colored fish out and the other one needs to be cut to match the size of the card.

Place foam adhesive on the coloured fish and adhere it on the other printed fish.

Colour the piece of acetate with alcohol inks

Assemble the card: glue the acetate on the back of the window; glue the panel with the fish on the side that is behind the window. 

You can add white card stock inside for you message.

I hope you liked this idea,

Timi

Snowflake Owl - Glitter Technique

I fell in love with the free digital stamp 2 Cute Ink was sharing this weekend - Owl Doodle.  Since I'm no artist with my markers, I instead decided to glitter my image.  Heidi asked if I would share the technique - You know me...anything to be able to showcase my work!  

So Heidi sent me her latest digital stamp - Snowflake Owl - and as soon as I saw it, I saw cool, ice blue!

Here is my card - and step-by-step instructions below!  If you find yourself using this technique with 2 Cute Ink digital stamps, please share on Facebook or send us a link to your page in a comment....would love to see what you do!

Supplies Used

• Snowflake Owl - Digital Stamp (2 Cute Ink)
• White Cardstock - 1 sheet for cutting owl, 8-1/2" x 5-1/2" for card base
• Robin's Egg Blue Classic Glitter Cardstock (The Robin's Nest)
• Double-Sided Adhesive (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
• Microfine Glitter - Glitter Ritz (Elizabeth Craft Designs) 
• Real Teal
• Robin's Egg Blue
• Ice Blue
• Sky Blue
• Mystique
• Cool Highlights
• Warm Highlights
• Border Punch - Apron Lace (Fiskars)

Instructions

I just purchased a Sizzix eClips to replace my Cricut machine.  For those of you with Cricuts and Sure Cuts a Lot, the steps are almost identical.  You will only need to play with your pressure and/or blade depth on the Cricut.

First I placed a 6" x 6" piece of double-sided adhesive on a piece of white cardstock - leaving the protective cover on the top.

Two-sided Adhesive - on white cardstock - on cutting mat

On the electronic cutter, Trace the digital stamp image.  Break apart the image.  I moved the solid owl image to its own layer.  So my screen looked like this:   

To cut, I set the Pressure to 3.  This cuts through the protective covering of the adhesive....but not through the cardstock.

Next, I "hid" the layer with the detailed image, and displayed the solid owl image.  I set the cutter to cut two times - with a Pressure of 6.  This will cut through both the adhesive and cardstock.  See completed cut image below (excuse the messy glitter-catcher cardstock beneath).  You can see the detail cuts on the image's protective covering.

Carefully remove protective covering over outline only

Using tweezers, I peel off the protective covering for the areas I want to glitter in each color.  I like to begin with the outline.  The way 2 Cut Ink's images are designed, it provides a nice "outline" as such.  I begin with glittering the outline...which makes it easier to find all the detailed pieces.  

Cover with glitter; brush off excess

I complete those same steps for each different glitter color.  You can see, once the outline is glittered, the rest of the pieces are easy to see.  Use tweezers to remove the pieces you want for each color.  You can see by the pics, that I am generous when covering with glitter.  All excess goes back in the jar, so no need to be skimpy.  For each color, remove protective covering, cover with glitter, brush off excess.  Repeat.

Generously cover with glitter. 

Shake off excess glitter.

Rub off excess glitter - Rub hard to get a smooth look.

The next time I use this image, I will probably make the owl's belly white - my snowflakes aren't showing well with the little variance in blue colors.  With a white belly, blue snowflakes would really stand out (live and learn).

For this particular card, I did not resize the image.  However, the snowflakes were too small to cut easily, so I did enlarge them...then used the same technique to glitter.

A 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" piece of Robin's Egg Blue Classic Glitter cardstock provides the card front.  I used a border punch on both sides of a strip of Robin's Egg Blue Classic Glitter cardstock, ran it through the Xyron (upside down), and covered it with a combination of Cool and Warm Highlight glitter to provide a blue-on-blue effect.

I popped up the owl....and glued on glittered snowflakes.

If this inspires you to use this technique, please share on Facebook or leave your link in a comment....we would enjoy seeing your creation.  

Tutorial Tuesday....Doggy treat bags!

Homemade Dog Biscuit treat bags 

Using 2Cute Ink 

By Chris Sather 

Cattsscratchingpost.blogspot.ca

 Materials: 
- Dog biscuits (homemade or store bought)
- Small plastic bags
- Cardstock
- Milk and Cookies Dog digital image from 2Cute Ink
- Colouring medium
- ink
- White 3D puffy paint
- Adhesive
- stapler


1. Make dog biscuits ahead of time (I used a recipe I found at AllRecipes.com) – any shape & size. You could use store bought ones too!

 Here’s the recipe I used: 
5 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 cups nonfat dry milk powder
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
4 cubes beef bouillon (I used the packets cuz that's what I had!)
1.5 cups boiling water
1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 300 F

Dissolve bouillon in boiling water & allow to cool combine flour, dry milk, eggs, oil, beef broth and brown sugar.
 Mix well and knead for 1 minute roll out to 1/4 inch thickness...cut out and place on cookie sheet
 Bake for 30 min.

2. Print off as many Milk & Cookie dog images that you need. I needed 7, so I resized them and put 6 on a page.

 

  Cut them to size – I left a bit of room at the top so I could stamp the sentiment.

 

3. Stamp sentiment with desired ink colour. I used a sentiment stamp that I have had forever, and the ink is Stampin’ Up!

 4. Colour image and mount onto coloured cardstock. I added white 3D puffy paint to the glass to look like milk. It gives it some texture too!

 

5. Do this for all of the tags you need.

6. Package dog biscuits into small plastic zipper seal bags. Staple tag to top of bag. Done!!! Easy and inexpensive gift giving ideas for the dogs in your life!!!

 

 

7. Share with your best friends!

 SATISFIED CUSTOMERS!!!!!

 Thanks for checking out my tutorial! I hope you enjoyed it!

Hugs,
Chris