Crafted by Nicole LeBlanc

Spreading happiness... one card at a time.

The Latest

One Layer Dear Cards – with heat embossing and masking

Hi Crafty Friends! I’m back with another fun cardmaking project. Today, I am sharing this fun gold embossed deer card. This is a great card for new crafters and it uses heat embossing and masking techniques. This is also a one-layer card, perfect for mailing to a friend!

If you would like to watch the video tutorial, please click here:

To start off the card, I scored a piece of white cardstock to make an A2 size card. I then positioned a deer stamp and sentiment from Erin Lee Creative’s Dearly Deer stamp set in my Misti tool. I treated my cardstock with a powder tool, then I stamped the imaged in Versamark ink and sprinkled on some gold heat embossing. I then melted the powder until it was smooth and shiny.

Set of gold heat embossed cards featuring Erin Lee Creative’s Dearly Deer

Next, I stamped the same deer stamp onto some Gina K masking magic. I then used some scissors to cut out the image. I then took the masking magic and applied the mask to the area around my embossed image.

I used some detailed blender brushes to slowly apply ink onto my embossed image. The inks that I used today are the Altenew mini ink cubes in the colors sand dune, mocha, minty mint and pink diamond. If you are using the same blending brushes for different colors, be sure to clean your brush between changing colors.

Love you dearly card mounted on a brown card base.

When I was happy with the color application, I slowly peeled off the masking magic to reveal my image underneath. At this point all that was left to do is score the card and it was finished!

This card was a relatively easy one to make. The most time consuming part is cutting out the mask. The time spent cutting out the mask is worth it though as you can use the mask multiple times. I used my mask to color 3 cards, and it was still good if I wanted to make some more.

One Layer Card – with Dearly Deer stamps from Erin Lee Creative

Disclaimer: This post features affiliate links. They are at no cost to you and they help to support this site. Thank you so much for shopping using my links!

HB2U – Make your own ink blended slimline birthday card

Today’s card project is a fun HB2U slimline card that features a mix of ink blending, die cutting, and a lot of shine! If you would like to check out a video tutorial on this project, I would like to invite you to click here:

To start off today’s project, I trimmed down a piece of white cardstock that is slightly larger than a slimline card. I also pulled out some distress oxide inks in the colors cracked pistachio, broken china, wilted violet and picked raspberry. I added the colors to my cardstock in rainbow order using some domed foam blenders. I like to do ink blending on my MakeArt stay-tion. For more information on applying the inks, I invite you to check out my video.

HB2U – slimline birthday card featuring HB2U Picket Fence Studio’s die and slimline stars die from scrapbook.com

Once I was happy with the blending, I misted the cardstock using a mini mister that was filled with water and perfect pearls. I then dried the cardstock with my heat tool.

Next up, I moved onto some die cutting. The large HB2U sentiment is from Picket Fence and I absolutely love it. It is fun to have a large, bold sentiment to be the focus of a card. I die cut this sentiment 3 times from white cardstock and layered them up to create some dimension. At this point, I though it would also be fun to mist the sentiment with the perfect pearls water mixture to add some shimmer to the sentiment using a mini mister sprayer.

 For the background, I used a slimline stars die from scrapbook.com. I die cut both my inked background and a piece of plain white cardstock to layer behind it for some extra dimension. At this point, all that was left to do is adhere my sentiment to my card panel using some liquid glue.

HB2U slimline birthday card

Disclaimer: This post features affiliate links. They are at no cost to you and they help to support this site. Thank you so much for scrapbook.com for previously providing the stars die and slimline cards and envelopes that were used in this project. All other products were purchased by me.

Hot foiling and stenciling – Let’s make a floral card set with gold accents!

Card set featuring hot foiling, gold heat embossing, and layered stencils

Today I will be sharing this cute card set that features a few fun cardmaking techniques including hot foiling, heat embossing and stencils. You can check out a video of this project by clicking here:

The first step for this card project is some gold heat embossing. I pulled out the darling dahlias stamp from Pinkfresh Studio and heat embossed it using some gold embossing powder from Hero Arts. For heat embossing, my favorite ink is versamark. If you are using a MISTI like me, be sure to remove your foam pad as this is a cling stamp.

Happy Birthday card featuring hot foiled sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio

Once the embossing powder was heat set, I pulled out the coordinating stencils. Using my make art stay-tion to hold my stencils in place, I used some blending brushes from Catherine Pooler to apply the ink. I went with this fun pink and aqua color combo. The colors that I used were ballet slippers, sparkling rose, ocean breeze, aquamarine and misty coast. Once my background was complete, I trimmed it down to a size slightly smaller than A2.

For the sentiment, I did some gold hot foiling with Pinkfresh Studio sentiments and my Gemini foil press. In particular, these are the brushed sentiments. I also used the coordinating brushed sentiment dies. These sentiments are fun because they let you make a bunch of sentiments at the same time. It was at this point that I decided that since I would have multiple sentiments, I would make a card set. I die cut some additional sentiments from plain white cardstock to layer up and add dimension to my card front. I also pulled out this scalloped rectangle die and cut out a frame from some gold foil cardstock to add even more shine to my card.

At this point, all that was left to do was assemble my card. I adhered the backgrounds to my card panel using some foam tape. I then used liquid glue to adhere the frame and the sentiment.

Here is a final look at the finished cards.

Card set featuring hot foil, layered stenciling, and heat embossing.

Disclaimer: This post features affiliate links when possible. All products used in this project were purchased by me for my own personal use. Affiliate links are at no additional cost to you and they help support this website. Thank you!

Masculine Birthday cards – with embossing and distress oxides

Today I am sharing this happy birthday card. There is no video tutorial for this one, but here are the steps in case you want to craft along:

  1. Stamp out a graphic background using versamark ink and heat set with some silver embossing powder. This background stamp that I used is an older one from Hero Arts and is no longer available.
  2. Using some blending brushes (I used these Catherine Pooler ones), I blended on distress oxides in ombre order. the colors I chose were chipped sapphire, peacock feathers and salvaged patina. I then took a damp cloth and buffed the oxides off the heat embossing.
  3. For the sentiment I used this happy birthday sentiment from Avery Elle with tonic holo waves cardstock. I also cut out 2 sentiments from white cardstock to stack behind, in an offset fashion, to add some interest to the sentiment.
  4. The background panel was trimmed down to 3.75×5.0 inches and mounted to an A2 size card base using foam tape. I then used liquid glue to adhere the sentiment to the front of the card.

Disclaimer: This post features affiliate links when possible.  Affiliate links are at no additional cost to you and they help support this channel. Thank you so much for shopping using my links!

Thinking of you card with layered die cuts

This card is a fun one because it uses a combination of stenciling with distress oxides and some die cutting with Concord and 9th dies using a scrapbook.com paper pad. Also, I am absolutely loving using these scrapbook.com small paper pads for layering dies. I like that the cardstock is relatively lightweight so that I can use a bunch of layers on these dies and not create a ton of bulk. Also, I love that the colors coordinate together so it is way easier for me to just grab one paper pad and find colors that go together, rather than digging though a bunch of separate colored cardstocks.

So before we jump into the details for this project, I would like to note that there is a tutorial video for this project that you can watch by visiting here. As a bonus, while we go through the card tutorial, I will be sharing some of my tips to making cards with die cuts easier. This is a video you will not want to miss:

https://youtu.be/77iYOeFtWwk

For my images, I used Concord and 9th’s eclectic garden dies. I pulled out one of every color sheet from the sherbet smooth cardstock pad from scrapbook.com, but there was one of the colors that I did not use. I also did end up using a small scrap of black cardstock for the eyes on the humming birds. I also die cut an extra base layer of the floral image from white cardstock once and the base layer from each of the humming birds a couple of times. I have the slimline sized paper pad, but these paper pads do come in other colors as well. Since these dies are all relatively small, I used my sidekick die machine from Sizzix to cut out my images. I layered up the images using some Bearly Arts Glue.

I used a stencil to make a fun rectangle background using the rectangle extraordinaire stencil from MFT. If you do not have a rectangle stencil like this, you could also use masking tape to build your own rectangle area to mask off. I used a couple of CP blending brushes with distress oxides in squeezed lemonade and salvaged patina to build a smooth gradient in the background. The colors I chose were salvaged patina and squeezed lemonade.

For the sentiment today, I white heat embossed a “thinking of you” sentiment from a 6×8 bouquet stamp set from scrapbook.com and Photoplay and used a sentiment strips die from Paper Rose to make sure I could perfectly trim out my sentiment.

To assemble my card, I used some black cardstock from Hero Arts to make an A2 size card base. I then adhered my background to the black card base, leaving a thick black border around the edge. I used liquid glue to adhere down the die cuts to the front. Finally, I added a small piece of foam tape behind my sentiment to make it pop out from the card.

Disclaimer: This post features affiliate links when possible. All products used in this project were purchased by me for my own personal use. Affiliate links are at no additional cost to you and they help support this website. Thank you!

Card making ideas for Christmas 2021- hot foil & layering stencils

I am so excited to share another Christmas card project with you today! This project was a fun one for me because it utilized two of my favorite crafting items: hot foil and layering stencils.

Merry Christmas card set featuring Spellbinders’ hot foil stamp and Pinkfresh Studio’s layering stencils and inks

You can check out a video tutorial for this project by clicking here:

To start the project, I trimmed down some white, heavy weight cardstock panels to 4.25×5.5 inches. I then used my Gemini Foilpress and Gemini Jr to hot foil on this beautiful Merry Christmas sentiment from Spellbinders using some gold foil.

After the foiling was complete, I pulled out my Wendy Vecchi Make Art Stay-tion and began ink blending. The stencil I am using today is from Pinkfresh Studio and it is called Holiday Botanical Background. I used both the over the hill and garden stroll ink cubes with some blender brushes to apply a variety of green inks. Since our finished project pretty much is a one-layer card, I tried to create some dimension by blending different greens together over the leafy, open areas. I also added a bit of interest around the edges of my card panel by blending in some greens from the edges of the card.

I just love the shine on the hot foil stamping!!

Once the greenery was stenciled on, I moved onto the berries. Instead of inking the berries on, I used some Gina K gold Glitz Glitter Gel with a Nuvo spatula. If you are using this glitter gel, be sure to wash your stencils very quickly to keep them in top condition.

Once my glitter gel was dry, I adhered the panels directly down onto some A2 card bases using some tape runner. And that’s it. This project is done!

Merry Christmas card featuring Pinkfresh layering stencils and Spellbinders Hot Foil stamp

Disclaimer: This post features affiliate links when possible.  Affiliate links are at no additional cost to you and they help support this channel. Thank you so much for shopping using my links!