Hi crafty friends!
I’m back on the Tonic blog today, to share with you a fun make I created using this month’s new Tonic Stamp Club release - Picnic Party; where I have combined a stamped background along with some cute ‘tomato’ characters I made using basic die cut shapes. If you don’t have dies of similar shapes in your crafty stash, these could just as easily be recreated by hand-cutting them.
What you will need
- Stamp Club: Picnic Party
- Craft Perfect - US A6 ‘Bright White’ Card Blank
- Craft Perfect Watercolour Card - A6
- Nuvo Clear Mark
- Nuvo Embossing Powder - Glacier White
- Nuvo Shimmer Powders - Catherine Wheel & Maroon Spark
- Craft Perfect Classic Card - Fern Green & Cherry Red
- Craft Perfect Smooth Cardstock in Black & White
- Craft Perfect Vellum - Pure White
- Nuvo Hybrid Inks - Black Shadow, Rich Rosewood & Parkeet Green
- Craft Perfect 12mm Double-sided Tissue Tape
- Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive
- Craft Perfect Dimensional Foam Pads
- Nuvo Crystal Glaze
- White Gel Pen
- Black Fineliner Pen
- Clear stamping block
- Various sized circle dies
- x1 larger, x1 small flower die
- Blending dauber & pad
- Anti-static bag
- Water spray bottle
- Heat tool
- Trimmer or guillotine
Step 1
On the ‘smooth’ (overside) of A6 Craft Perfect Watercolour Card, randomly stamp out the small ketchup bottle at various angles, overlapping the page edges in areas. Use Nuvo Clear Mark to stamp your bottle images and then cover the entire A6 page in White Embossing Powder. Tap off the excess powder and heat set all of your ketchup bottles
*TIP* An anti-static bag is my best friend when using embossing powders, especially when multiple stamped images are involved, as it stops any powder sticking in unwanted places!
Step 2
Spray both the front and back sides of your embossed cardbase (a crafty friend shared with me the tip of spraying the back at the same time to stop the card from curling and it works brilliantly!) Apply both shades of red shimmer powders all over the page and watch how they all start to move around - I absolutely LOVE this bit. It’s so mesmerising!
Step 3
I wanted my powders to leave more of a ‘watercolour effect’ so to make it less patchy looking, I applied further sprays of water to help them to spread and merge. If you prefer the more speckled effect you could leave out the extra water - It is totally up to you!
Set aside to dry.
Step 4
Meanwhile, out of your red, green, white and black cardstocks, cut the pieces needed to create your tomato characters. This bit is a lot of fun, playing around with and combining different basic shapes that form many parts of the various die sets we crafters own! You may not have the exact same sized dies in your supplies but to give an idea of the dimensions, I cut the following:
● x1 larger red circle, approx 4.8cm wide
● x1 red circle, approx 3.6cm wide
● x2 small red punched circles, approx 1cm wide
● x1 very small red punched circle, approx 0.6cm wide (done using a hole punch)
● x2 white circles, approx 1.6cm wide
● x2 smaller white circles, 1cm wide
● x2 black circles, 1cm wide
● x2 very small hole-punched black circles, approx 0.6cm wide
● x1 lager and x1 small green ‘spiky’ flowers
These are just a guide. Have a play around with the different sized circles you own. Equally, these shapes could be cut by hand by drawing around objects such as coins and pen lids.
Step 5
Using a blending dauber, apply some ‘darker’ red ink to the top right and bottom sides of circles to create a bit of shadow and give them a more ‘3D’ effect. Next, take one of the two smaller sized circles and cut it down into two slim semi-circles, as shown. Carefully ink-blend the cut edge also.
Step 6
Using a dark green ink, apply to the tips of your green flower shapes. Using a small pair of craft scissors, trim them down as shown to resemble the leafy tops of your tomatoes.
Step 7
Glue the white and black circles to create your characters’ eyes. On the smaller of the two eye sets, glue the small red semi-circles to appear like eye-lids.
Step 8
Attach to your eyes and leafy tops to the two largest red circles.
Step 9
Cut down two small squares of adhesive foam pad and attach to the back of the remaining two red circles.
Step 10
Attach the circles to form ‘noses’ and then using a black fineliner and white gel pen, add in some details to give your tomato faces a bit of extra cheeky character!
Step 11
Draw out a ‘splat’ shape on a piece of vellum and then cut out.
Step 12
Trim down your ketchup card base to measure 10.3cm x 14.8cm and cut a second green base measuring ever so slightly larger at 10.7cm x 15.2cm
Step 13
Using double-sided tissue tape along the edges and wet glue in the centre; attach the ketchup card base to the green base and then attach this to an A6 card blank.
*TIP* By nature of the watercolour card,once made wet its edges tend to dry warped therefore I find using the tissue tape on the outside gives a far better adherence without any ‘wobbly’ lifting. It is, however, not very forgiving when needing to stick down with any kind of precision. The wet glue in the centre allows some ‘wriggle room’ to allow the card base to be attached evenly before fully committing the edges. I lifted the protective tape cover slightly as shown, to form easy pull tabs which I find are very handy once I have ‘wriggled’ my cardbase into position!
Step 14
To make your splat shape stand proud of the card, stick some trimmed down adhesive foam pad to the back of the vellum shape (only in the centre so that your tomato characters will cover it). Attach the splat to sit roughly in the centre of your card.
*TIP* Have a dry run first and play around with the orientation of your splat shape to decide how it works best with your tomatoes.
Step 15
Glue the larger tomato directly onto the vellum. Put some adhesive foam pad onto the back of the smaller tomato and attach, slightly overlapping the bigger one.
Step 16
Stamp out the ‘Let’s Ketchup’ and ‘sometime soon’ sentiments in black ink onto white cardstock and trim down. I added a little border detail in fineliner using a ruler. This could be done freehand instead or alternatively kept plain if you prefer.
Step 17
Apply adhesive foam pads to the back of your sentiments and attach. Again, you may wish to play around with positioning first and see where they work best with where your ketchup bottles happen to be. I originally saw both of my sentiments going top and bottom centre but found I didn’t like how they covered the bottles, so it’s worth having a little play.
Step 18
Finally, apply some Crystal Glaze to the noses of your cheeky toms to give them a bit of extra fun glossy pop! Leave to dry to go clear.
Alternatively, clear ‘Morning Dew’ Nuvo Crystal Drops would work just as well if you don’t have any Crystal Glaze.
And there you have it… A cute ‘punny’ card that is ideal for writing a note to someone you’ve not seen in a while or even as an invitation for a long-overdue catch up!
I hope that I’ve been able to show how if we look at some of our basic die shapes in slightly different ways, that they can be combined to create something totally different. Have a play and hopefully you’ll give creating your own fun little tomato characters a go!!
Thank you for visiting my post.
Happy crafting!
Kate x
Buy The Craft Project
If you want a quick burst of colour on your cards, Shimmer Powders are just the thing! You can use them to create complete backgrounds or, as I have done here, backgrounds in specific areas which you can then stamp onto. You can use the backgrounds to die cut from too! As you can see from the photo above, they are ideal for making batches of card as you can prepare several pieces if card at the same time.
For these cards I have used:
Step 1
Cut a 13.5cm square of white card and gently tap a little Catherine Wheel Shimmer Powder on the top and a little Falling Leaves Shimmer Powder on the bottom. I always do this inside a cardboard box to keep my desk clean.
Step 2
Gently mist with water.
Step 3
Tap some of each colour onto pieces of white card to die cut for the tag.
Step 4
Spray with water.
Step 5
Set aside to dry or use a heat gun.
Step 6
Stamp the poppies, draw stems and stamp the leaves. I have used a Stamping Platform to keep everything in the correct position. I also masked off a little part of the bottom of the leaves by covering the unwanted fronds with masking tape, adding the ink and removing the masking tape before stamping. You can also use a light fixative such as hairspray to set the powders so that you can carry on without waiting.
Step 7
Stamp the sentiment onto white card, cut into a banner shape and attach with 3D foam pads. Layer the background onto a 14.5cm square of red card.
Step 8
Layer onto the card front and add sequins.
Step 9
Die cut the leaves and 2 poppies from the prepared card and the stem from black card.
Step 10
Die cut the tag shapes from the frames in the die set in red and white card. Die cut the 2 small flower shapes from black card.
Step 11
Snip the stem into 2 pieces and glue to the tag.
Step 12
Shape the leaves and poppies with an embossing tool.
Step 13
Glue the flowers to the stems.
Step 14
Add Vintage Drops to the centres of the flowers and sequins around the poppies. Punch a hole and add ribbon.
I'm so glad you’ve decided to check out aircraftcreeper Shimmer Powders. I’m Justine and I don’t have many skills in painting or watercolouring so that Shimmer Powders are the best option on the market for me.
It is so easy to make stunning, vibrant backgrounds that look really complex in just a few minutes using these powders.
So It’s all about experimenting to get the look just right for your preference. Some things you can consider trying:
I started off by making swatches.
I cut small pieces of watercolour cardstock and added water to them.
I tipped one colour per piece of cardstock to see what the true colour is.
The bottle label doesn’t show the shine to them so I think it’s important to really see what they look like on paper before actually starting.
The only thing to keep in mind with shimmer powders is the colour wheel. You don’t really want to mix colours that don’t mix well together (like yellow and purple). Aside from that, just give it a go and see what happens!
As I noticed the yellow and purple mixing, I scooped up the colour with kitchen roll. I love that about watercolours, you can just mop up colour with kitchen roll and start again.
I works on 6x8 panels of cardstock so I was also able to cut down a card base of 4 x 5.25 inches and use the leftovers to die cut the For You sentiment.
I worked this way on all my cards.
For my second card, I tried the background two ways.
For the card above I did the dry cardstock, powder and then spray technique and I used the same colours and applied them to wet cardstock in the picture below.
Both gave off different looks as seen in the video, prefer working on wet cardstock best.
In the first picture, dry on dry technique. In the second picture dry powder on wet cardstock.
For this combination, I used Atlantis Burst (a must-have colour!), Blue Blitz and Solar Flare. What was interesting when using Solar Flare with these colours it gave them more of a gold tone. Very pretty.
For my last card of the bunch, I wanted to recreate a galaxy.
I used Solar Flare, Cherry Bomb, Atlantis Burst, Violet Brocade, Meteorite, Lunar Rocket and Storm Cloud.
I ended up doing two layers (drying in between layers) to build up the darkness and vibrancy.
I would recommend drying your second layer before splattering stars or else it will just absorb into the background.
Have fun with your shimmer powders!
I encourage you to experiment and play around and just have fun.
You’ll get a lot of use out of those little bottles so don’t be afraid to practice and experiment.
Also remember that watercolour cardstocks are all different so if you aren’t happy with your results, try a different type of cardstock.
Happy Crafting!
Justine
Hello, Gemma Campbell here in the Craft Room today.
I’ve recently been experimenting with Nuvo shimmer powders, trying to create lots of texture on my watercolour backgrounds. I shared some cards using these techniques below.
Those cards inspired my class today, so continue reading to see how to create textured shimmery backgrounds and some new cards using them.
Step 1
Tape a panel of watercolour card to a glass mat or board with low tack tape. This will help to minimise warping due to water and heat.
Step 2
Using a spray bottle, add a few drops of water in a wave across a piece of watercolour card, then lightly tap on Nuvo shimmer powders in a variety of colours.
I used Cherry Bomb, Lilac Waterfall and Violet Brocade.
Step 3
Add a little more water to move the powder around, using a heat tool to dry the panel as you go. Move the heat tool around the panel to get lots of lines and texture. Continue to add more water, a little at a time, drying with the heal tool in between.
If an area needs more colour, tap on more Nuvo shimmer powder and repeat step 3.
Step 4
Use a Midas Touch Aqua Shimmer pen to add gold details. Put some colour down on the silicone mat, add a little water, then use a paintbrush to flick the panel.
Top tip: To create a rainbow, try these colours: Cherry Bomb, Solar Flare, Falling Leaves, Atlantis Burst, Blue Blitz, Violet Brocade, Lilac Waterfall
Step 5
Here is the finished panel. By containing the water to a smaller area, it creates a wave of colour across the card.
The same steps work on larger panels too. Work on smaller areas at a time, always drying with a heat tool from different angles as you go, to get lots of lines and textures in the watercolour.
I squeezed the Midas Touch Aqua Shimmer pen directly onto this panel as I worked to get larger swirls of gold.
I used the Unicorn Wishes stamp set for my first card, colouring the image with Nuvo Alcohol markers.
I added two strips of Majestic Gold pearlescent card to my card base, to pick up the gold in the panel.
Some White Blizzard Nuvo Glitter drops add extra shimmer to the unicorn.
For my second card, I used an image from Strawberry Joy stamp set.
I cut a piece of the larger watercolour panel to add to my card base. The image is coloured with Nuvo Alcohol markers, and I added some White Blizzard Nuvo Glitter drops to the heart.
Thanks for joining me today.
Happy crafting,
Gemma
