Shaped cards.

Today Lisa Dickinson and I are up for "shaped cards" on the Lily Bee blog! Sunbursts are all the rage these days, so at first I thought of doing a round card with a sunburst on it, but ended up trimming the bottom of the card flat instead, and I kind of like it better! Reminds me of a sunset. I used many different patterns from the Lily Bee papers with some gray cardstock, and I think the patterns really "shine" against the gray!

To create the sunbursts, I die cut them out with a die called Hello Sunshine by Papertrey Ink. After attaching them to the card, I trimmed off the tops to create the rounded look. A little strip of washi tape jazzes up the bottom, and the Lily Bee cardstock stickers spell out, "hey, sunshine!"

A couple of little tips: don't forget to leave a fold at the top of your circle when creating the card base. Also, thicker cardstock works much better for this application. You don't want a flimsy card!

Hey, Sunshine card supplies:

STAMPS: none
INK: none
PAPER: Victoria Park papers by Lily Bee, Handmade papers by Lily Bee, Cardstock stickers by Lily Bee, Double Dutch Index Journaling cards by Lily Bee, gray cardstock
DIES: Hello Sunshine dies and Heart-2-Heart #3 die by Papertrey Ink
OTHER: washi tape, Martha Stewart 1" circle punch.

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For my second card, I made a little 8th birthday card with a large number. I simply used a coffee mug to trace the two circles and cut the number out myself. I used a little heart die (Heart-2-Heart #3) to cut out the centers of the 8. To do this, I placed the heart die on top of the 8 and ran it through the Cuttlebug. I couldn't use a punch to cut out the centers, because my punches wouldn't reach all the way into the center of the 8.

Those cute Lily Bee banner stickers from the Victoria Park line dress up the center of the number 8, along with the word "happy" cut from patterned paper cut with the Pretty Peonies dies. And you can never have enough confetti, in my opinion, on a birthday card.

This would be fun for any birthday age!

So there you have it. My take on shaped cards. Have you tried a shaped card lately? I would love to see your take on this if you'd like to play along. Have a great day,

Happy 8th! card supplies:

STAMPS: none
INK: none
PAPER: Victoria Park papers by Lily Bee, Handmade papers by Lily Bee, Cardstock stickers by Lily Bee, Double Dutch Index Journaling cards by Lily Bee, gray cardstock
DIES: Pretty Peonies dies (happy) and Heart-2-Heart #3 (heart) die by Papertrey Ink
OTHER: small hole punch, The Twinery twine.

8 pm EST: DIY Badge- Homemade Embellishments

Washi tape is very popular right now, and I thought I'd share with my Papertrey Ink friends how to make your own out of patterned paper. "Tape transfer" is not a new technique, as I had seen it long, long ago. Remember the Carol Duvall show? I loved her. She had used packing tape here with photos instead of patterned paper, but I thought this would be great fun using Papertrey Ink's pretty papers! Let me show you how:

Step 1: You will need patterned papers, Scotch tape, a small bowl of water, scissors and a bone folder.

Step 2: Cut papers the width of the tape (3/4").

Step 3: Cover paper strips with Scotch tape. Rub the tape to the paper firmly with a bone folder to make sure it's attached down to the paper securely.

Step 4: Place strip in water for 10-20 seconds, or longer if need be. Let it soak in the water until back of paper feels soft enough to rub off.

Step 5: Turn the strip of paper over and peel off the back of paper under the water with your fingers. Try not to scratch it with your fingernail, as the colorful part will be removed also if you scratch it too hard. Use the soft pads of your fingers or thumb to rub off the white part of the paper backing under the water until ALL of the white paper backing is removed.

Now continue doing these steps with several different patterns, and you'll have some really neat transparent washi tape of your own!

Aren't they adorable? I've used Summer Sunshine, Dark Chocolate, Melon Berry, Pure Poppy, Simply Chartreuse and Tutti Fruiti patterned papers. These are still a bit wet, but you'll want to let them dry before adding them to your project. You can trim the ends at an angle to make it look more like tape.

The tape isn't sticky anymore, however I love that you are taking your favorite patterned papers and making them transparent. Did you know that you can do this with photos also? How about wrapping a gift box up with tape made from your favorite photos? FUN! Here is a finished project using my tape strips:

The tapes look really neat overlapping the white cardstock, so I cut them up and used them around the edges of the card. I added a sentiment and cherries from the Fruit Fusion: Cherries stamps and dies.

Give this a try! It's a lot of fun!

Hi Sweetie card:

STAMPS: Fruit Fusion: Cherries
INK: True Black, Simply Chartreuse
PAPER: Kraft and white cardstock, Pure Poppy Pattern Pack, Simply Chartreuse Pattern Pack, Melon Berry Pattern Pack, Summer Sunrise Pattern Pack, Tutti Fruit Pattern Pack
DIES: Fruit Fusion
OTHER: Scotch tape.

There are so many different ways you can create with layers in your scrapbooking and card making. Stop over to the Pink Paislee blog all this week to read several different ways by the team members! I'm impressed at how differently everyone's take was on the "Layered Look" theme this week!

I decided to show how layers can be added with stamping on these two cards. On this card, first I adhered two die cuts from London Market Ephemera (post card and flowers). Next, I stamped the postage stamp with red ink onto pink patterned paper from the London Market 6x6 Paper Pack and cut it out. I adhered it, then stamped the black postage mark over the top. The black frame is another Ephemera piece also that I folded in half over the top of the card! (It was actually placed there to cover up a stamping mistake!) Stamps are from the Spring Jubilee stamp set.

Other ways to layer include patterned paper bits, tape and buttons and twine like I did here. Am loving this twine by Trendy Twine! I wrapped it around the card top before adhering to the card base and tied on a Wooden Spool Button by Pink Paislee.

On the second card, I used the Spring Jubilee stamps again and first stamped with Jenni Bowlin's Chewing Gum ink (pink). Next, I used Papertrey Ink's Pure Poppy to stamp the flowers in red over the top. A similar design was used for the sentiment in New Leaf ink by Papertrey Ink, and I stamped again and again without reinking to get a lighter version of the sentiment. Really creates dimension to the eye, without actually adding dimension!

The Trendy Twine is used here to create butterfly antennas - just wrapped it around the butterfly and tied, leaving two tails for the antennas. I also stitched around the die cut to add dimension and interest to a plain 'old die cut. :) (Oops, one antennae is falling down in my pic.)

Visit the Trendy Twine blog to see more twine ideas, and the Pink Paislee blog to see more layering ideas! :)