Promises of Spring by Astrid

Hello everyone and welcome! Can you believe it is nearly the end of February and in less than a month time the official start of Spring has come? Well I for one am certainly ready for a bit of warmth and sunshine!!

Today I am sharing a kind of card book made from two envelopes. Inside are two pockets for tags or gift cards or whatever you please.

This is how to make it:
First put the flap of one of your envelopes inside the other one and then glue them together as shown on the photos.

outside

inside

Next cover  the out side with scrapbook paper. You could of course also just ink them and create your own background, but I have an endless supply of papers and decided that really I should use some of it, also to add more strength to the project.  I inked and stamped over it to add more colour and make it more interesting. For this I used the following back ground stamps: Calligraphic Mat 12 and Chicken Wire Background. I also used various Distress Inks and Dylusion Sprays.
Before covering the inside flaps with paper in a similar way, I ran them through a Texture Fade embossing folder to add texture. I then stamped some images from the Insects and Butterflies 1 set and the Birds of a Feather set in Archival Ink Jet Black, fussy cut them, coloured with water colour pencils and then after the papers were stuck to the envelopes, used them to embellish my project. I'll let the photos tell the story of how ☺...

A few spritzes of Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold added some sparkle still and I rubbed some gilding paste over the raised ambossed bits.
I then made a die cut tag to fit inside one of the pockets and inked and stamped it in the same way using the Birds of a Feather set. Again I coloured the images with water colour pencils and added shadows around the images to add depth.

For the other pocket I computer generated a card with a Spring Poem on it

Finally for the front cover I die cut a label  out of scrapbook paper and then stamped the Caterpillar Words in Jet Black Archival again and finished it all of with some roses and a piece of String to tie it shut.

Well, that's it. Hope you found some inspiration here today to create your own gift card and thank you so much for visiting!

Enveloping Steampunk by Sarah Anderson

I was thrilled when Hels and Jennie asked if I'd be a guest designer here on The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog, especially in light of the new cogs and gears backgrounds Jennie has brought out!  I just love them :)

I have some little brown envelopes which I discovered fitted an ATC inside, so I decided to go with a Steampunk theme and make a little envelope book.

I took a Mushroom and a Lake Mist Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber and smudged paint onto the envelope and stamped with the sequin waste open background stamp and dots.

I always do this on a sheet of copier paper too, which then gives me a co-ordinating background on which to stamp then cut images from.  The Cogs Background from the 'Time' collection of stamps is brilliant for working with a Steampunk theme.

And Tick Tock, in the same collection, has these wonderful clock/watch faces with an open centre, which look great combined with the cogs background.

After collaging some stamped papers onto my envelope I then partially stamped the large moth from Insects and Butterflies Collection No 1.  This provides the detail for the moth's antennae.  I then cut out a plain white moth from copier paper and collage it on top.

I decided I wanted more of a contrast in this piece, so used Pool and Eggplant Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers to colour the moth.

I decorated two more envelopes in similar fashion,

and the front cover [made of folded card to fit the envelopes].  I used one of Tim's Idea-ology clock faces and some watch parts to add an authentic feel to my book.  Vintage Watch Collection parts are available here at The Artistic Stamper.

The book is made from 3 envelopes, hinged together with folded card covered with paper.  Now I just need to make some ATCs to live inside!!