Easy Pop Up Card Making + Flower Glamorizing tutorial

Accordion Pop Up

          Hi friends Dr Sonia here sharing a project featuring 2 of my favorite crafty techniques: Interactive Card making and Handmade flowers.
          I fell in love with Pop Up Card making a couple of years back when I made a pop up card using a template fromRobert Sabuda. Since then I have experimented making all kind of pop up cards  and even designed a few of my own![ there are 71 pop up cards on my blog and 28 pop up card tutorials!]
          Pop up cards are so much fun to gift  yet we see so few handmade pop up cards !  Yes I agree they are not the easiest of cards to make ..they require precision and accuracy and exercising quite a bit of brain power!      But if you are making a card for a loved one /friend/ client I can guarantee...a well executed pop up card is sure to elicit a big "Wow!"

          Karen Burniston is an extremely talented pop up card "dies" designer  who has tackled all the difficulties of pop up card making and designed gorgeous dies to help crafters of all levels make fun interactive and crazily "wow" pop up cards with ease. I recently made a Pop Up Spinning Ball card using a pop up ball die she had designed for Sizzix and promptly became her fan so when Shalini asked me to chose a die for my DT project...I had to pick up the most attractive one of the lot...an awesome Oval Accordion Die Karen had designed for Elizabeth Craft designs.

Using this die you can make accordion cards with 2 to "n " number of panels and the most spectacular feature of the Karen's pop up accordion cards are that they also feature pop up up elements which swing out on opening the card!

           New crafters often ask for  guidance on which die designs and brands to buy. Regarding designs...its always a personal choice. In my  must have list are basic shapes such as ovals and circles. This particular die set has 6 dies including 4 nesting ovals ...one plain, one scalloped and 2 which can give cool faux stitched borders to your oval die cuts. There is also a tiny little heart which you can leave attached to the inner most oval to get a  perfectly centered heart aperture! So real value for money [ sorry if I sound like an advertisement but I have to applaud the sheer intelligence and forethought of the die designer!]

           And regarding brands , there are many brands which design super intricate dies [ Sue Wilson, Cheery Lynn  , Spellbinders , Tattered Lace etc] and though these dies are so beautiful they are sometimes a pain to cut..requiring metal plate adapters, several passes through your die cutting machine and poking and prising the die cut! With regards to sheer ease of use  ie the dies which cut smoothly and don't need several passes and much poking and pulling my top favorite brands are the Sizzix BigZ dies, Memory Box dies and now the Elizabeth Craft design dies.

I love the way the die cut ivory card stock and thick pattern paper easily ! To make this Accordion Pop Up card I layered the pattern paper on the thick card base [ thick cardstock is crucial to the success of this design].

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       Sharing something new I discovered...a lovely glue called Tom Bow [ yeah I have been going on and on about glue lately but this one is too good to not share...]..I thought it was just a regular white glue but the best thing about this one is apply just a little smear and it sticks so well and the bottle has a fine tip at one end and a broad tip at the other end-- such a useful feature when you want to switch between gluing delicate parts of a die cut or a curved area and covering large areas quickly.

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And coming back to the Pop up card..each die cut has a tab on one end and you can attach the tabs to create card and albums with multiple panels.

I trimmed a Spellbinders Majestic labels 25 to fit my card panels

And added a Spellbinders borderabilities curved border atop my panel to create a lacy arch. Its always fun to trim and mix and match your die cuts!

After decorating and accordion folding your card panels , comes the most fun part...creating the swinging pop up elements!

Karen's design is so cool...you just have to add a good adhesive [ best is red tacky tape] to the tab on one oval and stick it under the oval of the next card , a little twist and turn and your pop up album/ card is ready!

And the best thing about pop up cards/ albums is that they fold absolutely flat to mail!

Added a Cheery Lynn  lamp post and some shimmery handmade flowers on the panels of the card.

The silvery " Happy Birthday" was cut from glitter foam using Elizabeth Craft design dies.Though its such a delicate beautiful font it cut so easily even on foam!The white butterly was stamped on parchment and die cut and the golden butterflies all over the card are Cheery Lynn .

I hope you like the Pop Up Accordion card I made !

I love making flowers and sharing a few tips to easily and quickly glamorize your handmade flowers.

1. Punch/ handcut/ die cut flowers . I used the popular Spellbinders Rose creations die to cut flowers from cream colored handmade paper. If you regularly use white paper to make flowers, try using off white , cream or yellow paper as it gives a lovely hue to your flowers even after coloring them.

 2. Its fun to work with stamp and die cut flowers such as the popular heartfelt creations flowers but suppose you dont want to invest in stamps here is an equally fun and economical tip : Draw fine lines/ other designs on your flower petals using a fine liner sketch pen or a pencil. I used a brown misaki sketch pen.

3. Ink your flower petals  in 2 shades. I  used the cute , handy and not to mention super economical mini distress ink pads [ festive berries, mustard seeds, mowed lawn] to ink the edges and center of my flower petals.

Chose the shades of  your ink to match the colors of  your pattern paper/ stamped image. 4. Emboss / shape your flowers - if your dont have time to emboss just pinching / shaping with your hands is enough if your paper is malleable enough!

5. Layering flowers always looks cool! Unless you are making a pop up card and dont want very bulky flowers!

5. Make leaves in a similar way

• Punch / Die cut leaves from pattern paper - so much more interesting than plain colored paper 
• Add veins using a fine liner pen or pencil
• Inking options : Ink in 2 shades of green, add a touch of brown or black to parts of the leaf!Dont ink uniformly-- a mottled appearance is more natural!

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Shape your leaves by simply pinching or embossing - mix up the elements on your project so that the curvature of the leaves are varied.

6.Glamorize by adding Shimmer to your flowers and leaves

Wink of Stella

          We all love to match things be it our papers, flowers , ribbons etc in a project don't we...well I wanted my flowers to match the shimmering flowers of my pattern paper . Normal glitter would be too garish. I experimented with the Wink of Stella brushes and oh my they really are magical...hard to describe/ capture the beautiful shimmer they give a project.

I used the clear Wink of stella and the brush just glides on so smoothly

I really didnt understand all the fuss in craftland about " wink of stella" till I got to use it!

 The best feature is you can give a very subtle shimmer or really load on a golden hue to your projects by varying the pressure on the brush pen

I hope you liked the card with the handmade flowers.Do tell me how it is.

Products

Dies

Spellbinders Rose creations, Spellbinders Majestic labels 25, Spellbinders borderabilities, 

Heartfelt creations Classic Leaf, Heartfelt creations Sun kissed fleur [ used to make the buds], 

Sizzix Butterfly, 

Cheery Lynn  lamp post, Cheery Lynn  butterflies, 

Elizabeth Craft designs Happy Birthday,Elizabeth Craft designs Oval Accordion die

Inks

Distress Inks : festive berries, mustard seeds, mowed lawn, Versamark watermark

Papers : DCWV
Wink of Stella

Spray Adhesive Review

         Hi Crafters, Dr Sonia here back to the crafting world after a brief sabbatical and special thanks to all who messaged and mailed me to ask why I was missing!Shalini announcing the new dynamic DT was just the impetus to get me back to crafting! Thank you Shalini for being such an understanding and wonderful person to work for!

Glue Spray

This is a super long post but if you have been following my blog and my DT posts here at Crafters Corner I guess you will be used to my photo packed reviews and tutorials!
Adhesives are every crafter's necessity and I had always been intrigued on reading about spray adhesives on craft sites so it was especially exciting to get my hands on a spray adhesive...by E6000!

Spray adhesive

In case you missed the other adhesive reviews here are the links: Super Adhesive E6000 glue Review and 12 Uses of Red Tacky Tape
What is a spray adhesive...?
Simply put  its a glue you can spray on real quick and easy! If you are like me and love spray painting you will understand my excitement when Shalini got spray adhesives  to Crafters Corner !
What is especially cool about E6000 Spray adhesive?
Not all spray adhesives are the same. Many spray adhesives are toxic and I even saw one in the local market which even had a scary label saying it was inflammable!
The E6000 spray  is non toxic ,has no smell [ unlike the E6000 tube glue],and you dont have to use it outdoors [since most crafters work indoors this is especially advantageous!].And the big plus point for me is you can use it with children around and yeah even little crafter can have a go at spray gluing as its nontoxic and so easy to use!
Tips to use E6000 Spray
It is super easy to use the E6000 spray adhesive but here are a few tips I would like to share

• Keep your project to be sprayed on a  plastic sheet to protect the surrounding area from the glue spray - the spray is like a fine mist and yes it will fall on adjacent areas but it can be easily cleaned with plain water if needed.

  

  Spray Adhesive
• Keep a glass of water at hand while using the spray. Once you finish using the spray.....unscrew the cap, dip the nozzle with the tubing into the glass of water and spray...the water will spray out of the spray mechanism and it will clean it so that your glue spray bottle nozzle does not get clogged.

  

   Nozzle cleaning

• Drying time depends on the material you are using it on...metal and plastic can take hours to dry while paper dries in minutes.

Materials you can use it on

The E 6000 spray can be used on a huge range of materials : Paper, Wood, Cardboard, foil,Fabric,Foam, Thermocol[styrofoam], Glass, Plastic,Metals etc

Special Properties 

• Photo-safe 
• Dries clear
• Fairly strong adhesive
• Does not Yellow
• Non toxic

Sharing a few of my experiments with this awesome Spray Glue

1. Gluing Glitter and Sequins
The first thing that came to mind on thinking of a spray glue was trying it with glitter and sequins.

My little girl is ever ready to try out new products and she is the one who eagerly inspects all the DT goodies Shalini keeps sending us!

Spray glue

Spray the glue from a distance of 8- 10 inches from the surface. Here we chose the super slippery CD to glitterify![yeah there is no such word as glitterify...but I am sure there will be in a few years time!!]I originally wanted to stick on a circle of felt on to the CD but the felt seemed to slip off and we didnt have the patience to put a weight on it or allow it time to dry.

Add sequins and glitter

So on went a generous sprinkling of glitter and sequins.

gorgeous glitter - sequin  covering

Dont you just love the thick shimmery coating! But if you poke at it some sequins will fall off! 

Verdict- avoid sequin- glitter combination while spray gluing or alternatively spray between the layers.And glitter sticks better to paper and plastic than a CD.

Sospeso Transparente 

I added Sospeso Transparente blooms and a few heat embossed parchment flowers and pearls  to my glittery red background .

Sospeso Transparente 

My kiddo was quite critical of how this altered CD looked and kept suggesting how to improve it but try as I might it didnt quite reach her standards!

Sospeso Transparente 

2. Altering curved and odd shaped objects
Many of us love beautifying objects we buy or have at home. Covering with pattern paper and painting are the most popular ways to alter something but if the object had lots of curves regular gluing can be quite tricky .

Altered art

Here is the boring cello-tape cutter and pen-stand my kiddo and I altered using E6000 spray and good old glitter.

Spray glue

Here is my little crafter using the spray glue .When I spray paint I usually dont allow her anywhere in the vicinity so that she wont inhale toxic paint fumes but since the spray glue was non toxic I allowed her to use it to her hearts content!
The glue dries pretty fast so you have be ready to sprinkle on your glitter on the sprayed surface!

See uniform cover of glue and glitter

I love how the spray glue leaves a thin uniform layer of glue on the object it is sprayed on [ as you can see by the white film of glue in the picture above] and this helps to get a beautiful uniform covering of glitter.

Glittered Stationary set

We used silver and blue glitter to get a 2 toned effect.

Heartfelt creations flowers

The heat embossed parchment[vellum] flowers were made using the heart felt creations sun kissed fleur stamp and die set.

Heart felt creations flowers

I inked the embossed flowers with distress inks to match the glittery blue background !

Pen Stand Set

3.Using with Stencils

If you are a seasoned crafter you will be well versed with different ways to use stencils but if you are a novice here are 2 simple tutorials showing how to use Stencils: Stencil Art tutorial , Stencil Glitter Art tutorial . 

What is especially wonderful about using spray glues with stencils is its super quick and easy. 

Though I have shown 2 small sized projects here , you can hand-cut / die cut or use store bought stencils [ Crafters Corner has some beautiful Stencil designs] to quickly decorate large surfaces for eg a birthday party. Wouldnt it be fun to stencil a child's name  in glitter on balloons or banners for a fun birthday party...the ideas are unlimited!

Stencil + Glitter

Tape the stencil to paper/ cardboard/ thermocol/ balloon or whatever it is you want to add glitter to . You can use any kind of glitter.....sophisticated glitters such as the yummy distress glitter I have shown above or local glitters for your first experiments.

Spray stencil

Place the Paper- stencil on a plastic sheet and spray from a distance of 8- 10 inches. I gave just 2 squirts and got a nice even coverage as shown below.

Sprayed stencil

Pour glitter on the stencil

Glitter

You can smear the glitter on gently with your fingers to help improve adhesion.

Tap off glitter

Tap off excess glitter and remove the stencil from the paper.

Stencilled Lord Ganapathi

I was surprised myself at how beautiful it looked

Stencilled Glittered Ganapathi

Here you can see the neat stenciling...no mess unlike liquid glue and it was so quick too!

Spray Glue Art

Since it was my first experiment and frankly I hadnt expected such good results I hadnt taken much care to mask off areas of the die cut , so if you look closely you can see glitter on the edges of my die cut where the spray glue had fallen and glitter adhered!

And since my first try turned out so good , here is another one using a Christmas tree stencil.

Stencil + Spray glue

Tape stencil to paper

Stencil + Spray glue + Glitter

Add glitter generously and even smear gently with your fingers[ yeah maybe you dont need to touch and get your fingers glittery... its just an obsessive compulsive habit of mine!]

Glitter + Spray Glue

Tap off the excess glitter, whip off the stencil and "Ooh and Aah " at the beauty you created!

Glitter + Spray Glue

Now a super important tip: Dont forget to wash your stencils quickly. In my excitement at the gorgeous results of my experiment I forgot about cleaning my stencils and found that the glitter had stuck on quite fast and strongly to the plastic surface of the stencil! I had to actually use a brush and vigorously scrub for several minutes before I could get the glitter off! Goes to show that the glue spray is pretty strong!

Glitter stuck on stencil

4.Gluing something extremely thin 

Plastic sheets

Spray glue is the ideal adhesive if you want to glue something super thin and flimsy such a plastic wrapping material or foil quickly and easily.
You could use red tacky tape too for that but red tacky tape gives you no leeway..once you stick something on it...you cant change your mind and try and re-position it! With glue spray you do get a little margin of time to fiddle around with your positioning [ very handy for the perfectionist trait in all of us!]as it does not create an instant bonding but takes a little time like other wet glues.

Spray glue and stick

I had this roll of wood grain design plastic sheet which was so thin I really couldnt use it for anything apart from wrapping gifts[ a waste to use such a pretty design to wrap gifts!]Sprayed the E 6000 glue on the plastic and  gently stuck it on a sheet of card.

Super adhesion

I was thrilled at how easy and mess free it was and I didnt even get wrinkles! This one is yet to be turned into a crafty project.
5.Gluing Metal and Foam

Metal Cans

Metal and foam are both especially tough materials to stick things on. Normal PVA glue is messy and takes a lot of patience and time. Red Tacky tape is perfect to glue metal and foam and I have shared projects in this post : 12 Red Tacky Tape Projects but I wanted to see how well the glue spray worked so
I tried to alter the tin cans shown above by spraying glue and sticking textured foam sheets

Foam on Metal

In a review I like to share exactly what a product does so that when you use it you know exactly what to expect.In the picture above you can see the foam sheet lifting up at the edges and if you pull it at this point it will lift right off the metal tin.....well does that mean the spray glue wont work on metal...well NO...it works beautifully on metal...but you have to actually hold the surfaces together to allow it to bond! I was expecting a super quick adhesion like the red tacky tape forgetting that the spray glue is actually a mist of liquid glue.

Metal + foam

I used masking tape to hold the edges together in the yellow tin and just plain finger pressure on the orange tin and within minutes I got perfect adhesion.

Heartfelt creations Flowers

Added Parchment flowers made using my current favorite Heartfelt creations sun kissed fleur stamp- die set.

Parchment flowers

6.Gluing intricate punch outs and die cuts
Nowadays die designs are becoming more and more intricate and beautiful  but gluing them to your projects with normal white PVA liquid glue can be tricky especially if your die cut is white!

Intricate die cuts

           Gluing delicate Martha Stewart punch outs and lacy die cuts  using regular glue can be so time consuming...you end up either missing lots of those delicate curves or end up squishing too much liquid glue which oozes out and leaves marks on your project when you stick it. I am sure you have wished like me that there was an easier way to firmly glue down those delicate paper cut outs we all love.

Delicate Die cuts

        The spray glue comes in quite handy here as you can get a gentle mist of glue on your delicate die cut/punched out paper with just one or 2 squirts and stick it on easily . When I read some of the online reviews on the spray glue this particular use of the spray adhesive seems to be quite popular among crafters

Tombow Glue Pen

      Another alternative adhesive for gluing delicate die cuts is the glue pen...the one shown above by Tom bow can be used just like a pen to roll over a thin line of glue over tiny areas.
7.Decoupaging
When you hear decoupage...the ever popular adhesive -sealant "modpodge" or other specialzed decoupage liquid glues come to mind! But successful decoupaging with Modpodge is a process requiring patience and finesse!

Decoupaging Plastic

Well how about if you are in a mood for a quick decoupage session with minimal mess, no brushes and little fuss....get out your  glue spray and spray it on!!

Decoupaged Box

In this altered project I sprayed both the paper and the plastic box with glue spray and while I sprayed the paper I made  sure I had a glue mist on all the edges so that it wouldn't lift off at the edges in future .

Decoupaged Box

I used only my hands to firmly adhere the paper on to the plastic surface as unlike Mod podge there  is not much liquid glue to squeeze out or wrinkle your paper.

Decoupaged Box

Kept the embellishment simple with just a handmade rose and some Sue Wilson faux quilled die cut leafy branches

Spellbinders Rose

The little shimmery white flowers are again embossed parchment flowers made using the same Heartfelt creations sun kissed fleur set I have been using in many of the projects in this post

Decoupaged Box Set

And here is the glue spray decoupaged box with matching penstand and paper holder decoupaged using modpodge...you actually cant make out any difference!

Yeah that's it for now folks...7 ways to use the Glue Spray E 6000. Thank you so much for staying with me till the end!
I do hope you enjoyed this lengthy write-up...do tell me how it is.

List of products showcased: All available at Crafters Corner

Adhesives
E6000 Spray Adhesive
Mod Podge
Decoupage materials
Foam Tapes
Red Tacky Tape
Tombow Glue Pen

Sospeso Transparente
Sospeso Transparente  Materials

Embossing
Ranger Heat Embossing gun, Embossing Powders
Stamps
Heartfelt Creations Sun kissed fleur and leaf Stamps
StampPads/Inks
Distress Ink - Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn, Peacock feathers,wild honey
Dies
Heartfelt Creations Sun kissed fleur Dies,Sue Wilson Faux Quilled Leaf , Spellbinders Rose creations, Heartfelt creations leaf ,Nesting Circles, Marianne Anja Leaf
Die cutting : Big Shot, Cheery Lynn  metal plate adapter,
Misc
Stencils
Glitter