However, my patience ran out a couple months back and I decided that I was going to make my own orchid, and today I am going to share it with you!

Here is what you are going to need:

Your favorite scissors

A circle template/stencil

An oval template/circle

Distress ink and sponge

Glimmer Mist

Couture Cardstock

Pop dots

Adhesive

Bling or beads (optional, you can use so many things for this step!)

1. Draw templates like below, onto a pale colored cardstock. Both my circles and ovals were 1.5 inches and I overlapped them slightly. For the cardstock, I used Couture Cardstock’s “Baby Blanket”, because my finished flower was going to be a dark pink, and I wanted the pale pink to show through in the center.

2. Cut out your flower pieces, flip over so that you don’t see the markings, and ink with Distress Ink. (I used “Vintage Photo” for mine.)

3. Then scrunch up a small piece of scrap paper, crumpling into a ball. Place this into the center of your circle template. This will be acting as a mask for the center of your orchid.

4. Mist with your favorite color. I used Tattered Angels “Bubblegum” and “Red Velvet”.

5. While still slightly damp, scrunch the edges of both flower pieces. After you have achieved your desired scrunching glue the circle template onto the oval piece as follows!

6. Now, cut a small heart from your leftover cardstock. Then cut out the bottom and center, like in the photo below.Keep this piece, you will need both to finish the center of the orchid!

7. Slightly mist this with the same color that you used on your orchid pieces, and then attach to your orchid. You want to place the top, thick portion of the heart, onto the bottom of your flower. Orchids have  a unique little center with tails that point up, and the bottom of your heart will be used for this. After the heart is attached, slightly twist the tails of your heart so that they point up and in.

8. Take the tiny center of the heart that you cut out, and glue pointed up, just above where you cut it out. Bend the tip of that heart up as well.

9. Add a teeny bit of bling or beads, teeny flowers, scrunched up paper, etc., to the center of that… and there she is!

I have made several of these, while making the tutorial above (hence the reason the masked center all appears the same!), but you can alter as you’d like and change the size based on what size shaped circles and ovals you initially start with.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial!  Tomorrow, I will be bringing you another progressive layout that Alyssa and I worked on together, you won’t believe how she finished the craziness that I sent her.

xx Heidi

PS- Here are the winners we promised!

Angie Vallejo, you are the winner of our poll and you will receive some Couture Cardstock!

Laura Stewart, you are the winner of our Font Challenge, part 1 post and have won some flowers!

Congrats, ladies, please email me at amcgrew@couturecardstock.com to claim your prizes.

Don’t forget, you have until the 1st to comment on Heidi’s Font Challenge part 2 contest to be entered to win another prize pack!  :)

~Alyssa~

Today I am going to show you a fun way to add the appearance of water to your projects! We will be making these circle and flower blossoms, however, the technique can be used on just about any embellishment you make.

Here is what you will need:

A sheet of transparency

One sheet of Couture Cardstock (I used Olivia, from the Red Carpet Collection)

Glossy Accents

Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Ink (I used “Stream”)

Cosmetic sponge or alcohol applicator

Stencil, template, or die-cut machine for your layered blossom (circle or flower)

Tiny glass beads (optional)

1. Cut out your layered blossom from your transparency sheet. I used my Cricut Expressions, but this can very easily be done using a stencil or any other personal cutting machine. Then separate all the layers from one another.

2. Cut out your layered blossom from your sheet of cardstock and set aside.

3. Sloppily add a layer of Glossy Accents to all the transparency pieces. Let set for a couple minutes, but do not let dry completely.

4. Take either a piece of scrap paper, cling wrap, or plastic, crumple it up and then blot all over the Glossy Accents. This splatters the “water”. I then added some tiny silver glass beads for a fun effect.

5. Let dry completely.

6. Turn your layers on to their backside, and apply alcohol ink randomly on the layers.

7. After this has dried, use your favorite liquid adhesive (I used my Glossy Accents here as well), to attach each transparency to it’s partner in cardstock. For the circle blossom I made, I glued them a little “off” for another fun effect.

xx Heidi

Begin by stamping two images with Memento ink onto Couture Cardstock’s Detail Blending Paper.  Fill in the base colors of the arms, legs and mouth of one image, and the body only of the other using Copic markers. Use deeper shades of purple to shade the mouth and each extremity close to where it joins the body. (I don’t bother to color in what will not show under the popped up image and usually color only the visible edges…why waste Copic ink?!)

Shade with the slightly darker ink colors, blending with the lighter to create a smooth gradient of color.

On the base image, use warm grays to fill in some dramatic shadows. A swipe with the blender pen just outside the outline of the image before applying the shadow will help the outer edge gradually fade, although in this case, a harsher shadow isn’t necessarily a bad thing…just makes this image a little scarier!

Use scissors and a craft knife/mat to cut out the body and carefully trim around the teeth. Add a little pearl flower center.

Here is a close-up of the image adhered with pop dots, matted and framed with circle and shaped Nestabilities. Sponging the edges of the focal image and cardstock with Ranger Distress Ink brings out the warm golds of the Basic Grey Kioshi designer paper, and accentuates the lines of the design.

Thanks for following along.

Deb F.

Bloom and Grow Scalloped Border

I love scalloped borders.  Although punches and die cuts are wonderful, I recently found stamping to be a great way to add detail to any project.  Today I bring you a step by step guide to using a heart stamp to create a border that is quick and easy.

Find a stamp that has an edge that can be easily cut.  Below I have used a 1.5” x 5” strip of Couture Cardstock Meadow and heart stamp from Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker (Will He Be the 1).

First of all, you have lots of choices when it comes to what surfaces you can transform with Crackle Medium.  My examples today are on chipboard, but Crackle Medium also works on cardstock, paper, and a variety of other things.

For the purpose of this blog post, I tried both of the methods described on the back of this bottle:

I used two pieces of chipboard: a pre-covered bracket, and an unfinished house.

Using my Crackle Medium, I applied a thick layer to the bracket.  I just squeezed it on, using a back and forth pattern, and I didn’t brush it or smooth it at all.

After about 8 hours of drying time, it looked like this:

On the house, I applied a small “puddle” of Crackle Medium, and then smoothed it with a brush leaving only a thin layer.  Looks like it’s time to replace that brush!

The result of this application was a barely crackled, glossy surface.  In my opinion, it looked more like a rough expoy finish then crackle paint.  The only way to show you the texture in a photo was in the sunlight, as the light picked up the finish.

To bring out the crackling more, I put a drop of white paint on my finger and brushed it over the whole house, rubbing all of it off of the surface, but into the cracks.  Now the crackle show up more in person, and in the photo.

I hope that de-mystifies Crackle Medium for you just a little.  There is a lot of wiggle room for this medium, as it isn’t overly sensitive and will crackle with (almost) any application.  Using this medium offers endless possibilities for paint colors, die cut cardstock shapes, or anything else that strikes your fancy.  :)  Feel free to leave me a comment and let me know how you have used yours!

~Alyssa~

Take your adhesive and apply right on the edge of the cardstock you are going to ‘ruffle’.

Start at one end and start applying ribbon in a folding, ruffle type motion. Do not trim your ribbon until your ruffle is how you like it.

When you are done you should have something like this:

Just a note, I used my sewing machine and sewed around the edge of my stamped image. It does secure the ribbon more permanently but if you use scor-tape or something just as strong you shouldn’t need to machine stitch!

Ok, now go make some ruffles!

Nat

Flower Pot Tutorial

Supplies:

1.  Cover wood cap with ink by rubbing ink pad along the surface.  Allow to dry.

2. Stamp the pot with your chosen design.

3.  Cut skewer to desired length.

4. Cover skewer ½” from bottom all the way to the top with paper (Pasture).

5. Add small, cut strip of paper to top of covered skewer in order to mount the flower embellishment.

6. Glue stick into wood cap hole and allow to dry.

7. Cut tiny strips of paper (Frog Prince) and fold to create grass.  Add to pot.

8. Die cut flowers and assemble. (For a curled petal as shown, use the remaining portion of the skewer and run along the bottom or top of flower petal.)

9. Attach flower and leaves to stem.

10. Cut strip of fabric, wrap, thread through center to hold together and glue to center of flower.

11. Cut strips of papers to create banner around the pot.  Sew, stamp, and adhere to the bottom pot.

12. Attach button and floss.

Enjoy!

Have you ever found yourself scouring antique stores, garage sales, and your jewelry box for metal appearing, vintage-like embellishments for your crafting projects? I have countless times. I have also come up completely empty-handed on many of these occasions as well, not having found that perfect accent piece. Today I am going to show you how to make  faux metal embellishments that you can alter, ink, and distress, to make exactly what you would like to see on your project.

What you will need:

Couture Cardstock (I prefer to use a neutral white color, so that if I choose to tear or sand – a bright color does not peek through. I used  “Frosted” from the White Monochromatic Family.)

Stamps of your choice (I used one small frame, and oval tag, and a journaling spot)

Embossing ink pad (I used Big&Bossy by Ranger)

Embossing powder

Heat Gun

Distress Inks (I used Tim Holtz’s Vintage Photo, and Black Soot by Ranger)

Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink – Silver

1. Gather your pieces of cardstock. I never know how many embellishments I will be in the mood to make, so I gather various sizes and shapes.

2. Select your stamps, ink them with the embossing ink pad and stamp onto your cardstock. Then coat them well with embossing powder. I chose to use black for mine so that I could really see what I was working with.

3. Tap off the excess powder and then heat set with your heat gun. Let sit for a minute or two.

4. Add a few droplets of silver alcohol ink to your alcohol ink pads. (I had run out, so a cosmetic sponge worked well in its place.) Rub gently over the image, covering the entire stamped image so that no part of it remains black.

5. Cut your images out.

6. It is time to grunge them up and make them appear vintage-like. I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink here, and I tend to use my fingers for this kind of application. You can certainly use a sponge if you would like, I just prefer the control I have when it comes to my own fingertip! (And yes, I walk around with distressed hands all day long… I am almost permanently inked at this point.)

7. Around the edges of the embellishments, smear two shades of distress ink. Start with your lighter color first, and then add the darker color to the very outside edge.

8. Let dry. This will only take a moment, and then you can attach these to your pages. Here are the full size embellishments that I made, maybe you will catch them on a layout or two in the next few weeks!

I hope you enjoyed this simple technique! Tomorrow our April Guest Designer has some adorable cards to show off, so make sure you come back to take a peek!!

xx Heidi

1. Cut a piece of white Canvas cardstock to 6″ x 3-1/2″.

2. Using Heidi’s Trash Bag Misting Tutorial, mist/ink the edges with Glimmer Mist.  I used an olive green and a chocolate brown.

3. While the mist is still wet, distress the edges.  I have found the distressing wet cardstock makes a bigger impact with less work then distressing from dry, so take advantage of the moment!

4. While you still have mist on your trash bag, use it on your chipboard frame.  I used the same mist I used on my edges to color my chipboard.  I laid it down and picked it up several times to get the right amount of mist and color on my frame.

5. Stamp tag with brown ink and a text-type stamp.  I used Prima’s 4×6 Notary stamp.

6. Emboss the stamp with clear embossing powder.  It’s hard to see in the photo, but all that gorgeous brown lettering is raised and has a really awesome texture from the embossing.

7. Apply rub-on to the bottom left corner.  The rub-on I used is from Basic Grey’s Origins Olio rub-on book.

8.  Apply stickers to Canvas cardstock and cut them out.  This allows you to both play around with their placement and gives you a lot more depth with one simple step.

9. Adhere chipboard frame, stickers, and lettering.  I used pop dots to pop up some of the letters and added even more dimension.

9. Create hanger for tag.  I used Jillibean Soup’s Twine in brown.

10. Attach to the perfect gift for your loved one!

~Alyssa~

Cardstock (several pieces of the same size)

Color Mist (I used Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, but you could use others or make your own with alcohol ink and water)

A White trash bag

1. Begin by lying a scrap piece of cardstock down onto your trash bag. I use the same piece of scrap paper over and over, so that I am not wasting cardstock. There have been times in which I have loved how the paper ended up looking though as well, and that scrap became a background itself!

2. Mist around the edges, you will be using this scrap piece of cardstock as a mask in the beginning because you then have a saturated outer edge to your final distressed background.

3. Lift your cardstock up and this is what you will see.

(At any point in this process, you may lay a sheet of cardstock down to alter before the next step. I tend to do this throughout the whole process for a good variety of backgrounds)

4. I then like to scrunch up the middle of the trash bag, this gives a bit more texture and pattern to the paper.

4. Again, mist the trash bag lightly.

5.  Lie down your piece of cardstock. Place it directly in the center of your mask and pat lightly.  Then pick your paper up, set back down in another area and pat lightly. Each time that you set your cardstock down, it will soak up some of the misting on the bag. **WARNING** Your hands are going to get inked!!

6. The trash bag does not allow for the mist to dry on it, so you will be able to make several different backgrounds. Each time, simply lay your cardstock down in a different place, or different angle. I like to set just over the edge of where we masked the 12×12 off, so that I get a cool edging on the papers. I also use up all the mist by dipping and dragging flowers, ribbons, and any other kind of embellishment through it.  I then scrunch up the bag (to keep it nice and wrinkly) and set it aside for future use.

Here are all the backgrounds that I was able to make during different stages of this tutorial!

You may recognize this last background, it was used for my Prima and Couture Cardstock blog project this past Friday! The other backgrounds will be popping up in the gallery, some of them have been used as is and others have been cut up and used in various other ways.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial, I would love to see any projects you create!

xx Heidi