Invading the UFO box!

So, five cards made so far from the UFO's. The first two are both Eclipse cards.
I used Happy as one Eclipse, and Birthday for the second card. Die cut a small sentiment to complete them.
 The stamp is by Phill Martin, called Birthday Cloud, and is roughly A5 in size.
The Alpha dies are by X-Cut, called Wedding Alpha & Numbers. 1⅜" or 3.5cm high.

The other three use the same stamp. I had stamped a number of these in different colourways, when I made some into Shaker cards.

 For these, I added some double sided adhesive sheets, then sprinkled that with Glamourdust. Because the Glamourdust is so fine, it doesn't hide what's behind it, just gives a little sparkle.
 The cover frame is an old Cuttlebug Embossing folder, Scrollwork Frame.
 Then I cut out the blank oval in the middle with an oval die. The Embossing folder is slightly too small to cover the front of the card, so I trimmed it down to leave a contrasting border, from the base card, on each side.

Birthday Shaker cards

Not what I had planned on making- I was intending to glitter some medallions- but a chance remark on Sarah Brennans blog yesterday, about a card front to cut an aperture out of sparked an idea.
 I bought a Phill Martin Birthday Collage background stamp a while ago, and thought it would work well for shaker cards.

I stamped up a few of them in an assortment of colours, and made 5 into shakers.



For all of them, I went over the whole stamp in a pale colour, then added some darker colours, particularly over the main Happy Birthday, but also in spots over the design, using those egg shaped sponges.

This first one I used Adirondacks for, and then switched to Versafine & Versafine Clairs.

Ive included the inkpads so you can see the colours used, and the old & new Versafines work perfectly together.

With a few, I ran the front through an embossing folder, and I found it's better to do this after die cutting the aperture, as if you do it the other way round, it tends to flatten the embossing.
 I cut the apertures with various shaped dies for a bit of a change.

 The die is a Nellie Snellen heart die, and the card base is 6" square. The embossing folder is by Creative Expressions, called Ocean Waves.

This star is a Stitched Star die bought from the Works, and the embossing folder is called Sunbeams, by Crafters Companion.

This embossing folder is an old Cuttlebug one, called Scrollwork Frame, and I used a plain Oval die for the centre.

These two weren't embossed, the top die was a Presscut one, Scalloped Edge Rectangle, and the bottom one is a Nestabilities, Petite Scalloped Ovals, Large.

I added seed beads and sequins in matching or toning colours, and a bit of table confetti too.

First Shaker card, or a Comedy of Errors!

 A pretty accurate title as you will see as we go on.
I've long been meaning to have a go at a shaker card. Having seen them made in numerous crafting videos, I decided it looked pretty straightforward.
 And it is, as long as you remember one simple detail- forward planning!
 However, I think mine had gone off for a day trip somewhere, leaving me to fend for myself.


So, lets start. My base card was going to be an 8"x8" square, so I cut a separate sheet of Pearl White card to fit the front.  That is one thing I do remember- always measure your card base first before cutting.
 I've found the measurement given for card base packs seems to be the envelope dimensions, rather than the card, and it's annoying to go to assemble your card, only to find the front panel is bigger than the base.
 So, that bit done, I then decided I wanted to matt my white pearl onto a red cardstock, so cut the red, then trimmed down the white pearl cardstock. See,stage 1 and I'm already tripping over myself.  I used a Sizzix Heart Steel Rule die I've had for years to cut the centre heart out, after I'd marked the die position on the back of the card, along with corner to corner & side to side lines to make sure I got it as central as possible.

 Next the foam tape to raise the cut out. I have some rolls of foam tape- Poundland, 2 rolls and about 10 sheets of mid sized foam tabs for quid- I took a strip and cut it into 3 lengths. Then as I laid it down, I snipped at intervals to allow it to bend around the shape. I thought using the tape I didn't have to worry about any gaps between foam pop dots letting the filling leak out.By the way, the embossing bag was there as I used it to wipe over the inside edge of the foam tape to stop the filler from sticking to it.

 Amused myself that I thought of something that small, yet missed important stuff.😀

 So, I have one layer down on the reverse, and decide it needs two to give the filling enough room to move about. I'm halfway round with the second layer, when something occurs to me. I should have attached the plastic/acetate/film front to the reverse of the cardstock first!  Fortunately, I hadn't pressed the tape down firmly yet, so I carefully peeled it back off, and put to one side.
I cut a square from saved Embossing Folder packaging, and stuck that in place with DST.
 Then I put the foam tape back, on top of the plastic this time.

 So that was error number two so far- but I'm not done with them yet!
 Now we are onto the backing for the shaker, and in my Peel off stash, I remembered some holographic  peel off sheets.    Trimmed some off the sheet, and used it to cover some spare white card.



 Having a look in my stash, I sort out some tiny stars, some small and large hearts. All are those little bags of confetti for tables at parties. You can tell how long I've had some of them- that tiny hearts container used to hold camera film. Remember that?

Sprinkled some of each confetti into the opening. I can just imagine my face,had I still not realised about the plastic!


Peeled the backing tape off the top layer of the foam, and added a larger  foam tab to the four corners of the backing piece, then lay it on top.

Turned it over, and this is when I realised the next mistake I'd made. I intended to stamp the two sentiments in the top left & bottom right corners.

But now these two layers were together, I wasn't going to be able to stamp there, it wasn't a level enough base.
 I should have done the stamping after I'd cut out the heart, before I did anything else. So now we're onto Plan C. Or possibly D, I've lost track.

Finding a piece of the white pearl card, I stamped both sentiments, then trimmed down and matted onto the same red cardstock as the matt layer for the card, and mounted them with foam pads.
 The inkpad was Memento Lady Bug, and I heat embossed it with WOW! Sparkling Poinsettia.


Matted it onto the red layer with foam tabs, that attached it all to the card base with DST.

 As if the bling level wasn't high enough, I also added some acrylic hearts with Glossy Accents.


 Hubby loved it, sat shaking it for a while, trying to separate some of the larger hearts that had wedged on top of one another. Said it was a bit like those kiddies games where you have to tilt and turn them to get little balls into indentations, lol.

Stamps:
 I love you to the Moon & Back, Stampasaurus
Today Tomorrow, Inkylicious, available in 2 sizes, this is the larger one. The smaller one is about the same size as the one top left.