Little Claire are launching their November digi stamp challenge and the theme is "anything but a card" and this is a little picture that I have made as part of the design team. It is such a sweet digi stamp and it was really fun to make. I hope you are inspired to have a go for yourself and enter the competition and if you do you could win this lovely prize.............
FIVE DIGI STAMPS OF YOUR CHOICE
what you will need:
printer
Serif Craft Artist graphics program or a similar graphics program
your choice of background
Hobbycraft 5 3/4" x 5 3/4" stretched canvas
120gsm white linen print paper
white copy paper
good quality mat print paper
Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass, Mustard Seed, Dusty Conchord, Shabby Shutters
Cut n Dry foam
black fine tip pen
pink faceted gems
Liquid Pearls - White Opal
mauve coloured ink pad
black Versa Fine ink pad
pale green colouring in pen
I use Serif Craft Artist as my graphics program and I will take you step-by-step through the process of creating the image but if you do not have this graphics program don't worry, your program will do the same things but unfortunately I can not walk you through the process.
On your computer open up the Serif Craft Artist graphics program.
From the start up wizard double click on the "blank project" at the left hand side of the screen.
A page set up will appear, in the "regular" box at the top of the page double click on the "A4 portrait".
The Digi kit browser box will now appear so click on "done" at the bottom of the page.
Now you have a blank A4 work area to place your design onto.
My Craft Artist always has cm as default ruler guides and we need to change this to inches so at the top left of your screen you will see a point where two rule bars meet, hover the cursor over this point until it changes from an arrow to a hand and then right click, select inches from the drop down box that will appear.
Hover your cursor over the left hand ruler and left click and drag at the same time to create a guide line. Drag the guide line to the 5 1/4" measure on the top ruler. Repeat this action with the top ruler dragging the guide line down to 5 1/4" on the side ruler.
You now have guide lines on your work area. These guide lines can be moved or removed at any time and will not print onto the finished work.
You need to have a file on your computer which contains your background image and this can be a file from a image CD or it could be one you have purchased from the Serif Daisytrail online shop or you could do as I did and make your own background and scan it to create a PDF file (I made this image using alcohol inks and acetate).
Click on the insert tab at the top of the screen, select photo from the drop down box, select from file from the drop down box, a window will open containing the files on your computer, simply select the file/image you wish to use in your project and click on open at the bottom of the box.
You will now be back at your work sheet and your cursor will have turned into a white cross, left click and drag the cursor diagonally and your image will appear in the box you are creating.
Your image will appear within a blue box with cross hares at the top left corner, left click on the cross hares and drag the image to the top left of your work space.
You will see white boxes at intervals along the edge of your image (these are re sizing points), hover your cursor over the bottom right square until the cursor becomes a double ended arrow, left click and drag the square until the image is the same size as your guide lines (if your image is not a square shape simply repeat the re sizing process with the white squares along the edge of the image until it is the required size).
The background image will have a grey box at the top left corner, left click on the box and drag the background image to the centre of the work sheet (you can also left click any where on the image and drag it).
Move the guide lines to the edges of the background image by hovering the cursor over the guide line until the cursor turns into a double ended arrow, left click and drag the guide line into place.
Click on the edit tab at the top of the toolbar, select copy from the drop down box, *click on edit from the tool bar, click paste from the drop down box. You have now duplicated the background image but you can not see it because it is on top of the original image.
Left click on the image and drag to butt up to the side of the original image with no white showing in between* (if the edges of the image look odd or don't line up you can flip the copied image and this may look better - click on the arrange tab in the tool bar, click on the flip vertical or flip horizontal button from the drop down box).
Repeat from * to * another three times and arrange the copies around the original image to form a + shape.
You will have downloaded the Little Claire Cupcake Tree digi stamp when you bought it and it will probably be in your download folder, I would recommend that you create a new folder for your digi stamps and put the Cupcake Tree in this folder and any other digi stamps that you may have.
Click on the insert tab on the tool bar, click on photo in the drop down box, click on from file in the drop down box, you will now have a file location box open and you must find the Cupcake Tree file and click on it (it will change colour), click the open tab at the bottom of the box.
As before with the background image you will be taken back to the work sheet and the cursor will appear as a white cross, left click and drag diagonally to make the image appear.
Re size the Cupcake tree image to 5 1/2" from the top of the tree to the bottom of the tree (you may wish to use guide lines to help with this).
Move the Cupcake Tree image to where it needs to be on the canvas (I made my little bird on the branch wrap around the side of the canvas so if you want to do this make sure that the bird on the branch is outside of the right hand guide line).
You now need to make the Cupcake Tree image partially transparent so that you can see the background image through it and this is done by left clicking on the Transparency slider bar at the right hand side of the screen, slide the bar till it reads 53%.
Now you need to make the sun so using guide lines make a box 2" square any where on the work space.
Click on the arrow at the side of the shapes tab on the tool bar, select the circle shape from the drop down box, black cross cursor to the top left of the guide line box that you have just made, left click and drag until you have filled the box with a circle.
Whilst the circle is selected click on the yellow colour from the squares at the right hand side of the screen, amend the colour by clicking within the triangle in the colour wheel at the right hand side of the screen.
Click on the format tab in the tool bar, click on filter effects from the drop down box, click on feather in the filter effects box and move the Blur slider until it reads 8.25%.
Move the sun to behind the Cupcake Tree image.
If you want to save this work I suggest that you do it at this stage.
Select the Cupcake Tree image by clicking on it and make it totally transparent by moving the transparency slider to 100%.
You are now going to print the background image so load your printer with the 120gsm white linen print paper.
Click on the file tab at the top of the task bar, click on print from the drop down box, (you should see the name of your printer in the printer box) click on the properties tab, in the properties box select photo and click on the OK button at the bottom of the box, click on print at the bottom of the box.
When your print comes out of the printer re load it back into the printer exactly as it was loaded before (this is really important because you are going to over print onto the same piece of paper and if it is not in the right place it will not look right).
Your Cupcake Tree image should still be selected even though you can not see it and now you must return the transparency slider bar to 0% so that you can see the image.
One by one select the background images and delete them by pressing the delete button on the keyboard.
Print the Cupcake Tree image onto the already printed background.
Load the printer with copy paper and print the Cupcake Tree image.
You are going to print the recipe wording so delete the Cupcake Tree image and the sun image behind it.
**Click on the text tool tab in the tool bar, bring the cursor down onto the work sheet and begin typing the word** Recipe, move the cursor over the word and right click, select text from the drop down box, select character from the drop down box, click on the arrow at the side of the font box and select Vive, type 52.88pt in the size box, click the OK box at the bottom.
Repeat from ** to ** and type the words for a purrfect day.
Move the cursor over the text and right click, select text from the drop down box, select character from the drop down box, click the arrow at the side of the font box and select Studio, type 27.53pt in the size box, click the OK box at the bottom.
Move the two texts until they are suitably arranged.
On another part of the work sheet write the words
1 x worries away cat,
1 x cupcake tree,
add time to enjoy,
sprinkle with sunshine
Select the words and as before select Troutkings BTN in the font box and type 32.54pt in the size box.
Print the text onto good quality mat print paper.
THAT IS THE SCARY STUFF OVER WITH (NOT SO SCARY REALLY) NOW FOR SOME CRAFTING
Remove the canvas from the Hobbycraft 5 3/4" x 5 3/4" frame.
Cut out the printed paper to fit the frame but remember to leave tabs on 4 of the edges (as you would do when making a box).
Roughly hold the cut out printed image over the wooden frame and cut one of the sides which has tabs on so that it wraps around the side of the frame and onto the back of the frame.
Mark the paper where it will need to be cut and with scissors cut to size.
Apply wet glue to the edge of the paper where it will stick to the wooden frame and hold in place till the glue sticks.
Glue the tabs in place and repeat for the opposite side.
Cut away the excess paper and glue the two remaining sides in place.
Using the Tim Holtz Distress Inks Dusty Conchord, Picked Raspberry and the Cut n Dry foam shade the edges of the canvas.
Using the mauve coloured ink pad stamp your swirly stamp image around the left hand side of the canvas (be careful not to press on too hard as the canvas is hollow at the centre).
Take the image of the Cupcake Tree which you printed out earlier onto copy paper and cut out the cupcakes and stick onto the canvas image.
Colour the bun cases with a pale green pen.
Add the White Opal Liquid Pearls to the top of the cupcake images to represent icing and allow to dry (you may need to repeat this process three or four times to give the required height).
Add a small faceted pink gem to the top of each cupcake.
Cut out the recipe text which you printed earlier.
Using the Tim Holtz Distress Inks Tumbled Glass and Shabby Shutters shade the words.
Define the edges of the word blocks by rubbing a black ink pad around them.
Stick the words onto the canvas to form the recipe.
If you wish to hang the canvas from something you must apply a ribbon or some other form of hanging to the canvas.
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