Harry Potter Inspired Card Video Hop

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Harry Potter Card Hop

Have you ever been inspired by a favorite book or movie? Today I bring you a fun little video card hop, inspired by the Harry Potter series and a few of my crafty friends for a Harry Potter Scenic Card Tutorial!

This summer, Justine Hovey and I met up for lunch in Stuttgart, Germany while we were both visiting. I don’t even remember how we got onto the conversation – but we discovered yet, another love that we shared in common – Harry Potter! We thought, that would be a just for fun video hop – and my mind immediately went to my friend Laurel Beard – who I knew loved Harry Potter just as much as me. And Justine knew Jessica Frost Ballas was just as addicted, and this hop was born!

Harry Potter Scenic Card Tutorial - Ingrid Blackburn

So here’s a fun, book/movie series inspired hop for you – filled with prizes, a little magic and of course – Harry Potter!

Be sure to hop along all four blogs and YouTube channels – leave comments – cause we’re giving away prizes on each blog – Harry Potter themed prizes!! Plus it’s fun to see how each designer was inspired.

If you’ve followed me a little, I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that I just HAD to create a Harry Potter scenic card! Harry Potter inspires me in so many ways – the castle, forest, bricks, owls, forest, dark vs. light, books, forest, wands, magic and oh, did I mention FOREST?!!! Naturally I had to create one of my favorite scenes of all time (Spoiler Alert) – the Dementor attack/Patronus charm at the end of Book 3.

Harry Potter Scenic Card Tutorial

I knew the perfect stamps to use too…Stampscapes. Kevin Nakagawa’s gorgeous line of stamps would perfectly evoke that larger than life feel I wanted to create along the frozen lake deep into the Forbidden Forest. Here’s a video of exactly how I created this beauty.

Click Here to watch video in HD on YouTube

The Tree Trunk stamp was perfect for this card. But I needed it at different heights – and what do you do when your card is larger than the stamp? That’s part of the beauty of Stampscapes stamps. The way Kevin has beautifully drawn these scenic elements is with little dots. So it’s very easy to naturally stretch and build onto your scene with it looking effortless and part of the original design.

So in this image, the left most trunk is actually only 4.5″ tall and the card is 5.25″ high. So how do you stretch your image so that it goes the full length? Simple – flip the top of the trunk around and stamp to fill that area. Now, you can’t have your tree get fatter – so you’re limited to a small part of the stamp, but see how it seamlessly lines up?

Stampscapes Tree Trunk Stamp

For the bottom – fill in the area with a little bit of color – add some dots with a micron pen and some distress markers. Then take the bottom of your stamp – ink it up and fade out the edges on it. That leaves you with the gorgeous texture – use that to fill in your trunk base. It just blends effortlessly! With more shading, and there’s zero chance of anyone noticing that wasn’t meant to be. Would you have seen the seam if I hadn’t pointed it out to you?

To bring the Harry Potter Scenic Card to life, layer your ink colors light to dark into your scene from the edge in. I used Kromekote Glossy cardstock – 12 pt for a strong base that let the colors glide with the Colorbox Stylus tool. Blues, Greys, Greens and Browns – your nature colors fill the scene with depth.

The key to this scene is the dark mystical nature of the Forbidden Forest. Without it, and it’s just another forest scene. We need the play of good vs. evil here – light vs. dark. Since I wasn’t sure how I could create a Dementor, I used dark shadows to get that effect playing off the bright explosive Patronus Charm.

Harry Potter Card - Forest Scene

And to get that bright glow – emboss the large buck (my Harry Patronus – the stag) and surround it with the white explosive glow. To get it to look just right, I had to play – and as you see in the video…a few ways just didn’t give the right feel. Swirls with a paper towel and some Hero Hues Unicorn Pigment ink did the trick.

Some finishing touches of white gel pen to emphasize ice and cold along the lake edge and glow in the tree trunks mixed with the perfect dark edging pulls the scene together. I didn’t have a greeting that worked for me, so I created my own with a downloaded Harry Potter free font.

I LOVE the third movie – and this is one of my favorite scenes. I think I love Harry and Hermine climbing over the huge roots at the base of these monster trees the most. The forest is so mystical and dark – I can do with out the dementors – they always freak me out…so it’s a good thing I can create my own Patronus – at least in a Harry Potter Scenic Card form!

Harry Potter Forest Card - Stampscapes - Ingrid Blackburn

What’s your favorite book/movie? Do you have something about this series that inspires you? Colors, characters, elements? When you start to create yourself – tag us with #CraftyPotterHeads! We’d love to see what you make.

Leave me a comment and I’ll enter you into my Harry Potter drawing! I’m giving away a couple decks of Harry Potter playing cards – to be delivered by Owl Oct. 1st….okay…I guess USPS will have to do. Back to reality for this muggle…

Thanks for stopping by! Now Accio Firebolt – hop on and visit my crafty friends for more chances to win and some creative magical inspiration!

Harry Potter Magical Blog Hop List

Ingrid Blackburn – You are Here
Jessica Frost Ballas – Head on over here Next!
Justine Hovey
Laurel Beard

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Supplies

To make finding the supplies I used in these projects a bit easier for you, here are a few clickable links. Compensated Affiliate Links are used when possible. Click here for disclosure. Happy Shopping!


Filed Under: Blog Hop, Distress Ink, Inspiration, Scenic, Stampscapes, Techniques, Uncategorized, Videos Tagged: , , ,

Vintage Christmas Star

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Vintage Christmas Star 001

Today’s challenge keyword is star – so let’s learn how to incorporate that into this vintage holiday card. This month’s challenge at Happy Little Stampers is to use a star in some form on your card. I have to admit, I started off in a very different direction…then ultimately decided to create a simple card with a vintage masculine feel that could showcase the ultimate Christmas star.

HLS Christmas Challenge December 2015

I guess I’ve been in a vintage kind of a mood these past few months. At least here on the blog! I don’t know what it is that seems soothing about this color palette to me, but I’m really loving the feel. Maybe it’s because I’ve been injured and not able to walk as much as I would like in the woods…who knows?!! Here’s a quick tutorial for you, and be sure to stop by again next week for the video!

Creating a Quick Vintage Feel to your Holiday Cards –

  • This project was done on kraft colored paper – not white. It helps with the overall look and feel.
  • I find that the brown tone fits this style better than black. So ink your stamps up in a dark brown – something earthy. I used Ground Espresso by Ranger Distress.
  • Stamp the Stampscapes Pines & Rocks Lg on the left and the left side of Lakeside Reflections Lg to the right Tip – use a torn piece of paper towel to mask off the edge and create a seamless scene.

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  • Place two post it notes in copy paper and punch out your moon with a 1 1/4″ circle punch. This will be your mask.
  • Place your moon where you’d like it before adding blues to the sky
  • Use a mini sponge tool and some blue hues to shade in your water and sky.
  • Stamp Cloud Strips Lg by Stampscapes in Stormy Sky Distress. Be sure to overlap the moon slightly.
  • Once you have the look you’d like – add a little shading with s neutral like Weathered Wood Distress to the rocks.
  • Sponge the entire scene around the perimeter with  a brown – I used Gathered twigs for a slightly different feel than the trees.
  • Add your star and emboss in Pewter. I used the Nativity Angel Stencil by Stamplorations.

Vintage Christmas Star 004

  • The perfect sentiment makes this card and nails the vintage feel. Here you see one of the many sentiments from Mixed Christmas Sentiments by Happy Little Stampers. Emboss it in Pewter for a great look, rather than something bright.
  • The scene is matted onto Vanilla card stock for contrast before being popped up on fun foam onto an Espresso card base.

I do hope you like this card – it’s actually a great one to mass produce and goes much faster than you think! I hope this inspired you to create something special with a star for your cards. Be sure to enter them into the Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers!

Keep those fingers inky –

 

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Filed Under: Challenges, Christmas, Distress Ink, Inspiration, Masculine, Scenic, Stampscapes, Uncategorized Tagged: , , , ,

Silent Night…Merry Monday

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Midnight Snow Drifts 004

It’s well into the fall season here in Germany, and I love that the Christmas Season is approaching.  Making card for the Merry Monday challenge has been a bright spot to my crafting week on Mondays.  This week, the task is to create a card that evokes the feel of a Silent Night before Christmas.  I think this card works, hope you enjoy it!

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For a tutorial this week, I thought I would show you exactly how I create these snow drifts, so I filmed a step by step video tutorial and put it onto my You Tube channel.  If you are interested in watching the tutorial How to sponge flawless snow drifts, please click here to see it.

Midnight Snow Drifts 010

Thanks for stopping by today!  And in case you missed my YouTube link above…be sure to check out my step by step tutorial here.  Just click this image:

Video Screenshot Title

Creatively yours –

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Filed Under: Challenges, Christmas, Scenic, Stampscapes Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Quick Clean and Simple One Layer Card

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Here’s a quick little card that I think you’ll love.  The best part, you can interchange the sentiment for whatever you need.  I just love this stamp – you inspire me, from the retired Stampin’ Up! stamp set Perfect Words.  I love the sentiment, but more so, the font.  I love cool clean fonts. 

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Chances are, you probably already have a tree of some sort in your stash, be it an oak tree, evergreen or even palm tree!  Here I used Single Pine from the Nature Sheet I by Stampscapes.  I just love this tree!  I stamped my pine tree in Stampin Up Garden Green ink, and used an Early Espresso Stampin’ Write Marker for the trunk.  I stamped the sentiment in Early Espresso as well.

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It’s a quick and simple card, yet it captivates you.  Don’t you just love One Layer Cards?!!  Now go make your own quick, simple masterpiece.

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Filed Under: 10 Minutes or Less, Clean and Simple, One Layer Card Tagged: , , , ,