Get to know Lois Bak

Hello Scrapping Cottage friends! Thanks for taking the time to stop and visit with us. We are starting a new feature on the Blog today. Over the next several weeks, we will be giving you a closer look at our designers.  It's  a "get to know the design team"  and today we are featuring Lois Bak. 
 

I moved with my late husband Tom to sunny Florida 49 years ago from eastern Pennsylvania with two of our three children, both boys (Doug and Scott).  My youngest child, a daughter named Kathi, is my only true Floridian.   My three children have given me eight grandchildren and a couple of grand-pets.  

I worked for many years as a bookkeeper for an association management company, where I kept the books for up to 14 not-for-profit associations.  I retired several years ago and devote much of my spare time making cards, having served on several design teams over the years. 

In addition, I do volunteer work at my church once a week.  My other passion is reading . . . mainly detective novels. I love roller coasters and celebrated my 73^rd birthday several years ago with my son Doug and his wife Alex by riding the Rip Ride Rock-it roller coaster at Universal Studios Theme Park in Orlando.  Alex told me that her co-workers think I’m the coolest mother-in-law in their office!

Like many stampers that I’ve met (in real life or in cyberspace), I’ve gone through the gamut of crafts:  embroidery, crewel, counted cross-stitch, macramé, ceramics, plastic-canvas needlepoint.  But all of that ceased when I discovered stamping at a Stampin’ Up workshop hosted by my BFF.    My first order was one stamp set, some cardstock, and a couple of ink pads.  These simple items have mushroomed into a very large inventory . . . but I still have that first set, Fishy Friends!   

Several years ago I started using die-cuts on my cards as well as stamped images.  That was an eye-opening experience, and I have come to love using dies – in particular the detailed ones that CottageCutz produces.  And, I am delighted to be on their design team, showing others how these dies can be used.

 

I was fortunate enough to have many of my cards published in CardMaker magazine including the current Winter issue. I was honored several years ago by being selected for the Splitcoaststampers Dirty Dozen.  I am also a DT member for the Scor-Pal  company. 

I enjoy making fun-fold cards and “projects.”  Here are several of my favorite CottageCutz creations.

 

Sweet Holiday

Happy Halloween everyone!  It's Jeanne posting today.  Normally I post on Friday but I switched with Janet because of last Friday's video blog hop.  Wasn't that fun?

Although today is Halloween, I have a Christmas card for you featuring one of my favorites - a gingerbread man!

This card uses the Gingerbread Baking set, the Cross-Stitched Squares set and the Sweet phrase.  The card is an A2 top fold  with landscape orientation.  I cut a piece of patterned paper 1/4 inch smaller - 4 x 5 1/4 inches.  This gives a nice 1/8 inch border all the way around.

I used the middle square from the Cross-Stitched Squares to cut the base for the gingerbread man.  He is cut from Crumb Cake card stock; the rest of his pieces and the sentiment uses white.  I colored his tie using markers.

To give him a "crispy cookie" feel, I sponged the edges in Crumb Cake ink.  I then used a multi-liner pen to color in his eyes and nose.

I glued on his tie and frosting but decided I would use glitter enamel dots for his gumdrop buttons.  The white square didn't stand out as much as I wanted so using my paper cutter I cut out a green square that was slightly larger than the cross-stitched one.

For the sentiment, the strip of red card stock is 5 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches and the green is 5 x 1 5/8 inches.

I used white embossing powder to heat emboss"have a" and "holiday".  To get the placement, I put the red strip in my MISTI and laid the SWEET die cut where I wanted it on the strip.  Then I positioned the stamps and closed the lid.  I removed the die cut and proceeded with the embossing.  "Sweet" is covered in three coats of Wink of Stella and really sparkles person.  When it was dry I glued it down in position.

The last things I did were adhering the square with the gingerbread to the front using foam dots and adding a ribbon bow in the corner.

Thanks for stopping by today!  See you Friday!

Good Wishes Tree

Hello Scrapping Cottage friends! Thanks for taking the time to stop and visit today. It's Mary Marsh here bringing you the Monday edition of the Blog.

Yikes, can you believe that October is almost a wrap? If you haven't started your Christmas cards yet, it's definitely time to get them started. I have about 10 or so made. Not nearly enough that's for sure. That's where my samples will be headed each week for awhile.

Today, I used a new die Good Wishes Tree, for my sample card. I wanted to show a card that would be fairly easy to mass produce using this new die. So let's get started with some details on how I created my card.

Step 1: I wanted to use red & green as the main colors and I found this paper in my Christmas collection. I thought the music background would work well with the Christmas words. I matched the designer paper with a pine green, a cherry red and kraft cardstocks.

The patterned paper had a nostalgic look to it so I decided to use burlap ribbon.

Step 2: I cut the good wishes words in the cherry red cardstock. I like the different style font that is used on each word.

I secured this to the patterned paper panel with glue dots. I used mini ones and rolled them into small lines.

Secured the image panel to the cherry red card base, I liked how the panels pop with the addition of the red card base.

Red Card base: 4 1/2" x 5 3/4"

Green Layering Panel: 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"

Patterned Paper Panel: 4 1/8" x 5 3/8"

Step 3:  I thought the panel needed something else to complete it. I tried a small bow but that didn't work. So I cut some bells and added them to the corner and scattered some gold sequins. It completed the card nicely.

 

Well that's my card for this week. I hope I have given you some inspiration on a way to use the new Good Wishes Tree die. I will be back again on Saturday with another Christmas card idea for you.

 

Dies I used to create card:

 

 

 

A Cup of Christmas Florals

Hi!

This is Anja again. Red and green are two of the traditional Christmas season colors. Today I pulled out all the red and green shades of Distress Inks I have and used it to make a cup of florals. I love coloring greenery and flowers so I die cut a little more and made a card and a smaller circle that can be used as a tag if we make a hole trough it.

For this project I used:
- Cottage Cutz dies (Christmas Floral, Nested Stitched Scallop Rectangle Set, Nested Stitched Scallop Circle Set, Pierced Circle Set, Sweet Spring Kitty),
- Distress Inks (Barn Door, Fired Brick, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Peeled Paint, Forest Moss, Mowed Lawn, Pine Needles, Antique Linen, Bundled Sage, Shabby Shutters),
- craft paper base (13,5x13,5 cm),
- white and craft paper for die cuts,
- Nuvo Crystal Drops (Autumn Red),
- Liquid Pearls (White Opal),
- paper glue,
- design paper (13x13 cm),
- gold pigment ink,
- gold acrylic paint.

I cut a piece of design paper and two strips of craft paper. 

Then I die cut two circles and rectangles. I spritzed the lighter ones with gold acrylic paint.

I glued all the card and tag bases together.

Then I die cut all the other pieces from white card stock and colored it with Distress Inks.

I die cut all the florals in two pieces. First I colored every piece with lighter shade of ink and then put a darker shade around the edges.

I made 3D effect with liquid pearls in red and white and let it dry.

 When everything was colored and dried I glued all the floral pieces together.

And this is my final result from a bit closer.

Enjoy your Sunday and have a nice week.

Anja Z. 

Cottage Cutz products I used:

Christmas Lantern

Hi!  Lois here on a Saturday with my weekly post.  I can't believe that it's the end of October already!  Can Christmas be close behind?  I've got another Christmas card today, using a brand-new die from CottageCutz called Lantern with Pine Boughs.  Be sure to check it out, as well as all the dies in the latest release from CottageCutz.

Before I explain how I made my card, I want to let you know that CottageCutz/The Scrapping Cottage is sponsoring a video blog hop that started yesterday (October 27th) and continues today (October 28th).  Janet Axtman, one of the CottageCutz DT members, as well as several other video artists will be featuring cards made with CottageCutz dies . . . and there will be prizes!!!    Each one of the hop participants will be presenting prizes to visitors who comment on her blog, and CottageCutz/The Scrapping Cottage will be giving a grand prize.  So be sure to check it out!

To start my card, I cut all the pieces for the lantern from white cardstock, which had been backed with a Scor-Pal adhesive sheet.

I colored  the pieces using Copic markers.

Then I cut my cardstock as follows:

White - 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4"

Dark Green - 4" x 5 1/4"

Light Green patterned paper - 3 7/8" x 5 1/8"

After scoring the white cardstock at 4 1/4" and folding it in half, I glued the dark green cardstock onto it; and stamped the sentiment in the upper left-hand corner of the patterned paper.

I then embossed  the patterned paper with a pine bough embossing folder and glued it down to the card base.

All that remained was to build the lantern in the lower right-hand corner of the card base.  I allowed some of the pieces to extend beyond the edge of the card for some additional interest.

The CottageCutz die used on this card is:

Be sure to check out the CottageCutz website.  The new release has so many nice Christmas dies, both religious and secular . . . Nativity scenes and Santa Claus!