Making Your Own Ephemera

Posted on November 4, 2022 by Imagine

By Alison Heikkila –

Hello! Today I’ve got a fun tutorial that’s all about making your own ephemera. Ephemera can be ticket stubs, advertisements, postage stamps, handwritten letters, etc. It’s fun to use “found” ephemera, but it’s also a blast to make your own. You can feel free to follow each of the “steps” below, or just choose the ones you like. There’s no real order or correct way to make these elements, and you can use them on any of your paper-crafting projects. I just decided to go with a tag today. This particular project is great if you need to loosen up, break out of a creative block, or you just feel like adding to your stash. Just have fun with it!

*Some affiliate links are used in this post. That means that if you shop through these links, I may receive a small compensation, at no cost to you. For more information, please see my Affiliates page.

Directions:

Ephemera Tag 2

Step 1:

Grab some cardstock and a stencil, and start spraying them with Fireworks! Spray.

Ephemera Tag 3

Step 2:

There’s a lot of spray left on that stencil, so don’t waste it! Grab another scrap of paper and flip the stencil (wet side down) on to it to get the reverse design. You can use a brayer or your hands to push the stencil into the paper to transfer the color better.

Ephemera Tag 4

Step 3:

Still more on the stencil? Spray it with a little water to get the color moving and press it into a third piece of paper.

Ephemera Tag 5

Step 4:

Grab some rubber stamps that have fun designs (especially solid images like this one), spray your craft mat with another color of Fireworks! Spray, and ink up the stamp in the puddle. Stamp some scrap paper with the wet stamp.

Ephemera Tag 6

Step 5:

Apply Kaleidacolor inks to cardstock using your favorite method. I used the Fruitcake palette on my Gel Press with a brayer. Then, take a stencil and apply VersaFine Clair ink on top using a sponge dauber or cosmetic sponge.

Ephemera Tag 7

Step 6:

Run a piece of cardstock through an embossing folder. Then ink the raised areas with Delicata Ink for shine.

Ephemera Tag 8

Step 7:

Stamp out a sentiment with VersaMark Ink and use your favorite Mboss embossing powder on it. For texture, tear the edges and ink them with Rich Cocoa Memento Ink.

Step 8:

Take some old book paper and flick Fireworks! Spray on it to get different sized droplets.

Step 9:

Stamp some small geometric shapes and die cut/fussy cut them.

Look at all the ephemera we’ve created by just using scraps!

Ephemera Tag 9

Step 10:

Die cut a large tag out of cardstock. Start laying your ephemera on to the tag to see where you want your pieces to be.

Ephemera Tag 10

Step 11:

Let pieces hang off the edges of your piece. You can cut them off later, if you wish. Don’t be afraid to move your elements around, cut them, tear them, etc.

Ephemera Tag 11

Step 12:

Use different types of adhesive. I like using Tear It! Tape for the embossed layers, wet glue for flat layers, and foam tape or squares for elements that I want raised. I also love to use On Point Glue for sequins and rhinestones, which I added after I had all of my paper elements adhered.

Ephemera Tag 12 600

Here’s the finished tag. Again, make this however you like. It doesn’t need to be for the holidays, it doesn’t need to be a tag. Just grab a bunch of supplies and play. Whatever ephemera you have leftover can be used at another time.

Art Supplies:

Imagine:

• Fireworks! Shimmery Craft Spray in Cottage Ivy, Lady Bug, and New Sprout

• Memento Ink in Rich Cocoa

• Kalediacolor Inks in Fruitcake

• VersaMark Ink

• Mboss Embossing Powder in Rose Gold

• VersaFine Clair Ink in Rain Forest

• Delicata Ink in Golden Gliz

• Tear It! Tape

• On Point Glue

Other:

• Stampers Anonymous: Bold Tidings Mini and Mod Cactus

• Sizzix: Tag Collection #658784, Kaleidoscope 3D Embossing Folder

• A Colorful Life Designs: Sweater Knit stencil, Make Some Plaid stencil

• Doodles Paper Playground: Bold Rhinestones (I only used the red)

• Simon Says Stamp/CZ Design: Hex Yeah (discontinued)

• Scraps of cardstock, old book paper, etc.

Let’s Make Some Autumn Inspired Gift Card Tags

Posted on October 14, 2022 by Imagine

By Kathy Pisupati –

Hi my crafty friends! Today I have a new tutorial for you that may help you to use your fall dies in a new way. I will be using the VersaColor Inks to make a mess, yes…a mess that turns out to be BEAUTIFUL! We will be creating gift card tags for any occasion using fall leaf dies.

Skill Level: Intermediate
Time to Complete: 1 hour

Directions:

Step 1:

Make a mess. Yes, take a piece of 80lb card stock and swipe those VersaColor inks. Smoosh ‘em, splatter ‘em, do whatever you want with them. Use those reinkers that you have sitting on your shelf.

Kathy_October-Tutorial-04 Kathy_October-Tutorial-02

Step 2:

Let these panels dry. Because the VersaColor inks are a pigment ink they take a while to dry, let them dry! Go have a cup of coffee and take a peek at more inspiration on the Imagine Blog.

Step 3:

Use your leaf dies to cut several leaves from your messy panel. Trust me! Are they pretty?

Kathy_October-Tutorial-06

Step 4:

Use a gift card tag die to cut some tags.
You should be able to get three holders from one sheet of 8.5” x 11”.

Kathy_October-Tutorial-08

Kathy_October-Tutorial-09

Step 5:

Once cut, splatter some gold watercolor paint all over the panels.

Kathy_October-Tutorial-10

Kathy_October-Tutorial-6b

Step 6:

Fold and score your gift tags. Use the Imagine Tear It! Tape to assemble.

Step 7:

Lay out your pretty leaves and glue them down with Imagine On Point Glue. Trim off any excess.

Kathy_October-Tutorial-14

Step 8

Stamp some sentiments, cut, and create a shadow strip from gold card stock. Adhere with On Point Glue. Put some foam tape on the back and adhere to your tags. Add some bling with the On Point Glue.

Step 9:

Loop some twine through the holes and the gift holders are done. I hope this has helped you seen those fall products in a new light. Thank you for stopping by the Imagine Blog!

Supplies Used:

Imagine Crafts

• VersaColor: Turquoise, Canary and Pink Shimmer

Other

• Brutus Monroe – Stand Alone Leaf Dies

• Gina K Designs Gift Card Tag

• Kat Scrappiness Simple Sentiments Stamp & Die Bundle

• Kat Scrappiness Gold Pearls

• Foam Tape

• Metallic Gold Card Stock

• Paper Trimmer

• Die-Cutting Machine

• Twine

Make a Beautiful Pumpkin Thank You Card

Posted on October 7, 2022 by Imagine

By Alison Heikkila –

Greetings! Alison here and today my latest tutorial for Imagine is a textured, fall-themed thank you card. I can see making a bunch of these to put as place setting on your Thanksgiving table, as a thank you to your guests for celebrating the holidays with you. I used several simple techniques on this card that when combined, look really fancy and festive.

Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Time: 45 minutes- 1 Hour

Directions:

Step 1:

Using a piece of metallic cardstock, run it through your die cutting machine with an embossing folder.

Step 2:

Using a sanding block, a piece of sandpaper, or even a nail file, sand the raised areas of the embossed cardstock. This will give it an aged or distressed look.

Step 3:

Gently rub Spiced Chai StazOn ink across the surface to add more interest to the piece of cardstock.

Thankful 5

Step 4:

On a Gel Press Plate, gently tap the Cappuccino Delight Kaleidacolor Inks across the surface. You can use a brayer to blend the colors, as well as a few spritzes of water or Ink Potion No. 9.

Thankful 6

Step 5:

Lay white cardstock on to the Gel Press Plate and rub to get the ink to transfer. Pull the print and let it dry. I pulled a couple of prints and then chose my favorite to use for this card.

Thankful 7

Step 6:

Die cut a pumpkin out of the monoprint.

Thankful 8

Step 7:

Die cut a bigger pumpkin out of brown cardstock and ink the edges with Golden Glitz Delicata Ink.

Thankful 9

Step 8:

Die cut the sentiment out of cream colored cardstock and ink the edges with Desert Sand Memento Ink.

Thankful 10

Step 9:

Add Tear It Tape to the back of the embossed panel. I like to use this adhesive when I am working with a piece that has a lot of texture. It holds everything in place really well, and you don’t need to worry about liquid adhesive getting “stuck” in the wells.

Step 10:

Assemble the rest of the card. I used On Point Glue to attach the rhinestones.

Thankful 11 600

Isn’t it pretty?

I love all of the shine from the embossed panel. I also really like seeing all the colors on the pumpkin through the die cut. I hope you’ll give some of these techniques a try!

Art Supplies:

Imagine:

• StazOn Ink: Spiced Chai

• Delicata Ink: Golden Glitz

• Kaleidacolor Ink: Cappuccino Delight

• Memento Ink: Desert Sand

• Tear It! Tape

• On Point Glue

Other:

• Darice: Embossing Folder

• Gel Press: 3×5 Plate

• Recollections: Pumpkin Die Cuts

• Simon Says Stamp: Thankful Die

• Doodles Paper Playground: Gold Starburst Rhinestones

• Brown, Cream, and White cardstock

Make a FABULOOOS Halloween Card

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Imagine

By Martha Lucia Gomez –

Hello there! Todays tutorial is a quick project that you can make using your Halloween stamps and the heat embossing techniques. On this, I am combined VersaFine Clair, VersaMark and Memento Inks with our traditional Embossing Powders.

Skill Level: Beginner
Time to Complete: 30 Minutes

Directions:

2022 - September - Martha Lucia Gomez - Halloween Card Step 1

Step 1

Stamp a Halloween background onto your colored card stock using VersaFine Clair Nocturne.

Step 2:

Cover the inked area with Embossing Powder and melt it with a heat tool. On this step, you can use clear embossing powder or black embossing powder.

Step 3:

With an Ink Blusher or sponge apply Memento Ink Grape Jelly around the stamped background.

TIP: You can stamp your background onto white smooth cardstock and then ink all the area with your selection of Memento Ink.

Step 5:

With VersaMark Ink stamp the sentiment on the center of the card and covered it with White Embossing Powder. Melt the powder with the heat tool.

Step 6:

Ink the center or your card using Memento Tangelo Ink.

Step 7:

According with the stamps and colors of card stock that you used you can enhance some details using additional colors of Memento Ink. In my sample, I used purple card stock and three different colors of Memento Ink: Grape Jelly around the card, Tangelo for the Center and Paris Dusk for the corners.

Step 8:

To embellish the card, you can use a coordinated die cut. I am using a witch die that I cut onto Silver Metallic cardstock three times. I layered pasted all the die cut images with On Point Glue to add more dimension. And as final touch, I gave an additional color to the face on the pumpkin using Memento Dual Tip Markers.

Step 9:

Assemble your card pasting all the layers with Tear It! Tape or Crafty Foam Tape.

Art Supplies:

Imagine:

• VersaFine Clair – Nocturne

• VersaMark – Clear

• Memento – Grape Jelly, Tangelo and Paris Dusk

• Memento Dual Tip Markers

• Ink Blushers

• Tear it! Tape

• Craft Mat

Other:

• Joy Clair Designs – Spiderweb Background Clear Stamp

• Crackerbox Stamps – Faboolous Rubber Stamp

• Die Cut Machine

• Positional Stamp Tool.

• Scrapbook Adhesives Crafty Foam.

• Heat Tool

• Brayer

Learn How to Make a Vividly Fall Colored Thank You Card Using Kaleidacolor

Posted on September 13, 2022 by Imagine

2022_Sept_Neva_KaliedacolorLeavesThankYouBeauty_600

By Neva Cole –

There are many Kaleidacolor pads that are in the autumn themed pallet. Even though this card is multi-layered it comes together in a short amount of time considering all of the inked embellishments!

Skill: Intermediate

Time: 2 Hours

Directions:

Step 1:

Trim cream cardstock to 5” x 5” and center the overlay and stamp on the center rotation point of the Turn About Stamp. Place on stamp platform to pick up stamp, and remove overlay.

Step 2:

Ink up the stamp with Kaleidacolor in Autumn Leaves with the green end of the pad and stamp the image. Rotate the paper 90 degree to the right.

Step 3:

Ink up the stamp with Kaleidacolor in Desert Heat with the orange end of the pad and stamp the image. Rotate the paper 90 degree to the right.

Step 4:

Ink up the stamp with Kaleidacolor in Cappuccino Delight with the brown end of the pad and stamp the image. Rotate the paper 90 degree to the right.

Step 5:

Ink up the stamp with Kaleidacolor in Desert Heat with the red end of the pad and stamp the image. Rotate the paper 90 degree to the right. After I started the card I realized it can also be completed with two complementary Kaleidacolor pads, just by using opposite ends to ink the image. Die cut the completed wreath with a circle die cut.

Step 6:

Ink the sentiment from the red end of the Kaleidacolor Desert Heat pad and stamp.

Step 7:

Die cut the sentiment. The edges are then blended in with an Ink Dauber and the yellow end of the Kaleidacolor Desert Heat pad.

Step 8:

More embellishment is added with included stamps from the set from various sections of all three Kaleidacolor pads.

Step 9:

Spritz a section of cream cardstock with Ink Potion No. 9. This will allow the ink to spread more uniformly on the cardstock. Generally glossy cardstock works best, but the rest of the card was regular cream cardstock, this is a good work around.

Step 10:

Using a 2” rubber brayer add ink liberally to the white cardstock until fairly well blended. All three Kaleidacolor ink pads are used on one piece of cardstock with the intention to have several colors to die cut the coordinating leave dies.

Step 11:

Decorate the front of the 5” x 7” card front in the same way the sentiment die is inked and stamped in Step 8.

Step 12:

Arrange die cuts from the brayered section of cardstock on the card base. Use repositionable adhesive to pick up the edges of the die cuts and flip over the entire front circle wreath. Add dimensional foam adhesive to secure die cuts in place. (You will notice that the reverse side was the first try, however it wasn’t the best, so it is simply flipped over and the other side was used. You only see the mistake in the demonstration step!)

Step 13:

Adhere stamped wreath to card front. Adhere the sentiment to the center of the stamped wreath with dimensional foam adhesive.

Art Supplies

Imagine

• Kaleidacolor–Autumn Leaves, Desert Heat, Cappuccino Delight

• Ink Potion No. 9

• Ink Dauber

Other:

• Cream Cardstock

• Concord & 9th–Harvest Wreath Turnabout Set and Dies

• Elizabeth Craft Designs–Stitched Circles

• 2” Rubber brayer

• Temporary repositionable adhesive

• Dimension Foam adhesive

• Die Cut machine

• Stamp Platform

Let’s Make a Cheery Happy Hour Card

Posted on September 7, 2022 by Imagine

By Kathy Pisupati –

Hi there! Kathy here. Today I have a new tutorial for you that uses Delicata Golden Glitz and Ruby Red. The shimmering quality of Delicata inks is perfect for this happy hour, wine card. It may be hard to see all the shimmer but trust me it’s there!

Skill Level: Intermediate
Time to Complete: 1 hour

Directions:

Step 1

You will need a top-folding card base measuring 4 1/4 x 5 1/2“. The rest of the panels we will create as we go. I have listed the size of each panel on the pictures for you. After cutting this panel I used the Essentials by Ellen Rectangles for Stitching dies. I don’t stitch but these dies cut beautiful little holes as a frame that will show the color below in the end. Using Delicata Golden Glitz ink and clear embossing powder I stamped this image from Picket Fence Studio’s Just Wanna Have Wine stamp set. I then heat embossed the sentiment.

Step 2A

Step 2a

Next, I stamped and embossed the wine bottle from the same Picket Fence Studio set. Using the coordinating die I did this 3 times.

Step 2B

Step 2b

For the background I used the Picket Fence Studio Montage 6 x 6 stencil with the Delicata Ruby Red Ink.

Step 3

From a coordinating-colored card stock cut two panels to the sizes in the picture below. Adhere the sentiment panel on top of the small background and the stenciled panel to the larger panel with On Point Glue.

Step 4

The stenciled panel was adhered directly to an A2 top-folding card base with the Tear It Tape. The sentiment panel was added with foam tape and the wine bottles were popped up with foam tape as well.

Step 5

Finally, I added a few Kat Scrappiness Gold Pearls for a bit of bling.

I hope you enjoy this card and the tutorial. Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate all of you!

Step-6

Supplies Used:

Imagine Crafts

Delicata Golden Glitz

Other

• Picket Fence Studio Montage 6 x 6 Stencil

• Picket Fence Studio Just Wanna Have Wine Stamps and Dies

• Kat Scrappiness Gold Pearls

• Clear embossing powder

• Embossing tool

• Spellbinders Platinum 6 Die-Cutting machine

• Colored card stock

• Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb

• Paper Trimmer

• Teflon bone folder

• Foam Tape

Directions:

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