Leaves & Butterfly Inside Z Fold Aperture Card & Two Gift Bags

A while ago I made two Inside Z Fold Aperture cards (CARD ONE and CARD TWO) with alcohol ink backgrounds which I gave to my lovely friends Lesley and Wendy.  They obviously liked the cards because they asked if they could come over for me to show them how it's done!  I made a very similar card for them to make but changed it up a bit.  They came over last week for their crafty lesson on alcohol ink backgrounds and the fancy fold card and we had a wonderful time!  Here's the card and envelope together.

Here's the card.  I've used Melon Mambo, Basic Black and white as my colout combo and used dies from the SU! 'Brilliant Wings' and 'Artistic' die sets.  I absolutely love the look of dramatic black die cut shapes against an alcohol ink background!  I used nesting stitched rectangle dies to cut the aperture and frame.  I have the SU! 'Stitched Rectangles' die set but here I've used the Claina Palmer 'A6 Double Stitched Nested Dies' set as it's perfectly sized for UK A6 sized cards.  I stamped the sentiment onto black CS with VersaMark, heat embossed it with white embossing powder and cut out the label shape using the SU! 'Messages' die.  I glued the label in place across the frame and added a gold Gilded Gem to the left side.

Here's a closer look at the alcohol ink background.  I scribbled Dark Mango Melody, Dark Flirty Flamingo and Dark Melon Mambo Stampin' Blends markers over an A6 sized piece of vellum and dabbed 99% isopropyl alcohol over the panel with a flat brush.  It's important to use alcohol over 90%, the 70% alcohol curls the vellum up too much and you can't get it flat! I dabbed the Mango areas first, then the Flamingo and finally the Melon.  The alcohol does get coloured so instead of dipping the brush in the bottle I decant a small amount of alcohol into a small jar and dip my brush in the jar and then get rid of the muddy coloured alcohol when I'm done.  I've found that if I make my alcohol ink background on an A6 sized vellum panel I have enough for the image panel and for strips to go on the inside of the card and on the envelope.  I cut off the strips first and then taped a piece of Basic White CS behind the vellum and die cut the stitched rectangle.  I've taken a few sheets of A4 vellum and cut them into quarters so I have A6 sized panels all ready to go for when I want to make an alcohol ink background card.

Here's the card open.  To add stability to the sentiment label I die cut a second black label and glued it behind the label on the front.

Here's a top view of the card to show how it's put together.  The Melon Mambo card base has an aperture cut out of the front and a Z Fold white card base (cut slightly smaller than the Melon Mambo card base) is glued inside.  The main stitched rectangle image layer is nestled inside the aperture and glued just to the Z Fold panel on the right.

Here's the inside of the card.  

Here's the envelope.

I made gift bags for Lesley and Wendy which held some little treats.  I used the dies from the SU! 'All Dressed Up!' set and the fun pink animal print paper from the 'Pattern Party' DSP pack.  I punched flowers from the 'Strawberry' builder punch, shaped them a bit and added them to the silver foil die cut label.  Rhinestone jewels in the centres added that all important sparkle!

We've already scheduled our next crafty get together, Lesley and Wendy will be making Double Wonder Christmas cards next time!

Supplies for cards:

Stamps: SU! 'Artistically Inked' & 'Happiest of Birthdays' sets

CS: SU! Basic Black, Melon Mambo & Basic White (regular & thick), vellum

Ink: VersaMark, SU! Stampin' Blends alcohol ink markers in Dark Flirty Flamingo, Dark Mango Melody & Dark Melon Mambo

Tools: SU! 'Artistic' & 'Brilliant Wings' die sets, 'Messages' die, Claina Palmer 'A6 Double Stitched Nested Dies' set, flat paintbrush

Embellishments & Accessories: 99% isopropyl alcohol, SU! white embossing powder, Gilded Gems

Supplies for gift bags:

Stamps: none

CS: SU! Blushing Bride, silver foil sheet

Patterned paper: SU! 'Pattern Party' DSP

Ink: none

Tools: SU! 'All Dressed Up' die set, 'Strawberry' builder punch

Embellishments & Accessories: SU! Rhinestone Jewels, Dimensionals

Ruth