Santa's Car and Groovi Plates Tutorial

Hi Folks!  Today I have the step by step for the Santa's Car card that I made and was shown on Create and Craft TV with the Lovely Barbara Gray from ClarityStamp.  Bear with me...it's a long one!

First Stamp Car onto copy paper then tape Parchment over top to keep from slipping.  Trace design. You can use a White Pencil, a Scriber Tool (smallest ball tool) or as I used, a White Leaded Propelling Pencil.  

Turn Parchment over (back) smooth over with a Tumble Dryer Sheet and using smallest Ball Tool emboss outline of Car

Turn Parchment over (Front).  Smooth over with a Tumble Dryer Sheet then tape Parchment on Top of Oval Stencil. Place onto an Embossing Mat. Rest your hand on the edge of your Mat. Using Small Ball Tool Gently held in hand, go around the inside edge of Stencil.  Do Not press hard. Gently one way and then come back the opposite way.  Do a little at a time and TURN your work as you go.  If you feel you have not kept the line even, it can be corrected by taking a slightly larger Ball Tool and going around the Oval again...this will also make it whiter.  On this final line you can put a tiny bit of pressure (very lightly) to enhance the indentation of the Oval

Turn Parchment over (Back) Place the Trees Groovi Plate into Groovi Mate.  Once you have aligned the curve of the Oval with the bottom of the smallest Tree, Tape Parchment down.  Using Small Ball Tool emboss outline of tree, branches and which leaves you want.  Choose which of the larger Trees you want to emboss Outside the oval, move and re-tape parchment in place.  Emboss outline as before.

Replace Trees with the Hills Groovi Plate and emboss the 5th line from the bottom.  Then lightly emboss the 6th line. 

Remove Parchment from Groovi Plate and transfer to The Bauble Border Plate.  

Arrange the larger of the trees in the Bauble so that the line joins onto the curve of the 5th line that has already been embossed and the line of the small tree joins the 6th line, emboss both the trees. You can leave this as is or you can go back to the Groovi Hills Plate and join the line of the larger tree to the top of the hill. You can at this time go back over the lines of the hills with your smaller ball tool to make them whiter. 

Transfer Parchment to Embossing Mat and working on the Back using Largest Ball Tool, Gently emboss the Trees. Begin with the small trees in the hills.  Gently Flick back and forth, No Pressure. To get a deeper shade of white, progress down your Ball Tools till you are happy.  Then go on to emboss the larger trees.

As before, use Largest Ball Tool and progress down the sizes. For the Branches use Large Ball Tool, lightly emboss from the Tip of the Branch towards the join in the Trunk of the tree. Now again emboss from the Tip of the Branch downwards but this time do not come down as far as the join.  Now use a smaller Ball Tool, emboss the Branches once more missing out the join.

Santa's Car:  Use Small Ball Tool, Gently go over the lines you have traced. (Turn your work when needed) Next use your Largest Ball Tool to shade in the car and the Tree.

Once again this is done with light strokes.  Move over an area going up and down while moving across (left to right)  Repeat going the opposite way (right to left) Tip: Emboss ALL the Car once then go back to where you started before embossing again, do this for each size of Ball Tool.  It helps to give the Parchment a bit of a rest.  If you are going for a deeper shade of White then give the parchment more of a rest.

Only light shading is required for the Tree at the back of the car. I shaded this by taking a Large and then Medium Ball Tool and small flicks from the curves as in the pic on the left.

Add extra shading to the top of the Wheel Bumpers and the Curve of the roof.  To do this place a Medium Ball Tool on the line at the top and Flick downwards, lifting Tool off at the end of each stroke.

For the Edging to this piece I used a double Line of Dots from the Border Groovie Plate to the size I wanted, then turned my parchment over and Pierced from the Front between the two lines using a two needle tool.  I used Perga Glue to attach to Brown Backing Paper (hidden with a Flat Backed Pearl). Next came a layer of Pure White Backing Paper using double sided Tape. To the back of this I used a Double Sided Sticky Sheet (A6) to attach to the Brown Glitter Card (this helps it stick better) and finally on the back of that Double Sided Tape to attach to my Card Blank.

Using the Snowflake Groovi Plate I embossed, pierced then cut out two snowflakes. Attached them one on top of the other with Perga Glue and added a Flat Backed Pearl to the middle

I did emboss Holly Leaves from the Deer and Holly Groovi Plate onto the Parchment and also embossed and cut out a couple of Holly Leaves at the top left of the Oval.  Unfortunately when it came to placing the Sentiment onto the card it practically covered them up and I didn't want to hide the trees so we will leave this step out.
 
As for the Sentiment, I embossed the letters from the Bunting Groovi Plate on the back of a bit of Parchment. Then from the Front I attached my parchment to a 2 x 4 Grid (this means It is suitable for a Two and a Four Needle Tool).  I then very lightly pressed two rows of dots, framing the letters.  I spaced the holes that I pierced two rows away from the small dots and pierced a rectangle.  I removed the parchment from Grid, turned Parchment over and working on the Back I then did two rows of larger dots using the Dotted Line from the Border Groovi Plate.

I trimmed this with a craft knife then attached the Parchment to a bit of Double Sided Sticky Sheet which I then attached to a slightly larger piece of Glitter Card. Which was then attached to the main picture with double sided Foam Tape.

Phew!  All Done!!

Now for a little extra........

You can stamp the Car directly onto the Parchment if you are not comfortable with the tracing.  To do this firstly Dust your Parchment with Talcum Powder.  Ink up Stamp with Archival Brilliance Moonlight White Ink.  Gently lower stamp into place....I find that the Clarity Stamp handles are the best for this....gently press on the Flat of the Stamp.   Let the ink dry for a while before embossing.

You can also Heat Emboss on Parchment.  It is best to use Detail Embossing Powder as the lines you get with ordinary embossing powder turn out to be quite thick and not as nice.  Dust Parchment with Talcum Powder, Ink up Stamp with Versamark ink and very gently press onto Parchment.  ( I ran out of white detail powder so I will show you a couple of samples of what it looks like with ordinary powder)  You can then go on to emboss between the lines of the lineart.

You will note that there can be a slight warp to the parchment after heat embossing. The solution is to use a Double Sided Sticky Sheet on the back cut to fit the finished piece.

I hope you have enjoyed this step by step and that you have managed to survive to the end. I think you all deserve a nice cup of tea!

Happy Crafting!

Hugs

Emma xx

P.S.  Santa's Car and all the Groovi Plate products including 140 gsm Parchment, can be found at Claritystamp.co.uk.  You can purchase Double Sided Sticky Sheets (A6) from them too.

Parchment Corner Designs

Hi Folks!  This 'little' post from me is aimed at those of you out there that are getting on the Groovi train with Clarity Stamp but are finding a problem with obtaining a photo corner punch to help with mounting your parchment pieces.

I have a few simple corner finishes that may help so I will get right to it!

You can click on any picture to see more detail

DIAGONAL CUT CORNER

Tape parchment to cutting mat, border aligned to the lines on mat. Draw a diagonal line in white pencil, use a ruler and craft knife to cut.  

You can if you wish cut a double line for your backing paper to slot through or stay with a single cut 

DIAGONAL PIERCED CORNERS

Note the placement of needle when piercing subsequent  holes

As above, draw diagonal line with white pencil then move to a Piercing Mat and with a Two Needle Tool pierce along the line. If you have a GRID then you can use this to pierce through (it does help space the holes evenly)

Use Parchment Scissors to cut the parchment.  Place Scissors into two holes, twist scissors slightly towards you and then cut...you will hear the snip.  continue this until all holes are cut.  (Note scissors are pointing away from corner).  When cutting for the double line first cut as for the single line then turn work around and cut facing the corner.

 

SNOWFLAKE CORNER

Emboss Snowflake on back of Parchment. Turn over and once again Pierce with a Two Needle Tool on a Piercing Mat.

Use Parchment Scissors to cut between the holes as before. Then slip in your backing paper.

SCALLOPED CORNERS

These next corners can be used with TWO pieces of Parchment, One for your main image and the other would be your backing sheet.

Using Groovi Border Plate emboss the scallop (you can emboss it the other way round too)  Turn over and as before Pierce on a mat then cut with Parchment Scissors.  Take note of the positioning of the scissors. (this is solely to get your 'points' in the right direction).  You can colour the center of the scallop or leave it plain.

PIERCED SCALLOPED CORNER

Using the Border Groovi Plate Emboss the Scallop as before.  Turn over and fix to Grid.  The one I use is a 2 in 4 (I can use a 2 needle or a 4 needle tool) Use a two needle to pierce the holes.  If you do not have a grid then you can colour or emboss another design into the corner before you go on to piercing and cutting.

Once again using the Two Needle Tool, pierce along the Scallop as in photo then cut along with Parchment Scissors.

Once you have finished and slipped in your backing sheet, you can then use a bit of glue or tape to attach your design to a Card Blank without them showing through.

I hope that these may be of help to you

Happy Crafting

Hugs 

Emma xx