Well, it’s me, Susan (susiestampalot), and I’m back with another fascinating tip/tutorial.  Today I’m going to share something that may seem to some as mudane, but I tell ya’ll, when I heard this snazzy little tip from a friend, I had never thought of this method before!  It’s a unique way to make those swell fishtail banners that are all the rage.

As always, we have an idea of what we are going to be using.  My favorite little “robin” from the Winter Fun Robin set will be joining us today.  Right now, he’s naked, but I am going to be coloring him red with a sickly green tummy here shortly.  (I wish I had made his belly ivory or something.  Not a happy with the green, but I was too far into it to start over, in my book!)

If you’re into yoga, you’ll know this phrase, “find your center”.  Do exactly that at the bottom of where you want your “flag-end” or fishtail.  You can measure and get all precise on me or just eyeball it with your “special eye”.  Make a cut vertically however deep you’d like the fishtail angle to be.

Here’s the result of the first cut.

I made dotted lines on the paper strip, just for ya’ll to see where I’m cutting.  At this point (no pun intended), all you do is cut from the corners to where you ended the first vertical cut.

Here’s a little look at what kind of difference this could possibly make.  If nine times out of ten your fishtails look like the one on the right and you have to end up fixing it a bunch to even it out, this method is for you.  Your welcome.

Here’s the Cliff Notes version.  

Well howdy there, YNS fans!  It’s me, Susan (susiestampalot) and it’s time for another monthly installment of my SUSIE-Q FUN TIP!  This month, I’m expanding on how I make “grounding” using my Copic markers for some of my stamped images.  Ya’ll can’t leave them floating around in space, now can you?  It just gives your focal point more of a “setting” and completes the image.

Now, just so ya’ll know, I’m no expert in Copic coloring.  I just do what I do’s.  I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to get the job done for creating “ground” out there, but this is just the way I do it, using C1, C3, C5, and my Blender.  However, if you wanted it to be dirt or grass or Mars, you’d use a series of browns, greens or whatever color Mars is to make this work for you.

Today, the cutie patootie stamp set, Joyful Apple Basket is helping me out and modeling for us.  I bet if ya’ll leave a comment at the end of this post, telling us how much you love it and what else ya’ll would like me to feature here, Karen will give one away!  Just sayin’.  Let’s get started…

1.  I actually usually color my image in first, but for the sake of this tutorial, just pretend the apple basket is colored.  First you’ll want to decide where the ground should be.  In this case, I wanted the leaves to be sitting on the ground along with the basket, so I brought it up a little high.  I usually always make my image be a tad lower than my ground lines.  Then start by drawing a line where the ground starts and coloring in a “base coat” both with C1.  The base coat should just kind of make a “cloud” underneath your image, how ever big you want and leaving the edges of your cloud light (as in don’t go over this part a bunch.)

2.  Using the C3, draw over the ground line and add some shadow under objects where a shadow would be.  Blend this with the C1, being careful not to take the C1 all the way to the edges of your cloud so that your base coat is “one layered”.

3.  Use C5 and draw over the ground line again and add some more shadows  where desired to intensify.  Blend with the C3 carefully and close to the C5 only.  In other words, don’t go really far out into your C1 area when blending this step.  I call it “tight blending”.  See how it looks roughly blended still?

4.  Now go back with the C1 and blend, still keeping away from the original layer near the bottom and side edges of your cloud.  Be sure at this time to slightly blend the C1 all the way up to the top edge of the ground and into the darkest shadows over your C5.  (Don’t be scared going into the dark shadows, it’s not Halloween yet.)

5.  See number 4 and blend it really well.

6.  Lastly, use your Blender (0) to feather out the bottom and side edges of your cloud to almost white, using a circular motion.  Don’t touch your C5 areas, or it will take the color away.  It’s ok to use the Blender on your lighter shaded areas until you get the desired look.  This will also make your dark areas seem darker.  I think I went over this with my Blender 3 times.  Let it dry a bit between each time you go over it.  The blender sometimes keeps working until it’s dry, and you’ll be sorry if it takes out too much color all at once after all that work.

   

Well, it’s already time for another YNS Fun SUSIE Q-TIP post from me, Susan (susiestampalot).   I came up with the idea for this month’s post right after and on the same day I posted last month’s tip/tutorial and I just couldn’t wait to put this together and show ya’ll what I came up with for this month! (making sure it worked in real life as I had imagined it in my head first of course!)   I have always loved how Jen, in one of her blog posts, had used the wings from the Dress Up Fhiona die set to make a flower.  It inspired this creation.  Can you guess what dies I used from Your Next Stamp in a non-traditional way and what I made with them? 

If you guessed the Balloon Trio Dies to make that gorgeous flower, you are RIGHT!!  You win, so go have a cookie and come back so I can show ya’ll what I did…

Ok, so are you ready?  Wipe the crumbs off your face and let’s roll…

Here’s what you’ll need, plus some adhesive.  I used my ATG gun.  The circle punches I used on the white were the 1 3/8″ for the base of the flower, and a 1″ for the flower center.  The quilling tool won’t be used to quill, but to just bend the petals around the stick part, so it could be a pen or something similar if you wish and the button can be substituted for any type of flower center ya’ll want to use.  A big ol’ piece of bling would be fun!

NOTE that you only use the longer oval and oblong balloon dies.  The circular balloon gets to sit this one out.

First, using the balloon dies, cut out 8 of each of the two balloon shapes (for a total of 16) and cut the tails off.  If you would like more dimension to your new “petals”, slightly bend all of them around the stick part of your quilling tool on the opposite end from where the tail was.  I bent mine up a little, but down is ok too, for a different look.

Punch out a large circle with your circle punch (I used 1 3/8″).  Using it as a base, adhere 4 of the long oval “petals” to the center of the circle at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions. 

For the second layer, adhere the other 4 long oval petals on top of the first layer, in between each of the already adhered petals from the first layer.  (It kind of makes an “X”.)

Using the smaller, oblong balloons, start a third layer, again in the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions.  The smaller petals should be adhered so that it is more of an “inside”, shorter layer and their ends shouldn’t be “even” with the ends of the previous 2 layers.  It’s ok if you need to overlap them in the center a bit to make this happen. 

Then adhere the last 4 petals in the same way as you did on the second layer, creating a sort of “X” with the 4th layer of petals.  Punch a circle (I used the 1″ punch) from whatever colored cardstock to highlight your flower center.  Attach the flower center of choice.  (Button with twine here.)

Now comes the REALLY FUN part–using your new handmade flower embellishment that no one will realize you made with BALLOON DIES on a project!

I chose to create a cute gift box using a Milk Carton file I downloaded and cut out with my Cricut.  I cut a couple of 1×12″ strips of yellow DP, wrapped them from the bottom to the top and adhered them with Scor-Tape to create a band and flag-ended the top.  I stamped the sentiment using the Happiness set.  The leaves were stamped with the brand new Sunflower set by Ann Ellis and then cut out.