Koren Wiskman : Pear Blossom Press Power Pack Hop

Hello everyone.

Today is a special day because we are hopping along with another Pear Blossom Press Power Pack Hop. We are inspiring you to light up someone’s life with a handmade card today using one of Pear Blossom Press’s awesome power packs. This pack comes with everything you need to create a light up card.

Each Pear Blossom Press Power Pack comes with a battery and switch, a roll of copper tape, and lights. Depending on which pack you purchase the quantity of these items change. It also comes with instructions on how to use these products. Everything you need to make your card light up is included. You just need to add the card.

To shop Pear Blossom Press Power Pack Kits (CLICK HERE!)

I’m using some Heffy Doodle supplies to create a light up galaxy card to tell someone happy birthday, maybe a little late. I created space because I knew that I wanted to use the “I spaced on your birthday” sentiment. If you press the raised embossed lettering of the sentiment the stars light up the galaxy.

I started with a piece of Neenah 110 lb. Solar White Cardstock cut to 4 3/4 by 3 1/4. This is different than my normal card panel to make the moon fit a little nicer in the foreground. I used my Picket Fence Studios Blender Brushes to ink blend a galaxy background. I love creating galaxy backgrounds. Space has intensely vibrant colors and just about any combination would make a great galaxy.

Today my galaxy was inspired by a nebula that I saw on one of NASA’s Instagram feeds. Looking back on it, I wish I had used more blue. The colors I used to create this background were all Distress Oxide. I used Black Soot, Hickory Smoke, Stormy Sky (which got lost, in my opinion), Dusty Concord, and Shaded Lilac.

I also placed the background into my Splat Box and used Gansai Tambi Starry Nights Watercolor in #904. I added a little bit of water to it and scooped a little up with my Zen Royal & Langnickle Round #2 brush and placed it onto and acrylic block. I removed the excess and then lightly tapped the end of my brush onto the side of the acrylic block. This leaves droplets of paint in the sky that look like stars.

I concentrated the majority of the ink blending on the top portion of the background panel, leaving the bottom white. I knew that I wanted to create a moon to fill this area.

To do that, I took a piece of Stampin’ Up!’s Basic Gray cardstock and the Heffy Doodle You’re Weird Die Set. I used the die that coordinates with the moon image in it’s coordinating stamp set. I used it to align the top of a piece of the gray cardstock as to cut the top of it in the shape of the moon but leave the bottom long to have room for a sentiment. This piece was cut to match the size of the background on the sides but I trimmed the bottom by eye.

To help define the moon’s shape, I stamped it’s coordinating stamp using a stamp positioner. I stamped it with Nuvo Clear Mark Embossing Ink and I used Wow! Black Puff Embossing Powder to do the embossing. I heated it with my Wagner heat tool and left it to cool before stamping the sentiment below it. This embossing powder is so neat. When you heat it up it expands and creates a texture where its used.

To stamp the sentiment, I put it back into my stamp posistioner and lined up the sentiment knowing that I wanted to leave room for the word Die above it. I stamped the first and last line of this three lined sentiment with Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink and heat embossed it using Hero Arts Clear Embossing Powder. Then I stamped the center of the sentiment with the clear embossing ink and used the same Black Puff Embossing Powder by Wow! But this time I added a little extra powder to really intensify the puff effect but still making sure you can still read the word “spaced”. I think it looks neat.

Before I could attach the moon panel onto the background I wanted to enhance the background a little more by using the Heffy Doodle Stargazer Backdrop Die to cut stars into the ink blended panel. After running that through my Spellbinders Platinum Die Cutting Machine. I was ready to start putting my card together.

To bring in the lights, I used the new Pear Blossom Press Power Pack kit. This kit takes the guess work out of lighting up your cards. They have an easy to use design, without the need to “create” or “build” a switch out of a battery and cardstock. Pear Blossom Press really makes it easy to give your craft something extra with a simple design and simple instructions.

I began by determining my light and switch locations, and then ran the copper tape in a manner that kept it hidden from my Die-cut Background, but still managed to hit all of the necessary lugs on the lights and power pack. And of course, I overcomplicated the heck out of this thing. I wanted the lighting to really shine down onto that beautiful reflective underlayment, so I ran my tape and lights on the underside of my background thinking that it would make things super bright... as it turns out, I shouldn’t have, because you can see the copper tape through the card stock. It is either a result of the super bright foil (which I guess, I was trying for?), or me just not realizing that the cardstock would be so translucent... or maybe both. Either way, I don’t think I would suggest running things in this manner... just follow the directions on this one folks!!

I added Craft Perfect Foam squares to the back of the front panel in order to pop it up onto the Tonic Studios Craft Perfect Holographic Mirror Cardstock. This is foiled Cardstock is one of my favorite new products to play with. I loved the look of this so much that I cut the “sorry” from the Heffy Doodle Heffy Cuts word Die collection to make a Holographic sorry above the sentiment. To make the word die a little more dimensional I added layers of both white and dark gray cardstock. This is not well represented in the photos but if you look at the word die from the side, you can see white and gray stripes layered beneath it using Nuvo Deluxe liquid adhesive. I also used that same liquid adhesive to mount it to my card panel.

All of these components were placed onto a Simon Says Stamp Fog card base cut to size A2 and scored in a top folding portrait orientation.

I hope that you enjoyed my light up card inspiration. These power packs are sold both individually and in packs of three. I have a small box that I keep all of my light up card components inside of and it helps me stay organized when I go to make a light up card. I also keep a Chibitronics notebook inside of it with tips and notes to help me along the way. Maybe someday I will stop having to refer to my notes. I know that the new switches from Pear Blossom Press make this task so much easier for me.

To visit Pear Blossom Press and to check out the power packs (CLICK HERE!)

This is the last stop on the hop but here is the complete list if you missed anyone.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I hope that I have inspired you to create something today.

Koren