Embossed layout

I was going to do a step by step tutorial for the emerging color card that I posted yesterday. I know I have clear embossing powder somewhere but with the move it doesn't seem to have made it into my new stamping room, or maybe it's burried somewhere. . .

So, today I'll post another embossing project we did at a class a few months ago. The first step is to stamp the large flowers in versa mark and emboss with white embossing powder. Actually, since it is on white paper you could use clear embossing powder. After it was embossed I stamped the foliage across the layout and rubbed the ink off the embossed area with a paper towel. This stamp set is called Inspired By Nature and is still available but on the dormant list.

I lightly drew a pencil line where I was going to place the Tempting Turquoise strips of cardstock so I would know where to stop sponging. I used a stamping sponge to apply Appricot Appeal, Tempting Turquoise and Certainly Celery ink around the flower to help it stand out on the page.

I used the same 3 colors of ink to stamp the Seeing Spots stamp set on the other side of the pencil line. Who needs patterned paper???? This layout is totally cardstock, no patterned paper at all.

I stamped the title "My Favoites" with the Short Order alphabet set and clipped it on with the ever so cute Mini Library Clips. I had a list of possible favorites printed out on white cardstock that class members could choose to journal about after punching them out with the Word Window Punch. The list of favorites included: Food, Movie, Snack, Book, Game, Vacation, Music, Time of Day, Holiday, Color, Celebrity, and TV Show. Adhere them to cardstock mats that coordinate with the rest of the layout and journal about yourself. I even had a picture that was taken last March at the Relief Society birthday party that really matched the colors of the layout that I used. The buttercups (that's what most people in TN call daffodils) were in pint canning bottles and I made the little fringed drawstring purses to cover the jars.

Now I need to go order clear embossing powder.

This is another project we did at the meeting. It uses a technique called "emerging color". Mine didn't turn out quite like it should because by the time I got to the table where they were making it, embossing powder had gotten all over everything but you can kind of get the idea. It is definitely a technique I will try again and try to post a better example. For once I took a decent picture of a project and you can see the detail I'd rather you couldn't see!

To do it you stamp several times with different colors, this one I used Brilliant Blue and Not Quite Navy. Then I stamped a solid stamp (the leafy white one) with Versa Mark and embossed the card with clear embossing powder. After that I brayered Brilliant Blue all over the card, I put it on pretty thick so it covers everything real well. When I wiped off the card the part where I embossed and the colors I had stamped on before embossing and brayering show through. It is a pretty cool technique that I need to experiment with again real soon!

We have a crop at church the last Thursday of every month that we call Memory Preservation Day. Maybe I can remember everything I need to practice the emerging color technique there tomorrow.

*brayer

*clear embossing powder

*embossing gun

*solid stamp with several smaller stamps that coordinate

*ink

*versa mark pad

*white cardstock

I wonder if that is everything. . .

Here is one of the projects we made at our buisness meeting last Saturday. I thought I would post a few Valentine's projects this week so you would have time to get them made before the big day.

This is an accordian folded card.
Cut the base: 4 ¼ X 11, Back card part : 3 ¾ X 4 ½
Score base at the following dimensions:
1 3/8, 2 ½, 4 3/8, 6, 8 ¼.

Accordion fold and decorate.

It is much easier than it appears and it looks great sitting on your loved one's desk! LMK if you have any questions about it.

I'm sorry it took me so long to announce the winner. I didn't get on the computer all day yesterday because we don't have internet at the new house yet. And the winner is . . . Ashley!

Carolyn had it right too but Ashley posted first. I did the top one on the left. I really like the top middle one too. It is made with one of the new dies that Stampin' Up carries. I really want the die but it is too big to fit in my Zippe Mate die cutting machine. I guess I need to get the Big Shot so I can cut that die out! I've seen so many cute ideas using it.

I'll get your ink pad out to you Monday morning Ashley. Congratulations!

I need to post a picture today so here is a cute picture of my youngest grandbaby. It was in honor of her turning 1 year old. I may be a bit partial but I think she is georgous! (blue frosting and all)

Card Swaps

Last Saturday I went to a business meeting in Nashville. As you can imagine, a Stampin’ Up! Business meeting gets the “business” part over as quickly as possible and moves on to stamping! I’ll take pictures with my sad little camera to show you tomorrow but for today, some of the cards I got in the swap. Many of you have been involved in swaps, stampers and scrapbookers use pretty much any get together as an excuse to do a swap! There were about 15 people who participated. Here is a picture of 6 of the cards from the swap, can you guess which one is mine? The first one to respond with the correct answer will win a Night of Navy inkpad and a set of 5 handmade cards. How well do you know my style???

Pictures for sledding story

Here are a couple of pictures that can go with yesterday's post. The kids are my brothers and sisters and I (I'm the one on the back row on the right) This was taken around the time we would have been having fun sledding down the hill on the car hood. I'm not sure the make and model of the car we got the hood from but it is simular to the picture posted here. There was not problem getting all 6 of us on it!

I know it isn't as cold here as it is in other parts of the U.S. but anyway you look at it, 3 nights and 2 days below freezing isn't great on the toes. Mine are like popsicles! I noticed some ice around a pond I drove by today and was reminded of when I was a kid.

When it snowed and the pond froze over there was no school which made us all happy (maybe not Mom so much) and we bundled up as warm as we could to head out to play. My brothers had found an old car in the woods that had been abandoned long ago so they took the hood off of it and flipped it upside down and there was room for all 6 of us on there. I don't know what the model was but it was one that had the curved front so we aimed the curve down the hill and we zipped down it in our makeshift sled which would spin around and around once we reached the iced over pond. It was great!

When we had played until we were too cold to stay out any longer we would head back into the warm kitchen. Mom would run tepid water for us to warm up our hands with. I so wanted it to be good, hot water but Mom knew that wouldn't be good on our frozen little fingers. I guess I need to go find some tepid water for my toes. . .

Friendship card

This card uses Very Vanilla as the base, mounted on Regal Rose cardstock. I sponged Certainly Celery ink around the edge of the base, stamped some swirls at the top and punched the corners with the ticket corner punch. I also punched the other layers with this punch for a coordinated, fun look. The tabs on either side are the Word Window punch, I punched out 2 Very Vanilla and 2 of the blue designer paper and layered them and tucked the ends under the card front.

I stamped the flower in Regal Rose ink and cut it out, placed a Stampin' Dimentional under the center and put a brad through it to attach. The dimentional sets the flower off from the card for a great look. To make this a friendship card I stamped a sentiment under the flower that says "Your friendship makes my heart HAPPY." Wouldn't one of your friends love to get a friendship card in the mail on a cold wintery day?

Heritage Layout

Here is a layout I did using the Embrace Life set. I stamped the title with the Outline Alphabet set and stamped the leafy stamp from Embrace Life around the edges and sponged it like I explained in the pink Embrace Life card a few days ago. I stamped a couple of Bashful Blue flowers here and there around the title block also.

I stamped the leafy stamp in the spaces between the Certainly Celery strips of cardstock on Very Vanilla cardstock. It was a quick and easy background. I matted the photos on Certainly Celery and Bashful Blue cardstock and tied gingham ribbon around the title and one of the flower embellishments. I colored the flowers using a bit of ink from the lid of my stamp pads and a blender pen.

Happy Sunday!

We had great meetings at church today. It is so good to go to church every Sunday and get refilled for the week. In Primary Christina (my 4 yo granddaughter) gave a talk. She was so sweet and gave a very nice talk. You could tell she had worked on it throughout the week and needed very little help from her mom. It is amazing for me to see how quickly my grandchildren are growing up and how smart they are. This is a picture of my little Christina playing in the leaves.

The title "1st Christmas" is a little long but I used all the insides of the tags I punched out of the middle of the tag when making the flowers. I used silver paper for the bottom layer of each tag. BTW, if you Xyron the paper before punching the tags it makes it so much easier to make the flower instead of having to put adhesive on the backs of aaallllll those skinny pieces.

Now for a layout!

This is the Christmas layout we did at our stamp club class. The flash glared a little on the silver paper I used in the border along the left side of the right page but I think you can see it well enough to tell it is made from squares (cut to 1 3/4 inch squares) that are punched with the scallop border punch in the middle of each one. It is perfect to thread a strip of cardstock or ribbon through to make a nice accent for a page or card.

The poinsettia on the left page is tricky but easy once you catch on to how it is done. It is amazingly done with the tag punches! I can't claim the idea as my own, you can find a tutorial here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/tag_punch_star/

I used plain vellum behind my punches but if you look at the splitcoast gallery you will find lots of ideas for paper to use and even using punches besides tags to get a different effect.
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?si=tag+punch+flower&x=15&y=12

I love going to Splitcoast Stampers, they have tons of great ideas and tutorials to show you how to do so many different techinques. If you haven't scrapbooked all of your Christmas pictures yet, give the tag punch poinsettias and the border idea a try.

Embrace Life card

I've been trying to figure out a way to get better pictures of my cards and layouts to post on my blog. It isn't going too well but I used my SLR camera for this card. I took a whole roll of film of cards and layouts and took them to the developer and told them I only wanted a cd, no prints. They are better than my digital camera's pictures but the editing program isn't the greatest.

I love the Embrace Life set! It is very versatile and I've used it in a variety of ways. On this card I stamped the flowers in grey ink and colored them with Pretty in Pink ink with a blending pen. I then masked the flowers to stamp the leaves in grey ink and colored them in with Certainly Celery markers. Then I added pink leaves around the edges of the card using Pretty in Pink ink. After stamping the leaves I sponged with the same pink ink over the leaves to soften them. It may not show up well in the picture but it makes a great effect on the edges of the card.

The black sets the pink off beautifully. I matted both the stamped image and the whole card front with black cardstock and put black ribbon under the stamped image with a simple knot on the right side. I finished it off with the sentiment stamp from the set. It was a quick card to make and I think it has a great impact. I hope you enjoy it too.

A Card to start filling the tin . . .

This is a quick and easy card. It uses the white/Tempting Turquise/Lovely Lilac color combination in my cardstock. I used the Priceless set and the French Flair background stamp stamped with Taken With Teal ink. The French Flair stamp is discontinued which is a shame because I loved the swirly background on my cards. The thing I didn't like about it was the birds. On this card I solved that problem by using the butterfly stamp and the "So Kind" from the Priceless set(Also in Taken With Teal) to cover the birds. I punched them out with the oval and circle punches and inked the edges with Taken With Teal ink.

I like to add layers to my cards, they just don't seem finished to me without a layer or two. Most cards also seem to need some kind of 3-D embellishment on them and a bit of ribbon. This card has a lenth of ribbon at the bottom with a buckle on one side. I think this is a nice little card to send to someone you need to tell how thankful you are for something they did for you.

My First Post!

I've been thinking about starting a blog for several months now. I didn't actually make a new year's resolution to start it but Jan 1st is as good a day as any, right?? I hesitate because I'm sure I'll be sketchy with my posts. I plan to post at least once a week, maybe twice but we will see.

Since I sell Stampin' Up stamps most of my posts will be stamped projects. My passion is scrapbooking but I love to make cards too. Today I'll post a picture of a card tin I made. It is a white Provo Craft lunchbox that I covered with patterened paper and stamped images and tied lots of ribbon to the handle. It has dividers inside to sort cards by type. These are fun to make and handy to have around. Now I just have to convince my husband it is ok to use a card from the box instead of buying a card at the store!

The paper I used is a discontinued designer paper. I measured and cut it and decopouged it to the lunchbox. I stamped the letters on Very Vanilla cardstock and cut them out and inked the edges before adhering them to the lunchbox.

Now that we have a place to put our cards, I'll post a card in a few days to begin filling it.