Vellum Overlay For Stamp, Ink, Paper

It was opportune that Jennifer McGuire's post showed up in my Inbox this morning. Her video depicting how she created several stunning cards using a vellum overlay technique really grabbed my attention! I decided to attempt the technique for the color challenge over at Stamp, Ink and Paper.

I really like these colors–at least two of them! I think that Bermuda Bay really looks stunning with the Night of Navy. Soft Sky is not my favorite because it is so pale but I was able to include it on my card by using a ribbon.

I decided to use the Rose Wonder stamp set for this technique because I knew that it would look wonderful on the vellum, but for the inner card, I decided to use the Floating Reinker Technique.

I chose a piece of very light watercolor paper (non-Stampin Up) and cut it to a standard card size. The rose image was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with White Stampin' Emboss Powder.

Instead of spraying the image with water as is done in most of the tutorials (they were using Shimmery White paper) I decided to add water with a paintbrush. That way, if I needed to re-wet any sections of the image, I could do so easily.

After wetting the image, I used my Aqua Painter to pick up a little bit of Night of Navy and dabbed it into the various sections of the rose. As soon as the ink touched the water on the rose, it "floated" into the embossed section it had been added to; it didn't float evenly, though, so a nice mottled effect was the result. I repeated this procedure for each section of the rose and then switched to Bermuda Bay reinker for the leaves.

I set the painted image aside to dry, and worked on other things for awhile. Then, I touched up the image with my heat tool to be sure it was totally dry. The paper had warped slightly so I touched it up by ironing it, between scrap paper and covered with an old pillowslip, using a low temperature.

Next, after determining the size of vellum for my outer card, I cut, scored, and folded it. I placed the inner card into place and set it into my MISTI. There I placed the rose stamp over the vellum, lining it up with the image showing through from beneath. I stamped it in Versamark and heat embossed it with White Stampin' Emboss powder.

While I had my MISTI out, I also stamped the sentiment from the Picture Perfect stamp set using Jet Black Stazon ink. I let it dry and then made sure it was using the heat tool. I then colored in the sections using the Wink of Stella pen.

Once that was completely dry, I put the painted card on the inside and attached the two with a length of Soft Sky Seam Binding. The final touch was to add a few rhinestones to the front of the card.

What do you think? Drop me a comment below–I'd love to hear from you!

Flower Pot For Global Design Project

You can't imagine my delight when I saw the color challenge for the Global Design Project #29! The colors were definitely my kind of colors! In fact, I had used these colors previously (minus one) in my post, Shake It Off.

It didn't take long for me to plan my design.

I cut an Early Espresso card base for a 4.75 x 6" card and a matte from an Early Espresso text paper from the Neutrals Backgrounds DSP Stack. After inking the edges with Early Espresso, I adhered the matte to the card base and proceeded to punch flowers from Bermuda Bay using the Pansy Punch as well as flowers from Tangelo Twist using the Petite Petals Punch.

Tangelo Twist polka dot paper from the Brights Backgrounds DSP Stack was used for a flower pot and separate piece for the trim on the pot.

Using a sponge dauber, I inked each flower and used a sponge to ink the flower pot pieces in Early Espresso, applying a bit more shading to the shadow side of the pot.

I assembled the flowers using Multi Medium Matte, adding a Bermuda Bay Candy Dot from the Brights set to each flower.

The trim was adhered to the flower pot using Dimensionals and then a Tangelo Twist Ribbon was tied around the pot. The pot was adhered to the card front using Dimensionals. The flowers were also adhered with Dimensionals.

Using a sentiment from the Gift From The Garden, I stamped with Early Espresso onto a strip of Bermuda Bay. I used the Banner Triple Punch to flag one end. I cut a piece of the Tangelo Twist polka-dotted paper for another banner. It was adhered to the card front with Fast Fuse and the sentiment banner was popped up over it with Dimensionals.

For the inside of the card, I used a matte of the now retired Naturals White card stock. I used one of the stamps from the Petite Petals stamp set to stamp flowers in both Bermuda Bay and Tangelo Twist around three edges of the matte, stamping more than once before reinking for some of the flowers. I adhered a strip of the Early Espresso text DSP to the right side of the matte, after inking the edges, and then inked the remaining edges of the matte. I adhered the matte with Fast Fuse to complete the card.

I chose not to make a shaped flower pot card for this challenge, as I preferred to have the flower pot mounted onto the Early Espresso text DSP. I like the way the card came together!

What do you think? Do you like this color combo? Drop me a comment below!

It's All About The Sparkle

Mojo Monday definitely is living up to its name for me! Did a quick review of the various Monday challenges and fell in love with this sketch.

I knew just what I wanted to do with it, other than picking the designer paper and deciding which card stock to use for the base and which for the matte. I also tried several different ribbon choices until I felt I had the best one. The card came together quickly after these decisions.

I started with a Lost Lagoon card base of 5 x 7." I cut a matte from Smoky Slate and a piece of All Is Calm Designer paper (love that stuff!).

I used the On Film framelits to cut a polaroid frame from Silver Glimmer paper. I also cut a 3/4" strip and a snowflake from the Glimmer paper. The snowflake is from the Snowflake Card Thinlits Dies, a beautiful set of framelits.

Because I found the frame and snowflake to be so flimsy, I also cut two snowflakes and two frames from Kraft card stock. I glued the two duplicate Kraft die cuts together and then glued the Glimmer paper die cuts on top. In retrospect, I should have cut the duplicates from Smoky Slate card stock instead of Kraft; because you could see some of the edge of the Kraft, I had to color it using a Smoky Slate Blendabilities marker.

I colored the frame using the darkest Coastal Cabana Blendabilities. I love how you can easily change the color of the Glimmer paper by using the Blendabilities and you still get that great glittery effect!

Look at that wonderful sparkle!

I adhered the both Designer paper and the frame to the Smoky Gray matte. I then added the strip of Glimmer paper layered with first Lost Lagoon Ribbon and finally by Silver 1/8" Ribbon. I then adhered the matte to the card front.

I dropped a smattering of All Is Calm silver sequins within the polaroid frame, being sure I had an odd number. I find that dropping sequins from a height above the paper surface gives me a good random pattern, better than what I could come up with myself! I snapped a picture with my camera just to be on the safe side, and then adhered the sequins with a bit of Crystal Effects.

I adhered the snowflake and then added a rhinestone which I had colored with the Coastal Cabana Blendabilities marker.

I chose the sentiment from the Good Greetings Hostess stamp set. I inked it first with Versamark and then Bermuda Bay before stamping it on the bottom left of the matte. I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I find that the new stamp pads dry too quickly to emboss well so I use a layer of Versamark and then the regular ink so that the stamped image catches more of the embossing powder.

The final touch was to add two small rhinestones on either side of the sentiment.

I just love all the sparkles on this card–the frame, the snowflake, the sequins, the ribbon and the rhinestones bracketing the sentiment! Hope you like it too!

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Frivolous Frippery

Once I get rolling, it's hard to stop! I'm submitting a card to the Can You Case It card challenge #44–a color challenge. It was hard to resist since one of the colors was Blackberry Bliss!

I was excited about the colors and it didn't take me long to decide what I wanted to create. I decided on a gate fold design.

I cut a standard card base from Mossy Meadow but scored instead at 2 1/8" from each side. I cut panels to fit on each gate from Blackberry Bliss. I embossed these using the now retired Ornate Swirls embossing folder and then dabbed them with the now retired Frost White Shimmer Paint, using a sponge dauber. When they were dry I adhered them to the gates of the card base.

I used the now retired Dress Up Framelits to cut a dress form from Gold Foil and a dress from Very Vanilla card stock. I also cut the top part of the dress from Mossy Meadow and embossed it using the Fancy Fan embossing folder. I then adhered the Mossy Meadow top to the dress and the dress to the dress form. I wrapped a Mossy Meadow ribbon around the waist of the dress.

I used the now retired Vanilla Flower Trim to create the skirt of the dress, adhering it with Crystal Effects.

I adhered a piece of Gold Satin Ribbon around the card and trimmed it where the gates met. I followed this by adhering Gold 1/8" Ribbon on top of the Gold Satin Ribbon.

I used Dimensionals to pop up the Dress Form but only removed adhesive from one side. It was centred over the card front and adhered to one gate. This was done to allow the gate to open and to keep the Dress Form popped up evenly on both sides.

I stamped the sentiment from the Good Greetings Hostess set with Versamark and heat embossed it with Gold embossing powder. I used the Modern Label punch to cut it from Very Vanilla card stock. I inked the edges with Mossy Meadow.

The label was popped up with Dimensionals over the centre of the card base, using adhesive only on the side opposite to that of the Dress Form.

To complete the card, I adhered pearls to create a necklace on the Dress Form.

My card is a fait accompli!

Close up details.

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Stampin' Up! Giveaway and Fab Friday Challenge

Project Life fans and those who should be fans will want to enter the contest that Stampin' Up! is hosting. Simply click the image below to enter and have a chance at winning either your choice of Card & coordinating Accessory Pack or the grand prize of every current Project Life by Stampin' Up! product available!

WOW!

Don't miss your chance–register to win before November 30 by clicking the image below.



Other than the above announcement, it was kind of a dreary day today. It only got worse as the day went on . . . rain, wind . . . the dogs didn't even want to venture outside!

To stoke my creative juices, I opted for the color challenge at the Fab Friday Stampin Challenge blog.

Small wonder, right? Blackberry Bliss was on the menu! (Have I mentioned that is my FAVORITE color?)

I gathered some scraps of each color and played around to see which I would use for the card base, which would be accent colors, etc. I also decided to use the now retired Sunflower stamp which lent itself nicely to stamping with all three of the colors.

Because the Sunflower is a HUGE stamp, I turned it on its back to ink it. I used a sponge daubers to ink the outer petals with Crushed Curry, the ring around the flower centre with Cajun Craze, and finally the centre with Blackberry Bliss.

I decided that the Crushed Curry petals might need a bit more life to them so I used the Thumping Technique. This technique requires you to ink up a stamp normally and then use a darker color of one or more Stampin Write Markers to tap on the stamp (sort of like beating with a drumstick on a drum) using the painting tip of the marker. Finally, I huffed (technical term) on the stamp to refresh the applied ink.

I left the stamp on its back and carefully laid Whisper White card stock on top of it and then a sheet of scrap paper. This allowed me to smooth all over the surface of the stamp without inking up my hand on the exposed bits of it. I use this procedure for all large and/or background stamps.

The resulting print was quite to my liking and the thumping produced some interesting flecks in the petals.

I proceeded to cut the flower in half with my Stampin Trimmer and then fussy cut one of the halves.

I intended to mount the flower on the edge of a Cajun Craze matte but decided to add a strip of Designer Paper from the Color Me Autumn paper pack. That added additional interest to the design but I still needed more.

Out came the burlap ribbon but it looked too pristine so I cut off the sewn edges and removed some short strands to fray it out a bit. That helped. I layered the sunflower half on top of it and followed that with Blackberry Bliss ribbon. Better but still needed a bit more something.

I chose to distress the Cajun Craze matte by using Cajun Craze ink with the Gorgeous Grunge stamps. Much better! I added the Blackberry Bliss sentiment from the Kinda Eclectic stamp. but something still wasn't quite right.

I dug around in my embellishments drawer and twirled my Stack & Store Caddy till I found my Essential Wooden Elements. I chose a circle with a starburst edge and four chevrons.

I used my Stampin Write markers to color the wooden pieces. In coloring the starburst with Blackberry Bliss I inked up myself rather well. This ink then transferred itself to the chevrons when I colored them with Crushed Curry. I decided that it gave them a good grungy feel, in keeping with the style of the card. (Some mistakes actually turn out for the better!)

Because I wanted the embellishments to be held firmly, I used Crystal Effects to adhere them on top of the ribbon. They were the crowning touch to my card!

Here's a close up so you can see more details of the burlap.

I think my card has a shabby chic style to it, don't you?

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Autumn Thank You

The past few days it seems that I've been alternating between a parka and a fall-weight coat. Accordingly, I have been creating both Christmas and fall cards!

Today I created a card which allows me to enter it into two different card challenges.

Over at the Paper Craft Crew blog, they posted a sketch challenge today; at Stampin Up Only Challenges, the #109 challenge was a theme: "Thanks" or "Thanksgiving."

Because I wanted to use a particular color scheme, I focused on finding that first. I had pinned this color combo about a week ago:

I love the contrast between these colors!

Once I knew my colors, it was simply a matter of deciding which color would go where. In the end, I stayed pretty true to the sketch and color scheme I had selected, with the exception of some Mossy Meadow on the pumpkins and the addition of Whisper White and the neutral tone of the Burlap Ribbon.

I used Tangelo Twist for the card base with a matte of Blackberry Bliss which I embossed with the now retired Vine Street Embossing Folder.

I mounted a piece of Back To Black Designer Paper on Basic Black card stock and adhered it to the embossed matte. Over that I ran a piece of Burlap Ribbon topped by the skinny Basic Black ribbon, complete with a bow.

The pumpkins were stamped with Tangelo Twist and the stems colored in with a Mossy Meadow Stampin Write Marker. I used the framelits to cut out the pumpkins and then popped them up with Dimensionals.

I used two different banner framelits–one from the Banners Framelits themselves and one from the Snowflake Card Thinlits Dies–for the sentiment. The sentiment was from the Lots Of Thanks stamp set, stamped in Blackberry Bliss.

To complete the card, I added three Candy Dots. Though they were Pumpkin Pie in color, they blended nicely with the Tangelo Twist.

What blogs host your favorite card challenges? Let me know in the Comments below!

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My First Card Challenge

Sometimes it really is worth staying up into the wee hours of the night!

After sorting out my Stampin' Up! order tonight and writing Thank You cards, I decided to have a look at a couple of card challenges. Earlier, my daughter had come over after her job training was done for the day. I got her doing some research on card challenges for me.

One of the sites, Pals Paper Arts, had a challenge ending at noon on Tuesday. I thought that would be a pretty tight deadline to meet since I had to work at 12:30 that day so I went looking elsewhere.

But I kept returning to the sketch that they had posted; it was unique and attention grabbing.



I thought I'd give it one quick try before heading to bed.

Because I really didn't have an idea in mind other than the sketch, I searched online for a bit for some color inspiration. I didn't really find anything so instead I searched through my stash of designer papers.

I knew I had found my muse when I got to the pack of Color Me Autumn. A beautiful pattern of fall leaves printed in Blackberry Bliss jumped out at me; I knew I could always count on Blackberry Bliss!

As simple as that, the wheels started turning. I grabbed some Blackberry Bliss card stock, some Silver Glimmer paper and some Bigz dies that I had received in my order just today. I was off to the races!

A little ink here, a die cut there, add a few Dimensionals and WOW! I knew Blackberry Bliss would never steer me wrong!

 


Now, if I can just post this to the challenge correctly, I'll be laughing! Keep your fingers crossed for me–the results will be in on Wednesday, October 29.
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