Can you believe that it is already the last day of the year? I know I can't! It seems that December and blogging don't work for me–only one blog post in December so I thought I better get another one in before 2015!
Anyway, I decided to round up my ten favorite cards to share with you. Click on each photo to be taken to the original article.
Enjoy and Happy New Year! See you in 2015.
I realized yesterday that I had a LOT of crafting to do in a very short time, the least of which was to create a card for my mother's birthday this week.
Luckily, I knew exactly what I wanted to use–the Corner Garden stamp. I had a brief play with it this week but nothing that was card worthy. However, I did find a technique done with the stamp that I thought would be perfect for my mother's card.
I started by cutting and scoring a Whisper White card base. I did not yet fold the card but I needed the score line so I could tell where the fold would be. I used a large post it note to mask off the back of the card so it would not get inked.
Because this stamp is large, I turned it on its back; after inking it up with Versamark I carefully placed my card front down onto the stamp and placed scrap paper over top to allow me to smooth over the entire surface of the stamp. I then heat embossed it with Whisper White embossing powder.
I used my Blendabilities to color in all the flowers and foliage. Because the spaces are so tiny, I did not worry about blending with the markers; I simply colored with them, like coloring in a coloring book, making sure I had scrap paper below my card stock.
As I colored, I realized that what was to be my card front would show the marks of the markers on the inside of the card. Due to this, I decided to create an inner card of Bermuda Bay which I adhered to the card base when it was completely colored and dry.
The next step in the technique was to fussy cut around the flowers where there was a large white space on the card.
Fussy cutting is definitely not for the faint of heart! You need to have a very good pair of sharp scissors (this is where my Stampin' Up! paper snips came in handy) a LOT of patience and a LOT of time.
Actually, I think that the term fussy cutting is a misnomer; the technique should really be called, Cutting Out Something That Was Never Meant To Be Cut Out!
Of course, I knew going in that this would be labor intensive and somewhat frustrating but I persevered, even using my favorite tool, the Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife, to finish up the most difficult bits. I highly recommend this tool. The knife fits comfortably over your index finger, allowing you to wield it comfortably.
When I finished, I needed to add a few bits of glue to adhere the little bits of the front to the Bermuda Bay interior card. I was quite pleased with the results!
I then added the sentiment and a daisy-like flower from the Flower Patch stamp set to the inside of the card where it could be seen in the cut out area. These were both heat embossed with Whisper White.
I used a glue dot to adhere a bow made from the now retired Pumpkin Pie 1/8" ribbon (why do they retire this stuff?).
The finishing touch was to use the medium marker from the Mambo Melon Blendabilities to color a rhinestone for the centre of the flower.
My goal for this year is to show my customers many ways to use a stamp set so that they get the most value for their money. At our stamping class last Friday, we worked with the Flower Patch stamps and matching framelits.
To showcase the stamps, I set up a display showing how the framelits could be utilized in home decor and entertaining. I created napkin rings with a matching box for storage and showed them in action with a place setting!
I was totally inspired by Nance Lempinen-Leedy, a fellow demonstrator, in her combination of Kinda Eclectic and the Starburst Framelits. She designed this little box for the display board at Convention. Isn't it darling?
There is nothing I love better than sitting down with my iPad and browsing on Pinterest. It is a wonderful resource, especially if you search for specific stamp sets. One of my favorite searches is for the Flower Patch stamps. There are so many variations!
However, I have yet to see any cards done with gray and black using the Flower Patch stamps. That's what I decided to try today, and I added in a pop of red and green for interest.
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