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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

NEW TOYS!!!

Playing with my new goodies from SU!

You know you're a stamper if a pile like this makes you happy! It is so fun to order during Saleabration when you get free stamps with your order! It wasn't quite as much fun to get the labels put onto all of them, but I made myself get-er-done so that I could play with any of them without having to stop to get them ready. I like to cut the labels down a little smaller as I like to have the pictures, but I find the clear stamps stick to my acrylic blocks better if the sticker doesn't go all the way to the edge of the stamp.
 Both my cards were made using the pretty sketch from today's Sketch Challenge at splitcoaststampers.com. Join the fun with  sketch challenge 425

Stamps: Secret Garden, Happiest Birthday Wishes
Paper: Whisper White, Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake,SU dp
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky
Accessories: Honeycomb ef, CB Argyle ef, hemp, sponge, Secret Garden Framelits, Scallop Edgelit, Simply Scored Borders Plate, Stylus, 2 1/2" and 1 3/8" circle punches, Modern Label punch, 5/8"Neutral Brads, dimensionals, Corner Rounder, piercing tool
Techniques: Dry Embossing,, Sponging, Scoring
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Happiest Birthday Wishes
Paper: Whisper White, Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, SU dp
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky
Accessories: Scallop Edgelit, Simply Scored Borders Plate, stylus, 2 1/2" circle punch, sponge, stampamajig, Houndstooth embossing folder, Corner rounder and 1 " square punches, Sponge, Chocolate 1/4" grosgrain ribbon
Techniques: Sponging, Dry Embossing, Scoring

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Two Favorite Techniques




Inlaid/Inset Embossing and Paper Piecing

This is Mary's card that I chose to CASE to honor her as Queen for the Day #152
Here's my card.

I used one of my favorite techniques which happens to look great with graphic designs like circles. You simply punch a bunch of shapes and glue them onto your paper. Then you emboss this in an ef with an all over design-my favorite is the one I used here, square lattice. You end up with a sheet that looks like it has inlaid pieces in it. I cut three strips of dp and used a square punch to notch the ends then tied on a piece of twine. I used my round dies to cut my image circle and framing and also embossed these in the dies. I heat embossed my image onto my Poppy circle then paper pieced in my hot air balloon with polka dot paper like Mary had used to frame hers. I used a marker to fill in my hearts and added some Crystal Effects. I had a little "oops" so I added one punched heart over this. Instead of gems or brads, I punched 3 more circles for my accents.
Punch a bunch of shapes. I chose circles for this card using the same colors that Mary had on her card. I punched some solid shapes and for others I double-punched to make outlines. Choose two punches where one is slightly larger than the other (1/4" and 1/2" or 1/4" and 3/8" etc) and punch the smaller shape first. Then, line up your punch around the space left behind on your piece of paper then punch again.


 I also punch a few with straight edges to put along the sides. After punching just run the shapes over your glue stick and paste them down onto whatever 
size strip/shape you want to use.

Mix up the sizes, colors and solid or outlines all over the strip.

If you end up with pieces that are larger than your strip simply cut the edges off.

Here's the strip before embossing. It looks pretty cool, but you can see the raised edges of the shapes over the strip.

Put your piece into your embossing folder. If you want the raised parts to be toward the back of your strip put in in facing this way. If you want to see the raised areas on your strip put it in with the strip facing the other side of the embossing folder.

Here's what the strip looks like now!

To paper piece the hot air balloon. I stamped it again on a piece of polka dot dp and cut out the part I wanted to piece onto my stamped balloon.

Here's the piece glued in place and some Crystal Effects added on.
Here it is with a punched heart covering my Crystal Effects smear!
Here's what I used to make this card



  Techniques: Inlaid/Inset embossing, Paper Piecing, Embossing
Stamps: SU-Ain't Love Grand
Paper: Whisper White, Ballet Blue, Bordering Blue, Poppy Parade,Kiwi Kiss, dp 
 Accessories: Black embossing powder, crystal effects, Punches: 1", 3/4", 1/2", 1/4" circles, bitty shapes, 1"square, owl (for heart) Nestabilities Circle dies 



















Monday, February 11, 2013

Loving Mixed Media


I am LOVING Mixed Media

A look at how a mixed media panel comes together.

Here's the final product
It all started with a dictionary page that I painted over with a matte white gesso. I actually thought ahead and let it dry overnight.
I embossed my Pleasant Poppies image using Versamark and black detailing powder
I colored using the marker layering technique-first I used Riding Hood Red and Old Olive with some Daffodil Delight in the centers
Next layer was Real Red and Always Artichoke
 +

I used a Sahara Sand marker to shade along the edges     
I painted on some more Gesso around my flowers which pulled in some of the red into the bg (this was a happy accident...I thought I could cover over the red, but the more I tried the more it spread so I ended up going with it and pulling some out in other areas of the panel as well!) 

I cut a post it note mask and used some blue reinkers and water in my mister
I sponged some Island Indigo around the edges as well. I had to cut another piece of black framing as I'd messed up the edges of the first. I scored a Crumb Cake base and embossed my sentiment using Versamark and black ep. I used the layout from susanbri's pretty card
I used my Sahara Sand marker again to add the shading around the flowers again
Here's another look at the final product

SUPPLIES LIST


Stamps: Pleasant Poppies, Wonderful Words
Paper: Crumb Cake, Basic Black, dictionary page
Ink: Versamark, Island Indigo
Accessories: Markers: Real Red, Riding Hood Red, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Sahara Sand, blue reinkers and spritzer, sponge, Matte Gesso, Scoring Board, Black Detail Embossing Powder
Techniques: Marker Layering, Dry Embossing, Embossing, Sponging

Friday, February 1, 2013

Triple Stamping

I CASE'd a card for today's Queen for the Day Challenge on splitcoaststampers that uses a fun technique. Beate does a great job making videos tutorials on the site so it seemed only fitting to do a technique-based card in her honor. Here is Beate's Blue Paris card that I chose to use as the basis for my card. I used a collage stamp from Stampin' Up's Postage Due set. I'll walk you through the process of the triple stamping, but if you want to see a great video tutorial you should check out Joan Ervin's tutorial here with Beate's video included. Here's what my finished card looks like.
To make the triple stamped panel you need to figure out how large your largest piece will be. For the other two panels, you'll cut pieces 1" smaller on each side. Then you'll use a temporary adhesive to layer them together, leaving 1/2" borders all around. Ink up your stamp and stamp onto the layered pieces. Press hard as your layering will make it tougher to get the image even on all the layers. Don't worry about the areas close to the edges that don't get stamped, they'll be covered by your framing.
This is what your stamping will look like on the three layers


I used my Aqua pen dipped in the ink pad lid to add some color

I added white crayon over the top of my colored areas to resist the sponging.
I then sponged with Baja Breeze and Island Indigo

Cut your black framing 1/8" larger on each side than your image pieces. I cut or punch out my middles to save paper to use later, and to cut down on the weight of the card.
The finished product

 Here's What I Used


Stamps: Postage Due, Artistic Etchings by Stampin' Up
Paper: Island Indigo, Whisper White, Watercolor Paper, Black
Ink: Versafine Onyx, Baja Breeze, Island Indigo, Pretty in Pink, Pumpkin Pie, blue reinkers
Accessories: Impressabilites Paisley, Aqua Pen, Sizzix Flourish #10, Black Organdy Ribbon, Button, kite string, sponge, white crayon, Scallop, medium and small oval punches, button, spritzer
Techniques: Crayon Resist, Triple Stamping, Letterpress, Die cutting, Sponging 

 

Here's What I Did

I cut my Whisper White pieces, layered them and stamped the image in Versafine Onyx. I then used my aqua pen and ink pads to add some color to the flower. I used my white crayon over the coloring and around the "3" which ended up covered in the final card. I then sponged with Baja Breeze and Island Indigo. I buffed off my crayon then layered my triple stamped pieces onto black pieces 1/8" larger than the image pieces. I decided not to pop my layers on dimensionals. I loved Beate's die cut bg, but didn't have any similar dies so my background piece is a piece of watercolor paper that I used an Impressabilities template on. I spritzed the paper, with the template in place, with some blue reinkers & water in a spritzer before embossing. I'm using the debossed side here. What would a Beate card be without a flourish (though I didn't have any gem flourishes on hand)? I diecut my flourish from a coffee sleeve. I added a black organdy bow with a heart button and white string. I added a layered sentiment in the corner.