A Quick Recovery

Using stripes instead of swirls on the feathers would have made for better contrast – I seem to have a penchant for putting ornate feathers against too-busy backgrounds . . .

But I love them both so much that it's hard to choose!  What's a girl gonna do?

Cardstock:   American Crafts Textured White, Generic Dark Green,

                           Floral Wallpaper Sample

Stamps:        Stampin’ Up “Wishing you a quick and speedy recovery”,

                           Impression Obsession Swirl Background

Inks:               Marvy Marker Gold, Distress Brushed Corduroy

Emb Powder:   Ranger Detail Metallic Gold

Dies:              Stampendous Labels 23, Grand Labels 23, Impression

                           Obsession Feather Set, My Favorite Things

                           Sentiment Strips

Doo Dads:    Tulip Hot Fix Nail Heads Gold

Thank You

Here I am again, having ever more fun with Bister Wood Stains from I Brake For Stamps HERE   . . .

The method is so simple:  dip a small soft brush into the Bister jar and tap the powders onto watercolor paper, holding the brush about two inches above the paper.  I tapped the colors in rows for this card, but random areas look wonderful also.  Let the stray grains fall where they may as this makes for a nice soft blend.  Repeat with as many colors as you wish (Bister has eight so far – I hope they add Orange and Purple to their line).

Then mist with your water sprayer until the colors begin to move.  Some areas will not fully hydrate which is great as this provides wonderful texture with a bonus:  color variations with brown and black specks in the mix.  Gorgeous!

This product is fantastic and I hope you give it a try!

Cardstock:   Bazzill Raven, Generic Watercolor paper

Stamps:        Hero Button Mums, Purple Onion “Thank you”

Inks:               Bister Wood Stains Mahogany, Red, Yellow, Green, Blue,

                           ColorBox Sepia Black, Black                             

Emb Powder:   Judikins Detail Black

Dies:              Mama Elephant Femme Frames, Impression Obsession Flags

Doo Dads:    American Crafts Yellow Jute, Tulip Hot Fix jewels

Young At Heart

My baby brother turns a significant 70 in two days and I thought this card would certainly suit the occasion . . .

Has anyone used Copics on watercolor paper before?  I hadn't, until this card.  After heat embossing the image, I went work with my Copics and didn't have a lick of trouble with color spreading beyond the image outlines.  A colorist I'm not, but the small amount of blending I wanted to do worked very well on this paper.  So I'll be using it again!

Cardstock:   Bazzill Leapfrog, Generic textured Sky Blue, Strathmore

                           #90 Watercolor paper

Stamps:        Art Impressions Golden Oldies Golfers,  Creative Vision

                           Young at Heart set

Inks:               ColorBox Black, Distress Peeled Paint

Emb Powder:   Judikins Detail Black

Dies:              DieNamics Notebook Edge, Sweet ‘n Sassy Fence and

                          Grass Border, Simon Says Stitched Slopes and Hills,

                           Fiskars punches Clouds

Markers:     Copic C1, C4, E00, E33, E57, R05, R17, G24, B21, BV34

Doo Dads:    Glossy Accents (on the eyeglasses)

With Sympathy

Condolence cards are always a bit of a challenge.  Perky is out, simplicity is in.  Although the Clean and Simple style is definitely the way to go, I have trouble coming up with single layer layouts that don't look incomplete.  So I go for texture instead . . .

 While doing some re-arranging of some color sprays and dimensional creams in my stash, I came across Plaid's Liquid Chalk and decided it was calling my name!  After dabbing it on randomly, I sprinkled on some silver embossing powder and then heated it.  The result was embossing that was more raised and textural than usual.

The frame on this card is too narrow to show the results clearly, but I'll soon be doing larger pieces – such as backgrounds – with this technique.  The Liquid Chalk stays wet long enough to hold the embossing powder secure while it is being heated;  I think that if you work quickly, you can get much the same results with Gesso.  I'll try it out and share my results with you!

Cardstock:   Bazzill Parakeet, Generic Watercolor paper

Stamps:        Endless Creations “With Sympathy”

Inks:               Stamp Zia Sprays Obsidian, Sun, VersaMark,

                           ColorBox Dragonfly Black

Emb Powder:   B’Muse Sterling Silver, Vippies Transcendence

Dies:              DieNamics Chalkboard Frame Builder, Simon Says

                           Fresh Daisies

Doo Dads:    Plaid Liquid Chalk White

It's Your Day

Except for the card base, all of the papers used for this card were scraps from a recent project shown here on an earlier post . . .

I so enjoy using up scraps and pretty leftovers . . . not only does it avoid wasting perfectly good materials, but sometimes it's an interesting challenge to figure out how to make the best use of oddly-shaped leftovers.  The French dictionary page background on this one was in two pieces with a rectangle cut smack dab out of the middle.  After some trimming, the halves were glued together.  Even if I read French – which I don't – it would take a pretty sharp eye to see that the text doesn't really read coherently across the page.

The dandelion is on another scrap which when matted, covered the rectangle opening nicely.  For the original project, I made a piece that was a little bigger than I needed in case I goofed and had to find a backup. As I had die cut the piece I needed for that card close to the edge, I had enough left over for this card.

"Waste not, want not", said my parents repeatedly . . . they were right!

Cardstock:   Bazzill Purple, Strathmore 90# watercolor paper, Generic

                           French Dictionary pages, Textured White

Stamps:        Hero Dandelion

Inks:               Distress Dusty Concord, Faded Jeans, Stormy Sky,

                           ColorBox Frost White

Emb Powder:   Judikins Opaque White

Dies:              Simon Says Sketchy Banners

Doo Dads:    American Crafts Jute Blue, Tulip Hot Fix Nail Heads Silver

It's Your Day!

This card is going to a European friend who likes things on the ornate side, so I was happy to comply . . .

I was very pleased with the way the feathers came out – however, the card is so busy that they are hard to see, even though I lightened them up a bit.  Perhaps feathers should be a stand-alone feature on my next card. 

The background on this one was done with very small blobs of gesso squeezed onto an acrylic block.  After setting the block down on the cardstock, I lifted it straight up which produced some lovely feathery edges along with some texture.  More gesso in my future for sure!

Cardstock:   Bazzill Purple, Strathmore 90# watercolor paper, Generic

                           Purple

Stamps:        Stampin’ Up “It’s your day!”

Inks:               Distress Dusty Concord, Faded Jeans, Lindy’s Stamp Gang

                           Magicals: Pop Rock Purple, Tilt A Wheel Teal, Galaxy

                           Marker Milky Way White

Emb Powder:   Ranger UTEE Gold, Stampendous Shabby White

Dies:              Dee’s Distinctively Lattice 2, Spellbinders Fleur de Lis

                           Squares, Impression Obsession Feather Set

Doo Dads:    Gesso, Past Time Stamps Adirondack Snow

Asian Butterfly

The fun continues with Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals line of powdered dye inks.  These are gorgeous dye inks that have been dried into powder form.  The background on this one used two of them . . .

After smearing on some Distress inks and a yellow Gelato, I wet the cardstock and immediately used a small dry brush to pick up a little of the powder and tap it on.  Patterns form and you can leave them this way or brush them around to distribute the color.  The color intensity can be light or saturated, depending on how much water you use.  You can brush the water on first, or you can spray mist afterwards.  Either way, you'll probably never have a failure with these lovely powders!

Cardstock:   Generic Dark Brown, Orange, Paper Cut Watercolor paper

Stamps:        Local King Chinese Flowers 2, Hero Chinese Newspaper

                           Wordprint, Jim Stephan “Butterfly”, Asian Stamp Craft

                           “Long Life”

Inks:               Distress Forest Moss, Wild Honey, Black Soot, Gelato Banana,

                           Lindy’s Stamp Gang Pineapple Paradise, Orange Creamsicle,

                           Hero Black, Gelly Roll White pen

Emb Powder:   WOW Clear Matte Dull

Dies:              Local King Chinese Flowers 2 Detail, Memory Box butterfly

                           Isabella, Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Squares

Emb Folder: Darice Basket Weave Background          

Doo Dads:    Chinese coin, pine needles

Just Saying Thanks

Many of you long-time stampers are no strangers to Ellen Gordon of Evolving Images. Now retired, she was the designer of many clever and time-saving stamping tools, in addition to a line of stamps.  My favorite tools were her Layering Templates.  These were sets of graduated clear acrylic pieces in basic shapes that were sized for A2 cards.  Using these took all of the guesswork and tedious measuring out of making frames as well as layers.  You simply laid out your stamped piece or cardstock of choice, topped it with a template, and cut around it with your craft knife.  Instant perfection!  You could also sponge around any of the shapes for soft framing.

The background on today's card was cut out with one of her templates . . .

By more than ten years, Ellen also beat the current stencil mania – and then some – when she designed beautiful sets of stamps, and provided stencils to match.  Always one to go for the extra touch, her stencil sets included the cutout pieces as well as the mortises.  This allowed you to stamp the images, cover them with the punch-out, and sponge in your background.  Or you could surround the image with the mortise and sponge in just the image.  Both methods were used on this card which uses two of her leaf sets.

Ellen's clever ideas made designing and card-creating easier for thousands of happy  stampers and her input is very much missed.  Happy Retirement, Ellen!

 Cardstock:   Bazzill White, Cougar Opaque Cover White

Stamps:        Evolving Images Leaf Sets #42 & #43, Simon Says Tilted

                           Banner Sayings

Inks:               Hero Black, ColorBox Black, Distress Dusty Concord,

                           Aged Mahogany, Fired Brick, Black Soot, Weathered Wood,

                           Stormy Sky

Marker:          Copic W3 Warm Gray #3

Emb Powder:  Judikins Detail Black, Stampendous Shabby White

Dies:              Simon Says Tilted Banners

Stencil:          Evolving Images Leaf Sets #42 & #43

Doo Dads:    Perfect Pearl Mist Silver