Merry Making Class - Take Two

During last week's Online Card Class "Merry Making", Gina K of Gina K Designs taught a class on using non-holiday stamps to create Holiday Cards.  I've done something similar to this before but this was a unique spin and is my other favorite technique from this class (see this post for another). All the techniques have been wonderful and I still have many I want to make, but this particular one really appealed to me for the variety of styles and colors you can achieve.  I have made quite a few of this style already but I wanted to do a blog post for this.  I'll have another post for this technique that will go live on Wednesday Morning for The Card Concept where I am a Design Team member.

Today's post is for a challenge I want to participate in; the CASology Challenge. If you are new to card making, CAS means Clean and Simple which translates to limited layers, lots of white space, etc.  This is about as clean as I ever get because I stamped directly on my panel of Stamper's Select White rather than stamping and die cutting multiple pieces to create a bouquet or arrangement.  Sometimes I want to do something more complex but I also like my share of clean designs and this one fills the bill.

Gina showed us how to take an ordinary stamp and create something with a holiday feel using just the one simple image.  I made a few of these the other day using the leaves from Gran's Garden and I loved them but because of the size of the leaves, it was hard to curve the stamp around to fit around my circle or oval.  I had ordered an Altenew set that I was waiting on and it arrived yesterday so as soon as I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for this technique. The stamp I am using is the smaller of the leafy branches found in Layered Laurels from Altenew.  I'm not using any of the additional layers at all.  The stamp is already curved so I just chose a circle die that was a correct size to fit the shape of the stamp.

I traced my circle die onto a card front panel placing it more toward the top of the panel.  Then using the leafy sprig with Ripe Avocado Ink, I stamped with an acrylic block following the pencil line. This was about 3.5 times to get the full circle so I did a second set which gave me a fuller looking wreath and helped tie in that extra half stem. It was so simple and a great way to use other stamp sets that I already have depending on the look I want.  In this case I just wanted a simple wreath with lots of berries. I looked to the Papertrey Ink Mistletoe & Holly Stamp Set (NLA) to stamp the berries in Pure Poppy Ink. That set has a little group of three berries together and a single berry as well.  In the end, I covered up the berries with some Liquid Pearls and Nuvo Drops, but I still used the stamped berries as my guideline for the placement of those. I almost always embellish in "ODD" numbers (i.e. the challenge theme) you know -- 1 or 3 or 5, etc.  Even the sprig is stamped 7 times to get the full wreath.

The gold heat embossed greeting is from WPLUS9's Christmas Greetings Stamp Set which came out a couple of years ago. It's nice because it's a smaller set with a lower price point and the font is beautiful. Once I had all the stamping done, I spritzed it with some Sheer Gold Shimmer Spritz and let it dry.  Once dry, I die cut the panel as I almost always do using a Stitched Rectangle Die from Simon Says Stamp and cut another one from Gold Foiled Cardstock using the MFT Blueprints 15 Stitched Rectangle Die. I love the narrow accent mat that I get by pairing these two dies. I assembled it all on to a white card base made from Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  I considered adding something below the wreath and even considered a bow from another wreath set but I like the simplicity of this design and plan to use the bow on another wreath card.

Wreaths can pretty much be any occasion you want them to be and can be as rustic or elegant as you like.  You can dress them up with some special embellishments or simply stamp them for a more simple design.

For this card I used the Tonic Nuvo Drops in Gloss Red Berry.  I let those dry overnight and then went back in this morning to add the little highlight with Ranger Liquid Pearls in White Opal. There is a rainbow of colors available in Liquid Pearls or Nuvo Drops. You could use Tonic Ivory Seashell if you have those or even the Nuvo White Gloss Drops for the little accent. I did two other cards using a color of drops called Autumn Red but they dried more of a wine or deep rose color than red.  I like that as well, but these are the colors for the one I'm blogging about here today.  At this point I don't have a preference one way or the other and often still use my supply of Stickles Glitter Glue as well because I have several colors on hand.  Right now, my Christmas Red Stickles are a favorite for berries but I also appreciate having a choice. You could also use enamel dots, sequins, little jewels or whatever you have around.  I like the Liquid Pearls, Stickles and Nuvo Drops because they are a bit flatter and easier for mailing than enamel dots.  I love to put little pearls on my cards as well, but the drops are flatter and mail much better.  Just experiment with what you have until you find something that works.  There is not one right or correct way, thank heavens. You could also practice stamping your wreath on scratch paper to get a feel for how many times your sprig needs to be stamped to go around your circle and make adjustments from there. This is a pretty forgiving technique which is why I loved it so much.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I have a few more cards planned with variations on this technique so be sure to check back.  I normally post at least 3 times each week with new projects, so be sure to come back.

Clear & Sheer - Enhancing Vellum

This week I am in a class over at Online Card Classes with Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner called Clear & Sheer.  Lots of new-to-me ideas are being taught by some of my favorite designers, but it was Jennifer's technique from yesterday morning that caught my attention right away and I had to try it. The classes are all about how to use vellum or acetate in your projects and also how to hide the adhesive. This technique uses Dye Based Inks to stain or color vellum.  I love vellum but it is nearly impossible to find colored sheer vellum.  Now I know how to make my own in whatever color or shade I want.

To start this card I took a sheet of Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select Vellum (48#) and cut it in half lengthwise resulting in a sheet that is 4.25 x 11 inches scored at 5.5 inches and two pieces of 4.25 x 5.5 inch Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  This technique will not work with lightweight vellum since the vellum has to be heavy enough to be your front panel and stand on end.

I placed a strip of Post-It Tape across the top aligned with the score line to keep the ink only where I wanted it.  You could use any kind of low tack tape. Honestly, I am not sure it mattered since I hid the part that was above the colored part.  But I did it just to be sure. As you can see, I've used this piece of Post-It tape several times and will continue to do so until it completely loses its tackiness.

Using any kind of dye based ink go Direct To Paper (DTP) and swipe the ink pad across the vellum in the color(s) and pattern(s) you want.  Then take a dry cloth or paper towel and rub it into the paper. This will remove the excess color and moisture from the paper.  I chose to do an Ombre Pattern on two of the cards I made. For the one on the right, I used 5 different Distress Inks.  For the one pictured just below, I used Seedless Preserves and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks.  Once you get the inks blended how you want, set the vellum aside to finish drying while you create the rest of the pieces.  I also used Papertrey Ink Perfect Match Ink Cubes for another card I made as well as some Simon Says Stamp Inks.  Any die based ink will work but pigment inks do not work.

For the next card, I used a single color (Salty Ocean) on the vellum.  To hide your adhesive, just sandwich the vellum layer between two cardstock layers using any strong double sided dry adhesive. How simple is that?  

For all of these cards, I used Papertrey Ink's Bitty Bouquets Stamps & Dies to stamp the Tulip and Rose bouquets in my MISTI.  I really love how I can double stamp with the MISTI in the exact same spot to get the more vibrant color.  The roses are two steps and the tulips are three steps. The butterflies all came from the new Color Pop Butterflies Kit by Betsy Veldman for Papertrey Ink.  The kit came with several pre-printed images that you can just cut out with the dies included in the kit. There is also a stamp set in the kit but I just used the pre-printed images.  

I die cut all of the hearts from the Little B Hearts Designer Dies in the next to the largest size and cut a fun foam heart to go behind from the next size smaller so it would fit behind without showing which allows for some dimensional adhesive. I attached all of the die cut flowers using Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  The hearts came from the Simon Says Stamp Mini Hearts Die which has three different styles in three different sizes each. And y'all know that I gave everything  some Wink of Stella for that extra shimmer. 

The sentiments came from some older stamp sets by Clearly Besotted and Altenew.  I don't have much that is good for Mother's Day but I wanted to get these done, so I made do.  Since I always write a sentiment of my own inside, these worked just fine. 

The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge this
week is for "Anything Goes" and The Card Concept is a Spring or Floral Theme which I am entering in a Clean & Layered Style.  I hope to be back later in the week with another project or two for some of the other challenges that are going on.  Have a great evening everyone and thanks so much for stopping by.  

Artful Flowers

I sat down this morning to make a card for my sweet Mother-In-Law so that I can continue to "Share Handmade Kindness" in support of Jennifer McGuire Ink's November Challenge. Right now, I have a good supply of watercolor paper on hand and I've been wanting to play with some of my background stamps and my watercolor crayons.  I have the SU! Watercolor Wonder Crayons in Rich Regals, Soft Subtles, Brights and Neutrals.  These aren't available for purchase anymore, but if you want to try out something similar, try some Faber Castell Gelatos. They will be creamier than the water color crayons.

When I took the Watercolor for Cardmakers class, Shari Carroll did a class that used the Gelatos and I've been wanting to try my crayons since then.  I wish now that I had tried them sooner.  I love the watercolor backgrounds that can be achieved and created using background stamps.  I don't have too many of these -- only about five of them that I got at the Scrapbook Convention this year in August. Not all background stamps work for this type of background.  I have one that is stitched lines in leafy swirly patterns and that one did not give a very good effect. Any stamp that has a lot of surface area will work great.

I started out by laying my stamp with the stamping side face up on my work surface.  The particular stamps I have are all Cling Mount Red Rubber Stamps. Simon Says Stamp carries a wide variety of background stamps in their own brand and in many other brands -- 748 of them to be exact.  Next I took a Watercolor Crayon and colored directly on the stamp, trying to make sure that I had colored over every part of it. I have several small spritzer/misting bottles that came from Stampin' Up that I just love.  They are about twice as big as the Ranger Mini Mister and also a bit bigger around so easy for me to handle.  I keep various solutions such as Perfect Pearls mixed in water in mine and I have one that is just plain water.  I have a label maker and I always label whatever solution is in the bottle as I also have one that is Rubbing Alcohol so I wouldn't want to mix them. I misted all over the stamp with my water about a foot above the stamp and let that start activating.  I gave it a few seconds and then put a piece of watercolor card stock on top of that, then my largest acrylic block on top of everything.

My largest block is 5 x 7 as are my background stamps.  By laying my acrylic block on top, I am ensuring that the paper is in contact with the background stamp and the color over the entire surface of my paper.  The very light background in this card was achieved by a third generation stamp with paper to the stamp (vs. stamp to the paper).  The first and second generation stamps were also quite beautiful, but I had already water colored these flowers in anticipation of this card.  I felt that when I put the deeper concentration of color with the flowers it overwhelmed them.  However, I like all the variations of color I got using this technique so as I always do, I will save these experiments to use later. Also, when you lay the acrylic block on the top you don't have to worry about accidentally moving the paper and messing up your stamped image.

The hardest part of this technique for me, is letting everything dry so you can see what you really have.  As always, watercolor looks better once it is dry.  This third generation background didn't look so hot when it was still wet, but I love the end results.  It's there, but you might not notice it on first glance.

I've continued to explore the results of various watercolor mediums we studied in that class, so I had already "painted" my flowers from the Simon Says Stamp Watercolor Friendly Flowers for this card yesterday using Distress Markers, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and Water Color Pencils. I knew that I wanted an arrangement of the flowers in something, so I sat down with my dies and tried to "see" something different than the original purpose, that I could alter to make a container for the flowers.  The pot or container is actually a mixing bowl from some old QuicKutz Revolution Cooking/Baking Dies that I got several years ago.  I cut off approximately the top third of the die to make a shorter container using my Score Pal to put a crease in just the right spot at the base of the bowl and a wider one at the top like many crockery style bowls and containers I've seen in the past.   I water colored it using Pumice Stone and Gathered Twigs Distress Markers.  I put a foam square in the very center of the bowl then gently curved the outside edges with my bone folder so it would appear rounded and put glue dots on the underside all the way around the rest of it.

For the greeting, I stamped the "Thinking of You" sentiment on a 3/4 inch tall piece of watercolor card stock and white heat embossed it using Simon Says Stamp White Embossing Powder.  I used a SU! Pretty In Pink Ink Pad and just swiped it across the banner for some color.  After assembling my card I added a few sequins for just a touch of bling and mounted it all on an Ivory A2 Card Base.

I'll be linking this post over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog in the "Thinking of You category".  Thanks so much for stopping by, today!  I hope you have a great evening and I'll be back soon with another project designed to "Share Handmade Kindness".