Aloha!

I have to admit I'm not in love with this card, but what a fun technique! I was inspired by a card in the book Magenta Style Paper Magic done in the same technique.

Click photo for more detail

(the stamped green leaves actually match the colored pencil leaves in person)

I started with a piece of black cardstock and stamped various elements from Stampin' Up!'s Tropical Blossoms, using Colorbox Pigment Ink in Frost White. I dried it with a heat tool, and then just colored over the white areas with colored pencils. I used two shades on each element, and then highlighted with a Signo white gel pen. I used the pigment ink to add some swirls in the open spaces, then trimmed the panel into three pieces. I used the same ink to edge each side straight from the foam pad, then adhered them to blue cs.

I stamped the leaves on a piece of white cs using Colorbox Chalk Pastel Lime ink (so sad they didn't match the others in form and no idea if these flowers are even found in Hawaii but I liked the effect with the greeting ;o). I used black Staz-On to stamp the Aloha (no mark on the wood block - it's an ancient stamp I bought years ago) because not all ink stamps well over chalk inks.

Thanks for stopping in - I need to get back to work on the family business now!

Layered Collage Shells

Before I get to the stamping, I just have to say - how awesome are those Olympic athletes?!! I'm not generally a sports fan, or an athlete myself, but I realize how hard they would have had to have worked day in and day out to be where they are right now. I watched the Women's Marathon last night (never planned to do that in my life!) but the scenery of the city was beautiful and I actually cried when the winner circled the track to win. And Michael Phelps - so incredibly happy for him to have reached a seemingly unreachable place, and that his team mates got to contribute!

Okay, on to the card I made...

It took me till almost now to grow attached to the Stampin' Up! 2008 In-Colors LOL but they've finally grown on me!

This card features a technique I came up with and submitted to Pat and it's in the current Technique Junkie newsletter (bowing humbly here LOL ;o). It's called Layered Collage and you really only need 4-5 stamps and 3 ink colors. It's very simple, and gives a complicated collage look for those who feel challenged but want to expand their style.

Click photo for more detail.

This card is quite large at 6" x 6 3/4" because the collage stamp I started with was already a big one.

I started with a Soft Sky cs, and used River Rock to stamp the Background Text - Medium (A Stamp in the Hand). I overstamped the Parisian Shell (Stampington & Company, generously given to me by my stampin' friend Cheri :o) using Groovy Guava. I stamped the shell (an ancient PSX stamp) and starfish (an even more ancient Comotion stamp!) as shown using Blue Bayou. I wanted the shell skeleton to have some added interest so I used my Signo white gel pen to highlight and my rubber-tipped Colour Shaper to shadow with the blue ink. I roughed up the edges with a Tim Holtz distressing tool and layered it to a Blue Bayou cs panel.

I stamped the quote (and by Nature I'm sure he meant God ;o) by Northwoods Rubber Stamps on a River Rock panel in BB ink. I got out my stamp positioner (which I would definitely take with me to a deserted island, were I able to stamp LOL) and stamped the shell and starfish on the bkgd panel as shown. I layered this panel to a True Thyme cs and set aside.

Well, you know how I hate to break down and use designer paper for anything LOL so for the main background, I used a piece of SU's Whisper White cs and ran my GG pad over the whole thing. I marked it up further with some RR ink straight from the pad, and then used a sponge to edge the whole thing lightly with TT.

Enjoy your Sunday - may it be restful :o)

Some scenic brayer work...

I worked on brayering a couple cards late, late last night, and finished the layouts today. They both turned out a bit brighter than they are in real life - they are actually more muted, even with the intense colors.

This one, Twilight Migration, was my first, inspired by the cover photo of a book I just started.

I was hoping for a lighter look, like on the cover, but got a little heavy handed with the brayer LOL I almost always use those airy yellow circle sponges to add lots of color, so thought I'd break out of my pattern temporarily and give brayering a go. Inspired by Michelle Zindorf lately, as is every one on the planet apparently LOL and with good reason! And scenic stamping was my first love when I was just getting started so it's nice to make a little return trip :o)


I learned a lot of what not to do with this card LOL, so here are some tips for you, and for me to remember next time:

• start with a nice brayered layer of lighter ink than you want to end up with, to add the darker ones to (if you try to put dark ink on plain white cs it will get splotchy, like putting foundation on a dry face - goes on much smoother with a neutral base like lotion)
• after inking up the brayer, I ran the end edges across a dry scrubby pad to take the hard edge off when applying color to cs ( I'm not such a pro yet that I can do it otherwise
• clean the brayer thouroughly if you are switching color families or you can end up with muddy versions of ink colors

Alright, I wish I had gotten more ink on the wheat before embossing. I would have liked them not to be so stark white. The first ones turned out fine, but then I stamped off on the paper a couple times for lighter ones but apparently there was no color left on the rubber, just Versamark. So, my lessoned learned: more color is better than less! I brayered over this in Stampin' Up!'s Apricot Appeal, Creamy Caramel, More Mustard, and sponged on some brown at the bottom. Talk about everything but the kitchen sink - I must've used 8 colors on this card!

I covered this area with a Post-It and brayered on some light blue over the whole sky area. I added Perfect Plum to the horizon line, and two more shades of blue to the sky, masking a moon area after the first darker shade went on. I wasn't originally going to add the moon and geese, but when I saw where it was all headed I changed my mind. You can see that I ended up with some harsh lines with the last coat so I trimmed a slim panel to detract from this and add some interest.

I used some of the brown ink to stamp some more wheat and I was ready to put it together. Other than the gold brads, the only other addition was to stamp the blue panel with Stampin' Up!'s Sanded background.

This second card is my favorite...

Click photo for detail

I have a thing about waterfowl of any sort, but I particularly love herons. I get insta-happy every time I see one flying over - they are so peaceful and majestic. And watching them patiently wading thru shallow water looking for food - well, I could do that for hours!

I bought this unmounted stamp at the stamp convention this past May (thanks Juli, for pointing me in the right direction!) from the Stamping Sensations booth. I believe it was originally a Bad Axe image that they now own. The grasses are by A Stamp in the Hand.

I used Michelle's method of stamping the image on white cs, coloring him in (I used a combo of Tombow greys and Stampin' Up!'s So Saffron) and then going over him with a Versamark pen so that I could emboss the whole image (using fine detail clear powder), allowing me to stamp and color everything over the heron, which I wanted as my focal point. This way is so much better than the old-days way, where I had to cut a mask for EVERY THING! Those knobby little legs get tough to do that way!!

*tip*

Be sure to swipe your cardstock with an antistatic pad, etc. before embossing because even a few stray specks will be permanantly white, even after brayering.

I brayered the water area with SU's River Rock, and then a blue, adding some more blue and brown with a sponge for dimension and shadowing. I had to extend the water line at the base of my bird image so I used a Micron black pen to do that as I had stamped him in black Staz-On. I also added a few extra squiggles to the bottom area. I stamped the grass at the water line in SU's True Thyme and sponged some black, brown, and blue inks as shown.

*tip*

Don't use Staz-On to stamp over your embossing because it won't wipe off easily. If you forget and use it, you can try removing it with the Staz-On cleaner and a Q-tip.

For the sky, I brayered on SU's So Saffron, More Mustard and Pumpkin Pie, I think. The sky seemed too empty and "large" so I added some antiqued brass brads to the top, and adhered it to an Army green panel. For the base lighter green panel, I used True Thyme to extend the grasses out and then stamped SU's Canvas background in second generation River Rock over all. I pierced the panel around the edges of the smaller panel, and stuck it all together ;o)

Thanks for stopping in - have a great rest of the weekend,

Shimmering Resist Seashells

And here's another card featuring yet another current Technique Junkies newsletter technique called Shimmering Resist. It's the blue panel with flourishes and shells and irl it has a soft pearl shimmer over the entire piece!

Click photo for detail

The shells are from a 4-piece set by Hero Arts and the flourishes are by Autumn Leaves, Swirls V set. The Discover stamp is from the Stampin' Up! set titled Handbill Headlines, and the Cheesecloth background is from SU also.

All the dark blue ink is SU's Buckaroo Blue, edged right from the pad onto the tag and background panel. For the rest of the background panel, I used the BB to stamp the flourishes, a shells-with-labels panel from Stampa Rosa, and then stamped over all with second generation SU's Bliss Blue on a wavy stripe background stamp from All Night Media.

I stamped flourishes on a BB scrap to place behind the word tag, and then mounted this to textured green cs. I used an oval punch for the ribbon holes and then tied some SU blue ribbon onto the green sheer polka dot (from Michael's).

Thanks for checking in!

Bandana Scarecrow

Here's another card featuring the Bandana technique from the current Technique Junkies newsletter. The colors I used in the background were Distress Old Paper and Peeled Paint (and possibly Scattered Straw - can't remember LOL).

I started by stamping the scarecrow (Firecracker Designs by Pamela) on cream cardstock with black Staz-on, adding to the length of the stick a bit, and coloring in with a blender pen and Distress inks. I cut a mask and then stamped the corn stalks behind him, coloring them with the background ink colors.

I roughed up the edges with a Tim Holtz distressing tool, crumpled the panel up, flattened it out and sponged Distress Antique Linen and darker brown around the edges. I layered this to black cardstock, and added some little cs accents to the top by cutting strips of the brown cs, cutting one end into a point and then cutting the tip off. They're attached with black brads going thru the front and back layers of the strips with the main panel in the middle.

The tag is cream cs stamped with the phrase and edged with Antique Linen, then layered to green and black cs. I put a black eyelet thru the hole before tying the Stampin' Up! ribbon thru.

So the panels are just adhered to the background piece, which is layered to black and then brown cs. And it's done! Now, who's ready for fall???! :o)

Bandana Dog

Here's another fabulously user-friendly technique from the new Technique Junkies newsletter! It's called Bandana, and the results are striking every time. The feel of the piece changes so much depending on the stamp images and colors used.

Click photo for more detail

Card measures 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"

I had the background made and waiting around for a good use, and had also been meaning to try making a bandana for this dog in particular (from my Rare Image Rubber Stamps sheet on the sidebar). When I saw last week's SplitCoastStampers layout, it all came together in my mind. PLUS, I had just picked up a pack of this greenish khaki paper at a garage sale and was itching to try it out (very close to Stampin' Up!'s River Rock, with a bit less green).

I stamped the dog on the white panel, masked it with a Post-It, then masked the sky area, and sponged SU's River Rock over the grassy area, darkening shadows, etc. with a colored pencil. I reversed the sky mask to cover the grass, and sponged SU's Soft Sky over all, and then SU's Blue Bayou over the right side.

I laid a piece of see thru paper over the dog, traced a line where I wanted a bandana to go, and laying the paper over a scrap of my Bandana background cardstock, trimmed it and adhered it as shown. I used a little blueish grey marker to shadow his legs, then layered the main panel to black, and then to Blue Bayou.

On the background panel I stamped SU's Scratched bkgd in River Rock, then sponged the edges with same. I cut my triangles from the Bandana bkgd cardstock, layered them onto black and adhered as shown, adding the phrase (Kolette Hall, from Michael's 1$ bin) in black Staz-On, and the brads. I adhered this panel to a black cardfront.

*tip*

Anytime I need triangles, I measure a square, cut it on the diagonal, and perfect edges every time! To do layering, just add another 1/4" or more to the size of the original square for the next layer's square.

Thanks for stopping by! :o)

Tres Pears

Here's another card featuring a background technique from the current Technique Junkies newsletter called Pearlized Gesso. The crosshatch pattern is shimmery in real life (what looks like yellow is actually gole) and yet is subtle enough not to scream "BLIIIING!!" The card is actually more muted in person.

For the main image panel, I inked the pear stamp (Hampton Art Stamps) with mustard ink, then rocked just the edges in the green pad to get a graduated tone. I inked the stem with the brown ink, and stamped the center pear on Stampin' Up!'s cream cardstock. I then masked this by stamping the pear on a Post-It, trimming closely, and placing over the stamped pear. I stamped the pear two more times, one on each side, before removing the mask. I stamped a mesh texture (All Night Media) in brown ink along the bottom, and over stamped this with the Pears text stamp (A Stamp in the Hand).

I sponged the bottom edge with the brown ink, and the top with the mustard. I layered the main image panel to dark brown, then over an openwork green woven fiber ribbon that was wrapped around the background panel. The photo tabs are antiqued gold, and the ribbon is tied with thin linen cord.

Thanks for looking!

Thank you, and a card!

Thanks to any of you who wrote, or thought of us, or kept us in your prayers since Stripey's passing away - it has helped more than you know and we appreciate it so much. Chevy is doing well - his exuberant personality has helped and the other cats are good at distracting him (I mean, he is easily distracted LOL) Yes, we can actually laugh again here :o)

Here's a close-up of my favorite technique from the current Technique Junkies newsletter and also my favorite card that I made for the issue. I'll be posting some more close-ups this week... Also, go see Pat's blog for more!

Card measures 6" x 5 1/4"

I used Distress Broken China, Faded Jeans, and Weathered Wood, and I love how they blended together. The flourishy stamps are Autumn Leaves, the phrase is Time to Stamp/I Brake for Stamps, the sand dollar is DeNami, and the starfish is from an older Close to My Heart shells set. The Cuttlebug folder is D'vine Swirls.

Thanks for stopping by, and stay tuned for more!