Category Archives: Cards

LABEL MAGIC!

We have a lovely label die in the Apothecary Accents Framelets collection that is a long rectangle with two “bumps” on each end perfect for brads or securing ribbon through holes. It is a bit long for some sentiments, and I found I can get it the perfect length using this technique.:

First I stamp my image and then center it vertically under the die. I shift the die close to the left side of the stamped image and run it through the Big Shot. With the label still in the die, I shift the die to the right side of the image and run it through the Big Shot again. Now I have the perfect length for the sentiment!

Next up: Day 3 – Spooky Spider!

 Until then…Keep Calm and Find Yourself a Rubber Stamp!

 Halloween always brings out the creative juices!  There used to be costumes made from scratch, much partying (and recovery time)…but I digress… that was MANY moons ago and these days, paper, ink and stamps satisfy my creative muse instead!

I had the opportunity to participate in a card-front swap of stamp sets in our new Holiday Mini catalog.  The stamp set I chose is called “Monster Munchies” and by the time the card came together, I had 4 stamp sets, an embossing folder, 2 sets of framelits, and flotsom from oodles of techniques (some I think I made up!) spread across my stampin’ table!  If you’d like to follow along with the process, I’ve broken it up into several posts – this was a looooong process!

Starting with the spider web layer, ink the spider web embossing folder with versamark ink, but only on the raised side.  After running this through the Big Shot, cover the paper with clear embossing powder, and gently brush off all the excess powder from the raised surface, leaving the powder in the spider web cavities.  Melt with the heat gun.  Spray with Silver Foil Smooch Spritz.   (Smooch always creates an amazing effect – and the silver is impressive!)  The embossing powder acts as a resist, and remains shiny and white against the silver background.

Next up: Day 2 – creating the label…

Until then…Keep Calm and Find Yourself a Rubber Stamp!

I needed a “manly” card for a thank you, and was inspired by this:

The “thanks” sentiment and the silver icicles are die cuts, and the embossing folder is Sizzix, but not one exclusive to Stampin’ Up.

To replicate the fir trees, I punched the cardboard layer included in Designer Series Paper Packs with the Petite Penants Builder Punch, cutting 9 triangles.  I “snailed” 3 triangle shapes layering 2, 3 and 4 triangles and used a bit of snail to glue them to a Big Shot plate as shown here.  I placed a crumb cake layer over the “trees” and rolled it through.  My own exclusive embossing plate!!!  after spritzing with log cabin and gold smooch and snipping silver glimmer paper and into a strip of icicles, I ended up with this:

I am not really sure the triangles “read” as trees, so I added some twine to the big shot plate for tree trucks:

Another try at embossing:

This looks better!  Check back tomorrow for the final product!

Until then…Keep Calm and Find Yourself a Rubber Stamp!

 Baby needs more Smooch Spritz!

I am smitten by the effects of using not just one Smooch color but overlapping 2 or even 3 colors.  The gold smooch adds the most amazing effects to the other colors and your card! 

Believe it or not, the base color for this embosssed layer is crumb cake!  I embossed with Manhattan Flower, then smooched Blushing Bride, then Gold, and dried it with the embossing gun.  It is difficult to photograph the glitzy appearance the gold adds. 

I used red and magenta Stampin’ Up watercolor pencils in the shadow areas of each rose, and followed with lighter shades of each color.  Then I used a damp paintbrush to soften and blend the colors. 

The Rich Razzleberry satin ribbon is actually retired, but I liked it better than any of the current ribbons, so on it went!  I added a trinket key (so cute) with some twine, and cut the smallest Label Framelit from white shimmer paper.  I really like the simple loop of the ribbon rather than a full bow – just enough to be elegant and no bow-tieing challenge!

More Smooch adventures on the way….

so until next time… Keep Calm and Find Yourself a Rubber Stamp!

I confess, I love to surf the ‘net!  I get tons of inspiration from OPB (Other Peoples’ Blogs) 😉  Probably the most fun is seeing if I can recreate a design, technique or whatever catches my eye with Stampin’ Up products.  In this case, I think it came out BETTER than any of the samples that I saw out there in bloggerland.

In the samples that I saw, they used a stamping product that was a dense foam with the foam on one side and then a fabric of some kind covering the foam on the other side.  This “fabric” side is the “business” side of the “stamp”, kind of like a scrubbie has a sponge side and an abrasive side.  Taking a leap from my most recent card-venture, the bleach technique, I thought, why not a paper towel pad again?  Soooo, folding up my towel, I started the process.

First you ink up your stamp with Black Staz-On ink (you don’t want a water-based image that will bleed into the colors that follow).  Stamp the black image onto the paper pad.  Then it is reinker time!  I used no less than 11 reinkers: 5 shades of green for the leaves, 2 shades of brown for the stems, 4 shades of pink for the flowers.  Here’s the fun part!  just squeeze the reinker over the area that you want colored.  It doesn’t even have to be precise!  In fact, there is no way you can keep your ink from spreading out anyway as you can see from the photo here. 

The magic happens when you ink your stamp from this paper stamp pad! The shading is really life-like!

What I did not expect (DUH!) is the texture from the paper towel.  It is interesting in a graphics kind of way and thought provoking (as in “how did you do that???”).  You could experiment with different surfaces such as gauze, tissue paper, or a finely woven cotton, either AS a stamping pad or on TOP of your paper pad.   (ed. –  or several layers of felt.)

The serendipity with this project was the sweet pattern from Attic Boutique Designer Series Paper (2012 Occasions Mini Catalog).  The colors were PERFECT! 

So find one of your stamps that lends itself to multiple ink colors and try this technique!  You should be able to get at least 2 stampings from the “pad”, and even add more ink as it dries out. 

 Until next time…Keep Calm and Find Yourself a Rubber Stamp!