Chalkboard with Stamped Floral Wreath

I love trying new techniques and this one was introduced to me by Jennifer McGuire.

On kraft cardstock, I stamped the floral wreath with white pigment ink. Then I stamped over the white images with dye ink. Then I combined that technique with another from Jennifer, to add another colour of ink over the original stamping, to accent each flower and leaf. After stamping the first time with coloured ink, you ink up your stamp with the accent (darker or brighter)colour then remove some ink with a cloth. In this case, I removed about half the ink leaving the center inked. Then stamp over your original stamping, carefully lining everything up. That leaves the centers a bit brighter/darker. Click to enlarge the photo as it’s hard to see.

I added the sentiment with black EP and carefully trimmed around it. I added a few little random dots to make the wreath look more filled in and added it to a simple card.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: SSS
Ink: versamark white ink, various hero arts and PTI inks
Paper: kraft CS-PTI, DP-MME (I think)
Accessories: pearls-Dollarama, foam dots-The Sticky Stuff Store, Divine Twine

Sending You Buckets of Love for Unscripted Sketches

Isn’t this the greatest sentiment? Perfect to give to someone who knows they will be facing a difficult situation sometime soon.

This card really needs to be seen larger for best effect. Feel free to click on it to enlarge it. It’s hard to see the circle right under ‘buckets’ as it’s white with blue lines on it and the glitter and the rhinestones at the top. I call it a bling strip and it’s worth noting because I’m going to tell you the steps needed to make one!

When I looked at this sketch I was kind of intimidated. I wanted to do something out of the box, not just line up some strips of papers or cardstock or use striped paper. Nothing wrong with that approach, I just wasn’t feeling it. So I decided to swap out the long skinny rectangles for circles. Much better! But still too boring so I decided they wouldn’t sit in a straight line, I’d decorate a few and raise a few up on foam. The peach one has glossy accents on it.

So, for the Bling Strip Technique, lay down super strong adhesive tape where ever you would like your bling to be. Be sure it is straight (mine isn’t quite but I couldn't fix it without ruining my card) and use a tape with no colour for white cardstock and white glitter. I’ve only found Scor-Tape to have no colour, red-line tape which I used here did have a bit of a yellow colour. Remove the liner and add various sizes of rhinestones. Start the largest ones making sure you add them randomly both in horizontal and vertical placement.

You’ll notice some of mine are off the edge of the adhesive, this is OK as long as not more than half of the rhinestone if off the edge. Next place your next size; no more than half the medium stones should be near the large ones. Next place your second to smallest size. These ones I started to buddy up to the larger ones. But not all of them. Don’t forget to place some off the edge and some by themselves or in doubles together. Last place the smallest stones. Don’t place these too far off the edge as not much will be left to stick! These can also buddy up to remaining lone stones but still leave some larger stones by themselves and place some smaller stones alone too. They are good fillers for empty spots but don’t feel the need to fill ever spot evenly either.

When that’s done, press down the stones with the back of your fingernail. It contains less oils than your fingertips and won’t squish down between the stones as easily either. Next fill in the remaining adhesive space with glitter. I recommend finer particles unless your rhinestones are pretty chunky. Standard fine glitter is OK or micro glitter.

I’m looking forward to seeing your take on this sketch this week! Are you going for the traditional shape but gonna wow us with your colour combo or embellies? Ombre was the first thing that came to my mind… or something out of the box? Whatever it is, just go for it! Be sure to come back next week, I have a WAY out of the next idea for you I hope you will love! See you over at the Unscripted Sketches  blog this week!!

RECIPE
Stamps: SSS
Ink: Archival Black
Paper: white CS-PTI, DP-Studio Calico, vellum-scrap
Accessories: rhinestones-TE, yellow brad-American Crafts, circle die-Nesties, red line tape (not recommended). foam tape-Jody Morrow

Snowflake Crocheted Bead Wreath Tag

I’m a bit bummed about the photo of the wreath on this tag; it’s so pretty IRL and so hard to see in the photo!

I would have made the crocheted strand much longer so the final wreath would be thicker but I ran out of time. Maybe if the background was solid it may have stood out better, in fact I'm pretty sure it would have, my bad.

It’s actually really easy to make, you thread your beads on thin wire, 26 gauge or thinner. Keep your wire on the spool, don’t pre-cut it. Then just start chain crocheting it. Every so many stitches, you have to decide what look you want (one bead every stitch, every second, third…), you slide a bead along and stitch it in. Easy Peasy! I wrapped mine twice but I think I should have wrapped it at least 4 times to make it more dense and stand out from the background more.

For the background, I used Sharon Harnist’s double embossing technique. You can find her tutorial at the Classroom as part of the 12 tags of Christmas. I started by using glitter embossing powder but I overheated it so I embossed over it with clear embossing powder. Then I used two blues, one was more turquoise-ish, and E77 to airbrush the background. Removing the colour from the embossing was the fun part; it is quite dramatic!

I’m also going to enter this in the Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge 62 to create anything!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Thanks All Ways-PTI (on back)
Ink: Teal Zeal-Memento (on back)
Paper: white CS-PTI, chocolate CS-SU!
Accessories: craft wire-Michaels, beads, lace, crochet hook-stash, metallic string, embossing folder-Cuttlebug, 1/2” hole punch-SU!, small hole punch-WRMK Cropadile, Hero Arts ultrafine embossing powder, iridescent ice embossing powder-SU!, Copic airbrush system

Ghost Stamping Flowers Card

I hosted a new swap on Swap-Bot for ghost stamping as shown by Jennifer McGuire a while back. I love the look but struggled to find the right stamps at first.

First I tried using the tree from the giving thanks set. Not such a good look. I think it best suits backgrounds and single images. It looked weird when I tried to create a scene with it. So I redid that card, I’ll post it soon, and started this one since I still needed a ghost stamped card for the swap. I’m really happy with how it turned out. It’s rare that I make a one layer card but I could make a ton of these happily! Maybe I should make a set and keep them as a hostess gift! I like making some small things and keeping them on hand as gifts.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Giving Thanks
Ink: Hero Arts pale tomato, cup o joe , lemon tart, summer sunrise-PTI, white-Versamagic
Paper: kraft-PTI
Accessories: rhinestones-Dollarama, Zva Creative, Y35 Copic

Mixed Media Hot Air Balloon Tag

I made this for a technique swap I hosted; use the wrinkle-free distress technique.

Then I stamped three different stamps over it, a scroll stamp, harlequin and a postal mark stamp. Then I added a the hot air balloon sponged in the same inks and a few embellishments. I’m happy to report I made this a while ago so my partner has received it and quite liked it!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Paper: white tag-stash, ivory CS-PTI
Ink: concord, peeled paint, scattered straw distress inks, Archival black
Stamps: Tim Holtz, Studio Calico
Accessories: rhinestones-Dollarama, filmstrip ribbon, pin-Tim Holtz, ribbon and tulle-stash

Friendship Canvas–My First Try at Mixed Media!

I’ve been inspired by many bloggers I follow who have been getting into mixed media art lately. After all, many of us already use quite a few different media in our work so it isn’t that big of a leap to venture into what is traditionally known as mixed media artwork. We card designers already combine ink, paper, ribbon, metal, sometimes paints, chalk, pencils, spray ink, fabric and more. By adding a more permanent base than card making affords and mixing these media in new ways, voila! Mixed media art!

This is a crazy long post so grab a cuppa and get comfy. If you don’t have time to read it all now, I really hope you will save it and come back later. I have a great tutorial, a mini flower tutorial and some awesome tips all for you below. Plus a way to win by commenting!

To make the bird, I drew the template myself, basing it loosely on Tim Holtz bird from the bird cage die I used. It was too small so I wanted to enlarge it and couldn't be bothered figuring out how to make my printer scan and enlarge it. I’d normally get hubby to do it but he was watching the baby so I just winged it (get it, winged it! hee hee) The chevron stripe was lovely but too prominent for me so I painted over it with Porcelain doll MS acrylic paint. A pretty pinkish-ivory off white colour which toned down the paper nicely. I also used some pink paint in places to give the bird some depth and keep her from looking flat. Then she also got some Vintage Photo Distress ink and gilder’s paste on the edges. The wings got Porcelain Doll paint only on them, again to tone down the pattern.

The bird cage was cut from grunge paper and gilded with a tube of gilder’s paste. Use it sparingly! I also used this on the edges of the canvas and on the torn/pushed back edges of the paper along the edges. Gilder’s paste is wax based gold you can apply with your finger or a sponge or a q-tip. It is very shiny (hard to tell from this angle but check the last photo with the flower) but I did buff it so you may be able to get a less reflective finish depending on how you work with it or the surface it’s applied to; I don’t know as I don’t have a ton of experience with it. I love how it turned out. I used wire and head pins to attach the beads at the bottom to silk ribbon which I threaded through the holes in the bottom of the bird cage. They are so much more twinkly IRL. I’ll talk about the flower later.

I was looking though my vast selection of junk stuff goodies when I came across some vellum quotes and this one really resonated with me. I’m a very direct, outspoken and honest person and people who aren’t drive me CRAZY! I’ve never understood why everyone can’t be the same! I’ve had huge problems with making and keeping friends, especially as a teen and it took me a long time to figure out I was trying to make friends with the wrong kinds of people. So now I have friends who are near and dear to my heart, who truly listen to me and understand me, who I can really be open with and not think so hard all the time if they will judge me for what I’m about to say, I can just breathe and say what’s on my mind; this is one of the things in my life I cherish most. So I knew this quote had to be translated into something that I could see everyday, keep it close by and in a place where it could help me remember to always appreciate those friends.

I chose the font, Scriptina Pro, which I found for free, then I typed out the quote and formatted it until I was happy with the spacing and size etc. and I printed it out. I transferred the text to my canvas and went over the transfer with permanent, lightfast, archival pen. Then I thickened the lines in some areas to add more interest. It was looking a bit flat and boring with all the same thickness of lines. Be sure not to use a water-based marker for this kind of work as it will fade much too quickly. (In retrospect, I used water-based inks in other places and probably shouldn’t have for the same reason but it’s going in a place with minimal sunlight. Pigment inks are more lightfast.) I don’t have a photo tutorial for this transfer technique but it’s a great way for getting the text onto your canvas and it’s not hard to describe.

Pencil Transfer Tutorial

1. Print your wording or design on regular copy paper.
2. Flip your paper over on a light table or bright window. Using a wide pencil like 0.7mm lead or wider (regular is 0.5), trace your design. Make sure you cover everything. Going outside the lines a bit is ok, just make sure everything is covered.
3. Trim any excess paper around your design if needed.
4. Tape your paper to your project making sure it is lined up perfectly. Use repositionable tape like Scotch brand or washi tape, Eclipse tape or painters tape but if you are unsure if these may lift up any previous layers of colour/media you’ve added (like chalk, charcoal, pastel or Pan Pastel), please check in an inconspicuous area.
5. Trace your design with a pencil. What size you use will depend on the thickness of your lines. For fine lines like mine, not only did I use the finest pencil lead I had which was a 0.5 mechanical pencil, I kept rotating the lead to always have a sharp point. If your lines aren’t so fine, this may not be so important. You could also use some other writing tool as using a pencil isn’t crucial.

What you are doing is transferring the graphite on the BACK of the paper to the canvas (or other surface) so anything that applies smooth, even pressure could work so experiment. Maybe an embossing stylus? Tip of a bone folder? The line you will get is quite faint so if your eyesight is poor you may need magnifying glasses, a strong light, a magnifier attached to a lamp or otherwise or this technique may not work for you. Because the surface of a canvas is fabric (of course) and not stable, I did have to jam some stiff cardboard into the space between the fabric and the wood to get a hard surface to write on. Several pieces actually. I used laminated pieces that some with Spellbinders dies and they were perfect and slid in nicely due to the lamination.

This is a version of a technique I learned as a kid on school. We covered the back of what we wanted to transfer in pencil by scribbling back and forth very heavily. The con of this technique is that is leaves a lot of hand smudges as you do the transferring. With my technique, there is so little graphite on the back of the paper, I didn’t notice any smudging at all.

I hand cut the corner by tracing a template I bought from Tattered Angels AGES ago, back when spray misting was in it’s infancy, and cutting it from grunge paper. I then painted it with highly lustrous pearl finish white paint by MS and covered it with Vintage Photo Distress ink which turned it into a cool metallic look. However, the ink isn’t stable on the paint despite two coats of fixativ so I don’t recommend this and I won’t be doing it again. Next time, I’d mix colour into the paint or buy a pearl finish paint in the colour I want rather than trying to alter it after it was dry. Then I added various beads to the nooks and crannies which was shamelessly CASEd from Gabrielle P, a designer for Maja Designs.

Another shamelessly CASEd part of my canvas are the torn bits with contrasting paper underneath. To do this you must moisten the paper quite heavily and treat it firmly but gently while pushing it back and expect it to crack in at least one place. You can mist your paper but I used a q-tip to control the amount of water more carefully. Then start to wrinkle the paper. Start as if you only want a tiny area pressed down, don’t try to do too much at once and add more water often if you need it. If the top layer of the paper starts to pill, you have too much water, up to that point, you can’t have too much water. Gently scrunch it until you have the look you want. Many artists I’ve seen cover up the broken/torn area with flowers or ribbon but I liked it and felt I had enough going on with out adding any more.

I made this flower and it came about rather serendipitously. I was trying to replicate another type of flower but changed too much and it didn’t work out well. I wasn’t happy with it at all so I decided to hit it with the heat gun and all of a sudden, I though it was so pretty! So, I will refer you to the original tutorial then tell you what I did differently. Firstly, I used sheer fabric called georgette, not tulle and I cut them with pinking shears, not the way she called for and I cut 9 circles. I folded them like she did, in half first but then but I overlapped them in the center a bit more almost into thirds. However, this allowed all 9 of them to fit next to each other when sewn onto the backing. At this point, I really didn’t like the finish that the pinking gave the edges. To me, it just looked sloppy. So I hit the flower with the heat gun. At times, I separated one little section from the others so it wouldn’t melt too much or so I could melt it more as it seemed to get missed. In the end, it almost seemed like those flowers made from lots of little blossoms and I really liked that.

The base of the canvas was prepped with acrylic paints on the sides in pink, turquoise and porcelain doll. Then I added some script stamping and toned it down with more porcelain doll dry brushed on. The base of the canvas is hard enough to see IRL and almost completely lost in photos. I used a lovely lace pattern DP then added some spray mist in Boss Lady which is much brighter and more dominant than I had hoped.  Two light sprays from far away and my background was almost gone. You can see a wee bit of it above. The lower right corner is a mix of Life stamps in various Distress inks and a few PTI colours along with some Hexagon stamps which you can see in the photo with the lettering.

The tree stencil was tacked down and sponged around the outside using Antique Linen Distress ink then traced around using the same pen I used to trace over the lettering. Then I used PTI inks to dry brush the colour onto the tree. To do this, you literally pick up colour from an ink pad with a dry watercolour brush, yes, it does take a long time but it game me the soft look I was going for. Then I die cut a TON of tiny white 5 petal tissue paper flowers and glued them together, I think 10 layers or so. Then I glued them to the tree, added chalk to the centers and fluffed them up to create spring flowers. This can all be see in the photo with the bird.

I hope you stayed with me this long! If so, you are a real trooper and deserve a medal! Thanks so much! I’m entering this in the Spring Home Decor Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. It’s randomly chosen so I have as much of a shot as the next person but I’m so proud of this I can only hope maybe there could be an Honourable Mention of something. If you like it, I hope you will leave a comment. If you do, you could also win a prize as one of the ways to win this challenge is to leave comments for participants! Click the link to learn all about it. Not long left so be sure to join in the fun!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Vintage Chalkboard Challenge Card

OK, so I have to admit, I’m not sure I like this card. I am so not a fan of black but I was dying to try the chalkboard technique.

But when I got done, I didn’t know what to pair it with! Uh oh! The black really threw me for a loop. So I went with some very bold G45 papers I bought only because I was making cards for a client and the elegant black patterned papers in the pack were perfect. Not my style really, well, at all and I hesitated to even publish it which is very unusual because I blog pretty much everything I make! I just had to blog it anyway because I it was for three challenges and even more so because I am thrilled with how the chalkboard technique turned out. I used a chalk pastel pencil for the lines. Not too many chalkboards have coloured ‘chalk’ but I have seen a few including a cool Nabob commercial.

This is for the Waltzing Mouse Blog Party to use Doilies. I just tucked bits under each edge. Also for Deconstructed Sketch 89 and Friday Mashup 97 to use Markers and add Texture. I used a marker to colour the white EP to match the DP and buttons. I fyou have any ideas what would go better with the black, leave me a comment!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: WM
Ink: Versamark, white-PTI
Paper: kraft-PTI, DP-Graphic 45, black-SU!, doily-Wilton
Accessories: black ribbon-May Arts, buttons-SU!, scalloped border die-PTI, white EP-stash, Copics

Interactive Card Zipper Card for PTI Challenge

Nichole challenged us to make an interactive card in honour of their 6th anniversary. We were to be inspired by one of the team’s projects. Seeing Jessica’s fridge magnet with a photo of her son on it made me think of my son whose 12th birthday is today.  And I loved how Heather used die cut letters on one of her projects. While we don’t celebrate birthdays, this rather important milestone was on my mind. I guess the inspiration is a rather loose interpretation but still…

So I made this card for him. Inside it has the following words. Energetic Fun Silly Caring Friendly Amazing. I won’t give it to him for a while so it doesn’t seem like a b-day card. It isn’t easy to line up the stamping underneath the tear strip unless you plan ahead so I’ve got a tutorial below showing you how I do it. It isn’t too hard but I have a couple of tips.

The grey keyboard keys are actually off a flexible keyboard. The kind you can roll up. My 5 yo tore it apart so I saved the keys for embellishments! At least something good came of it. The numbers at the bottom are from Boy Basics-Out of this World. I taped off most of the numbers so I count just ink some numbers individually and stamped the additional numbers to create an 11 and a 12.

So here’s how to line up whatever you hide beneath the tear strip.

1. Die cut your tear strip die (aka zipper die) and choose a scrap to use underneath the tear strip. Using a pencil, draw two parallel lines just less than 1\2” apart. Using slightly less than the width of the tear strip will ensure your stamping doesn’t touch the edges of the zipper opening on the finished card since they won’t be smooth and straight. Place the paper with the lines on it under the die cut, line it up with the tear strip and trace the notched end. Slide the paper so your notched pencil line disappears slightly under the die cut. Trace the other side of the die. Again, by making your pencil marks slightly smaller than the die cut opening, you ensure you leave space where the zipper strip attaches in case the recipient doesn’t tear it off completely.

2. Stamp your choice of images or sentiments within the pencil lines. Then erase your pencil lines so you can barely see them. I didn’t trim the notched end now because it makes it hard to line up later.

3. Add Scor-Tape or other strong adhesive to the back of the die cut close to the tear strip. As close as you can place it. Remove the backing except for the small portions shown.

4. Line up the stamped scrap using the faint pencil lines. Make sure no stamping shows from either end and you need to leave enough room to trim your notch.

5. Trim off the straight side flush with the die cut and trim out the notched end while looking at the back. Because you left the backing on close to the notched end, it is easy to get your scissors in. When you are satisfied with the trimming, remove the last bits of backing. You could cut the notched end in advance but it would be hard to line up the scrap. If you wish to cut it ahead of time, I recommend you use a larger scrap and when you draw the lines, mark another where the bottom of the die cut would be so you can use that to line it up. (Next time I’ll be more careful and cut it smoother.)

6. Add more Scor-Tape. You want to be sure that tugging the strip doesn’t pull the die cut off the card! For the top portion, I just used my usual adhesive. Burnish the adhesive well. Apply to your card or project!

I hope this helps you line up your die cuts!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: tag and words (inside) CTMH, countdown numbers, ink splotches-PTI
Ink: Walnut Stain, Vintage photo Distress, Teal Zeal-Memento, pumpkin pie-SU!
Paper: kraft, natural white, chocolate CS-PTI, DP-MME
Accessories: foam dots-Jody Morrow, stencil letter dies-Sizzix, interactive die-PTI,

Papertrey Ink November Blog Hop–Life is Good Congratulations Card

This month’s theme is to use some sort of cover art as inspiration for your card or paper crafting project. Funny, when I told my hubby about it, he assumed it meant music album cover art! He used to be a semi-pro/paid hobbyist musician so of course that’s where his mind went first. But I reminded him this was all about girls and paper crafting. Cover art to us is books and catalogues! Of course, you could think of it as any cover art you like!

I couldn't think of any books or catalogues I thought were particularly inspirational, I buy mostly online, so few catalogues, so I asked my mom. She actually bought a book once because she thought the cover was so beautiful. I agreed!

I’m sure you can see how I was inspired by it! There is a bit of technique needed to get this look. First, stamp the palm trees, trunks and colour them in. Then using an embossing ink pen, colour the trees and clear emboss them. This protects their colour from the next steps and adds some shine to an otherwise flat background. (You could cut masks if you wish but it can be hard with 4 stamps to line up, 2 tree tops and 2 trunks)Tear a scrap of paper to use as a mask – I use copy paper and add temporary adhesive. I specifically use this because you not only need a mask but also need the opposite piece later. If you use a sticky note, the remaining piece won’t be large enough to use later. Use half of your torn paper to mask off the top of the paper and sponge the bottom using a ground colour. I used frayed burlap. Now take the opposite torn paper, line it up so no white background shows and sponge in your sky. I used apricot, lemon tart, aqua mist and broken china. Work your colour in slowly so you avoid lines. You can always add more. Be especially careful when using any ink other than Distress inks as they don’t sponge as smoothly.

I added some opaque white to the highlights of my car. Cars are so shiny that it is very hard to accurately portray the finish but I did my best with the white highlights. I am not entirely happy with the left side of the body of the car. I may rework it with some more shading and some blue-violet too. I just realized too that there isn’t any shading under the car. As it is up on foam dots, it does make its own shadow somewhat but I may add a bit more under the tires. I may also add some glossy accents to the bumper for shine. I’ve STILL got a cold so things that might normally seem obvious take more brain power when my head is full of {{redacted for politeness}}.

I hope you liked my card, want to see more of my work? Feel free to sign up using subscription thingies on my sidebar; I have both email and RSS. Have fun on the rest of the hop!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: car, congrats-PTI, trees, life sentiment-Verve
Ink: Archival black-Ranger, Memento black, lemon tart, aqua mist-PTI, apricot, artichoke, old olive-SU!, broken china Distress
Paper: coloured, clear CS-PTI, white CS-X-Press It
Accessories: foam dots-Jody Morrow, embossing ink pen, clear EP-SU!, Copics, opaque white-Copic

Grad Hat Box

I can’t believe I forgot to post my latest video! I made it ages ago but I guess I still have a pretty hefty dose of baby/breastfeeding brain.

Here’s the link. Graduation Hat Box I wish I knew how to post the link that shows up as a thumbnail of the video with a play button in the center. If you know how to do that, pretty please leave me a comment?

These are the cards I put inside each box. I was making them for triplets plus one other kid from another family so these are just 2 of the 4 cards I made. The inside of each grad hat coordinates with the cards.

The circles and star are dies by PTI and I added a sweet doily to the girl ones. They are very simple as that is all I had time for after spending quite a lot of time making the boxes. We added gift cards to the boxes too but there was lots of room for a tiny or small gift. The cards measure 3 or 3 1/4” so they aren’t too small.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: PTI
Ink: archival black-Ranger
Paper: doily-Wilton, DP-Echo Park, CS-SU!
Accessories: PTI dies, iTop (grad hat brad), foam dots-Jody Morrow, embroidery floss, ribbon-SU!

Papertrey July Blog Hop Challenge–Polaroid Technique Butterflies

Thanks for visiting! I’ve had a hard time playing along with the PTI blog hop the last few months. I wish they would publish the theme a week or so in advance as a reminder! Anyway, this month, I managed to find time to play!

This month, the theme was an inspiration photo. I’ve used the colour combo somewhat substituting yellow sponged with apricot for the orange, kraft for the natural tone of the shades and I also used the butterfly motif from one of the pillows.

I tried out Nichole’s Polaroid technique from one of the Make it Monday posts from last month, modifying it a bit. I masked off the center of my card and sponged white ink all around. Then I overstamped with the leaf image from Life. I cut a CS panel to fit inside the masked area and stamped around the edges of it with a scroll image from Vintage Labels. Then I die cut and sponged butterflies and circles as accents. Last I added a label I cut using oval Nesties and attached using a technique from one of the Stamp-a-Faire challenges, notching my card for the twine.

One thing to notice is that I used negative space several times on this card. The negative space from the masking, also the negative hearts inside the dies and the negative space created when I die cut and removed the rickrack. I just thought it gave an interesting look without adding another layer or another colour.

Here’s a die-cutting TIP for you. I was having trouble getting my die cuts out of my dies. Then I put one of my dies up in the corner of the cutting mat. It fell right out! I guess the less used the mat the easier it falls out of the die. Maybe the paper isn’t pushed in so far? Not really sure but I am going to make note of this and keep doing it!

I hope you like my card! If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to leave a comment or subscribe to my blog. Both RSS and email options are on my sidebar.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Life, Vintage Labels, Mega Mixed Messages-PTI
Ink: white-PTI, celery, apricot, olive, baja-SU!
Paper: soft sky, kraft-SU!, DP-PTI
Accessories: dies, twine-PTI, oval Nesties, thread, foam dots-Jody Morrow, rhinestones-Kaisercraft, notches cut with Crop-a-dile

Baking Girl for OCC and Unscripted Sketches

This is easily one of the most time and effort intensive, technique loaded card I’ve made in a very long time. Hope you think it was worth it!

The OCC challenge this week is a supply challenge: 1, 2, 3, 4!

USE 1 patterned paper, 2 layers, 3 stamps and 4 embellishments. I used the focal image and my sentiment as my 2 layers (I thought at the time that mats didn’t count and the card base doesn’t count). My 3 stamps are the sentiment, the girl and the damask stamp for the wallpaper background. I used the flower as one embellishment, the center as another (I’m not counting them separately because I was trying to mimic the look of a vintage button which had the pearl look already on it.) and the ribbon and white button each as one. It took some brain power but it was really fun so I hope you will play with us at the OCC blog!

I rarely describe my thought process while making a card and this one required a LOT of thought so it is perfect. I started with the image. After choosing it, I immediately went on a hunt for some patterned paper to go with it because I with so many colours needed, I wanted all my markers to coordinate with the paper and some to match the paper. I choose the cupcake paper from Basic Grey’s Nook and Pantry pack. I stamped the image twice, coloured and cut out my images.

I meant to take a picture and forgot but when doing paper tole, you don’t always have to use the entire bottom layer if it doesn’t make sense. Behind this gal is the table only except where she overlaps the table, I left her torso in. But below the table and for her head, I cut away all the excess. I only left her torso in because her arms overlap things on the table and from the side it would look weird if there was nothing behind her, like a partial jar of sugar!  But the rest of the image looks more realistic because there is nothing behind her. I colour only the edges of the image underneath to save time and ink.

Normally, I would just airbrush in an indistinct background and shadow but I ran out of ink so I decided to go all techniquey! I drew in a horizon line and flooring lines and masked off the wallpaper area. I sponged in the planks in one at a time hoping I would get variegation in colour by mixing two inks; since the ink blend would never be the same, I figured I’d get differently shaded planks. Unfortunately, I should have used traditional inks, not Distress inks because they blended so well I neither have distinct colours nor darker edges and lighter centers for each plank.

Then I used the faux batik technique (SCS) for the wallpaper and sponged in my wall colour. I’ll let you look that up rather than describing it as this post is already way too long but use tinted embossing ink if you have it, just saying ‘cuz this gal is covering up some weirdly patterned wall paper! This time Distress ink was perfect as it gave me a smooth finish. I was so proud that the background techniques worked so well together; I agonized over which to do first in case I messed one up!

Now I started thinking about my card layout and chose this sketch from the ones I save on my iPhone. But when I layered the focal image over the cupcake paper, it overwhelmed the delicacy of the image even when matted. Back to the drawing board. Remember, I have to keep in mind the 1, 2, 3, 4 challenge at the same time! Couldn’t decide what to do and briefly started working on a recipe file for my kitchen, covering the front with another paper from the same pack. But the front was too small for one sheet of DP and I thought now the cupcake paper would work because it would cover the excess areas on the edges and be far enough away to not overwhelm. But I just couldn’t mess up the OCC challenge with 2 sheets of DP!

So I settled on this THIRD piece of DP and started back on a card. I made my favourite type of home made flower which turned out how I wanted it to and I was happy again. Here I describe how I made it: Scalloped Scrunch Flower. This time I used the 4 smallest shapes. I found a button to match the center and coloured the pearls with my Copic. I already had Baked Love in mind for a sentiment, I just chose one that worked with my image and space I had left. I always leave the journaling until the last minute when I scrap too and have to find space! Whew! Finally, all requirements were fulfilled! Total? About 5 hours! Yep, crazy right? A couple hours of that was figuring what to do!

Click on sketch for link to Unscripted Sketches.

I hope you will play with us at the OCC this week. We love having lots of players and don’t forget! We now award prizes to the top 4 cards choosing a Top Talent and a Talented Trio! And you just HAVE to visit the blog to see all the talented designers in our awesome team!!! Click on their blog names to visit their sites and leave ‘em some love!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: image-Sarah Kay Whiff of Joy, sentiment-CHF, damask-Gel-a-Tins
Ink: Victorian Velvet (flower), Scattered Straw, Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo, Embossing Distress Inks, chocolate chip-SU!
Paper: Basic Grey DP, chocolate CS-SU!, white CS-Taylored Expressions, natural white CS (flower, sent layer)-PTI, blush CS (flower)-PTI
Accessories: Buttons-stash, yellow ribbon-Masterstroke, Perfect Pearls (made into spray for flower), foam dots-Jody Morrow, scalloped circle and labels 8 Nesties, twine-PTI, clear EP-SU!, brad (centre of flower under button)-stash, Copics Rv95, V91,95, R00,11,20,27,59, YR23, Y21, G21,24, BG10,15,72,75, B45,91,93,95,97, E00,08,11,21,31,33,35,37,40,47,49,71,77,93, W1,3, C3,5, 00, corner chomper