Inspiration Showcase Embossed Resist Card

Rebecca, if you are reading right now, stop! Otherwise it will spoil a surprise!

I’m taking Jennifer Mcguire’s Inspiration Showcase class right now. There’s only a few days left but you might still be able to join in a week or so as she sometimes opens classes up with a slight discount after the class is over. You won’t get a chance to win prizes nor ask questions on the forum (I don’t think) but the class is awesome! I already knew many of the techniques but she puts such interesting spins on them and uses them in ways and in combinations with other techniques I would never have thought of. I can only image how exciting this class would be for a new stamper or someone who doesn’t use techniques much! And it was a great reminder of techniques I haven’t used in ages! She has an amazing way of teaching so quickly and concisely and her videos are always clear and easy to watch. No jumpy visuals or blurred images and she always makes sure you see everything, never too fast. I am absolutely in LOVE!

I made this card using the Distress Ink Embossed Resist technique. You emboss your image on white paper using clear EP and heat emboss. Then use a blending tool to add colour to the background. I needed a thank you card for my BFF who tutored my son for a super amazingly good price this summer. He was doing quite poorly in math and still didn’t know his times tables in grade 4. So she worked with him twice a week all summer, so worth every penny. She homeschooled her boys and I have to say, it’s a shame she isn’t a school teacher. She is also an excellent musician and used to teach piano. So I often use musical themes when making cards for her.

The treble clef was stamped in Distress ink and clear embossed to make it shiny like the background. The bottom edge was cut with a PTI edger die.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: SU!
Ink: Versamark, Distress ink concord, lavender
Paper: white, pale plum CS-SU!, Basic Grey Wisteria paper
Accessories: pearls-Dollarama, clear EP, Copic marker (to colour the pearls darker), PTI Edger 1 die, foam dots-Jody Morrow, Tim Holtz foam ink applicator

Soooo in Love for OCC

I had fun making this card but it took longer than any card I think I’ve ever made! One night I started the card, cut out the circles needed for the flowers and misted them. I used 5 drops of burgundy and 4 drops of regal rose and 2 small scoops of white Perfect Pearls in a Mini Mister and used the whole thing on my ‘petals’. The next day I got the flowers assembled. The following day I assembled the card but thought it needed something (the sentiment wasn’t on yet). I hemmed and hawed and finally decided on this pre-printed canvas sentiment! Whew!!

Think it was worth the work and waiting? I think so too!!

I don’t have time now but I will post instructions for the flowers (unless I can find the blog with instructions for the ones I was inspired by. Hope so)!! Click on the sketch for the link.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Paper: DP, CS-SU!
Ink: antique linen Distress ink
Accessories: Nesties scalloped circle dies, foam dots, chocolate velvet ribbon-Clear Dollar Stamps, sheer ribbon, Mother of Pearl buttons-stash, silk ribbon-May Arts, Copic marker (dye the ribbon), rhinestone brads-stash (hidden in center of flowers), EK success punch, Sooo in love sentiment-(can’t remember, email if you want to know!!), wave cutter-Purple Cows, pearl-Kaisercraft, thread-Guttermann, burgundy and rose reinkers, white Perfect Pearls, vintage music paper

Whimsical Butterfly Card for Twinkling Tuesday

So sorry I’m late y’all! I was at a three-day convention all weekend so I was too tired to make this card yesterday for posting last night or this morning! I took Monday to just CHILL! But it is still technically Tuesday so I guess I am safe! Hee Hee!! :) This card was inspired by a doozy of a sketch by Jack, Madelynn’s little brother. But just wait ‘til the next 2 weeks, then the sketches get really intense! I enjoy a challenge, that’s for sure. I don’t even usually post the sketch in advance of showing you the card but this card requires the sketch to make sense! This sketch doesn’t look too hard at first but look again at all the details! Dots in each corner of the card and the stamped panel, tabs at the end of each ‘line’ and all of the stars at the bottom. Whew. Now in case anyone is wondering, I had a great time trying to think of what to do and loved using this sketch. It is just that my card is a wee bit busier than normal; I decided to use ALL of the details in this sketch, every last one! Well, OK, I didn’t use the crosshatching on the lower tabs…

I love how this sketch allowed me to show off this awesome DP! It really shows through the design. I was thinking about butterflies lately because of the Butterfly Project. Heard of it? The Holocaust Museum of Houston is creating an exhibit of 1.5 MILLION butterflies, one representing each child killed during the Holocaust. The exhibit opens 2012 and anyone is able to send in a butterfly (or more) to the exhibit. They can be of any medium, flat preferred, no glitter or food products, no larger than 8x10”. I hope I get to see this exhibit once it opens. Please consider making a butterfly or two (or more!) for this worthy project. Craft Critique is going to send a huge package of butterflies so if you wish, you can send yours to them by September 15th. You can also send them to the museum directly. If you wish to read more, click HERE. If you do make a butterfly, I’d love to see it so leave me the link here. No blog? Registration is free to upload to Splitcoast Stampers or Paper Craft Planet. This is a great project to do with your kids, I’m pretty sure construction paper would make awesome butterflies. Craft Critique has and I’m guessing will continue to have ideas for butterflies for both kids and adults. You could paint, sew, quilt, stencil, weave, punch, die cut, knit, sketch, crochet, scrap, stamp, cut, colour, photograph, collage, tole, pierce, paper piece, emboss, iris fold, embroider, cross-stitch, needlepoint, rug hook, dye, tat, batik or silk-screen your butterflies. ‘Nuf ideas??

The paper I used was from Basic Grey Phoebe, the flower cut out from another paper in the same pack. I punched the butterfly from a solid section of the flower paper and outlined it in marker to help it stand out. I used a larger pearl for the head and two smaller ones for the body. The ‘red’ dew drops aren’t really red but a deep, bright pink, matching much better IRL. Ditto for the butterfly within the sentiment; I stamped the image a second time on white cardstock and cut it out. I can’t remember where I got the eyelet brads but they used to be silver, I heated them with the heat gun and dipped them into my white embossing powder which makes it stick and heated again to melt the powder until smooth. I LOVE that technique! You don’t even need embossing ink. The more I worked on this card, the more it appeared whimsical, like I should have a faerie on it somewhere, thus the post’s title! The sentiment didn’t end up quite as dark as I would have preferred it and then I think the camera focused on the butterflies wings making the sentiment a wee bit blurry. In case you can’t read it, it says, “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly. –Richard Bach'”

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamp: Verve
Ink: Stazon brown, rose red
Paper: banana CS-SU!, Phoebe paper pack-Basic Grey, vellum-stash
Accessories: MS butterfly punch; flowers, sheer white ribbon, white EP, ‘eyelet’ brads -stash, Kaisercraft pearls, Dew Drops, foam dots-Jody Morrow, regal rose marker-SU!
Technique: use embossing powder to change embellishment’s colour

Easy Way To Sew On Buttons-Sneak Peak!

I thought I'd give you a sneak peak of my TT card scheduled to come out later today and show you a shortcut for sewing on buttons. I like to semi-fill the holes of the buttons with thread. Sure, a card doesn't need extra strands for strength like on clothing but it looks wimpy, IMHO, to only use one or two threads! OK, so guess how many times I passed the thread through these holes... Looks like a lot right? 12 strands. However, I only actually pushed the needle through the holes 3 times! Start with a larger holed needle than usual for hand sewing. Pull out twice as much thread as you think you will need. Double it so you now have two strands. Then thread the needle using the folded end of the thread.  Now you should have 4 strands of thread. Even out the ends and tie them making sure that all the strands are the same length between the knot and the needle. You will get loops of extra thread sticking out as you sew if they aren't the same length. Now you only need to pass the needle through the button's holes 1/4 of the times you normally would to get great 'coverage'! I hope this tip helps you out!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE See post later today!

Jameson's Teddy Bear Box - Twinkling Tuesday Challenge

When I get time to actually do some paper crafting lately, I try to get in more than one challenge at once! I started with Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesday Sketch. Then I decided on the SCS Colour Combination challenge CC201 - Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy and Kraft. Good boyish/manly colours. Lastly, I decided to go with the mini pizza box TLC 189 from a few weeks back, they are TOOO cute!! My little guy is always asking me to make something for him. ALWAYS after I have started another project so I have to say no. I figured it is his turn and since he is at a sleep over tonight, he wasn't here to peek while I was making it. He is going to love it. He will be 8 in a couple of weeks but he isn't too old for stuffed animals quite yet. He really is a great kid, he is happy to 'play' with anyone, ages 0- 99; even if they don't realize they are playing with him. I remember we were in a store one day and he couldn't understand why the clerk wasn't trying to 'seek' him while he hid in a clothing rack!

Try Madelynn's sketch! Be sure to play along with the Twinkle Team by uploading your card to SCS or PCP with the keyword MTTSC6. If you add a card to your blog, leave a comment with the link at The Whimsical Butterfly. Check out the Twinkle Team's work, links on the sidebar. <-----

I stamped the bear in Stazon brown on cocoa CS. I cut him out without his jointed arm and leg and cut them out separately so I could 'joint' them with brads so they move. The bear is popped up with foam dots, the balloon with two layers of foam dots. The balloon string is made from a hand cut strip of CS. It was nice to have black ones so they are less obvious. The bear is shaded with a caramel marker, his nose and inner ears have a touch of ruby red on them. I also enhanced the edges by going over the 'fur' lines with chocolate chip marker. My son's name, Jameson, is stamped on the front and sides with a retro alphabet. The bears eyes and the balloon each have a tiny highlight of white gel pen.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Favourite Teddy Bear
Paper: kraft, baja breeze and not quite navy CS
Ink: Stazon brown, not quite navy
Accessories: Jumbo eyelets - We Are Memory Keepers, retro alphabet-MSE, white gel pen, brads - CTMH, foam dots-Jody Morrow, 1/16" hole punch. All products by SU! unless otherwise noted.

Mother and Baby

I started with a stamp I have had almost since the beginning of my stamping career. The minute I saw this I had to have it because it illustrates exactly how I feel about my babies. A lot of parents say that they love it when their kids are past the newborn stage when they have 'more personality' but my happiest memories are of cradling my babies just like this. I still get to cradle the little one like this, thank goodness! So Technique Challenge 191 was to use watercolour pencils to colour in an image, then to use pink (in honour of breast cancer week) Twinkling H2Os in the water used to blend the watercolour pencil. Interesting to say the least but I don't have any 'Twinks'! so I had to substitute. 

I started with the image stamped in black Staz-On and because I don't have flesh-coloured watercolour pencils, I used Copics to colour in the mom's and baby's faces. You can see in the photo below how I coloured the image with watercolour pencils. Note to Self: be very careful using Copics with Staz-On ink and if you get any on the marker, clean it on scratch paper before continuing. As I was colouring it, I realized that the arms of the chair were uneven. While I don't think they need to be perfectly aligned, I decided to realign the borders of the image. In the next photo, you will see I cut long the marked lines and I was much happier with it after. So my Twinks substitute was pink gold Pearl Ex mixed into the water I dipped by brush into to smooth the watercolours. The photo is a bit blurry due to the iPhone and the lighting and angle but you can see how pretty the glittery Pearl Ex looks. I had to set the Pearl Ex with Krylon Workable Fixatif so the Pearl Ex wouldn't all brush off. Apparently you can also add gun arabic to your water as a stabilizer but the spray fixatif was easier (and I don't have any gum arabic!!)

I like how the pink gold pearl ex makes the pale blue baby blanket look kind of purplish. I didn't expect it to affect the colour that much. This angle doesn't show it but I even used it in her hair! When it came to choosing a sketch, I didn't really have anything in mind. So I started by layering the image on black CS to give it a nice clean thin edge. In the spirit of breast cancer week (OK maybe it was last week but anyhow), I used a pink pirouette panel underneath. Now I went back to the tiny word sets I have resurrected lately. I wanted to stamp 'mother and baby' evenly around the edge but I wasn't sure how to get it centred. I decided to stamp them on scratch paper and align my card stock edge and copy the spacing as I stamped each edge. Next I looked in the past Sketch Challenges at Splitcoast Stampers for  a layout I liked. I finally found one that would work for my image, Sketch Challenge 185. I love that I have so many sketches right at hand ready to look through. Thanks Splitcoast!

The final card uses Purely Pomegranate as the base with French Script stamped in it in Versamark and a panel of Elegant Eggplant stamped with the little dots from Itty Bitty Backgrounds using the same ink. The ribbon is white organza and the head pin is from the SU! pretties kit. I decided the flower was too white so I pressed it into my Versamark Pad and then brushed on more Pearl Ex with a dry watercolour brush. So far it seems to stick. Hope you like it!

 

Cute little cow poke!

I know, you will get tired of hearing this, but more firsts, first accordion/stair step card and first Technique Challenge TLC190. I had a lot of fun with this card. I tried stamping 'Howdy' right on the base card in white craft ink but it was kind of lost so I tried embossing it. Not enough powder stuck because the pad was a bit dry, so I tried going over with white gel pen. Disaster! The pen kept jumping off the line because of the few embossing powder bumps. So I had to cover it all up and I like the effect of the red panel better anyhow. I do wish I had used ruby red instead of real red, oh well.

The cacti are stamped on Old Olive with the same ink, the tag is the small tag punch stamped on Pumpkin Pie and stamped with the paisleys from Fresh Fillers. 'Love ya' is stamped with the Rough Edges mini alphabet. The stair step background is stamped with the paisleys from the cowboy set with Buckaroo Blue ink on the same colour cardstock.  The cowboy is stamped on whisper white and coloured with Copic markers. In case you can't tell, the cowboy hat and boots are  supposed to be uneven and dirty looking. His legs and arms are replaced with wire held on with glue dots.

To prevent the glue dots from sticking while in an envelope or collecting hairs (ever present in the air in a home with a cat!), yuck :( I used a new tool from EK Success, a powder dispenser. It looks like a stipple brush with a fat handle; inside is baby powder, it even smells good, and you pounce it on to coat the adhesive. It was intended for use with stickers or other embellishments that already have adhesive on them, if you want to pop them up with dimensional adhesive like pop dots. After the powder coats the back,  when you close the envelope or your scrapbook, the foam of the adhesive doesn't compress and cause the bellie to stick to your background. How clever is that!