In the Studio with friends

Hi everyone.  Yesterday my friends Susan (Cardmaker's Garret) and Christine came over and we played with a few different techniques.

First of all, here's the card I made with a snippet of my woodgrain background. Entering into the Snippets Playground! :)

Such a wonderful technique, especially if you are wanting to make masculine or rustic cards.

I made a woodgrain background, cut out the section that I liked best, and then distressed the edges using a tool from Making Memories.  I knotted two strands of twine and wrapped them around the bottom.  I found a heated copper leaf sprig in my stash and simply glued down a couple of the leaves, leaving the rest loose so it created some dimension.  Also did that with my distress background, adhering the middle back only to my front.  This leaves the sides loose creating dimension without using pop dots. A simple stamped sentiment finishes the card. :)

Here's a pic of my background from yesterday (yes, we each made LOTS). :)  The only one I didn't include was my first attempt at alcohol inks on yuppo paper.  I added WAY too much ink and it turned out to be a dark mess.  Hopefully I'll do better next time. :)

Just a few tips of things we learned yesterday.

We tried all different kinds of inks with the embossing folder stamping technique, and they all worked, but the brushos were by far the best results (see the two brick and two woodgrain designs in the front row.

And instead of inking and spritzing the inside of the embossing folder and then turning it over to "stamp" onto our papers, we found it worked better if we inked and spritzed the inside of the embossing folder and then placed the card stock on top and pressed down.  It seemed to transfer more of the design and ink that way.  Always good to try it both ways, though, and see which works best for you.

There are more things we tried yesterday, but I will talk about them once I post the finished cards.

Stamps: Bitty Birthday (SU!)
Paper:  White (Neenah)
Ink:  Distress Inks:  Antique Linen, Rusty Hinge, Weathered Wood, Vintage Photo, Tea Stain (Tim Holtz); Soft Suede (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Scor-pal, twine, copper metal sheet .005 thickness (K&S Precision Metals), butane torch, Little Leaves die (Sizzix)

Challenges:
Snippets Playground Week 213

Embossing Folder Stamping

Hi everyone.  Another post where I'm using a wonderful technique that I first saw done a couple of years ago by my good friend Karen (Snippets)  She has perfected this technique.  Check out her amazing cards done with embossing folder stamping here, here, and here. It's a fun and easy way to create a beautiful watercoloured background for cards using embossing folders in a whole new way.

I have done this on plain card stock, although you could also use watercolour paper or mixed media paper and get spectacular results.  The only trick is to get comfortable with how much water to spray ... a bit of practice and you'll have it figured out.

For this I took two distress ink and pressed them randomly onto the inside of my honeycomb embossing folder (on the raised side of the pattern).  I sprayed with a little water, turned my embossing folder over, and used it to "stamp" onto my white card stock.  I love how the pattern is random and the ink flows with the water.

I stamped a butterfly onto more white card stock, embossing it with liquid platinum embossing powder.  Then I coloured it in using the same inks I used for the background, but added a few coats so that the colour was more saturated.  I fussy cut the butterfly and popped it on top of my background.  The sentiment is also heat embossed in liquid platinum to tie it all together.

I hope you'll give this easy and fun technique a try.  :)

Thanks for dropping by for a visit!

Stamps:  Butterfly Birthday, Thinking of You (Happy Little Stampers)
Paper:  White (Neenah)
Ink: Distress Inks:  Ripe Persimmon, Picked Raspberry (Tim Holtz); Versamark
Accessories & Tools:  Honeycomb embossing folder (Sizzix), water mister, liquid platinum embossing powder (Ranger), heat tool, waterbrush

Karen's Woodgrain Background Technique

Hi everyone.  Many times I have mentioned my wonderfully talented friend, Karen (Snippets).  She is amazing.  She was the first person I saw doing the embossing folder stamping ... and the only person I've ever seen do random embossing folder stamping (more about that at a later time).  Karen has perfected a tried and true way to make the most beautiful woodgrain backgrounds.  She started doing them a while ago, and many of her followers (especially me!), nagged her to write a tutorial. Well, she shared her tutorial today on her blog ... click HERE to see it.  AWESOME!  I had to give it a try right away.

It was quick and easy to do.  I used some cheap glue that I bought at the $1 store ages ago, my scor-pal and some distress inks to create this fabulous background. Thank you so much Karen!! :)

I hope you'll check out her tutorial and give it a try for yourself.




Stamps:  Sweet Sentiments (Amy R)
Paper:  White (Neenah); Early Espresso (SU!)
Ink:  Distress Inks:  Antique Linen, Rusty Hinge, Weathered Wood, Vintage Photo (Tim Holtz); Early Espresso (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  glue, scor-pal, Meadow Leaf die (Poppy Stamps), sponge

Heartfelt Thanks

Hi everyone.  Back with another watercoloured card using my Zig Clean Color Brush Pens.  I do love the vibrant shades from these.  I used purple today ... not a colour I use very often - not sure why because I love how this turned out.  The two shades of purple work perfectly with the silver embossed image and sentiment.  Silver ... because that's the challenge at the new CAS challenge at STAMPlorations.  So excited to see a CAS challenge there.

I used another free stamp I received from STAMPlorations with one of my orders (gotta love that!). This is French Marigold.  Isn't it gorgeous??!!  I know marigolds are yellow or orange, but I really wanted to create a purple flower. :)

Originally I just had the flower and the sentiment on my card front, but I thought it would be fun to add some interest to the background, so I randomly inked up spots on my large grid stamp and then heat embossed in silver.  I love how it just adds a little somethin' somethin' to the background. :)

Here's a close-up ...

Since I used STAMPloration stamps, I'll also enter this into the STAMPlorations Anything Goes.  This challenge is always open ... enter as many times as you like, just as long as your main stamp is made by them.

I have signed up for an on-line watercolouring class that starts on Jan. 25th.  There's a pre-class gallery for students to share the watercolouring projects they've been working on, so I'll share this card there as well.

Edited to Add:  I used a snippet for my flower, so I'm dropping by the Playground for a visit. :)  Had some technical difficulties, so Di is letting me add to this weeks challenge.  Thanks Di!

Thanks for dropping by for a visit! 

Stamps:  French Marigold, Fond Expressions2 (STAMPlorations); Grid (Simon Says)
Paper:  White Card base and front (Neenah); Mixed Media for flower (Strathmore)
Ink:  Versamark, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Watercolour Markers
Accessories & Tools:  Silver embossing powder (Ranger), waterbrush

Challenges:
STAMPlorations January CAS Challenge
STAMPlorations Anything Goes Challenge
Snippets Playground Week 212