A Little Christmas Sparkle

     Hello!  Today's card was inspired by Connie Babbert's Watercolor Winter card over on her blog, Inspired Treasures (here).  I {loved} everything about her card and decided to keep the layout the same but change up the color and dust off my heat tool!
    I can't tell you the last time I pulled out my heat tool and embossed - it's been ages!  And I've also had a package of silver glimmer paper sitting in my paper rack for almost a year now... thought I should get some use out of that, too!

Stamps: Watercolor Winter
Ink: VersaMark
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, silver glimmer paper, Be of Good Cheer DSP
Tools & Accessories: Heat tool, pewter embossing powder, seam binding ribbon, dimensionals

Watercoloring & Heat Embossing

     Hello!  Today's card is one that was inspired by a card I saw in the winter 2008 issue of Take Ten by Jennifer Meyer.
     For this card, I stamped the flower and leaf images on glossy white with VersaMark and then embossed them with black embossing powder.  I then spritzed the images with water, used an Aqua Painter and to pick up ink from a drop of ink refill (I created a palette in a plastic lid) and touched it to the image.. the ink spreads in the water creating a soft watercolored look.  For my card I chose to use one color on each image but you can certainly mix colors.

     This technique works best with line-art images that have compartments; that way the ink will tend to stay in the area you want it to (you can see the green started to run out of my leaves).  Another tip I have is to let the ink flow where it wants; stirring or pushing the ink too much will muddy the color.
     I recommend practicing this technique several times before committing to project, I scrapped several pieces before I created one that I liked.

Stamps: Flower Fest, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: StazOn Black, VersaMark, Wild Wasabi, Pretty in Pink
Paper: Basic Black, Pretty in Pink, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White
Tools & Accessories: Aqua painter, black embossing powder, heat tool, scallop border punch

Giving Thanks

     Hello!  Today's card is my attempt to get Thanksgiving cards in the mail this year.  Last year I ended up going to the local Hallmark store and purchasing cards to send to family and friends (gasp!).  I thought if I start making them now, I should be able to get the dozen or so I need made by November 1st.  I hope.
   To create the non-embossed section on the Pumpkin Pie piece I used the Double Emboss technique.  To see a printable tutorial or watch a video tutorial by Beate click (here).  This technique embosses part of your card stock while leaving a section smooth to stamp on.

Stamps: Falling Leaves
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight

Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Whisper White

Tools & Accessories: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, dimensionals

Dots and Stripes...

     Hello!  Today's card was inspired by Alcojo94's card Friday Mashup Blossom (here) over at SplitCoast.  I loved her colors but I wanted to tweak the layout just a bit.  Ok, really I just wanted to pull out my Big Shot and use my new Stripes Embossing folder! 
     Stampin' Up must have read my mind last winter when I kept thinking that there really should be a striped embossing folder to compliment the abundance of polka dotted stamps, ribbons, paper and folders that are in the catalog.  I was SO happy to see they heard my pleas :)

Stamps: Bold Blossoms
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Pear Pizazz, Early Espresso
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Pear Pizazz, Early Espresso, Whisper White
Tools & Accessories: Stripes & Perfect Polka Dots embossing folders, Big Shot, modern label punch, baker's twine, buttons (I believe the ones I used are retired)

A Purple Card and Brads to Match!

Hello!  Today's card is inspired by Beth Ann Wilson's card.  While I absolutely love the colors she chose, I decided to tone it down a bit and went with Perfect Plum.  While Stampin' Up! does offer a wide variety of colored brads I currently do not have any in my collection.  Bummer.  But... the good news is you can "dye" brads to match any color cardstock and it's super easy!

     Simply cover the brad in your choice of craft ink (in my case I used Elegant Eggplant), coat with clear embossing powder and heat until melted (for small brads this is 8-10 seconds).  I've found that you may need to rough up the brad a bit with a sanding block if the ink isn't sticking too well.  Make sure you let the brad cool for at least a minute before you try to use it - it will be hot!   I'll be honest and say that once you've "dyed" your brad you shouldn't handle it too much - the color will eventually come off. 

Stamps: Great Friend
Paper: Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White
Ink: Elegant Eggplant (classic and craft), VersaMark
Tools & Accessories: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, clear embossing powder, heat tool, dimesionals

Birthday Card Fit for a Man

Hello!

     Today's card was inspired by, of all things, an Embosslits Die!  Found on page 215 of the 2010-11 Idea Book & Catalog, the Thanks Embosslits Die is a chemically etched die that can simultaneously cut and emboss an image when used with the Big Shot machine. 

     Being a stamper you'd think that I was pretty good at sending out birthday cards to friends and family members...  um, not so much.  I can't use the excuse that I forgot a birthday, especially since I have a Birthday Calendar (pg 170, $7.95) filled in with all the important dates. For some reason I fail to actually make the cards and get them in the mail.  Or if I do get a card in the mail it's always a store bought card (gasp!) and usually a day or two late.  I think my lack of enthusiasm for birthday cards may be due in part to the fact that there are a lot of males in my family.  While I'm pretty good at creating (or CASEing) cards with bright colors and lots of pretty ribbons and other embellishments, what I'm not so good at is creating masculine cards (men are not only hard to shop for but they're hard to create cards for!).  So I challenged myself this week to create at least one card that could be easily reproduced and sent out to family members. 

     I chose masculine colors and aimed to keep the card itself simple.  I know it's hard to tell from the photo but the stripes were embossed with clear embossing powder to give it a bit more texture.

    

Stamps: Solid Stripes, Bitty Birthday (retired)

Ink: Night of Navy, VersaMark

Paper: Crumb Cake (aka, Kraft),  Whisper White, Night of Navy, Brocade Blue (retired)

Tools & Accessories: Brads, dimensionals, wide oval, modern label extra-large and word window punches

a CASE of a CASE...

Hello!
     What do you do when it's too hot to go outside?  Stamp!  Temps today are supposed to reach into the high 90's in NH which means it's much too hot to do much of anything outdoors.  I decided the best thing to do was turn on the A/C and enjoy a guilt-free day of stamping!  *Mental note: using a fan in your stamp room is not recommended (I'll leave the visual up to you!).
     Today's card was inspired by Chat's card over at Me, My Stamps and I.  Chat's card was inspired by Mary Brown's card over at Stamper Camper's Corner - so I guess you could say my card is a CASE of a CASE! 
     To make this card more of my own, I kept the base color the same but changed the accent colors and sentiment.  I also used the stamp set Solid Stripes.  To make the stripes stand out a bit more I embossed them with clear embossing powder.

Stamps:  Solid Stripes, Thank You Kindly
Paper: Whisper White, Ruby Red, Cameo Coral, Night of Navy, Brocade Blue (retired)
Ink: Night of Navy, VersaMark
Tools & Accessories: square punches, Bluebird grosgrain ribbon (retired), dimensionals, hemp twine, clear embossing powder

Nothing Says Thank You Better Than Chocolate!

As a teacher I rely on parent volunteers to make my job a little easier.  As a thank you for all they did for me this year I made these little chocolate treat holders; inspiration came from the sample on my SU! website. To make it my own, I changed the cardstock & ribbon color, the stamped image and the brad.

The Pumpkin Pie cardstock measures 4 1/4"x 8 1/2" and is scored at 5" and 6".  The thanks image was stamped using Pumpkin Pie classic ink.  To make the brad white instead of silver it was dipped in white craft ink covered in white embossing powder and heated until the powder melted.  The wide oval punch was used at the top and the bag of candy as well as the cardstock was held together with the library clip.

Stamps: Lexicon of Love (retired)

Paper: Pumpkin Pie

Ink: Pumpkin Pie Classic Ink, white Craft Ink

Tools & Accessories: 1/2" library clips, circle designer brad (retired), 1/2" striped grosgrain ribbon in Pumpkin Pie (retired), wide oval punch, white Stampin' Emboss powder, heat tool, small flat cellophane bag.