Embrace Life, with Rose

The small blossom was stamped on the white in Basic Gray and then colored in with Pretty in Pink and Regal Rose markers, then matted onto black. The word block "friendship" was aligned with the bottom edge of the rose cardstock. Background is stamped with the small blossom on Basic Gray card stock in Basic Gray ink.

Recipe:
Embrace Life, Celebrate Everything
Cardstock: Whisper White, Regal Rose, Basic Gray, Black
Ink: Basic Gray classic pad, Markers: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose
Accessories: 5/8" Regal Rose Grosgrain Ribbon

Embrace Life, With Olive

This card was fairly simple but it was necessary to emboss the Embrace Life sentiment first before stamping the background. The background branches were stamped with Versamark and if that had been done first, the black embossing powder would have stuck to the branches also. The branches on the main element were stamped in Versamark and then embossed with black EP. The leaves were then colored in with Old Olive marker.

Recipe:
Stamp Set: Embrace Life
Cardstock: Old Olive, River Rock, Basic Black
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: Heat tool, black embossing powder, 5/8" Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon

Embrace Life, with Guava

I recently attended a card making event at the home of a SU! demonstrator friend, Lisa Hirsch, and the next several posts will be cards that I made at that event. We made 10 cards for a cost of $10 and she supplied all the materials. This is a very nice way of getting cards and inspiration without having to spend the money to buy all the stamp sets used. This is also a good way to determine if a set is something that I might want to purchase at a later date.

So, here’s the first one. There are several cards using the Embrace Life set, it’s become one of my favorites!


This card uses an interesting technique for making faux eyelets. First I punched three corners using Chocolate Chip cardstock and the Photo Corner Punch. The punch makes two sizes, I used the smaller size. Then I used the paper piercer to make a hole (use the piercing mat) and using the white gel pen, outlined the hole. Viola, "eyelets"! For the "Thinking of You" sentiment which is hard to see in this picture, I first stamped on Ruby Red card stock and then used the Word Window Punch (flipped over) to center the words and then punch out. The Double Rectangle was used to punch the holes for the ribbon. Ruby Red ink was sponged on the flowers and the white gel pen used to accent.

Recipe:
Stamp Set: Embrace Life
Cardstock: Groovy Guava, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Basic Brown and Ruby Red
Accessories: Sponge Daubers, Photo Corner, Double Rectangle and Word Window Punches, Groovy Guava Double Stitched Ribbon, White Gel Pen

Happy Birthday, Froggy!

I have a friend who just had a birthday. He’s a very smart, mostly serious guy but also has a funny, quirky side so I thought he’d get a kick out of this card. The sentiment inside says "We may not be tadpoles any more but at least we haven’t croaked." (He and I are now the same age so I was sort of poking fun at myself too.)

Recipe:
Stamp Set: Birthday Banter, Decorative Lines Background (Hero Arts)
Paper: Cranberry Crisp, Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Confetti White
Ink: Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Cranberry Crisp
Accessories: Paper Piercer and template, piercing mat, Paper Crimper, 1/16th inch hole punch, Antique Silver Brads

It’s hard to see in this picture, but I made a row of pierced holes around the Always Artichoke mat under the frog image.

Faux Metal Medallion

I took a little break from blogging because I was out of town visiting my parents in northern Wisconsin. While we were having snow up there, the folks back here in Milwaukee were having RAIN! IN FEBRUARY!!! They had about 1.18" which was the equivalent of 11+ inches of snow! I'm glad it was the rain!

Anyway, Baroque Motifs was a set that I just HAD TO HAVE but I haven't done a lot with that one either. I saw this on Splitcoast Stampers in the gallery and had to try it. It's using the faux metal technique. It worked out well with the gold EP but when I tried it with regular red EP it cracked when I tried to cut out the medallion. Guess it works best with the metallics which would appear to be more supple.

Recipe:
Stamp Set: Baroque Motifs
Card Stock: River Rock, Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Ink: River Rock, Versamark
Accessories: 5/8" Chocolate Chip satin ribbon, Gold Embossing Powder, linen thread, dimensionals, large antique gold brad
Technique: Faux Metal

Faux Metal Technique:
First I took the round medallion stamp and inked it up with Versamark. I used Whisper White card stock and covered it completely with Versamark ink, then applied the gold EP, then heated with the heat tool. While EP was still hot, applied more EP and reheated. Did this about 4 times to get enough of a layer so that the medallion could then be stamped on it. Press down and hold for a couple of seconds to allow to set somewhat and then lift off stamp. Allow to cool before cutting out.

Embrace Life

I have fallen in love with this stamp set, but hadn't used it much before now. I saw this card on Diane’s blog, check her out at http://stampwithdiane.blogspot.com/ and decided to try to duplicate it. She made it simple enough so that I could make it work. Thanks for the great idea, Diane!

Recipe:
Stamp Sets: Embrace Life, Sincere Salutations
Paper: River Rock, Always Artichoke, Ruby Red, Very Vanilla, Ginger Blossom Designer Series paper
Ink: Always Artichoke, Color Box Burgundy pigment
Accessories: Clear Detail Embossing Powder, heat tool, bleach, watercolor brush
Technique: Bleaching

I bleached the flower by first stamping the image in the pigment ink and then embossing it with clear embossing powder. I used the bleach lightly because I didn’t want it to be a white flower. The rest of it was just layers and ink. So simple! I loved how it turned out!

Bloomin' Birthday

My husband’s aunt is turning 95 soon and I wanted to do something somewhat different for her. I had gotten the Blooming with Happiness hostess set last year but had never used it. I like how this turned out, it has several different elements that all work together without being busy.

Recipe:
Stamp sets: Blooming with Happiness, Handwritten Clear Stamp by Sentiments.
Paper: So Saffron, Almost Amethyst, and Certainly Celery Prints Designer Series Paper, Pretty in Pink card stock, Shimmery White
Ink: Black StazOn, Elegant Eggplant, various markers for cake and stand
Accessories: Silver hardware and brad, ribbon, Fiskars border punch (not sure of the design name), stick on silver brads, yellow Stickles glitter glue

Sticker Card in Gold

This card was the same technique as the previous one, except that this one was gold.

Recipe:
Stamp sets: Friendship Messages (used Just Because) (Hero Arts)
Paper: Metallic Gold stripe from Hot Off The Press’s Paper Pizazz METALLIC GOLD papers.
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: Scrapbooking Peel-off Sticker by Craft ‘n Craftin’ in Gold, Gold Embossing Powder, heat tool, Black Brads, 5/8" black organdy ribbon.

I taped the organdy ribbon to the back of the striped paper before attaching it to the main card. I had done the same thing with this card as I did with the other with regard to the lower right hand element. I started out with three black brads there too, but doing that would have used up almost all that I had, so chose the gold embossed greeting instead.

I sent this card to my sister and she thought I'd used gold leaf on it! Just goes to show that you can get a very expensive looking affect without much work. Now I have to figure out something to make with the red stickers that I have.

Sticker Card in Silver

I had purchased some peel off sticker sets at our Rubber Stamp and Scrapbook Expo last fall and had never gotten around to using them. So, the other night I decided to see what they were all about. This picture is pretty much self explanatory. You just peel off the sticker, put it on an appropriate color solid background paper, and mount it on another appropriately patterned background. The sheets come with several sizes of stickers including some corners and borders, but I chose to use the main elements first since they didn’t require a lot of thinking as to where to position. I needed something easy, and the hardest part of this card was figuring out what patterned paper to use for the background.

Recipe:
Stamp sets: Small Greetings (Hero Arts)
Paper: Basic Gray, Black, Pink Passion, Metallic Silver stripe from Hot Off The Press’s Paper Pizazz METALLIC SILVER papers.
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: Scrapbooking Peel-off Sticker by Craft ‘n Craftin’ in silver, Pink Metallic Brads, Black Embossing Powder, heat tool

I had originally made this card with three brads also in the lower right hand corner, but that looked too "even" and also used up almost all of my pink metallic brads. I therefore substituted the embossed greeting instead which says "thinking of you."

Teenaged Happy Birthday

I needed a birthday card for a 13 year old boy. What kind of card do you make for a 13 year old boy? I certainly didn’t have any stamp sets that would be appropriate, I didn’t think, and I didn’t want to do anything fancy or flowery ‘cuz he’s just not that type of kid. I had the In The Wild set but had already used that one for another card for him, so decided to go with the inspiration sheet for the retired Designer Label Punch Box and use my new hostess set Party Punch instead. I used the directions on the sheet for the notebook, but instead made it up as a card.

Recipe:
Set: Party Punch (hostess set from Spring/Summer catalog)
Paper: Confetti White, More Mustard, Old Olive, Bordering Blue, Chocolate Chip card stock.
Ink: Old Olive
Accessories: More Mustard 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, photo anchor and brad, paper piercing tool and template.

It’s a little hard to see in this picture, but I did a row of piercings just below the bottom edge of the Bordering Blue paper, on the More Mustard, to offset the torn and rolled edge of the Old Olive at the top, which is also a little bit hard to see in this picture.

In the end, I liked how all the parts came together. I hope the young man who got it liked it too.