VSN Entries

Last night I participated in a few online challenges as a part of a Virtual Stamp Night on one of my favorite websites. Each challenge has a set of rules to follow, or a theme... but they all have one thing in common... you only get 45 minutes from reading the challenge to create something! I tend to take forever when I'm designing projects from scrap... so these challenges really are challenges for me... but I figure it's good for me and if I do it often enough, maybe it will start to be easier? That's the hope anyway! Challenge One: The first challenge that I participated in was the "Smashing Autumn" one, whiwch was to Make a card using fall colors and the Ink, Spray and Smash technique. Well, I hadn't ever heard of that technique before... so it was definitely fun to try something new! In this technique, you use LOTS of newspaper spread out and rubber gloves (or you'll get ink everywhere... believe me... I thought I wouldn't really need the gloves, that I was just using them "in case" but I was sure glad I did use them! lol). You mist a piece of Glossy White cardstock with water, then drop or dribble re-inkers onto it. You then mist a second sheet of paper, and sandwich it on top of the first and smash them together to transfer the ink. Pull them apart, and you can keep doing this for several sheets of paper before you fade off to very light shades transferring over. The challenge said you could do up to 10 sheets, I think we did about 6 before it looked like it was about done... but this probably varies with how heavily you apply your original re-inker. The challenge hostess, Faith, posted a picture tutorial on her blog... check it out here.

Stamps: Thoroughly Thankful, Season by Season Paper: Chocolate Chip, Glossy White, Whisper White Ink: StazOn Jet Black, StazOn Timber Brown Accessories: Choc. Chip Wide Grosgrain ribbon, Reinkers, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainters Techniques: Ink, Spray and Smash This is a pretty simple card other than the background. For the background, I used Summer Sun, Really Rust, and Pumpkin Pie reinkers. I stamped my main image on a 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" Whisper white piece of cardstock and watercolored it in using the Watercolor Wonder Crayons and an Aquapainter. If I were to do this card again though, I would choose Very Vanilla or Naturals Ivory paper instead of the Whisper white... so that it would harmonize better with the muted look of my background. The white seems a little start to me... but since I only had 45 minutes to work in, there was no time for a switch! The ribbon is attached with glue dots, this is the new wide grosgrain ribbon that we started carrying this year, I love it! The main image is matted onto a 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece of Chocolate Chip paper, and attached with dimensionals. I stamped "Autumn" right on top of the background using the Timber Brown StazOn ink, then mounted the whole thing onto a standard sized (8 1/2" x 5 1/2" folded in half) Chocolate chip card base.

Challenge Two:

The second challenge was a "Trick or Treat" challenge where you were to create a treat holder out of a 2-4-6-8 box. I have done these types of boxes in classes before, but for new folks, or as a refresher, here's how you do it...

1. Take a piece of cardstock 5 1/2" x 8 1/2".
2. Along the long side, score the paper at 2".
3. Turn the paper 90 degrees, and score along the short width at 2", 4", 6" and 8".
4. Cut along the heavy lines in the diagram below (the small piece at the bottom right is discarded)
5. Stamp and decorate the upper 2" wide panels as desired. The 2" x 2" squares at the bottom will become the box bottom and will not be seen, and the 1/2" wide panel on the top is used to glue the sides of the box together and will not be seen.
6. Apply sticky strip as shown with the red lines below. I find that this placement of the sticky strip holds my box bottom together best without gaping flaps.
7. Fold up the bottom squares in the order indicated in blue, removing the red protective barrier on the sticky strip as you go to adhere the next square.
8. Remove the red protective strip from the last piece of sticky strip along the top edge and adhere to the panel next to it (shown in diagram as the far left panel, but after you adhere the box bottom together, it will be overlapping the section with the sticky strip) to close the side of the box.

Stamps: Spooky Skyline Jumbo Wheel Paper: Vellum cardstock Ink: Stazon Jet Black, markers, Elegant Eggplant, Night of Navy Accessories: Night of Navy grosgrain ribbon, Elegant Eggplant grosgrain ribbon, Vintage brads, 1/16" punch, sponges, Jumbo Wheel Handle For the challenge, I created the 2-4-6-8 box using vellum cardstock, then scored an extra 1/4" at the "top" of the box so that I could fold it down as a cuff. The scene was made by inking the wheel in StazOn, then letting it dry. On the back side of the vellum, I colored over the black ink with markers. Then to create the colored bands in the scenery, I sponged Elegant Eggplant over the tree portion, and Night of Navy above (though it's hard to see in the picture). The ribbon is adhered to the cuff with sticky strip. Then a ribbon handle was added by punching a 1/8" punch through opposite sides of the cuff and the Elegant Eggplant ribbon and using Vintage brads to hold them together. Challenge Three: The final challenge for the evening (at least for me!) was "Falling in Love...With Baby". The challenge was to make any card that was for a new baby or an expecting mom/couple. I was stumped at first, then jackpot! I had an idea.

Stamps: Wanted, Event Full, Jumbo Outline Alphabet Paper: Chocolate Chip, Naturals Ivory, Whisper White, Creamy Caramel Ink: Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel Accessories: Markers, Metallic eyelets, Choc. Chip wide grosgrain ribbon, Bashful Blue narrow grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals, scallop punch, water mister, cutter kit Techniques: Distressing

The size of this card is 4 1/4" X 7 1/4". I stamped "Wanted" and the "For Escape" onto the main piece of Naturals Ivory. I colored in the outline alpha with markers (darker where the letters overlapped). Then the main piece was distressed... Edges with the cutter kit, then direct to paper on the edges with the Creamy Caramel ink pad, then sponged in with Caramel a bit further. I then misted the whole piece of paper with water and crumpled it up... then dried with the heat tool so that I would stay within the 45 minutes! I adhered the layered ribbon with sticky strip.

The "Sweet Pea" is from the hostess set Event Full. I colored it in with markers, except the face. The blush blossom marker is a little too dark to look right for skin tone for my pale family, so I do the face with watercolor wonder crayons and an aquapainter. It is trimmed out and layered with dimensionals onto a Creamy Caramel scallop. The scallop is layered with more dimensionals over the ribbon. The main piece is then matted onto the Chocolate chip paper using the metallic eyelets. How fun! I kept giggling the whole time I was making this card. :) Yes, I'm a dork!

Have fun, and if you create something with one of these techniques or ideas, please send me a picture! :)

Faux Silk Class Samples

In last weekend's technique class, I also taught the Faux Silk technique. I just love the look of this one. I'm not sure the camera is doing justice to this technique... so if you're local, ask me to take a peek the next time you're by. Here is the one we actually made in class: Stamps: Bud Basics, En Francais, Carte Postal Ink: Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi, Brocade Blue, Brilliant Blue, Regal Rose, Rose Red Paper: Rose Red (hidden base), Rose Red, Whisper White, Brilliant Blue Accessories: Two way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, both oval punches, Liquid Glue, Tissue Paper, Glue dots Techniques: Faux silk This one has lots of little sparkle accents with the dazzling diamonds glitter. I love the bling, and don't mind that I ALWAYS wind up wearing some of the glitter! As it turns out, I could have just used a Regal Rose card base since you don't see the Rose Red base in the final card... but I wasn't sure what I was going to wind up doing as I designed the card, and I had alread cut and was using the hidden Rose red. The centers of the big flowers have a glue dot applied to the tissue paper, and then the glue dots were sprinkled with dazzling diamonds (DD). The Bonjour sentiment was circled just outside the white part with a two way glue pen and then sprinkled with DD. And these two were additional samples Stamps: Snow Flurries, Many Merry Messages Ink: Brocade Blue, Brilliant Blue Paper: Brocade Blue, Whisper White, Brushed Silver Accessories: Tissue Paper, Liquid glue, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Bashful Blue grosgrain ribbon Techniques: Faux Silk This card was a nice & easy to put together, and I love how simple it is. It is a 3" x 6" card... fun to do a different size. Stamps: Baroque Motifs Ink: Wild Wasabi, Brilliant Blue Paper: Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Brilliant Blue, Soft Sky Accessories: Tissue paper, Liquid Glue, Bold Brights Brads Techniques: Faux Silk This panel card was interesting to make. I wanted to try doing the faux silk with a different colored background paper to see how it would look. I used Soft Sky under the tissue paper, and it winds up with a more mottled look than when you mount it on white. I made the whole large panel at once, then cut it up into the three sections. The edges seem to have stuck down fine, but I would be careful handling this card too much since those tissue edges are unprotected after they are cut. Looking back, I probably should have just added an acetate piece over the panels and attached it with the brads in the corners. Happy stamping! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments section. Meredith

Faux Leather Cards

Okay, so this is the card I mentioned in my July 30th post that was an additional sample in class for the Faux Leather look. I was going for the "pleather" very fake leather looking stuff. I thought the card was fun and bright. For my technique class, we created one card using each of the three techniques, a technique card with instructions and a small sample of the technique, and I showed two additional samples using the technique. We had a great turnout and it was a lot of fun! The second sample uses Booglie eyes, these guys are just so darned cute! I wanted to have the faux leather look like the little mummy's bandages. I tore strips of masking tape instead of little pieces. I coated them in white craft ink and tried to dry them with the heat tool.... which wasn't happening very quickly. The masking tape seems to take longer to heat when you're emboss anyhow, and then with using craft ink... it just was taking a while. Since this was in the last hour before class, I gave up after a few minutes and continued with the card. I sponged on some Going Gray ink, then coated with clear embossing powder and embossed. No more issues! The sentiment was added word by word using the Stamp-a-ma-jig so that I could have them in a row instead of top to bottom as the stamp is. Stamps: Booglie Eyes Paper: Basic Grey, Whisper white Ink: Going Grey, Basic Black Marker Accessories: Masking tape, Basic Grey taffeta ribbon, Clear embossing powder, stamp-a-ma-jig

Faux Shaving Cream Cards

I made another sample using the Faux Leather technique to show in class this weekend (secret 'till after class!)... and while trying to create something I liked, I wound up with lots of extra accents that weren't right for *that* card. So I created other cards with the ready made pieces! The two flowers were made using the Faux Shaving Cream technique that was taught at Convention last year. The brighter flower was the first stamping, the paler one was another stamping without re-inking.

Bright Flower card: Stamps: Office Accoutrements, Garden Annuals Wheel, It's Your Birthday Ink: Pink Passion, Brilliant Blue, Only Orange Paper: Ballet Blue, Pixie Pink, Whisper White Accessories: White Grosgrain Ribbon Technique: Faux Shaving Cream

Softer Flower card: Stamps: Office Accoutrements, Fine Lace Background Ink: Pink Passion, Brilliant Blue, Only Orange (all stamped off once) Paper: Ballet Blue, Pixie Pink, Whisper White, Orchid Opulence Accessories: Rich Regals eyelets, Two Way Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Markers, Key Tag Punch Technique: Faux Shaving Cream, Thumping (for "Original" Sentiment) The Thumping Technique is done by thumping the brush end of your markers randomly over the surface of the stamp. Start with your lightest color, then the next lightest, etc, graduating to the darkest color you are using. Huff on your stamp (Open your mouth and breath heavily on it) to remoisten the ink and stamp! Voila! Have a great day! Meredith

August Technique Class Sneak Peek

Okay... here it is! This card uses the Faux Leather technique that I will be teaching in the class on August 5th. Let me know if you would like details about attending the class! RSVP's are due by August 2nd.