Techniques

Christmas in July

I just can’t get enough of the Good Morning Magnolia stamp set!

The As You See it Challenge this week is what we call an assortment challenge. You have to include all of the listed elements on your card design.

I wasn’t sure how to pull this one off as I like to use current Stampin’ Up! product for the cards I post on my blog and I didn’t have ANY stars!! Not a single current stamp set or die cut with a star. I’m a little bit shocked at this finding. It appears that I need to make a purchase, lol!

Since I didn’t have stars, I remembered a technique using the Chalk Marker to dot the background to look like stars in the night sky. That was the beginning of this card.

I sponged some Night of Navy ink on to Night of Navy cardstock fading it lighter as I moved down the paper. The Chalk Marker dots were then added to make the starry night sky. The sentiment is another problem that I came across as I couldn’t find any Christmas sayings that were the right size for that small space. So I created my own using the Make a Difference Photopolymer Stamp Set. It’s a bit more effort, but it allows you to write whatever you might choose. I stamped each letter with Versamark ink, then heat embossed with Gold Embossing Powder.

I used the Rectangle Stitched Dies to cut the Night of Navy piece to the size I wanted. That was attached to a piece of Gold Foil Paper on which I added a little peek-a-boo amount of the Gold Metallic Edged Ribbon. Both of those layers were added to the Thick Very Vanilla cardstock card base.

The magnolia image is the main attraction on this elegant Christmas card. I stamped the image on Whisper White cardstock with Tuxedo Black Momento ink, then coloured it using my Stampin’ Blends Markers: Poppy Parade (light and dark), a tiny touch of the Cherry Cobbler (I think it was the light one, but I can’t remember now, sorry), Mango Melody (dark) for the centre, Mossy Meadow (light and dark), and the Color Lifter Blends Marker to intensify some highlights on the petals. I then coloured around the outside of the flower with the Sark Night of Navy Blends Marker so that when I die cut the image, it would blend more with my background colour. I attached the die cut magnolia with Multipurpose Liquid Glue.

But that’s not all!

I stamped the magnolia a second time on Whisper White cardstock, colouring just the flower centre and four centre-most petals. I then fussy cut around those four petals. I attached them with Multipurpose Tombo Liquid Glue under the centre of the group of petals, and with Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals under the outer-most area of the petals, giving the flower more of a 3D look.

I love how it turned out!! I am definitely going to share this 3D look with my technique class in the future. I think they’ll really like it!

Now it’s your turn to give this assortment challenge a try and share it with us on the As You See It Challenge Blog! We would love to see how you pulled all of those elements together.

And if you like this Good Morning Magnolia stamp set as much as I do and you are in Canada, why not go over to my ONLINE STORE and add it to an order. You’ll probably love the whole Magnolia Lane Suite! It’s all just gorgeous!

Take Your Cards to the Next Level with Embossing Paste

I had some fun playing with Stampin’ Up! Embossing Paste last week. Through playing, I accidentally created a new technique!

The card I shared last week showed off the results of that first accident, while today’s card shows another background made with the same technique using just Coastal Cabana ink.

The Friends & Family Stamp Set from Stampin’ Up! is so cute and allows the ability to customize people for your paper crafts! You can use it to make an entire customized family! This set is retiring at the end of May, so order it before it’s gone!

I coloured my cute boy with Stampin’ Up! Blends Markers. To create the shadow at his feet, you can use the Light Smokey Slate Blends Marker, then use the Color Lifter over the bottom of the shadow and it will fade it out a bit, softening the edge.

I used Coastal Cabana ink to colour the Embossing Paste, by first applying a small amount of ink directly to the brick patterned mask, then applied the paste over the color, which allows the paste to become coloured and provides a nice variation to the final brick look. I love how easy it is and how cool it looks!

You can check out my Facebook Live video of this embossing paste technique by clicking HERE.

Watercolour Tissue Paper Technique

Have you ever used tissue paper on your hand made cards? There are a few fun and creative ways to work with tissue paper, some of which you may remember from elementary school crafts! I wanted to share a technique that I recently found online. It’s a bit messy, but definitely worth the trouble. My method primarily follows the instruction from a crafter named Loll Thompson, though I do a couple things differently.

Here’s one of the cards I made using this technique.

I used Pineapple Punch, Calypso Coral, and Mango Melody with the tissue paper technique. After crumpling and pressing the dry tissue paper onto a piece of Whisper White cardstock, I used my embossing buddy over the surface, then gently tapped the Versamark ink on the wrinkled tissue paper so that it would only touch the tops of the wrinkled bits. Then I used Silver Embossing Powder with my Heat Tool to create this awesome and unique background.

The Stitched Rectangle Framelits Dies were used to create the Whisper White frame. I die cut the hot air balloon from a piece of the Black Foil Sheets from Stampin’ Up! and carefully adhered it to the frame and the banner, which are both attached to the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The sentiment from the Lift Me Up stamp set from Stampin’ Up! is stamped on Whisper White cardstock with Flirty Flamingo ink to coordinate with the results of the watercolour effect.

The card with the cupcake from the Hello Cupcake stamp set (no longer available for purchase), shows off the colour combination of Blueberry Bushel, Call Me Clover, and Pineaple Punch ink with Copper Embossing Powder. You will find that this technique gives you different results every time!

Check out the video and find out more about how to do this watercolour tissue paper technique.