Sunday morning fun

I'm taking a break between loads of laundry to post some pics of a few cards I was able to make earlier today.  I apologize for the lousy photography; I have to find better lighting and hold my iPhone straighter, lol!

I just received my new Brick Wall embossing folder from Stampin Up and was anxious to give it a try.  I used the direct-stamping technique on the folder before embossing to achieve the look of mortar between the bricks.  I scuffed up some of the bricks with my favorite embossing ink, Walnut Stain.  I used my SU Awesomly Artistic and World of Dreams stamp sets to add the foliage and dragonfly.  I stamped an extra dragonfly, fussy cut his wings and attached to the stamped image for some dimension.

Also in my Stampin Up order was the new Confetti Embossing folder.  As with most of my projects,  I saw the idea of multi-color inking of the raised image in a Pinterest post and had to give it a try.    I stamped and popped up a die cut oval to cover the debossed area in the center.  If you're in need of a quick, last minute card, this folder is perfect.

My last card was made using the faux 3-D stamping technique; an old one but deserves to be resurrected from time to time.

I used the Skywriting stamp from Memory Box and stamped on top of three, stacked papers of graduating sizes.  I left them stacked and sponged on some Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire embossing ink.  I then Popped each layer on the plum cardstock cut slightly larger on each layer.  I  tied some glitter string, added a pretty bead, and adhered the stack to an ivory base card that I sponged with some more Chipped Sapphire.

 

February Sweetheart Tag

Thursday evening was a blast creating this fun tag with my fellow crafters at The Craft Shack, our favorite supply store and crafting hangout.  We are following Tim Holt's 12 tags of 2016 and learning all of his techniques.  For each month this year he is mixing two techniques from prior years; this one being the monoprint from June 2014 and the embossing texture paste from March 2015.

I began by sponging a manila tag with antique linen distress ink then lightly spritzing it with water for a mottled effect.  I then used Tim Holtz's flourish stencil and inked the back of it with frayed burlap distress stain spritzed with water, and cleaned the edges with a paper towel.  (This ensures you won't get a line at the edge of your design.) I flipped the stencil over and layed it horizontally on the tag then pressed lightly all over with a paper towel, transferring the ink to the tag.  I repeated this step two more times to completely cover the tag.  What a great muted background!  You'll have to experiment with the amount of water to spritz and the type of stencil to get the proper effect.

Next, I used a heart stencil and some fired brick distress ink and applied some random hearts.  A finger dauber works great for this so you can achieve some faded edges.

For the second technique, I used some modeling paste and applied over a sweetheart word stencil.  While still wet, I applied some gold distress embossing powder, tapped off and let dry thoroughly.  Once dry, I heated with a heat gun only until the powder melted.  You don't want to over heat and melt the paste.  Wow, does the make the words pop off the tag!  It's hard to see here, but I love it so much, I might do it on all of my projects!

To finish off, I used a frame around a very old, dear picture of my great grandparents.  The heart was cut using Tim's Scribbles and Splat thinlet die and spritzed with Biscotti perfect pearls.  Hanging from the arrow is a charm with the letter C for Coates.  I added a "love" ticket, cherish charm, and crinkle ribbon died with fired brick.

I can't wait for March to see what two techniques he will combine.

Rare day of crafting...

I had a most rare day today where I actually had some time to put together a few cards and get in touch with my lost creativity.  My "other half" had a procedure done today so I had to take the day off.  We were home by 11 and the weather was horrible so I disappeared to my craft cave while he was resting.  All three of these cards were shown on Splitcoaststsmpers.com and while I make every effort to not CASE, as crafters we can all agree that we get many of our inspirations from the thousands of artistic ideas posted by fellow crafters.

The first is a simple birthday or all occasion card using the Stampin Up Oh Hello die set, Sizzix swirls embossing folder, an old DSP stack and a Stampin Up antique brad in the center.  I used the Stampin Up Flower Shop punch on the top layer so the DSP paper peeked through. Simple...

For this Celebrate You card, I used all Stampin Up Very Vanilla CS and die cut the window and stamped the sentiment using Versamark and heat embossed it with WOW gold powder.  The butterfly is from Memory Box and the Fancifiul Flourishes are from Cheery Lynn Designs.  I spritzed the butterfly with Perfect Pearls Biscotti (my favorite) which is hard to see here but adds an interesting shimmer.

I just love the look of this inlaid design; again using the Cheery Lynn Designs Fanciful Flourishes die.  It's all Stampin Up cardstock and the unexpected Versafine ink on my fingertips provided for an opportunity to add a butterfly using a Memory Box die.

Birthday Corner Card

Here's a simple, quick card designed after the tutorial for Decorative Corner Card that I saw on Splitcoaststampers.com.  It's a fun way to use up your scraps!  I used scraps from an old glitter paper stack and added a couple of simple embellishments.  The card stands up well and folds flat to fit an A2 envelope.  Hop on splitcoaststampers.com to get the full tutorial for this and many other projects.