Stretch Your Stamps Day 2

… and only 2 days behind  

Hello!  Just popping in to share what I made for day 2 of Stretch Your Stamps online card class – using collage stamps.  I don’t really own any collage stamps, so I used a technique that Kristina Werner shared involving distress inks, clear embossing, and more distress inks.  The technique reminded me of that old art class project that teachers used to torture engage us in – where we had to colour as hard as we could in a variety of colours of pencil crayon, then colour over all of that as hard as we could in black crayon, then pick off the black crayon to reveal a design.  This technique is much easier, and far more enjoyable to create. 

I started with laying down some distress inks on my craft mat, then spritzing with water.  I laid my watercolour paper in the ink to pick up the colour then let it dry.  I stamped the paper with versamark using a hero arts tapestry stamp (not sure of the exact name), then clear embossed.  Finally, I went over everything with black soot distress ink.  I wiped what I could off the embossing with a baby wipe when it was dry. 

The butterflies were punched with 2 Martha Stewart punches and sprayed with some pearlized water (they are much more sparkly and pretty in real life).  The sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

 

Thank you for stopping by!

Steph

Stretch Your Stamps Day 1

Hello!  I am so excited to share with you my first ever following along submission to an online card class!  Here it is:

Day 1’s focus was using background stamps.  I used the Hero Arts/Studio Calico lattice background stamp.  I inked it up once and stamped it out on Neenah Solar White cardstock, then stamped it again, moving it up ever so slightly.  The result was this really cool, retro-y type background.  I paired it up with some images from Paper Smooches “Sugar Rush” set and viola! 

Thanks for stopping by, I’m now off to get my Day 2 homework done!

 

Steph

Stretch Your Stamps

Hello!  I am a junkie for learning new things.  I am forever buying and reading professional resources for teaching, reading blog posts, and taking beading and card making classes.  So of course when I found out about this Online Card Class being offered last summer, I signed up right away.  It was fun to follow along with the class and learn a whole whack of new things, but unfortunately, with a newborn, I didn’t have the opportunity to create along with the class.  Fast forward a year and with every other Online Class under my belt (none of which I followed along with to create as they went), I am now signed up for Stretch Your Stamps and I vow, yes, I VOW to follow along with this class and participate in each and every day of it!  So, here is my contribution to the before class gallery (even though the gallery is now closed - doing well already :)).  Wish me luck for staying on top of the rest of my homework!

The papers are all from Basic Grey’s Max and Whiskers collection.  I used Walnut Stain distress ink on the edges and for all of my stamping.   Stamps used are Hero Arts birthday definition and Happy Birthday from a Paper Smooches set.  The present is a free Paper Smooches digi stamp that I printed and coloured with copics.

Thanks for stopping in!
Steph

Do It Yourself Photo Light Box

I always hated how the pictures I took of my cards turned out.  So I decided to look into a photo light box.  In the interest of spending little to no money, I turned to google and found this set of instructions.  Done.  I grabbed a diaper box from the basement and whipped up this bad boy in no time…



I’ll share some more cards with you tomorrow. 
Steph

Find Joy in the Simple Things…

…and todays simple joy shall be Channing Tatum.  I’ve got a slight crush on the guy – such a hottie!  I’m going to see “Magic Mike” tonight – can’t wait.  In the meantime, I intend to spend a lovely day relaxing with my hubby and our little man.  Perhaps a little swim, and if I’m lucky, maybe a bit of crafty time. 

Over the last little bit, I’ve become a fan of creating simple cards.  Don’t get me wrong, I love spending a couple of hours colouring up an awesome image with my copics, and fiddling around with layouts and the such, but lately I can’t be bothered.  I want a finished card, and I want it fast.  I think this is why I’ve become such a fan of Kristina Werner and Jennifer McGuire (besides their just pure and simple awesomeness); they create cards that are simple and stunning. 

So…. channelling my inner simple goddess, I came up with a whack of cards that took practically no time at all:

Stamp: Hero Arts

Stamp: Paper Smooches

Stamp: Paper Smooches

… which leads me to my new obsession – Paper Smooches stamps!  But more on that later…

 

For each of the cards, I used my circle punches to create the flowers and the leaves.  I actually just punched out a whack of circles in various sizes, then just went about creating the flowers from the stacks of circles I punched.  It took no time at all to create about 20 of these cards.  The centres of the flowers were glossy-d up with some Glossy Accents.  I embossed each card with a Cuttlebug folder, and I even embossed some of the flowers with a Stampin Up folder.

 

I am still so excited about my new photography skills!  Love the images!  Love the backgrounds!  (as you can see, it doesn’t take much to get me excited)

 

Well, that’s about all for now!  Thanks for stopping by,

Steph

Phew!

Boy oh boy was the last part of June a whirlwind!  I went back to work from my maternity leave for the last 2 weeks of June and am now happily on summer vacation!  We celebrated the little man’s birthday on Canada Day with 40 of our closest family and friends (yes, I’m nuts).  With al the crazy business going on lately, I haven’t had much time to craft.  I do have a few cards I’m going to share with you over the next little bit, and I’m also super excited about the photo light box that I made to take some better pictures with! 

Here is a photo of a card taken the old fashioned way (in all it’s shadowy goodness):

And here is the same similar card photographed in my new photo box:

 

Oh I’m so giddy!  Isn’t it pretty!  I love how bright I can get my picture to be, and I love that I can put a background in behind it!  I will work on getting some pics of the box itself, and try to find the link to the instructions I used to make it.

 

For these cards, I used some My Mind’s Eye Away We Go paper.  The hexagons were cut using my Silhouette.  The “happy” and the “birthday” were cut using Papertrey Ink dies.  The layout itself is inspired by a card that Kristina Werner created for one of the Online Card Classes.  I am obsessed with her work, she is amazing.

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a great weekend!

Steph

Happy Father’s Day!

Part 1…

(my hubby reads my blog, so I can’t show you his card until tomorrow)

I made this card for my father-in-law and another very similar for my dad.

 

The image quality is terrible… not sure why.  Sorry about that!  The background is embossed with a circle embossing folder, the sentiment was printed and cut using a Silhouette Studio file.  I coloured the heart red with a marker before covering it with stickles.  The papers are Basic Grey Oxford, and the hearts were punched using the SU three heart punch.  I covered them with some gold Tim Holtz crackle paint stuff (can’t think of the proper name of it right now), in the gold colour, then added some vintage photo distress stain to it once it dried. 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Steph