I wasn't feeling too well the night of October's Card Club meeting so I stayed home. If I was coming down with something I didn't want to spread it to the rest of the group and besides, my SU Demo is one of my closest friends. By Saturday I was feeling fine and she needed to use my sewing machine so she just brought everything I needed to complete the projects over with her.
I just love this technique and I love these colors. I recently bought SU's Razzle Dazzle after it finally dawned on me that it coordinates so well with all the "Bella" sets and it insisted that I ink it up. I used White Craft ink and Sparkle embossing powder on Very Vanilla then cut it out with a Spellbinders circle die. The border piece, which was done with Bella's Border Wheel used the same ink and embossing powder and was very easy to center since all my wheels are unmounted. I sponged a combination of Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Bashful Blue on both pieces then cleaned off any excess ink with a paper towel. The Very Vanilla card was embossed with SU's Flourish Embossing Plate. The Rich Razzleberry pieces were cut out then embossed with the Cuttlebug Textile Texture embossing folder. For the Card Club Swap I stamped "For You" in Rich Razzleberry on Bashful Blue, cut out with an oval punch then mounted to a slightly large Very Vanilla oval. The day after Club, my Fancy Tags die set arrived. Isn't that always the way? I just had to see how it would look so I stamped my sentiment in Rich Razzleberry on Bashful Blue, die cut and embossed it then, while it was still in the die, I used a sponge dauber with Rich Razzleberry to lightly dust the center oval and darkly ink the designs on the sides of the tag. I just mounted it over the excisting ovals which gives it a dimentional look.
September's Card Club Technique was Emboss Resist. For the technique, we rolled the Stamping Wheel in Versamark, rolled it onto Glossy cardstock,embossed with clear embossing powder,brayered on black ink then wiped off excess ink with tissue.
Our Card Club Swap for September had to use the technique we did in August which was Masking & Reverse Masking. I got a little carried away with it and used 3 masks but it was fun and rather easy once I got the sequence down. I used my Spellbinders dies and Eclipse tape to make my masks. I covered a scrap of cardstock that was 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 with the Eclipse tape then centered the scalloped oval face down on it. I taped the die down with removable tape to hold it then centered the plain oval die inside the oval and taped it in place before running the whole thing through my Big Shot. To make the card, I covered the front with the 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 inch mask and the scalloped mask, leaving just the center oval uncovered. I stamped the grapes in Adirondack Espresso and sponged the other edges of the oval with Antique Linen Distress Ink. I applied the oval mask to the center then removed the scalloped mask. I sponged the scalloped band with Sahara Sand, stamped the crackle in Sahara Sand then replaced the scalloped mask. Finally I removed the largest mask, stamped the scroll in Rich Razzleberry,distressed with Antique Linen nearest the scallops and Walnut Stain and Rich Razzleberry around the outside edges then removed all masks. I colored the grapes with Prismacolor markers and outlined the scallops with SU's Sahara Sand and Soft Suade Markers.
This year, at our Stampers 10 Card Club, we are doing 6x6 Technique Pages each month along with a project that uses the technique. Then we have to use the technique for our Swap for the following month. Our first meeting of the year was in August and our technique was masking. I did most of my stamping at club then took everything home for assembly because I had a few changes I wanted to make (so what else is new) I used the large wheat stamp from JidiKins for my page background and dusted the edges of the instructions with the same inks as used in the sample. I trimmed my sample piece down so it would fit on the page better, snipped with a notched corner punch, wrapped it with pearl cotton then mounted it to Chocolate Chip. I left the masked piece full sized for the card but I liked the look of the pearl cotton so I repeated it for the card.
No problem there, it's a great sketch. The problem was the Swap Theme -Vacation. I just wasn't feeling it. I mean, who the heck makes a card for a vacation? So after hours of struggling I came up with this. Everyone said they loved it but I think they were just being kind but at least it does remind me of Oregon.
I pulled out punches and ribbon, my watercolor pencils & stamp positioner and went to town with my new Waltzingmouse stamp set. Now this is more like it! Claire of Waltzingmouse Stamps often ends her blog posts by saying "Hope it tickles." Well this definately tickles me. Hope it does you as well.
On this first card, we stamped the rose leaves from A Rose is a Rose with Certainly Celery by stamping off on the base stamp and using the ink full strength on the detail overstamp. The white panel on the left was done by inking up a crimper with Certainly Celery and running the cardstock through, reinking as needed then smoothing out the cardstock. We tied a piece of white satin ribbon towards the top and mounted it to the left side of the Cameo Coral card. We ran a piece of cardstock through the Big Shot with the embossing folder and used the debossed side. We randomly brayered Regal Rose and Summer Sun onto it then cut it and our leaves out and mounted as shown. The final touch was to stamp the sentiment onto a strip of vellum and mounting across the bottom of the card with brads. Quick, simple, yet so elegant! I saw this technique on Patty Bennett's Blog here, back in April but never got around to trying it.
The second card uses a technique I first saw on Patty Bennet's Blog here. I didn't have the Fifth Avenue Floral set at the time so I used Embrace Life to experiment then gave the card away without photographing it first. What a dummy! Any who way... At club we only used 2 colors of reinkers so the results were very subtle. I ended up taking all the parts home because I wanted to stamp some sort of background on the card. I ended up using SU's retired Lace background in Pale Plum. The leaves were cut using a Sizzlets die which I then shaded with my Prismacolor Markers (Green Tea & the Colorless Blender) and I sponged some Mellow Moss onto the sentiment label. Once I got all the parts done to my liking I couldn't remember how the card went together so I just winged it.
The frame was stamped in Memento Black and colored with an olive Prismacolor marker. The fruit, from the retired SU stamp set Fabulous Fruits, was stamped with SU Real Red and Garden Green. The sentiment, stamped in black, is from SU's Happy Harmony. The whole piece was trimmed with a deckle scissor and mounted to a Real Red card.
I stamped French Script in Soft Silver Shadow Ink on white cardstock, punched one short side with Fiskars All a Fleur Embossing Border Punch then sponged the punched edge with more Soft Silver Shadow Ink. I stamped the heart from StampinUp's Ever After set in black in the upper left corner and the Lilies of the Valley along the right punched edge. I wrapped a piece of white satin ribbon 2 ¼ inches in from the left side. Stamped sentiment from Very Versatile in black on a scrap of white and punched out with large oval punch then inked edges with Soft Silver. Mounted oval to label that was cut from the Matchbox Bigz XL Die then embossed with Textile Cuttlebug folder. Added white satin ribbon tails to each side of label and mounted over lower center. I mounted the whole piece to black cardstock. I felt it was still missing something so after much deliberation I finally added some pearls to the stamped heart and called it good.
I had planned on showing the projects I made at a Stamp Camp held on May 2nd long before this but somehow an entire month slipped right past me. So much has happened since then that I can’t even remember it all. Any who way.... we began by making a Stationery box with little pockets and dividers for holding greeting cards, gift cards and gift tags. We were given a selection of color schemes to choose from and, although not usually a “pink person”, the gray and pink combination appealed to me. 
At this months card club meeting we got to play with the new goodies in StampinUp's Occasions Mini Catalog. We made a Mother's Day card using the outline stamps in Soft Summer, with the dogwood(?) branch as the focal point and the fluffy weed thing (?!?!) for the background on the card base. The colors were supposed to be Almost Amethyst, Certainly Celery and Apricot Appeal but the Apricot just wasn't doing it for me so I was able to switch it to Barely Banana. We watercolored the Dogwood by coloring with the crayons directly onto the paper and then spreading and shading with the blender pen. I then showed how I can get a softer effect when inking the edges by using the foam applicator and the non-stick sheet. Kim, our fearless leader and SU Demo, then tried the same technique with a makeup sponge and the image sheet from the Stamp-a-ma-jig. Well Poop!!! Why didn't I think of that BEFORE spending the money on the applicator and craft sheet?!?!? Live and learn. Anyway, the card is based on Sketch Challenge 224.
There is something about this card that I really love. I think it's the way the watercolored tree came out. I first stamped it in black on a scrap piece of paper so I could see the detail and then colored the rubber with my watercolor crayons. This allowed me to see where I needed to add brown for the trunk and branches. The stamp is from SU's Lovely as a Tree. The paper is from My Mind's Eye, dark green cardstock from Bazzill and Close to Cocoa from SU. The plain and scalloped rectangles are from Spellbinders and the ribbon was a piece of satin left over from the Baby Layette I crocheted.
I guess the trick is to make several of them on a bright cheerful day and just put them aside until needed so there isn't a lot of sad emotion tied to it.
On this second one I should have done some inking on the scalloped edge to make it stand out more. It seems to just melt into the striped paper. What do you think?
