Inkspiration for Stamping and Scrapbooking

Tart & Tangy class close up

The Tart & Tangy class was a LOT of fun!

I showed you a group picture of the cards earlier, and now you can see each one up close!

This is the faux postage card, which some of you may have seen before, as I posted it way back when I first announced this class.

Faux postage is really just another masking technique and it creates a really fun effect. We used markers to colour the cherries, and then used a sponge dauber to shade in the background.

This is the faux tile card. There are a few faux tile techniques out there; one involves scoring a grid-like pattern on your card, but I've also seen that called a grid card. This technique involves creating a tile like surface by stamping with classic ink, and then smooshing the cardstock in your Versamark pad and clear embossing.

I know there aren't blue apples, but I love this card, and here's why:

  My dining room is adorned with my Delft collection - yes, there's Dutch blood running through my veins and I love the blue hand-painted porcelain that typifies Dutch artwork - I'll never be able to afford a VanGogh or Rembrandt so these hand-painted beauties will do just nicely.

So I used my Delft  trivets as my inkspiration for the faux tile card.

This next card is a close copy of one in a recent Stampin' Success magazine. For those that don't know, Stampin' Success is the monthly magazine that SU! demonstrators receive free full of business and stampin' ideas.

This technique is called the loaded marker. I like the watercolour-y effect it creates. We loaded the side of a light-coloured brushtip marker with darker-coloured ink and coloured with that. The effect is somewhat subtle, but quite pretty.

This card is a very close copy of Sharon Johnston's card found here. She eventually incorporated her card into a kitchen collection gift set - so cute!

You've heard me talk about Sharon before - I love her simple, elegant style. She posts a stamp simply challenge every Friday, and if you want to play along, you'll find the challenges on her blog.

This card incorporates a template, more than a technique, but I loved it so much I included it in the class! There's a little flap on the inside cover that can hold a favourite cherry recipe that you'd like to share, or a gift card or gift certificate.

This card smells so good!

This is a scratch and sniff card. I mixed unsweetened KoolAid with clear and irridescent ice embossing powders and the whole orange slice is the one that produces that sweet happy smell when scratched.

The 3 slices are embossed with irridescent ice ep and look yummy enough to eat, don't you think? They remind me of candies I'd see at my grandparents - those sugary fruit candies. Anyone know what I mean?

This card is inspired by this  one I saw on SCS - only I eliminated the green - we have enough green cards already, and because I wanted the scratched image to be big enough to get lots of enjoyment out of, I went with the whole orange.

So that was our class - if you missed it, I hope you can make it to another class in the future.

Hope these inspire you to get your stamps out and play - there are so many things you can do with a single set. Next week, I'll show you another Tart & Tangy card I'm dreaming up for my team meeting swap card. Sorry, but you have to wait until they get theirs first.

Happy stampin' and blessings,

Ann

Tart & Tangy, comin' up?

Did you say you like your stampin' tart & tangy?

Well, you'll get it just the way you like it at this Wednesday night's class - an evening of nothing but Tart & Tangy ideas!

Here's what we're making! I'll show you pictures of each individual card after the class. The ladies attending get to see it first - that's fair, right?

This is a technique oriented class so we'll be learning these techniques:

• loaded marker
• faux postage
• scratch n sniff
• faux tile
• as well as a really neat cutting trick for the cherry card (which is a very close copy of a card by Sharon Johnston - you've heard me rave about her work before)

The orange card is inspired by one I saw on SCS and I wrote down the name of person who uploaded it, but I can't find it just now; I'll be sure to give credit when I post each card individually on Thursday.

Come back tomorrow when I'll share a little problem and an easy solution for it.

Happy stampin' and blessings! - Ann

Enjoy Texture!

This week's stamp club meeting is about texture. I'll show you more of our projects later in the week - wouldn't want to spoil it for them. But I will show you one card we're making.

As well as being a card that speaks to our theme of texture for this week's class, it is also my response to Sharon Johnston's rounded corner challenge of this past Friday. Since I had rounded my corners the usual way on Kristina's colour challenge, I made this card with convex corners, using the ticket corner punch. I used the punch on the layers, and on the So Saffron card base itself.

The Purely Pomegranate layer is wheeled with the Daisy Dash jumbo wheel, which matches the Enjoy Life set so nicely. And you can get the wheel free when you order the set during SU!'s Free Wheelin' promo on until April 30th. The patterned paper comes from the Cutie Pie designer series paper and I stamped it with the "wonderful" greeting from Warm Words.

The focal image, created with stamps from Enjoy Every Moment, is stamped and cut or punched out to build up the layers and I played with the blue cosmo glitter and the dazzling diamonds glitter.

You can see the glitter and the ribbon more closely here:

What do you think of this ribbon treatment? I read about it somewhere, but can't remember where, so apologies to the originator.

Here's a quick how-to:

To ruffle the ribbon like this, you simply start with double stitched ribbon and then gently tug on the white stitching. Anyone whose sewn will know how to do gathering, pulling the thread to create a gathered skirt or apron, for example. This is the same technique. Gently pull those white threads until your ribbon is gathered. Tie the white threads together behind the ribbon and cut the ends. I added a dab of 2 way glue so they would stay behind and adhered the ribbon to the card with glue dots.

Texture? I'd say this card has it: visually with the unexpected corners and glitter, and in a tactile sense, with the ribbon. I'll be back with the other two club cards later this week.

Meantime, leave me a comment to let me know what you think of the card, or to share some of your favourite ways to add texture to a project. 

Til next time,

Happy stampin' and blessings! - Ann

Embrace Life Class - Sneak Peek

For those of you signed up for my upcoming Embrace Life class, I'm giving you a little sneak peek at our cards. For those of you who haven't signed up yet, you still have time to get in on this fabulous class - sign up closes February 29th so we have our sets in time for the March 12th class.

We will be making 5 over the top, drop dead gojus cards!Here's your peek:

The inspiration for these cards have come from a variety of beautiful stampers including Corinne Somerville, Debbie Olson, Sophia Landry, Vivian Swain, and Kristin Moore.

We'll be allowing about 1/2 hour for each card - yes, these are some deluxe cards and when you're finished you'll want to give them to those special people - the ones you KNOW keep your cards!

See class schedule for more details. to join us for this class, just email me. I'm looking forward to seeing you here!

Check Out this month's SU! party cards

I enjoyed another stampin' Up! party late last week with another fabulous hostess and some really great ladies.

Most of these women have stamped before, but because there were three there who hadn't, I included this simple but striking card:

We made this card with Very Vanilla cardstock, and Old Olive  and Purely Pomegranate inks. The flourish stamp is the larger of the two flourishes in Priceless. The focal point is stamped on scraps and punched out with the Five Petal Flower punch, that co-ordinates so nicely with the stamp we used from In the Sjpotlight, a level two hostess set. We added some detail by using the Crop-o-dile and the mat pack to dry emboss the border. Even the experienced stampers were really "wow"ed with this card! I am sure the inspiration for this card came from a SCS gallery.

We also did this card. I am sure I've shown it to you before. This group hadn't seen it, so why not - it's gorgeous and they had fun doing the kissing technique with the flannel background and the small flower from the Pick a Petal stamp set. 

Our final card was this one - it took a little more work, but it was a huge hit. Again, I am sure that a SCS gallery inspired this one - actually I think I took one idea from one card and another idea from another card, and came up with this...

Here's my favourite little snowman again, from Merry & Bright. He's coloured in with blender pens and ink. The card uses lots of masking to set him in this setting - the tree and snowflakes behind him.

The vertical piece is the emboss resist technique using the "snow" wheel and Bashful Blue ink on glossy cardstock. It's mounted on Wasabi paper.

The background paper comes from the Winter Bright Simply Scrappin Kit. AND I have TONS of the kit leftover for more projects!

If you love incorporating patterned paper into your cardmaking and scrapbooking projects, you are going to LOVE the upcoming November special. Stay tuned!!! Meantime, don't forget that this month, Stampin' Up! is trying to help you simplify things by allowing you to create custom kits for your Christmas cardmaking. Click here for more info, or email me. These kits can be shipped anywhere in Canada.

Happy stampin'! - Ann