Rockin' Reversed Prints

After a few days of taking way too many x-rays, I'm back to stamping. And did you watch American Idol last night?! What was Brandon getting kicked off and Sunjaya staying all about?! Sometimes America does get the voting wrong. Oh well, there's always next week. I hope we can all agree that Diana Ross is still an amazing performer. She looks good for her age and she's still working the stage! FYI - I sent my text voting on Melinda and the Beat Box kid. Love them both!!

I love the colors orange and green and always seem to use them in my stamping. I stamped my image in pumpkin pie and then rocked it in chocolate chip. I backed the image in chocolate chip to draw you in to the pumpkin in the middle. I also stamped the floral bg stamp in pumpkin onto my pumpkin card for a soft background.

This card is an original by me and uses all SU! products.

Stamp sets - Reverse Prints and Floral BG

Ink - Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Chip

Cardstock - Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip and Summer Sun

Accessories - gold cord

Yippee - Spring is on its way!!

The weather today in Cambridge was absolutely gorgeous - 60 degrees and partly sunny! It makes so happy to think the cold air is just about over with. I guess that's what inspired me to make another card today.

Over at SCS, there is a daily challenge to help us stampers be creative and go outside of our comfy little boxes. Monday's challenge was to create a SCENE using kittie747 as our inspiration. Watercoloring is definitely not something I am great at, and making little scenes like these are definitely a challenge. This took a little time, but it was fun and worth trying. If you have never watercolored before, then go check out her gallery. The original card of hers that inspired me is here. I really hope you get inspired to make a watercolor card, it isn't all that hard!!

I created my card by drawing a tree with the pen side of my chocolate chip marker, used the mini palm tress from Balmy Breezes to make bushes and the leaves in the tree and then I watercolored everything in using my watercolor wonder crayons with a blender pen. I sponged bashful blue craft ink onto the chipboard piece.

All usedproducts are from SU!

Stamp sets - Basket Full of Fun, Balmy Breezes, Small Script

Ink - basic black, SU! markers(chocolate chip and garden green), bashful blue craft ink

Cardstock - certainly celery, bashful blue, naturals white

Rockin' Mixed Bouquet

I have already gotten bored with the polka dots template on my blog so I thought I would try something different. I may change this one, too, but for now we'll see how it feels.

I made today's card because I am always needing a quick thank you. I took the big flower from Mixed Bouquet and stamped it in Apricot Appeal and then I rocked it onto Only Orange. I distressed the edges of the confetti white with cutter's tool. I must have gotten some ink transfer from a previous workshop, because the stems on the side of the card should be apricot in color. Oh well, life happens. My favorite saying is "Life happens and then you get depends"! LOL! I have no idea where that saying came from, but has stuck with me for the last couple of years!!

This card is an original by me and uses all SU! products.

Stamp sets - Mixed Bouquet and Warmest Regards

Ink - Apricot Appeal, Only Orange, Close to Cocoa

Cardstock - Apricot Appeal, Only Orange, Close to Cocoa and Confetti White

Accessories - Orange grosgrain ribbon and cutter's tool kit

New Week, New Technique - Rock 'n Roll

I had a really good weekend, which is why I chose to use Reason to Smile to start off this week's technique spotlight. Friday night's workshop was awesome! My hostess had 17 guests and over $600 in sales - my biggest to date! It ran fairly smoothly, which is what I am most concerned with. My uncle gets season tickets for the New England Revolution soccer games and was able to get us additional tickets to see David Beckham play against us in August!! Beckham retired from English premeire soccer and signed with MLS. Just to be able to get a photograph with him and his autograph costs $200! Are they crazy?! I know he's a superstar and all, but that seems a little much when alot of kids think soccer is their life. I'm considering paying that much for me and my little cousin to meet him, but I don't know because that is still a big chunk of change! On Saturday, me, my aunt and my godmother got together to spend about 5 hours scrapbooking. I completed 8 pages of mostly Christmas and winter stuff! Whew! I still have some summer happenings to work on, and then I can start 2007! Yippee!

Onto the Rock 'n Roll technique! All you need for this is two ink pads, one lighter and one darker, and a favorite stamp set. Try to use bigger stamps that are closed rubber instead of stamps that have alot of open spaces. That way, you can see the two colors better. Step 1, stamp your image completely in the light color first. Step 2 (top photo), roll the stamp's edges in the darker ink. Using the dark ink first and then rolling onto the light ink will cause an ink transfer that is hard to get rid of. Step 3, stamp your image onto cadstock and then piece together your card! Quick and easy with a little more color interest!

All products used are from SU!.

Stamp sets - Reason to Smile

Ink - Bashful Blue and Perfect Plum

Cardstock - Bashful Blue, Perfect Plum, Basic Black and Whisper White

Accessories - Soft Subtle brads, two-way glue pen, dazzling diamonds glitter

My Stamping Space - A Work in Progress!

I have been working hard at trying to come up with a solution to that mess of a basement since I first posted on this blog. I got the stackable cubes at Target that also include white boards to use as table tops. I liked that system, I only wish the boards were a little wider because I seem to lose table space. The tupperware containers hold all of my scrap paper. Each container is a color family and then I have three others for neutral, In Color and patterned scraps. The filing drawers on the bottom hold stamp sets, as well as the tall plastic containers. I have two tool boards that I got at Home Depot that I plan on hanging, I just haven't had time yet for that.

It's a work in progress, but the basement is so much more organized and clean than it was before!

Chalking a Bouquet of Flowers

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. It's been a busy week - working and preparing for tonight's workshop. It's also Restaurant Week in Boston. My roommate and I both agreed to go to a restaurant we had never been to and try something new so we went to Aura in the Seaport District. The food was awesome! We both had the mediterranean-style swordfish and the baked oysters with andouille sausage. I had the maple ricotta cheesecake with concord grape sorbet for dessert. I was skeptical about the cheesecake, but I was trying something new and I really liked it! Dessert is always my favorite part of the meal, but the oysters were actually my favorite from last night. The service was also amazing, I would definitely recommend Aura to anyone visiting or living here!

So...onto the card I made for today. A friend's wife was just diagnosed with breast cancer and I thought to make her something simple and pretty. The roses are blended in baroque burgundy and rose romance chalks. All products used are from SU!

Stamp sets - Mixed Bouquet and Sincere Salutations

Ink - Basic Black

Cardstock - So Saffron, Bravo Burgundy, Always Artichoke and Very Vanilla

Accessories - Stampin' Pastels

Poppin' Pastels

Stampin' Up! publishes a little technique booklet for customers to receive with their workshop orders. It's a neat little booklet and helps us demonstrators to reinforce our own techniques. Since I'm showcasing stampin' pastels this week, I thought I would try the poppin' pastels technique for the first time. Can I just say WOW! It's a pretty cool technique and I can't wait to demo it at my next workshop!

Here's what you need to try poppin' pastels on your next project - a white craft ink pad or versamark pad, chalks, and sponge daubers. You can use any stamp set. First, I stamped my image in Versamark, then I used sponged daubers to apply color to the stamped image. Blow lightly onto your cardstock to get rid of any excess powder. Easy breezy and so cool!

I found a picture of my friend Heather's wedding tucked away in a box of other photos and decided to use that for my page. I covered their faces with a heart since I'm not really sure if they want to be plastered all over the net! I found inspiration from the 6x6 page in the technique booklet for my 6x6 page and used background stamps. In each project, all products are from SU!

Stamp sets - By Definition, Wonderful Words, Happy Hearts, On Safari, In the Wild and Quick Thinking

Ink - Versamark, White Craft ink, Cranberry Crisp, Pretty in Pink, More Mustard and Chocolate Chip

Cardstock - Naturals White, Cranberry Crisp, Blush Blossom, Pretty in Pink, More Mustard and Chocolate Chip

Accessories - Pink gingham ribbon, Earth Elements brads, ticket corner punch

I must have been in Florida when I wanted Balmy Breezes because I haven't used it much since geting this set. It was one of those stamp sets that you ooh and ahh over, then you get it, mount it and put it on a shelf to collect dust. I really did like it when I wanted it (8 months ago!) and decided to pull it out just for this week's technique spotlight. So, of course, I stared at it for 6 hours trying to remember why I wanted it so badly. It looked like the perfect stamp set to watercolor or use chalks. And so I did what I do best - stalk SCS! I admit it, I am a stalker!! I always give credit, so I want everyone to look at these cards done by noblerubies and StamperSharon before giving mine any consideration.

All products used are from Stampin' Up!.

Stamp sets - Balmy Breezes and Sincere Salutations

Ink - Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie

Cardstock - Sahara Sand, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Naturals White

Accessories - Stampin' Pastels, Taupe grosgrain ribbon

New Week, New Technique - Stampin' Pastels

I love quiet Sundays. I love being able to sleep in and stay in my pajamas until I absolutely have to get out of them (I'm still in them, too!). I've already taken Lucy out for a walk thru the neighborhood (I changed into jeans and then back into pj's!) and she's napping on the couch with my roommate. So while they've been napping, I've been stamping in the basement to come up with this weeks themed technique.

I'm going to use Stampin' Pastels, aka Chalks, all week on cards or scrapbook pages. I like to do chalking because it adds a nice, soft color to your project. Also, it deosn't really require any precision so you're allowed to color outside the lines! Intentionally blend or smear the chalks with your thumb for lighter color. For chalking, what you'll need for your projects are your box of Stampin' Pastels and a sponge tip applicator, cotton swab, sponge dauber or a stiff paintbrush. For today's card, I applied my chalks with a Q-tip. There are 500 in a box, so why not put them to use?!

All products used for this card are from Stampin' Up! and it is cased from the Stamper's Showcase.

Stamp sets - Along the Shore

Ink - Chocolate Chip, Night of Navy

Cardstock - Not Quite Navy, Sahara Sand, Naturals Vanilla

Accessories - Stampin' Pastels and Q-tips

Embossed Rings

Do you ever get a thought for a card or scrapbook page and have to rush off to create that thought? I got the thought to do a congratulations card last night while having dinner with a friend. We were at Border Cafe in Harvard Square enjoying margaritas and chips and watching a table of about 8 people. They were having a good time and one of the guys stood up to say something with his hand on the girl's shoulder sitting next to him. I have no idea what he said, but everyone started laughing. That little scene kind of made me think of a toast and that is the reason behind this card. The bad part was that I could not rush off to make this card because my friend and I spent the evening in Harvard Square and then I slept in late, had stuff to do today, blah blah blah. Just now I finally put my thoughts to paper!

This card was inspired by the lay-out challenge at SCS. The only images embossed in this card are the two rings from the Mini Mates stamp set. All products used are from SU!.

Stamp sets - Wild Hearts, Tagger's Dozen, Mini Mates and Warmest Regards

Ink - Cranberry Crisp, Basic Black and Versamark

Cardstock - Cranberry Crisp, Blush Blossom and Chocolate Chip

Accessories - Sterling Silver ep, Ivory organdy ribbon and Burgundy grosgrain ribbon

Embossing with Crackled Glass Technique

I have wanted to try the Crackled Glass technique for awhile, but sometimes I get a little nervous about trying new things. I guess I'm afraid of wasting paper, even though I have about 6 large tupperware containers full of scraps!

These two cards are a combination of the color challenge and the layout challenge from SCS. I chose to use Measure of a Life stamp set because I wanted a fairly large image to emboss. I used the step-by-step instructions from the August 2006 issue of Stampin' Succes as my guide. The instructions were perfect and spot on, but my first time was not a big success.

To do the crackled glass technique just follow these easy instructions:

1. Choose a stamp set and stamp image onto cardstock. Cut your image to the size you want.

2. Use the direct to paper technique to apply Versamark over your entire image.

3. Pour Glassy Glaze Enamel Stampin' Emboss powder over your image. Shake off the extra powder into your powder pal and then heat set. (I don't have the Glassy Glaze powder so I thought I would use Crystal Clear Stampin' Emboss powder)

4. For a larger image, let your piece of cardstock to cool completely. Repeat steps 2 & 3.

5. Place your piece of cardstock in the freezer for about 2-3 minutes. (Since I had used the Crystal Clear Emboss powder, I had to leave my cardstock in the freezer a little longer)

6. Remove cardstock from the freezer and bend back and forth until you see cracks in your glaze. Bend your cardstock at different angles until you get the look you want.

There may be different ways of doing the crackled glass technique. I only chose the crystal clear powder because that is what I currently have and had some free time to play around. Next time I might try another layer or two of glaze to see what happens. I'm still happy with the cards I made and hope the recipient of them likes them as well! And always remember there is no wrong way to stamp - that's why we have buckets full of scraps!!

These cards are originals made by me and use all Stampin' Up! products.

Stamp sets - Measure of a Life and Canvas background

Ink - Elegant Eggplant, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery and Versamark

Cardstock - Elegant Eggplant, Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery

Accessories - Celery grosgrain ribbon, Soft Subtle brads, Soft Subtle eyelets, Crystal Clear emboss powder, sponges