Stretch Your Stamps: Day 10 - More Floral Builder Stamps

I am a little behind on posting as this was my card from yesterday.  It has been fun and challenging to make a card daily!  I have made more cards in the past 2 weeks than I have for months.  I have really enjoyed this class and appreciated all the great comments everyone has made!

Stamps:  WPlus9 Hand Lettered Thank You, Spring Blooms.  SU Netting Background
Ink:  Pistachio Pudding, Gumball Green, Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay, Smoky Slate, Versamark
Cardstock:  Whisper White
Other:  Pewter Embossing Powder

Stretch Your Stamps: Day 9 - Floral Builder Stamps

I love WPlus9 stamps and have been a fan for years.  Learning the new sketching technique Dawn demonstrated with the Spring Blooms set was a great new way to use this stamp set.  I used Whisper White cardstock, which worked well.  However, my sharpie didn't skip as much as Dawn demonstrated with the specialty matte paper, but it further challenged me to be more free with my lines!  Also, I inked a craft mat with stamp pad ink and spritzed it with rubbing alcohol to paint the background leaves.

Thanks for looking!

Stamps:  WPlus9 Spring Blooms
Cardstock:  Coastal Cabana, Rich Razzlebery, Whisper White; Wisteria wonder
Inks:  Coastal Cabana, Summer Sun, Rich Razzleberry, Pistachio (Stampin' Up!); Memento Tuxedo Black
Other:  2.5 inch circle punch, word dies, ultra fine black sharpie, alcohol mister

Stretch Your Stamps: Day 8 - Graphic Stamps

Here is my version of today's class card.  I wanted to make more and try out some new ideas, but work limits my time today!  If only stamping could be my job....

Cardstock:  Whisper White
Ink:  Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Cool Cantaloupe, and Calypso Coral, Versamark
Other:  Embossing powder in white, sequins
Stamps:  Avery Elle Graphic Stamp set, Stampin' Up! Another Thank You

Stretch Your Stamps: Weekend Fun!

I have been having a blast keeping up with the daily stamping lessons in this online class.  There is so much I want to make, and only so much time!  This weekend, I CASE'd two cards that I thought were great.

The first was a card by online class instructor Kristina.  I really learned better how to use distress inks to produce watercolor results with this card.  And, the card featured one of my favorite techniques:  paper piecing.  I didn't have all the distress inks in pad form, but found that the distress markers worked just as well when colored onto an acrylic block or craft sheet first.  For the background, I colored on a piece of wax paper with the tumbled glass marker, and then stamped with the Salty Ocean color pad onto the bottom portion of the wax paper.

Ink: For background: Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass (marker) and Salty Ocean (pad)

For the animals:  Spiced Marmalade (fox), Faded Denim (monkey) and Stampin' Up Sahara Sand (bunny).  Cheeks colored with Worn Lipstick marker using blender pen. 

For the umbrellas:  Seedless Preserves, Peeled Paint, and Salty Ocean. Blender pen to blend

Outlines:  Staz On Jet Black Ink and Memento Tuxedo Black ink for sentiment.

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up's watercolor paper, So Saffron, Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Pool Party, and Naturals White.

Other:  Glossy Accents for umbrella tops, foam adhesive

The next card was just for fun and again copied from the class example.  I have been getting a lot of mileage out of my alphabet stamps!  I experimented with my new Koi watercolor set in 24 colors and was really impressed with how nice these watercolors are!

Cardstock:  Whisper White and Basic Black
Watercolors:  Koi watercolor sketch set in 24 colors
Background:  Stampin' Up embossing folder
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black and Signo white gel pen for highlighting.
Other:  Basic Black Baker's Twine

Stretch Your Stamps: Day 5 - Outline Stamps

Hello everyone!  Today I chose to try the dimensional paper piecing technique demonstrated by Shari Carroll in the online Stretch Your Stamps 2 class.  I was able to add a few more blooms to my image and give it a little bit more dimension.  I especially liked the burnishing technique Shari used to make the petals more realistic.

Here is my well loved stamp that I added more blooms to:

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! flowers, Wetlands stamp set

Paper:  Very Vanilla Cardstock and patterened paper

Ink:  Early Espresso and Sahara Sand 

Other:  Watercolor pencils for leaves

Stretch Your Stamps Day 4: Sentiment Stamps

I really liked the simplicity and the patterned pattern in this card.  Much easier than alphabet stamps!

Paper:  Whisper White, Blackberry Bliss, and mix of patterned paper

Ink:  Versamark and white embossing powder

Other:  Star dies

Thanks for looking!

Stretch Your Stamps Day 4: Alphabet Stamps

I will be honest.  I struggled with the alphabet stamps.   I spent many hours trying to line up the letters for a word search card, but just couldn't produce what I wanted.  It is the perfectionist in me that needs to see that everything aligns.  As you can see, the words in the flower are not aligned, but it works for this card.  The cards by Debby Hughes in the online class inspired this design:  

Paper:  Whisper White, Blackberry Bliss, and Hello Honey cardstock
Ink: Versamark, Blackberry Bliss, and Soft Sky (Stampin' Up!)
Other:  Sequins, dots, smile die cut, wood veneer butterfly

My copy of today's class card (very whimsical!):

Stretch Your Stamps: Day 3 - Alphabet Stamps

Thanks for checking out my Day 3 posting for the Stretch Your Stamps online class.  Today's card features alphabet letter techniques. I liked the idea of a word search where the main sentiment is highlighted.  It is difficult to see, but I also white embossed sketchy hearts in the background.  I would like to try embossing paste, but it is not available nearby!  

Cardstock:  Whisper White and Strawberry Slush
Stamps:   Milo's ABC's;
Ink:  Versamark, Pink Pirouette and Strawberry Slush
Other:  Die cut heart, enamel dots, sequins

Stretch Your Stamps: Day 2, Part 2

I learned about Perfect Pearls today.  I went to my local Joann's store and found some to try this new technique.  Very easy, and pretty!  Who doesn't like shimmer?  I used the blue patina and gold powders that came in a kit.  This took me about 10 minutes to make!

Perfect Pearls in Gold, Blue Patina
Other Supplies are from Stampin' Up:
Cardstock:  Pool Party, Basic Black, Brushed Gold
Stamps:  Another Thank You, Ex Libris
Ink: Versamark
Extras:  black embossing powder, butterfly dies, foam dots.

Stretch Your Stamps: Day 2 - Ombre Effect

Hello!  I needed to make a masculine thank-you card, and the ombre effect was a great technique to try in blues.  I heat embossed the chevron background with white embossing powder, then added blue ink.  The Stretch Your Stamps class has been full of great new techniques to try and I really enjoyed today's demonstrations.    Stamps:  Chevron Background and photopolymer Another Thank You (Stampin' Up!);  Inks:  Midnight Muse, Marina Mist, Bashful Blue (Stampin' Up!). Paper:  Midnight Muse and Whisper White (Stampin' Up!).  Other:  White embossing powder, sequins (from Michael's).   

The ombre technique reminded me of a card I made a few years ago (shown below), using the ombre effect as a central focal image for the background of a card.  Sticky notes were used to mask off the top and bottom of the card and create the clean edges of the central stamped background.

Credit for the card technique above can be found at this tutorial:

http://cards.heathertelford.com/2012/03/25/favourites/

Stretch Your Stamps Class: Day 1

Today I tried the Faux Watercoloring Stamping with a reverse background stamp.  I pretty much CASE'd the example from the class, and I like how it turned out.  For this technique I used the Ranger Distress Inks in Peeled Paint, Seedless Preserves, and Faded Jeans.  I used my first impression stamped image for a brighter color effect.

Card "Ingredients":
Paper:  Very Vanilla and Island Indigo Stampin Up! Cardstock
Ink:  Ranger Distress Inks in Faded Jeans, Seedless Preserves and Peeled Paint
Dies:  WPlus9 Hand-lettered Hello, Stampin' Up! Butterfly and Little Leaves
Stamp:  Ex Libris background stamp (Stampin' Up!)

Thanks for looking!

A Note to Say...Hello!

This week I decided to play along with Freshly Made Sketches #147.  I used the Wplus9 Hand Lettered Hello stamp and die set as well as Wplus9 Borders and Backgrounds #4.  Thanks for taking a look at my creation!