SMARTWORKS Rubber stamps, 3 cards

There are still a couple days left to get stamps at 35% off at SmartWorks Rubber Stamp Co y'alls. The sale ends on Oct 31, 2008. They have such a wide variety of images -- vintage, modern, country, all the holidays, florals, 3-step stamping and a lot more.

SALUTATIONS STAMP SET
I got this Smartworks Salutions stamp set a while ago and have been meaning to make a bright and pretty card with it. I found this Basic Grey paper in my stash and thought that pink tulips would look nice together!

I used my brush art markers by Marvy (Dee Gruenig) to color directly on the stamps. I used a few colors of pinks and greens together to get some dimension and shading on the tulips. After marking up the rubber stamp, I huffed on it with my breath to give it a bit more moisture then stamped it. You can use this technique if you want a lot of shading to show up on your stamped image. I then went in and colored the tulips with more light pink. To make it shine I added pink stickles (cotton candy) over some parts. The pink frilly photo corner was made by cutting a paper triangle then cutting the long edge with scalloped scizzors. For the final touch I punched 3 tear drop shapes. I thought I'd make my own fancy corner instead of buying one more die cut. The 3 lines on the botttom pink piece were made with the scoring blade on my paper trimmer since I don't have a Scor-it or Scor-Pal yet.

stamps: SmartWorks BFL-05 Salutions set (pg 73)
paper: SU kiwi kiss & pink pirouette, white, basic grey
inks: Dee Gruenig brush art markers, SU pretty in pink marker
accessories: ribbon, Martha Steward border punch, SU key tag punch, bling, decorative scizzors, fiskars tear drop punch, paper trimmer with scoring blade, cotton candy stickles


MUG TRIO STAMP SET

I made this card for my dear friend and one-time secret sister Valoria. She was assigned to be my secret sister for one entire year and then we met at the end of the year! Pink is her favorite color and I wanted to thank her for taking me out for my bday last week.

Since this is a 3-step rubber stamp I first did the base of the coffee mug using Stampin' Up's pretty in pink. Then I stamped the 2nd layer with Regal Rose, and then the final 3rd layer was stamped with chocolate chip. The final layer is basically where the shading goes (the shadow of the cup that isn't exposed to light) so it should be the darkest color. I had to use a stamp positioner to line everything up which is why it turned out so perfectly matched up. Mine is from Stampin' Up.

I used scalloped decorative edged-scizzors to make all the scallops.

stamps: SmartWorks DK-07 Mug Trio set, coffee beans - unknown stamp
paper: SU pretty in pink, chocolate chip, creamy caramel, whisper white, Kelly Panacci sandylion dp
inks: SU pretty in pink, regal rose, chocolate chip , creamy caramel, hot cocoa pastel sailor pen.
accessories: scallop scizzors, paper trimmer with scoring blade, paper & fabric flowers, half pearl.


BLOOM WITH JOY STAMP SET
The sentiment *May your day bloom with joy* (pg. 25) is also a SmartWorks stamp and comes with 3 little flowers. SmartWorks has tons of sentiments and a very large catalog you can view page by page and download, it's all pdf. I paired this sentiment up with this cute StampingBella *FlowahBella*. (I added more curls to her hair with a permanent black pen.) I used an orange spica glitter pen on her dress and sakura glossy glaze pens on the flowers and pot. The large flowers in the background are from TAC.

stamps: SmartWorks WD-41 Bloom With Joy, StampingBella, TAC
paper: SU regal rose & wild wasabi
inks: SU regal rose & wild wasabi, handsome hunter, chocolate chip, close to cocoa
accessories: ribbon, spica glitter pens, sakura glaze pens available at CPS

Another birthday card... this time for Henry!

This time it was my turn to make a birthday card for my nephew Henry who turned 10 last week. His parents have gotten him into rock'n'roll very early and now he loves it. Whether that's good or bad I'm not sure. (Being exposed to some of the lyrics in the songs and the lifestyle of the rockstars, that is). Anyway, he has now started taking electric guitar lessons for some time and his dad takes him to jam sessions with his 2 uncles and they all play together with their drums and basses and electric guitars. So he LOVES his guitar and his rock'n'roll music! I just pray that it's good clean wholesome rock for his 10 year old ears! He has been practicing with some of the other kids at his school and in December they are going to perform a song for the yearly talent show. Kids are growing so fast these days!

stamps: Studio G $1 stamp from Michael's
ink: basic black ink
paper: white, red
accessories: sticker set by Jolee's, wavy paper cutter by Creative Memories.

Mr. Scarecrow - Markie's Mom Tech!

I finally managed to sit down and attempt to do a card a la markie's mom (link is to her splitcoast gallery).

For those of you who don't know, Faith Hofrichter (http://stampinwithmarkiesmom.blogspot.com/) also known as *markie's mom* on splitcoaststampers has a special way of putting dots on the borders of all her cards and elements. After months and months of looking at her lovely cards and chatting about them with my stamping friends, I finally decided to make a card using her *dots* style - and I have to tell you, it's really fun! The only thing I would change about this card is that I should have put dots where I put fake stitch marks around the scarecrow.

The stamp set is from Smartworks, they are currently having a 35% off sale on all stamps for the entire month of October.

stamps: Smartworks Scarecrow set
paper: SU burgundy, whisper white, Frances Meyer *Autumn Wheat* designer paper
ink: black stazon, copic markers, SU markers, hot cocoa Sailor paint pen
accessories: paper flowers, half pearls, coluzzle oval, SU key tag punch, dimensional pop-ups

Frankie Improved!

So here he is, the new improved Frankie!


This time I left out the googlie eyes and added two neck screws. I also used the Stampin Up tab punch for the nose and cut his hair by hand. I also used Stampin' Up's Garden Green paper instead of Kiwi Kiss. I hope you like it!

Frankie Halloween Box

OK, I think my Frankenstein box/treat bag turned out kind of wierd. He does not look at all like the ones I cased on splitcoast! Funny! I think he looks wierd because I used googlie eyes instead of punches and I shaded the eyelids and nose too much. His hair looks wierd too. Anyhows, it was my first one, so I should be excused!

Here are links to some really great ones: Click here. And here for different ones.

And here is a video tutorial by Angie Kennedy Juda, on her blog: CLICK HERE

(All the items I used are the same as found on Angie's video.)

paper: Kiwi kiss, black, white
Access: wire, hole punch, black marker, sticky strip, googlie eyes, pop-ups.

Alcohol Inking Basics on Glossy Paper

Alcohol Inking Basics on Glossy Paper

In order to get really good results with the alcohol inks, I recommend you use the tools that Tim Holtz designed to use with them. Pictured here is the Inking Tool and a pack of Applicator Felt pieces (mini pads).

You will also need glossy paper for artists/crafters. Creative Play Stamps carries the paper by Ranger and the tools/inks as well. --You can't use glossy photo paper, btw - it doesn't work. And finally I highly recommend that you also use Blending Solution, although you don't have to. It just helps spread the ink out instead of leaving pure color blobs. It spreads the color out and blends them -- allowing them to meld together in a natural way.

The inking tool has a wood base and medium sized handle -just the right size to fit it your palm. On the bottom of the base is a strip of velcro that's permanently attached, so you can easily put on and/or take off your felt pad.

Simply place the piece of felt onto the the velcro.

It stays put with just the right amount of clinging. It won't fall off while you're using it, but it's easy to take off as well.


Next, choose your color of ink and gently squeeze. It's very easy to control the amount of ink that comes out - the bottle is designed with the artist in mind, and the needle-nose tip makes it even easier to control the flow of ink. I used the color *Meadow* in this example.

Lift up and repeat it again. Place around 4-7 drops on the pad, depending on how large of an area you need to cover.

Now add a few drops of Blending Solution on top of the color drops. (Using the Blending solution is optional, however if you don't use it all you'll get when you apply it to your project is exactly what you see on the felt pad - little drops of color - there will not be any spreading/blending going on.)

You can see how the color drops and Blending Solution have melded together on the pad.

Now pounce it onto the glossy paper.

Keep repeating until you have good coverage.

You can add another color if you want -- simply add a few drop to the felt. You don't need to use a new piece. I used *Ginger* for the 2nd color.

Just pounce away again.

And Voila! Now you have a wonderful new piece of paper! If you want to add another color, just repeat the step above. Add metallic mixatives to spice it up and give it a little tinge of metal!


Here is a LINK to a massive library of sample cards made using this technique. (From splitcoaststampers).

A SIDE NOTE *** I did the color in 2 steps, however you can do it in one step -- just put different color drops on the felt at the same time (however many you like, really) and then add the Blending solution and pounce away. The result will be similar.


There have been other methods for laying down the color, some people only pounce the blending solution onto the paper after the inks have been applied, and there are still yet other ways to do it.

Remember, the inks can be used on plastic, metal, glass, and other slick surfaces. The inks were not meant to be used on absorbant papers!

I will have a couple more examples in October. Stay tuned!!!