I know! This isn’t a Stampin’ Up! stamp! However, Pamela from FireCrackerDesigns sent me some nice floral stamps for my design work with Technique Junkies Newsletter. This flower bloom looked just like fireworks to me! So…I had to make up a sky filled with them, especially with the 4th of July holiday coming up this week.
I used a technique from the current June/July 2008 issue of Technique Junkies Newsletter called Marker Water Coloring. It was perfect for this stamp and SO easy! If you don’t get this newsletter, you should! It is filled with easy to do, step-by-step tutorials.
I used Real Red and Brilliant Blue markers and cardstock, along with a little Always Artichoke for the grass. The "United We Stamp" stamp is from Printworks…I’ve had it for ages and seem to pull it out for every 4th of July card. The small "fireworks" are from a Stampin’ Up! set called Snow Flurries which is retiring in August. I’ll miss it since it is a fun stamp to use for other than making snow. (Email me today if you want to order yours!)
Mary and I did some challenges last night, so I several new cards to show you over the next week! AND, I noticed that I’m almost at the 100,000 mark…and that means BLOG CANDY! Stay tuned!
Today’s Blogger’s Challenge is to use any type of Resist technique on your card. I chose to do my background in a technique from the February/March 2008 Technique Junkies Newsletter called Joseph’s Coat with a Twist! I never tried it when the newsletter came out (gasp!), and I didn’t know what I was missing! VERY fun technique to do! I used the Baroque background stamp because it was a large solid stamp and shows off this technique perfectly.
My colors were Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke and Whisper White. I also used stamp sets Together Forever and Lovely Letter’s alphabet for the mongram. I had the bit of green stripe ribbon in my stash. And I added a trio of Pewter mini brads up in the left hand corner.
This was really a pretty simple card, but it looks great with that resist background! Enjoy!
My husband is off on vacation next week AND my eldest son is coming in town for the 4th of July holiday. So, posts will probably be sporatic next week as I spend time with them. We have several mini trips planned and, of course, we will be out at the lake boating and visiting with friends. Have a great one!
Yesterday, Michelle Zindorf, Mary Brown and Karen Barber came over to my house to stamp. All that major stamping talent in my house! Woohoo! It was the first time Michelle and I had met (I had no idea she lives so close!), but Karen and I met at Leadership in January and Mary and I are sidelines with Stampin’ Up! and have known each other for several years. Each of us brought a shoebox to work on. Of course, we wanted Michelle to show us her Zindorf brayer techniques and Karen her Black and White Magic techniques. Mary and I chose to bring 3D projects…Mary an awesome card box tutorial from Andrea Walford and I chose to bring a Pants Purse tutorial that I think originated from Kathy McGuire’s Santa pants. Over the next few days I’ll show you the different projects we made.
The first one was the card that Michelle taught us. She has the tutorial on her Blog. I tried not to deviate to much from her original design…I wanted to recreate her look EXACTLY! I didn’t think I did too bad with her assistance on my first try! I love the reflection of the moon on the water. Beautiful!
This second card is one I tried to recreate from pictures of our trip to Hilton Head last year. We watched the sunrise from our room. The sun turned the sky into such beautiful shades of red before finally turning the sky light blue. I tried to recreate the sand dunes and the grasses and wild sea oats with the stamp set Embrace Life. (of note…I need to purchase some more nature type stamps so I can do more of the Zindorf technique!!!) Then, tried to recreate the darker reds at the bottom and how it blends into the lighter reds as it comes upward. Of course, even with the Stamp-a-ma-jig, I messed up the greeting and had to cover over it with the large oval punch. Rats!!! I had a piece of this double-sided satin ribbon in my stash and the colors matched perfectly. Not a Zindorf masterpiece, but I don’t think I did too bad all on my own.
Here is also a picture of the four of us at The Morgan House in Dublin, Ohio…a very nice tea room and gift shop! Left to right, Michelle Zindorf, Karen Barber, Mary Brown and me.
Today’s a busy day for me with several stamping assignments due. Need to get working on those. I also need to finish prepping for my Stamp Club this week. My husband sprained (broke?) his foot, too, so I’m trying to wait on him so he doesn’t get on it too much. I’m insisting he needs to go to the emergency room and he is resisting….men!
When I sat down yesterday to do Poetic Artistry’s Mojo #38 sketch challenge with Mary and Lisa, I had my tin of Die-Cut Blooms sitting out for my class tonight. I thought I would build the card around them. I matched the blooms to some of the Summer Picnic paper, added a Build A Brad for some bling and used my white gel pen around the flower. Getting into the card, I realized that the finish card was deviating too much from the original sketch. I had moved the words, I didn’t use the rectangle focal point or the oval…so I set it aside to use as a sample at my class tonight. OK…start over.
I already had the blue Bloomin’ Beautiful flower done and sitting in my leftover pile from a previous Ink Wash Technique Class. This technique is in the April/May 2007 issue of Technique Junkies Newsletter! I decided to build the card around that rectangle piece. I love how Night of Navy turns into Almost Amethyst when watercolored, so I matched those two colors together, along with a touch of Always Artichoke green. I also used an oval piece from my Stylized Silver Hodgepodge Hardware and the Almost Amethyst designer prints, along with some white Taffeta ribbon. Cool…happy with how it turned out. Looked at the sketch again to see if I missed anything and saw that a part of the challenge was to use specific colors! Grrrr….
So…now I use the Verve Visual Summertime colors that we were SUPPOSED to use on the challenge (Soft Sky, Cameo Coral or Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Old Olive or Certainly Celery). OK…at this point I should be working on my class samples, so I quickly made up the same card using these Summertime colors. I again used the Ink Wash technique from Technique Junkies Newsletter. I started with the background of Soft Sky. On white I stamped the flower, the Pumpkin Pie watercolored to the So Saffron color. Yeah! Just a hint of the Cameo Coral behind the So Saffron designer prints makes the layers POP! I used the Soft Sky double-stitch ribbon and Antique Brass hardware since those tones seemed to match a little better.
And the best thing? I have 3 birthday cards done! Woohoo!
Canton folks, we are doing this technique next week at our Technique Class, so if you haven’t signed up…it isn’t too late!!!
My Technique Class did this card a couple months ago using the Frosted Filters technique. The Yo Yo Yellow reinker obviously "took over", but there is some white and Only Orange in the background, too. A lot of the white is hidden by the focal point. I love this technique because you get really MESSY fingers!
I also had them watercolor the vase of flowers from Fun & Fast Notes using Watercolor crayons…it gives it such a soft look. I punched a hole in the upper left side of the focal point layer and tied the black gingham ribbon. The Green Galore layer pulls out the color of the leaves in the vase. The vase itself is colored with Bashful Blue crayon.
A simple card, but this technique is really showed off by this layout, and the crumbled background almost looks like fabric.
The rain has finally gone away and the sun is back out, warming up the temperatures again. Yeah! My pots of flowers and bedding flowers are taking off! The Dogwood trees are in FULL bloom, too, along with my Lilac bushes…oh…they smell SO awesome!
Yes, this is a retired set, Nature’s Sketchbook, but it is one of those sets that I will never let go. I especially love the butterflies in this set, but the strawberries come in a close second for my favorites. I used the Waxy Cuttlebug technique again, found in the current (April/May) Technique Junkies Newsletter. It is a FUN technique to do! On the background I used the Bamboo embossing folder and Pumpkin Pie Spectrum pad. The butterflies I colored with More Mustard and Close to Cocoa markers. Since the technique is striking on its own, I left the rest of the card simple…layering the focal point on Basic Black, then More Mustard and finally the Really Rust base card. A length of 5/8 wide Olive grosgrain ribbon finishes it off!
It was a beautiful weekend, can’t believe it is over already. We had nice weather again today and tomorrow is expected to be nice, too. Tuesday mornings I get together with a couple of my stamping friends (hi Candy and Dina) to walk. Looking forward to chatting with them.
AND, tomorrow is registration day for Convention! Woohoo! I’m getting up early to jump online and get registered. Already have my airline reservations, so I’d better get in! lol!
OK, OK! I’ve heard from several of you that you are in withdrawal since I haven’t published anything on my Blog in a few days. I know I thought I’d have time to do timeposts while I was gone, but it just didn’t happen. We had a nice visit with our son and flew home last night. Today I left early this morning to travel a couple hours to Canton where I used to live and did a Stamp Camp. So…I just returned home about an hour ago. Beautiful day for a drive…the flowering trees are gorgeous.
Many of you know that I am on the Design Team for Technique Junkies newsletter. This is one of the techniques, Waxy Cuttlebug, that is in the current newsletter. I especially liked the colors I used and the Birds and Swirls background is really prominent! I used the retired Twist Spectrum pad on Glossy cardstock for the focal image and overstamped the bird with Black Stazon. The background colorblock colors are Gable Green, Almost Amethyst and So Saffron, with the base card of Taken With Teal. I used both the 5 petal flower punch and the BoHo Blossom punch with a mini brad in the center.
Need to go catch up on the hundreds of emails I have waiting…plus American Idol elimination is tonight!
OK…here is another Pouncing technique background I made up with spring colors and the Spring Solitude stamp set (Level 2 hostess set). On this card, I still used the Green Galore and Pixie Pink, but added Tempting Turquoise for a little twist! Pouncing technique is in the latest February issue of Technique Junkies newsletter! See my link in the sidebar to check it out!
Can you tell I’m hoping to see a “Bluebird” out my window soon? Come on SPRING! The “hello” is a rub-on from the Anchored package. These are SO much fun to play with! I spent yesterday morning rubbing them on different things. Stampin’ Up! certainly puts out quality product because I had no trouble with them at all! And remember, you can get a Sale-a-Bration rub-on set to try FREE with any $50 order…included are four colors of rub-ons…olive, white, chocolate and black! Email me today with your order so you don’t miss out!
Well…I’ll be busy stamping today. I have several projects that are coming due in the next couple weeks, plus some additional prep for classes. And my assignments for the next issue of Technique Junkies newsletter are calling to me!
This was a card my Techniques Class did last week (and also the one I’m giving my husband tomorrow!)
EDIT: Actually this is a technique from Technique Junkies newsletter called Go Retro back in June 2003…thanks Pat! Although it seemed familiar, I couldn’t find the proper name for it!
Notice the spiral clip from the Hodgepodge Hardward clip in the corner? I ran pink grosgrain ribbon thru the clip and secured it around back. Then I tied a knot of pink gingham around the center of the spiral clip to make a bow! I’m not sure who first showed that little trick, but I think it is great! Hard to see, but I also used dimensionals to pop up the floral heart.
This week I’ve been getting ready for a class I have on Saturday and working on a future class. I finished making a birthday gift for my son’s girlfriend and I’ll take a picture tomorrow and post it.
Hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day tomorrow!
Here is a scrapbook page that was displayed at Leadership for the Boho Backgrounds stamp set. I used Technique Junkie’s Brayered Spots technique on Whisper White cardstock for the background on the side panel, plus the 1″ punched circle in the center of the Boho medallion image. I inked the medallions with Brilliant Blue and Basic Black overtop the Brayered Spots background. I think the colors were perfect for this picture of my nephew. You probably can’t tell, but he was crawling out of one of those inflatable rubber ball contraptions. Isn’t he cute? Want to learn how to do this technique? Check out my sidebar for the link to subscribe to Technique Junkies newsletters.
This 6×6 page base is Real Red, with Brilliant Blue and Glorious Green layers. You Make Me Happy is inked with a marker using the Omit Method. Use your marker to just ink up the portion of the image you want to stamp. I used a Real Red mini brad in the center of the medallion and popped the entire scallop circle with dimensionals. Again, I love that wide 5/8 Real Red grosgrain ribbon…hope you remembered to get some when it was on sale last month!
I’m headed to Las Vegas early in the morning, so won’t be posting for a few days. “See” you when I return on Sunday!
