Heat Emboss with a Flourish

I used that same Flourish from Flourishing Phrases to make this card, stamping with VersaMark ink, heat embossing with white embossing powder. Then I used a sponge and Flirty Flamingo at the base of the card and Peek-a-boo Peach above that to give some color to the background and pop the embossed image. Then stamped some flowers and leaves from the same stamp set and fussy cut them and adhered them along with a small die cut flower from Flourish Thinlit dies to the corner of the card. Then added a small banner with my sentiment.

Your Day to Sparkle

Here I used some Elegant Eggplant and Emeral Envy card stock along with circles punched from the Paper Pumpkin box. The expression  and little gem were stamped with VersaMark ink and embossed with gold embossing paper.

Glittery Background

 It's not real easy to see in this photo but the purchased card had glittery swirls for the background. Again I thought the easiest way to duplicate the cross overlay would be to use some vellum. Since confirmation is coming up in May I decided to stay with the cross as a focal point but the expression I wanted to use made me change the orientation.

 This card is for the girls being confirmed. I used the swirl from Everything Eleanor. I stamped the sentiment with Soft Suede ink and then let it dry. Then I stamped just two times with Crumb Cake ink on Crumb Cake cardstock and immediately sprinkled with Iridescent Ice and then heat embossed. Then I filled in the background using VersaMark ink and again embossing with Iridescent Ice.

The card for boys was made in the same way but I used two stamps from Gorgeous Grunge stamp set to make the card.
Both crosses come from the Blessed by God stamp set and were stamped with White Staz On on vellum. A little fussy coating and a couple of glue dots to adhere them and the card front was finished.

Shadow Stamping

Today's technique is called shadow stamping. I learned this on Dawn Griffith's blog.

 

For this technique you will need either to use Photopolymer stamps or a Stamp-a-ma-jig because you are double stamping the solid image. 

I started with a piece of Whisper White cardstock. I stamped the flower image once with Tip Top Taupe ink. then I cleaned the stamp and inked it with VersaMark ink. This is where my Stamp-a-ma-jig came into use. Using it I stamped with the VersaMark just to the lieft of the Tip Top Taupe image. Then I heat embossed with white embossing powder. To get the stamped image to stand out even more I used a sponge and Tip Top Taupe and sponged the white cardstock, using a tissue to remove the ink from the embossed image.

I layered that stamped piece onto Island Indigo cardstock and added some Tip Top Taupe lace trim. Then layered again on Tip Top Taupe, Whisper White and Island Indigo card base.
The image and expression come from the In The Meadow stamp set. It's such a pretty stamp set.

Believe Bookmark

This month's women's Bible Study was a lesson on faith and doubt. It made me think of this expression from Just Believe stamp set. So, I made bookmarks for all the women. They love getting little treats,
I heat embossed the expression to give it a little pop. The flowers were stamped with Pool Party ink on Pool Party paper.

You will want to be sure and let the flower image dry completely before stamping the expression to heat emboss. I didn't on my prototype... I thought it was dry but there are little bits of green embossing all around the expression. So on the remaining bookmarks I made sure to give them more time to dry.

TBT with Miracle of Easter

Today's throw back uses the retired Miracle of Easter stamp set. I received this set from a niece. (Thanks, again!) I love the image and the script. I stamped it on Vellum with Versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder. After that it's just layering and a candy dots to cover up the dots of glue underneath. Simple and so pretty!

CASE of Manufactured Card

Have you noticed that card manufacturer's are producing cards that look hand made. I think we have them worried!
Here's a CASE of a card I received recently. The manufactured card had stems that were scripted words. Honestly I like mine better because the purchased card had to be turned on its side to read the script. And it didn't have the embossed vellum like mine does. I colored the Basic Jewel Rhinestones with blendabilities markers and the vellum was colored using a sponge dauber and ink pad of the same color. The stem is actually the balloon string from Celebrate Today stamp set and the flower is from Petite Petals. I used the Petite Petals punch, too.

Less Fuss

I used the same layout as yesterday's card but fewer layers and elements. The pink side panel is stamped with VersaMark and then sprinkled and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The doily is cut from one of the laser cut doily sheets in the Flirtatious Designer Series Pack and layered over one of the patterns from that pack. That same pattern is used to make the envelope liner. I used the Deco Labels framelits to cut out the image from the You're Lovely set from last year's Sale-A-Bration.
Speaking o Sale-A-Bration... there are so many great sets in the new Occasions catalog that it's no problem to earn some free items from the Sale-A-Bration brochure. Or if you have been waiting to get Blendabilites from the Annual Catalog you can use your Sale-A-Bration earnings to get them. It's a great deal!

Retired Products

I always wind up with some retired Designer Series Paper because you get so much in a pack. Last week as I was online searching for a card layout/design I saw a sample on Linda Heller's Stamping School site that used the Flirtatious pack from several years ago. I knew I had some of it. When I pulled the pack I realized I had never used a single sheet of the paper. I'm that way sometimes when something is especially pretty; I can't decide how to use it or want to save it for something really special. It's a habit I'm trying to break!
So, since my card inventory is at an all time low. I challenged myself to use the entire pack of paper. Two days and 40 cards and envelope liners later I thought I was done. But on the third day when I was cleaning up my work space I found two more good sized scraps of DSP under my paper trimmer. So, I got a sat down and made two more cards and cut liners to coordinate. I don't put my liners in envelopes until I'm ready to send them.
If you don't make liners for your envelopes you can get a lot more cards out of a pack of DSP.

 This is my attempt at the card I found on Linda Heller's site. It is pretty but almost too many elements for me; so tomorrow I'll share another card I made by scaling back on the elements.

Angel Ornament

This angel is made using the Gift Bow die. I'm busy making about 100 of these for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services at our churches. They'll be given to the children during the children's message. And then any family that didn't get one can pick them up at the door. This is our third Christmas here serving the two churches and each year I've made a little ornament to go along with the children's message or should I say I've made an ornament and then Pastor Brian tells a children's message that goes along with it.
Can you guess what stamp set I used for the embossing on the angel's garment?

It's the largest star from the Bright and Beautiful stamp set. The halo is made using the gold foil sheets and 1-3/4 and 1-1/4 inch circle punches. The little poinsettia is made using the the Boho Blossoms punch and the little center is punched from the halo scrap using a retired punch but you could use the little flower from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack. 

CASE:  Dawn Olchefske

I won't be posting again until next week. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and weekend everyone!

Work of Art-July, August & September

July's page was lots of happy accidents. I saw a similar design with punched stars but since I wanted my calenar to stay flat I was restricted from adding any layers. So, I heat embossed some stars with white embossing powder. My star image came from the Perfect Pennants stamp set. Then I stamped the red and blue images using the stamps from Work of Art. I didn't think about needing to wait for the blue to dry completely before wiping it off the stars. So I got a smudged blue background, which I decided I liked. Happy accidents. Then when I put the calendar together I realized the image would be turned 45 degrees from my original thinking. Luckily I like it this way!
Can you tell August is Popsicles? This was the one image I wasn't real sure about. I did create another image but decided it wasn't as whimsical as I wanted, so it is being turned into a card (maybe you'll see it next week).
September's red apple is made using several of the different shapes from the Work of Art stamp set. It's much easier than you'd think. The face on the caterpillar is hand drawn. The body is just stamping off with the little circle stamp in the Work of Art set.
Come back tomorrow for the final three pages!

Fall Cards

These two cards are the ones I made as designed by my sister (top) and a niece (bottom). It's always fun to use their supplies and stamps and try a new technique or be reminded of one I haven't used for awhile. The top card is all about layering and tearing with the retired stamping up tearing tool. Punches make the top card a quick and easy.
The bottom card uses heat embossing with white powder on white cardstock, then sponging or daubing ink onto the embossed image. After you've sponged/daubed you wipe the white embossing with a tissue to clean it up. I made mine into a pretty fall birthday card!

Halloween Treats

Here are two little treat bags that I made for Halloween. I used the Top Note Die to make the topper for the bag by just folding it in half lengthwise. The label on the cookie treat is from the Merry Everything stamp set and Happy Halloween expression comes from the Good Greetings stamp set.

The kettle and expression on the cider/cinnamon stick treat is from the Tee-Hee-Hee stamp set. The cookie treat was quick to make with the Note Tag Punch. I had to fussy cut the kettle, but did use the medium oval punch for the expression. I was experimenting a bit on these projects. I wanted to try to emboss using the new stamp pads. I found that your pad needs to be good and wet and you must stamp it and quickly apply the embossing powder. Otherwise, the ink dries too quickly and the embossing powder won't stick and you get a spotty effect at best. 

Bright & Beautiful

This card is a CASE from Jan Tink's Stamp, Paper,Scissors website. I changed it up a bit using the supplies I have in my inventory.
I used a piece of the All Is Calm Specialty Designer Series Paper (135823) and mounted it on Pear Pizzazz and  Baked Brown Sugar card stock. The medium star from the Bright and Beautiful stamp set (135029 c, 135026 w) was stamped with Versamark (102283) and then heat embossed with Pewter (retired) embossing powder. The sentiment was also stamped and heat embossed. The star is layered on Baked Brown Sugar card stock that was paper pierced using the Eclectic templates (133778). I added some more shine with Rhinestones (119246).