A New Set From SU

I was lucky enough to earn a stamp set from Stampin' Up after our Regional Conference in Cincinnati last month. This set is called I {heart} hearts and will be seen in an upcoming SU catalogue. It's a lovely set and I thought I'd try 2 samples which are based on sketches I found on Splitcoast Stampers.

Recipe
Stamps : I {heart} hearts
Cardstock : Nouveau Chic DSP, Christmas Cocoa DSP, Basic Black, WW
Ink : Real Red
Accessories: Basic Black Grosgrain Ribbon

Easel Cards

Hi everone. Happy Monday. Sorry I didn't post for a couple of days, I've had a bad time but I have to say that my friends have been AMAZING this w/end bringing me back to my happy place! I have NEVER had somebody slam my character in public before, absolutely dreadful and I was just devastated, not least because it was totally uncalled for.

BUT the great thing that came out of it was that my SCS friends have been just amazingly supportive. The person who felt it necessary to post about me, unfortunately, has not got the integrity to move on and away from the group I chat in ... so I'm going to have to be subjected to that for some time. It feels bad, I won't go into details but I know my mum will be calling when she reads this! Good job she lives all the way over there in England because when she sees the attitude this woman has towards English people, she won't be pleased!!!!!

My friend Michele turned up on Friday with a box of cupcakes .... yummo, loved that Michele, thanks so much. And then Cathy turned up yesterday with this BEAUTIFUL flower arrangement and a hug from all my Mingle friends. I love those girls ... you all made me feel soooo much better.

And now onto my card! Lynn gave us a wonderful technique today, an Easel card! Isn't it great? I made it nice and easy because I'll be sending A LOT of cards out to my supportive friends this week. I love you girls, you know who you are!

Recipe
Stamps : Friends 24-7
Cardstock : Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Razzleberry Lemoinade
Ink : None
Accessories : Crushed Curry & Soft Suede markers (on the sentiment), Playground Designer Buttons, Soft Suede Polka Dot Ribbons

Christmas is Coming

I used the sketch from Splitcoast to make today's christmas card. Hard to imagine that Christmas is just around the corner ...

This card uses the Designer Paper from the mini catalogue along with 3 of the mini stamp sets, the cord is from Berry Christmas, the bauble is from Delightful Decorations and the sentiment is from Four the Holidays.

Recipe
Stamp Sets : Delightful Decorations, Berry Christmas, Four the Holidays
Cardstock : Soft Suede, WW, Christmas Cocoa DSP
Ink : Old Olive, Real Red
Accessories : Ornament Punch, Chunky Glitter, Crystal Effects, Dimensionals

White Embossing on Kraft

I love the look of white on Kraft! Today's CC on splitcoast is Kraft, Whisper White and Mellow Moss so I dragged out my Petal Pizzaz set and embossed the flower with Versamark and White EP. I love how this looks!

I layered Mellow Moss and Whisper White on the inside and added another little flower from the set! A touch of ribbon and that's it for this quick and easy card!

Recipe
Stamps : Petal Pizzaz
Cardstock : WW, Mellow Moss, Kraft
Ink : Versamark, Mellow Moss
Accessories : White EP, Mellow Moss Taffeta Ribbon, Horizontal Slot Punch

Faux Suede and Lovely as a Tree

Good Morning and Happy Monday! Lynn over on Splitcoast came up with a cool techniuqe for us to try out today. It's called Faux Suede! All you do is take your piece of cardstock and using a bone folder, distress your card over and over and over until the fibres start to break down, they you just peel it apart (if you've distressed the card enough, it just peels apart easily). It looks great when you're done!

I teamed it up with Lovely as a Tree. Here's a trick for you, spritz your watercolour paper first, then stamp your image with classic ink and you get this 'washed out' look. I like it!!! I think it would be a great masculine card.

Recipe
Stamps : Lovely as a Tree
Cardstock : Old Olive, Soft Suede, Watercolour Paper
Ink : Soft Suede
Accessories : Choc Chip 1 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Bone Folder

Shimmer Paints

Have you heard the buzz about SU's new Shimmer Paints? Oh my word, these things are amazing. Let me share a few things I've learned by playing with the new shimmer paints.

* You can make them into a shimmer spray ... this is just a beautiful effect.
* The shimmer sprays can have reinker added to them so can you make up shimmer sprays for ALL of the Stampin' Up colours!
* You can add reinker to the paint to customize your Frost White shimmer.
* You can add the shimmer paint direct to your stamp.
* You can add the shimmer paint to your already inked stamp.

... the list is endless! Let me show you a few of the things I've managed to do:

Shimmer Spray

You'll need to buy some sort of spray bottle. I've found that the smaller the spray-head, the better the result. Fill your small mister bottle almost to the top with 70% rubbing alcohol (if you use 90% or higher, you may encounter clumping ... ask me how I know!!!!!). Once your RA is in your bottle, add 6-8 drops of Champagne Mist shimmer paint. After 2 spritzes of the bottle, this is the result I got with this recipe:

You can take it one step further and use this recipe PLUS 6-8 drops of reinker. In this photo, I used soft suede reinker. It's sprayed onto Whisper White cardstock. I spritzed 5-6 times so the cardstock was pretty saturated. It actually curled up, but after about 1 minute the alcohol and water evaporated and the cardstock uncurled itself. If you wanted a less intense colour, you would just spritz once or twice. I love how this turned out!

Reinker with Frost White Shimmer Paint

Take an artists mixing tray (or something similar) and add 2 drops of reinker. Then tip 2-3 drops of Frost White Shimmer Paint and mix with a small paint-brush. This is what it'll look like:

Dap a sponge dauber into the mix and tap onto your rubber stamp. Here's the result I got using Ruby Red reinker (hard to photograph, so thanks to Sarah and her wonderful Nikon SLR!)

Shimmer Paint Direct to Stamp

Use a dauber, shake up your shimmer paint and dab the dauber into the lid. This method allows the dauber to pick up just the right amount of paint. Dab it onto your stamp. This time I used Platinumn Shimmer to get this effect:

Shimmer Paint to an Already Inked Stamp

Here's the same Platinum Shimmer, only this time I daubed it onto the stamp after it had been inked up in Old Olive:

Apologies for the photography, it's so hard to get a good picture of a subtle shimmer!!! However, you can rest assured that if you like what you see on the photograph, you'll LOVE what you see when you try it yourself. You can find all 3 in the mini catalogue (page 27) for just $5.95 each! and ordering is easy from my SU website! I hope that's helped give you some ideas about how YOU can use your shimmer paints. If you have any questions just leave a comment!

Supplies
Stamp : Dasher
Accessories : Frost White, Platinum, Champagne Mist SHIMMER PAINTS, daubers, rubbing alcohol, mister bottles, reinkers

CHRISTMAS CARD CLASS

Here are the cards we'll be making at my class on October 9th at 7pm, or October 11th at 1pm. The 4 cards use many different techniques, new stamps from the mini catalogue and new accessories (including the Shimmer Paints!). Let me know if you'd like to join us for either class, there is space still available.