Beate's Technique

We have our tree up and started decorating for Christmas. So what better time than now for all the glitter & glitz of the holidays. I usually do the most decorating for the Christmas holidays than any other time of the year so what better time to make a glittering card.


Have you seen what Beate can do with glitter, acetate, and All That Glitters stamp set. Well if you haven't, take a look!

As you can see I cased her card sketch too but instead of using glitter, I used stickles. They were easier for me to apply just where I wanted it and as thin as I need.

I don't know what I would do without my Spellbinders dies, all of them.....it is soooo easy to cut any shape, any size, in any color....perfect every time! Here I have used the classic oval and classic circle.

The dp paper is MB ginger cake, stickles, MayArts satin ribbon. Vellum that was dry embossed with cuttlebug folder....and topped off with glazed brads. I don't think you can see in this picture, but the sparkle spots on the left of the dp was highlighted with stardust glitter pen. Maybe they do sparkle just a bit.

Thank you for looking, maybe soon I can get away from making Christmas cards soon. I will have to ask my mom if she needs any to send out this year, another reason to keep stamping!

City Of David

I just can't seem to quite using the Christmas sets that Flourishes has come out with this year. Here is the latest one using City Of David and All That Glitters.

All of these sets are so versatile with so many possible combinations that it boggles the mind. I could make cards from now till next Christmas and still not exhausted all the possibilities, it would also make my husband very happy.....He is the one that gets the cards sent out.....and he would not have store bought cards.


I already have enough for this year with no two alike, I am not boasting mind you because part of them are from last year. I did not send out many of my creations, it can be hard parting with them but I am running out of room.

Here is a view that does not glow quite so much....well not at all. I started with plain white paper, cut the circles with Spellbinder's classic circles, stamped with Versa Mark and embossed with gold.

The evergreen branches and the "tops" of the ornaments are from All That Glitters. The ornament top I cut and added to the circle then attached a gold cord.

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Its Black Tie.......

AND YOU ARE INVITED!

Bet this can go from and invitation to a black tie affair to a masculine thank you with one small sentiment.

I could get into these cards that can be done simply and sophisticated.
Take a plain white card, your score pal for the white "shirt". Add a few score lines 1/8 inch apart.

3/8 black satin ribbon as the bow tie with black brads for the buttons. Black Palette ink made a crisp clean image

Figs & Pomegranate for the Holidays

A quick and easy card with no or very few embellishments but, of course, a drop dead gorgeous ribbon.

Stamp sets Figs and Pomegranates, All That Glitters, and Holiday Greetings what a great combination!

With old olive, and purely pomegranate...what else...and forest green inks. Purely pomegranate ribbon.

Fun to set to use!

Figs With a Touch Of Faith

Somewhere along the way I found a new way of working with my water pen, quite by accident too. I thought, "what if". You see I needed a way to apply color to this image without all the colors running together in a muddy mess.

I had chance to use this technique on the new Flouirhses release, Figs and Pomegranates. DID YOU KNOW that Flouirhses is having a 10% sale on their new release bundle of three sets???? Plus Luminartes products and more!!! Its all on the newsletter!

Because I used SU classic markers direct to polyomer I had to find a way, as we all know water used with the classic markers mixes the colors together, so I used a "dry" water pen brush tip. I squeezed a small amount of water onto the brush tip, then blotted it on a napkin till it was mostly dry. I picked up the ink with my brush and applied to the image, re drying my brush tip on the napkin each time before picking up more ink. I squeezed out water once, at the beginning, the rest of the time the ink kept the tip wet enough.

I am sure that technique has been done before, but It was the first time I had thought to give it a try!

While assembling my card I thought, This card just screams....USE DOTS!....USE DOTS!.... While I like the effect here I can say with all certainty I can not do justice to Faith's technique.

The stamps are from the new release bundle at Flourishes, Figs & Pomegranates.

You can see more from our gallery of designers and blog friends!
Julie
Faith
Susan
Cindy L
Laura
Latisha
Cindy H
Linda

Card Recipe: Stamp set, Figs and Pomegranate Paper: SU, Purple and perfect plum BG sugared Ink: SU Markers, purple, perfect plum, old olive, creamy Carmel, chocolate chip, garden green Ranger, old paper & white Inkssentials

Working with Clear Card Stock

I have been asked how I did the images on Santa's Forest, well I made another card using the same image in a similar style. While the first card I made was done on two pieces of clear card stock, I paper pieced both of them in the same manner.

First I stamped on the clear stock (vinyl, rather than acetate. It is much heavier than acetate allowing it to hold its "fold" when using it for the card cover.) with black palette ink. You will want to set this a side to thoroughly dry. I have used other brands of pigment ink but have found only palette to work the best. Now as with all clear panels, the stamp will slide when pressing down... so stamp with care. (The grey lines to the left of the deer is on the back side of the paper I laid the vinyl on to photograph).

Next I stamped in black, on white paper, I colored the image with SU markers and

cut it out with spring action Fisker scissors. As with my ATG for adhesive, my fiskers are a MUST for detail cutting. The best thing about then is your hand does not get tired!!!

As you notice, I cut off the antlers, which is the reason why I stamp on clear card stock when I want my deer

in the foreground on my card.

After the deer was cut out I glued it to the background layer, as you will see in the next post, then attached the clear stock over the whole square lining up with the deer.

When I made Santa's Forest, I used my Quickie glue pen on the back side of the vinyl, along the black lines of the stamped image. The black lines were a little wider so the glue did not show through. These glue pens work so well for so many areas that are small or when you are trying to hide your lines of glue.

Read on through the next post to see how the card turned out.

Flourishes will be adding more Palette inks to their line of products soon!

Borderabilities!

This is where I started when making my card, by first cutting with a Spellbinders borderabilities Rose. At first I was intimidated by the size of the borderabilities, it is 12 inches long. Great for scrapbook pages but also can be easily modified by cutting for cards.
I embossed the image, then used the die to stencil. I used Lumine Arts twinkling H2O's and a Small stencil brush. One brush for each color, that way I could color without having to clean my brush until I was finished.
The borders are 12 inches long, I would suggest cutting the full length of your paper, at least the first time. I found that stenciling with the die took a little practice and patients. You have to use very little water on your brush with the h2o's, then "burnishing" over the stencil in a circular motion .
A small brush and holding the die with firm pressure while applying color helps.

Once I finished with all the colors I needed I used a much larger brush (the one that looks like an old fashion shaving brush, I can't believe I have not used one before now. I like the results of distressing much better than when I used a sponge) and applied distress ink to the whole image.
Assembiling the card was a work in progress for most of the evening. I kept changing/adding different elements and like Sharon Johnson once said "I do not glue anything down untill I have all the elements of a card decided upon" or somthing along those lines. We have all learned the hard way not to glue too early.

The recipe;

Stamp sets; Thank You, Santa's s Sleigh

Paper: chocolate chip, really rust, a texured piece of scrapbook paper, Memory Box Sparkle, old olive.

Ink: Nior Black by Palette, Lumin Arts H2O, (Wish I had used a yellow instead of red/orange) ranger distressing ink, old paper.

Misc: BG glazed brads, Spellbinders Rose Border, May Arts ribbon in russet.

Check out the Spellbinders borders, great for cards perfect for scrapbooks.

Make it count!

Have you ? There is still time to get out and make your voice count.

Then after you do visit delaney and pick your own button.

Christmas Cards Are done!

I have a couple of cards that I want to show tonight. The first one is a card I started last Sunday, as with many of the cards I make "from scratch" it takes me several days to complete.

As I think about it, I design in three stages, the first stage is the paper and layout (beginning layout). The second stage are the stamps and ink color, the last stage (and usually the fastest stage) is the image placement, final layout, and embellishments.

As in Red Bird on Branch I stated with the green base card, red linen layer, and the s.e.i DP, Alpine Frost. I cut a black oval with Spellbinders nesties and embellished it with green and red glitter stickles to carry on the berry theme of the DP.

It sat that way for almost a week, one I did not have that much time to devote to it and I was tired at night after work. Then is morning I picked out the stamp sets I wanted to use, picked ink, then proceeded to pull it all together.

I cut a red oval, then the white oval and using the spellbinder as a stencil I used a color brush... reminds me of a long bristle stipple brush...with chocolate chip ink for the background. The bird is inked in real red, with a mask placed over it when I stamped the pine branch. The small ornament is embossed with gold and colored in with a sparkle stardust pen....hard to see in the picture.

By that time I had to leave my project to go with my DH and mother to vote early, the wait was only 30 minutes and the weather was perfect....cool sunny day. I had other errands to do and it was late afternoon before I could return and finish.

I added enhanced the bird with a few a real red marker, small dot of black for the eye....my bird had to have eyes....the sentiment is from Holiday Greetings. The Christmas green ribbon with a red edge was added while I was adhering all the layers and embellishments.

Recipe: Stamps; Bird in Vine, All that Glitters, Holiday Greetings, Paper; green, red, black card stock and s.e.i. DP, Ink; real read, hunter green, chocolate chip, Misc; Spellbinders tags, stickles, stardust pen, ribbon
The second card I make this week was fast, mainly because I was learning a technique on coloring with Luminarts twinkeling H2O's, not designing the whole card (that part was done).

I have been using H2O's for some time now, I first bought them as a stenciling medium 6 or 8 years ago. I am STILL learning new was to use them with even better results! I used only two colors on this card, a green and a rose shade. With a water pen I could lighten some areas and darken others using just 1 color.

The "trick" is "start with a good quality card stock or water color paper", in this case we used card stock for the smooth surface, and slightly dampen the area to be colored with water. Dampen only a small area at a time as the paper will absorb the water and you want time to work the color. If you apply too much color in one area add more water and blot to remove some color. " One of the ladies had one of her first colored leaves that she did not want to use because of it being way too dark." When I had to remove color from one of my leaves and mentioned what I was doing she tried it, it worked great and saved her from stamping, embossing, and coloring a new one.

Poinsettia was stamped with white ink on white card stock twice and embossed in white. Twinkeling H2O's was applied with a water pen, one image was cut out using the "whole" image the second poinsettia was cut using the "inside" portion of the petals. Adhere with pop dots to the bottom flower. The leaves were done the same way stamp, emboss, color, and cut.
The vanilla layer was stamped all over using the large poinsettia in white, the flower and leaves arranged on that layer. Add some Flower soft and the luscious satin ribbon and you have a very elegant sophisticated look.
This card was a cased card, but I will be darn if I can find the original! Can someone please let me know? YEA! it is Cindy Lawrance that made the original.....Take a look! At her card and all of her beautiful creations!
Jan Marie taught the class, she is a whiz with color.

Recipe:

Stamp; Poinsettia and Boxwood, Ink; craft white, Luminart H2O embossing powder; Joann's, paper; white, vanilla, celery, carmel metallic, Ribbon MayArts white satin, Misc; water pen