Saturday, February 22, 2014

Japanese Blossom Card

The Close To My Heart Spring/Summer catalog is always my favorite.  I love the flowers, bugs, and springy colors.  This year is no exception.  

One easy way to make a bunch of cards is to use one of the "Quick Cards" stamp sets (there are 3 currently available).  One of the new ones is called Quick Cards - Japanese Blossom.  It's a single square image with a beautiful flower, some Japanese (Chinese) characters and a sentiment in English.  (I know the character on the lower left is LOVE.  Haven't gotten a translation yet on the words on the right.)


I tried inking the entire stamp with Saddle, and that looked ok, but I wanted to try making the outline of the  flower orange.  So I inked the entire stamp in Sunset Ink, then carefully "rolled" the edges of the stamp in Saddle Ink.  I had to make sure to "hit" all four corners, the Japanese characters, the postmark and the English sentiment at the bottom with Saddle, so it would be darker than the flower.  I like that look better than the single color.

Alternatively, you could ink the entire stamp in Sunset, and use a sponge dauber with Saddle on it to go around the edges.  Better control of the ink, I think.

I then used craft chalk (CTMH used to carry them ages ago) to color in the flower and the leaves.  It gives the image a wonderful, soft look.  I love using chalks...plus they are very forgiving; you can be pretty imprecise with them (unlike markers).

I also sponged around the edges of the stamped image (with Saddle).
And a little Almond Glitz Glitter Gel (retired) in the center of the flower.  (I know, Glitter and Japanese-calm really don't go together, but I figured it was just a tiny bit of glitter...)

I used paper from the new Balloon Ride Paper Pack on the left and Sorbet card stock on the right.  The mat under the flower is Desert Sand (but Kraft works great, as well).

The ribbon is 3/8" Colonial White Grosgrain Ribbon (retired), which I inked with the Saddle Ink and a Sponge Dauber (love 'em!).  I used Miracle Tape from Viva Las Vegas Stamps (http://www.vlvstamps.com/) which is like Terrifically Tacky Tape or 'redliner tape' (but cheaper) -- to stick the ribbon to the card.  Plus, Miracle Tape comes in a huge assortment of widths!

I hope you are inspired to try "rolling" your stamp today!

Lisa



Sunday, February 16, 2014

Fun Cards with Faux Pinwheels

I made these cards for my friends at church with papers from my friends at Rubber Soul  (http://www.rubbersoul.com/).  Love that place!  It's where my stamping journey began...A friend and I just wandered into their store by accident (12 years ago).  (They used to have a store in Redmond.  Now they're everywhere...on the Internet!)  I started taking classes there and fell in love with stamping.  The rest is history...well, my history...  


You can make pinwheels with squares (like when we were kids)...just cut from the corner in towards (but not all the way) to the center of the square.  I glued the pieces down.  These pinwheels don't spin.  Rhinestone sparkles are embellishing the centers.  The sticks are wooden coffee stirrers (nice and flat).

These papers are from Rubber Soul's collections...Meadow's Edge, Hoop-La and Shake It Up.

Oops, a little crooked!

I really like how the colors go together in their paper sets.  There's a bunch of different patterns in a pack. I stamped the little flowers and leaves on the white strip (above) using Close To My Heart stamps and inks (Pear and Honey).  They match perfectly!!

I think the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink (http://papertreyink.com/).  (I know, I know, I'm being unfaithful to Close To My Heart by posting all this stuff!!!)  But good is good, right?  No matter where you get it!  :)

Happy stamping!

Lisa

Saturday, February 1, 2014

February Stamp of the Month

Have you seen the cute February stamp of the month?  it's called Wild About Love.



You can only get it during February.  It's $17.95 if you just buy it, but the best part is, you can get it for just $5 when you place a $50 order!  woooooooo!  This is the cutest Stamp of the Month in this catalog.

Here's a very simple card made with the set.  What was kind of cool about it was that I stamped the fox on the right with Cocoa ink and the fox on the left with Slate ink.  I didn't even need to cut the stamp apart...just inked separately, and stamped quickly.

I used the NEW paper pack, Lollydoodle (X7183B, $9.95).




I made the conversation bubble (Cricut Artiste) at 1 3/4".  The beauty of it is, that if the conversation bubble is one way, the girl fox is saying something.  If you flip it over, the boy fox is saying something

You can easily change the sentiment -- Happy Birthday, Get Well Soon, etc.  It doesn't have to be a Valentine's card.  I love that!  It would be fun to color the fox's tails, ears and muzzle, too.  I think it would be fun if the girl fox was pink ...

If you want to come to a card class - let me know!  We are meeting:

Friday, February 21 & 28 at 6:30pm
Saturday, February 22 at 10am
Thursday, February 27 at 10am

I'd love to see you!

Supplies Used:
Cricute Artiste (X1790, $99)
Wild About Love (S1402, $17.95)
Lollydoodle (X7183B, $9.95)
Inks:  Cocoa, Slate, Pear, Cotton Candy
Card Stock:  Slate, Cotton Candy, Pear
Black & Grey Sparkles (Z1754, $2.95)
Other:  Sponge Dauber (for conversation bubble), Pink Glitz Glitter Gel (retired) - on bow and bow tie, Piercing Tool (to pick up Sparkles off of transfer sheet), foam mounting tape (under conversation bubble)

There's a fun blog hop going on...if you want to check out some other creations.  Check out Gina's blog.  and go around in a big circle.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Lisa