Category: techniques

Fool’s Gold Technique – Video Tutorial

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I have a monthly technique class and am always looking for new ways of using paper, stamps and ink.  The Marbled Background Stamp has been in my stash for a few months and I wanted to use it for ‘something’ but not sure what – so I played for a while starting with stamping Memento Black ink and a quarter sheet of Whisper White card.

It was OK but was not floating my boat so I pulled out the Artisan Textures Stamp Set and randomly stamped over the surface with Versamark and sprinkled with Copper Embossing Powder then setting it with the Heat Gun……………. and there it was …………… a pretty cool effect that I have dubbed ‘Fool’s Gold’ as it reminds me of the rock of the same name – a throwback to my university degree where I majored in the Earth Sciences.

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Adirondack Beach Memories ~Ink and Share Blog Hop

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Today I am thrilled to be taking part  in the Ink & Share blog hop again.  You will have arrived from Rebecca-Jo Unwin’s post.   This month’s theme is  Summer ~ I really thought about this  and recall family holiday’s when we were children in North Devon in the UK, there was a particular beach, Putsborough Sands, that had wonderful sand and you could walk into the sea for ages before it got too deep.

It bought back such happy memories that I decided that my summer card would feature a beach with a comfy chair where you can take time to just watch the world go by.

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In-Color and Love What You Do

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Happy First Day of Summer!

We are now 3 weeks into the new catalog and the new 2018 -2020 In-colors – these are a group of 5 trendy colors that are available for 2 years that coordinate with the core color families.

Most of my lovely customers will have seen the samples I made to showcase each of the new colors along with the scrummy coordinating ribbons, each card was made the same, just swapping around the colors.

I used the beautiful Love What You Do stamp set to help  me making my samples – it has a lovely watercolor type ‘splodge’ which makes a great background to the flower and greeting.

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Sweet and Simple Serene Garden with Spotlight Technique

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Earlier this week I had my 2018 – 2019 Annual Catalog launch, each person got their own personal copy of the new catalog, we had a scavenger hunt,  a drool over some of the new products I was able to pre-order, snacks and some ‘make and takes’

One  of the make and takes was this card using a new stamp set, Serene Garden and one of the new card colors, Merry Merlot, plus some Stampin Blends pens – which will be available in the coming weeks.
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Multi-layered Cards ~ Petal Garden DSP

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These are the last of the multilayered cards I made last month as thank you cards for my lovely customers – and wouldn’t you know this paper retired just last week! but I want to share them anyway as the technique will work for any of the new DSP packs in the 2018 – 2019 annual catalog.

The design is inspired by an idea from the UK demonstrator Pootles and it appealed to me very much – but instead of cutting up my DSP I used the scraps that were left over from previous projects. As a result I made about 2 dozen cards in total and although they followed the same formula every single one is different.

I set myself a couple of rules, the layering pieces of card must be the same color as the card base and each card needed to have 3 pieces of DSP.
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Mastering Ribbon # 3 ~ Double Bow

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Stampin’ UP! has the most amazing selection of ribbons and trims ranging from twine  up to 5/8 inch wide and the selection of textures and colors that coordinate with other products makes it so easy to decorate cards and other paper crafting projects.  I often find myself looking at my ribbons and trims first for inspiration when starting the design on a project.

Today’s video shares my way of tying a double looped bow – by that I mean each bow has 4 loops ~ two on each side, and two tails.  So pretty and luxurious! Continue reading →

Black Ice Technique and Falling Flowers

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Today I am sharing the  Black Ice Technique – it gives such a unique focal point to a card.  It uses the foil card, I used the Champagne Foil  but  to be honest it was hard to stop making them and it works perfectly on the Silver, Gold and Copper Foils as well.

I think you could use any stamp set for this technique ~ I chose Falling Flowers Stamp Set

Oh! and I am so glad that Stampin’ UP! are bringing back  Black Stazon – because this is a solvent based ink it dries very quickly allowing you to complete the technique so much quicker. 🙂 Continue reading →

Multi-layered Cards ~ Pick a Pattern DSP

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Last week I was ‘letting my fingers do the walking’ (showing my age quoting the old Yellow Pages advert!) and came across a post from Pootles, a UK demonstrator.  She had taken some Designer Series Paper and cut it up to create a number of very pretty layered cards.  The idea appealed to me very much – but instead of cutting up my DSP I used the scraps that were left over from previous projects. As a result I made about 2 dozen cards in total and although they followed the same formula every single one is different.

I set myself a couple of rules, the layering pieces of card must be the same color as the card base and each card needed to have 3 pieces of DSP.
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Collar Fold Card – Video Tutorial

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I have two cards and one video tutorial to share with you today.  I love this Collar Fold, it gives me a chance to showcase our Designer Series Paper and also to show both sides of the same piece.  Each card using the same fold but in two different colors, both would be perfect for a birthday or thank you card, although my pink version was designed as a Valentine it would make a great anniversary card as well.

I used a number of goodies from the  2018 Occasions Catalog ~  the greetings from the Southern Serenade Stamp Set, Petal Pair Embossing Folders, Whisper White Organza Ribbon and Petal Passions Embellishments. Continue reading →