Don't be stressed - DISTRESS!

So, you had a rough day...your boss was annoying you all day long, you got home from work and the kids hadn't completed their homework and hadn't done any chores.

You get them fed, bathed and off to bed and now it's FINALLY your turn! But you're still so STRESSED you don't know WHERE to start. Well...don't get stressed, DISTRESS!!!

Now, of course, you need to be careful. We're dealing with sharp objects here...wouldn't want to cut yourself while you're trying to shred the edges of that paper with scissors.

Let's get started:

• For my card base, I've chosen a piece of Not Quite Navy Cardstock cut to 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" and folded at 4 1/4". As a rule, I don't distress my card base...but that's just me.  If you want to distress your card base, go to town!  After all...it's YOUR card! And really, it's just a little extra therapy - who doesn't need that?
• Next, you're going to want to choose your background Designer Series Paper, if you're using any.  For this card, I'm going to use a piece of Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper.  True, a lot of this paper tends to lean towards the "girlie" side, but a couple of the designs are neutral enough to use on a card for your man. And that's what I'm making today. Cut it to the size you like (in this case, I used a piece that is 3 7/8" x 5 1/8" and matted it on a piece of Pear Pizzazz cut to 4" x 5 1/4") and then take your scissors or cutter kit to the edges.  Rough it up as much as you like.
• Next, choose your stamp set - I chose "Countryside" because I'm in a watercolouring kind of mood. PLEASE don't be intimidated by watercolouring! Most of the Stampin' UP! stamps that are "designed" for watercolouring have the shadows added to the stamp. So, just add more colour to the shadows and VOILA! MASTERPIECE! As a side note, our watercolour paper is sized to fit as the second layer up from your card base.  Because I've already got two layers that are fairly close in size, I've trimmed it down just a bit. My watercolour paper is 3 1/4" x 4 3/4".
•   I started off by stamping the image using STAZ-ON ink.  This is a GREAT ink for watercolouring images as it won't run if it gets soaked!  I then coloured the truck using Baja Breeze and Not Quite Navy.
• After the truck was coloured, I coloured in the apples.  I used Real Red and a LOT of water because I wanted an "antique" sort of look.
• Once I had the truck and apples coloured, I started in on the grass and sky.  This required a LOT of water and warped my paper.  BUT! Not to worry!  Once it's dry and I mat in on a piece of Not Quite Navy, it'll lie nice and flat.

While it's drying here are some Tips from the Heart:

• There are many options for watercolouring your images.  My favourite is to use an aqua painter and wet the tip of one of the watercolouring crayons and colour in my image.
• You can also use the ink from your ink pads. DON'T put your aqua painter directly onto your ink pad as this dilutes the colour. Here's what to do: Before opening your ink pad, gently squeeze it.  What this will do is transfer some of the ink from the pad onto the lid.  THIS is the ink you will use to colour your image. This is especially helpful if you don't have the watercolour crayon in the colour of your choice - for example, the "In Colours" are not available as a watercolour crayon.
• For a deeper, more intense colour, use a few drops of re-inker.  Put these into the lid of the matching colour ink pad and use the re-inker to colour your image.  The result will be a much deeper colour.
• If you need to cover a big area of your design, you can also colour using the watercolour crayon directly onto your paper. Then, use your aqua painter to spread it around. Caution: this will require a LOT of water to spread around, otherwise, you'll end up with lines from the crayon on your paper.

OK, now that our focal image is dry, here's the final product:

What do you think?

STAMPS: Countryside, Teeny Tiny Wishes

INK: Staz-ON, Not Quite Navy

PAPER: Pear Pizzazz and Not Quite Navy Cardstock; Watercolour Paper; Springtime Vintage DSP

ACCESSORIES: Cutter Kit, Aqua Painters, Watercolour Crayons, Punches

Happy Stampin'!

MOJO Monday on a Thursday with a little Springtime Vintage

When I saw the MOJO Monday sketch, I knew I had to try it out, but I was waiting for just the right idea to pop into my head...and yesterday, that's JUST what happened!

I started off with the Springtime Vintage DSP as my inspiration. From that I chose Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz and Baja Breeze as my cardstock colours. There are so many wonderful designs in this DSP pack and they go with eight (yes, EIGHT!) of our cardstock colours. Talk about versatile!

Anyway...here is the card I came up with:

I started with the Crumb Cake base and then used another piece of Crumb Cake in my Big Shot with the Framed Tulips Embossing Folder. I just LOVE that you get a blank canvas with which to work and still get the texture when using this folder.

I chose a piece of DSP with Baja Breeze in it and then matted it on a piece of Baja Breeze Cardstock. I scrunched up the Baja Breeze Seam Binding by tugging on a couple of the middle threads to get it all rouched up. I love this effect and you can do it with MANY of our ribbons. I wrapped it around the panel and affixed it using glue dots on the back.

I stamped the image from Pocket Silhouettes (one of my all time FAVOURITE sets!) on Very Vanilla Cardstock using Pear Pizzazz Classic Ink. I punched out the image using my 1 3/8" circle punch and then matted it using both the small and large scallop circle punches. It was adhered using Stampin' Dimensionals.

The finishing touch is a scrunched up double bow of Baja Breeze Seam Binding. To achieve this look, I dampened the seam binding with just a touch of water and smooshed it up in my hands. I flattened it only slightly to tie the bow.

To add even more dimension, I affixed a Vintage Flower using a glue dot.

If you've read this far, and your name just happens to be Cheryl...this is one of the cards we'll be making at your SAB workshop!

What do you think?

STAMPS: Stem Silhouettes, Teeny Tiny Wishes

INK: Pear Pizzazz

PAPERS: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze and Pear Pizzazz Cardstock; Springtime Vintage DSP

ACCESSORIES: Big Shot, Framed Tulips Embossing Folder, Seam Binding, Vintage Flowers

Happy Stampin'!

Vintage Thank You - Just Believe

I've been in a bit of a vintage mood lately, so while I had the paper out for this post, I decided to keep playing with it.

Here's what I came up with:

Can you believe this is Christmas paper? This is a perfect example of just how versatile our papers are. You can use them for their intended purpose (Christmas) and for a host of other things! Come back on Nov. 3rd when I'll be participating in the SUDSOL Blog Tour and you can see what I did using our Celebrations DSP for two different cards.

For this card, my base is Crumb Cake Cardstock and the next layer up is Early Espresso. My DSP is from the Deck the Halls DSP pack.

For this card, I used the Just Believe Stamp Set (item # 120453 - Clear). I coloured the main image using my markers and since it was a sizeable image, rather than "huff", I spritzed with some water and then stamped the image. I spritzed twice, but should have only spritzed once. In the end though, it worked to add a little more "vintage" to my card.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Just Believe

INK: Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler

PAPERS: Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso Cardstock; Deck the Halls DSP

ACCESSORIES: Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

Vintage Christmas - Lovely as a Tree

I was looking for something to get my MOJO going today and remembered that Wednesdays are sketch days over at SplitCoast Stampers.

So, I headed over there and found this sketch:

As soon as I saw it, I just knew I had to do something vintage! Nothing like finding your MOJO in a detailed card, eh?

Here's my card:

OMGosh! LOVE!!! How can you NOT love this card? It's the perfect Christmas card. Of course, it's not one you want to replicate for your list of 75 Christmas card recipients but it's certainly doable for those few VERY special people in your life. Wouldn't you say?

Now...for the details. Got your coffee? This could be long!!!

I FINALLY decided to get Lovely as a Tree this year! This made my Caroline VERY happy...mostly because I would stop stealing borrowing hers, but also because now it means she can do her classes at the Creativ Festival. Are you going? You should be! Not only will my Caroline and I be there (isn't that reason enough?), but this year, I plan to have some gift items ready for you to buy and give. How perfect is that? Not only do you get to see US (how cool!), you get to do some Christmas shopping too! If you're REALLY lucky, you might even get to purchase the above card...but you better get there early, because I'm betting it'll be one of the first things snapped up!

Anyway...the first thing I did was stamp the single tall tree image on Very Vanilla Cardstock using Early Espresso ink. Then I added some Always Artichoke colour around the branches using my Stampin' Pastels...of course, you can't see it because I decided to distress the cardstock using Always Artichoke Ink and my sponges - LOL! However, if you look REALLY close, you may see the little red dots of Cherry Cobbler in the tree which was also done using Stampin' Pastels. I'm hoping it really does look like balls in the Christmas tree, since that's the look I wanted.

The next step was to distress the edges of the image panel. I did this using my paper snips because (I KNOW!!!) I haven't yet ordered the distressing kit. It's on my list - PROMISE! I did the same for the edges of all the cardstock and DSP except for the card base.

The panel directly under the image panel was embellished using gold brads. I really need some antique brass brads, so I better put the metallic brads on my list too! I'll bet the vintage trinkets would have looked good too...another thing for the list! You can have them too...just visit my online store and start shopping! Stampin' UP! will deliver the goodies right to your door!

What I DO have in Antique Brass is a mini library clip, so I used that to "attach" the tag to my image panel. In truth, the Linen Thread is stuck down using a glue dot. I hid it under the Library Clip.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Lovely as a Tree, Tiny Tags

INK: Early Espresso, Always Artichoke

PAPER:Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso Cardstock; Deck the Halls DSP

ACCESSORIES: Mini Library Clips, Linen Thread, Brads, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

ATC Tuesday - Vintage Hand Crafted

So far, this is my FAVOURITE ATC!

It was smooshed and wrinkled and inked and distressed - LOVE!

I started off with the idea that I REALLY needed to use my spiral punch! I've had it for at least 2 years and I think I may have used it once or twice. Isn't it amazing the things we THINK we need and then they never get used. Right Diana??? I won't tell you what my friend Di THOUGHT she needed, because (at least for the time being) I managed to talk her out of it.

So, with the spiral punch in mind, I reached for the newsprint DSP because I knew that at least a couple of the sheets had a notebook type design on them. I used the spiral punch first and then took my scissors to the edges to get that distressed, beat up look. I did the same with the Basic Black and Very Vanilla pieces.

I also did some tearing and sponging with Old Olive Ink and then used Basic Black Ink and the large floral image from Elements of Style (have I mentioned that I just LOVE this set?) to add the flowers to the notebook paper.

The next step was to stamp the hummingbird image in Old Olive on Very Vanilla and hand cut it. I also stamped two of the images from Tiny Tags on Very Vanilla and punched them out. I added some sponging in Old Olive, attached some hemp twine and then adhered them to the ATC using glue dots. That extra little touch was provided by the Mini Library Clip.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Elements of Style, Tiny Tags

INKS: Basic Black, Old Olive

PAPERS: Very Vanilla and Basic Black Cardstock; Newsprint DSP

ACCESSORIES: Punches, Stampin' Dimensionals, Mini Library Clip

Happy Stampin'!

3-D Thursday - Vintage Box

Welcome to another 3-D Thursday!

This week, I've created another box for you, as well as a card to go inside!

For the box, I followed the tutorial you can find here on Makeesha's blog. You HAVE to listen to/watch the video - her voice is just DARLING!

There is a bit of tweaking that needs to be done with her measurements though. When she says that you need to measure 4 1/2 inches from the first score line - DON'T! The actual measurement is 3 3/4" from the first score line, then 1 1/2" from there. If you score at 4 1/2" you won't get a box.

Also, with some additional tweaking of the instructions, you could EASILY turn this into a box that will hold A2 cards. With these dimensions, it will easily hold quite a few 3 X 6 cards and envies.

Here's the card I made:

I PROMISE you, it's not crooked IRL. The way the newsprint DSP was printed makes it look that way.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Elements of Style and Cute by the Inch

INK: Cherry Cobbler

PAPERS: Very Vanilla, Basic Black and Cherry Cobbler Cardstock; Newsprint DSP

ACCESSORIES: Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware, Ribbon, Punches

Happy Stampin'!

And now for a little more vintage

As previously mentioned in other posts, I just can't seem to put this set away! I sure hope you're not getting tired of seeing it over and over again. Hopefully, each of the projects I've made with it are different enough that you don't run screaming from my blog - LOL!

For this card, I used a Crumb Cake (formerly Kraft) base and Crumb Cake Ink (previously unavailable!) to stamp the large image from Elements of Style on the front of the card. Tone on tone stamping is one of my favourite ways to add that extra little touch to my cards.

Then, out came the markers! I used Peach Parfait, Cajun Craze, Certainly Celery and Garden Green to colour my main image and stamped it on Whisper White. Then, out came the scissors! I hand cut the image (yes, I KNOW you all think I'm NUTS!) and adhered it to the front of the card. I stamped the hummingbird in Cajun Craze and hand cut him too. He was adhered to the front of the card using Stampin' Dimensionals.

I stamped the sentiment on Whisper White and punched it out using the Designer Label Punch. I added a little doodle detail around the edges and then punched out a 1 3/8" circle to layer behind it. I then added some rhinestones before adhering it to the front of the card again using Stampin' Dimensionals.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Elements of Style

INK: Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Peach Parfait, Certainly Celery, Garden Green

PAPERS: Crumb Cake and Whisper White Cardstock

ACCESSORIES: Punches, Markers, Rhinestones, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

Teapot Tuesday

This is my SECOND post for today, so please scroll down to see what else I've been up to today! If you haven't yet picked a post in order to win some BLOG CANDY, please go to the post that is "sticky" at the top of this page.

So, today as I was looking for another challenge with which to play along, I discovered Teapot Tuesday and oh what fun!!! You can read all about Teapot Tuesdays here on SplitCoast Stampers.

Today's card was supposed to feature hearts:

I only used a few hearts, but I've been told that there aren't really any rules on Teapot Tuesdays and if there are that no one really minds if you break them...so I'm OK with that!

I started off with Pink Pirouette Base and added a layer of Very Vanilla between the base and the Newsprint DSP which was distressed and inked in Pink Pirouette, Rose Red and Cherry Cobbler as well as run through the Big Shot with the Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.

I stamped the triple heart in Cherry Cobbler and punched it out using the Heart to Heart Punch. I also used the Big Shot Beautiful Butterflies Die and then stamped and distressed a couple those. Finally, I used the Butterfly Embosslit and added a couple of those to the front of the card.

Here's a close up of the large butterfly detail:

I stamped a portion of the large image from Elements of Style in Cherry Cobbler onto the largest butterfly and then I used my blender pen to add some highlights/detail to the image.

This final pic is SUPER-DUPER close up of the sentiment:

I just LOVE the little butterfly addition, don't you? Of course, once I re-read the Teapot Tuesday challenge and Destination Station, I realized that the card was supposed to be a Get Well card and not a Birthday card. So...after I took the pics, I removed the Birthday sentiment and added the Get Well sentiment from the same set instead.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Elements of Style, Sincere Salutations

INK: Pink Pirouette, Rose Red, Cherry Cobbler

PAPERS: Very Vanilla, Pink Pirouette and Rose Red Cardstock; Newsprint DSP

ACCESSORIES: Punches, Big Shot, Dies, Embosslits, Embossing Folder, Blender Pen

Happy Stampin'!

Old Vanilla Get Together

Earlier this week, I participated in a Chat and Challenge over on SUDSOL (if you're a demonstrator, you can join too! Just check out the two week trial over there to the left) and Pam was hosting.

I didn't have time to play on Wednesday as I was going over to my Caroline's studio to play with her - YAY!! She had a class going on, so I got to make 5 Thank You cards - GORGEOUS!!!

Anyway, I promised Pam I'd try and get a card made up to participate in the challenge and here it is:

Her challenge was a sketch (which I sort of followed) and also that we should distress our card and make it look "vintage". Now...I KNOW I said I wasn't a big fan of distressing and I'll bet you're all starting to think I'm a big fat LIAR! I think I've changed my mind since I can't seem to NOT distress a card these days! Talk about a total 180!

Here's a close-up of the stamped flower:

Would you believe I didn't use my Stamp-a-Majig? And this isn't even a clear-mount set.

Here's a close up of the sentiment at the top of the card:

For the sentiment, I used the direct to rubber technique and coloured the "get" in Night of Navy and the rest of the word in Old Olive.

OK, now for more of the details. The first thing I did was cut out a Very Vanilla Top Note using my Big Shot. Let me tell you, this is the best thing out there! I used to have a QK Revolution but sold it to get the Big Shot. I don't know how I ever lived without it!

After it was cut, I stamped two large and one small flower from the Flower Fancy Set using Marina Mist and Night of Navy Inks. I could have used my Stamp-a-Majig for perfect placement, but since I was going for vintage/distressed, I figured that freehand was a better bet. I used Night of Navy chalk in the middle of the flowers and gave it a sort of watercolour effect.

Next, I took my scissors to the edges of the Top Note and sponged on some ink to add to the distressed look.

The first layer on the card is the Newsprint DSP which again, I didn't think I'd like but was my only option other than Greenhouse Gala (which I REALLY didn't like) in the pre-order. Let's just say I need to order MORE!!! I took my scissors to the edges again and then added Old Olive and Certainly Celery Inks to it. I tore a corner off and ripped it up a bit before adhering it to the front of the card. The Old Olive piece at the top right is only a 2" X 2" square.

I cut and adhered the portion of the Top Note that I wanted to use and then attached Old Olive Satin Ribbon in 5/8".

My image panel is (are you sitting down?), yet ANOTHER ATC sized panel. I stamped the flower and outline using the direct to rubber technique again. Scissors and ink for distressing and then I matted it in Old Olive and Basic Black. I tied a knot in another piece of Old Olive Ribbon and wrapped it around the panel. It was adheres to the front of the card using Stampin' Dimensionals.

Onto the sentiment: I used the direct to rubber technique again as I wanted the word "get" in a different colour. Originally, I punched it out using the Designer Label Punch, but because the word "get" isn't quite in the middle of the whole word, it just didn't look right. So, I ended up going with the Large Oval, Scalloped Oval and Wide Oval. The sentiment was also adhered with Stampin' Dimensionals.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Flower Fancy, In a Word

INKS: Marina Mist, Night Of Navy Certainly Celery, Old Olive

PAPERS: Very Vanilla, Basic Black and Old Olive Cardstock; Newsprint DSP

ACCESSORIES: Ribbon, Punches, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

Elements of News

I've said before that I am not too much of a vintage person, but I seem to find myself drawn to distressing and more vintage type images every day. I find I'm also REALLY liking the Newsprint DSP: something else about which I was unsure.

Today's card features a little bit of distressing, my new FAVOURITE set (Elements of Style) and newsprint paper. This is also the card that I FINALLY got around to creating using my Sunny Sunday Sketch from last week.

I had a piece of Newsprint DSP left from another project that I'll show you in a couple of days, so I took out some Cherry Cobbler and some Basic Black to go with it.

I sponged around the outside edge of the Newsprint DSP with Cherry Cobbler Ink and also stamped the large floral image and small scroll type image from Elements of style onto the piece of DSP. Then, I stamped the large floral image onto Very Vanilla Cardstock and punched out three sections of it, using my 1 1/4" square punch, which were then matted on 1 3/8" squares punched from Cherry Cobbler Cardstock.

I adhered the three squares to the Newsprint DSP and then to a 3 3/4" X 5" piece of Cherry Cobbler Cardstock. The next task was to tie a piece of Very Vanilla Ribbon around these pieces before adhering them to the Basic Black base.

The finishing touches were the stamped sentiment in Cherry Cobbler on Very Vanilla Cardstock matted on Cherry Cobbler Cardstock and the hand cut hummingbird mounted on Stampin' Dimensionals.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Elements of Style

INK: Cherry Cobbler

PAPERS: Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler and Basic Black Cardstock; Newsprint DSP

ACCESSORIES: Ribbon, Punches, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!