End of the Week Technique #42- Creating Backgrounds With Sponges ?NAC #6

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Hey y'all. Happy Thursday! Just one more day until the weekend! Woo-Hoo! I can hardly wait. The weekend is my time to stamp and I love having that un-interrupted time.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I find that in the search for bigger and better and more impressive, I forget about the basic, simple, easy things that can often have just as big of an impact if not more. That's how today's card and technique came about. I was working on a card for Nacho Average Challenge's Color Challenge and thought I would brayer the background. Have I mentioned lately how much I dislike color challenges? Oh, that's right, I haven't done one for two weeks since NAC's last color challenge. Lol! Any-whoo the brayering was not working for me so I decided to go low-tech and sponge the colors on. Score!!! While, I'm not happy with the front of the card overall, I'm very happy with how the technique portion turned out. I'm trying to figure out how to change the front, so there may be an updated post soon. But, you know how I roll- I give you the good with bad. Luckily, I don't think there's too much of the "bad" hanging around on my site.

Here's today's card-

Halloween Card featuring
Toxic Treats Stamp Set and Sponged Background

I'm not sure what, exactly, it is that I'm unhappy with here on the front. I sponged the outside of my focal piece after the DSP layer was already adhered, so maybe the DSP just needed some sponging too. Maybe it's the Night of Navy as the base, although I really like it on the inside. I think I'm going to try this again with Rich Razzleberry for the base. I'll have to figure something out, because I actually like the color combo, just not what I did with it. :(

What I am happy about is my sponged and stamped area, although even that I have plans to improve. Sometimes that darn OCD is soooo annoying! Here's a close-up-

After the brayering debacle, I decided I would try sponging on the colors I wanted and see if I could create a cool background that way. What do you think? I think it's pretty cool....(Read in a Boris Karloff kind of Creepy voice) Darkness descends, and a crow sits in inky shadows on the wrought iron fence......Bwah-ha-ha.... BOO! : D HAHAHAHAHA! Don't you just want to know what's waiting behind that fence?

Just in case you haven't figured out exactly what the color challenge was this week, here's the answer-

I sponged layers of these three colors onto a piece of Whisper White c/s and then stamped my image over that in Night of Navy. I then cut it out with my second smallest framelet and then sponged the edges in Night of Navy and adhered it to my base with Dimensionals.

I think when I re-do this I will add a little VersaMark and Clear Embossing Powder to my stamped image so it stands out even more. I wasn't sure how this technique was going to turn out but in the end I think it really adds something nice to my card.

Here's the inside-

Inside of Halloween Card featuring
Toxic Treats Stamp Set

I stamped the sentiment in Night of Navy and sponged all around the edges with the same color. Then I stamped my sweet little froggy-

I just couldn't do an Ugly Frog... you never know, he could be a Handsome Prince, under a Wicked Witch's Evil Spell. What?!? It could happen. Ok, he's probably not a Handsome Prince but that doesn't mean he can't be a Handsome Frog. I stamped him in Lucky Limeade and let Tink work her magic and Abra-Cadabra. Ooooohhhhh-Aaaaahhhhh! That's right, I'm magical like that!

Ok- So here's what you need for this technique- Sponges, Ink pads in the colors of your choice, Cardstock and a Stamp Set.

Here's what you do-

1- Apply your color. I started at the bottom and worked my way up but you could also probably start in the middle. You just want to make sure you blend your colors in so you don't have any sharp lines.
2- After inking my sponges up, I dabbed them lightly on my grid paper so I would  have even coverage. I chose to pounce lightly first and then swipe and swirl the sponge over each area to blend. Alternatively you could just swirl your color starting off the c/s and moving on to it. This will avoid any "harsh" lines where you first start.
3- Layer your colors and continue to blend until you have the desired shading.
4- Stamp your image

Alternatively you could stamp with your chosen color and VersaMark and then apply Embossing Powder and then Heat Set your image. After doing this you could then add your colors as if you were doing an Emboss Resist and wipe any excess color off the top of your stamped image.

5- Add your piece to your card/project and smile when you see what you've created. As always, smile even more when you think about the joy that receiving this little piece of handmade love will bring to someone.

That's all I have for you today. I hope you liked it and I hope it inspires you to try something new today whether it's a technique or a challenge or even something non stamping/creatively related. I hear there are those kinds of things out there. :) As always if you create something using this technique I'd love to see what you make!

I love hearing from you, so if you have comments or questions about today's card or technique be sure to leave me a comment. I read all of them and they really do make my day. Friends and Followers are always welcome too! :)

Thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy day and stopping by my little corner of the world. You are very appreciated! Till next time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Leaning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe-
Shan

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MDS Day - Memorial to My Fallen DEA Friends / Creating a FB/G+ Timeline Cover

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Hey y'all. Happy Humpday! Just two more days till the weekend. Woo-Hoo!!! I don't know about you but I had a wonderful start to my day. :) Wish they could all start as nice. Hope you're having an awesome day and week as well.

I've got a MDS project for you today. I'm a little behind on creating a Timeline Cover for my FB and G+ pages. I know lots of you have already uploaded beautiful pictures to yours (Jess, love the puppehs!). How about creating your own instead of just adding a single picture? You can totally make your covers personalized to reflect you! How cool is that?

I downloaded our all new MDS2 this weekend after playing with my stamping BFF, April on Saturday and helping her create a Photo-Book of her Convention Experience last year. It's sooo neat! I'm really hoping to start spending more time with MDS and learning all the fun things I can do with it. So many amazing, new features. I've never been one to really scrapbook before, it was just so time consuming and so many choices.... it really stressed me out. I did a couple pages of my daughter's baby pictures and 1 skating album for her and an album about a Disney trip we took with my mom ( I made two of those and gave one to my mom). That's it. Needless to say I've got a lot of catching up to do. Now if I can just get all those negatives scanned I'll be good to go. :)

Here's what I created after work Monday afternoon-

This is a picture from a Memorial for 3 fallen DEA agents. Two of whom, were friends of mine. They were Killed In Action along with 11 Armed Service Members on October 26, 2009, in what would be the single biggest loss of Americans during the War in Afghanistan until the Seal Team's Loss. They died trying to make this world a little better for all of us and our future generations. Our Team also suffered other severe injuries during that time. We not only lost 3 friends and Very Special, Special Agents but their families suffered the un-imaginable loss of Husbands, Fathers, Sons and Best Friends. This picture was taken outside of DEA HQ days later. You can't see it but the flags are being held aloft by two Fire-Ladder Trucks from a local jurisdiction. The flag on the left is the DEA Flag, flying next to the flag they all loved and were so proud to serve under.

This was Super Easy to make and if you don't already have MDS you can download it for a FREE 30 day trial. No commitment, nothing, just 30 days to try the best Digital Scrapbooking system available. NO credit card or payment information is required. You don't even have to be a scrapbooker. You can make plenty of other things, like cards, photo-books, swatch-books, calendars, recipe cards, and even Hybrid projects. Really the sky's the limit. You can find some example here on my blog. Just enter MDS in the search-bar.

If you have MDS you can create your cover  by going to the calendar option. In MDS2 however, there's an option to create your own project and you just enter the size in either inches or pixels (pixels is the easiest for this) and then just add whatever you'd like. It can be a papers and stamps or a picture like mine or even a lot of pictures. It's totally up to you. Once I had added my picture I was able to move around on the picture and  zoom in or out until I found just the portion I wanted. I love how I was able to that and not have my image get distorted. I then decided to add in some text. Once again, Super Easy. I just clicked on the add text box, wrote what I wanted and chose the font and size I wanted and there it was. I tried a couple of different colors until I decided to just use White. I then lightened up the opacity so it wasn't so stark against my photo. The opacity feature is one of my all time favorite features.

Here's the Pixel sizes for you, so you don't have to go looking for them-

FB - 851 x 315
G+ - 940 x 180

For G+ you need to remember that your profile picture is on the right side and that it covers the entire height of your cover and there will be a small piece left to the right of your profile picture. You will likely not be able to use the same layout as on your FB cover because of this. I had to re-position both the flags and the words for my G+ cover. Just something to remember while you are busy getting creative.

I tried to pull up my FB timeline and add it here as a picture but couldn't so here's the link so you can see what it looks like on my page. Shannon Angel FB page. Here's my G+ page as well. Now I just need to work on covers for my Design Studio Pages and then I can get creative doing new ones for the seasons or special occasions. :) So much fun.

I hope you like today's project and I  hope it inspires you to try your own digital fun. If you'd like to try My Digital Studio2 (MDS2) for FREE you can go to my ONLINE STORE, click on Shop Now, and download it for FREE. It's compatible with both Microsoft and Mac operating systems. We're also having specials this month on digital downloads and suites. You can purchase additional downloads during your free-trial and they will work with most other digital systems you may already have. MDS would also be Great for making new inserts to go in your Halloween Tray if you join my team this month. Then you can enjoy your tray all year long and not just at Halloween time. Here's a picture of the kit you will get in addition to $125.00 worth of product for just $99.00.

This set includes everything you see here including the stamp set in your choice of Clear Mount or Wood-Mount. Did you know you can use that $125.00 worth of product to purchase the All-New MDS2? Yep. You can get it and still have money left over for new downloads or traditional stamping supplies. That's over $700.00 worth of product for only $99.00 and you get me for Free too! Well, that alone is priceless...or at least worth the cost of admission (depending on the day!).

As always, if you have Questions or Comments I'd love to hear from you. I read all of my comments and will respond ASAP to any questions you might have. Your comments really do make my day! If you'd like to +1 or Pin today's project, I've put the buttons on my blog for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome too! :)

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. You are very appreciated! Till next time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the Storm to pass, but Learning to Dance in the Rain.

Be Safe-
Shan Pin It

A Quick and Easy Holiday Card

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Hey y'all. Happy Tuesday! It's an over-cast, gloomy kind of day here in the DMV. :( I hope it's sunny wherever you are today. Wanna know what doesn't make me gloomy? Trick question! You know me so well, you were about to say today's card weren't you? HA! The answer is ... presents. I love when they're wrapped up all nice in pretty paper and ribbons. You like that too, right? Are you one of those people that opens your presents at the seams, carefully so as to not rip the paper or tear the ribbon? I'm not! No sir-ree! I'm like "Let me at it!" But I digress. Ok. So I guess you're kinda right. Because today's card looks like a present, all pretty and wrapped up and you have to unwrap it. Well sort-of.

Here's what I mean-

Holiday Package Card featuring
Ornament Keepsakes Stamp Set and Ornaments Framelets

Don't you just want to open it up to see what's inside? This is a really Quick & Easy card. Perfect for workshops/stampcamps or mass production. I don't really consider this a Clean & Simple card because of the extra steps. But you could call it that if you wanted too. It's super simple. I started with a base of Lucky Limeade 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 scored and folded at 4 1/4. Next I cut two strips of paper from the Festival of Prints DSP Stack. What a great value! 48 sheets of DSP, double sided for only $6.95. It's got lots of patterns that can be used throughout the year and not just during the holidays. For those of you that like measurements, I cut 2 strips at 1 3/4 x 5 1/2 and then adhered them to the L.L. base with Tombow, taking them all the way to the edges. This leaves the center open, but more importantly, it saves DSP giving you more to use on another project. Next I have 2 pieces of Cherry Cobbler c/s cut at 1 1/4 wide. One is 5  1/2  in length and the other is about 9 1/2. Secure your shorter strip so that its's centered on your card and it's edges slightly overlap the inner edges of your DSP. Next make a "belly band" by loosely wrapping your longer strip around your card so the ends overlap in the back. You want this piece to be loose enough to slide over your card but not fall off. Score where they would be at the sides of the card. I used my Simply Scored to make the score lines crisp. Secure the ends in the back. Decorate the front of your middle wrapping however your would like. I chose to color one of the Keepsake Ornaments with my Lucky Limeade and More Mustard Stampin Write Markers and then cut it out with my Holiday Framelets. I punched a hole in the top and ran a length of Cherry Cobbler Bakers Twine through it. I knotted the end and secured the knot behind the ornament. I used a Dimensional to secure the ornament to my belly band. Here's what that looks like-

Ornament Keepsakes Belly Band

You simply slide it to the middle of your card and it looks like a present ready to be unwrapped. :) You simply slide this off to see whats waiting for you inside.

Inside of Holiday Package Card featuring
Ornament Keepsakes Stamp set and Greetings of the Season Stamp Set

I inked up my sentiment stamp with my L.L. and C.C. Stampin Write Markers. I also stamped 2 of the ornaments from the Ornament Keepsakes set and then let Tink have her way and ended up with the beautiful, sparkly ornaments. It sure makes me smile. What about you? Do you think, it's a nice surprise after "unwrapping" the front? I sure hope so!

That's all I have for you today. I hope you liked my little gift and I hope it inspires you to create something that will bring a smile to your face and someone else's too. I love hearing from you, so if you have comments or questions, I hope you'll leave me a comment. I read all of them and they really do make my day! If you'd like to +1 or Pin today's card, I've put the buttons here on my blog for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome too! :)

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. You are very appreciated! Till next time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,

Shan

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Wonderful Winterland Watercolor (try saying that 3 times fast!) /Challenge Fun SSC #267 / My Challenge #33

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Hey y'all. Happy Monday! I hope you had an awesome weekend. I got to watch some Olympics, spend time with my Stamping BFF April, and get a little stamping done too. All in all, a nice, laid back weekend.

It's overcast and rainy here in the DMV. :( Not sure where you're at, but I hope it's a beautiful, mild temperature day with plenty of sunshine for you with all the rain you need coming at night after you've done everything you need to do. We can all hope and dream right. :) Now, most of you know I don't do that BAD 4 letter word that begins with a S and ends with a W. Nope, don't do it at all. Ok, maybe a little cuz it's pretty, if I'm inside with no expectations of having to go out in it, my pantry and fridge is fully stocked and the snow magically dissapears from my steps, sidewalks and vehicles and never gets yucky and dirty, oh and most importantly it only happens when its 72 out. Since that somehow never seems to happen, I'll take my snow like this-

Winter Card featuring
Wonderful Winterland and Snow Festival DSP

All bright and sparkly, oh and shared with a friend and a cup of hot chocolate. Yeah, that kind of snow wouldn't be bad at all! :)

I used this sketch over at Stamping 411 for my layout-

Today's card is a little mix of old and new. For the old, I used the Northern Flurries E.F. and the second smallest Labels Framelet. The new is the Wonderful Winterland Stamp Set and the Snow Festival DSP. Both are Super Cute. While I don't like snow and like Winter, as a whole, only moderately better, I love this cute little stamp set. All sort of fun images that just invite you to sit down and color. F.U.N.! Here's a close-up-

I used my Blender Pens and Classic Ink Pads to color in this sweet little scene. I stamped the image in Black Staz-On so the ink wouldn't bleed when I did my coloring. Although it's hard to tell in the picture the snow coming down is a stamped image that I stamped multiple times in Bashful Blue. I then lightly colored them in. The snow they're sitting on is also a pale Bashful Blue. I simply let Tink have her way to create a sweet wintry scene. I used the 2nd smallest framelet to cut this image out before coloring it. Once I was finished I sponged the edges in Baja Breeze. I then cut two more labels in Baja Breeze and used them to mat my scene. I also used my sponge daubers & Bashful Blue Ink to lightly color over the embossed snow-flakes for a little "pop" off the Whisper White background, then let Tink have her way again. Both my center panel and the Whisper White embossed layer are mounted with Dimensionals.

Here's the inside-

Inside of Winter Card featuring
Greetings of the Season and Wonderful Winterland

The sentiment is stamped in Baja Breeze. Can you tell it's not quite straight or centered. AUGH!!! That's why I hate stamping on the inside of c/s and not on a layer. Once I had stamped it, it was too late to do anything about it. :(  I used the same image from the front but masked off part of the stamp with sticky-notes. I then colored my precious little bunny in, and gave him some snow to play in.

Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you liked today's card and I hope it inspires you to get out your supplies and play-along. Don't forget to stop by Stamping 411's site and check out all the great samples.

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. You are very appreciated! I love hearing from you, so if you have questions or comments about today's card, I hope you'll leave me a comment. I read them all and they really do make my day! If you'd like to +1 or Pin today's card, I've put the buttons on my blog for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome too! :)

Till next time-

Remember- Life is often more bout the storms than than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storm to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan

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3 Cheers For You / NAC#5

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Hey y'all. Happy Friday! *HappyDance* That means lots and lots of time for stamping, in between my favorite Olympic activities of course. Lol! I've got another Challenge card for you today. Wow that's 3 in 1 week. :) A year ago I wasn't even thinking about entering any of my cards in a challenge. Just the thought made me nervous. Boy has this Scaredy Cat changed. Oh, I'm still a Scaredy Cat, but I'm trying not to be quite so Scaredy. :)

Have you checked out the Nacho Average Challenge page yet? If you haven't I've got 2 words for you....Why Not!?! No, Really...Why Not!?! You need to check them out. Well, not right now, but when you're done here, kay? Kay. They have great sketch challenges and color challenges and a fab DT too.


Here's the card I made for this week's challenge-

Congratulations Card featuring
Happy Hour Stamp Set and Patio Party DSP

Look at me, all mixing and matching the DSP! Yes that is really my card. : p  This has been the strangest week for me with my stamping. Most of my cards didn't turn out as planned, usually because of Operator Error. Yep, totally my fault. This one is just another example. :'( Overall, I'm happy (not ecstatic, but happy) with it in the end, but I really wish it was how I had envisioned it. Somebody, please tell me this happens to you to and I'm not the only one!

Here's the sketch I was working with-

 As soon as I saw it, I knew what I wanted to do with those banners, I just had to figure out what I was going to do in addition to the treatment. I did a card for my daughter earlier in the year where I made a "flip-up" card front. You can see it here.  I wanted to flip these flags too. I finally decided on a new stamp set, Happy Hour, and how I would work everything out and was so excited. Yeah, that's where everything began to fall apart. Teach me to get overly excited, huh? Maybe if I'd had a little "happy hour" before trying this I may not have been so stressed about it. Of course I probably would have ended up with even more mistakes.

To create my card front I used a base of Summer Starfruit (it's growing on me) and Patio Party DSP, cut to the dimensions on the challenge site. I then scored my DSP with my Simply Scored Tool, I think at the 1/4" mark, reinforced the folds and then adhered the smaller edge to my base with Tombow. Oh and somehow I totally just forgot about the fact that having turned my card to "landscape" from "portrait" would prevent me from simply wrapping my ribbon all the way around my card. *HeadDesk*  Way to go Einstein! Ok, so what I really said was not blog friendly, but you get the idea. I didn't realize this until I was putting the finishing touches on the card. As I didn't have an extra layer under my flags, I couldn't secure my ribbon under that. Well, I was too invested at this point to just give up, you'll see what I mean in a minute. I ended up using my paper trimmer to cut a small slit on the fold line just big enough to thread my ribbon through and wrapped it that way. Not ideal, but it worked and allowed me to add that element of the sketch. *SMH!!!*

Oh and by the way to get my flagged ends, I simply cut up 3/4" in the center of each strip of DSP with my Paper-Snips and then cut from each corner to that point. I know lots of people do well with the whole slide your paper into the corner of a square punch but I can never get it "just right" and then I end up cutting a little more and a little more, trying to get it "just right" until my DSP is just a little nubbin. Kinda like when you have a whole sheet cake and you cut your first slices and enjoy it but then the cake keeps calling you back because the cut isn't straight, so you have to keep coming back and cutting it again to make it straight, even though that never seems to work because you can hear it calling you from anywhere in your house and sometimes from outside of your house too. And the next thing you know, there's no cake left! Why is there no cake left? Because of course you couldn't just throw away the piece you just trimmed. After all, it wasn't that big, right? Of course not! So you ate it, wouldn't want it to go to waste. All those hungry people and everything. Oh Noes! Food Baby and and an empty cake holder. Not that I know anything about that of course. I can just imagine that happening.

Tammy over at NAC is so kind to give measurements for her sketches as a guideline. Silly me, I just took those guidelines and ran with them. Sometimes you really have to just take a breath, or in my case a bigger breath and wait before diving in the deep end of the pool, off of the 10 meter platform. Yes, I did just throw an Olympic reference in there. (And way to go USA for medaling in that event!) If you look back up at the original picture, it looks pretty good, I'm really happy with how it looks actually, because if you've been by here before you know how much it stresses me to mix DSP's. Just makes me sweat! Augh!!! Well, here's the problem I did all measurements to make sure everything would fit and it did. Woo-Hoo! But I didn't account for a portion of the flags being under the ribbon. Ruh-Roh! My original plan was going to look like this-
Stamp
Stamp,Stamp
Stamp, Stamp, Stamp
I had it all measured out, down to the amount of space in-between each stamp. Then I laid the already cut strips of DSP over the practice piece of paper. Yes, I had a practice piece. Don't judge, it's the OCD in me. Laughing is ok though. :) I had to go back to the crunching the numbers. Ok, done and I was going to be able to swing it. YES! I inked up my stamp, stamped it on my cardstock and realized my error. I had inked up my practice stamp with my markers to omit a portion of the stamp. @#&%!!!!!! Oh my studio assistants would have plugged their furry little ears if they only had thumbs. Well, at this point as I had stamped on my directly on my c/s, I was stuck, so I forged on. Here's what I came up with instead-

I just realized it's  kinda cool how you get
more pretty DSP when you flip the banners. Yea!

 When you see the inside it makes a little more sense-

Inside of Congratulations Card featuring
Happy Hour Stamp Set

Get it? 3 Cheers. I guess if I had been able to do the card the way I had envisioned it would have been 6 Cheers instead of 3 but I was going for a design concept. Sometimes I think I should just stick to the basics and not try to get fancy.

Can I just say the inside is probably my favorite part of the card? It's the only part of the card that didn't give me grief! Look at my little Champagne flute-

All Crystal-ly and sparkly and shiny...Oh My! LOL! I crack myself up sometimes. It really is ok to laugh at me or if it makes you feel better, just consider it laughing with me. : D I inked up my stamp with VersaMark, then applied my Heat and Stick Powder and Heat Embossed. Next came my Dazzling Diamonds and a few sweet little rhinestones for the bubbles.

Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you like my Hot-Mess of a Challenge Card and I hope it inspires you to try something new today. Maybe a challenge or maybe a new technique or maybe just not throwing your project in the trash because it simply won't come together. There's three main reasons I don't do that. 1- I always show you the good and the bad here. 2- The good Catholic girl in me hates the thought of that waste. 3- I love our products too much to just throw them away. The thought hurts my heart just a little and makes me sad. I know, you're shaking your head at me again. It's ok, I'm doing it too. See what good friends we are, we're in sync like Bobsey-Twins or something.

I love hearing from you so if you liked today's card or have a thought or question about it, I hope you'll leave me a comment. I love hearing from you and they always make my day. If you'd like to + 1 or Pin any of my posts, I've put the buttons on my posts for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome too! :)

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. You are very appreciated! I hope you'll make it back soon to see all of the things I have in store for you. I wish you the happiest of weekends, full of time for Family, Friends and of course, lots of time for Creativity! Till next time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan

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End of the Week Technique #41 (A Two-Fer) Coloring/Un-Coloring Stamps / PP106

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Hey y'all. Happy Thursday to you! I hope you're having a fabulous week. Just one more day to go until the weekend. Yea!!!

I've got lots of pictures for you today, so I'm just gonna jump on in. :) This card didn't start out with the intent to be a EWT. In fact, I was looking through my reader this weekend to get some challenge ideas and decided on The Paper Players Challenge. I went down to the studio to make my card and had a little "oopsie". Well, you know what they like to say about stamping..."There's no mistakes just creative design opportunities. That's what happened here. Gotta say I love when that happens and you end up loving your creation.

Here's today's card-

Masculine Card featuring
Forever With You

I know I talked yesterday about the only card as hard for me to do as Sympathy cards were Masculine cards. Luckily as I was reading through my feeds, I saw this challenge over at The Paper Players and thought I would give it a try. I usually like a little more structure to my challenges, which is one reason I don't often do Color Challenges.

 I decided on the Masculine, Dry Embossing and Blue options. I really love this stamp set, but I think it's easy to make a beautiful, romantic card for a female with it and a little bit harder to make one that's masculine. You know...all those flowers. :)

I started with a base of Midnight Muse (Check, Blue). Next came a Crumb Cake layer that I embossed with my Stripes Embossing Folder and my Big Shot (Check, Dry Embossing). I gently sponged over this with some Crumb Cake Classic Ink to make the embossing stand out more. Oh, I used my new Windows Framelets to cut all of my layers out. I then decided to layer on a piece of DSP from the new Comfort Cafe Collection. Even though this piece has a floral element, I don't think it's frilly or feminine with this card so, I think it works. Oh I also ran it through my Big Shot with my Lattice E.F. and sponged over it with more C.C. (Check Blue and Dry Embossing). Hey this might not be so difficult after all. :) Or at least that's what I was thinking at the time.

For my focal point I decided to color in the stamp with my Stampin Write Markers. I guess I could have inked it up all in Midnight Muse for an even more "Masculine" look, but you know me, always adding a little something more. Coco Channel would be so disappointed. I used my Stampin Write Markers in Midnight Muse, Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ripple and Wild Wasabi to color in my image and stamped it on Whisper White c/s. You know this has really been a week where none of my cards have been created  easily and without some little Oopsie happening. Well, I went to mount it to the C.C. mat (I cut a piece of C.C. c/s with the same framelet twice, and  cut it so I could layer it behind my W.W. panel to give just a narrow mat instead of a wider one) and realized that I should have used Very Vanilla instead of W.W. AUGH!!!! It was def way to bright against that card. What to do, what to do? You know what to do here..... Think, Think, Think, say it in your best Pooh-Bear voice. Why, I know I'll just add some C.C. ink to it and make it look a little antiquey/vintagey. So definitely not my normal style, but I definitely didn't want to re-color that whole stamp again. So I swirled on some C.C. ink all over the image and c/s. I'm not sure why but some of the colors blended out with the C.C. ink too. I had even waited a while to do this. The M.M. blurred into the center and edges as well as the P.P and R.R around the stamped floral elements. I was not  happy at all, but the more I looked at it, I decided it looked like a really old element and that it went well with the card, so I decided to just go with it. Here's a close-up of the center element-

I think it looks almost like a label or something from an old card. I actually really like it. :) I adhered the C.C. mat to it with Tombow and then adhered that with Dimensionals. The other two layers are also adhered with Dimensionals.

Here's the inside-

Oooops! *EpicFail!* As I went to pull up a shot of the inside, I realized that I must not have taken one. *Headdesk* Oh well, as far as my usual insides go it was pretty boring. Definitely "masculine" with out frills or glimmer. I stamped "Love You" from the Bitty Banners Stamp set in M.M.onto a piece of V.V. c/s.  I inked it with my Stampin Write Markers so I was able to get just the words and not the frame around it. Oh and I sponged the edges too.

So what do you think? I think it fits the challenge requirements and is pretty cool too, even if it is all vintagey. Lol!

Now for today's technique. I know this is a very basic technique, but it's one that I use a lot. You can really change the look of a stamped image by doing this and create endless looks at the same time.

Here's what you'll need- Stamp set of your choice (This works best with line images or stamps with lots of detail), Markers of your choice (Of course I used S.U. because they're amazing and I never have to worry about them coordinating with my c/s or embellishments), Cardstock of your choice to stamp on and last but not least a Blender Pen.

Here's what you do, it's so crazy simple. Really it is, and speaking of this how cool is it that we can now color our stamps different colors in MDS? I know random thought. Sorry. :)
1- Choose the color you want for each different portion of your stamp and color directly on the stamp with that marker.
2- Continue to do this until your entire stamp is inked up. If you're using lighter colors just tilt your stamp around under the lights to see the color and make sure that everything is really inked up. It sure does stink if you forget this step and you have a beautiful image except for that one little spot. Ask me how I know!!! Your stamp  might not look the best at this point, but don't be a Scaredy Cat. Have a little Faith.

3- Once you've finished step 2, other sections of your stamp are probably dry, so you want to make sure you "huff" on your stamp to re-moisten everything. I usually huff a couple of times just to make sure I've got everything "huffed on". Then stamp your image onto your c/s. That's all there is to it. See I told you, Super Simple. I love the effects you can get doing this. What I really love is the look on the faces of my clients when they do this and see the beautiful images they get. This never fails to amaze!
4- Smile when you see your finished project and smile even more when you think about the smile it's going to bring to the face of it's recipient! I L.O.V.E. this part! : D

Oh did you think I forgot about my Blender Pen? Nope you get two Techniques today for the price of one. And since that price is FREE, What a Bargain!!! This second one was the "Main Idea" for today's technique, but since I figure there might be some "newbies" out there who happen to have stumbled upon my little blog somehow, I'd throw the first part in as well. Hey, there was a time when I had never heard of it either. :)

Here's how to turn an *@#%! into an YES! If you've ever tried this technique you have probably encountered one of those *@#%! moments where you coughed, sneezed, heck maybe you just blinked, or could be that the lines were really close together. For whatever reason, you colored out of, or off of your line.

This happened to me. I had colored in the entire center section and was outlining the outer rings when Mayhem struck. No, hes' not only in those insurance commercials (but don't you love him in those...so funny!) Any-whoo, I was almost done and BAM!!! (and not the Tasty, Emeril Lagasse kind of Bam!!! either). My hand slipped and I colored the tips of a few of my leaves Midnight Muse. Now on some of my colored images a little color sharing might be ok, but I was not having it for this one. Here's what I mean-

Sure wish I knew how to add in those handy little arrow pointers, right about now

Well let me just tell you- I was not in the mood to clean that entire stamp and start again. Now, I had heard that you could use your blender pens to "erase" these kinds of mistakes. Having never tried it for this (only on paper and it really doesn't work so well then, kinda like shutting the gate after the cows gone through it) I wasn't sure if it would work. Maybe it was one of those crazy Urban Legends. I figured it was worth a shot. What's the worst thing that could happen? It didn't work and I would have to start over again. I decided to take my chances and try-

Do you have any idea how hard it is to un-color your stamp
at the same time you are trying to photograph you un-coloring
your stamp with a B.B.?

Here's what you do-
1- Carefully swipe your Blender Pen over the misplaced ink until it's all removed. If your area is really big you may have to clean your blender pen at some point during your removal process. Mine was small so I didn't have to clean it till I was done.
2- Do a little *HappyDance* because you don't have to meticulously re-color your stamp.

Woo-Hoo!!! It worked. That Blender Pen just soaked up the color. It's just like touching the end on them on your ink-pads though (Not a good idea BTW! Ask me how I know.), you will really have to wipe it quite a bit to get it all out of your pen and on your scrap grid paper. But it will eventually come out and then you're stamp will look like this-

All clean and ready for the correct color to be applied. 

Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you liked not only my card, but the techniques as well.  I really hope today's post inspires you to try something new today, whether it's a challenge or a technique or heck even something out of the crafting/designing realm. You know the motto here- Just try.

If you liked today's post or had questions about it, I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to leave me a comment. I read all of them and will be sure to get back to you. Your comments really do make my day! If you  would like to +1 or Pin today's card, I've put the buttons here on my blog for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome too! :)

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. You are so appreciated! I hope to see you back here real soon for more fun projects or if you like...more excuses to smile and laugh at my mis-adventures. Till next time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,

Shan

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Everything Eleanor Sympathy Card

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Hey y'all. Happy Humpday! I hope you're having a great day, and week too. :) Just two more days until the weekend. Yea!

I don't know about you, but one of the hardest cards for me to make, even harder than the dreaded "Masculine" card is a sympathy card. There's really such a fine line when designing this type of card. You want something beautiful but not flashy and something sincere but not overdone.. you get the idea. They're just hard for me and I think for many of you as well. Unfortunately, this is not a card I have a ready supply of. I may have to do something about that. Well, Monday morning at work, my co-worker told me she was taking off the last few days of this week because her Best Friend had died last Friday. Awwww! I can't even conceive of that happening to me. Well, of course we know what I felt a need to do, right? Yep! Create a little bit of hand-crafted love for her. Isn't it great that SU has such beautiful sets to  help us with this difficult task? Isn't it awful that somehow those sets keep getting pushed back on my order form in favor of newer sets that I just have to have RightNow! That's right. No sympathy sets at home for me. So I had to figure out a new idea. Well, I went to have dinner with my Stamping BFF, April, isn't it nice that she offered to feed me? We were going to stamp too but got a little caught up in the Olympics. To be honest, I'm surprised I've gotten any stamping done this week! After a relaxing evening with friends I made it home around 9:30 and still needed to come up with a card. Why, Oh Why, is it that I don't already have these things prepared in advance!?!

Here's what I came up with-

Sympathy Card featuring
Everything Eleanor and Petite Pairs

This is a CASE of a card I made in Robin Merriman's Stampin at the Firehouse class. I changed a few small things, but the basic layout and focal image is hers. I thought it was a pretty card and would work well for what I needed. What do you think? I wanted the colors to be elegant but subdued. I think Night of Navy, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla fit that bill nicely, don't you? This was the first time I used my Everything Eleanor stamp set. I got it for Free during SAB. I love how SU takes care of us!!! Anyways, I used Night of Navy as my base and topped it with a piece of Crumb Cake that I ran through my Big Shot with the Vintage Wallpaper E.F. This layer was sponged with Crumb Cake Classic Ink to make the embossing stand out more and then adhered to the base with Tombow. I stamped my images on a piece of Very Vanilla and mounted it to a piece of Night of Navy c/s. The original card didn't have a sentiment on the front and I tried double mounting the sentiments and stamping them on the inside, sometimes that works out, but it just didn't look right for this. So I started looking for punches to use and came up with the Oval and Scalloped Oval punches. They were just the right size and I think the scalloped edge ties in well with all the rounded edges on the embossed layer. A little C.C. sponging to soften these two layers and I adhered it to my center panel with two Dimensionals. I tried a few different ribbons and settled on the Very vanilla Seam Binding. The Victorian Lace was pretty with this too, you could see the colors through the lace...what a pretty effect, but a little too much with the punched layer. I simply wrapped it around my layer and tied it in a small bow. This completed panel was then adhered with Dimensionals.

Here's a look at the inside-

Inside of Sympathy Card featuring
Everything Eleanor and Petite Pairs.

I simply inked my images up and stamped off once before stamping them on this inside layer.

Ok, I said simply. I lie. O.K. I don't really lie, but it wasn't quite that easy. In fact what should have taken me about 30 minutes to do ended up taking over an hour. I don't know if I was tired or if I was worried about making "the Perfect card" for my friend, but it just wasn't happening. Does that ever happen to you? First off, it took me a few different takes to decide if I was stamping the front full strength or half strength, then to sentiment or not to sentiment, then what to use. During this time I inadvertently inked up my stamps in the wrong color, managed to ink up the edge of my fingers in Night of Navy and that was just on the front. Once I got to the inside I inked up my background image not once but twice in the wrong color! *Headdesk!* Finally it came time to stamp the sentiment. I had it mounted and inked up, had done a practice stamp and made sure I was lined up where I wanted to be, you know all level and everything and what happens? The stamp falls off the block. Augh! Well, luckily it fell on my grid paper. Other than the fact that my heart stopped, no harm no foul. I re-mounted it, re-inked it  went to stamp it and it fell off again and bounced, leaving Night of Navy ink on my inside and not where & how I wanted it. Let's just say AUGH! is not the word/words/phrases I was uttering in a loud voice. Ok, so it was my fault. This is a set I had mounted a while back and I didn't adhere the backing flat. It was a little tight and the stamp curved inward. So I peeled it off a little at a time, and trimmed around the edges so the sticky part would adhere to the block and decided to try again. It's a good thing I don't adhere my inner layers until I'm done stamping! I stamped the sentiment again, and got it right the first time and then making sure my Night of Navy pad was closed, inked up & stamped my background image  and then my floral image. Whew was I glad to be done!!!

Oh snap! I still had to do the envelope. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I mounted and un-mounted those 2 stamps thinking I was done each time. One more time each and finally I really was done, over an hour after I first started.  *SMH* I think the time and effort were worth it though, especially after seeing the look on my friends face. Don't you just love it when they ask, somewhat incredulously, "Did you make this?" She loved it and couldn't believe I had not only made it but made it for her.

Here's the card and envelope together-

Sympathy Card and Envelope featuring
Everything Eleanor and Petite Pairs

That's all I have for you today. I hope you liked today's card and I hope it inspires you to make some sympathy cards to have on hand so you don't have to scramble at the last moment like I did. :) 

For those of you, like me, that are measurement challenged I have today's measurements for you. I've been trying to remember to put these on my posts, in fact I've been putting them in my B.B. for that reason, but often forget to post them. If I forget and you 'd like the measurements, leave me a comment and I'll get them for you.

Night of Navy Base- 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 scored and folded at 4 1/4

Crumb Cake layer- 5 1/4 x 4

Night of Navy panel- 4 1/4 x 3 1/4

Very Vanilla- 4 x 3

I love hearing from you so if you liked today's card or have questions about it, and have a moment to leave me a comment, you'd make my day. I read all of my comments. If you'd like to +1 or Pin today's card, I've put the buttons on my post for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome too! :)

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. You are appreciated! I hope to see you back soon. I'll have this week's End of the Week Technique for you tomorrow. Till next time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,

Shan

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