Hello stampers! What do you look for in a stamp set? I love a set that combines great images with a few great sentiments. I also get quite excited when the set can be used for different occasions and for both men and women. Feather Together fits the bill perfectly. It has some great words in a great font and the feather images can be used together or separately. SInce the set is photopolymer, it makes it very easy to do a two-step stamp. I will share a video with some tips and tricks on how to do that. Take a look at this stamp set:
I haven’t played with this set as much as I would like to, but here are some cards that I made for my coffee and a card class. I thought that the simplicity of the card would pair well the simple beauty of our copper foil paper.
Here is the same card but using different words. I am sorry that the script patterned paper is no longer available. I love it so much that I wanted to use the rest of my stash. I think we should all petition Stampin’Up! to bring it back. It was available in the patterned paper stacks in each of the colour families but the neutrals were my favourite.The white panel on the first two cards is the same size, 4″ by 2 5/8″.
Now I have to confess that I tend to hoard more expensive paper. It makes me happy to be able to get the most use out of it, so before mounting the white part on the copper I first cut out some leaves for another card making sure to leave enough of an edge so that you wouldn’t notice what I did. Check it out, I am pretty pleased with myself!
Here is what I did with those beautiful leaves. I made two versions of this card, one with a single piece of patterned paper in the background and another one with strips of paper (they are approximately 1 3/8″ wide by 4″ long. That way I could not only use up my paper scraps but I could also showcase how well the papers coordinate. The leaf framelits are from the Colorful Seasons bundle. The stamp set is one of the sets featured in the World Card Making Day sale until October 10.
The last card here was actually the first card that I made. When I saw the feathers I thought of the pretty blue jay feathers I would sometimes find on my lawn after our cat Jacob had followed his natural instincts. I used Pacific Point and Early Espresso.
I love the poignancy of just one leaf. The white panel is 3 1/4″ by 4 1/4″. The pacific point is 5 3/8″ by 4 1/8″. I used the hexagon embossing folder to add some interest to this otherwise clean and simple card. Sometimes two or three-step stamping can be daunting, but all you really need to do is give yourself enough time, be sure to practice and experiment with different colour combinations and stand up. Yes, stand up. If you stand while stamping you get a better view and can line things up more easily. I made a video with a few little tips and tricks to help you along.
I would love to hear from you. What are your favourite sets for two or three step stamping? I really love their effect, especially Baby Bear. He looks so real you just want to touch him. Let me know if you have any other questions.
World Card Making Day Sale
From now until October 10, Stampin’Up! is celebrating World Card Making Day with a special sale. Select stamp sets are 15% off. Select designer series paper is also on sale until the end of October, buy three packs get one free. The best part of this sale is that the most expensive pack of paper can be your free one! Just enter the ones you want to pay for first, then enter the free one last.
Did you see that little note at the end? Best deal ever. Buy a fast fuse and get two refills for FREE! If you want to see the images of the stamp sets featured, I took some screen shots:
Here is a shot of the paper that is on sale. I am willing to split packs of paper in half so that you can get three half packs and one half pack for free, just let me know!
Happy stamping and have a super day! Don’t forget about my contest. Comment on any of my blog posts before Tuesday October 10 and get entered into a draw for the stamp set Spooky Cat!
Hello stampers! Have you seen all the amazing cards out there using Painted Harvest? What a beautiful stamp set this is. I have seen so many different versions of the sunflowers, so I decided to make a card with the nuts. Nuts? Yup. There’s an acorn in that set and I don’t think it has been given its due. Using stamps to make pretty background paper is a lot of fun, so that is what I have done with this first card. I used the acorn, the leaves and the stipple stamp to make this nice effect. What do you think?
Another stamp set that pairs well with Painted Harvest is the Burlap background stamp. If you ink up the stamp using a sponge you get a more subtle effect that lends itself to stamping images right on it. The sunflower was stamped with crushed curry and cajun craze with an early espresso centre. The saying is from Cool Treats.
The last card also uses the technique of stamping over a background image. You could use patterned paper, but this is the Sheet Music background stamp. I also used a sponge and crumb cake ink to gently ink up this stamp. I totally cased this card from the talented Linda Dalke from Australia.
I used marina mist and night of navy on this card as well as the new Everyday Label punch from the holiday catalog (page 12)
I grew up on a farm and whenever I am driving through the countryside I always look with longing at the red brick farmhouses. They evoke such happy memories for me. Baking bread with my mom at the kitchen table, eating breakfast at 5:30am with my dad and brothers before going to milk the cows and bundling up in front of the woodstove to go outside and play in the snow. So when I saw the brick wall stencil and the embossing paste in the new catalog, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to recreate those beautiful red brick walls and make some cards that bring back those same nostalgic feelings.
To get the perfect look for the bricks I added some cajun craze reinker to a small amount of embossing paste. I smeared some of it over the stencil onto whisper white cardstock. Then I added a drop of early espresso reinker to another small amount of paste and smeared it over and around the cajun craze tinted paste. Perfection! Just the right hue for what I was looking for. Be sure to clean your stencil and your palette knives as soon as you are done so they don’t dry out and harden.
On this card I sponged soft suede in between the bricks to give it less of a stark look. I love the look of an “exposed brick wall” with this Half Full stamp set, just what a wall in a nice wine bar or cafe would look like! The bricks also look better when they are left a little rugged with unfinished edges and also not covering the whole card front. Leaving the top corner unfinished is perfect for placing your sentiment. Remember to let your embossing paste harden before sponging around it or on it. If you have smeared the paste so that it is even with the decorative mask (in other words, thinly) then it takes about an hour to dry. When I made these cards I did all the background first. Then I stamped my images that I needed to fussy cut. Of course there were lots of other “mom” things happening in between too.
I made this masculine card because my Pap had a truck just like this one before I was born! Add that to the fact that the colour of these bricks is exactly the same as the farm house that I grew up in and you have a winner for a card. Did you notice that the windows are black? The reason is that I am covering up a mistake! When I was watercolouring the truck I couldn’t manage to stay within the lines for the windows and it didn’t look nice at all, so I used a black marker to colour the windows in. I think it is rather effective!
While my first instinct was to use these decorative masks with our new embossing paste, they also work great with simple sponging. You can use three tools to accomplish this: stamping sponges, sponge daubers or our sponge brayers. For the next card I used stamping sponges with early espresso ink on cajun craze card stock. The images were stamped in archival black, coloured and then stamped direct to paper with versamark and clear embossed. The images are from Country Livin’.
You wouldn’t know it, but there are three other masks in this set. The brick wall is definitely my favourite, but I also played with the cloud one. The other two are going to have to wait. What a great value they are. Four masks for $8 Canadian. Check out the Pattern Party Decorative Masks on page 201 of the catalogue.
I used the smallest palette knife to make these clouds and give them texture the same way you would with icing on a cake. The sentiment is from a brand new set coming in the Holiday Catalog called Painted Harvest. I used the sponge brayer to make the background. The sand is done with soft suede and the sky is marina mist and island indigo. Card base is island indigo. The lady from Beautiful You is paper piece with real red and crushed curry.
The “cloud nine” card is definitely very textured. In Dutch you would call this a “misbaksel”. In other words, a few things went wrong with this one but I still wanted to show it. I started with a watercolour background which really is quite stunning. Then I decided to sponge the clouds with white craft ink. This was a bit of a mistake. The white just didn’t pop enough. So I decided to add white embossing powder, but some of the powder stuck to my watercoloured background making for a bit of a messy look. No worries, clouds sometimes look like that don’t they? I still think it is a bright and cheerful card and I would be most happy to get one in the mail.
I do love the collage stamping on this masculine card. I used the stamp set Wherever You Go as well as the new background stamp called Post Script. I used embossing paste for the clouds but they kind of disappeared into the busy background. Sponging them with white craft ink after they dried really made them pop. I used sponge daubers to do this without getting white craft ink on the background. You can see that the bottom cloud is a little bit blue. I first sponged over it in blue and didn’t like the look. The craft white couldn’t quite cover that up!
This last card really has a rustic feel to it. Maybe it is because I actually painted with coffee on it! Yes, the brick wall on white was just too stark and I had some cold brew coffee in the fridge to make iced coffees so I thought, why not? I stamped the words repeatedly on the top right corner to give a chalkboard feel. You’ll notice a tinge of bluish green on some of the words, that is because I had done a watercolour background on a previous card and my grid paper was a little messy so some of the ink transferred to this card. I like it, but it would be hard to copy this look again. I have made a video to show how I did some of these cards but for some reason it has failed to upload to Youtube, so you can see it on my Pampered Stamper Facebook page.
Have you had a chance to try out the new embossing paste yet? I am looking forward to using this in my technique club. All clubs start in September and I still have room in technique club, upon request club (at this one the host gets to choose what we do) as well as the man,oh man club where we make exclusively masculine cards. Have a super day!
ps. the video has now uploaded to YouTube, so here you go!
Well hello stampers! It has been way too long since I have posted and I am truly sorry about that. However, “Life is full of healing and people who are there to help you find it.” This is an apt title for my blog post, not only because it is one of the sayings in the beautiful stamp set that I will be featuring, but it also really applies to my life right now.
Big Changes Up Ahead for Me
One of my favourite Bible verses is Jeremiah 29:11 where God says “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Some of you may know that besides being a mom to five kids, a mother-in-law to two and an oma to one, I have also been married to Jeff for 29 years. The sad truth is that my marriage is now ending. The good news is that the decision is mutual and that we are supported by our children. There is no denying that this will be a tough chapter in my life with many difficult decisions to make.
The one thing that will most likely change is that I will be moving away from Chatham next year when Rachel is done high school. I am trusting that doors will open and that my path will be led as to where I should live. My Stampin’Up! business will be even more important to me than it already is because I will be the only one “bringing home the bacon”. I want to be able to provide good service to my current customers but I also want to build up my online business as well as my team.
I would love to have YOU join my team
That being said, today is the last day to get in on an amazing deal on the starter kit. It is called Christmas in July and basically you get a bonus kit worth $94 if you join. The good news is that if you join now you have until January to get your business going! Wow!! Fall is the best time of year for sales because everyone is gearing up for Christmas. Deciding to get the starter kit can seem like a really big deal. It took me a long time to take the plunge and that is most likely because no one told me that it is risk free. Not only is it an amazing deal, it also comes with no strings attached. If you decide that you cannot afford to keep up the minimum requirement of $400 every three month just for your own discount, or that the business you had hoped would take off just isn’t, it really doesn’t matter. You will not get a nasty phone call or email from me or from Stampin’Up! They just want to give you an opportunity to use the kit in the way you want to, either to fund your own hobby or to build a thriving business or anything in between. I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that my Stampin’Up! family has been such a blessing to me, especially in the last few weeks when they were among the first to know about my family situation. I hope that if this resonates with you, that you will have the courage to take this step and just go for it. I would LOVE to help you succeed.
Today is also the last day to earn “bonus bucks”. With every $60 purchase you will receive 6 bonus bucks to use in August. With the new catalog still very fresh in our minds, it should be easy to decide what to get!
Let’s take a look now at the beautiful stamp set So Many Shells. Especially with what I am going through right now, this set really speaks to me with its many lovely and heartfelt sayings. Shells are also a timeless and comforting image that work well not only for many different types of cards, but also for both men and women. The shell images are two step stamps but they also work well on their own. Since it is a photopolymer set it is easy to line the images up for a beautiful detailed and artistic look.
One of things I like most about these cards is the copper trim that can be made to look like netting. A huge thanks to Jini Merck whose card I cased (the one on the far right) and who featured this ribbon trick. So clever. Here is the link to her blog post: http://stampwithjini.com/so-many-shells-tutorial/
We now have a background stamp called Marbled. I don’t have it yet, but I still had some designer series paper from two years ago that was a sale-a-bration freebie. I just had to use it even though it is no longer available. I just love the look but am super happy that there is now a background stamp that you can use over and over and not worry about running out of just the right paper. I used a different background stamp, Watercolor Wash (yes, it is killing me to spell it the American way rather than the Canadian way “watercolour”) on this next card along with the gorgeous saying “Life is full of healing and people who are there to help you find it.” I am finding that to be so true with my church family, my Stampin’Up! family, my Beyond Pampered Team, my friends and my family. It is always true that when we make ourselves vulnerable and share truth it opens the door to more meaningful conversations and relationships.
I used crumb cake and powder pink on the shells as well as marina mist for the background and early espresso for the words.
I try to get into the habit of finishing my cards in the inside as well. Taking that extra step really finishes it off beautifully and if you don’t do it right away you just know you are going to have to dig out that stamp set, figure out the coordinating ink pads and make a mess all over again before you can give the card away. Not my idea of fun stamping. Too much like work.
I just love the simplicity of this next card. No fussy cutting, just inking up an acrylic block, stamping off, misting and then stamping some shells and a saying on top. I got this particular idea from my good friend and mentor Lisa Pretto. Check out her blog post: https://inkbigacademystamps.com/2017/06/5-way-friday-many-shells-stamp-set.html
I just wound some copper thread around the bottom of the top panel multiple times to give it a nautical look. Colours are bermuda bay for the background and island indigo for the shells. The long skinny shell has an overlay of crumb cake.
Well, I hope I have inspired you with So Many Shells, and do remember that whatever you are going through, life is full of healing and people who are there to help you find it. I wish you the courage to make tough choices and also the bravery to have vulnerable and honest conversations with your loved ones.
On a brighter note, it feels really good to be back here again. Stamping is great therapy and I am so glad to have you in my life.
Hello stampers! What do you get when you combine sponges, masks and clouds? Not a rainy masquerade party. A lovely, subtle patterned paper for a background. This is such a simple technique and one that is often overlooked. Let me explain what you do. You will need a sponge wedge. I usually cut my Stampin’Up! sponges into 6 pieces, first in half and then each half into thirds like a pie wedge. I then cut out two large cloud shapes using the framelits from the Up and Away thinlet die collection. Using Pool Party ink I sponged around the cloud shapes on a piece of white cardstock. There will be a video at the end of this post so you can see how it is done. A picture is worth a thousand words and a video even more so!!
This is an ideal background for a busy card that has a lot of other details happening. It is also so very easy to coordinate it to suit your card by choosing various shades of blue. Since my “wall” is going to be early espresso and my flowers are going to be red, the pool party is a great choice. Here is one of the cards I made using this technique. I was inspired by Bronwyn Eastley’s card. She made hers with a fall theme since that is the season it now is in Australia.
You may be wondering where all those great supplies come from that are featured on my card. Well….you will be able to get them too on June 1, unless you want to join my team now and get a great deal on the starter kit. You pay only $135 and you get to pick out $165 worth of product AND you get to choose items from the pre-order including this beautiful wood paper, the Colorful Season stamp set(#143726) and the Seasonal Layers thinlets (#143751) or get the bundle (#145348) Click here for that option. The branch, the flowers and the chair as well as the leaf all come from that set. It has all the seasons covered!
This simple card has the sling lawn chair which is a two step photopolymer stamp done in early espresso for the frame and real red for the seat. The flowers are stamped in real red and the branch is cut with a die from the Seasonal Layers in early espresso. The saying is also from Colorful Seasons. Here is a simple video that shows you how to do this yourself. I hope you have a lot of fun with this great little technique.
Hello stampers. I am sure you have seen some amazing twisted pop-up cards on Pinterest. They are just so impressive. It is always a very cool thing to surprise people and that is exactly what this card does. From the outside it looks like a plain, average card. Cute, but nothing super impressive. Well. I’m telling you, they are a lot of fun to make and even more fun to watch people open. It really helps to make a few at a time so that your brain catches on to how to make them, and then it is like riding a bike. You don’t forget.
The Seaside Embossing folder is the perfect match for this card. It was a very special gift to me from Ellie Blake at OnStage in Toronto. A lovely lady and a very lovely card which inspired me to make my own version using the Birthday Memories Suite.
Here is the card that I made using the Birthday Memories Suite.
It really is a surprise when you open this card! How much fun is that both for you and the person you give it to? See the little present? It is cut out with a framelit from our patterned paper in this suite. Should be available June 1.
Finally here is the card I demonstrated in my video. It uses Beautiful You and the stitched framelits. It also combines Floral Boutique paper and delightful dijon cardstock, both of which are retiring. Take note of the host code in the sidebar, please use that when you order online and I will be sure to send you a thank you card. This card was cased from Betsy Rouw.
Here is a close-up of one of the girls. I will probably add a Mother’s Day sentiment to this one and send it to my Mom. She is 85 now and I know for a fact that her life was not always easy. She was married to the love of her life, but she could have had 8 children and ended up with only 4 due to miscarriages and death. She also had to leave all of her family behind and live in poverty for many years. Oh, how I love her!
This picture shows the inside mechanism of the card, I hope it helps. The part with the four panels is 3 3/4″ by 11″ scored at 2 3/4, 5 1/2, and 8 1/4″. The patterned paper pieces are 2 1/2″ by 3 1/2″.
Here is the YouTube video that will show you how this card is put together, hopefully it helps you. There are other tutorials out there, just Google it.
