Paisley Party of two.

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and today I've got two cards for you...

Using the same stamp, in the same way, creating the same style, but resulting in two very different looks...

I used Wplus9's Paisley Patterns to create my cards.  I have had this stamp set for so long, and, every time I look at it, I love it...but was still to actually make something with it!  Shocking, I know.  So about blumming time, I showed it some love.

I concentrated on my background for both of my cards.  Heat embossing, in white, on karft card on one; and stamping out in colourful Hero Arts inks on the other.  You get loads of stamps in this set, and can build the patterns up in so many different ways, so many possibilities in one set.  I filled in all my empty space with the gorgeous little flourish stamps in the set, and added a touch of clear heat embossing to the Kraft card. 

I then used Wplus9's Hand Lettered Thanks Die, and cut it from the front of each panel.  I cut it several times, from scrap card, to build it up, and in-laid it back in.  I then cut the same die from vellum, covered on both sides in Stick-It.  I added the vellum to the top of the die-cut, added a layer of white glitter over the top, and sealed it all in with a layer of Glossy Accents.

I embellished the kraft card with a scattering of pearls, and the colourful card with a scattering of sequins, and there you have it.  Two, pretty  much, identically built cards, but two very different looks.

I hope you like them.  As always, everything I used is linked below, so be sure to go have a peek.

See you next week.

Jillx

   

Glamorous Stamping with Paper Smooches

Hello and happy new year everyone!  I don't know about you, but I've just about had it with christmas themes and christmas colors. I'm a traditional red & green gal, and I wanted to depart from the color combo and do something fresh and new.

Recently, I stocked up on Perfect Pearls and while most people use them with water, I wanted to use them on my stamped images directly. All you need: your stamp, Versamark, and some Perfect Pearls powder.

The trick – at least for me – when applying the Perfect Pearls to the image you just stamped with Versamark is a combination of patience and a light hand. Ironically, I possess none of these two things in large quantities ;)

By pouncing on the powder softly with a brush, it sticks to the Versamark. Were you to make painting motions with the brush (drag it across the surface) you could smear the ink below and mess up your image. At least that keeps happening to me, so I'm going with the pouncing.  It looks like a real hot mess at first, but after you brush off all the excess at the end with another clean brush, it just looks awesome.

The Perfect Pearls shine best on a dark background, that's why I used the dark grey card stock. I die cut the word from bright yellow card stock and stamped my card base with a wide stripe in a matching bright yellow color. The color combination and the stripes give the card a super modern look and the yellow offsets the dark grey.

When you tilt it in the light, the Paper Smooches Botanicals shimmer and shine, adding some elegance to the bold contrasts. And you can never go wrong with Wplus9's dies – they are elegant and fit almost every style.

I hope you got inspired and that your crafty mojo was refreshed over the holidays. Happy crafting!

If some of the supplies I've used on my card are not available in the store, I link to alternatives that allow you to achieve similar results.

Create Your Own Patterns (and Use Your Dies in Unexpected Ways)

Hello fellow stamp addicts! This card is somewhat of an "accident" – I actually just wanted to play around with my new(ish) Papel Picado stamp set by Wplus9 and the matching dies. My first plan was to create a card what would open in a more creative way by having sort of a "label" stick out which you can grab and open the card to. Needless to say, the biggest effort was in figuring out how to send this through my die cutting machine to make it work ;)

But I think it looks different and creative enough to make all the headache worthwhile. The trick is to cut just far enough to create the sticking out "label" but not so far that you actually cut out the entire shape. In case you want to try this too, here are the steps (images below):

1. Line up the die correctly on your card. Fix it in place with some low tack tape and also draw a thin pencil line that marks where your cutting plates need to be. Line your paper up on the bottom cutting plate, with the die on top of the cutting plate, but only as far as to the pencil line.
2. Place the second plate on top, but again – only as far as the pencil line goes. Basically, the smallest part of your card is between the plates, and most of your card isn't even inside of the sandwich. Make sure that the top border of the die is not between the cutting plates because you want to partially die cut, not completely.
3. Use a crafting knife, a cutting mat, and a good stable ruler to cut along the pencil line to get rid of the bottom part of the card.
4. Done!

Once that is done, the rest was easy. I used some of the smaller stamps from the Papel Picado stamp set to create the pattern. I didn't draw any guidelines, just started in the middle and worked my way across the card. Since I was using pigment inks from Avery Elle (currently OOS, sorry!!), I just needed to make sure I wasn't touching the just stamped images (pigment inks need a while to dry).

On the inside, I used a Versa Gold Ink and also one of the little stamps from the same stamp set. I intentionally skipped the green here because I wanted to have some contrast so the recipient of the card would see immediately that it would open there. To increase the contrast between the outside and the inside, I smushed my ink pad onto some white card stock, then cut a thin stripe and glued it to the bottom of the front.

For the finish, I die cut the Hand Lettered Thank You, also from Wplus9, multiple times from white card stock and then used Glue 'n Seal (like Multi Medium Matte) to stick them all together. I prefer the matte glue because you can have boo-boos and no one will ever know. I added some white Wink of Stella brush and then coated the thick sentiment with glossy accents to trap the shine. And of course, this card wouldn't be finished if not for some sequins.

I hope you enjoyed today's card and it will make you look at your dies in new creative ways. Cheers!

Supply List

Watercolouring Floral Containers

Hello there,

Well as the title suggests I have been dabbling in a spot of 

faux watercolouring using Wplus9's Fresh Cut Containers.

I wish I had the 'tech' know-how to make and edit a video to show how I

made this little scene.... it really is a case of setting some time aside to play without the 

pressure of making a card as the end result :0)

I've used mainly distress markers for the flowers and leaves as they are not as juicy as the distress

 inkpads so you can control depth of colour easily but I did use the Pumice Stone

ink pad for the pots. To get the shaded effect I rolled the edge of the pot on the ink pad

and after stamping it out, I used a damp brush to blend some colour across 

from the shadows to the highlights.

After stamping the leaves and flowers I've gone back in with a damp brush and

extra colour to add more detail and shadows... the trickiest part is knowing when to stop!!

The sentiment is from Hand Lettered Thank's.... love the choice of sentment pairs on that one.

More practice needed me thinks but learning to not be precise with this kind of 

stamping and colouring is the key... remember, it's an artists impression not a photograph :0)

If you haven't seen them already, Dawn (owner of Wplus9) has made a few amazing videos 

showing you her techniques with these types of stamps, this one was the 

inspiration for my technique today.

  

...... and just before I go, it's 'Anything Goes' week again over at the 

Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge, check out what the DT have made for 

your inspiration this week and join in the fun too :0)

Thanks for stopping by

Jenny x