Monthly Archives: March 2008

I was trying to create a dragonfly peering at his reflection, but I think I might have missed the mark on this one.  Oh well, here it is anyway. 

Supplies:

I didn’t need a mirror image stamp for this card.  The dragonfly looks pretty much the same no matter what direction it is stamped in.  Stamped two dragonflies facing each other with Basic Black.  (Note:  I recommend using Stazon Black instead of the Basic Black I used here).    You will see why in a later step.

Colored Dragonflies’ bodies with Certainly Celery marker.

Went over dragonflies with a Versamark marker and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

As you can see because I did not use Stazon black the dragonflies’ wings turned brown when I went over them with the Versamark marker.

Brayered Soft Sky at the bottom and at the top of the card stock leaving some white card stock showing behind one of the dragonflies. 

Brayered on Blue Bayou the same way as I did the Soft Sky, but I did not cover all of the Soft Sky ink.  I’m working for a graduated look here.

Brayered Not Quite Navy the same as the last two steps, but did not cover all of the Blue Bayou ink.  Still working for a graduation in color.

Distressed edge of the card stock with a Tim Holtz distressing tool.  This gadget is so handy.  It makes quick work of distressing edges of the card stock.  All you have to do is put the edge of the card stock in one of the little nooks of the tool and run it back and forth.  Too easy!

I also sponged on Not Quite Navy ink at the distress edge to make it stand out more.

Cut a Certainly Celery card stock mat and stamped the swirl stamp around the edge of it.  I did not adhere the main image panel to it yet.  I don’t adhere anything until the final step in case I change my mind, as I often do, lol.

Sponged Not Quite Navy around edge of certainly celery card stock.

Colored in the dots in the border design with a White Gel pen.

Assembled the card and finished it off with brads.

Another card completed!

Thanks for following along with this tutorial today.  Hope you enjoyed it and will give it or one of my other tutorials a try.

Have a super day!

I created a more Spring like card this morning. 

Supplies:

Loaded Leaf stamp with Versamark and then Lettuce ink then stamped on Whisper White cardstock.  Heat embossed using clear embossing powder.

Loaded flower stamp with Versamark and then Groovy Guava ink then stamped it.  Heat embossed using clear embossing powder.

Brayered Aqua ink on top half of card stock.

Brayered Stream ink on Bottom of card stock and just a little on the top of the card stock.

Stamped Swans with Basic Black ink using a Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement. 

Wiped black ink off of embossed images using a paper towel. 

Colored beaks with a Yellow Ochre Prismacolor Pencil.

Colored the Swans in using a White Gel Pen.  Mark in the direction that the feathers would go in.  Stay inside the black lines so your Swans are separated.  It is OK for some of the blue background to show through.  It creates a water reflection effect on the birds.  Make sure your brayered ink is completely dry before doing this step.

Also use the White gel pen to trace beside the water ripples.

Used an Always Artichoke and Cameo Coral marker to create shadows on the flowers and leaves by highlighting under them.

Used the white gel pen to give a scenes of light to the tops of the flowers.

Sponged on Stream ink at the bottom of the card stock to darken the area.

Used Cuttlebug embossing folder on the Groovy Guava panel layer and assembled card.

Done!

This card did not photograph well at all.  I always have trouble with teal and guava showing their correct colors in photos.   Oh well, here it is anyway.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and feel inspired to get out your brayer and give it a try.

Have a super day!

I created this card and tutorial last night after checking out all the snow we received here in my neck of the woods.   We got a foot of snow and drifts of at least 4 foot.  Winter is not over in Ohio.

This is my man, best friend and love of my life, Russ clearing a path for me, as he put it “clearing the way for YOUR HIGHNESS”.  Too funny!

So, on with the winter scene tutorial without further ado.

Supplies:

I used my mirror image stamp.  It is made by Rubber Stampede.  You stamp any stamp on the solid rubber of the mirror image stamp then stamp the mirror image stamp on your paper and you got it, a mirror image.

I like to start off stamping my mirror image first.  I find it is easier to line the regular image up with it. 

Stamped Trees on mirror image stamp with Blue Bayou and then stamped the mirror image on Whisper White card stock.

Used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up tree image and stamped it with Basic Black ink.

Cropped the image and brayered Soft Sky ink over the Blue Bayou trees.

Brayered Lake Mist ink at top of black trees.

Sponged Pebble ink at top of card stock and sloped it down on the right side for interest.

Sponged Soft Sky under pebble sponging and at bottom of black trees.

Used the trusted torn Post-it-note as a mask to create a hard line where the ground meets the ice.  I sponged on Blue Bayou ink right at the torn edge of the Post-it-note. 

Removed Post-it-note and used my white gel pen in the crooks of the Black trees to create snow in the branches.  Put just a tiny bit in the Blue Bayou trees too.

Assembled card and decided I wanted the appearance of wind in the air so I stamped one of my favorite stamps, Baroque Motifs over all the layers with River Rock ink.   The River Rock ink did not show up well on the dark sky of the main image so I traced it with a Versamark marker to darken it.

There you have it another finished card. 

Thanks for joining me today for this tutorial.  Hope you have enjoyed seeing the process and will give it a try.

Hope your day is one of warmth and joy!

I’m still working on sympathy cards.  I realize it may be a bit depressing, but we need them just the same.

Supplies:

Let me talk for a moment about a couple of supplies.  Below is the Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink Applicator.  This tool was made to be used with Alcohol inks but I found I can use my Stampin’ Up Re-inkers with this applicator to make interesting backgrounds.  You can purchase little pre-cut felt pads for around $4.99 to attached to the Ink Applicator.  Remember I’m cheap so I spend .25 cents on a piece of white felt and cut it myself.

My Stampin’ Up Re-inker storage is not fancy at all.  I bought these little baskets that will hold 18 re-inkers each for about a $1.  I like them because they are portable and can be moved from a shelf to my work area easily. 

I can also tilt a basket to the side to see what colors are in that row instead of picking through them.

On with the tutorial.

Dotted Applicator felt with Sky Blue re-inker and pounced it on Whisper White card stock.  I also did some circular smearing to cover the entire piece of card stock.  The pouncing motion gives you little dots, which I like.  Dots in a background give the impression of dabble light to me.

On the same applicator felt I put dots of Certainly Celery re-inker and pounced it on the card stock, not covering the whole card stock so the blue can show through.

It’s hard to see in the photo, I apologize for the bad pic.  I put a stripe of Garden Green re-inker on the same applicator felt and then made stripes of color from the top of the card stock down in varying lengths.

I changed the felt for this step because I was afraid the colors would start getting muddy.  I dotted a fresh felt piece for the applicator with Really Rust re-inker and made stripes with it in varying lengths at the top of the card stock.

Put dots of Garden Green on the applicator felt and smeared it in a circular motion on the bottom of the card stock to create a shadow for the coming flowers.

Stamped flowers with Palette Nior Black ink.

You will want to learn from my mistake here.  I did not wait until the card stock was completely dry before coloring in my flowers with a white gel pen.  It did not do well and I have to repeat this step later to get whiter brighter flowers.  My suggestion let it dry completely or use your heat gun to dry it before coloring in the flowers.

Outlined flower petals with a Tempting Turquoise marker.

Colored in the flower stems with an Old Olive marker.

I cropped a lot of this off to get a more interesting shape.

Assembled card and drew lines at the corners of the layers to create a window look.  Also, went back over my flower petals with my white gel pen to make them stand out more.

Finished card.

I seem to never have enough sympathy cards on hand.  I keep a basket of cards at work for staff to purchase and for agency use.  Sympathy cards never last long in the basket I’m afraid.  I try to keep the price of my cards down.  I’m currently charging $4 a card.  I’m not into it for the money.  Stamping is my therapy.  It’s the creative process that gives me so much pleasure.  You will never see me do a 5 minute card (remember therapy, I need lots of it). With that being said, lets get started on today’s tutorial.

Supplies:

Starting with Whisper White card stock and a torn piece of copy paper as a mask for the sky area.  Keep the piece of paper you tore off.  We will use it in later steps. I just hold the copy paper in place.

Stamped flowers from Trees Three set with Versamark and heat embossed using clear embossing powder.

This is one of my stamping buddies, Lucas.  He is a German Short Haired Pointer/Great Dane mix and weighs about 110 lbs.  He is so darn cute and attentive this morning.  Thought I would share!

Sorry, back to the tutorial.

Return copy paper mask, lining it up as best you can.

Brayer on Old Olive ink.

Now I sponged on more Old Olive ink to create a shadow on the hill.

Sponged on Always Artichoke ink to get a graduation in shadow color.

Remember the piece of copy paper I tore.  Well here we are using the chuck of it that was torn out to mask the hill area.  I tack it down with small post it notes on both sides to help keep the mask in place.

Brayer on Aqua ink to create lake.

Turn piece around and brayer on Lake Mist ink for the sky, not brayering all the way down to the water color.  I like to leave white showing to brighten things up a bit.

Remove mask and wipe ink off the embossed flowers on the hill.

I just want to use the grassy part of this stamp in this step. So I colored in just the grass on the stamp with an Always Artichoke marker, huffed on it then stamped.

After stamping a line of grasses with Always Artichoke I stamped over them using an Old Olive marker to get some color variation in the grasses.

Stamp some more grasses using Old Olive marker at the bottom of hill.

Used a sponge and Always Artichoke ink to sponge in the shadows at the base of the grasses.

Put to much time into this card so far to mess up on the sentiment so I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement.  Stamp my sentiment using Blue Bayou ink and stamping off on scrap paper once before stamping on the card stock to lighten the color of the image.

Thought the sky looked just a little drab, so I brayered in a bit of Aqua ink at the top of the sky area.

Completed card!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and will give it a try.

Thanks for visiting with me and Lucas today.  Have a wonderful day!