Stipple brushes vs sponging?

At least once a month I read about a different technique that you can use on cards and scrapbooks and then once in a while I actually give those techniques a try. Although I haven't used it much, I know that you can pick up ink on a sponge and apply it to cardstock to add background color. Until today - I have only done that once, on this card where I sponged the pink ink on the edges of the white strip with the small pink flowers:

A few months ago I read about applying color with a stipple brush instead and I wanted to see the difference between using a stipple brush to apply color to a background instead of using a sponge. To do this I made 2 almost identical cards. Here they are:

The "Find Joy" card using sponging and the "Happy" card uses stippling instead on the white square (then on each I stamped the flower multiple times). When I stippled the color on, it was quite faint and I stippled color all over the background of the white square. However, I noticed as I started to sponge the same Certainly Celery ink on the white square of the Find Joy card, the color was coming off onto my cardstock much darker, so I only sponged the color around the edges and left the rest white.

Both of these provide texture to the cards that wouldn't be there is I had just left the white sqaures white. Which is better? I love them both!!! I guess it just depends on what type of effect you want to give.

Something else that I did on these cards is that I used a lot of punches. Actually I only used 4 punches on each. I used both the small tag punch and the tag punch and punched each side to create the happy and find joy tags. I used the slit punch to creat slits to put the ribbon through and last but not least I used a 3/4" circle punch and punched out the corners of my white squares - I only tricked you into thinking that I had used a corner punch on these!

Cute little bag!

As I was goofing off the other day on the computer, I found this cute little bag and the instructions to make it. So, here is my attempt at it. It is the perfect size to put a few cards and envelopes in to give as a gift, or any other small lightweight goodies.



The supplies needed to make this bag are minimal. You need a square piece of paper (patterned or stamped paper to make a really cute bag) - I used 12" by 12" and my resulting bag is 4" tall, 4.5" wide and 2.5" deep, good adhesive to hold it together, and then I cut a 1/2" strip of coordinating cardstock for the handle that I attached to the bag with brads.

Here are the instructions to make the bag yourself, or if you would like a pdf version of the instructions just send me an email and ask:

Spring is here

In honor of the fact that Spring is in the air all around this time of year, I have a couple cards to post are quite "Spring-y". I cased some cards that I had seen somewhere else and made my own little changes to them. These cards each focus on an alphabet stamp set. Lots of people think that alphabet sets are for scrapbooking only, but they are great to use on cards too.




For the Happy Spring card, I used the Big Deal alphabet. Then I took advantage of the fact that this is the font used in the Polka Dots & Paisley stamp set and used the "happy" stamp from that. Then I used the easter egg stamp from the Tag Time set, but it would look just as good with flowers instead of easter eggs.




For the Happy Birthday card, I used only the Whimsical Lowercase alphabet set and then the flower stamp that comes with the Whimsical Numbers.

One nice thing about each of these alphabet sets - you don't have to worry about keeping your letters straight. For each of these it adds character if they aren't perfectly lined up. For each of these cards I used dimensionals so that some items on the cards would pop out. Enjoy!

on vacation

I had hoped to make one more post that actually contained some card samples or something of substance before going on vacation, but I did not have time to this week. Everyone will have to come back after Spring Break and look forward to seeing something new.

Have a great week - please visit again after the 18th!

3D image with roller stamps

A while back I read about how to create a 3-D image with roller stamps. I thought it sounded like a pretty neat idea, but didn't try it out until today. I made two cards where I used this technique. One with the Flitting By Jumbo roller and the other with the Baby Talk roller.

I think it is a great look when the image lines up, but if you can tell - on both of mine, the white ink doesn't stay lined up with the cardstock-colored ink. And I think it turned out looking a lot better on the butterflies than with the babies. I decided this is because the lines are thicker on the butterfly roller than on the baby roller.

If you want to know more about this technique - let me know. I'm happy to share!

Glitter and embossing combined!

I wanted to post a card that I made back in December because I am really getting into the whole glitter thing.

For this card, I used the Tag Time stamp set. It may be hard to tell in the picture (click on the card to enlarge and see the detail), but all the presents on the background were stamped in VersaMark and then were embossed with Hologram Highlights embossing powder. The effect is really neat because the embossing powder is like glitter. Another idea would be to stamp it in VersaMark, pour on the Heat And Stick Powder, heat that and then add glitter - but the Hologram Highlights EP cuts out that extra step.

Once I get a VersaMarker I'll do all kinds of things with glitter and get them posted.

Spring Fever!

Stampin' Up! is having a special Spring Fever promotion for the month of March. If you order the Polka Dots & Paisley Bundle for $34.85 which includes the Petals Jumbo Wheel, the Polka Dots & Paisley Stamp Set and the Petals & Paisley Designer Paper (all from the Spring Mini catalog - see the Spring Mini here) you can choose any other item from the Spring Mini for 50% off.

I have attached some pics of things made with the Polka Dots & Paisley Stamp Set and then of course there are always the samples in the mini catalog. If anyone is interested in taking advantage of this offer, just let me know!

first post

I decided to set this up to inspire me to find more time to stamp. Also this is a way to hopefully attract more people to the fun of using rubber stamps to make various crafts including cards, scrapbook pages and other fun projects. I will post pictures of projects that I have made - if any of them interest you and you want to know how to do it - just let me know!