THURSDAY TECHNIQUES - Embossing with Dies

Good morning, everyone!

Since I wanted to look this video up for a refresher I thought I'd share the technique with you.

Most of us have dies, many we haven't used for awhile. Maybe it's time to pull them out and use them in this new way. If you don't have the embossing mat for your machine, I'll link you to the one from Sizzix.

Sizzix Silicone Rubber Pad

Note that you also need:  Sizzix Impressions Pad

I'm also including a link to Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, Mary Fish's video  - just in case you were quick to purchas the one from Stampin' Up! before they canceled their contract with Sizzix.

Here's my card for this week:

I used the Flower Border die from Lawn Fawn. With a normal die technique, I would have cut out the die several times in various colors then paper pieced the individual flowers together.

By using the Impressions pad with the die, I was able to simply impress the design into a piece of cardstock then go back and color in the flowers.

I colored the background of the strip with Lt. Balmy Blue Stampin' Blends from Stampin' Up! The individual parts of the flowers were colored in with Kirarina Wink paint pens in o18 (pink), 015 (blue), 011 (Lt. green), 001 (yellow) 

I also used the Impressions pad to emboss the smallest Layering Scappops die (Stampin' Up!) then cut it out with the next size up. The clouds are punched from a retired SU Punch. The sentiment is from one of my favorite stamp sets from Stampin' Up! - Fabled Friends

Note: While I've closed the SU blog, I am still a demonstrator for Stampin' Up! If I can help with anything related to Stampin' Up! please let me know.

Sizzix Giveaway!

Not by me... but by Sizzix. What would you do with $2500 in Sizzix Product?

For me, I'd have to figure out where to put all these amazing new toys. Okay.. I'm kind of there. I have die storage. And the Big Shot would probably wind up as a give-away because I love my Vagabond.

So here's all you have to do... Go HERE and sign up. They are using a Rafflecopter style of entry so there are several things you can do to increase your chances.

What are you waiting for? There are only 3 days left!

Creative Blessings & Good Luck!
Kelly

Bewitching Magazine Monday

I know it’s a little early for Halloween cards but when I saw the BeeWitching card in the October 2009 issue of Scrap & Stamp Arts Magazine. The designer, Chelsea Comer, created a beautiful card with black ink on the CB Swirls folder using the ‘letterpress’ technique. And the Bee Witching stamp by Great Impressions is just too cute – and unfortunately no longer available. Picture a bee with a witch’s hat riding on a broom similar to this OWL.

Chelsea did a vertical card, the image mat in the upper right corner. Along the bottom she used a black strip of CS with three orange brads positioned on the right end for balance.

I have a embossing folder I fell in love with last fall but hadn’t used yet… Fall Fence by Sizzix. I inked it up using Memento Tuxedo Black and used the textured side of SU Pumpkin Pie. I used the Best Witches stamp (SU Retired)… positioning like the moon in the upper right corner. Due to the amount of detail on the cord itself, I used the fence to replace the CS strip. If I were using this to decorate a scrapbook page I might have added a pumpkin-shaped button over one of the embossed ones. I just don't use a lot of hard embellishments on things that have to be mailed. But come Halloween, it will be a treat for someone to find in their mail box. 


Creative Blessings!

Magazine Monday

Good afternoon!

The weather here today was gorgeous, so instead of going down into the 'dungeon' studio, I got outside. When I did come back in to play, I found two challenges which I could use on today's Magazine Monday.

1) I knew I wanted to use one of the images from Sandie Huggett over at The Outlawz Creative Freebie Challenge. I never seem to get my cards in over there in time. I'm surprised they still let me play.

2) S2S12C - The Stamp 2 Spend Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers - Use our favorite pizza as inspiration - and make it round. I'm a garbage pizza person. You'll notice I've picked up the green pepper colors in her socks, Italian sausage on in her shoes color and her dress the color of warm tomato sauce swirled with melted Mozzarella. Her hair also brings in the extra cheese.

3) While cruising for a magazine with an inspiration card, I found a dreams card in the February 2012 issue of Crafts n Things magazine. It is a design by Sue Czosek. Sue was inspired by a design of a Borders gift card holder. She used it and a sheet of newsprint to create a beautiful round card. Sue's card was a 5.5" circle. I used a 4.5" circle and then a 4" oval mat.

4) And lastly, since Valentine's Day is approaching, I might need one or two more cards to share so I went with the heart theme. Where I have used hearts (Sizzix Sizzlet), Sue punched flowers from news print and inked them to coordinate with her color scheme.

On Sandie's original image, there was a halo above the faerie an where I have the puffy hearts going off to the side off of her hand, they were actually a print part of the image. I chose to cut them away to give a cleaner cut to the main image then added the puffy hearts in their place.

I used SU Real Red CS and DP (inside covers), My Minds Eye Candy Stripe and DCWV - sentiment The image was colored with Derwent watercolor pencils. I added EK Succss puffy heart stickers.

I love how she turned out and I hope you do to.

Recycle Wednesday

I have so much stuff in my studio, it's hard to know what to play with. And I find myself going back to the same old stuff... or should I say new stuff. Do you work that way?

I decided for this year I want to work on the 'reuse/ reduce/ recycle' concept a bit more. So every Wednesday I'll showcase a project that has something recycled on it. It might be the base of the whole project, or it might be something as minute as a small piece of paper... like today's project.

During Virtual Stamp Night (VSN) at Splitcoast Stampers last fall we were given a challenge to use 'recycled' wrapping paper in our card. We couldn't take it off the roll new. It had to be some that was 'saved' from a previous Christmas for whatever reason. Come on, admit it... you have some!

My plan was to have a Christmas tree with presents around the base. All the presents would be from recycled Christmas wrap. I spent the entire evening (notice I didn't say 'wasted') trying to make my plan work. The presents just didn't work right. So I went to my trusty PrintShop program and found an image of a stacked row of presents.

Thankful I'd just put in a colored ink cartridge, I sized it to fit a 4x 5.5 greeting card, printed it out and then cut the strip out. Okay... got my presents, but how do I incorporate the 'recycled' gift wrap? These presents come pre-wrapped LOL

Can you spot my wrapped packages in the card below?

One is easy to spot... it's the Santa on the far left. The other one is the blue package right under the 'creative' part of my watermark.

I cut the shapes of those two packages out of white card stock then adhered them to scraps of wrapping paper and glued them into place over the existing packages in the preprinted strip.

The card base is SU Pacific Point. I used a scalloped oval from Cricut cart: Lacey Labels. The tree is from an Original Sizzix Die (retired). I added the garland with Red Stickles. The star is a small snowflake punch. I determined it's position on the mat and chalked behind it with SU Daffodil Delight. The package strip is popped out with pop dots to give them a bit of dimension.

Okay, not a big recycle project but it's where I'm at as I try to get caught up after being off work for so long.

Remember: every piece we reuse isn't sitting in a landfill contaminating Mother Earth.