For the past couple of days, I’ve been preparing samples for this month’s Christmas Stamp-a-Stack so I decided to share a few of the cards with you. Yes, I know we’re still a few months from Christmas but I thought it would be nice to get a head start on preparing holiday cards. The new Holiday Catalog is filled with some of the most beautiful designer papers and stamp sets so I’ve gotten into the Christmas spirit early!  The biggest problem is deciding which to use first.  I have to share a funny incident from today…my husband looked to see what I was working on and said “no! I’m not ready for Christmas yet!”  Well, I am!!!  

One of my favorite designer series paper sets in the Holiday Catalog is the Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper (DSP).  The vintage look of the paper brings back many childhood memories so I decided that one of the card sets would showcase the paper.  The card with the “Merry Little Christmas” sentiment was crafted using a design for a gift tag that was a Make & Take from the Stampin’ Up! convention.  When we made the tag, I knew that not only could it be used for a gift tag but it would make a wonderful card.  I have to thank demonstrator Peggy Hovorka in our local Stampin’ Up! group for the “Ho Ho Ho” design.  She shared it with the group and it fits the theme that I selected perfectly.  Of course, the paper with the deer is cute so I had to use a deer in a design. 

More Christmas cards are on my agenda but I promise not to ignore Fall & Halloween!  

Some great projects are being planned highlighting the changing of the seasons.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!  I’ll be sharing a new project on Tuesday.

Thanks for stopping by…

and don’t hesitate to contact me with your questions. (margkni@gmail.com).

Materials:

The other technique from last week’s class was the “baby wipe technique”. With this method, baby wipes are used as the stamp pad.  Take a couple baby wipes, fold and use Classic Stampin’ Ink Refills to drop colors randomly onto the baby wipe.  Use 3-4 colors, filling in area that is slightly larger than the stamp being used.  The inked baby wipe pad can be used a couple of times for stamping.  It really is a simple technique, yet, produces a beautiful effect.

The first card made used the oak tree from the Lovely As A Tree stamp set and the sentiment is from Endless Thanks.  Since Fall is arriving soon, colors were selected to mimic the leaves displaying fall foliage. Also, don’t forget to stamp the interior – we used the oak leaves from the set to stamp an upper and lower corner. 

The other card used the By The Tide and Sassy Salutations stamp sets along with three coordinating blue refill colors to ink the baby wipe for use stamping the coral.  Though it’s not evident in the card photo, Dazzling Details was used on the stamped fish.  Even with a touch of glitter, this is a great card to send to a male.

Both the Ombre’ and Baby Wipe techniques are fun, simple methods that can be used for creating a different, unique look on your cards.  Hope these last posts have inspired you to try one or both of the techniques!  If you have any questions on how to were create these cards or steps, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Have a great week and check back on Friday to see what’s new item that I’ll be sharing!

Thanks for stopping by…

and don’t hesitate to contact me with your questions. (margkni@gmail.com).

This week in class the focus was on using two different techniques in making cards.  The first that I’ll share is the Ombre’ technique.  There are a variety of methods for creating the graduated color going from dark to light on cards and we used two:  the brayer method and the sponge method.  The brayer is an excellent tool for using with the Ombre’ technique.  With the brayer, just one color of ink was used and applied rolling the
brayer back and forth across the entire card piece to achieve the
desired look. Just remember that when using the brayer to apply your ink, start off the edge of the card stock and roll across the page.  If you start directly on the card, a dark line can be formed.  By continuously rolling the brayer across the page, the ink will be applied from dark to light on the card stock as the amount of ink on the brayer decreases across the page.  With the sponge method, three coordinating colors (light to dark) were used and sponged onto shimmery white card stock, slightly overlapping each color with the sponge.

Materials & Tools: