Video Tutorial: Multi-Color Stamping with Sponge Daubers

Hey there! A while back, I posted a video on YouTube and I never got around to sharing it here. It's a tutorial on one of my favorite techniques - inking up a stamp with sponge daubers to get a multi-color image. This technique also gives you a great blended look. It works best on solid stamps with a lot of area, not line-art images. I used one of the new Hostess stamp sets called Silhouettes & Script. If you place a Stampin' Up! order of at least $150, this is one of the exclusive items you can choose as a Stampin' Rewards benefit.

Here's the card I share in the video...

And here's the technique!

There are a few other cards that I show in the video that I made using the same technique and stamp set. Here they are...

Hope you enjoy the video and that you give this technique a try! As always, holler if you have any questions.

Happy Stampin'! :)

CCC#053: December Cards Challenge - Walking in a Winter Wonderland

CCC#053

December 2014 Cards Challenge

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

This month's card challenge marks my last challenge with Catherine and Cathy Create. We've had a great time bringing you fun projects and challenges to spark your creativity, but unfortunately, Catherine and Cathy - and all of us Design Team members, to be honest - have just gotten too busy with life to keep up! So sadly, the challenges will end with next week's December tags challenge. But we hope you'll continue to follow our individual blogs, as we'll all still be creating and sharing!

So this month's card challenge is all about winter... Snowflakes, snowmen, sledding - whatever makes you think of winter. So check out my fun and frosty (and super easy to duplicate!) card.

Red and aqua is one of my favorite color combinations of all time - especially for Christmas cards. And how fun do they look on this adorable snowflake stamp from the Seasonally Scattered stamp set?! I used a super fun and very easy technique called thumping to get the 2-color stamped image, and if you scroll all the way to the bottom of this post, you'll find a video tutorial on this technique.

Then I just finished off the card with some simple layering, some twine and an adorable metal snowflake embellishment, and of course, some sparkle with glimmer paper. :) Easy and totally do-able if you want to make a whole bunch!

So I hope you'll take the time to stop by Catherine and Cathy Create and check out the other winter-themed cards. Thanks for stopping by today! Oh, and if you're interested in learning about the thumping technique for inking stamps, make sure you watch my quick video below.

Happy Stampin'! :)

Coloring with Blendabilities Alcohol Markers

I have been wanting to share a video for a while now on how I color with the new Blenabilities markers from Stampin' Up! A lot of people are freaked out by these markers, but I promise they're not scary at all!

What's so special about Blendabilites? They're alcohol-based markers that you can use to create an amazing and life-like blended look. Plus, you can use them on all sorts of surfaces - even non-porous ones like rhinestones, window sheets, buttons... They come in sets of three shades of one color - light, medium, and dark. You want to make sure you're using a water-based ink pad when you stamp an image that you want to color with Blendabilites. Memento Tuxedo Black ink works awesome, and it just happens to be my favorite black ink of all time!

I made this great little tag using one of my favorite new stamp sets from the Holiday Catalog. It's called Holiday Home and it's adorable! It also comes in a bundle with Framelits, at a 15% discount! And just because it's a "holiday" set, doesn't mean you can only use it for Christmas cards. It's got a lot of great fall and year-round images and sentiments.

Look at the great shading on this house! That's Blendabilities for ya! :) Now, there's no one right way to use these markers. My video just shows how I like to color with them, as well as some tips that I've found work for me. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. But the best advice I can give is just to get your hands on these markers and play with them! :) Enjoy!

Happy Stampin'! :)

Social Media Challenge Reject

Yesterday I shared my social media inspired card for the Catherine & Cathy Create August challenge. What I didn't tell you was that it was actually the second card I'd made for the challenge. :) Wanna see my first attempt? I guess I shouldn't really call it a "reject" because I still think it came out great, but I ended up deciding that I didn't quite use enough social media influence. Check it out...

The original idea behind this card was the juxtaposition between the old-fashioned typewriter and the modern hashtag sentiment. I still think it looks cool on the card, but I chose to make the other card to play up the social media aspect of the challenge. 

The color combination of Blackberry Bliss and Hello Honey was taken from the Moonlight DSP Stack (which also includes Basic Gray, Lost Lagoon, and Sahara Sand), which I also used on the little flags at the bottom of the card. The sentiment is from #hello and the adorable little paperclip is from the Basics Hodgepodge Clips assortment (love it!)

I colored this super cute typewriter (it's from a set called Tap Tap Tap, by the way) with Blackberry Bliss ink and an aqua painter. So cute! I popped it up on a slightly crooked piece of my new favorite thing in the entire world: Typeset DSP. I punched the edge with the Spiral Border Punch (my other new fave!) and tied on some black bakers' twine. Oh, and those awesome polka dots on the Hello Honey panel? That's the Large Polka Dot embossing folder. Love that texture!

Happy Stampin'! :)

Occasions Catalog Favorite: Vivid Vases

In every catalog, Stampin' Up! offers a small selection of single stamps. They're usually only available in wood mount, and feature an image and a greeting. Vivid Vases is one such single stamp from the Occasions Catalog, and it happens to be one that I totally adore. Now, I will be upfront with you and say that this stamp will carry over into the 2014-2015 Annual Catalog, so there's really no rush on this one. But at only $11.95 for a beautiful and generously sized stamp, it's a great addition to your order... Maybe you just need a few dollars to bump your order to the next level of Hostess Benefits? ;)

I decided to keep this card extremely simple, because I wanted the coloring to really take center stage. This set is so awesome for whatever your favorite coloring technique may be... in this case I chose to color it using inks and a blender pen. I used Pool Party, Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder, Crushed Curry, and Gumball Green inks. And P.S. - Gumball Green is retiring but at this time the ink and cardstock are still available so get them while you can!

Try watercoloring the stamp, or paper piecing the vases with your favorite DSP! Quick and simple, and the results are oh-so-cheerful!

To finish off my card, I used a layer of Calypso Coral, and two little banners that I punched using the banner punch from Sale-a-Bration. Guess what! That awesome little punch will be returning in the 2014-2015 Annual Catalog! I can't wait! :)

You could easily take this same card design and "step it up" however you like... Add ribbon or twine. Or maybe a button or other embellishment. Add more layers of cardstock. Emboss the card base with an embossing folder. Or just keep it sweet and simple!

Happy Stampin'! :)

CCC#032: May 2014 Cards Challenge - Rock-a-Bye Baby

CCC#032: May 2014 Cards Challenge

Rock-a-Bye Baby

This month's card challenge is all about the bambinos! And let me tell you, the timing on this couldn't have been better! A friend of mine just had her third baby a couple days ago, a former colleague is having her first baby this summer, and a dear friend from college is expecting twins! Let's just say this card will be put to good use! :)

I've told you before how much I love this stamp set. It's called Baby, We've Grown and I think it's just super cute. I love that it's a little bit unique compared to a lot of of baby stamps. And guess what! This set is in the Occasions Catalog, but it will be returning for the 2014-2015 Catalog! :)

I stamped the "sweet baby" sentiment repeatedly on Pistachio Pudding cardstock in Pistachio Pudding ink. Isn't it cool how it sort of interlocks with itself? Of course, I used my trusty Stamp-A-Ma-Jig because I can't line things up! ;)

I love this little owl family because they're quirky and not cutesy. I colored them with a blender pen and Pistachio Pudding, Pool Party, and Summer Starfruit inks. (P.S. I used a few retiring products on this card. Summer Starfruit is a retiring color, and the DSP I used is from the 2012-2013 Catalog, I think.) 

So that's it from me! Go over to Catherine and Cathy Create to see what the other design team members have come up with. Then share your baby card and you might win a Stampin' Up! prize!

Happy Stampin'! :)

Without them, what would little boys do?

I fell in love with the Baby, We've Grown stamp set the minute I saw it in the new Occasions Catalog! It's one of the cutest and least cliche baby sets I've ever seen. I mean, we all have enough onesies and baby bottle stamps, right? How about a cute little family of owls, and the cutest little baby shoes? :) And those shoes just beg to be watercolored!

I chose the kind of funky DSP to modern-up the card a little bit, since I'm not really into super sweet baby stuff. The collection I used is called Sweet Sorbet, and it is a Sale-a-Bration exclusive that will be available starting January 28th. Remember, during Sale-a-Bration, you get to choose one exclusive product for free for every $50 you spend from Stampin' Up! Get your wish list ready - this year's exclusives are great! You can take a look at them here. The embossing folder I used on the Crisp Cantaloupe panel is also a Sale-a-Bration exclusive.

I chose the sentiment from Cuddles & Kisses, which is a super awesome baby sentiment set. It's very versatile - unlike most baby sets, it includes sentiments for twins, grandparents, and adoption! I'm a big fan of Maurice Chevalier - especially in the movie Gigi, which is where that song is from. :)

This adorable little shoe image was very simple, quick, and enjoyable to color. So cute! And I created a fun little polaroid-style frame with the Squares Collection Framelits to draw focus to the image. (You can check out my video tutorial on creating your own faux-Polaroids on YouTube.)

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great weekend!

Happy Stampin'! :)



Little Girl Shoes Card Supplies

InLinkz.com

CCC#010: October 2013 Challange

Can you believe it's OCTOBER??? Wasn't it just, like, last week that I was exclaiming how I couldn't believe it was already September??!? Whoa. But I digress... :)

The first of the month - You know what that means! Another monthly challenge over at Catherine and Cathy Create. And I have a little mini challenge for ya. If you haven't been over to Catherine and Cathy Create yet, I want you to try to guess the theme of this month's challenge just based on my card. Ready? On your mark... Get set... (Don't scroll down yet! Try to guess!)

What do you think? The theme of the challenge is... *drum roll*... Orange and Black!! I bet you didn't guess that - LOL! :) So here's the story of this card: Well, first of all, I don't own any of the current Stampin' Up! Halloween stamps. And I'm not really all that into Halloween anyway. Maybe it's because there aren't any kids in my life and I don't live in a neighborhood where we get Trick or Treaters. Plus, Halloween isn't really a card-giving holiday. So I decided to go in a different direction. But I still used orange and black! :)

I used markers to color the Wonderful Wreath stamp - it's not just for Christmas! OK, so this was a lot of work. That wreath you see up there? My third attempt. I spent like an hour and a half just coloring and stamping - Yikes. I used Cherry Cobbler, Summer Starfruit, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, Cajun Craze, and Baked Brown Sugar. After coloring all the leaves, I misted the stamp lightly with water using a Stampin' Spritzer. (This is where I kept going wrong... too much water, not enough water... Oy.) I also used the "faux letterpress" technique (check out my tutorial on YouTube) with the Houndstooth embossing folder and Basic Black ink on Chocolate Chip cardstock.

So that's my card. Thanks for stopping by today. Make sure you stop by Catherine and Cathy Create to see what the other DT members made. And if you play along yourself, you might win some Stampin' Up! goodies!

Happy Stampin'! :)



Fall Wreath Card Supplies

InLinkz.com