Beat the bell

I beat the bell on the closing of this class by a few days.  I had a hard time getting my mojo going. The class is great, the videos are great...my mojo was lacking in trying to turn these styles into Valentines for my stash that needs to be mailed by next Monday.  Tonight I finally tackled days 5, 6 and bonus 7.  I am just not a clean and simple card maker.

This is the Day 7, It was one stamp used 3 ways. I didn't elect to get the stamp set, so instead I chose to go with Jennifer McGuire's sample because I loved the design.  There are two toned embossed letters across the heart. Liquid Platinum on the white portion and darker red on the heart.  I used three stamp sets - PTI Hugs, Amuse Say it with Style, Simon Says Stamp Chalkboard Love. Papers are by Amuse and Stampin UP.

The next two cards are from Day 6, it was about making cards with 5 items (other than the cardstock).  I kept pretty close to the 5. I really enjoyed the tutorial on coloring vellum.

   
This had colored vellum with an ink pad, rubbing alcohol, and perfect pearls. The die is from Simon Says Stamp -Heart Parade. Sentiment is from Simon's as well from the Valentine Spoons set. Sequins is from Ellen Hutson. The die is offset just a bit to create a shadow. This was time consuming, and I would pick a heavier lined die if I attempted it again.

These inked diagonal shadow lines...great concept tough for me to execute.  I stacked the glitter hearts with vellum ones as well. Papers are DCVW and Stampin Up.  Stamps were Hero Arts Envelope Pattern and Simon Says Stamp's Chalkboard Love.

Day 5, yes I have gone backwards here, because this one is my favorite of the bunch.  I was not fond of it while I was making it.  But man o man when it dried...yummy soft pink heaven. This was a new technique for me, using baby wipes to make an inkpad.  I only had thick ones with patterns, but with the stamp I used it didn't matter.  And I confess I was too lazy to go dig out my reinkers so I used ink sprays in purple, pink and orange.  It worked fine.

My stamp is the big dotted heart from Chalkboard Love by Simon Says Stamp, and the Sentiment is also SSS- Valentine spoons.  Dies used were from SSS - Love, Holiday Shapes, Quick Cutz-Celebrate. The dies were all brushed with clear wink of stella and then covered with glossy accents.

Now a midnight snack with hubs, maybe the Amazing Race Season 2 finale and then off to bed.

Thanks for hanging out and taking a look at my homework!

Inked Backgrounds and Adding texture

I kept up with my homework for exactly 2 days...then fell behind.  Then I caught up days 3 and 4, but didn't photograph or blog it until the weekend.

 

DAY 3 - Inked Backgrounds
I had some trouble with the techniques on this one. I have 11 front panels in the trash.  The gesso really was a tough one, my first attempt the gesso pulled up a layer of paper off my panel when I pulled the stamp away...I had to double check the jar to make sure it was gesso and not some glue.  That was a fun stamp cleaning session. No baby wipe and run...

I stamped Penny Black's Love is in the Air with white gesso on the card panel, let it dry and then used some HA Passion Flower ink with water to add color to the panel.  I couldn't resist a bit of gold Heidi Swap mist droplets as well. then some gold thread under a gold heat embossed sentiment from the same stamp set. This was the 4th attempt, and the best of the lot. Tough technique for me.

Next up is stamping on  inked panels with versamark.  I used HA Cup of Joe and Wet Cement to color the white panel.  Lawn Fawn's Wood Grain Backdrops was used to create the wood panel, and the "carved" heart. I added a white heat embossed sentiment from SSS Chalkboard Love.

Lastly was the velveteen stamping.  I have tried something similar with the kissing technique--but rarely had the results I was hoping for.  This technique had the white layer put to the card, then the color layer ontop of the dried white layer of stamping.  You can see the HA houndstooth background on the red heart from SSS Chalkboard Love.  The sentiment is from SSS Valentine Spoons.  This last technique was my favorite of the day, probably because it was accomplished in fewer attempts.


Day 4 - Adding texture
 This was so far my favorite day, but I have yet to check out Day's 5 and 6.

This was all about adding texture, and I loved all the examples and loved working on all the cards.

I have been wanting to try this faux embossing technique of adding die=cuts to the card panel in the same paper as the card base. The best tip was to adhere the die-cut paper to a sticky backing before cutting. It made laying these words down so much easier. I used SSS's Wishing die, and the Sending and Wishing stamp set, along with Valentine spoons for the sentiments.

The sewing was kind of fun and relaxing. I laid the big heart from SSS's Chalkboard love onto a white panel and took my piercer and punched holes around it.  Then I strung embroidery floss (3 strands) around the holes in random order...meaining sometimes I hit a hole twice or more.

I used a die from PTI's Happy trio and the word Valentines from the SSS stamp set Valentine Spoons to create the sentiment.  My main panel was cut using SSS Stitched rectangles.

My most favorite technique of the day and so far the class used my two favorite techiniques, water colors and embossing paste.

I used Heidi Swapp color mists in Primrose and Gold for the watercolors. I wet the water color paper then dribbled some drops of mists from the spritzer tube onto the paper. I added a bit more water with a brush then let it dry.  The two stencils I used are from SSS - Falling hearts, and Leaves I used white embossing paste, the hearts first as they covered more of the card base, then when that was fairly dry I added the leaves.  My sentiment was heat embossed in gold on vellum. I used the PTI sentiment set Keep it Simple Valentine Mini.  I saved my favorite for last.  Hope you are enjoying your weekend.  I will probably catch up with the next two class days sometime over the weekend.

Thanks for stopping!

CAS4 Day Two

Three cards today, one for each of the examples today which all involved Die cutting.

This wasn't quite what I envisioned when I started making the card, but I cannot say that I am displeased with the outcome. The card has a bit more impact in person, the gold embossing shines, and the gold glitter paper really glistens.  I started with white paper, stamped - embossed - inked - diecut then mounted the panel onto a card front.  Supplies - SSS -Valentine Spoons Stamp Set, Mama Elephant Heart Border Die, Distress inks Milled Lavendar, Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick, Embossing powder Hero Arts Gold.

Debbie Hughes made a spectacular card out of bits and pieces from various dies, and mounted it onto dark grey cardstock.  This took time.  I didn't have the dies she used, some but not all.  However, this is a definitely a very close CASE of her card. Patience is the key word.  Dies - SSS - Heart Wreath, Fresh Daisies, Love You small; Memory Box- Precious Hearts, Prim Poppy, Mini Heart Collection; Elizabeth Craft- Bunch of flowers.

Shari Carroll made an amazing card with the feathers, fun foam and all her special little bits and pieces.  I need Valentine cards, so this went a bit off the rails from her card, however 97% of it is a CASE of her project. Dies-SSS-Pointed Feather, Lawn Fawn - Party Banners, SSS - Moonshine sequins, DCVW Glitter Paper, Stampin Up Washi Tape, Fun Foam, Hero Arts Pool Ink.


The class as usual is fantastic. These instructors are so very talented.  Give it a try if you can.

Thanks for stopping by!

More Valentine Cards

As are many people, I am taking the latest Online Card Class - Clean and Simple 4 - Techniques made simple.  I will be using the techniques to further my stash of Valentine cards.

Today's lesson was about embossing, multi color embossing, shadow embossing, and creating a tile look with die embossing.  I decided to try the multi color embossing.

I started by inking my large background stamp with versamark and stamping it on to a card panel.  I cut a heart shape out of some 2 inch post it tape and taped it down over the area I did not want to cover with embossing powder.  Then I pile a soft pink embossing powder all over the card.  I set the powder by applying heat.

Once that was set, the heart mask was removed and I placed the negative around the unembossed area.  I added some deep pinky red embossing powder, and heat set that as well.  Because the pattern was a bit more open that I would have preferred, I added some pigment ink to the interior of the heart to make the shape more vivid.

A vellum strip with a silver embossed sentiment was wrapped around the panel, which was then adhered to a card base. Two thin strips of glitter paper were added as frames and the card is finished.  Is it still clean and simple?  I have no idea...but I do love this card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps - Hero Arts Leaf and Floral Background, PTI Keep it simple Valentine mini
Cardstock - Stampin Up Whisper white, DCVW
Inks - Versamark, Mama Elephant-Lollipop
Embossing powder - Stampendous