Tie Dye Heat Embossing

When I first became a Demonstrator with Stampin' Up!, I immediately ordered the Heat Tool and all the Embossing Powders so that I could do lots of heat embossing. And I embossed absolutely everything for a little while :)  But then we started selling the Big Shot with its various dies and embossing folders, as well as other specialty tools and I didn't heat emboss nearly as much. Which is unfortunate because I love the look of a heat embossed image.

Today's Pals Paper Arts Challenge asked us to use heat embossing on our project. So I decided to do something that I'd been dreaming about since doing multicolored embossed images with the new colored embossing powders in the spring. I call it "Tie Dye Heat Embossing". Why? Because the stamped images have a bit of a tie dye look to them. I haven't seen this done elsewhere.  Here's a quick tutorial - super quick - because it's really easy :) For my flower I used Melon Mambo and Tangerine Tango Embossing Powders.

Directions:
1. Rub your card stock with the Embossing Buddy (to remove static from the card stock).
2. Stamp your image with VersaMark.
3. Sprinkle a very small amount of embossing powder on your image. Usually we would coat the image with A LOT of powder and shake off the excess. Here you want there to be some gaps, exposed VersaMark ink.
4. With a second color, cover the exposed VersaMark by coating your image in a second color of embossing powder. If you want to do three colors, repeat Step 3 for the second color and then finish coating with the third color.
5. Heat and emboss with your Heat Tool. 

Hope this has gotten you excited about trying out your heat tool again. 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Hallowe'en Scrappin'

I love Hallowe'en. It's one of my favorite holidays. I always get so excited to see my kids in their carefully selected costumes, as well as all the other children who come to our door looking for a treat. My camera is always ready to take lots of pictures. This is why I also love my Hallowe'en scrappin' classes. It's truly win-win. I get to make a couple of pages and help my fellow stamper's preserve their Hallowe'en memories too!

This year, I'm combining Fall and Hallowe'en together into one class, this upcoming Sunday. For the Hallowe'en portion we are using the Frightful Sights DSP as well as the Wicked Cool and Scaredy Cat stamp sets. Scaredy Cat is such a perfect scrapping stamp set because of its large images and small accent stamps. Last week I started off my Thanksgiving pages with a Mojo Monday Sketch and when I saw this week's sketch, I knew it would make a FABULOUS Hallowe'en page!

Tips and Tricks:

*I love the fun and interesting patterns of the Frightful Sights DSP. It's perfect for the Herringbone Technique for which I gave a tutorial here.
*Other than the interesting backgrounds on the top left and bottom right rectangles, this page is pretty simple ~ the bottom right is a pattern found in the DSP itself! How easy :)
*Love the two-toned 'Happy Hallowe'en'? I colored the stamp with our Stampin' Write Markers!
*The Spider Web Embossing Folder is perfect for a card front or the Scalloped Square. When putting pictures in this album, the web can be covered up or left as is.
*Kids grow so fast but sometimes is hard to tell what year it is when looking at pictures years later. I love adding in the year with the Simple Numbers Die on atleast one page so that in 20 years I know how old my kids were in the pics :)

Hope this page got you excited for Hallowe'en. 'Til next time keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Hallowe'en Tags

Quick post for today, but I just had to share! I have my first Crazy 4 Christmas Class today and as a door prize, I wanted to give away something I'm planning on doing for the children in my kids' classes. It uses the new Peekaboo Frames Bigz L die as well as the 1" x 8" Cellophane Bags - both found in the Holiday Mini. I guess it's kind of odd that I'm giving away Hallowe'en treats for a Christmas card class door prize. But then again, it's an unusually warm September day too... definitely not Christmas-y! So why not mix it up?

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love these products! There are so many things you can do with the Peekaboo Frames die - cards, tags, scrapbook peekaboo pictures or journalling - the sky's the limit! The Cellophane Bags are a perfect treat size. They fit gumballs, jellybeans, M&Ms or a pencil :)

Tips & Tricks:
*To adhere the inner card stock to the frame, I ran my 2-way Glue Pen around the outside of the frame and stuck the card stock on. This prevents adhesive from being on the stamped back of the tag.
*The 1" x 8" Cellophane Bag has adhesive at the top (similar to the Translucent Envelopes) so you can easily close in any treat you want to put in it.
*The Peekaboo Frames die makes making fun tags a snap! I made these beauties in less than 5 minutes each :)
*1/8" Taffeta Ribbon is the perfect size for tags. I used my Crop-a-Dile to make a 1/8" hole in the tags.

'Tis all for this Friday. Until next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

 

My Calling :)

I have a chemical engineering degree. I am a Professional Engineer, registered with Professional Engineers Ontario. But stamping is my calling. I've been stamping for 4 years now and have been home for 5-1/2 years to be with my kids. And I have to say (likely much to my dad's chagrin as he's a chemical engineer too) that yes, without a doubt, stamping is my calling. I love the creativity it brings out in me. The feeling of satisfaction when I have completed a beautiful card. And the fact that I feel like I am good at it. Well, not always, but overall I get good feedback which makes me feel not only good about stamping, but it makes me feel accomplished :) Best yet, I get to share it with like-minded women (and sometimes men) and teach others this craft I love so much.

I sat down today to do the Pals Paper Arts Challenge. We were challenged to use an element of style: lace. While I was at it I figured I'd make a card for my monthly card class - Fast and Fabulous. I had just received this stamp set today - Faith in Nature. It's a hostess set, so you can get it by hosting your own private stampin' party or placing an order of $200 or more in my Online Stampin' Store. Anyhow - back to my story... I sat down, and in 5 minutes I had this lovely card. Five minutes!!!  I find the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder somewhat lacy, so I knew I had to use it. I also used the Lace Ribbon Border Punch, topped with Pear Pizzazz Polystitched Ribbon. Simple, yet striking (in my opinion ;) ).

Tips & Tricks:

*Faith in Nature just screams "WATERCOLOR ME!!!". I didn't watercolor this card, I stamped in Concord Crush and used my Pear Pizzazz marker to color it in (Isn't it fitting? Pear Pizzazz for a pear? Just realized that as I was typing, lol!) But for my next stamper's group, we'll be watercoloring and you can bet that we'll be using this set.

*I love how wide the Lace Border Ribbon Punch is. At first I found it daunting (it's about 1" wide). But I'm finding so many different ways to use it. I love this layered look! Haven't seen this anywhere yet.
*I find the Polystitched In Color Ribbon tends to fray. So when I'm not planning on sealing the ends of a bow with my heat tool - because I simply can't have ribbon fraying on a card - I just tie a simple knot in it. I like the look of the knot (rather than a bow) with this ribbon better anyhow.
*To ensure my pear and greeting were aligned properly, I mounted them together on the clear block and stamped just once!  Easy peasy :)
*Even with the embossing, this card took me 5 minutes to put together. Now there's an efficient use of tools and stamps!

We make six simple but beautiful cards (2 each of 3 designs) the last Wednesday of every month for only $20 or a $30 order - join us on September 28th if you're in the Ottawa area. You'll get to make the card above as well as 2 other designs - fall and Hallowe'en. Email me at stampingmonica@gmail.com if you'd like to come. 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creatvity!

Spice Cake Scrappin'

The Spice Cake DSP in the 2011 Holiday Mini is one of my favorite DSPs so far - and I've been stamping with Stampin' Up! for 4 years now! It's gorgeous, the patterns are beautiful - all 12 of them - and the colors in it are just fabulous! Combine it with the fall stamp set Gently Falling and no matter what you do, you'll have a gorgeous project!

On October 2nd, I'm excited to be using both of these products in my Fall / Hallowe'en Scrapbooking Class! But if I'm going to do this class, I had better prep the pages ;) For the first page, I used inspiration from the Mojo Monday sketch which is back after a two-week vacation (thank goodness!!!). As you see on my page below, I changed up the sketch a bit, added some details at the bottom, moved the element at the top left to the top right and omitted the oval to make room for my photo mat. But I think I'm pretty close to the original sketch.

I've also used the new Spice Cake Jumbo Designer Buttons on this page. Although I think that at 1-1/2" in diameter they pretty big for a card, I do think they're absolutely perfect for scrap pages.

Tips & Tricks:

*I created the illusion of leaves 'gently falling' I stamped crumb cake ink on crumb cake card stock. Love that tone-on-tone look! 
*Love the swirly DSP trim at the bottom? Cut out your own trim with the Bigz XL Tasteful Trim die.
*Dazzling Details is our new glitter glue-like embellishment. It looks lovely on the veins of leaves :)
*Like the way I curled the tips of the journaling tag? It was easy! I just used my bone folder to distress and curl the paper a bit.

Hope you've enjoyed this page and maybe you'll even join me on October 2nd. 'Til then, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Christmas Window

I love the stamp set, Welcome Christmas. The images just give me warm fuzzy feelings :) So I knew I'd have to use it in one of my Crazy 4 Christmas classes. Although we will be making this particular card at class #2, I have some other awesome cards planned for next week's first Crazy 4 Christmas Class on Friday September 23rd at 7:30. There's still time to sign up, so don't delay!

For this card, the Pals Paper Arts sketch fit my image pretty perfectly. Actually, when I saw this sketch my jaw dropped because I made the card below about 2 weeks ago... but it's pretty darn close to it! Great minds think alike I guess ;) I flipped it, moved the main image away from the edge of the card and voila - my Welcome Christmas card was born :) And now it can participate in this week's PPA challenge.

Tips & Tricks:

*I LOVE the Scalloped Polka Dot Ribbon in the 2011/2012 IB&C - the Real Red and Old Olive colors are just so perfect for Christmas cards!

*Looking for a more cost-effective alternative to those lovely Glimmer Brads? Punch out shapes with the Bitty Punches from our silver or red Glimmer Paper to get a similar effect for a fraction of the price!
*Like the window look? It's sooo easy! I stamped my image and greeting on a 3x3 piece of card stock. Then, I used the 1-1/4" Square Punch to punch out the four squares. Using a piece of card stock just slightly bigger than the final result (which is about 2-1/2" x 2-1/2") allowed me to easily align my image while giving me a bit of play on spacing when punching it out.
*Looking for an alternative to Whisper White and Very Vanilla card stock? Try the Confetti White. It has a bit of a vintage feel to it, perfect for this classic image.

Hope this simple yet classic holiday card has inspired your own holiday stamping! 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Herringbone Technique Tutorial

In this post, I promised I'd be back with a tutorial for the Herringbone Technique. Well, here it is... enjoy! I love the ease and simplicity of this technique and can't wait to try it out with my fave current DSP, Beau Chateau :)

Steps: 

1. Choose a Designer Series Paper (DSP) which has patterns that coordinate very well together (some coordinate better than others). Examples from 2011/2012's offerings include Beau Chateau, Frightful Sight, Big Top, and Beyond the Garden. Of course you can use any DSPs you want. For this Hallowe'en-themed card, I used Frightful Sight. You will need 6 different patterned papers (i.e. half a SU! Package, 1 of each sheet).

2. Trim a 12” x 0.5” piece from each of five patterned papers. Cut them in half. You will end up with ten 6” x 0.5” pieces of DSP as shown below. Here I've flipped five of them over to show the other side of the DSP.

3. Trim a 12” x 0.5” piece from one of the patterned papers. Using a glue stick, put glue across the middle diagonal of a 5” x 3.75” piece of card stock and adhere the 12” piece of DSP.

4. Cover half of the card stock with glue. Choose a 6” strip of DSP and adhere to the card stock to form a 'Y', as shown below.

5. Using different patterns of DSP, fill in the 'V'. Alternate which side you put the DSP strips on as shown on the picture below.

6. Once you've filled in the first 'V', fill in the second one. Half your card stock is now covered. Continue covering the card stock with the DSP strips in the same pattern as above. You'll end up with a herringbone-patterned card, as shown below.

Hope this tutorial made sense :) Enjoy making some lovely backgrounds for all your cards and testing out various DSPs. That's the beauty of this technique... it's likely that no two cards you make will be the same!  'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Monogrammed Note Cards

I know I said I'd have a Herringbone Technique Tutorial for you in my next post... but I just have to share this with you ladies first! I have a private stampin' class tomorrow night and one very, VERY excited hostess :) One of my SU! demo friends, Kim Assaly, gives all her hostesses monogrammed note cards and I really like that idea. So I made my first set today. My hostess' name starts with 'M' and I used the lovely Broadsheet Alphabet for these cards.

What I love even more about these note cards is how easy they are! I made them with the Big Shot Movers & Shapers Bigz XL Die. I ran the Marina Mist CS through the die first to make the card base. I then ran a piece of Whisper White CS through the die to punch out the shape. My hostess is getting 3 cards with the Curly Label design and 2 cards with the Scallop Oval design. I used the coordinating punches to punch out stamped 'M's for the cards.

Tips & Tricks:

*Although the Movers & Shapers Die cuts your card to the stand A2 size and suggests you used a piece of card stock that is 12" long, I make it work with the standard 11" long card stock. I trim it to 4-1/4" x 11" and put it right in the space that cuts the card out. If you do this carefully, your card base won't get trimmed at all, just scored in the middle and with a shape punched out.
*Use the coordinating punches (in this case Scallop Oval and Curly Label), which are sized just a smidge smaller, to leave a little border around the stamped image when the card is closed.
*These notes are so elegant on their own I didn't need to do much else to them. I embossed the Whisper White with the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder and added a bit of ribbon and that's it - lovely, elegant note cards :)
*To line up the shape cut out on the Whisper White card stock with the card base properly, cut out the shape with the Big Shot on a 5-1/2" x 4-1/4" piece of card stock. Then trim 1/8" off of each side. This will give you a 5-1/4" x 4" layer with a perfectly positioned cut out.
*Yes, I know. The Marina Mist 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon is retired, but it just looked so lovely on this card so I used it anyways!

These 5 note cards only took me 45 minutes to make!  So next time you need a hostess gift, whether it's a stampin' hostess or a dinner party hostess, why not make her some elegant gift notes? 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

'Spooky' Herringbone Technique

I recently learned the 'herringbone' technique at a demonstrator meeting. And I love it. I started dreaming about all the different DSPs I could use... Beau Chateau, Big Top Birthday, Beyond the Garden... the possibilities for gorgeous backgrounds were endless! Though somewhat time-consuming, it is certainly not a hard technique. It is also worth the work!

Since I loved it so much, I just knew my customers would love it too!  Six lucky ladies are doing this technique at my stamper's group on Sunday (Are you in Ottawa? Find out what a stamper's group is all about by coming to one to try it out! Email me to find out how). It's also perfect for this week's Pals Paper Arts Challenge, Hallowe'en-themed projects! I used the Frightful Sight DSP in the 2011/2012 IB&C as well as the new Scaredy Cat stamp set - love them both!

Tips & Tricks:

*Wondering how I made the 'scaredy cat' stamp two-colored? I used Stampin' Write markers! They contain the same ink as our ink pads! Just remember to moisten your image a bit more by 'huffing' on it before stamping - the markers aren't quite as 'juicy' as our ink pads ;)
*When creating a card with a background as its focus, choose a stamped image that's simple, like the cat, and that doesn't take away from the background. You also don't want it to be too 'busy'.
*The 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon is the perfect accessory when you want to add just a little something to card without taking away from the main focal points.
*Love the Herringbone Technique too? Stay tuned for a tutorial - coming soon! And don't worry - it doesn't have to be a spooky herringbone, it can baby-themed, party-themed, whatever you want! Just make sure your chosen DSP coordinates well together.

Hope you love this technique as much as I did. I promise, I'll have a tutorial for you but 'til then, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

I won!

No cards today - just a brag post from me :)  Weekly I participate in a few design challenges and this week I won the Pals Paper Arts Challenge!!! I'm so excited and because I won I get to use the following badge on my blog :)

I love doing the challenges because they get my creative juices flowing. But winning one is icing on the cake! Here's the card that won:

To all my readers, thanks for following along, I'm glad my blog isn't just hanging out there in cyberland, it's actually inspiring people. Next time I'll be back with a card. 'Til then, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Gently Falling...

It's a gorgeous new stamp set in the Holiday Mini has images of all the different types of leaves that fall of the trees during the autumn months. It's perfect for those Thanksgiving cards, fall scrapbook pages (think versamarked on the side of a page, 'gently falling') and for your Thanksgiving Dinner decor! Whatever you choose to do with this set, you're sure to please.  Which is why I wanted to showcase it for this week's Pals Paper Arts Challenge. It is part of the Spice Cake suite of products in the Holiday Mini which includes one of the most beautiful DSP's I've ever seen! I promise, I'll be showing it used on a project soon ;) 

Today's challenge asked us to use three colors, Calypso Coral, Riding Hood Red, and Basic Gray, in our card. Not a combination I would have thought of but is it ever gorgeous! And perfect for the Rock and Roll Technique. I first rocked the maple leaf in Calypso Coral and then rolled the edges in Riding Hood Red.  Love how these colors blend to give us that subtle touch of fall.  And yes, the stamp set comes with both the solid stamp and line art stamp for each leaf image - the perfect 2-step stampin' set!

Tips & Tricks:

*When you do the Rock and Roll technique, make sure you 'rock' your stamp in the lighter color (Calypso Coral on this card) and 'roll' the edges in the darker ink (Riding Hood Red). That way you won't ruin your ink pads.
*I just love the Satin Basic Grey 5/8" Ribbon. Because of the satiny texture it has a silver sheen to it - so classy :)
*I often make blank cards with no sentiment. Then I can use them for a birthday card, a thank you card or even a sympathy card if needed. A sentiment can be added any time.
*I stamped and cut out the solid image so I could put it up on Stampin' Dimensionals. I love the way it looks like it's popping out of the page!
*I've left the best for last... I got this stamp set, and the whole Spice Cake Suite of products for FREE. Yes, SU! sent it to me absolutely for free with my preorder. No strings attached, no shipping. Free. Curious how? Ask me :)

I can't wait to use this set to design the Fall Scrapbooking Pages. 'Til then, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

p.s.  Want a copy of the Holiday Mini and don't currently have a Demonstrator? Please email me at stampingmonica@gmail.com and I'll send you one :)  (Canada only please)