So it’s been awhile…I’ve wrapped up summer lessons and am preparing for the new year to start in a few weeks. Last week Steve and I (along with all the pets) took a trip to Virginia Beach to visit my parents and on our way home we stopped at my in-laws for a quick overnight stay. Since we’ve been back we’ve started several projects for the house which I hope to share in a few days. But today I took a break from all of that and got caught up on the Online Card Class: Stretching Your Stamps 2!
I took my first OCC “live” a few months ago (Watercolors for Card-makers) and I was hooked! The courses are a fabulous source of inspiration and information! I’m two days behind but hope to get caught up over the weekend. What I really like about this particular class is that it’s focusing on several categories of stamps and it’s not necessary to purchase all the stamps used if you already have stamps that fit the category.
Anyway, here are my first homework assignments!
The first 2 days focused on using background stamps and reverse background stamps. I don’t have a reverse background stamp but I used two different background stamps and came up with a whole range of different cards! I could easily spend two weeks with just these two stamps!
For my first card I used Laura Sterckx‘s technique for an ombre effect with an embossed resist. I usually try not to use exactly the same colors as the tutorial card but I fell in love with the distress ink combination she used and had to try it myself! I used my Penny Black Allover pattern background stamp and stamped it with versamark on a piece of Neenah solar white cardstock. Then I embossed it with Hero Arts white embossing powder. Then I used the mini blending tools to apply Picked Raspberry, Dried Marigold, and Spun Sugar distress inks. I’d never blended Picked Raspberry and Dried Marigold together and I love the color! It’s such a vibrant and rich red…the photos don’t do it justice! Then I stamped the ‘Happy Birthday’ sentiment from a Lawn Fawn set onto vellum and embossed it with the same white embossing powder. I die-cut the sentiment using the Lawn Fawn set A Birdie Told Me but I cut off the little piece that makes it look like a speech bubble. I adhered it with very thin pieces foam mounting tape that were carefully placed on some of the lines of the letters so they wouldn’t be visible from the front of the card. I added a little twirl of silver thread and 4mm and 8mm sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh for some glittery embellishment! I think this is my favorite card so far!
For my next 2 cards I followed Kristina Werner‘s tutorial for doing a multi-layer emboss resist. I stamped the design onto a 4.25″ by 5.5″ piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper using versamark ink and embossed it with Hero Arts white embossing powder. Then I watercolored the image with Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass, and Chipped Sapphire distress inks. I started by coloring in the diamonds then doing a lighter wash of the circle shape. Then I was impatient and heat set it with a heat gun being careful not to let the colors run together. After it was dry I took a damp baby wipe and rubbed the ink off the top of the set embossing powder. Then I used the same distress inks and only watercolored the diamonds so that they would be darker. It resulted in a stained glass-like pattern. It was a little too busy to be a full background for a card but I followed Kristina’s suggestions and cut it down to be a border for my first card.
I cut the background into two strips – one wide and one narrow and mounted them diagonally on a dark blue cardstock base. I die-cut the ‘hello’ from white card stock and brushed it with a clear wink of stella glitter pen. Then I mounted it with foam tape to give it a little dimension.
Then for the second card I die-cut the ‘hello’ from the background stamp which almost made it look like it was cut from patterned paper. I used the same foam mounting tape to adhere it to a white cardstock base. I added a sentiment from a Clearly Besotted stamp set and added two thin strips of blue cardstock for a little extra interest.
My last card was a “hybrid” of Shari Carroll‘s Faux Watercoloring technique. I don’t have a reverse background stamp but thought that the music stamp from My Favorite Things would do well with her technique. I started off by stamping Spun Sugar, Dried Marigold, and Picked Raspberry distress ink onto my craft sheet (told you I REALLY liked that color combo!) in a 3 x 3 pattern. Then I took my stamp and pressed it into the ink and wiggled it around a little to make sure that the entire stamp was inked. Once the color was fully distributed over the stamp I spritzed it with a little water until I saw the ink start to bead up. Then I stamped it onto a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper and let it sit on the paper for a little while to give the paper time to absorb the ink. After I lifted the stamp I heat set the image (again I’m too impatient).
Then I cut the image into 1 inch squares and rubbed the edges with a little Picked Raspberry distress ink on a blending tool to give them a little definition. I mixed them up a little before mounting them in a 3 x 4 pattern on a piece of white cardstock. Then I die-cut the thanks from Lawn Fawn in white and pink cardstock and layered them to give the white a little shadow so it would stand out more. Finally I layered the tiled panel on pink and white cardstock and embellished the card with a few Pretty Pink Posh sequins!
I hope you enjoyed my cards! I can’t wait to dive into the next lesson: using alphabet stamps! 🙂
Jessica, Fantastic cards! I signed up for this OCC and haven’t done any homework 🙁