Technique Tuesday - Emboss Resist

For today’s edition of Technique Tuesday I am playing with the Emboss resist. I have chosen to play with my Prairie Grass stamp set as it’s perfect for showcasing this technique.

I am also playing along with the Case-Ing Tuesday #CT530 over on Facebook where we case a card from the catalog from Stampin’ Up! 

My colour palette was chosen from the Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge #HSS472 of Pretty Peacock, Darling Duckling and Timid Tiger.

I love how gorgeous this technique works allowing that pop of white to shine through against the vibrant background. Perfect for an I’m here for you card! 

This sketch was a lot of fun to play with. There’s something extra therapeutic about tearing your pretty paper - it’s like a message of contradiction in the brain being faced from your childhood teachers saying that you don’t tear paper and now has been won by the adult brain saying go ahead I can do whatever I want now I’m an adult 🤣

Have you used paper tearing in your paper crafting design? 

If you haven’t done the Emboss Resist it’s one of the easier techniques that gives a lot of WOW factor. 

All you need is your stamp, white paper of coloured inks of choice plus a Versamark or other brand of sticky ink pad, clear embossing powder and a heat gun. A anti static powder is also handy as it prevents the powder from sticking to any fingerprint reside from handling your papers. I also keep a small paint brush with my embossing supplies for if the anti static powder wasn’t enough to delicately brush away stray powder I don’t want on the paper. 

So use your anti stick powder over the paper, stamp your image in versamark onto the paper, sprinkle with embossing powder and shake off excess. I love using a coffe filter to catch my excess to be able to easily pour back into my powder pot. Use the heat gun to set the powder. Make sure it’s all turned shiny and fully set. I usually heat from the back first so that it’s less likely to blow off my powder on me. Than I do a second time over the front.  Once your powder is set you can blend colour with sponge or brush or use a brayer to add colour over top of your image as desired and than use a paper towel to clean off the embossed areas to reveal your white pop of wow 🤩 than finish your card design! 

Happy Stampin’

Margaret

Live, Laugh, Love 

Be Totallyawake4-life

Making Memories and More on Monday

Today’s edition of Making Memories and More on Monday’s is inspired by the AAA Colourful colour themed challenges Colourboard #20 for my colour palette. Black Berry Bliss, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Basic Black.

My layout was inspired by the Scrap A Sketch Autumn challenge sketch and the choose at least 5 from the word prompts over on Facebook. 

I’ve  2+ photos over my double layout, stamping, fussy cutting, 4 patterned papers, ink, leaves, sequins, pumpkins, orange and green.

I’m playing with some retired Halloween and Fall stamps, sprig punch, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie ink pads and Blends markers.

My left page is a traditional 12 x 12 layout using the sketch as a page map. The Wicked Fun DSP was fun to pull out and play with for another layout and thankfully BlackBerry Bliss is a close match for the retired Rich Razzleberry. The Jar of Haunts and Fall Fest made some cute ephemera accents. Bit of fussy cutting but well worth the outcome! 

My right page is a retired 12 x 12 pocket page from Stampin’ Up! former Project Life era! I had fun stamping and decorating the 4x3 panels. The 4x6 slots will house 4 photos.

This layout is going to honour the photos of our granddaughter from a previous Halloween - yes I have fallen very behind in my scrapbooking.

We’ve always loved Halloween and definitely love experiencing it again through a child’s excitement. 

What’s your favourite thing about Halloween? 

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Slimline Sunday meets Snowflakes

This week’s Slimline Sunday card was inspired by Freshly Made Sketches #FMS704. I just loved the circles I immediately envisioned Bokeh vibes. I stretched the sketch to be slimline and turned to be landscape to fill the space.

Over at Inspire.Create stamping challenges #IC201 was inspired to use Blues and Greens. I have chosen to play with Pool Party and Soft Sea Foam.

Sweet Stampin’ has the prompt to use dies so I am playing with my Sunshine Kisses Dies.

Also playing with Greetings for You ephemera and Iredescent Faceted Gems.

I wanted to keep my design clean and simple so opted to create a DIY Bokeh background using masking techniques and a DIY stencil using window sheets and circle dies.

My sentiment was chosen from Greetings for you ephemera was a little starker white than I wanted against the snowflakes so I blended it with some Soft Sea Foam.

The added iridescent faceted gems add a pop of shimmer. I love the finished product!

Have you attempted to embrace the Slimline style? I admit A2 is my default go too but I am enjoying pushing myself outside that comfort with the slimline and fancy folds cards. 

Happy Stampin’

Margaret

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Scrappy Saturday - Fall - it’s time to celebrate 🎉

Happy Scrappy Saturday - had a lot of fun putting my layout together.

Playing with the autumn challenges over in the Scrap A Sketch group over on Facebook. Providing both a sketch as well as an inspiration list to get the mojo flowing!

I’ve picked the stamping / ink/ Wink a Stella glitter / leaves / metallic paper / gems / hues of brown. 

Over at Lasting Memories they had a challenge to use stripes in your layout. #LM767.

I’ve chosen to play with the Peaceful Garden DSP, the Prairie Grass stamp set, the Beautiful Butterflies stamp set and Embossing Folder, the Mini Corrugated embossing folder for my stripes,  the Alphabet A La Mode dies, Earthen Metallic foil paper and the Streaked Dots and some Wink a Stella glitter all from my Stampin’ Up! collection. 

Love the colour combo of blue and brown - it’s so tranquil.

Left side of my layout is a traditional 12x12 layout using the sketch - I followed fairly closely with the layout. I love playing with sketches as it’s like putting a puzzle together but you get to decide what pieces to play with. 

My right side of the double page layout is pocket style - I love the two tone cardstock with embossing and the sanding technique to reveal the inner core. The 4x6 pockets will house photos. 

I can’t wait to add some Fall Photos to complete the layout. 

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Fancy Folds on a Friday

Welcome to another edition of Fancy Folds on a Friday. Today I am playing with a centre pop up fold.

My design took inspiration from the Festive Friday Challenge - World Cardmaking Challenge #FF0193. I have chosen blue, pink/purple, rhinestones, a fun fold, patterned paper, colouring and a thinking of you “I’m here for you” sentiment from the inspiration list.

I’m playing with my Beautiful Butterflies stamp set and dies with the Watercolour Bokeh DSP the Fresh Freesia and Balmy Blue colour palette with some Frosted Iridescent gems.

The centre pop up was the perfect fold for the butterfly focal image.

I’m always looking for a new fold to try. What’s your favourite fold for cards?

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Throwback Thursday - Rooted In Nature

Celebrating Throwback Thursday is my chance to play with some of my old favourites and showcase them in new ways. Pretty stamps aren’t made to just be collected they are meant to get inky! It’s also a fun way to revisit older product while playing with new goodies! 

Playing along with a few challenges to help get the mojo flowing.

Shout out to The Global Design Project for the sketch inspiration #GDP514. Love the arches they are perfect for the Everyday Arches.

Over at Sunday Stamps challenges for the colour palette inspiration #SSC369 - I chose Secret Sea, Misty Moonlight, Cloud Cover, Pecan Pie and Crumb cake.

Inkspirational has the Word prompt of Trees. So perfect excuse to play with my retired Rooted In Nature stamps and dies.

And finally Tic Tac Toe challenge #tttc279 where I almost got a full card covered with the rectangle shape of my A2 card, Die cuts for my trees and the stripes in the mini corrugated embossing of my Secret Sea layer. Plus a second line with 3 or more colours and metallic gold in my twine.  4th line with stamped image and using an embossing folder.

All these elements came together to create a lovely Birthday card for a nature lover! I’ve used a sentiment from my retired Sending You Thoughts stamp set for my birthday greeting. 

I wanted to use Rhinestones as my embellishments so used the alcohol ink trick to make some Secret Sea rhinestones by colouring them with my Secret Sea Blends marker. I love a good frugal find tip and this one is a great way to have coordinating embellishments at your fingertips without having to buy a bazillion different embellishment packs. Rhinestones and Pearls are definitely my go to for embellishments these days. 

What’s your favourite frugal crafting tip? 

Happy Stampin’

Margaret

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Fantastic Fall Leaves

Welcome to Wednesday’s Win - a Fantastic Fall Leaves card!

Today’s card is inspired by - the Inspired By leaves challenge #IB353 and the accompanying sketch!

Paired with the Time Out Challenge Your Favourite Season #TOC297 … Fall is definitely my favourite. I love all the changing colours, the warm days but cool nights for sleeping with windows open and that it’s crockpot season where it does all the work on dinner leaving me more time in the craft room!

And Tic Tac Toe challenge #tttc279 played the bottom row again with Metallic, Square and Embossing for the win.

I chose to pull out my retired French Filigree stamp set, colour palette of Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry and Crumb Cake, Rooted in Nature dies from Stampin’ Up! Current products are Forever Plaid embossing folder and Streaked Dots embellishments.

The squares in the sketch were a lot of fun! I made use of an extra black ice technique square and some of my Peaceful Garden DSP.

The black ice technique is so hard to capture on still shots so I took a little video to show off the sparkle and shine it offers to a card.

Edited to add card measurements as been getting requests

Base is 51/2x41/4

Black mat 51/4 x 41/8

Crumb cake mat 5x3/4

The squares are top 11/2x21/4 and 11/4x11/4

Lower 11/2x11/2 and 11/2x13/4 and another 11/4x11/4

What’s your favourite thing about Fall?

Happy Stampin’ 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Technique Tuesday - Black Ice

Welcome - today’s Technique Tuesday has me playing with the Black Ice technique on the new Earthen Tone Metallic DSP from Stampin’ Up!

Playing along with the TGIF Challenges #tgif542 sketch challenge. Love the tilted squares.

Paired the sketch with a game of Tic Tac Toe challenge #tttc279. I chose the metallic, square and embossing row for the win!

I’ve chosen to use the Beautiful Butterflies stamp set. The Streaked Dots and copper Embossing powder also pair well with the Earthen Tone metallic paper. 

Black Ice tutorial - you will need:

• Metallic paper 
• Black Archival ink 
• Versamark
• Clear embossing powder 
• Heat Gun
• Stamp of choice

First step:

Choose a metallic paper - so gold, silver or copper work great. Cut to size you want for your focal piece. Handle paper by edges as much as possible to avoid getting fingerprint/ oils on the surface.You can use painters tape to hold the paper in place to avoid handling and getting fingerprints on surface. 

Second step:

Take the black archival ink and using the direct to paper technique gently drag across your metallic paper from top to bottom in straight line to give you the vintage base to the black iced look. Repeat until you’re happy with the look. 

Third step:

Using the black archival ink stamp your focal image onto the metallic paper. Other inks will smear in the next step so it must be archival ink - I use Stazon but there are other brands that will work. Make sure image is completely dry to avoid smearing in the next step. You can use a heat gun to speed drying or let air dry for a while.

Forth step:

Once image is completely dry, using your Versamark ink pad and the direct to paper technique, very gently run the Versamark ink pad across the cardstock from top to bottom. Sprinkle the entire cardstock with clear embossing powder and then set using your heat gun. 

Final step:

With your black ice focal point you can complete your desired card design.

I have carried on the embossing in my design and added copper embossing edges to my crumb cake squares as well as on my Happy Birthday sentiment. I have added the Streaked Dots embellishments and some twine cord to add some additional dimension to my design. 

It’s hard to capture the butterfly image on the still camera. This is another version using gold foil paper. 

Have you played with the Black Ice technique yet?

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life