Thinking of You Thursday

Welcome to another edition of Thinking of You Thursday! Today’s card design was inspired by our Stamp2Cr8 monthly team’s creative challenge for this week to create a project using an entire Suite. 

I’m getting inky with the Natures Symphony Suite - I honestly love everything about this suite - the sentiments in the stamp set, the large dies, ribbon, metallic hexagon gems! I’ve paired with the Spotlight on Nature dies and added in some soft vellum with the Secret Sea foliage pieces. 

Great designs to be made for both masculine and feminine vibes!

Happy Stampin’ 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Friday Scenic Coast Fun

Welcome to another edition of fun on Friday here on the blog. The spring weather fluctuations have been really hard on my body with the inflammation that weather changes seem to cause so I haven’t been in the craft room for way too long! Sometimes I push through pain because the joy I can from crafting can be a wonderful pain management tool however sometimes when the inflammation impedes my range of motion I just have to pause and listen to my body! 

Today’s product choice of the Scenic Coast Suite was inspired by the Card Concept #ttc227 mood board with the nautical vibes. Perfect excuse to play with this suite!

Getting inky with the Scenic Coast Suite and casing the artisan team design inspiration from Stampin’ Up! 

I just love this suite - almost makes you feel like you’re on the ocean!

Happy Stampin’ 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Masculine Monday Vibes

Welcome to another edition of Masculine Monday vibes - a chance for me to create cards for the men in my life!

I have been loving seeing all the examples of the new Gears & Texture bundle that I have decided to get inky with the retired Geared Up Garage and paired it with the current Earthen Tones metallic paper, Streaked Dots and Three Banner punch and a colour palette of Smoky Slate, Lost Lagoon and Lemon Lime Twist. Also pulled out my old distress tool for the edges of my card.

Perfect card for either a birthday or Father’s Day. I love the grungy distressed edges and I flicked tiny splotches with Lost Lagoon and Lemon Lime Twist from my markers along with some bronze acrylic ink for that grunge garage vibe. 

Happy Stampin’ 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

For the Guys Kits!

 So yesterdays blog post shared some fun new information about the Kits! Today I am going to give a sneak peek of the 'For the Guys' Kit!

 

This kit will come with this adorable stamp set ... perfect for all the men in your life!

 

 

 Than it comes with everything you need to create 10 cards!

Includes instructions to be able to follow along with the design teams designs OR you can think outside the box and create your very own designs using the materials! 

Cannot wait for these kits to go live! Hope you enjoyed the little sneak peek!

Happy Stampin' 

 

Margaret

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life!

*post contains affiliate links

 

 

Happy 100th Birthday

My take on the Scrapbooknerd sketches from Instragram or you can play along over Scrapbook Nerds and Friends on Facebook! 

 For this challenge I opted to use it for a card vs scrapbook layout. 

 

This card features the Concord and 9th Birthday Basics turnabout  and coordinating die set both are available on the Scrapbook Nerd site.

I chose a color palette of black, turquoise and silver for paper, turquoise and silver inks one the turnabout, turquoise ribbon to hide my vellum glue mark.

The birthday sentiment is stamped with versamark and heated with white embossing powder and than you can colour  the embossed part with an alcohol marker to make it pop off black cardstock. I used my Bermuda Bay Stampin’ Blend however any alcohol markers will work too for this embossing technique. I also coloured my rhinestone gems with same marker to create coordinating coloured gems.

The scallop heart is the Stitched Be Mine die from Stampin Up and the 100th is from a retired Numbers for You bundle also from Stampin Up!

This card is going out to Fred Arsenault a Vet in Toronto who turns 100 this March - saw a post that he wants 100 cards for his 100th birthday and wanted to help make his wish come true! Hope you can join me in sending out a card to Fred! 

Happy Stampin' 

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life 

*this post contains affiliate links

May technique class was the Tarnished Foil technique - a fan favorite of mine as I love the rustic vintage type card looks!

 

Start by using direct to paper technique gently swipe your foil cardstock with Staz On to create streaks. Allow to dry. Optional Stamp images onto the foil sheet using a Versamark Ink Pad and heat emboss with gold/bronze/copper. Next place the prepared foil sheet into an embossing folder. Since the foil is one sided choose whether you want to emboss (push up) or deboss (push in) the embossing image onto the foil. Using a VersaMark ink pad, rub the edge or corner of the pad lightly over the raised portions of the dry embossed foil sheet. Pour gold embossing powder over the surface. Tap off the excess. Repeat if desired with copper/bronze/pewter.

Make sure the embossing powder is not covering too much of the stamped images in the background and that you are leaving portions of the silver foil showing. Repeat until happy. Next use the Direct-To-Paper technique to add some Jet Black StazOn to the panel gently rubbing over raised areas and framing edge. This will create more contrast between the raised and recessed areas and add an old, rustic, tarnished look. The black also allows you to bring out the interesting textures created by the foil and by the melted embossing powder. Once stratified with your tarnished look complete card as desired.

At the class we make 3 projects - the first one is a reference card for future reflections at home. It gives cardmakers a chance to practice the technque before moving on to the next projects. For the reference card we played with the Tin Tile 3D embossing folder. 

 Card Two made use the the new Button Button embossing folder and the Well Written dies and Well Said stamp bundle

Final card we played with the Woodland embossing folder and an encore of a prior peekaboo embossing technique with the Geared Up Garage stamp set and the A Good Man stamp set.

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life.com