Ghosting Technique

Welcome to Try a Technique Thursday. Today I am playing with the ghosting technique along with being inspired by a few challenge prompts. 

The Colour INKspiration has a “showcase your favourite colour” for their 200th challenge. While it’s hard ti pick just one for the purpose of the challenge I have chosen Secret Sea … it’s such a gorgeous deep navy and goes with everything! 

Thanks to the Cupcake Challenge Let it Snow #CI632 - I am playing with the Elegant Pine Snowflake stamp set and dies for my focal images.

I am having another go at Tic Tac Toe challenge this time using the diagonal for the win - Navy, Free is Snowflake technique, and Holiday sentiment of “Warm Winter Wishes”

In addition to the Elegant Pine Snowflakes stamps and dies I playing with the new Triple Banner punch, a retired 3/8” circle punch for my glittery centre of my snowflake and of course some bling rhinestones. 

The Ghosting Technique is a simple technique to do but it packs a good WOW in the effect. The shadow of the ghost image really makes the focal images pop.  

First you want to stamp your focal image in  white ink or Versamark for a more subtle shadow to create the shadow layer. I have chosen Whisper White.

Clean the stamp well to ensure you don’t transfer white ink to your darker inker.

Next ink stamp with your dark inker choice and then carefully stamp slightly off from the white stamped image. 

Photopolymer stamps are perfect for this technique but you can use wooden stamps with a stamp a ma jig or rubber stamp with a stamp positioning platform. 

That’s it - you can repeat more ghosting if desired and complete your card design. 

You can also create the ghosting effect with your dies as well - I have cut pine accents for my focal snowflake in white and Secret Sea and layered to create that shadow effect with the paper as well.

See how easy it comes together with this short process video: 

I forgot how much I love Crumb Cake with Navy. A perfect holiday card for someone on my Christmas card mailing list! 

What’s your favourite Stampin’ Up! Colour? 

Happy Stampin’ 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Whimsical Wings & Things Wednesday

Welcome to Whimsical Wings & Things Wednesday. A chance for me to show some inky love to the fairy stamps in my collection. 

Today I am sharing an oldie but a goodie Crystal the Fairy Heathers Stamps Enchanted Hallow series and a sentiment from Stampendous that I have had since I first started stamping back in 2004 and giving her a chance to play with some of my new goodies The Christmas Greetings Mix and Match Specialty cards & envelopes, Cherry Cobbler and Granny Apple Green blends, Gold foil DSP and circle punches.

Isn’t she just adorable? I love the sentiment “A Christmas prayer is winging its way to you.” I have Wink of Stella on her wings plus over the snow under her feet for some glittery magic and the gold foil in the paper and behind my card front and the sentiment helps create a dance of golden rainbow as light reflects from it … so pretty in person. 

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Scrapbook Global Blog Hop & Throwback Thursday

Welcome to the Scrapbook Global Blog Hop - this month we are playing with our favourite product from the Annual Catalog. I have chosen to play with the Turtle-y Awesome Suite because it’s just so adorable and versatile for many occasions.

As today’s hop is occurring on a Throwback Thursday post day I am also playing with my retired Six Sided Sampler and Hexagon Punch. The colour palette in the Turtle-y Cute DSP is gorgeous and I have chosen the Balmy Blue, Green Garden and Daffodil Delight with a pop of Flirty Flamingo. 

For my 12x12 page I was inspired to play along with Scrapbook & Cards Today’s October Sketch. I loved all the squares in this inspiration however opted to use hexagons because of the hexagons in the Turtle-y Awesome Suite other than that I followed the sketch as close as possible. I swapped out the flower embellishments for the two adorable Turtles. I’ve left room for 3 photos in the 3x2 photo mats as I tend to do hidden journaling cards so that the photos can tell most of the story.

For my Pocket Page I carried over the hexagons and Six Sided Sampler stamp set and a Turtle stamped and cut out and left room for 4 photos.

Want to say thank you to our blog hop host Sharon Dalton for organizing - please make sure to go to her blog and show her some love.

Next up on the blog is Julia Quinn or you can hop through here

 

Happy Scrappin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Slimline Sunday

Welcome to another edition of Slimline Sunday - loving the additional play space with the slimline design! 

I’m playing with the retired Jar of Haunts, Wicked Cool and Well Said stamp sets and the current Alphabet A La Mode dies for my custom sentiment of Boo-Day. 

Todays design inspiration came from the following challenge blogs:

The Color Dare challenge #673. I have chosen Real Red, Gorgeous Grape and Pumpkin Pie from Stampin’ Up!

Cupcake Inspiration #628 for the Halloween vibes in the image.

Just Us Girls #796 also has Halloween word Prompt for this week!  

Inspired By #IB357 for the pumpkin themed mood board and a stacked image sketch.

To stack my images for the design challenge is used the masking technique.

As You See It #358 to create a card depicting your favourite thing about Fall and Halloween and pumpkins are at the top of my list of favourites. 

I love the resulting Happy Boo Day card - perfect for someone who shares their birthday with Halloween or even just a Halloween lover! 

What’s your favourite thing about the Autumn/Fall season? 

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Elegant Pines Snowflakes for Slimline Sunday

Welcome to another edition of Slimline Sunday where my design focus is around creating 91/4” x 4” cards. Slimline style is perfect for those who want more space to play in their design as well as for cards where you want more room to write personal messages.

My layout was inspires by a card sketch over at Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers challenge #BYSHC61

My colour palette was inspired by CAS colours & sketches challenge #569.  I had intended to try to keep my design CAS but got carried away so am just using the colours! 😂 

Playing with the Forever Plaid 3D embossing folder, Elegant Pine Snowflakes DSP, Gold foil paper, Greetings for You ephemera pack, Secret Sea hand coloured rhinestones, gold bakers twine, a brayer and some fussy cutting of the DSP.

Final product ended up being a great holiday vibe with the warm tones of the Pecan pie plaid background and the dark Secret Sea with hints of Mossy Green. I fussy cut out a snowflake and popped up on a gold foil and whisper white circle and added the twine and rhinestones for some more pops of texture and bling. Finished off from an ephemera sentiment. 

This DSP is SO pretty and great not only for holiday projects but winter birthdays and scrapbook layouts - the photos don’t pick up the tiny details in the designs. I love the Evergreen Pine snowflakes just so unique.

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Peaceful Vibes for Scrappy Saturday

Welcome to another edition of Scrappy Saturday!

Today’s layout was inspired by Autumn Scrap a Sketch #6 and the coordinating “choose at least 5 word prompts from the list” prompt. I have chosen stamping, splatters, fussy cutting, using 4 patterned papers, glitter, ink, flowers and squares (3 on my second layout)

Shout out to the Color Throwdown #ctd841 challenge for the gorgeous Fall vibes color palette I chose Secret Sea, Cajun Craze and Cloud Cover.

Playing with the Peace on Earth suite, Conflowers and retired French Foliage stamp sets, the Alphabet A La Mode dies and some Streaked Dot embellishments.

All the inspirations came together to create a gorgeous layout to honour some photos of us enjoying Fall fun!

My left hand side layout is my traditional 12x12 layout using the sketch. I have used my blends to colour my Peaceful Garden DSP to add pops of Cajun Craze to the Secret Sea and Cloud Cover palette. The splatters and writing in the French Foliage are one of the reasons I couldn’t past with this set when it retired. I love it for adding pops of colours to peek out behind layouts and ephemera. Love that the Alphabet A La Mode dies are perfect for adding tittles to a small space! The Hello title is mounted on the nesting label dies in the Peaceful Garden dies.

My right side 12x12 Pocket page features DSP with more pops of Cajun Craze hand coloured and leaves room for 4 of the 4x6 photos of scenery from a Fall family hike. 

What’s your favourite fall activity? 

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Throwback Thursday Summer By the Sea

Welcome to another edition of Throwback Thursday - a chance for me to pull out some old favourites from my stash.

I’m playing along with Try a Sketch on a Tuesday #TSOT679 to use Oodles of Doodles use doodles anywhere on your stamp set which helped me choose to pull out my By the Seaside stamp set. 

Also playing along with their sister challenge Double Trouble to use not only the s doodles but to add layers and a sentiment.

Over at TGIF challenges I was inspired by the clouds in #tgif543 mood board. Well whom kidding also inspired me to crave a donut but I don’t have a donut stamp set 🤣

The As You See It colour and mood board challenge #AYSI357 inspired me to incorporate a sunset using the colours in the prompt.

I love playing with old and new so incorporated my Prairie Grass stamp set into the design.

Love the here for you through any storm vibes of the imagery and cloudy day by the sea vibes in this design so I chose the ‘my shoulder is yours’ sentiment. Think this would also be a great anniversary card too with less of the cloudy storm brewing. 

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Totallyawake4-life 

Fabulous Fall

Happy Wednesday! It’s officially Fall now so it’s officially time to get our pumpkin on! 

Today’s card design was inspired by playing along over at Inspired By challenge #IB354 mood board of pumpkins and the accompanying grid sketch that prompted me to bring out an old Cuttlebug embossing folder from my stash.

The Fall vibes from the mood board over at Just Us Girls #JUG793. Yay more pumpkins!

My colour palette was inspired by the Colour Dare challenge #CDC670. I’ve chosen Crushed Curry, Cloud Cover and Old Olive.

My custom made sentiment was inspired by Just Add Ink challenge #JAI769 to use numbers and words. I used the Grateful from Acorny Thank You partially stamped and the 4 U from a retired alphabet stamp set.

I’m also playing with my Fall Fest retired stamp sets from my Stampin’ Up! Stash and the retired sprig punch. 

My final result is a cute little Grateful 4 U card.

Happy Stampin’ 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life