Thursday, January 16, 2014

I changed my mind...

I needed a baby boy card for someone. When I woke up I had thought about a card, so of course I had to go down to my stamp room, make it and put the other one back in the "stash"!

Here is the one that I decided to send this time:
                
I am so happy with the results! I had this single stamp called Two by Two (now retired) down on my shelf and I've never used it. I have loaned it out to be used but I, myself, have never used it. I'm happy that I finally have the opportunity - it's awesome!

The main image is stamped in black Staz On ink on watercolor paper. I used a blender pen with my ink pads to watercolor the image. It's one of my favorite ways to color! With the ink pad closed, you squeeze it a few times so that the ink pad inside touches the case. By doing so you get some ink on the bottom of the case. Then you use that as your ink palette and use the blender pen as your paintbrush. You don't want to take ink directly from the pad because it sucks up too much of the ink!



Coloring this was is easy! You can layer the colors for darker shades once the image is dry. An image like this or has built-in "shade lines", so I just made sure that I put darker ink in those areas. I used many complementary shades, for example: So Saffron with Crushed Curry, Soft Sky with Marina Mist, etc. (a lighter color with darker color in the same color family). Just be sure to clean your blender pen tip, by swiping it gently on scrap paper, in between each color change.

Also don't forget that you can use blender pens with ink refills,watercolor pencils, watercolor crayons or even our pastels! They come three in a box, each with a double tip, so they will last you a very long time.

Once I got that main image done it was time to put the card together!

I used the dotted embossing folder on the Marina Mist card base. Then I used the wood grain embossing folder on a piece of chocolate chip Core'dinations card stock - that way when I ran it through the Big Shot and then sanded it you could see you lighter color underneath. This is a special card stock. All of our others are dyed all the way through. That's wonderful because if you've ever had a cheaper piece of paper that showed white when you folded it in half you know what I mean!

I used a circle Framelit to cut out my main image and layered it on a piece of Cajun Craze card stock. That was cut out with a Big Shot die called "scallops #2".

I adhered it to the card using dimensionals over a piece of so saffron grosgrain ribbon. This not only popped it up a bit, but I recommend doing so when you have texture on the card or sticking it to ribbon - it's a stronger bond.

For my final step I decided to add the smallest basic pearls to each of the scalloped edges. This was done in a  flash thanks to my new tool called "quick stick" that was given to me by my friend (and stamp club member ) Nancy. 

Thanks again, Nancy!

I think they're going to love this card!

The Core'dinations card stock is part of this week's "weekly special". For this and any other of your Stamping needs please visit my website and the online store: 

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