Saturday, September 24, 2011

You're on my mind

I stumbled across this color combination several months ago: Night of Navy and Cajun Craze. The mellow tones hit me just right.
There are a few people whom I've been thinking about lately, and I hope this simple card will brighten a day this week. The design is really straight forward: just a small rectangular image panel (actual dimensions don't matter too much), with the sentiment stamped directly onto the dark (Night of Navy) card base.

Using the Whisper White craft ink for to stamp "you're on my mind" cleans up the design by eliminating the need to add another panel and mat. The stamp set is the retired Delight in Life. These gentle flower images are some of my favorites. I stamped off the main image many times, and added a lot of sponging for softness.

If you like this card, consider putting on your crafting hat and relaxing with a little stamping this weekend! Thanks for looking.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Dusty Blue Tag

The Dusty Blues VSN Challenge was to use a blue, ivory and brown color combination.



I ran my Naturals Ivory card stock base through the Big Shot with the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder. (I love the deep impression you get with these folders!) To add some depth, I sponged Baja Breeze ink across the top, so that the embossed image is colored, but the debossed portion remains mostly white.

The stamped image is from a retired set I've had for quite a while. I still like the quirky images/sentiments in So Cool for a youthful feel on my cards and scrapbook pages. Here I used Baja Breeze card stock with Early Espresso ink, and cut the tag out freehand with my Paper Snips. The edges are sponged lightly with the Baja Breeze, too.

To attach the tag to the card front, I punched a small hole and threaded the Linen Thread through there before warapping it around the card front and tying off in a bow.

I think the "randomness" of the design is accentuated by the halfback pearls, which also add a needed feminine touch.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Upsy Daisy Card with Stamp-a-ma-jig Tutorial

I stumbled across some retired red Hemp Twine while looking for supplies to complete some challenges for the August 2011 Virtual Stamp Night at Splitcoaststampers.com. I made this very simple card for the challenge to use a cowboy rope.

Here I satmped the flower image from Upsy Daisy in Cajun Craze ink onto Very Vanilla card stock.



To correctly position the sentiment, I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig (samj). It's easy!

1) Align the plastic sheet in the corner of the T-square. Stamp the desired image on the plastic sheet with the stamp block flush along both sides of the T.



2) Position the plastic sheet on top of your card stock, right where you want your stamped image to end up. Place the T-square on the same corner as it was when you stamped onto the plastic.



3) Remove the plastic sheet, but leave the T-square in place. Ink up your stamp, and stamp the image, making sure the sides of the stamp block are flush (just like when you stamped on the plastic sheet).



That's it! My words ofen end up crooked if I try to eyeball this stamp, so I'm glad I have this simple tool to help me out.

I finished my card by layering the image panel onto a piece of Well Worn dsp and a So Saffron card base. The image panel is popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals, and the twine runs around that panel a few times before I tied it in a simple square knot. Of course, I had to add some Early Espresso sponging around the edge the image panel. My fingers got pretty messy today!