Techniques

French Foliage meets Autumn Spice

This was one of the cards I did in my stamp clubs this month. I LOVE* LOVE* LOVE the French Foliage set and it coordinates  really well with the Autumn Spice designer paper too. Both of these items can be found in the new Stampin Up Holiday mini catalog.

I used the baby wipe technique for this card and if you aren't familiar with that, I made a video tutorial a few months back on how to do it. You can check that video out by clicking on the TUTORIALS link at the top of my blog. Then scroll down til you see the baby wipe one.  I used the more mustard, old olive and cajun craze inks for this card and then sprayed it with the gold smooch spray.

Here is a close up of the leaf and you can see the gold shimmer from the smooch spray on there.

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Featured Demo of the Month part 2

Here is part 2 of my featured demo of the month post. This month I am showcasing my downline  Liz Velazquez . She made so many cute things I wanted to show them all. This first project opens up and holds a gift card inside…..really adorable!

This card is so cool. I didn't know how she did it so she had to explain it to me. She used melted crayons (touch the tip of the crayon to a hot iron) and then rubbed it on the glossy cardstock. Here is a tutorial if you want to see how it is done.  I will have to try that one sometime! Use a craft iron though so you don't mess up your good one!

This is one of our adorable mini file envelopes. I LOVE these and I am so bummed they are retiring! Liz decorated it with a tropical look and more Thoroughly Modern designer paper. This is the front view.

This is the back view. More flowers and paper….

Here is what it looks like inside with all the dividers….

This last project is a 2-for 1 special. You get a cute box, then when you open it up……

There is a beautiful butterfly pin inside. How cool is that?

Here is a close up of the pretty pin. She made it by layering several sheets of paper together and then gluing them with modge podge to make it extra thick and sturdy. I love it! Thanks Liz for making such awesome projects! You did a great job! To see more of Liz's projects, scroll back a few days to part 1.

Cracked Glass spotlight….

This gorgeous card was made by my good friend Debbie Wilson.  I hosted a summer mini swap recently and this was Debbie's card.  I love this set already but her card made me love it even more! If you look really close you can see the cracked glass technique used there for the spotlight part.  Great job Debbie!

Awesome class from my friend Debbie!

This past weekend, one of my good friends and downline, Debbie Keane, offered a class that was fabulous!!   She went to a class offered by Michelle Zindorf last fall and I have been begging her ever since to do a class on it.  Michelle is another Stampin Up demonstrator who is famous for her brayer technique classes. She travels all over the country teaching people these techniques. You can find the tutorials for these cards on Michelle's site here.  Anyway, Debbie showed us how to make 3 gorgeous cards using Michelle's techniques.This first one uses the brayer for the background and torn paper to create those mountains. I just love it!

This vase card was done by brayering also. The vases are made from the modern label punch and the wide oval punch.

This card we did by using the direct to paper technique. You take your ink pad and just rub it directly onto the paper in a back and forth motion to create this look. Make sure you start with the lightest colors first. I am so bummed that this tree set is retired. I just love it! Maybe Stampin Up will bring it back one day.

Cool Flower technique

My friend Lorrie posted  a really cute card with a similar flower on the Stampin Connection site yesterday. That is an awesome website just for Stampin Up demonstrators to share ideas. It has only been active for 3 weeks and already has over 30,000 samples on there! That is just another great reason to be a Stampin Up demonstrator!

Anyway, I looked at the picture and tried to figure it out and after playing around with it for a little while (I should have just called Lorrie and asked her how to do it) I think I finally got it. I knew it was just a stack of different size circles scrunched up so I punched out 3 of each size (1 3/4, 1 3/8, 1 1/4, and 1 inch) . That was a little too much so I took a few away….so I ended up using 3 each of the bigger ones and 2 each of the smaller ones. So, I scrunched them all up and unfolded them and then poked through all of them with the paper piercer and then inserted a brad to hold them all together. Then start scrunching them back up again one by one until you get them to look like this. I did use 2 different colored patterns from the Bella Bleu designer papers to give it more depth. The vine is from my favorite set Vintage Vogue!

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Another take on the faux lace

I was having one of my stamp clubs on Saturday and a few of the girls were commenting that the faux lace technique was really a little too hard for them so one of the girls cut her strip in half and did a double layer with the crimped piece and it looked great so this method is much easier but still gives a beautiful look.  So, we can credit one of my customers (Brenda S) for coming up with this easier version. I showed it to several of my other classes and about half of the girls chose the double layered look. All you have to do is take an 11 x 1 1/2 inch piece of cardstock, punch a border along one edge, run it through the crimper several times and cut it in half. Then add sticky strip to the back and tape it down kind of loosely. Then add the other half to the top of that.

Here is a close up of just the lace part. I did end up with about an inch left over on each piece so you could make it a little bit fuller if you want to.

This was the original card that we were making with the faux lace on it.

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Baby Wipe Technique video!

I finally had a chance to do another video! I hope you like it. I would like to do a lot more videos but I need to be able to do them faster. It does take a couple of hours from start to finish…..mostly the editing is what takes so long. It would be so much easier if I could just tell my computer what to do and it would do it for me! LOL! I am showing the Baby Wipe technique with the Autumn Splendor stamp set from the Holiday mini.    

Autumn splendor…what a gorgeous set!

Here is a card I did in all of my stamp clubs this month. I used the Autumn Splendor set from the holiday mini and then I did the baby wipe technique for the leaf. It is a super easy technique…just take a baby wipe, lay it on a small plate or tray and then drop about 12 drops of each refill color onto it. I used more mustard, really rust and chocolate chip. Then this is your ink pad to stamp on.

Autumn Splendor….

It seems like fall is in the air today. It is a crisp 55 degrees this morning in Chesapeake, VA. I can’t believe it. It was just in the 90’s a couple of days ago. It is supposed to be around 80 later today but it is chilly now. So, I thought I would post a few fall cards. These are from the two Holiday mini swaps I just hosted.

This card was made by my friend Cathy Casey who lives in Colorado. It is absolutely gorgeous. I love the textured background and also the die cut leaves from the Big Shot. All of these cards are made using the Autumn Splendor set from the Stampin Up Holiday mini.

This beautiful card  was made by my upline, Melissa Ellis. She used the polished stone technique for the background and she also used the Big shot to cut out the scallop square part of the card. The designer paper is from the Holiday mini also. It is called Autumn Meadows.

This was my card. I used the baby wipe technique for my main leaf image and also used the Autumn Meadows designer series paper and Autumn Splendor set. I also used the vanilla hodgepodge hardware around the sentiment on the bottom.

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Quilt card

I am doing a quilt card class this week and this is one of the cards we are making.

I used the Bella Rose designer paper for the quilt piece and then stamped the rose from A Rose is a Rose set and cut that out. Then I added the organza ribbon and the jumbo grommet.

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