Fifty Nifty Sketch Challenge

Negative thirteen degrees tonight!   BRR!!  With all the frigid weather I decided to work on a layout with pics of our warm weather Florida vacation last year.  Just looking at them is encouraging!

This also fit perfectly with the current MDS Monday sketch challenge to use a map plus an arrow or chevrons.  (This is my first time participating in this challenge--thank you design team!!)

For my take on the layout I put things at wonky angles to reflect the idea of self expression.  Our family has a collection of strong individual personalities!   When I saw the Be Yourself digital kit I knew it would be perfect for our family with the tie-dye like papers and retro looking elements.  

One fun thing about this page that I had not tried before is attaching text to a punch shape.  See how the words fit nicely inside the state of Florida?  Super simple to do!   Holly Lindford from Stampin' Up has a nice video that shows how to do it.

My Digital Studio Supplies: Fifty Nifty Kit, Be Yourself Kit, Game Day Kit (arrow)

Clean and Simple Vases

A bright card for a not-so-bright February day!  

Paper piecing sets off one vase as the focal point and the little dahlias add a bit of texture on the otherwise simple layers.

I used the current sketch on the Clean and Simple Stamping blog as my design base.  (This is my first time playing along with their sketch challenge!)

Supplies:
Stamps: Vivid Vases
Cardstock: Strawberry Slush, Bermuda Bay, Whisper White,  Kaleidoscope Designer Series Paper
Ink: Basic Gray
Accessories: Dahlia Adornments

Stamp Review Crew: Gorgeous Grunge Edition

Welcome!!  Every first and third Monday of the month the Stamp Review Crew hosts a blog hop featuring ideas for one Stampin' Up stamp set.  Our stamp set today is the Gorgeous Grunge set.

Some stamp sets are attention grabbing headliners and others are behind the scenes workers that are totally indispensable.  Gorgeous Grunge is one of the latter.. it adds so much to projects but is not one that jumps off the page.

I used it to add texture and a well loved worn look to this boy-themed pocketful of fun card.

The most obvious use of Gorgeous Grunge is on the holder of this insert card which is stamped to simulate the weave of fabric. The pocket is made from the Celebration Basic Invitations.   I trimmed a bit off the top of  two invitations, stamped on the backside and adhered them on the edges to form a pocket holder.

I added all sorts of things that a boy might have stuffed in his pockets and "grunged" them up by stamping splatters, spots and speckles.  The elements are attached to the pull out portion of the card.

The ruler, gum wrapper and note are cut from the Ectetera Designer Series Paper and the frog was CASEd from Frenchie.  

For the sling shot, I threaded a rubber band through the small oval punch (retired) and scruffed it up with the diagonal stamp.

The comb was a last minute idea.  It is made with the new Fringe Scissors!

Well the little frog is getting anxious to hop along to the next blog to see more Gorgeous projects.  Thanks for stopping by!

     

     

Love My Soldier

Happy Valentines Day to all our troops!  Yesterday I sent a care package to both our boys with some homemade goodies.  This is the card I put in for our oldest son who is in the infantry.    Love my guys!!

I started by printing a photo from the internet and built the card from there.  I really like this layout and can see using it again with a stamped image in place of the photo.   I decided the Geometrical stamp set, the Stripes embossing folder and the distressed diagonal lines of the Ectetera DSP would be a nice combo for this card.

By having just a bit of the diagonal DSP sticking out it repeats the chevron pattern of the stamp.  Also it is a bit hard to tell from the photo but the chevrons are stamped with Old Olive and the arrow with Jet Black Stazon.  It needed a bit of black to tie all together.

Materials:
Geometrical and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets
Black card stock base
Crumb Cake, Old Olive and Real Red card stock
Ectetera Designer Series Paper
Old Olive and Jet Black Stazon Ink
Envelope Punch board for rounding corners
Small Heart punch

Moon Monster Easel Card

One of our all time favorite books when kids were little was Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney.  We read it so much we had it memorized!  Of course when I saw the Love You to the Moon stamp set I knew it was one I would use over and over.    My boys are away from home but definitely not too old for me to still tell how much I love them!

The moon is created with the Circles Collection Framelits in two layers.  I cut two circles with the largest smooth framelit from Smoky Slate card stock --then used the two smallest framelits for the craters.  I added a bit sponging to the crater edges before layering the two circles together.

I purposely kept this card very simple-- just added the sentiment inked with markers.
Dimensions for the easel base are 4-1/4" X 9", scored at 4-1/2" and 6-3/4".  It folds flat for mailing.

A Year Celebrated- Valentine

This will make seven posts in a row that have been My Digital Studio projects.  There are a couple of reasons for that.  One, my stamp room has been too cold to stamp in and two,  MDS is rather addicting!

My stamp room is a three seasons room which I try to pretend is a four season room.  Two walls are windows which is beautiful but with the extreme cold weather we have had this winter it has been too cold to be in it some days.

So I have been cozied up to my fireplace with my computer creating things!

All the elements on this card except for the thought bubble and sentiments are from the A Year Celebrated calendar kit.  I am always drawn to retro images and colors-- love pink and turquoise together!

For the inside and back of the card I often use the same DSP as the front of the card but turn down the  opacity so it is not distracting to write on.  I also repeat some element from the front on the inside.

Then on the back I use a coordinating image with my name and blog info.

Digital Embossing Tutorial

Today's post wraps up my "mini series" of My Digital Studio technique tutorials highlighting projects from the One Big Sale-A-Bration digital ensemble.

The green panel on this card is digitally "embossed".

It has the illusion of having raised dry embossing.  

One of the stamps included with the download is called Decorative Dots.  If you are not specifically looking for it, it is easy to miss.

TO DIGITALLY EMBOSS:
The key is to have the background layer and the stamp the same color then add a light colored drop shadow.  As an example here is how I did the piece for my card:

1.  Fill a punch with Pistachio Pudding
2.  Add the Decorative Dots stamp on top.  Change the color to Pistachio Pudding.  (The stamp will seem to disappear.)
3.  While you still have the stamp selected click on the "Drop Shadow" button.
4.  This screen will appear.

5.  Change the Opacity to 60% and change the color to Whisper White.
6.. Click OK and the embossing will appear!

Here is an additional tip:  I really like the quality of the cards when they are printed through Stampin' Ups print service; they are a heavy weight card stock and the colors are vibrant.  Since I wanted this to be a hybrid card with raised layers I had two cards printed with just the background on the card front.

I also had one card printed with these images on both the front and inside of the card:

Once I received the printed product, I trimmed these pieces with my paper trimmer and put them on the card fronts with several layers of Stampin' Dimensionals.  (I had also have two extra Happy Birthday images for other projects.)

In the end, I had three cards printed to make two completed cards with layers.

Supplies: 
Decorative Dots and Petal Parade digital stamps, Sweet Sorbet digital Designer Series Paper (all included with the One Big Sale-a-bration Digital Ensemble.)

Painting in Layers Tutorial

Today I have a My Digital Studio tutorial showing how to use LAYERS to fill "holes" in stamps and "paint" outline stamps.  These cards were part of the weekend Stampin' Addicts Sale-A-Bration blog hop.  (Click HERE to view the blog hop post which has more ideas for using the One Big Sale-A-Bration Digital ensemble.)

First -  HOW TO FILL IN HOLES:  

The alligator stamp on this card has areas where the background shows through.   Pretty distracting!

One solution is to use the freeform tool.  Start by clicking on the "Add Brush Layer"

Click on "Brush" and then "Change Color" to pick the color you would like to use.

Cover the open areas with the Brush tool making sure to not go beyond the stamped image.

Click on "Arrange"-then "Order" and "Layers".  Move the paint layer behind the stamp and the holes will be filled in with color!

Painting an outline stamp is essentially the same.  You just need to work with a few more layers building the colors one upon another.

HOW TO PAINT OUTLINE STAMPS:

Start with an outline stamp.

Think about what would be the very back layer of color.  (In this case I wanted the inside of the design to be white.)  Add a Brush Layer.  Change the color and paint over the stamped image stopping at the black outline.

Send this layer behind the stamp.  Add second Brush Layer.   Determine what would be the next level of color.  (For this card I painted over the flowers in blue and the stems in green.) 

Send this layer behind the stamp.  Continue adding brush layers of additional colors.    (I added a third layer of lighter blue to highlight the center of flowers and a fourth with tiny dots of pink for the stamens.)  

Arrange the layers with the outline stamp at the front and your image will be beautifully painted!

I will have one more tutorial tomorrow showing how to "emboss" with digital stamps!

Banner Blast Shaped Cards

Over the next three days I have series of mini tutorials detailing some of the techniques I used to make the My Digital Studio cards from the Stampin' Addicts Sale-a-Bration blog hop.  If you have not already gone through the hop, you will not want to miss it.  We have ideas for every single Sale-a-Bration product that is available!  So after you have checked out today's post you can click HERE to start the blog hop.

I have to say this is one of the simplest cards I have ever made but I think it is its simplicity that is so appealing.

To make it:
1.  Start with a blank 5" X 7" portrait card in My Digital Studio.
2.  Enlarge one of the Banner Blast digital stamps (found in the One Big Sale-a-Bration ensemble) so that it touches the top and sides of the card.
3.  Change the color of the stamp.
That is it!  Once the card was printed.  I used my paper cutter to cut away the bottom to make it a shaped card.

Here is another version with a different orientation:

I wanted one with the fold at the top so I started with the 6" X 6" card template.   This one required trimming at the sides as there was extra white space.

Prior to trimming

After trimming

Here is one with the "Hi" stamp:

I add my blog and name to the back of cards.  Because of the cutout at the bottom that had to be a bit higher on this card.

I had multiples of these printed so I did a stepped-up version of each:

Bits of twine tied around DSP cut with the Tasteful Trim die

Gliiter paper hearts and Triangle Punch

Banner Punch and Itty Bitty Punch Pack punch

I can't decide which is my favorite, the simple versions or the stepped-up ones.  What do you think?  I would love your opinions!