Stretch Your Stamps - Sentiments

Day 5 covered several clever ways to use sentiment stamps. Here's a card I made using the highlighted sentiment technique Jennifer McGuire demonstrated.

I created a card panel with kraft cardstock and various wavy shades of blue cardstock and stamped the Happy Summer! sentiment from my favorite new set, PTI's Flipping Out in Hero Arts White chalk in. I stamped the main sentiment in PTI Enchanted Evening and highlighted the 'Relax' with white pencil. Flip Flops were die cut out of My Mind's Eye scraps.

Thanks for taking a look!

Stretch Your Graphic Stamps

Day 4 of the Stretch of Stamps class covers techniques using graphic stamps. I made two cards using a graphic element as a border.

This first card uses a doily stamp from Studio Calico. I needed a masculine birthday card so I used PTI colors New Leaf, Ripe Avocado, and Ocean Tides to balance the doilies.

The second card uses a graphic element from PTI's Simply Stationery set. I alternated the element with PTI Melon Berry, Aqua Mist, and Sweet Blush. I added a little bling on the sweet blush elements for interest. I may use this design would be great for a gift set of notecards.

I am loving this class but am having a hard time keeping up! So many more techniques and projects to try. Thanks for stopping by!

Its Your Day Card

Here's a card I made using some days of the week stamps in my stash (Scenic Route). I've always wanted to do a clean and simple card using all the days and embossed the final sentiment in white to make it stand out. Patterned paper is an old Chatterbox piece in my stash.

I was inspired by the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches #43 this week and the CAS-ual Fridays challenge #60 to use text.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a great & crafty week!

ColourQ #145

Here's a quick card I made for ColourQ this week using various patterned papers from Jillibean Soup and Echo Park. Sentiment is from Inkadinkado.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stretch Your Stamps Day 1

Its the first day of class at Stretch Your Stamps at onlinecardclasses.com and we tackle background stamps.

I used the background stamp from Penny Black that I won for participating in Jennifer McGuire's Cards That Care drive last year. Love this stamp! Its a little like the Hero Arts stamp they are using in class.

First card uses the pieced background technique that is demonstrated by Kristina. I don't have dies that could be used like her hexagon example so I decided to cut my backgrounds into strips instead. To incorporate Dawn McVey's tip to stamp on an element, I made a dimensional banner (as demonstrated by Nichole Heady during Make It Monday #51) for my sentiment and stamped a dotted pattern on one side. I'm making cards for Operation Write Home this summer so thought PTI Pure Poppy and Enchanted Evening would be perfect for the patriotic vibe I was going for.

Next up is my card using the stamp acetate tip from Amber Daigre. Boy was this WAY out of my comfort zone! I had bought a pack of clear cardstock way back when and it was still unopened. So was my pad of Staz-On black ink too! Decided to try this since I had the supplies and now had the perfect excuse to use them. Stamping on acetate was harder than I thought, even with a stamp press. I ended up with two partially incomplete images and was nervous that the Staz-On would smear. I didn't want to waste both pieces of clear cardstock so I decided to reposition my banners in a different way than her example to cover up some of the stamping imperfections. I like it but maybe not enough to try this again!

Another lesson learned is that Staz-On actually STAYS ON your stamp even after you try to wipe it clean right away. I didn't have any other stamp cleaner other than my usual baby wipes so I guess my stamp will just be stained black now.

Thanks for sharing my journey with me! I'm skipping Day 2 of class because I don't have any collage stamps (just not my style) so I'll be back here for Day 3 which features Alphabet Stamps.

Play Date Cafe #139

I have to admit being stumped when I saw the color challenge at Play Date Cafe this week. Gold, nude, and silver....completely not colors I use often or am comfortable with. So I just sat with the colors stewing in my mind for days, looking for inspiration everywhere I went, and finally came up with this surprisingly quickly when I sat down after 3 days of "thinking":

I use PTI Fine Linen cardstock on a Vintage Cream cardbase. I finally used my new PTI Crackled stamp set and embossed it with American Crafts Silver Zing Embossing Powder. I die cut and stamped the flower from Happy Hydrangeas in Brilliance Galaxy Gold and added a sentiment from Through The Trees on a double ended banner die cut which I tucked under the leaf of the flower. I really LOVE how it turned out! I'm really glad I challenged myself and was surprised that I used techniques like embossing that I almost never turn to.

Thanks for checking it out! Enjoy your week!

Clean & Simple 197

I am LOVING my new Flipping Out stamp set from Papertrey Ink! Here's another card I made using this set inspired by this week's sketch at Clean and Simple stamping.

On top of my blue Memory Box base I used some Bazzill Dotted Swiss to mat the striped October Afternoon paper. Its from an older October Afternoon collection and still one of my favorites - unfortunately I'm down to only scraps at this point. I stamped striped flip flops in PTI Simply Chartreuse, Pure Poppy and Orange Zest and adhered them with foam squares.

Thanks for stopping by!

CR84FN57

I'm always in need of a pretty Thank You card so I made one inspired by this week's CR84FN challenge #57.

I finally got my hands on the Turning a New Leaf stamp set from Papertrey Ink and clear embossed leaf stems on kraft cardstock. Pink Prima flowers with pink rhinestone centers were scattered on various parts of the stems. I used PTI Raspberry Fizz ink for the sentiment from PTI Think Big #5.

I love the way the embossed leaves look on the kraft!

Thanks for looking!