My Favorite Layout

Card Details: all Stamping Up products: Garden Whimsey, All Holidays; Cardstock: Mellow Moss, So Saffron, Mustard, Vanilla, True Thyme, Le Jardin dsp; Punches: Lrg & Sm oval, ticket corner; Sponge Daubers; Inks: Craft - Artichoke, Mellow, Cocoa, Mustard, Saffron; Iridescent Ice Embossing powder; Cropadile; Jumbo Eyelets; Ribbon: Wide Vanilla Grosgrain, Moss Taffeta

I hope you don't mind me sharing a few more SU workshop cards with you today. We made these several months ago ... so they are a little out of season, but they are some of my favorite Stampin Up cards that I've made recently.

I called this post "My Favorite Layout" because if you take a close look you'll see that each of the cards have basically the same layout, with just a few changes. This is my go-to layout of choice. It works with almost every stamp image I own, I think!

Over the years, I have learned to embrace my own style with papercrafting. I found that I prefer to keep my layouts simple, so I can spend more time with coloring techniques and embellishments. I love all the sketches that are out there and use them for inspiration, but I always seem to revert back to a few of my tried and true layouts!

I'm also very stingy when it comes to my designer paper. I have SO much of it, but I still can't stand to waste it! So, this plays a factor in my layouts as well. When prepping for classes, I almost always cut my 12x12 paper into 4" strips, so I can get at least 10-12 cards from each 12x12 sheet of designer paper.


Card Details: All SU - Abundant Joy, Fine Lace; Cardstock: black, glossy white, pomegranate, pale plum; Brayer; Versamark, Pale Plum ink; Clear embossing powder; Wide satin pom. ribbon; paper piercer & template; rubbing alcohol & reinkers: pale plum, pomegranate; slot & ticket corner punches; silver brads
The first card was super simple. We used Craft ink spots to color & shade the bold images and then heat embossed it with my favorite SU embossing powder: Iridescent Ice. I love the sparkle of that powder! The butterfly was cut out and popped up for some added dimension.

The second card features a favorite technique of mine and my SU customers: polished stone. *Splitcoast Stampers has an awesome tutorial on Polished stone. Check it out here.* On the bottom paper, we stamped the Fine Lace background in versamark on glossy white paper, heat embossed in clear embossing power and then brayered over it with pale plum ink.
Card Details: All Stampin Up - Bloomin' Beautiful; Paper - Chocolate, Guava, Brushed Gold, Glossy, Vanilla; Ink - Versamark, Chocolate; Gold Embossing powder; Button, Brads, Caramel Gingham; Satin Wide Chocolate Ribbon; Reinkers: Guava, Cocoa & Gold for polished stone; Guava & Wasabi for watercoloring flower; aqua painter; Lrg & Sm Oval punches
The third card shows a technique of mine that I call 'painted polished stone.' I'm not sure if this is a real technique that anyone else does or not, but it's one of my favorite ways to make my polished stone images pop.
After I finish my polished stone background and my stamped image has had time to dry, I take my reinkers and aqua painter and paint the image. It helps the image to really stand out and adds so much to my polished stone look, I think. Try it the next time you do your polished stone and see what you think!
Have you tried watercoloring on glossy paper? It is so fun and I love how it looks when it's done. It's very vibrant and dries very quickly, by the way.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great rest of your day!
Jessica