Day 3: Sneak Peeks

Good morning!

Melanie has outdone herself again with her stamp sets for this month! She has 2 stamp sets that she designed which partner together perfectly. The first card shows off the tulip, stem and a couple of the leaves in the set. See that little ladybug? There are 3 different ones included in her A Year of Flowers stamp set.


I stamped the scene in Black Momento Ink and colored with Copic Markers. To add shading, I took Pebbles Pearlescent Chalks and a cotton ball to add green to the grass and blue for the sky. There's a very subtle shimmer that using these chalks adds to the finished project.

Then, I took a versamark ink pad and sprinkled 3 coats of SU Glassy Glaze embossing powder to do the Cracked Glass Technique. After putting it in the freezer for a while (I actually forgot about it, so I think it was in there for a couple of hours! LOL!), I was able to bend the cardstock to get these awesome cracks everywhere.

The rest of the card was pretty quick to put together. I used Stamping Up's Rose Red cardstock for the Cuttlebugged Swiss Dots cardfront. To highlight the dots, I rubbed Rose ink over it. The other colors I used were Elegant Eggplant and Handsome Hunter - which is the same color as the new Green Luxury ribbons that Gina will be adding to her store tomorrow night.


This second card shows another beautiful flower and leaf stamp from the A Year of Flowers set. The saying however, comes from Mel's companion word set, Say it With Flowers.

I've been using a lot of glossy cardstock lately and decided to pull it out again for this card. By the way, you'll need glossy cardstock for my challenge that I'll be posting tomorrow night at 9:00 during the Release Party!

I used glossy cardstock 3 ways on this card - all the layers with the exception of the Handsome Hunter cardstock base, were made with glossy paper. Using my long rectangle Nestabilities, I embossed a panel on the front of the white glossy base. Then, I stamped the sunflowers in a row on the bottom of the card in black Versafine ink and embossed with Detail Clear embossing powder.
For the saying, I cut a smaller rectangle to layer inside. I stamped the quote in Black Versafine ink and embossed it with Detail Clear Embossing powder. This is actually my favorite embossing powder because you don't have to worry about stray flecks of embossing powder showing up, something I hate! Then, I got my brayer out and brayered More than Mustard ink over the entire piece of paper. It's so shiny and elegant in person.
To color the sunflowers, I used my Niji Waterbrush and Stampin Up's reinkers: More than Mustard, Garden Green, and Chocolate Chip. Have you ever watercolored on Glossy Cardstock? It's a really cool effect and a technique that I enjoy a lot. You have time to blend the inks because of the glossy coating on the paper, and it ends up having a nice shine to it when you're finished which you don't get when using watercolor paper. The inks dry pretty quickly too.
I hope you've enjoyed all the Sneak Peek samples this week. I've been loving what everyone has been doing with these amazing new stamp sets that will be available tomorrow night at 10pm on GinaK Designs. And, all those amazing new embellishments and tools... eeek!! It's been amazing playing with everything and seeing the store fill up with all the fun new things waiting for you all to buy!
Gina, Melanie, Erika, Emily, Carolyn, Cathy, and Lee have some beautiful projects to share with Melanie's new stamp sets too. Be sure to check their blogs to see their eyecandy!
I hope you'll join us at the Release Party tomorrow night. Several of you have mentioned how hard it is to keep up with the Thread because of how quickly it moves and how you don't know anyone... I understand! Just pop in and say hello - you know me and I'll be there! I'll say hi to you! heehee... If you'd rather not say anything, at least check in to see several more samples that everyone will be sharing. I have quite a few that I've been saving just for the party and I know many of the other Design Team members do as well.
Have a great rest of your day and see you later tonight!
Jessica
You should be able to click on the photos this time to get a close up view... I'm not sure why you couldn't on the last few posts...