Fran*tage Friday: Jumbo Tulip

Hi there!

I'm honored to be participating in the PaperCraft Planet's Frantage Friday with Stampendous.  I recently made the decision to step down from the PaperCraft Planet design team as my stamping/designing time is much more limited now that I'm teaching full time again.  Susanna graciously accepted my resignation and is currently looking for a new designer to join her amazingly talented team!  I'd encourage you to check out all the details on how to apply for this awesome opportunity on this link HERE.

I was sent a lovely package of goodies from Stampendous a few weeks ago (before my resignation) to design a tutorial for PCP's Frantage Friday.  To see all the other tutorials and projects that have been created by the other team members, please check them out on this link HERE.  I decided to show how to pull out my embossing powder and inks and show how quick and easy it can be to make minimally colored images POP.

Supplies Used 

(All from Stampendous, unless otherwise noted)

• Jumbo Tulip CRS5012
• Friendship Assortment Sentiments SSC1116
• Jumbo Clear Handle SSH57
• Champagne Crushed Glass Glitter (for orange card)
• Shabby Blue Embossing Enamel (for blue card)
• Card stock - two shades of same color family
• Two Copic markers to match the colored cardstock
• Clear Embossing Powder (I used Ranger's Detail)
• Embossing Ink (I used Ranger Distress Ink)

Begin by stamping the jumbo tulip image in black ink on the lighter colored card stock.  Color with two shades of Copic markers towards the centers and edges of the flower being sure to leave enough of the card stock color showing.  Color the stem green.  Trim around the entire image.

Next, apply embossing ink directly to the stamped image.  Don't worry about getting the whole image inked up perfectly as we will repeat this process at least two times.

Sprinkle clear embossing powder over the image immediately and heat set.  There will be spots of the flower that you may have missed, so don't be concerned.  Each layer of embossing powder will help to smooth the surface completely.  The photo below is what it looks like when it's been heat set one time.  As you can see there is not very much shine on the image quite yet.

Repeat with dabbing more embossing ink over the image, sprinkling with clear embossing powder, and heat setting at least one more time.  The photo below shows the process done three times.

On the photo below you can see the shine even better.  The image is now finished and ready to be added to your card or scrapbook page!

Using my orange card as a guide, I embossed the light card stock panel with a Cuttlebug embossing powder and stitched it to my 5 1/2" card front.  The darker card stock panel was stamped with the flourish image (included in the Large Tulip stamp set from Stampendous) in embossing ink and heat set with the same clear embossing powder I used for my flower.

For an added embellishment, I applied a strip of 1/2" Scor-Tape to the card stock seam and sprinkled Stampendous' shabby blue embossing enamel over the tape and heat set.  I love that you can use Scor-tape for heat embossing and glitter!  (On my orange card, I sprinkled Stampendous' Champagne Crushed Glass Glitter over the 1/4" Scor Tape strip.)

All in all it was a pretty CAS card to make even though it looks quite elaborate and detailed!  Break out your embossing powder, ink and colored card stock and give it a try!  I know you'll like the results as much as I do!

You have the opportunity to win some free stamps from Stampendous and all you have to do is to leave a comment on the PaperCraft Planet blog post HERE by next Friday, November 4, at 1am EST.  Susanna will choose a lucky winner from the comments by random.org and announce the winners on the next Frantage Friday blog post!

Good luck and happy stamping!
Jessica

Fran*tage Friday: Polished Stone

I'm so excited to join the PaperCraft Planet designers in hostessing another Fran*tage Friday where we have teamed up with Stampendous to bring you stamping inspiration and instruction!  Each week, a new designer is  showing new stamping techniques with a chance to win the gorgeous Stampendous stamps we each work with for our projects!

I decided to play with one of my favorite stamping techniques for my cards today: Polished Stone with alcohol inks.  I had so much fun playing with this technique, that I have 3 cards to share with you today.  This first one is my favorite of the bunch.  Keep with me through my marathon post as I'm going to show you step by step photos on how I created the background for the hearts.



Here are the supplies needed to complete this technique:

• Stamps: Cling Dream Text;  Cling Deco Lady;   Cling Breathe
• Black Stazon Ink
• Ranger Alcohol inks: Shell Pink, Willow, Cloudy Blue, and Pearl
• Ranger Alcohol ink Blending Solution
• Glossy Paper
• Inkssentials Blending Tool and Felt Applicators
• Ranger Craft Mat

You can substitute your own products for this technique, but you MUST use glossy paper and a permanent ink such as Stazon to achieve the same look.  You can use any dye based reinker you have on hand along with regular Rubbing Alcohol and a cotton ball, so have fun playing!

Let's get started!

Put one drop of each reinker on the felt as shown above.  

Begin pouncing up and down on the glossy card stock, covering the entire paper.

Optional Step: After the color has been added to the paper, if you'd like more of an artistic 'blur' take some blending solution and drip it directly on the card stock in a few spots as shown below.  

Then, take the blending tool and pounce over the solution to blend it as as desired.

After I had finished, I wanted to have more green to it, so I added some more Willow ink to the blending felt and pounced until I had achieved the shades I wanted for my project.  That's the beauty of this technique - you can continue to play with your colors until you've gotten the 'perfect' look!

When the inks have completely dried (which won't take long), ink up the stamp with black Stazon ink and carefully stamp on the paper.  Remember, that glossy card stock can make your stamp slide a bit, so be very careful when stamping.

After I had completed the large text background, I created the pink and blue backgrounds, using two shades of the primary color following the same basic steps shown above.  After I had completed them all, I die cut each of them with a variety of Spellbinder dies for my cards.

Here's the other two cards I created the rest of the Polished Stone embellishments shown above.

and, the last card using the beautiful "Breathe" sentiment stamp set...



Want to win the three stamps I used on my projects today? Comment HERE (click the link -- comments on the linked blog post count. Comments here are just nice) and let us know what technique you’d like to learn. You have until Thursday at midnight, Eastern Time. After that, we’ll pick a winner through Random.org and announce that lucky duck on the next Fran*tage Friday.

Good luck!
Jessica

Thanks to our good friends at Stampendous for sponsoring this event!

Card 1 Details ( 5.5" Square card)
Stamps: Dream Text, Deco Lady (Stampendous)
Ink: Stazon black
Card stock: Glossy; Basic Grey Two Scoops
Other: Wild Orchid roses, lace, and satin ribbon; Ranger Inkssentials blending tool and felt; Ranger alcohol inks and blending solution; Spellbinder plain & scallop heart dies and plain and scallop rectangle dies

*******


Card 2 Details (5.5" Square card)
Stamps: Dream Text (Stampendous)
Ink: Stazon black
Card stock: Glossy; Basic Grey Two Scoops
Other: Wild Orchid rose; Spellbinder plain and scallop heart dies; Silk ribbon; Sateen green flowers; sewing machine; Cuttlebug seeing spots embossing folder; Ranger Inkssentials blending tool & felt; Ranger Alcohol inks and blending solution

********


Card 3 Details (3" x 6 1/4" Spellbinder long rectangle shaped card)
Stamps: Breathe and Dream Text (Stampendous)
Ink: Black Stazon
Card stock: Glossy; Basic Grey Two Scoops
Other: Sewing machine; Spellbinder plain & scallop heart dies and Long rectangle plain and scallop dies; Honeydew Twine from The Twinery; Buttons; Ranger alcohol inks and blending solution; Ranger inkssentials blending tool and felt applicators

Grow old with me...

Good morning!

I wanted to invite you to play along with my sketch for Paper Craft Planet's Saturday Sketch group.  Here's a photo of the sketch -

To play along, just create a card and share it on your blog or any online gallery and then share the link on the PaperCraft Planet's blog post HERE.  It's always fun seeing what everyone creates with sketches, isn't it!?  I know there are a ton of challenges out there but I hope you get a chance to play along with us this week!

Here's a closer look at the front of the card...

Card Details
Stamps: Clearly Sentimental Birthdays (MFT)
Ink: Memento
Cardstock: October Afternoon dp
Other: MFT rolled roses die; lace; MFT polka dot frame; Petite oval nestability die; pearls; corner rounder

I've had a few questions about how to do the Rolled roses and thought I'd address that here.  First of all, I love working with felt for the flowers - the fabric rolls so much easier for me.  Next, I recently found a great tip that has made them even easier to use.  I put a mini glue dot on the tip of my paper piercer to help keep the centers nice and tight.  I start at the end of the flower and roll just of the flower while still on the piercer and then gently pull the partial flower off the piercer.  Then, I continue to roll the rest of the flower, adjusting as needed for the tightness/looseness of the flower.  The glue dot keeps the center together so it doesn't completely unravel.  To finish it off, I put a regular sized glue dot on the bottom circle and press the flower onto it.  I'll try to get photos of each step soon and share them on my blog for reference.  Tombow liquid glue also works well to keep the layers together but is quite a bit more messy than the glue dots.

If you want to hide the glue dot a bit, you can add a pearl or rhinestone to the center, but I haven't found that the glue even shows.  If you decide to use paper for the flowers, choose lightweight paper and try spritzing it with a bit of water, crumpling, or embossing the paper to help soften the fibers of the paper for rolling. 

I hope those tips help you a bit - I love the look of these flowers and have really enjoyed seeing all the different ones available!  I'm a bit partial to the MFT ones, myself - have you seen the bitty rolled roses?  They are so adorable!

Have a great rest of your day - we're excited for the Super Bowl here in our household and can't wait to see the Packers beat the Steelers tonight!! 
Jessica

Paper Craft Planet Blog Hop

Good morning!

This morning I'm joining in a blog hop for PaperCraft Planet. Mark's Finest Papers sent each of us a stamp set and issued a challenge -- create a project, any project, but it must feature circles.  I was lucky enough to receive this beautiful stamp set and decided to make a 12x12 scrapbook page of a favorite photo of my kids from a few years ago.

I love the berry stamp set - it reminds me so much of my Grandma Anderson, who took us berry picking every summer while I was growing up.  She also made the BEST homemade jam from all the summer fruits for us to enjoy all year round.  While thinking of her, I designed this page with lots of sewing and busy patterned papers - since she LOVED bright colors and patterns together.  If you can imagine, she had a pair of strawberry patterned pants that she adored and wore often - oh, what good memories!

If you can believe it, this project started as a 5 1/2" square card, then progressed to an 8 1/2" square scrapbook page until it finally ended up in the 12" square scrapbook page!  lol!  I have so many cards in my stash and need to get working on scrapbook pages to get a head start on my 2011 Calendars I give out each year to the Grandma's.  This past year was the first year I didn't have time to make one and I felt as bad about it as they did, I think!

Since the challenge was to include circles, I went a bit crazy with the buttons and pearls on my page.  I sewed the buttons to the paper and then embellished them with some colored stickles to bling them up a bit.  

Scrapbook Page Details
Stamps: Blackberries, Sunflowers, and Bees by MFP
Ink: Distress Worn Lipstick, Wild Honey, and Mustard Seed; Memento
Cardstock: 12" SU; GinaK solid cardstock; K&Co Patterned
Other: Copic markers; stickles, sewing machine; buttons; Sizzix scallop circle die; spellbinder circle dies; SU ribbon & brad; Pearls; Tim Holtz blending foams

 

OK, now it's your turn! You have a chance to win a stamp set too!  Just make a card with a circle on it and you could win the Apples and Camellia Stamp Set from Mark's Finest Papers.   All you need to do is tag your card "mfp01" and upload it to the Planet gallery. We'll be keeping an album for everyone that shows off all the entries so far!

 

Looking for some inspiration? Check out what the other Supernova designers have made for the hop:

• Adela Rossol
• Lynn Mercurio
• Wendy Price
• Tammy Hershberger
• Erika Martin
• Lori Tecler
• Jessica Fick * you are here!
• Sankari Wegman
• Susanna Boyd
• Amy Park 

On another personal note - Happy birthday to my Mom! I know she will be thinking of her mom - my Grandma Anderson today and miss being able to talk to her today on her special day. I love you, Mom, and hope my scrapbook page and memories of Grandma warmed your heart and brought a smile to your face today.  You had a special mom and so do I!  I love you!!

Have a wonderful day to all of you too and thanks for stopping by my blog today!
Jessica

Sketch Saturday: Oh Baby!

Good morning!

This week, it's my turn to be the hostess for PaperCraft Planet's Saturday Sketch challenge so I thought I'd share my card and sketch with you on my blog tonight to see if you'd like to play along!  I used this card that I made awhile back with Rupa's Oh Baby stamp set and asked Susanna Boyd to make it into a sketch for me to share...

Isn't that a fun sketch?! lol!

Here's a closer view of the focal image - these ducks are so adorable, aren't they?  I used a variety of Copics, glitters, and flock to embellish them.

and the inside...

Carla Suto - one of my favorite StampTV friends (and CSS Alumni Team members!) made this handsome card with the sketch that she graciously is allowing me to share with you tonight - isn't it lovely?  She used Nina's Special Father stamp set and some gorgeous Basic Grey papers for her beautiful card ...

If you'd like to play along, here are the links for you to check out:

Sketch Album: sk051510
Sketch Saturday: May 15, 2010 discussion

Happy Stamping!
Jessica

Sketch Saturday: Spring Florals

Good evening!

I can't believe I forgot to invite you to the sketch challenge I'm hosting over on PaperCraft Planet this week!  Oops!  I'd love to see your card made with this sketch from this card I made a couple of months ago with GinaK's gorgeous Spring Florals stamp set...

Here's a close up of the focal image ....

and the inside of the card ...

And, here's the links for you to check out if you decide to participate:

Sketch Saturday Discussion: sk050110
Sketch Album

I hope you get a chance to play along with us this week!  Please be sure to add the tag, sk050110 to your photos, so I can pull them into the album with the others.

Have a wonderful rest of your day!
Jessica

Tags and another Sketch Challenge!

Good morning!

I have a couple of tags to share with you today - all using Spellbinder's Labels 11 nestability dies, Fun foam, and flower dies.  I love using up scraps from other projects for tags to be used later on cards or scrapbooks.  The small size is really fun to work with too!

I used some Sizzlet dies from Stampin Up to cut these fun foam flowers.  It's really surprising how well these thin dies cut through the fun foam.  Try it - you'll get as addicted to them as I am!

Tag Details:

Stamps: Rectangle Greetings by GKD

Cardstock: GinaK; Doodlebug; Fun Foam

Ink: Memento

Other: Nestability Labels 11, SU flower dies; Leave punch; Quikutz dots embossing folder; Marvy Extra Jumbo scallop rectangle; Memento Markers; Sakura Glitter pen; Ribbons; SU brad; Stickles

This one uses a sentiment from a stamp set I received from My Favorite Things - love this sentiment.  I stamped it in white craft ink and let it dry - it really pops doesn't it?  Check out the flower brad - I used lavender stickles to the petals.  It's so pretty in person.

Tag Details

Stamps: MFT sentiment

Cardstock: GinaK; fun foam

Ink: White craft ink

Other: Nestability Labels 11 dies; Memento Markers; SU and Sizzix flower dies; ribbons; SU brad; lavender stickles

On another note, I'm the sketch challenge hostess this week over on PaperCraft Planet.  Here's my sketch for this week ...

and, this is the card sample that the sketch is based on - remember this one I shared awhile back?

If you're looking for inspiration this week for your stamping projects, try the sketch and add your photo to the PaperCraft Planet Gallery using the tag: sk041710 so I can add it to our sketch album. 

I'm off to my stamping room as I have more work to do getting ready for the previews that start tomorrow night for April's Release for GinaK Designs!  Check back in with me Sunday night at 10pm for my samples from stamp sets illustrated by Melanie Muenchinger and Tami Mayberry.  I can't wait to share my cards - I even got out my sewing machine for them - and if you know me, you know how HUGE that is!  lol!

Have a wonderful rest of your day!
Jessica

Sketch Saturday: Little Duck

Good morning!

Starting today, I will be hosting the Sketch Saturday Challenge every other week over on PaperCraft Planet and would love to invite you to join me!  In honor of Easter this weekend, I've pulled out a favorite card of mine that I made a few weeks ago with Rupa Shevde's Spring Has Sprung stamp set... don't you just LOVE that duck!?

Here's the sketch of my card ...

Isn't that fun?  Susanna made this sketch for me and I just love it's whimsical style!  It will be fun seeing everyone's interpretation of the sketch, won't it?  To participate, please be sure to add your card to the PaperCraft Planet gallery with the tag pcpsk040310 so we can find it.

Here's a closer view of my focal image... (remember in sketches, the symbols are just that - symbols.  Feel free to use whatever images and embellishments you would like in its place)

Card Details
Stamps: Spring Has Sprung
Cardstock: GinaK; white; Cosmo Cricket Garden Girl
Ink: Memento Cocoa; Vivid aqua
Other: Fun Foam; Nestability dies; Cuttlebug flower die; buttons; hemp; GinaK ribbon; Corner rounder, Copics
and the inside view...

I hope you'll have a chance to play along with us!  You can find the Sketch discussion over on PaperCraft Planet HERE.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend!
Jessica