Giveaway #2--Hearts Flutter

It's time for giveaway #2...and of course, it's inspired by the upcoming salute to St. Valentine. So put your cupid wings on and enter for a chance to win this week's loot.






Up for grabs, a package that includes:

Fancy Pants "French Market" rub-ons

7 Gypsies "Zanzibar" rubbings

Prima Marketing Journaling Bloc-Notes & Storage Box (30 sheets, 4"x6")

Heidi Swapp "Crowns" Journaling Spots

K&Co. "Smitten" Holographic Puffed Heart Stickers

K&Co. "Smitten" Adhesive Chipboard Heart Collection

Pebbles Inc. Ribbon Sampler in "Chocolate Box"

Papertrey Ink 6" x 6" Patterned Paper Pad in "Pink Patterns" (36 sheets)

For a chance to win, leave a comment on this post telling us: "What makes your heart flutter?". The winner will be chosen by random draw. Entries accepted until 11:59 p.m. MST on February 3, 2010. The winner will be announced on February 4, 2010 on this blog. As always, consider officially "following" my weblog to stay abreast of giveaways and updates (see right sidebar).

Good Luck and have a terrific weekend ahead!

Card Spotlight: Vintage Surfboard Inspiration

For this card project, I was inspired by a design pattern from a vintage surfboard. It combines the techniques of masking (which we explored in an earlier project) and the Gamsol colored pencil technique. Again, we play with color and texture to create visual and tactile appeal.

This project uses the following materials:

--white cardstock
--Nick Bantock Vermillion Lacquer
--Sakura Glaze Pen in Black
--Heidi Swapp hibiscus flower mask
--Prismacolor pencils
--Gamsol
--Wooden stick cotton swab applicators
--Kleenex

For the base of this card, I chose a piece of smooth Bazzill white cardstock cut to an A2 size. I used a piece of a Heidi Swapp mask in the shape of a hibiscus flower and leaves. I chose to use a vermillion lacquer from the Nick Bantock Collection by Ranger. For those unfamiliar with this line, the Nick Bantock lacquers are brilliant dye based, acid-free, fade resistant and embossable ink. This was my first time experimenting with them and I was impressed with strong color hues.



After you've picked your masking shape, figure out your placement on the card front.



Once your mask is firmly engaged, make sure your work surface is covered with a sheet of scrap paper to prevent ink seepage. Then begin the process of dabbing your ink pad against the card front and go for maximum saturation. The coverage doesn't have to be complete because some bleed-through from the white surface adds an element of visual interest. To make sure that your color gets into the nooks and crannies of your mask, you can dab a Kleenex (or other tissue/applicator) on your ink pad and rub-on color into those cut-out areas. You can use the same Kleenex to rub down the back of your card to give it a lighter depth of color than the card front.




Allow your ink to set for a couple of minutes before removing your mask and exposing the white surface we will use the Gamsol technique on.



Prior to beginning the coloring of the image, I used a Sakura Glaze pen in black to outline the image to be colored. Not only does this define your coloring area, it creates a tactile border around your image (which is not affected by the Gamsol).



For coloring the hibiscus flower, I chose to use a layer of two colors. Closest to the black edging of the Glaze pen I used a thin layer of Prismacolor PC928 Blush Pink. Inside of the pink, I used a thicker layer of PC1002 Yellowed Orange.




Using the Gamsol and a 6" wooden stick cotton swab applicator, I blended the two pencil colors to provide a differential shading on the petals of the hibiscus flower. The stamen of the hibiscus were colored in using the black Sakura Glaze pen. I freehanded a few more smaller stamen and pistles to flesh out the outgrowth. For the leaves and stalk of the flower, I used a combination of PC909 Grass Green and PC910 True Green Prismacolor pencils.



For a final touch--and to emphasize the vintage look I was going for--I used two file boards from my Basic Grey tool set to distress some of the card surface and color. I had a bit of the vermillion lacquer smear into part of the leaves and one of the petals during the distressing. It was not intentional, but I think it adds to the vintage feel I was striving for.



Here are a couple of closer looks at the finished design:




Look for inspiration for your card and layout designs from the everyday world around you. You don't have to choose a large element to be inspired by--a small piece of a design can be interpolated into a beautiful layout. Don't be afraid to experiment with color. There is a time and place for muted colors. But, don't shy away from exploring with bright, vivid, loud color. The world needs more color!

Create--and keep crafting!

Tag In A Bag--Masking

For this particular project, I have chosen to use a tag in a bag from the Sara's Surfaces line by Hot Off The Press (which you can buy at Paper Wishes) .



However, it is the stamping technique that I wish to highlight here. So you can use this process on regular greeting cards, altering projects and scrapbook pages. The result is a project that looks much more complicated than it really is.

My supplies for this project include:



--Sara's Surfaces Tag In A Bag
--Colorbox Cat's Eye Queue Pigment Ink (Rain Forest, Rich Rustics)
--an acrylic or rubber stamp of your choice
--plastic sheets or transparency sheets
--ribbon

The technique highlighted in this project is called masking. You can think of masking as the reverse of stenciling. Heidi Swapp has introduced a line of mini and large masks that work very well. However, the only thing that really limits your options for masking is your own imagination.

You can create you own masks by using a sheet of plastic and tracing/drawing your desired design on it with a marker. Then cut around your mask. All that's needed to make your mask stick to your project surface is a little repositionable adhesive. My Xyron 510 comes in handy for this step. I've found you can also use clear transparency sheets as well. As for the images, you can draw something from your mind or trace an image from coloring book or clip art image.

For easier visuals, I have used a piece of black plastic cut out in simple leaf and branch shapes. They were run through the Xyron to put adhesive on the reverse side. Once you have prepared your masking elements we are ready to position them on your work surface. Make sure the edges of your mask are securely adhered to your project surface.



Once you have the masking elements in place, it is simply a matter of choosing the color of ink that you wish to use on the negative space of your surface. I chose to use the Colorbox Cat's Eye Queue Pigment stack in Rain Forest and chose Fresh Green as my color. Then you simply dab your inkpad all across your surface, avoiding stamping in an obvious pattern. You will want to leave some areas lighter and darker for visual interest.



Continue dabbing with your inkpad until your entire masked surface has been well covered will ink.



At this point, you will want to remove your mask material. I find you achieve better results if you remove them prior to the ink drying. You can either discard your masks or clean them and save them for another application.



After your masks are removed, you do want to let the ink completely dry before proceding to your final embellishments. I chose a sentiment stamp from Studio G and used the black ink pad from my Colorbox Cat's Eye Queue Rich Rustics stack. Be creative in your positioning of your sentiment.



Once my sentiment stamp is dry, I decided to use a piece of color coordinating ribbon to loop through the tag hole. This will allow it to be used as a card pull and allow for easier access once the tag card is in its paper bag.



After thinking about it a bit more, I decided I needed to add a little "something" to the bag envelope. I found another spool of ribbon (I love paisleys!) and cut a piece to go around the width of the bag. I used another piece to further embellish my card.



Now, my project is completed and ready for giving.



Have fun exploring with the masking technique and let your imagination run wild!

Keep Crafting!

Butterfly Trifold Card

I've been experimenting with different card shapes and folding techniques. This was my first attempt with a tri-fold panel card. I think I'm really going to like this shape.



I used Bazzill textured cardstock as the base of the card cut at 11" x 5". I used the Scor-Pal for my scoring (and I highly recommend you look into acquiring a Scor-Pal if you don't already own one). Score your cardstock at the following intervals:

* The first score is at 2"
* The second score is at 4 1/2"
* The third score is at 7"

At this point, you need to decide how many of the card panels you wish to cover with decorative paper. I chose to to cover panels two and four on this particular card. You want your decorative paper to be slightly smaller than the panel dimensions to allow the base cardstock to frame your decorative paper. I chose to use paper from Die Cuts With A View (DCWV) Luxury Paper Stack and trimmed them down with my Cricut paper trimmer. I used my ATG714 adhesive gun to adhere the papers to the cardstock. After you've glued down your decorative papers, you can fold your card with a basic accordian fold and secure your folds with a bone folder.

The next major feature of this card is the tabbed opening. I decided to use a butterfly clear acryic stamp from Inkadinakdo. I stamped the image on Bazzill white textured cardstock using Tsukineko Dew Drop ink in Pearlescent Sky Blue. You want to stamp the image twice and them trim around your images. You next want a piece of cardstock in the same color as your base card. Glue one of your images to the cardstock and then trim around the stamped image leaving a border of approximately 1/4" around the image. Apply adhesive to one half of your image and adhere it to the front of your first card flap. (TIP: if you position your image where you want it on the card front, turn it over and draw a faint pencil line which will guide you when putting your adhesive on.)

Once the tab front image is adhered to your card opening, open the panel and take your second stamped image to position. (TIP: You want to select a stamped image that will look well mirrored on itself; If it is not a balanced image, it will not mirror well and your tab opening will look funny.) Adhere your image to the back of the cardstock of the first image. The inner half of your image will be adhered to the inside flap

Your card is now ready for final embellishments. I chose to use a Prima flower with a Making Memories Epoxy brad on the card cover. The word "SOAR" is a white rub-on transfer. On the inside I used another Inkadinkdoo stamp (flower blossom) stamped in black ink. A journaling circle of blue paper creates a nice area for your card sentiment. The other butterfly is a Heidi Swapp clear acrylic cut-out.