Tutorial: First Frost Flowers

Cut Cardstock:

Emboss the Shimmery White cardstock with the Tufted Embossing Folder, then snail to the card front.

Using Blackberry Bliss ink, stamp one large and two small flowers from the First Frost stamp set (available in clear or wood mount) onto a scrap piece of Whisper White cardstock. Cut out with corresponding dies from the coordinating framelits.

Stamp ‘Wishing You All The Best’ from the First Frost stamp set with Blackberry Bliss ink onto the Whisper White strip. Use paper snips to flag the right end of the strip, then snail onto the Blackberry Bliss strip. Flag the end of this strip following the line you made flagging the Whisper White strip.

Using the Sprig Punch, punch out one sprig each from the Mint Macaron, Mossy Meadow and Tranquil Tide Glimmer Paper.

Arrange the sprigs onto the card front and use the multipurpose liquid glue to adhere. See photo for placement.

Snail the greeting toward the right side of the card near the sprigs—you may have to trim the left end a bit so that it doesn’t extend past the side of the card.

Arrange the flowers overlapping slightly over the sprigs and use Dimensionals to adhere in place. See photo for placement.

INSIDE:

Use snail or multipurpose liquid glue to adhere the narrow strip of Blackberry Bliss cardstock to the left side of the remaining piece of Whisper White cardstock, leaving a small border of white showing.

Stamp the greeting with Blackberry Bliss ink onto the Whisper White cardstock. I used a greeting from the Special Celebrations stamp set (also available in clear or wood mount), which could be appropriate for a Birthday or a Thinking of You card.

Snail the completed piece onto the inside of the card.

ENVELOPE:

Using the Blackberry ink and the small flower from the First Frost stamp set, I decorated the left lower corner of the envelope to match the card design. I get so many compliments from people who receive my cards saying they love that the envelope has a small design on it! Who would have thought that something so simple would make people happy? Now I always make sure to include a little design on every envelope!

 

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Tutorial: Hot Cocoa Pouches

This is a quick and easy project that’s perfect for a little gift for kids at school, to put by your place setting at your holiday dinner, or a ‘Secret Santa’ gift or stocking stuffer. Besides hot cocoa and a candy cane, this would be great for inserting a gift card, cash, or tickets to a holiday event. It would work well for giving a microwave popcorn pouch too. The best thing for you is that you can make a bunch of them in very little time! If you do craft fairs or need a lot of little gifts, this is the perfect project for you.

Let’s get started!

Using the ‘Happy Christmas Wishes’ stamp from the Farmhouse Christmas stamp set and Real Red ink, stamp the greeting onto a scrap piece of Whisper White cardstock. You’ll use the Everyday Label Punch to punch out the greeting. As the punch is larger than you need, start by punching out the greeting toward the left side.

Now hold the punched piece inside the punch toward the right side and punch again, centering the greeting within the punch.

Punch out a piece of Real Red cardstock with the same punch, snail the punched out greeting onto the red piece, and set aside.

Punch two to four sprigs out of Shaded Spruce cardstock and set aside.

You need to cut the Designer Paper to 10” x 3 ¾” and score at 1”, 4 ½” and 5”. Round the corners using the Detailed Trio punch. Fold over the 1” side and punch two small ovals toward the center with the Detailed Trio punch.

Open the 1” fold and thread the ribbon through so that the ends are coming out the front.

Tie the ribbon in a knot and trim the ends. Once the ribbon is tied, the sides will stay together so no need to adhere them! Snail the sprigs onto the front of the pouch as desired.

Use a couple Dimensionals to attach the greeting to the front of the pouch over the ends of the sprigs. Insert your cocoa pouch and a candy cane and you’re done!

 

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Tutorial: Wheat Bouquet

Cut Cardstock:

Snail the 5 3/8” x 4 ¼” piece of Crushed Curry cardstock to the card front.

Emboss the 5 1/8” x 3 7/8” piece of Cajun Craze with the Tin Tile Embossing folder. To get a more distinct embossed image, spritz the paper lightly with water and let it sit for 30 seconds before embossing.

Snail this piece to the Crushed Curry layer.

Using Crushed Curry ink, stamp the wheat bunch stamp from the Wishing You Well stamp set (available in clear or wood mount) onto the center of the 4 ¼” x 3” piece of Very Vanilla cardstock.

Using Cajun Craze ink, stamp the small flower bunch from the Wishing You Well stamp set once over the wheat bunch, then WITHOUT re-inking, turn the stamp one quarter and stamp the flowers again, leaving a lighter shade of Cajun Craze. This is called ‘Stamping Off’ –it’s a great way to get a matching lighter shade of whichever color you are working with. Simply stamp once, then stamp a second time without reloading the stamp with ink. You can also use it to get the lighter shade only by stamping first on a piece of scrap paper.

Use one of the sentiments from the Wishing You Well stamp set and Rich Razzleberry ink, stamp it on the upper left corner of the Very Vanilla piece. Refer to photo for placement.   For this card, I used the ‘just a note…’ stamp.

Using the bow stamp from the Wishing You Well stamp set and Rich Razzleberry ink, stamp the bow over the stems of the wheat bunch. Stamp a second bow onto a scrap piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and use the paper snips to fussy cut it out, then set it aside.

Place a glue dot over the center knot of the stamped bow and attach the copper metallic thread to it, making several loops up and down in a figure eight pattern. Refer to photo below.

Use Dimensionals to attach the bow you cut out over the bow on the stamped image to cover the glue dot. Refer to photo of finished card.

Use Dimensionals to attach the stamped piece onto the embossed Cajun Craze piece on the card front. Refer to photo of finished card.

INSIDE:

Snail the remaining piece of Crushed Curry cardstock to the inside of the card.

Snail the Designer Series Paper strip near the left side of the remaining Very Vanilla cardstock, leaving a small border on the left side.

Using Rich Razzleberry ink and a sentiment from the Ribbon of Courage stamp set (also available in either clear or wood mount), stamp this piece of Very Vanilla cardstock, then snail it to the inside of the card.

ENVELOPE:

As always, I carry a bit of the card design to the outside of the envelope.

For this card, I used Rich Razzleberry ink to stamp the bow on the lower left corner of the envelope.

I love the Autumn season and used Fall colors for this card. You could also use lots of other color combinations and it would have an entirely different look to it. Try it in shades of purple (Highland Heather and Gorgeous Grape), green (Shaded Spruce and Granny Apple Green), pink (Melon Mambo and Powder Pink), or any color combination that is your favorite!

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Tutorial: Autumn Sunset

Cut Cardstock:

Snail one piece of the 5 ¼” x 4” Very Vanilla cardstock onto the card front.

Create the ‘sunset sky’ on the 5” x 3 ¾” Very Vanilla cardstock.

If you have never used a sponge brayer before, practice on some scrap paper first. The technique is not difficult. Roll the brayer several times in ONE DIRECTION on top of the ink pad – this will ensure even coverage of ink onto the brayer. Roll it onto the cardstock several times starting just OFF the cardstock and working your way onto the cardstock, again to ensure even ink coverage. You can continue to re-ink the brayer and roll onto the cardstock until you achieve the desired depth of color.

Using a sponge brayer, apply Daffodil Delight ink onto the cardstock, leaving about ½” untouched at the bottom.   Using the 1 ½” circle punch, punch out a circle from a Post-it note, making sure to have some of the sticky part of the post-it note included in the circle, then place the circle onto the inked cardstock towards upper left side. This is creating a ‘mask’ to resemble the sun in the sky. You may have to wait a few minutes for the ink to dry completely before attaching the post-it note circle. You’ll be applying other colors of ink on top of this, and the circle mask will prevent the other colors from getting onto the yellow-inked cardstock. Refer to photo below.

Roll the sponge brayer onto scrap paper to clean off the ink before using another color.

Next, apply Pumpkin Pie ink with the sponge brayer on top of the cardstock, beginning at the top and working your way down. The ink should be a bit heavier at the top and get progressively lighter as you work down so that some of the Daffodil Delight ink shows through near the bottom. Refer to the photo below.

Clean the brayer and apply Rich Razzleberry to the cardstock beginning at the top, and again heavier at the top and lighter at the bottom to leave some of the Pumpkin Pie color showing. Tear a piece of scrap paper and hold it near the bottom of the cardstock as a mask, so that it will resemble the ground. Refer to photo below. Using the sponge brayer, apply Mossy Meadow ink to the bottom part of the cardstock.

Remove the circle and ‘ground’ mask and your cardstock should look like a sunset sky with a beautiful sun and a grassy ground area.

Using Early Espresso ink and the bare trees from the Winter Woods stamp set (available in clear or wood mount), stamp the trees onto the cardstock, making sure the tree trunks are on the green ground area. Refer to finished card photo.

Using Early Espresso ink, stamp ‘Thinking of You’ from the Colorful Seasons stamp set onto the 3” x 1” piece of Very Vanilla cardstock, then punch out with the Classic Label punch. Use mini-dimensionals to attach this piece onto the card front near the upper right corner.

Snail the finished design onto the card front. Refer to finished card photo.

INSIDE:

Snail the Early Espresso strip near the left side of the remaining piece of Very Vanilla cardstock.

Using the small leaf branch stamp from the Peaceful Place stamp set (in clear or wood mount), stamp the leaves with Mossy Meadow ink near the upper left corner. Stamp a sentiment using Early Espresso ink. I used a sentiment from the Blended Seasons stamp set which was only available in August 2018, but there are many appropriate sentiments you could use from the Colorful Seasons stamp set as well as from other sets such as Love What You Do or Petal Palette (also in clear mount or wood mount).

Snail the stamped piece to the inside of the card.

ENVELOPE:

Using Mossy Meadow ink and the leaf stamp used for the inside of the card, carry that over to the lower left corner of the envelope to complete your project.

If this is the first time you have worked with a sponge brayer, it may seem a little labor intensive to you at first, but I know after 5 minutes you will become an expert at this technique and that you’ll want to use this technique on other cards as well!

This color combination is great for fall or Halloween cards. You could also experiment with making a sky background for a Halloween card using darker shades of blue (Night of Navy) and purple (Gorgeous Grape), using a smaller circle punch to mask off a white circle for the moon. You can just see the bats flying through the air!

You could also use various shades of blue for a winter sky for Christmas cards – wouldn’t a snowman look cute? Or put some stars in the sky and the Three Kings from the Illuminated Christmas stamp set (also in clear mount or wood mount). The possibilities are endless! Have fun!

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Tutorial: Pot of Sunflowers

 

Cut your cardstock:

Emboss one 5 3/8” x 4 1/8” piece of Rich Razzleberry cardstock with the Tin Tile folder, then snail to the card base.

Snail the 4 ¼” x 2 ¼” piece of Designer Paper to the card front. Refer to photo for placement.

Flag one end of each of the Designer Paper strips and snail to the card front. Refer to finished card photo for placement.

Using the filigree corner border stamp from the Many Blessings stamp set and Rich Razzleberry ink, stamp the border in each corner of the 3” square piece of Crushed Curry cardstock. Use Dimensionals to adhere this piece onto the card front.

Using Black Stazon ink, stamp the pot of sunflower stamp twice onto a scrap piece of Very Vanilla cardstock.

Using Rich Razzleberry ink stamp the ‘Especially for you‘ stamp from the Botanical Bliss stamp set (clear mount or wood mount) onto a scrap of Very Vanilla cardstock. Color the image as desired. I used Daffodil Delight for the flowers, Crumb Cake for the flower centers, Pear Pizzazz for the leaves and Balmy Blue for the flower pot.

Cut out the greeting with the smallest oval shape from the Stitched Shapes Framelits. Use Dimensionals to adhere to the lower right front of the card.

Cut out one flower pot with the 2nd smallest circle from the Stitched Shapes Framelits. Use Dimensionals to adhere to the 3” Crushed Curry square.

Using your paper snips, cut out one set of flowers and the individual flower from the other stamped flower pot image. Use Dimensionals to adhere the group of flowers on top of the flowers in the flower pot to give the flowers added dimension. Snail the single flower onto the greeting, hanging over the edge a bit. See card photo for placement of all these pieces.

INSIDE:

Snail the remaining Rich Razzleberry piece onto the inside of the card.

Using Rich Razzleberry ink, stamp a filigree border from the Many Blessings stamp set on the upper left corner of the remaining Very Vanilla piece. Use Black Stazon to stamp the single flower within the curve of the filigree border. Color the flower as desired – I used Daffodil Delight and Pear Pizzazz.

Use Rich Razzleberry to stamp your greeting. I used a greeting from the Special Celebrations stamp set (clear mount or wood mount). Snail the stamped piece to the inside of the card.

ENVELOPE:

Finish off your card by carrying over some of the design to the envelope. I repeated the filigree border and small flower used on the inside of the card for the lower left corner of the envelope.

I hope you’ll give this card a try. Try it with other color combinations to make it in your own style!

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Time4Stamping Tip: Coloring Techniques, Part 5

This is the last in this series of five different coloring techniques on how to color a stamped outline image!

This technique is using an Aqua Painter with the 2017-2019 In Color Stampin’ Write Markers.  It is very similar to using a Blender Pen and markers.

I used Black Stazon ink and stamped one of the flowers from the ‘Love What You Do’ stamp set on a piece of Watercolor Paper. Using the Aqua Painters on plain cardstock may degrade the cardstock and you end up with the image being ruined.

For this demonstration I have used markers in Lemon Lime Twist and Berry Burst. I use a white tile to scribble on some of each color marker. You could also use a medium size Acrylic Block.

Fill the Aqua Painter with water, squeeze gently so that the brush is just slightly wet. You do not want water dripping out of it. Pick up some of the Lemon Lime Twist color off of the tile (or acrylic block) and begin coloring the leaves. The trick is so start very lightly to apply color, you can always add more color to darken the image if you prefer. When you are finished with the first color, make sure the brush is clean by squeezing a little water out and wiping it on a piece of scrap paper until no color remains.

Repeat the process with the Berry Burst ink that is on the tile and color the flower petals. Again, apply the color lightly and add more color as you wish to shade the image.

The finished image looks very much like a watercolor painting. By adding a little more color to select areas you create shading and make the image more interesting.

Coloring a stamped image can be done using several different methods, each with it’s own unique look. Don’t get stuck in a rut of using only one method to color. Have fun and experiment!

Part 1 (Stampin’ Write Markers)

Part 2 (Watercolor Pencils)

Part 3 (Stampin’ Blends)

Part 4 (Sponge Daubers)

Time4Stamping Tip: Coloring Techniques, Part 4

Today we’ll learn how to color a project using sponge daubers. This will give the finished project a more watercolor painting look to it. It’s not quite “free-form,” but you don’t necessarily apply color within the lines either.

Using Black Stazon ink, I stamped a flower image form the ‘Love What You Do’ stamp set onto Whisper White cardstock.

For this demonstration I have used Lemon Lime Twist and Berry Burst Stampin’ pads with sponge daubers.

Using a sponge dauber, pick up ink directly from the ink pad.

Gently begin daubing the color onto the stamped image. Apply the color lightly — you can always add more if you want a deeper color.

Use a clean dauber for the next color and apply the ink to the stamped image, again starting out lightly and adding more ink as desired. Notice how the color will be slightly outside the lines — this is the typical look for this type of color application.

Continue adding color until you get the effect you want. You can add more color to some areas to give it deeper shading.

While many people prefer to color precisely within the lines, using the sponge daubers does give your project a totally different look. It’s a great technique to use with an outline stamp that is not extremely detailed.

Next time I’ll cover how to use Aqua Painters with markers!

Part 1 (Stampin’ Write Markers)

Part 2 (Watercolor Pencils)

Part 3 (Stampin’ Blends)

Time4Stamping Tip: Coloring Techniques, Part 3

The Stampin’ Blends markers give a much deeper color than any of the other coloring methods. This is the only method that uses the marker directly onto the stamped image, rather than picking up color with a blender pen or aqua painter. It’s very easy to see this difference in the richness of color in the photo below.

Stampin’ Blends are dual tipped markers—they have a thin tip and a brush end. They now come in a variety of colors and each color actually has two separate markers for each color, one light and one darker. This allows you to blend the two colors together for a shaded look to your project.

Using a Black Memento Ink pad, I stamped a flower image from the ‘Love What You Do’ stamp set onto Whisper White cardstock.

For purposes of this demonstration, I used Stampin’ Blends in the colors Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler.

Using the Stampin’ Blends, color the stamped image as desired. Notice the leaf near the bottom shows the slight variation in the Old Olive color which is achieved by using both the lighter and darker markers. The same technique is used to color the flowers in Cherry Cobbler.

The finished product highlights the very rich colors produced by using the Stampin’ Blends. This really makes it stand out when used as the focal point of your card or project.

Next time I will discuss using Sponge Daubers to color a stamped image.

(Part 1 – Stampin’ Write Markers and Blender Pen)

(Part 2 – Watercolor Pencils and Blender Pen)

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Time4Stamping Tip: Coloring Techniques, Part 2

Adding color to a stamp that has a simple outline can be accomplished by using several different methods.

In Part One of this series, I discussed using Stampin’ Write Markers and a Blender Pen.

Today I will discuss coloring a stamped image using Watercolor Pencils and a Blender Pen.

I used a flower from the ‘Love What You Do’ stamp set, using Stazon Ink to stamp it on Whisper White Cardstock.

Using the Watercolor Pencils, color the stamped image as desired. I used the colors Old Olive for the leaves and Rich Razzleberry for the flowers.

It’s not necessary to entirely color each section of the stamped image. You may choose to use only a little color to get more of a watercolor effect when you use the blender pen. If you desire a deeper color, then use the pencil to fill in each entire section of the stamped image, before using the Blender Pen.

Using a Blender Pen, go over the areas you have colored, pulling the color down to complete the coloring process. This will ‘smooth’ out the color and make it appear more like watercolor markers instead of having a colored pencil texture. You can control the depth of color by how much of the colored pencil you apply.

The finished product looks very similar to using the Stampin’ Write Markers and a Blender Pen.

Many people find it easier to use the pencils, while others prefer the markers — it’s a matter of personal preference. Try both methods to see which you prefer!

Next time I will discuss using Stampin’ Blends to color a stamped image.

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What papercrafters do when they’re 10 years old…

They make cards like these, of course! My cousin was going through some “treasures” she saved and found these cards I made her 55 years ago!

 

Add-ons like those sequins clearly still added some extra dazzle to this card, even if I didn’t seem to have a handle on straight lines yet. (And all the stamping sentiments available now certainly make text a lot easier than drawing bubble letters!)

 

 

Those Christmas trees are an avant-garde masterpiece, though. Becoming a Stampin’ Up demonstrator was meant to be — with much, much more practice!

Have you rediscovered any cards, papercrafts, or stamp projects from your childhood? I’d love to see them!

Visit the Time4Stamping Facebook page and post your earliest art!