RainyDay Stamper

Awash with Flowers

 Simple cards can easily be stepped up with ribbon and ruffles.  Use your eyelet border punch to edge a piece of cardstock, run it through your crimper and attach to the back of your image panel, instant texture.

Happy Stamping,

Awash with Flowers

is an absolutely fabulous set for doing the Black Magic Technique.  This technique has such a WOW factor but is incredibly easy to do.

 
Bold solid images work best for this technique.  Start by stamping your images onto a dark cardstock with Whisper White or Very Vanilla Craft (pigment) ink. Using your pastels, rub color onto the stamped images and then highlight with your White Gel pen. 

Happy Stamping,

 

Two Step into Spring

Outside we have daffodils, crocus and the Magnolias are so full of blooms just ready to burst, it really makes me feel happy even in the rain!  Today's card, of course is flowers, using the wonderful set, Awash with Flowers.

 Awash with Flowers is a great Two Step Stamp set, meaning that it has outline images and solid images.  You can use either type of image or use them both as I have done here, stamping the outline image in Pumpkin Pie and the solid image in Peach Parfait.  I used my trusty Stamp a ma Jig to line up the images.  Don't you love the Pear Pizzazz DSP, that is from the Level 1 Designer Series paper pack, hostess gift.

Happy Stamping,

 

Real Red, Basic Black and Whisper White

Certainly create a bold card!  Yes, back to using my Awash with Flowers set again  and yet again, in a different way .  Today I stamped the outline images on Whisper White cardstock with Black Stazon, and then again onto Real Red cardstock.  I cut out the  red flowers and then attached then to the Whisper White.

 The two back ones are just glued on with my Two Way glue pen and the front one is stuck on with dimensionals.  The leaves are colored with my Old Olive marker before the flowers are attached. I then layered the panel onto Basic Black and then Real Red  punched at the bottom with the Scallop edge punch and highlighted with my White Gel Pen.  The sentiment from Happy Everything, is stamped with Black Stazon onto the Whisper White base.

Happy Stamping,

Can you believe

that April is over halfway over?  Spring is here!  Since Stampin' Up's promotion for this month is

Two Step into Spring, I thought today I would talk about Two Step Stamp sets.  Awash with Flowers set is a sneak peek into the new Idea Book and Catalogue that comes out in July but SU has made it available now.Here are all the images in the set

How two step stamping works is you stamp the solid image first and then in a contrasting but darker ink stamp the outline image over the top. But, there are other ways of using this type of stamp set, stamp just the solid images in White craft ink and then color with pastels (Black Magic technique) or stamp just the line images and then color the images in.  For todays card, I did the last technique.  I stamped the images onto Watercolor paper with Black Stazon ink and then using Yoyo Yellow and Only Orange colored in the flowers then using Tempting Turquoise colored in the background.

 These flowers remind me of wild California poppies. 
Did you know that you could get this set for FREE?  Yes, hold a workshop with $460 in sales and get this set free.

Happy Stamping,

 

Seeing old friends again

and saying good bye to others.  It is always fabulous when you see an old friend again and it is always sad when a friend leaves.  This is how I feel about the announce that SU made yesterday, BUT I am so excited with what they are doing.  Now, you are thinking "What is she talking about?"  Yes, it is true there is a Color Renovation happening with the new catalogue in July.  Yes we are losing some of our favorites but some of our previous year's In Colors are coming back.

So what is coming back:

Baja Breeze, Melon Mambo, Pink Pirouette, Rich Razzleberry, Riding Hood Red, River Rock, Pacific Point, Soft Suede, Tangerine Tango and Wild Wasabi (can you hear me cheering)

What is new:

Marina Mist, Daffodil Delight, Cherry Cobbler, Cajun Craze and Early Espresso

And what we need to say good-bye too:

Almost Amethyst, Apricot Appeal, Ballet Blue, Barely Banana, Blush Blossom, Bordering Blue, Brilliant Blue, Brocade Blue, Cameo Coral, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Gable Green, Green Galore,Glorious Green, Going Gray, Handsome Hunter, Lavender Lace, Lovely Lilac, Mellow Moss, Only Orange, Orchid Opulence, Pale Plum, Pink Passion, Pixie Pink, Really Rust, Ruby Red, Sage Shadow, Summer Sun, Taken with Teal, Yoyo Yellow

Don't worry, you will have till June 30th, to stock up on these colors, and make sure you have refills for your stamp pads. Now, while I will miss certain colors, Gable Green, Orchid Opulence, Almost Amethyst to name a few, I am so excited to have Baja Breeze, River Rock, Wild Wasabi, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red back.  The new colors look marvelous so we have alot to look forward to.  And don't worry, Stampin'Up will have some wonderful packages to get you started on all the new and reappearing colors.

And look what I dragged out, Wild Wasabi (told you I loved it)

For this card, I used Kraft(whoops, Crumb Cake now) Wild Wasabi, and Ruby Red (that is one that is leaving). 

Happy Stamping,

 

 

 

Popping Pastels

Is a fun technique that is very simple but has that WOW factor.  Anyone who really knows me, knows I like to do very little work but achieve that WOW factor. Today's card using the Popping Pastels technique and another tease for you-  Awash with Flowers again, you do get to order it April 1st.

For thePopping Pastels technique first  you stamp your images with Whisper White or Very Vanilla craft ink onto a dark background, I have used Basic Black.  Let the ink dry and then rub on your pastels.  Highlight a bit with your White Gel pen and you are done.  The really big secret to success with this technique in my opinion is cleaning up your extra bits of pastel, so easy, just rub over the card with a Swiffer Dusting cloth, it picks it all up.  Here is the before

Notice the pastels around the edges of the stems and then on the top card clean.

I mounted the image panel onto Certainly Celery that I ran through the Big Shot with my Perfect Polka Dot impressions folder and did not use a sentiment as I wasn't really sure it needed anything more, but I can add one later.

Happy Stamping,

 
  

Just to tease you more

Here is another card with Awash with Flowers

Bet you just can't wait till you can get it too!  All teasing aside, it won't be long till then and you will fall in love with this set too.  A Stamp-a-ma-jig is a definite necessity with this set, so start practising using it now and believe me, it is a really easy tool once you get the hang of it. 

The idea with Two Step Stamping is to use a lighter color ink for the solid image and then a darker ink for the outlines. For this card I used Pretty in Pink and Regal Rose for the large flower and So Saffron and Crushed Curry for the smaller ones and Old Olive and Alway Artichoke for the stems.  The image panel is then matted on So Saffron leaving just a thin border. The base of the card is Whisper White and I just  embossed two lines 1/4" apart on three sides

Happy Stamping,