Black & White

Things have been hectic in my little corner of the universe, leaving very little time for me stamp.  While I find the time to rediscover my stampin’ quarters, I’ve decided to revisit some “oldies but goodies” that for one reason or another never made it to my blog. 

Black and White is one of my favorite color combinations, always seeming to leave the impact of clean and simple elegance.  If you look closely these two cards are made using the same basic products, but have completely different looks  (I think so anyway).

On this first card, I broke up the “whiteness” by wrapping a length of ribbon under the main image, tied it in a bow and hung a simple layered sentiment from the bow.  The single red gem in the center of the floral petals gives an eye-catching splash of color.  This card can go from birthday, anniversary, sympathy, etc., with a quick change of the sentiment.

I changed up the layout in this next card, opting for a quick and easy layering of punches.  Since I still had all my embossing folders, texture plates and butterfly die sitting on my desk, I decided to use them once again.   A single piece of gingham ribbon wrapped around the butterfly draws the eye naturally to the focal point.  Adding a border punch to a single edge of the bottom layer retained the clean lines yet added the touch of elegance I was hoping for.

 

Project Recipe:
Stamps:  Tiny Tags, Hope Happens
Paper:  Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink:  Basic Black
Accessories:  Elegant Bouquet embossing folder, Backgrounds 1 texturz plate, Beautiful Wings Embosslit die, Scallop Edge border punch, Scallop Square punch, square punch, Jewelry Tag punch, rhinestone brad, Organza ribbon, gingham ribbon, dimensionals

Spooky Witch

While wandering around the internet, I came across a card made with one of the newest Halloween stamp sets offered from Stampin’ Up!.  I love how the originator used a piece of ribbon to create the illusion of a skirt (sorry, I don’t remember who I cased this from – really need to remember to write these things down!).  I hoped my club members would have fun with this during their last meeting.  I was not disappointed, it was definitely a HIT!

This is my take on the original idea.  I added some shimmer to the background, lots of bats, sponging and even a spooky moon peeking out from behind the “witch”.

Here is a closer look at the shimmering background.
 
I’ve taken several photos of the card and can’t quite seem to be able to pick up just how beautiful the sparkly background truly is.  A few drops of shimmer paint mixed with some rubbing alcohol and sprayed over a background is a great finishing touch.

PROJECT RECIPE:

STAMPS:  Wicked Cool, Bring On the Bats (jumbo wheel)
PAPER:  Concord Crush, Pumpkin Pie, Pear Pizzazz, Very Vanilla
INK:  Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz, Pumpkin Pie
ACCESSORIES:  brads, blender pen, dimensionals, crochet ribbon, oval punch, decorative label punch, Scallop Squares Duo Bigz Die, champagne mist shimmer paint

Autumn Inspired

We’ve had a busy and fun-filled week here at Stampin’ Central.  Spending time with friends while stamping and chatting the night away is always a great way to spend an evening! 

This project I’m sharing is one of the items my club members made at their most recent meeting. 
I was inspired by one that I made while at a pre-convention event and thought the gals would have fun re-creating it.  After a bit of trial and error, I did successfully resize it to use standard 8 1/2” x 11” cardstock.  I love the changing seasons and all the colors of the fall leaves, so pulled out my new French Foliage stamp set (found in the new Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini Catalog) as well as a few new ink colors and had a grand time putting this together.  This is what it looks like when it’s opened for display:

As you can see, plenty of room for your favorite Autumn photos and journaling.  This little scrapbook card was a huge hit!

PROJECT RECIPE: 
STAMPS:  French Foliage, Wonderfully Worn (background), Elements of Style, Friends Never Fade
PAPER:  certainly celery, cajun craze, crumb cake, old olive
INK:  certainly celery, cajun craze, crumb cake, old olive
ACCESSORIES:  Leaves #2 die, Two Tags die, embossing stylus, dimensionals, craft knife, sponges

Quick and Easy

While playing around with Stampin’ Up!’s My Digital Studio software, I found the most beautiful background paper images.  These can be printed out on cardstock or computer paper and turned into incredibly quick, easy and gorgeous projects.  I completed the two cards above in just a matter of minutes! 

Don’t you just love how sparkly the background is?  I used my favorite new Stampin’ Up! product … Gold Glow Smooch Spritz and sprayed it all over the front of the card base.  The trick to not getting it too blotchy is to keep your bottle about 12” from the area you want to spray – this resulted in a nice even mist.


PROJECT RECIPE:
My Digital Studio Software:  Summertime Splendor – Gerbera background paper
Stamps:  Vintage Vogue
Paper:  Whisper White, Dusty Durango, Daffodil Delight
Ink:  Dusty Durango
Accessories:  Hodgepodge Hardware, ribbon, piercing tool, smooch spritz, scalloped oval punch

Frayed Ribbon

I’ve spent the past few weeks peeling, cooking and freezing 500 pounds of tomatoes.  Ok, so I’ve definitely exaggerated on the 500 pounds – but if you’re the one doing all that peeling and cooking, you can call it any amount you want!  Anyway, I’ve have these photos on my desktop for a few weeks now and finally have some time to get this little tutorial for the frayed ribbon posted … before I start the tomato process all over again next week.

I found this idea for a cute pocket card somewhere on the internet last  year, it has become one of my favorite ideas to play with and the frayed ribbon looks beautiful with this.  I’ve also found that the new In-Color ribbon from Stampin’ Up! is so incredibly easy to work with for this process.

First:  Take a piece of ribbon approximately 8” long and cut off one of the binding edges as shown in the photo below:
Next, begin pulling out the individual fabric strands and set them aside in a nice little pile.

What you do with the leftover scrap piece is up to you … I sometimes toss them in a jar and use them under layers for a “fringed” look … sometimes I just throw them away because my collection has grown too large.

Take the pile of ribbon strands and twist them around a few times, like you were making a rope (this makes it a little easier to poke through your hole).  Fold it in half and push it about halfway through the front of your eyelet (or punched hole).  Now take those loose ends hanging out the front of your eyelet and push them through the resulting loop, carefully adjust and tighten the loop and trim the top of the strands to your desired length. 
If you don’t want the looped finish, you can just twist the strands at one end, poke them through your hole, pull about half of the length through and tie the front and back – just like you would do with a regular piece of ribbon.  Again, trim the ends as desired.


Did you follow all that?  It really is a super easy technique that gives a wonderful and different finished effect.  I hope you give it a try and would love to see your end results!