Sunflowers & Dragonflies

Prizes

Okay stampers and technique lovers, CD7 Technique Junkie CD wasn’t claimed so I drew a new winner,

Rinda, congratulations!

Please send me your mailing address to scrapbook4ever@yahoo.ca

Last week’s challenge winner…

Congratulations Hazel!

Please e-mail me your address at scrapbook4ever@yahoo.ca

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Challenge Saturday: Pink, Red and Cream

It’s Saturday, and almost Valentine’s Day. If you don’t have your valentine made for your loved ones, there is still time.  You don’t have to look to far to find inspiration; we have a lot right here.

Although Valentines is tomorrow, you have a full week to create your card for our colour challenge.  We always love to see how others interpret our challenges.

For detailed information on the cards you see from the team, click on their name to be taken to their blog.

This week’s prize

One Rachelle Ann Miller and one Sarah Kay stamp of your choice

Kim used Four Seasons

Jennifer used Chocolate Dipped Strawberry

Cathy used Lily and Milo

Karen used one of the Sarah Kay images scaled down to a twinchie

Rose used Happy Moose

Jerusha used My Little Friend

Beth used Canada Beaver

Don’t forget to link up your card to this challenge.

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Technique Junkie Newsletter Marker Tapping

Another new technique from the Technique Junkie Newsletter called Marker Tapping.  Background paired perfectly with Mixed Berries cupcake.

Have a nice day!

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Technique Junkies Brayered Brilliance & Happy Dance

Oh yah, oh yah, I’m doing the Happy Dance, oh yah, oh yah–LOL.  Pat Huntoon asked me to become part of the Technique Junkie Newsletter Design Team, and I’m so excited.  At this time of year when I suffer from SAD and use my sun lamp, this certainly was a bright spot in my day!

I have been part of Pat’s Turbo team, filming tutorials and submitting cards when I had time, but things have changed and the timing is right for the two of us.

For you layer lovers out there, Brayered Brilliance is a technique that you don’t want to miss.  It’s from the recent issue of the Technique Junkie Newsletter.

Donnie and I like to celebrate Chinese New Year at Tang’s, here in Sarnia, and every year we gather our close friends together for an evening of eating and catching up.  Many of us do not see each other between our annual gathering, but is a nice way to keep in touch all the same.  Donnie presents each lady with a long-stemmed rose, and I have a handmade card waiting by their seats.  I also give the owner of the restaurant and the cook, two long-time friends of Donnie’s, a card too.  Steve, the cook, pushes me hard to sell my cards in town and I think this year I might just do that.  This is one of the designs I will be doing for this year’s cards.  I also found paper Chinese cookies on a blog, and I’m going to do those too.  Please leave me a comment and share what you think the wording should be on the fortune because I am stumped as to what to do for this Friday.

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How to Create Distressed Cuttlebug Backgrounds

I am so excited about today’s tutorial.  While playing around with embossing powder this weekend, I developed the Distressed Cuttlebug Background technique which is what I am sharing with you today.

My background was made using the Scrappy Spots technique from the June 2009 issue of the Technique Junkie Newsletter.  Noah’s Ark, from Our Daily Bread Designs, worked well with this technique because the Ark image came with sentiments which I stamped into the background.  Rainbow is from Odd Bird Planet.  Waves were stamped onto Cling and Scrunch technique from the June 2007 issue of the TJ Newsletter.

Supplies: White or Cream cardstock, clean VersaMark stamp pad, embossing powder, heat gun, sanding block or paper

With a clean VersaMark pad, cover your background completely.

Cover your background with embossing powder.

Use your heat gun to emboss your background.  I now use the heat gun on my ironing board and no longer have to worry about ruining my cutting mat or table.

With your dirty VersaMark pad, cover the entire background once again.

Add embossing powder and emboss with a heat gun.

With a sanding block, lightly rub over top of the background and rub off the embossing powder on the raised area.

That’s it.  Very simply and effective technique.  Have fun!

For a complete list of my tutorials, visit the Tutorial page at the top of my blog.

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Technique Junkies Mono Dies

Mono Dies is a recent technique from the Technique Junkie Newsletter and quickly became one of my favourite techniques.  It is quick and simple and adds quite an impact to the background.  I paired my background with vintage music paper from a flea market, and Stampin’ Up watercoloured rose and sentiment.

Over the weekend, I stayed in my pajamas and worked in my studio for the entire two days.  What a feeling of accomplishment getting two tutorials shot and uploaded for my blog, another tutorial shot for Pat’s Technique Junkie Newsletter (I developed a cool new technique that grabbed Pat’s interest), worked on cards, projects and even uploaded my entire week’s worth of work for you.  Now the trick will be to keep caught up.

During my studio time, I developed a fun new Cuttlebug technique and you will be the first to see it.  Come back tomorrow for a new Cuttlebug technique created just for you.

Thank you for stopping by.

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Technique Junkie CD7 Winner

Congratulations

Lori Smanski

Please e-mail me with your mailing address to scrapbook4ever@yahoo.ca

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SD28 Sketch Challenge

It’s Saturday and we have a fun new challenge for you.  We thought it was time to start producing sketch challenges to help jump start your mojo.  I don’t know about you, but I love to play with sketches, whether it is scrapbook or rubberstamping related.

You may wonder how I think I can pass off this card as one that followed the sketch.  Ahh, but I did.  See that yellow tab in the sketch?  Compare that to the shape of the Spellbinders Nestabilities that I used.  This is just one example of how a sketch can be interpreted.

Did you notice my interesting paper pieced background?  It is the Herringbone Technique from a recent  issue of the Technique Junkie Newsletter.  You will find lots of paper piecing techniques as well as product related techniques.  Each issue has a bonus technique which is usually a unique card fold or project.    You will find some of my tutorials and cards in the paper edition as well as on the subscriber only pages of the website.

Because Valentine’s Day is nearly here, I thought it was fitting that I use our Mouse Hug stamp.

Now onto the sketch and design team examples….

Here’s what the design team came up with for you

Cathy used Fish

Jennifer used Cheshire Cat

Kim used the Queen of Hearts

Karen used Candied Orange Blossom

Jerusha used Amber and Amber Flourish

Beth used Fish

Rose used Hoo Hoo There

This week’s prize

Your choice of Prima Flowers and BasicGrey paper pad from our store

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All Creatures Great and Small

Good morning folks.  I’m so excited to finally have some stamps from Our Daily Bread Designs.  Biting the bullet, I went off my “no-buying new stamps” promise and ordered myself several sets.  I think the last time I bought a new stamp was way back in September.  Noah’s Ark is a new set that I just had to have.  This week’s challenge is to create texture, so I’m entering it into Our Daily Bread Designs post.

I paired this stamp set with the easel card that everyone is doing these days.  The best directions I could find for you can be found on the Whiff of Joy Inspirations blog.

Because I didn’t want designer paper on my card, I turned to the Technique Junkie Newsletter to find a technique that would work for my purpose, and I found it in the June 1997 issue and is called Cling and Scrunch.  I picked this one because it looked so much like water.  The TJ newsletter came through again

Each animal was coloured and layered so they would pop out of the ark.  Blue clouds were created by smudging a handmade template as seen in my Glitter Embossing tutorial.  White clouds were made from Odd Bird Planet stamps.

Thank you for stopping by.

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Tutorial Tuesday: Glitter Embossing (and blog candy)

Have you ever thought that your card was a little plain and wished you could put your finger on what it was that was missing?  I know I do.   Take this card, for example.  Because it is an all ivory confirmation card, I felt it needed something special without adding colourful Prima’s, chipboard, or other popular embellishments.  Instead, I wanted a subtle embellishment so I decided to add a little sparkle to the image by simply adding glitter to my clear embossing powder.  The sheen of the embossing powder adds a professional finish that is sure to delight.

This tutorial shows you how I combined glitter with embossing powder, as well as how I made the sky and the frame surrounding my image.  This lovely background came from the recent February issue of the Technique Junkie Newsletter and is called Mono Dies.

This week Pat Huntoon, owner of the Technique Junkie Newsletter, graciously sponsored this week’s tutorial.  Pat donated her most recent CD that is overflowing with techniques.  You can read all about this prize here.  Simply leave a comment at the end of this post telling me what your favourite technique is.  The technique does not have to be one that is in the newsletter, so you all have an equal opportunity to win.  Your comment will put your name into the draw for CD7.

Stamp out your image and let dry completely.

Mask areas that you do not want to get inked up.

Cut the shape of a cloud out (I used stiff watercolour paper) and rub ink over the top.  Place your template at the bottom of the image, working your way up.

Mix glitter with clear embossing powder.  With a new, or clean VersaMark pad ink up the area that you want to emboss.  A dirty VersaMark pad will dirty your image.

Sprinkle your image with the glitter/embossing mixture.  With a heat gun held away from your image, carefully heat the embossing powder.  It will be difficult to avoid the loss of glitter with this technique, so add more glitter than you think will be necessary.

Measure your image to determine what size the cardstock frame should be.

Keeping the Nestability centered, run the cardstock through the Cuttlebug.  Next, emboss the cardstock frame.

Adhere the image to the frame and finish your card as desired.

I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy little trick.  Don’t forget to leave a comment for your chance to win CD7 of the Technique Junkie Newsletter.

A full index of my tutorials can be found on my Tutorial page above.

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