My Website Begins ...

Well, here's the start of my website.  My very first posting - so exciting!!  I have been busy setting up this morning for a card making session with my friend Kelly.  I have a group of three girlfriends that I get together with at least once a month to make cards and we call ourselves "the Crafty Girls".  I'm the organizing one of the bunch and I spend a lot of my days searching the internet ....especially splitcoaststampers.com ... for new and fun techniques and cards to make.  I do lots of card making and then hold a  "workshop" for the others to learn.

Seems to work out pretty well for us ... I try not to be too "teachery" and we have lots of fun and laughs :)
I held a workshop a couple of weeks ago on Brayering for the Crafty Girls and they picked up the technique so quickly - I was impressed!

Here's a picture of their finished cards (they made three different cards each, plus you'll see a few loose pieces of brayered cardstock that were their first attempts at the technique).

I have made up a Brayering Tips Sheet (things I've learned and what works best for me).  If you're interested, click on the link to take a look.

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Today I'm working with Kelly along and we're going over three different things.  First, we're going to stamp an image on glossy white cardstock and then "color" it using small, stiff paint brushes swiped across our ink pads.  We're going to do the same image twice, but finish it two different ways.
I stamped my image using Early Espresso for the trunk and Old Olive for the leaves.  I added swipes of ink from Kiwi Kiss, more Old Olive, Always Artichoke and a little Soft Suede into the main part of the tree.  This made the tree have dimension and added some realism.  I added Soft Suede to fill in the trunk.  Then I swiped all of the green inks and a little Soft Suede at the bottom of the image of the first image below, to represent grass.

Here's a picture of our finished images.  The one on the left has a sponged sky (Baja Breeze) ... and I left a small amount of white around the image to create a "halo" effect - LOVE IT!  The image on the right was colored the same way as the first one, minus the sponged sky.  Instead, I used a versamark pen to add ink over the whole tree image and then heat embossed using clear embossing powder.  Next I brayered the sky (Baja Breeze) and grass (Old Olive and Always Artichoke).  This is called "emboss resist" and any image that has clear embossing over it, resists the ink from the brayering on top so the colors of the image won't be effected or changed.  It's surprising how different the same stamped image looks when done using two techniques!

Then I finished making the above artwork into a birthday card.  Hope you like.

 

"Lovely as a Tree Birthday"

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Bitty Birthday (SU!)
Paper:  Soft Suede, Glossy White, Sahara Sand, Autumn Traditions Designer Paper (retired) (SU!)
Ink:  Soft Suede, Old Olive, Kiwi Kiss, Always Artichoke, So Saffron, Baja Breeze (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  sponge, small artist's paint brush, suede strips, hole punch, small oval punch, medium oval punch, adhesives, sticky strips and dimensionals

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I stamped the sentiment in Soft Suede ink onto a scrap of Sahara Sand cardstock and punched it out with the small oval punch.  I mounted the sentiment onto a medium oval of Soft Suede cardstock and then punched a hole on each end.  I threaded through a suede stip on both sides of the sentiment and then mountd it onto the pinecone background, securing the strips at the back with sticky strips.

I mounted the background pinecone DP onto the card base of Soft Suede.  I mounted the main image (instructions above) onto a frame of Soft Suede cardstock and then mounted it to the front of the card, popping it up with dimensionals to add depth.

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The second project for today is the Endless Card.  It's hard to describe how this card works, but it's very interesting and I wanted to give it a try.  There are many videos on youtube - check them out to see how this card works.

I'm including a picture of my card, plus a link to brief, written instructions on how to construction this card in the standard 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" size.  Click here to take a look.

"Endless Card"

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Lastly, Kelly was interested in making a card for your BIL & SIL's anniversary.  I had CASE'd (copy and share everything) this card below from Emma Fewkes.  Emma has a tutorial on how to make this "Bendy Fold" card, as she calls it.  Click here to see Emma's tutorial.

"Valentine Defined"

 
Stamps:  Valentine Defined (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Whisper White, Real Red (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Real Red, Versamark (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories & Tools:  Heart-to-heart punch, 5/8" Real Red satin ribbon- approx. 8", white embossing powder, heat tool, sticky strips and glue dots

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I stamped the "heart branches" from the Valentine Defined stamp set, five times across the large piece of Whisper White cardstock.  I stamped the strung hearts to the right of the 5 1/2" x 1 3/4" piece of Whisper White cardstock and then wrapped the ribbon around at the left end and tied a half knot.

I stamped the sentiment in Real Red ink onto the left side of a 5 1/2" x 2 1/2" piece of Whisper White cardstock.  I stamped the heart tree onto Real Red cardstock in Versamark and embossed in white; I cut the tree out.  I punched several hearts in Real Red cardstock.  I assembled the card (see link to card instructions link above), using sticky strips and glue dots to attach the tree and hearts.