BRUSHO MAKE A WISH

Are you all enjoying Brusho Crystal Colour yet? They are a blast -- yet so unpredictable to work with.

You can make a cool background with the Brushos and then stamp in black right on top of it.

Each time you make a background with Brushos, no matter if you use the same colors each time, you will achieve something completely unique.

The nice thing about this particular card is, even though it has some dimension, everything is flat enough to go through the mail comfortably.

Keep reading for instructions on how to make this card.

SUPPLIES:

Whisper White cardstock

Tangerine Tango cardstock

140-lb cold press watercolor paper

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Happy Birthday Gorgeous stamp set (page 77)

Orange ribbon

Brusho Crystal Colour (page 26 in the Occasions catalog)

Tutti Fruitti Adhesive Backed Sequins (page 29 in the Occasions catalog)

Orange Baker's Twine

Scotch Tape

Spritz bottle of water

Stampin' Dimensionals

Nonstick craft sheet

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a piece of 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" Whisper White cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Using a 3 3/4" x 5" piece of watercolor paper, sprinkle sparingly some of the yellow, orange and red Brushos. Gently spritz it with a little water until the Brusho colors start to separate and move a bit. You can keep working with repeating this process until you are happy with your background. Since you are working over a nonstick craft sheet, you can turn the paper to cause the colors to drip onto the craft sheet. Then you can turn the watercolor paper over and pick up some of those drops of color. This works much more efficiently if the watercolor paper is dry. You can use the heat tool to dry the colors, dabbing at the edges with a paper towel to sop up too much excess liquid. The secret is to be careful not to let too much concentrated color in one spot. Just play until you are happy.

Once the piece is completely dry, stamp the three balloons in black ink.

Cut baker's twine for the strings on each of the balloons so each string is about 1/2" longer than it needs to be for it to reach from the bottom of the balloon to the bottom of the watercolor paper. Use a dab of glue on the bottoms of the balloons to adhere the top of the baker's twine. Once that glue is dry, you can wrap the bottoms of the twine to the back of the paper and tape them in place. Create little baker's twine bows and adhere each of them to a balloon with a drop of glue.

Stretch a length of the orange ribbon from side to side, securing the ends on the back with tape.

On a 2 1/2" x 3/4" piece of Whisper White cardstock, stamp the sentiment in black ink. Then stamp "Happy Birthday" inside the card, also in black ink. Flag the ends of the front sentiment, and add over the ribbon with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Adhere this finished piece to a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Tangerine Tango cardstock, then to the card base.

Finish with a few of the self-stick sequins. Remember, when adding embellishments to a background, to always keep it to an odd number. Much more pleasing to the eye.

Brusho

Smiles.

EMBOSSING ALUMINUM FOOD CONTAINERS

In the past several weeks, I have published a few posts about embossing heavy weight aluminum foil. You can re-read the posts HERE and HERE. 

In the Comments, Julie from Sum of Their Stories, who resides in the UK, wondered if it would be possible to do this technique using heavier-weight aluminum food containers, such as what a restaurant would offer for take-outs.

Her comment completely intrigued me, and I replied to her that I would be interested in trying that. 

That same weekend, we ordered delicious food to be delivered. One of the selections arrived in this container:

The container, which held a side salad, featured a bottom that only measured about 3" x 3 1/2". It had some pretty serious writing and line work. I wondered if it would be a good candidate. So, I cut the sides off the container, to be left with just the bottom portion. 

After running it through the same embossing folder I used in the Canada goose card, I was delighted with the results! I was actually impressed that simply running it through the Big Shot one time inside the folder virtually erased all those extraneous letters and grooves. Plus, since it was made from the heavier foil container, it seemed to be much more durable than just heavy-duty foil.

After getting it in place on my card front, I decided that I wanted to do some further stamping on the bottom half of the card. However, because the aluminum portion  was more raised (from the back) than the area I wanted to stamp, I cut a few pieces of chipboard and stacked them up to bring the front more level with the embossed piece.

I turned the card to the front with the chipboard pieces in place, 

and did some background stamping, as well as a brief printed verse.

Since the resulting card contains snowflakes, and winter is getting ready to wind down (I hope!), I thought I'd better post this card before it's too late.

This is the card that I ended up making with the 

heavy duty foil food container that held my salad:

It is easy to see in the following photo, with the card turned slightly to one side, how deep the embossed portion of the card is compared to the rest of the card. I did this to offer as much protection to the embossing as possible.

A close-up of the lovely embossing:

I attached the diecut snowflakes -- from the Seasonal Layers Thinlits on page 216 -- with Mini Glue Dots (page 202). 

Turned toward the sun:

The following photo shows really well the sunken section that contains 

the embossed portion of the aluminum food container:

Julie, thank you so much for your query about using heavier aluminum food containers for embossing. I am so glad that I took you up on your idea and gave it a try. I love the results!

Heavier

Smiles.

WISH

It is always something of a challenge to come up with a birthday card for my oldest daughter, Emily, who is a freelance illustrator. At least, one that she approves of. Her style is so much different from mine. 

Anyway, I thought I'd come up with a winner for this year's card. However, she didn't say much about it. Oh well. I like it.

The background is a combo of Rose Red and Bermuda Bay in the two kinds of circles. I used first and second generation stamping for a variance. To pick up once again the Pool Party in the paper portion of the card, the three self-stick sequins are also Pool Party. Although they look white in the photos.

Because I used a lot of Stampin' Dimensionals in putting this card together, it has some dimension, but not too much that it would inhibit mailing.

The cupcake and its wrapper are both three-step stamping. The set is Sweet Cupcake, which can be found on page 83 of the big catalog. A coordinating die set, Cupcake Cutouts Framelits, on page 213, makes easy work of cutting out the cupcake. And the word "wish" also comes from that Framelits set.

Both of the circles upon which the cupcake rests are made from the Stitched Shapes Framelits on page 214. The bottom circle is cut from Designer Series Paper in Bermuda Bay and Whisper White. The circle right underneath the cupcake was embossed with big circles, and is done in Pool Party.

What is your experience using two- or three-step stamps? Do you have any trouble lining each of the layers up with the other ones? Do you have any suggestions that you could share with the rest of us to make this type of stamping less challenging?

Wish-ful

Smiles.

BASKET WEAVE

As of February 16, Stampin' Up! has added three more selections for the Sale-A-Bration freebies.

Two of them are for $50 purchases: a stamp set and a pack of Specialty Designer Series Paper; and one for a $100 purchase: a bundle that consists of a stamp set and a new Dynamic Embossing Folder.

We demos have the privilege of pre-buying these items before they are available to our customers. I had fallen in love with the bundle, but probably wouldn't have placed an order of $100 by myself at any one time. So, I purchased it. And I'm glad I did.

The card below features the basket of flowers from the stamp set, 

as well as the wonderfully dimensional basket weave background.

I just love the combination of the two components.

I colored the basket of flowers with a few of our new Stampin' Blends. They work beautifully and easily, giving a fine result. 

Because I was limited in the colors I so far possess, I had to be a little out-of-the-box for coloring the basket. 

Not having any "basket" colors, this is how I did it: I used the lighter Calypso Coral over the basket first. Since I had just purchased the Bronze color, I added that to the lines in the handle and the darker portions of the basket body. Covering the whole thing after that, I used the lighter Daffodil Delight. Not perfect. But OK enough.

Even though the embossing is wonderful and dynamic by itself, I wanted to add a little more of an appearance of dimension, and thus, reality. 

To do this, I rubbed my Crumb Cake ink pad directly onto the inside of the side of the embossing folder that has the writing. I then added a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock, and ran it through the Big Shot. The result was a deeper color in the lowest portions of the embossing, giving the distinct impression of depth.

I only wish I'd taken photos of the two pieces of Crumb Cake cardstock that I embossed -- with and without the inking. There is a surprisingly huge difference! I think I will probably always use this inking method when embossing with this folder. It's so easy, but gives such fabulous results.

PLUS, I've heard that this Dynamic Embossing Folder will appear in the upcoming new annual catalog! Win-win!

And, with a Stampin' Blend, I was able to color coordinate my Basic Pearls! And so EASY to do. 

I used the darker of the Calypso Coral Blends to do this, but I almost wish I'd used the lighter. Oh well. They turned out fine anyway. 

Below shows how complicated it is to color your pearls. JK.

Have you purchased any of the new Blends yet? I have now added the Crumb Cake Blends to my arsenal -- you know, for when I have baskets to color. Or animals. Or . . . 

The cool thing is that, from now until the end of March, when Sale-A-Bration ends, if you purchase the complete set of Stampin' Blends, you will earn the bundle I used in this project! FREE!

If you'd like to shop for the new Stampin' Blends, or anything else Stampin' Up!, I would appreciate it if you would order with me as your demonstrator. You can shop by hitting either of the "shop" buttons on the top or right side of my blog posts. THANK YOU in advance!

If you do already possess any of the Stampin' Blends, please share with us your comments about your experience(s) with them. I'd love to hear what you have to say!

Blended

Smiles.

MAKE A WISH

I am usually not the greatest at Clean And Simple cards. I get nervous if there is too much white space, if there are not enough (or any!) embellishments, if it's too asymmetrical, and on and on.

For one of my Stamp-In Workshops, I had a hankering to create just such a card though. And I think it worked out pretty well.

And, being that it is a flat card, with no dimensional embellishments whatsoever, it is perfect for sending through the USPS.

Another plus with a card such as this design is that it would be appropriate for either male or female. Or for any occasion, depending on the choice of sentiments.

Following are quick and easy directions to make a card like this one.

SUPPLIES:

Whisper White cardstock

Bermuda Bay cardstock

Crushed Curry cardstock

Designer Series Paper in coordinating colors

Happy Birthday Gorgeous stamp set (page 77)

Bermuda Bay ink

Crushed Curry Striped Washi Tape (or any others that match your color scheme)

1 1/4" Circle Punch

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a 4 1/4" x 11" piece of Whisper White cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

From three different sheets of coordinating Designer Series Paper, punch two of two designs and one of the last design with the 1 1/4" Circle Punch.

Starting with the center circle, adhere it to a 1 1/2" x 5 1/2" strip of Crushed Curry cardstock. Finish placing the other circles so there is equal distance between them, and trimming off the two end circles so they are flush with the edges of the strip. 

Adhere this strip to one measuring 1 3/4" x 5 1/2" cut from Bermuda Bay cardstock. 

Attach this finished strip to the card base about 1/4" from the bottom.

In Bermuda Bay ink, stamp "Make A Wish" above this strip, about 1/2" from the right edge.

Fill in the rest of the space surrounding the sentiment with strips of striped Washi Tape, cutting the ends neatly.

In Bermuda Bay ink, stamp "Happy Birthday" inside the card.

This would be an equally attractive card using virtually any combination of colors, coordinating with the DSP that is chosen.

CAS

Smiles.