Challenge: No Ordinary Paper

The Monday challenge this week on Simon Says Stamp is to use some type of paper other than regular cardstock. There are several wonderful examples of work to provide some inspiration.

I've been experimenting lately with Bristol. I bought a pad on sale and have tried some stamping techniques on it. It is very smooth, has a nice weight, and takes ink quite well (much better than some of the cheaper cardstock I've tried). Here is one of the cards I did:

I started with a piece of Bristol, cut to 4.25" x 5.5". I blended Antique Linen Distress ink over the surface with a blending tool. Next, I stamped the tree (Xmas Constellation by Penny Black) with Doll Pink ink from Simon Says Stamp. The sentiment is from Winter Wonderland from Winnie & Walter; it is stamped with Potting Soil Archival ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

The splotches on the card front are made by mixing Broken China Distress ink, water, and a little Perfect Pearls pigment powder. This mixture is picked up with a small brush and flicked over the card front. I also did a little mixture of water and Perfect Pearls with no additional color and flicked that over the surface as well. Hopefully it gives the suggestion of snow, but maybe it just looks messy!!

I trimmed the Bristol panel down slightly and mounted it to a dark brown card base. The two thin colored strips on the right were made by rubbing ink directly from the ink pad onto the surface of some scrap Bristol - I used Broken China & Doll Pink. Once the ink had dried, I cut the strips and glued them down. Since the blue strip was slightly raised due to being layered over the Bristol, I cut two tiny pieces of cardstock to glue underneath the ends to keep everything even.

I hope your week is off to a good start!

Immi

Published!

I am excited to share this card. I recently had the honor of having this one published in the August issue of Craft Stamper magazine. This is a UK publication, and I enjoy trying their challenges.

Here's my card:

This was done with stamping and watercolor. The main image and sentiment are from Your Wings Exist by Unity Stamps; the butterfly is from Inkadinakdo's Inchies; the flowers are from Hero Arts' Trees, Birds, & Messages.

Thanks for stopping by today to take a look. I got an email yesterday letting me know that another card I've submitted will be published in a few months. Once it comes out, I'll be able to share it with you.

Till next time,

Immi

Moleskine Notebook

This month's Make It Take It challenge on the Craft Stamper blog is wide open for interpretation since "Anything Goes"! The only rule is that it must involve stamping. I've decided to submit a little Moleskine notebook I did and keep my fingers crossed that it's a winner.

This was a fun little project. I had previously stamped on the cover of this notebook but wasn't too happy with the result. I decided to try stamping something new on watercolor paper and figure out some way to attach the panel to the cover.

I chose to use some clear stamps from Martha Stewart which I stamped in black Archival ink. I chose this ink since it is permanent and I knew I'd be adding watercolor later. Before doing any watercolor, though, I decided to try sprinkling some masking fluid randomly over the surface so that some spots would stay a nice crisp white.

After the masking fluid dried, I had fun with several colors of Distress ink, rubbed on my craft sheet and diluted with water. I colored the butterflies first. After they were dry, I created the background, allowing colors to bleed together on the wet paper.

When everything was dry, I rubbed the dots of masking fluid off, revealing the white dots. I really like the way it looks. 

Now I had to figure out how to attach it to the cover of the notebook. My experience has taught me that it would be really tough to glue it down so that there was no danger of the edges ever lifting. I decided to try machine stitching to see if I could get through the thick watercolor paper as well as the stiff cover of the notebook. It worked wonderfully, and I really like the way the black stitching looks around the edges. (I used a corner rounder on the two right corners since those corners were also rounded on the notebook.)

Even if this doesn't win this month's contest, I'm still quite happy with the way it turned out!

Till next time,

Immi

Quick Cards

Hi, all. I've got a couple of quick cards today, both using Unity stamps. Unity is a cool company in Minnesota that produces high quality red rubber stamps. The stamps come unmounted, but attach easily to an acrylic stamp block. The prices are fantastic, and they have designs for all styles.

I stamped the image on watercolor paper and used a combination of Stampin' Up! markers with a wet brush to do the coloring. I also splattered some ink just for fun and added a strip of washi tape across the bottom. 

Next I chose some 6x6 patterned papers from American Crafts and Colorbok to layer behind the watercolored panel. After taping everything down, I added a few Studio Calico sequins for some additional color.

This card also features layers of paper along with simple marker + wet brush watercolor. Although you can't see it in the photo, I also went over the flowers with a clear Wink of Stella marker, which creates a subtle sparkle. The centers of the flowers also got a touch of Glossy Accents.

The stamped panel was stitched to a paper I had in my stash which makes me think of a garden trellis - kind of nice as a background for flowers. I also added the black strip at the side - I never get tired of seeing how black makes other colors pop! The orange paper in the back was chosen to coordinate with the color of the flowers. (I don't remember who makes either of those patterned papers.)

Quick & easy!

Till next time,

Immi