I had three granddaughters here a while back and, as with all my grandkids, we needed to have some crafty time. Having just finished up the stretching stamps class I wanted to show one of them a technique I had learned.

I chose to demonstrate the spot watercoloring that we learned on the bonus day.

In this you tape watercolor paper to the table, apply Distress Ink to a large acrylic block, spritz it with water and press it to the paper, hold for a bit for the color to soak in the paper some, and lift it off. Then you use a heat gun to day it. It is swiped with water on a brush and you hold an image stamped on acrylic over it and drop ink onto the damp paper underneath. You then let the color bleed out into the background some.

It is dried once again and then you stamp over it with black ink and make it into a card.

I chose to border the panel with gold paint pen, added some of this gold to the image and gave it a border of patterned paper. Then I added a sentiment strip cut as a banner, popped up on foam tape.

The granddaughter made hers with a purple background and an over-all butterfly background stamp enhanced with peacock blue.

Some fun!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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For my last card for this class I used a version of the stencils and Copics technique.

On white cardstock I used a birch tree stencil and a foam dauber to ink in the trunks. I used a W3 Copic marker to shade the left side of the trees. Then I cut out trunks to use later.

I stamped a house on white cardstock and colored with Copic markers and shading. 

I created a mask of the house and covered it while I used blue and green Copic markers in an airbrush system to make sky and ground.

I glued the trees in front of the house and added some partial trunks against the roofline. I used a fine marker to add a little fence and a few sprouts of grass.

The panel was trimmed to size and bordered with patterned red cardstock.

I stamped a sentiment block and mounted it with foam tape. At the end I used Liquid Pearls to fill in the heart in the sentiment.

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So, have you been keeping track of how many cards I made for class? A total of SIXTY THREE! Tomorrow will definitely be something different.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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The technique used for this card was a focus on stencils and Copic Markers. 

On white cardstock I used a tree stencil and a foam dauber to ink in branches. I slightly offset the stencil and inked with another brown to create some depth. Then I used a fine line marker to sketch in the tree trunks and branches. I used a W3 Copic marker to shade the left and bottom of the branches.

I used blue and green Copic markers in the airbrush system to make the sky and ground then used a dauber with yellow ink to make the sun. I used a black marker to border the panel.

I stamped a house on white cardstock and colored with Copic markers. This was cut out and glued to the stenciled background. I bordered it with patterned dark orange.

I stamped a sentiment strip, inked its edges in yellow and mounted it with foam tape.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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The first technique shared on day 11 of class was called Layered Heat Embossing. I made 4 cards with this technique.

First I cut piece of tagboard and inked the edges with Versamark and dipped them in silver embossing powder. I melted this with a heat gun. Then I covered the face of the chipboard with Versamark. I covered this with and silver embossing powder and heated it. This was repeated to get even coverage.

I used the anti-static bag on the piece. Then I stamped the flag with Versamark and sprinkled on cherry red embossing powder. this was heated carefully to melt only the red.

I bordered with red cardstock and layered it on white cardstock which was dry embossed with a star folder.

I used the same process to creare a gold and red block and layered it on silver cardstock bordered in red.

The next panel was embossed with silver and gold which was layered on a gold cardstock embossed with a frame folder.

Oh, my. The white embossing powder used on the next block stayed slightly sticky so some of the powder stuck to the background. I embossed the stamping in silver first and it wasn't enough contrast to I stamped over that with gold.

I chose an irridescent cardstock to emboss with a dandelion folder for the background.

I can't see using this technique again. Well... maybe.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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The next technique I tried from the day 10 class was Light Embossing on Dark Cardstock.

This first card was the 'test piece' for the technique. I selected navy cardstock and stamped flowers in white pigment ink and embossed with cherry red. I stamped leaves with white pigment ink and embossed with Christmas green. I stamped berries with white pigment ink and embossed with white.

The colors were not very vivid so I went over them with Copic markers, changing the white berries to yellow. I trimmed the panel and mounted it to pink bordering card and a blue printed layer. I added this to some pink chevron cardstock over a card base.

I was not liking this too much so I used a gold gel marker to add some sketch lines on the navy background. Still not impressed with the look of it so I found a vellum pre-printed quote and trimmed it to the exact size of the flower layer. I ran this through the Xyron machine to coat the back with adhesive. The vellum was adhered to the panel and burnished to allow the flowers to show through.

Salvaged!

OK, back to following the instructions! For the next card I did the stamping in Versamark! Stamped flowers and embossed with cherry red. Stamped leaves and embossed with Christmas green. Stamped the berries and embossed with white. Stamped the flower centers and embossed with gold. MUCH better result.

I trimmed the panel and used a gold Krylon paint pen to band all four edges. I mounted this to a white card base.

Ddd 

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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Day 10 of class started out by using the floral silhouettes as... underwater plants and corals. One of the secrets to success is in the choice of color palette.

I traced a circle on white cardstock then used 2 dye inks and 2 chalk inks to stamp 4 silhouette floral 'sprigs' leaving white space at the top.

I diecut a circle in another white cardstock and a larger circle in green shimmer cardstock.

I embossed a sentiment in gold on white cardstock, trimmed and mounted it as a band on the green layer. 

The diecut layers are glued together and mounted with foam tape over the stamped layer.

Three clown fish from a sticker sheet were placed in the undersea scene.

The second card is similar but has a few changes to note. I used a darker green cardstock, added a gold edging to the sentiment strip using Krylon paint pen, and used holographic fish stickers.

You can see that the colors I chose have a bluish cast and are lighter in the background and gradually get greener and darker as the foliage comes forward.

Ddd

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The third technique from day 9 was an experiment fail for me. It needed 'coated' cardstock and a wet dye ink neither of which I had. It also used florals and foliage that actually went together which I also did not have.

The technique was to ink the stamp, press to the coated cardstock and twist it slightly to create a painterly look. My stamps/inks would stick to the paper and not allow me to twist them so the images were clear and not in the least painted looking.

I stamped three daisy style flowers each in different ink. Then I stamped two leaf types.

we were then to use a fine black marker to sketch in some lines to lend a more hand designed look to the stamping - not so regimented. I stamped all three with different sentiments in black.

On the first two I drew a black border on the panel and mounted them to green cardstock.

I like this sentiment style better as it seems to suit the art better:

The third one got a solid sentiment block and a black background.

The black border negated the need for a drawn border on this one.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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For the second technique on day 9 we used a lot of masking. I selected sprigs and grasses (most look like weeds to me) and stamped them on sticky notes. These were cut out and used in series to create bouquets in the lower left and upper right corners. Each stamp was stamped using a different color.

I stamped a large sentiment on the card and mounted to black cardstock for a border. Each card got three colors of Liquid Pearls decorating the flowers.

On the first card I boo-booed on one of the stems so I covered it by tying black twine over it.

Each of the three cards was made with a slightly different shade of Kraft cardstock.

This background actually has a bit of a parchment look to it.

These masks were very fiddly to cut and the result was not so awesome that I'd use them again. I decided to use them up by making all three cards at once and just be done with it.

Ddd

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Day 9 of the Stretch Your Stamps 2 class used floral silhouette stamps including sprigs, branches, leaves and 'build a bloom' or 'build a bouquet'. Well, do I have any of these? Not in sets. But by going through ALL ov my clear stamp sets I was able to find a bloom here - a leaf there - a branch elsewhere... and managed to bring together enough to do three of the lessons.

First was a CASE of a card by Julie Ebersole. This begins with tracing a circle on the front of a card and stamping around it with leaves in two colors and three sizes of blooms in three colors.

The center of the resulting wreath is cut out with sharp scissors. A banner was stamped and cut out then glued into the wreath from the back.

I used liquid pearls and rhinestones for the flower centers.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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The third technique I used from day 8 of class was wet-on-dry stamping onto watercolor paper with graphic stamps. I chose a solid evergreen tree image to use and laid out five pieces of watercolor paper to use.

I pressed two different green die inks (Whispers brand) onto my craft sheet and spritzed with water. The tree stamp was pressed into the wet ink and stamped onto dry watercolor paper. I stamped repeatedly, inking after each impression.  A third green was used to ink the stamp directly and stamp over the trees I wanted to appear to be in the foreground.

I used the same process with straw ink to stamp the sun. When the panels were dry I trimmed them and layered with printed papers and one layer of foam tape.

For the first card I used a teal dot for the background and a golden pattern for the bordering. The sentiment is stamped on a golden cardstock with two rounded corners. This was bordered in teal and aligned with the upper edge.

I next used a yellow-green diamond background and a green graphic border. I used a fine line black marker to add a doodle line on the panel and mounted an aqua sentiment over a rust border.

The third card uses a teal dot background and a rust border. An aqua sentiment got a a banner end enhanced with lines and the panel got a broken doodle line in black.

Then I mounted a panel on a honeycomb background with a muted green border. The sentiment was cut with a banner end and bordered in green. Where it overhangs the left edge of the panel I used foam tape to raise it to the same level.

The final card with this technique got a medium dot teal background and a mottled border. I used gold gel pen to create a glint on the tree branches where they catch the light of the sun. The sun also got a bit of gold pen on the bottom rim. A fine black doodle line was drawn around the panel.

The sentiment was stamped on aqua, bordered in mottled cardstock and adhered to the front of the panel.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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The next technique I tried from day 8 was to use a single graphic stamp to create a repeating border. I used two inks - purple and teal - and selected three different stamps so I could make some different designs.

In each case I drew a light line in pencil to keep the center aligned. I stamped down this line with teal ink, using a stamp positioner whenever the stamp was a wood mount (2 of them were). Then I used the purple ink to stamp an offset of the same stamp up each side.

For the first card I used a rather scroll-y stamp which lent itself to a more tailored treatment. I trimmed the panel, bordered it with purple and mounted it on a black striped background. I stamped a sentiment on teal, bordered it with black and purple then popped it up on foam tape.

The second stamp I used was a lineal floral. This created a narrower border which I gave a wider border of black striped paper. I used this panel on the left side of a shiny silver background. The sentiment was stamped on teal and bordered with purple and got popped up on foam. A thin black border was created with black marker.

The final card with this technique used a graphic square set on point. I bordered the panel in black and mounted it on the left side of a shiny gold background. The sentiment was stamped on purple and the corners rounded before bordering in black and popping up on foam tape.

Three butterflies were punched from black cardstock and mounted with the wings raised.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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The first technique on day 8 was to use graphic stamps in a repeating ombre design.

I selected 8 graphic heart stamps from different clear sets and chose 6 pink/red dye inks (Whispers brand). I began with the large bottom heart to get an alignment that would not overlap. I worked my way upward with just the large hearts in each line using successively lighter inks.

After all lines were done I went back and used different smaller hearts to fill in the open areas. I had a rhinestone filled heart sticker and applied that to one of the stamped hearts in row three.

I stamped a sentiment with black, tied three rounds of black twine around the base and mounted with a thin black border.

Ddd

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The last technique of day 7 is also a kissing of stamps but in a different way. The plan is to use the kissing to ADD ink pattern instead of SUBTRACTING it. I call this Kissing On.

I inked the solid quilt stamp with die ink and stamped on white cardstock. I used two different pink inks to create variety and arranged a bunch of them to make a large pattern.

I inked a houndstooth background stamp with white pigment ink and pressed the quilt stamp onto it before pressing onto the already-stamped pink blocks.

I trimmed and bordered the panel with dark pink before adding to a pink chevron background. The stamped sentiment was scored and folded so the fishtail ends tuck behind. The center is popped up on foam tape and the ends are glued to the background.

One white butterfly is added with the wings raised.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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For this Kiss Off technique I inked a solid quilt stamp with die ink and pressed it to a houndstooth background stamp before pressing to white cardstock. This removes part of the ink so a pattern appears inside the solid stamped area. I used two different coral inks to create variety and arranged four of them to enlarge the pattern.

I even liked the test stamp so cut that out to use on a separate layer, bordered with black and popped up on foam.

I bordered the main panel with black and mounted this on a white card base.

A stamped sentiment, bordered in black is also popped up on foam tape and is accented on either side with black rhinestones

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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I call this card 'A Flower in Parentheses'. For the class on day 7 we were using stamps called 'graphics'. These have solid areas and are usually geometric. I found a set in my collection that was all oversized punctuation marks and decided to use those.

I arranged two different sizes of parentheses facing each other on a clear block. Then I used straw ink to stamp a circle of them, overlapping as I went around. I came back with a third parentheses stamp, this one more open, and filled in the spaces.

I used sage ink with a set of quote marks to construct leaves and added some yellow-green to them by overstamping. I used the largest parenthesis to make a stem.

I gave all the petals and leaves a drop-shadow with black marker. Trimmed and bordered the panel in black and added it to a floral background. Colored a small daisy diecut with black marker and stuck to center.

Added a champagne rhinestone. Bordered a sentiment with black and popped up on foam tape.

Then I made a card I call 'A Mum in Quotes'.

I used a quotation mark stamp to create a mum on white cardstock, using two inks. I stamped a solid daisy in the center.

I used parenthesis, stretched straight, to stamp a stem and leaves. Then I trimmed and bordered the panel in green.

I wrapped the panel with blue twine and layered it on blue plaid background using foam tape.

I bordered and added a stamped sentiment with its left side on foam tape and the right side on the panel.

Ddd

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The third technique taught on the Bonus Day (yes, I skipped technique two which was paper piecing) was Mirror Stamping.

To create a reverse image, the stamp is inked and pressed onto the back flat side of a larger clear stamp mounted on a stamp press. This is then stamped onto the desired paper. Touch-ups can be done with a black marker.

A regular impression of the same image is made to another piece of paper and these are both cut out. A black marker is used to color the edges of the cut paper to get rid of the white.

I gave my fish a blue dot background to serve as water with bubbles and wavy strips of XXX and OOO paper. The fish were mounted on foam tape under the bodies with all the fins glued down to the background.

They each got a clear bubble for the eye and 'she' got lipstick added with a marker.

I stamped the sentiment with a 'random words' set.

Ddd

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The outline stamps used on days 5 and 6 were all from a floral set. For the bonus day we got some lessons on alternative ways to use the 'cute little outline stamps that are begging to be colored'.

The first lesson was refered to as 'splodging'. Odd word - beautiful effect!

I created a background by pressing Distress Ink pads onto a large acrylic block, spritzing it with water and pressing it onto watercolor paper. When it was dry it was rewetted with clear water on a brush and Glimmer Mist colors were dropped onto the paper in specific areas to correspond to the stamp that would be used.

After drying with a heat gun I stamped three times with my hand carved butterfly, using masking to allow them to overlap.

I bordered it in a black and white stripe. The stamped sentiment is bordered with the same and cut with banner ends.

Ddd

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Although I had seen the last technique on day 6 demonstrated many times before and always wanted to try it myself, I had never actually done it. Well, this was the perfect opportunity to do some 'no line coloring'.

For this I stamped roses (my own hand carved stamps) with light sand ink, using masks to create overlapping images. I used three alcohol markers in reds and three in greens to shade and color the image, working from dark to light. I used a colorless blender to remove color on the petals where more light would naturally fall.

I masked the image and used my Copic airbrush system to fill the background with blues and greens.

I wrapped and tied red twine around the base of the panel and attached bordered panel to white card base.

I added a stamped and bordered sentiment using foam tape for mounting.

LOVE the result of the no line coloring. Looking forward to using this new skill again.

Ddd

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I wasn't feeling completely inspired by the lessons on day 6 but once I got to the studio and started choosing stamps to use I started developing a vision.

In the same technique as yesterday's card I switched to an image of a flowering branch. 'reverse stamping'. I stamped the image on watercolor paper with Versamark and embossed in white. This time I pink, blue and purple Distress Inks and a foam blending tool to make the background.

When this was dry I painted plain water inside the flowers and the branch let it sit just a moment. Then I blotted up the color with a paper towel. When all the flowers were done I dried it with the heat gun.

I then cut the large page into two sections to use on separate cards.

For the smaller of these panels I used a Distress Marker to color in the branch. I then bordered it with a complementary color and mounted with foam tape over a striped card front.  A sentiment was trimmed and bordered and then it too was popped up on foam. I finished it with lavender Liquid Pearls in the center of each of the flowers.

the second panel had two branches and looked better in a landscape format. I used white and purple as layering colors.

The sentiment, stamped on lavender and bordered in white, is popped up on foam over a swirl of baker's twine.

I did not color the branches on this version but I did add the Liquid Pearls to the flower centers.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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I can't remember what the instructor called this day 6 technique, but I call it 'reverse stamping'.

I stamped image (my hand carved stamp of feathers) on watercolor paper with Versamark and embossed with white powder. I then used a foam blending tool to make a tri-colored background.

When this was dry I painted plain water inside stamped areas and let it sit a moment or two. Then I blotted up the color with a paper towel. After all areas were completed I dried it with the heat gun.

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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