Lovely Lattice

Many years ago... even before I was a Demo... I learned this lattice technique and have kind of forgotten about it. I came across the instructions for it the other day, and thought it would make a great club project.

The stamp set we used was "Thoughts and Prayers" and we used Heat and Stick powder and glitter on the words. It looks hard to read here, but in real life it is better!




Here is the pattern and instructions... if you print this out on 8 1/2 X 11 then you will get the right size for your template. (There is not a name on this sheet, so I don't even know who to credit this technique to, but it is a great one... and easy to do, too!)

Poppin' Pastels

When I signed up to be a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator close to 5 years ago, the pastels were one of the things in my starter kit. I love my pastels, but I go in spurts of using them. But they are really a great value because you get all 48 regular SU! colours, and with a set of blender pens, you can colour in your projects to match your paper, and accessories, even if you don't have all the markers or ink colours. Pastels can also be used dry, and the set comes with little applicators, but you can also use regular Q-tips.

But, another fun thing to do with your pastels is a technique called "Poppin' Pastels." You just stamp your image in Versamark and then with a sponge or other applicator and watch the image appear before your eyes!! The images on the red paper below have been stamped in Versamark as well, and they just give a watermark effect.... Versamark is a pretty cool product, too!

Here is a sample of this... one of my card club projects from last week.

Valentine's Card

I don't know about you, but I am ready to move onto Spring! But no such luck... we are experiencing yet another downfall of snow, and the Valley is white again. Pretty, but that's it!

So, here's a Valentine's card that I made with my Stamper's Club last Wednesday. We used the Valentine's bundle, which is on sale until the end of January, at 20% off... and the yellow in the letters was achieved with the Bleaching technique.

Terrific Technique

On Thursday evening, I had the first night of my new "Beyond the Basics" club. All the ladies that are in this club have been in at least one of my previous clubs, and for a couple of these gals, this is their fourth club with me! Wow - talk about loyalty - thanks so much ladies!!!

One of the projects we made was this View-Master card. Check out the tutorial on Splitcoaststampers HERE.

Dare To Be Fabulous!

When I first saw the set "Fabulous Flowers" in the SU! catalogue, I loved it! But for some reason, I didn't buy it right then... other sets seemed more practical, perhaps, or I had already spent my budget for that month!! (ha! like I have a stamping budget - kidding...) But whatever the reason, I only purchased it recently, and I have really been having fun with it since. I love the saying, "Dare to be Fabulous," and I think the set lends itself to any colour combination.

Here is a card I made this week while playing around with the set. I inked the stamps in Pumpkin Pie and then used a red marker to colour the edges. Markers are so versatile, and one of my favourite things to do with them is to ink right onto the stamp.


card measures 5 1/4 X 5 1/4 square and fits perfectly in the large square envelopes from SU!

Make and Take Card

Last weekend, I had the honour of doing a home workshop for Dona and her friends. Here is the make and take that we did. I love glitter... can you tell??? We used the 2-way glue pen to add a border of glitter around the vanilla paper, and on the tree, as well as surrounding the sentiment oval. And, I love this stamp set (Scandinavian Season) - bet you couldn't tell that, either!!!

Praying for a friend

On Wednesday, my friend's husband died. He was only 56 years old. I had the privilege of working with her in my very first year of teaching, and she became very special to me because it was also my first year living away from home. During that year, I went to her house several times for dinner, or a visit, and felt totally loved by her family. Her husband was like a big teddy bear and he was loved by so many people. I can't imagine losing my best friend, and my heart goes out to her, and I have been praying that God will wrap his big arms around her and give her comfort.

I made her a card and I wanted to mail it off right away, so I forgot to take a picture. This is pretty much the same card. I used markers directly on the stamp and then "huffed" on the stamp to moisten it again before stamping it on the paper. These colours feel like sunshine to me, and I hope they bring comfort when the card is opened.

Terrific Techniques

Heat Embossing...

One of my favourite techinques is heat embossing. It is so easy, too. You just stamp in a pigment ink, or versamark, sprinkle on the embossing powder in your choice of shade, and heat it with the heating tool.

Here is a card I made recently using the "Wild About You" stamp set, and 3 shades of metallic embossing powder (currently, just the gold and silver are available through Stampin' Up!)

Terrific Techniques!

Here's a little card I just made... it measures 2 3/4" X 7 3/4 ". I used the Baby Wipe technique (see below picture for instructions). Then I embossed in black the images from Pocket Silhouettes (one of my new faves! And it's on sale until the end of September). This was a pretty quick little card to make, and I like the final product. When I make another one, I might try to get the swipes a little more consistent... and then again, I might not - nature is not always "consistent" otherwise why would people stare at clouds and take pictures of sunsets? If every single one was the same, then we'd only ever need to take one picture! So I think I'll leave my technique the way it is :)

The technique:

For a background paper: fold a baby wipe in half a couple times until you have an edge that is about 2 inches wide. Place drops of reinkers along this edge, alternating 2 coordinating colours. Swipe the baby wipe across Whisper White paper to create patterned paper.

For a multicoloured stamp pad: Place about 6-8 drops in 2 or 3 colours of coordinating reinker colours to make a pool large enough for the stamp of your choice. Solid stamps work best, but it is fun to experiment with many stamps, and different reinker colour combinations.


ps - this is the first time I have scanned a picture... usually I just take a digital pic of it, but Steve is out with the camera, so I had to learn how to use the scanner, or else wait until he came home - I didn't want to wait!!!