CAS Valentine

At most of our classes, Lou and I offer 3 cards or projects.

This is the final card from Lou's February Men's Night Out.

This clean and simple design introduced his class to a new technique:  inking stamps with markers.  Ink, huff, stamp, assemble, done -- the kind of simplicity many stampers enjoy in their card making.

Added bonus:  the participants were delighted that they didn't have to run to a big box store and hunt through racks of mass-produced Valentines, but could proudly say to their honey, "I made this for you".  Proud moments for all.

Keep it Balanced

Hi Stampers!

Do you ever have times where you make a card, it looks okay, but you know it could be better.  Yet you aren't quite sure what it needs.  That was my experience with my last post. 

The card hung on my magnet board for a couple of weeks. I liked the colors well enough, but there was just something that wasn't quite right.
 
While prepping for my club to teach them the techniques involved, it finally dawned on me -- the card was out of balance, with too much negative space.  Thankfully it was a quick and easy fix.








Ah, now that's better, don't you think? 
My club members agree that the longer flower image works ever so much better here.

Notice the double sponging around the flowers?  I love this technique of sponging first one color all around, then a second over it.  Here we used Daffodil Delight followed by Calypso Coral.

Happy stampin'!
Trish

NOT JUST FOR EASTER

Love how this turned out.  On Friday my club will be making this and two other cards, creating our own designer paper, celebrating the close of yet another year of stamping together, and looking with anticipation as to what will be featured in the new annual catalog which will go live on June 1. 

  shown here:  Blessed Easter from the Occasions catalog

BLESSED EASTER #2

Happy Tuesday!

For us, it looks like spring is taking a definite stand.  Warmer temps today with occasional light rain make it just about ideal, in my humble opinion.  My tulips have emerged and the leaves are growing stronger each day.  Soon we will see those beautiful buds develop; can the blooms be far behind.  Robins are everywhere, and the skies are filled with the glorious voices of the songbirds.  I do so love spring.

Easter will be celebrated in just under 2 weeks.  Like yesterday's card, today's pick also features the Blessed Easter stamp set.

Strawberry Slush and Pear Pizzazz are the perfect color combination for this card (CASing Chiaki Haverstick).  To create the Z-fold, cut a Whisper White card base, 8-1/2" X 5-1/2". Score the long side at 2-1/8" and 4-1/4".

Image was stamped with Gold Encore Metallic ink, heat embossed using Gold powder - just the right touch of elegance.   Watercolor flowers and petals using a Blender Pen.  The mat was cut using the largest of the Oval framelits, then dry embossed using Decorative Dots embossing folder.  If you did not get this folder during Sale-a-Bration, you will find it available for sale in the Annual Catalog coming out on June 1.

Wishing you a day filled with beauty,
Trish

BLESSED EASTER

Happy Monday, Everyone!  I hope your weekend was filled with abundant blessings.

While I enjoy working alone in my stamp haven (AKA the basement craft room), it is a special joy to create with someone else.  Over the weekend, my supporting demonstrator and best friend (AKA as my hubby Lou) joined me for a few hours of crafting and getting ready for this week's club meeting.  I will be sharing our accomplishments in later posts.

For today's card, I want to show off one of Lou's previous creations - a window card for Easter:

To make this card, a So Saffron mat was layered onto a Very Vanilla card base.  The layers of the window were cut using Oval Framelits and the Big Shot.  The Blessed Easter stamp was inked up with Jet Black Stazon; then Lou water-colored the flowers using a blender pen and So Saffron and Always Artichoke inks.  Didn't he do a great job?  And like most of us do after we create something, we see "other things" we could have done.  Lou has decided that the next one he makes, he will emboss the So Saffron mat using the Framed Tulips embossing folder.  That should be lovely, too.

My next post will also feature this wonderful Easter stamp set.

Until then,