Stamp with Elissa

Fun & Fast Congratulations

I created this card last weekend for a friend's graduation.  I knew that I wanted to use the star image from Fun & Fast Notes, and I wanted a masculine color scheme.  So, I chose Summer Sun as the main color for my star and then used the Stampin' Up! Color Coach to come up with the remaining colors--Always Artichoke, Really Rust, & Elegant Eggplant.  It's not a combo that I would ever have envisioned on my own, but I actually think it came out really nice.

As for embellishments, I didn't have any matching ribbon so I dyed some of my white grosgrain using my Elegant Eggplant inkpad and my brayer.  I also used the Fire Rhinestone Brads to add a little bit of "bling" and the Word Window Punch to make the greeting really stand out.

Masculine cards are always a bit tough for me (and for most of my customers!) so if you've created any good ones lately please share with me.  I'd love to post your creations!

Scrapbooking: Scored Journaling Lines

My customer MaryLynn recently posted a comment asking for ideas for her kids to scrapbook their summer memories on their own.  I did some thinking, and my favorite idea is to do a 6x6 brag book using two-page spreads for each main photo or event.  This size works really well with one or two photos on the left-hand page and a full page of journaling on the right.  You can share a funny story, a top-ten list, or anything else that really captures the fun & excitement of the experience. 

In this sample, you may recognize the Mother's Day page that I originally posted on June 28th.  The original page includes a nice photo of my family on my first Mother's Day, with just some very simple journaling & a couple of accents.  I then added a  page of journaling that allowed me to express some of my feelings about being a new mother.  Since a full page of writing can get off-track easily, I decided to add some simple scored journaling lines.  Using the black scoring blade for my paper trimmer, I scored a line every 3/8" and then used a brayer to add a layer of ink so that the lines stood out a bit more visually.  (For younger kids, you could use 1/2" spacing to allow more room for writing.)

MaryLynn, I hope this idea works for you and your kids.  Everyone else, I hope you can find some inspiration here, too.  So that's it, everybody-- Get to scrappin'!

Sometimes Simple is Beautiful

We all tend to get caught up in making cards with fancy embellishments or "wow" techniques, but often my favorite cards turn out to be the ones that are just simple & elegant.  Today's card is one that I created for a demo-only challenge on SplitCoastStampers, and I plan to demonstrate it at my Fond Farewell Workshop this Saturday.

(Directions Added 6/28/08):  To create the background strip for this card, I stamped the bold images from Bud Basics onto Glossy White card stock using VersaMark.  Then I used a brayer to apply Groovy Guava ink over the entire strip, and buffed it with a tissue to remove any excess ink.  This technique is called "VersaMark Resist" or "Ghosting". 

The focal point of the card was created using two-step stamping with the bold flower in Groovy Guavy and the flower outline in Ruby Red.  The greeting was stamped in Ruby Red using a stamp from It's Your Birthday.

Here's the full supply list:
Stamps: Bud Basics (retiring in August), It's Your Birthday (retiring)
Ink:  Groovy Guava, Ruby Red
Paper: Groovy Guava (retiring), Ruby Red, Glossy White, Very Vanilla
Tools & Accessories: Corner Rounder Punch.