BEAUTIFUL BLUEBERRIES - MY PICK OF THE WEEK

Hello everyone!  Cheri here with my pick of the week for you for The House That Stamps Built and Repeat Impressions Stamps.

The stamps I used here are discounted 20% for one week only, so don't miss out on this opportunity.  

Here in Maine, it's all about the blueberries and Wendy, has some gorgeous blueberry stamps.  If you like to color, these are exceptional stamps to color with.  I had such a fun time creating these cards and matching envelopes.  

RI#1503-M Blueberry Strand

RI#1001-B Blueberry Border

RI#2703-E "Small Blueberry Cluster"

RI# 2701-I "Large Blueberry Cluster"

I used Copic Markers to color all the images and (here's a tip) in order to keep the markers from bleeding through on the envelopes, I placed a piece of plastic packaging inside the envelop while I colored.  

I hope you were inspired by my creation with these blueberry stamps and I hope you take the opportunity to grab them for yourself while this 20% discount is available.  You won't be sorry.  

PROJECT OF THE WEEK - CASE A ROCK STAR CARD

Hey there, House friends!  

Cheri here with a new Project of the Week for you!  

If you're a card maker, you have probably had moments when you can't find your mojo and a card creation is nearly impossible to create.  I've had a few of those moments myself (okay...more than "a few").  When I can't find my mojo, I use someone else's and look through online card postings until I find something I find inspiring and use that as my "jumping off point".  In other words, I "Copy And Share with Everyone"...CASE...someone else's card.  

In the card making world, it's a compliment to have your creation CASE'd, and it's customary (and appreciated) to give credit to the original card if you post yours online.  

I find tons of inspiration right here each and every week when I see what the Rock Stars have created for each of the many challenges we have during the month.  That said, my POTW for you this week is to show you cards I've CASE'd from three of these talented ladies.  

First up is one I CASE'd from Patti's October TicTacToe challenge.  Isn't that the cutest card?

I took Patti's card and created this one.  The CASE part here is I used the same stamps and while my card is a bit different from Patti's I used hers for the inspiration for mine.  (My regret is I didn't put googly eyes in the background.  I loved that touch she gave her card).  Stamps used are RI#2307-E "Trick or Treat Ghost" and RI#2316-G "Boo".    The ghostly circles/orbs in the bg of my card were made by dipping a pen cap into white pigment ink.  

Most of us don't copy the original card to the very detail, we often change it up, but use the original as a starting point.  

This is a card Shirley made for an inspiration challenge back in January.  I needed a birthday card for my brother, and thought this would be a fun card to CASE and make for him.  Stamps used on both Shirley's card and mine are from the Holy Crap stamp collection.  On my card I also used RI#2710-D "Sm. Pine Tree" and RI#2709-I "Large Pine Forest".  I also added some borders around the bottom layer.

The last CASE example I have for you today is this card made by Heather.

I kept pretty closely to Heather's great card but thought it would make a fun Christmas card by just changing up the colors and a few details.  We both used RI#5116-I "Cat Sitting Sil"  I changed the sentiment using RI#8909-G "Magical Christmas", and added a die cut snowflake in place of her floral.  

There you have it for my POTW for you.  I hope you've found some inspiration and will be encouraged to CASE cards of others when you're at a loss for inspiration...just give them credit if you post them online.  

Thanks for stopping by!  

PROJECT OF THE WEEK - SOLID STAMP LOVE

Hi house guests, Cheri here with a new project of the week for you.  This is more like a two-fer....two projects showing ways to use those individual solid stamps that often times sit in our stamp collection waiting for some love.  

The first is a technique using Distress Oxide Inks and direct to stamp layering and the second is an older technique called "faux artisan tile" showcasing those inked stamps.   

Disclaimer:  I don't have a lot of photos....my process photos somehow got deleted in the transfer from camera to computer.  It's a new camera and I'm still getting used to it. I think I hit the wrong button.  

Here at the supplies you'll need:  Distress Oxide Inks (colors of your choice), solid stamp, VersaMark Ink, clear embossing powder, embossing buddy and a MISTI or other stamp positioner tool, card stock.

Layer Inking process:  Swipe the card stock panel with the anti-static tool.  Adjust your card stock panel and stamp on your MISTI.  Arrange your stamp in the center of the cs panel.  

I used 3 different colors for each stamp in my example.  Take your lightest ink and begin stamping, either selective areas or over the whole stamp.  I did both in my projects.  Stamp the inked stamp to the cs panel.  Take the next lightest color and do the same, repeat with the darkest color. 

Faux Artisan Tile process:  Leave your stamp in the MISTI and clean the ink off.

1. Once you're happy with your image, remove it from the MISTI.  Before proceeding to the next step, your image must be completely dry.  This is very important.  You can use your heat too (not in photo) to speed this up.  
2. Use the anti-static pad and swipe it over the dry image.  Place the cs panel back in the MISTI and Ink the stamp again, this time with VersaMark Ink.  
3. Stamp the image again with the VersaMark, then taking the image out of the MISTI cover it with clear embossing powder and heat emboss. 
4. Repeat step 2-3 multiple times - at lease 3 or 4 times.  
5. Cover the entire card stock panel well with VersaMark ink, cover with clear embossing powder and heat set.  

Here are my completed projects.

Stamps used RI#5127-K "Maple Leaf Sil" and RI#3213-G "For the Beauty".

RI#5106-H "Butterfly Sil" and RI#9206-H "Beautiful Days"

RI#2719-K "Large Pine Sil" and RI#2203-H "May Your Heart" (I used only a portion of the stamp).  

There you have it...two ways to those those solid stamps some love.  I hope you found some inspiration and fun here today and give these projects a try.  

  

POTW - STAMPING TIP - REPURPOSE CLEAR PACKAGING FOR STAMPING

Hi there, 

I'm here with a helpful stamping tip for you instead of a project.  

Often times, especially with rubber stamps, it's difficult to decide just where you'd like an image on your project.  The stamp positioners, or MISTI  are wonderful tools, but in the case of being undecided as to where you'd like the image or sentiment, this is a great tip and comes in handy for me often.  

Shown in this photo are two pieces of packaging materials.  The one on the left is a sturdier piece of acrylic that came in something, while the one the right is a celophane package.  Both work equally well.  

I cut the pieces a little larger than an A2 card because that's the card size I usually make.  

You don't need the MISTI or stamp positioner for this step, but in the photo I used the MISTI because my cardstock was already in it.  

I placed the acrylic piece right on top of my CS and began placing my stamp around it while I decided where I might like the image to be.  

At this point, you can move the acrylic piece around and around the area of your CS and get a good idea of where it pleases you.  If you're using a MISTI, you can wipe the image off the acrylic piece, move the stamp and repeat the step.  

The same process applies to the sentiment.  It's a great way to get the right sentiment in the right place.  

When you're ready, just slide your acrylic off the CS and ink and stamp.  Finish as you'd like.  

The stamps I used here are RI# 3602-P "First Light" and RI# 3212-H "To Everything".  

I hope you like this little tip, it’s been helpful to me for many years and I hope it is for you.   

Have a happy day and I hope you get some craft time.  

MAKING CARDS FROM NAPKINS - PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Hi everyone,

Cheri here with a fun Project of the Week for you.  I love doing all sorts of craft things with pretty napkins and one of the things I like to do is make cards with them. Let me show you how I do it.  

The supplies I use are napkins (of course), gel matte medium, two paint brushs (one for the gel medium and one for water - only one brush is shown in the photo) and card stock of your choice.  I used 80# white for this.  

The first thing you'll need to do is separate your napkins.  Some are 2 ply and some are 3 ply.  It's important to only have the image layer of the napkin.  The easiest way I've found to separate the panels is take a piece of tape, and stick it to the back side of the napkin and pull off the layers.  They  come apart easily this way.  Once separated, you can cut the napkin is sections.

The next step is to find the area of the napkin you want to have on your card layer and you can easily tear that away by taking one of your paint brushes get it lightly wet and barely touch the outside area of the image, being careful to keep the water from wetting more area than you wish.

The next step is to apply gel medium to the brush you've set aside for that and use the gel to attach the torn napkin to your card stock panel by adding it to the cs piece as well as brushing it across the napkin once it's in place on the cs.  Be sure to brush gently from the center to the outside in order to avoid wrinkles and tearing.  

Once dry, you can trim your piece and create your card.  This is a great technique for a quick card using just a sentiment stamp.  

I have made these in sets and given them as gifts many times.  They really are quite fun to make and I'm sure you can think of many other ways to use those pretty napkins.  

 I used RI Stamps # 8114-F Chicken Soup/Puppies

                           RI# 1112-E "Just a Note"

   

 RI#1145-F "Greetings From"
RI Plate# 9800

I hope you'll give this project a try...it's really a fun one.  

PROJECT OF THE WEEK FOR REPEAT IMPRESSIONS

Hi there everyone!  Cheri here with a new project of the week to share.  It's called "Masking with Rubber Cement".  

You can purchase masking fluid in many art departments and online in many locations.  However, you can also get the same results by using plain old rubber cement and it's a whole lot cheaper.   

Here is one of the projects I made using the technique I'm going to show you.  

For this card I used RI Stamps #9114-I "Heart Air Balloon" and the sentiment is RI#2505-H "The Very Best...".  

Here are the supplies you'll need for this project.  

Watercolor Paper, Rubber Cement, Small Paint Brush (for applying the rubber cement), Assortment of Distress Inks or watercolor medium of your choice, VersaMark Embossing Ink, White Embossing Powder, Waterproof ink and your choice of stamps. Paper Mask for balloon image.  (Note:  I used my MISTI stamp positioning tool for stamping my images)

• Stamp the Heart Balloon stamp onto the watercolor paper panel, in the area where you'd like the "front" balloon to be.  Stamp with VersaMark Ink, sprinkle with white embossing powder and heat emboss.  Note:  When stamping, be sure you get a good stamped image with the ink.  Sometimes it takes two or three times to get a good impression on watercolor paper.

• When cool, use the paper mask to cover this stamped and embossed image.   Again, place the balloon where you'd like it to appear behind the front one. Repeat the inking process, apply the embossing powder and heat emboss. 

• I taped my card panel down with painter's tape on a piece of board I use to keep watercolor paper flat while adding water.  It reduces warping. 

• Using your small paint brush, apply the rubber cement to the center of your images or to any area you'd like to mask (preventing watercoloring to color the area).  Be sure to get good coverage in the areas you want masked.  Now, wait for it to dry...it takes about 10 minutes.  

• When your rubber cement is dry, you can now apply your watercolor (with a clean brush, NOT the one you used for the cement).  You can give the background a wet wash and apply color that way or you can apply your wet watercolor straight to the paper.  Both effects are quite nice.  I'll have an example of the wet watercolor to paper application at the end of this post.  

• For the wet wash, just "paint" your watercolor panel with clean water.  I smooshed the Distress Inks on an acrylic block and picked up some color with the brush I used to apply the water to the watercolor paper and dropped each color in the area where I wanted it. 

  

• After your background is as you like it you can remove the rubber cement by simply rubbing it off with your finger.  

• In this photo you can see where some of the watercolor got in areas where I didn't have enough rubber cement coverage.  I fixed that by taking a very small brush and just wetting those areas and dabbing it off with a paper towel.  

• Now just decorate your card as you'd like it.  

• Here's a second card I did using the wet paint to dry paper.  The same process was followed except for that.  

Stamps used for this card are RI#10303-H "Daisy Outline Large", #10302-E "Daisy Outline Small", 10319-F "Leaf Outline Slender" and 10321-H "Stem Outline".  The sentiment is RI#1112-E "Just a Note".  

I hope you enjoyed this and give it a try.  

PROJECT OF THE WEEK - BACKGROUNDS USING A DRYER SHEET

Happy New Year, everyone!!!  
(If you're looking for the Blog Hop for Technique Junkies, please go to the next post).  
I'm here, starting off 2017 with a brand new project of the week for The House That Stamps Built.  I'm calling it "dryer sheet background technique".  

Supplies you'll need:

Several dye inks that react with water

Watercolor paper or heavier weight (100#) card stock 

Water in a sprayer bottle

Used dryer sheets (one for each collection of colors you are using)

Craft sheet or some other waterproof base (freezer paper/waxed paper) for your work surface.

Stamps and ink to finish your project with.  

Step 1 - Press your inks in a row onto your craft sheet.

Step 2 - Spray with water from your sprayer until you have nice saturation and beeding that looks like this.  (If you'd like a softer background, use more water)

Step 3 - Place one of your dryer sheets over the watered inks on your craft sheet.

I like to let it sit on top of the ink for a little while in order for the dryer sheet to soak up some of the ink.  Grab each end of the sheet and give it a slight twist back and forth then bring it to your card stock to the area you'd like the ink to be.  

You can twist it again while on your card stock, however, unless you want the colors to mix together, be careful to keep the wet inks in their own area.  When you're satisfied with the coverage, you can get another generation using the same dryer sheet and another piece of card stock if you'd like. NOTE:  You can repeat this process with other colors of inks and fresh used dryer sheets.

                   

Step 4 - Use your new backgrounds as you'd like for new card or project creations.  

I really liked how these big word stamps looked againt these dryer sheet backgrounds.  I used three of the 4 sets: You Series #10100, Thanks Series #1000 and Hello Series #9900.  BTW, these sets all come in red rubber on cling too.  

I hope you liked this tutorial and will give it a try.  It's really fun to do and to see the cool results you get with used dryer sheets.  

Have a fabulous year ahead!