Stampin Alley: January 2015

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Lotus Blossom from SAB

I loved the Lotus Blossom set in the Sale-A-Bration catalogue as soon as I saw it, so my class ladies got to create this little set of Notecards at class (there is actually 4 cards, but for some reason I missed putting the blue one up).

The Lotus Blossom Stamp Set is actually a three step stamping set and comes in photopolymer so that you can see exactly where you are positioning the stamp when adding the layers. By the way did you know that you actually don't need 2 or 3 different colours to get the variated colours. I find with the new stamp pads from Stampin Up that you can get beautiful variations of the one colour just by stamping off 1, 2 or even 3 times. To create the effect for the cards below I simply stamped the smallest stamp in full strength ink, then the middle stamp after stamping off the stamp once, and the largest stamp by stamping off the stamp twice.

You can't tell from the picture by the sentiment is embossed with gold embossing powder and is from Butterfly Basics set from the new Occasions Catalogue.

Here is a great video from Stampin Up showing this great new set.

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Thursday, January 29, 2015

Bokeh Technique with a Butterfly

The Bokeh Technique is all the rage at the moment and I have been wanting to give it a try. It creates beautiful coloured backgrounds with white spots representing light reflections - this is often achieved by photographers. Apologies for my vague description.

I created a couple of cards and will show the other one in another card next week. With this card I was looking for a soft pastel background and used Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder and a touch of Marina Mist reinkers.

In essence I brushed a piece of watercolour paper with water, then after mixing some reinker and water added this in splotches all over the paper. I used an Aqua Brush to allow me to water down the ink and keep the watercolour paper moist. Once I was happy with it, I used a heat gun to completely dry the watercolour paper and then added circles using a template I created with some clear acetate with circles cut out in various sizes using the Circles Framelits and a sponge dauber. The picture below shows the circles a bit better.

There are lots of tutorials on Youtube if you are looking for full details of how to create.

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Monday, January 26, 2015

Sorry I have been gone so long

Hi all, I know you are probably wondering where I have been - I will share some details but first let me show you the first of many projects that I have been creating.

I went with a bright and and funky card that would be perfect for kids of any age (as well as adults), using the Celebrate Toady Stamp Set and the Balloon Framelits Dies. I love this stamp set and die, and you will see more cards using these later this week.

This card has a Whisper White card base which I layered with the Pacific Point dot DSP from the Brights Designer Series Paper Stack, and used the Sweet Taffy DSP behind the cut out balloons. I wanted a smaller balloon so I used the Circles Dies and used the top of the Streamers from the Balloons Die Set to cut the 'tail' of the balloon and added some co-ordinating Bakers Twine and voila. There are links below to some of the products used.

I must apologise for being gone for so long. Unfortunately restructuring at work left us under resourced and 'highly stressed'!!! In addition my father has dementia and unfortunately has deteriorated significantly over the last few years, last year needing full time nursing care. All I can say is it is a horrible illness, I have slowly lost the father I knew (even though he is still with us), and watched my mother struggle as she saw the deterioration of the husband she had shared her life with for almost 50 years.

As a result I struggled to keep my Stampin Up going, even taking a break from classes for 6 months last year (sorry ladies), but I made a decision this year to reduce to work only 4 days a week, allowing me more time to spend with my parents and renew my love of creating. And finally I have found some balance!