Running With Scissors…

Did you know Flourishes is having a contest?  They’re one of the new Member Companies on Splitcoaststampers and just for fun they’ve decided to devote the month of February to Cake Decorating 101, the set I used on this card.  You can read all the information about the contest here.  You must use the Cake Decorating 101 set to enter and if you’ve been on the fence about this set, well, it’s on sale right now for 15% off.   There will be prizes all month and lots of fun and inspiring cards to look at — just click on the contest link above to read all about it and take a look at some of the entries.  Design team members, like myself, aren’t eligible to win but, gee, I can always use another birthday card so I thought I’d make this one to have on hand.  I do love this ruffly cake plate!

I used papers from my BasicGrey Two Scoops 6×6 pad to decorate the background and prettied it up further with ribbon and flowers.  The flowers are a Wal-Mart find.  They came complete with the beaded centers and an adhesive dimensional dot.

I decided to make a frosted glass, covered cake plate today.  The cover is actually a cake stamp, ready to color and decorate but I thought it worked out pretty well like this.  I stamped the cake plate, cover and pedestal (three different stamps) with Versamark ink on vellum and embossed with Sage embossing powder.  I used a fine-tipped Sharpie to add a little pink around the edges.  The cake slice is a solid stamp which I stamped in Barely Banana, then colored over the frosting areas with my Creamy Caramel marker.  I added a few Chocolate Chip sprinkles to make it yummy.  All the pieces were cut out and assembled on white cardstock, using Crystal Effects for adhesive, then cut out again as a whole and mounted on the card with dimensional mounting tape.  Fun!

On another note:  I plan to get back to you regarding the challenge we discussed in my last post.  Evenings after work are far too short for getting much done once I get my second wind so I have to approach one project at a time.  Tonight I wanted to be sure and share the info about Flourishes’ contest.  Possibly tomorrow I’ll get something written up about a challenge — which means I then won’t have time to stamp anything new, so we’ll see how it goes.  I also have some household chores to do…  We’re having a new china cabinet delivered on Friday and I need to take everything out of the old one and stack it out of the way (where?).  I hope you can hang in there with me for a spell.  Thank you!  I’ll see you again soon!

Today’s card is a little something I made for the pure joy of stamping.  I set out to make my own background the old-fashioned way — no designer paper — just to see if I still remembered how.  Well…of course, I remembered how.  I just needed to apply myself.

In the process of creating designer papers there are techniques used to create pattern overlays that can’t always be duplicated with stamping.  Sometimes, however, a sheet of designer paper will appear to have been hand painted and these are the looks that we, the stampers, can hope to achieve using the images created by the brilliant artists who design our stamps.

Now…there has been a lot of discussion as to whether stampers can be considered artists.  After all, we don’t draw the images; we simply arrange them on our “canvas”.   But then I have to wonder about the person who gathers cast off items and welds them into objets d’art to be displayed in parks and in front of office buildings.  Surely I’ve heard that person referred to as an artist.  Does the jewelry designer create the diamond or the gold?  No, but they do apply their artistry in selecting and shaping those pieces into an exquisite whole.  I don’t necessarily mean to equate stamping with these other artistic endeavors, simply to draw the comparison.  Many of us may not have the vision or the hand to create the original stamp design, but we have our eyes and our hearts which we can use to strive toward the desired end.

I hoped, in this piece, to create a rather vintage-looking background, similar to something I might be drawn to while shopping for designer paper but would hesitate to buy because it wouldn’t leave room for my own stamping.  I love to stamp and I’m thinking you do, too, so I thought I’d share how I made this — for the folks who are still trying to learn some of the tricks.

1.  Determined to start with a blank canvas I used the TP technique to cover Very Vanilla cardstock with CTMH Vanilla Cream ink.  TP is toilet paper.  I wadded it up, smooshed it into my ink pad and then onto my paper, repeating until the paper was covered with a mottled look.  For a complete tutorial on the TP technique, click here.

2.  Next, I used a brayer to ink up my Stampin’ Up! En Francais (script) background.  I laid the background stamp face up on my table and placed my TP’d paper face down on the stamp.  I pressed my fingertips to the cardstock in a few random places, then carefully lifted the paper.

3.  I stamped some images from Carte Postale in Creamy Caramel, attempting an arrangement that has a little bit of a flow to it and leaving an open area for the floral image.

4.  The lilacs are Stampin’ Up!’s Blossoms Abound, one of their two-step stampin’ sets which aren’t very prevalent in the catalog these days — much to my dismay, but I’m a floral person and these sets are perfect for floral images.  I stamped them in Versamark and did the Poppin’ Pastels technique.  The chalk gave a little better coverage with a softer look than ink could afford.  Poppin’ Pastels are wonderful for two step stamping.  Chalk  the first image, then overstamp the second step image and chalk it in a darker color.  I’ll plan to share more about that process in a later post.  I used Pale Plum and Perfect Plum on the blooms, and Mellow Moss and Always Artichoke on the leaves.  I shaded around the floral images with Creamy Caramel chalk.

5.  The final step on the background was to spray it with matte sealer.  This is only necessary because of the chalks, but it sure gives a nice finish to the paper, too.

The next time I do something like this I’ll plan my layout first.  Once I had this background made I didn’t want to cut off a single smidgen of it so it wound up as the whole card front with just a couple of brads and some ribbon and cord.

One more thing:  I don’t know if this type of thing is too involved to be presented as a challenge but it’s something I’ve been thinking about.  There are all kinds of challenges out there and I’ve been trying to think of something different that you might enjoy.  There has to be a reason for me to have this blog, other than just posting cards I’ve made.  I’ve always tried to share designs and tutorials but I’m wondering if you’d like to interact a little bit?  If you’d like to make your own interpretation of this background and share it with the rest of us as a group of challenge lovers, please let me know if you’re interested.  We can talk about it more, but I’ll wait to hear from you first.

Thank you for visiting!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend!