Running With Scissors…

Happy Monday to all!  I hope you had a very nice weekend and, Moms, a wonderful Mother’s Day.  Mine was very sweet.  I came in from the garden to find cream-colored roses on the dining room table, along with chocolate-dipped strawberries and one of those musical cards my husband knows I get such a kick out of.  For dinner he made marinated shrimp, scallops and mushrooms – skewered and broiled – and a most delicious salad.  I felt very spoiled!

I also spent a little time stamping “just for fun”.  I had no reason to make this card, other than to try a little something I’ve been thinking about for a while – a multi-step embossed metallic rose.

This is Kitchen Sink Stamps multi-step Hearts & Roses.  There are four steps to the rose, each stamped in Versamark and embossed one step at a time in a different embossing powder:  1) Silver  2) Gold  3) Copper  4) Black.  The leaves are three steps — gold, copper and black.

The layered embossing gave the rose and leaves a little sculpted texture and, in fact, it looks a lot like one of those gold foil stickers.  I didn’t want it to appear as though I’d used a sticker on my card but, because I know it’s stamped, I’m okay with that.

I started out planning to put this on a white card front, but it felt too formal and cold somehow, so I cut it out and warmed it up with BasicGrey Scarlet’s Letter, which complements all the colors of the rose.  A little splash of red relieved the neutrality.  I used CTMH black for the card base, and sanded the edges to bring it in line with the distressed look of the paper.  The ribbon and pearls are from Flourishes.

I’m happy to have satisfied my curiosity about the layered embossing.  Perhaps I’ll try this again with some pretty flower colors.  If I’d known in the beginning I was going to cut it out, I would have done the rose and leaves separately.  I have several ideas I’d like to try now…but so little time.  Back to the work week…sigh.  I hope you have a great week!  Thanks so much for the visit!

Stamps:  KSS Hearts & Roses  Paper:  CTMH Black, Whisper White, BasicGrey Scarlet’s letter designer paper  Ink:  Versamark  Accessories:  Velvet and organdy ribbon, Kaiser flat-backed pearls, MS Arched Lattice punch, embossing powders in silver, gold, copper, and black, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

Perhaps you know from previous posts how much I love my Kitchen Sink Stamps.  I have a new set called Lilies, and today I’ve made a card with it.

You can go many different directions in size, style, and color with the stamps in this set, as with all KSS sets.  Today, I felt like making Stargazer lilies in a pretty and feminine pink, but with a somewhat earthy, vintage, tucked away in the attic for a long time sort of feel to the finished product.  I used some brown tones in the image background, and stained and distressed the edges.  I also used my Dark Brown Prismacolor marker to stain the ribbon a little bit.

While I was at it, I thought it might be fun to photograph the step by step process.  It’s a fascinating process for me, as the image develops, and perhaps you’ll enjoy it, too, and maybe find something useful here.

When I sit down with a KSS set for the first time, I’ll always do a few test runs with a mult-step image, just to get a feel of the results.  This will help me determine the effect of each layer, or step.  I’ll try to do all steps with an image, but depending upon my color palette, I may occasionally leave out a step.  Once I’ve decided upon my colors, I’m ready to begin the image for my card.  In this case, I’ll list the colors as I go along.  All inks are Stampin’ Up!, unless otherwise noted.

Step 1:  Pink Pirouette

• Cut a piece of Whisper White with plenty of room for building the image.  It can be cut down later.
• Using a freshly cleaned acrylic block, stamp two of the first-step image as shown.
• Create two masks of the image, to be used later.  I use Eclipse Masking Tape from Flourishes (love that stuff!).   It’s very thin and has a peel off back and repositionable adhesive.

Step 2:  Pretty in Pink 

Step 3:  Rose Red

Step 4:  Bravo Burgundy

Step 5:  Palette Noir (black)

• It doesn’t show well in the photo, but in real life, you can see the darker shading of the Noir ink.  This step, in black, also adds a few extra speckles to the petals.
• I must confess, I cheated on this step.  The Step 5 stamp has stamens and pistols, very delicate, and I couldn’t for the life of me stamp them over the previous image without creating a blurred effect.  So…forgive me Maria, but I cut those off the stamp.  I’m sorry!  I had to ‘fess up, though, because I didn’t want to be misleading.  I’d feel bad if any of you tried to stamp this image and wondered how in the world I managed to get those itty bitty parts to line up so perfectly.

Step 6:  Mask flowers and stamp leaves in Garden Green.

• When applying the masks, it’s best to let a little edge of the flower it’s covering to peek out in the area where you will overstamp it to avoid a white halo when the mask is removed.
• Stamp a first step stem and leaf (the one facing left), and two additional leaves (on the right).  Make sure the stem goes up into the flower mask, and be sure to take advantage of those masks by overlapping the leaves on the mask a little bit.
• See the one short stem that goes into the flower which is lower in the composition?  Ink just part of one of the stems and stamp it there.

Step 7:  Handsome Hunter, and create a leaf mask.

• The second step on the skinny stem is a little difficult to line up properly, so you can leave it out, if desired.  Mine didn’t line up exactly right, but it was close enough and I appreciated it in the finished product.  I inked just the stem, not the leaf, for that step.
• Stamp the next leaf step in Handsome Hunter.  There’s an additional step, which I would do in black, but I left that step out this time.
• That extra leaf that’s floating in space is a mask waiting to be used.

Step 8:  Stamp a third lily.

• Leave the flower masks in place and add the leaf mask to the uppermost leaf.
• Stamp all steps of the lily as shown.

Step 9:  Remove masks

I think this is my favorite part — when I remove the masks and reveal what I’ve created.  It’s like unwrapping a present.

A recap on the masking:

• The image is created from front to back.  I wanted the first two lilies in the foreground, so I stamped them first.
• Next came the leaves over the first two masked lilies, so the leaves appear to be behind the first two lilies.
• Now, to make the last lily appear to be behind everything, I masked everything in the foreground.  I already had masks on the first two lilies.  I only needed to add a mask to the one leaf.
• It looks complex in the finished image, but it’s really quite elementary.  Sure, it won’t be finished in two minutes, but it’s infinitely satisfying when you have some stamping time to spare.  The process gets easier and quicker as you become more practiced at it. 

Step 10:  Shade background with chalks

• This is my method of choice when stamping with KSS.  I like the way the images look so much like a painting when completed.  I can’t make a watercolor background because it would cause my water based SU! inks to run.  For more information about using the chalks, you may find my other tutorials helpful here and here.
• In this case, I shaded with Caramel and Cocoa chalks, using the Cocoa closer to the image for more shadowing.  In the smaller spaces I picked up a little chalk from a corner of the chalk pad with a blender pen and blended it on my background, being careful not to blend into the stamped image.  A blender pen will wear out your paper if you go over an area too many times, so that’s another thing to be careful about.
• I added a little pink around the edges.
• The last step is to spray with a matte sealer, as described in the tutorials I linked.  The spray not only seals the chalk, but it enhances the color of the entire image.  It doesn’t alter the color, just makes it better.

I hope this was good information for someone.  If you’ve never masked before, you can certainly start simple with a less detailed image — make one mask and stamp something slightly behind it — then work your way up to a more complex composition.  Way back in the beginning I’d get mixed up when I was making multiple masks like this, so don’t feel bad if you goof it up a few times.  The first time I ever masked anything I thought it was so cool!

I already listed the inks in the description, so I’ll summarize the other ingredients in the recipe, below.  Have a great day, everyone, and thank you so much for visiting!

ps:  Thank you, also, for your encouraging remarks yesterday about my use of older images.  I’m really glad you don’t mind seeing them, because so many of my favorite stamps are old.  I appreciate you all very much!

Stamps:  KSS Multi-Step Lilies, retired Stampin’ Up! Linen background  Paper:  Naturals Ivory, Whisper White, My Mind’s Eye Tres Jolie designer paper  Accessories:  Ribbon, brads, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

I have a co-worker who occasionally asks me to make cards for his mother to use…”Something Mom would like.”  Well, let’s see…what would Mom like?  I’m sure he’s thinking along the lines of prim & proper, or maybe I just think that’s what he’s thinking.  After all, his mom is not much older than me.  I tend to forget that fact since, though I’ve met her, I’m more closely associated with her son.  I also tend to forget my own age (sometimes literally), and the person inside me is startled by the image confronted in the mirror.  I realize, outwardly, I look and act older than I did when I was 25 and, let’s face it, I feel older, too, but there’s still, at the core, the same person I’ve always been.  I’m not older, I’m just more “developed”.

So, I wonder, does an “older” person necessarily want “older” cards?  I think we just like what we like and age has nothing to do with it, other than the usual fluctuations in trends and preferences.  Who are these “older” people, anyway?  Surely not me!  Besides, it’s a relative term — older than what? 

However, there is a certain stereotype and I was thinking along those lines when I made this card, not only for my co-worker’s Mom, but also for Sharon’s challenge — to make a card for an older woman.  I tried to travel the middle road without going too far over the hill.  I used pearls, ribbon, soft colors, and words that seemed fitting.  I threw in some polka dots to freshen it up — it’s not like they were invented yesterday…  The pansies are an old, familiar flower.  Gee, I like all these things, too.  But then, I like a lot of things…

The KSS Pansies were done in four steps:  1) Barely Banana, 2) Lavender Lace, 3) Lovely Lilac, 4) Basic Black.  Those little specks you see are touches of glitter that don’t show fully in the photo.  I sponged around the image with Celery ink.  SU!’s retired Cheesecloth background was stamped in white pigment ink on the Barely Banana card base.  The words are from the KSS 3-Step Daisy set.

I’ve got to run now, but I sure enjoyed our visit and this fun challenge.  Have a wonderful day!

• Stamps:  Kitchen Sink Stamps Pansies and 3-Step Daisy, Stampin’ Up! Cheesecloth and Polka dot backgrounds
• Paper:  Barely Banana, Whisper White, textured white
• Ink:  Barely Banana, Lavender Lace, Lovely Lilac, Basic Black, Palette Noir, Wild Wasabi, Handsome Hunter
• Accessories:  Ribbon, pearls, 1/4″ hole punch, glitter, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

I guess I’ve been hanging onto this set long enough and it’s time I had a little playtime with it.  Christmas happened and then, well…you know…

These are the KSS Pansies I fell in love with at first sight.  They sure made up into a colorful bouquet!  I did a lot of masking to put it all together.  Whenever I use these KSS flower stamps I always stamp a mask of the 1st step image — both flowers and leaves — so they’ll be ready just in case.  I’m afraid I goofed when I stamped the bee on the flowers.  It’s all out of proportion — either it’s a very tiny bee, or those are some giant pansies!

I used one of my Spellbinders circle dies to make the vase.  I placed it over the flowers, masked off the bottom and shaded within the circle with soft chalks.  All the rest of the shading is done with chalks, as well, and it’s finished off with three coats of spray matte sealer.  The sentiment is from the KSS 3-Step Daisy set.  This is a 5 1/4″ square card.

Purple pansy:

• 1.  Almost Amethyst
• 2.  Lavender Lace
• 3.  Lovely Lilac
• 4.  Basic Black

Yellow pansy:

• 1.  Barely Banana
• 2.  Yo Yo Yellow
• 3.  Summer Sun
• 4.  Basic Black

Red pansies:

• 1.  Groovy Guava stamped off once
• 2.  Groovy Guava
• 3.  Ruby Red
• 4.  Basic Black

Leaves:

• 1.  Wild Wasabi stamped off once
• 2.  Wild Wasabi
• 3.  Handsome Hunter

It’s on its way to cheer a friend.  I hope it works!  I’m glad you could take a minute to visit today.  I’ll try to make time for more stamping as soon as possible.  Until then…have a great rest of the week!

• Stamps:  Kitchen Sink Stamps Pansies
• Paper:  Basic Black, Whisper White
• Ink:  Listed above, plus Palette Noir for sentiment and soft chalks for shading
• Accessories:  SU! gingham ribbon, eyelets, SU! scallop edge punch, circle die used as mask for vase, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

I tried to avoid making this look like a Christmas card, but I’m not too sure . . . it looks suspiciously like a Christmas card to me.  It’s a thank you card for a Christmas present, though, and that’s what I love about this little snowflake stamp from Kitchen Sink — it’s the perfect Christmas thank you!  You may like to play along with Sharon’s Stamp Simply Challenge this week if you have a few thank you cards to make, as well.

Some layering of scraps over retired SU! designer paper, a little piercing, a scalloped edge and some ribbon finished off the card base.  The snowflake image is one stamp, punched with SU!’s 1 3/8″ circle punch and layered onto scalloped circles, giving it little ruffle around the edges.   After stamping in Bashful Blue, I colored over the snowflake with my Sakura Stardust clear glitter pen and placed a blue rhinestone in the center.  Almost too easy!

I hope you had a good New Year’s Day!  Mine was pretty quiet and easy — just the way I like it.  I’ll leave you with the card recipe now.  Thank you so much for coming for a visit!  I just love having friends stop by!

• Stamps:  KSS A Year of Thanks
• Paper:  Bashful Blue smooth and textured, Neenah Classic Solar White, retired SU! designer paper
• Ink:  Bashful Blue
• Accessories:  Offray ribbon, rhinestone, Sakura clear glitter pen, Spellbinders scallop circle dies, 1 3/8″ circle punch, scallop border punch, Cuttlebug Swiss Dot embossing folder, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

Finally, I stamped!  I was beginning to wonder if I would finish my Christmas cards but I had so many other things to do — shopping, wrapping, decorating, cleaning, candy making . . .  I decided to put the stamping on hold while I caught up with those other things.

Today, I pulled out my Kitchen Sink Stamps Playful Christmas and made a couple of cards with it.  I had “snow” much fun with this first card!  I layered a rolling hills background with my BasicGrey Figgy Pudding paper and edged the layers with glitter.  The trees were all stamped with Mellow Moss ink, then overstamped with the various patterns and colors.  The tree tops are all glittered, too, and so is my entire stamp room, my clothes, my hair . . . you know how that goes.

The foremost tree is popped up on foam mounting tape.  Notches cut with a hole punch will help keep the silver cord in place as the card slips in and out of the envelope.  The card base is Cool Caribbean and the sentiment is stamped in Bravo Burgundy.

This card isn’t nearly as sparkly, but it has rhinestones, a Cuttlebug Snowflake embossed background and a Martha Stewart punch border.  More Figgy Pudding paper, too.  These trees were stamped directly onto Shimmery White without stamping the solid base first.  I love the versatility of the many trees in this set.

The cardstock and ink colors are Bravo Burgundy and Kiwi Kiss — a little different, but I like it.  After I made the first card I was dazzled by all the glitter and I thought this one was somewhat plain, poor thing, but it grew on me.

I need to get back to work on those “other” things now, but more cards are coming soon.  Yes, they’re Christmas cards.  The last of them will be in the mail on Monday and I hope they reach their destination before the 25th.  I vow to be more timely next year.

I hope you’re enjoying the countdown days till Christmas!  Happy holidays!

I think I’m at my stamping happiest when I’m working with an image that allows some sort of coloring.  With Kitchen Sink Stamps’ multiple steps I don’t actually color the stamped image, itself, but the color selection process — testing out different combinations and imagining others — is just as enjoyable.  Once I’ve gotten my stamped images in place, I can shade to my heart’s content to create the background.

The Hibiscus set is one I’ve had for a while and without a doubt a favorite of mine.  I have several KSS sets and this seems to be one of the easiest to line up properly.  I’ll let you know more when my Pansy set arrives…oh, I can’t wait for that one!

The hummingbird is new to me.  It’s part of the Limited Edition 1st Anniversary set which also includes 12 of those cute little thank you stamps KSS always sends out with their orders.  It comes nicely packaged in a clear topped nugget tin and wrapped in ribbon – the very ribbon I used on my card, in fact.

As always, I’m in total awe of these stamps.  The hummingbird is a six-step stamp.  I tried numerous color combinations and I tried leaving out some of the steps to suit my color combos.  With this color combo I left off the sixth step because I’d already gone too dark for it to show.

The colors in my humming bird are:

1. Barely Banana
2. Pretty in Pink
3. Tempting Turquoise
4. Glorious Green
5. Palette Noir

The hibiscus flower colors are:

1. Barely Banana
2. Pumpkin Pie
3. Ruby Red
4. Palette Noir

The leaves are:

1. Certainly Celery
2. Old Olive
3. Handsome Hunter

I wish the camera (or the photographer) was better able to capture the clarity and intensity of the details and colors…sigh…  As for the background, it’s shaded with soft chalks and sprayed with a matte sealer.  In the end it looks just like a painting.  Amazing what you can do with these stamps!

I’ll have more pretties to share tomorrow so I hope to see you again then.  Take care and happy stamping!

• Stamps:  Kitchen Sink Stamps Hibiscus and Limited Edition 1st Anniversary set
• Paper:  Barely Banana textured and plain, Old Olive, Neenah Classic Solar White
• Ink:  See the listing above + Stampin’ Pastels (soft chalks) for shading background
• Accessories:  Ribbon, swirl clip, spray matte sealer, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

Today I’ve used my Kitchen Sink Stamps Hearts & Roses again.  I’m a little bit awestruck over how realistic the stamps in this set are.  There are four steps to this rose.  You begin with a “blank” that doesn’t look like much of anything, but progressively darker layers yield amazing results.  Anyone can make this rose with no coloring skills whatsoever.

To stamp the rose, I used Stampin’ Up! classic inks, starting with Almost Amethyst.  The second step is Lavender Lace.  The third step is Elegant Eggplant stamped off once — ink up the stamp, stamp once on scratch paper and then on the image.  For the fourth step I used Basic Black.  I hardly use this ink anymore because of its purplish cast but in this case it was just what I needed.  The leaves are done in three steps — Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke and Basic Black.  Shading around the image and panel edges was done with a sponge dauber and Almost Amethyst ink.

The card base is a pre-made 4 1/2″ x 6″ card — a very pale amethyst with a slight texture to it.  Nothing beats having designer paper in the exact shade to match the image so that’s when I love to stamp my own background.  This Amethyst stripe is a single stamp from the Plaid Plus set.  It was just the right size for grounding my main image panel.

Here’s a close up of the rose.

I hope you all have a happy Friday and a great weekend.  I’ve got a busy one coming up — places to go and people to see.  Somehow I’ll need to squeeze in some stamping and gardening, too.  Take care!

• Stamps:  Hearts & Roses, Plaid Plus — both Kitchen Sink Stamps
• Paper:  Pre-made card, Whisper White, Almost Amethyst
• Ink:  Almost Amethyst, Lavender Lace, Elegant Eggplant, Basic Black, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke
• Accessories:  Offray Ribbon, ticket corner punch, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

This is the 3-Step Daisy from Kitchen Sink Stamps but I decided to make mine a dahlia.  I had one exactly like this in the garden a few years back.  Unfortunately, it clashed with everything around it so I gave it away.  I’d mail ordered orange and purple dahlias, thinking they’d be a striking drift of color.  Well…the purple was totally the wrong shade.  They were striking, alright, but not in a good way.  I was looking out across the garden one evening and, though it was very colorful, something just didn’t feel right.  Suddenly the thought popped into my head that it looked like a circus.  Yes, it looked exactly like a circus — all clanging and banging like a bunch of crazy clowns.  The dahlias had to go!

Nevertheless, the dahlia, itself, wasn’t without merit.  I loved the vibrant red-orange blooms with their dark centers and the contrast against the pretty green leaves.  I thought it might make a cheerful card for a friend.

I colored this flower with the 3-Step Poppin’ Pastels technique per my tutorial here.  The layered shades of chalk are one of the best ways I’ve found to achieve a deep, rich, velvety flower image.  The KSS multiple step stamps are ideal for this type of coloring.  I used Apricot, Pumpkin and Ruby Red for my dahlia.  The card looks a little countrified with the plaid background and the rick rack.  I made the plaid myself with the Plaid Plus set, also from Kitchen Sink Stamps.  I love this set!  I’ve only just begun to play with it, but there are so many options in addition to plaids –  stripes, dots, hearts — lots of different trims and accents.  Very fun!

I hope you’re all enjoying your summer.  We’re having some beautiful weather here and it feels just right for a summery card.  See you again soon!

• Stamps:  3-Step Daisy, Plaid Plus — both from Kitchen Sink Stamps
• Paper:  Prism Spring Willow Medium, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Ruby Red
• Ink:  Versamark, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip
• Accessories:  Copper snaps, rick rack, Stampin’ Pastels (soft chalks), Scotch brand foam mounting tape

I’m thinking ahead to my September anniversary for today’s coloring tutorial.  I may change my mind later…there’s lots of stamping to be done between now and then.  You know how anniversaries are named — golden, silver, etc…  Shouldn’t there be a chocolate anniversary?  Why was that option overlooked?

My card uses Kitchen Sink Stamps’ Hearts & Roses set.  This set, which I’m sure you’ve seen before, features exquisitely detailed multiple step roses, both in bud and full bloom.  It’s the multiple steps that make it perfect for this coloring technique.  Why bother with chalks when you could just stamp it in ink?  Well…because it gives it a whole other look — sort of soft and velvety and rather romantic.  There’s also the fact that it’s just plain fun to do something different once in a while when you’re playing around with your art.  That’s really what stamping is all about — enjoying the pastime.

This is the same rose stamped in ink:

1. So Saffron
2. Creamy Caramel
3. Close to Cocoa 

They’re the same colors I used in chalks but the results are very different.  The details of the ink rose are quite distinct.   It’s an amazing image and will make a beautiful card — another time.  Today I wanted something a little more dreamy.

Here’s the supplies required:

• Stamps (stem and sentiment not pictured) 
• Soft chalks
• Foam applicators
• Versamark ink
• Spray matte sealer
• Acrylic blocks and craft foam pad for cushion under stamping (not pictured)

Please pardon me for showing these first few images in a horizontal orientation.  I decided to go vertical when the image was half finished but didn’t have time to start over with the stamping and photographs.

Stamp the first step rose buds with Versamark ink on vanilla cardstock.  The Versamark is nearly invisible but apparent enough for our purposes.  Using a foam applicator (make up brush) pat saffron chalk onto image.  As the chalk is applied, the image will take shape and it will be easier to see where you’re going.  At this stage the rose buds look like funny little heads with big kissy lips, don’t they?

Stamp the second step rose buds with Versamark ink over the first images.  The Versamark will lift some of the chalk from the first image so be sure to clean between stampings so you don’t get chalk in your Versamark pad.  Apply caramel chalk to the areas of the second stamping.  Go easy until you see the image emerge and its lines become more clear.  Blow away the chalk powder once in a while.  Keep applying the caramel chalk until you have a good contrast between the saffron and the caramel.  The chalk will stick more to the fresh Versamark stamping than it will to the first image.  In an image this detailed, some of the finer lines will become obscured — that’s okay.  We’ll still have a beautiful image.

Stamp the third step and color with cocoa chalk.  Again, remember to clean between stampings.

Stamp both stems and color with olive chalk.  It’s okay to go outside the lines because we’ll be shading around the image next.

Shade around the entire image with mustard chalk.  Press the tip of the applicator onto the paper to get a more distinct line close to the image.  Apply cocoa chalk in the areas where you want deeper shading, such as directly under the buds and on inner curves.

Once the outline has been established, use a light circular motion to spread a hazy glow of mustard chalk outward from the image.  Blend and smooth the lines with your finger.  Stamp sentiment with Rose Red ink.

Compare these chalk roses to the ink rose I showed at the beginning.  Deep, rich and velvety.

The final and essential step is to spray with a sealer.  I use matte most frequently because it’s more appropriate for the soft look of chalks.  The brand I find at Wal-Mart is Plaid.  Follow the directions on the can, applying three coats.  The can directions tell you to wait 15 minutes between coats but it dries pretty fast on paper and I usually give it about 5 minutes.  Maybe it depends on humidity?  It’s not very humid here on the Oregon coast.

Why the sealer?  Just as you were able to blend the chalk with your finger, the chalk will wear off the image with handling.  The Versamark with chalk has a tacky feel to it and a chance of smearing when handled.  The spray not only seals the image and makes it touchable, it pops the colors and gives your card an extra special quality with a professional-looking finish.

Thank you so much for dropping in on me today.  Perhaps you know how much I love my chalks and all the things that can be done with them.  Using the Poppin’ Pastels technique for two or three step stamping is just one of their many uses.  I hope there’s at least a little bit of information here that was helpful.  Have a wonderful day!