Bleached Dasher

This was a card I made recently for a demonstrator swap using the bleach technique, I did it in two different matt colours Cherry Cobbler & Daffodil Delight. It's the sort of card that if you do it in stages, you could easily mass produce it!

The sparkle is the new champagne glitter glass that we received as a prize at Regional training last month, I used Crystal Effects to adhere it to the card stock.

Here is a photograph of the bleach developing in intensity - the bottom part of the picture is where it was stamped and I took a photograph within a minute, the top part is where the bleach had been left for over 5 minutes. So when you are using bleach, you really do have to be patient and allow it time to get to its final exposure point before you make your card up.

Stamps: Dasher, Lovely as a Tree & Contempo Christmas
Ink: Versamark
Card Stock: Not Quite Navy, Cherry Cobbler or Daffodil Delight, Early Expresso
Accessories: Gold brads, Crystal Effects, Champagne Glitter Glass, Gold Embossing Powder.
Non SU!: bleach

Masking Trees

Another of the cards we did recently at the masking class was this one - with one of my all time favourite stamps sets - I confess to being very happy when this one did not retire in August!

The mask was cut using a window sheet and the largest oval in the ovals die. It didn't show up in the photograph, but there is glitter on the large tree to add highlights. This would look great made up for Christmas - just change the sentiment and maybe the colours if you wanted to.

Stamps: Lovely As A Tree, Word Play
Ink: More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler & Chocolate Chip
Card Stock: Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard & Very Vanilla
Accessories: Bog Shot, Ovals die, Window Sheet, stamping sponge, basic rhinestone, Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds.

Lovely as a Tree Snow Scene

I recently had an interstate trip and whilst there we experienced some unseasonal weather - snow just 20 minutes away from where I was staying in October - unheard of! However it did remind me of the wintertime snow we used to get at Christmas when I was growing up in the northern hemisphere. So when I got back, I dug out one of my favourite stamp sets - Lovely As A Tree and made the following card........sadly the glitter in the trees didn't show up, fortunately I'm a paper crafter not a photographer!.

Stamps: Lovely As A Tree
Card stock: Night of Navy, Whisper White & White Gloss
Ink: Bashful Blue, Night of Navy & Black Stazon
Accessories: 2-way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, embossing buddy, white wax crayon (non SU), stamping sponge, SNAIL.

It's actually a very simple and super fast technique, stamp the image with Stazon ink on the gloss card stock, use the white crayon to highlight bits of the trees and grass areas and then sponge over with the Bashful Blue ink. Add additional highlights to the tree with the glitter and then layer it up, stamp a greeting and you're done - a perfect card for mass production - what do you think?

Christmas in July

Okay so we're now officially on the downhill run to Christmas (yes someone came and stole part of my year as there's no way it can be almost August already - I have too much to do!). Anyway here's a super quick Christmas card, that has sparkle and versatility! I was also playing with Teeny Tiny Sentiments which is on sale for 20% off until the end of this month! The card uses a technique called brushless watercolour - super simple. I inked up the image with Old Olive for the leaves and used the Chocolate Chip marker on the trunk and ground, then simply sprayed the image with water (hold the spray bottle and rubber stamp about 25cm apart and do 1-2 light sprays, you want the ink to be wet not dripping) and then just stamp onto the card stock and let dry. My advice is to practise this a few times on scrap paper to work out how many sprays works best for your spray bottle/image etc. This particular card was done using whisper white card stock, but it looks really lovely on watercolour paper as well, a very soft blurry look to the image. I then sponged the edges and added some 2way glue and dazzling diamonds (which didn't show up in the photo) in bauble type blobs to give the effect of a decorated Christmas tree.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree & Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Card stock: Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery & Whisper White

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive

Accessories: Big Shot Perfect Polka Dot Textured Impressions, 2-way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds, SNAIL, Stampin' Sponge, Word window punch, Corner Rounder Punch (yes it is available it just got left out of the Oz 2009-10 catalogue by mistake!)