b-day card - fun with pastels

I made this card for my sis, who wanted some birthday cards. (She was my first paying customer!) I had lots of fun playing with my new stampin' pastels. So you stamp a pretty image with a versamark ink. It's a clear sticky ink that you can use for lots of things. Then you take a Q-tip and dab some stampin' pastel color on top of the versamark ink. It looks lovely!

Supplies:

• Heartfelt Thanks stamp set
• Itty Bitty backgrounds stamp set
• God's Blessings stamp set
• versamark ink pad
• stampin' pastels
• barely banana cardstock
• old olive cardstock
• whisper white ultrasmooth cardstock
  

Did you know that you can click on pictures to get a closer look?

Thanks

This is one of the Make and Take's I did for my first workshop (at Amy's). It has an artistic, forgiving style so you don't have to be perfectly precise.

The color scheme just shouts, "Spring!" to me.




Supplies:

• Heartfelt Thanks stamp set
• barely banana cardstock
• ruby red cardstock
• whisper white cardstock
• ruby red classic stamp pad
• mellow moss classic stamp pad
• so saffron classic stamp pad
• mellow moss 1/4" grosgrain ribbon
• Crystal Effects
  

This card uses a technique called Two-Step Stampin'. You have to use a set that has an outline stamp and a base stamp, like Heartfelt Thanks. Stamp the base image in a lighter color (or you can stamp on scrap paper once to get a lighter color). Then stamp the outline image in a darker color. In this card, I used Ruby Red for both the base stamp and the outline stamp. This is an easier effect for frugal stampers like me!

Crystal Effects is fun to work with. It's kind of like puffy paint in that it adds a shiny texture to everything. I used Crystal Effects on the center of each of these flowers.

nest - one card, two different backgrounds

My sister asked me to make some housewarming cards, and I was stumped. I had a really hard time coming up with ideas, since I didn't have a "house" stamp. Then I noticed this old retired stamp that I won as a door prize ages ago. I decided to do a robin's egg blue (Cool Caribbean) background, and make it spotted like robin's eggs. I tried it with two different background stamps to see which I liked best. Which is your favorite?

Supplies:

• Itty Bitty backgrounds stamp set - my new favorite set!
• cool caribbean cardstock - retiring June 30!
• chocolate chip classic inkpad
• nest stamp (retired)
• small letter stamps
• watercolor pencils
• blender pen
• brown grosgrain ribbon
  
  

believe

So my mom loves dogwood trees. When I was a kid, we had two dogwood trees in our yard - one in front and one in back. The one in front was not doing so well. I remember pulling into our driveway and hearing my mom lament the ailing tree. One day, I decided I would help make the tree better. I carefully took some blossoms off the tree in our backyard, and taped them on the tree in our front yard. The next time we pulled into the driveway, my mom was so excited to see her tree "coming back to life". Sadly, I don't think the tree made it, but it's become a great story in our family lore.






Supplies:

• Natural Beauty stamp set (retiring June 30!)
• chocolate chip classic ink
• chocolate chip cardstock
• pretty in pink cardstock
• regal rose classic ink
• hand-stitched background stamp (retired)
• watercolor pencils
• blender pen

Here's a link to the list of stamp sets retiring this year. I have to say, I'm sad to see this one go. I'm sure there's something even better to take its place.

I just wanted to use the word BELIEVE from a stamp that has lots of words on it, so I just colored the word "believe" with marker and then stamped it.

Background stamps are so easy to use, and they make a polished effect quickly!