Unfrogettable Stamping!

November 2010 scrapbook club layouts

My scrapbook club met earlier this week and the hostess, Karen, had requested Christmas and Winter themes for the pages this month.

This first layout is the Christmas one I designed based on a bunch of products found in the Holiday Mini catalog - I had really wanted to use the Vintage Lables stencil and went with my favorite Christmas color combo this year - cherry cobbler and always artichoke.  I paired them with crumb cake and naturals ivory and feel like the page really came together well - the stencil worked great with the Bells and Boughs stamp set, too.  I normally do not do an entire layout for a single photo, but I thought this would be a great cover page for a family Christmas album - drop in a 5" x 7" sepia-toned picture of your family and you're all set.

Here are some close-ups of the different elements on the page.  The cherry cobbler seam binding ribbon was great across the top of the page - you achieve this look by first putting down a piece of sticky strip across the entire lenth of the page and then slowly bunching and gathering the ribbon as you stick it down to the adhesive.  If you leave the ribbon on the spool and work from left to right it works really well - no guessing about the final length of ribbon you'll need.  I did leave a tail longer on both ends so they could be wrapped behind the page and taped down to prevent any fraying.  I added an antique brad to give it a little more character... have you seen these?  They are gorgeous!

Next we have the Winter themed layout.  I absolutely love the Northern Hearts hostess level 1 stamp set from the Holiday Mini and used it for this page.  The 3 different snowflakes are stamped randomly all over the naturals ivory card stock using marina mist, pretty in pink and crumb cake ink.  This is an unusual color combination but I really like the way it turned out! 

This page incorporated several Big Shot items - the simple alphabet letters for the title, tasteful trim bigz xl die for the pink scallop border and the scallop rectangle clearlit for the snowflake and love birds embellishments.

I wanted to use the marina mist striped grosgrain ribbon on the page and was only able to create an embellishment with it as any more would have overpowered the page.  All I did to create this was cut a length of ribbon and tape it in a loop (the ends were hidden under the birds).  It was then taped down to the page and then I popped up the birds with stampin' dimensionals on top to hide the tape.  I did have to add some rhinestones to the page - after all, snow is glittery and shimmery, right?!

Thanks for visiting - I hope you have been inspired by these pages.  I really need to get my pictures printed since I have so many layouts put together now... how about you?

Baltimore Regional swap cards - part 4

Just a few more to share...

Check out this beautiful Christmas card created by Jennifer Snyder that features the Peaceful Season hostess level 2 stamp set.

Isn't this a fun card?  It was created by Lorraine Cich.  There is an accordion fold on the inside that the Big Shot butterflies are attached to... very clever!

This gorgeous fall card was designed by Verda Murphy and features the Autumn Splendor stamp set along with gold smooch spritz on the main leaf.  It is very shimmery in real life!

Here is a super-cute punch art card for Christmas created by Sandy Silberquit... the penguin is made from the 2-step owl punch, minus the ears.  Very cute idea!

Here is another great Christmas card designed by Susan Peters.  She used the Vintage Frames stencil from the Holiday Mini along with the square lattice embossing folder - it is stunning in real life!

And this fun Sock Monkey card will be CASE'd by my daughter Kelsey I am sure as she LOVES this stamp set!  It was designed by Sue Redden-Bailey.

One last card to share... isn't this a cute Halloween card?  It was designed by Terry Haines and features the Fangtastic stamp set from the Holiday Mini.

I hope you've found some great inspiration from the swap cards I received last weekend as I know I did!

Over the next few days I'll be sharing photos of my downline swap from this month - we had a theme of sympathy cards.  Sadly, these are cards that I am finding myself needing more and more of these days.  And don't forget FABULOUS FRIDAY!!

Fabulous Texture with Big Shot Impressions Folders!

 

Happy Friday!  This week on the Sisters in Stamping blog our product focus for Fabulous Friday is the textured impressions folder line available for use with the Big Shot.  I'm so happy that Stampin' Up! continues to add wonderful new folders with each catalog!  It is the easiest and quickest way to add fabulous texture to your paper crafting projects.

I designed the card above using the Square Lattice textured impressions folder currently found in our Summer Mini catalog and carried over into the 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalog. In order to achieve this look, you first need to stamp on the card stock and then run it through the Big Shot last because once you've added the texture you'll never get a good stamped impression - it becomes too bumpy.

I used naturals ivory card stock along with soft suede ink and card stock for my card.  The main part of the card was first stamped with the En Francais background stamp and soft suede ink.  I then pulled out my Elegant Trio stencils and used the Fleur de Lis image stencil and sponged soft suede ink onto the naturals ivory card stock using a stampin' sponge.  After running this piece through the Big Shot with the square lattice folder I sponged around the edge of it with the same sponge and ink to really bring out the texture.

I wanted to turn this into a thank you card so I pulled out my Elegant Thank You single stamp from our A La Carte product line and used soft suede ink to stamp it on a piece of naturals ivory scrap piece of card stock.  I then grabbed my scallop square punch, turned it upside down and lined up the sentiment and punched it out.  Once again I sponged around the outside with soft suede ink and my stampin' sponge.  This was then popped up on the card with stampin' dimensionals and to finish off the card I added two small self-adhesive pearls from the Basic Pearls package.  I LOVE these!! 

Thanks for viewing my Fabulous Friday project today... please be sure and visit the Sisters in Stamping blog after Noon EST today to see what fabulous projects my fellow demonstrators designed this week with the texture folders.

Products used with today's project include:

Michelle's birthday card

My downline Michelle Arthur had a birthday last week and this is the card that I sent to her. If the image looks familiar, it is because I used it on my scrapbook club layout last week.  I really liked the way it turned out so created another one for Michelle's card.  I'm on a real kick right now using the naturals ivory card stock... I just love the way it looks.

I also really love using stencils to create an embossed image to resist!  What an easy technique - take a Versamark ink pad and use it directly on the stencil to transfer the image onto your card stock.  Use clear embossing powder and heat emboss it.  Next, take a stampin' sponge or sponge dauber and apply ink in a swirling motion.  Since I used 3 different colors, I started with my lightest and worked my way to the darkest (daffodil delight, regal rose and soft suede).  Take a tissue and gently wipe off the ink that is on top of the image - because it is embossed it resists it, hence the name of the technique.  I finished this one off by applying some log cabin smooch spritz, and then again wiped off the image since it resists the ink.  Easy-peasey, right?! 

The Elegant Trios stencil pack is great and I plan to use the other 2 images on upcoming projects.  The "Wishes" sentiment is from the Heard from the Heart stamp set and is stamped in chocolate chip ink to match the chocolate chip satin ribbon, which I added to the corner.

Thanks for visiting today!  For a list of products used on today's projects, please see the list below.

Products used on today's project:

 

August scrapbook club projects

My Scrapbook Club started a new round this month with Lisa as our hostess and we got together on Thursday evening.  For a $40 minimum purchase commitment, these club members make two 12" x 12" scrapbook layouts at our meetings each month and take turns getting the hostess benefits.

This first layout is one I created for Fabulous Friday a few weeks ago.  If you click on the link you'll find all of the details along with some close-up photos.

Here is layout #2 - I wanted to feature the Elegant Trio stencils from the Definitely Decorative catalog and went for a vintage feel using soft suede, naturals ivory, so saffron and regal rose (a color combination that I pulled from my new Color Coach).

This embellishment was created by sponging through the stencil with a Versamark ink pad and then heat embossing the image with clear embossing powder.  After that cooled, I sponged around the outer part of the flower with so saffron ink using a stampin' sponge wedge, then around the inside of the flower with regal rose ink.  I sponged the outer sections of the square with soft suede ink, being sure to come in on the corners.  After all the sponging was done, take a soft tissue and wipe off the excess ink - it will be resisted by the embossed image.  After that was done I placed the sponged square into my color guard and spritzed on a couple sprays of the log cabin smooch spritz (a little goes a long way!).  After waiting for a few minutes for it to soak into the card stock, I took a tissue and wiped off the excess from the embossed image.  It was then mounted on a piece of soft suede card stock and added to the layout.

I immediately thought of embellishing the layout with one of our new antique brads - they are gorgeous!  I added it to a strip of very vanilla 5/8" grosgrain ribbon that I had stretched across the page.  The small piece of stamped card stock above it is the En Francais background stamp with soft suede ink on a piece of naturals ivory card stock, distressed/sponged with soft suede ink.

I can't wait to put pictures of my kids on this layout that were done a few years ago by a company called Antiquities.. we had brought them in to do a fundraiser for my MOPS group and the pictures were all sepia-toned and very old-fashioned in feeling.  Now if only I can figure out where they are...

Thanks for stopping by today!  I will be sharing cards from my downline swap this month over the next few days... please come back again for another visit!!

If you are interested in purchasing any of the products used on today's projects, here are the item numbers and prices: