Bleach Overstamping Technique

This technique is from the June/July 2004 Technique Junkies newsletter. It's really pretty cool! I love using "household" items in my stamping! This technique is really quite simple. You use just regular liquid bleach and pour it into a container that has paper towels in it to pretty much make yourself a bleach stamp pad. Then, "ink" your stamp with the bleach and stamp it on your cardstock. You will, however, want to immediately clean your stamp after stamping to get all the bleach off! Let the bleach dry or use a heat tool to dry the bleach on your cardstock and then stamp again with "real" ink. That's pretty much it! Here are the items I used to make this card.

Stamp sets: Upsy Daisy, Medallion

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Pretty In Pink, Early Espresso, Rich Razzleberry

Ink: Early Espresso, Pretty In Pink

Other: bleach, 5/16" Jumbo brads, Early Espresso 3/8" Taffeta ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

All products (except bleach of course) made by/sold by Stampin' Up!

Burnished Embossing technique

I am sure you can't tell from the picture but this technique really is pretty cool looking "in person". Basically you use a medium to dark color of cardstock, emboss your image on it in black and then use the same color ink as the cardstock and a sponge dauber all around the embossed image. The ink will make the cardstock just a bit darker all around the embossed image. It almost looks like a shadow around the embossed image. Here are the items I used to make this card.

Stamp sets: Baroque Motifs, Sincere Salutations

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip

Ink: VersaMark, Chocolate Chip

Other: heat tool, black embossing powder, sponge dauber, Very Vanilla 5/8" Grosgrain ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

All products made by/sold by Stampin' Up!

Pulled Reinkers

There are a few different things I want to cover with this post! First, you can see from the picture what I "do" with all these techniques. My memory SO sucks that I'd either forget how to do a technique or completely forget that I know how to do it! So, I make these cards. I'll use this picture to explain the size of each card. In this picture the orange cardstock is 6 inches by 6 inches. It's Pumpkin Pie. The next layer is the blue and it's 5 3/4 inches by 5 3/4 inches and is Not Quite Navy. Usually I make the white part with the instructions 5 inches by 5 inches and then attach punched out pieces of the "sample" of what the finished technique looks like around the 5 by 5 piece. Instead of doing that I cut the "sample" to be part of the background behind the instructions. I store all of these cards in one of Stampin' Up's! 6 by 6 scrapbook albums. I've got so many technique cards now that I need to get some sort of bin to store them all in! You can probably read the card well enough to see how to do the technique. I did use three different colors of reinker even though you can't really see one of them. I used Pumpkin Pie, Not Quite Navy and Old Olive. It's the Old Olive that you can't see that well.

Now, for my second "thing" to cover with this post. How do you like my new background? Michelle Laycock did all the graphics for my blog a while back. I get updates from her blog pretty much daily. She came up with a new type of background. If you will scroll some you will see that my plaid background "moves" but the paw prints over on the right don't! When she sent out a post from her blog about her new type of background I HAD to have one! I did like the stripes I had as my background before but you wouldn't be able to tell that it was scrolling but the paw prints weren't! So, that's why I had her make the plaid background. I did like the stripes better though! LOL Michelle does some GREAT graphics. If you are interested in maybe having her make some graphics for your blog check out her site. There is a banner for her site in the sidebar over on the right.

VersaMark Stencil Technique

This one was SO simple, but, at the same time not so simple. The basics are that you use a stencil (the one I used is one of our Definitely Decorative stencils), lay it over your cardstock and then use either a VersaMark pad to "pounce" over the stencil or use one of the markers that VersaMark makes. The "tricky" part is making sure you keep the stencil EXACTLY still! This stencil was really tricky since it's made of that thin plastic. I think metal stencils might be a bit easier. You know how "sticky" the VersaMark can be? Well, the stencil tends to "stick" to the VersaMark pad so you have to hold the stencil down REALLY well or it ends up moving! I did the embossing on the top first and then just moved the stencil down and turned it around to do the "swirl" on the bottom. I also used two different colors of embossing powder. First I added the green embossing powder towards the middle of the image, then I removed the extra, then I added the gold embossing powder, removed the extra and then used the heat tool to melt the embossing powder. If you have any questions about the technique please email me. I'm more than happy to answer any questions that I can! I got this technique from the Technique Junkies newsletter. If you are "into" techniques that's the newsletter to subscribe to! Here is a list of the items I used to make this card.

Stamp set: Perfect Punches

Cardstock: Basic Black, Very Vanilla

Ink: Basic Black, VersaMark

Other: Vintage Ornaments Decor Stencil, embossing powder, heat tool, stick-on gems, Wide Oval punch, XL Decorative Label punch, Ticket Corner punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

All products made by/sold by Stampin' Up! (except for the stick-on gems)

Acetate Sparkle technique

Sorry it's been so long since I posted! There just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done that I have to get done! The lady that founded the dog rescue that my husband and I volunteer with passed away back in October. Alot of the paperwork of running the rescue has fallen on me! MAN...I never realized just how much paperwork Judy had to do! It's a constant battle to keep everything running smoothly!

Anyway, here is a technique for you to try. I will warn you though, DO NOT do this if you need a card NOW! You have to give about 24 hours for the glitter glue to dry before you attach it to your card or project! It's a fairly simple technique really. You stamp your image on the acetate. Let the ink dry. OH...you need to use ink like StazOn too! Anyway, you let the ink dry and then fill in the image with glitter glue (I used Stickles). Then, let the Stickles dry for 24 hours so that it won't "smush" when you attach it to your card or project. Here is a list of the items I used to make this card.

Stamp sets: Crazy for Cupcakes, Sincere Salutations

Cardstock/paper: Blushing Bride, Whisper White, Blushing Bride Patterns DSP

Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Blushing Bride

Other: acetate, Stickles in various colors, stick-on gems, Stampin' Dimensionals, silver eyelets, Blushing Bride Striped Poly ribbon

All products made by/sold by Stampin' Up! except for the Stickles and stick-on gems.

Another Swap Card

There are two shots of the GREAT card by Cathy Bell. Of course, the first shows the outside of the card and the second shows the inside. Cathy always makes THE neatest and prettiest cards! If you are interested in the products she used to make this card please email me or leave a comment and I'll let you know.