Totally Techniques - Floating Re-Inkers

Welcome back happy campers! I hope you are enjoying the hop today and that you have found some great inspiration.  I can't believe how talented this group are!

I hope that you have just visited with Heather isn't her creation gorgeous? Wow!

Here is my project for the month:

The card is a bit of a combination of the old and the new. The base card is a new In Colour Sweet Sugarplum mounted with Blushing Bride and a square of the new Playful Palette DSP stack ~ it looks a bit textured like Irish linen but in pink and cream.  The card is an easel card.

I love the floating re-inker technique and use it a lot already. Rose Wonder seemed the perfect set for the technique and I am reasonably happy with how it all unfolded. I heat embossed the rose stamp image in white embossing powder on Shimmery White cardstock because it is a little more porous than Whisper White cardstock but not as absorbent as water colouring cardstock or coaster board.

I spritzed the entire image with water and then added ink directly from the re-inker bottle to the saturated cardstock. The colours leached nicely pooling in areas close to the heat embossed lines. I used Rich Razzleberry, Sweet Sugarplum and Blushing Bride. I moved the ink about with an aqua painter and spritzed it when I thought it was drying too quickly. The leaves were done with Always Artichoke and Pear Pizzazz.

Of course I didn't want to leave the leaves were they were so when I fussy cut the flower out I cut off the leaves and repositioned them. This contracted the stamped image a little and allowed me to position it in the space with enough void around it to balance the composition.

The burlap ribbon is retiring and I am devastated as I am a real textures person. I love the tactile and it seemed only right to fray the edges of the ribbon a little and position it below the stamped and coloured image. There are two pieces of burlap ribbon.  The gold is two strips of Glimmer Paper cut about the width of washi tape and I adhered two pieces inside the card - one to act as the stop for the easel and the other to balance the card.

Gold Metallic Thread seemed the perfect contrast - you will see the fine tousing behind the rose to tie in the gold contrast and the textures of the burlap and glimmer paper.  The sentiment is from Another Thank You.

The final touch is the use of the Clear Wink of Stella pen to highlight the edge of the petals and to marry in with the bling on the card.

Don't leave us without checking out all of the terrific projects for this technique.  Pop over to Nadine's Blog - I love all of her work, and I am sure that you will enjoy this month's design!

I hope you have taken some inspiration and look forward to you popping back soon. . .

Cheers

Shanni xx

Order of Blog this Month

Sandi MacIver

Patrice Halliday-Larsen

Amy Koenders

Lee Conrey

Shelagh Freemantle

Marine Wiplier

Erna Logtenberg

Heather Wright-Porto

Shannean Moncrieff (that's me)

Nadine Weiner

Alison Solven 

Fancy Folds Hop - Camera Shutter Card

Such a busy and exciting time at the moment in my life - I have lots happening, I will be in New Zealand next week with my stamping sisters for OnStage Local Auckland ~ always such a blast! Then off next month to the Mediterranean with Stampin' Up! Grand Vacation demos. . . So this all means swaps, swaps and more swaps. . . not to mention creations for my special people.

Today it's all about the Fancy Folds Design Team and the awesome fold that's been selected for this month. . . a Shutter Card but I call it a Camera Shutter Card as I know there are a lot of "shutter card" designs out there.

You could quite possibly have just been looking at Frenchie's amazing card - how neat were those colour combinations, DSP and the stamped images?! She is such a talented lady!

Here is my take on the challenge:

I was really stuck on what to use as the basis for the card but focused on the fact that we won't have this beautiful DSP for much longer with the retirement of the Annual cattie. So this is the card 6'x6' square card.

Base card is Whisper White cardstock mounted on a square of Soft Suede to pop the colours of the DSP. We have all followed the tutorial by StampinTx which is a delight and lots of fun! The DSP is English Garden and the main colours are Night of Navy, Soft Suede and Tip Top Taupe.

This is just a gate fold card with a tricky insert on the inside. . .You know me I love textures and touches of bling. The stamp set I used is Garden in Bloom at two steps stamp set that I adore. For the flowers I mixed Night of Navy, Marina Mist and a spot of Island Indigo re-inkers on a saucer and made my own colour. I wasn't happy with the Night of Navy match to the DSP so this was my solution. I inked up the stamps using a dauber and because they are watercolour-esque it suited the project fine. The outline on the flowers is Night of Navy, the centres Tip Top Taupe. The leaves are Crumb Cake and Tip Top Taupe. I stamped on Whisper White and fussy cut them all out then pieced them together. . .

The sentiment is from Me=Grateful (I just like writing the name of this set). and I used the balance of the sentiment inside. The base shape is Lots of Labels Framelits. I used the largest in the pack, traced the outside on the back of craft coloured Corrugated Paper, I fussy cut it out so that it would be a mount for the actual Big Shot cut out. The sentiment is stamped on Whisper White cardstock in Night of Navy. For bling I added Gold Metallic Thread tousing and sequins from the Love Blossoms Embellishment Kit in the Occasions min.

I decorated the inside of the card as well and went against all of my card making principles and used dimensionals - eek! The flowers and leaves were stamped as per the details above and fussy cut. I mounted the centre facade on Night of Navy to tie in the colours and to make the centre of the card look framed. I used the Banner Framelits to cut my camera shutter sliders and replicated the Lots of Labels framelit shape inside.

I thought that I would give a reverse shot of the card so that you could see that the colours do marry in quite well despite them being at odds on the colour wheel. . it also gives you some perspective of how the flowers sit when the card is open. Here is a view from the inside of the card:

So the finished product one more time. . .

I hope that it has given you some inspiration to give this fold technique a try. It certainly is a versatile and unique card style.

Don't leave us just yet. . . head over and check out our next design team member

Have fun until next time and thanks for stopping by. . .

Shanni xx

Fancy Folds Design Team Hop

Patrice Halliday-Larsen

Sandi MacIver

Monica Gale

Tanja Kolar

Delphine Lorelli

Frances Poitras-Martin

Shannean Moncrieff (that's me)

Totally Techniques Blog Hop - Watercolour Technique

I am feeling really excited about this month’s hop with the Totally Techniques design team – the reason being that I know how incredibly talented they are at water colouring. . .

You have possibly just come by from Heather Wright-Porto's blog. Wasn’t Heather's card incredible?

Here is mine and I have to admit to being a bit of an amateur at water colouring and I wanted to use only Stampin’ Up! products so of course am using the Classic Ink Stamp Pads as my colour medium:

Surprise, surprise a square card lol!

The base card is Rich Razzleberry, since Blackberry Bliss was released two years ago, I don’t use this colour as frequently as I once did but I thought it was perfect for this card. The square mount on top of the base card is Old Olive.  I tend to lean towards square cards because I can fit more stamping and textures on them and I notice that the people I give them to seem to keep them on show a little longer. I am sure that they end up in the bin ultimately but if I can extend the shelf life that’s what I am all about lol.

I have been having trouble with the quality of my Stampin’ Up! water colour card so I opted to use the Coaster Board as my stamping base. Because I wanted a stamped image to be the main focus I heat embossed in white the flowers from the Helping Me Grow set. I like to unclip the lid of the ink pad and squeeze the lid and the base together so that you are left with a big squelch of ink in the base that is easy to pick up you are water colouring.

I dampened the embossed flowers with water – it’s really simple to do this with a clean aqua painter and it helps the colour to be taken up. I then water coloured the flowers using an aqua painter and Classic Ink Stamp Pads I used Rich Razzleberry as my main colour and then blended in the tips of the petals with Blushing Bride – I wanted two colours that contrasted as well as complementing each other.  I allowed the images to dry a little then came back in with Rich Razzleberry in the centres to have a more dramatic contrast.

The stem is coloured in Old Olive and Mossy Meadow.  I used Old Olive and the fern stamp from Butterfly Basics in the background but didn’t stamp that aspect until I had done the background.

Whimsical backgrounds can be created with ink pads as well and that was my goal with this card. I spritzed the background with water being careful to avoid the coloured flowers so that they wouldn’t bleed into the background. I came back in between the individual flowers with a clean aqua painter to dampen the areas which I was trying to avoid bleeding into (this meant that the blue background would still spread on the background between these images as well).

In order to get a fair bit of ink on the background without looking like it was dabbed on I squeezed the lids and base of the Classic Ink Stamp pads until there was a large amount of ink residue in the base. I then spritzed the base of the stamp pad with water (it makes a colourful puddle), mixed the colour and the water through and applied it to the still damp background with an aqua painter. I squeezed the aqua painter as I went to ensure even more water flowed through the nib. The colours I used on the background were Pool Party and Old Olive for the background.  

Next I generation stamped the ferns from Butterfly Basics across the bottom left hand corner to blend the stamped images a little more.  I also stamped the fly poo dots from Gorgeous Grunge in Pool Party ink to add to the randomness of the background.

On a separate piece of Whisper White cardstock I stamped the border from the Rose Wonder set in Rich Razzleberry and the ‘happy birthday” sentiment in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink. I fussy cut the shape out to avoid the white edge on the boarder.

I wanted to tie in the base card colour and the images on the front of the card so I punched three Rich Razzleberry flowers using the 4 petal flower out of the Itty Bitty Punch Set. These are mounted with glue dots and I couldn’t resist adding some pearls for the centres. To have a contrast to the flowers and the flatness of this card I used Linen Thread for texture and criss-crossed it across the card three times.

I hope that you have found some inspiration in my card, feel free to leave a comment - I love to hear what you think. And don't leave - stick around and check out the next blogger Nadine Weiner!

Happy water colouring!

Cheers

Shanni xx

Totally Techniques Design Team Roll Call

Sandi MacIver

Patrice Halliday-Larsen

Amy Koenders

Lee Conrey

Shelagh Freemantle

Marine Wiplier

Erna Logtenberg

Heather Wright-Porto

Shannean Moncrieff (that's me)

Nadine Weiner

Alison Solven

Fancy Folds Design Team Blog Hop - Gate Fold Card

Wow! So delighted to be invited to be part of this very talented group of global Stampin' Up! demonstrators. . . chances are you have just visited Frenchie's blog - isn't she amazing?

This month we are creating different Gate Fold cards and here is my creation:

You will have followed the very simple instructions for how to make a Gate Fold card. I think that this style of card is so versatile and fun because you can build pockets inside for gift cards and cash and you can add a little more panache to the decoration on the outside.

I love square cards - they feel so much more substantial and extravagant than smaller cards but be conscious that you can adjust this design to any size preference. My base card is Whisper White Thick Cardstock (12" x  6"). I have scored and folded it to the Gate Fold template. It is mounted on a square of Watermelon Wonder Cardstock to "frame the whole creation and tie in the colours of the stamped project.

I have lined both the inside of the card and mounted the designer series paper on the front with Old Olive Cardstock. The inside is then mounted with another piece of Whisper White Cardstock. On the outside I mounted a square of floating leaves design paper from the English Garden DSP (primary colours Mossy Meadow and Old Olive). I couldn't resist layering a piece of the Watermelon Wonder 1" Stitched Ribbon over one edge of the DSP - I was wanting some extra texture and interest and a splash of solid colour to balance the images.

Using the Oval Framelits I cut a piece of Whisper White using the largest plain oval. I then traced the outside edge of that framelit on Old Olive Cardstock and cut out a mounting piece just marginally bigger that the white. I stamped the filigree stamp from First Sight stamp set in stamped off Old Olive ink. I heat embossed the flowers from Birthday Blooms in black on a separate piece of Whisper White Cardstock (two of the large flower and three of the smaller poppy image).

I water-coloured the heat embossed images using Watermelon Wonder, Blushing Bride, Mossy Meadow and Old Olive inks and an aqua painter. I then fussy cut the images out and played with the arrangements until I was happy with the balance. Don't be afraid to cut into stamped images like these to change the configuration depending upon your project. Imagine these blossoms cascading down the side of a scrapping page!

The fussy cut flowers are mounted on dimensionals whilst the pink poppies are adhered flat on the background. The stringed pearls are from the Love Blossoms Embellishment Kit. I adhered them with glue dots that I rolled into narrow sticky spots to hide under the pearls.

I hope you can see the differences in the layering. The oval is mounted using dimensionals on the left hand opening of the card and there is a fair bit of weight in that side of the card which holds it firmly together. The sentiment "dear friend" from the Birthday Blooms set is stamped in Mossy Meadow on Whisper White and punched out using the Large Oval Punch. It is adhered directly onto the DSP background.

The finished project! I hope you have gotten some ideas for your next Gate Fold card.

Check out the the rest of our blog hop here:

Here is the full roll call of blog hoppers this month:

Patrice Halliday-Larsen

Patty Bennett

Monica Gale

Tanja Kolar

Delphine Lorelli
Martha Inchley

Frances Poitras Martin

Shannean Moncrieff

Until next time

Shanni xx

Totally Techniques - Bouncing Brayer

Wow! When I blink I lose time. . . does that happen to anyone else? It seems like yesterday that I was blog hopping with my Totally Techniques Team and BOOM! its that time again already!

This month's technique as you may have gathered is Bouncing Brayer.

The step by step "how to" do this technique is available on every YouTube channel so I am not going to bore you with the details. . . jumpin' straight in. . . Here is my card:

This is a great technique but difficult to match with a lot of the stamp sets in our current catalogue and mini catalogues. . . I ended up opting to use Beautiful Ride and That Thing You Did. I kind of channeled tie-dying as my theme for a retro-groovy feel.

It's a 6"x 6" square card - base card is Pool Party. Mounted on that is a square of Bermuda Bay and a minimally smaller square of Tangelo Twist. The stamped cardstock (what I like to call my stamping canvas) is Whisper White although you possibly don't believe me on that lol.

I did the "bouncing brayer" technique on the left hand side of the card  using a brayer and the following inks in named order Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo and Daffodil Delight. I followed the YouTube video by Kelly Acheson. Whilst  the technique was easy I was overwhelmed with how bright the colours were because you will have worked out I am not a brights chick.

I then brayered the remaining white area of the stamping canvas (the right hand side) in Pool Party in the standard brayering manner. I masked off the starburst bouncing brayered area with post it notes to avoid mixing the colours too much. You will see that I graduated the colour from intense down to minimal at the bottom.

My goal was to balance all that colour in the background! The little VW beetle is heat embossed in white with the image from Beautiful Ride on Bermuda Bay cardstock and I fussy cut the border.

I needed to bring down the colour of the background a little more so opted for some clouds punched from Vellum Cardstock using the Tree Builder Punch and scattered a few Bermuda Bay Sequins to tie in the colour scheme and pop the beetle.

The sentiment "you're so Vintage" from That Thing You Did is heat embossed in black to overcome the bright background.

Finally to tie in the colours a little more and to complement the theme of groovy, vintage and free love I punched out some hearts using the Confetti Hearts Border Punch in Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay and Tangelo Twist - these are glued down using the precision tip glue which I adore!

I hope that you find some inspiration and love for my groovy card and enjoy the balance of the blog hop.

Next stop is the incredibly talented Nadine Weiner

I hope you have enjoyed the hop and look forward to seeing you again soon. . .

Peace out dudes

Shanni xx

Order of Bloggers this month

Sandi McIver 
Patrice Halliday-Larsen 
Amy Koenders
Lee Conrey 
Sheelagh Freemantle
Marine Wiplier
Erna Logtenberg
Heather Wright-Porto
Shannean Moncrieff (that's me!)
Nadine Weiner
Alison Solven

Totally Techniques - Shaving Foam Fun

Happy 2016 Peeps! Its been a busy few months with lots of changes in my personal life but I am well and happy and full of energy and zest abut the coming year.

I was recently invited to join the Totally Techniques Design team and feel both honoured and excited about the projects that are lined up. This is this month's line up of stampers:

Patrice Halliday-Larsen

Amy Koenders

Lee Conroy

Shelagh Freemantle

Marine Wiplier

Erna Logtenberg

Heather Wright-Porto

Shannean Moncrieff - that's me! Thanks for stopping by. . .

Nadine Weiner

Alison Solven

This month's technique is Shaving Foam and I have to admit that whilst it is not the most creative project that I have come up with it certainly smells the best!

You have already seen some awesome creations courtesy of this talented group of ladies and there is a good chance that you have just finished on Heather Wright-Porto's blog they are some big shoes to fill. . . here's my creation:

You all know that I love square cards and of course I couldn't resist making this one a large 6"x6" size. The base card is Blushing Bride mounted with Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper (I adore this glimmer paper of all the current colours lol). I then mounted the stamping base card (Whisper White) on a marginally bigger square of Rose Red card stock.

I used Serene Silhouettes and the new Balloon Celebrations stamp set along with the sentiment from First Sight - these two sets are available in the new Occasions Cattie which is overflowing with divine stamp sets, accessories and products.  Serene Silhouettes and the dandelions from Balloon Celebrations are stamped in Jet Black Staz-On and Tuxedo Black Memento Ink respectively. The sentiment is stamped in Blushing Bride classic ink.

The balloons are where I have included the Shaving Foam Technique - I made up a sheet of Whisper White using the shaving foam and Rose Red, Blushing Bride and Pink Pirouette re-inkers. I then heat embossed the three different balloons from Balloon Celebrations in clear embossing powder. The stippled one was inked in Versamark, Blushing Bride then embossed in clear. There is of course a matching punch [sigh - I love it when there is a matching punch or framelit] for the balloons.  I then stretched the back of the card stock using a stylus ball and the foam piercing mat to add dimension. . . I love the hint of gloss on the balloons.

Bling was essential to balance the glitter of the glimmer paper so I used the sequins from the Memories in the Making Project Life Accessories Kit - the pearlescent and blushing bride colours don't photograph well but they add the touch of whimsey that I was after!

I hope that you have found some inspiration. I would love to hear your comments xx

Next stop is the hugely talented Nadine Weiner, this lovely lady is such a beautiful person and great inspiration to me.

Until next time, have fun stamping!

Shanni

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Grand Vacation Achievers Holiday Cattie Sneak Peek

Christmas is just around the corner and there is no better time to start all of your projects and your cards because the Stampin' Up! Holiday Catalogue starts on 1 September!

The Grand Vacation Achievers are giving you a sneak peek of the awesome stamp sets and products available in this holiday season's cattie.  Here is my card:

I have done something a little outside the box using the Delicate Ornament Thinlet Dies - instead of using them for cutting out either cardstock, designer series paper or a stamped image I have used them to emboss Silver Foil Sheet.

The card is 6" square Night of Navy cardstock base lined with Whisper White and mounted on the front with a square of Silver Fancy Foil Designer Vellum. I love the diagonal lines and associate the pattern with traditional Christmas wrapping papers.

I embossed the Silver Foil cardstock with the three decorative ornaments from the Delicate Ornament Thinlet Dies - I simply turned the thinlets over and placed the cardstock on the non-cutting surface and passed it through the Big Shot.

I stamped the holly image from the Embellished Ornaments on the Silver Foil with Staz On Jet Black ink. I masked the image a little so that I could stamp the holly tumbling over both sides of the ornament. I coloured the leaves with a Mossy Meadow Stampin' Write Marker. I punched out small circles of Red Glimmer Paper using the 3.2mm Circle Handheld Punch and adhered the red glimmer dots with TomBow Glue. I wanted a little aspect to pop.

The sentiment is from Embellished Ornaments in StazOn. I am certain that this set is going to be a global favourite this season as I have already made a few projects in preparation for workshops and classes.

Finally I added the Silver 1.6cm Satin Ribbon bow so that the large ornament would feature as the main focal point of the card.

I hope that you have enjoyed this blog hop and the amazing creations that everyone has come up with. . . until next time!

Happy planning
Shanni xx