the CLASSroom

Summer Stitched Fun by Sharon Harnist

Ahhh . . . the simple summer-time, don't you love the ease of it?  I know I'd like to be taking it easy in a hammock like this one!

Coloring Karen Lockhart's sweet new Summer Hammock stamp (just released earlier this month) is just what I needed to put me in a relaxing mood! I stamped it onto Neenah Solar White cardstock and colored it with these Copic markers:

Copic Tip: Notice the color numbers I chose (except the grays, used for shading) all begin with a 1 -- this assures you that your colors will all fall within the same more saturated truer/brighter color range (0's, 1's, or 2's), as opposed to numbers beginning with 7, 8, or 9 which have more gray added to them, desaturating them and making them more suited for shading or to convey an earthy, shabby or vintage feeling.

Next, I used the Sew Easy Stitch Piercer Tool with Straight Stitch and Piercing Mat to pierce holes in the cardstock for the hammock to have something to be tied to, and then stitched with twine. To keep the hammock panel from being lumpy and bumpy if adhered directly on the cardfront, I used Copic's High Tack Double-Sided Foam Tape to raise the panel off the card base:

Yellow Stickles accent the hammock fringe and a strip of pretty Lily Bee Buttercup paper, trimmed along the zig-zag pattern, finishes this card. The sweet Lockhart sentiment is another new June release.  

I hope you find time to relax this weekend . . . I know I will!

~ Sharon

Stamps: Lockhart Stamp Company Summer Hammock #2177 & Enjoy the simple things #10093 
Paper: Neenah Solar White cardstock; Lily Bee 6x6 Tiny Tablet-Buttercup; Memory Box Notecard & Envelope-Bayou;
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; 
Copic Markers: BG11, BG13, C2, C3, C5, RV13, RV14, Y11, Y17
Dies: Sizzix Framelits-Fancy Labels; 
Accessories: Sew Easy Stitch Piercer Tool-Straight Stitch & Piercing Mat; Doodlebug Twine Assortment-Brights; Ranger Stickles-Yellow; 
Other: Embroidery needle

Skyline Celebration

With the Fourth of July right around the corner I wanted to quickly share a fun little project with you. I am in love with the Skyline dies due to their versatility. I missed out on one fabulous opportunity to share the Father's Day ideas I had and decided I could not miss out on this one!

Being I didn't have a fireworks stamp I looked at the different flowers and snowflakes we carry - I thought this Starburst was perfect for this project.

Stamp the image on black cardstock using embossing ink and lightly sprinkle Holographic embossing powder as shown above. Do not fully cover because you want to mix the holographic powder together with the opaque white. Then sprinkle the opaque white embossing powder over the entire image. Remove the excess combined powders and store in a new container for a future project. Heat set.

Using a pastel pencil add color randomly to your starbursts as shown above. After coloring use your fingertip to rub the pastel color into the embossing powder mix.

I couldn't resist layering Fantasy Film behind the windows and backed it with white cardstock to make the windows glow in the dark. Simply trace your diecut skyline image. Apply adhesive to the white cardstock and attach the Fantasy Film. Then cut out your shape inside the pencil lines and adhere directly behind your black skyline cutout.

As you can see I ended up using two different skylines - both Savvy Cityscape and My Favorite Things Skyline. This is definitely not necessary, but I wanted to show that the scale of these dies allows them to work together beautifully, creating a more diverse look. You can also cut the shapes and flip them to add character to your cityscape.

Use dimensional foam dots to create a layered effect.

Let the celebrations begin! Thank you for stopping by the CLASSroom again today!

stamps: Hero Arts Starbursts

dies: Savvy Cityscape and MFT Skyline

ink: Distress Embossing Ink

paper: Black Cardstock, Hero Arts Azure Cardstock, Neenah Solar White

accessories: Holographic Embossing Powder, Opaque White Embossing Powder, Faber Castel Pastel Pencils - #226 and #143, Dandelion Fantasy Film

Butterfly Mobile by Susan Roberts

It is such a pleasure to welcome Susan Roberts back to the CLASSroom today as she has prepared a fabulous guest post for us! THANK YOU Susan for creating this magical project and sharing the amazing details on how you created this beautiful mobile! It is absolutely stunning!!

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After my daughter-in-law saw a few butterfly mobiles on the internet that she loved, I decided to come up with one for her to hang in my newest little granddaughter’s nursery. It uses many of the wonderful tools and products from Ellen’s store.

The mobile begins with the solid inside pieces of 3 different sized embroidery hoops.

The surface of these wooden hoops was very porous, so they were sealed on all sides with Gesso and Acrylic Paint.

To connect the hoops, 3 strands of fishing line were tied across the largest hoop.  To secure each knot a glue gun was was used, and the excess fishing line was cut off.

Again using fishing line, the 2 smaller hoops were tied to the fishing line on the largest hoop.  Each knot was again hot glued and the excess fishing line was cut off.

Next, 18  3’ strands of fishing line were cut and tied to the hoops spacing 6 strands per hoop.  These strands were also hot glued to the hoops and the excess part of the knots was cut off.  To leave room for the ribbons (shown later) the strands on the middle hoop were placed close to the cross sections of fishing line.  (The length of the strands varies on the finished mobile as they were cut once the butterflies were in place.  The number of butterflies per strand also varies.)

Using Mod Podge, strips of Neenah Classic Cream cardstock were adhered to the inside and outside of the hoops, and 12" Pearl Strips were placed around the outside of the largest hoop.  (A temporary loop was tied around the center of the nylon strands crossing the hoops to hang the mobile while putting on the butterflies.)

The butterflies were made using cardstock. You can use light pink, medium pink, dark pink and classic cream or change it up depending on the color of your child's room.  We have many different varieties of butterfly dies in our store to select from. Just follow this link to find ones that appeal to you. This mobile uses approximately 22 dark pink, 22 medium pink and 20 light pink butterflies. 

 

Since the colored cardstock used in this post reverse side is white, and because part of this reverse side would be visible on the finished butterfly, dye ink was applied using an Ink Blending Tool on the white side of each piece to give them a creamy color to match the Neenah Classic Cream cardstock that was also being used.

Oh and I have to mention something about The Vagabond! Being able to use Ellen’s studio and the Vagabond was incredible. It made cutting out even the most intricate lacy butterflies an absolute dream.

The butterflies were assembled using a Quickie Glue Pen.  (In those areas on the butterfly which were large enough, double sided tape was used.) Once the butterflies were assembled, they were attached to the mobile by making a hole in the center of the butterfly’s body with a paper piercer and then threading  one of the strands through that hole from the back to the front.

Using a ¼”Circle Punch, circles were punched and then adhered to glue dots.   These were then adhered to the back of each butterfly over the strand of thread one per butterfly matching the cardstock of that particular one.  This holds the butterfly to the desired location on the strand of thread.

Once all of the butterflies were placed and secured,  the strands were cut approximately 4” below the lowest placed butterfly on each strand. Next, two self-adhesive pearls were added to the end of each strand placing the sticky sides of the pearls together to form a round pearl.

Finally, six 12” 1-1/4” May Arts Silk Ribbons were cut and tied to the middle of the three hoops- one to each of the 6 sections.  From the hoop to the knot on each ribbon was approximately 3”.  (Note:  If I were to do another mobile, I would add the ribbon before putting all the butterflies on the strands.  Working around the butterflies was needlessly cumbersome…)

The ribbons were all placed on a 1” fastener ring at the knots and gathered together on the bottom half of the ring.

Clip the ring shut and voila!

Land of the Free Mini Canvases by Julia Stainton

Independence Day is coming up and inspired by the new Maya Road Star tins, I thought a patriotic project might be a fun one to work up for my American friends. I hope you enjoy it!

Mini Canvas Frames have to be one of my all-time favorite products in the Ellen Hutson LLC store. They are 4"x4" in size and are the perfect size for making fun altered canvas projects and just right for experimenting on. A great feature of these canvases are they are triple primed meaning you can get right to the fun stuff. As well they come two in a pack, are super high quality and as the canvas wraps right around to the back, you don't even need a frame for them. Unless you want one of course.

 

Today's tutorial has lots of photos to take you through all the steps. A picture is worth a thousand words, right?...so I've taken a few to make it easy to follow. The first step is to paint one of the canvases with blue Studio Acrylic Paint.

While that is drying, you can stamp a nice collage of images onto the other canvas. It's already triple primed as I mentioned earlier so you can just stamp away. I like using the Ranger Archival Inks for stamping on canvas and then heat set the ink for permanence.

Creating stripes is easy to do when you mask off an area. Tissue Tape makes a beautiful accent but it also works perfectly to mask with. Apply the tissue tape on the areas you want to remain white and paint the rest in red.

After the paint has dried, you can remove the masking tape and your canvas should look like the above photo.

While that continues to dry, it's back to the blue canvas. Once it's surface is dry you can stamp on it with paint applied to a background stamp. I love doing this with an Adirondack Paint Dabber as it makes it super easy to cover the area. Stamp canvas and set aside to dry.

Once both canvases are dry you can add a lovely crackle finish if you like the vintage look. Apply Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint over each of the canvas and give it an hour or so to dry.

The Distress Crackle layer will add a beautiful vintage distressed look. To highlight it, sponge the surfaces with some Distress Ink. If you'd like to check out the detail, just click on the above photo to enlarge it.

Finally we get to the Maya Road Star Bottle Cap that inspired the project. Most paints flake off metal so I've painted the inside of the bottle cap with Gesso. I've filled the inside of the star with a knotted length of burlap tirm and added some other sweet embellishments.

Here's a detail of what the star canvas looks like finished.

To complete the striped canvas, I've painted some chipboard letters with the matching blue Studio paint and adhered them to the canvas.

You can display these canvases horizontally as in the first photograph but after completing the project, discovered that it looks great arranged vertically as well.

Hope you've been inspired to create some patriotic art for your home this summer.

Thanks for stopping by the CLASSroom and have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies: White 4"x4" Canvas Frames, Studio Gesso by Ranger, Snow Cap Adirondack Paint Dabber, Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint, Dash of Red Studio Paint and Smidge of Blue Studio Paint by Ranger, Studio Artist Brushes, Jet Black Archival Ink, Vermillion Archival Ink and Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink by Ranger, Cling Music Background,  Large Newspaper Background DesignBlock, Basic Grey Carte Postale by Hero Arts, Patti Mini Alphabet Chipboard Set by Maya Road, Star Bottle Cap, Vintage Paper Roses, Linen Burlap Trim and Ticket Transparencies by Maya Road, Heart Trinket Pins, Crystal Star Trinket Pins, Kraft Flag Trinket Pins and Wood Bingo Motifs by Maya Road, Love Banner Clear Stamp Sheet by Maya Road

VIDEO TUTORIAL: DIY Ombre (Rainbow) Ink Pad by Julie Ebersole

You've probably noticed the Ombre trend in fashion and home decor of late--I love the gradations of color!

(image credit)

For a one-off card, you can certainly apply ink directly to the stamp, starting with lightest colors first, adding subsequently darker colors. But, what if you wanted to make 20 cards with this effect?  It would be rather tiresome to reink the stamp every single time in this fashion.

But you could make a custom ink pad that would enable you to restamp to your heart's content quite easily and quickly, using Cut-n-Dry Stamp Pad felt by Ranger and dye reinkers!

I did a video tutorial to accompany the info below--enjoy!

 

There are two different types of Cut-n-Dry Stamp pads--felt and foam.  Use the felt when working with dye reinkers and the foam if you're using pigment reinkers.

The first step is to cut a piece of felt that matches the size of the stamp you plan to work with.   I placed the Savvy portrait Chevron stamp onto the pad, traced around it and cut it out.  Once nice thing about this particular size pad, is that I'll be able to use it with quite a few other stamps any time I want that Ombre effect.

The next step is to load the pad with ink; I started with the lightest color in the spectrum that I was going for (see the list below in the supplies), and then added increasingly darker hues.

I used Memento Reinkers, but you could also use Adirondack or Distress Reinkers (dye-based inks).

I put the pad onto a paper plate, just to help keep my work surface clean. And, next time, I plan to wear gloves, cuz this can get a little messy.  Keep some wipes handy... *wink*

I allowed the colors to slightly overlap as I added each subsequent color; I wanted the colors to blend smoothly, without any gaps.

I inked the stamp by tapping up and down multiple times--so the colors would blend together smoothly, and then I did a test print.  My initial print was not as "evenly" colored as I wanted, which meant I probably didn't add quite enough ink in some of the colors so I did add more.  Subsequent stampings were then satisfactory, and I was ready to proceed with my project.

I didn't have any other containers on hand to store my ink pad, so I slipped it into a Zip-loc freezer bag; this will keep it moist until I want to use it again. But, this was so quick & easy, I plan to hit the dollar store for some plastic containers with lids that I can store my DIY pads in. I definitely want to make more because it was so quick & easy!

Note: You can also use "blank" pre-made stamp pads, available HERE.

Another great thing about these DIY pads, is that you can reink them if they do dry out--even use Perfect Ink Refresher to rejuvenate them when needed. AND, if you decide later you want to create a different combination of colors, you can actually wash the pad out and ink it up in a whole new rainbow! *fist pump*

Thanks for stopping by and I hope this sparks some new creative ideas for you!

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SUPPLIES & MATERIALS:

Stamps: Picnic by Basic Grey/Hero Arts; Chevron (portrait) by Savvy Stamps

Ink:  Memento Tangelo by Tsukineko, Memento Refills in Dandelion, Canteloupe, Tangelo, Lady Bug Red, Rhubarb Stalk; Versamark by Tsukineko; Copic Markers in Y00 Barium Yellow, YR16 Apricot, R14 Light Rouge, E30 Bisque, Y35 Maize

Paper: Neenah Solar White (25 sheet or ream); Black

Tools:  Cut-n-Dry Stamp Pad Felt; 1 1/2" Circle Punch; 3/4" Square Punch; 1 3/4" Circle Die (from Hero Arts Frame Cuts "Ticket" Die Set); Heat It Tool

Embellishments: Stickles Glitter Glue in Fruit Punch & Orange Peel; 2mm Black Pearl Sticker (from my stash)

Other:  3D Dots; Hero Arts White Embossing Powder

Thank You Circles by Teri Anderson

One of my absolute favorite aspects of going to the Craft & Hobby Association shows is having the opportunity of meeting the many incredibly talented women in this industry. It was with great excitement that I finally had the opportunity to meet Teri Anderson at the last show! This talented young lady is one of PaperCrafts magazine Go-to-Gals. As well she is a design team member for THREE of fabulous stamp companies we carry - Lawn Fawn, Paper Smooches and Technique Tuesday!

It is such a pleasure to have Teri with us today showing us a fantastic way to use circles in designing a card! We would LOVE to have your help thanking Teri - please head over to her blog a bit of this. a bit of that. and leave some lovin' in the comments section of her post there - you know you are in the correct spot if you see the following pic!

Thank you Teri for sharing your creativity with us here in the CLASSroom!

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Hi Everyone! Welcome to the CLASSroom!

Circles are one of my favorite design elements on cards. I want to show you a few fun ways to incorporate circles on your cards with stamping and with using buttons by sharing this card with you.

First thing is first. I'm going to do some stamping and make one really big layered circle. I just love using circles in this!

I started by cutting a 2 1/2" circle from Bayou cardstock. I used a circle punch, but a circle die would work just as well!

Then I stamped the "gratitude" definition from The Family Circle on to the circle. You'll notice that I stamped it just a little bit off the circle. That's because it really is just a design element. I don't expect anyone to actually read it.

I set the circle aside and then grabbed the Thanks circle and stamped it with orange ink on white cardstock.

I used a circle punch to cut it out and then set it aside.

Now comes the hard part! (Hee hee!) I used the large circle stamp from The Family Circle and stamped it with black ink on to my card panel. Here's how it looks all stamped up. Easy, right?

 

Then I just started piling things on.

I added the Bayou circle and then I added the Thanks circle.

To give a little extra dimension, I used foam tape to pop that small circle off the card. Here's a peek of how things look when all finished.

Love that extra pop the foam tape gives!

Another nice way to add circle elements to your cards is to use round buttons. I use buttons plain like this all the time.

I use buttons plain like this all the time. But, sometimes I like to sauce them up.

And Copic markers are a great way to do this. Just take a pen to your buttons of choice and start doodling with it. For my card, I selected three markers slightly darker than the buttons and then just lightly and selectively added color to parts of each button. If you try this at home, be sure to test it out on a few buttons first. That way you can make sure the colors work well together.

The end result of my button doodling looked something like this.

My buttons (plus some more I colored) look pretty cool on my finished card.

Thanks for joining me in the CLASSroom today!

Teri

 
stamps: Technique Tuesday - Thanks Seal, The Family Circle and A Million and One

paper: My Mind's Eye 6x6 On the Bright Side Two Paper Pad, Memory Box - Bayou, Parsley, and Jack O Lantern; Neenah Solar White

ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Orange Ink

Copic markers: BG72, YR07, G99

other: October Afternoon 9 to 5 Buttons, circle punches (or circle dies), jute

Stretch Your Stamps Class Winners

A huge congratulations to the following winners of our random drawing for this fantastic new class, Stretch Your Stamps, from Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner!

 

 

Jennifer and Kristina will be in touch with you shortly!

For complete information head over to...

Stretch Your Stamps

 

We have created a special category in our online store, Ellen Hutson LLC, called Stretch Your Stamps which showcases the featured stamps and dies and links you to Jennifer and Kristina's class site. The items in this special category will be on sale through June 30th. After signing up for class you will get a discount code to use when shopping with us ---don't forget to use your class discount code as well for fantastic savings!

Be certain to watch our newsletter for a way to save a few dollars on the class fee! You can sign up for our newsletter on the home page of our storefront - located on the right-hand side of your screen part way down.

Class runs from July 9-23 - hope to see you there!

A Tribute To My Sweet Girl On Her Graduation

As I sit here tonight reflecting on the past 18 years I am grateful - grateful for my two very special daughters! My heart is bursting with pride as we celebrate with our oldest daughter Maddi, as she graduates from high school today. I wanted to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the amazing young lady she has become.

Maddi's kind and caring heart is probably the trait I am most proud of. The goals she sets for herself constantly amaze me and she works towards them with fierce determination, putting in the hours of work necessary to make them come true.

Maddi, congratulations on meeting your goal of running a 1/4 mile in less than 60 seconds and setting a new school record together with your teammates in the 4x400 at State this year.

Congratulations on your many scholastic achievements - to know that you love science and math as much as I do just makes me grin from ear to ear. You will do something amazing in life... of that I am certain!

Creating this simple card was an absolute joy, because as I created it I was able to reflect back on the past and remember the moments of joy, tears, and laughter. Your quirky wit is definitely something you get from your dad - my goodness but you can make me laugh! We are so very proud of you as you head into the next phase of your life. Congratulations once again my sweet girl!!!

TIP: It doesn't take much time at all to create a card for a graduate in your life. Use their school colors as your jump-off point. Apply Be Creative Tape to Solar White cardstock and cut out your numbers before applying glitter and burnishing. "Cap" it off with a mortar board and you are well on your way to congratulating someone special.

stamps: Technique Tuesday Grad, Lawn Fawn Chevron Backdrops

paper: Neenah Solar White

ink: Library Green Archival Ink Pad

accessories: My Favorite Things By the Number Stamps and Die Set, Silver Microfine Glitter Ritz, Be Creative Tape

Frosted Glass Card by Julia Stainton

Do you have a favorite stamping technique? I have many. Some of my favorites I haven't done in a long time. How can it be a favorite then you ask? Well, it's just one that always makes me happy with how it turns out. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do.

 I loved the look of frosted glass and you can incorporate that look easily into your stamping projects. What you need to start with is some kind of clear acrylic accent. I'm using a Tim Holtz Fragment tag for mine.

When you start off your acrylic accent will be perfectly clear. We want to make it look frosted and sandpaper is a quick and easy way to do that. Simply sand the surface of the acylic horizontally and vertically until you get a nice smooth frosted look. It will look like sea glass. You only want to sand the top surface for this technique.

It's hard to see the frosted look but I've place my tag onto a piece of patterned paper in hopes that you can get an idea of what this step looks like.

Next up...some very simple stamping. A fairly defined simple image works best for this technique. You don't want too much fine detail or the embossing powder will all melt together. I've chosen a pretty Hero Arts flower, inked it with Versamark Ink and then stamped it onto the sanded acylic surface.

To finish off the technique, apply clear embossing powder to the stamped image and remove excess. Use your heat gun to apply heat until all the embossing powder is melted. Voila! You're Frosted Glass Technique tag.

You can see how the embossed image shines and makes the translucent "frosted glass" clear. Sweet, right?!

Thanks for stopping by the CLASSroom and have a fabulous weekend!

Supplies:

sewing machine, Solar White Cardstock by Neenah, Graceful This & That 6x6 paper pad by Echo Park Paper Co. , twine, ClearDesign: Blossom Art Stamp Set and ClearDesign: Yummy Treat stamp set by Hero Arts, Round Pearl trinket pins by Maya Road, Tim Holtz Fragments Charms by Advantus, Versamark Ink by Tsukineko, Jet Black Archival ink by Ranger, Clear Embossing Powder by Ranger, Sanding Block by Advantus

Stretch Your Stamps - New Class at Online Card Classes Giveaway

Registration is now open for the newest Online Card Classes (Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner) interactive class...

Stretch Your Stamps!

This class shares techniques and tips for getting the most from many different stamp styles. Each day of class focuses on a certain type of stamp - background, collage, borders, etc - and shows 5 cards (and 2 videos) using them creatively. With 50+ card ideas and 20+ videos, you wil be sure to look at your stamps in a whole new light.

In addition to the teachers, Kristina Werner and Jennifer McGuire, there are many fabulous guests and special appearances from stamp designers themselves - including Ali Edwards, Claudine Hellmuth, Kim Hughes and Tim Holtz.

We here at Ellen Hutson LLC are honored to sponsor this class. After signing up, you will also get a discount code to use when shopping with us! We will be carrying the entire selection of stamps and dies suggested for this class, so keep checking back as items are arriving in our warehouse each and every day. We have created a special category called Stretch Your Stamps which showcases the featured stamps! (Oh, and watch our newsletter for a way to get a few dollars off the class fee! You can sign up for our newsletter on the home page of our storefront - located on the right-hand side of your screen part way down.)

Class runs from July 9-23. Hope to see you there!

Head HERE for more information!

Jennifer and Kristina have so very generously offered THREE spots in Stretch Your Stamps! Just leave a comment on this post by midnight, PDT Friday, June 8th, 2012. I will use a random number generator to drawn the winners and announce the winner on Saturday, June 9. 

You are da' man... by Julie Ebersole

Guy cards can be hard. I'm lucky in that my guys have very definite tastes and interest so I know I can rely on themes like fishing, basketball, video games (the son), and nautical (we live on an island, and minus my son, the rest of the men in the family happen to find lighthouses intriguing. Go figure!).

But, what if your guy (dad, father, brother, friend, etc.) isn't into sports? Or the outdoors? Or tools? Or music? Or has absolutely no hobby whatsoever?

I've had this idea for a "generic" manly card for a while, and when Studio Calico released the Potty People Veneers, well, I just had to pull all the elements I thought would work together well into this card.

And, seriously?  Who can resist something called "Potty People"???  Cracks me!

I love the Veneers in their natural wood form, but for this design I felt he needed to be tinted, so I stuck him on the sticky side of a Post It Note--this way I could hang onto him and keep him stationary while I tinted him with some Distress Stain in Tumbled Glass.

I didn't have any herringbone patterned paper, so I used this fabulous Herringbone Cover-a-Card background stamp by Impression Obsession to make what I wanted--love that I can do that with stamps!  And, I used my favorite new gray colored ink--Memento Gray Flannel--LOVE!!!

BTW, I started out thinking the card base would be all herringbone, but as the project progressed, I realized it would be better as an accent with all the other elements I wanted to include, so I cut a strip from it and reserved the rest for a future project. I can see myself using the herringbone background stamp for making gobs of custom Washi Tape (video tutorial HERE) in the very near future...

 

I also knew I wanted to use one of my all-time favorite stamp sets "You're The Best" by Studio Calico/Hero Arts

There isn't a die to match that "seal" image, BUT don't be discouraged from fussy-cutting it out--it's actually quite easy and quick if you cut the points from one side, same direction, all the way around the whole image, and then go around and snip the opposite side of the points.

If you *really* do not want to trim it out, then try using a 2" circle punch or die--I didn't happen to have either one, but I love the look of it trimmed out anyway. So. *grin*

Once I realized I was going to need a different base card, I decided to go with black, for dramatic effect, and for texture I spritzed it using Mister Huey's in Calico White (tutorial for working with mists HERE). Calico White is *uber* cool on dark card stock, but it may take some time to dry (overnight).  Or if you're impatient like me, you can take a heat tool to it to speed things up.  The paper will warp a bit just from the mist, and from heating as well, so if that bothers you, once it's completely dry, stick it under a heavy book overnight to flatten.  However, I found that, once it was dry, as I continued working on the card it just became flatter on its own without me having to do too much. The Calico White Mist also has a slightly chalky residue, just so you're aware.

Remember Snap Stamps?  Karen Foster used to make them and we all went kinda nuts over them and then they quit making them.  To everyone's supreme disappointment.

Well, Prima Marketing has picked up the ball (thank you, Prima!!!) and revived the idea behind those alpha stamps, but I'd venture to say they also improved on the idea with their Prima Press Alphabets! Ellen and I were super excited when we spied them at CHA!  I'm using the one with the typewriter font (seriously, I cannot resist a typewriter font... ). I like the handle. I like the way the letters are screen-printed on the side of the plastic housing that mounts to the handle. I like that you can see very easily what you're trying to spell. I like that there are multiples of certain letters you'll probably need when composing a sentence or greeting. Like vowels.  *grin*

For the scale of my project, however, the letters were going to be spaced further apart than I wanted if mounted to the handle, so I left them off and just used them individually to get tighter spacing.  Worked FABULOUS!!!

 

If you're ever stumped for a generic masculine card that is suitable for pretty much ANY occasion, I hope this one sparks ya'.

Thanks for stopping by today!

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SUPPLIES & MATERIALS:

STAMPS: Hero Arts/Studio Calico "You're The Best" Clear Set, Starburst Background Rubber cling, Stepping Stone Alphabet Clear Set (Heyday Collection, coming soon); Impression Obsession Herringbone Cover-a-Card Background Cling Stamp; Prima Press Alphabet in Typewriter font by Prima Marketing

INKS: Adirondack Mountain Rose; Hero Arts Butter Bar, Soft Pool; Memento Gray Flannel & Tuxedo Black; Versamark; Mister Huey in Calico White; Distress Stain in Tumbled Glass

PAPER:  Neenah Solar White; Black Card Stock

EMBELLISHMENTS:  Potty People Wood Veneers by Studio Calico

TOOLS:  Embossing Magic; EK Success Honey Bee Scissors; Corner Chomper; Ranger Heat It Tool

OTHER: 3D Dots; Hero Arts White Embossing Powder