We would like to give a HUGE welcome to JJ Bolton as she shares her guest post with us today. I have long admired the beautiful cards and projects she creates. Her work as a designer for Mama Elephant and Avery Elle showcases her clean and simple style in a wonderful way. You can find more of her work on her blog Ribbon Girls.
We would appreciate if you would help us thank JJ for sharing her creativity with us by popping over to her blog Ribbon Girls - you will find so much inspiration there! Don't delay - read her post here and then head over to her blog and leave a comment there. You know you are in the right spot when you see the following goodies.
Thank you JJ for being so willing to showcase the Mama Elephant stamps and teaching us this fun technique! -Ellen
Hi everyone! It’s JJ dropping in at the CLASSroom! Can I just say that I’m so delighted to be here? This place is just flowing with creativity and every day I visit, I learn something new :) I’m so excited to be sharing a couple projects using the new-to-Ellen Hutson-line, Mama Elephant stamps!
When I first started making cards, I would finish a project but still have that nagging feeling that something was missing. I pored over magazines, over blogs, over catalogs looking for that elusive element. One day on a papercrafting forum, a poster said that her cards didn’t feel complete until she added some texture. That was a light bulb moment for me! I’m sure you all realized this MUCH earlier than I did ;), but it made so much sense! We stamp 2D images on flat paper! So since then, when I’m just not feeling a particular project, I add a wee bit of texture and see if that perks things up! For the CLASSroom projects I’m sharing today, I added texture in the form of scoring. Hope you like it!
My first project is a sunshiny card! I’m so ready for Spring and I’m craving some sun! My first step was to cut a card base and a panel from white linen card stock. {Love this stuff by the way! Thanks to Cristina Kowalczyk for the heads up on this stuff :)} The folded card base measures 5-1/2” tall by 4-1/4” wide. The panel is just a smidge smaller at 5-1/4” tall by 4” wide.
Next comes the stamping! Using the scallop border from Mama Elephant’s Modern Borders set, I stamped a wave background on the bottom half of the panel. Since the stamps are clear, I just eyeballed it to create the seamless pattern.
After stamping the waves, I added the sentiment (2 separate stamps from the So Breezy set). I have to admit that I am ADDICTED to the sentiments in this set. Something about the combination of the handwritten font with the outline letters is irresistible to me!
And now for the texture :) I wanted to create a scored sunburst around my sentiment. There’s no tool to do this easily, so I adapted my trusty score board to get it done! I took a long pin (a quilter’s pin works great if you got one) and inserted into the center of where I wanted the sunburst. {If you can, hide the hole inside of stamped image} After inserting the needle through the card, I placed it all on top of the scoreboard making sure that my needle was seated in a score groove. I had already marked off an area on my scoreboard with washi tape as a guide (we’ll get to that next). Just a note, I made sure that my card was in the middle of the scoreboard. {This technique requires you to spin the card around the pin, so you need the open space} After lining up my card parallel to the score grooves, I scored my first line starting from the pin and working outward to the edge of the card. {Note to self, get a better bone folder!}
After the first line was scored, I gently rotated the card panel around the pin (making sure to keep the pin held down firmly). To get evenly spaced score lines, I used my washi tape guides. As I mentioned above, I had already marked off 4 score lines on my board with washi tape to help me score evenly. So the process was….score line, rotate panel so that the scored line is lined up with the washi tape mark, score next line, rotate panel so that the scored line is lined up with the washi tape mark, and so on. The process is surprisingly simple (despite my complicated directions;)!
Once the scoring was finished, I was ready to add some color. I masked the bottom of the panel over the waves and blended a mix of yellow and orange inks over the sunburst. You can just blend the ink over the sunburst, or you can use a cloud stencil like I did for a little extra detail. The stencil I have is so old I don’t remember where I picked it up, but you can easily make one with a cloud punch or even cut one by hand. The bottom of the card got similar ink treatment with masking and blending over the wave stamping. Panel done!
Now to glue my panel to the card base. Originally, I was going to add the panel directly to the white card base but when it came down to it, the stark white frame was so distracting. So I ended up blending a bit of ink around the perimeter of the card which gave the card a much more natural look.
Here’ s the final product again. I think the scoring gives this card just the little bit of punch is needed! What do you think?
After I made my card, I applied the same technique to create a full sunburst tag! Of course, I had to use my neon inks;) The sentiment is from another Mama Elephant set called Say What. Really fun stamps in that set!
Thanks so much for hanging in there with me today! I really enjoyed making these projects and I hope that you found a little tidbit that you can add to your crafting arsenal! Huge thanks to Ellen for the honor :)
