Time to Play!

Well now that stamp camp is over, I have finally had a bit of time to mount and play with some of the stamps from the new catalogue! Thought you might be interested in what I have been up to…

This first one was actually one I put together before stamp camp. As my colleague Lynda was teaching the brayered sky technique on the day, I thought I should have a go and make sure I could do it too!! Here is my attempt, using the new "Wanted" set from Stampin' Up!.

The next one is using a technique created by a very talented artist called Laura Fredrickson, whose blog "Scrapnextras" I regularly visit. You can check out Laura's blog by clicking here
For this card I wanted to play with the new Stampin' Up! "In colours" for 2008, so I used Wild Wasabi and Blue Bayou together with So Saffron and a touch of Real Red. The stamps were the Star Studded standard wheel and the new Classic Stars jumbo wheel. I thought this would make a nice boy card.

Finally this one is using the new sets Voila and Voila a la carte. As my DH is a chef, I am really familiar with where their whites get dirty when the creative genius is upon them. I wanted to reflect that in my card. I really liked the effect, I did the water colouring with stamp n' write markers and an aqua painter.

Fossil Stone Technique

Well, here we go, deep breath … my very first blog entry. And what a way to start! Talk about jumping off the deep end! I am going to make my very first blog entry a tutorial! I must be mad. Ask Lynda, I'm sure she would agree.

So, you may be wondering why such an adventurous first blog? Well, I have a workshop coming up soon and I was cruising the net for inspiration (as you do) and I came across a tutorial by Julie Buhler for a technique called Fossil Stone. Some of you will know that I am a bit of a technique junkie, so if I see something I like, I just have to try it. Anyway this technique involves the use of a brayer. Having just completed the brayering Stamp Camp with Lynda, you would have been justified in thinking that I would retire my brayer for quite some time after all the preparation and so on. However I saw this technique and thought "the stamp camp ladies would like that". You see how dedicated I am (lol!) The best part is you don't even get your brayer dirty!!

Anyway, here goes … Please excuse my dodgy photography, hopefully it will improve with practice.

Fossil Stone Technique

You will need:

An A4 plastic sheet protector
2 coordinating ink colours (I used Wild Wasabi and Blue Bayou)
2 pieces of glossy card stock
A brayer
Stamps of your choice

Step 1.

Cut the bottom and side off your sheet protector so you can open it flat. Smudge your first ink colour onto one side of the plastic.

Step 2.

Smudge your second ink colour onto the other side of the plastic.

Step 3.

Close the sheet protector and rub it with your hand to create air bubbles.

Step 4.

Insert your two pieces of glossy card stock, back to back,
with the glossy side of each facing outward.
Lay them in your sheet protector and close it over them.

Step 5.

Brayer over the cardstock (on the outside of the sheet protector) until the cardstock has a good coverage of ink.

Remove your cardstock and let it dry.

The finished cardstock!

And my card - Fishy Fossil!

Stamped images are copyright Stampin' Up! 1986-2008.
I hope you like this technique and have fun playing with it. Let me know what you think of my first tutorial!!

Claire