Back to Kindergarten

Hello! It's me again. Longer between posts than I would have liked, but there you go … I have had the usual combo of work and home life to deal with and my little guy has been sick this week with a nasty infection – so all up, not much time to play!

Anyway, the card for this post is one that I designed for a challenge on Splitcoast Stampers. They have this great forum for SU demos where we can try ideas and techniques and share business info etc. It's a really great resource and subscribed to by demos all over the world so there are lots of ideas out there, as you can imagine. They have a challenge weekly where you are given a particular idea, to design a card that you could demonstrate in a workshop situation.

Last week's challenge was to incorporate paper weaving into your card. I just had to have a go at this one! It took me straight back to kinder, where I remember making, and proudly presenting to Mum and Dad, woven placemats. We used them on the dinner table until they fell apart! (My poor long suffering Mum!)

This card kind of took on a life of its' own and kind of designed itself as I went along! It has ended up being a lot more elaborate than my original concept and is probably now too fiddly to demonstrate in a workshop. But I was pleased with the overall look of it, so thought I would share it with you anyway!

I used Whisper White cardstock for the weaving. I chose to use the Fishy Friends stamp set. Then I embossed my fish with clear embossing powder, having first inked my stamp in both Versa Mark and Tempting Turquoise Inks. The weaving was then sponged with Tempting Turquoise and Green Galore Ink. To make my fish stand out from the sponging a little, I lightly blended the sponged colours with an aquapainter. (Thanks to Lynda – Stampinkins for that tip!) The edges of my weaving were a little (a lot actually lol!) messy so I made a border with strips of Tempting Turquoise cardstock and added Faux stitching with a white gel pen. The seaweed at the bottom of the main card was done using the tentacles of the jellyfish from the same stamp set, using white craft ink. I finished the card with a sentiment from the Warm Words stamped in white craft ink.

Hope you like it. Thanks for dropping in. See you next time.

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