SBTD Blog Hop Background Techniques

It's time to hop with the SBTD (Stampers By The Dozen) Blog Hop team and our theme for March is Background techniques. As your journey along our blog hop, you will be inspired by a variety of techniques and projects created by Stampin' Up! demonstrators from all over the world. You may have just visited Susan's blog or perhaps you are starting your journey here. I hope that you enjoy this blog hop.

I love heat embossing and it is probably one of my favorite techniques to use when creating cards. So today I thought I would share with you two cards I created using heat embossing with the Emboss Resist technique. You can use a variety of different embossing powders for this technique and today I chose to use Whisper White embossing powder and Gold embossing powder.

As you can see, it is possible to create a variety of card designs using this technique and the type of embossing powder will also influence the final design. For both of my cards, I chose to use Whisper White cardstock for the layer to create the design and I added color by sponging ink onto the cardstock using Sponge Daubers.

For this first card, I chose the Lovely Wishes stamp set, from the 2018 Occasions Catalog. This is a beautiful stamp set for Spring cards and I love the elegance of the images and the simplicity of the sentiments. I used Gold embossing powder to emboss the larger floral image onto the Whisper White cardstock and then I gently sponged Lemon Lime Twist Classic ink with a sponge dauber all over the cardstock. Next, I gently wiped over the embossed areas with a tissue to remove the ink from the gold embossing and make it shine.

I added a little extra color to the leaves with a Blender pen and Tranquil Tide Classic ink and for the blossoms I used Peekaboo Peach Classic ink. I loved the way this made the images pop against the Lemon Lime Twist background. The smaller hearts image is from the Amazing Congratulations stamp set and I heat embossed these images with Gold embossing powder in the opposite corners to balance out the design.

The sentiment was stamped on Tranquil Tide cardstock with Gold embossing powder and punched out with the Pretty Label punch. From Gold Foil I punched out two more labels using the same punch and layered them behind the Tranquil Tide piece to create a frame. The Basic Pearls were colored with the Light Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Blends marker to coordinate with the blossoms and it worked beautifully with the gold embellishments. To finish off the card, I attached the design to a Tranquil Tide card base. 

I love the classic elegance of this card design and the way that the colors worked together to create a lovely Spring card.

My second card features the Sale-a-bration stamp set, Lots of Lavender, and I used the large floral image to stamp the Whisper White cardstock layer in Versamark ink and emboss them with Whisper White embossing powder. I sponged Sweet Sugarplum Classic ink onto the Whisper White cardstock with a Sponge Dauber and then gently rubbed off the excess ink from the embossing with a tissue to make the embossing stand out. 

For the sentiment, I die cut an oval using the Stitched Shapes Framelits dies from Whisper White cardstock and embossed the semtiment from the Rose Wonder stamp set in Silver embossing powder. I attached a piece of Fresh Fig 1/2" Finely Woven Ribbon to the center of the card and attached the oval on top of the ribbon with Stampin' Dimensionals. I colored three Basic Pearls with the Light Rich Razzleberry Stampin' Blends marker to coordinate with the Sweet Sugarplum sponged layer and attached them to the Whisper White oval.

To finish off the card, I attached the card design to a Fresh Fig cardstock card base. I love the way the Sweet Sugarplum looks with Fresh Fig to create this pretty Spring card. 

As you can see, it doesn't take a lot of supplies to create with this technique and it can work with a variety of colors and stamp images. The possibilities are endless. 

I hope you have enjoyed my cards today and I hope that they will inspire you to try heat embossing and the Emboss Resist technique for your Spring projects.

Now it's time to visit Lyndsay's blog and see what she has created this month. Just click the Next button below to visit her blog, or if you get lost along the way, use the Blog Hop Roll Call below to find your way. 

Lyndsay

Blog Hop Roll Call

Karie Beglau 

Judi Anderson  

Susan Simpson 

Tricia Butts

LyndsayLaRae Carara 

Courtenay Heuston  

Tashana Lundy          

Carly Middleton 

Sharleen Luciano 

Vicky Thompson

Anastasia Radloff  

Until Next Time.

Happy Stampin',

Tricia Butts

Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator ®

Like What you see? Visit My Online Store Here

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Holiday Season Inspirations

Hi Everyone,

One of the things I love about attending Stampin' Up! events, are all the wonderful card designs and ideas that inspire me with my creations.  At the Denver Regional, I had the opportunity to take photos of hundreds of different cards and projects on display that were generously shared by demonstrators.

Today I thought I would share a few photos of cards created that have that Wow! factor without being overly complicated.  Some feature punches, perhaps some Designer Series Paper or maybe some ribbon to make the design pop.

These first two cards are examples of how different techniques can provide a different look to your card design. The top card focuses on stamping, with the ornaments arranged with the smaller ornament stamped separately and die cut before adding to the card.  There is a classic elegance to this card design which is  in contrast to the card below it.

 

The bottom card was created using punch art and has a bold, fun feel to it.  The background has been embossed with the Petals a Plenty Embossing Folder. The "pom poms" on the elf shoes were created with a circle punch from Silver Glimmer paper for a little sparkle.

Both cards have that eye-catching quality without being overly fussy or difficult to create. The next two cards show how you can take die cutting and give it a little twist for an unexpected look.

The Season's Greetings card features Designer Series paper as the focus of the card.  The opening was cut with the large framelit from the Apothecary Accents set.  By filling the negative space with strips of Designer Series paper from the Be of Good Cheer DSP pack, you take a simple white card base and make it a Wow card.  The Cherry Cobbler 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon adds the perfect embellishment to the sentiment for a quilted look to a traditional Christmas card.

This next card was created using the Holiday Collections Framelits set, which can be purchase separately or as part of the Scentsational Season Bundle in the 2012 Holiday Catalog. Once again the negative space created by the framelits has been filled, this time with various ribbon scraps to add color and dimension to this card design.  The little tags and Early Espresso Bakers Twine give the card a rustic, country feel.

 

Christmas ornaments are a popular theme with Christmas cards and this pretty card features the stamp set Chock Full of Cheer. I love the combination of Gumball Green (one of the new 2012-2014 In Colors) with Cherry Cobbler.  The Designer Series paper provides a wonderful background and the Gumball Green 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon makes a great accent to the ornament.  This is just one of the five 2012-2014 In Color Ribbons that you can earn for free during the month of September with a $40 purchase of Stampin' Up! products.  Just think how many Christmas cards you could make with a free spool of ribbon.

 

The final card that I am sharing today, also features my favorite combination of Gumball Green and Cherry Cobbler.  This time the focal point is a Santa created using various punches.  Isn't it cute! I love the Cherry Cobbler 1/2" Seam Binding used to embellish this card. It really pops against the polka dots of the Gumball Green Designer Series paper.

 

I hope you have enjoyed the card designs I have shared with you today and I hope it helps demonstrate how you can create amazing Christmas cards to fit the style that best works for you.  Using a similar color palette, you can create something classic and elegant or something more fun and bold. It doesn't have to be overly complicated or fussy to have that Wow factor that will have you friends and family loving the cards you send them this holiday season.

Until Next Time.
Happy Stamping,
Tricia Butts
http://www.triciabutts.stampinup.net

Filled With Love Scrapbook Share

Hi Everyone,

Children are a wonderful joy in life, and watching them grow up can often be bittersweet. I have been looking back over past Christmas photos of my own 4 children and it still amazes me how much they have all grown and how fast the time has flown by. The photos that we take of them are snapshots of the stages of their lives and they are more precious as time goes by.
Today I would like to share with you another wonderful scrapbook page that can be found on my Stampin' Up website, here in my Project Gallery.

This scrapbook page was created using the wonderful products from the Filled with Love Bundle that is available now through January 24th. The stamped images were created using the Filled with Love Stamp set and the background is from the Love Patterns Designer Series Paper set. Note the cute embellishments used to create the XOX at the bottom of the page - these are the Bitty Buttons you can earn free when you purchase the Filled with Love Bundle before January 24th. 

Shop Now

Filled with Love Bundle

Contains the Filled with Love Stamp Set and Love Patterns Designer Series Paper Pack
Wood-Mount Item #  124380  $32.90
Clear-Mount Item #  124381  $26.90
Receive a FREE package of Bitty Buttons--a $4.95 value--when you purchase either the wood or clear mount exclusive Filled with Love Bundle.

Love Patterns Designer Series Paper Pack (non-bundled)
12 sheets total: three 12" x 12" sheets of two double-sided designs in Real Red and Pretty in Pink
 Item # 124156  $9.95

The Love Patterns Designer Series papers work well for your Valentine's Day projects and are versatile enough to be used throughout the year for all occasions. Now is a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of this special promotion and stock up on these beautiful papers.
Please note that neither the Filled with Love stamp set or the Love Patterns Designer Series Paper Pack will be available once this special promotion ends January 24th. So don't delay, and place your order by contacting me or you may place your order by visiting my Online Store here.

Until Next Time.
Happy Stampin',
Tricia Butts
http://www.triciabutts.stampinup.net/

Fun with Black & White Tags

Hi Everyone,
Sorry I have been absent for so long. My kids are all back in school and we are slowly getting into a regular routine. With my husband away on business, I have been taking care of everything which has meant very little time for stamping and creating.
So today I thought I would share with you some tags that I created for a swap that I participated in recently. I belong to a wonderful group called Art of the Creative Mind, where we explore creating art using mixed media. It is a lot of fun and really has given me the opportunity to think outside the box.
Anyway, this particular swap was to create two Black & White Tags. Now, I have never really played with this combination before as I tend to gravitate towards color, so this was a fun challenge for me.

I decided to have one tag be black and the other white to explore the different contrasts. I also decided to use two different embossing techniques - heat embossing and dry embossing using my Sizzix Big Shot.

For the Black Tag I used the Stampin' Up Background stamp, En Francais, and stamped it with Whisper White Craft ink. Using white embossing powder and my heat gun, I heat embossed the tag and loved the texture and look of the bold white script on the black cardstock.

To embellish this tag, I used my Scallop Circle punch to punch out my flower shape and then cut between every second scallop towards the center to create the petals. I stamped the pattern using a stamp from the Elements of Style stamp set from Stampin' Up, using Basic Black Classic ink. The small black center flower was punched from black cardstock using the Boho Blossoms punch and I used a clear rhinestone jewel to accent the center of the flower.

The small white tag was dry embossed using my Big Shot and the Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions Embossing folder that is exclusive to Stampin' Up. Then I created my sentiment using the For You stamp, also from the Elements of Style stamp set with Basic Black Craft ink and heat embossed it using black embossing powder to add some dimension. I matted it onto a slightly larger circle of black cardstock. The ribbons were some scraps I had left over from another project and just seemed to finish it off.

For the white tag, I decided to again use my Big Shot and the Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions Embossing folder to emboss the background to add texture. I created the border across the top using the new Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch from Stampin' Up.  The flowers were punched from white and black cardstock using the Boho Blossoms punch and I accented the centers of each of the flowers with Dazzling Diamonds for a little sparkle.

The letter F and friends were stamped in Basic Black Craft ink and heat embossed using black embossing powder. The stamped images were created with the Vintage Vogue stamp set from Stampin' Up. I carefully cut out the letter F to help it stand out against the white embossed cardstock. I again used a scrap of black ribbon to create the tie for the tag.

These tags can be used for many different projects. You can use them as gift tags, bookmarks, or as an element for your card or scrapbook page. I had so much fun creating these tags and they really are a wonderful way to explore new techniques and color combinations.

I hope you have enjoyed today's creative stamping project and I hope that it will inspire you to try experimenting with tags. Have a wonderful day.

Until Next Time.

Stampin' Hugs,

Tricia Butts

http://www.triciabutts.stampinup.net/

It's Official: Fall is here

Well, today is officially the first day of Fall but it sure feels more like Winter to me. I think it is going to take me a little while to get used to these cold, rainy days and it doesn't help that the forecast for tomorrow morning is our first dusting of snow for the season. The ski resorts in the mountains are already going crazy with the snow making machines to capitalize on the snow that fell in their backyards yesterday. Mind you, the temperatures are supposed to be back in the 80's by the weekend, so there is hope for me yet.

Anyway, to celebrate the official beginning of Fall I decided to share another Fall themed card. This card was one that I had the chance to create at my upline's card class last month using the stamp set Branch Out, which is one of the stamp sets on the Dormant List. What is the Dormant List, I hear you ask? Well, Stampin' Up each year has so many wonderful stamp sets that they can't fit them all in the catalog, so they create a dormant list so that we still have the opportunity to enjoy them for another year. Branch Out is such a versatile set that can be used all year round just by varying the colors you use with it.

To create the look of Fall, I used Chocolate Chip, Dusty Durango and Crushed Curry Cardstock and created the base and stamped areas using Confetti White cardstock. The tree and sentiment are stamped in Chocolate Chip Classic Ink and the leaves were stamped with Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango and Old Olive Classic Ink.

This card design is very versatile and can be used for all occasions and works great for men and women. The reason I point this out? Well, if you are anything like me, you struggle with what to come up with when it comes to the men in your life. Let's face it, feminine cards are a lot easier to design (at least for me) and so when I come across something that would make a great card for the guys, I definitely make a note of it.

Hope you enjoy today's card share. Now, I wonder if I should start planning something for Winter? I mean, how many seasons can you have in one week? After all, it is only Tuesday.

Have a great day.

Stamping Hugs,

Tricia

Stamp Sets Used:

Branch Out 113200 (Dormant List)
Price: $22.95 Set Quantity: 8

Short & Sweet 115060 page 141
Price: $17.95 Set Quantity: 12

Cardstock: Confetti White, Chocolate Chip, Dusty Durango, Crushed Curry

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Dusty Durango, Crushed Curry, Old Olive

Accessories: Paper Piercer, Mat Pack, Vintage Brads, Dimensionals, Snail Adhesive