Herringbone Card

It's been ages since I took part in one of my favourite challenges, the Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple Challenge. But I took advantage of a free half an hour this morning to participate. This week it's a sketch challenge.



To create the panel, I used the Herringbone technique (Technique Junkies newsletter Dec 09/Jan 10) with strips of a retired Stampin' Up! paper cut into 1/4" strips. I love this technique for using up the piles of patterned paper I have, especially SU packs or 6x6 pads from companies, such as Basic Grey. Because all the colors coordinate, it takes the guess work out of choosing different papers from different manufacturers and making sure the colors and patterns look good together.

The sentiment is also Stampin' Up! from the Upsy Daisy set.

Don't forget to enter to win my blog candy in the post below - there are only 6 days left!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ali

Vintage Mill

While we hunkered down during the hurricane at the weekend, I tried a new Technique Junkies technique called Vintage Art. It was inspired by old pencil and ink artwork. The technique involves sponging the background in various shades of yellow and brown, then highlighting with white pencil.


I thought this Artistic Outpost image from their plate called Old Grist Mill would work well with this vintage looking technique. The paper in the background is from an old dictionary page showing the definition for 'mill'.

I have exciting news to share at the weekend plus some more cards to share later in the week, so I hope you can stop by again soon!

Ali

Beach Babes

It's time for a little Rogue Redhead action because now my studio is semi-operational again, I was finally able to mount their new set, Beach Babes. The images in this set are beautiful and as always they stamp really nicely. You can still purchase it at the special price of $17.60 by visiting their store and while you're there, check out the other fabulous plates!

I made a trio of cards using a TJ technique called Scene Silhouettes (August/September 09 newsletter):

The cards themselves are very clean and simple. I felt like the images were so stunning alone that I didn't need to add any embellishments. The backgrounds are sponged and the images colored with Prisma pencils.

I can't wait to play with this set some more - stay tuned for more Beach Babes....

Have a fun day,

Ali

First Card from New Studio

I finally made a card today in my new studio. It still looks like a bomb site, so no pictures yet....but I did manage to clear a small space to make a thank you card for my buddy Sharon. She has the patience of saint putting up with me while I took a 6 month+ sabbatical from Gingersnaps.


I unearthed the current Technique Junkies newsletter and tried a technique called Back-to-Back. It involves stamping 3 different background stamps in various shades of ink. I used a background from Rogue Redhead's Relish Reading, a script from Hero Arts and finally a postmark stamped several times because I couldn't find quite the right large stamp for the final layer. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up!


My daughter and I are going on another field trip to Ikea tomorrow to get some final bits and pieces for my studio. Here's a sneak peek of how it's coming along:


Have a wonderful day!

Ali

Sepia Day Dreamer

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! If you celebrated yesterday, I hope you enjoyed your turkey and the time spent with family.

Here's the piece I created for this week's color challenge on Gingersnaps - Vintage Hues. I used a TJ technique called Sepia (Oct/Nov 09) to create the main panel and the image is from Rogue Redhead's Relish Reading.


Check out the rest of the Design Team's beautiful vintage creations. And have a wonderful weekend!

Ali

Exciting New Stamps

Check out this cool new stamp plate from this cool new rubber stamp company called Rogue Redhead Designs, created by bestest buddy Sharon Briss. The release date is TODAY! The vintage images are beautiful, and the rubber is deeply etched and stamps really clearly.

Here is the official announcement:

"Announcing Rogue Redhead Designs, a brand-new stamp company! RRD offers deeply etched unmounted stamps on high quality rubber. You’ll love the level of detail!

Started by avid stamper, Sharon Briss, this new company will feature stamps in several different styles including vintage, eclectic and modern. Our first full plate release is a tribute to the literature lovers in our midst. The “Relish Reading” unmounted plate is perfect for creating hand-made bookmarks, adding a personal touch to journals and creating beautiful note cards. This 8" x 10" plate includes images and elements to get you stamping right away from a full-sized background to focal images to sentiments. “Relish Reading” is available at the Rogue Redhead Etsy store. As part of our initial release, RRD is offering this brand-new plate on sale for 20% off the regular retail price of $22.00 until December 15, 2010. Get yours now for the introductory price of $17.60!

Want to see some samples with the Relish Reading plate? Check out our new Rogue Redhead blog to see what the Rogue Crew has been creating. We’ll be having new art regularly from our scandalously talented team! Watch out too for our Rogues at Large as they drop in on us to tempt us with some of their own amazing art!"

Here's the first card I made using this plate. I combined two TJ techniques to create the inchies - Glimmer Mist Watercolor background (April/May 2010) and By The Inch (October/November).


Thanks for stopping by! Now go and check out the samples by the rest of the Design Team and then go buy this fantastic stamp plate - you'll love it!

Ali

Double Bugged Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!

I have a quick card to share with you today using the Double Bugging technique. This TJ technique involves running a piece of c/stock through two different embossing folders. I've described it a little more below:

Firstly I embossed the purple c/stock using the Distress Stripes folder, then dragged white ink along the embossed portions. Once dry, I flattened the whole piece by running it through my embossing machine several times. I then embossed this smooth piece of c/stock using the Spider Web folder and highlighted the raised areas with black ink.

I finished the card off with a spooky image of a tree from Stampin' Up! that I stamped on a sponged background.


We'll be trick or treating around our neighborhood later today after dinner with friends - should be a fun time! I hope you have a spooky Halloween!

Ali

Sunday CASE

Happy Sunday everyone! It's a very happy weekend here because my brother and his wife finally had their baby yesterday - a healthy baby boy called Oliver. I'm so excited to be an aunt again! I can't wait to see the little cutie.

I managed a quick card today between getting home from church and going to see a movie with my daughter. I checked out the Featured Stamper challenge on Splitcoast and it was a lovely CAS (clean and simple) gallery belonging to Jenn Spencer. Her card can be found by following this link. I changed the color scheme and stamps, but kept the layout pretty much the same.

The panel on the left was created using a TJ technique called Sanded Whitewash. I sponged inks onto a white panel and painted it with a light layer of gesso. I ran it through an embossing folder when it was dry and highlighted the raised areas with ink. I'd made the Sanded Whitewash panel ages ago, so it was a quick and easy Fall card. The sentiment is from SU.

Don't forget it's your last chance for the blog candy today. Enjoy what's left of the weekend!

Ali

Faux Letterpress Wedding Card

I played the Clean and Simple challenge on Splitcoast this morning. This week they challenge you to use a technique called Faux Letterpress.

I've also seen the technique called Brayered Folder and it is almost identical to TJ technique called Cuttlebug Smoosh (Oct/Nov 07), which uses a rainbow ink pad. The basic idea is to ink the inside of a Cuttlebug embossing folder and run it through your die cutting machine with some neutral card stock. Very simple, but very effective.

This is a wedding card I made with the technique - it's for a friend whose getting married this weekend. I used Bashful Blue ink and vanilla c/stock for the piece of Faux Letterpress. I finished it off with an SU sentiment, some taffeta ribbon and flat pearls. Pretty clean and simple, I'd say.

Don't forget to enter for the blog candy in the post below!

Happy stamping,

Ali

Creative Connections - Haunted

There's a new feature on Gingersnap Creations called Creative Connections and the theme is Haunted.

I heard about it from Shar at Ill Tempered Ink. Why not play along? Post a creation to your blog mentioning my post and the Creative Connection post on Gingersnap Creations. Let's all craft it forward and see how far we get this connection to go!


My haunted piece is a simple card using the Scene Silhouette technique (TJs Aug/Sept 09). The background is masked, brayered and sponged for a grungy Halloween look. The image and sentiment are both from Stampin' Up!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ali

Gingersnaps Color Challenge & Ancient Paper

The color challenge at Gingersnaps today is Neutrals plus one color - so I deemed brown to be a neutral and paired it with lime green (kiwi kiss).

The background behind the flower silhouette (Stampin' Up!) is just sponged with a various shades of yellow and green, then spritzed with a brown marker. Behind the image is a piece of Ancient Paper. This is a TJ technique from the Dec 09/Jan 10 newsletter, which involves brown paper and ink - super duper easy and it creates such a nice texture.

I hope you'll find time to visit Gingersnaps and take part in the challenge!

Gingersnaps Famous Painters Challenge

Our current Chestnut theme challenge on the Gingersnaps blog right now is Famous Painters and here's the card I made for it. The Leonardo image is from Lost Coast Designs and is called Cosmos Face.

The image was stamped on a piece of cream c/stock that I dyed using coffee - yes, coffee! I had some left in the pot one morning, so poured it into a shallow tray and used it to color some sheets of c/stock. You can have tea-dyed things, right, so why not coffee?

In the new TJ technique newsletter (Aug/Sept '10) there's a super easy technique called Worn Wallpaper, where you stamp a crackle stamp with white ink onto a piece of designer paper. This is what I did for the background using a piece of d/p from Basic Grey and I really like how it turned out. Simple is good!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Ali

Paper Peeling & Color Challenge

There's a new color challenge on Gingersnaps - GC64: Yellow, Orange and Red. I posted it last Wednesday, but have been a very flaky blogger and this is the first chance I've had to post my card here.

In fact, I made two cards with this color combination using the Peeled Paper technique (TJ newsletter April/May 2010). I used my favorite Fabriano watercolor cards for the bases and stamps from Crafty Individuals. I used Distress Inks to create the panels - Mustard Seed, Barn Door and Spiced Marmalade.


Here's a closer look at the peeled paper.


Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful weekend!

Ali

Split Stamping Personality

There hasn't been much stamping or blogging going on here for the past few weeks, I'm afraid. That's what happens during school vacation. I have a little down time this week because my daughter is in camp and I finally managed to stamp today.

I have two cards to share - one I made for a tutorial I wrote on Gingersnaps, but haven't had time to blog. The background behind the woman is a sun print made using a chemically treated paper. You can read how it's done here. I restamped the image (from Artistic Outpost) on cream c/stock and cut out the woman and adhered her on top of the sun print. The pale blue background was made using the Sanded Whitewash technique (TJ newsletter Aug 09).


And the second card is for today's Clean and Simple Challenge on Splitcoast - it's been an age since I did that challenge. It's for my husband because we celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary next week.


Together they highlight my split stamping personality! Generally, I go for botanical, vintage and collage images, but I also have what I call my 'Papertrey' side. I love the clean lines of some of the modern images, such as this one from Stampin' Up (Cute by the Inch).

Quick Tip:

I love these Pitt Artist pens from Faber Castell and use them all the time. They have four different nibs - brush, medium, fine and super fine, and are waterproof and smudge-proof.


I like to run the brush tip along the edge of inchies (or other punched shapes) for definition and these work great. The super fine nib is good for filling in missing parts of a stamped image. Or the dots on this card. Their uses are infinite and at $11 - a real bargain. I got mine at an art supply store, but I'm sure Michaels and other big box retailers sell them too.

Here's hoping for more stamping time tomorrow.

Happy Stamping!

Ali

Marker Challenge

I hosted the Spicy Supply Challenge on Gingersnaps today and this month we're using markers.

I'm not in a coloring phase right now, so I figured I'd make a background using markers instead. I chose Spritzed Stone from TJs Dec 09 newsletter. It involves scribbling Copic markers onto acetate, spritzing it with alcohol and pressing glossy paper onto to it. I made another card with it a couple of months ago.

I used various shades of blue to create this background - I need cool colors in this oppressive summer heat! The main image is from Crafty Individuals and the sentiment from a retired SU hostess set.

Okay, off to walk the dog and then spend the day with friends. Lunch and a movie in air conditioning sound good to me!

Happy crafting!

Ali

Hot Challenge

We've been sweltering in the Northeast US this week. It was over 100 degrees on Tuesday. This type of weather does not suit redheads! But my fellow Founding-Femme over at Gingersnaps, Sharon, also a redhead (hence Gingersnaps in case people didn't get that!) set a hot challenge this week.

The challenge theme is heat. You should see the awesome cards Sharon and the rest of the design team came up. Here's mine:

The image is from a stamp set in the current SU Mini Catalog called Elements of Style with French Script underneath. The technique is Brazen Brilliance that's also in the previous post.

It's supposed to a little cooler today and tomorrow, so we'll have some respite to watch the World Cup Final tomorrow. Have a happy weekend!

Ali

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day! Although we are British, we have lived in the USA for 13 years now and celebrate July 4th each year with our American friends. This is going to be a short post because we're heading out to a cook-out (English translation: barbecue).

I made this card using a technique called Brazen Brilliance, which was this week's Design Junkies' challenge. I never would have tried technique if it hadn't been for the challenge, but I'm really glad I did. It's fun and gives a great effect. Here's closer look:


The main image is from Artistic Outpost and the background is a retired SU stamp called Weathered.

Happy July 4th!

Ali

Washed Color Hydrangea

This is a card I taught at a stamping class last month and have only just got around to blogging it.

We created a Washed Colors (TJs April/May 10) background on a piece of watercolor paper using Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery reinkers. We added a little sparkle with some Smooch Spritz too. Once dry, the flower was stamped with black Stazon ink.


The vanilla card base is embossed with a new SU embossing folder called Vintage Wallpaper. All images are from a new SU hostess set called Because I Care.

Have a super weekend!

Ali

CASE Challenge

There's a Blue Moon Challenge on Gingersnaps today and the challenge is to CASE (copy) a card by a fellow Design Team member. I chose a card by Gingersnaps Co-Founder Sharon.


The main image is from Artistic Outpost and is stamped on a panel created with Distress Inks and Glimmer Mist - a technique called Antiqued Glimmers (TJs newsletter Dec 09). I also used the Torn Frame technique (TJ Dec 08)to mat the boy. Here's a closer look at the Antiqued Glimmer panel:

It's a fun challenge to play - the only hard part is deciding who and what to CASE.

Happy Stamping!

Ali

Supplies:

• Stamps: Artistic Outpost, Stampin' Up!
• Paper: Vintage Cream c/stock (PTI), So Saffron, Early Espresso
• Ink: Glimmer Mist, Distress inks, So Saffron
• Accessories: metal flower (Ideology), brads
• Tools: Word window punch

Stamping in July

Last week we posted our monthly Reasons to Stamp feature on Gingersnaps Creations. Here's a card I made celebrating one of the flowers for July, the Delphinium. I think this stamp looks like a Delphinium - it's from an old Stampin' Up! hostess set called Echoes of Kindness. The sentiment is a new Amuse stamp.

The background behind the flower was created using watercolor crayons and an aquapainter. It's called Pointillism (TJ newsletter Dec 06) and is this week's Try That Technique challenge on the Design Junkies blog.

If you're looking for some stamping inspiration, check out the Reasons to Stamp in July post - you'll find lots to inspire you!