The Stamping Critique......

Back in the Saddle!!

Good morning everyone! It's been far too long since I last posted, which tells you how incredibly busy my life has been! I've started a new job, and have been busy getting card orders ready for people and have neglected my blog!!! Shame on me!!

Lesson learned on not staying in the blog world is you become a bit stumped for ideas when it comes time to be creative! I've got to dust off the creative portion of my brain and get back into the swing of things!

This card is for my SBS challenge #7. My blogging sista's have remained busy over the past month creating some pretty incredible things! This card is for an inspiration challenge, although I'm not really sure what the true names of these colors are. The picture was full of dots but I chose to stay simple and just go for the colors. No sentiment on this one because I'm just not sure what to use.....maybe it will come to me in the upcoming days.

Hope you enjoy! Until next time.

Theresa

Wedding Wishes for the Bride

I'm working on a variety of wedding and anniversary cards and this is one I've put together and really love. This could be for a couple but I see it more as a card for a father or mother to give to their daughter on her wedding day. It's so soft and pretty just as a bride is on her wedding day (Especially in her Daddy's eyes!)

I mixed my mulberry and prima flowers together which is not always the easiest thing to do. I also added a few leaf punches using my MS punch. This is a wonderful, inexpensive punch and it well worth the purchase because it adds a nice dimension to all types of cards. The ribbon is a variety form the stash, soft and bold pinks blend so nicely together along with the flower.

Inside the card is stamped: "Wishing you a lifetime of love and happiness." Doesn't that just melt your heart? {{I'm feeling weepy...tissue time....}} I love a good wedding.....

Hope you enjoy! Until next time.

Theresa

"Joy In Flock!"

"Flock" you say??? sounds almost offensive doesn't it? well it's not offensive!! It's soft and fuzzy and adds a wonderful textured effect to anything it's applied to!

Yellow flock at Christmas? well, you use yellow if your Christmas image has a cute little chicky on it!!! This chick was begging to be flocked and flocked it was!! (Can you tell I I enjoy saying "flock?") haha!

I've had this image for quite some time, I've used it in the past with the flock and those receiving the cards just love how it feels. So, if you're going to use flock of any color, the lesson to take away form this is to not skimp on two way glue and make sure it has a good hold on the flock! It's going to be rubbed by many and needs to be able to remain on the card stock!

I really wanted to use this background paper but wasn't sure how to tie it and the image together. I figured that the only way to accomplish this was through color! I used my pencils and made the letters on "joy" (well, the "J" & "Y") look like the candy canes on the paper! The chick didn't need coloring since he's flocked!! (There I go again.....)  To finish it off, I pulled out the red sheer ribbon and made a gigantuan bow! (The little bows looked to weak!)

I made a set of 8 of these. They measure 5 1/2" x 4 1/4". I haven't put a sentiment on the inside yet.....I'll have to think about that one!

Hope you enjoy! Until next time.

Theresa

Autumn Inking

I'm the person who is going to be able to say they were late for their own funeral!!

I made this card for the autumn harvest challenge with my SBS 24 sista's! of course, many of them got theirs posted yesterday....on time....and I'm a day late....again! But at least I got it done. I was lacking in inspiration over the weekend, also working feverishly to get my algebra homework done. I know....excuses, excuses.......better late then never!

The background for this is inked in several autumn tones. I kept it light because I didn't want to distract form the image of leaves. I stamped and embossed the leave image once, and then stamped again with wild wasabi, setting this image off to the side a bit just to give it a shadow look. If you're willing to play with inks, it's amazing what backgrounds you can come up with. Change the color set and you could go from autumn, to Christmas to something for a mush mush card. But first you have to be willing to play with them!

Hope you enjoy! Until next time.

Theresa

Christmas in Blue's

I'm a very traditional person when it comes to Christmas. I love the reds, greens, burgundy's and golds. This year, I decided to add in some blue's for Christmas because they bring an elegance to the holiday and work so beautifully on cards!

This card was made using an owl from an Inkadinkado set. The set is clear stamps mounted on acrylic which are quickly becoming a favorite of mine. If stamped with the right amount of ink, the image is easy to stamp and no edges will appear on the paper which means no do-overs! I also enjoy the acrylics because you can see where you're putting the image which makes alignment so much easier.

I sized this at 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" but made it a long card. The white background is embossed using a cuttlebug folder. For the owl image, I decided to use my oval scalloped nesties and ink the outer edge before popping up on dimensionals. The Seasons Greetings is stamped on an oval nestabilities as well and the edges are inked. (Added two silver brads just to give it a bit more dimension) The ribbon (I love sheer ribbon!!!) was probably the most difficult part of the entire card because it had to lay exactly right on the card. Many attempts used to accomplish this!

The inside sentiment says: "May the true spirit of Christmas fill your heart with peace, your home with love." This card is part of a set of 8 cards and I have 4 more sets of this that need to be made! I just took the plunge and bought the cuttlebug embossing machine which will speed up the process a bit. I'm looking forward to giving this a shot this weekend!

Hope you enjoy! Until next time.

Theresa

Autumn Dahlia Fold

Another SBS challenge for World Card Making Day last Saturday!!! (Yes, I'm catching up on my posts again!!)

This card was inspired by a challenge to use create something using the cover of a Coldwater Creek catalog. The colors are what inspired me for this card. Autumn oranges, greens, brown with a splash of a burnt red color made this magazine cover so vibrant. It didn't take me long to become inspired and this card, using the Dahlia Fold seemed like the best way to show off the colors of Autumn.

I was going to create a tutorial for this technique but if someone has already done this and the tutoriall is great, why recreate the wheel? So, if you'd like to learn this technique and try it for yourself, click on this link:

Dahlia Fold Tutorial and watch along as Steph shows how to create the petals to this design!

Once complete, I added a rhinestone to the middle and then mounted on a sage green card stock. using my SU piercing template, I pierced the corners and then mounted on a sheet of orange card stock. On this layer, I punched the corners using a wonderful design punch from Anna Griffin, and pierced all sides using the SU piercing template. All was mounted onto a dark brown base, a layer of white added to the inside for writing and presto....we're done!

Just a recommendation for those who have not tried this, if you use a lighter weight, two-sided paper, it's so much easy to create the folds for this technique. Thicker card stock is much more difficult to fold and get good creases on.

Hope you enjoy! Until next time.

Theresa

 

Birthday Balloon Glitter!

Balloons and birthdays just have a natural way of complimenting each other don't they? I love it when I go to birthday parties and the room is dressed to the nines, full of colorful balloons celebrating a wonderful occasion!

This card was made for one of the challenges last weekend on SBS for World Card Making Days. I love the combination of pink and black but wanted to added a little extra pizazz to the card which is why I went with this balloon image with glitter! I got the Martha Stewart "complete" set of glitter (I couldn't settle for a pack of four so i got the big 20 container set!) Aren't the colors wonderful? I also used opaque pens on the stems and ribbon just to give them a little boost! If you use 2-way glue to adhere the glitter it holds it on very nicely and the glue also dries clear.

Hope you enjoy! Until next time.

Theresa

"Spin Tool" Note Card Set

Good morning everyone! I wanted to share another note card set I made with you. This is a set of four notecards done in two color sets, apricot appeal and rose read. I used a basic inking technique for these and had the opportunity to pull out an old tool that I haven't used in quite a long time.

I inked the inside of the squares (I made my own template for this since I couldn't find one I liked) and then used my power polisher to add a little darker ink to the outer rim of each of the squares. The polisher (I call it that because it reminds me of the power polisher they use at the dentists office!) is made by Delta. The tool is actually called a "Spin Color" tool. It does smaller areas of more detailed inking and is really a very simple tool to use. You could also use cotton balls for inking or even q-tips, although I enjoy my power spin on these!

I stamped the flowers using the matching ink for the paper to keep it all coordinated and then added a simple sentiment. These cards are all about simple yet warming. I did distress the edges of each layer to add to the natural feel of the card.

Hope you enjoy! Until next time.
Theresa

"Thinking Of You" Gift Sets

Well, I'm "tinkering" again in my studio! I've got some orders to fill but got sidetrack by thoughts and started creating some general thinking of you sets. These are good to have in stock and so easy to make. I love the colors of these.

The stamp, from Hero Arts is great because the sentiment and the butterfly are part of the stamp as well. I'm not one to enjoy having to align things up on the front of a card so this is a great stamp to have!

This is a set of 6 cards, two of each color. I chose to use groovy guava, rose red and certainly celery for my colors, they mix well together and are very pretty by themselves as well.

Hope you enjoy! Until next time.

Theresa

Sparkly Birthday

This past Saturday was the official "World Card Making Day!" What a blast to be involved with this even, creating new things and being challenged to go beyond what is "predictable!" I participated in the Split Coast virtual WCMD and boy was I challenged! 7 different cards to create following a host of ideas, definitely something I don't want to do every day of the year!

The next few posts will be of the cards I created during the challenge. The last one I created will not be posted. In fact, I won't even take a picture of it! I met the requirements of the challenge but it's definitely not a card I will ever make again. Into the box it goes with a memory to pack it away!

This card is the first one I did. My daughter Jessica came down into my studio and wanted to help so we made this together! The cake is from a birthday set I got from Hero Arts. Once we had all the layers down, Jessica put glitter on the flames and stickled around thecake. The flowers on the side are a little punch I have. We mounted the teal on black and put a gold brad in each. The ribbon was a wonderful find at a local store (I only bought 2 of them!!)

We stamped the birthday wishes coordinating stamp on the inside and jazzed it up a bit as well!

Hope you enjoy! Until next time!

Theresa Calderini

"Whimsical Owl Gift Set"

This is such a  wonderful project to post tonight as a finish to my day. Out of all the work I've done on gift sets such as this, I have to say that this set is my favorite. The camera will never do it justice as it's so difficult to take pictures of art in a glass frame. But you'll get a sense of what this is I hope.

I started with a simple stamp and an empty frame. I walked by the frame for several days wondering what i would put in it and just couldn't seem to get any ideas. A few days ago I was playing around with this whimsical owl stamp from Inkadinkadoo and it just came to me what I wanted to do. (Is this an epiphany or inspiration??)

The base image is inked with 5 different tones of blue, stamped with a scripted image and then covered with silver. glimmer mist. The owl sits on top of an oval section that was done in apricot appeal and then covered. I mounted the image on black, added corner brads and added gold floss around each brad to encase the entire image.

The image sits behind a matting that is a layer of burgundy and then gold which really makes intensifies this image.

The card for this set was done the same way except it is layered on on burgundy and then black. I added photo corners that were outlined in gold to try and make the card mimic the framed image as much as I could. You see a lot more of the card image since it didn't have to be cut down, what's really gorgeous about this is the shimmer the card has which the camera just doesn't seem to pick up.

Framed sets are a passion of mine and I've got a few more frames I'm waiting to be inspired with.

I hope you enjoy! Until next time.

Theresa