Featured Stamper - scrapnextras

I think I'm definitey drawn to circles this week!!

Today's Featured Stamper on SCS is ScrapNExtras. She has an awesome gallery! Here's her card that I chose to CASE. I liked Laura's tip on how to do the split negative circles, and did mine the same...it's easy this way.

What's the same: I kept the butterfly theme, kept the same layout, circles, and ribbon tabs.

What's different: I changed the background stamp to a flower, added adhesive-backed pearls, changed the overall color combo, and added faux stitching.

All three circles are up on dimensionals. They were all cut using the nestabilities circles. The butterflies were heat embossed in Versamark with red and light blue embossing powders.

Recipe ~
Stamps: SU Time Well Spent, SU Circle of Friendship
Paper: real red, bashful blue, cryogen shimmer white
Ink: black, bashful blue, real red, Versamark
Accessories: light blue and red embossing powders, circle nestabilities, red polka dot ribbon, adhesive-backed pearls, mat pack as a stitching guide
Technique: heat embossing, split negative, faux stitching

Happy Sunday, and thanks to Laura (ScrapNExtras) for the inspiration!

Lauren's Saturday Sketch

Check out Lauren's sketch challenge for today. Really fun! I like the added circles behind the main panel.

The froggy image was sent to me from my friend Janice through the PIF forum, which can be found on SCS under Swaps and Everything Else. Come join the fun. It's a great way to share stamped images! The more the merrier.

I drew the stitching onto the circles, and the froggy image is up on dimensionals. I took a 10.5" x 5.25" piece of Blue Bayou and folded in half to make a 5.25" square card. This size fits nicely in the 5.5" square envelopes from Stampin Up.

Recipe ~

Stamps: High Hopes Froggy Gift, SU So Many Sayings

Paper: Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, Pumpkin Pie, SU Creative License Simply Scrappin' DP

Ink: Black, Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Brown, Real Red, Blush Blossom, Pretty in Pink

Accessories: Pumpkin Grosgrain Ribbon, Word Window Punch, Stars (glued on with crystal effects), Dimensionals, Circle Nestabilities

Technique: Watercoloring, Faux Stitching

Hope you're enjoying your weekend, and thanks to Lauren for another fun sketch.

RAK from LMcAree

Look what my great friend Lori sent me, as a congratulations for starting a blog. Besides being such a dear friend to me, look at her great talent. This card is even more gorgeous in real life than it already looked in her gallery. I couldn't wait to share it with you.

You can view her SCS gallery here.

Thanks, Lori! Your friendship means the world to me.

Big Hugs,

Cupcake Friday

Here's a card for Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #9. Thanks to my friends Janice and Janette for sending me samples of the new Papertrey colors and the Hero Arts cupcake images!! I love these little cupcakes, and the new Papertrey colors are beautiful!!...especially the berry sorbet!! I think I *MUST* order it!

Do you see my BIG OOPS?? Do you remember that Sesame Street game...one of these things is not like the other. Well, can you guess? Yep, the square panel in the lower right corner. The designer paper was running the wrong direction when I stamped the sentiment. {sigh} LOL at myself!

Ramblings about the card: I took a 5.25 x 10.5 piece of CS and folded it in half to get a 5.25" square card. The circles are up on dimensionals. I watercolored the pink icing with SU pretty in pink ink. The foil cups and hearts were colored with prisma pencils. I used baby oil and stumps to blend the pencils. I used a Sakura sparkle pen to add some glitter to the sprinkles.

Recipe ~

Stamps: Hero Arts Cupcakes, SU Birthday Hugs & Wishes
Paper: Papertrey White, Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush, Pink Patterns DP; SU Basic Black
Ink: black, pretty in pink
Accessories: Nestabilities circle dies, dimensionals, American Craft polka dot ribbon, prisma pencils with blending stumps and baby oil

Technique: Baby Oil, Watercoloring

Happy Friday, and thank you to Taylor for the really fun sketch today.

Baby Oil Tutorial

Wow, someone asked me to write a tutorial on how I color images using prisma pencils with baby oil and post it here. This is my first "tutorial" so if something doesn't make sense or you have questions, just leave a comment and I'll fix it as necessary. So here goes...

This technique works the same way as the Gamsol Magic Technique....only with baby oil, there are no fumes. :)

Just click on any of the individual pictures below if you want a zoomed in and larger view.

Supplies ~

Prisma pencils

Baby oil

Blending stumps

Stamped image in any permanent black or brown ink (suitable for watercoloring so it doesn't smear)


First, start coloring your lightest color by adding light outlines and lightly coloring around the edges. Here I used yellow, and outlined each panel of the umbrella separately. Make sure to leave some of the middle area white. That'll give you the white highlight later when blending.


Next, load the baby oil onto the blending stump (see product note at the bottom of this tutorial). See the little "lip" on the top of the baby oil bottle? I just tilt the bottle so a few drops of oil fall into this lip. Then I take my blending stump and run it once around the entire circle. That's just the way I do it. You could use the lid as well.


Then start blending the first color by pulling the color from the outside of each section toward the center. I make small circles with my stump in a counter-clockwise motion. You'll get the highlight effect by not pulling the color all the way to the middle. In this picture, the right side of the umbrella has been blended. The left side still has the unblended pencil outlines.


Next, I colored some outlines with the fleshtone colored pencil and blended it using a second stump. Then I outlined and lightly colored with my blue pencil. Again, I'm not coloring in each section fully, but I'm also making a little more than just a "line."


Load baby oil again onto another blending stump. Working in small counter-clockwise circles, pull the color to fill each section. Again, don't pull the color all the way in so you still have some white highlights.


Now outline your strongest color (red in this example). You'll see that on Hanna's sleeves and boots, I basically only added a line because there's only a small area to blend. On the coat, however, I did more coloring versus outlining because it's a much larger area to pull the color around.


Load baby oil again onto another blending stump. Start with the small areas such as the sleeves and boots. Working in small counter-clockwise circles, pull the color from the outside toward the middle to fill each section. Then move onto the large swinging coat area. This time, use a little more baby oil and make your counter-clockwise circles (more like ovals) bigger as you're blending the red color. Again, don't pull the color all the way in so you still have some white highlights in the center.


Several people have asked me whether baby oil shows through or makes oil stains, so I thought I'd show you what the back of the image looks like after coloring and blending with the oil. As you can see, there are obvious oil spots that you can see from the back. However, once the image is mounted onto a mat layer and onto a card, nobody can tell.


...and finally....the finished card.

Product Notes: I personally love the Ranger Nibs blending stumps. They're very short, and I know some people don't like that, but I think they're wonderful for blending the oil. Here's a pic of what they look like if you want to check for them at your local supply store

I hope you found this tutorial useful. If you have any questions at all, let me know. Oh, and check back soon....there MIGHT (big "might") be a video tutorial in the near future from my friend Julie. :)

Thanks for visiting!!

Sketch Challenge #169

How 'bout these for some funky colors?? :) I would have never thought to use these colors, but I saw this card by Jen Del Muro yesterday. Loved her card! :)

The layout for my card follows Roxie's sketch challenge for today, found here.

The tower of presents is part of a Gruffie image....have you seen the new Gruffies by House Mouse?? The full gruffies image actually includes a large bear standing to the right of the gifts. I know, I know....GASP...I cut out the gruffie? Well, yeah....just for this card! :)

I received these images from my friend Lori K as part of a mini challenge. Me and my friends Lori K, Lori M, and Michelle take turns sending stamped images to each other, and then we're challenged to make a card using what we receive. Aren't SCS friends the best??

The tower of presents is up on dimensionals, as is the white/pumpkin panel behind the gifts....makes the card "puffy"...hehe! I added various stickles to the bows on the gifts. The pomegranate flowers behind the brads were sent to me through wish-RAK. They're punched with SU's 3-for-you punch. The white CS is Cryogen White Shimmer that I purchased from cutcardstock.com. It has a really nice and subtle shimmer. Pretty!

Recipe ~~
Stamps: House Mouse/Gruffies Tower of Presents
Paper: Purely Pomegranate, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie, Cryogen White Shimmer CS
Ink: Certainly Celery, Purely Pomegranate, Pumpkin Pie, Black
Accessories: Stickles (fruit punch, eucalyptus, and orange), Celery Brads, 3-for-you Punch, Pomegranate Double Stitched Ribbon, Paper Piercing Tool with Mat Pack, Dimensionals
Technique: Watercoloring (with ink pads and brush)

Happy Wednesday!

Embrace Life Double Challenge

Here's a card that combines Julee's Mojo Monday sketch challenge #30 with today's SCS color challenge #159 (to use soft sky, basic grey, and whisper white).

I got the Embrace Life image from Stephanie (racechair) on the PIF forum. The current PIF thread can be found here. Come join the fun!!

I made the "so much" sentiment on the computer. The flower panel is up on dimensionals.

Recipe ~
Stamps: SU Embrace Life
Paper: basic grey, soft sky designer prints paper, cryogen white, whisper white
Ink: black, soft sky
Accessories: ticket corner punch, brushed silver brads, thank you circle charm, silver cord, blue organdy ribbon, dimensionals, frosted lace stickles
Technique: watercoloring

Thanks for looking and enjoy your day!

Flap Fold Card

Today's Technique Challenge was to make a flap fold card. Pretty cool! Here's a link to the challenge & tutorial.

The main image holding the flap down is actually a sticker from my friend Janice (thanks lady!). I mounted it on the shimmery vanilla CS and then cut it out (so it would only stick to where I wanted it to stick, LOL!). The cut out daisies are up on dimensionals. The dimensionals are placed on the bottom half of the watering can so the flap can fold into the top portion. The only stamping on this card is the sentiment.

Recipe ~

Stamps: Papertrey Mixed Messages
Paper: Poison Ivory Shimmer CS, Green Creative Memories, Misc Yellow DP from Michael's
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Ribbon, Studio G daisy sticker, Paper Piercing Tool and Mat Pack, Dimensionals, Coluzzle
Technique: Piercing, Flap Fold Card

Thanks for looking and enjoy your day! :)

Sunday's Featured Stamper - pickletree

Sunday's featured stamper on SCS was PickleTree. She has an amazing gallery!! :) Her card that I chose to CASE is here.

I loved the layout, colors, and the use of the twill and faux suede panel/belt. I also used the twill, same hardware, piercing, and same basic colors. I used a different image, added faux stitching to the piercing, and created my "belt" and panel using the shaving cream technique instead of the faux suede.

A tutorial for the shaving cream technique can be found here. I used soft sky and basic brown reinkers smeared onto very vanilla CS.

The brown/vanilla puppy layer is up on dimensionals, as is the sky/bayou layer. The Linen BG was stamped in blue bayou ink for tone-on-tone.

Recipe ~
Stamps: Inkadinkadoo Baby Retriever, SU Linen BG (on the blue bayou layer)
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Very Vanilla
Ink: Basic Brown, Soft Sky, Blue Bayou
Accessories: SU Hodgepodge Hardware (buckle and brads), paper piercing tool and mat pack, wide twill tape, dimensionals
Technique: Shaving Cream, Faux Stitching

Thanks for looking, and enjoy your day! :)

Favorites week ending March 22nd

Did you know there's a weekly post in the General Stamping Forum where everyone lists their "favorite" gallery pics from the week? Check it out here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=334911 I really enjoy looking at all the cards...with all the links in one spot.

Here are my favorites from this week:

DJLuvs2stamp's Easter Card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/856838
How 'bout all that detail! Love it! Makes me really wish I bought that Good Egg set. :)

Cammie's Rainin' Vellum card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/851461
I love the use of vellum, the colors, and the row of flowers on the right. Love, love, LOVE IT! :)

Blogging! ...something new!

Happy Easter, and welcome to my brand new blog! I've been thinking of doing this "blog thing" for a while...finally just took the big step. I was a little held up on a name for my blog, but then I remembered a name that my cousin suggested years ago for my typing business. Well, I never used it for the typing business, but it seemed very appropriate for a paper crafter's blog....The Paper Landscaper. Like it? :)

I'm excited to be a part of the blogging world and hope that you'll check back while my new site is under construction. Weeeeee, fun! :)