Black Magic

Black Magic, it sounds spooky doesn't it? Well this Black Magic is not to be feared because it is a technique you can use in your paper crafting!

I decided to participate in a Technique Swap at the SU! convention this year but I wasn't sure which technique to do. I went over to www.splitcoaststampers.com and looked through their resources and found the Black Magic Technique. I watched the little video and looked through the gallery for examples and decided that I would give it a try.

My first attempt wasn't to bad but I wasn't satisfied so I ended remaking my sample. I ended up using the Just Believe stamp set. I chose to use Night of Navy, Marina Mist, and Basic Black card stock. I stamped the image in Whisper White Craft Ink and then used my heat tool to speed up the drying time, I then used my water color pencils to color the image. After I colored and stamped my background piece I assembled my card. I was pretty please with the card. So I repeated this step 10 times for the swap. Wow, that was a lot of coloring. After I colored and assembled all the cards, (the night before I left for convention at 11:00 PM) I looked at the cards and wasn't pleased with the way the coloring looked. It was too late to try something else so I grabbed a blender pen and used that on the colored image but it wasn't working to well. I realized that my blender pens are drying out. I've only had them for 4 years and have only used them for a million projects! Good thing I had a new package. After getting a new blender pen and going over my colored images, I was happy with my cards.

Note: the original instructions on SCS does not tell you to use a blender pen but I actually like the technique much better after using a blender pen on the colored image.

I finally went to bed after 1:00 AM and managed to get a few hours of sleep, but it didn't matter. I was just excited to be able to go to convention.

July Club Project

I really wanted to use my new stamp set My Friend when I started working on July Stamp Club projects. I pulled out some beautiful card stock, Pool Party, Island Indigo, and Poppy Parade to start out. After a few short minutes I had this card. I just kept staring at it and thinking, hmmm... what can I change? I wasn't completely satisfied with the card and wanted to do something a little different.

I looked around my desk and saw one of my new items. The Color Spritzer tool, now this isn't a new item in the catalog but I just recently purchased it. I thought to my self what can I do to use this on my card? I got this bright idea to ink up the floral image in Pool Party and then spritz it with the Island Indigo. In all honesty I sprayed a few times with no luck of any ink coming out. So I kept spritzing and finally I saw the ink land on my stamp. After I was finally finished I stamped the image again and to my surprise I got a water color look. I don't know if anyone has already done this technique or if it has some fancy name for it but I loved the results.

So here is my card. I did change up the design a little bit from the original card but it is all the same pieces and colors as the first card. I displayed both cards at club and let the ladies chose which card they wanted to make. I will have to try my new technique again with some other colors and see what I come up with.

I hope to have inspired someone today to try this.

Finally Blogging

I got back on Sunday from the 2011 SU! Convention in Salt Lake City. What an inspiring event! There are so many ideas running through my head, now I hope I can remember everything.

Leading up to the convention I had been sick and exhausted. I am adjusting to taking care of an active 18 month old little boy and being pregnant. That is why I had been ignoring my blog lately, it just seemed like to much work. My energy level has been zapped. I have created a few things over the past month, I just hadn't taken the time to take pictures and post them. I did get a little bit of an ego booster at convention when a few people mentioned that they like my blog and my projects. I was excited to know that people actually look at my blog besides Erin and the few people that I force to read my blog. I'm just glad that I am not just talking to cyberspace. So ladies thank you for making me feel good about my blog.

Enough blabbering about that, let me tell you a little about the card I made. This card is a complete and utter case of someone else's card. I just wish I could remember whose card I copied. I thought I had it saved to my favorites on Stampin' Connection but I guess I didn't. Anyway I just love the bright colors, the new stamp set, and the punch to go along with it. The colors actually used are Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, and Wild Wasabi. Hope you enjoy today's card and I will be back with another card tomorrow.