Prize-Winning Card! So, so, so happy!

I haven't been stamping very long...less than a year, in fact.  I love it and find it gives me the artistic, creative release that I crave.  The LNS challenge during the Super Bowl was my opportunity to test my card-making abilities against those of others.  I knew I had made a nice card.  My husband and son-in-law even liked it and they're tough to impress.  So I decided to submit it thinking that at least I was participating rather than hanging back and observing like I too often do.

My card can only be described as a masculine-type.   I used a stamp set that I saw in a card once and fell in love with...but couldn't find in the current catalogue.  When I was looking through the actual stamps listed on the Stampin' Up site, however, I found it and was ecstatic when I was finally able to order it.  It's called "The Open Sea" and includes five stamps:  a boat in full sail, an anchor, a compass, a globe, and a large block of what I assume if the ship's log in old script.

For my card, "I Miss You", I used all but the anchor.  I had just received an order of glossy white paper which I decided was perfect for what I envisioned for the card.

The actual stamp is just the boat, no background, and a bit of water directly around the bottom of the boat.  Everything else I had to fill in.  I had tried a cloud technique on a number of cards and decided to do that for this card and I had an idea of what could be done for the water but it meant having to stamp the boat first, stamping it again on another piece of cardstock, and then cutting the second image as close as possible to the stamp lines so that it would exactly match the boat and allow me to bring the clouds and sea up to the stamped image but not onto it.

It went better than expected.  I had virtually no touch up and was thrilled with the look of the clouds.  The water was still my big challenge.  For that I tried a sponge technique that I plan to submit to the LNS Technique Share.  I doubt it would have worked with "normal" cardstock.  The glossy white surface doesn't absorb the ink quickly and allows movement and blending.  And that is the key to this technique.

So there we have it...another milestone.  There is a prize of stamps...for which I am truly grateful...but my biggest prize is already here:  I won First Place!

Taking a break from Valentine's

I love Valentine's and all the great cards you can make for the occasion: funny cards, sweet cards, downright mushy cards and everything in between.  But sometimes you need a break and today I decided to do anything but Valentine's Day cards.  Looking at all the stamp sets that I've bought and haven't gotten around to using, I realized that today would be the day I would use at least two of the sets...if not more.  The first one I chose was "Heaven Sent".  A perfect title under the circumstances.

I decided to make a tri-fold 4" x 4" card by taking a 4" x 12" piece of Very Vanilla textured cardstock and scoring it at 4" and then again at 8".  Then I chose one of the cheeriest of the Sale-a-bration DS papers and cut a 3 3/4" x 3 3/4" piece, centering it onto the front of the card.  I used the third from the smallest framelits Labels Collection die to cut a window in the centre of the front of the card.  I set the cut out label aside to use later.

Then I cut a piece of Pool Party cardstock to match the blue in the SAB paper and used the Snail glue to attack it to the back of the front of the card.  Using the second from the smallest of the framelits Labels Collection die and lining it up from the front, I cut a window in the cardstock, effectively making a double-framed window in the front.

Using Very Vanilla cardstock, I stamped the little boy collecting Easter eggs with Early Espresso ink and then cut the image out with the same die I used for the window in the Pool Party cardstock.  I coloured the image using Watercolour Pencils and a Blending Pen.  The colours match the SAB paper perfectly, which I love!  I used Pool Party ink and a sponge to shade around the label and then used Snail glue to centre it onto the next page through the front of the card.  It worked perfectly and the boy is as visible from the front of the card as he is on the next page.  Under that label, I glued a "Happy Easter" sentiment which  was stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock with Pool Party ink and cut with the Word Label Punch and then shaded the edges with the same ink.

You can just see the three pages of the card in this picture.  On the last page I used the set aside Label from the front of the card which showed off the SAB paper.  I glued that onto the page and then stamped the long sentiment from the set onto Very Vanilla cardstock and cut it out with the Modern Label Punch, shaded the edges with Pool Party ink to match the sentiment, and glued  that down onto the SAB label.

It's cheery, it's colourful, and best of all...it's not a Valentine. :)