Victorian Angel

As we are in the last 6 months of the year, I find it fun to include one Christmas card in each Stamp Camp.  This gives us a nice variety to choose from come December when we want to remember our family and friends. 

This Victorian Angel comes to us from Graphic Fairy.  I subscribe to their site and am in awe of their many downloads.  I printed the angel on Whisper White and sprayed it with Home Brew.  Do you remember Home Brew?  It is a combination of alcohol (not the kind you drink!) and the  Tsukineko Champagne All-Purpose Ink.  Stampin’ Up no longer sells this ink, but I bought several small bottles before they retired the product.  It is, however, now available from Amazon. The alcohol/ink combination gives a wonderful sparkle to the card stock.  A bit of Wink of Stella also helps.  The new Flirty Flamingo card stock blends nicely and I chose tone on tone as using any other hue detracted from the angel.  The angel is framed in brushed gold cs (retired).  My 1” corner rounder punch gives a soft curve to the card .  The Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder and 1/8” gold ribbon add texture.  Note the little gold star on the sentiment.  SU replaced the candy dots with a small sheet of different shapes.  The metallic shapes include both gold and silver small circles, medium circles, hearts and stars. 

I chose the Versatile Christmas stamp set for the sentiment.  The message layer is stamped on white and die cut with the stitched rectangle thinlit.  A slightly large stitched rectangle is cut in Flirty Flamingo and popped up on dimensionals.

You have now seen 3 of our 4 August Stamp Camp projects and none of them are similar.  Just wait until you see the fourth project!  It is swirls and scribbles!  Check back soon to see it!

Blessings, Rosemary – (h)630/759-3089 – (c)630/965-1965 – paperrose01@aol.com

Best Birds

I absolutely love the new Best Birds stamp set.  The thinlits die set – Birds and Blooms – is also available, and I splurged and bought the bundle at a 10 % savings.  I really like the background “grid” stamp and the effect it leaves.  I stamped the “grid” 3 times on all my Best Bird cards – once to the middle right, once above and slightly to the left, and once below heavily to the left.  I like the casual background versus a more formal one. Except for the yellow card, I stamped my bird and flowers in Memento Tuxedo Black and the branch in my favorite retired Mossy Meadow.  Spectrum Noir markers were used to color the bird, branch and flowers.  I pulled out a partial pack of retired crisp cantaloupe and felt it went well with the markers I chose.

I will admit the yellow bird – or canary as my mother calls it – is my favorite.  The background is stamped in So Saffron and the card is Daffodil Delight.  I used the Happy Anniversary sentiment on all my Best Birds cards as we are seem to have many anniversaries in our family this summer.  The stamp set includes the Happy Anniversary image seen here as well as sentiments for birthday, thoughts, wedding and a favorite of mine – “It’s a good day.”  There is a second bird stamp in the set and also a tiny stem of berries.  I can see using this card for so many different occasions!

 

Perhaps you prefer a bluebird.  If so, this card is perfect for you!  Of course you can make your card in any color as Spectrum Noire has many different hues and Stampin’ Up has many different paper colors.  The 3 birds shown here were simply colors that blended well and matched SU card stock.  Before the pearls were added to the cards, the flowers, bird and leaves on the branch were brushed with Wink of Stella clear glimmer brush.  This bit of glimmer adds so much to the card.  I chose to back each bird layer with black cs that is just a tinge larger.  The addition of black allows the top layer to stand out.  This is a very simple card – stamp, color, die cut, adhere, embellish!  But only YOU can choose which color your bird will be.

As a reminder, August Stamp Camp is a week later this year – August 11, 12, and 13.  If you know which day you might be coming, it is helpful if you can let me know.  This, of course, is not a requirement.  The cost remains at $12.00 and includes everything you will need. 

Let me know if you have any questions!  Blessings, Rosemary – (h)630/759-3089 – (c)630/965-1965 – paperrose01@aol.com

Foxes and Birds

For our August Stamp Camp (August 11, 12, 13), we are going to feature nature – foxes and birds.  If you don’t like foxes, you can choose to make a cat, raccoon or skunk as shown below.

Foxy Friends is a photopolymer set that is in the new SU catalog.  I chose to purchase the Foxy Friends punch which is used to make the 3-D animals.  The set also includes the cute trees, assorted mushrooms, paw prints and a tree stump.  I chose a color scheme of Calypso Coral, Pool Party and Smoky Slate.  The trees are die cut with the thinlits from the Perfect Pines set and the front tree is popped up with dimensionals..  The tree stump is fussy cut but no other fussy cutting is needed for the forest scene.

Can you see the similarity between the cat and the fox?  Because I wanted the white outline for the fox and the cat, I actually stamped the full stamp twice and punched out the head of one image and the body of the other.  The tails were stamped separately.  There are several eye/nose combinations you can choose from, and of course the cute whisker face.  The animal is popped up with dimensionals.

See how easy it is to change from one animal to another.  We add a mask to the face, claws, and marks to the tail and BINGO – we have a raccoon! 

Have you noticed how each card  is finished differently?  I took the DSP with flags from the Little Foxy Designer Paper Stack and cut out the individual flags for this card. They are adhered with dimensionals and the Baker’s twine was added with a thin line of glue.  On the cat card, I adhered the thick Baker’s twine with glue to an entire row of flags before I used snipped them out.  The top card was finished with just Baker’s twine.  The placement of the forest scene on the card is dependent on how the card is finished.

Finally, the skunk.  He certainly doesn’t look very fierce.  Oops, I think I told a fib earlier!.  The white portion of the tail has been fussy cut – trace the punched black tail on white cs and cut it smaller!  It’s hard to believe that all these animals come from one punch! Since I made these cards, I’ve seen a cute dog and a mouse created from this simple punch!

What do  you think of these cuties?  You can choose the animal you want and finish the background as you choose.  August Stamp Camp is held a week later than normal as we are taking my 98 year-old mother to California to visit with her friends.  Our dates/times for August:  Thursday 8/11 from 12 noon to 9 PM, Friday 8/12 from 2 to 9 PM, and Saturday 8/13 from 9 AM to 4 PM.  It’s a great help in my preparation if I know in advance who is coming and what day.  I realize this is not always possible, but if you think you are coming, I would love if you would let me know.  I hate to precut paper that we don’t use.  The cost is our normal – $12.  We are also doing a darling die cut bird which will be on the next blog post, a beautiful Victorian angel Christmas card, and a swirly scribble card.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

Blessings, Rosemary – (h)630/759-3089 – (c)630/965-1965 – paperrose01@aol.com