Mosaic Card by Trish

One of my newest downline, Trish, made this cute Mosaic card that I wanted to share with you.

This is a great technique that Trish learnt when she attended an advanced technique class that I ran earlier in the year.

This is how she did it:

1. Run the base cardstock through a Xyron machine (you could also use spray adhesive, this is just less messy!) and then peel away the protective sheet to reveal the sticky cardstock underneath.
2. Randomly snip shards of coloured cardstock and apply to the sticky side of your cardstock (leaving space in between each piece for the “grout”).
3. Once you have all the shards of card stuck in place, sprinkle silver embossing powder over the entire piece and shake off the excess powder.
4. Using the brush, carefully brush any excess powder off the coloured shards of card and emboss thoroughly.
5. Cover the entire piece with Versamark ink, (make sure you put the lid back on the Versamark so that any flying powder doesn’t end up in the pad) then sprinkle card with clear embossing powder and heat.
6. She then completed the card by adding a stamp from the Riveting hostess set!

If you would like to learn more techniques, please contact me and find out how you can earn free stamp sets and product dollars by having me come to your home to show you and your friends new stamping techniques.

Cute card from my friend Kim Rice!!

I tried sending this as the card of the week last week, but I was having so many problems with my e-mail that I finally gave up. This is such a simple but cute card that I had to share, so here it is in case you couldn't open the e-mail ...

A beautiful card that my lovely friend Kim sent to me. Super simple and very easy to re-create, she has simply used a wheel and watercoloured it (a girl after my own heart!).

By then splitting the central piece of cardstock into 3 sections she has given it a totally different feel and has made a simple card very appealing to the eye.

STAMPS:
Leaves Awash wheel (pg 76)
Words of Wisdom (sorry, this is not available in New Zealand)

CREATED BY:
Kim Rice, San Diego

DID YOU KNOW?
That your eye is more naturally attracted to uneven numbers/items? Start looking out for professional designs and patterns, they are typically done with uneven numbers to appeal to the majority. Use this knowledge in your stamping and scrapbooking to make your creations more aesthetically appealing.

Cool Stampin' Up On-line Colour Combination Website

If I haven't already told you about this awesome site, then check this out:

http://www.scraptitude.com/colorcombo/

Simply choose your main colour and 1 or 2 more colours and then hit select and you will get more colour combos that you know what to do with! I like to play around with it, I've found some really amazing combinations that I would never have thought of on my own ...

UPCOMING CLASSES ...

Hi ladies, just a reminder about my monthly "$2 card" sessions - the next ones are on September 30th and October 28th. Feel free to just drop in any time between 1pm and 6pm, but if you could please let me know if you are planning to drop by so that I can make sure to have plenty of card cut and prepared.

If you can't be there but would like to receive one of each of the 6 cards, let me know ahead of time and I will make them up for you on the day and ship them off to you for just $14 (includes $2 extra for preparation and shipping). This is a great way to get ideas if you can't make it on the day.




Isn't this little guy so cute?

We did a number of cards with stamps from the new Spring mini catalogue at our July $2 cards!

Dying Grosgrain Ribbon

Have you ever been frustrated when you can't find the exact colour of ribbon to match your card or scrapbook page? Don't worry - just die (whoops, I mean dye!)

You can easily dye your white grosgrain ribbon by simply running it through any dye-based ink pad. Just follow these simple instructions and you can have ribbon in any colour you desire!

You will need:

- a dye-based ink pad

- white ribbon (I have used grosgrain here)

- a little plastic bag (or rubber gloves or even some gladwrap around your finger will work)

WARNING: This technique is very messy, the plastic bag (or gladwrap or rubber gloves) will protect your fingers while you are dabbling in the ink pad.

Simply press the ribbon into the ink pad with your finger, then pull the ribbon across the ink pad while applying even pressure. Do this first on one side, then flip the ribbon over and repeat on the other side for even colour coverage. You can do this as many times as you need to until you get the colour depth that you require.

Because you have soaked quite a bit of ink into your ribbon by this stage, make sure that you give it plenty of time to air dry before you attach it to cardstock or it will smear on your card. Alternatively, if you are a little impatient like me, you can use your heat gun or even your iron (make sure to place between scrap paper) to dry it completely before you use it.

I always knew that iron had to be good for something ...

Stamp-a-ma-jig!!

I have had a number of my customers asking about what the Stamp-a-ma-jig is and how you use it, so this is my basic step-by-step instructions on using this amazing tool. Once you have used it you will be hooked, so be careful ....

1. Stamp your base image (the truck in this example).

2. Butt the plastic imaging sheet up into the corner of the stamp positioner.

3. With your plastic imaging sheet still snugly in the corner, ink up your hearts stamp, and then stamp onto your plastic imaging sheet (making sure that your stamp is also pressed into the corner)

4. After you remove your stamp, you will have a stamped image on your plastic sheet. Move your plastic sheet around until your hearts are exactly where you want them to stamp in the back of the truck.

5. Once you have your image exactly where you want it to stamp, then you can push your stamp positioner back into place up against the corner of your plastic imaging sheet.
6. Remove the plastic imaging sheet, keeping the stamp positioner exactly where it was. Re-ink your hearts and you can stamp onto your cardstock (taking care that you keep the stamp tucked into the corner of your stamp positioner)

7. Your hearts are now placed exactly where you wanted them and are ready for you to colour and finish your card! Great job!!!

Simply wipe your plastic imaging sheet with a tissue and a little Stampin’ Mist to clean it off ready to use again and again …

Finish off your card and you are ready to make someone's day by sending them a special note!