Gilden Glitz Technique on Acetate

Today's card uses Gilden Glitz flakes on acetate. It is a very easy but very effective technique.

What you need to do is take a piece of acetate and stamp your image carefully onto it using Black Staz on ink pad. I use Staz on as it dries quickly on acetate unlike many other ink pads. Once it is dry turn the image over and you are now working on the reverse side. Place double sided tape side by side to cover the back of the image - try not to have gaps between the tape and then lift off the backing paper off the tape and take a handful of the glitz flakes and press down onto the tape. Once you have covered the image, then use a stiff brush to brush off the excess flakes back into the packet. Then turn over your image and viola. A beautiful gilded image.

Materials required: Gilden Glitz flakes, Acetate, black cardstock, Sun/Moon stamps, mesh, Double sided tape, stiff brush, copper stars, Black staz on ink pad

Method: Follow technique above to create three different sun/moon images. Attach piece of mesh to cardfront and then attach your 3 images and add a copper star in the corners and you are done.

Note you do get several different brands of these gilded flakes - I have purchased some from Niki Zipp at Paperchain before and also from Frantic stamper website.

Serviette technique

Another technique card today. I have used a serviette to create this card. There are some fabulous serviettes out there - just a warning though - the cheap cheap serviettes don't seem to work that well and can tear very easily so buy a decent one. Some craft shops sell serviettes in singles and other shops sell a whole packet. If you have to buy a whole packet why not share the others in a swap with your stamping friends.

I find the easiest way to attach serviettes to cardstock is to use spray glue. I bought the spray glue at a hardware shop and it lasts for ages. Its in a blue and yellow tin. What I do is seperate the layers of the serviette. Sometimes there are 4 layers - it just depends on the make of serviette. All you want is the top layer. Be careful with it as its pretty fragile at this stage. I then take some cheap white cardstock and take it outside in the garden or over newspaper and spray the whole area of the cardstock and then I carefully place the serviette on top and use the spare layers of the serviette to smooth out any wrinkles. You can then cut it to size to mount on your card.

Materials required: Cream cardstock, copper cardstock, white cheap cardstock, serviette, copper cardstock, word charm, butterfly charm, Glitter

Method: Fold cream cardstock to create base card. Attach your serviette to cheap white cardstock following directions above and then trim to square. Then I cut out additional main butterfly image and layered it onto the first image and then layered it to copper and then black cardstock and then attached it to cardfront. I glittered areas of the wings and then cut out two small butterflies from the serviette image and attached those as shown and added word charm and a small bronze butterfly charm.

Why not give serviettes a go - you can create some great quick cards using this technique. They are also fabulous for use on backgrounds.

Spotlight technique

Wow where has January gone. It seems to be flying by and I just havn't got into my blogging this year yet.

Thought I would start off the year with a technique card. This card shows the Spotlight Technique.

Simply put you choose a large stamp/often a collage style stamp and pick out just one part of the stamp ie the butterfly and colour that in or I stamped image twice and cut out just the butterfly part of the second image and coloured it in and then attached it with pop up foam dots over the original plain stamped image. So that is the spotlight technique in a nutshell. Easy start to the year I thought.

Materials required: Orange cardstock, corrugated cardstock, white cardstock, butterfly charms, Butterfly collage stamp by PSX, Image word stamp by Stampers Anonymous, wire, beads, tombow pens, glitter, foam dots, ds tape, black brilliance ink pad

Method: Using black ink pad, stamp Collage image twice onto white cardstock . Cut out just the butterfly portion of the second image and color in using tombow or copic pens and I used some glitter as well. Take orange cardstock and fold to create 15 x 15 cm square card. Take your first butterfly collage stamped image and mount it onto orange and then corrugated paper and then to cardfront. Take the second butterfly only coloured image and wrap wire around and thread beads onto the wire. Then attach over 1st image using foam dots. Stamp word imagine onto white cardstock using black ink pad and then mount onto orange and then corrugated paper and then to cardfront. Add butterfly charms and you are done.

Grid Technique - another sample

Todays card makes use of the Grid technique again as demonstrated the other day. The only difference is that I have used leaf/word stamps and different colors. I also went all over the images with a crackle stamp which blurs the grid lines and I added a stamped wooden domino. I painted the small wooden domino first with lumiere paint and then stamped tree onto it. I also added some gold lumiere paint over the top of everything using a stipple brush which again softens the whole grid effect.

Grid Stamping Technique

Today's card makes use of the Grid Technique.

Here you can see the grid fairly defined. On Tuesday I will show you same technique used on a card but instead of squaring off the central image I used more of an angle and it changes the whole perspective of the grid.

You can do the grid technique either using glossy paper and dye inks or alternatively using matt paper and I use color box cats eye ink pads. I have used the second option here.

There are several excellent grid stamping technique sites with detailed step by step pictures, so I would urge you to go have a look at how this technique is done.

Try www.stampersmall.com/techniques/ or try http://stampez.typepad.com/my_weblog/retiform.html

Stamping on CD's

I got given a whole box full of old computer CD's a few years ago and had to work out how to use them on a card - being a stamper you can never just throw anything away can you. After experimenting a bit I found this technique worked for me.

Technique: Take Lumiere or Dala Metallic paints and a sponge and sponge paint onto the cd lightly. You don't want to do it too heavily as otherwise it will take ages to dry. If you have done it lightly then it should be dry in about 15 to 30 minutes. I normally paint up a whole lot of cd's at once so that they are ready to stamp onto. You can then stamp using black brilliance or black staz on ink pad and again it will take about 5 to 10 minutes for the ink to dry before you can attach it to your card.

Materials: Cream cardstock, CD, Lumiere or Dala Metallic paint, Black Brilliance or Staz on, Selection of butterfly stamps, Hero arts word stamp, butterfly charm, stipple brush or old fashioned shaving brush works well for stippling, amber and butterscotch dye ink pads, Skeleton leaf

Method: Fold cardstock in half to create square 15 x 15 card. Sponge paint onto CD as described above and then when dry stamp with selection of butterfly/word stamps. Stipple amber and butterscoth onto cardfront using stipple or shaving brush and use same ink pads to stamp butterflies directly onto cardfront. Attach skeleton leaf and then CD and butterfly charm.

Hope you will give stamping on CD's a go.

Stamping on Copper technique

For today's card I have stamped onto copper sheeting. Staz on is brilliant for stamping onto the copper sheeting as the surface of the copper is rather slippery and the staz on dries pretty quickly.

Technique: You can buy copper metal sheeting from most stamp shops. It also comes in gold, silver and sometimes you can find blue/green etc. When stamping onto the metal you need to use something like Staz on ink pad that was designed especially for stamping onto surfaces like metal/ceramics etc. If you make a mistake and don't like your image you can wipe it off and start again - you may need to use a bit of stamp cleaner when you wipe it off. Be careful when cutting out shape from the metal as the edges can be sharp. You will find the Staz on dries in about 5 minutes but you can also heat set it if you want to.

Materials: Cream cardstock, black cardstock , copper cardstock, copper magic ribbon, copper sheet, copper wire, small beads, rhinestones, skeleton leaves, selection of stamps, hero arts writing stamp, Staz on ink pad, black brilliance ink pad, copper encore ink pad

Method: Fold cream cardstock to create base card. Run strip of copper magic ribbon down right hand edge. Take copper encore ink pad and stamp Hero arts words repeatedly and then tear edge and secure to cardfront as shown. Take a butterfly shape out of the copper metal sheet and then use Staz on Black ink pad to stamp several images and allow to dry. Attach to black and then copper cardstock and then to cardfront as shown. Attach rhinestones. Stamp butterfly kisses words onto cream cardstock with Black Brilliance ink pad and wrap copper wire around with small beads on and attach to copper and then black cardstock and then secure skeleton leaves to cardfront and attach stamped word.

Have fun and enjoy stamping on metal - it adds lots of texture to your card and is something a bit different from stamping on paper.

Angel on Domino/Stamping on Domino's technique

Today's card uses an image stamped onto a domino. Stamping on domino's is great fun and really easy - it just takes a minute or two extra patience. You can make up fabulous jewellery using the stamped domino images ie image instead of putting this on a card, you could put a pin on the back and use as a brooch - I have one and lots of people comment on it. Another great idea is to get someone with a drill to drill holes in the sides of the dominos and then stamp up several and thread threw jewellery elastic and make up a braclet - it is very striking and unique and bound to draw lots of comments.

Another idea is to use domino on a chain around your neck. So really you can make unique gifts from domino's which cost very little from the Crazy store.

Materials: Black cardstock, copper cardstock, cream cardstock, vellum, domino, gold angel wings. joy word stamp by Hero arts, eyelets, domino, lumiere or dala metallic paints, black brilliance or staz on ink pad, copper beads and wire.

Method: Fold black cardstock to create base card. Attach copper and then black cardstock. Take square of vellum music paper and attach to cream cardstock using four eyelets in the corners and attach to cardfront. Take paint (I used Copper Lumiere) and paint domino by sponging on the paint and leave to dry. Once paint is dry use black brilliance or black staz on to stamp Mischief angel stamp from Stampers Anonymous onto domino. When stamping on domino, if you have painted the domino first it is not that slippery so its easy to stamp onto. I normally ink up my stamp and then place stamp on my desk with inked side facing up and then I take the domino and place it onto the part of the stamp i want and press down firmly and then lift off. Worst case scenario if you don't like the image then you can use thinners to remove the paint and image and start again. If you havn't painted the domino, you can still stamp directly onto the domino but it will be a little bit more slippery so grip it firmly when pressing it on the stamp and lift off. Again if you don't like the image or its not perfect then just use staz on stamp cleaner to remove image and wash the domino and then stamp again. You can then color the image using dye ink pads or sharpie markers. I often use a gold pen to do the sides of the domino. Ok so on with the card. Wrap copper wire and small beads around the domino and then attach angel wings and secure to front of card. I then added two small round stickers.

I hope this inspires you to give stamping on domino's a go. Its great fun and ideal for making up some last minute unique christmas presents and best of all its really cheap if you get the dominos at the Crazy store.

Stamping on Cork

Well the other day I shared a card that made use of stamping on paint, so today I thought I would share a card I did - stamped on cork.

You can buy sheets or rolls of very thin cork from stationary shops and it is so easy to stamp on and is excellent for those African style cards. Also adds some texture to your card.

Materials: Cream cardstock, black cardstock, cork, African stamps - Local SA Manufacturers, Feather, Gold brads, black brilliance ink pad

Method: Fold cream cardstock to make square 15 x 15 card. Take Black Brilliance ink pad and stamp Cheetah and pots onto cork and trim cheetah to size and mount onto cream and then black cardstock and then to cardfront. Cut out pots and attach to cardfront and stamp word Africa directly onto cardfront. add feather and gold brads.

Stamping on Painted backgrounds

Today I thought I would share with you Stamping on painted backgrounds.

I adore my Lumiere paints - they have such a glow to them and they go on so smoothly and are easy to stamp on top of.

All you need to do for this technique is take Lumiere paint and paint a piece of cardstock with various colors - I used a sponge to dab the paint onto the card. ( have a light hand - that way the paint dries quickly and you are ready to stamp in about 5 to 10 minutes) If you don't have any Lumiere paint then try with normal acryllic paint ie Dala and add some highlights with the Metallic Dala paints.

Materials: Black, Copper and White cardstock, Copper embossing powder, Clear embossing ink pad, black brilliance ink pad, selection of stamps, rhinestones, Lumiere paints and sponge, Gold pen

Method: Take a piece of white cardstock and sponge Lumiere paints directly onto the surface of the cardstock using a sponge. Allow to dry. Stamp images using black brilliance ink pad and then go around edges with gold paint pen and mount onto black and then copper cardstock and then to cardfront. Use clear embossing ink pad to stamp word on cardfront and then emboss using copper embossing powder. Add rhinestones and you are done.

Tape Transfer technique

Today's card demonstrates yet another very easy technique - Tape Transfers.

I always try and get the very wide cellotape for this technique - its about 6cm wide. I find that width is the easiest size as it covers most pictures. This technique will work with either a picture from a glossy magazine ie Fair Lady/Vogue etc or a toner based photocopy. Must be toner based not inkjet ie you can't print something on your HP printer and use that picture - photocopy it first on a toner based photocopier.

Technique Step by Step

1. Select your picture from magazine or your photocopy and trim it so that it roughly fits the width of your tape - doesn't matter if its slightly larger as you can just trim the edges once the tape is on. You then place the cellotape/Sticky tape over the image with the sticky side on the actual image itself.

2. Pour some warm water into the sink and then place your cellotaped image into the water. Leave it for about 30 seconds and then start rubbing the back of the cellotape. I do this under the water and you will see that little balls of paper come off and if you keep rubbing for a couple of minutes eventually you will get rid of all the paper and what is left is your cellotape with the image imprinted on it.

3. If it was a photocopy then the image will be black and white obviously and if the image was from a magazine it will be in full color. I then lay the image onto a towel with the shiny side of the tape down and leave it to dry well. You will then find that the cellotape regains some of its stickness once dry and is probably enough to then stick it onto some plain cardstock ready for mounting on your card.

It's as simple as that and it is really fun to see the results especially with magazine color transfers.

Today's card uses a photocopy image of a woman and child.

Materials: Black cardstock, clear embossing ink pad, silver embossing powder, tape transfer image, white cardstock, silver cord, butterflies, word stamp by Paper Inspirations, corner punch.

Method: Fold black a4 cardstock in half to create base card. Use clear embossing ink pad to stamp words onto cardfront as shown and emboss with silver embossing powder. Take tape transfer picture and attach it to white cardstock and then black cardstock and then white cardstock. Use the corner punch to punch the corners of the white cardstock and then thread silver cord around the white cardstock and attach to cardfront. Attach butterflies.

I hope you enjoyed today's technique and give it a try.

Looking back/Gold Paint spray paper technique

Now I had meant to look up who this stamp is by this morning but got involved with other things and totally slipped my mind. I love this image though - makes me feel peaceful.

This card was done using a paint technique I love and is so simple - take a can of paint and just spray it at your paper.

Materials: Black cardstock, gold cardstock, white cardstock, stamp, black brilliance ink pad, word charm, Gold Paint in Spray can

Method: Fold black cardstock to create side fold card. Add a layer of gold cardstock. take a piece of black cardstock and put it on newspaper and then spray gold paint over it - holding it at about a distance of 60cm so that you get drops of paint on your cardstock. Once dry attach this layer to your card. Using black brilliance ink pad stamp image onto white cardstock and matt with black and then gold cardstock and attach to cardfront. Attach mats of gold and then black and then word charm.

Exploding box technique

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I thought I would share the exploding box technique with you today. You can have a lot of fun with these boxes and if you have an embossing board they are very easy to make as you don't have to sit and measure. Embossing boards are wonderful for this type of construction card as it saves having to sit there with a ruler and pencil and measure everything. I have left this box plain on the outside with just a flower on top and ribbon around the lid, but you could of course decorate the outside of the box panels as well. For the inside you have three layers of paper each with four panels to decorate and the centre panel, which you only need decorate for the last layer as the other layers are covered as you stick it all together under the centre panel.

This is a stunning project for that wow factor - present and card in one, good for using with photos as an "off the page" scrapbook. Also lends itself very well to themes - ie butterflies, fairies, christmas, marine, baby etc.

Materials required:

1 x cardstock 297mm square

1 x cardstock 290 mm square

1 x cardstock 285mm square

1 x cardstock 15cm square for lid

Ruler/Pencil/Pegs/Glue/Foam pads/Scoreboard

Stamps/inks/papers/embellishments to decorate

Note: I used Bazzil cardstock for the box in this example.

Technique:

1. Take each of your 3 larger squares of paper and place up against the butt bar on the embossing board and score all 4 sides using the A4 Trifold line if you are using the Crafters Companion Ultimate board, DL5 line if you are using the Diamond card craft blue board. You then cut out the four corner squares on each sheet and set them aside to use later when you decorate the box as you can use them for layering.

2. Take your lid cardstock and place on the box lid section of the Crafters Companion ultimate board and score on line 2 all the way around. If you are using the Diamond card craft blue board then use line 2 for the lid.

3. Fold in all the score lines on the lid and cut notches in the corners and glue in place and use pegs to hold it together whilst the glue dries. You can use Double sided tape but I find wet glue holds the box together better.

4. Decorate your layers on the bottom of the box - all four panels on each of the 3 layers and then the centre panel only for your top layer. Attach the 3 panels together using foam tape under the centre panel only.

5. Decorate your lid and then fold up your lower part of the box and pop the lid on. Simple as that.

Have fun and if you don't have a score board you can always email me for the measurements.

Just married/Photo stamping technique

Today's card uses a photo stamp from Stampsmith - they have really lovely photo stamps.

Photo stamping require's a little bit of extra patience to get a really good image. In order to use a photo stamp you will need to use a dye ink pad - I have tried most of them and personally I find that Archival dye ink pads work the best for me. Others that are good include Versafine and Memories.

You will also want to stamp onto glossy cardstock - now I find that the very very glossy cardstocks don't work for me so I use low gloss paper - either a paper called Novatech that I buy locally in SA or alternatively a low gloss paper that I buy from Oxford Impressions. Both work brilliantly.

The first step in photo stamping is to make sure that your stamp is clean and free of any bits of dust/glitter/powder/cats hairs etc. I normally take a bit of double sided tape and tap it onto the stamp all over to make sure that I pick up any stray bits. If you are using an unmounted photo stamp I also find its best to stamp onto a mouse pad so that you have that bit of extra cushion as it were. The next step is to ink up your stamp well. Some people use a brayer but I don't bother. Then its time to stamp your image onto the glossy paper. Press firmly and keep pressing for at least a minute or so - don't rush this bit otherwise you will find that parts of your image have not transferred. Then hold the paper with one hand and carefully lift off the stamp.

If you don't have a perfect image don't despair - vintage photos often arn't perfect as they have spots and scratches on. Also you can easily disguise any imperfections by placing vellum on top of the photo as I did on this card(not that I didn't have lovely image on this occasion)

Photo stamping gives you some really wonderful results but you do need to work slowly and no rush the process. I find if I am slightly tired then that results in less than perfect images so it really is a technique that you must do when you have spare time and plenty of energy. If you like photo stamps but arn't having much luck with the images then I can highly recommend the Toybox photo stamps as they seem to give perfect image nearly every time. I also often find that mounted photo stamps seem to work a bit easier than the unmounted images.

Now on to today's card.

Materials: Black cardstock, Silver cardstock, White glossy cardstock, Vellum, Black and white dot paper, Stampsmith photo stamp, Black Archival dye ink pad, Rhinestones

Method: Stamp wedding image as per above instructions onto white glossy cardstock and allow to dry. Fold black cardstock to create top fold card. Attach silver and then black and white spot papers to cardfront. Then attach layer of silver and layer of black cardstock to cardfront. Attach photo image and then place piece of vellum (i tore the bottom edge) over the photo and secure in place with 2 small glue dots and place rhinestones over the glue dots.

Do give photo stamping a go - it really is a brilliant technique.

Shattered Glass technique

Something different for me - African style card using shattered glass technique. I have to say that I don't do African images on cards all that often.

I thought I would use this card though to demonstrate a slightly different take on the Shattered glass technique using Lumiere paints. If you don't have any Lumiere paints don't worry you can use Dala Metallic paints - they work as well.

The most important thing to remember when doing this technique is that you need low tack masking tape. Now if you were in America, believe it or not you can buy what they call low tack masking tape but here where we can only get regular masking tape, you can easily make it low tack and clean your outfit at the same time - how you ask. Tear off strip of masking tape and for this technique I use the tape that is about 3cm wide and I also tear down each outer edge so that I am left at the end with two rough sides. Before you tear down the outer edges though place the tape on your clothes and lift off - do this several times and you will have clean clothes with no stray hairs on and also you will have low tack masking tape. It is important to get rid of most of the stickiness of the tape otherwise it will stick like glue to your paper and you won't be able to tear it off later without leaving marks on your paper.

Ok now that you have your low tack tape, tear down the outer edges of the tape so that you have two torn sides and then take black cardstock and place tape where you don't want paint. Once you are happy with design then take sponge and sponge on Lumiere or Dala paints and allow to dry. Carefully lift off the tape and you will be left with rough edged paint design on the paper. Once it is dry you can then stamp onto the paint using Brilliance black ink. I have used animals on the card above. I then mounted my pieces onto copper cardstock and then to cardfront as shown.

Shattered glass is a super technique and real quick to do. I normally paint up several sheets at a time and that way you get dig a piece out when you want to make a card and its quick then just to stamp it up and mount it onto a card.

Hope you enjoy this technique.

Pop out Cards Technique

I love making pop out cards and they are so easy to do and so effective. These and funnily enough shaker cards always seem to get the most comments even from people that don't normally pay any attention to my cards. I use templates by Ws Designs which are great and make the whole thing so easy

This one uses their Large arch pop out template.

Materials: Two pieces of A4 cream cardstock, Penny black scroll vellum, selection of angel stamps, clear embossing ink pad, gold embossing powder, white thread, star die cuts, gold pen, large arch template, alcohol inks, acetate, violin, I believe in angels stamp by PSX,alcohol ink tool, pencil and ruler, copper cardstock, 4 small brads, tea stained music paper rolled up into a scroll and tied with small piece of ribbon, Cuttlebug swiss dot and swirl folders.

Method: Fold both pieces of cream cardstock in half and score well and set one aside. This you will work on just now when you do the inner part of the card. For now lets complete the outside of the card. I took some acetate and used the alcohol inks tool and alcohol inks to pounce the alchol inks over the acetate. I then stamped the angel image onto cream cardstock and then mounted it over a piece of copper cardstock that I had cuttlebugged and then added the acetate and fixed it together with 4 small brads. I then took some scroll vellum from Penny black and wrapped it around the fold of the card leaving about 1.5 cm at the back of the card with the rest of it showing on the front. I then added the stamped image. I stamped the words and embossed them and mounted again onto copper card that I had cuttlebugged and attached to cardfront using foam dots. I then added the music scroll and the violin. Now lets work on the inside of the card. Take your other folded piece of cream cardstock and place the arch pop out template on the fold line and trace around the template with a pencil and make marks at the notches on the template as this is where you will score another line. Flip template over and mark score marks on the other side of the card - no need to trace template again as you will simply just cut through both layers of card around your pencil marks and viola you have your arch. Score the two lines and fold well. You will now see the you have four panels if you like - the middle two containing your arch and then one of each side of that. On the two outer panels stamp angels and emboss. Go around edges of card with gold pen and make sure you have rubbed out any pencil marks that may be showing. Then take your outer card and open it up and tape in scroll vellum - doesn't have to be the width of the card as it just needs to sit behind your pop out template. Then tape up just the two outer panels of your inner card and attach to the inside of your outer card. Attach star die cuts that I cuttlebugged with Swiss dot folder above the arch and then take two star die cuts and place a piece of white thread running between them and glue together and then attach one piece of the cotton thread to top part of the pop out and the other piece to the bottom. You will now have what looks like a floating star inside your card.

Alcohol Ink technique - Part 2

Ok today another way to use those alcohol inks - on Acetate.

Technique:

Take a piece of acetate and then take your alcohol inks and put say 3 colors onto the alcohol ink tool and pounce it over the acetate until you are happy with the color. Allow to dry. You can stamp directly then onto the acetate if you wish. I would recommend using Staz on and stamp on the opposite side to what you used the alcohol ink on. Alternatively you can use the acetate to cover a stamped image which is what I did with this card shown here.

Materials: Cream cardstock, acetate, gold cardstock, black cardstock, Penny black scroll vellum,Cream textured cardstock, black fibers, 4 gold brads, gold krylon pen, rhinestones, word charm, Great Impressions dragonfly stamp, stickles glitter glue, Alcohol inks and tool.

Method: Fold cream cardstock in half.Add strip of foiled vellum and patterned textured cream cardstock strip down the left hand side of cardfront as shown. Take a piece of acetate and prepare it using alcohol inks as described above and leave to dry. On a piece of cream cardstock stamp dragonfly image and fill in areas of wings using Stickles glitter glue and allow to dry completely. Take dry alcohol inked acetate and attach it to the dragonfly image using gold brads and then attach to gold cardstock and then wrap black fibers around and then attach black cardstock. Attach piece to cardfront as shown. Add rhinestones and word charm.

The card unfortunately hasn't photographed that well - its actually much prettier in real life when you can see the glimmer from the Stickles showing through the alcohol ink piece.

Alcohol Inks and Dominos techniques

Thought I would share another two favourite technique today- Alcohol inks and stamping on Dominos.

Alcohol inks

I have used a selection of the Tim Holtz Alcohol inks on this project. For the card all I did was add a couple of colors of the alcohol inks to the Alcohol ink tool and then pounce it over glossy cardstock. Once I was basically happy with the colors, I then added a drop of blending solution and let it do its own thing.

Domino Stamping

Because of there slippery surface I find its best to stamp with Staz on but I have also had success with Brilliance although it takes longer to dry and doesn't work perfectly everytime. I find it is much easier to ink up your stamp, and you don't have to choose small stamp to fit domino, it can be large collage type stamp. Once you have inked up the stamp with Staz on, lie the stamp flat on the table inked side up and then choose which bit of stamp you want on your domino and simply press the domino firmly into the stamp and lift straight up. If you don't like your first image remember you can use Staz on cleaner to remove the image and let it dry and just start again. I would do this several times just to practice if you are new to stamping on dominos. For this domino, all I did was put 3 different colours of the alcohol inks onto the blending tool and then pounced them over the domino and left it to dry. I then stamped the image with Staz on and went around the edges with a Krylon gold pen.

Materials: Black cardstock, glossy cardstock, Gold cardstock, Stampers Anonymous stamp, Staz on Black , Rhinestones, Alcohol inks and blending solution and alcohol ink blending tool, butterflies, gold embossing powder, word stamp, clear embossing ink pad, Letter P sticker, Gold krylon pen, Domino.

Method: Fold black card to create base square card. Prepare domino as described above and also prepare stamped glossy cardstock as described above. Go around edges of glossy stamped image with gold pen and attach to black and then gold cardstock and then to cardfront. Use clear embossing ink pad to stamp words and emboss with gold embossing powder. Attach domino, rhinestones and butterfly and letter P sticker.

I will share with you another way tomorrow to use your alcohol inks. There are some stunning new colors out. What to do if you don't have any of the Tim Holtz alcohol inks - cry - no seriously you can try the technique using Copic refills (they are alcohol ink after all) or try any die reinkers.

Credit card technique

This card makes use of one of my favourite techniques - credit card technique.

Technique Instructions:

I normally use the inner wrapper paper of normal gift wrap - its usually a light grey very thin cardboard. Alternatively any cheap cardstock will work - not too thick as you need to be able to crumple it up. I then scrunch it up in my hands and then flatten it out and spray it with water. I then add a couple of dollops of paint - I use Lumiere paints but Dala our local brand work just as well, the dollops should be about the size of a R5.00 coin. I then use credit card to spread the paint across the paper. Add more paint if required. When you are happy with your paper leave it to dry and then once dry you can stamp on it. Makes for lovely background paper which has a texture in it.

Materials for card: Black cardstock, copper cardstock, inner cardboard from gift wrap tube, cream cardstock, butterflies, black brilliance ink pad, Stampers Anonymous word stamp, Prima flowers, rhinestone,Paper Artsy woman stamp, Copper pen

Method: Prepare the background as described under technique above. Once dry use black brilliance to repeatedly stamp background words. Take A4 black cardstock and fold in half to create card base. Add layer of copper and then black cardstock and then your credit card technique paper. Use black brilliance ink pad to stamp woman onto cream cardstock and go around edges with copper pen and then attach to black and copper cardstock and then to cardfront as shown. Add flowers with rhinestone and butterflies.

Hope you enjoy this technique.

Christmas card with honeycomb paper

Well thanks to Debbie for taking the photo of this card and adding to her blog. Decided to borrow her photo for this lesson.

Christmas is a wonderful time to make those special cards for friends and family and a pop out card is sure to wow them. Pop outs do take that bit extra time but they are so worth it.

Materials: White cardstock - 2 sheets, gold cardstock, white cardstock, white and gold organza ribbon, Christmas words stamp by PSX, Snowflake stamp by Hero arts, selection of Sissix and Cuttlebug embossing folders, big shot, sticky red tape, gold glitter, Cuttlebug snowflake die cut/embossing folder, small gold star embellishment, Clear embossing ink pad, Gold embossing powder, WS Designs Christmas tree pop out template, Gold Honeycomb paper.

Method: Take 1 sheet of white cardstock and fold in half to create square 15 x 15 card and set aside. Take square of gold cardstock 14 x 14 and attach to cardfront. Take square of white cardstock 13 x 13 and run through Big Shot using Sissix snowflake embossing folder. You will be left with strip down the right hand side of cardstock that has not embossed - onto this strip add red magic sticky tape and peel off liner and pour on gold glitter. Attach organza ribbon using vellum tape and secure to back of cardstock and then attach cardstock to cardfront as shown. Use Big shot to cut out snowflake from gold paper using Cuttlebug snowflake die cut and then emboss with the snowflake embossing folder and attach to cardfront as shown and add small gold star embellishment. The front of your card is now finished so you can set this aside.

Take your second sheet of white cardstock and again fold in half to create square 15 x 15 card. Take your ws designs christmas tree template and place up against the fold line and trace out your christmas tree and cut out. When tracing out the christmas tree mark the score lines on both sides of your card and score. Take the extreme right hand side of this card and run through the Big Shot using Cuttlebug Christmas words embossing folder. On the extreme left hand side, use clear embossing ink pad and gold embossing powder to stamp and emboss the snowflakes and christmas words.

Use your WS Designs tree template to cut out tree from gold honeycomb paper. Put lots of ds tape onto both sides of the tree and then using the inner piece of your card that you have just worked out as a guide, take off the tape on the one side of the christmas tree and lay it down on the inner part of your outer card. Once you are happy with positioning then remove tape from other side of the tree and close your outer card to secure the honeycomb tree.

Its now time to attach your inner card to your outer card. You only need to secure the right hand and left hand panels.

WS designs offer some wonderful templates and making pop out cards with their templates is so easy as they even have the notches in them as to where to score your card. They have both big and small templates in most designs and they also have a very good DVD all about pop out cards which is very good. They also sell honeycomb paper if you cannot find it in South Africa. I have bought it from them in the past and its pretty economical as you get about 16 christmas trees out of 1 sheet of honeycomb paper if you cut it carefully.

Hope you enjoyed this pop up technique.