Peony Panel

As I mentioned in yesterdays post I took a Tombow marker class where I learned lots of new Tombow techniques. I've had a serious craving to color ever since!
I've had this Stampendous Peony Panel stamp for at least a year now and have not pulled out very often and when I have I've never been quite happy with how the coloring turned out. Well I can now say I love, love, love how the coloring turned out this time!
I started out by embossing the peonies on inexpensive non-watercolor white cardstock with clear in and clear embossing powder.
I colored both panels on inexpensive using my Tombow markers and my blender pen using the indirect Tombow method.
I thought this stamp would be perfect for a bookmark card. I used my Creatopia machine to perforate a panel on my card so the receiver of the card can detach the extra panel and have a keepsake bookmark (right panel in the above picture).

The left panel of the card (see left) had quite a bit of extra space so I used my Tombow markers and drew a wiggly border around the edges of the panel along with 2 Tombow daisies. I also stamped a sentiment on this panel as well using my Tombow markers as ink on the stamp. I addes a little tab and flower eyelet on the bookmark so it is a little longer than the card. Nothing I hate more than a book mark that gets lost in the book! Thanks for looking!
Just a quick reminder Saturday May 1 is National Scrapbooking Day! Crafty Capers will be having a $2 circle album class @9:30 am. Bring 4 8" circles cut out of double sided paper/cardstock along with adhesive and matching embellishments. Please preregister!
Recipe:
Stamps: Stampendous Peony Panel, Penny Black Nothing is worth...
Tombow Markers: N00 (blender), 062, 249, 195, 993, 515, 815 & 452
Other: Crafty Capers clear embossing powder, Bazzill cardstock, A Muse cardstock, flower eyelet, ribbon scrap

New orders in!

Well finally my orders were released from Canada Post's customs broker! So today we got 2 nice surprises in the mail. An order from A Muse with lots of their stamps and pattern cardstock - a few rolls of ribbon too!
We also have been able to replenish our ink stocks with NEW Distress, Ranger Archival, Memento, Versafine, Versamagic and Brillance inks! Distress inks are very popular at the moment so hurry in for best selection!

Another technique

This is another Suze Weinberg technique from her book the Art of Rubber Stamping.

This one was called Vivid Resist. It was supposed to use Vivid inks I am guess she meant to use Clearsnap's Vivid inks but I don't own them so thought I would try with Adirondack inks.

I started with a piece of white glossy cardstock. I grabbed a clear Hero Arts stamp and inked it up with my Versamark ink pad then inked the stamp with 1 of 3 Ranger dye inks: Raspberry, Popsicle orange and Sunset yellow then randomly stamped the images all over the glossy cardstock. I heat set the inks to make sure they were nice and dry then rubbed Ranger's dye Espresso ink ALL over the previously stamped images. The images I stamped first resisted the espresso ink! I then rubbed the cardstock with a tissue to remove excess ink. I was hoping the images would be more colorful but still not too bad. I may try this technique again with a lighter background! The rest of the card is self explanatory. I the image I used is by Stampendous. Thanks for looking!

Playing with Techniques!

Last week I was in a technique-y mood so I pull out an old Suze Weinberg stamping technique book (The Art of Rubber Stamping) and thought I would (finally) give some of those techniques a try. I mean this book is the reason I bought a brayer and watercolor crayons!! That have been rarely used! This technique called faux suede and is done with Liquid Applique. Liquid Applique was originally designed for fabric but works on paper too! It comes in a needle nose bottle which you generally apply to your paper/fabric. Let it dry for a few hours and then heat it with your heat gun and it magically puffs up!! I sell it in the store from time to time mainly in white because it makes perfect snow.

I own white and brown not really enough colors to do the proper faux suede look so I improvised. First off I grabbed a piece of white Superstock cardstock (130lb) and brayered Weathered Wood Distress ink on a 5x5 square of the cardstock for a background. I then squeezed a puddle of brown Liquid Applique onto my Ranger Non Stick craft sheet and used a piece of foam to apply the Liquid Applique to an Impression Obsession large daisy then I stamped it randomly around on the brayered cardstock. I stamped the leaves (Hero Arts) with Peeled Paint Distress ink randomly around the flowers. I was tired of waiting for the Liquid Applique to dry by this point, all of 5 minutes I'm sure! So I just went ahead and heated the flowers with my heat gun and they puffed up to a suede like finish! Very cool!

I still thought the piece looked a bit naked so I pulled out my Tombow markers and used Marie Browning's Tombow flower techniques and added some little yellow flowers and some random swirls with my Tombow markers. I am so pleased with myself. I took Marie's class about a month ago under duress thinking that the drawing was not really my thing and I would never use the technique. I ended up LOVING the class and am now using the technique on my cards. I am very pleased with myself! :)

The middle of the large daisies needed a little pop so I finished them off with some dots of Ranger Liquid Pearls. Perfect!

I added a piece of vellum with a Hero Arts sentiment to the front of the card an mounted everything as shown. I am so happy with how this card turned out!!

Thanks to Sharron for the moral support and advice while I was making this card! :)

Grapes!

I've been making cards but having trouble finding time to put them up on the blog! Weird since I usually have the opposite problem. Anyway, I have a few cards I will be posting in the next few days. Hope you enjoy!

I was in the mood to color with my Tombow markers the other day and after watching Marie Browning's Tombow Technique Specialist Degree class a month or so back I thought I would try to blend on non-watercolor paper with my Tombow blender pen. These Hero Arts grapes were the first "coloring" stamp I came across. I stamped the image several times (the leaves are popped up) on cheap smooth cardstock I picked up at Office Depot with Versafine Onyx black ink. Then the Tombows came out, as Marie suggested in the class I used a very light hand with the markers and I think the blending turned out not bad for my first try!

The shape the grapes is on is Spellbinder Labels 2. I edged the purple layer with Memories violet ink for some extra depth. I jazzed up the grapes a bit with some Ranger Glossy Accents and for a change you can really see the gloss and glitter wish I knew why this one showed the glitter etc but usally it's so hard to capture it! I thought the main card needed something and my friend, Leslie, was playing with her punches next to me so I thought I'd use the glitter Burnished Velvet technique as a background. I really LOVE the Punch Bunch Rock Fern punch so used that for my images in the background. The teeny tiny Best Wishes in the bottom is a gold (originally) Stampendous sticker that first I used Eggplant alcohol ink on. I was not happy with the color the sticker came out after that technique so then I resorted to a black Sharpie to make the sticker a bit darker in color.

Thanks for looking!

New Company to Crafty Capers - Harmonie!

Crafty Capers is now carrying a new Canadian company! Yeah! Harmonie carries its own line of 12x12 papers, stamps and stickers to name a few! We got our first order in today and I managed to get a few minutes of play time in between customers.

The main images (flowers and butterflies) are Harmonie sticky shapes. They are stickers that are sticky on both sides so you can apply glitter, Perfect Pearls, chalks etc to them. I first cut out the largest Spellbinder Label 4 shape because I didn't want a white background I scribbled 4 colors of Tombow markers all over the watercolor cardstock then sprayed liberally with water so the colors blended together. I was in a bit of a rush so I ironed the cardstock to dry it.

I then applied my sticky shapes to the cardstock with the help of my Be Creative tweezers and pressed everything down with a scrap of my Be Creative tape backing.

I choose to use Glitter Ritz glitter on the shapes. I carefully applied blue glitter to the flower part and then 2 colors of green to the leaves parts. Once that part was done I colored the flowers and leaves with more Tombow markers and blended with my Tombow blender pen.

I matted the piece with a scrap of brown cardstock which I had to hand cut because I had already used the largest label in the package.

I liked the way the panel went with a piece of A Muse cardstock so then used my Spellbinder In Spades border to cut a fancy edge on the A Muse cardstock. I stuck a strip of green behind the border for some contrast and put the whole thing on a piece of bown cardstock. I added 2 Harmonie sticky shape butterflies also covered in glitter to the card as well as 4 little eyelet type stickers. I edged the A Muse cardstock with a brown Tombow marker and voila, done! All supplies are available from Crafty Capers in store or by mail order.

Thanks for looking!

Glitter colors used: Glitter Ritz Liberty Blue, Kiwi Green & Moss Green

Tombow colors used: 062, 173, 245, 452, 515 & 969

Summer Retreat

Now wouldn't you like to hang out here over the summer? I know I sure would!

This card was done with Art Impression stamps using the Art Impressions watercolor technique. I used my Tombow markers directly on the stamps for the colors. I really love this technique because you don't have to know how to draw at all everything is done with stamps! Easy Peasy!

The card layout is an easel card instructions for this type of card are here. It's pretty simple once you have the instructions.

The saying stamp is by Hero Arts. The border is by Spellbinder.

For those of you who would like to learn this technique I will be teaching a class with a "beaches" theme Saturday May 8 @ 1:00 pm. Cost $25. If you are interested in registering please contact Crafty Capers.

Thanks for looking!

Oh so sparkly!

Yeah! We received our shipment of Be Creative Tape and Glitter Ritz! Hurry in for best selection!

No Matter the Weather

Well this card seems rather appropriate given the crazy wind storm we had on Friday however where I was there would have been no way the umbrella would have stayed upright!

I actually made this card a week ago and with one thing or another I didn't get around to posting it.

I got this layout idea from a Becky Higgins scrapbooking layout book which name escapes me at the moment but I tweaked it into a card. I stamped most of the images with Versafine onyx black and the saying was stamped with Ranger's Adirondack Sunset Orange (dye) ink.

I colored the monkeys with my Staedtler watercolor crayons which are similar to watercolor pencil crayons but in a crayon form. They are a fun coloring medium but I rarely use them for some reason.

The card assembly is pretty straight forward. I the saying, monkeys, rubber boots and mini umbrella are all from the same Stampendous Rainy Day Changito set.

Just a quick reminder Crafty Capers is OPEN on Monday Apr 5 10 am - 5 pm (regular hours).

Happy Easter!