Horses On Suede

The background for this card is an embossing folder
that looks like wood. The wood grain has been accented
by dusting with dark brown ink on a sponge.
The leather look gift wrap has been cut with
a Spellbinders new diamond die cut
and is layered onto black text weight paper
that has been cut with a decorative scissors.
The horse stamp is from Inkadinkado.

Horses

A clear acrylic stamp by Inkadinkado is the beginning.
It has been stamped with black ink onto faux suede.
How to make faux suede - spread a thin layerbrown Liquid Applique
over card stock and heat with heat gun.
Yes, it really does feel like suede.
I stamped over the suede with crackle stamped
inked with a medium brown dye ink.
Tear around the edges of the image and
"burn" the torn edges with black ink.
I have been known to fill in some of the uninkable
edges with a black Sharpie to get a nice solid
black burned look.

The Spellbinders Label that the horse image
is attached to is cut from a leather look gift wrap.
Next layer down is another Spellbinders Label
that has the edges first sponged with a dark brown ink,
followed by very narrow sponging of black.
Horse shoes have been stamped in the corners.

Layered Medallion

This card may look difficult, but if you look closely you will see that it is simply mulitiple layers.

The while textured layer is paintable textured wallpaper. Gift wrap was used for the metallic golds. One layer was cut with a decorative scissors.

One thing I like about this type of card is the mutliple uses. I could stamp something across the bottom for a specific occasion or leave it plain and put a note on the inside.

Rather than the punched medallion in the center, you could pick a stamped medallion or use a variety of stamped of textured squares or rectangles to create your beginning medallion. There are endless possiblities here.

Faux Tooled Leather

It really does look like tooled leather.

Supplies you will need to make tooled leather:

black pigment ink

brown fun foam

heat gun

stamp

1. cut the fun foam about 1/2" to 1" larger than your stamp

2. ink the stamp with black pigment and keep it in your hand

3. heat the fun foam until it start to curl

4. immediately place stamp on heated foam and press down HARD

5. keep pressing that stamp into the fun foam until it has cooled

6. now pull up you stamp and admire the 3D image

7. trim the foam as close as desired to the 3D image

A few hints:

Let this stamped 3D piece of art work sit at least over night, WHY? because it is stamped with pigment ink and pigment ink takes a long long time to dry. If you have two people you could probably have one heating the foam and one stamping AND get away with using dye inks. I found that after I stopped heating and inked up my stamp with dye ink, that the foam had cooled. It does not reheat well. You will get the best image from HOT foam.

This technique is fun with medallion stamps. I have a nice collection of multiple colors of fun foam. Great say to get a 3D effect without a lot of hassle. The foam also mails well.

Happy Stamping and God Bless,

Shelly N.

Cowboys and Cowgirl "Cards"

While in the local farm and ranch supply store I spotted two decks of playing cards on sale AND some wonderful gift wrap.

The gift wrap is the background paper on both cards.
The edges have been softened by sponging on black dye ink. This also adds depth.
I measure and punched on the back side of the cards to achieve good corner spacing when placing the black brads.

The barbwire stamp is by Sutter Enterprises, while the Cowboy Up stamp is unknown.

I did a little distressing with a sanding block on the cowgirl playing card. Smaller black brads were used on this version.

The floral flourish is by Inkadinkado and the barbwire is by Sutter Enterprises.

The "Cowboy Up" and the floral flouish were stamped with VersaMark and embossed with fine line embossing powder.

STAMPER BASICS - many everyday items, such as gift wrap and playing cards make wonderful embellishments for your creations.

Gum wrappers, pages from magazines, dried flowers, ribbons, old postage stamps and leaves are just a few more ideas. You will never look at a hardware or gift store in the same way again.

God Bless, Shelly N.

Scenic Winter Cards

My stamping pal, Bettye S., had a stamp that she just could not do anything with. She gave it to me to play with several months ago. It has been sitting out in my studio, staring at me for that time. Finally today I had an inspiration and several ideas. Here are two that actually worked. I just love it when the vision in my head comes together and looks good as a card.

The stamp is by Creative Impressions. I am not the greatest colorist in the world, so I knew that was not going to be the answer. On both cards the image is stamped on light blue cardstock with Clearsnaps Colorbox Fluid Chalk Blue Iris.

With the first card I highlighted with Ranger's Inkssentials white gel pen. By using the pen at the same angle over the whole card, a 3-D effect is achieved. The finishing touch was Sizzix's Sizzlet

Architectural Corners in navy cardstock. These are glued down with Crafters Pick Ultimate Glue, applied to the back side of the die cut with a toothpick.

With the second card, I went crazy with a silver glitter pen. The well glittered image was then mounted on navy cardstockand trimmed closely.

One of my favorite accents with cards is metallic gift wrap. In this case it is a brushed metallic silver. Double sided tape was used on the card base, the gift wrap attached. I then turn it over and use a scissors to trim the gift wrap to the exact size of the card base. The card itself provides my guide for a clean straight cut.

Enjoy Bettye and thanks for the challenge.

Wild, Wild West 2

Stamps by Queen's Dresser Drawer.

I love them, I love them, I love them.

The horseshoes are a Sizzix die cut. (love them too!)

The background is western gift wrap.

The easiest way to apply gift wrap to the whole

front of a card - one straight edge, line that up

with the top of the card,

turn card over and used remaining three

edges a guides, using a scissors to trim.

The images are stamped with VeraMark,

embossed with fineline black embossing powder

and trimmed to the desired size.

The edges are then distressed (a lot) and

sponged with black dye ink to give that burned look.

The paper rickrack was made with my Creat-A-Cut

paper cutter.

Gift Wrap?????

This card front is made from gift wrap.

While in the local farm and ranch supply store I spotted

this roll of gift wrap. It is Charles Russell sketches and comments.

It is far too lovely to be wrapped around a gift, then

torn and thrown away, so it became a perfect man's card.

The whole front of the card is covered in gift wrap.

The die cut corners are even a leather look gift wrap

that has been carefully postitioned in a Cuttlebug A2

embossing folder for a tooled leather look.

Gift wrap is an inexpensive paper source

for card making. I am always scanning the

gift wrap sections in stores for new colors and designs

to add to my already healthy stash.