Aspen Blog Hop

Welcome to the Aspen blog hop! If you are following along, you got here from Tiare's BLOG.  If you have stumbled upon my blog or got here from Facebook, you can start back at the beginning to see ALL the amazing creativity from the bloggers this month HERE at Club Scrap Creates.

With this being Christmas week when the creative juices sometimes flow more slowly, I opted for a simple project this month. (This is mainly because I created this project the day after Christmas, when my energy level was low from all the festivities! I'm a natural procrastinator, though I've been trying to change that for years. I'm afraid it's too late.)

Here's the card I created with my Aspen kit. I call the technique "layering with ink" because there are no paper layers. In fact, the only paper used is a 5.5x8.5 piece of Almond paper.

Ink Layer 1 uses the 5.5x8.5 Almond paper folded in half, Club Scrap Hybrid Ink (Moss), and the leaf border stamp from the Aspen Borders and Backgrounds UM sheet.

For Ink Layer 2, tear off 3/4 inch from the front of the card and ink with Club Scrap Hybrid ink (Earth).

3rd Ink Layering Technique uses the group of trees stamp (also on the Aspen Borders & Backgrounds sheet), the same Moss ink, and a brown marker. I stamped once, then again (without reinking the stamp) a little higher and to the right to create more trees in the distance. I wanted more trees behind those on the left, so I inked the stamp again and stamped onto a scrap paper, then stamped some background trees on the left side of the first image.

For the greeting, I used a 4th ink layering technique with Moss and Earth CS inks, Post-It notes, an ink applicator, and the Happy Birthday stamp from the Aspen Greeting unmounted sheet.

For this technique, I ripped a little bit off the sticky ends off two Post-It notes, covered the area where I stamped the greeting, and lightly sponged ink over the tree trunks. Repositioning the Post-It notes, I inked under the greeting.

And that is how I used inks to create layering on my Aspen card. I have to admit that I was very tempted to add ribbon or other embellishing, but I held back and let inks take center stage.

Bonus project: For Christmas, my oldest daughter gave me a framed picture of her and her fiance from their engagement photo shoot. I'll have to ask her for another picture for the frame, because I just had to create a page! The papers, green ribbon, and buttons are from Aspen, while the words and alpha stickers are from Bridges (February 2006). Leaves are from my stash.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you have been inspired to create something with your Aspen kit. If you don't have a kit, you can get one HERE. 

The next stop on the hop is Marya's blog. Click HERE.

Gnome Blog Hop (sans gnomes)

Greetings, hoppers! Welcome to the special Club Scrap Gnome for the Holidays blog hop. If you found me from Julie's blog, you are in the right place. If you've stumbled upon my blog and want to start at the beginning of the hop, go HERE.

This hop features this year's fun Christmas stamps, Gnome for the Holidays. I purchased the unmounted (UM) stamps (below), and I fell in love with the holly stamps. (My first born daughter's name is Holly. She wasn't born at Christmas--named after her maternal grandmother's family, Hollingsworth.) I just smile every time I see Holly, I mean holly--well, I guess both of them!

This is the project I made. It features the holly stamps (bottom right and center left of the picture), and it looks so pretty sitting on my piano. I might have a hard time putting it away after Christmas!

Here are the items I used to create my home decor project:

• 6x6-inch canvas
• 5.75x5.75-inch Red cardstock from Comics (February 2011)
• 5.5x5.5-inch Green translucent from Ornamental (December 2009)
• 5x5-inch White cardstock from Comics (February 2011)
• UM stamps from Gnome for the Holidays (2013) 
• UM stamps from WOW Holiday (2012)
• Stencil from Gnome for the Holidays (2013)
• Club Scrap inks--Moss, Ruby, India Black
• Ink applicators
• Position It board (actually just the acrylic plate and small L)
• Acrylic mounting blocks
• Clear ruler
• Pencil
• Eraser 
• Die cut machine
• Scalloped circle dies
• Black photo corners
• Pop dots
• Heavy duty adhesive (I used 1-inch red-line tape)

I used the small "holiday wishes" greeting in the center.

The inspiration for my project came from a video I remembered from three years ago called Pinpoint Rotation. You can see it HERE. Tricia used a stamp from the All That Jazz Jr (Lite) (November 2010) collection, and as soon as I saw the large holly stamp, I knew it could be used for that technique. If you want to recreate my project, I highly suggest you check out Tricia's step-by-step video.

I only stamped the image four times, so I only needed to draw two very light lines with my pencil forming an "x" on the 5x5-inch white cardstock.

Using India black ink, I stamped the holly onto the acrylic, then I placed the acrylic onto the white cardstock where I wanted the stamped image.

Keeping the acrylic in place, I positioned the black L tightly against it, then replaced the acrylic with the inked stamp (below).

The key is to hold everything in place to ensure the stamping is where you want it.

Repeating the process: Placed the stamped acrylic where I wanted the stamped image, nested the L against the acrylic, then replaced the acrylic with the inked stamp (on its acrylic block).

Repeated the process two more times. This is how it looks with the four images stamped. I knew I was going to cover the center with my sentiment, so I wasn't really nit-picky about the way the center turned out. Of course, if I wasn't going to cover it, I would have been more exact with my stamping.

 

The next step was to color the leaves and berries. The stencil that comes with the UM stamps is an overlay stencil--what a fun way to combine stamping and stenciling!

My completed image. I set it aside for a few minutes to ensure that the ink was dry, then I erased the pencil lines. Not an easy task, so I was careful as I could possibly be.

To dress up the white canvas, I inked the edges, creating a green frame. I then inked the small holly border stamp and stamped three times on each side of the canvas. I really like the way that turned out.

I then layered my inked image onto the green and red papers, adding black photo corners. I also lightly inked the edges of the white cardstock with black ink. Stamping the sentiment onto white cardstock, I die cut it using a scalloped circle die--also die cut a red scalloped circle. The circles were added to the center using pop dots for dimension.

To ensure the cardstock adheres to the canvas well, I used very sticky red liner tape around the perimeter and in the center.

 

Here's a side shot of the project. I like how the holly border mimics the stamped images on the front. What a fun pair of stamps!

Thanks so much for making it to the end, my friends. The next stop on the blog hop is Annette's blog. Click HERE to continue hopping along.

Card Box Using Versailles

Last week, Club Scrap featured a quick project on their blog--a case to hold a set of eight greeting cards. It's a great gift idea! You can see the pics, instructions, and video tutorial here.

I haven't made the cards to go in mine, yet, but here is the card case. It's made from the kit called Versailles. 

I only used two sheets of 12x12 paper--cream and blue with a silver print. The envelope wrap and stamp pocket on the inside were stamped with some of the Versailles unmounted stamps. (The ribbon closure is from an older kit called Ivory Elegance.)

This really was a fun and quick project. I'm going to make some cards to put in the pocket, and I'll be making some of these using other kits, too!