Let's use a background stamp

Here's a quick background. To start you'll need a background stamp, a piece of smooth white card stock and Versa Mark or black pigment ink.



Next use black embossing powder and heat gun to finish off your background stamp.



Now for my favorite part. Smooshing!! You need dye ink and daubers.



Using your daubers and working in a circular motion you are going to work the ink into the card stock. This is called burnishing. Push down when you are working in the ink but remember to work in little circles. You don't want dauber marks so keep moving.



Spread the colors where you want them. You can go back over each one to darken it. Finish up by using the lightest color all over to blend the inks together. This is what you will end up with. A finished background.



Here's my card.



I still have Christmas cards to finish and this is one that sort of uses the same idea as above. I used the SU Lovely as a tree stamp. Stamped it in parts with Versa mark and embossed in Silver. Then worked 3 shades of blue into the card stock working lightest to darkest from the center.

Christmas times a coming

I had an unscheduled day off on Monday. No where to go and nothing to do. It was glorious. My Mom and Dad came out for the morning. Dad bush hogged the pasture and Mom fed treats to the animals.






Then I sat down and spent hours working on Christmas cards. I thought I would show you a couple. This snowman is from Whippersnapper. The blue cards background is pad direct to raised areas after embossing in the CB folder. The black cards background uses the same folder but is made with Coredinations CS and sanded. Popped up the Poinsettia and the little bird and added a little Stickles Frosted Lace.




This next one I saw on a couple of blogs this week. Thought wow that is cute and began cutting out pieces. Then began to assemble. For me this was more of a pain than cute in the end. Got one to turn out right and gave up. But it is a cute idea.



This card I received from Debi Pippen in a swap. I am casing it for sure.



My last card uses an image I received in a swap. Santa is chalked and the little tree is a Cuttlebug die.

This sketch said Christmas to me

As soon as I got home from work today I checked out my email and the Mojo Monday Sketch. My goal to not miss a Monday sketch has not gone so well lately. This sketch though when I saw it said Christmas to me and in a matter of a few minutes I had another Holiday card made. I really like the design of this sketch. It has lots of possibilities. The poinsettia is stamped twice, embossed in gold, cut out and layered. I used a Sparkle and Sprinkle embossing powder I have had for quite awhile call Christmas for the Happy Holidays. I plan to make a few more of these.

Wow! it sure has been awhile.

I hadn't even realized how long it had been seen I stamped last. These weird hours I'm working are not leaving me with a lot of play time. I have made a promise to myself to show you something at least once a week. Let's see how I do. Today I want to show you some card stock I bought a month ago. Finally played with it this afternoon. It's called Coredinations. For those of you here in Florida, Linda sells it at Scrap and Stamp Art Studio in Lecanto.



Have you heard of it? I'm sure you have. But have you worked with it. Coredinations card stock comes in a bunch of colors. One side is textured and one color. The other side is smooth and another color.



Today I'm going to show you how to use it with your embossing folders. Cut a piece to size, stick it in the folder and run it through your machine.



Now take your sanding block and rub over the design. The back color will start to show through.



Examples of some of the looks you can get. It makes a nice soft background.



Here's a Halloween card I received yesterday from my friend Trish using the Coredinations. This is a great idea for those of you who don't like the ink pad to paper look when working with your embossing folders.