Monday, August 9, 2010

Using the Elizabeth Stamp

Sunday and Monday I had my August Stamp Camps, and they went really well. I had three new customers on Sunday, and one liked it so much she came back on Monday! :)

Check out this month's Mis En Place (me getting ready to bag the kits):

If you look carefully at the piles of cut card stock, you'll understand when I say I should have charged by the pound this month. ;) But everyone had a good time (or seemed to) and I even made some time this afternoon to stamp before class. Really!

I bought the single Elizabeth stamp with my last order, and I've heard people mention it's tough to find a sentiment to fit inside the oval in the image. Never one to back away from a challenge like that (especially since I own the darn thing, and I need to make it work), I set out to see what kind* of a mess I could make.

Here is my first pass:

The flourish-y part is the Elizabeth image. That oval is empty. I stamped it with Versamark on Shimmery White card stock and embossed it with silver. NICE! With this first pass I "lined up" two words from the Fabulous Phrases set, stamped them with Versamark and embossed them with silver. Too crooked, even for me.

Second pass, I stamped the Elizabeth image and powdered it (I held off with the embossing), stamped one word, powdered it, stamped the second word, powdered it, THEN I embossed the whole thing. Better:

... but still not great. I suppose I could have used the SAMJ, but then I'd have to emboss each image as I went, and that sounded like work.

Next I went hunting. Hunting for rubbah. Hunting through my bazillion sentiment sets and wedding sets and word sets for a wedding-ish sentiment that would fit inside that oval. I had high hopes for Fancy Flexible Phrases, but the wedding sentiment was three words high and wouldn't fit. Too bad, too.

Finally, FINALLY, I looked through my trusty Teeny Tiny Wishes and voila! The wedding phrase fits! YAY! Check it out on the finished card:

I, again, stamped the Elizabeth stamp first, powdered it up with the silver, inked the sentiment, powdered it up with silver, then heat-embossed it all at the same time. I think we have a winner!

I layered it on Brushed Silver, then put it on a Shimmer White base, and I stopped. Too white. Ideally, I would break all that white with a contrasting color of ribbon, typically a color used in a specific wedding, but I knew I'd never get that right. (Remember: I sell these, so who knows what the colors should be, and no matter what I choose, it will be wrong.) THEN I remembered I have a package of Metallic Silver patterned papers from back when Shep was a pup. I have gold, too. Seriously, I've had these since the second day I started stamping. Okay, maybe the second week, but it was waaaaaaay back in time. I checked the inside cover of the pack, and it says 2001. Uh-huh.

I selected this pinkish paper and I loooove it! Between the Shimmer White card base, the shimmery pink paper, the brushed silver shimmery paper, and the silver embossing on the top Shimmer White piece, there is a whole lotta shimmer going on here! Maybe tomorrow, after I'm done cleaning up from the classes, I'll take a better pic of this in my high-tech photo studio. (HA! I crack myself up!)

This evening I pulled out the card to show The Ladies, and asked what they thought I could do to make it SU-Only, and still break up all that WHITE. Of course, since they are mostly smarter than me, one suggested I use the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder on the card front. YES! I knew I loved these ladies! I'll try that tomorrow. The Big Shot and Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder are still out from the Stamp Camps, so this should be a cinch!

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for stopping by!

*Did you now that if you mis-spell "kind" as "kine", Blogger will not flag it as a typo? Nope. Apparently "kine" is in the Blogger dictionary, but "SU" and "bling" and "DOH" are not. When was the last time you used kine in a sentence? I mean, I've heard it in old folk songs, like from Ireland, where reference to kine (cattle) means someone had possessions ... money ... like he was a good catch, but seriously, think about it. Blogger? Are you listening? Lose "kine" and add "bling", and no one gets hurt.

5 comments:

  1. So pretty. Love pink & silver <3

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  2. I love the cards you come up with. I don't think I say that enough!

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  3. You make this look so easy! I love seeing your creations, and hope to order some one day!

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  4. I almost bought that stamp, too, but had the same thoughts - what to put inside of it. Love what you did with it (the last one, not the crooked ones). Bling should absolutely be in the dictionary, they need to get with the program.

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  5. I LOVE the Elizabeth stamp! Too beautiful!

    -Mercedes

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I'd love to hear what you really think! :-)

PS: I've had to disable Anonymous comments, because the spammers were killing me. If you are unable to comment, please email me your comment and I'll get it posted for you. Sorry. (stoopid spammers)