Springtime With Dabbed Shimmers

Happy Friday, Junkies! This is Shelly today, and I don't know about you, but after our cold winter, I am desperate for Spring to come. Here in Mississippi, daffodils and forsythia are blooming and all the trees are budding out. What better time to announce, 'Spring is Here!'

My card today was created using the Dabbed Shimmers technique from the current newsletter. After my background was dry, I ran it through the Cuttlebug to give it a bit more texture. This is such a gorgeous technique - you really need to see it in person to appreciate it!

Such a soft, romantic background lent itself perfectly to these Springtime stamps from Artistic Outpost's Birds of a Feather collection. Vintage ribbon and lace tie it all together and add to the feminine feel.

Have a fantastic weekend - try to fit some art time in!

Shelly Hickox

Brayered Brilliance

Hi, it's Beth here, with my Chinese New Year cards using the Brayered Brilliance technique. You can find this technique in the February 2010 issue.

Each year Donnie and I gather our friends together to celebrate Chinese New Years at our local Chinese restaurant. This year 16 of our friends joined us for a fun evening of eating and catching up.

It is a tradition that I present each couple with a Chinese New Year card. One of my friends said she was looking forward to seeing what I came up with this year.

Brayered Brilliance is one of my favourite techniques because I love to layer. It is a technique that works well with any colour I choose. Doesn't the red pop?!

Both my background stamps, and the Chinese lady are from Stampin' Up.

Beth Norman

Bandana is here again!

Hello stampers!
Here is Hetty again with a technique from the past.
Didn't we all love the Bandana technique way back in August/September 2008?
I haven't seen it for a long time, so I got out my distress inks and my white gel pen. Especially now with all the new colors in destress inks it is a pleasure to work with these again. The white gel pen is great to use for accents, dots and lines. It gives the card something extra. All images you see are by Firecracker Designs by Pamela. But really any image can be used for this technique. If you don't like spongued backgrounds, if you more of a neat type of person, how about this bandana mandala card? Use the distress inks to color your stamped images with a small sponge or as I do, I love using those fantastix ( a reusable applicator by Tsukineko) and than use the gel pen for accents.

Happy Crafting,
Hetty Sanders
The Netherlands

The Long Awaited Princess by Jane Bosi

Today I am sharing a very special card--a card for my brand new neice! You can read the whole story here, if you are so inclined!

I've used three different techniques---one of my very favorite and often used, Paper Piecing. I love the attention to detail and stress relief this technique affords me!

For the background piece, I finally had a chance to try Glassy Embossing (Feb/March 2010). The true beauty of this technique is completely lost in a scanner! If you haven't given this easy and dynamic technique a try--do it today! You will completely love the results.

Finally, I completed the image piece with the Whisped Frames technique (Feb/March 2010). I really wanted to pull more of the pink (it being a baby card and all!) tones from the background paper--Whisped Frames was the perfect way to do so!

I hope you're feeling inspired!!

TTFN, Jane

Pieced Zine

These little bears are so cute (copy right Stampin' Up). I created masks for the bears after I stamped them on my white card stock. I covered the bears with the masks I cut out. Then I used my home made cloud template to create the sky. I used the direct to paper technique to the grass. I looked through some old magazines and found some interesting textures in advertisements for their clothes -- using the Pieced Zine technique from the February 2010 TJ newsletter. Boy Bear's cargo shorts were from an ad for cables inside very large tubes. I colored the bears and highlighted Girl Bear's dress with my Copic markers. To create the lace on the side I punched the edge on text weight paper (not an easy thing for some reason) and then ran it through my crimper several times to help break up the fibers in the paper. Look through your old magazines and see what you can find for this fun technique! Enjoy your week!

Judy Jackson

Saran Wrap Backgrounds

This card uses a technique from loooooong ago, but it's still one of my all time favorite "go-to" techniques for a fast and fabulous background. The background layer on the card uses the "Saran Wrap Background" from the 1st Edition CD. I used a Brilliance Ink for it and stamped it onto a navy blue cardstock.

The main image is watercolored and I mounted it onto a piece of metal that I Cuttlebugg'd. And by the way, that piece of metal is a cut up soft drink can!! I LOVE to recycle!! After I ran it through the embossing folder, I die cut another shape from a cereal box (FREE chipboard. More recycling!)and glued the two together with Fabri-Tac to give the piece more stability.

The purple glittery "Faux Dew Drops" were created by purchasing a bag of clear plastic half-round drops in the floral section at Michael's. I placed them onto a piece of double sided tape on scratch paper, and then painted them with glittery nail polish.

I think the Saran Wrap background was so perfect for this hodge-podge card made from lots of odds and ends. In fact, I think the background is what pulled it all together. What do YOU think??

Thanks for looking!!!

~Kathie McGuire

Wisped Frames

At this time of year our thoughts gravitate towards spring. As stampers, we find ourselves using spring-like colours, stamps, and images. These darling Robin eggs are nestled in just waiting for spring to arrive.

It is also the time of year that I start to make Easter cards for my family. This year my cards will showcase spring birds and nests purchased at Twisted Papers. It still surprises me how long birds have been in vogue for us cardmakers.

Speaking of trends, the downloading of images have really taken off, haven't they. How about digital stamps? Have you downloaded any yet? I'm such a stamp-in-the-hand kind of gal that I haven't downloaded any. Instead, I download high quality coloured images from Twisted Papers.

Both of my images use the Wisped Frames technique. Did you notice the Mono Dies background as well? The flower die, used in my background, was purchased from Stampin' Up, and bought specifically for the Mono Dies Technique.

By the way, Diana Enns (a TJ subscriber) and I challenge each other to use a new technique each week. Our challenges are posted to our blogs every Wednesday, and we shout out for you to join in on the fun. Simply create a card with the Wisped Frames technique for everyone to see and post it to the TJ Yahooo Group.

Thank you for stopping by. Don't forget to come back tomorrow to see another lovely technique from Pat's team.

Beth Norman