Looking Clearly at Clearsnap: Periwinkle, anyone!

When my friend Donna (who by the way does awesome cards and projects) needed an inkpad in the color of periwinkle, she of course asked me if I had one she could use, since I own about a gazillion inkpads.  But I looked and looked and couldn't find a pigment pad in the shade she wanted.  So a lightbulb went off in my head--I had just won these fantastic uninked inkpads from Clearsnap (see previous post).  What if I took two reinkers and mixed the colors myself onto one of those inkpads!  I chose True Blue as the base, and added Thistle to it.  I first mixed the colors onto a piece of freezer paper, and then used a popsicle (okay, craft) stick to work the ink into the uninked pad.  Voila!  We have periwinkle!  Donna was happy with the color combination and said it worked perfectly for her project.  And I learned a new idea!  Now I am sure Clearsnap makes the shade we needed, but I didn't own it and didn't know where to get it, so the color mixing was a perfect solution.  Now, if we need matchy, matchy, we know how to do it!

Looking Clearly at Clearsnap: Stamped Scrapbook page

This scrapbook page features the Clearsnap Fluid Chalk Limited Edition new colors of Guacamole, Arctic Sky, and Sea Crystal.  To coordinate with the colors of ink, I used the two Bazzill cardstock shades of Lizard and Calypso.  I first cut my mats 6 1/2" x 4 1/2" and set them as "placers" on my page.  I wanted to stamp onto plain white Bazzill smooth cardstock so the colors of ink would really pop.  I inked up the Hero Arts stamps Treasure Block E3676, Great Block E3674, and Special Block E3675 with the new shades, stamping these randomly over the remaining white background.  I stamped the letter blocks for the title with Hero Arts LL845 Pastel Pop Alphabet using the same three shades and cut the letters out with a 3/4" punch.  To add a little interest, I also stamped at diagonal corners Hero Arts A2183 Tiny Background, one square in each of the three featured colors.  I added some embellishment to the page with larger punched squares and additional stamped sentiment blocks, along with some pre-made flowers and some little dots of gel pen in olive and turquoise.   I do already have my pictures picked out for this page, and they look wonderful against this colorful background.  Aren't these colors yummy?  They remind me of a swimming pool set in a lush tropical garden!  I am so there!

Here is a stamped out chart showing the entire collection of new Fluid Chalk inkpads:

Looking Clearly at Clearsnap: Fiesta Wall Hanging

I wanted to use my Clearsnap Rollagraph supplies to create a miniature quilt, so with Fiesta fast approaching, I chose a couple of wheels and inks and got busy.    With the aid of the Rollagraph guide, I stamped out sombreros in purple ink and a primitive geometric design in red ink onto plain white muslin.  I then cut the rolled designs out and stitched them together in alternate strips.  I painted the designs with Smooch paint, using Siren, Banana Custard,  Sweet Melon,  Lettuce, an emerald green, and gold on the red strips, and I used Cape Cod, Azure, Plum, and the emerald green and gold on the purple strips.  I love how the Smooch seeped into the surounding muslin and dyed it shades of red and blue, while still leaving the lustrous metallic glimmer on the surface of the fabric!  The resulting appearance is that of lovely delicate handkerchief print.  Here is a closeup of the design:

I added borders of first a gold metallic rick rack then red fabric with a red seam binding.  To add to the unity of the design I spritzed white rick rack with Tea Party, Gingersnap, and a lovely shade of blue Smooch spritz and added this dyed rick rack around the design.  In the same way, I spritzed white flowers (Prima) with the same shades and added a little flower embellishment with happy colorful streamers.  With Fiesta coming up this is the perfect little wall hanging to use as a backdrop for displaying festive photos or souvenirs of fun times at the parades and fiesta events!  Thanks for looking!

Card Patterns Sketch Challenge 159

I really like how this card turned out!  It was a lot of trouble, however.  I couldn't find a reverse dot stamp or a reverse dot purple paper in my collection.  So what do you see in the picture?  Fabric!  I scanned some purple dot fabric I had, printed it out on paper, and used it on my card!  What do you know!  The "regular" dot paper on the right side is an Outlines border stamp in Clearsnap Violet, heat embossed with clear powder.  Here is the original sketch, so you can see why I chose the dots:

I know the dots just mean a patterned paper, but I didn't really have any two that worked well together for this card idea.  So I stayed with the dots!  

The cross stamp is from Stampabilities, one of my new favorite Easter stamps.  I colored the cross with Smooch paint in shades of Plum, Cape Cod, and Siren, similar to a post I did earlier with this stamp.  

I think the royal purple is perfect for Easter, so even though this is Good Friday, He will rise on Sunday as King, so I decorated my cross with bright purple flowers, like some churches decorate the cross for Easter morning.   

Looking Clearly at Clearsnap: Easter Chick

 I wanted to do a card using pastel Easter shades, and this Hero Arts egg stamp and Easter chick were perfect!    Lots of background stamps used in the project, and lots of ink!   I used the Clearsnap Colorbox Petal Point Easter Eggs pigment inks, using Daffodil, Glacier Ice, Rosebud, Pistachio, and Thistle from that wheel of colors.   I first stamped the Easter Egg (Hero Arts Pattern Egg D5182) in several of these colors on a white card background.  I adhered this background onto an A2 card I made using WorldWin ColorMates Light Groovy Grape cardstock.    I then stamped Hero Arts G4131, Polka Dot Swatch in Thistle on separate white card and cut it out.  I then stamped the chick (Hero Arts H529 Flower Chick) onto the polka dot swatch with black dye ink.  I also stamped Hero Arts H1963 Large Background Shadow stamp in Daffodil onto separate white card.  I overstamped the chick onto this background with black dye ink and cut it out, adhering it to the stamped polka dot swatch image.  I also stamped Hero Arts E3479 Rectangle Stitched Edge Background in Glacier Ice and CG247 Fabric with Flower with Rosebud onto separate white cardstocks.  I stamped just the "clothing" onto those backgrounds, then cut out the parts I wanted and adhered them to my chick.  To build the card,  I adhered a yellow mat (Bazzill)  to the card background and added the layered chick to that mat.  A final Easter egg in Glacier Ice completes the card, and this chick is ready to roll!  In case you got lost in all the directions above, here is a picture of (well, most) the stamps I used and how I stamped each one to get an idea of how the chick is pieced together:

Looking Clearly at Clearsnap Easter Card Tutorial

If you need an idea for an Easter card and don't have a lot of specialty Easter paper, here is one using various locally purchased dies and Clearsnap inks.  I was taken with this Easter cross stamp (Stampabilities Ornate Cross JR1054) because of the metal scrollwork design it exhibits. I first stamped the cross onto white cardstock with Clearsnap Colorbox gold pigment ink and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder:

I next used a Spellbinder's oval scallop die and my Cuttlebug to cut out the cross:

I then painted the cross with Smooch inks:  Plum, Cape Cod, Siren, and Gold:

I then opened up my newly acquired Cuttlebut Embossing Plus die "Fanciful Labels" and placed a strip of white cardstock over the scroll die I wanted to use:

I closed the die and ran the sandwich through my Cuttlebug:

Now you can see in the picture that there is a peek-a-boo area of this die that shows the white card parts that will be embossed through the die.  After running the die through the Cuttlebug but before removing my cardstock, I lifted up the clear plastic covering that will allow me to ink these embossed areas:

I used a cosmetic sponge and Colorbox gold pigment to ink right on top of those embossed areas, and only those areas!!!! while the die was still in the carrier.  How amazing is that!  I then removed the cut, embossed, and inked cardstock from the carrier, covered the cardstock with gold embossing powder, and heat embossed just the raised areas of the die cut.

I then stamped and heat embossed "Happy Easter" (Inkadinkado 95348) onto the die cut with the same gold ink and powder.

I didn't have any Easter paper that would do justice the beautifully colored cross image, so I made my own. I first cut a piece of white card A2 size and used some low tack masking tape to help me ink up particular areas of the card.  I wanted a "sunburst" effect, so I strategically placed pieces of masking tape to allow me to ink only one area at a time.  I used cosmetic sponges and Colorbox pigment ink in shades of Daffodil, Heliotrope, and Glacier Ice.  I kept having to move the masking strips around, of course, to suit the areas that needed coloring.

Here is the lovely finished effect:  Of course, I did not worry about the middle of the card, because that will be covered up by the stamped image.  Those inks go on smo-o-o-o-oth!

Here is the finished card:

As pictured above, I used a Bazzill Plum Delight cardstock for the base card, which measures 5" x 7".  I also matted the die cut cross image with the same Plum Delight paper.  Here I was forced to handcut the scallop border, since I had used my largest size Nestabilitie for the image.  I used a Bazzill gold foil cardstock to encase the entire inked and stamped central image.  Very shiny!

Looking Clearly at Clearsnap Scrapbook Page Tutorial

I created this page specifically to show how you can use Clearsnap products to make a scrapbook page.  This particular page shows my friend Ruth at my home making flower pins.  Ruth especially loves these little fabric stamped pins, and so she is the subject of my page.  I used a number of Clearsnap products on this page, including various inkpads and Smooch products.  The stamps are all from Hero Arts.

The first thing I did was to make the title letters.  I used Prussian Blue and Olive chalk inkpads to color a sheet of watercolor paper:

I then spritzed the paper with a blue Smooch Spritz:

The inks blended into a sparkly mass of color.  When the sheet was dry, I used my Cricut to cut out the letters.  I used the cartridge George and Basic Shapes to cut out the shadowed letters because I wanted a bold look to the letters.  I had to hand cut the openings in the R and the D because I chose this option.
(Note:  I also used this page to die cut various letters and elements for a matching card.)

To make the background for the page, I applied Cyan and Limited Edition Ocean pigment inks to a 12" x 12" smooth white cardstock (Bazzill) using the Colorbox blending tool and foam applicators.

I omitted ink from the part of the page that would be covered by the focal picture.  After I inked the areas I wanted, I overstamped Hero Arts Many Petals S5485 in French Blue Fluid Chalk Ink.  (This was the same stamp we used to make the flower pins.)  I also cut a strip of a coordinating scrapbook paper (Autumn Leaves)  about 2 1/2" wide to act as a backdrop for the title letters.  I inked the edges of this strip with Chestnut Roan chalk ink, then attached my cut out (and now dry) Cricut letters.

I also stamped an 8 1/2" x 7" ecru colored smooth piece of cardstock (Bazzill) with Hero Arts Stitch n Trim cling stamp CG183 in Prussian Blue, again omitting areas that would be covered by the picture.  I tried to make sure my lines matched up!  After stamping, I inked the stamped mat with Chestnut Roan and Toffee chalk inks to add an aged look.  I then attached my focal picture of Ruth to this mat.   I thought the scissor stamp would be perfect, since she is cutting out one of her sewn flowers!

I wanted to add some dimension to the page, in additon to the fabric flower I had planned, so I decided to add some deep themal embossed and stamped hearts.  I love Ruth!  To begin, I used some redline tape to attach a small wooden heart (craft supply) to a wooden craft stick.  This gives me a handle so I don't burn my hands!

Also, inked Hero Arts Flourish Wave D4213 with Magenta pigment ink and laid it ink side up on my workspace.  (I will need this later.)  I inked the heart with Pink and Magenta pigment inks using the Clearsnap blending tool.  I then dipped the hearts (good thing for that handle!) into clear embossing powder and used my heat tool to melt the powder.  while the powder was still hot, I again dipped the heart into the powder and again heated.  I repeated this process about four times.  After the last heating, while the powder is still molten, I stamped the pre-inked swirl stamp onto the heart.  Lovely!  The now enameled heart has a design embossed into it!

I then stamped the flower again onto white card and inked just the center with Alpine pigment ink and Yellow Citrus Chalk ink.  This will be for the tag I will make.  

Here is the final layout.  I made a tag from a Sizzix die and inked it with Chestnut Roan and spritzed with Smooch Spritz Pralines n Cream.  I added a bit of the scrapbook paper with the inked flower center and an additional letter R cut from a Quickutz letter die.  The rest of "Ruth" is spelled out with Hero Arts Small Variety Alphabet clear stamp set.  Do you see a bit of gleam in the background?  I used Smooch in gold to ink the centers of the flowers in the background.  I also added a bit of the inked watercolor paper I used to cut the title letters.  Some buttons threaded with fibers and my pink enameled hearts balance the fabric flower I wanted to be the focal point of the page.  While I stamped the flower onto fuschia patterned fabric (using Colorbox pigment Black), I added details of gold Smooch to highlight the flower.  A bit of Hero Arts lace completes the page.  I know Ruth will treasure this page as I treasure her as a friend!