PENNY TOKENS STAMPIN SPOT: 2 Awesome Stamp Club Cards

I'm not big on night driving but I chose to attend Cheryl LeFore's monthly stamp club last night, and I'm so happy I did. We made two awesome cards which I'm delighted to share with you, using products from the new Occasions Catalogue.

Cheryl attended Stampin' Ups! Leadership meeting last month in Houston Texas and brought back some wonderful sample cards which she shared with us and some new techniques.

Water Colour Card:
The first card we made featured two water colour techniques. To begin with, we used an acryllic block to create a backdrop. This was achieved by inking up Clear Block "C" with Pool Party ink and then spritzing the block with water, before dragging the block half way down a 2 by 4 1/4" strip of Whisper White cardstock. This process was repeated with Pistachio Pudding ink down the remaining strip of cardstock. You have to make sure the cardstock is thoroughly dry before you add it to the card base.

Here you can see the blend of Pool Party and Pistachio Pudding inks in the background behind the flower. Note: This is a technique I would like to practice on some scrap paper to get the proper flow of ink to paper, before doing it on my main card. Why? Because I had a little bit of difficulty getting the second block to glide down the paper without sticking. I think this was because I didn't spritz enough water on the block. Regardless, I liked the outcome.

The second watercolour technique was colouring the flower with Aqua Painters. The flower image from the "Happy Watercolour" stamp set, was stamped in Black Stazon Ink on Watercolour paper and allowed to dry before we began the watercolouring process.

Happy Watercolor Stamp Set #133188(w) $29.95 or #133191(cm) $21.95. Eight piece two-step stamp set. Perfect for watercolouring.

Using Aqua Painters, we coloured the flower with Crisp Cantaloupe, Starfruit and Pistachio Pudding re-inkers. The Aqua Painters allow you to diffuse the colour of the ink so you can achieve different shades in your painting.


	Aqua Painter #103954 Price: $20.95 This wonderful tool is versatile and easy to use, and works great with Stampin' Up! Watercolor Pencils, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Classic Stampin' Pads, and other mediums to pull and blend colors. Two-painters included per package in 12 mm and 15 mm brush sizes. Portable and easy to use. The reservoir holds 8 cc of liquid

Once we coloured the flower, we fussy cut around the image and mounted it with dimensionals to the background piece. A piece of Pool Party Seam binding was tied around the strip before the lace edge was added.

Finishing Touches Framelits add a perfect finish to your cards. Item #127010 in the Idea Book and Catalogue.

The Pool Party layer of the card was embossed with the new Decorative Dots Embossing Folder. I love the soft look this achieves and it coordinates so well with the beautiful Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper.

The Pistachio Pudding lace edge was achieved with the Finishing Touches Edgelits. Tip: When using these edgelits it's recommended to use wax paper or parchment paper as a shim so all the little window pieces pop out when the piece is run through the Big Shot machine.

Look at the beautiful finish on the inside of this card. The Whisper White insert piece measures 3 3/4 x 5. The flower image was stamped in Crisp Cantaloupe and then only the bottom 1 1/2" of the insert was run through the Big Shot with the Decorative Dots embossing folder.

I really enjoyed making this card. It's quick and easy to assemble and I had a lot of fun with the watercolouring.

During Sale-A-Bration you can earn the Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder for free by simply placing a $60.00 order (before shipping and handling).

Our second card for the evening is called "You Make Me Happy", and was made with the Perfect Pennants stamp set and Banner Framelit Dies.

I was simply blown away by the look of this card and how genuinely easy it was to assemble. In fact, there was no waste in any of the products we used.
The base of this card is made with a 4 1/4" x 11" piece of Strawberry Slush card stock that is scored at 5 1/2" resulting in a top fold card. The first layer is made with a piece of basic black cardstock, followed by a layer of Bermuda Bay card stock that was embossed with the new Arrows Textured Embossing folder, from the Occasions catalogue.

To be truthful, I wasn't overly impressed with this folder when I saw it in the new catalogue. However, I changed my mind after using it. This design adds a really nice texture to the cardstock and it's got a real masculine look to it. You can bet I'll be adding this embossing folder to my wish list.

The large and medium sized banners were cut out of Kaleidoscope Designer Series paper with the new Banner's Framelit Dies. They look perfect! The sentiment "You Make Me Happy" is from the Perfect Pennants stamp set.

Note: When overlapping the banners it's easier if you adhere a small piece of card stock to the back of the banners to reinforce them. In this case we added a 1" x 2 7/8" scrap of whisper white. To finish the card three stars were stamped in Crushed Curry ink and cut out with scissors. Basic Rhinestones were added to the centers and a piece of 1/8" Bermuda Bay Taffeta Ribbon was tied around the banner piece before it was adhered to the card face. Dimensionals were used to mount the stars and the banner.

The Banners Framelit Dies can be purchased as a bundle with the Perfect Pennants stamp set. See page 27 of the Occasions Catalogue. Item # 13416(clear) $41.50 or #134815 (wood) $48.50. This is a 15% savings off the regular price.

This 10 piece stamp set comes in wood or clear mount and is available in English, Spanish or French languages.

Just looking at this cute card face makes me happy! How about you? This is just such a great color combo and design.

Oh, remember when I said that we used all the supplies to make this card? Well I wasn't kidding, we actually did. The cute decoration on the inside panel of the card was made using the two triangular pieces of DSP left over from cutting out the banners. A 1/4" x 3 14" strip of basic black card stock offsets them.

Here's the finished card and envelope. What fun I had with this one! I hope you like both cards, and leave me a comment on which one is your favourite. I'd love to hear from you.