Good Morning!
Here is my latest card featuring a digital stamp design by Faith Skrdla from
To be honest with you, when I first saw the latest freebie to play with, I was instantly scared. I do not do collage. At all! (stomping foot) I have seen some of Faith's beautiful cards using collage stamps, and she is the queen! If you have followed her work on SCS you know what I am saying! So, I took a deep breath, and asked myself, 'What would Faith do?".......and here is the result!
This time, I printed the digi out on SU's Whisper White cardstock....big mistake! Can you say 'blur.. or bleed....or frustration..?!?! GGRRR! Never again! But, luckily I had printed it out 4 times, and the third one WAS the charm. I took the colors from the MME Be Loved patterned paper, Sage Shadow, Ruby Red, So Saffron, and Blush Blossom, and used them to watercolor the image and as the cardstocks. I cut the image and mat layer with nesties, and added color to the edges with my stipple brush. I know that Faith always adds heat embossing to her collages, so I tried my hand at the same.......
I coated the Ruby Red scalloped square with Versamark and embossed it with clear. I LOVE the way it made the color pop! It is so much more vibrant now. Then I used my Versamark pen to add more clear to the details of the stamp and the scalloped edges too. The bird looked awful on the main layer, so I recolored another one, embossed it with clear, cut it out, and added it to the top of the bad bird with foam dots. MUCH BETTER! The heat embossing actually helped ease the blurring of the black outlines of the image, like amazingly!
The bow is a mimic of one I saw Laurie Wilson do on a recent card for a ClearlyiStamp Challenge. You just fold the ribbon into a mock bow, and use the prongs of the big brad to hold it together. She sure made it look easy...or else I am just uncoordinated, because it kept coming unfolded as I was trying to manipulate the bow into the brad and then attach it to the paper. But, in the end...it looks great, and I will be doing that to my ribbon more often! I am always looking for new ways to use ribbon!
Here is the opened card. I clear embossed all of the edges in 'Faith Skrdla' style, and am very happy that I did. I will be using that technique on more creations in the future as well! I would have added sewing, but my sewing machine is on the fritz, skipping stitches and such.
You know, I am very happy with this card, and think it could quite possibly be one of the best I have ever made. I am glad I stepped out of my box, and tryed some new things.
Especially the 'collage'!
Can't wait to see the next challenge!
Go stamp something!!
Sherrie
Sherrie, your card is STUNNING!! I was blushing (and smiling) while reading your blog post. :) I LOVE all the embossing; it adds so much!! I was afraid to do a second layer to this image since the words were on top of the bird, (what was I thinking while drawing this??) but it turned out beautifully on your card!!
ReplyDeleteI have an old tutorial on my blog using a brad to hold ribbon, and I used my paper piercer to make a hole through the ribbon first. Click on the label "Quick Tips" and scroll down to "Easy Looped Bow."
Love your layout, too!