Make Your Own Patterned Paper!

It's fun to make your own patterned paper!  You can customize it to match your project. When looking through your stamp set collection, look for sets that have small images.  I like to choose stamps in a variety of different sizes.  This makes it much easier to ensure that you don't end up with a lot of odd "white spaces" scattered throughout the pattern you create.  Technically, you could use medium or large stamps.  However, the larger the stamp, the harder it is to create any kind of pattern.  That is because each stamp takes up so much space, you can't fit many images onto your paper.

When I have stamped my own patterned paper in the past, I selected one image and randomly stamped it all over the paper and then came in with the next one, and the next one .... you get the picture.  But I have found that the best way to make your own paper is to use one stamp at a time and see where the next image (in a different color) fits best.  It's kind of like putting a puzzle together.

It's easy if you will open all your ink pads and line them up on your desk with each image you will be stamping in front of the ink pad.  That way you don't get confused and put your stamp into the wrong color of ink!  Start near the center of your card with your largest image and then fit the other images puzzle like around the first one.  I like to start off with the larger image and then stamp each of the other images around the first one.  If you notice on my paper below, I stamped the Melon Mambo image first and then stamped the other images around it making sure you leave some white space and don't stamp on top of your images.  While you have everything out, go ahead and make 3-4 pieces of patterned paper or stamp one whole sheet of cardstock and cut them apart.  Be creative!!

Ink Colors used:  Granny Apple Green, Melon Mambo, Flirty Flamingo, Just Jade, Pretty Peacock, Melon Mambo, Coastal Cabana

Stamp Sets used (all retired):  Happy Birthday Gorgeous, Endless Thanks, Thoughtful Blooms

And here are two of the cards I made:

All the die cut pieces came from the Well Written Dies.

I cut the strips on an angle and layered them onto Coastal Cabana cardstock.  

Blog Hop - Keeping It in the Lines

Welcome to the North Carolina Demos February Blog Hop!  Whew - that's a mouthful!  So glad you are here and will get some ideas for your own card making from our cards.   If you have already visited Tracie's blog, I'm sure you enjoyed a wonderful project.  Tracie does great work!  I'm Sharon Maranich from the NC Piedmont area and I was born and raised in Charlotte.

This month's theme for the blog hop is your favorite coloring method.  Well, my favorite way to color is with the Stampin' Up Blends!  These markers make it so easy to blend colors and create beautiful works of art for all of your card making.  The colors, as the name suggests, blend beautifully, mainly because the colors are picked out and designed to blend with each other.  These blends take the guess work out and lessen the learning curve for coloring.  I love using the Color Lifter too.  It makes it easy to erase colors with it.  It is good for blending the dark and light colors.

For this card, I used the Dandelion Wishes stamp set.  I stamped the dandelions on the edges of the Basic Gray card stock with Versamark and used the white embossing powder to emboss them.  Next came the Pumpkin Pie Blends and I colored some of the flowers and all the little stems.  I used one of my favorite embossing folders - Subtle - to emboss both the Basic Gray card and stamped piece.  I matted the piece onto Pumpkin Pie card stock.  The sentiment was stamped on a Layering Circle die which was also matted onto a Pumpkin Pie circle.

This card uses the Love What You Do Photopolymer Stamp set.  I stamped the flowers and leaves along the edge with Memento Black ink on Very Vanilla card stock that was cut out with the Rectangle Stitched dies (my favorite!)  Next I colored the flowers with Bermuda Bay light and dark SU Blends.  I used the Well Written dies to cut out "miss" and the bird.  I actually die cut 2 of the "miss" - one is Bermuda Bay and the other in Night of Navy and staggered them just a little bit.  I matted the Vanilla piece onto Night of Navy and then onto the Bermuda Bay card.

There is a bit of a story behind the "miss" and "you"!  I bet most of you have experienced this before.  I was going to do both words with the Well Written dies and took them both off the magnet sheet and  put them onto my table.  Well, wouldn't you know it, when I got ready to die cut them, I couldn't find "you."  I looked everywhere and crawled around on the floor (picking up little bits of paper and the backs of the glue dots while I was down there!)  Finally I just gave up and stamped the "you" (from the Sale-a-Bration set, Part of My Story).  I was so upset because I had never even used the "you" die and now it was gone.  BUT .... when I turned my card over to put tape on the back and assemble the card, there was "you" stuck to the back of the vanilla card stock!  

OK - that's all for me today.  I hope you have been inspired to create your own masterpiece.  If you need help or want to add any of these supplies to your own stash, please let me know.  I'll be more than happy to help you on your stampin' journey!  Enjoy the remainder of the Blog Hop.  Next stop for the blog hop is Sue Root.  I'm sure she will have something amazing to share with you!  

We do this Blog Hop each month on the last weekend of the month.  So don't forget to join us at the end of March!

Happy Stampin'!  

Sharon

TONI CAMPANA

JO ANNE HEWINS

TRACIE EVANS LANGLEY

SHARON MARANICH - you are here!

SUE ROOT

ROBBIE RUBALA

 SUE STAPP

ANITA TRIPPI

FRANCES WAGNER

Well Written

I made this card for a good friend who will be turning 70 this week.  She is feeling about 70 the way I felt in October when I hit that milestone!  Not me!!  I can't be that old.  Even my mom told me she thought there was a mix up - she couldn't have a daughter that was 70 years old .... thanks, mom!  But it is what it is.  You're only as old as you feel ... it's just a number ... 70 is the new 50 (is dead the new 80 or 90???) 

There is a plus side to aging.  We septuagenarians have reached a sweet spot.  If we've been lucky, we have plenty of time, enough money and the ability and inclination to use both.  Within limits, we can do whatever we want - travel (Hawaii!!), read, play games, bike, go to concerts, take a ride in your boat on Lake Norman, etc.  The window may be narrow - you know what comes next - but it's a nice window!

The story of our generation is linked with the rise of American pop culture.  We baby boomers (odd term for senior citizens!) were raised on transistor radios, TV, rock and roll (Elvis, Beatles), Flower Power, moon walks, Vietnam and Watergate.  We have a common cultural memory, one that's infinitely more cohesive and much easier to share than the environment of today.  Like all generations, we've seen a lot and what we've seen has helped us weather the storms of the recent past.  There is no substitute for time, no stand-in for experience. 

Aging, like birthing, is a largely involuntary irreversible process!  It's a condition you can't help catching.  There is no vaccine, dietary supplement or elixir that can halt the years.  Just don't take the process too personally.  The young become old and the old leave the scene, as inevitably as the sun sets and the moon rises.

Ok - so on the card after those little bits of wisdom!

I can't tell you how long this card took to make!  But I love it.  The friend I am sending it to has thanked me for the Christmas card I made for her and her husband 2-3 times so I felt like I had to do something "over the top."  The card itself is Gray Granite.  I then layered a white piece of Wood Textures 6x6 DSP.  Next is a piece of 3 3/4" square using the darker Wood Textures DSP.  I die cut a Gray Granite frame and adhered it next with dimensionals.  Adhere a piece of Burlap Ribbon.  Next I die cut a circle with a lighter Wood Textures DSP and adhered it with dimensionals.  I die cut "friend" from the new Well Written dies (page 27 in Occasions catalog) and adhered it to the DSP inside the circle.  I stamped "hello" (from a retired stamp set) and cut it out with the Classic Label Punch.  The swirls were die cut from the Well Written set of framelits.  The final touch was adding the pearls to the card and a sentiment inside.

Happy Heart Wishes

I am really on a roll with these heart cards!  It's just nice to know that hearts don't have to be just for Valentine's.

For this card, I first die cut the hearts and then stamped them with the Handwritten background stamp.  I love this background stamp and truthfully, had forgotten about it!  You'll probably be seeing it again soon.  I stamped the background in black Memento ink but I think if I was to do it over, I would use a lighter gray - probably Gray Granite.  Next I stamped the floral piece from Beauty Abounds (Occasions catalog - pg 13) and colored the flowers and leaves with markers.  I die cut "happy" and "wishes" using Well Written framelits.  The paper is a red metal paper that I bought back in 2013 and don't think I have ever used it!!  To finish it off, I scattered some Clear Faceted Gems around.