Northwest Stamper

Tag: letterpress dies

  • Quick and Easy – Yet Cute! – Holiday Cards

    Last Saturday was my latest holiday Stamp-a-Stack.  Since I had a few folks who had been to my first class, I decided to shake things up and play with some new products and designs.  Turns out, I love these cards and had so much fun sharing them with my ladies.  So I thought I would share a couple of the cards with you today.  I’ll be posting the other two cards we made here this week and would love for you to stop back by and let me know what you think!

    A Cute Christmas

    If you follow me on Facebook, you’ve already seen this card since I posted it as a sneak peek on Saturday.  I originally created this card because I wanted to show off the cute glitter paper in the Candy Cane designer paper pack.  I thought that the stripes were a little much for me and since I didn’t know what I was going to do with the paper, I’d find a way to use it up for this class.  I also wanted a fast and easy card since I knew my designer fabric card was going to take some time.  Well, turns out I love how bright and cheery this card is and I love the stripes!  Guess I’ll be using this paper more than I thought. 🙂

    cute christmas snowman sm Recipe:
    Stamps:      A Cute Christmas
    Ink:  Night of Navy Classic ink, Real Red marker, Blushing Bride marker, Wild Wasabi marker, Baja Breee marker
    Paper:  Whisper White CS, Real Red CS, Candy Cane designer paper

    Joyful Season Letterpress Card

    This next card was an excuse to use the Letterpress plates.  One of my ladies had been curious about the Letterpress plates and so I thought I would give everyone a chance to try them out.

    We used Craft Ink on textured Whisper White paper for the debossed image.  Then we spritzed the paper with Crumb Cake using the Color Spritzer tool.  If you haven’t used the Color Spritzer, it is a neat way to add splatters and spritzes of color on your paper.  I swear I feel like a wild and crazy artist when I stand over my paper and start squeezing this air gun all over the place. 🙂

    joyful season card sm If you aren’t familiar with the letterpress dies, the way they work is that you ink up the raised image on the plastic plate using your ink pads (I personally love using the Craft Ink Spots).  Place your paper over the inked image, and run it all through your BigShot or other die cutting machine.  Your image is impressed into the paper and the ink is left behind in that impressed image.  Here is my attempt at taking a photo close up to show you what I mean.

    joyful season close up sm Recipe:
    Ink:      Always Artichoke Craft ink, Bravo Burgundy Craft Ink, Crumb Cake marker
    Paper:  Baroque Burgundy CS, Textured Whisper White CS
    Accessories:  Joyful Season letterpress plate, BigShot, Corner Rounder punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Color Spritzer

    Don’t forget to fill out your wishlist and get your FREE bonus gift certificate! 

    With the Holiday Online Spectacular sale and my wishlist bonus offer going on this week, now is the perfect time to help your family and friends get their shopping done early! 

    Your family and friends can save money on your favorite things through the Online Spectacular and you will get a free bonus gift certificate worth 10% of all the items purchased off your wishlist.  Its a win/win!  Email me your wishlist today to start earning your rewards.

  • Royal Blog Tour – Sharing Northern Hearts and Blog Candy!

    Welcome to my little stop here on the Royal Blog Tour!  I hope you’ve been enjoying all the amazing and creative projects the princesses have been sharing along your journey.  For my stop, I wanted to share with you some simple yet fun ways to use the Northern Hearts stamp set.

    This stamp set is a hostess set available in the 2010 Holiday Mini.  I originally thought it was just a nice simple set, but the more I started playing with it, the more I saw how it coordinates with some other new and super cute items.  I guess the fact that they are all named “Northern something” should have tipped me off, but I can be a bit slow sometimes.

    Northern stuff thumb

    Anyway, first I noticed that the large snowflake from the stamp set was the same as the large snowflake in the embossing folder.  So, I tried combining the two.  I added some shimmer paint to the stamp before I stamped to give it a bit of shine like snow when I stamped it on the Whisper White base.  I also sponged some of the shimmer paint onto the embossed image to sparkle up the Baja Breeze paper.

    Next, I started playing with the wreath stamp from this set.  I had some fun with different color markers to give it a more mottled, natural look.  Then I started playing with punches but didn’t like how it was turning out so I ended up hand cutting out the wreath.  It was cute but a little bare, so I added in on of the birds from the love birds stamp.  Finally, what is a wreath without somewhere to hang it from, so I used the branches from that same bird set and after coloring with markers, stamped a few times to make it look like tree branches.  Add some DSP and fun ribbon, and you have another fun little card.

    Finally, I decided I wanted to make one more project and so I went for a 3D gift box that you could decorate for the holidays or really for anytime.  I used the Snowflakes and the Love Birds stamps from this set to decorate this 3 1/4” x 3 1/4” box.  This is perfect for a stash of 3×3 cards or to fill with treats for your favorite someone.

    I will be posting the instructions for this box on my blog when the tour is over.  So come back on November 9th to see more details!

    Well, I hope you enjoyed viewing these projects since I sure had fun making them.

    Blog Candy Time!

    Leave me a comment letting me know what you think and you’ll be entered into a drawing for some BLOG CANDY (you must include your email address so I can contact you if you win).

    What’s up for grabs?  You will get this box filled with some cards, some card candy (embellishments for you to use on your own cards), and some actual yummy candy!

  • Halloween Letterpress Card

    When I was first playing with my letterpress plates and trying out different inks and paper, I ended up with extra pieces as samples.  This Trick or Treat was one of the pieces I made using Confetti White paper and classic Pumpkin Pie ink.  It turned out pretty well, so I had set it aside to use later.  Then, I also had this card base I made using Basic Black paper and torn Old Olive cardstock originally for a punch art card that ended up going a different direction, and so I had that lying around too.  So, put them together and add a fun halloween pumpkin and this is what turned out:

    Punching the pumpkin –

    I also had to get a little creative with the pumpkin.  I didn’t have oval punches, which is what I would normally use, but I did have a 1-1/4” circle punch available.  So, I punched out three full circles from some Tangerine Tango cardstock.  I then slid one of the circles back into the punch so I could punch again, trimming off one side of the circle to make an oval like shape.  Now, I did this by sliding the circle in and tapping the side of the punch to shift it into place – the complete pain in the tush method.  If I were to do this again, I would either stick my circle to the back of a post-it note or use dotto to temporarily adhere the pumpkin to a piece of computer paper so that I had a bigger piece of paper to hold when trying to control how much of the circle I was trimming.

    To finish the pumpkin, I sponged the edges of the circles with Chocolate Chip ink,.  Then overlap two of the circles and adhere together.  Adhere the trimmed circle/”oval” on top of the two circles.  Cut a strip of Old Olive CS and adhere to the back of the pumpkin you just created for a stem.

    Trick or Treat Recipe:
    Ink:     Pumpkin Pie classic ink, Chocolate Chip classic ink
    Paper: Basic Black CS, Confetti White CS, Tangerine Tango CS, Old Olive CS
    Accessories: Trick or Treat letterpress die, 1-1/4″ circle punch, sponge, paper piercer, Ice Rhinestone brads

  • Experimenting with the Stampin’ Up! Letterpress Dies

    As I mentioned last week, I received the new Letterpress Dies and made my first card using the method recommended on the packaging.  However, I’m not always good with rules and recommendations and so I had to start experimenting myself with how these dies worked with different inks, paper, and BigShot “sandwich” combinations.

    I wanted to share my results with you so you could try some of these ideas out yourself or avoid the methods that didn’t work so well.

    But first – a new sample using the bigger Trick or Treat letterpress die:

    The green ribbon in the Pumpkin Pie button is actually the 1/4” Old Olive grosgrain ribbon cut in half.  If you do this to thread through a button, I highly recommend using a needle to thread it through the holes.  I was using the “wet the end of the ribbon, twist, squint, shove, and hope enough gets through to grab with your fingernails” technique.  Lets just say the ribbon frays much more easily that way.

    Experimenting with Paper, Ink, and BigShot techniques

    Click Read More to see my experiments with the Letterpress dies including photos for the different papers, inks, and techniques I used. (more…)

  • A Letterpress Card for the Stamping 411 Challenge #168

    If you’ve seen the holiday mini, you’ve seen one of the new products Stampin’ Up! just released – the Letterpress Plates.  These plates are made to use with your BigShot and instead of embossing your image by causing the pattern to raise up off your paper, these plates deboss your image – making empressed images that go into your page.  Add some craft ink, and you get imprinted colored images to spiff up your project.

    At convention this year, Stampin’ Up! unveiled the plates and then offered a special convention bundle of all the letterpress plates at a discount for convention attendees.  Yet another awesome benefit of being a demo (see even more benefits here).  So, I decided to try them out and after getting my bundle, spent some time this weekend playing with them.  So, today, here is the first card I made with the Northern Trim plate for the Stamping 411 sketch challenge.

    I’ve also been playing with different types of papers and inks, so check back later this week as I’ll be posting my results and offering tips for what I’ve found from using the plates.  Until then, here is the video Stampin’ Up! released to show you more possibilities with these plates.

    Oh, P.S. – if you are a demo or become a demo when attending their regional seminar, they have another special bundle just for attendees!  Contact me at jennifer@nwstamper.com for more info or find out how to be my guest when I go to the Portland Regionals in October.

     

    Demonstrating the Letterpress Dies

    Kind Thanks Recipe:
    Stamps:     Thank You Kindly
    Ink:  Always Artichoke Classic ink, Always Artichoke Craft Ink, Rose Red Craft Ink
    Paper:  Elegant Soiree DSP, Basic Black CS, Rose Red CS, Confetti White CS, Always Artichoke CS
    Accessories:  Basic Black Satin ribbon, Scallop edge punch, Basic Rhinestones, Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware, Modern Label punch, glue dots, Stampin’ Dimensionals