Northwest Stamper

Category: Thinking of You

  • Clean and Simple Elegance Eastern Palace Card

    Clean and Simple Elegance Eastern Palace Card

    Fun n Crafty Blog Hop Team BadgeWoo hoo!  This week is hopping – blog hopping that is!  This time, its my Fun n’ Crafty Stampers team who are here to share with you some fresh ideas using the newest products – our preorder goodies!

    Now, I’ll admit, technically, I might be bending the rules a bit because the goodies I have to show you – you yourself can actually order them TODAY!  Say, what?!  I’m featuring the Eastern Palace suite that is new in the upcoming 2017-2018 Stampin’ Up Annual Catalog.  I’m not going to lie, this was a suite I wouldn’t have really thought twice about if I was just flipping through the catalog.  But Stampin’ Up was smart and they decided to offer it early as part of two Sneak Peek bundles (the starter bundle & the premier bundle).  So, of course, I ordered it. 🙂  And turns out, I love it!

    Eastern Palace Suite Premier Bundle

    My favorite piece in the suite is the Eastern Gold Vinyl Stickers.  That is what makes the shiny gold flower and little circles in the background of my card.  They are so EASY to do and because the stickers are clear and fairly close cut to the images, they blend in and look great!

    Easy Gold Accents with Eastern Gold Vinyl Stickers

    Tips for making this Eastern Palace Clean & Simple card:

    • Sometimes the perfect Gold ink is Yellow! As I was creating this card, I wanted to have the stamped ring around my sentiment fit with the gold accents of the card since I didn’t really want to introduce another color to the mix.  And right as I was lamenting the retirement of gold ink, I looked at my Color Caddy ink spinner and saw the Delightful Dijon ink pad!  I realized that the dark yellow was a great hue to compliment gold.  Too bad it is retiring on May 31st, or I’d be using it with this suite all year!
      Eastern Palace Color Palette with Delightful Dijon
    • Scissors is all you need to pop-out this diecut flower – I saw this flower on a card by Louise Sharp and it in fact inspired this card – but when I went to use my die to cut it out, I realized that the die actually just die cuts the petals so they curl up from the cardstock… it doesn’t cut the whole thing out of the paper!  However, it is an easy 30 second fix to just grab your snips and snip the one spot in between each petal that keeps it connected to the cardstock.  A few quick snips and you have a fun new die shape!
      Easy Gold Accents on Cards with Eastern Palace Suite side view
    • Think outside the suite for coordinating accents – I had the card coming together using the cardstock, stamps, stickers, and even designer paper from the Eastern Palace suite.  But it still needed that elusive something.  Thankfully I remembered the Fabulous Foil Acetate from the current Annual Catalog.  It is super easy to miss and in fact, I often forgot I even had some from my part of last year’s product sampler I ran.  But if you look at that mosaic gold piece above the purple paper, it is a printed window sheet that coordinates PERFECTLY with this suite!  I’m so glad it is carrying over, because now that I realized how fab it actually is; I plan to use the heck out of it. 🙂

    Easy Gold Accents on Cards with Eastern Palace Suite nt

    (thank goodness for samplers saving the day with this card! and yes, I have just released new product samplers for the upcoming catalog for when a year from now we discover that item that we never thought twice about, but now 11 months later is exactly perfect for a project!)

    So, what do you think of this card and this suite?

    I’d love to hear your thoughts… please leave me a comment below and let me know what YOU think of the Eastern Palace Suite!

    Make this project at home! Here is what you’ll need:

    Eastern Palace Premier Bundle

    $103.50

    Layering Circle Framelits Dies

    $35.00

    Fabulous Foil Designer Acetate

    $12.00

    Big Shot

    $110.00

    Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

    $9.00

    Delightful Dijon Classic Stampin' Pad

    $6.50

    Check out more great ideas on the Fun n’ Crafty Blog Hop!

    So, that was my idea using something new from the upcoming catalog.  While you can order the discounted bundle this month, you will be able to order individual pieces from this Eastern Palace suite starting June 1st!  And if you just can’t wait, we’d love to have you join our Fun n’ Crafty team!  Order your starter kit and you can get this bundle, plus $21.50 in product more for less than the price of the bundle alone!  You’ll be able to order it today and then consider joining us on our blog hop next month. 🙂

    In the meantime, keep the inspiration going by checking out Christine’s projects next!

    Fun N Crafty Blog Hop - Visit Previous Blog
    Fun N Crafty Blog Hop - Visit Next Blog

    1. Christine Szekeres – Artful Musings
    2. Merit Brown – MB Squared Designs
    3. Pamela Wu – Stinky Tofu
    4. Susan Schultz – Stampin’ by the SF Bay
    5. Stacey Lane – A Work of Carte
    6. Jennifer Blomquist – Northwest Stamper <– YOU ARE HERE

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  • A Little Watercoloring with On The Grow

    I decided to participate in another challenge with week – again with the Late Night Stamper group.  This week was challenge #133 and you were to create a thinking of you card that has blue on it.  Seemed easy enough and so I grabbed my poor neglected On The Grow stamp set from the summer mini and got to work.

    When I saw this stamp set, it screamed,”Watercolor me!”.  So, I thought I would try to get a little artsy with my card and pulled out the watercoloring paper, my aqua pen, and some inks and got to work.

    A few watercoloring tips:

    • If you are going to use a lot of colors, make sure you use watercolor paper.  Because you will be going over the same area lots of times with a wet pen, most cardstocks and paper like Whisper White will start warping or pilling up on you.  Watercoloring paper is more fiberous and can absorb the water without a problem giving you a really nice image.
    • Use Staz-on ink for best results for your outlined image.  Staz-on won’t bleed as you go over the same area with a wet brush multiple times.  Stampin’ Up’s Basic Black and Basic Grey are water-resistant so they will work too for your watercoloring projects but your best bet would be to use Staz-on
    • If you want a really precise placement of color – grab your blender pen.  It uses an alcohol-base to pick up and place your color and the tip is firmer so you can be exact with placement and you won’t get extra liquid.
    • If you want to be more artsy – grab your aqua pen.  It is a refillable pen that just contains water with a more flexible-brushlike tip.  When you color, you can squeeze a little and make the pen more wet letting you color spread a little more or just get a more damp and traditional watercolor look.

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    Thinking of You Watercolored card recipe:
    Stamps:      From the Garden
    Ink:  Stazon Black, Island Indigo, Baja Breeze, Blushing Bride, Perfect Plum, Pear Pizazz, Crumb Cake
    Paper:  Baja Breeze cardstock, Marina Mist cs, Soft Suede cs, Watercolor paper
    Accessories:  BigShot die cutting machine, Lattice embossing folder, Paper piercer, Neutrals 5/8” brads, Aqua Pen, Stampin’ Dimensionalsimage