Happy Birthday, Brother!

My brother's birthday is this week so I thought I would post the card I made for his 50th birthday. It was created with watercolor painting techniques, similar to those I'll be teaching during my watercolor class at Stampaway next week. Most of the stamps are from Art Impressions.

Happy birthday, brother!

CJ

Sneak Peek and a How To

For many of you, the excitement is building - Stampaway is just a few short days away and you're gathering your class supplies and plotting your shopping strategy.

In years past, I would be doing the same thing. This year is different for me. I'm going to be teaching classes so I thought you might enjoy a sneak peek at what goes on behind the scenes when I'm getting ready for a class. Instead of posting a card, this is a photo of the goodie bags (well, actually they are envelopes) that will go in the kits for the "Cards with Verse-atility" class.

Now, on to the how-to: Sharon posted a comment asking how I incorporated the dryer sheet into my Christmas in July cards (click here and here to see the original posts).

To create the frosty look, simply create your image panel (stamp and color as desired) and then run it through a Xyron machine so that the adhesive is on the image side of the panel. Remove the protective film and release sheet. Lay the image in a tray or on a clean sheet of paper and gently lay the dryer sheet (one that has been used but is clean) on top of the image panel. Place the release paper on top and gently brayer over the top to help the dryer sheet adhere to the image panel. Remove the release paper and sprinkle the entire image with glitter. Place the release paper over the image panel again and brayer once more to push the glitter through the dryer sheet and onto the adhesive on the image panel. Remove the release paper. Lift the image panel and gently tap off the excess glitter. Trim the dryer sheet to be even with the edges of the cardstock or wrap them around to the wrong side and adhere in place.

See you at Stampaway!

CJ

Christmas in July - Take II

As I put the finishing touches on my kits for my "Cards with Versatility" class, I thought it apropos to share with you a different take on the card I posted yesterday. For this version, I used a tree stamp by Art Impressions, pine green ink, a sheer red ribbon and red and green cardstock to complete the card.

If you're coming to Stampaway this year and have some free time on Thursday, August 6 at 1p, I'd love to have you join me for my class. It's all about creating multiple cards from one basic layout. You'll make 6 cards in class and get a "cards to go" box with ideas and supplies for 12 more cards, along with a neat goodie bag. Follow the link on the right for more information.

I hope to see you at Stampaway this year.

CJ

Christmas in July

Since the weather has been a bit cooler than usual this week, I thought I'd post a holiday card. This one is from my "Holiday Cards" class that featured Judikins stamps. The tree is stamped three times with rainbow ink - the middle tree is first generation stamping and the other two are second generation to give the image more depth. I used a dryer sheet, my Xyron machine and some glitter to give it that "frosty" look, which doesn't show up as nicely as it does in person.

Happy holidays!

CJ

Many Thanks

It's almost time for Stampaway! I'm teaching three different classes this year, which means lots of prep work. With the help of two very special people, I have been feverishly preparing for my upcoming classes at Stampaway and I'm almost done!

Since I won't have much free time to post between now and convention, I wanted to take this opportunity to say a big THANK YOU to Peggy and Kelly. This card is dedicated to both of them.

If you haven't purchased your tickets yet for the Stampaway classes or convention, be sure to check out the website (click link above) and sign up soon!

Update: I forgot to mention that the flower stamp in the card above is from Stamps By Judith and the verse is from Hero Arts. The technique used is watercolor painting.

Happy stamping!

Happy 4th of July!

It's summertime and that means picnics and parties! I will be hosting the Make-It / Take-It at Marco's Paper this Wednesday and this card is the featured project. We will be using several techniques including paper weaving, creating hidden ribbon slider cards and making your own stickers.

The stamp is from Stampendous' Changito line, the papers are from Marco's and it is colored with Copics, of course!

If you're in the Dayton area Wednesday morning, be sure to stop in and join us for the MiTi or make a day of it and stay for my afternoon class - Copic Cards (details at right).

Wishing you a firecracker of a holiday weekend!