Michael Strong Card of the Day - Friday

Here is my last card of the week!  For this one I took a rainbow background I had handy in my stash and stamped Mike's bumblebee all over it!

I know right now you are all thinking "Did she colour in that bee with a marker and stamp THAT many times!?!"  No.  Of course not.  I can't be bothered to do that kind of thing -- too much work.  I bought that stamp and right away decided that I'd just cut it up and use the hexagons individually.  Then when I wanted to make this card I went a step further and totally cut the bee right out of the hexagon!  Here's a picture to prove it:

I figured that I'd use the little guy much more if I could stamp him all over the place.  After all I can always order another one (and I KNOW there will be a next order!) if I want.

Michael Strong Card of the Day - Technique Thursday

An easy technique today -- Thumping!

Basically you just ink up your stamp (here I used Pumpkin Pie) and then take a marker (Chocolate Chip) and tap the side of the marker on top of the inked stamp to create a spot of a different colour.  Do that all over the stamp in one or more colours (I also used Dusty Durango) to get a bunch of different coloured spots.  Then huff on your stamp and stamp on your paper.

 Here's what the image comes out like -- you can see the different colours on the Gecko.  I used watercolour paper and also misted slightly with water so the image would run a little:

 I like it so much I also made a scrapbook page.  It's hard to tell from the pictures but it's my youngest one doing a puzzle so I also stamped the Gecko and die cut him into puzzle pieces that I scattered around.

Michael Strong Card of the Day - Wednesday

Here's the card for today!  It uses Mike's small flower stamped in gold on white and matted with gold and Chocolate Chip paper.  Also some Chocolate Chip ribbon.

The background is something called "Faux Patina".  Here's how I achieved the look:


Step 1:

First you ink an embossing folder with a light coloured ink (Crumb Cake) and put your cardstock through.



Step 2:

 Then you sponge on a slightly darker colour (Lucky Limeade)

Step 3:

and then sponge on an even darker colour (Garden Green)

Step 4:

 and finally you sponge on a very dark colour (Chocolate Chip).

Step 5:

 The next step according to the tutorial on Splitcoaststampers is to dry the paper, lightly rub Versamark on the top and then emboss with gold embossing powder.  I didn't want to get my new Versamark pad dirty so I just rubbed on some gold ink on the top. 

Ooops!:

 Then I poured on some gold embossing powder and got this.  Yeah, I forgot to dry off the paper.  Okay, I didn't forget I just didn't do a very good job because I was a little impatient.  Anyhow, I'll use that for something else.  I made another sheet with the same colours and used that for my card.  But this time I dusted off the embossing powder (with a paintbrush) when it stuck to places I didn't want it to get stuck to!  Yeah, still was impatient with the drying...

Michael Strong Scrapbook Page of the Day - Tuesday

I really have to do more scrapbook pages so I'm going to change the card of the day to a scrapbook page!    Here is is:

This is a 12x12 paper that I splashed and splattered on some twinkling H2O's and also partially stamped (in black) a small script stamp all over.  Mike's Gecko was stamped in black twice.  Then I used the Honeycomb stencil and smeared on some embossing paste in a few areas.  I added a black crossed-lines die cut, some black thread and of course a couple of pictures!

Michael Strong Card of the Day - Monday

Card captain again.  This one is a long, skinny card to match the tag created with my new Scalloped Tag Topper punch from Stampin Up!  I used Pacific Point and Bermuda Bay for the colours.

To make the tag I inked a script stamp lightly with Tumbled Glass and then ran a cloth around the edges to wipe the ink off which would then make the edges not so even.  Then I stamped once on my kraft sheet and then next on watercolour paper to get a lighter look.  Then I stamped Mike's Seahorse in Broken China.  Finally I stamped some dots lightly in Evergreen Bough and lightly misted the paper so the inks would run.  For the background I stamped the same dots in Bermuda Bay and sponged also in BB.  Then put some embossing paste on with a swirl stencil.