I had a chance to sneak into the Impress Rubber Stamps store over the weekend before they opened. As always, Shari the store manager was busily working away (I kind of think that she sleeps there!) making the store beautiful, fun and inspiring.
I worked at Impress for almost ten years and loved it! I wanted to share with those of you who can't quite make it to Seattle a taste of Impress - a fantastic store FULL of ideas for cards, packaging, gifts, and friendly people. Maybe after seeing the video, you'll want to come check it out!
(We're having fun producing these little mini-videos for the blog - but there is a learning curve, so be patient while we get better!). So now, without any more delay, is a 2008 fall tour of the Impress Rubber Stamp store in Tukwila, Washington. Enjoy!
Try this simple double stamped technique for a sophisticated look on a card. Stamp the Point Snowflake (A1159) across a piece of Robins Egg cardstock with Versamagic Red Magic ink. Clean the stamp and then stamp on top of each snowflake image with Versamagic Pink Grapefruit -turning the snowflake slightly so that the image becomes a "poinsettia". Thanks Jeannie at Impress for suggesting this technique!
Warmest wishes (B1154) is stamped in Versacolor Pinecone ink and then the layer is adhered to a Vanilla Bean notecard. Add a drop of glitter glue to the center of each flake - clear glitter glue looks great but yellow (centers of a poinsettia) could be cool too!
Use the penguin technique for this one - stamp the Ski Penguin (C953) on white cardstock and also on the patterned paper from the 6x6 Frost Paper collection. Cut the body of the penguin out of the white paer and place onto the patterned paper so that the body is white and dimensional.
Create a little sign that says "snow day" (A1167) on it (draw the sign post in with a colored pencil) - and add a little glitter glue at the bottom of the sign. Any pattern will work in the background - even a pale blue cardstock, like water, stamped with some snowflakes!
My son Cooper came home the other day from school with a "My Name is..." tag on his shirt. They had been doing a public speaking lesson in his 5th grade social studies class and everyone had been given one of these tags to wear. Looking closer his tag read:
"Hello. My name is Agent Peanut Butter."
Agent Peanut Butter. There are days when I wished I led a double life - and a codename like Agent Peanut Butter would be awesome. But maybe a double life is too big a secret for me - so for now I'll stick to secrets that I can send in a greeting card. Secrets like,
"You're the best!" and
"Happy 29th Birthday - again!"
These sentiments go well with our Secret Penguin (C1144) and "oops...it just came out" (B1148). In the card idea above, the Secret Penguin is sharing a few words with the Reindeer (C1162).
Starting on your gift list? Don't forget the gift tag!
Here I stamped the Gift Bear (C1104) in black ink and colored him in with colored pencils. Be sure and outline the bear with a soft blue colored pencil, like Prismacolor Powder Blue. This adds a little depth to the white of the bear - making him appear a little bit brighter. You can also use this color as a shadow to anchor him on the ground - so he's not "floating". "No peeking" (B1108) is stamped near the bottom - and you can use the back side of the tag for the to and from info.
The background is a patterned paper from the 6x6 Frost collection - we've completely sold out of it at the warehouse - but I know there's still some available in stores, check around at your local stamp and scrapbook store. Mount the patterned paper on apiece of Blue Poppy cardstock and you're ready to go!
Time for some hot chocolate? I think so! I recently ran across another cupcake company, Baked, in Brooklyn - if anyone has tried their cupcakes back there in New York City, I want a review! Anyway, they sell homemade marshmallows by the bag - vanilla, chocolate, and some other flavors including peppermint and even pumpkin! Wouldn't a homemade peppermint marshmallow floating in a mug of dark chocolate cocoa just complete your day?
All that's left is a beautiful card to send along with a hot chocolate care package. I stamped the Cocoa Bear (C1105) in Graphite Black ink onto watercolor paper. Wetting the area around the bear, but only down to his knees, you'll create a "sky". Paint some blue into the top of the sky, and some purple into the bottom of the sky - I used Twinkling H2O's Blue Ice for the top of the sky and Razzleberry along the horizon. Once dry, paint the scarf and mug in (I used some watercolor pencils). This gets mounted onto a Water notecard - with a shimmery Midnight Blue cardstock as a layer.
I thought today that I'd also share with you what it's like to live with a gymnast. Coop does a lot of gymnastics - and likes to get a little practice in here at home - so we have a "dome" in our kitchen. The dome is practice equipment for the pommel horse - you know, the event where the gymnast uses their hands to spin their body around in circles, with only their hands touching. Anyways, this is what typically happens as he's doing his assignments - a little reading, a little work on the dome, and then back to reading - check it out:
Yay - Monday! This is the last installment in the bird series - and they couldn't all be watercolor and realistic birds now could they?
Our Cheerleader Penguin (C1143) and "I'm cheering for you" (B1147) are some great images to use for a greeting to someone who needs some encouragement. The "technique" here is the "Penguin Technique". When designing any of the Penguins in our collection, we've kept in mind that the body of the penguin needs to be white, so we've tried to create an easy silhouette for the penguin - something easy to cut out. With most of the penguins, you will stamp them on a piece of white cardstock, then cut off the arms and feet as you trim around their bowling pin shaped body. This piece is then adhered to another piece of paper that has been stamped with the image. Once the white body is in position, the arms and legs complete the rest of the image.
For this card, the body and dress were cut out of the white cardstock and then glued to a layer of Sugar Plum cardstock (where the arms, feet and pom poms complete the rest of the penguin). A little glitter glue added sparkle to the pom poms. This card is in our idea gallery, under penguins, on our site.
This is one of my favorite techniques for creating backgrounds to stamp on. I used several colors here (all Twinkling H2O's):
Ginger Peach (upper left corner)
Hot Cinnamon (upper right corner)
Moss Green (left side)
Plum Blossom (right side)
Passion (tiny bit of the lower right corner)
Start with a sheet of 140 lb cold press watercolor paper and at least 3 or 4 paint colors. The trick here is to get the paper really wet - you can paint it with plain water and a brush, you can run it under the faucet or soak it in a tub of water. You want to saturate the fibers of the paper so that they open up and get ready to move the paint.
Put your wet paper on a flat table (you may have to secure the edges with masking tape). Load your brush with paint and add it to a corner of the paper - slowly move the paint towards the center of the paper without letting the brush leave the paper. Once the color has faded from the brush, pull the brush back to the corner (keeping the brush on the paper) and then lift. Rinse your brush well, dip into the next color and begin adding it next to your original color, starting at the edges of the paper.
The idea is to add one color at a time around the edge of the paper, working towards the center. Every time a color is added, make sure the colors overlap, so that the colors blend. If the paper becomes dry, then rinse the brush and add plain water to the uncolored areas.
How big an area to paint at a time is up to you - if you are only using 3 colors, then you'll fill in large areas on the paper. If you're using 12 colors (go for it!) then your areas will be smaller, so that you can fit all of them in around the paper.
The wet paper will continue to blend the colors together after they are applied - but if they aren't blending as well as you would hope then try this. Rinse your brush and dry it really well with a paper towel. Rub the border where one color meets another in a swirling motion - going from one end of the border to the other. Rinse the brush, dry it well and repeat the swirling motion again. Repeat until the colors have softened and blended.
The main mistake that you can make here is not using enough water - so don't be skimpy with the water and load on the paint! After I made my paper I stamped it with the Bird Collage (E1102) in Brilliance Graphite Black ink - and added a red rhinestone for a little extra sparkle. It's layered on a piece of patterned paper from the 6x6 Gingercake collection.
Here's another look at the Holly Bird (D1119), with a washed background technique that's useful in 2 ways. One, you can add a little interest by surrounding an image with color and two, you can paint over any stray color that went outside the lines of the bird! I am using 140 lb watercolor paper (cold pressed) for this technique.
After you have painted the bird, branch and berries, allow the paper to dry completely. Now, surround the image with water - use a small brush (number 0 or 2, round watercolor brush) to paint plain water around the outside of bird and branches. Remember that if you get the paper wet inside the bird, the background color will leak into the bird area (you can always dab up any part that gets wet with a paper towel). After you've wet the area around the bird a few times (until there is a sheen of water) you can begin adding paint. I used Twinkling H2O Indian Copper and brushed some paint around the outside of the image. Immediately the paint wil begin to flow into the open we areas - which is good, it will help fill the areas in for you. Remember to let the paint do most of the work for you.
If the paint doesn't start flowing into the open areas, then you don't have enough water on your paper. Rinse your brush and add some more water around the bird. After that, it's just a matter of coaxing the paint around the bird, into the open areas. You will get areas of stronger color and areas of weaker color - which is what is so great about the look of watercolor. Try not to make the color perfectly even - it's more interesting when the paint does it's own thing!. Once dry, trim the piece down, cutting off the areas that you don't want and doing your best to keep the areas you do want. I rubbed the edges with a dauber that was inked up with Versamagic Gingerbread ink to darken the borders. Then I mounted it onto a layer that was half shimmering Chocolate cardstock and half patterned paper from the 6x6 Gingercake collection.
I've been using my Copics more and more lately - sometimes you just want a really solid look and that's where these markers really shine!
I stamped the D1152 Winter cardinal in Brilliance Graphite Black ink (once dry, this won't bleed with Copics) and colored it in with Strong Red (R46). The leaves were colored in with Pale Olive (YG95) and the branch with Light Walnut (E57). Notice that I stamped on my Robins Egg cardstock (this color goes great with browns and creams - and shows off red elements, like the bird, really well!). The beak and feet were colored with yellow colored pencil.
Once everything was good and dry, I used my double stamp Snowflake Combo (B1158) to stamp out a few snowflakes. The Snowflake Combo has a small flake and big flake on the wood mount, and they coordinate well so they stamp nice together. I stamped the flakes with clear Versamark ink and embossed them with white embossing powder for a really crisp look. Stamp around the image of the bird, but put one or two flakes on the branch, to add a little dimension. Finally, add a little red glitter glue on the berries (color the berries in with red first, to make the red glitter glue even more red).
I proportioned this idea down to a tag size - just add a gift (maybe a set of Copic markers?) - and give to a friend!
