Project of the Week - The House That Stamps Built

Project of the Week ~ Bokeh Backgrounds With Stamped Images

Oct 302017

Hi, everyone! It’s my turn to share a Project of the Week here at The House That Stamps Built and I’m going to show you how to create a bokeh background with stamped images. It creates such a soft look and it’s pretty fun, especially if you don’t mind doing a lot of sponging. Here are the things you will need:

• several coordinated ink colors: I used SU! Tempting Turquoise, Lovely Lilac and Green Galore dye inks plus MFT Gray Grout for image stamping
• white ink: I used SU! white craft ink
• ink daubers or sponges
• white card stock panel
• stamps: I used Repeat Impressions’ 8912-I “Snowflake Solid (lg)”, 8914-E “Snowflake Solid (small)” and 1141-F “Christmas”

Start out with one of your ink colors; sponging it in several places on your panel. I chose Tempting Turquoise as it was my darkest color.

Sponge on your next color, overlapping in some areas.

Sponge on your next color filling up the rest of the white space. It looks a little splotchy right now, due to the rough edges of my sponge daubers, but don’t worry, it will be fixed!

I switched to sponge pieces and continued to sponge on the ink colors, darkening them, smoothing the color and blending all the colors together better.

Once you get your inks blended how you want them, start adding the white. I used the sponge dauber to create different sized circles. For the smaller circles, I simply pressed the inked dauber directly down onto the paper, like a stamp. For the larger circles, I used the dauber in a circular motion to create various sized circles. Overlap them here and there and make some darker by adding more ink over top of the ink already there. The edges will soften as the ink dries. Now, be patient and let your panel dry (I know from experience that it will make the next step easier!)

I used my light gray ink to stamp the large and small snowflakes onto the panel. I used my mini MISTI because I knew I would have to stamp each image several times since the ink is so light. I wanted them to be subtle which is why I chose the light ink, but I also wanted them to be seen.

After the panel dried completely, I turned it into my finished card. As you can see, as the inks dried (specially that white craft ink) everything softened and blended together perfectly! I am loving these non-traditional colors for Christmas!!

I finished it off with a bit of ribbon I’ve had forever, a vellum die cut snowflake topped with a recycled button, and some nuvo crystal drops. Thanks for checking out my Project of the Week!

~ Heather

Project of the Week ~ Embedded Embossing

Project of the Week

Jun 062016

GOOD MORNING

It is my week to do a tutorial for Project of the Week. I love doing this technique - it gives a real WOW factor - and “how did you do that” to a card for any occasion.

I used butterflies from the summer collection Lg. Butterfly 9001-L, Sm. Butterfly 9009-F and the sentiment is 9005-E Flutter by all from REPEAT IMPRESSIONS.

Stamp butterflies or image that is fairly easy to cut out on a scrap of white cardstock. Color with coloring medium of choice.

Stamp butterflies again on white cardstock - then you don’t have to cut out the antennas of the butterflies. Fussy cut your colored butterflies.

Glue colored images on top of the stamped images, stamp your sentiment.

Run the white cardstock with butterflies glued on and sentiment stamped thru your machine. I used the Swiss Dot Embossing Folder.

Layer on black cardstock, then on A2 card - add bling if you wish.

~ Shirley

Project of the Week ~ Easy Pan Pastel Technique

Project of the Week

Apr 182016

Hello stampers!

The Crafty Nurse here with a Project of the Week here at The House that Stamps Built. Today I’m bringing you a super easy technique using Pan Pastel’s, which if you are not familiar are great pans of gorgeous chalky color.

For this project the supplies I used are:

Pan Pastel’s in Green’s and Blues
Soft Applicator Sponges
Versamark Ink
Antistatic Bag
Smooth Bristol Paper
Pastel Fixitive
Repeat Impressions Stamps of your choice, I used: Nature’s Quartet 8506-U

I began by cutting a piece of smooth bristol paper into 4.25 by 4.25 pieces and treated it with an antistatic bag.

I then placed a light application of blue pan pastel chalk over the entire surface of the bristol paper.

I inked up the “Nature’s Quartet” with Versmark…

and stamped it onto the paper coated with the first layer of Pan Pastel’s.

After making sure your Versamark is dry, apply a darker hue over the stamped image. This provides excellent contrast to your image picking up only in the areas of the stamped image. Don’t be afraid to use different colors as the Pan Pastel’s mix very well. For example, try a yellow base layer with red over your stamped image. If you have the metallic pan pastel’s, you can start with gold, then layer over with any other color for a metallic hue.

I chose to use a diagonal pattern when applying the darker hues. I did one corner in darker green and the opposite in darker blue.

To finish off I sprayed a pastel fixative but if you don’t have that you can use hair spray.

That’s all there is to it! For my finished card, I added a little bit of washi tape as a frame and embossed my center wood leaf with versmark and Stampendous powder. I love altering my wooden embellishments.

I hope you enjoyed this super easy tutorial and break out some of those Pan Pastels you’ve been hoarding!

Hope you’ll join us on Wednesday for the Photo Inspiration Challenge. I know you’ll love it!

The Crafty Nurse

Project of the Week ~ Bleach Technique

Project of the Week

Apr 042016

Good morning! It’s my turn to do a Project of the Week for Repeat Impressions and I just recently saw the bleach technique and found it easy and fun. Repeat Impressions has quite a few really great stamps that work well with this technique.

Supplies for this technique are:
Bleach - any kind
solid or silhouette stamps
dye ink - any brand name - I’ve used Gina K Designs, Hero Arts and Momento
applicators or small brushes

The first step is to stamp images of your choice on card stock to use as a background. I used a MISTI so that my images got full and complete coverage.

Then I poured a small amount of bleach into a small container and dipped my applicator into the bleach and quickly painted or sketched onto the stamped image.

The application of bleach changes the color of the dye ink. Be careful not to splash or drip where you don’t want it — it might mess up your stamping. Here are two of the finished cards:

The solid images I used are Maple Leaf Silhouette and Large Balloon Silhouette. The sentiments are Happy Birthday from the Quartet Compliments and Happy Birthday from….

Hope you give this technique a try - it’s easy and lots of fun.

Joy