tutorial: rock & roll stamping

  Good morning!

 

I have a quick little tutorial to share today! I'm going to show you how to achieve a soft, gradient look by using the rock & roll technique with your solid stamps!

 

 

Today I'm using the Two Step Butterfly stamp set and three blue pigment inks from A Muse Studio. These inks work beautifully to create a really soft look- if you want a more distinct color difference you can use dye inks for this technique! I wanted a soft pastel look for these butterflies so I chose pigment ink. Have fun with it and experiment to see what inks give you the look you want!

 

I started by inking the solid butterfly image with my lightest of three colors - Sky A Muse Studio pigment ink.

 

 

Then, I added some of my middle color - Blueberry A Muse Studio pigment ink - by hovering my stamp right above the ink pad and gently rocking and rolling the stamp onto the ink. The ink is distributed more heavily towards the outer edges of the stamp leaving the center light blue.

 

I repeated this process with the darkest of the three colors - Navy A Muse Studio pigment ink - concentrating the darker colors along the outer edge of the butterfly wings.

You can see in the background that some of the lighter ink transferred to my darker ink pads. Not a huge concern at all- I simply rub the whole ink pad on a sheet of scrap paper when I'm finished and that layer of lighter ink comes right off!

 

After stamping a couple butterflies using the rock & roll technique, I added some of the outline butterfly stamp to create movement on my card. I think this panel makes it look like the butterflies are flying from the bottom left up to the top right.

 

I added a rock & roll butterfly (that I cut out with scissors) to the panel to add some dimension. I think it looks really cool- like the butterfly is taking flight off of the card!

 

 

Here's the finished card! I added a sentiment from Growth and some pearls on the top butterfly to pull it all together. I love the soft look of the butterflies!

 

I created this card for the Movement Challenge in the Moxie Fab World! I hope you'll run over and check out the challenge- LOTS of great information about design for you to soak up!

 

BACK TO SCHOOL GIVEAWAY!!

  Hi, there!

 

It's back to school time! Have you all started back yet? Getting ready for those lovely carpool lines, packing lunches, and the homework battle? Haha!

 

I'm feeling kinda like an empty nester these days! My little guy, Austin, started full-time Pre-K this year! I seriously don't know what I'm going to do with myself from 8-2:30 each day! LOL! I've had a few crafty friends give me some suggestions, but I don't think hubby's going to be happy coming home to a paper scrap mess each day!

 

Here are a couple pictures of my *very silly* boys on their first day yesterday!

 

 

To celebrate the first day of school, I have a GIVEAWAY!

 

It just so happens that I designed a couple of stamp sets that are PERFECT for the back to school season- Teacher Notes and ABC Background!

 

 

All you need to do is leave a comment below for your chance to win!

 

 

Have you been over to "like" my new facebook page?

Sweet Steph Designs

 

 

"Like" my page for an extra chance to win! AND when I hit 100 "likes" I'm giving away GROWTH on Facebook! LOTS of chances to win some new stamps!

 

You have through Monday, September 3rd to comment!

 

Thanks for stopping by! :)

 

CAS-ual Fridays 67: Banners & Flags

Happy weekend, folks!

 

I have a card to share with you today- I created it for the latest 

CAS-ual Fridays challenge!! 

 

 

The challenge this week is to feature banners and/or flags in your project!

 

 

Here's my card:

 

 

I used three different pattern papers from the Studio Calico Classic Calico collection to create this fun pieced together background. I glued pieces of black floss along the seams of the paper and then made my own banner flags to hang. 

 

The sentiment is from PTI's Fillable Frames #5 set!

 

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you'll run over to the CAS-ual Fridays blog to check out the challenge! :)

 

Moxie Fab Focal Point Challenge!

  Good morning!

 

I'm here today with a card using my new stamp set GROWTH! I am officially *in love* with layering these beautiful leaf sprigs- you'll see this a lot... haha!

 

I also am eager to jump into the new design challenges over on the Moxie Fab World blog! I'm entering this card in the Focal Point Challenge!

 

 

I thought about how I could make my focal point very obvious- really focusing on that focal point (lol)- and I thought a great way to do that would be to keep the rest of the card bright white!

 

It's hard to tell from the photo (dang lack of photography skills!), but the large layer on the front of the card is impressed- giving the card a lot of texture. I kept everything white except the sentiment and the leaf sprigs, drawing attention to the left side of the card!

 

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you'll run over to the Moxie Fab World blog and check out this challenge and all the others posted so far this week! Such a great week of design tips and tricks- I'm loving every second of it!

 

Have a fabulous day! :)

 

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

 

10 Minute Craft Dash!

  YIKES!

 

I feel like I just ran a marathon! LOL! I played along in the new challenge: 10 Minute Craft Dash!

The challenge is to come up with a craft project- start to finish- in under 10 minutes. I have to admit, my first attempt turned into an hour long craft session.... lol! I saw my stopwatch hit 10:00 and I looked down to see a bunch of parts and NO card. I tried to color... just sayin'. Probably not the smartest concept in under 10 minutes! LOL!

 

Here's my second attempt- much less complicated! HAHA!

 

I kept it very clean and simple this time and turned to my background stamps for some help in the time area! I stamped the new ABC Background in a muse Navy ink onto white cardstock and inked up the edges to give it more of a distressed look. I matted that with Smokey Shadow cardstock and stuck it to the card base. Didn't take more than 5 minutes! Woohoo! Haha!

 

Then, I pulled out the My Thoughts Exactly set for a quick focal point- the bubble and "Thanks!" sentiment are stamped in a muse Slate ink and the sentiment "you're the best!" (from Teacher Notes) is stamped in Ranger Archival Jet Black ink. I adhered the bubble with foam tape and called the card DONE!

 

Total time- 9:47! I did it!

 

The 10 Minute Craft Dash challenge is super fun- I hope you'll run over and check it out!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com
 

CFC 66: Splish Splash

  Hi, there!

I'm here today with a card for the latest challenge from

CAS-ual Fridays!!

This week the challenge is Splish Splash! Create a project with something you might see in or at the ocean! Fun, right!?

And our sponsor this week is StopandScrap.com! This week's winner wins a $20 gift certificate!

Here's my project:

I had a little fun with the Half Pint Heroes set from Walzingmouse Stamps for this one! All of the images and the sentiment are from that fun set!

I hope you'll head over to the CAS-ual Fridays blog and check out this week's challenge! See ya next time! :)