But on this Friday night the dogs played away while I did some watercolor marker experiments using the Stampin' Up Circle Circus set. I stamped one of the larger stamps in black, heat embossed (using Stampin' Up black embossing powder). Once it was embossed I colored in the parts. Then I used Crystal Dimensions over the top and now it looks like an epoxy brad. Brad...hmmm perhaps I will make a brad. Good idea!!!
I was playing with different card lay outs and techniques I have learned from my upline, Mandy using colors and layers, ribbons and embellishments. My friend Tiffany's grandmother passed away so I wanted to make a Sympathy card for her. I really like this card. It's pretty and a bit understated but also has some pizzaz. Maybe a little too much pizzaz??? I chose red, white and black as my colors. First, I took a 3/4" strip of white cardstock and using the scallop border punch, made a sort of lacey edge. Next I put the strip through the crimper tool. Once the strip was crimped, I took my black ink pad and wiped it across the strip. This made it look like black stripes on paper. I used a heart punch out that I had laying around and put strips of Sticky Strip across the heart punch out and then using the 2-way "blue glue" I stuck it down (sticky strip side up)on the card. Next I peeled off the adhesive backing of the Sticky Strip so my heart was ready to work with. Taking one end of the crimped, punched, colored paper strip, I firmly placed it on the outline of the heart punch and secured it down in the sticky strip. Now I wound the rest of the strip around and made a paper rose. Then I put a Real Red Corduroy button brad into the flower. Using another strip of Sticky Strip on the outside of the card, I added black gingham ribbon to the bottom of the card. On the inside, I cut a slightly smaller piece of Real Red cardstock on the inside of the card (covered brad prongs and ribbon leftovers, etc. Then using the Modern Label punch and a dimensional added the "Thinking of You" from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp collection.
I also just played with the stuff I have...I experimented with the Movers and Shapers dies, with the stamps, with dimensionals to pull an image off the page, with textures and colors. It was fun! Just me, Bruce Springsteen and the bands he's influenced (there was a special programming on the Rock Legends channel on TV), the dogs and my creativity.
Saturday I woke up and had a miserable headache. It went from behind my left eye, up my skull, over the top and down my right side of my neck through to my shoulder. I was not thinking about creativity just how to get rid of this headache. But, maybe because of the change in the barometric pressure, this headache clung to me all day. Having Fibromyalgia puts a damper on my creativity sessions a lot. There are some days where I have difficulty even just getting out of bed - never mind trying to get my brain to work and "create" something. I worried that I couldn't even make it a week without breaking the project.
I picked up my laptop and opened up my new Design Studio (Stampin' Up) software. I didn't know what I was going to make but my sister-in-law just sent me a series of pics of my favorite subject, my niece Zoe. So I did a layout for an 8 1/2 X 11 Scrapbook. I couldn't believe how easy it was. I decided to make a layout on my own but I could have used some pre-made templates.
I wanted to experiment first so I made a simple layout but I'm so pleased with how it turned out. My niece's favorite colors are purple and pink. The photos had a lot of green and yellow and pink in them so I wanted to make sure that color jumped out of the page. I chose the Craft paper as my background. With this software, you can add stamps and different embellishments even ribbon or sewing machine stitches. It took maybe 20 minutes to make. And, if you don't want to start from a blank page as I did, there are templates you can use. Pretty cool!
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