Four Ways Friday #49 - En Francais Background Stamp

This week's Four Ways Friday is all about the En Francais Background stamp.  This stamp is so versatile it was hard for me to limit myself to Four Ways! :)

This first card using the background stamp in a very traditional way.  I inked up the background stamp with various shades of blue (baja breeze, marina mist, and bashful blue) using markers.  I then applied the Very Vanilla card stock onto the stamp to transfer the image.  I find that bringing the card stock to the stamp, as opposed to bringing the stamp to the card stock, transfers the image more completely.  I then crumpled the paper and sponged the creases and the edges with baja breeze.  The panel was sewn to a Sahara Sand card stock piece and then adhered to the card base.  The flower is two scrunched up scallop circle punches with a rhinestone brad in the center.  The leaves are the petals from the 5 petal flower punch.  The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations, stamped in Chocolate Chip and punched out with the decorative label punch.

You can punch out pieces that you stamp with the En Francais background stamp!  Here I stamped onto Marina Mist card stock with Early Espresso ink and then punched out the bird with the 2-step bird punch.  I sponged the edges of the bird with the same ink.  I then masked the Soft Suede card base and stamped the En Francais again.  Here is what the masked card looked like:

I then stamped images from Lovely As A Tree using Chocolate Chip and Soft Suede ink.  The greeting is from Curvy Verses and was stamped using VersaMark and heat embossed with gold embossing powder.

You are definitely not limited to stamping on card stock!  Here I stamped the En Francais stamp onto twill ribbon using Staz-On ink and then knotted the ribbon.  The Rich Razzleberry card base was run through the Big Shot with the Elegant Lines embossing folder.  The greeting from Sincere Salutations was stamped in Rich Razzleberry ink onto Natural Ivory card stock and punched out with the extra large oval punch.  The ribbon was attached to the card using glue dots.

I love creating items other than cards and this stamp lends itself well to stamping on fabric!  Here I stamped the background stamp onto white cotton (and old duvet that we no longer use) and then sewed the two pieces of white cotton together to form a bookmark.  The sentiment was added using Staz-On ink and the Calendar Alphabet & Numbers stamp set.  I added some Basic Black ribbon and a felt butterfly that I cut out using the Beautiful Butterflies die.
Thanks for joining me for this week's Four Ways Friday.  I hope these examples inspire you to try to use your background stamps in new and exciting ways!!!!  Have a wonderfully creative weekend!!!!

Vintage Vogue Friend Card With CitraSolv Transfer

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Infuse A New Technique Into Your Repertoire!

I like to spend some time every week reading crafting/art magazines or watching art videos on YouTube or other on-line sites.  I really enjoy watching other people create and seeing the different techniques they employ to create their works of art.  I am sometimes inspired enough to actually give some of the techniques a try.  Sometimes I only try once and that is enough :)  Other times I find techniques that get incorporated into my art repertoire - techniques I turn to again and again when the mood strikes.  What new techniques have you tried recently?
Here I turned to a technique that I've been playing with lately - CitraSolv transfers.  I laser printed this vintage photo of a woman and transferred it onto a piece of muslin using CitraSolv and burnishing with a spoon.  I then colored her a bit using Stampin' pastels.  I sewed the fabric to a piece of More Mustard card stock and then got crazy with stamping!  I used images from Vintage Vogue and stamped over and over until the card stock itself started to look like a piece of floral fabric.  I then stamped the "quality" image from My Favorite Things and cut it out and adhered it to the card with dimensionals.  The pearls mark those qualities that this person has as a true friend - quality, strength and durability.  She is definitely someone I can rely on!  I finished the card by machine sewing around the edges and rounding the two bottom corners.  I hope you like it!

Greetings Earthling Birthday Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Turn Right And Walk One Extra Block!

We ran into one of Buddy's dog friends the other day on our morning walk, so we decided to walk together.  We were going our usual way when Buddy's friend took a right where we normally go straight.  We decided that was okay with us so we walked one block to the right and it was AMAZING how different the walk was!  There were some new rolling hills, new sights and sounds...and of course, new smells!!!!  Sometimes all it takes is turning right and walking one extra block to have a whole new experience!  We can do this in our cars, on our bikes, when we walk - all kinds of surprises await!!!  Where can you turn right?
Today's card was made to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday!  His wife planned a surprise party for him and it came off without a hitch!  He was shocked!!!!  The look on his face was priceless :)  I used the Greetings Earthling stamp set and did a lot of coloring, cutting and glittering :)  The sign was created with a toothpick and I stamped the word "happy" from one of the greetings in Teeny Tiny Wishes.  The "40" was stamped using the Collage Numbers (retired) and versamark and then heat embossing with gold embossing powder and cutting them out.  The planet is just a piece of Sahara Sand card stock that I sponged and sponged and sponged - both on the edges and then using a little template I created by punching different sized holes out of a piece of card stock.  I can use the template over and over again whenever the mood to create a planet strikes :)  I hope you like it!

Stamped & Soldered Jewelry

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Keep Your Awareness In The Present Moment
Oftentimes I feel like I am not living in the moment.  I find myself either living in the future or living in the past.  Living in the future seems to happen to me a lot when I travel for work.  No sooner do I get home than I am already anxious about the next trip that will take me away from my family and my craft room.  What I find is that rather than enjoy every moment that I am here I am anxious and sad at the prospect of leaving again and that puts a huge damper on enjoying the present moment!  When I am creating it seems that I can focus and remain in the present - time seems to become unimportant and not worth noticing.  Now the trick is to figure out how I can bring this same sense of being to the times when I am not creating - whether I'm driving in the car, walking outside, typing on the computer.  I want to be present.  I want to experience all that this very moment is offering me.  To be real and now.  This is something I am working on.  Here I am, right now!
Today's stamping project is a graduation gift I made for a friend who just got a Master's degree!  I'm so proud of her!!!!  I decided to make her a necklace with her initial and a word that I feel describes her - "unique!"  I stamped the bird from the Nature Walk stamp set (I LOVE this bird!!!!) onto Very Vanilla card stock and colored him in using a cotton swab and Stampin' Pastels.  The word is from a retired stamp set - I think it's called Everyday Flexible Phrases.  Up in the corner you can see a tiny bit of a floral image from Tiny Tags stamped in Crumb Cake ink at half strength.  Here is the other side of the necklace:

I cut a piece of paper from an old book and stamped it with the floral image from Tiny Tags using Crumb Cake ink at half strength.  The edges were also sponged.  Then I did what I'm not supposed to do!  I ran some thin copper foil through the Big Shot with one of my sizzlits - Timeless Type alphabet.  This can damage your sizzlits - they are not designed to be used with foil...but I'm not one for always following the rules :)  Since I was nervous, I ran it through on Tab 2, so the letter did not get cut out of the foil.  Instead, it left deep lines and I was able to take a hobby blade and cut through the foil to cut out the letter.  I used microscope glass, copper tape, flux, and solder to put everything together.  I hope you like it! :)

Enjoy Life Colored Transparency

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  There's Nothing That Makes Me Feel More Like An Artist Than Inky Fingers!

Getting messy was all the rage when I was young!  How fun to play with mud pies and stomp in puddles!  Dripping paint on t-shirts and rubbing glue between your palms just to peel it off - those were amazing days!  Then we grew up and somewhere along the way we decided that our hands needed to be spotless and our clothes sans stains.  What's up with that?!  On days that I have the most fun in the craft room it seems that my clothes and my skin are the least of my worries!  Getting my fingers stained with ink and paint, having glitter all over my clothes and face, wiping my aqua painter off on my jeans - that's what makes me feel like an artist!!!!!  I will do my best to not wear my best clothes in the craft room.  At the same time, I will do my best to allow the stains and drips to fall as they may :)

For today's card I continued with playing with transparencies/window sheets.  Here I cut a small square of transparency and stamped on the transparency with black Staz-on and the flowers from the Punch Potpourri stamp set.  I then used a paint brush and painted shimmer paint onto the back of the transparency to "color" the flowers.  I sewed the transparency onto a piece of designer series paper and then adhered it to the crumpled Certainly Celery panel using dimensionals.  As you can see, I sewed the Certainly Celery panel to the Rich Razzleberry card.  The greeting is from Fabulous Phrases.  I then put some Crystal Effects around the panel and sprinkled on some beads.  Crystal Effects is a wonderful adhesive for small objects like beads, glitter and buttons.  I hope you like it!

I would also like to take a moment today to honor my father.  It was on this day back in 1986 that my father died suddenly.  There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of my father and feel his presence as if he were walking beside me.  Daddy, thank you for being all that you are.  I love you!!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

For those of you who are mothers to children and/or animals, I want to wish you a very happy Mother's Day!!!!!  Here are my children :)  Obviously Willow is trying to tell me that since it is Mother's Day it is time to plant outdoors here in Colorado! :)  Enjoy your special day!!!!