Soot Stamped Autumn Leaves

For the past month or so I have been making a lot more ATCs for swapping than I have been making cards. I don't know how interested you are in seeing all of the ATCs I've been making so I haven't been posting them. But today I want to share these Autumn Leaves ATCs that are for a swap I'm hosting at the Stamp Shack. I wanted to use my stamps in a different way and used the Soot Stamping Technique.


In this photo of the set of nine ATCs some look blurry but I had to take the photo at an angle to avoid the flash glaring off of the glossy cardstock. The outcome of soot stamping is that each ATC is unique.

For these ATCs I was trying out an added step to add color to the background. This was achieved by using a brayer and brayering red dye ink on the glossy cardstock. Next you hold the cardstock, glossy side down over a lighted candle. The flame must brush against the cardstock to produce soot. Move your cardstock quickly over the flame to cover with black soot being careful not to hold in one place too long as the edges will catch on fire if you linger. Next, using the stamp of your choice stamp directly onto the cardstock in the soot and carefully lift your stamp. Be careful not to let your fingers touch the soot because you will leave fingerprints. Using a spray clear glaze sealer, immediately after stamping spray your image with the glaze and let it dry. (I used Krylon Triple Thick Crystal Clear Glaze.)

A year or so ago I made these train cards using the soot stamping technique but I didn't add color to the background as I did with with my autumn leaves ATCs.

Either way this is a really fun technique to try but of course anytime you are dealing with paper and a flame you must use caution. You might want to do this technique in your kitchen next to a sink just in case of emergency.

I hope you'll give this technique a try.

Cheers!

Jennifer

Autumn Leaves and Acorns

One of the things I love about autumn is watching the squirrels busy themselves with gathering acorns and hiding them away for the winter. They work hard, fast and diligently to stockpile their winter food supply. It reminds me of how hard I worked this summer harvesting, canning and preserving our garden produce.

Today's card is made with a beautiful autumn themed stamp set from Serendipity Stamps. This set is titled Acrons and in addition to the leaf and acorn image it has two lovely sentiment stamps.

Above is a close up photo of the leaves and acorns.

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Serendipity Stamps Acorns #1141QCL
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, edges sponged with Brilliance Old Olive
Image colored with Copic Markers
Designer Papers: BoBunny and Bazille
Accessories: Nestibilities dies, brass brads, Satin ribbon, Stickles and Dimensional glaze on the acorns for shine and dimension.

It looks like it will be a rainy, windy and very cold day today where I live. I imagine the squirrels will be on the look out for more supplies to put into their storage for the winter that appears to be coming very soon.

Cheers!

Jennifer

Hope for Hooters

Another card for October Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I made these last year and decided to do some more this year pretty much the same except perhaps more stickles glitter. I love my stickles!

The owl stamp is from Heather's Stamping Haven in Ottawa, Ontario. The sentiment "Hope for Hooters" is computer generated.

Be sure to get your hooters check!

Cheers!

Jennifer

Fight like a Girl

October is Breast Cancer awareness month. There are many rubber stamp companies making some wonderful images for us card makers who want to show our support or send a card of encouragement to someone battling the disease.

This morning I learned the WHIMSIE DOODLES digital stamp company is offering this "Fight like a Girl" image and sentiment FREE! Yes, you read that right! "HOPE FIGHTS" will be available on the Whimsie Doodle site for free until Friday, October 23rd for you to download and use. You can find the image under the tab titled FREEBIES. After Friday you can still purchase this image and all proceeds will donated to Breast Cancer Research. I think this is not only a very generous show of support by Whimsie Doodles owner, Melyssa, but also an awesome way to support and promote Breast Cancer awareness and research. Big kudos and hugs to Melyssa!

Card Recipe:
Image is by Whimsie Doodles digital images titled Hope Fights
Colored with Copic Markers
Paper is by Making Memories English Garden selections
Accessories: SU Grosgrain ribbon, tiny Prima flowers, stickles glitter glue, Martha Stewart scalloped eyelet border punch, foam mounting tape.

I hope you'll take the opportunity to check out this image and make some cards or other stamped project and support Breast Cancer awareness and research and brighten the day of someone who's spirits could use a boost.

Cheers!

Jennifer

Stamped Christmas Gifts

This month's challenge for the Serendipity Stamps is to create either a gift or an ornament using Stamps from Serendipity.

I decided I'd like to create a set of candles. Have you ever made stamped candles? These are really fun to do and fast to make. Here is how I did it:
Supplies needed:

Stamps: Serendipity Stamps #1196G Snowflake Flourish Lg and #1197B Snowflake Flourish Sm.
Ink: ColorBox Cyan (Blue) and Clear Embossing Powder
Paper: Tissue paper (kind of tissue paper you use to line gift bags with)and waxed paper
Accessories: Any size or shape of candles to fit your image

Process: I stamped my snowflake stamps numerous times on a piece of tissue paper with ColorBox pigment ink and then used clear embossing powder to set the ink. Cut the snowflakes out close to the image. A little border is fine and won't show when you are finished but do try to keep it cut as close as you comfortably can. Next place the stamped tissue paper image on the candle in the position you want it. Take a piece of waxed paper (NOT parchment paper or plastic wrap - it must be waxed paper) and place it over the tissue paper and wrap it tightly to hold it in place. Use a large enough piece of waxed paper that it will wrap around the candle and you can hold your image tight by holding the waxed paper (balled up) behind the candle. This is helpful so that when you apply your heat you won't burn your fingers. Finally, let your heatgun heat up good and hot and then heat the image remembering of course that you have the waxed paper on top of the image holding it in place. You can see the image through the waxed paper and in a VERY SHORT TIME you'll see that the heat from the heatgun is melting the candle wax and your tissue paper has adhered to the candle. Carefully remove the waxed paper and .... VOILA! You have a stamped candle! If you've heated your candle a little too long and you see that the candlewax is uneven or slightly drippy, while it is still warm use the waxed paper to smooth out the image.

It is important to note that the whole heating process takes just moments and you do not want to heat too long or your candle will melt.

You can embellish your candle in many ways. I used dots of Stickles glitter at the points of the candles. You could add crystal while the wax is warm if you worked quickly enough. Ribbons, garlands, charms are all very pretty too.



Be sure to hop on over to the rest of the design team's blogs and check out their gifts and/or ornaments they've created for this month's Serendipity Stamps Challenge.
Amy Cokley
Anya Schrier
Kathie Bailey
Lynda Benden
Shannon Teubner
Sue Eldred
Yvonne Hagane

Have a creative day!