Thank you Dahlia blooms.

This weekend, I went to Atlanta to teach a Silhouette class, and then I stayed to have a meeting with my Fun Stampers Journey downline. 

I made several cards with the color splashes, and there was one sheet of background that I didn't like, so I did a little trick; I stamped it with the Dahlia blooms set and heat embossed it. I was very happy with the results. I wanted the flower to really pop, so I put it on a black licorice card base. Then for the sentiment, I used a Bloom Benefits!

The best thing about this card is that it has already been given away! I added a quick note to the inside and gave it to the best dog sitter in the world. She sends me videos of Sunny every morning and evening.

To buy the items to reproduce this card, go to www.funstampersjourney.com/Betsye

Silent Night in Turbo Teal

 

I wish you could see all the sparkle on this card.  It's definitely not a traditional Christmas card, even though it does have a couple of traditional elements.  Such as sequins.  I remember Christmas balls that Grandma made with sequins and Styrofoam.  They were so pretty.  I've started one or two, but they take so long to make that I never finished.  Sequins are such a great addition to any homemade decoration. The Fun Stampers Journey Sequins Special Celebration come in a little jar and there are 3 different sizes in that jar.  There's no telling how many are in that jar, I've had several make and takes with them, and the jar still looks full. I bought the Tinsel Trim not knowing what I was going to do with it, but could not resist such a cute tiny replica of the traditional Christmas decoration!  Unfortunately, the stars are retired, but they were a bloom benefit for the previous catalog.  So easy to attach with Journey Glaze 2 oz.  And oh my goodness, this Oh Holy Bundle stamp set with matching dies is a thing of beauty! I stamped this sentiment with the Turbo Teal Ink Pad and attached it to the card with Journey Foam Squares.

The background was the easy part. Place one Color Splash Sheet in the bottom of a card board box. Take Shimmer Silver Color Splash and Turbo Teal Splash (be sure to shake the silver splash until you hear the mixing ball and the sediment is not on the bottom of the bottle, but mixed in) and just do one spray of each from 10-12 inches away.  I got the streaks by scraping the card against the flap of the box while the spray was still wet.  

Since I used the Turbo Teal ink and spray, I attached the Color Splash Sheet to some Turbo Teal 8.5X11 card stock cut in half.

Merry Christmas in July

There are times when I need a quick, simple card.  Christmas is one of those times for me becasue I make so many.  This is as simple as they come!  I used the Punch Handle and 1" Square Punch to create squares from the very cute, limited edition, 'Tis The Season Prints.  I mounted those on a 3 1/2" square of Kiwi Slice 8.5 x 11 Cardstock.

Three of the squares were pop-dotted with Journey Foam Squares - medium.  The 3 1/2" square was attached with some Journey Foam Squares - small.

Then I used the Holiday Cord Trio.  Isn't it so pretty with all the colors of a traditional Christmas twisted together for me?  I love how much I get on a roll. so far, I've gotten 40 cards out of one roll, and there's still more on the roll!

To finish out the front of the card, I stamped Merry Christmas in Kiwi Slice True Color Fusion Ink Pad, using a Bloom Benefit that has two stamps:

Anyone who spends $50 in product at funstampersjourney.com/Betsye can get this for free.  And if one spends another $50, they can get the die cut for free too!

Christmas in July

Welcome to our Fun Stampers Journey "Christmas in July" Blog Hop! I'm so happy you're hoppin' along! This is the first stop on the hop, but if you arrived from another blog, just keep hoping until you come full circle.

It's almost crazy to think about Christmas when the temperatures are in the triple digits, but I get to longing for cooler weather, and remembering that I need to get started on this year's Christmas cards. I make a couple hundred, so I have to start early.  Lucky for me, the Fun Stampers Journey new catalog and seasonal mini catalog have some amazing stamp sets that I love!

I'm especially partial to stamp sets that celebrate the birth of Jesus, and what better way to begin a series of Christmas cards than with an angel who announced the birth of Christ?

This is a simple, yet elegant card. It honestly didn't take long to make, which makes it a perfect card. I began with a piece of Whip cream cardstock and applied a Blue and a metallic silver Pan Pastel which has a new partnership with Fun Stampers Journey.

If you've never heard of Pan Pastel, it's an oil based chalk that is  highly pigmented (loaded with color). It goes on the cardstock very smoothly and you can blend it or layer it, or stamp an image with our clear pigment ink and them rub it on your focal panel.

Fun Stampers Journey four sets with seven colors each

 Thanks for hopping to my blog. Please head over to
Wilma Payne's blog to see what she has share.

Full Blog Roll:

Betsye Rose Cimino Erano - betseyrose.blogspot.com    (you are here)

Wilma Payne - stampintotheoldies.blogspot.com    

Carol Moffatt Norby - stampincarol.blogspot.com      

Martha Jackson - www.marthajstamps.com    

Susan Berg - suseadoodledo-journeys.blogspot.com     

Ruth Cooper - www.sassyangelsstudio.com    

Kim Lamos - pinkzebrapapercreations.blogspot.com    

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. They are treasured.

Mist Comparison

Saturday is play day for those of us who work M-F full time.  And what better way to play than to experiment?  I always loved science experiments.

As I begin this experiment, I know how I HOPE the results are going to turn out, but since it is an experiment, I am open to surprises.

What kind of experiment could I do you ask?  Let's just say I've been cleaning in my scraproom for a few weeks (seems like I still have a year of weekends left to clean before it's done) and discovered that I have sooo many spray mists by different companies.  I've selected multiple blues for today's experiment.  I've thought about putting some of the mists/sprays that are non-FSJ in the Salvation Army crop sale room, but I have a hard time letting go of things.  But today I decided to 'compare' the mists.  For the experiment, I will 

1. use the same paper for every mist 
2. use the same stencil for every mist 
3. use the same distance, or as close to the same as I can humanly do
4. make sure the mist is spraying correctly before spraying onto the experiment.

 Here's the set-up.  A box that brought me stuff from Amazon yesterday, the Vintage Screen- Stencil which still has paint on it from the last make-and-take I did with it, and a piece of Neenah white cardstock.  I also did a spray at half the distance and without a stencil.

The First spray I tried was something called Memories Mist.  I was pleasantly surprised by this one, and I love the soft color that it gives.  It's like a pastel true blue, and looks powdery on the paper.

The second   spray I tried was the distress Ink.  I was not at all surprised by this result.  One Spray gave good coverage, and I really like how it looks without a stencil too!

I was so disappointed by the results that I got spraying the glimmer mist 3 times, I can hardly see the stencil design.

Spraying the Glimmer Mist without the stencil was a disappointment as well, but I did get a few cool splatters.

Mister Huey was a great Surprise.  it has good coverage with just one spray.  When I sprayed without the stencil, I could literally see it dry, it was so quick.

I wish I were surprised by the lack of color saturation with Shimmer Spray after 2 sprays, but I am not. I will point out that of all the sprays I tried today, this has the most shimmer/shine on the page.

Perfect Pearls did show up on the page, but not as much, and the one that I sprayed without the stencil just made the paper look dirty. If that's the look you're going for, it would be great.

I was not disappointed by the FSJ Splash spray. Lots of saturated color with just one spray. I did learn that if you spray too closely (as I did due to moving half the distance for all the sprays when spraying without the stencil) that there's so much color that it pools up. I think there would have been a larger area covered if I had sprayed from farther away.

I was so shocked at the lack of color from the Prima mist with the stencil. I know the green shows up much better. I sprayed this three times because it just didn't look like it was working, but the paper was wet.  It did look better without the stencil.

Thanks for looking at my blog post. I shall be using the mists more now.

CYCI #127

There is a challenge online that I've seen other people playing, and I decided to try it out.  This week's challenge was to use the colors Blue, Turquoise, and Lime.

I've been wanting to play more with my sprays, and I have the Blue Lagoon Color Splash, Electric Lime Splash, and Turbo Teal Splash which fit the challenge perfectly.  

I used some watercolor paper, and after spraying, I let it dry a little, and then blotted off the extra.

Isn't this quote wonderful? Dreams is one of the ATS stamps that you can get for free by hosting a make and take party.

 I thought about letting the quote be all on the page, but decided to add the butterfly chip (retired item).  But the technique I used can be used on any wood chip. 

I painted the wood chip with the Electric Lime Silk, and then stamped using an image from Ornamental Dream, and placed Journey Twine Black Licorice behind it trying to have three different sizes of loops to mimic the butterfly wings, adding a few Journey Sequins Blue Skies to the card with Journey Glaze 2 oz.. The color in these pictures do not do the card justice.  The Electric Lime is so bright!

 

After attaching the card front to a base of Denim Days 8.5 x 11 Cardstock cut in half with Easy Glide Permanent Adhesive Runner, I also used Ornamental Dream to stamp an image on a cardstock on the inside, using the Denim Days True Color Fusion Ink Pad and Electric Lime Ink Pad.

 If you would like to play along, head on over to http://canyoucaseit.com/?p=3288

Dahlia Birthday

I love the way FSJ modeling paste looks on dark cardstock. It is such a striking contrast. And the Starburst Lines stencil is a perfect frame for bling. 

For the flower and leaf, I stamped and heat embossed onto vellum, cut it out with the matching die, and painted the back with Silks.  The color appears very muted when looking at it from the other side of the vellum.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. All comments are greatly appreciated.