I promised that I would do a video using the Impression Obsession background technique and the new Wendy Vecchi inks.
I used old Stampin’ Up background stamps including rice paper, tea house, polka dot, and a french script stamp from an unknown maker.

The inks I used of Wendy Vecchi’s new Make Art Blendable inks were Prickly Pear, Fern Green, Cornflower Blue, Sunflower and Orange Blossom for the stenciling. I didn’t have a beige ink in the Wendy Vecchi inks, so used Crumb Cake from Stampin Up for the french script.

The leaf stencil came from Stampers Anonymous in the stamp set called Little Birdies that I’ll be showing you in an upcoming haul video. I used the stipple brush that was shown in the demonstration and I didn’t have great results, so went back to my 1″ chip brushes that I buy at Harbor Freight Liquidators in a pack of 36 for $10 with a 20% coupon, paid $8. I trim about 3/4″ off the top of the bristles so they are straight across. You need one for every color family, and one for distress oxides and pigment ink color families.  That means you can use one brush for all of your red dye based inks, but you can’t use that brush for red distress oxides or red pigment inks, those need to have a separate brush for the two (distress oxide and pigments)..

After stamping my backgrounds, I went around the outside edge with the Orange Blossom ink with my chip brush in orange blossom.

I trimmed the paper so my finished backgrounds were 5 1/2″ wide. I cut four strips of     1 1/2″ tall by 5 1/2″ wide (making sure that you are cutting in the direction your pattern goes.)  You’ll need two more strips of  3/4″ x 5 1/2″ from the patterned paper you created.

Then you’ll need a card stock color that will match the larger piece that you will layer card stock on, that is 5 7/8″ tall x 4 5/8″ wide. In my case, I used green card stock for this. I made a layer of white that is 5 3/4″ tall by 4 1/2″ wide.

The green card base is 11″ long by 5 3/4″ wide scored at 1″, 2 3/4″, 3 3/4″, 5 1/2″, 7 1/4″, 8 1/4″, and 10″. Fold all of your scores so they are ready for the next stage. You should decorate before you fold the card, but we have one more step before decorating. Take an X-acto knife, (craft tool), and your score board. You need to make a mark on the 5 1/2″ score mark 1/2″ from either end, then using your X-acto knife, cut on the 5 1/2″ score line from 1/2″ from one end to 1/2″ from the other end. Then turn it around and cut it again on the same line so you have a bigger slit to slide paper through. It’s important that you follow that step so your card can slide things easily. To decorate your card, you’ll alternate your wide strips so the first section is blank, then you have a wide piece, then a thin piece, then wide, then another wide,, then thin, and your last section is blank. You will want to put tear tape up to the score line in the top and bottom sections of the card.
I decorated the white paper with the leaf stencil and the sunflower and orange blossom inks and off setting the stencil. Then I brushed over the left side with orange. I took some thin taffeta ribbon and wrapped it over the left side and tied a knot near the top and put a piece of patterned paper that was left over, I pushed under the ribbon.
To put the card together, fold down the top scored section and keep it folded down but leave the backing of the tear tape on it. Slide your center piece you decorated, into the cut you made, fold up the bottom piece and take your tear tape backing off and take the center piece and line it up so it’s straight and centered on the bottom of the card, then take the backing off the tear tape on the top of the card and holding the top with the piece folded down, just fold it down to the bottom and press. The card is done.
I showed how to make an envelope for it, and you’ll need 9″ square paper and place the paper like a baseball diamond and center your card in the middle of it. Then fold the sides in, and if your paper is too thick, use your stylus and rub the edges surrounding your card, so it makes folding the paper a lot easier. You’ll fold the bottom up and the top down, and trim the little corner pieces out. Put tear tape or wet glue on it, and the envelope is made.

I finished my nephew’s graduation card and was happy with the results.  Although I bought a bunch of nurse inspired embellishments, in the end, I put them inside the card, as I didn’t need them on the front, and didn’t want to waste them by losing track of them until someone else I know, (no idea who) would also become a nurse.

I just gave Rich the sticks for the background technique and that video is going to take forever for him to put online.  I hope he doesn’t kick it to the curb, because it’s a long one…Sad to say, if one doesn’t go live tomorrow, no videos will go up until Monday when we get back from North Carolina.

I’m excited to see my family, but still not feeling my best, and don’t like to travel when I my arthritis is having a meltdown.  Sometimes this disease can be really frustrating, and I realize that there are so many things that are worse than arthritis, and I really try to stay focused on that.  I hate that I talk about it so much on the channel, but I use this as a way to destress at the end of a day.  It doesn’t always work, but it’s worth a try.

I’ll try to keep up at least a day or two while we’re in North Carolina, and I’ll give you an update when I get home..

After posting the video of the background from Impression Obsession, I started thinking about ways that I could not only make the background, but also make a card out of it.  I’m thinking of making a Slide and Stand Card with it and need to jump on this idea tonight before I forget about it.

I’ve been trying to get ready for a short trip we’re taking to North Carolina, leaving Wednesday afternoon, and getting home on Sunday.  Our nephew is graduating from the nursing school at the University of North Carolina, and we’re going for the “pinning” ceremony.  It’s when he is given his nursing pin, and you choose who you want to “pin” you.  My sister is a nurse, but hasn’t practiced in several years due to her diabetes.  Her son has asked her to pin him, and Rich and I don’t want to miss that.  It’s going to be thrilling to watch him graduate with honors and have my sister put his pin on him.

I still haven’t made his graduation card, but promised I would use the Wendy Vecchi inks and do the Impression Obsession technique and am trying to do both on one card.  Cross your fingers for me, I’m not sure how this is going to work out….

Rich and I attended the Adventures in Stamping Show in Akron, Ohio, and saw this great background technique with Impression Obsession.. I’ll be doing an upcoming video to show you how I would make the same background technique.   Thanks Melinda, for the great technique!

Here are the tools she used:
Inks:    http://tinyurl.com/y93a75s5

removable adhesive runner:   http://tinyurl.com/y9bsnjub

Mega-Mount (Rocking mount)    http://tinyurl.com/yb2s3f53

Rolling Waves Stamp     http://tinyurl.com/yc46s5ln

I couldn’t find the french script stamp at the Impression Obsession website or the first leaf stamp she used, as she didn’t mention the name of it, sorry.

Here’s the link to their website: http://www.iostamps.com/

I’m so tired of making huge mistakes and this one is a biggy.  After recording the crafty visit with Shelli and Linda, I realized the memory card I used was having issues.  Not just a few….it cut out all but two of our clips.  I decided I could make them work and added more information related to the projects we’d done.  Of course then I lost the book that held all of my memory cards, and when Rich was trying to upload the videos, couldn’t find any from our crafty visit.  How do I keep doing these things?  I think one of my issues is not throwing out a memory card when it is no longer viable.  For some reason I convince myself it will work in the future (but it never does.)  So I’ve learned yet another lesson in YouTubing.  Throw out bad memory cards.

Maybe someday I’ll get this right, but I doubt it.  My YouTube friend Carol Held still has major issues and has lost 30 hours of video, and it wasn’t a one time thing.  She’s forgotten to turn her camera on, lost video footage, deleted video footage, and the list goes on.  Talking to her always makes me feel better about the things I do, but nothing ever makes me feel good about losing a video that can’t be re-shot.  I would say “live and learn” but so far, I’m not learning very much.  I’m going to order three or four more memory cards, and get rid of anything that is iffy.  That’s step one.  I’m not sure what I’ll do in step two, but hopefully, it will be something that helps me not have these things happen in the future.

Rich and I spent a significant portion of today looking for a memory card that got misplaced.  I have a fairly good system for Rich and editing.  I use composition notebooks, with a small envelope glued inside the cover.  I write notes on each video, then put the memory card in the envelope and give him the book.  I have a rotation of four composition books, so he should always have one to work from.  Today when he went to put the scrap paper card video up, the memory card was no longer in its envelope.  I normally wouldn’t panic, but this card had videos that couldn’t be replaced.  It had one of my cousin Shelli, and our friend Linda crafting with me, an album I’m making for our friends’ new house, and the scrap card video.

I decided not to panic, but after an hour of looking, I decided I’d be better off taking a nap.  We eventually found the memory card, but the anxiety the whole missing card gave me, ruined my day.  I really wanted to do something crafty today, but just gave up instead.  Sometimes it’s better to nap and read rather than fret about a missing memory card.

I really wanted to use scrap paper, but didn’t remember to look for it, so went with a paper pad, called Latte Stack from DCWV from Joanns..It’s an older paper pack, that I’ve been trying to get rid of.
I watched a video by Tina Zinck and saw her make this card (or a very similar one.)   I made an “X” on a 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of card stock, one inch from the sides. So the marks are 1″ from the left side and 1″  from the right side. I made the same marks at the top and bottom, then ran a pencil line and made an “X”. I used the X for a guideline as to where to lay my paper strips. The strips were 1/2″ wide by 6″ (the length of the paper pad.)   I used four different paper patterns. One paper pattern on the outside of the X on all four lines of the X that meet in the middle, then used another paper pattern, butted next to the first,  then another and another. I trimmed them from the underneath of the card stock as I got to the edges, and then used the pieces I trimmed off to continue the pattern. I glued my papers down with wet glue but you can use tear tape, tape runner, or glue sticks.
After the whole front was covered, I cut 1/8″ strips of gray paper from the same paper pad and glued them to about 1/2″ from the bottom and top, as well as 1/2″ from both sides. I took a diamond shaped layered set of dies and cut a smaller diamond for the sentiment, then the next larger size out of the same gray color used for the small strips.
I used cream color card stock from Recollections Heavy Weight card stock from Michaels and cut it to 5 1/2″ by 4 1/4″, actually 8 1/2″ scored at 4 1/4″ to make a 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ card front. I took the gray piece cut to 5 3/8″ x 4 1/8″ (and cut the center out to be the diamond that layers under the sentiment. I added foam squares between the sentiment and the gray layer when adhering them to my card.  I stamped the sentiment with gray ink that I thought would match, but was a little bit too dark.
In cleaning the extra paper I’d cut, I used some spare strips to layer near the botom my envelope on the front and back.

https://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=BMCLpbCgExs

I’m really excited because I already got a notification from Ranger Ink saying they’ve already sent the inks I ordered.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to play with Wendy Vecchi’s new inks.  She made them look like blending was a breeze.  I have some ideas of some cards I’d like to make that will involve blending, and these should work perfectly for me.  Of course I didn’t need any more inks, but these just spoke to me.  I love trying new things, and can’t wait to play with these.

As for the other demonstrations I videotaped, I’m going to make a corresponding video so that you can watch me using the same techniques after the original video airs.  I might even combine each into one video, or, if time goes too long, will separate them.  I had to separate the Wendy Vecchi video because I didn’t get all of the inks I wanted, but I think I’ll be able to show the rest of the techniques at the same time as the demonstration at the stamp show.  I have so many videos that need to be uploaded and need Rich to jump on them.  He says he’ll upload one tomorrow…

Rich and I attended Adventures in Stamping, a stamp show in Akron, Ohio.  I was lucky enough to spend time one-on-one with Wendy Vecchi while she demonstrated her new Make Art Blendable Inks.  Of course I bought some of them (ones that were available), and will be showing them in an upcoming video. Below are the links to find Wendy’s inks and the other products we discussed.

Tim Holtz-Idea-ology Finials https://stampersanonymous.com/tim-holtz-idea-ology-vignette-finial-set-th93573.html

Wendy Vecchi Make Art Blendable Dye Inks
https://stampersanonymous.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=wendy+vecchi&x=0&y=0

Matt Minis  When you buy the matt mini, you should buy the coordinated stamp, so you can stamp on the matt mini, then color it. It adds great dimension to your project. https://stampersanonymous.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=mat+mini&x=0&y=0

Tim Holtz Glass Media Mat    https://stampersanonymous.com/tim-holtz-glass-media-mat-1914e.html

All Wendy Vecchi products available through the Stampers Anonymous website–https://stampersanonymous.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=wendy+vecchi+

Detail Blending Tool   https://stampersanonymous.com/detail-blending-tool-ibt62172.html

 

 

Rich worked really hard on piecing together all of the different videos from the stamp show, and believe me, it wasn’t easy.  I wanted to make sure I showed the Wendy Vecchi video first, and was able to do so.  I’ll be doing my own take on her blendable inks in a few days.  It was a matter of getting all of the ink colors I wanted, especially the yellow color, which of course, was no longer available when I got there.  I talked to some women at the stamp show that had attended her classes, and unfortunately, I was not able to attend, as they were the day before I got there.  I considered myself really lucky to get one on one time with Wendy, and to be able to get her to allow me to video tape her.  I can’t wait to give her inks a try.