Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Easter Card - 3D Pop-up Design Template

Are you ready for an extreme paper crafting challenge?  The rewards will be worth your effort and Leigh Snaith-Brunton created a printable template for you to make it easier.  Visit her Spring 3D Pop-Up Easter Egg Card post on her blog to see some fantastic step by step instructions and print out the cutting template.  E-mail me at sr@blockheadstamps.com if you create your own version.  I'd love to see it.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Faux Silk with Chinese Princess Stamp Set

Hi Everyone,

It is me, Karen McAlpine, visiting today from Dreaming and Creating.  I thought it would be nice to share a “faux” technique with you. I have a lot of fun with this technique: Faux Silk. It is simple and can be made with materials you will have on hand. This is the project we will be making today.



List of Supplies:
White Cardstock
Navy Cardstock
Tissue paper in white or other colors
Gold and red trim
Fabric scrap
Pearl Stickers

First, we will start with ordinary tissue paper, the Princess stamp, and some dye ink.
Stamp the image on the tissue. This is what your images will look like. I have samples using red and black ink on white, red and, brown tissue paper. This technique is so versatile that any color combo I have tried turns out great. I stamped off once for the sample in the upper left.

Let the ink dry completely before going to next step. You can even heat it with a heat gun to be sure it is dry. If the ink is not dry, it will smear. Now, crumple the tissue up into a tight ball.

Flatten the tissue out and see if you like the results. Sometimes I repeat the crumpling several times to get more texture. Now your tissue will look like this.


You can really see the Silkiness on this close up of the white tissue. Pretty cool!
To give it some strength, I glue the tissue to a piece of cardstock. I used white for the white sample and brown for the brown.

Now, to finish the card, just add some layers. I also stamped the border from the Japanese Musicians set on the edge of a piece of white cardstock and added the layered tissue piece.

I used dark Navy cardstock to make the card base. For accents I added a piece of gold/red trim and a piece of white organza that I had in my stash. And, I of course love pearls on an Asian inspired image. And, I also made the brown tissue sample into a card.

You can also check out my Blog for two additional samples using black ink on white and red tissue. Hope you will try this technique. I think it is so fun. When I give or show a card to friends made using this technique, they can’t help touching and rubbing it to feel the texture. The cards are always a big hit. I’ll be back in two weeks with another technique. Happy Stamping!

Karen McAlpine

Friday, March 18, 2011

Dragons a Plenty!

Karen McAlpine just created 3 great cards using the dragon stamp and some others from our Chinese Princess stamp set.  Be sure to visit her blog to see these card samples created with Chinese Princess set.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Vintage Domino Wall Art

vintage looking dominos created by Leigh Snaith-Brunton
Be sure to check out Leigh Snaith-Brunton's blog for a great vintage domino tutorial using Ancient Page inks and Blockheads Flowers stamps.