Posts Tagged ‘Nature Walk’
Nature Walk: Inspirational Gift Ideas
Still looking for a few gift ideas this season? Here’s one that can inspire your stamping creativity plus inspire your recipient. Recently, my friend Karyn brought me a poem that her god-son, Timothy Jochim, had written her years ago. The original frame had seen better days and the paper was fading, but the prayer inside holds special meaning for her and she wanted to know if I could turn it into something that she can display.
Break out the stamps, embellishments and a new frame, and here we go! I used the Nature Walk stamp set (see it online) and an assortment of Crochet Trim, Pearls and Seam Binding Ribbon. The colors are Marina Mist, Not Quite Navy, River Rock and Soft Suede.
To make a soft border around the edges of the text, I used my brayer and layered ink slowly–just a little bit at a time, until I was happy with the effect. The soft texture matches with the organic feel of the pencil-drawn stamp set.
To add extra impact to the message, I printed the prayer a 2nd time, and cut out a few words. I used Sponge Daubers to gently ink the edges of the words and raised them with Stampin’ Dimensionals. To balance the dimension, I cut out and added one of the Nature Walk birds with Dimensionals.
The prayer is beautiful — here is the text, if you are interested:
Daily Prayer…
by Timothy Jochim
My dear Lord God
To you I pray,
That you will help me
Through this day.
I will not worry
Of the past,
For the future
Is coming fast.
I’ll put my humble
Faith in you,
And know your love,
Will see me through.
The hard times I
Endure today,
Will only help me
On my way,
For as my pain lasts
All the longer,
It’s only there,
To make me stronger.
I promise I
Won’t leave your side,
And by your laws
I will abide.
I love you till
The very end,
For you are my
Eternal friend,
In Jesus name I pray… Amen.
I hope you have fun this weekend, working on projects and getting ready for the holidays! If you’re looking for more ‘home decor’ type projects, you can browse a few on my blog.
Happy Stamping!
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Subscribe to the comments for this postRetro Brayer Color Block Technique
I’ve been mentioning lately how much I’m loving the Nature Walk stamp set (see it online). So when I needed to design a card for Stamp Club with Meg (tonight! check my event calendar) this was the first stamp set to jump off the shelf and into my hand.
What a mouthful for a technique name though! This technique has been around since I started demonstrating about 10 years ago, and it has several names… Layered Brayers and a whole bunch more that I can’t recall.
But whatever you call it, it’s a great collage-type technique. Here I used the Nature Walk stamp set along with Classic Ink Pads in River Rock, Crumb Cake and Marina Mist, plus Early Espresso for stamping the darkest images.
Here are the steps for the Retro Brayer Color Block Technique:
- Stamp the background images in a variety of colors on Glossy Card Stock
- Use a Brayer and the lightest of your 3 ink colors to color the background
- Trim a Post-It Note to the desired size and cover up 1-2 spots on your card (I chose the bird images)
- Use the Brayer and the medium ink color to cover your full paper
- Add a few more Post-It Note masks and use your darkest color. Remove all masks and finish your card.
I used card stock to match my ink colors. The Four Frames stamp set (see my April Card Class ‘To Go’) is a perfect match for the oval stamp in Perfect Punches (the ‘thanks’ and small frame).
The sweet little Rosette and the Champagne Glass Glitter, Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper and Crumb Cake Seam Binding Ribbon are all from the Occasions Mini Catalog.
Here is a fun trick with the Perfect Punches oval image. First stamp the ‘thanks’ oval, then punch out the words in the center with the 1-3/8″ x 5/8″ Oval Punch. Then punch out the frame with the Scallop Oval Punch and you have a fun frame with an oval-shaped window in the center.
Happy Stamping!
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Springtime Vintage Thank You Gift
Each year we hold a large demonstrator training event called Spring Into Stamping. This year was our 6th annual event, and I wanted to share a few highlights. Except now I’m having trouble distilling the event into just a few highlights, so I think you’ll be seeing highlights over the next few days!
It takes many many demonstrators to put the event together, and we have helpers for Make N Takes, a Demonstration Fair, Registration, Shoebox Swap, AV help, etc. Plus we have a talented group of coordinators who coordinate some of these areas.
This year I made special Thank You gifts for the coordinators, based on a gift that Shelli Gardner, CEO of Stampin’ Up!, made for us as a gift at Founder’s Circle this year.
Shelli created these with her daughters for 100+ of us, and I appreciate their work even more now! My mom helped me finish these up in time, so ours was a family project, too. The bags would be terrific for Easter gifts, wedding or baby shower favors, or satchels for potpourri.
The bags are filled with chocolate, and created from the Pennant Die (see it online) for the Big Shot (see it online). The Pennant Die is one of my favorites (check out some of my other projects). Just cut two pennants, stitch the top down to make a little sleeve for the ribbon, sew the two sides together and you’re all set with a simple cinch bag with a sweet scalloped edge.
The fabric is from the Occasions Mini Catalog (available only til April 30). The Springtime Vintage Fabric (see it online) is a perfect match for the Vintage Flower Adornments (see them online) that I used to decorate the tag and the medallion on the bag.
The blue Scallop Square piece under the Adornment rosette is actually punched from the matching Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper (see it online). With the paper piece, there is a little more stiffness to help the medallion stand up a bit more than the fabric pieces.
The ribbons are the Rose Red Seam Binding and the Victoria Crochet Trim (love them both!).
The tag is from the Two Tags Die (see it online) for Big Shot. This wasn’t one of my first die purchases, but it’s always at the top of my stack now. In fact, watch tomorrow for the other gift project I created, also using the Two Tags die!
The stamp set I used is Nature Walk (I’ve been using it a lot recently). The “Thank You” is from the Elegant Engravings stamp set (love it–see it online). And you probably recognize the flower Adornment. The colors here are Early Espresso, Baja Breeze and Crumb Cake, with a touch of Rose Red.
Happy Stamping!
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