It's summer!

Okay, I'm not the person most likely to be engaged in some physical, outdoor activity, but I do like to be out in the sunshine when the weather is good. And now that it's summer, it seems the rain has gone away in my neck of the woods. At least for the time being. That means lots of steamy afternoons in the pool and NOT in my inadequately air-conditioned scrap room! So fewer projects for me. But I've been doing some stuff in the last few weeks to share!

Here's a fun one that I saw on the Hero Arts blog. I think it was Jennifer McGuire (my hero!). Not exactly like the one she did, but close enough for government work. Instead of using a punched or die cut scalloped circle frame, I drew in the scallops with a Signo gel pen. I stamped the cloud image twice and cut out those and the sun. The hard part was stringing the beads, but once I got the hang of it, I just affixed the three strings between the two cloud cutouts to look like rain! The sun sits right behind the cloud. I used chalks to color the sun and cloud then sealed them with a spray sealant. I also used Diamond Glaze to glue the cloud to the transparancy.

For this card, I used alcohol inks on glossy cardstock for the background. I stamped the fishes with Versamark. The faux metal embellishment was fun with heat embossing. First you cut a piece of cardstock about the size of your stamp. Then you coat it with Versamark or other embossing ink (Ranger makes one too). Heat emboss it, then while still hot, give it another coat of embossing powder and heat it. Do about four layers of that. Before heating the final layer, get your stamp ready with a little Versamark (this keeps the stamp from sticking). Heat the last layer of powder, then stamp the image onto the heated embossing powder. Let the stamp sit (NO wiggling) for several seconds until it's cool (I counted to 15). Gently remove the stamp. I added a punched hole (with my Crop-a-dile) and a jute bow for a more manly feel.

This card doesn't feel done to me and I may add something else to it. The trick is to use white-core cardstock. Stamp an image that has diagonal lines. I used a simple diamond pattern stamp but you could use anything really as long as the lines are clear (either clearly there or "felt" between a series of images). Use either an embossing tool or one of those sticks they give you in packages of rubons to score the lines, fold and sand. You'll have white lines when you get done. And yes, very fold-y paper! You can go a step further, as I did, by using distress ink on the sanded areas. This is another great Jennifer McGuire tip!

Here's