Mel Stampz: SRM-Stickers

You guys may know that I was tragically born without the gene
that let's you achieve a Clean And Simple card. ;-)
Not sure why I find them so stinkin' difficult to do, but boy do I!

Do you find clean and simple
easy or tricky?

Since I love these stickers:

I didn't want to miss
this Clean & Simple challenge:

(CFC43 until Wed. 14th at 11:59 pm)

The first two cards may not
be truly clean and simple, but if the third one
isn't too clean, then I'll eat my stamps! :-D

A small & tall card
(6-1/4" tall x 3-3/8" wide)

The flower image is my new number one stamp fave:
Hero Arts Large Flower Background cling stamp

Technique details:

1) Stamped on Kraft cardstock using Colorbox White pigment ink.
2) Heat embossed with white embossing powder.
3) Painted with Distress Inks (Broken China, Tumbled Glass, Victorian Velvet, Forest Moss, Pumice Stone)

4) Intensified the colours with Copic markers & then painted over with Perfect Pearls

Such a fun technique to do...
Hopefully you can see some of the shimmer in this photo:

1c White heat emboss Hero Arts large flower bkgrd stamp on kraft cs -Distress ink painting with perfect pearls

Do you like creating sayings for cards?

Sentiments are where I get lazy.
They make me cringe since I can never stamp
them perfectly. Let's just say Hooray for Stickers!

This sticker is just cut up & stuck on watercolour paper:

1b SRM thank you sticker cut from circle on watercolour paper and cardstock

(and it's on some blue cardstock too). Super fast!

A square & sloppy card:
(5 inches square)

2a SRM sticker coloured with copic markers - Hero Arts large flower background stamp in white

The background stamping is that Hero Arts Large Flower background again
(masked off & stamped messily in Colorbox white ink (with rough lines
drawn around it in black pen & splatters of watery white paint).

---

The "... I love you ..." sticker is stuck on a little bit of printed
(miniscule) text & I used Copic markers to colour on top of the sticker:

2b SRM sticker - Over printed text in tiny typewriter font then coloured with Copic markers

I just smudged the Copics while they were still wet, with a finger tip.
Then added a bit of black hand stitching on the tag.

An ultra-simple A2 card:
(5-1/2" tall x 4-1/4" wide)

3a super simple stitched SRM thanks sticker card

The white "thanks" sticker stuck on black cardstock &
pierced & stitched:

I was surprised at how easy it was to stitch letters using the sticker since it makes
the paper stronger (and I found it made the stitched letters look so much tidier too!)
Plus, how cute is that font, hey?

The hearts are from a teeny punch that was $1.50 at Michael's:

I stuck a piece of Distress-inked paper under them (inks: mustard seed,
broken china, spiced marmalade).

Here are the stickers I used, in case you're curious
(they're highlighted in turquoise). I cut the brown "thank
you" out of the circle for the first card.

We've Got Your Sticker - Thanks:

Sticker Sentiments - Love:

Hope you are having the
most delightful of weeks!

P.S. full disclosure: I received the SRM stickers for free back in the day as part of design team work.

P.P.S. The coloured sticker on card number 2 was inspired by this amazing scrapbook page by Corrie Jones on the SRM blog.

Do you remember fireflies?
Magical little fairy bugs in starry summer skies?
sighhhhhhh... :o)

Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade,
Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid.

- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

1... The card & some ideas for different night sky backgrounds
2... The digital image from A Day for Daisies
3... a step by step pictorial for how to make this card
4... free firefly dictionary digital patterned paper (two styles)

-1-

for different backgrounds

Cards with night skies:

a day for daisies holding fireflies by mel stampz

On the front this 5.5" square card says "This little light of mine..."

The text paper has the definition of firefly on it
(a homemade dictionary digital paper-available below)

and the inside says...

a day for daisies holding fireflies card by mel stampz INSIDE

"I'm gonna let it shine!"
...with a heart-shaped firefly
(and there are fireflies on the black envelope as well)

To make a card at night, you can simply cut out your image & paste it on black.

Some ideas:

...use black cardstock
...black patterned paper
...or print a black digital paper
...heat emboss or pressure emboss
...stamp, or paint a black background.

The (night) sky's the limit! Of course, your sky doesn't have to be black, it can be navy, purple... whatever you like.

-2-

A Day for Daisies digital image:

Holding Fireflies

-3-

make this Holding Fireflies card:

Image: Holding Fireflies digi from A Day For Daisies...
...embossed from Canon inkjet printer on Borden & Riley #234 Paris Bleedproof 108lb paper for pens
Fine clear embossing powder (I use Stampendous clear detail powder)
Heat gun, Clear distress Crackle Paint: Rock Candy
Black cardstock, circle cutter, ruler & White Prismacolor pencil crayon
Sakura pens: Stardust glitter pen, White souffle pen, black glaze pen
Copic markers & Prismacolor pencils (turquoise, & skin and hair tones)
Paper piercing tool
Needle, thread, scissors, adhesive
Nestabilities Label Five & a Cuttlebug
Cream coloured watercolour paper
White text weight paper & dictionary digi papers (for scallops)
Scallop template to trace
Vellum cardstock & word document to print & heat emboss sentiment
Seam binding ribbon

Step 1} Print, Colour, and cut out the image.

1a} Print the image. As always, I've embossed the Holding Fireflies digital image on Paris Bleedproof paper. It lets the ink jet printer ink stay wet long enough to hold the fine clear embossing powder. (You can read more about that digital embossing technique here if you like).

1b} Colour it (no need to stay in lines since it's being cut out). I used Copic markers and then added some Prismacolor pencil crayons over top (that way the pencil won't clog your Copic marker nibs). I also drew in little lines for the toes-a weird detail, huh?

1c} I love to score lines in hair using a paper piercing tool,
and then colour with Copic Markers and Prismacolor pencils:

The colour stays in the grooves.

Step 2} Cut the figure of the girl out. (The dress is dotted with white souffle gel pen

Step 3} cut the jar of fireflies out & cover it with distress crackle paint (rock candy is clear and gives lovely fine cracks-too cool for school!) :0)

Step 4} To make the nighttime background- cut a circle of black cardstock This one is 2 and 7-8 inches in diameter Add a highlight in white pencil crayon to create a horizon line.

Step 5} Place the image temporarily on the circle where you'd like it to sit & draw little white circles for fireflies (add sparkle & black gel pen dots too):

5 b} Pierce and stitch around the circle. I also added a bit of turquoise cardstock behind that I dotted with white gel pen & cut roughly

Step 6} Create a mat to back the image with text paper. This text paper is available below. I scanned it from an old dictionary to share with you. :)

This shape was made by cutting a die cut (Nestabilities Label Five) and trimming it straight on the sides. To get the thin black border, I just adhered it to black cardstock & cut the black paper by hand.

Step 7} Print a sentiment (this one is printed from a word document) on vellum cardstock, emboss it quickly when it comes out of printer Adhere to white cardstock & colour with Copic or other light marker to tint it. I used turquoise: B00 frost blue.

Step 8} Adhere the words of the sentiment to the underside of the mat.

Here's a shot of the sentiment from the back:

It's on a speedy strip of adhesive (LOVE that ATG gun. It took
some getting used to but it's a nice speedy option).

Step 9} Add some scallops. I liked the idea of having hand-drawn lines on these scallops as a trim detail, so I used silver gel pen to trace an old-school plastic template.

By machine: If you have a die cutting machine you can cut scallops (The Cricut Plantin Schoolbook cartridge has some lovely scallops. More about them in this post here.)

To make hand made scallops: Trace a shape template to create big fat scallops. If you have a plastic one like the Creative Memories one used in the picture above that's dandy, or you could print the free fat scallop template included in this post to make a paper template to trace.

Step 10} The white scallops didn't seem to tie in with the cream coloured watercolour paper of the card from so I slipped a piece of paper under & coloured the scallop edges with prismacolor pencil # 314