Fun Challenge!

So, if you are a Splitcoaststamper, I hope you will check out this weeks Way to Use it challenge. They are celebrating 100 with a fun one--find something on the web to inspire a card or other creation. That is one certainly everyone can play along with. Julia even has prizes this week!! I did 3 last night! I have lots of ideas stashed away but sometimes you need a push to make them happen. This Lovely as a Tree card was inspired by a sample on my LSS website. They had a really cool single tree stamp in their sample and this stamp was the closest I could come. The trees are gold embossed and then to add interest I brushed some green Stickles onto the trees. I cut the pieces by hand to get an uneven look, edged the pieces with a gold Krylon leafing pen and then used dimensionals to adhere them. An interesting look for sure. I think it works best with a large stamp and their single tree pulled off the look better than my stamp but sometimes it is the journey that is most important and it was a fun card to make.

I also have loads of shrink plastic and have been meaning to try some different techniques. I went to the Lucky Squirrel website and drooled over several samples of amazing art. I decided to try the intaglio technique. I punched out circles with my Marvy 2 1/2" punch, punched a hole to attach it later and then shrunk them. Once they are shrunk, you super heat it with a heat gun until it is soft. Then you impress a stamp into it and it leaves, well, an impression. You can do this with an inked or uninked stamp. In this case I chose to ink my stamp in silver Brilliance ink first because I thought it would show up better in the black shrink plastic. I sprayed it with a glossy sealer and then used a silver Krylon leafing pen on the edges. They are attached to the silver bracelet with O rings. I think they kinda have an Asian look to them. Oh yeah, the stamp I used was the outline stamp from the Flowers for a Friend set.

There is lots of inspiration out there....such a wonderful world we live in!!