Stampin' With Michelle Pepper

As promised , today's card features the second card we made at my monthly class this week. We used the stamp set, Wetlands, but this time we used two other techniques to achieve the look we got. The first is called "sponging" technique, because you sponge the ink onto the cardstock with a sponge, starting with a light pressure and increasing pressure to achieve the shade you want. You can also layer colours on. You can create similar effect with a brayer, but I can't get the hang of brayering, so sponging it is, and I love it! Isn't it amazing the kind of scene you can create with a humble sponge and some ink? The second technique used is "Masking", where you use or create a template using copy paper to mask off a section of your card so that it doesn't get inked up with the colour you're sponging (or stamping or brayering) with. In this card, our template is the shore line, which we created by tearing a copy paper, and also the horizon line...

This is the first of two cards we made at my monthly class this week. We were all done by 9pm, isn't that fab? It shows how quick and easy these were to make, and we all need that because not everyone has time to make elaborate cards, and certainly even if you do, there are times you just need to be productive in a short craft session. There is a name for this technique and it is called Colour Wash which I learned from Tami White, one of the few US demos I consider my mentor. Since she has already done a video tutorial of it, I won't need to re-invent the wheel so just click here to view her excellent video and the original card that we CASEd from. The aquapainter is the tool for this technique - it is a brush with a reservoir to hold water in, so you just have to squeeze to get the brush wet. I think these would be a great alternative for little toddlers - no more spilling of water container at the painting table! As you can see, with this technique, n...