Stained Glass Technique - Swallowtail

Happy Thursday!

I'm moving a little slowly today.  I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with all I have to do in the run up to the new catalogue release!  I just got my 8 CASES of new catalogue which need to be labelled (that's the fun part!) and my BIG case of pre-ordered items and new toys ... while that's fun too in order to find SPACE for all my new toys I have to purge my old toys :(  Not so fun!  I spend about 2 hours last night pulling all the retiring papers, inks and stamp sets ... boy oh BOY do I have a lot of retiring product!  I've pulled it all ... now comes the heart-wrenching chore of deciding what I KEEP and what I SELL - NEVER an easy decision!  Occasionally I have sold off items that I later regretted.  In fact, just this week I was on e-bay buying the "Wonderful Words" stamp set.  It was a keeper, but in one of my "purge" moods I sold it.  E-Bay to the rescue!  It is now on it`s way back to me :)  If you are in the Edmonton area mark your calendars for March 31st.  That`s when I`m holding my Catalogue Release Open House - swing by anytime between 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm to pick up your FABULOUS new catalogue, check out some of the new products up-close-and-personal and check out what I`ve decided to part with (but you only get to buy if you promise to give my babies a good home ... and use them from time to time *lol*)

So!  On to my newest favorite card!  We made this in class Tuesday (and will again tomorrow night) using the Stained Glass Technique:

Love it!!!  I only just bought the "Swallowtail" stamp set a few weeks ago (Spring mini page 18 - $16.95 clear; $21.95 wood).  While I thought it was pretty, as well as inexpensive, I've never been a huge fan of these really large images ... they don't fit on a standard sized card ... and that bugs me!  ... but I have been seeing more and more lovely cards made with it and I figured with a little therapy I could perhaps get over my "it doesn't fit" issues.  I was right!  I'm so glad I have this stamp!  I decided to try out the "Stained Glass Technique" - a technique I have never tried ... despite this being my 8th YEAR as a stamper!!!  How do you do it?  Well!  You simply stamp your image on Vellum card stock.  For my card I stamped it in Versamark and embossed it with black embossing powder ... but you don't have to emboss the image - you can just stamp it in Staz On (you COULD use Classic Ink but you would have to let it dry completely ... and that takes a while given that the vellum doesn't accept standard ink well.  You CAN use your "low" setting on your heat tool to speed things up a bit but I would just use Staz-on or emboss it.  Once you have your image embossed you flip the vellum OVER and color directly on the BACK of it.  While it looks like I spend HOURS coloring this image it really only took about 1 minute!  You don't have to be precise at all ... I just scribbled as desired!  When you flip the vellum back over the colors ae a lot softer and take on a stained glass effect.  SO pretty!  For my card I used So Saffron, More Mustard, Cajun Craze and Island Indigo markers.  The sentiment is from Word Play (it's RETIRING so get it THIS MONTH!!!) and is stamped in Cajun Craze.  I cut out the image using my paper snips and popped it up with dimensionals.  I mounted it on an Island Indigo base.  Surprisingly quick easy and beautiful!  My parents were over on Sunday and saw the card on the table.  Now while they both support what I do they don't really "get it" and/or always appreciate the end result.  They were both blown away with this card.  They couldn't believe it was a stamp!  ... or that I colored it! ... or that I cut it out!  They thought it took hours - it truly only took about 7 minutes.  *lol* ... I think I have my mom's Mother's Day card sorted!

Here is another beautiful card made using the Stained Glass technique.  Thanks Kerri-Anne for sharing it with me and letting me share it on my blog!

Isn't it beautiful?  Kerri-Anne used the Secret Garden stamp set and framelits for her stained flowers.  SO pretty!  Notice the dahlia in the centre of the pink one?  Framelits were also used to punch out the frames.  GREAT job!!!

Right!  Guess I should go walk "Doods" (my pet name for my pet Golden Doodle).  It's a short day at school so I better get cracking!  Until next time .. have a stampy day!


Tam