Card Class!

No, I haven't posted in a long time, even though I've actually been to several card classes this year. Can't say as I'm ever likely to catch up, either, nor to post steadily (2 more classes this month!). But here are today's from Linda Coley's "Black, White, and a Little Color."

First up was a geometric design. The stamping was done ahead of time by Linda, as was most of the cutting (we only had to trim a bit off the round pieces). I think the red should have been darker, but I used the darkest reds I had on hand, for the bricks and the butterfly. A darker red would have matched the "happy" die cut better. Oh, well. I used a bit of Glossy Accents on some of the bricks and on all of the butterfly.

I can't help but wonder what this one would be like if the round elements were trimmed with the same die as the first layer. I'll have to poke around among my dies and border images to see about CASEing this one. (Technically, CASE means Copy And Stamp Exactly; for most people, it's "I like this layout so I'm going to copy it my own way.")

The second card required a bit more coloring, and Linda's class samples had a closer fit on the plain circle and the scalloped circle. I've done this technique before, but with a smaller circle for my colored highlighted bit.

And the third card was a technique I've used several times, although I've never popped up any of the layers, nor used any ribbon on the earlier ones. We did our own stamping for these, with stamps of our own choice. Some in class used large, simple line designs, while others used some large, slightly more detailed stamps. But no one used a stamp as detailed as my choice. This is one of the few Stampin' Up stamps I own, as there just aren't many of their designs I like. I'm also not especially a fan of sets, since so many of them have only one or two images I want. The ink is Tsukineko's Memento "Tuxedo Black."

Linda has the good sense to refer to this technique as "Triple Layering"; the blogger I first learned it from uses--for reasons of her own, and which may well make perfect sense to her--"Triple Time" for the technique's name.

I wanted to try it in browns, too, so when I got home, I tested some of my brown inks on two different shades of light brown card stock and made my choices. Unfortunately, I forgot to pop up my layers and forgot the ribbon. Duh. Back to the drawing board! The card stock is from one of the collections of lightweight card stocks available at Michaels stores; the ink is Ranger's Archival "Coffee."

It's also a BFF's birthday today, so this morning I dug through my stack of creative-binge cards, then had to decide on a sentiment, which I tend to put inside rather than outside (with a few exceptions). I didn't take any detail photos, but the lightest of the three lavenders/purples are stamped, too, with two different background stamps. The vertical strip was stamped with Hero Arts' Envelope background in a lavender ink slightly darker than the card stock, while the "ribbon" strips were stamped with a floral image (I don't remember whose stamp it is, and I'm too lazy to look; it's generally readily available at JoAnn stores) with Tsukineko's VersaMagicMark, then heat-embossed with clear embossing powder.

Yes, Melissa, it's very similar to yours! I did this design in three different colorways, but yours was the only one with real ribbon. And the only one with a red cherry.

And the innards:

Not a very "clean" stamped image, but that's because the card stock is textured.

And that's it for today. Our celebratory dinner will be at Outback Steakhouse--the birthday girl's choice.