Challenge #177 Gold & Silver

Happy Tuesday from Georgia! 
How are you enjoying our Christmas in July theme? Bet you're getting ideas for your holiday cards {although I know some of you have already finished yours for the year}.

Don't forget to check out the Christmas in July category in our webstore, you'll get 15% off everything in that category with this coupon code: SNOWJULY.

We continue our Christmas theme with a popular metallic holiday color combination...

GOLD and/or SILVER

Check out these gold & silver designs by our talented DT sweeties:

Carolyn LaBille

Irit Shalom

Kendra Sand

Tamara Morton

We'd love to see a gold & silver creation you've made (cards, scrapbook pages, mixed media, ATCs, etc.), so come and join the fun! You could win a $20 shopping spree for goodies at SweetStamps.com's online store by playing along in our challenge! Click here for our complete Challenge Rules.

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Our Monthly Technique Challenge is Painter's Tape Backgrounds and runs through July 14th. Come join us and check out what our DT Sweeties made! View ALL the monthly challenges here.

***Don't forget to check back later this week for more inspiration from our DT Sweeties and monthly Guest Designers!***

Hop on over to the Globecraft & Piccolo Blog {a division of SweetStamps.com}. Click here to check out some of the G&P DT posts, they are a great addition to any crafting project!

Happy Stamping! 

Have a super sweet week!

 

An InLinkz Link-up

For an Offbeat Bride (last of the components)

Good morning - Teresa here again with today's inspiration - 

I've completed all of my components for this bouquet. (actually I've started assembling and it is turning out AMAZING) 

So for today - we just a few more ideas for the "brooches" - 

I'm going to do this post a tiny bit different today. I'll be listing the supplies with each picture. I'm doing this because I used several different Piccolos and enamels for these. 

Here is the link for the main store page ---- Globecraft and Piccolo

First off - a beautiful openwork rose. 

The rose was embossed with 

Ruby Red Slippers Enamel for the flower and Shamrock Dreams for the stem and leaves.

There are 8 of the roses in the package. 

This little Pinwheel Flower was embossed with

Bahama Aqua embossing powder. 

I used the solid and the openwork frame and embossed them the same color. 

Then, I used  Matte Glastique to glue tiny beads to the center only. When that dried, I flexed the openwork petals a bit for a 3D effect. 

I've used lots of the Stacking Flowers in various ways in this creation. (there are 24 assorted flowers in the package)

This looks like the tropics to me. The top one is embossed in Cranberry Wine

and the larger is embossed in Bahama Aqua. 

I then used Matte Glastique to stack them and add the tiny rhinestones for sparkle.

The one above is my absolute favorite of this batch. 

A little brass Pinwheel Flower. 

I used the Gilded Rose Gold  Powder on this and it really does look like aged brass. 

I offset the two pieces and added a vintage brass button for the center. 

(just a note ---- I may have gasped a little when I put this together. )

This is a crappy lighting picture of the 3D effect you get when you glue just the center of the shape and then flex the petals up. Just a bit of dimension for that. 

This is the inspiration picture for flower just above. Stacks of shapes. 

I recommend taking a look at the full range of Piccolos  available. I then do an image search for Vintage Brooches on Google and pick and choose inspirations such as above and start a version of the piece. 

Last creation picture for today ---- 

The tutorial for the little pink flowers was in the first week's post. 

I've assembled them using fine wire, frosted glass beads, and seed beads using the inspiration photo below. 

This will become the boutonniere for this Offbeat Wedding Ensemble. 

Note all of the embossing is done using the Embossing Enamel Adhesive.

Week one components tutorial can be found here.

Week two components tutorial can be found here.

Week three components can be found here.

I Love You Shaker Card ~

 Shaker cards are one of the things that used to amaze me when I first started to rubber stamp.  I thought they looked so amazingly cool and complicated!  I still love them and I enjoy making them.  I knew when I saw that some of Globecraft & Piccolo’s Accent sets included adorable little frames that many a shaker card would be born! And again, I created a card showing my love of using the nontraditional for holiday cards - you could make this for any holiday or just because! 

To make this card I used: 

• 4 ¼ x 5 ½ Matte Gold Cardstock
• Piece of acetate
• I Love You rubber stamp from Great Impressions, #C230
• Ranger Archival ink in Jet Black
• Piece of scrap white cardstock (to stamp sentiment on)
• Frame from Fine Flower Vines Flourish Accents, A105 
• 2 pcs. From Medium Flourishes Accents, A139 
• 2 pcs. From Steampunk Airship Accents, A100 
• Enamel & Embossing Powder Adhesive Fluid 
• Aged White Embossing Enamel 
• Vintage Gold Embossing Enamel 
• E600 Adhesive 
• Crafters Pick The Ultimate Glue 
• Foam Tape
• Filler for shaker, I used gold heart sequins and glitter
• Krylon Leafing Pen in 14k Gold 

 

The frame I used - check out all the others!!

First thing I did was stamp my sentiment on a piece of scrap white cardstock, then I cut it a bit smaller than an ATC – yes, the frames are ATC sized! – and made sure it fit the frame properly.  Set that aside.

Take your frame and cover with Embossing Powder Adhesive Fluid and emboss with Aged White Embossing Enamel, I embossed my frame twice and left it a bit bumpy, covering the frame with the embossing powder adhesive in between layers. If you prefer a smooth finish just keep repeating the embossing steps and heating until it becomes smooth – it shouldn’t take any more than 3 or 4 times to make the finish smooth.  I then edged the frame with my Krylon Leafing Pen in 14k gold, both the inside and the outside of the frame. 

Next, I glued the acetate window into the frame.  For me this is a tricky part because you really don’t want any fingerprints, or glue, to show on the acetate – luckily the piece I used had some tissue paper on one side and it was already cut to fit an ATC so it worked fine.  I used Crafters Pick to attach the acetate to the frame.  Set this aside so it can dry thoroughly, I typically wait until the next day, but that is because I do most of my crafting in the wee hours. 

Once your frame is dry it’s time to build the walls that are going to stop your filler from spilling all over the place.  I have some old foam tape that I use and I always use 2 layers so I can ensure the frame will be deep enough and I can sill in all the spots that may be an opening.  Since my tape is old, I use glue in between my 2 layers just to make sure it sticks to the frame and to each other.  

The start of my "walls"

Once my walls are built I put the frame under something medium weight, a book for example, and leave it there for a few hours to ensure I have a good bond.  Keep in mind how deep (high) your walls are when selecting filler – you can’t loose with sequins or glitter.  Because my color theme is gold and it’s a “love” card I chose some gold heart shaped sequins and some prisma glitter for my filler.  I put them in the center of my scrap where I stamped my sentiment.  This way you can see where you are attaching the frame. A few dabs of glue and attach your back to your frame. 

  

I glued my completed shaker onto my card that I made from the matte gold cardstock.  Then I took the accents I had chosen (both sets of Accents I used have a bunch of cute flourishes to choose from) and embossed those with the Vintage Gold embossing enamel, again embossing both twice.  After I was done, I used E600 glue to attach the Accents to the card because the cardstock was a bit slick.  I finished by edging the card with the Krylon Leafing Pen, again in the 14k gold, and I was done!

   

Another view of the card - it's difficult to photograph shiny things!!

I hope this inspires you to create your own shaker cards – they are so much fun! Enjoy! Christi   

 
PS: Don’t forget to take a look at our sister store, Sweet Stamps, for some breathtaking images!

Steampunk Necklace

Hello my fine feathered friends!

I thought I'd try my hand at steampunk, and I'd love your feed back!

Let's make this!

What you need:

Acrylic charm

Gear Necklace

Cord Necklace

Pinch Bail

Enamel Adhesive Fluid

Enamel Powders: Victorian Bronze, Vintage Black, Aged White

Enamel Gels: Gold, Copper

Glastique

E600 Glue

Word Sticker (Tim Holtz), sparkling ultra fine glitter (My Stamp Box), mica chips (USArt Quest), metal gear brad (Eyelet Outlet), alcohol inks (Ranger), clamp or clothespin.



What to do:

1. Peel the blue protective stuff off of both sides of the acrylic charm. Ink up the front with alcohol inks. 

 

2.  Punch out the gear and coat the two larger gears with enamel adhesive fluid. Coat one gear with Vintage Black powder and the other with Aged White powder. Heat to melt the powders and activate the adhesive. Coat the remaining gear and the little turn key with gold 3D Enamel Gel. Coat the two circles that punched out of the gears with Copper enamel gel. Let dry.

3. Once your gears are completely dry and set, cut the prongs off the gear brad and use a little E600 to adhere it over the largest gear. Clamp together for a few minutes to ensure a secure bond.

4. Paint some glossy Glastique onto the acrylic charm. Sprinkle with the sparkling glitter and mica flakes. Let dry and then use a soft paint brush to sweep off the excess.

5. Paint the back of the sticker with Glastique and add it to the bottom edge of the charm. Coat top of sticker with matte Glastique.

6. Use the E600 glue to adhere the gears to the charm (I use a toothpick to put the glue onto the gears). Clamp down (put your clamp on the metal gear so you don't mar the surface) for a few minutes to be sure it's good and stuck. Add the two copper circles, the bail, and put onto the necklace. There ya go!!

Silver or Gold Winner

The winner of SweetStamps.com's challenge #91 Silver or Gold is...

Piali

Congratulations!

Please contact me for your winning prize of a $20 shopping spree for rubber stamps at SweetStamps.com.

Thank you to everyone who joined in on the challenge, we hope you had fun and will join us again — we have a new challenge every Tuesday, and also a new monthly technique challenge!

Challenge #91 Silver or Gold

Hello crafty friends! It's time for another weekly challenge at SweetStamps.com. This week's theme is...

Silver or Gold

We'd love to see your creation, so join in the fun! Remember to use a SweetStamps image on your creation to get an extra chance at winning $20 of rubber stamps from SweetStamps.com. Rules are listed in the sidebar and instructions can be found at the bottom of this post.

Take a look at these creations from our design team sweeties this week:

Bonnie Brown

Calypso Bastian

Dawn Bennett

Jacki Randolph

Joni Mastronardi

Kendra Sand

Linda Jover

Shelly Schmidt

Tamara Morton

 Sandy Fredrick

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WIN FREE STAMPS! 

Join our weekly challenge

You can use any stamp on your challenge entry, but if you use a SweetStamps image, you will get two entries into the giveaway! To enter the challenge, please add the URL to your actual blog post or online gallery to the InLinkz at the end of this post. Please do not link to your main blog; we want to be able to find your post to leave you comments. Also, please link back to our blog.

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Remember, you can only enter the challenge one time, use a SweetStamps image to get an extra entry in the challenge. Please limit the amount of challenges to 10 (including ours).  You must link back to us in your blog post.

Please turn off word verification so we can leave comments on your challenge entry!

Next week's challenge theme is Thank You. I hope you'll join us.

Happy Stamping! Hope your week is super sweet!

P.S. Check out our NEW Monthly Challenge on the menu above