Monday, August 25, 2008

Brian's card from the open house

For those of you who missed my open house last weekend, my wonderful husband Brian was my helper! He taught this awesome Christmas card, which has a masculine flair to it.
I SO should have gotten a photo of him demonstrating this card, but I didn't want to push my luck.
The response was AMAZING!! Who knew?? Most of the ladies who sat with "B" told me that they're not coming back unless he's here to demonstrate!
So, back to reality here... The base of this card is Ruby Red, the second layer is one of the pretty new in-color blue's that matches the Christmas Designer series paper on top. We used old olive ribbon and some glitter. It's really hard to see the glitter in the photo. This card is so much prettier in real life. We used a two way glue pen to apply glitter to the word "merry" and we traced the outline of the tree with it, and applied it all at the same time.
I learned something new this week! In the past, I did not know about "conditioning my stamps." When I got this new stamp set, I pulled it out of the package and stamped an image, but some of the image didn't come through clearly. I "conditioned" my stamp by taking a sanding block to the top and filing it in one direction, then turn the sanding block 90 degrees and sanded a little bit more.
Most people cringe when I say that I tried this, but a gentle sanding is NOT going to hurt your stamps. Just do it gently. Apparently, when the stamps are manufactured, there is a slight film across the stamp that sometimes can make your image not stamp properly until your stamp is "conditioned." I can post some before and after photos if you want. It's a remarkable difference!
Go Figure!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Way to go Brian! That is so cool that your hubby helped you out. That is a cool card! Too funny about the ladies...tell him to get ready for the next time. Sounds like you need to sign him up!

carolm said...

great card. very simple, yet elegant. great job brian!!

xoxo ~ carol.