Jill's Jems: TECHNIQUES TUESDAY (ON WEDNESDAY)

Last night a group of us met for our monthly A to Z Techniques Class at a local cafe and made three cards during the class. We meet the 3rd Monday evening of each month at 5 p.m. for dinner then begin stamping at 6. This was our 2nd meeting and to date we have created 6 cards using different techniques as well as a sample to adhere to a 6x6 instruction page which is then kept in one of the SU! 6x6 post albums. By year's end each participant will have made approximately 36 cards and have a wonderful reference album to keep.

These are two of the cards that we created as a group while "learning" the techniques of "Dry Embossing in Less than 30 seconds" and "Ghosting". At our first meeting one of the women commented how much she loved the look of dry embossing but never did it because it always took so long.

Enter the BigShot and Embossing Folders! Quick and easy. I also demonstrated embossing with Texture Plates and Brass Stencils using the BigShot to show how easy it is now to get that beautiful embossed look to your projects (of course with stencils it is imperative to sandwich the items correctly or it doesn't work - ask me how I know this!) . Put away those light tables and styluses ladies - it's time to move forward. Another nice thing about using the BigShot (or Cuttlebug) to emboss is that you are not limited to sheer, light colored papers that can be seen through on a light table. It is not just as easy to emboss black cardstock as it is white.

The first card uses the SU! stamp sets Butterfly of Happiness and God's Blessings. The solid butterfly was first stamped in Bashful Blue with the dotted butterfly outline stamped in Not Quite Navy. Then I overstamped the solid butterfly using a Glue Pad (available at Michael's or Hobby Lobby) and then added SU!Diamond Dust glitter. The butterfly was adhered to the card using a glue dot in the center of the body leaving the wings free to be folded up as if in flight. The background is a Cuttlebug Embossing folder used with Whisper White cardstock. The bottom edge of the card is handtorn and a piece of Bashful Blue Designer Paper was added to the inside bottom of the card so that it would show from the front.

The second card uses the Ghosting or Versamark Resist technique. I stamped an image from SU!Garden Collage (retired) in Versamark onto a piece of Glossy White cardstock then brayered SU!Sage Shadow over the image. Once it sat for about 30 seconds I wiped off the excess ink leaving a nice white image on the cardstock. I used a Cuttlebug Embossing Folder to emboss a piece of Sage Shadow cardstock and made a bow of white organdy adding a string of pearls as it was being tied to finish the card.