Hello! Today I have some fun tips to share with you. I was stamping last night at my friend Mayra's house, and we did a crinkling technique on a flower that we put on our card, and it got me thinking. Mayra showed me how you can spray a little bit of water on a flower and crinkle the edges to rough it up a bit and add dimension, texture, and make it look more real, and we have always used some spray bottle that she has, but I realized I have a bunch of the Stampin' Spritzers from Stampin' Up!, and I thought, why not fill that with water and always have one by my punches so that I can easily spritz my flowers when I want to scrunch them? Spritzing and then scrunching your flower breaks down the fibers of the paper, so that's why/how it gives it more dimension and a more life like look.
I also was reading the little paper insert that comes with every embossing folder from Stampin' Up!, and I learned a helpful tip that I never would have known otherwise! I always feel like a nerd when I read instruction manuals that come with things that are pretty self explanatory, like embossing folders, punches, washing machines, dish washers, etc., but it's really amazing what you can learn from them. I learned that from my aunt. She's very very smart, and one day she was talking to me about something and mentioned that she was reading the manual to her dishwasher and learned that if you put your silverware a certain way in the silverware tray, they come out cleaner, as opposed to putting them another way. I thought, wow, she's pretty smart already, but she was reading the instruction manual? Anyway, it pays off, because you learn things that you may not already know, or would never think of, but makes things a little (or a lot) easier! So what I learned while reading the embossing folder insert was that with embossing folders that have a dense (tight or busy) design, you will sometimes get an image that rips or cracks your paper. There's a way to avoid that! If you spritz your paper lightly with water or bending/sliding your paper over the edge of a table before embossing, it will help break down the fibers of the paper, making it softer while running it through the Big Shot, and you won't end up with a ripped or cracked design.
Here's the card I made with the scrunched flower:
This card uses the Petal Parade stamp set that you can get for free during Sale-A-Bration when you spend $50. I don't have the set yet, but will definitely be ordering when I place my next order! We also used a small strip at the bottom from the Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper pack, which you can also earn for free with a $50 order. Sale-A-Bration is the best time of year to order stuff. Have you been holding off on ordering things that you're out of or are almost out of? Now's the best time ever to restock your adhesives, paper, inks, embellishments, ribbon and whatever else you need, because you earn a free item with every $50 purchase. You can make one big order or several small ones, but either way, you will get a free item for every $50. For example, if you place one big order totaling $200, you would get 4 free Sale-A-Bration items, just as you would if you placed four orders totaling $50. It's a win-win situation! Contact me if you would like to place an order, or order directly from my website
here. Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you learned lots of new and neat tricks to try! I'll see you tomorrow!
