Chalk it up

Hi y'all! Well, I haven't gotten around to much stamping this week, but I do have my January club this weekend so I thought I would try to show you the projects we'll be making. First up is a card using the chalkboard technique that's recently been spotlighted by Betsy Veldman and Becky Roberts. The techniques are basically the same, except Betsy takes the extra step of shadow stamping behind her embossed image. Since I'm working with my club and we don't have a lot of time to wait for ink to dry, I followed Becky's take on the technique.

 

I made my collage of stamps on the largest clear block we have so I could ink and stamp them all at once. The various stamps are from six different sets: Bring on the Cake, Friendly Phrases, A Fitting Occasion, Patterned Occasions (an upcoming Sale-a-Bration set), and from the new spring catalog, Make a Wish and Ciao, Baby! The technique is pretty simple: rub your embossing buddy over black card stock, then stamp and emboss with white EP. (I used Versamark for my stamping because it seemed to come out better for the solid images than white craft ink did. It's not perfect, but I'm going with it anyway.) Next take a soft cloth (I used an old handkerchief) to rub some white craft ink over the embossing - it looks like the eraser residue on a chalkboard. Then outline the edge with white colored pencil. I wanted to bring in a little color so I added some Melon Mambo punches, rhinestones, a strip of Melon Mambo DP, and a 1/8" white bow.

 

With all the stamps mounted on a single block, this becomes a pretty quick card. Hopefully my stampers will have fun with it, and I hope you enjoyed it as well. Thanks for visiting and see you again on Saturday!