Featured Artist for October

There are so many amazing artists that play along with the operators on Stamping 411 on a weekly basis. We really love to take the time to highlight our friends from time to time. With that in mind for the month of October, we asked our friend Carrie Gaskin aka Artistic Avenger be our featured stamper for the month of October.

I asked Carrie to write a little bit about herself and this is what she wrote:

Hello there all, my name is Carrie Gaskin. I am lucky enough to live in on the amazingly beautiful coast of British Columbia, Canada and living here you can't help but be creatively inspired. I have been a SU Demonstrator now for almost six years and have loved every minute of both the creative and business aspects. I love making cards most of all as I am an "instant gratification" type of gal. Scrapbooking still intimidates me some but I'm trying, really! 3D projects are also something I love to do and share. I'm always making something for someone! Sharing in my love of papercrafting are my two kids (daughter aged 10 and son aged 8) - that is probably one of things that makes me feel the luckiest, I get to share my love of stamping with them and they feel such a part of what I do. Also thrown into my mix is my dear husband, Craig. Although certainly not a crafter (sorry hon) he is an extremely supportive partner who continues to help me look at things in different ways to expand my personal creativity.

Carrie will be joining us for the whole month of October. She will be playing right along side of all our operators with each weeks sketch. Make sure you stop over at her blog: Artistic Avenger, to check out all her awesome work and leave her some lovin'!! I asked Carrie to share with all of us one of her favorite techniques and she wrote us this awesome tutorial on Bleaching.

Bleaching Tutorial
By Carrie Gaskin

1. Start out with a piece of cardstock on which you’d like to showcase your bleached image. I used Crumb Cake in my sample. I have found it best to emboss your image first. I used Versamark and Black embossing powder.

1. Emboss your image.

1. Take a small paintbrush you can also use a Blender pen (although then this is all you can use it for) and gently add bleach to where you’d like on your embossed image.

1. You can either let it sit to dry or you can heat it with your heat tool. TIP: if you don’t want the bleach to move around, heat the paper from the underside.

1. Once dry, you can colour in using ink and blender pens. Take note: some of the colour may still bleach out once you colour it so use rich colours. And voila!

Thanks Carrie for this easy but awesome tutorial. I think I can now try my hand at some bleaching. Stay tuned in October to see lots of great new sketches and Carrie's take on our sketches, you will not be disappointed!!

Have a great day,
Tiffany

How To Wednesday with Featured Artist - Carrie Gaskin!

Hello stampers! It's Wednesday here at the 411 and that means another "How To" feature just for you! This week we are honored to host Carrie Gaskin as our Featured Artist! Many of you may know Carrie from her frequent postings to the sketch challenges here - and frequent appearances in the Friday Showcase :)

What you may not know about Carrie is that she was one of Stampin' Up!'s Artisan Awards Finalists last year - and with good reason! Just visit her blog, Artistic Avenger, and you will be wowed by her talent and fabulous style!

This week Carrie has designed these GORGEOUS cards using Vellum - a difficult medium for many of us to incorporate into our creations - but she has obviously mastered it's use and so generously shares these ideas with us here. Please read on in Carrie's own words how these creations came to be:

"I love the Flower Fancy stamp set and I love vellum. What better crafting marriage than that? Plus, with Flower Fancy on special this month, what could be better?

This first card I created uses the Faux Dry Embossing technique. What I did was stamp the small flowers in Jet Black Staz On onto a piece of Vellum Cardstock. I then flipped it over and placed it face down onto a piercing mat. I rubbed my finger over the areas I wanted to emboss and used my stylus and rubbed in the lines of the image. When you are done, it not only sticks out but becomes white. I continued this for the entire piece of vellum and then I stamped a small image from Tiny Tags in Whisper White craft ink between them and added small centres to the flowers using Pretty in Pink and Rose Red cardstock. I then adhered the vellum piece to a piece of Certainly Celery cardstock, that way the flowers stand out more.

To complete the card, I just added a small strip of Old Olive behind the embossed piece and at a right angle, a piece of Whisper White cardstock. I used my Certainly Celery and Old Olive Stampin’ Write markers to get a 2-toned “thanks”.

The second card uses vellum as Faux Stained Glass.

As you can see, the layout of the card is quite simple and I did it that way as to show off the cool image work. I used my Embossing Buddy on the vellum ( a must!) and then stamped the stem and flower image in Versamark. I then sprinkled it with silver embossing powder and embossed. I flipped it over and on the back used my Stamin’ Write markers to colour in the flower. On the large flower and on the leaves, I used two colours of markers and my blender pen to blend them together. Once this is done, you can adhere with a Whisper White piece behind (I used silver brads in each corner).

I finished off with an Old Olive piece punched with the Eyelet border punch and a tie of 5/8” Certainly Celery grosgrain.

For the next card, I decided to use Flower Fancy for it’s intended use, 2-Step Stamping. I just love this technique, it is so fast and so easy.

On a card base of Whisper White, I stamped the outline images in Jet Black Staz On and then the inside images in Pretty In Pink, Rose Red and Old Olive. By placing a layer of Vellum cardstock over the base, the colours are muted.

The vellum layer is attached by the tie of Whisper White taffeta ribbon along the top but I wanted a little something extra so I added a little embellishment in the bottom right corner using my 1 ¼”, 1 3/8” circle punches and a cut out flower. I also stamped a saying from Thank You Kindly and punched it out with my Modern Label Punch. Behind the large circle is a dimensional to assist in keeping the card together.

For my last card, I decided to use the stamp set with some Designer Series Paper to show how an outline image can be used with this great product. By doing this, you give the vellum and opportunity to be an accent in the centre or by layering.

I used Old Olive and Thoroughly Modern Designer Series paper, stamped the large flower and cut it out. I then stamped the large and small flower a few times on some Vellum cardstock – again, I cut them out. I ran the small flowers through the Sizzix with the Perfect Polka dots embossing folder and then took my Bone Folder to them – very much like you would with ribbon if you were wrapping a present. This gives the vellum flowers a bit of movement and dimension. I then added some Clear Rhinestone Brads in the centres and layered them onto the card. I also stamped and cut out a few of the outline leaves and adhered them behind the flowers.

The Rose Red layer was run through the Sizzix with the floral embossing folder and again I used Thank you Kindly for the sentiment.

Making more than one card is easy when you have a colour theme and products chosen ahead of time. I hope you’ve enjoyed these cards!"

Well, I can tell you Carrie that we LOVE these cards and your fabulous ideas for using vellum in our stamping. I'll bet you all can't wait to run to your stamp room, grab your vellum and PLAY! Thanks so much for the inspiration Carrie - we are so glad you shared with us today!
Please be sure to leave some comment love for Carrie and go visit her at her blog too!