Welcome to Velvet Paw Creations - Design Team Projects by Leigh Snaith-Brunton - The Sharpie Domino Queen & owner of LeighSBDesigns Art Stamps!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Blockheads' Chalk Attraction Challenge Blog-Hop Starts Now!

Hello Everyone!

It's time for our new Technique Blog Hop Challenge over at Blockheads Paper Arts!
I'm hosting this one and I'm calling it the Chalk Attraction Challenge!


The Chalk Attraction Technique is perfect for those of you who like to have instant results without a lot of work or a lot of specialized supplies. I like to call this technique Chalk Attraction because I think it best describes what the technique is about but most of you probably know it as Poppin' Pastels!  Basically the technique involves stamping an image with a clear Versamark Watermark ink pad and the wet ink attracts the powdered chalk making the stamped image pop out from the cardstock.

My card "Let Love Take Flight" incorporates three different ways you can use this super fun technique!  This is definitely one of my favourite techniques!  It's an oldie but a goodie and I'm pleased to bring it back into the limelight for you all whether you are newbie stampers or have been stamping for years!  It's quite a versatile technique that can be adapted to suit any of your projects and I provide some examples in my tutorial of what you can do with it and also check out the examples created by the Blockheads design team along your blog hop!

To Take our Challenge: Visit Blockheads' Chalk AttractionTechnique page to see my tutorial on how to do this Technique with step-by-step instructions and photos!  Then create your own Chalk Attraction creation, create a blog post that includes the link code (below), which creates links to other participants, then submit your URL by clicking the button below.  Links will be removed that don't include the code.

Join the Blog Hop with your example by February 21st for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate.  The winner is selected by me and my fellow design team mates.
Design team members and guest designers are not eligible to win.

All stamps used on my card are exclusive to Blockheads Paper Arts:
Vintage Bird Illustrations
Verses Full Sheet
Whimsical Faerie Wings

You can use any stamps for this challenge, you are not limited to Blockheads stamps, but we always appreciate seeing great art using our stamps!

I will also be sharing my tutorial on how I made my Valentine's Day card so you can see how I combined all of the various Chalk Attraction elements into my design!
 Stay tuned for my Valentine's Day card tutorial and I look forward to seeing all your submissions :0)



Happy Stamping!
 THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN
I design for Blockheads Paper Arts * Third Coast Rubber Stamps * About Art Accents

Thursday, January 19, 2012

My Blockheads "Out Of The Box" Technique Blog Hop Challenge Card!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I'm back from my vacation to the UK where I spent a fabulous Christmas with my family!  I'm finally feeling human again after a week or so of walking around in jet lag zombieland, LOL, and now I'm eager to share the card I made for Blockheads Paper Arts' "Out of The Box" Technique Challenge!


There's still a couple of days left to enter the challenge so pop on over to Blockheads to find out exactly how to do this technique and then visit the Blockheads Blog for more details on how to enter the challenge and see the awesome challenge submissions!

Me and my fellow Blockheads Design Team members will be picking one challenge entry to a win a $25 gift certificate to Blockheads Paper Arts!  So grab your Spellbinders, check out the technique, make your card and post it to your blog.  For your entry to qualify you MUST include this html code in your blog post so that it links up with the challenge blog hop!  If for some reason you don't see the code below once I've published my post then you'll find it on the Blockheads Blog here!  Then submit your blog post URL via the inLinkz 'Add Your Link'  button.  I hope you'll join the fun and I can't wait to see your versions of the "Out of The Box" Technique!

Here's my card I made using the "Out of The Box" Die Cutting Technique!


Spellbinders Labels 14
Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad
Double sided tape
Low Tack tape
Glue Dots
Black and white cardstock
White paper ribbon/raffia or read on to find out exactly what I did use for the bow ;0)
Black Sharpie marker:  ultra fine point
Scissors
Pencil
Exclusive Blockheads Stamps: 
Inspired By Nature Full Sheet

Start by stamping the small Dragonfly and the small Flower stamp onto a piece of white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  Align the Spellbinders Label 14 die over the image so that a portion of the wings are on the 'outside' of the die and trace the interior shape of the die with a pencil.


Closely cut out the wings that are on the 'outside' of the traced die shape ONLY.  Cut right up to the traced line plus about another 1/16th of an inch INSIDE the traced line!  The extra cut allows you to place the wings on the outside of the metal die.  Secure the die in place with low tack tape like Post-It tape or repositionable sticky tape and run it through your die cutting machine.
Viola!  The Dragonfly's wings extend beyond the die cut, how cool is that!  It's a pretty neat technique for using your favourite dies with and you can get quite elaborate with what sections of the stamped images extend beyond the boundaries :0)


I then filled in the rest of the die cut with more flowers and added the small leaf too.


Die cut mats for the main panel from more white cardstock and some black cardstock and I stamped more flowers and leaves onto the 2nd white mat.  I actually cut out the larger of the black shapes with scissors because I wanted the mat border to be smaller.  So I simply used the die as a template and traced it out on the back of the black cardstock and cut it out with scissors.


I made my own folded card from white cardstock and stamped leaves around the outside edge of the front.  I used an ultra fine black Sharpie marker to draw in 'shadows' on one side of each leaf to give them more impact once the card was complete.


Adhere all the mats on top of each other with double sided tape.


You'll never guess what I used to make that really cool paper bow ;0)  My 4 year old nephew got an Ultimate Optimus Prime from Santa...'Ultimate' mind you, not just any Optimus Prime like he LOVES to remind you LOL!  Anyway, the toy was secured in the packaging with these rolled paper strings instead of the usual ties.  I pounced on them immediately and made sure they didn't go out in the trash!  As you can see in the photo above they unravel just like raffia.  I experimented with different bows and settled on the one you can see below which I attached to the card with a glue dot.


And there you have it, what a fun technique to do!  I hope you'll give it a try and share your creations with us at Blockheads Paper Arts!  I'd better dash and add my Design Team sample of the technique to the Blog Hop Challenge ;0)

I've entered my card in CAS-ual Fridays Black and White Penguin Suit Challenge - thanks for the heads up Colleen ;0)


Happy Stamping!

THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN
I design for Blockheads Paper Arts * Third Coast Rubber Stamps * About Art Accents