As you will undoubtedly see - these are NOT the "masculine paisley" card I said I was gonna post today - that card will have to wait till tomorrow or Monday - but I WILL get it posted!
Anywho - there was a thread on the demo side of SCS about getting "patterned" letters using the Monogram stamps and patterned paper. And LeeAnn (you ROCK!!) posted that she just stamped the letters in VersaMark and clear embossed them. Can you believe that I've NEVER thought of that??? It was a total *smacks forehead* moment for me ROFL!!
So.......here's the two cards I came up w/:
STAMPS: Monogram "B", Carte Postale, French Flair, Canvas. CS: Whisper White, Mellow Moss, Pale Plum, Close to Cocoa, Enchante DS Paper. INK: VersaMark, Basic Black, Mellow Moss, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Close to Cocoa. ACCESSORIES: Clear Embossing Powder, Moss Gingham Ribbon, Crystal Effects, Ticket Corner Punch, Sponge Daubers, Vintage Brads, White Gel Pen.
I stamped the "B" using VersaMark onto the Enchante Designer Series Paper (from the Stampin' Up! Winter Mini), embossed it with Clear embossing powder then cut it out (leaving a slight border around it). I just LOVE how it looks embossed on patterned paper! It's SO simple yet looks so elegant!
I stamped and cut out the flower and leaves, and covered the flower w/ Crystal Effects to make it "POP" a little more.
STAMPS: Monogram "F", Love Matters, Dotted BG. CS: Whisper White, Cool Caribbean, Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink, Loves Me DS Paper. INK: VersaMark, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Taken w/ Teal, Certainly Celery Stampin' Write Markers, Cool Caribbean. ACCESSORIES: Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Flirty Ribbon, Soft Subtles Brads, Tag Corner Punch.
This one took a couple of tries. I originally embossed the "F" w/ clear EP - BUT it looked *awful*. I don't know about you - but my Clear EP isn't really clear - it's got specks of black, glitter, white etc etc etc that have snuck in the jar over time - and when I embossed on the lighter patterned paper - it ALL showed up. (When I did the "B" - since the paper was darker you can't really see the "specks" unless you look *really* close).
SO - after learning that unless you have CLEAR EP (LOL - I'm gonna have to get a new jar and try really hard to KEEP it clear!) - you need to stick to darker patterns of paper if you want it to look good!
So for this card I embossed it w/ Iridescent Ice EP and got a much better result.
I inked up the letters from the Friends stamp in the Love Matters set (also in the SU! Winter Mini) using Stampin' Write Markers, colored them in after stamping them, and adhered that to the Cool Caribbean CS. I then tied on a bit of the Caribbean ric rac ribbon onto the "F", and adhered that on top.
I'm actually pretty excited about this "new" (to me anyway!) way to use my Monogram stamps. Except for the Prima Card I made the other day I haven't used my Monogram Stamps for a LOOOONNNNGGGG time and was debating getting rid of them - now I wanna play some more w/ them!
