Stampers! Turns 15

My local stamp store, Stampers! Rubberstamps and Papercrafts, recently celebrated its 15th anniversary. This is a great store for supplies and Ann and Steve are very generous in sharing their knowledge of stamping techniques and products. If you ever find yourself in Victoria, BC, Canada on a Saturday afternoon with nothing to do, come in to the store and hang out in the back room, where Steve is usually found giving free demos. I'm often there, so say hi to me and I'll buy you a cup of coffee!

Part of Stampers! success is they often bring in guest teachers from near and far to share their specialty techniques. Over the years I have been able to take workshops and classes with Tim Holtz, the Glitter Gals Haroldine Wingfield and Deanna Pannell, Metal Artist Elitia Hart and others, exploring fun and different techniques. This is what keeps stamping and paper crafts new and fresh for me.


To celebrate the store's 15th anniversary, I created the card below. I took a number of photos to try and capture the sparkle and colours  of the Glitter Ritz Microfine Glitter, but alas, the photos just don't capture them. (Click on the photos to expand them and you will see some sparkle.)

You might be wondering how I got the background, the polka dots and the numerals all done in different colours of glitter, yet all on the same flat layer. I used the Burnished Velvet technique, which is well described in this article. The originators of the technique, Haroldine Wingfield and Deanna Pannell, have a website with tutorials and projects, too. I took Burnished Velvet classes from them at Stampers! I highly recommend you do so if you ever get the chance. In my blog labels on the right you can find more posts about this fun and sparkly technique.

I started by laying a large sheet of Sookwang double-sided tape onto a piece of cardstock.  I peeled the liner away. I carefully laid a piece of punchinella (sequin waste) over this tape base. I die cut the numerals (QuiKutz) from a spare piece of non-stick tape liner and placed them on the taped cardstock over the sequin waste. Then I covered the whole works with the original liner and burnished with a bone folder to ensure the numerals liner and the sequin waste were secured very well.

I lifted off the large piece of tape liner and sprinkled navy Glitter Ritz Microfine Glitter over all the exposed holes. After brushing off the excess, I burnished the glitter into the tape with my finger to secure it and bring up the shine. This step is important. If you don't burnish, there is a fine layer of "dust" on the glitter that obscures the lovely sparkle. This burnishing is what makes the microfine glitter embed into the tape so well that the end result is a smooth velvet feel to the finished product.

Once I had the holes filled with dark blue, I peeled away the "15" liner to expose the holes under it. I placed dark fuchsia glitter on those holes and burnished. My next step was to remove the sequin waste to expose the rest of the tape that surrounded the now-filled dots. Sookwang tape is incredibly strong, so I was delighted to discover years ago that its hold on sequin waste is only temporary! the punchinella is not harmed and can be used over and over.

After I removed the sequin waste, I replaced the tape liner over the "15" to cover the fuchsia holes and the exposed tape of the numerals to protect them. Then I sprinkled various shades of aqua and teal glitter in bands across the card, brushing the excess off each band before adding the next. This gives a subtle ombré look to the background. Once again, I burnished well with my finger.

Lastly, I removed the "15"-shaped tape liner to expose the remaining Sookwang tape. I applied a pale pink colour to glitter up the rest of the digits - and burnished well.

I used the Spellbinders Labels Twenty-One dies to create a navy frame to go around the glittered Burnished Velvet focal point.  I stamped Congratulations (Michael Strong Stamps) on an angle in Fuchsia StaZon ink across the front of the hot pink cardstock, then mounted with Perfect Layers of navy and pink cardstock onto a white card base.

And that's it! It took a lot longer to explain than it did to actually create! This would make a great birthday card - and through careful choice of colours you could make it either masculine or feminine. If you haven't tried this technique yet, check out the tutorials and give it a whirl. If you are in the Victoria area, contact Stampers! I understand the Glitter Gals will be back for more workshops in June. Thanks for visiting - now go get your glitter on!