The Write Stuff

 

Welcome to the October Blog Hop for Serendipity Stamps! If you arrived here from Jeanne’s blog, you’re in the right place..if not, you may want to head over there first.

The Prize – One $20 gift code will go to one random commenter from the blogs. So be sure  to visit all the blogs because you don’t know which one the winner will be drawn from. You have through Sunday October 23 to leave comments on the blogs for a chance to win. Mary will  announce a winner on October 24. The sale this week will be free shipping on US orders of $25 or more good Wed the 19th through Sunday the 23rd.  There’s no coupon code  required.   Each month a different image is 50% off. This month- it’s the  Pumpkin Border.  On the third Wednesday of every month., we’ll be celebrating with a Blog Hop!  For another chance to win,  be sure to play along with our monthly challenge. You can get all the details on the challenge HERE.

This is also for the Splitcoast Featured Stamper, Bev! I chose THIS card to case, keeping the Christmas theme & layout, but I used different images, water colored my image & used a die cut greeting. For my card, I used this beautiful Poinsettia. I just love poinsettias & I can’t wait for the stores to get them in for Christmas. This image just said “water color” to me but instead of using my usual pan w/c, I used Brushos water color crystals. I sprinkled a few reds & greens on a blank palette then added water & painted w/ them as if they were pan w/c. Since this is a large image, I was pretty sure I was going to have to use my out of the box technique w/ the chosen die. I’ve shown this technique before, but a dear friend of mine, Kittie Caracciolo, who works w/ dies like you wouldn’t believe, mentioned that she just doesn’t “get” the out of the box. So here it is again 🙂 Once you understand the principal, it’s pretty easy. And it’s probably my most used & favorite technique. You can click the green link above for the original tutorial & you can also click any of these pictures to enlarge them.

The reason I didn’t fully cut out the little branches before die cutting is because they are so fragile & it’s easy to break them off. After die cutting, I’ll fully trim them out.

The most important thing to remember is that anything that falls out of the box, must be lifted above the die or else it will be cut off.

Here’s a look at the inside.

Please be sure to comment on all the DT blogs. It will be much appreciated & will also increase your chances of winning! 

Mary’s Blog

Karen Amidon

Marybeth Lopez

Miriam Napier

Patti Kehl

Carol Mayne

Vickie Zimmer

Jeanne Jachna

Julie Warner (you are here!)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps: Serendipity Stamps – Poinsettia Lg

Paper:  Staples #110 white,  water color, red pepper, dp (Paper Studio- Holly on Black, HOTP- Green Plaid, both retired)

Ink:   Versafine onyx

Accessories:   Serendipity Celebrate & Season’s Greetings dies, Spellbinders A2 matting basics A & B dies, Brushos water color crystals, MFT diagonal stitched rectangle dies