Oh Happy May! And Happy Blog Hop Day!

May is a glorious month.  In most parts of the country, we know winter is really over.  Snow is pretty to look at, fun for kids to play, but it is cold.  The older I get the less I like the cold!  Which is why I spent from January 4 to April 11 in Florida.  And I came back too soon!  It is still too cold here!  May generally brings thoughts of gardens and flowers.  And May also brings NEW Technique Junkies stamps!  And they are great!  So sit back and enjoy!

Here is the link for the entire May Technique Junkies Stamps May Release - techniquejunkies.com/may-2017-release/.  And Pat is offering all of these lovely stamps with a 15% off discount through May 8!  

If you didn't come to me from Beth Norman: http://www.sunflowers-dragonflies.ca/, then you should start here for the full Blog Hop rotation: http://techniquejunkies.blogspot.com/ .   And of course, all stamps on this post are Technique Junkies Stamps.

This is my first card.  I was very happy to get this stamp!  This reminds me of one of my precious grandchildren.  I have jillions and jillions of pictures of my grandchildren.. You should see all of my scrapbooks!  But can I find a picture in the same pose as this stamp -- of course not.  But here is one I found -

 And the other thing you need to know is the verse is so so so like my special girl!  Her thoughts and ideas and language skills are above her years.  We knew she gifted in language when she was 2 1/2 and using 10 word sentences correctly.   And in first grade  she was reading chapter books the first of October.  Now I know there are other children who were doing these things earlier than she did them and those children are super uber bright.  But as a retired first grade teacher what she was doing was still much earlier than the norm.  Her sisters are also bright -- but normally bright. And no one compares the girls academic achievement to each other. We love them all the same!

This little girl is stamped  with Memento black ink and colored in with Copic markers. It is called Big Dreams - www.techniquejunkies.com/big-dreams/.   I also used a very fine tipped black pen to go over and highlight her lovely curls. Stickles glitter glue are the spots on her  shirt.

I used an Art Anthology stencil with Art Anthology Colorations sprays for the background.  The first was stamped with Versafine black and heat embossed with detail black embossing powder.

My next card uses stamps called Pocket Watches - http://techniquejunkies.com/pocketwatches/   and Happy Father's Day - www.techniquejunkies.com/happy-fathers-day/.

It is a photo stamp and sometimes those can be a little tricky to stamp neatly and cleanly. So I will share a tip with you on I was able to get this clean image with a photo stamp.  Most photo stamps have a lot of detail and a lot of fine lines in the rubber of the stamp.  It is important that all of those lines have ink on them in order to get a crisp image.  I used white glossy card stock.  '
do not use photo paper.  Photo paper has emulsion stuff on the surface  which when liquid hits turns to a mess unless it is ink designed to print on photo paper.  I used dye based ink.  I use a rubber brayer to ink the stamp. Run the brayer across the wide edge of the ink pad a few times.  Do not load a ton of ink on the brayer.  Then run the brayer  from the bottom or the top of the rubber inking it up. Then reink your brayer.  Now run the brayer from side to side on the rubber.  This way you will know for sure that all of the tiny detailed lined lines on the stamp will have ink.  Now pick up your glossy card stock and lay the glossy side down on the surface of the stamp.  Hold it in place, and gently press your fingers across the back of the card stock.   Gently pull the card stock off of the stamp and lay it aside to fully air dry or dry it with a heat tool.   One it is dry you can   layer it as much as you wish.  I heat embossed the greeting with clear embossing powder on vellum.  I used my Xyron machine to add adhesive tot he back of the vellum.  A few black beads finishes the card.

My last card uses Watercolor Birds - www.techniquejunkies.com/…/www.techniquej…/watercolor-birds/ and only one word from Beauty of Winter -http://techniquejunkies.com/beauty-of-winter/  .  I stamped the Watercolor Birds stamp with Versafine black ink and heat embossed it with detail black embossing powder.  I did the same with the word Discover.  I used my Twinkling H2Os to paint the image.    I cut around the word and the layer of blue card stock.  I attached with ribbon  as an embellishment.

And here is the rotation for the full Technique Junkies Design Team -- and we have new members and their work is just awesome!  Be sure to look at each one's art work.

Design Team Blog: http://techniquejunkies.blogspot.com/

Lanette Erickson: http://stacksofscraps.blogspot.com/

Cheri Weston: http://stampnboomer.blogspot.com/

Kathy Stacy: https://craftynurse4u.wordpress.com/

Jeanne Streiff: http://inkypaws.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

Ro Donner: http://rodonner.blogspot.com/

Beth Norman: http://www.sunflowers-dragonflies.ca/

Judy Jackson: http://judysstampart.blogspot.com/

Vicki Garrett: http://summerthymestudio.blogspot.com/

Giovana Smith: https://giovana-believe.blogspot.com/

Chris Dayton: http://www.cattalesandpapertrails.com/

Pat Huntoon: http://patstamps.blogspot.com/

And don't forget there is that 15% discount through May 8 on the May Release Technique Junkies Stamps.

Have a wonderful day and get inky!

Judy Jackson