Featured Artist/Designer: Maria Fischer 04 30 2015

Welcome to another Featured Artist/Designer Spotlight. Today we’re thrilled to welcome Maria Fischer. Before we show you Maria’s project, let’s get to know her a little bit more…

Guten tag! I’m Maria Fischer, although you may know me as maria f. or rieslingmama, which is the name of  my blog , my Pinterest and my flickr gallery. You can also find me designing at Simply Create Too, STAMPlorations, and The Mixed Media Card Challenge.

I’m a daughter, wife of 20+ years and mother of two. I’m a SAHM with a previous life as a financial analyst and an English teacher. Been in Germany for half my life – came for a job, stayed for a guy – but I’m a Michigan girl at heart.  If I’m not creating, you can find me in the garden, at a workout class or strolling blogland, most likely avoiding housework.

I got the cardmaking bug after buying a scrapbooking magazine in 2009. I made a birthday card based on one of the layouts with some paper scraps, which led to the need for more striped paper, which led to the Internet and the revelation that there was a whole wonderful world of cardmaking and cardmakers out there! My cardmaking journey (and the purchases) haven’t stopped since, however I’ve yet to create a scrapbook page.

I prefer CAS cards, but tend to be all over the board with my own creations. Techniques are my fave and that’s what I’d like to share with you here today at Paper Crafter’s.

Hello

Today I have two cards for you created with the “ghost stamping” technique – which basically means stamping an image with white pigment ink (which sits on top of the paper) before stamping over it with dye ink (which absorbs into the paper). It’s such a fun way to add a little something to your card.

My first card, which became a card for a boy:

My second card, which became a card for a girl:

And both together:

Instructions:
Stamp dots BG with white pigment ink onto white CS. When dry, stamp stripes with dye inks. It was at this point that I noticed so much ink left on my stamp after stamping the first stripe (I forgot to mention that I am a practical, or should I say frugal, crafter), that instead of cleaning it, I gave it a spritz of water and stamped it onto a second piece of white CS, giving birth to the pastel version!

Did you notice, the dark blue stripe with the word “hello” in it turned into a lovely lilac when spritzed and stamped on the pastel version? Did you also notice that I did not try to stamp all the stripes evenly. I purposely angled a couple to add to the playful feel of the design.

So, to continue with the card instructions. Trim panel and adhere to cardbase.  To embellish the boy card add a “you” (I chose a portion of a die cut negative) and a few buttons. For the girl card heat emboss the butterfly on vellum and fussy cut it. Stamp “hello” with black pigment ink and heat emboss it with clear powder, then punch. I find it easier to stamp with black and emboss clear than to heat emboss with black powder. It usually yields a much cleaner result. Adhere the butterfly with glue dots, the sentiment with dimensional adhesive and a few sequins. Voila!

Supplies

Cardstock: white and kraft cardbases, Neenah Solar White, vellum
Stamps: (Big Dots BG) Kars, (On the Strip, On the Strip 2 and Everyday Circles) Neat and Tangled, (Butterflies) Impression Obsession
Ink: (white pigment) Hero Arts, (dye inks) Adirondack and Simon Says Stamp, (black) Versafine, Versamark

Tools

(Heart in a Box with Love die) Simon Says Stamp, EKS circle punch

Other: Stampendous white and efco clear embossing powder, sequins, buttons

It’s a wrap! Thanks for stopping by and thanks again for having me, Paper Crafter’s.

We hope you have enjoyed today’s project courtesy of Maria Fischer. Be sure to stop by Maria’s blog , Pinterest, and flicker to see even more of her beautiful work (and let her know we sent you).

Happy Crafting!