Simulated chalkboard seems to be the new “big thing” at the moment and I thought – why not make an easel, but use it as a kid’s blackboard? I designed this at the beginning of February for my card club ladies and refrained from posting until after our regular technique club meeting last month because I couldn’t decide which design would appeal to Technique club ladies more. My card club ladies loved it, and in the end, I chose the more traditional card for the Technique club ladies which I’ll get to later in this post. I thought I was being original, but I’ve seen some other creations since. Great minds think alike, eh? The banner was punched out with the Little Labels punch pack (page 183AC) in Baja Breeze, So Saffron and Riding Hood Red.
I normally work in Imperial, but with our new trimmer, the measurements at the top are both Imperial and Metric. However the clear hinged ruler cutter guide on the trimmer is marked in metric! I can tell you it was tricky switching my brain from Imperial to Metric but we managed it! We created the easel frame in Whisper White card stock, then stamped the wood grain effect both on the front and back of the easel.
We adhered Basic Black card stock to the frame and cut and discarded the surplus bits to create the blackboard part. For this technique, clear mounted stamps come into their own. I used a clear block larger than the area I wanted to stamp, laid out all the stamp images I wanted within the blackboard framework, then pressed firmly down on all the stamps so that they would attach themselves to the clear block. I then inked the images in Whisper White Craft ink, stamped on the front, dried it with a heat tool, then stamped on the inside too.
Stampin’ Up! carry watercolour pencils too (page 157AC) and they were perfect for adding a touch of colour to the images. I then used a dried up baby wipe, dabbed a bit of craft ink and scuffed the image here and there with a light touch – you can always add a little more “smudge”, but if you lay down too much ink, you can’t take it off!
Here is the alternative choice, I added the itty bitty flower with rhinestone to the waist on the dressmaking dummy and in the end this is what the Technique club ladies made. In addition to the Established Elegance stamp set, I used the Sale-A-Bration set called Vintage Verses which seems to go so well with the other stamp set. The Primrose Petal card base was cut at 5 1/2″ width to accommodate the Tulip EF frame.
Which do you prefer?
Thanks for stopping by – happy Sunday!
