Card swap .....

At the last crafters group of the current catalogue we had a big finale party. Pot luck, games, looking through the extensive Stampin' Up! retiring list. We also had a card swap, 12 people took part and here are the wonderful creations. Inspiration for these cards was from a number of places - Split Coast Stampers thank you for your assistance here x

Everyone who took part was really happy when they left with their 12 different and individual cards. Names of creators are underneath each card.

 Fiona's vintage card

 Nikki's bookmark card

 Erin's owl card

 Jen's simply sophisticated card

 Barbara's flower and bird card

 Liz's classically chic card

 Nathalie's vintage card

 Gisele's tortoise card

 Haidee's flower card

 Maria's 3d flower card

 Starla's pinwheel card 

Barb's big card with little stamps

New arrival card

Some friends of ours just adopted a little 2 year old boy. Its been a long wait for them and we are very happy to hear their news. We wish them a life time of happiness together xxx

I wanted to make a really special card, not too babyish, but something meaningful and significant. So here it is :

I used a Close to My Heart set for the little boy and dog, stamped in crumb cake. A nice spellbinders die coupled with a Waltzing Mouse Stamps for the sentiment - LOVE IT !!!

April Stampers Club

Focus this month was making shaped cards, an easel card and a gate fold card.

The first is an easel card. I loved doing the circular shapes for this. A tutorial can be found at : http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/easelcard/ There is a tutorial for a regular card as well as a circular one. Gotta love Beate's tutorials - thanks Beate :-)

I wanted to also demo the technique of embossing images into the background. If you can see in the sample, the clouds and grass on the circle are glued on first and then the circles was run through the big shot with the embossing folder. This technique works so much better using an embossing with small detail, like this square lattice one.

The kite was cut free hand, a couple of score lines in it for dimension and popped up. The white bakers twine is glue dotted in place.

I love to make 'just because' cards, and sending them for no other reason other than a hello, its such a nice surprise to receive one - better than occasions for really.

 Side view of the easel card, the mechanism to stand it up. I just love how dimensional it becomes and folds totally flat.

SU recipe :
Stamp set : Sale a bration set (sentiment)
Cardstock : Pool party, Lucky limeade, whisper white, calpyso coral
Embellishments : White bakers twine
Tools : Square lattice embossing folder, Glue dots, dimensionals, Big shot, Spellbinders nestabilities

For the second card, I found inspiration from Inkspiredtreasures.com.

As it is approaching the end of the school year, I thought this card would be good for a teachers card, or for a student who got a good school report. (Hopefully this will be the case here !)

I made a gate fold card, with the apple (for the teacher !!! lol) used to secure the card closed.

The books are made from the word window punch and the chalk board effect is made by using a white graphite pencil and a paper pencil to smudge the pencil. This technique was easier than white embossing and restamping with craft ink and is more effective for the school look of this card.

There was an assembly of dsp scraps available for the crafters, so everyones owl was dressed differently :)

SU recipe :

Stamp : Apple from Perfectly preserved

Cardstock : basic grey, summer starfruit, baja breeze, black, whisper white and dsp

Tools : Word window punch, Owl builder punch, Black pen, white graphite pencil, paper penxil

10 year olds Birthday

 My friends daughter just turned 10 and my new Close to My Heart fairy stamp set made its debut. I stamped the main fairy in momento black and colored with my copics. But for the small circle fairies and flowers around the main image, I stamped them in versamark and colored with chalk ink, fixing it with my own home made alcohol and glimmer spray. Hope you like it - thanks for visiting :-)

New puppy

A big shout out to my best friend Katrina's new puppy - Chloe. I loved the little punch art bone, the ratty chewed up ribbon and of course the stamped muddy footprints. Oh the joys of being a dog owner ! lol The sentiment is from a set by Scrappy Moms and it was perfect to welcome a new pup into a french speaking household

:)

March stampers club

Because of spring break and Easter, we had our stampers club early this month. We made two distinctively different cards, a clean cut bright one and a dark vintage one. Love the contrast :-)

The first one was an Easter card, but could just as easily be used for a new baby card. The chicks are made using the Stampin' Up! bird punch, the egg is made from an oval. The beautiful square ribbon is a bit of a cheat I guess. It is three pieces of ribbon, and a nice bow is built using double sided tape - perfect and flat bow guaranteed every time.

Here is a close up of the little chick, all sponged and distressed around the outside - to imitate fluff ! lol The eye is made using a little gem or pearl, that I colored with a black sharpie marker.

SU recipe :
Cardstock : Baja Breeze, whisper white, old olive, daffodil delight
Accessories : Cloudy day embossing folder, bird punch, oval punch, pearls, distress tool, ribbon

The second card used the faux patina technique. There is a great tutorial on split coast stampers : http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/fauxpatina/

The left hand strip is embossed and colored as per the tutorial. The penny farthing bike is from the Clearly Sentimental stamp set which is only available as a Sale-a-bration item during the sale period 22 Jan-22 March 2013. I triple stamped it to give the feeling of motion. I didn't reink the stamp, just stamped and then moved the stamp to the left and stamped again, and again. The image gets lighter with each stamp. Its a neat trick. I LOVE the vintage rose ribbon. It comes in one long strip, 50 roses. They can be cut apart of adhered together like the image above. I didn't color them on this occasion, but they'd look pretty neat I think.

SU recipe :
Stamp Set : Clearly Sentimental
Cardstock : Crumb cake, Very vanilla, midnight muse
Ink : Crumb cake, marina mist, always artichoke, early espresso, midnight muse
Accessories : Oval die cutter, rose ribbon, fancy edge die

Fun cards

I did a class last weekend and we made these two great cards. The party was a lot of fun, its always great to meet new people and share my passion of paper crafting. My aim always is that everyone learns something - there were lots of techniques in these cards, so I would say Mission Accomplished !

Happy 2nd Birthday

A friends son just turned 2. I just adore this stamp set from Pink Cat Studio. I coloured him with my copics, put mica flakes on for his hood. I hope they liked it :-)

February group cards

At my stampers group this month the focus was definitely on valentines and love. We did two cards :

 This is actually the first shaker card I have ever made and I loved it.

SU ingredients :
Stamp set : Perfectly preserved, Seasonal Sayings
Cardstock : Read red, whisper white
Accessories : window sheets, pool party bakers twine, small heart punch, cannery set framelits

For this heart, we made a stencil and sponged through with primrose petals using a sponge dauber. It gives a lovely suede effect. The edges of the layers are distressed using the SU distressing tool. I used the honeycomb embossing with the core'dinations cardstock and sanded it. Thanks to Brandy Stamps for the inspiration.

SU ingredients :
Stamp set : itty bitty banners,
Cardstock : Primrose petals core'dinations cardstock, whisper white
Accessories : Honeycomb embossing folder, sanding block, distressing edger, heart punch

Moms and daughters card class

I did a Moms and daughters class,  It was fun and they all enjoyed it A LOT ! One of the cards we did was for either a teachers valentine, or to be saved for end of year thank you.

I love the SU owl, isn't s/he just adorable. We did fancy dsp on the chest - to mimic a teachers dress - at least thats how teachers dressed in my day ! lol The books were made using the word window punch. The black board is written on with a graphite pencil and then the white graphite is rubbed with a paper pencil - available at all good art stores. The 4U is a retired SU stamp. I dont like to use retired stuff in a class really, but it was just so perfect. Thanks for visiting.

January ATC's - Punch Art

I LOVE punch art, its so satisfying to make things out of punched shapes. Am I reverting to my childhood ? lol I think so, I love to cut, punch and color.

Its good to see that my frog fetish is still alive and well ! lol Everything was stamped or embossed, cut/punched and then adhered. His tongue is long and curly. LOVE him xxx

The other punch art creations :

January SU party

I dont do a lot of SU parties, but during Sale-a-bration they seem to get more popular. I did a party recently and just loved the cards we made :

The Papillion Potpourri stamp set and co-ordinating punch is just fantastic. I colored the rhinestones with sharpie markers to match the butterfly colors and the sentiment is from the Blooming with Kindness stamp set.

 I made another of the triple time stamping cards, using Elements of Style. I stamped the humming bird in pink, brave burgundy for the flowers and then used a blender pen to do a little coloring. The blender pens are so fantastic and easy to use. The embelishment is distressed circles adhered with a brad. The sentiment 'Life in a matter of moments' is just perfect.

Thanks for looking, and have a great day x

December ATC - The 12 Days of Christmas

The challenge was to each choose one of the 12-days of Christmas and make our ATC's for that theme. I chose, 3 french hens. I feel  a little superstitious about the number 3. The back ground collage is made with kitchen roll and luminere paints. I had so much fun doing that.

The full set of December ATC's : 3 french hens, 4 calling birds, 5 gold rings and 9 ladies dancing. They are all so different - I really enjoyed this festive ATC exchange. 

Are the walls closing in in my craft room ?

I am sure that the walls are closing in in my craft room ! It seems to get smaller and smaller. I'm having trouble find a home for my purchases ! lol So tonight I incorporated some new storage - ok, its white so doesn't really match, but we had it and it was free so who cares ! My stamp sets are now sorted into categories and on the new shelves, my embelishments are sorted and in the glass fronted cabinet, as are all my 'coloring' things ! (Embossing powder, glitter, markers, copics etc, etc). I am super excited and thought I'd better take a few pics whilst its tidy !

Bookmarks

I am an avid reader, in two book clubs and active on the Good Reads website - if you like to read and havent been there yet - I highly recommend it. Bookmarks, therefore seem to be an appropriate thing for me to make. This is made with the PTI bookmark die and a Tim Holtz Visual Artistry stamp set, Flights of Fancy. What a fabulous sentiment.

You may think you are seeing double, but I shadow stamped the flowers to give it depth and it also co-ordinated better with the letters, which are kind of shadowed.

The cardstock, ribbon and ink are Stampin' Up! raspberry ripple and wild wasabi.

Thanks for looking x

Interference Perfect Pearls

I love perfect pearls, but recently came across interference perfect pearls. WOW ! It basically works the opposite way to perfect pearls. You apply the powder to the dark cardstock and stamp with your versamark/perfect medium inked up stamp. The versamark removes the perfect pearls, leaving a beautiful image. Set it with a light spritz of H20.

This card is created for my best friend Katrina for Valentines, sending love across the miles to her xxx

I also used the MFT cloud dies and a retired love stamp set. I made the heart from sculpey clay - a new hobby ! Another one - Oh my !!!! lol

Thanks for looking x

WMS January 2013 Blog Party

Its that time again, the WMS blog party. I dont always get to play, but this month I made the time. I had an excuse for crafting time, I have met a wonderful group of motivated crafters and we will meet weekly -how great is that :) I look forward to participating more regularly in challenges (especially WMS) and I might even get caught up on my scrapbooking - I started Projec Life 2 weeks ago - yikes, I'm already behind ! lol Anyway, on to business .....

This month's WMS blog party has the LOVE theme ! I decided to make a card for my son. He is about to turn 11 and a really fantastic kid, I am so proud of him. As soon as I saw the little hero additions stamp set, I knew I just had to have it.  I love the sentiments and will use them often to express myself to my boys xxx
( I am taking the photos at night so I dont miss the submission deadline - bit disappointed in the color in the photo, it is so much more vibrant in real life / day light. )

I coloured the boy in copics highlighting with a little prismacolor white and gel pen, paper pieced the teddy, used various Spellbinders sets - banners, majestic elements resplendent rectangles and can you see the heart peeping out from behind the boy. The small hearts in the blue heart and punched using a Creative Memories confetti heart punch. The gorgeous background paper is from a 6x6 paperpack by Crate Paper - Toy Box Collection. 

Do you see the red heart ?  The heart is my new found hobby - Sculpey clay. It is really easy to work with and is available in a large variety of colours and metallics. When baked it is very hard and light weight - kinda the perfect medium for making your own embellishments. Close up :

Thanks for looking. I am off to look at all the other wonderful creations on the WMS blog.

Just for comparison, I took another photo this morning, with natural light :-)

January SU parties

I dont use flowers really, so I decided that pinwheels are my new flowers :) Stampin' Up! has a new pinwheel die in the spring catalogue. During the workshop I wanted to demo using the die and also making your own. The smaller one is with the die, the larger one is hand cut - super easy.

SU recipe :

Stamp set : Bitty banners

Ink : Midnight Muse

Cardstock : Print Poetry dsp, Whisper white and naturals white

Embellishments : Glimmer brad, pool party bakers twine, mini silver brads

Tools : Pinwheel die, Clear oval accent bigz die, Chevron embossing folder

The second card was a design I have been looking forward to doing, triple time stamping. It is easy and very effective. Some people used this flower stamp from elements of style, whilst others made a male card - yes, its true, a card for a man !!! lol We used The Open Sea stamp set for that and I hope the recipients are appreciative !

SU recipe :

Stamp set : Elements of Style

Ink : Bravo burgundy

Cardstock : Very vanilla, bravo burgundy

Embellisments : Brights button, linen twine

Last WMS Sketch Challenge #129

Oh no ..... its the last sketch challenge from Waltzing Mouse Stamps !

Even though I don't often get to 'play', I love the creative inspiration from the samples in these challenges. I will really miss it, my Saturday mornings just wont be the same.

So, obviously I just had to create something for the last challenge, #129. Thank you Claire for running this challenge for so long, and I look forward to what you do next.

I made a card for him and also a challenge entry.

I took inspiration from the Generation Tech DCWV paper stack I recently bought, specifically the pacman sheet. This is my pacman, just made more fabulous. The pacman is made using my WMS Doily Stamps, the sentiments are from Free Spirit Sentiments and the banners are Bitty Banners.

Thanks for looking and Happy New Year x

Christmas lights

I found a new use for my blossoms punch. Its a great way to use up all those colored scraps.

Reverse kissing technique

I thought I would try a reverse approach to the kissing technique. For this I inked up my woodgrain stamp with versamark and pressed it lightly to the retired Su tree set. I then stamped it onto black, embossing with white powder. I think it looks really stunning.
The grass is stamped with versamark and then colored with silver perfect pearls.

Decembers SU parties

Having made 4 Christmas cards in class this year, yes you hear me correctly - 4 ! lol I am known for not embracing the whole Xmas card making thing, but have to appreciate that other people do like it !

So Decembers projects were not winter related at all.

First there was the box, with candy inside. Couple of things about the flower included  the sewing we did to secure everything together and the ribbon rosette we made. The cardstock was die cut into the flower shaped and then crumpled into a ball and rubbed. This made the fibres split and we were able to separate the front from the back of the cardstock. I love how it looks, thin, ragged petals.

SU recipe :
Stamp set : Word play
Cardstock : Cherry cobbler, baja breeze
Accessories : Fun Flower Die, Fancy favor box, vintage faceted button, organza ribbon.

The second project was using the technique called Josephs Technicolor coat, or something similar ? I fell in love with this technique when I first saw it and it always amazes me when I do it as the end result is always different and original. To to the technique you sponge the background cardstock, then stamp images with versamark and clear emboss it. Then sponge with a darker color, early espresso in this instance. As you sponge and the pattern materialises, where the embossing powder resists the espresso ink, its like magic.

SU recipe :
Stamp set : French foliage
Cardstock : Very vanilla, early espresso, summer starfruit
Ink : Early espresso, certain celery, summer starfruit, pumpkin pie and bravo burgundy
Assessories : Top note die, Woodgrain embossing folder, ribbon slide, summer starfruit ribbon

Flower order fulfilled !

Someone asked me to make 6 flower cards from their Xmas gift. I do love the Fun Flowers die so was happy to oblige :-) My time was limited and I definitely prefer some to others, but sure they will love them.