What I've been up to....

I got really excited about the 'Petal Card Extra-Large Double' punch when the new catalogue came out last year (2010), especially because it has a co-ordinating Level 2 hostess stamp set (Cute by the inch)....but I used it once and then didn't touch it again! So lately I thought, enough is enough I need to learn how to use this better...so I just googled 'Petal Card Extra-Large Double' which took me on a lovely little journey onto other peoples blogs who have used it too, it gave me some great ideas, and now I really like that punch again LOL.

Here is a card that I have made recently using the 'Petal Card Extra-Large Double' as the feature little envelope in the middle with a stamp from the 'Cute by the inch' letter popping out.

I you have never used it or seen it before, the punch cuts the flower shape and at the same time it embosses fold lines between the petals so it can now be folded up completely or the top left open as I have done or put two or four together to create little boxes, it is quite fun.

I will post more photos soon of some little boxes I have made...who knows we might even use this in this months workshop!

If you would like to purchase this punch, it costs $33.95 code #119273

Happy stamping,

Bec

Christmas in July

I really loved doing the Christmas in July workshop. I cased these designs that I found on the Splitcoast Stampers gallery. It was so nice to create Christmas cards, gifts and decorations without the pressure of Christmas!! Way to go to get organised for Christmas! At the Stamp-a-stack workshop we made 6 cards: 2 each of 3 designs.......

CARD 1

I love the images in the Holiday Lineup stamp set they are so comical, it puts a little fun into Christmas.... but who has ever seen a thin Santa? Why are all these Santa's thin??

Materials used:

cardstock - whisper white, real red, basic black

stamps - Holiday lineup, Spotlight on Christmas, polka dot background

ink - jet black stazon and real red stampin' write marker

extras - black eyelets, large oval and scallop oval punches, red gingham ribbon, in this photo I used white embossing powder on the santa's pom poms and collars, but at the workshop we used dazzling diamonds glitter and I think that was nicer!

CARD 2

Isn't this pretty? This one makes me think of my mum - she loves poinsettias. It is a quick card using the Big Shot and the 5-petal flower punch - gotta love stamps that match/fit the punches an the "Spotlight on Christmas" stamp set has 6 stamps that all fit different punches and since I am a punch addict I had to get this stamp set to make quick and cute cards!!

Materials used:

cardstock: very vanilla, real red, glorious green (retiring)

stamps: Spotlight on Christmas, Best Yet (hostess)

ink: real red

extras: Top Note die for the big shot, 5-petal flower punch, gold shimmer spray (can't see it on this photo but it gives a lovely light shine/shimmer to your card/page **not a SU product**)

CARD 3

How cute are these reindeer? I love my traditional Christmas colours, but I also enjoy experimenting with non traditional colours.

Materials used:

cardstock: certainly celery, kraft, whisper white, soft suede

stamps: Holiday Lineup, Spotlight on Christmas

ink: certainly celery, soft suede, jet black stazon, chocolate chip, real red

extras: certainly celery5/8" wide ribbon, large oval punch to cut the corners, circle punches 1-3/8" and 1-1/4", crystal effects.

Variation to card 3

Here are a few other cards I made in preparation for Christmas in July.......

How cute are these little mice? (**not a SU image**) Normally I HATE mice, discussting little rodents LOL, but these ones are safe and they are not going to get into my food storage!!! I love how this stamp can be used for either birthday or Christmas, jut by changing the way you colour the gifts - my 8 year old daughter coloured this image and I put the card together.

I had lots of fun doing this card, I cased it from the Splitcoast Stampers gallery, took ages though, but I am sure next time it will be a lot quicker since I won't have to work out all the measurements. Do you love the little owl in the tree, there is a little blue bird in the other branch too but it didn't come out so good. These came from the the hostess set 'Picture This' in the autumn-winter mini. If you want to earn this set and get free stamps, email me today to arrange your own Stampin' Up! party - you won't be disappointed :)

Thanks for looking, come back again soon and be sure to pass on this link to all your crafty friends!!!!

No birthday cards can you believe it?????

My daughter was invited to a birthday party and me being me left it to the last minute to buy a present and I thought I would just grab a card from my stack of cards..........well to my great amazement I had no suitable birthday cards!!!!!!!! Plenty of 'friend' cards or 'happiness' cards or 'christmas' cards or even birthday cards for older people but nothing suitable for a little girl. So I had to buy a birthday card (being rushed and all I had not time to whip one up), it was a simple sweet card that I thought shouldn't cost that much........$4.95 later I decided then and there I was going to go home and make a stack of both boy and girl birthday cards. I chose a simple design that I could just run off lots of and I used a 1/4 of an A4 to make it even quicker and more cost effective - especially for kids.

Here is the boy card using my favourite "Bugs & Kisses" stamp set, Kraft, Whisper White and Soft Suede cardstock and Soft Suede Classic Ink Pad.

Here is the girl card using the Butterfly Punch (which, by the way you can still purchase even though it was in the last mini catalogue - contact me if you would like to know more) with 'Cottage Wall' Designer Series Paper and Pale Plum cardstock and the 'happy birthday' stamp comes from Teeny Tiny Sentiment p.26 in the current mini catalogue and stamped in Rich Razzleberry. I cased this design from Amy Waters, I loved how she sewed down the middle of her butterflies so I did a quick version!!!

I hope this inspires you to go and make a stack of birthday cards and never pay $4.95 for 1 card again!! (just think...that's almost half the price of a classic ink pad, or half the price of a pkt of 24 sheets of cardstock in which you could make 48 cards this size, or the cost of a giant block of cadbury chocolate from Big W......the possibilities are endless LOL)

The technique of MASKING

This is an oldy but a goody, you overlap the stamps so that it looks like the 2nd image is sitting behind the 1st. It looks great with solid stamps, but also looks amazing with flowers or people/animals. We used this technique at the last workshop in June and you can find step by step instructions at the Stampin' Up! website here. I used the 'I {heart} Hearts' stamp set to create this card. Just remember to cut your image on the post-it note inside the lines (smaller) so as to not get that gap between the images like on mine below LOL!!!

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Inkspirations Challenge

I decided to try another challenge, I have found it's a great way to start creating outside your comfort zone. This time I followed Makeesha Byl's Inkspirations Challenge #26 it was a colour challenge, some colours I would not normally put together - but I think it actually works really well. Let me know what you think?



Here is my card:


And here is a close up of the flower:

Do you like that button? I made it using a small circle punch, punched out the basic grey card about 5-6 times, glued them together, pierced two holes then covered in crystal effects. Now you can make a button to match any of your designs...try it with some DSP

Sketch Challenge...

Hi everyone, The wonderful Stampin' Up! demonstrators of Australia and NZ have put together a fabulous website/forum to communicate with each other and to share ideas and inspiration for what we do. They have regular challenges for all sorts of card making to 3D items to scrap pages. Last week I entered my very first challenge.....and I won!!! There was a small entry I must admit, but non the less, I am pretty chuffed LOL.

This was the 'Sketch' that you had to get inspiration from:



and this was my entry:



Let me know what you think. If you are interested in looking at or competing in more challenges, Makeesha Byl's Inkspirations are are fantastic starting point. Have fun.

Embossing Workshop last week

Thanks everyone who came to the emobssing workshop on Wednesday night. I hope the rest of you get well soon. Our first card used gloss paper and we embossed a white tree onto the gloss paper then using a sponge and 'going gray' ink, rubbed over the image, the image doesn't take the ink, only the paper. This technique is called embossing resist. We created the scalloped edge on the black circle using a corner rounder click here to see a tutorial. I love this card if I do say so myself!! My darling husband who pretends to take an interest in my cards actually said this card was the best I've ever made! and he was serious and not just saying that so he could get back to whatever he was doing before I asked for his opinion LOL!!! Well I don't know if it is the best I've ever made, but thanks hon!

Here is a close up of the tree. We finished the tree with red dots from 'real red' stamp and write marker then covered each dot with crystal effects so now the tree looks like it has blossoms or fruit.


Here is the second card we made. We used the "Manhattan Flower" embossing folder and using a brayer you need to put ink directly onto the embossing folder, put the card in the folder and then run it through your die/embossing machine. We then hand cut around the flower. Try this technique using 2 different inks blending together!! Nice and simple yet very effective.

Lovey-Dovey Valentines Cards

I did make these before Valentines Day, but I just didn't get them up here for you to see!! The card with the chocolate rose I made for my brother to give to his girlfriend I used the stamp set like-o-meter 117723 from the Spring Mini. The other card I made with the I{Heart} Hearts 117715 stamp set, also from the Spring Mini. I must admit, I love this stamp set and the fact that it co-ordinates with 2 of the punches makes card making a breeze. I will post more cards from this set soon. But remember to hurry if you would like any of these stamp sets as they will go at the end of this month when the Spring Mini catalogue finishes.

Christmas 'One-sheet-wonder' workshops

I loved the 'one-sheet-wonder' design that Linda Craven did on her blog so I have used that design to create a Christmas themed workshop. Workshops are Wed 11th and Sat 21st November. Come along, bring a friend and leave with 9 beautiful handmade cards, plus the template to do it all again at home!!!! I have use the lovely "Season of Joy" stamp set again.

We had a great night last week, thanks to all those who came.

2 Christmas card designs:

First was super quick and simple in red and black with clear embossing powder and dazzling diamonds stampin' glitter mixed together and heat embossed to create the background effect - gotta have sparkles at Christmas!!!

Second a pretty non traditional colour scheme using just clear embossing for the snow flakes and dazzling diamonds glitter on the words.

In both cards I used the "Season of Joy" stamp set which is very versatile and for 8 stamps it is great value at $51.95

The Dahlia Fold

This beautiful flower is called the Dahlia fold flower and all you need is a circle punch, I found an easy to follow step by step instruction sheet by "Donna Moore". I have used the Rasberry Tart DSP for the flower and a crystal brad for the centre.

Next we made this little matching love note card, using the same Dahlia fold we created these flowers in bud form.

It is a bit fiddily but you get faster at after about 3 or so!!!!

This is my new favourite Christmas card at the moment. It is so quick to make and you don't even need a Christmas stamp set!! I got this nifty idea from the Splitcoast Stampers website and we made this also at the last workshop. We are on the down hill slide to Christmas now, so if you haven't started your Christmas cards yet, you'd better get crackin'.

I love this new stamp set of mine "Spring Song" the little birdies are so cute and fun to colour, but I love the price of this set too!! We made the card on the left at the last workshop but I made a couple of others to see the whole set being used. I even had my "non bird loving friend" agree that it was a nice card (once I twisted her arm I think!)

Wednesday's Workshop 12th August 09

We had a great night Wednesday, we made a lovely elegant Thank you card using the 'Elegant Thank You' stamp from the Spring Mini Catalogue and the 'Bella's Border' wheel. We used bashful blue ink and cardstock and chocolate chip cardstock and grosgrain ribbon. We also used the scallop edge and scallop square punches.

Next we made a really easy and cute little gift bag idea stuffed with lollies using Designer Series Paper (I used Washington Apple), the fabulous Crimper to do the edges and the scallop circle and 3.5cm circle punches for the little tag with the sentiment from the hostess set 'Best Yet'. I used bashful blue and pumpkin pie cardstock and pumpkin pie stamp pad for the gift tag also. Everyone loved this and was impressed by how easy it was and how it would be a really great idea for party bags for kids birthdays!!

Treasures you find when you tidy up!

When I was re-organising my stamping/work area I found this cute stamp that I had stamped and embossed at a friends house a couple of years ago. It had been sitting there for years (you can tell I really hold onto 'stuff' that I think I might use in the future - no matter how far in the future that may be!) so instead of tucking it away again, I got stuck into it immediately. I coloured in the image using my blender pen and ink from various stamp pads. Cute huh?

Pretty Wedding card

We were invited to a wedding and the happy couple arranged a Wishing Well instead of gifts. So I made this card and we put the money inside and tided it up in a cello bag with pretty ribbon and popped that in the wishing well. That was the easiest gift I have ever had to arrange!