Anniversary Card - Pleasant Poppies

I knew I had to have the wonderful Pleasant Poppies stamp from Stampin' Up!® the moment I saw the 2012-13 Catalogue. And it has not disappointed me. I love the fact that it can be embossed, coloured and combined with other stamps.

This month at my card Stamp A Stack class I had 2 requests for designs - Mothers Day and Anniversary cards.

I decided to make them both general enough that they could be used for a number of occasions simply by changing the greeting, or by adding other colours when colouring and sponging. The ladies did not disappoint, with some wonderfully creative solutions produced around the table.  54 cards were created last night and the variety from 2 different kits was inspiring to see. 

So here is my version of the Anniversary Card

The card was quite quick to create by adding layers of dry embossing shapes, a little sponging and some Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

Colours are River Rock ink on Very Vanilla card. The poppies have been coloured using a Blender Pen  and the textures have been enhanced by sponging River Rock ink over the surface.

 

A touch of Dazzling Diamonds here and there on the card gave these neutral colours a bit of a lift.

Hope you enjoy the card - if you'd like to attend any of my classes you can contact me any time to find out if I have vacancies. 

Until Next Time

Stay Crafty

A Summer Afternoon with Stampin' Up.

Summer is slowly disappearing in the Southern hemisphere and usually I would not be looking forward to winter, but this year I have a wonderful journey to the USA planned for our winter. So bring on winter!

It is quite a while since I've ridden a push bike, but this gorgeous stamp by Stampin' Up! has me thinking about borrowing one and having a go! The stamp is from the Hostess Only stamp set named SUMMER AFTERNOON and I used it to demonstrate the blender pen water-colouring technique to some of my customers. If you love that stamp set (Annual Catalogue) you will just have to host a Stampin' Up! party to get one, or you can email a qualifying order to me and I'll have it posted to your home address. Contact me via my Demonstrator Business Website

The BLENDER PEN  is very convenient to use for water-colouring - just squeeze your ink pad so there is some ink on the lid, pick up the colour with the Blender Pen and colour away. We all commented how it made us feel like we were back in Primary School, but we noted just how relaxing colouring is. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of the original colouring, but suffice it to say that I was less than happy with it, so showed the girls a little trick that helps to hide any flaws. You guessed it - you run your stamped image through the BIG SHOT  with an embossing folder. I used one of my most versatile folders - SQUARE LATTICE - I come back to that one over and over as it's great for male cards, backgrounds and covering mistakes!

Don't you just love that sentiment? It is from a wonderful Stampin' Up! set called FEEL GOODS and you will find it on page 21 of the Seasonal Catalogue.

I decided this card needed something more so stepped it up a bit with some embellishments and coloured matts. The detail shot shows one of the styles of brad from ANTIQUE BRADS teamed with my old favourite - LINEN THREAD.  The blue base card has been stamped with a texture stamp and the black and orange card help tie the composition together.

Did you also notice some light sponging over the greeting? That just takes away from the starkness of the white card background. The "faux stitching" is done freehand.

Here is the finished card:

Hope you enjoyed the card and that you will try out some of the featured products.

Until Next Time

Stay Crafty!

"In Color" Plus One

I told you the card making bug had bitten - this is my third post for the day. 

I finished most of my chores and have just a few moments before getting dinner, so thought I'd try a quick and easy card using just one In Color - Blushing Bride, and one Neutral - Soft Suede.

I've always like the look of this Hostess Free stamp set from Stampin' Up!® but this is the first time I've used it and I'm liking how easy it is to get a great effect with just a single stamp, a blender pen and some inks. The stamp set is called "Because I Care" and consists of 5 stamps. 

Isn't it a lovely image? 

I've stamped the leaves twice, and cut them out to add a little dimension to the card. The greeting was simply punched out with the Full Heart Extra Large punch and sponged around the edges.

This detail shows the divine new Embossing folder "Framed Tulips" that gives you deeply embossed floral accents to border your images. Love, love love it! 

I've added some white highlights to the Hydrangea flower with my White Gel Pen and darkened some of the centres using a Stampin Write Marker. 

A little sponging with Soft Suede, some highlights with Blushing Bride ink and a Blender Pen and completing the card with a Vintage Brad and some Linen Thread tied around some Chocolate Satin Ribbon and I was all finished in about 25 minutes. Must be one of my quickest cards I've ever made!

If you'd like more information on any of the techniques or Stampin' Up!® products I've used for this card you can contact me via my Demonstrator Business Website.

I'm always happy to share with other crafters so until next time

Stay Crafty!

Getting Ready for Easter

I have a busy few weeks ahead of me with an interstate trip for 10 days and a number of workshops, classes and scrap nights, so I thought I'd get a couple of Easter items under way.

I recently purchased the lovely "Easter Blossoms" clear mount stamp set from Stampin' Up!®, and although Easter is in autumn in the southern hemisphere, I love the blossoms and thought they would make a lovely background for my bunny on these little Easter Baskets. Also I love the Paper Players challenges, so I'm going to pretend I'm visiting good friends in the USA!


Paper Players Challenge # 37 this week is Spring has Sprung - hop on over to their blog and see some of the fabulous DT designs. What could be more "springy" than baby bunnies and blossoms?

 

The baskets are made from the Big Shot "Fancy Favor" Box die. It is such a versatile die and even scores the card for you so you can easily fold in the correct places.

I've hand coloured the rabbit and blossoms with a blender pen and classic ink by Stampin' Up! and kept to a traditional colour theme for a girl (pink) and a boy (blue).
Colours used:
Pretty in Pink
Baja Breeze
Chocolate chip

The bunny is cut out with paper snips, and raised on dimensionals. The greeting is stamped onto vanilla card, punched out with the Extra Large Oval Punch and then I sponged around the edges with blue and brown ink. It struck me after I finished that this was in the shape of an egg and the sponging helped to create a roundness.

If you are looking for some new challenges, have a look at "jac-inks Challenge #3" It is an Inspiration Challenge that allows you full creative process and interpretation. These are fortnightly challenges - so plenty of time to get a project completed, but don't forget to up;load it in time!

As this stamp is one of my first stamp purchases nearly 6 years ago, I'm entering this project in the Creative Belli Challenge #112 - Animals.
Paper Play - Shabby Chic/Vintage
SU Only Challenge 14 - Favourite RetiredStamp

Tonight I'm having my first Canvas Scrapping class. I'm very excited for this occasion, and can't wait to show you some of the results as the ladies who have booked into the class have very diverse talents and we always end up with so many different solutions to the one set of guidelines.

As a teacher, this is my main objective - develop each persons individual talents and stylistic preferences and enjoy the fantastic creative results that are achieved.

If you live in the Canberra or regional NSW area and would like a workshop or class, you can contact me for further information


Until next time,

Stay crafty!

The Nicest Things

One of the nicest things I do is make cards, and this one is doubly nice because it is my first card for 2011, and I got to try out my new stamp set called "The Nicest Things".

I only recently purchased this set because I had a yearning to try something different with water-colouring, but instead I found myself reverting back to one of the first stamping techniques I learned after joining Stampin' Up!® as a demonstrator - Blender Pens and Classic Ink pads.

Such an easy technique and so controllable. I decided to work in tones of Pink and have used Rose Red, Regal Rose, Pretty In Pink and Bravo Burgundy with some touches of Soft Suede. You may be able to see a little glitter - for the first time in nearly 5 years my Dazzling Diamonds was affected by humidity and was quite hard to spread nicely. I'm not complaining tho' as I think of all the people in Queensland and Northern New South Wales who are suffering from unprecedented flooding - a little cloggy diamond dust is nothing!

 I used lots of accessories on this card including Punches: Heart to Heart; 3.5 cm Circle; 3.2 cm Circle; Scallop Trim Border and Scallop Trim Corner. I also made good use of my Big Shot and the "Beautiful Wings" Embosslits die.  A bit of Faux Stitching is a favourite of mine, this time done with the Bravo Burgundy Stampin' Write Marker.

The gorgeous Bitty Buttons can be found in the Summer Mini, and the card stock is punched with one of the tiny punches from the Punch Pack -"Itty Bitty Shapes".The ribbons, and patterned papers are old stock from my stash.

The finished card - something a little different for me,but I quite like it all the same.

I designed this card for the following challenges:

 Color Chef Challenge # 69 - Tone on tone

Shabby Tea Room  - Sketch

Scrap Creations - Love is in the Air new stamp & buttons - old papers

Stampin B's - Something Old Something New

Pile It One - It's All About Cute Children

CupCake Challenge #124 - Something New - stamp

I've had a great day today, because not only did I make my first card for the year, I actually completed a scrap page at my scrap class tonight.  Whoo Hoo - first one in ages.

If you'd like to know any details about the card or products I've used, please feel free to leave a comment.

Take Care and Stay Crafty!