Scrap A Canvas - Vintage Style

Over the last couple of years I've really started to love scrapping photos and now that our family has the addition of a cute little granddaughter - scrapping has become even easier. Sometimes I like to go beyond the confinement of a page and I thought a canvas would be great to show off this photo taken on our 40th Anniversary celebration cruise. 

I used Stampin' Up! patterned papers for the background elements and a variety of punches to create the flowers. I also used embossing folders for texture, and Framelit dies from Stampin' Up! for interesting background shapes.

 I love the effect obtained by sponging ink onto an embossing folder before running it through my Big Shot. The Stripes folder is great - it gives some wonderful texture, pre-inks easily and additional sponging on the edges helps to create a Vintage look. 

Paper piercing is another great technique. One that can be used purely for decoration (as I've done on the Labels Collection Framelit Die (from Stampin' Up!)  or as a guide for stitching (see below)

I prefer to make my own flowers from card stock - these were quick and easy to create by punching shapes, scrunching them up, sponging the edges with Soft Suede ink from Stampin' Up! and then piercing the centres with brads.  The leaf stamp is from the "French Foliage" set and to give a little dimension I just folded it down the centre, sponged the spine and edges and attached to the canvas with hot glue.

This canvas is created for the following challenges:

Frilly and Funky Challenge Vintage - anything goes - follow your muse - 

to scrap more of the photos from our cruise to the Caribbean and visit to Disney World -Animal Kingdom Resort, Florida, so that they are on show rather than hidden in a book. 
Creative Bloggers Challenge Network   monochromatic 
Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge-PWC240     brads 
Stampotique DesignersChallenge SDC82       Die Cuts and Punches 
Make It Monday #122  - Always anything goes

Inky Chicks Challenge 1  - Anything goes

Bordering On Romance

Today I have a card I made recently, featuring the BORDERING ON ROMANCE stamp set from Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue - Stampin' Up!® This stamp set is beautiful on its own or can be hand coloured in any colour combination you choose.

The card is a simple sketch and features a number of techniques including dry embossing with the STRIPES  and FINIAL PRESS  embossing folders from Stampin' Up! The embossing folders have been pre-inked with Early Espresso Classic Ink and spritzed lightly with water to achieve the pink tones. I do this by randomly swiping the ink pad directly onto the folder. I find this gives me more variety than applying the ink with a brayer. 

The join between the different embossing folders is covered with CROCHET TRIM - Victoria and the background is then mounted on a Very Vanilla card base. 

The floral image is stamped onto Very Vanilla and hand coloured using an AQUA PAINTER and EARLY ESPRESSO  Classic Ink picked up from the lid of the ink pad. The image is stamped in Early Espresso also. After colouring, the image was placed in the rectangular DESIGNER FRAMES  embossing folder and run through the BIG SHOT.  I then tore the rectangular shape before sponging and highlighting the outer edge of the frame. 

The main flower was stamped twice, cut out and raised on a DIMENSIONAL then decorated with a PEARL  from Stampin' Up!'s  BASIC JEWELS.

Sponging and the Aqua Painter are both great techniques when aiming for a Vintage effect as they allow such variation in application of colour. You can add as much or as little as you like.

I haven't added a greeting to this card but it would be easy enough to use it for Birthday, Friendship or even Sympathy occasions.

I hope you like the card and you will try a couple of the techniques used here. They really are fun, but if you feel hesitant and would like more information you can contact me via my Demonstrator Business Website  I'm happy to share what I know.

Until Next Time

Stay Crafty and Stay Happy 

A Mixed Bunch Embossed Butterfly

Everyone loves butterflies, right? So I'm sure you're going  to love the versatility of creating stunning flowers and butterflies from this one stamp set by Stampin' Up!®

The stamp set is called MIXED BUNCH and you can find it in Autumn/Winter Mini. It coordinates with the BLOSSOM PUNCH on the same page, making cutting the shape super easy and super quick. 

There are so many techniques that can be used with this set, and today I'm showing the results of the techniques of HEAT EMBOSSING  and DRY EMBOSSING with you. 

Here is my card.

So where is the flower? It is the butterfly with two petals cut away! Isn't that great?

We were shown this great tip at the Stampin' Up! Convention this year. 

The products used in this card are all from Stampin' Up!

Whisper White, Crumb Cake and Pink Pirouette card stock

Square Lattice and Finial Press Embossing folders

Just Believe and Mixed Bunch stamp sets

Blossom Punch

Framelits - Labels Collection

White Bakers Twine

Crumb Cake Seam Binding

Versa Mark and White Embossing Powder

Crumb Cake, Early Espresso and Pretty in Pink Classic Inks

You can see in the first detail how the stunning yet subtle the White Embossing powder is on the Pink Pirouette card. I have curved the wings of the butterfly slightly using a bone folder. 

The floral image from the Just Believe stamp set was first stamped in Pretty in Pinnk, then Crumb Cake, and the base was sponged with Crumb Cake ink to add an ethereal feeling to the stamped image. 

I created the narrow framelits frame by cutting 2 white Labels shapes the same size as the pink one, then cutting them diagonally across each frame into 4 pieces. If you look carefully you can see the join just above the Right wing of the butterfly.

The Finial Press embossing folder was pre-inked with Pink Pirouette ink before going through the Big Shot. I love this effect and am using it quite often in lots of my cards.

The final photo shows the 3-D effect easily obtained by shaping the butterfly with a Bone Folder and scrunching the seam binding onto a strip of Sticky Strip Adhesive.

Until Next Time,

Stay Crafty and Stay Happy!

Emboss Stampin Up Fabrics On Cards

Lately I've been trying to add "something extra" to my cards to make them just a little bit different. And as I love fabric, and Stampin' Up!® have introduced a beautiful range of fabrics to our catalogue this year, (have a peek at page 140 in the on-line catalogue) I decided that's what I'd try.

I made this card recently, as one of the styles for a Stamp A Stack. It was a lot simpler then and was made with the following products:

CONFETTI WHITE Card Stock

ELEGANT LINES  Embossing Folder

BEAU CHATEAU Designer Fabric

LATTICE SQUARE Embossing Folder

CROCHET TRIM - VICTORIA

FLOWER FOLDS BIGZ XL Die

MARINA MIST Card Stock
SOFT SUEDE  Card Stock

ANTIQUE BRAD

SOFT SUEDE Classic Ink (sponged)
MARINA MIST  Classic Ink (stamped)

To dress it up I just added the die cut flourishes and some background stamping using this very useful little stamp from the Stampin Up FRENCH FOLIAGE  stamp set.

The detail shot shows the lovely effect gained by fringing the edges of the fabric, gluing it to a piece of scrap card then embossing with Stampin Up's LATTICE SQUARE  Embossing Folder.

It's just a short post today, but if you would like to purchase any of the products used, just contact me through my Stampin Up Demonstrator web site to place your order. It can be delivered to your doorstep at the regular postage cost

Until Next Time 

Stay Crafty,

Established Elegance in Navy

This card has been rumbling around in my head for a couple of days and finally decided to emerge tonight. I had a friend around doing a scrap page, but I was on a mission to get this done and posted as I wanted to enter the Triplicate Trials Tuesday Challenge 10.

The Challenge this week is right up my alley! I've always loved to sew - I started making my own clothes without patterns when I was about 9 years old and have sewn ever since. I wouldn't call myself the most fashionable person around, but that doesn't take away from the joy of it all. And I have 3 very fashion conscious daughters who have taught me a thing or two over the years!

Here is the card I created.

... and here are the three sections of the Challenge

I retrieved 3 stamp sets to get started on this card, but ended up using just one: the gorgeous ESTABLISHED ELEGANCE from Stampin' Up! Soft Suede was the closest colour ink I could find to Khaki, and Night of Navy was perfect to go with this.

Recently a friend gave me some wonderfully light fibrous paper that I sewed with the machine, onto some pre-inked, dry embossed white card. I really like how the texture from the embossed card shows through this. I stamped directly onto this with Navy and Suede creating a collage of things that remind me of fashion. 

Many of my cards seem to have a vintage feel lately, so this large brad from the VINTAGE BRADS Collection is a perfect embellishment.

Don't you just love the crown image? I stamped this plus plenty of other small images from the set onto the "background" card prior to sponging around the edges in both Suede and Navy. 

Of course you can't be sewing without pins and as I had some with blue beads on top I decided they would make a great embellishment for this card. I scrunched some CRUMB CAKE SEAM BINDING ribbon, tied it in a bow and placed the pins through it. Everything is mounted onto NIGHT OF NAVY TEXTURED CARD (available in 12 x 12 inch size)

Hope you like the card and it inspires you to try this stamp set from Stampin' Up! It is so versatile and has terrific images to create scrap page embellishments as well as cards.

This card also fulfills the challenge guidelines for
Paper Sundaes  - your favourite colours
Sweet Stampin' Challenge  - In Stitches
The Crafty Pad  - Vintage

That' s it for tonight,

Until next time

Stay Crafty,

Wedding Card in Black and white

I promised you some other versions of the Wedding Card Stamp A Stack in a recent post - unfortunately I've only had time to complete one more - I've been making up kits for two different Christmas Card Classes I have coming up and one of them has been very time intensive! You'll see why when I post the card after the class next week.

So here is the Wedding Card in striking Black and White.

This time I added a greeting that fitted very nicely into the MODERN LABEL PUNCH. Don't forget, if you are making labels to always stamp the greeting first, then punch it out - no mistakes that way!

The first detail shot shows all the lovely textures that were achieved by using and layering the following products:

BIG SHOT plus SCALLOPED HEART OF HEARTS EMBOSSLIT DIE,

DESIGNER FRAMES TEXTURED IMPRESSIONS FOLDER SET,

FINIAL PRESS EMBOSSING FOLDER

LITTLE LEAVES SIZZLITS DIE,

and 

SCALLOP TRIM BORDER PUNCH

BASIC JEWELS - RHINESTONES  from Stampin' Up! were added for a tiny bit of bling. Love these as they are self adhesive and so easy to handle. They are good quality too and have a lovely clear shine to them.

The other colour combinations looked really lovely too. 

White and Pink

Vanilla on Vanilla

Vanilla and Black

Vanilla and Baja

Until next time,

Stay Crafty

Wedding Card Stamp A Stack Class

Good morning crafters. It's a beautiful Spring day here - flowers blooming, sun shining and very little wind. What a gorgeous time of the year! 

Tonight I have my regular monthly Stamp A Stack class and the topic will be WEDDING CARDS. 

Stamp A Stacks require fairly simple cards to be able to complete at least 6 in the one sitting. Now I struggle with SIMPLE and always want to include techniques that take time. This time however, I have used some self-discipline. True! I've only used Dry Embossing, Die Cutting and Punching. 

The kits I prepared have a variety of colour combinations as well as White on White and Vanilla on Vanilla, so there should be something for everyone. An optional greeting can be added, but I decided to leave this off as not too many people need 6 wedding cards and this card is generic enough to be used for other occasions. 

Perhaps add a smaller red heart for Valentines Day

or

A greeting for an Engagement notice

or 

Some balloons on strings for Special Birthdays

You can see what I mean! 

I dabbed some of the gorgeous FROST WHITE SHIMMER PAINT  onto the card, but decided I prefer the SHIMMER MIST  I make using the Shimmer Paint, Isocol and water.

If you would like to join my classes, you can contact me via my DBWS. I require a couple of days notice so I have time to prepare the kits. 

I'll post some of the other cards after the class - don't want to spoil the surprise for the ladies tonight.

Until next time

Stay Crafty

Big Shot and Fabric Card.

Hi, today I have some photos for you showing the card we made yesterday at my Big Shot and Fabric Creative Camp. It was such a wonderful day - a bit miserable outside but so perfect for stamping and creating. We made  a number of projects - starting basic than developing our creative ideas and techniques.

We were shown some of these techniques at our recent Stampin' Up!® Convention by one of our very talented demonstrators, Vanessa Webb. I met Vanessa 5 years ago when we were both quite new to demonstrating and it has been wonderful to see her create a fantastic business from her passion of stamping. Hop on over to have a look at her work, or if you live in the Woolongong area, give her a call!

Here is our first project: - A card embellished with embossed fabric butterflies.

The fabric is attached to some regular card stock using the Everywhere Glue Stick from Stampin' Up! This glue adheres fabric really well and can be used immediately. The card and fabric were then cut with the Stampin' Up! exclusive Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die. Gotta love that die!  - it's so versatile and really pretty too. The butterfly shapes were placed in the Finial Press Embossing Folder (another Stampin' Up! exclusive product) and run through the Big Shot to give added dimension and interest to the shape. Then I added some self adhesive half pearls from the Basic Pearls product. I love this size pearl for these projects as they are connected together and can be used in a line or cut individually.

The card itself is made from Rose Red card stock with a Square Lattice embossed panel adhered to the front and a Scallop Trim Border along the opening edge. Can you see the different effects gained by repositioning the border trim?

Other products used are: Crochet Trim, Vintage Brads, White Gel Pen, Heart to Heart Punch. 

So, this is just a peek at what we did.  I'll add the next project in a future post.

If you would like to join my next class on Fabric and the Big Shot (Sunday 19th June, 2011) please contact me via my DBWS

You are most welcome but will need to book your space. Cost is $45.00 payable by Direct Deposit (contact me for details)  Places are limited and will be allocated on receipt of payment.

Cost for the day includes lunch, choccies and creative inspiration! So come and join the fun. I can't wait for the next creative camp day and will be trying so many more fabric and Big Shot projects between now and then. 

Until then,

Stay Crafty!

Greenhouse Garden and Shimmer Paint.

Hi readers,

I have a cute little project for you today that uses one of Stampin' Up!'s fabulous 2-Step Stamp sets named Greenhouse Garden. You can find it on page 81 of the 2010 - 11 Idea Book and Catalogue.

The 2-Step stamp sets make it wonderfully easy to create  realistic images - all you need to do is use your trusty Stamp-a-majig to align the two stamps.

I made this little 3 x 3 inch note card by cutting some card into 3 x 6 inch pieces and folding it in half.

Stamp the floral image onto Vanilla card stock using Bravo Burgundy Classic Ink by Stampin' Up! Align the details (stamped in black) using the Stamp-A-Majig. You can't see it in the photo but in real life I stamped the details with Champagne Shimmer Mist first then rotated the stamp a little and re-stamped in black. there is quite a nice detail visible on the card. 

Cut out the image  using Paper Snips.

Next I took a piece of River Rock card and ran it through the Big Shot using the Elegant Lines Embossing folder.

Cut down to the appropriate size and apply Champagne Shimmer Mist with a Sponge Dauber. That way you can cover some of the background as well as the raised areas of the embossed card. Sponge the edges with Bravo Burgundy ink and mat onto Bravo Burgundy card stock.

Attach all of this to the card front. 

Stamp out one of the Teeny Tiny Sentiments, and punch out with the Jewellery Tag Medium Punch. Dust the tag edges with a little Bravo Burgundy and tie through with some Linen Thread.

Raise the flower image on one dimensional, tie the Linen thread around the dimensional and attach all to the card. Finished.

I think it took me longer to write this post than it did to actually make the card. They would make a lovely gift tag or group 4 - 6 together, add some of Stampin Up's Mini Square Envelopes, tie with some ribbon and you have a lovely gift.

Thanks for visiting! I'd love you to leave a comment and let me know you've stopped by.

Until next time

Stay Crafty,

jac-inks challenge #9

The challenge over at jac-inks this week is WARM COLOURS, and it's nice to be working in warm colours when it is a bit nippy outside.

The colours I've chosen are from the Stampin' Up!® range, and include:

Real Red

Daffodil Delight

Melon Mambo

Pumpkin Pie

Card stock is:

Whisper White

Real Red

Melon Mambo

Daffodil Delight

I used the wonderful Manhattan Flower Embossing folder as both an embossed page and a debossed page, then I inked up my brayer and rolled it lightly over the embossed image so I could colour the raised areas. You can see some of the ink adheres to the background, but that was somewhat intentional to take away a little of the starkness. The debossed image has 4 layers of ink: Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo, and Real Red. The edges were then sponged with Melon Mambo.

I used the fabulous new Bigz XL Die  "Tasteful Trim" for the zigzag and scallop edges, (available in the Autumn/Winter Mini, and the leaves are cut down versions created from the Leaves #2 Die. A little Crochet trim and Linen thread complete the embellishment.

Speaking of embellishments - this rose is made from Melon Mambo card stock and cut out with a die. You could however just cut a circle then spiral cut it and roll it up. 

I attached the base with some Big Shot Multipurpose Adhesive Sheet punched out with a 3/4inch circle punch. Love those Adhesive Sheets - they make everything so easy.

After rolling and adhering the base of the rose, I sprayed it with some Gold shimmer Mist made from Shimmer Paint. This softened everything up and allowed me to shape the "petals" more easily. 

A final touch of 2-way glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds for additional highlights.

Pop on over to jac-inks and have a look at the other Design Team samples. You may even decide to warm up by creating your own warm coloured project. 

Until next time

Stay Crafty!

Convention Swaps

Whoopee! 

My swaps are now complete, labeled and packed ready for Convention this week.

There are lots of Aussie and New Zealand Demonstrators who are looking forward to the upcoming Convention in Melbourne, and many of us have been working on swaps to share with each other.

I'm pleased to say mine are now finished, and although I've not made as many as lots of the other girls, I'm happy with them. (and mighty pleased to be finished as I don't really enjoy making multiple numbers of any cards.)

I decided to create a Power Point presentation of how the cards are made as there are lots of steps and techniques involved. My aim is to provide something that I enjoy doing, but also something that has a combination of techniques and products.

Here are the completed cards - I used 4 colours: Baja Breeze, Perfect Plum, Pear Pizzazz and Pretty In Pink, and combined them with Whisper White card.

Of course, everything used is available at Stampin' Up! either in the current Idea Book and Catalogue or the Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue.  

Contact me if you need assistance with your products.

Anyway for those of you who are interested, here are the samples I created.

Baja Breeze and Whisper White

Pear Pizzazz and Whisper white

Pretty In Pink and Whisper White

Perfect Plum and Whisper White

 You can have a look at the methods I used in this Power Point Presentation. Enjoy!

Convention Swap Tutorial

Oh and as a special surprise for the girls in my down-line who will be attending their very first convention I made a little celebration cake. One slice for each of them.

I went to a workshop last weekend and learned how to make these from my friend Lovely Linda

It was so nice to be in the "student" chair rather than the teacher chair, and although I've seen this pattern around on various blogs, this is the first time I've been interested to try "making my own cake".

Anyway I hope the girls like them, because it sure was fun and relaxing to create them. 

I'll post more details after Convention.

Until then

Stay Crafty!

Christmas Card Class - May 2011

I started regular Christmas Card classes last month - maybe, just maybe I'll be better organized by Christmas at the end of this year!  Well, I can always hope. 

I've been making my swaps for Convention that is to be held  in Melbourne next week, and am a little bit over "pretty" at present, so I was thinking something rustic might balance my senses a little. 

This is what I came up with.  Now that it is finished I can think of lots of different ways to slightly alter this card to make each of them unique, but for now I'll show you the original and explain some of the techniques I used to create it.

I really like this reindeer image, and you'll find me using it a lot. I also like to use the stamping off method to achieve multiple images. There's not much stamping on this card, just the reindeer and the tiny sentiment.

I ran some Craft card stock through the crimper and cut it out with one of the new Scalloped Squares Duo Bigz Die from the Autumn/Winter Mini. It's a terrific size! (This is the larger of the 2 squares on the die)

I used some of the very versatile Linen Thread to tie around the scalloped square and hung a tag from the Tiny Tags set. The motif is highlighted with a simple brad.

This was such a quick and easy card to make. The Big Shot takes care of all the dry embossing and the Die Cutting and then it's just a matter of adhering all the bits together.

Card stock used is Early Espresso and Craft and the ink is Classic Early Espresso.

Hope you like it.

If you'd like to join me in these regular classes, please contact me via my Demonstrator Business Web Site or phone me. I have a daytime and a night time class, both on the first Wednesday of the Month. 

Bookings are essential as card packs need to be prepared in advance.

Until next time,

Stay Crafty!