Monthly Archives: October 2014

I have reached 50

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blog posts! The other 50 won’t happen until next year. Not something I’m looking forward to. I wanted to do something special but I was fixated on another challenge. A colour one, of course. This one is at the Paper Players. I am really finding that the challenges stretch me. This one wants mossy meadow, tangelo twist and hello honey.  I let this percolate for a few days until whilst driving to work today, I realised what I wanted to do.

I decided to take a real leaf and do some sponging. Of course, driving home it was a monsoon but I grabbed a perfect looking leaf and dried it out so that I could make my card.

leaf mossy meadow, hello honey, tangelo twist

The challenge was:

Details:

One perfect leaf

Base: 5.5″ by 8.5″ mossy meadow

5.25″ by 4″ basic black

5″ by 3.75″ very vanilla

Stamp set: Stampin’ Up! Lots of thanks

Inks: mossy meadow, hello honey, tangelo twist, memento black

I took my leaf and holding it still on the very vanilla paper, sponged the mossy meadow around the edges. I sponged off the paper first so as not to get sponge texture. Then I sponged hello honey over the entire leaf and then some tangelo twist for contrast. Finally I took my sentiment and stamped it in memento black (using the stampamajig of course). I’ve made three of these cards this evening and they’re all different and all fun. I think I’ll add this card to an upcoming card class – it’s a lot of fun to make.

 

The Newborn King

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I received The Newborn King stamp set in my Big Order last week – so heavy that I actually strained my wrist! I’d stocked up on paper when it was on sale and that’s heavy. At least that’s my excuse. I really like this stamp; my brother thinks it looks a bit “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”-esque, I think it’s more like the inside of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. For my first card using this stamp, I decided to just go straight down the middle. The photo is a little dark, but it shows off the silver embossing better than photos with more light.

newborn king navy and silver

Details:

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ Night of Navy

Mat: 4 5/8″ by 3 1/8″ brushed silver

Top layer: 4 3/8″ by 2 7/8″ Night of Navy – the odd measurements due to cutting the top layer until it looked “right”.

Stamp set: Stampin’ Up! The Newborn King

Other: Versamark, silver embossing powder, embossing buddy

This is my favourite kind of card – clean and simple. I think that the brushed silver mat saves it from being too simple. I used the embossing buddy on a decent sized scrap of Night of Navy (you DO keep your embossing buddy on top of your versamark ink pad, don’t you?) and then inked up the stamp with Versamark. I sprinkled on the silver embossing powder and used the heat tool to give this fabulous image. This was the first time that I’d stamped the image so I hadn’t grabbed a full sized piece of card – I was just testing it out, but it came out so nicely that I wanted to make a card out of it. This meant that I’d either have to have a large mat or a lot of the base card showing. I tried both and chose to make the silver mat a quarter of an inch bigger than the top layer. I think it sets off the image really well.

I remember seeing a video on Brian King’s site showing the effects of different sized mats; I think I need to play with mats some more.

A Thousand Thanks

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I’ve mentioned before that I struggle to use DSP (Designer Series Paper) so I’m quite proud to present my first card where there’s a lot of DSP! I confess that I did start with one in only two colours to make it easier. Naturally, it’s a retired DSP, but you can’t have everything.

crushed curry thousand thanks eastern elegance

This is a clean and simple card (definitely my stamping style) and easy to mass produce using different DSPs.

Details

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ crushed curry

Stamp set: Stampin’ Up! Lots of Thanks

Mat: 4″ by 5.25″ Eastern elegance (retired) DSP

Other: Oval framelits 3 and 4 (counting from the smallest), Versamark, crushed curry embossing powder, embossing buddy

I rubbed the embossing buddy over a scrap of whisper white and then stamped the sentiment in Versamark ink and sprinkled the crushed curry embossing powder over it. Then, my favourite part, I heated it with the heating tool until the text was glossy. I used the #3 framelit to cut out the oval and then used both the #3 and #4 to cut out an oval frame in crushed curry cardstock. Then it was a simple matter of assembling the card by adhering everything together. I initially grabbed a very vanilla envelope and lined it with the background DSP in crushed curry since I use the very vanilla most of the time. After photographing the card and envelope, I noticed that it should’ve been whisper white and had to redo it. At least I now have a lined very vanilla envelope ready to go!

 

 

 

I’m accepting another challenge

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I really enjoyed using specified colours to create a card last week – see the result here. So since this week’s challenge is another colour challenge, I’m accepting the challenge – the PPA223 Challenge. It took me four days to combine tangelo twist, basic black and very vanilla to where I was happy with it – for some reason, I find orange quite intimidating. Therefore I don’t think that I would ever have come up with this combination on my own, so it was very interesting to struggle. Even more interesting will be what I do with my leftover ovals and oval frames in tangelo twist and very vanilla and my basic black flowers and various coloured flower centres… 🙂

 bloom for you tangelo black vanilla

You can just about see that there are two flowers on the card, but the side view makes it a lot more obvious.

bloom for you tangelo black vanilla side view

Details:

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ in Tangelo Twist

Mat: 3 7/8″ by 5 1/8″ in Basic Black

Top layer: 3.75″ by 5″ in Very Vanilla

Stamp sets: Stampin’ Up! Bloom for you, Let Your Hair Down

Inks: Basic black, Tangelo Twist

Other: Fun Flower punch, 1/2″ punch, Tangelo Twist and Basic Black Stampin’ Write markers

I stamped the bloom for you flower on very vanilla card in tangelo twist ink twice. Well, more than that, but the extras weren’t needed here! I also stamped it in basic black. I cut them out using the fun flower punch – be careful, each petal is different, so be sure to line it up correctly. Using the 1/2 inch punch, I cut out the centre of the flower from the basic black stamped one. I used a glue dot to attach the black centre to the flower and then carefully bent the petals so as to get more dimension. I adhered this flower to the basic tangelo twist one with a stampin’ dimensional for extra dimension.

Next I grabbed my Stampin’ Write markers and coloured in my brand new stamp using the two markers. Luckily, I’ve read about this and knew to clean it first and then stamp it on scrap paper a few times. This produces a clearer image. Once I had my sentiment stamped (I’m so glad that there are two sides to a piece of paper!), I adhered my very vanilla piece to the black mat and then to the card base. After that I glued on the flower using the tombow glue. Finally, to finish off the card, I lined the envelope using the Backgrounds DSP in Tangelo Twist. I find that the white dots are so small on this paper that you can get away with lining a Very Vanilla envelope with it.

The challenge finishes on Tuesday – so you still have time to have a go at your own project – unless you take four days like I did! Here’s the challenge banner:

http://stampinpretty.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54f95df92883401bb07940b54970d-pi

My first card class

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I ran my first card making class on Friday night and it was an incredible amount of fun. More than it ought to be. And possibly more than should be legal. I had two friends over (schedules and illness prevented another two) and we started on our three cards around 7pm. We didn’t finish until 11pm! They weren’t overly complicated cards, but maybe the snack break for cheese and wine and coconut macaroons took longer than I thought. Or maybe we were just having too much fun.

Ramona and Bilma had never met before but there really is something about making cards together which forms bonds. Maybe it’s the slight errors in stamping. Or the laughter as you turn the card over to try again on the other side. Or maybe it’s the grin as Ramona stamps another snowman on the inside of the card and reaches for the glitter. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but it’s a wonderful thing. And I can’t wait to do another class.

We started with this card which uses the Work of Art stamp set.

Stampin' Up! Work of Art

We then moved onto sponging and stamping and more importantly – glitter! I had conservatively just put glitter on the line of the hill and on where the branches meet the trees. We ended up glittering (is that a verb?) the trunks and the snowman as well. Oh and Ramona’s forehead. Although at least we didn’t glue the glitter there!

white christmas snowman

After our snack break, we did embossing folders and heat embossing. Bilma is bilingual so was very happy to see that I had the Good Greetings stamp set in Spanish. It’s available this month for free if you hold a workshop or place an order over $300.

northern flurry real red

I’d encourage you to go to a stamp class if you’ve never been. It’s a far more fabulous experience than you would expect!