Monthly Archives: October 2014

Merry White Christmas

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Stampin’ Up!’s White Christmas set is definitely in the running for my favourite stamp set in the Holiday catalogue. It’s easy to produce clean and simple (and effective) cards with this set; hence I used this set at my inaugural stamping class on Friday night.

white christmas merry christmas

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ whisper white

Mat: 4″ by 5.25″ cherry cobbler

Top layer: 3.75″ by 5″ whisper white

Stamp set: White Christmas

Ink: Memento black ink, soft sky, cherry cobbler blendabilities

Other: Dazzling diamonds glitter, 2 way glue pen, Trim the tree stack, sponges

I lightly sponged the soft sky ink onto the sky ensuring that the colour wasn’t uniform giving the impression of a very cloudy, chilly day. Next I stamped the main image of the trees and slope in the memento black ink before moving onto the tricky part. There is only one place (or so I believe) where the banner fits – I found it simplest to focus on the bottom string and after getting the right hand side of the Christmas banner on the branch, to wiggle the stamp until the left hand side is over the tree trunk. I’d advise practicing a few times on scrap paper before moving to the card since I found that one practice on the reverse side of the card wasn’t sufficient! Once I had it stamped, I coloured in the banner with the lightest of the cherry cobbler blendabilities. I used the 2 way glue pen to put a thin line of glue along the line of the slope and also where the branches connected to the trunks before sprinkling on the dazzling diamonds glitter.

After a simple assembly job, the card was complete and all that remained was to line the outside of the envelope with a paper from the Trim the Tree DSP stack. I like to use the tombow glue when lining the outside of the envelope; I just cut the paper more or less to size, adhere it with the tombow glue (wiggling the paper around if necessary) and trim off the excess. Once I started lining envelopes, I can no longer call a card complete until the envelope has some attention.

 

 

 

Happy Anniversary

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Here’s the card that I sent to my sister and brother in law last month for their anniversary. I didn’t want to post it on the day since they were away on vacation and I wanted them to see it in real life before posting it on my blog – although I’m pretty sure that Ben doesn’t read this! This card is yet another side effect of the card that I made for Dr Demaira – you can see that card here. I’d borrowed a stamp set with a cat on it and this stack of presents were included.  I liked it so much that I stamped a number of stacks for later. Actually I ended up finding the set on ebay so I can do as many stacks as I like now. For my birthday back in August, my sister made me a card using DSP and red and pink together – here it is – in an attempt to show me that you don’t have to follow the rules. I couldn’t think of a way to combine crisp cantaloupe and pistachio pudding (two colours that she really finds underwhelming) so instead decided that I’d have to pop something up on their card. She has only recently stopped stating that she will never use stampin’ dimensionals (she needed them on my birthday card actually!) so I couldn’t resist. cool cats crushed curry anniversary

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ Crushed Curry

Top layer: 4″ by 5.25″ Very Vanilla

Stamp sets: Cool Cat (retired), Teeny Tiny Wishes

Inks: Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo

As I mentioned, I had already stamped the stack of presents onto the very vanilla by colouring in the presents using Stampin’ write markers in crushed curry, pumpkin pie and melon mambo. I got the colour selection from the colour coach – I don’t think I’d have come up with this combination on my own, but I love it. I then took the sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set and randomly stamped in the three colours all over the very vanilla. The card looked a little flat at this point so I grabbed another stamped present (luckily in the same colours) and snipped it out, adhering it over the stack on the card with stampin’ dimensionals. Here’s a side view of the card balanced on my colour coach.

cool cats crushed curry anniversary side view

I like having the stack of presents also stamped on the card itself. I think it gives more depth. I glued the very vanilla to the base and used the backgrounds DSP in Crushed Curry to line the envelope.

Mini sponged trees

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I’ve mentioned before that there are allegedly no mistakes in stamping. It really is amazing how you can fix or hide issues, often ending up with a completely different card from your initial plan – and sometimes a better one. Last Thursday I posted a card using the Lovely as a Tree stamp set and a sponged background. As I mentioned in that post, my first attempt on whisper white card stock resulted in my trees looking blurred on the left hand side after having had to stamp them twice – so I started again. My first attempt sat on my desk (well, the kitchen table) for a few days until I realised that the right hand side was perfectly fine.

lovely as a tree sponged small

I trimmed it down and decided to mat it in black before putting it on an always artichoke base. Apologies for the photo – the card really is a rectangle!

I am really pleased that I didn’t just throw out the “mistake”; I’d have lost a pretty good card that way. I confess I did throw out the left hand side of the mistake – the blurriness of the double stamped image just made me want to call the opticians so I can’t see that I could have retrieved that one.

With Sympathy

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My friend Ramona had to unexpectedly fly home last week when her father died. I can’t imagine how awful the flight to Romania was when going for such a reason. I’ve made a card for her; I know that it’s completely inconsequential when thinking about her loss, but it’s a token.

too kind artichoke wisteria sympathy

Base: 5.5″ by 8.25″ always artichoke

Top layer: 5.25″ bu 4″ sahara sand

Stamp sets: Too kind, teeny tiny wishes

Ink: Always artichoke, wisteria wonder, elegant eggplant

I habitually use either whisper white or very vanilla for my top layers but here I’m using sahara sand and I really like how it looks – I’ll have to order a complete pack of it. To start with, I got a mixed pack of each colour family to get a feel for my favourites – sahara sand is going on the list!

I first stamped the stems from the Too Kind set in always artichoke and then used wisteria wonder to stamp the complete flower images at the top of the stems. Taking the elegant eggplant ink, I did the second part of the 2 step stamping with the incomplete flower image on top of the wisteria wonder to give the contrast. The only sympathy sentiment I have is from the teeny tiny wishes set but I think it works well here (in always artichoke). I finished off the card by lining the envelope with the backgrounds DSP in always artichoke from the regals collection.

Mixed bunch for a challenge

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Today is my inaugural entry into any kind of challenge. I’ve seen sketch challenges and colour challenges but never actually had the right colours or punches or stamp sets to try it out. I’m sliding in, just under the wire, to enter the Pals Paper Arts Challenge 222 which, as a colour challenge, is definitely easier to start with. I hope that you go to the site and check out all the other entries at Pals Paper Arts
The colours that are required for this week are so saffron, early espresso and calypso coral. I tried to create leaves in the three colours for an autumnal look but it just wasn’t working for me. I tried a couple of other stamp sets before I got to Mixed bunch. I love this set – the flowers are just so happy!
I first stamped the flowers in the three colours but the so saffron just faded into the background when next to the early espresso. I’m so glad that I got the Stampin’ Up write markers recently as a 50% off item since I don’t actually have the early espresso ink. Yet. It’s coming tomorrow! Whilst thinking about the next move, I looked at the stamp set again and saw the three flower centres that I’ve never before used. Bingo!
I grabbed some more colours to make this truly a happy happy birthday card – wild wasabi, rose red, cherry cobbler and perfect plum and after stamping the Happy birthday in calypso coral worked my way around the card stamping the flower once in each of the 4 extra colours and early espresso and calypso coral.
After this I stamped the flower centre, and cut it out with my 1/2″ punch but it just didn’t work – the delicate flower centre in so saffron was still overpowered by the dark colours. So I stamped the original flower in so saffron and punched out the centre, again with the 1/2″ punch and adhered that over the centre of each of the flowers.
mixed bunch multi saffron centres
I know that the punches are expensive, but it was so handy to have this tool to hand. I also tried a 7/8″ scalloped punch. I tend to add the punches to my order when there is one in the weekly deals that I know that I’ll want one day. And I usually add one to my order anyway, just because. This way, I’m building up a nice collection of punches without too much monetary pain and I think my 1/2 inch punch made this card!