Subtle and Bright

Hello Everyone

A quick post today with some of my summer thank you cards. I make a little thank you card to give to my lovely customers with each of their orders.

These first ones were totally inspired and CASED from my lovely online friend Anne Marie over in Texas who used her Subtle colour pallet with my favourite stamp set Kimono Kids. Until then I had used bright reds and blacks for these stamps.

Those little Kimono Kids look so sweet in Pirouette Pink and Bashful Blue. I coloured them using blender pens and inks to get a soft look.

Now for something brighter for my next crop of thank you cards...

For these I started with square cards in Tempting Turquoise, Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie & Concord Crush. Now officially the Concord Crush is an In Color - not from the Brights collection - but I thought the four colours worked well together.

I started by embossing the base cards with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder. I used the 1 1/4" square punch to quickly punch the scraps into squares to make the layer.

The images on the cards and envelopes are from the lovely Cute by the Inch hostess set.

I hope you like my subtle and bright cards.

Springtime Vintage in Summertime

Hello Everyone

Today I thougth I would share two little projects made with the beautiful Springtime Vintage designer series paper from Stampin' Up!

The first is a little bag I made at team training and then finished later with a few little embellishments.

I created a closure using the fabby Pear Pizzazz seam binding ribbon. I then stamped up a little 'hand crafted' tag using Tiny Tags stamps and finished with three faux brads in Wild Wasabi & Marina Mist.

My second project is a cute little box made using the scallop circle die to create the embellishment. You need two scallop circles, snipped from one scallop valley into the centre and then folded accordian style. You glue the two sides together and top with a punched scallop circle, layered up with a circle of designer paper and a pretty brad.

For the back of the bag I used the Little Leaves die and Flower Dasies #2 die.



I just love those Springtime Vintage papers - I want Spring to last all year!

Summer Splash 3 Ways

Hello Everyone

Recently I got the chance to have a play with the Summer Splash stamp set - I don't own it yet - but love it! I am working on buying the whole catalogue, but it takes a while! LOL

I made three different types of card to share with you - I love them so much I have them on display in my craft room right now.

The first one is my Surfer Beach card. I just LOVE those surf boards. I stamped them in Certainly Celery and then added more colour with Wild Wasabi & Tempting Turquoise markers

I cut out the surfboard images and coated them with a layer of Crytal Effects to get a shiney finish. The sand was made with Crumb Cake cardstock, daubed with Crumb Cake ink and the spritzed with Soft Suede and Chocolate Chip ink.

I hand cut the coconut tree - the sun is done with So Saffron cardstock and daubed with different yellow and orange shades. You can feel the warmth can't you? :)

OK - card number 2 is my Summer Splash / Pirates combination. I wanted an 'above and beneath the waves' effect. I inked the ship with markers and stamped that image first.

I next did the sea bottom with daubers and dots from the Confetti stamp set. The cute sea creature images I stamped using the rock n roll technique. I used the little shell image at the top to cover the pirate skull image - which didn't really match my theme! DH Mike calls it my Octapusses Garden card.

The final card used a background technique - more of this soon as we are doing it in a class.

I had lots of fun using Summer Splash - I think the images would be great for scrapbooking too. I like them all - but I do have my favourite...I love that Surfer Beach!

Which one do you like best?

In Stitches

Hello Everyone

Today I am sharing a card featuring a very cute Jumbo Wheel from the Stampin' Up! Mini Catalogue. I didn't really notice this wheel until I got to try it at team training - and then I knew I had to have it!

For this card I used Riding Hood Red cardstock and ink. I first rolled the lines of stitches vertically on the base card, the horizontally on the Very Vanilla top layer.

Now this is one of my more-is-more cards - sometimes I don't know when to stop with the embellishing! I took some layers in Crumb Cake and used the Mat Pack and Pricking Tool to create some faux stitches around the edge.

I finished the card with the Sweet Buttons Embosslits die - cutting buttons in matching cardstock and using the white gel pen to make faux stitches.

Hope you like my no-stitching stitched card!

Owl Thinking!

Hello Everyone

This was such a fun card to make! It was the first card I made with my Owl Punch when it arrived. The sentiment is part of one from Hopeful Thoughts, (called Thoughts and Prayers in the US). I love that you don't have to use all of a stamp - just ink up the part you want with a marker and stamp!

I hand-drew the think-bubble and punched a range of circles with my circle punches and those that make part of the owl punch.

The background uses the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder in Sahara Sand, brayered over with Early Espresso ink.

Hope you like him - I do!

Quick Daisy Card

Hello Everyone

Just a quick post and a quick card today, made with the Daisies #2 die and some buttons.  The background is a piece of the beautiful Elegant Soiree paper. I layered up the middle of the flowers with punched circles and buttons - that big one is from one of the sets in the mini catalogue - they are SO big you can thread 1/4" ribbon through them as I have here.

I finished with the greeting stamped with Curly Cute and the little cake from Itty Bitty Bits.

Back soon with more projects.

Welcome Wreath

Hello Everyone

Today I am sharing a Welcome wreath that I made using the Fun Flowers die and my Big Shot. I have shown this before, but I have had a couple of questions about how it was made - so today I will share!

I purchased an inexpensive flat wire frame and with the Big Shot the wreath was very quick to put together.

First I cut 6 sets of flowers in Rose Red, then 6 in Pretty in Pink cardstock. This is so easy - the Big Shot will cut up to 8 sheets of cardstock at once! Then I used a dauber and daubed ink around the edge of each flower to add dimension.

I curled the petals lightly with a bone folder and layered them up, attaching them with a brad. I made a 12" backing for the frame by drawing around some scrap card and attached the flowers with dimensionals.

I felt the wreath needed some greenery, so I cut leaves with the Little Leaves die. Next I pulled out my French Foliage stamp set and stamped some of the leaves onto Wild Wasabi paper in Garden Green ink. I cut them out and then glued them and the Little Leaves in around the flowers. Here is a close up...

I finished the wreath by stamping my 'Welcome' sentiment using the Broadsheet Alphabet and added some Basic Rhinestones on this and on a few of the flowers.

Now - pretty in a different way - I am going to show you such a cheap decoration - almost free! As a demonstrator, all my goodies from Stampin' Up! arrive carefully packed in brown packing paper. I have reams of the stuff and am always looking for interesting ways to recyle it. This is what I did with the paper from my last order...

I made over 60 paper flowers - with this paper my Big Shot easily cut 12 layers at a time, so I had them done in a trice! I attached them with little eyelets using my crop a dile and now they are all ready to decorate my table at my next event. What a bargain!