Weekend Catch Up! June 21, 2008

Can’t believe it’s nearly the end of June already.  Where has the time gone??????  Here’s a couple of cards I’ve made over the last few weeks.  We had some good, natural light coming in the window this morning so I thought I’d take advantage of it with these photos – the only thing is – I think I like the ones I take at night using the daylight globe and dare I say it, the flash, better!

This is a baby card I made a few weeks ago for my ”for sale’ box.  Colours are So Saffron, Bashful Blue and Night of Navy with a bit of Whisper White thrown in.  Layout was based on one in the May 2007 edition of Cards Magazine.  Giraffe is from Wild About You, sentiment is from Short & Sweet (both by Stampin’ Up!) and the polka dots are from Art Warehouse (Memories Interactive Journalling Backgrounds).  Patterned paper is So Saffron Designer Series Prints (no longer available).

 

The following cards were going to be last week’s submissions to Kristina’s Colour Inspiration #11.  I didn’t submit any of them, you’ll see why.

This one actually meets the colour requirements (So Saffron, Whisper White, Rose Red, Old Olive and Going Grey), however the final layout was NOT what I was intending, in fact it ended up looking JUST like a card Kristina had created on a previous post.  I thought it was a bit tacky to submit a card for a colour challenge that was basically a CASE of something she had created, so I started again!.  Stamps used were Polkda Dot background and ABC Alphabet (lower), both by SU! and Art Warehouse (for the lined paper stamped in Going Grey), as above.  I also used the Star Punch (small) and Spiral Punch and Old Olive 5/8 Grosgrain ribbon (all by SU!)

 

This next one I really like but after spending at least 3 hours on it last Saturday night and it STILL not working using all the required colours, I cracked it and went to bed.  Since I had well and truely missed the deadline for submission by the time I got to sit back down again, I just decided to leave out the colours that weren’t working.  I’m also ashamed to say that this card was the first time that I used my Green Thumb set by Papertrey Ink which I got over a year ago.  To get the colour variation, I just kept stamping using Rose Red ink without reinking in between.  It’s hard to see but there is also a little ‘bling’ in the center of each flower and on either side of the Happy Birthday sentiment that was supposed to be embossed with White EP instead of the Clear I inadvertently picked up and (sprinkled on before noticing, doh).  Sentiment is from It’s Your Birthday by SU! and the patterned paper is Rose Red from Designer Series Paper pad.

 

The last one uses one of the many Saffron/White Polka dot bases that I made for the colour challenge.   The onesie image is from Savvy Stamps, the sentiment is from Stampa Rosa and the little heart is from Small Sayings (SU! & retired).  At first, I thought I’d met the colour requirements but then I realised I hadn’t used any Going Grey.  Again, way too late for it to matter and at least it was good to dust off some of my pre SU! stamps that haven’t seen the light of day for quite while.

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Thanks for visiting – hope you’re having a great weekend

Since It’s A Holiday Tomorrow June 10, 2007

I figure I can stay up a bit later and post another card I made. See, I told you, I have been making stuff, just haven’t gotten around to posting any of it!

This is a card I made for a little boy in Harrison’s playgroup. He is the first one in the group to have his first birthday – a very exciting time for all of us.

I was very pleased to see that Wild About You made it into our 07/08 IB&C. It is just the greatest set for kids cards. I also stepped out of my comfort zone and used some patterned paper. I often don’t like the results when I use PP, but this time I think I did good, LOL.

So, down to the details. I stamped Charlie the croc (I think he looks like a Charlie, so that’s my name for him) in Old Olive and grounded him using a faux A Muse Oval. I haven’t seen any A Muse stamps stocked here and with the changes in postage rates from the US to Australia, buying one has now dropped a little further down the list. How did I make this faux oval I hear you ask, well it was easy.

The A Muse site gave the dimensions of the stamp, so I opend my MS Word program and picked the drawing tool and made a circle. I changed the dimensions to those of the A Muse oval and then printed it out. I trimmed down the oval, cut out the centre, applied some 2-way glue and set it aside to dry. When it dries, it becomes a repositionable adhesive, how cool is that. I then made a mask for Charlie, by stamping him on a Post It and cutting him out. I then placed the cut out Charlie over the stamped Charlie and then positioned the oval at his feet, and then sponged Going Grey in the oval and voila – a faux A Muse oval. Here’s a helpful hint, DON’T throw your masks away, just store them in the case of the matching stamp set and you’re good to go for next time!

I then matted Charlie with some burgandy card from my stash that I’m pretty sure I picked up from Fern Gully Stamps. I have no idea who makes it but it was a perfect match to the PP which is Hang Ten from the North Shore line by Scenic Route. It’s a double sided paper so the dots were on one side and the diagonal strips are on the other. The card base is Night of Navy and I’ve placed some SU Navy grosgrain over the join in the paper! The HB sentiment is from the Paper Tray set. It was stamped in Versa Mark and embossed with White EP. I usually use the W/White craft ink but because it is SO moist it doesn’t alway emboss the best, especially with fine sentiments. I think the results using Versamark ink have turned out a little better. The 1st was made using Thickers. These are self-adhesive chipboard letters by American Crafts. I have used them before and they were so cool, I just had to get me some! I was really pleased with how it turned out.

Supplies Used: (SU! unless otherwise noted)

Stamps: Wild About You, Paper Tray (PaperTrey Ink)

Cardstock: Night of Navy, Whisper White, Burgandy (unknown)

Ink: Old Olive and Going Grey Classic Ink, Versamark

Accessories: Dimensionals, Navy Grosgrain Ribbon, 2-Way Glue, Paper Snips, White Detail EP, Post It Note, Computer, Thickers by American Crafts

It’s Been A Long Time May 22, 2007

Yowzers, it’s been ages since I’ve posted. This is the card I whipped up this afternoon for my partner’s youngest brother’s birthday, which was today.

I never thought that I would ever use ribbon on a ‘boys’ card, especially for one who’s turning 20, but you know what they say, ‘Never say never!’

This was a pretty simple card. The ribbon determined my colour choices – Ballet Blue, Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip, Real Red and Whisper White. The chipboard slider is from SU’s On Board Accents – I am SO diggin’ this chipboard stuff! This time I gave it a light coat of Jo Sonja’s white paint before sponging some Ballet Blue craft all over. The white paint dried SO much quicker than coating it with W/White Craft. I’m thinking now though, I might trying mixing some re-inkers with the white, to give a deeper colour and so I don’t have to sponge the colour on! The stamped images are all by PaperTrey Ink. The sentiment is from the Paper Tray set and was stamped in Ballet Blue. In hindsight, I should have used Brilliant Blue to pick up the darkest blue in the ribbon and so it showed up a bit better. Even though these stamps are clear, I wasn’t sure that I could stamp exactly over the top with the darker colour, so I decided to leave well enough alone.

The circles are from PaperTrey’s Green Thumb (the biggest circle) and Butterfly Kisses (the 3 smallest ones). I used my markers to ink them up. This is the first time I have used either of these sets and unfortunately I could find my eraser to remove the residue left from manufacturing process and they didn’t ink up as crisply as they do using the actual pads. (Never mind, 20 yo guy’s never gonna notice, LOL). The C/Chip layer is raised up using foam tape (didn’t waste my lovely dimensionals on him either!)

Quite like the way it turned out!

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Paper Tray, Butterfly Kisses, Green Thumb (all PaperTrey Ink)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Real Red
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Ballet Blue, Brocade Blue Sampin’ Write Markers, Ballet Blue Classic Ink
Accessories: Jo Sonia’s Titanium White paint, Stampin’ Sponge, American Crafts ribbon, Foam mounting Tape

Feel Better Soon May 7, 2007

I made this card for one of the little girls in Harrison’s playgroup. She is going for surgery this week to correct a problem with her hip that was not properly detected at her 6 week check up.

This is a really big card, it’s a piece of A4 cardstock (Almost Amethyst) folded in half. It needed to be big so there would be enough room for everyone to sign it! The inspiration for it came from my downline Anna, who did a scrapbook class using this paper (or something very similar). The paper is Basic Grey Romany from the Gyspy line. I highlighted all the veins in the leaves and the white parts of the surrounding flowers with some Diamond Stickles that I found here. The center of the flower, along with the name plate are from my new On Board Accents that were covered with W/White craft ink and then sponged with A/Amethyst classic ink. (btw – how long does the W/W craft take to dry using this way??) I hit it with the heat gun several times & it still refused to dry completely! In the end, I covered the name plate with Versamark and covered it with clear EP. However, when I did this the A/Amethyst kinda melted into the white and it’s really hard to see that it had been added at all. I also covered the flower centre with Versamark and applied H&S powder and then covered with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The sentiment is from the Paper Tray set from Papertrey Ink and was stamped in W/White craft & embossed with white EP.

I find it SO hard to use patterned paper, however this BG paper is SO beautiful it just seemed to make itself.

We hope everything goes well during her surgery (she will be in our thoughts and prayers) and we look forward to seeing her back at playgroup as soon as possible.

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Paper Tray (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: Whisper White craft ink (Stampin’ Up!)

Cardstock: Almost Amethyst, Real Red (Stampin’ Up), Romany P/P (BasicGrey)

Accessories: Big Flower (Bubble Bee Crafts), Diamond Stickles (Ranger Industries), On Board Accents, 2 -Way Glue Pen, Sticky Strip, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Clear EP, Red Grosgrain Ribbon (Stampin’ Up!)

Hello, I’m Still Alive (and thanks for checking, LOL) April 17, 2007

Big thanks to my wonderful downline, Anna, who sent me an email today to make sure I was OK since I hadn’t posted in AGES (sorry about that). We went on a road trip over Easter, covering around 1,800 kms all up and came home to messed up Foxtel, messed up internet connection (read as NO internet for 2 days) and the whole family (well, there’s only 3 of us) ending up sick – so NOT fun, especially for poor little Harrison.

In some good news though, during the brief nano second the computer was up & running, I found out that I won some Blog Candy - yay for me. A big thank you goes out to Emily – I am so looking forward to receiving my new goodies. By the way, it’s Emily’s birthday today, so drop by her blog and wish her a Happy Birthday!

Also, BIG THANKS go out to Erin who sent me out a HEAP of Inspiration Sheets. These are way cool and something I wish SU would bring out for us here in Australia (somehow I doubt it though, as it appears that they are being discontinued in the States). Specific to a stamp set, Inspiration Sheets have 6 samples using the set, with a complete ‘receipe’ so you can recreate each one.

I haven’t had a lot of spare time to get anything much that’s stamping related done, but this is what I did get done. The first is a birthay card I did for my BIL’s (for ease of explanation) birthday. I used my Papertrey Ink – Papertray set and did a CASE of Nichole’s sample – so simple and effective

Supplies Used: (All SU unless otherwise noted)

Stamps: Paper Tray (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: Whisper White Craft, Ruby Red, Not Quite Navy Classic)

Cardstock: Craft, W/White, NQN

Accessories: 1-1/4 & 1-3/8 RD punches, dimensionals, sponges

This is Harrison in the Bunny Ears that we made at Playgroup. How cute is does he look in those ears? (I know, I’m biased).

Supplies Used: White Paper, cotton balls, sticky tape & glue!

Well, that’s about it for my papercrafting to date. I promise I will have more over the coming weeks, really

Featured Stamper Challenge March 19, 2007

This is my ‘entry’ for the Featured Stamper Challenge on SCS. I am SO glad to see Angie Z (aka duckwaddlequack) is this week’s featured stamper. Angie very kindly left a comment on my last post, which is immensly flattering as her gallery is just amazing. I checked out her blog, which is a must see and saw this beautiful card. Now, it was my mum’s birthday last Monday and I just hadn’t been inspired to make anything (I did know that I wanted to use my new PapertreyInk set, which was still brand spanking new!).

So what did I do that was different I hear you ask. Firstly, I used the dotted background from Delight In Life set on the card base. I then sponged black ink around the edges like Angie did. I omitted the fibres from around the purple piece and I used my new Papertrey Ink Papertray sentiments for the Happy Birthday instead of the heart image.

All the flowers were stamped on W/White in B/Black Classic Ink and the big flowers were overstamed using the solid image inked in Orchid Opulence. I then watercoloured them using the blender pen and Orchid Opulence marker. The flower centres were covered with 2-way glue and then had Dazzling Diamonds sprinkled on them. They are attached to the card using 2-way glue. The swirls were stamped in Versacolor Black pigment and embossed with Hologram Highlights EP. Same with the Happy Birthday sentiment which was punched out with the 1-1/4 RD punch. The B/Black mat was punched with the 1-3/8 punch. The black layer is mounted to the card using dimensionals. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this card and will be posting it for the challenge later today as it’s still Sunday in America (got to honour the No Upload Sunday rule *wink*)

Supplies Used: (all Stampin’ Up! unless othewise noted)

Stamps: Delight In Life (SAB set), Papertray (PapertreyInk)

Cardstock: Orchid Opulence, Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: Basic Black Classic, Orchid Opulence marker, Black Pigment Ink (Versacolor)

Accessories: Hologram Highlights EP (LSS), Dimensionals, 2-way Glue, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, 1-1/4 & 1-3/8 RD Punches, Sponges

It’s Official February 18, 2007

I’m the WORST blogger EVER! I have just realised it’s been 10 whole days since I last posted – that’s SO bad – and it’s not like I don’t have anything to share – I really do. As it’s kinda late, and I’ve only just finished cleaning up, this will be short and sweet. So, what has prompted this rash decision to post tonight, you may well ask? Well, I placed my order today for these beautiful stamps from PAPERTREYink. I have been looking for AGES for a simple Sympathy sentiment & here it is, along with 35 other beautiful images. I can’t wait for them to arrive!!!!