Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Rose Red, Kraft and Black

Have a go at this colour challenge ... CC181 on SCS ... Rose Red, Basic Black and Kraft. It's a great combo and I really like how it turned out on this christmas card. The stamp set, Snow Swirled, is just lovely and I'm looking forward to using it more ... it's so versatile and is brand new in the 2008 Fall Winter Catalogue.
Recipe
Stamps : SU Snow Swirled, sentiment from Mixed Messages, PTI
Cardstock : Rose Red, Basic Black, Kraft
Ink : Rose Red, Basic Black
Accessories : Dazzling Diamonds

Monday, August 25, 2008

Faux Dry Embossing

There's a great challenge today over on SCS here. It shows you how to do a 'faux' dry embossed look on a card. Basically, you stamp your image in white craft ink. Once it's dry, you stamp the same image again but just a smidge to the right in the same colour ink as the cardstock. You get this clever 'shadow' effect around the image and it looks embossed. Give it a go, it's fun!
Recipe
Stamps : Bella Blossoms (my new fave!)
Cardstock : Mellow Moss and PTI White
Ink : Mellow Moss, White Craft
Accessories : SU Mellow Moss Taffeta Ribbon

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Boxes, Bags & Tags

My Boxes, Bags & Tags Class is being held this Friday, August 29th at 7pm ~ there's still time to sign up! The class is $12 and we'll be making all of the above containers using all new product from the Fall Winter 2008 Catalogue! Don't miss it!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008



One of my best friends (hi Hilary!) has a sister (who's also a friend of course!) who's getting married on Saturday. I haven't seen her for the longest time, not since we moved over to America in 2001, so I haven't met her fiance ... but I wanted to make them a card for their special day. I found inspiration whilst browsing Angie Kennedy Juda's blog. She'd made a cute gate-fold card so I decided to give it a whirl myself.
I always think that the combination of River Rock and Chocolate Chip is so elegant, and as it's a wedding card, I went with those colours.
Start with an 11" x 4 1/4" strip of c/stock. Score at 2" and 3 3/4" from each end ~ this forms the gate fold. For the side panel accent strips, cut 2 strips 4" x 1 3/4" and decorate (you can use DP too). For the centre portion, I cut a piece of c/s 4" x 3 1/4" and stamped 'together forever' in the centre. The main image panel is 1 3/4" square and I layered it up with the 2 colours in 1/4" increments. It's easy to do and so effective! The main image is the wreath form 'Together Forever' and the initials S and L are from PTI's Ambassador alphabet set. A few pearls at the corners and hey presto a simple, elegant wedding card.
Recipe
Stamps : SU Together Forever, PTI Ambassador, Anna Griffin b/g
Cardstock : SU Choc Chip, River Rock
Ink : as above
Accessories : Scor-Pal, Pearls

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Featured Stamper ~ Jessie

Jessie (Knightrone over on SCS) is a super-talented card maker and artist. I love her beautiful cards and have been a fan of hers for a long time! Today on SCS the Featured Stamper is Jessie. I was so exctied to see her included today! I decided to CASE her card seen here. I used both the 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches to make a flower template (sounds easy if you say it fast! LOL) and then cut out the shapes and layered them up to make the flower. Sooooo hard to make it look good! I did change the main card, colours from blue to pink and the central image is smaller and simpler. If you get a chance, you should check out Jessie's blog too, it's jam-packed full of lovely offerings!
Recipe:
Stamps : PTI Green Thumb, Polka Dot Basics
Cardstock : PTI White, Berry Sorbet, Blush Blossom, SU Kiwi Kiss
Ink : PTI Berry Sorbet, Spring Moss, SU Kiwi Kiss
Accessories : SU Circle and Scallop Punches, Michaels organza ribbon


My Exciting News

Heather Rolin over at H&M Stamps chose me to be a new member of her design team. I'm so excited to be included! Heather is such a sweetheart and I can't wait to share her designs with you. Thanks for choosing me Heather!

Here's the post announcement

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Key-Ring Quilt


I've had an acrylic key-ring sitting on my desk for AGES so today I decided to use it! I stamped and punched some of the quilt blocks from PTI's Quilter's Sampler and assembled them on the 2 1/4" x 3 1/4" card insert from the key-ring. I've posted 2 pictures because the reverse side needed something too! I also put together a very simple card to go with the key-ring. My mum and dad have been treating Sarah while she's been staying with them in England so this is going over to mum to say how much I appreciate everything she does for us. Unfortunately you'll be reading this before the post manages to reach Suffolk {right mum?!} ... so it won't be a surprise but it's really nice in real life! Apologies to dad ~ I didn't think he'd really want a quilt key-ring!!
Recipe:
Stamps : PTI Quilter's Sampler
Cardstock : PTI Antique Ivory, SU Regal Rose, Certainly Celery
Ink : Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Palette Burnt Umber
Accessories : Key-ring, SU 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Nestabilities scallop square

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Treat Bags

We're going over to Mandy's house, my old school friend, later today for supper and I wanted to take something for her 2 girls ~ so I decided to make them a treat bag each. I'm going to fill them with sweets! The girls both have the initial S so I made them a monogram each using Papertrey's Trajan font and a circle from Boxes, Bags and Tags. The paper is from SU and is called Spring Fling (retired). I found the cute treat bags on Cambria's blog here.
Recipe:
Stamps : Papertrey Ink Trajan Alphabet and Boxes, Bags and Tags
Cardstock : Old Olive, SU Spring Fling DSP
Ink : SU Old Olive
Accessories : Scallop Punch, Round Tab Punch, Sticky Strip, Scor-Pal, Ribbon

Thursday, August 7, 2008


Here's a card using a sketch from SCS (here) and a 'ways to use it' challenge, WT178 to use jewels. I hope pearls class as jewels, they do in my book! I used my Pretty in Peony set along with the sentiment from Fundamental Phrases. The image is mounted onto 3 strips cut from an Anna Griffin stamped background. Quite easy! I placed 1/2 pearls in the centre of the Peony.

Recipe:
Stamps : Anna Griffin B/G, Pretty Peony, Fundamental Phrases
Ink : Pink Pirouette, RHRed, Tim Holz DI Old Paper
Accessories : 1/2 Pearls, SU Scallop Edge

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

A fun Sketch


This card was made from a sketch you can find on SCS here. I kept it really simple, the 2 off-set triangles were made using a scallop square 'nestabilities' die. Once the square was cut, I put it in my trimmer and cut it diagonally to make the triangles. The scallops were layered with the beautiful new SU paper 'Bella Rose'. I then made the centre rectangle, layered it with Riding Hood Red and Pink Pirouette and stamped 'happy' with my defining alphabet set and 'birthday' using fundamental phrases. Easy peasy lemon squeasy!

Recipe
Stamps : Defining Alphabet, Fundamental Phrases
Cardstock : PTI White, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Bella Rose
Ink : Riding Hood Red
Accessories : Riding Hood Red Button (from the new catalogue), black gingham ribbon

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Vellum embossing

I never used to heat emboss on vellum because the heat tool would make the delicate paper 'warp' and then it'd never lay flat. There is of course a trick to this technique! Once you've sprinkled your embossing powder over the damp ink, lay your vellum (this works for cardstock too) over a piece of foil-covered cardboard and clamp the edges down with clothes pegs. This holds everything flat while you gently heat the powder until it melts. Of course, you do have to go easy with the heat but by using this inexpensive home-made tool you can heat emboss without warping!
Today's card uses a sketch from H&M Stamps (here) and is made up of the following:-
Stamps : Blooming with Happiness
Cardstock : PTI White, River Rock, Soft Sky, Vellum
Accessories : Paisley cuttlebug embossing folder, River Rock Ribbon, Hodgepodge Hardware (antique brass), Marvy Scallop punch, Fiskars circle cutter, Copic markers, SU Corner Rounder

Monday, August 4, 2008

Fabulous Amanda

If you ask anyone to describe my uncle Robin's wife, Amanda, they immediately smile and say 'fabulous' ... she just IS! So I'm horribly late for her birthday ... August 6th, which is in 2 days ... and of course she lives in England so it takes a week for the post to get there. But I suppose at the time of writing the card, it was on time, right?!
I decided to use my Fabulous Flowers stamp set for her along with my new all-time favourite SU paper, Bella Rose ... TO DIE FOR! The sentiment 'dare to be fabulous' is too fun! The technique challenge on SCS today is to make a spring-fold card. For the tutorial look here. It's a quick and easy fold technique and the image is layered up with 3.5" square layered sheets of C/S. I decided to use my Tsukiedo glue pad and sprinkle dazzling diamonds on the image ... mainly because in addition to being 'fabulous', Amanda is also very sparkly (you can tell we love her can't you!).
Recipe:
Stamps : Fabulous Flowers
C/Stock : Bella Rose DP, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White
Ink : Riding Hood Red, Basic Black
Accessories : SU retired square steps corner punch, SU dazzling diamonds, Tsukiedo glue pad