A Sketch With Sympathy

Unfortunately today I need to send out a Sympathy Card, one of my daughter's friends lost his Grandfather yesterday.

I used today's sketch from Splitcoast, using the blossoms from the set "Easter Blossoms" ... I am NOT ready for this set to disappear and have my fingers and toes crossed for it to make it to the Big Idea Book & Catalog being released in July. I just feel like I haven't used it enough! Here's a close up of some of the details. I stamped with StazOn ink and then used a blender pen and Blushing Bride marker to get some dimension on the flower, then the circles are just made with SU punches and a little pearl accent in the centre. I really love how this turned out, just sorry that it's being sent at a time of sadness.

Recipe
Stamps : Easter Blossoms, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Basic Black, Blushing Bride
Ink : blushing Bride, Basic Black
Accessories : Modern Label, Word Window, Itty Bitty Shapes, 3/4" Circle & 1/2" Circle Punches, White gel pen, 1/2 Pearls, Basic Black 1/8" Ribbon, Blender Pen

Birthday Colour Challenge

The colour challenge today is so fresh and spring-like ~ Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue & Baja Breeze. Love it! I wanted a birthday card for another friend on the 30th so decided to use my brand new 'Engraved Greetings' I got for FREE during SAB. Yay! This is actually the simplest card, but I love how it turned out. Shimmery White cardstock makes anything prettier :)

My dear friend, Debra, taught me a trick ~ if you want to heat emboss an image but don't have the right coloured powder, just stamp the image in the classic ink of your choice, and then stamp directly over it with Versamark (using a Stamp a Majig) and use CLEAR embossing powder. It works BEAUTIFULLY. I added clear embossing powder to the main image to make it more prominent. I also wanted to make the image a little more interesting, so I stamped it again in Celery and punched out the centre with our tiny oval punch. Lots of dimensional layering and a few 1/2 crystals and hey presto! I think this is a VERY easy to achieve look. Hope Susie likes it ;)

Recipe
Stamps : Engraved Greetings
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Baja Breeze, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery
Ink : Celery, Baja, Versamark
Accessories : Big Shot, Polka Dot EF, Scallop Trim Border Punch, tiny oval punch, 1/2 Crystals, Clear Embossing Powder, Celery Taffeta Ribbon.

Postage Stamp Set

Good Morning! I missed a complete week of stamping ... major withdrawals here :) Tomorrow is my dear friend Joyce's birthday. I wanted to make something with the new Summer Mini sets I preordered and chose the postage stamp punch and coordinating set. I LOVE this ~ the envelope from the Bigz XL Die "Bitty Box & Envelope" fits the smaller scallop square from the Bigz Scallop Square Duo Die ... and the postage stamp punch layers beautifully in the middle. LOVE it! Got to run to the PO so Joyce gets this tomorrow! Here's the card with the envelope & contents open.

Recipe
Stamps : Pretty Postage, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock : Tempting Turquoise, Shimmery White
Ink : Pumpkin Pie
Accessories : Big Shot, Bigz XL Bitty Box & Envelope Die, Bigz Scallop Square Duo Die, Polka Dot Embossing Folder, Postage Stamp Punch, Trio Punch, Pumpkin Pie Taffeta Ribbon, 1/2 Crystal

Masculine Card Class

May's Card Class will be all MASCULINE CARDS! I have been asked by many customers, many times for an all-Masculine class and I'm happy to say that I've managed to get 3 man-cards I'm happy with :) Phew! Two of the cards are made with product from the all new Summer Mini Catalog ~ you've got to try these, I love them!

I will be e:mailing out the class details shortly, it will be 10.30am Saturday 14th May at my home in Farmington Hills MI. All details will be in the e:mail.

A Card from a Dear Friend

Many of you know "Patty B" from Splitcoast, she's a moderator, VSN organiser and general 'behind the scenes marvel' .... well I'm happy to say she's also my friend. I was SO touched to get this card from Patty, not only because it's GORGEOUS, but also because she'd obviously thought about me while she put it together. Many of my friends know me as "The Yorkshire Tea Mingler" ... I drink tea ALL THE TIME! Well Patty had some packaged tea and decided to cut the container apart and turn it into a card. Way to go on the recycling Patty.

You need to look at the details here ... the Queen's Guard (top left) is punched out and run through the Big Shot with what looks like the dot embossing folder ~ the main tea package has been cut out with the Top Note Die and run through again with the Manhattan Flower. And you see that little tag? Is that the hello teacup all shrunk? WOW! Patty, the details on this are amazing, I love your 'American' take on 'British' tea. Thanks, this will be treasured.

A Furniture Stamp and a Neglected Stamping Tool

Wow, it's Friday already :) Today's F4A (Free for All) Challenge is to use a furniture stamp and a neglected stamping tool. Well, just the other day I saw this card on my friend, Jamie's, blog. I told her she'd inspired me to use it, so today's the day :)

I don't have a lot of time (prepping for tomorrow's class) so I made it SUPER CAS, which I like anyway ~ my neglected stamping tool here is black embossing powder and a heat gun ~ I'm not sure you can see the gloss in the pic!

Recipe
Stamps : Have a Seat, 3 Little Words
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Going Gray
Ink : Versamark, Going Gray
Accessories : Heat Gun & Embossing Powder, White Taffeta Ribbon, Scallop Edge Punch

A 'Re-Do' and a Sketch!

This card is for my great friend, Elaine. She's one of those people you would choose to be your family, and I'm proud to call her my friend. Elaine was diagnosed with Breast Cancer last Summer and she's been through the Mill and back with harrowing Chemotherapy and now Radiation treatment ~ but through it all she's slapped a big old grin on her face, laughed and joked and inspired everyone around her to make the best of what's been dealt them, because if she can get through this, then it really doesn't matter if the dog peed on the carpet, or the supper was over-cooked.

I'm so happy to say that on Monday ALL of Elaine's cancer treatments will be OVER! We're going out to celebrate on Friday, and I wanted to mark the occasion with a card. What better set than the Breast Cancer set "Strength & Hope" exclusive to Stampin' Up?

I started off making this card all shabby and vintagey ~ well, there are 2 important elements to this set, firstly, the "H" has the word Hope underneath it, and secondly the background is full of inspirational words. So when I made the vintage style card, the words were lost in amongst the distressing and sponging. So I made a 2nd, cleaner card which I like much better. HOPE stands out much more as do the inspirational words. See the difference? The cleaner, fresher one is at the top of this post, and the vintage one is below.

Recipe
Stamps : Strength & Hope
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Blushing Bride (or Naturals Ivory for the vintage one)
Ink : Blushing Bride
Accessories : 1/2 Crystals, Circle Punches

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeasy!

The colour challenge colours on SCS today are Pear Pizzazz, So Saffron and Pretty in Pink. This is such a soft and pretty combination, I wanted to use a floral stamp ... and all my new "Mini Catalogue" stamps are out on my desk so I reached for 'Fabulous Florets'. I love how you can do collage stamping so easily and quickly with this set, all I did was stamp with the given colours and then layer the central image onto Pear Pizzazz, ran it through the Big Shot with the new 'Flower Garden' embossing folder and, hey presto! Done! I did add a tiny bit of ribbon for interest but that's it. Here's a close-up of the embossing folder image ~ if you click on it to make it larger, you may see the shimmer from the 'Shimmery White' paper, it sparkles beautifully on the raised bits IRL.

Recipe
Stamps : Fabulous Florets
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Pear Pizzazz
Ink : So Saffron, Pretty in Pin, Pear Pizzazz
Accessories : Flower Garden Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon

Scallop Circles

I have had such a busy day but was itching to try today's technique before bed! It's such a great idea, you can make scallop circles using your Stampin' Up BORDER punches! The full tutorial is on Splitcoast Stampers under TLC320.

I'm always sending girlie cards to my mum and my sister in England ~ so I thought I'd make a card especially for my Dad today. He's a nautical man through and through. His early career was in the boat building dockyards of Liverpool where he worked as a Naval Architect. Needless to say, when I saw the new set "The Open Sea" it had my Dad's name written ALL OVER IT :)

So here's his card, I had to make the sentiment using my computer, but I love how it turned out, I hope he likes it too!!! Mum, I know you read my blog, shhhhhh, don't tell him its on its way! Hee hee.

Recipe
Stamps : The Open Sea
Cardstock : Naturals Ivory, Night of Navy
Ink : Early Espresso
Accessories : Scallop Trim Border Punch

April Card Class

Saturday 16th April Class ~ 10.30am. Here are the projects we'll be making at my next card class. These projects will be using stamp sets and Designer Papers from the upcoming Summer Mini Catalog ~ you'll get to try them out before they're available to order on 1st May.

A criss cross card:

A tri-fold Pocket Card (open):

And a Tri-fold Card.

Even More Mini Previews!

Just made some time to play a little more with the new postage stamp punch and the two triple layer punches. Love these!

The triple layer punches are SO easy to use. There are 3 shapes to choose from and a little sliding lever, so you just slide the lever to whichever punched shape you want, and that's what gets punched out. Couldn't be simpler :)

Punches used : Postage Stamp Punch, Dolily (flower centres) & Blossom Bouquet Punches. The tiny flower is the Trio Punch with a 1/2 Crystal in the centre.

Postage Stamp Punch & Embedded Embossing

Good Morning & Happy Friday :) Today's 'Free 4 All' challenge on splitcoast was to try embedded embossing. This technique could NOT be simpler. You punch out the shapes of your choice, glue them down onto cardstock and run the whole thing through the Big Shot in an Embossing Folder! Such a cool result :)

Here's a close-up of the postage stamp punch which is available on 1st May from the new Summer Mini Catalog. Please pretend that I got the image centred in the 1" square :) Ha! I just noticed that!

Recipe
Stamps : Pretty Postage
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Peach Parfait, Blushing Bride
Ink : SU Markers
Accessories : Big Shot, Lattice Embossing Folder, Trio Punch, Postage Stamp Punch, Peach Parfait Ribbon

More Mini Previews

A few more pics to whet your appetite for the next Mini Catalogue from Stampin' Up! You will be able to order on 1st May ... here's more Fabulous Florets ...

This card is made with the new set 'The Open Sea' and the Nautical Expedition Designer Series Paper.


Recipes

Card 1
Stamps : Fabulous Florets, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink : Versamark, Wild Wasabi
Cardstock : Tangerine Tango, Shimmery White, Wild Wasabi, Beyond the Garden DSP
Accessories : Tangerine Tango & Wild Wasabi EP, Scallop & Plain Oval Punches, 1/2 Crystal, White Taffeta Ribbon, TT Marker

Card 2
Stamps : The Open Sea, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink : Early Espresso
Cardstock : Naturals Ivory, Early Espresso, Nautical Expedition DSP
Accessories : Modern Label and Word Window Punches, Scallop Edge Punch

New Summer Mini Preview

I'm SO EXCITED! I am playing with my pre-order for the new Summer Mini which goes live on May 1st. The sketch over on Splitcoast today had 'Fabulous Florets' written ALL over it :) And look at the gorgeous Designer Paper ... isn't it lush?

Here's a close up of the .... wait for it .... WILD WASABI Embossing Powder! Yes, it's embossed, and the powder is gorgeous .... ooooh, today will be a good day!

Recipe
Stamps : Fabulous Florets
Ink : Versamark, Pacific Point
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Pacific Point, Beyond the Garden DSP
Accessories :Regal Brads, Wild Wasabi Embossing Powder {swoon}, Heat gun, Dimensionals

Colours & Buttons

What a great colour combo for the challenge today on Splitcoast! Poppy Parade, Baja Breeze and Pear Pizzazz. You can see from my card that I stamped the background with all different buttons for the set, Button Button. I love the way this looks with these colours, it also qualifies for the Scrapbook Focus Creative Crew Challenge for April which is to make your own background using stamps!

The sentiment is computer generated and mounted onto one of the gorgeous frames from the upcoming set Four Frames. A touch of ribbon and hey presto! Easy peasy lemon squeasy! Here's a close-up ...

Recipe
Stamps : Four Frames, Button Button
Ink : Pear Pizzazz, Baja Breeze, Poppy Parade
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Pear Pizzazz, Poppy Parade
Accessories : Designer Label Punch, Button & Twine, Seam Binding Ribbon, Computer