Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Hmmm... a birthday card?

This card was made for a design challenge when the Stamping For Lara forums were active. I suppose the most obvious use for this card would be a little girl's birthday, after adding a sentiment of some kind, but I know I won't be giving it away. This one is a keeper!

Rating: Decent

Materials
Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Tempting Turquoise and Pink Flamingo DSP (retired).
Inks: So Saffron, More Mustard, Pink Pirouette, Tempting Turquoise, Kiwi Kiss, Regal Rose.
Other: Very Vanilla satin ribbon, Stick on pearls, big shot machine, dimensionals, aqua painter.
Non Stampin' Up: Watercolour paper from Jackson's Art Supplies, gold star brad also from Jackson's, Cuttlebug embossing folder: - Tiny Bubbles, Doodlebug Designs: Sugar Coating - Swimming Pool glitter, C.C. Designs: Sugar Plums - Mermaid Emma stamp, black Stazon Ink, mini easel also from Jackson's.

Tips and Tricks:
1. I stamped Mermaid Emma on watercolour paper with stazon and then used ink pads and an aqua painter to colour her.
2. I cut a slit in the fold of the card to thread the ribbon through.
3. The yellow flower paper layer is DSP from the Pink Flamingo series which is now retired. The red flowers on a card in a post from last year are from the same paper series.
4. There are pearls on her tiara and her waist. They match the very vanilla ribbon but the photo doesn't show that.

Stuff Ups:
I wasn't (and still aren't) good at aqua painting so some of the colours have run. I was impatient and didn't wait for some sections to dry properly. As a result some colour bleeding and mixing has occurred. I have since learned that stamping in Versamark and heat embossing in black can help prevent this from happening. It also looks cool.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Tropical Birthday

Here's a card I made for my nephew's girlfriend. I wish I could lay claim to the design but I can't. I cased this from Stampin Funn with Cheryl. I love it so much I barely changed a thing. I embossed the background palm fronds and I coloured in the straw and umbrella, that's it.

Rating: Delightful

Materials:
Cardstock: Whisper White, Island Oasis DSP and what I thought was So Saffron but it's not. It must be some old cardstock from my subtles collection.
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise marker, Pumpkin Pie marker, So Saffron marker, Versamark.
Stamps: Tropical Party.
Other: Sponge, scallop oval punch, oval punch, dimensionals, whisper white satin ribbon, clear embossing powder, heat tool.
Non SU: Wendy Irving Collections: Expressions Clear Cling Stamps -  'Occasions'.
Tips and Tricks:
1. I used markers for the flowers so I could use multiple colours at once.
2. I coloured in the straw and umbrella after stamping with chocolate chip ink.
3. The whisper white is sponged around the edges with old olive ink.
4. The orange polka dot paper is from the Island Oasis DSP pack.

Stuff Ups:
Surprisingly none! The only thing that bugs me is that the happy birthday isn't capitalised.



Christmas Eve and Birthday Cards

Yes, it's Christmas Eve and I've spent most of the day making birthday cards for rellies I'm going to see tomorrow who have birthdays in the next couple of weeks. I'm pretty pleased with the results (except for that off centre brad). Here's the first card:
Rating: Decent

First of all, this design isn't mine - I cased a much more attractive card from Card Scraps Blog and wish mine looked like that! So what's different? I don't have any Soft Suede card stock so I used Crumb Cake and crumb cake ink. I spritzed the Crumb Cake layer with Perfect Pearls Mist in Heirloom Gold (omg I love this shimmer spritz) which the photo doesn't really show. It's a gorgeous golden glimmer that I could stare at for hours. I have used a different sentiment stamp. My card has gold brads for the small flower centres and a purple jewel brad in the centre of the big flower.

Here's another I made today using Concord Crush instead of Rich Razzleberry, simply because I ran out.


Here are the details:
Materials:
Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry or Concord Crush, Crumb Cake, Whisper White.
Inks: Rich Razzleberry or Concord Crush, Crumb Cake, Always Artichoke.
Stamps: Vintage Vogue.
Other: Gold brads, dimensionals, sponge.
Non Stampin' Up: Perfect Pearls Mists in Heirloom Gold, American Crafts Elements - medium jewel brads: brights, Wendy Irving Collections: Expressions Clear Cling Stamps -  'Occasions'.
Tips and Hints:
1. I have sponged the edges of the Whisper White card with Crumb Cake ink.
2. The lighter coloured flowers are created by using the 'stamp off' technique which is simply stamping the image on scrap card once or twice before stamping on the finished piece, so you get a lighter colour effect. I stamped off once for the medium colour and stamped off twice for the lightest colour.

Stuff Ups:
The border stamping: too lazy to use a stampamajig so some of the images are a bit crooked.
The off centre brad - it stares at me like a wart on a witches nose.
The cover up - I smudged a bit of ink on the Razzleberry card above the birthday wishes stamp so I covered it with another flower.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Christmas Part Two

The green card is almost identical to the one in my last post but I just wanted to show how rearranging the layout can make for a more (or less) interesting card. Yes, there is horrible staining on the ribbon of the other card. A lesson was learned there!

Rating: Dodgy ('cause of the staining)

Rating: Decent

These cards are made in the same way and use the same materials as I have listed in my previous post. The only differences are that I have added a thin strip of Jolly Holiday DSP to the right of the green card (I adhered it with 2 way glue) and the base of the other card is Crumb Cake cardstock, I've used Old Olive grosgrain ribbon on it and have coloured the stocking stamp with markers (Old Olive and Real Red).

The staining. The ribbon was popping up a little bit so I used a bit of 2 way glue to stick it down, which it did do but, as you can clearly see, it has stained the ribbon. So you can learn something at my expense - DON'T use a 2 way glue pen for sticking ribbons!!

Christmas is Upon Us!

Here are some of the Christmas cards I have made this year. I say some because I made about 8 different sorts but have sent most of them to friends and family. The design was cased from a google search but modified and morphed into what they are now.

Rating: Decent


Materials:
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Very Vanilla and Jolly Holiday DSP.
Inks: Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Chocolate Chip marker, Real Red marker (for Rudolph's nose), Versamark Champagne Frost.
Stamps: A mix of 'Season of Joy' and 'Sparkly and Bright'.
Other: Stampin' Up- Crystal Effects glue, oval punch, scallop oval punch, paper piercer and mat, dimensionals and stick on Rhinestones.
Non Stampin' Up - Embossing powders - Antique Gold and Silver Dollar, embossing buddy, Silver Christmas Tree brads, Heat tool, Fiskars decorative border punch, deep red ribbon (from Stampit Australia)

Tips and Hints:
1. To make lots of cards I broke it down into stages over a few nights- I made all the card bases first, then all the decorative border strips layered with DSP and ribbon, then the scallopped ovals with their sentiments, etc.
2. Use Versamark Champagne Frost to stamp a background on the card bases. It's amazing how much it lifts a card.
3. Also use Versamark over the Christmas tree for a bit of shine and to apply embossing powder to the star at the top.
4. The words 'Merry Christmas' and the star at the top of the Christmas tree are embossed in either gold or silver.
5. I used markers for Rudolph so I could have his body brown and his nose red. Cherry Cobbler wasn't bright enough so I used Real Red. I put a dot of Crystal Effects on his nose to make it shine, however on 90% of the Rudolph cards, the Crystal Effects is dull and almost opaque when dry. Maybe I received a duff batch.
6. Handle the ribbon as little as possible because it frays easily.
7. The rhinestones are used inside the card on the sentiment that says 'May your season be sparkly and bright'. The rhinestone sticks on top of the 'i' in 'bright'.

Stuff Ups:
The Crystal Effects - as I said above plus sometimes I put on too much and it spread.
Embossing - I forgot a few times to use an embossing buddy pillow so some of the embossing was a bit skewiff.
Stampamajig - I should have used this inside the card to get the sentiment straight and non-wobbly.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Thank You Card

Rating: Delightful

This post is from another blog I tried to set up but it just wouldn't work. This is the first card that I designed and created without being inspired by another card I’d seen. I wanted to send a thank you card to two couples who are friends of mine. I didn’t want an overly feminine feel to the cards. I feel the colour scheme works in that department even though it is flowery.

Materials:
Cardstock: Brilliant Blue (retired), Tempting Turquoise.
Inks: Briliant Blue, Versamark.
Stamps: Enjoy Every Moment for the background stamps, Greetings Eight for the 'thanks so much' stamp.
Other: Pink Flamingo DSP for the red flowers, dimensionals.

Tips and Hints:
1. I popped up two of the flowers on foam dimensionals for a bit of interest.

Stuff Ups:
Cutting out the flowers wasn't the easiest, especially because I wanted a thin white border for distinction.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Wedded Bliss

Let's start with my favourite card. I made this last week for my good friend's Catherine and Anthony, to celebrate their wedding. I matched the colours to the colours Catherine had chosen for the wedding - the pink for the bridesmaids' dresses, grey for the groomsmens' suits and white for Catherine's dress. As luck would have it, she also had pearls on her dress, veil and accessories. Truthfully, I didn't think my skills were up to the task of making a wedding card. I am surprised and pleased with the results. I wouldn't have given them the card if I felt it was dodgy. This card makes it to the decent end of the scale.

Ooh, a scale! I should rate my own cards! Ok then, here's the scale: Disastrous, Dodgy, Decent, Delightful.

So if that's the scale, I'm gonna bump this card up to delightful. I don't think I'll create much better than this.

All photography featured in this blog is done by me and has a firm 'dodgy' rating.

Rating: Delightful.

To create this card I used products from Stampin' Up. I don't sell Stampin' Up but the colour coordination is something that can't be beat.

Materials:

Card stock: Shimmery White, Blushing Bride, Basic Gray.
Inks: Blushing Bride, Versamark, Versamark Silver Frost (I'll need to confirm that name).
Stamps: Punch Potpourri (hostess level 1) for the heart and Curly Cute for the word 'congratulations'.
Other: Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, big shot machine, silver embossing powder, Pearl accents, 2 step Bird punch, Whisper White satin ribbon, corner punch, dimensionals (foam adhesives).
The mini easel is from Jacksons Art Supplies.

Tips and Hints:

1. Stamp Basic Gray and Blushing bride card stock with the Versamark silver frost stamp pad. Cover enough to punch out a bird and a wing using the 2 step bird punch. The versamark gives a nice shimmer to the card stock. This will need a while to dry or the wing won't adhere to the bird.
2. Wrap a piece of satin ribbon around the 2 layers of card, just enough to reach around the back and stick it down on the back. Cut a smaller piece to tie on the front. Touch the ribbon as little as possible because it frays as soon as you look at it.
3. You might not see them but I used the smallest stick on pearls on the vintage wallpaper background to give the card a lift.

Stuff Ups:
Corner punch - sometimes it nips in too deep so you get a jaggedy bit on either side of the punch instead of a smooth rounded corner. I tried to round it off with scissors which worked this time but not always.
Versamark silver frost - I didn't wait long enough for it to dry so some sparkle came off of the wings.
Pearl placement - I put on too many and taking some off was difficult. They stick down too well!

Initiation Commencing.....

Hi all, new to this and frustrated as hell! After spending the last half hour trawling through the "help" guides and looking for the "layout" tab, I discovered there is no layout tab. Well done Blogger help. You officially suck!

That aside, I do hope to brag about the cards I've made and given to people. Yeah it is bragging. These cards are ok, I'm still learning a lot. I've been using stamps to make cards since June, so pretty much for 6 months.

How did I get started? I was looking for a hobby. My friend Gill invited me to a Stampin' Up workshop and I was instantly hooked. All things stationery and stampish I love. It's always been in my blood and now I have a legit reason to stamp my days away.

So here goes.... wish me luck, goodness knows I'll need it.

Kate