Long weekend = chance for card making

It's a long weekend here in Western Australia (Labour Day) so I have some time to catch up on my card making and even try to get ahead a little bit. I have three cards to make for March birthdays so I did them today. Here's the first, I made two of these:

I was inspired to make this based on this card by Mary Fish from Stampin' Pretty.

Materials:
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Not Quite Navy, Cajun Craze, Sixth Avenue - Broadway (American Crafts DSP).
Ink: Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Cajun Craze, Pear Pizzazz, Not Quite Navy.
Stamps: Best Dad Ever.
Tools:  Dimensionals, Eyelet border punch (Fiskars), Scoring board (Martha Stewart).

Tips and Tricks:
1. The ties were fussy cut and put up on dimensionals.
2. I did score the top third of the card like Mary's but the camera didn't pick it up.

Stuff Ups:
1. I kept messing up the score lines when trying to score the top third of the card. It took me 4 attempts to get it right - I kept slipping.
2. My cutting with the paper trimmer needed work today - it just doesn't seem to cut straight, always off on a slight angle. Maybe it's time for an upgrade.

Pleasant Surprises:
1. The colours in the paper and ties almost match perfectly.

For my new nephew

This card took me hours to make, mainly because I couldn't think of a design that I liked. I kept playing with layouts, different colour schemes and papers. None felt right. Eventually I came up with this card. I've made it for my niece who gave birth to a gorgeous baby boy on Friday! I am posting this card and a present to her tomorrow.

My card also qualifies to be part of a sketch challenge from Lily Pad Cards, yay! Here's the link to the challenge - Sketch Challenge.

Here's the sketch:

This is also the first baby card I've ever made. I broke out some new Lawn Fawn stamps for the occasion.

Materials:
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Brushed Silver, Whisper White, watercolour paper.
Ink: Bashful Blue, Versamark, Basic Black, Stazon Black.
Stamps: 'Plus One' and 'Quinn's ABCs' by Lawn Fawn.
Other: Big shot machine, Top Note die, silver embossing powder, aqua painter, white organza ribbon, sponge, Circle cutter by Martha Stewart, mini glue dots, clear Bitty buttons.

Tips and Tricks:
1. I cut a top note die cut with my big shot machine. I stamped the rattle in Bashful Blue to make my own background. The top note die cut was adhered to the Brushed Silver layer. I trimmed the end offs of the die cut.
2. The pram and Charlie's name are stamped with Versamark on water colour paper and embossed with silver embossing powder. I used an aqua painter to colour them in. The wheels on the pram are water coloured with Basic Black ink which has taken on a purplish hue once it was watered down. Bitty buttons are adhered to the pram wheels with mini glue dots.
3. Charlie's name is layered on a piece of Bashful Blue cardstock which is adhered to the top note die cut. This covers up the top of the die cut and gives Charlie's name some dimension without using foam dots.
4. I sponged around the watercolour paper for Charlie's name and the pram with Bashful Blue ink which hasn't shown up in the photo.
5. I placed a mini glue dot behind the knot of the bow to help keep it flat and secure.
6. Lining up the stamps in Charlie's name and the sentiment took some time and tweaking. I tested the position of the stamps with ink on scrap paper until I was happy with the alignment.
7. I tested Memento's Tuxedo Black and Black Stazon on the silver cardstock and found that Stazon gave a blacker, more opaque black than Memento so I went with Stazon.

Stuff Ups:
1. I stamped and embossed Charlie's name many times in my quest to find a style I liked. I used different inks and colours, tried cutting out the letters, coloured the letters with markers, it all took a long time.
2. Some of the rattles didn't stamp properly so I filled in any missing parts with a Bashful Blue marker.
3. I have trouble using Martha's circle cutter so it took me a few attempts to get usable circles.
4. Being a teacher, the lack of capitalisation on the 'congrats' stamp and for Charlie's name does irritate me but I didn't make the stamps so I'll have to live with it. If Lawn Fawn made a Quinn's capitals stamp set, I'd buy it in half a heart beat. Maybe I should suggest it, lol!

Pleasant Surprises:
1. The whole card - didn't think it would look this good (if I do say so myself). My cards are usually pretty average and never look as good as all the other blogs out there. The acid test was my husband's reaction. Rather than, "Oh that's nice honey, very good!" (which I love hearing) I got, "Wow! That's awesome!" He sounded so surprised! I'm so proud of this card!

Father's Day 2 Ways: Part 2

For this card I knew I wanted to play with two of my new Stampin' Up items - Elegant Soiree DSP and the 'To a Classic' stamp set. They may be retired now (since the new catalogue came out) but I still only just bought them. This card is a Kate original and here is the result:

There's a lot of colours mixed up here so I hope I've gotten away with it. I really wish I had the correct coloured cardstock but I didn't so I had to substitute for some retired cardstock.

Materials:
Cardstock: Elegant Soiree DSP, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Bashful Blue or Brocade Blue (sorry don't know which!)
Ink: Chocolate Chip ink pad, Chocolate Chip marker, Marina Mist marker.
Stamps: To a Classic, Teeny Tiny Sentiments.
Other: Early Espresso striped grosgrain ribbon (think it's retired now), scallop oval punch, oval punch, dimensionals, paper piercer, mat pack.
Non Stampin' Up: Brown/bronze brads, aqua painter.

Tips and Tricks:
1. The car and checkered pattern are the same stamp and in between them (on the stamp) is the sentiment 'happy birthday to a classic' (I think) which, of course, I didn't want on a Father's day card. I used markers to ink up the stamp.
2. I used Marina Mist ink and an aqua painter to lightly shade in the car.
3. I tried to make a 'dashboard dial' effect with the sentiment layers.
4. The car layer is popped up on dimensionals to accomodate the brads and ribbon underneath.

Stuff Ups:
1. The car image - I should have either clear embossed the image first or used watercolour paper because the ink started to bleed when I added the water via the aqua painter. After it dried I touched up the image with the marker which hid a multitude of sins!
2. I've run out of Baja Breeze cardstock - I had to substitute with old retired stuff instead.
3. I've run out of Early Espresso cardstock - I had to substitute it with Chocolate Chip instead.
3. Probably should have used four brads to balance out that top layer.
4. The ribbon should have been a bit tighter but wrapping it around paper was difficult due to its flimsiness.

Pleasant Surprises - Ooh, a new heading!
1. I managed to align the 'Happy Father's day' and 'dad' stamped images the first time I stamped them!

Mother's Day

I simply adore this Mother's Day card, however, I cannot lay claim to the gorgeous design. This design is by the incredibly talented Angie Brown from Stampin' Dreams. I loved it from the second I saw it and knew it would be perfect for my Mum for Mother's Day. It also has a lot of elements to it and not a lot of stamping.

The main differences between my card and Angie's are that I didn't have the same sentiment stamp as Angie so I lowered the placement of the bird and branches, and popped my sentiment up on the modern label punch out (my fave!). Also my white embossing powder was clumpy so I chucked it out (it was useless) and as a result I don't have that pretty detail on the bird's wing. I used plain old Versamark instead.

Here's the procedure:

Materials:
Cardstock: Shimmery White, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy. You could use Whisper White but the Shimmery White is much thicker cardstock and I feel it makes for a sturdier base card.
Inks: Bashful Blue ink spot, Night of Navy ink spot, Versamark.
Stamps: Vintage Vogue, Teeny Tiny Sentiments.
Other: Big shot machine, Top note die, Whisper White satin ribbon, Modern Label Punch, Bird punch, sponge, stick on pearls, retired triple flower punch, dimensionals, 2 way glue pen.
Non Stampin' Up: Polka dots embossing folder by Cuttlebug, black permanent marker.

Tips and tricks:
1. I sponged around the edges of the top note die cut, bird body and modern label punch out piece using Bashful Blue ink.
2. I punched 7 branches out of Night of Navy cardstock using the bird punch. I trimmed them to fit the way I wanted and glued them down with the 2 way glue pen.
3. I coloured a basic pearl with black permanent marker to create the bird's eye.
4. I've mentioned it before, the satin ribbon frays as soon as you look at it so handle it as little as possible.
5. I used Night of Navy ink to stamp the sentiment. I didn't think Bashful Blue was powerful enough.

Stuff Ups:
1. As I said, I was planning to emboss the stamping on the bird's wing in white and then sponge over it with Bashful Blue but my embossing powder was clumpy and no good. It wouldn't stick properly to the Versamark.
2. The Polka dot embossing folder was a little too small for the layer size that I wanted so one end is a little bit sparse with dots.
3. My SNAIL adhesive is really hard to use. It just doesn't want to turn and it is starting to dent my cardstock. It's very disappointing. I also left my back up double sided tape at work so I had to use my precious mini glue dots on the back of the polka dot embossed layer. Using tape rollers can flatten your embossing so it's always best to use peel-the-backing-off it tape (known as Sticky Strip in the Stampin' Up world).
4. My layers are always skewiff, never proportional.