A bright birthday

The best thing happened today. I dropped into my favourite stamping store (Stampit in East Vic Park) and they had a sale on Prima and Ki Creations - 50% off it all! I was like a kid in a candy shop and stocked up on all the Prima Flowers and Pebbles that I wanted. You can be sure to see a lot more of those in the future, starting today!

I made a card for my Mum's birthday but I wasn't completely happy with the way it turned out. I had to look to the internet for inspiration as I was suffering from brain burnout. I'll post the card I designed at a later date, but for now here is the card I was inspired to make:

No top note die or modern label punch, aren't you proud of me??
The colours are much bright in real life but that's what bad lighting and bad photography will do.
The card that inspired me to make this is from Ivanka's Card Studio.

Materials:
Cardstock: Basic Black, So Saffron, Melon Mambo, Crumb Cake and Shimmery White.
Ink: Stazon Black.
Stamps: Curly Cute.
Other: Big shot machine, Vintage wallpaper embossing folder, dimensionals, mini glue dots.
Non Stampin' Up: Flowers (Prima Flowers - Raspberry), Blue rhinestones (BoBunny Jewels - Barefoot & Bliss).

Tips and Tricks:
1. This card is pretty straight forward - simple layers and the shimmery white card is dry embossed with the vintage wallpaper embossing folder.
2. The flowers are adhered to the card with mini glue dots.
3. The sentiment is popped up on dimensionals.

Stuff Ups:
1. The sentiment took me ages today because I couldn't stamp it perfectly so I kept redoing it, then I'd get it right but cut it crooked and have to start over. Sooo frustrating!
2. I tried using basic black ink but it kept bleeding through the cardstock. Stazon gives a much crisper result, however, it does stain your stamp.
3. I need to buy new blades for my paper trimmer so the layers are a bit straggly around the edges.

A Tropical Wedding

The wedding in Bali was wonderful! Couldn't ask for a better setting or weather, everything went smoothly for the bride and groom. I wanted to make a tropical themed card for them. This design was cased and modified. Thanks and credit to Kathleen Hopperstad at My Happy Stampin' Place for the inspiration.

Materials:
Cardstock: So Saffron, Old Olive, Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Island Oasis DSP.
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Versamark, Rose Red marker, Tempting Turquoise marker, Pumpkin Pie marker.
Stamps: Tropical Party, Teeny Tiny Sentiments.
Other: Pumpkin Pie Taffeta ribbon, dimensionals, Modern label punch, Pearl accents, dimensionals.
Non Stampin' Up: Clear embossing powder, Martha Stewart Circle cutter.

Tips and Tricks:
1. The grass skirting is cut with plain old scissors.
2. The coconut, palm frond, sentiment and flowers were stamped in Versamark then colour. After that they were heat embossed with clear embossing powder.
3. The circle were layered and sponged around with Pumpkin Pie ink as well as the sentiment.
4. Pearls adorn the flower centres and sentiment.
5. The markers were used to colour the coconut's umbrella and straw.

Stuff Ups:
1. Even though I searched my Teeny Tiny sentiments, I still managed to miss the stamp that says 'For the Newly Weds'. I am still kicking myself about that. It would have been sooo much better than just 'congratulations'.

Anya, Flowers and Butterflies

This card was made for my niece and I wanted it to be a little bit girly without being over the top with pink and purple. I turned again to my beloved top note die but changed from my normal landscape style to a portrait style of card. The camera doesn't do justice to the glitter and rhinestones though:

Materials:
Cardstock: Marina Mist, Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Whisper white (just a little bit), watercolour paper.
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Marina Mist, Versamark, Rose Red, Sahara Sand marker.
Stamps: Curly Cute, Butterfly Prints.
Other: Top Note die, Big Shot machine, Rhinestone accents, Corner punch, dimensionals.
Non Stampin' Up: Fleur Anya stamp, clear embossing powder, black embossing powder, Sizzix Spring Flowers textured impressions embossing folder, silver glitter letter stickers by Papercraft, aquapainter.

Tips and Tricks:
1. The Fleur Anya is stamped on watercolour paper in Versamark and then heat embossed with black embossing powder.
2. Anya is coloured with water and ink using an aquapainter. The colours are added at different intensities to get the shading. Basically her skin is Pink Pirouette ink with a hint of rose red on her cheeks. Anya's dress and flowers are Marina Mist. The flower centres are Rose Red with a rhinestone in the middle of each. Anya's hair is Chocolate Chip ink.
3. It's difficult to see clearly but the Chocolate Chip layer has butterflies stamped on it in Versamark and they have been heat embossed with clear embossing powder.
4. The 'Happy Birthday' sentiment has been stamped in Versamark then Marina Mist ink and finally heat embossed with clear embossing powder.
5. Rhinestones of various sizes are placed on the Happy Birthday sentiment, Anya's flowers and the pink top note die cut.
6. Tiani's name and the flower next to her name are silver glitter stickers which are really sparkly. The camera doesn't show it in this picture, but if you click on the image to make it larger you can see the sparkles!

Stuff Ups:
1. When aquapainting Anya, some of the ink leaked past the black embossed border so I use a Sahara Sand marker to trace around Anya, making the ink less noticeable.

Hubby's Birthday

Well it's two male birthday cards in a row! It's my husband's birthday in two days time and we will be in Bali celebrating it! This is hot off the press, just finished. I'm giving Jason his presents tomorrow so I don't have to take them on the plane. This is a pure Kate creation:

I'm thrilled with the result because it was looking decidedly dodgy for a while. It all came together in the end.

Materials:
Cardstock: Basic Black, Basic Grey, Going Grey, Whisper White.
Stamps: So Happy For You, Cheers to You.
Ink: Versamark, Chocolate Chip ink pad, More Mustard marker.
Other: Circle punch, big shot machine, dimensionals.
Non Stampin' Up: Paper by Kaiser craft, Glitter and white embossing powder, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Ranger Perfect Medium Pens, Cuttlebug diamond plate embossing folder, Coke Zero can.

Tips and Tricks:
1. To get the metal how you want it:

• Do be very careful! Jagged or not, this metal can cut you easily.
• Wash out your aluminium can. With sharp scissors, cut off the top and bottom of the can, then cut the cylinder up one side so you end up with a long rectangular piece.
• Dry off any water with a tea towel and cut a piece to fit inside your diamond plate embossing folder. Run it through the big shot machine.
• Trim the metal to the size and shape you want. I couldn't cut it straight with my scissors so I ended up using a circle punch to make the round discs. The punch cut the metal quickly and efficiently.
• I used double sided tape to secure the discs.

2. To heat emboss the beer mugs I first inked the stamp with Versamark then inked the stamp with Chocolate Chip ink before stamping on Whisper White card. Next I used clear embossing powder and the heat tool. After that I used a Perfect Pearls Medium pen (a Versamarker would be great too) to colour the beer foam and then used the white/glitter embossing powder to make the foam pop and shine. I used a More Mustard marker to colour in the beer mug.
3. The same beer mug is stamped in Versamark on the grey card to give interest to the background.

Stuff Ups:
1. I originally used a cactus stamp and green ink for the background but it looked terrible. The beer mug image works so much better.
2. As I said before, I couldn't cut the metal straight so I used the circle punch in desperation and it worked.

Dad's Birthday

Tomorrow is Dad's birthday, happy birthday Dad! I wanted to make a card about golf since Dad loves golf. While I was looking for inspiration, I found a card design that I loved! It wasn't a golf card but I used what I had to make it kate-ified. The original design is from Create With Christy.

Materials:
Cardstock: Pacific Point, Cherry Cobbler, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla.
Stamps: Curly Cute (on the inside as the sentiment).
Inks: Cherry Cobbler classic ink pad.
Other: Big shot machine, Lattice embossing folder, dimensionals, mat pack, paper piercing tool, 2 way glue pen.
Non Stampin' Up: The follow products were bought from Crafty Cards on Garling - golf ball brads (the big, round, white things - the camera doesn't do them justice!), brown grosgrain ribbon, 3D golf stickers by Wishmade. I also used Thickers Fabric chipboard letter stickers in Doll. The bronze brads were from Stampin Stuff. Clear stamps 'Golfer' from http://www.sullivans.net/ though I bought mine from Starfish Lane in Mt Lawley.

Tips and Tricks:
1. On the big tag, I used 2 way glue to adhere the blue cardstock to the red before running it through the big shot machine.
2. The big tag was cut with a paper trimmer. I tried to cut the corners off at right angles to get them even.
3. I used Very Vanilla cardstock to make the white golf balls stand out more. You could substitute that for Whisper White depending on your project.

Stuff Ups:
1. I used the guides that came with the mat pack to align my brads but I still managed to make them look wonky.
2. The tag is too long - if it were shorter, the word 'Dad' would fit better but I made the tag first and forgot to check the height of my letters.

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.

Island Oasis Birthday

I made two of these cards for two friends who's birthdays are in April. Actually they are on the same day! The colour scheme and basic layout of the card was cased from Shaz's Card Table. I added my own style and elements to the card to make it kate-ified.

Below is the insert I will write on then stick into the card. That way if I mess up what I'm writing I haven't ruined the card. It also looks nicer and if your card base is dark, a lighter coloured insert will make reading your written message easier.



I used the flower stamp from the Tropical Party stamp set and added a tiny pearl to the centre of each flower. You could layer the insert on another colour, such as Rose Red, but I want to conserve my cardstock.

Materials:
Cardstock: Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, Rose Red, Whisper White, Island Oasis DSP.
Inks: Pumpkin Pie ink spot.
Stamps: Tropical Party.
Other: Modern label punch, 6mm Pumpkin Pie Grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals, Lattice embossing folder, big shot machine.
Non Stampin Up!: White stick on pearls from Kaiser, Versamark Dazzle - Frost, 'happy birthday' sentiment from Penny Black's Critter Party stamp set, Prima Flowers High Gloss Pebbles - Birds and Butterflies.

Tips and Tricks
1. The lattice embossing folder doesn't fully fit the length of card required for this project. I managed to press the card once, then align the impressions at the end of the card with the unpressed card inside the folder. Then I put it a little way into the big shot machine. That way it doesn't flatten the already embossed card. That all sounds wordy but I don't know how else to explain it.
2. Never press hard when cutting an embossed piece of card in a paper trimmer. You can crush and damage the embossing. Just use very gentle pressure, enough to stop it slipping.

Stuff Ups:
1. I forgot to allow extra card (only a few millimetres) for the embossing to 'shrink'. I had to trim down my base card to make it all the same length.

2. I wasn't too careful when peeling the pebbles of the backing sheet and the image ripped away from one of the pebbles. Always be gentle! They are a bit pricey for what they are so you don't want to waste them.
3. I would have heat embossed the palm fronds on the background if I hadn't lost my clear embossing powder. So frustrating!!