Santa collage

The owner of my LSS, Heather's Stamping Haven, lent me this great stamp. It's been discontinued so it's been fun to play with it. I really like the image. I stamped it with Versamagic, which really suits the fine detail line art. It seemed to fit perfectly on this background that had been kicking around on my desk for a while. I made it too long ago to remember any of the colours I used, but they are chalk inks for the background, and pigment inks (including brilliance) for the snowflakes. The santa is matted on some green velvet paper (gorgeous!), which I scored with my stylus for mitered corners. See the silver punched snowflake? It symbolizes all that is good and all that is bad about saving scraps. I punched it out about 6 (7?) years ago at my mother's house one Christmas, during one of our first stamping marathons. It's punched from some silver wrapping paper (that had seen many a present, and the last usable bits of it were punched into snowflakes). I have carted that snowflake around for ages, lost it (when I wanted to use it), found it (when I didn't), and now moved it to a whole different house. It finally found its home on this card and to be honest, I was a bit sad to see it gone. Still, it was gratifying to use it, somehow justifying its long tenure in my stamping stash.

A few other details: lenses are done in Crystal Effects, snowflakes highlighed with blue glitter pen (Sakura), frames highlighted with silver glitter pen.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stamp credits: Santa Collage (Rubber Stampede), snowflakes (various, including Sunshine Designs for tiny one), sentiment (Heather's Stamping Haven)

Gorgeous birthday card!

I'm off work today (yay!) to be home with DD2 to work on toilet training her. I guess as reasons to be home go, it's one of the less glamourous, still it's better than being at work! She's doing really well. I'm so proud! We're just working on waking-hour training right now, but she's making great progress.


She's napping now, so I'm stealing a few minutes for a post.

This is the birthday card my mother made me. Isn't it stunning! She's a stamper too, and we have spent many happy hours together stamping. Here's a virtual {hug} for my mother, who could use a real one :-)

Anyway, back to the card. She inked up the bird image (Local King Rubber Stamps) with markers and stamped it on glossy. It's hard to see in the photo, but she's overstamped it with woodgrain (also Local King). Some pretty background paper and embellishments later, and you have the best, purdiest, wonderfullest birthday card ever! Thanks Mum! I love it!

Let me forestall any errant birthday wishes. My birthday was this summer, it's just taken a while to get the pictures uploaded off my camera onto the computer for posting. It's just a task that never made it high up the list of priorities. It got done recently because DD1 needed some recent pictures printed off for a school project.

I'm off to do some stamping now - dear Heather (Heather's Stamping Haven) lent me the famous and much-coveted Santa Collage (Rubber Stampede) stamp. I have been having a blast playing with that and will have more to post soon.

Supply list: Ask me mudd'r!

Watercoloured Angel

My stamp club ladies wanted to do some more watercolouring, so this is what I came up with. It needed to be fairly straightforward as it was a big group of ladies this month, but still nice. I tried a few versions, and settled on this one. It's an unconventional colour scheme, but I was short on designer series paper, so purple and yellow it was! Maybe more an Advent colour scheme with the purple and blue, and the yellow of the candle flames. Yeah, that's it, that's what I planned all along. (That's now my story and I'll stick to it!)

The angel is from Holy Triptych and is embossed in gold on watercolour paper. We used Stampin' Spots mooshed (the technical term) on yogurt lids for our colour, applied with aquapainters. The image is mounted on elegant eggplant on a gate-fold card base, secured with a punched circle (from the scraps of the saffron dsp!).

Thanks for looking!

All supplies Stampin' Up: Stamps: Holy Triptych; Ink: Encore gold, elegant eggplant, almost amethyst, lavender lace, bashful blue, brocade blue, so saffron, more mustard, paper: so saffron and so saffron designer series paper, watercolour, elegant eggplant; other: 3/4" and 1/2" punches, aquapainters, gold embossing powder.

Wedding Card

This is the card I made my cousin for her wedding. The nice thing about a homemade card is that you can make it in the wedding colours. My cousin's invitations were teal and ivory, so I went with a teal theme in the card. The inspiration for the design came from lots of different people on splitcoaststampers when I was looking through the Baroque Motifs gallery. I stamped the swirl and the little flowers and cut them out, and added lots of half-back pearls and seed beads. There is a layer of silver paper matting, so this was a very glamourous card in real life.

Must go and help DD1 make her birthday party invitations. DH carved some fish stamps out of potatoes and we will stamp them in Lumiere paint. I'll be back....

Well, we're done with the invitations. I'll have to post a sample when they're done. We had a great time stamping with the Lumiere paints. DH did a fabulous job carving fish - several varieties and lots of colours of Lumieres made for really wonderful fish.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies (All Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted): Stamps: Baroque Motifs; Ink: Taken with Teal, Night of Navy, silver encore; Paper: Shimmer White, Taken with Teal, non-SU silver, Night of Navy; Other: pearls - Pretties Kit; turquoise seed beads - Miss Priss, silver embossing powder.

Remembrance Day

My daughter wanted to stamp with me and I wanted to try my Prismacolor crayons. I stamped her this flower, which she wanted to make into a poppy. We're wearing our poppies these days, in honour of Remembrance Day and the war veterans and soldiers, sailors and airmen and women serving overseas. She drew the artwork and found the cardbase herself and put it all together. I only helped with blending the p'colors as the OMS seemed too a little too risky for a Grade 1 helper.

Didn't she do a good job! I'm so proud of my little stamper.

Supplies: Stamp: Stampendous, Ink: Stazon, Other: prismacolor crayons, odourless mineral spirits, blending stump, ballpoint pen.

Embossed Peace, Love, Joy

Here's a card we made at my stamp club this month. The ladies wanted to try heat embossing and I wanted to show a Christmas card, so this is what I came up with. Although this image looks great coloured in, I thought I would show how simple and elegant it can be just embossed. We used gold embossing powder on Very Vanilla, and edged the panel with a gold leaf pen. It doesn't really show up, but we used Bella Toile and versamark on the background. That is my new favourite background stamp!

Thanks for stopping by.

All Supplies SU unless noted: Stamp: Holy Triptych, All Holidays; Ink: gold encore, versamark; Paper: Very Vanilla, Handsome Hunter, Bravo Burgundy; Other: scallop edge punch, gold embossing powder, gold leaf pen (not SU).

Christmas card stamp camp

Here's what's been keeping me busy for the last little while - I've had Christmas card stamp camps the last two weekends. Good times!

The ladies made 3 of each design, and we had lots of other treats on the go as well. For door prizes I gave away some ornaments from the Holiday Mini ornament kit, and little packages of gift tags that I made. I'll make some more and post them - I need to make some stuff for the Christams bazaar at church, and I think the gift tags would be good projects for that.

The Noel card was inspired by this card on splitcoast by akbride. Supplies: Stamps: Big on Christmas; Ink: Basic Black; Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Old Olive; Other: markers in Brocade Blue, Real Red, Old Olive, ornament cuttlebug folder, red glitter pen (swirl accent).

The tree card was inspired by this card on splitcoast by jcslegs. I changed up some of the colours to suit my design and I didn't want to use heat embossing for my second camp as there were a lot of novice stampers, and I didn't want to overwhelm them with techniques, even though heat embossing is easy. It's just another step to remember. I like it like this one. The Naturals White adds a nice rustic feel to the card. The card shown uses Ski Slope dsp, but two of the three cards featured Kiwi Kiss dsp instead.

Supplies: Stamps: Snow Swirled; Ink: Brocade Blue; Paper: Naturals White, Ski

Slope/Kiwi Kiss designer paper, Real Red, Brocade Blue; Other: square rhinestone brads (ice), Top Notes die, red gingham ribbon.

This card was a bit different, more of a vintage feel. Although this card looks great coloured in, I felt that would be too time-consuming so I showcased how good the line art can look just stamped in one colour, with a hint of watercolour wonder crayons added here and there for accent.

Supplies: Stamps: Home for Christmas; Ink: Always Artichoke; Paper: Very Vanilla, Bravo Burgundy, Always Artichoke; Other: burgundy grosgrain ribbon, burgundy watercolour wonder crayon, aquapainter

This card was my favourite - I think I saw one like it somewhere, but I couldn't find it again to give the credit. If it's yours, let me know and I'll post a link to your original. That being said, there are lot of cards out there with variations on this theme.

For this card, we stamped an all-over pattern using the snowflakes from Snow Swirled (isn't this such a versatile set!) and then added some designer paper and a felt snowflake. The ladies got one snowflake in each colour and I did two red cards and one blue card for this design. It doesn't show in the scan, but the snowflakes have a lovely sparkle - I brushed on some Crystal Effects and sprinkled on Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I can't tell you how pretty that was. I am going to do that to all my snowflakes!

Supplies: Stamps: Snow Swirled, Heard from the Heart; Ink : Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze; Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Ski Slope designer paper; Other: small Felt Flurries, crystal effects, dazzling diamonds, scalloped edge punch.

Thanks for looking! And to the ladies that came to my Christmas card camps - a great big thank you! I had a lot of fun!!!

Pretty, pretty butterfly

This has to be my current favourite card. I love the colours, I love the sparkle, and I love the beads. It's just so pretty! I had a very special person in mind when I made it and I can't wait to give it to her.



I was on a mission to get some mileage out of this set before I sold it, and making two of these cards with individual flowers all coloured in different (6!) colours fit the bill. I love the set, but I could bear to part with it :-)


I used Tombows to colour the flowers in shades of turquoise, green, pink and purple. When I had it done, I realized it went perfectly with my Euphoria pack of patterned paper. (I'd like to be the sort of stamper that plans this kind of thing in advance, but I usually colour away and then try to find something to go with it. Oh well, I cook like that to - assemble the ingredients I have on hand and then hit google to find a recipe for hamburger, Dijon mustard, pickled beets and frozen corn. Luckily this card worked out better than the average dinner around here lol.)



This little butterfly was so pretty, it needed to be accented with some sakura glitter pen and seed beads here and there. The other details were added with a lot of layers (why have one layer when you could have 7?) and some pretty ribbons. The opening was scalloped and some coordinating Eurphoria paper put inside (it's scalloped too). This was not one of those cards that was finished in 10 minutes, but it's not for an ordinary person.

What follows is some chit chat from my life, so if you only want the card deets, skip to the bottom. If you want to read about our Thanksgiving weekend, keep going :-)

It's Thanksgiving weekend here and the weather is glorious. We had our big turkey feast yesterday at my brother's house. Mmmm it was fabulous. My sister-in-law's table was gorgeously decorated, she has such a flair for that sort of thing. Her meal was phenomenal, such a gift of time and love for all of us, as always. My mother made our family favourite, the world's best pumpkin pie. It puts all others to shame. Seriously. And I contributed the green salad. Lest you think this was a healthy contribution, it's a pale green foamy confection comprised mainly of cream cheese, marshmallows and whipping cream, with some pears and lime jello thrown in. For those of you who think you don't like jellied salad, you will be converted. But I can't share the recipe or my aunt's sister-in-law will have me whacked. The only thing I missed was stuffing with Mt. Scio savoury in it. I was an instant convert the first time I had it, years ago when my roommates from Newfoundland made it for me. DH is a Newfoundlander too so we always have Mt. Scio savoury in our stuffing, and I even add it to dumplings in chicken stew. (I'm actually not a bad cook, despite my earlier remarks.)



Today we took the kids to a local pumpkin patch. The car ride was hellish (DD2 should have been having a nap and was just rotten) but once we got there, the girls had fun. Their favourite thing was the pile of straw bales to climb on. (It did make me wonder why we bothered moving a van load of wood and reassembling the play structure when we could have piled up a dozen bales of straw instead....) They hoovered up a lot of apples and I turned a blind eye to the number of times DD2 (who is 2) dropped her apple and kept eating it. I figured the straw was a bit of extra roughage. We got some lovely squashes and the farmer assured me they would keep till Christmas if stored in a cool spot. I look forward to torturing my family with nutritious winter squash for several months to come....hehehehe..... (There do have to be some perks to motherhood after all! They can torment me in the car, but I am in charge of supper!!!! bwahahahaha )



Supplies: Stamps: Reason to Smile, Riveting; Ink: none - Tombow markers + SU marker in Rose Red; Paper: Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Spring Moss (PTI), Euphoria (Basic Grey); Other: seed beads, sakura glitter pen, ribbon (SU, other), SU punches: scalloped edge, 1 3/8" circle, 1 1/4" circle.

New class - Alcohol Inks & Geometric Blocks

If you're free on Wednesday evening and in my area, you might want to sign up for my next class - Alcohol Inks Meet Geometric Blocks. It's at Heather's Stamping Haven, and you can click on this link to see the card samples.

We'll be creating wonderfully vibrant backgrounds with alcohol inks then building two different cards with one very versatile stamp.

Hope to see you at HSH!
Karen

Colour-blocked daisies

I celebrated World Card Making Day on Saturday with an Open House. This was also my new catalogue open house, and my first time having all my stamping friends over to the new house. My parents were visiting too, so it was a celebration all around.



One of the projects we made was this card, which was inspired by this card by cullenwr on splitcoast. I knew I wanted to do a sponged silhouette technique and had a great card planned out with Fresh Cuts, but at the last minute (as in the night before 14 people were coming to stamp), I decided to change the design. Much as I love Fresh Cuts, I thought it would be hard for people to get the square stamped straight the first time. It's much easier to stamp and then cut it out, but with that many people stamping, I wanted to minimize the steps.



I turned to Upsy Daisy for a quick and easy silhouette but I couldn't get the layout right with a deadline looming. When I saw cullenwr's card at work (it was lunch time!), I knew colour blocking was the answer. It's quick, easy, and has the wow factor I wanted for the Open House.



The silhouette is stamped using a sponging technique I learned in my Stampin' Up demonstrator magazine. You stamp the whole image with the lightest colour (here it's Baja Breeze) then you sponge on additional colours here and there (here we used Kiwi Kiss and Pacific Point). Everything is mounted on coordinating cardstock with Chocolate Chip as the grounding neutral. People could choose one of the three sentiments in this stamp set and stamp it in Chocolate Chip. A Kiwi Kiss/Vanilla ribbon finishes it off.



The other project was a gift tag, heat embossed in gold or silver on burgundy or hunter, using the scrolly frame stamp from Holy Triptych.



My Open House was a lot of fun - I met some new people and sent many retired stamps and accessories to new and loving homes. I'll miss them, but it's time for them to get the TLI (tender loving ink) they deserve. Thanks to all the ladies for coming out (and thanks to all my helpers for making it happen)!





Thanks for stopping by!



All supplies Stampin' Up: Stamp: Upsy Daisy; Ink: Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, Chocolate Chip; Paper: Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, Chocolate Chip; Accessories: dimensionals, Kiwi Kiss ribbon, stampin' sponge.

Silhouette Songbird

I'm back! I was out of town on a business trip last week, but it wasn't all work (and even the work was pretty fun I have to say). I was able to attend my cousin's wedding and visit with family while I was away. The wedding was wonderful. It was a lovely ceremony, the bride (my cousin) was breathtakingly beautiful, and the reception in my aunt's garden rivalled the Governor-General's garden parties (or at least what I imagine them to be, since I haven't actually been to one yet). And to gild the lily, I got to spend some stamping time with my aunt during the week. I got to go to her LSS too, and found some treasures that I can't wait to start using. I found out that Lisa Strahl (!) was teaching at that LSS the day I flew out. I almost changed my flight to attend, when I found that out, but I found out after I got home, so it was beyond my reach on the space-time continuum to do that. But if I coulda, I woulda.

Now, about this card. I needed a card for my boss who will be going on extended leave soon. I wanted to use a silhouette stamp, and this one was one of the first ones I found (things are still in slings in my stamping area). I had planned to do a quickie card with my brayer and an Adirondack spectrum pad, but my brayer is nowhere to be found. I hope I find it soon. I've lost my little brayer, and I hoped it would turn up in the move, but no such luck. Now the big brayer is missing too. I miss my brayers!

Anyway, back to the card. Plan B was to make my own multicoloured background using my Colorbox stylus and foam tips with chalk ink. I've used this colour combination a few times before, and I would have tried something different only my boss seems to really like these colours so I used them. I added a little branch stamp in the background with platinum brilliance ink and light blue chalk ink. The bird is embossed in black and I added a frame around the whole thing with markers. I dithered with the ribbon for some time, added it twice and took it off twice, even curling it once with my heat tool (don't heat it too much or it will get holes in it...sigh...). After deciding the holey ribbon didn't really add a lot, I cut it off, but after I had the whole thing put together, I felt it needed ribbon after all so I squeezed it back on, threading it under the image panel. I was going to add my trusty Espresso acrylic paint dots, but I could only find my bottles of the coloured paint, not the black one, so I had to use brads. They show on the inside, but not too much since they had to through five layers of cardstock.... (I know, in addition to being a brayer addict, I am also a layer addict). And that's it for the card!

This weekend is shaping up to be a good one. Today was a barbecue down by the river for work, which made for a very pleasant afternoon. It's nice to see colleagues outside the office. Then this evening after the mad-chore-dash, The Office season finale from the spring was on and I got to do some stamping! The fun continues tomorrow when we're going to the fair (my thrill-seeking 2-year-old is going to love the rides), and my elder daughter has her dear friend coming for a sleepover afterwards. Then on Saturday we get to play with our niece and nephew and then Sunday we clean the house (likely the low point of the weekend) because my parents come for a visit on Monday. I can't wait!

Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies: Stamps: Song Bird - Penny Black, In Full Bloom, Linen - Stampin' Up; Ink: Kiwi Kiss, colorbox chalk (warm violet, wisteria, lime pastel), aspen mist versa? chalk, versamark; Paper: PTI white, basic black, silver, kiwi kiss; Other: black embossing powder, black brads, orchid organdy ribbon (retired SU), Tombow marker, stylus, foam tips.

I'm back - then gone again!

Hi! It's been too long since I've posted. There have been a lot of changes for our household. We are moved in now, and all the essentials are unpacked. I can cook and bake in my kitchen, and more importantly, stamp in my stamp nook! I have 95% of my stamping gear unpacked, in arranged to allow some usability. It's not the final configuration, but I need to give that a bit more thought before I purchase any furniture or storage arrangements. I did sort through my Stampin' Up sets to decide which ones will got to new homes since if I kept all my stamps, I wouldn't have room for any new ones (collective gasps of horror are then heard throughout the nations!). (And before you think I'm being presumptuous about my readership, I get hits from the US, and from all over the world. Not in enormous numbers, granted, but enough to justify the little "s" on nation.)

In other changes, we have started with a new daycare since the move (it was very hard to say goodbye to the old one) and DD1 has started in a new school (Grade 1!). It's very nice to be closer to family, and I took advantage of being closer to the cinema and went to see Mamma Mia (soo, sooo good!).

When faced with the big box of stamps to find new homes for, I felt badly about selling some of them since they hadn't been loved enough here. I decided that I would play with those in particular to "get them out of my system" and to see if I really couldn't part with them.

This card was the first set chosen, a hostess set from a couple of catalogues back, Reason to Smile. I have loved this set since I saw it, but never stamped with it. I remember seeing an awesome card done with it by Julie Buhler (blog - Paper Pleasing Ideas) where she coloured in all the flowers different colours. It looked stunning. Not one to take the easy route when stamping, I wanted to give that a whirl. I coloured each type of flower (and there are six, all very tiny) a different colour. Various flowers are accented with stickles and my glitter pen. Once that was done, pulling the card together didn't take that long (mostly because I was tired and it was time for bed). The background flowers are from Polka Dots and Petals, stamped in Platinum Brilliance. The ribbon is retired organdy ribbon that I had out to cut lengths as a little gift for my stamp club members for filling out my new catalogue Scavenger Hunt. It's the orchid colour, and it matched quite well.

Thanks for looking and don't hold your breath for my next post. I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon for Victoria for a family wedding this weekend, followed by a trip for work, also in Victoria. The work trip sounds really interesting and I'm excited about it. And who would turn down a trip to the West Coast!?! It will be great to see my family too, a rare and special pleasure. My aunt is a stamper too, so I hope to have a little time stamping with her in her fabulous stamping room. I hope once the wedding dust settles we'll get a chance.

Thanks again for stopping by.

Happy stamping!

Supplies: stamps: Reason to Smile, Polka Dots and Petals; Ink: chalk ink - warm violet, French blue, platinum brilliance; paper: PTI white, orchid opulence, cool Caribbean; other: orchid organdy ribbon, flower brad (Making Memories?), Tombow markers, stickles, glitter pen, deep well of patience.

Stamp club projects

This will be short because I am supposed to be packing. (Those of you who know me, though, will know that I will do anything short of climbing a ladder to get out of packing....)

Here's what we did last club night. I wanted to showcase products from the new catalogue, and the hostess had requested we do the Joy-fold card ( splitcoast tutorial).

For the blue card, we used all new In Colours and Wow Flowers. There is a line of piercing above the sentiment panel. The ladies made cards that were slightly better proportioned. This was my prototype and the sentiment panel is a little too wide.

Supplies (Stampin' Up only): paper and ink: whisper white, pacific point, kiwi kiss, tangerine tango, baja breeze; accessories: paper piercer, scallop edge punch, stamps: Heard from the Heart, Wow Flowers.

The other project was a Joy-fold card (see link above for scs tutorial), which opens twice and is closed by a hidden punched circle under the flower. One of the ladies wanted to know how to dye flowers from the Pretties kit with re-inkers so that's how we did it. The pink panel on their cards was the pale patterned pink sheet from Bella Rose, but I flubbed the stamp on it and needed the rest of the paper for club ladies, so mine is pirouette pink instead. I didn't have enough of this flower for everyone, but this card also looked nice with the next size down flower, set on top of the five-petal flower punch for a closure. One lady did this with a red flower, on a pink flower, on a red flower and it looked fabulous. The ladies could choose to dye their flowers Riding Hood Red or Pirouette Pink. Tip to demos: just use a tiny bit of water and add more as needed.

Supplies (SU only): paper: Bella Rose, Riding Hood Red, Pirouette Pink; ink: chocolate chip, other: reinkers, Pretties kit, bone folder.

Thanks for looking! I won't be back for a week or so. See you later!

Happy stamping.

Back from vacation

Hi! We're just back from a wonderful week in the Adirondacks. We rented a cottage on Mt. Arab near Tupper Lake. It was a beautiful spot and the cabin was lovely, rustic, and everything you could want for a family get-away. It was built over fifty years ago, so there were hardwood floors, log bunkbeds, and an enormous stone fireplace, and even a cast-iron claw-foot tub in the bathroom. The owners were delightful, hospitable, interesting people and we had a lovely time. The girls enjoyed swimming in the lake (the beach and dock were for cottage-renters only so it was very quiet). The weather was a bit wet, but we still had a good time. If you want the latest in sleek, gourmet kitchens, this is not the place for you. If you want a quiet place for children to swing in the hammock and pick wild blueberries, then this is your place. The owner even let us ride one of his rail-bikes - a bicycle he's adapted to ride on railroad tracks. His wife is a talented watercolour artist and I purchased some of her creations. (She also brought us some tasty leftovers from a couple of her meals, including Thai fried rice and lemongrass soup.) Here's a link to their website. We stayed in Mountain View, but looked at the others too. I would love to go back to Val-Al sans enfants....a girl can dream....

I'll try to post some pictures when we get them downloaded, but we are going to be very busy around here this week and next, getting ready to move. And, sniff, sniff, I have packed a good portion of my stamping gear. That is my incentive to move - so I can get my stamping area back. I'm hoping my mother will help me get it organized when she comes to visit in September. She's good at organizing and laying out spaces efficiently so her expertise would be greatly appreciated (wink, wink). But we'll still make time to stamp together too :-)

Anyway, this is by way of an apology in advance for my lack of posts and original creations. I had hoped to be uber-organized and have a bunch of blog-fodder pre-stamped and ready to post. But this went the way of all such plans that I have. I really ought to know myself better. What I will try to do is post links to other interesting blogs that you might not have found.

Happy stamping!
Karen

Watercolouring with inkpad lids

My stamp club wanted to do a project using watercolouring techniques and this set is just the perfect one. I know it's a fall image, but I love this set so much! It's going to retire so I wanted to feature it before it's no longer available. This apple bucket is one of my all-time favourite images. It can be coloured in many ways and it's just so pretty.

For this card, I showed them how to use a blender pen and inkpad lids to get this look. We used a few different colours to layer up the colour, which also adds interest. The apple in front of the bucket is popped up.

Thanks for looking!

All supplies Stampin' Up: Ink: basic gray, ruby red, real red, wild wasabi, blue bayou, close to cocoa; Paper: watercolour, blue bayou, wild wasabi; Stamps: Give Thanks, Polka Dot background; Other: blender pen, earth elements brads.

Party hat birthday card

My package of Euphoria (new line from BasicGrey) came in the mail last week and I've been itching to use it. Here I paired it up with Aqua Mist cardstock (PTI) and Purely Pomegranate. The image is Sunshine Designs (from that birthday cube I can't seem to stop using) and coloured with Tombows and accented with stickles. I added a spritz of turquoise glimmer mist to the starburst paper, so it has some shimmer. The final embellishments were some pomegranate ribbon, faux stitching, and acrylic paint dots. I love that paper and the colour scheme for the card - so fresh and pretty.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamp: Sunshine Designs (The Stamp Barn); Ink: Palette black noir, Purely Pomegranate: Paper: watercolour, Purely Pomegranate, Aqua Mist (PTI), Euphoria (BasicGrey); Other: pomegranate ribbon (SU), acrylic paint (Stream - Adirondack), stickles, white gel pen, turquoise glimmer mist, slot punch (SU).

Groovy monochrome

Here's one of the projects from my stamp club. I thought I'd show them how to colour with an aquapainter and a re-inker. After a few elaborate card samples that I rejected as being too time-consuming, I came up with this design. I always like monochromatic cards, but I seldom think of making them. This didn't start out as being a monochromatic card, but a way to make a dent in my pile of groovy guava paper, which is about to retire. I also wanted to use up my hodgepodge hardware, and groovy guava ribbon. (Use-up cards are waaaayyyy more fun to make than Use-up Casserole, and waaaaayyy easier to impress the children with. DD1 really liked this card.)

Thanks for stopping by!

All supplies Stampin' Up: Stamps: Pick a Petal; Ink: stazon; Paper: shimmery white, bravo burgundy, groovy guava designer series prints, ginger blossom designer series prints, groovy guava; Other: aged copper hodgepodge hardware, groovy guava double-stitched ribbon, groovy guava reinker, aquapainter, 3/4" circle punch.

Butterfly birthday card

I got this stamp a while ago and have been waiting for a good time to use it. (That makes it sounds like there is ever a bad time to use a stamp!) I wanted to make a special birthday card for a very special person, and this butterfly stamp just leaped off the shelf into my hands. (And no, DH, that's metaphorically speaking, not a comment on my teetery piles of stamping gear...)

I stamped the butterflies in chocolate chip craft ink and embossed with Espresso embossing powder. It's a lovely soft brown. My new favourite ep! The image was painted with a variety of colours of twinkling H20's and accented with stickles. I did layered butterflies for depth. The image is mounted on a couple of colours of cardstock and the card base is textured Soft Sky, stamped with one of Heather's nice scroll stamps (in creamy brown chalk ink). I accented with some espresso acrylic paint in the corners, just to frame it. Inside the card it says, "May every part of your birthday have happy in it."

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps: The Artful Stamper, Heather's Stamping Haven; Ink: chocolate chip craft ink, creamy brown chalk ink - Colorbox; paper: watercolour, elegant eggplant, close to cocoa, textured soft sky; Other: twinkling H20's, stickles, espresso acrylic paint - Adirondack/Ranger.

Where are the buttons?

This is why I don't plan my cards. I have a bag full of buttons from my LSS that I wanted to use. (She had a bucket on the counter, $2 a scoop and I was in there with my DD and we went to twon with two whole scoops). All three Daley girls have been having fun playing with these buttons so I thought it was time to put them on paper. I had in mind some sort of flower card, with button centres. I got out my PTI flowers, which have such nice button-ready centres. But when the card was done, it really felt done without the buttons. I think the buttons would have been too much. This was my first time stamping (other than just looking at the colours) with my new Memento Inks. They work beautifully with these clear stamps. I'm very pleased. The only "embellishment" is two scored lines along the top and bottom of the card. I made a matching envelope. The card is 6 x 3 /4" and fits in SU's small open-ended envelope. I really like this size of card. It's a great shape to work with.

I think the Daley girls (jr., and sr., truth be told) will be happy that their stock is undepleted!

Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies: Stamps: Beautiful Blooms and Text Boxed (Papertrey Ink); Ink: Memento: Tangelo, Angel Pink, Lilac Posies, Rose Bud, Bamboo Leaves, New Sprout, Dandelion, Canteloupe. Other: Scor-It.

3x3 Notecards and Box

Here's what we're making at my next class at Heather's Stamping Haven. If you're interested, it's on Saturday from 10-1. We'll be making this origami box, and jazzing it up with Lumiere paint and fancy foam that you can mold into any texture. There are 4 notecards (3x3), all made with just two stamp cubes (the cute bug one and the sentiment one, both Sunshine Designs). I've coordinated the box by using the same Lumiere paint on the card and bringing it all together with the colour scheme. Have I whetted your appetite? If you'd like to join us, I'd love to see you there.

The exciting conclusion to the preceding post....

Last time I asked you which card you preferred. You unanimously chose the mobile one and I wound up going with the one that no one chose. Now this wasn't at all a display of blatant disregard for your opinion, it's just that I didn't have time to check my blog before I left for work and I needed to take the card with me that very day. Also, I decided that the one you chose wasn't too babyish for a first birthday card, which I also needed to send out asap. The pram was certainly too babyish. So although I agreed with you all that the mobile was nicer (and nicer even in person), the pram one got chosen. Thanks for reading this far - I realize that as exciting sequels go, this rivals Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, but there you go. At least you don't have to pay to read my blog ;-)

In other news, one of the reasons I haven't had time to post a lot lately, aside from being back to work full-time, is that we are moving. I know there are other bloggers out there who take this sort of thing in stride, but I am not one of them. I stamp when I can, and post when I can. Thanks for sticking with me :-) I'm hoping that I'll be able to post more when we're in the new place and the dust has settled a bit. (That's a turn of phrase, not a comment on my housekeeping, which due to the constant state of readiness for viewings, has had to rise a few notches.) We are downsizing and moving closer to work in an effort to reduce our footprint. Anyone need some junk from our basement???

Which little lavender moon to choose???

A friend of mine had a baby girl a few weeks ago and I'm going to visit them tomorrow so I wanted to bring a card. I'll have to check the present drawer too and see if there's anything good or if I'll have to swing into a Last-Minute-Lucy's for a baby gift.

I wanted to make a card that was very girly (this is daughter #3 for them) so I went with shades of plum. I stamped the mobile on shimmer white paper with Imperial Purple versafine (I tried the palette in lavender moon, but it didn't stamp well on the shimmer paper). Nothing beats versafine for a crisp, vibrant image every time. I shaded in the animals with a bit of lavender and a blender pen, just to liven them up a little. The image is mounted on perfect plum and the whole card is lavender moon. There's a lavender moon dotted ribbon too (what a dream to tie!). The background stamp (from Cornish Heritage Farms) is quite new to my collection, but it's a new favourite, and I accented it with a glitter pen dot in the middle of the "flowers". It adds a subtle touch of shimmer to echo the shimmer paper. The only other little embellishment is a dew drop on the mobile. Note this is not coloured with copics. I don't own copics. Not even one. And probably never will. So you see, DH, there is a stamping accessory that I (a) do not own and (b) do not want. Because they are so expensive, I figure this gives me approximately $500 to spend on other things since I am not buying copics. How's that for math! heeheehee....


Thanks for looking!



Supplies: Stamps: mobile - Magenta, bg - Cornish Heritage Farms, words - Stampin' Up; Ink: Versafine - Imperial Purple, Palette - Lavender Moon; Paper: shimmer white, Perfect Plum - SU, Lavender Moon - Papertrey Ink; Other: Lavender Moon ribbon - PTI, dew drop, Sakura glitter pen.


Okay, I have officially lost my mind. I went to upload the photo above, and lo and behold, there was a card in the folder marked for the same baby, just with a slightly different name. Hmmm. Strange. I didn't think I'd saved the file. Let's open it and see. Ahhh, whole different card for same baby made last week (card, that is, not baby). And to top it all off, it was made with (50 points to whomever guesses the stamps and colour scheme I used).... (drumroll please) lavender moon colour scheme (paper, ink and ribbon) and the CHF background. And dewdrops too. sigh. I have officially lost my mind. Hopefully I'll stumble across it in a card folder on my computer. That seems to be where I put things then immediately forget. I thought there was a sense of deja vu about this project, but I chalked it up to the fact that I've used this paper quite a bit lately and the last time I did a real hack job on it and took me three or four tries to get the card cut out.



So, which one do you like the best? The one with the carriage is painted with twinklings and the image is from a Sunshine Designs baby cube. I do need a first birthday card for my niece. Would the mobile one do for that do you think or is it too babyish? Help, dear reader, I need your advice! And no, this card is not meant to endorse parking your pram pointing downhill..... Why does crookedness always show up worse on a scan??? Couldn't crookedness disappear the way sparkly embellishments do? It's just not right.

Sometimes life's a circus

I thought I'd check out the Stamping Bella forum on splitcoast since I found out that's where they post the free shipping announcements, etc. When I was stalking there, I found a recent colour challenge. I wanted to do some stamping, but didn't know what I felt like doing. This was a real challenge (chocolate chip, only orange and soft sky) - I hate only orange and how on earth was I going to make something that didn't look like something in the wastepaper basket at the A&W ad campaign office???

I stamped the circus tent on shimmering white paper and found that my not-so-carefully scribbled-in-marker sky wouldn't blend. So I stamped it again on watercolour and coloured in with Tombows and it blended very nicely, if not a little too eagerly in spots (don't look too closely...) There's a very fine line between blending and bleeding, and that line is usually to be found on one of my cards :-)

I accented with some stickles and that was the tent. The sentiment is also Stamping Bella and I stamped it chocolate chip craft ink and embossed with iridescent ice.

I needed to work in some only orange, so I cuttlebugged a strip and mounted it on choc chip. The wide ribbon is supposed to be reminiscent of a pennant and the whole shebang is mounted on textured soft sky cardstock (5 1/4" square).

Thanks for looking! (Anyone craving a Teenburger now?) Ba dump ba dump ba dump ba dump dump. Da dump da dump da dump dump......

Supplies: Stamps: Stamping Bella; Ink: palette black noir, chocolate chip craft ink; Paper: watercolour, chocolate chip, only orange, textured soft sky; Other: Tombow markers, aged copper brads, wide chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon, stickles, iridescent ice ep, swirly c'bug folder.

PS Sorry the scan is a bit off. It's hard to correct the colours. I guess my scanner hates only orange too. lol

Happy birthday Annie

Happy birthday Canada! And happy birthday Annie! I needed a (very) belated birthday card for my niece. I wanted to use my new PTI lavender moon paper and matching ribbon, so I went with a personalized card.

I stamped the letters with Jumbo alphabet and used a Sunshine Designs candle for the "i". All were coloured with Tombow markers and accented with stickles. The balloon background is also Sunshine Designs, from the same cube. The tab is from Totally Tabs and the sentiment is from Amazing to Zany. (Get it soon - it's retiring! It's one of my go-to sets for sure.) The turquoise mat is shimmery thanks to a spritzing of glimmer mist (I am really enjoying using that stuff and I may need to expand my colour choices).

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps: Jumbo Alphabet, Totally Tabs, Amazing to Zany (SU), birthday cube - Sunshine Designs; Ink: Palette black noir, Palette lavender moon, SU taken with teal; Paper: watercolour, tempting turquoise, PTI lavender moon; Other: Tombow markers, stickles, round tab punch, turquoise glimmer mist.

Happy birdie to you

My daughter is going to another birthday party tomorrow (fourth one this month!) so I needed a card for the birthday girl. I hadn't inked up my new stamps from Stamping Bella so I went for those first. I had gotten the sentiment "happy birdie to you" to go with the owl I bought, but the owl didn't seem quite right for what I had in mind so I went for the Sunshine Designs bird instead. I coloured it to match the colour scheme for my card, which was drawn from coordinating papers from BasicGrey's LilyKate collection.

The layout inspiration came from this week's sketch challenge on splitcoast, but I didn't follow the sketch to the letter. Instead I used my 3/4" square punch and some scraps from four different patterns in the pack. I glued them down with Tombow liquid glue (great for this job because you get a lot of drying time to wiggle them around and get them spaced right). The bird is stamped in palette black noir and coloured with Tombow and Stampin' Up markers and blended with a paintbrush. I've accented with some stickles and glitter pen on the words. I tried various configurations for the sentiment, but settled on this one.

I have more Stamping Bella stamps to try and I can't wait to get to those. As much as I like the Bellas, I just find that they're not the kind of images I need for the cards I like to give. When I discovered that Stamping Bella has a whole bunch of other types of images, I put in a very nice order, and I only made a dent in my wish list. Can't wait to play with those!

Thanks for stopping by!

ETA: Turns out this week's Ways to use it challenge on splitcoast is to use birds! How serendipitous :D

Supplies: Bird - Sunshine Designs, sentiment - Stamping Bella; Ink: Palette black noir, close to cocoa; Paper: watercolour, LilyKate - BasicGrey, Lemon Tart - Papertrey Ink, close to cocoa and bashful blue - Stampin' Up; Other: Tombow and Stampin' Up markers, stickles (waterfall and lime green), Sakura glitter pen.

Glimmering Painted Pears

The weekend before last friends had us over for dinner. They are Chinese and they prepared the most amazing feast for us. It was absolutely sensational. I am a bit delinquent in sending my bread-and-butter note, but I hope they'll forgive me. I really do want to thank them for the best meal I've had in a very long time.

I wanted to use my new pear stamp (Sunshine Designs), which I stamped in palette ink and coloured with Tombow markers, blending with a paintbrush. It's mounted on old olive and night of navy cardstock on a silver fleck periwinkle cardbase. The olive strip needed a bit of oomph and I remembered my bottle of Olive Vine Glimmer Mist that's been neglected lately. So neglected in fact, that the hole had plugged up so when I shook it to get the glimmer up off the bottom, big drops started to fly around and I had to suspend card-making-operations to clean green Glimmer Mist off my cream carpet. (It mostly came out.) The good news is that the hole can be rinsed clean and the Glimmer Mist will mist instead of blob.

Back to the card - the periwinkle base has a little floral sprig (also SD) stamped in almost amethyst and the sentiment is in night of navy. I added a scalloped edge with my corner rounder (man, I cannot wait for the new scalloped border punch in the new catty!). There's a little strip of more glimmer-misted-olive-paper behind the scalloped border. Now that I've scanned it, I'll add some Stickles for highlights. They really finish it off.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps: Sunshine Designs (The Stamp Barn) and Hero Arts; Ink: Palette black noir, almost amethyst; Paper: watercolour, old olive, night of navy, perwinkle sparkle fleck; Other: Tombow markers, paintbrush, corner rounder, Glimmer Mist.

Bugling Bug

Well I'm not sure if it's actually a bugle, but it is some kind of instrument that you blow into! I love this whimsical cube from Sunshine Designs. It's one of the new releases and the other sides are just as cute - a snail and two different ladybugs.

I needed two quick cards for a double-header birthday party run tomorrow. These look cute enough for two little girls turning 6. I debated getting out the princess stamp, but this stamp just tootled at me too loudly to resist.

The ant is stamped in black palette and coloured with Tombows. The quickie background is just stamped and a strip of pomegranate cardstock (I'm going to have to stockpile that one!).

I'll add some stickles but I wanted to scan this in first. I see there is actually quite a bit of glitter on the scanner already....sigh....

I'd better close this and get to bed. I have a big team building day tomorrow where we're going to do an outdoor navigation exercise in the woods. I hope there's someone on my team who can read a compass!

Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies: Stamps: Sunshine Designs (The Stamp Barn), Polka Dots and Petals (SU), Amazing to Zany (SU); Ink: Palette black noir, taken with teal, cool caribbean, purely pomegranate; Paper: watercolour, bright pink (SU bold brights), taken with teal, cool caribbean.

Bad, bad blogger

I am such a bad blogger. I neglect my faithful readers (my apologies to both of you!) for ages, and when I finally post, I frighten you with a title like "Farewell Card", conjuring thoughts of my imminent retirement from stamping. Bad, bad blogger! And now I'm going to add to my list of crimes by telling you that I've been stamping feverishly all week and haven't taken any pictures. Gasp. What was I thinking! I can only tell you that these creations were unlike any hitherto seen on splitcoast or blog land. They were amazingly beautiful, stunning in their composition, flawless in their execution, and inspired in their symphony of colours and textures. I'm so sorry you won't get to see them, but you'll have to take my word for it that they would have been front page material. [snort!]

I made an On Board Journal and matching survival kit for my team member who's deploying. I had to give it to her on her last day of work and going away lunch and if I had made it earlier than the night before said lunch, I could have taken pictures. I used the Porcelain Prints paper for both and she really liked them.

I also made a couple of horse-y cards for a friend of mine in exchange for lending me her horse stamp set (Bareback). Those were fun to do. One card was a great use of scraps (but you can't tell it from looking) and the other was a self-indulgent use of as much stamping gear as I could cram into the card. I'll have to make another card like it and post it because I made the most fabulous paper with Perfect Pearls. It made me swoon, but then I do tend to get a bit carried away when admiring my own work. Or at least when I'm not throwing it out and starting again! (Don't believe the bit about me throwing things out. That's a metaphor for me putting it in my scrap box until some unspecified future time when I want to use old, ugly, dogeared, stamped-on paper for a card instead of new, fresh, smooth, clean paper.)

Well, before I get booed out of blog land for trying to be as funny as Jan TInk and Joan B, I'll say good night and leave you with the mental images of my fabulous cards. I'll have my stamp club projects to post soon, but I don't want to spoil the surprise for them in case they pop in for a look.

I was casting about in my mind for a picture to post here in lieu of a card, some sort of pleasant scenery or something, and all I could think of was the cyclist I saw today, and I didn't get a picture of him either. On that note, have a good night and happy stamping!

Farewell card

One of my team is a Reservist who is going on a six-month deployment. I wanted to make her a card to wish her well and this is the result. I needed a fairly large card because there will be a lot of people to sign it so I made it 5x7. The stamped panel is correspondingly smaller to accommodate the mats.

I started with a sheet of Papertrey Ink white and stamped it with the Penny Black flower in Versamark and heat embossed it. (To be truthful, I started several cards ago but they didn't pass muster.) Then I took my Colorbox stylus and foam tips and a variety of chalk inks and went to work applying the background colour. (I was good at this part having practiced it several times this evening....) Then I removed the clear embossing powder with my iron and some scrap paper and stamped the flower again, this time in black, and heat embossed it. I did the same thing with the dragonfly. The stamped panel is mounted on black and teal cardstock. Using my computer, I printed this inside: " Wheresoever you go - go with all your heart. Confucius" I didn't have an appropriate pre-deployment well wishes stamp in my collection. (There had to be at least one stamp I don't have!) The finishing touch was a nice hank of eyelash yarn that I had in my stash (sorry T! I know you hate fluffy fibres on cards!). What a happy coincidence that it had the purple, blue and yellow-green in it. The sad part is that it just reinforces my reluctance to get rid of anything. Ever. After I scanned it in, I decided it needed some shimmer/sparkle so I added some twinklings to the dragonfly wings. I don't know if this was a good idea, but it's too late now. It doesn't ruin it, I just don't know if it adds anything.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps: Pastoral and Brush Dragonfly - Penny Black; Ink: versamark, black pigment ink, colorbox chalk inks: wisteria, warm violet, lime green, azurite, Prussian blue; Paper: PTI white, basic black, taken with teal; Other: eyelash yarn, clear embossing powder, black embossing powder, stylus and foam tips.

Fruit Stand Speed Demo sample

The countdown to Stampin' Girls Convention is on!!! Only 2 more sleeps till the big day. My up-up-upline hosts a really fabulous stamping convention each year for her downline. She really goes all out and we get great speakers, lots of swaps and displays, a yummy lunch and wonderful make and takes. One of the fun things she does is set aside some time for speed demos, where lots of great ideas are shown from start to finish in two minutes or less. This means lots of swap-outs along the way, but that just makes me feel a little bit like Martha Stewart, which is a good thing ;-)

I'm demo-ing stamping on painted cardstock for my speed demo. Basically, you paint some acrylic paint on dark cardstock (and admit it, you have some in your craft drawer!) and let it dry. It won't take long. Then, stamp your line art image with black stazon and colour in with markers. Because of the paint, you won't get great blending and the colours will lighten quite a bit as they dry. For my card I overstamped with Weathered once it was coloured. Then finish your card as desired. For this one I went a bit crazy with the matting, but I think I like it. The background is kraft, stamped with Canvas (in sahara sand) and the Itty Bitty Background spatter (with heavier concentration at the bottom) and the stitched exotic leaf (my current favourite stamp for adding the perfect finishing touch) in burgundy. (I'll re-make this card using my Judikins mosaic background for a non-SU event - I think it would be perfect!)

Thanks for looking!

All supplies Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted: Stamps: Fruit Stand, Weathered, Canvas, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Stitched Exotics; Ink: black stazon, sahara sand, bravo burgundy; Paper: always artichoke, bravo burgundy, blush blossom, kraft; Other; sahara sand eyelet, mellow moss ribbon, slit punch, acrylic craft paint (Plaid).

So Kind Swap Card

Stampin' Girls Convention was today (and last night for the more senior demos)! It's the stamping event of the year around here, hosted by my upline (a few levels up) for all her downline. People come from all over and I had a great time last year meeting people, even a few scs'ers. It was really great this year to reconnect with people I haven't seen in a while. It's fun to spend a day with like-minded people and Josee (the host) always great speakers and fantastic projects for us to do and today was no exception!

I got to pick up the Wow swap items for my upline and there were so many inspiring things. It's amazing what people can come up with.

This is the card I swapped. I got some fantastic swaps back that I can't wait to show my club. Lots of great ideas and things to try.

This card was a quick and easy one to do. I did a whole sheet at a time of the saffron, stamping it with various images from Stitched Exotics and in various colours. Then I did a whole sheet of the mustard using my jumbo It's Beautiful wheel (which I got for free when they had the promotion!). The main flower is also from Stitched Exotics and I stamped it in versamark, added Heat-and-stick powder, heated it, added fine cosmo glitter, heat set it, and cut it out. It's popped up on dimensionals. The sentiment is from Priceless.

Thanks for looking!

All supplies Stampin' Up: Stamps: Stitched Exotics, It's Beautiful jumbo wheel, Priceless; Ink: versamark, Apricot Appeal, More Mustard, Elegant Eggplant; Paper: So Saffron, More Mustard, Elegant Eggplant; Other: Heat and Stick Powder, Fine Cosmo glitter.

New toys!

I had a great time playing in my stamp room tonight. It's been waaaaay too long since I've had a chance to just sit down and play. And to make a great time even better, I had new toys to play with! I had a nice balance in my account at my LSS from teaching classes so I splurged on a Cuttlebug! (I am always so far behind on the trends....what can I say...that's just me.) And of course I had to get a couple of folders to go with it, and there were a couple of new stamps that I just couldn't resist. All these elements came together for me on this card. (And thanks to a further moment of weakness, I have more 'Bug folders coming to me from PaperWorks.co! It's a great source for lots of cool things and I had really good customer service from them too.)

I started off with my new Sunshine Designs stamp - I just fell in love with those flowers in the mailbox. It's such a pretty image and it could be coloured in so many different ways. For this card I went with blues and reds and pinks. I coloured with Tombow markers and blended with a wet paintbrush (too wet in some spots!). Good thing I'm scheduled for a refresher class on this technique. (I can't wait!!!) I will stickle the image too, but it takes so long to dry that I wanted to scan it in first before I go to bed.

The other elements are a postage cancellation background stamp, a diecut/embossed "love" stamp (that's me playing with my new Cuttlebug), a sentiment (a new HSH stamp) and some paper piercing. I don't know if I like this card or not. One minute I do, the next I don't. It might be too busy, too colourful, but then that's what I like about it. I'll sleep on it and see about it in the morning. I have a purple-flower-gray-mailbox version that I coloured at the same time that I'd like to turn into a card too.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps: Mailbox - Sunshine Designs, Sentiment and cancellation mark - Heather's Stamping Haven; Ink: black stazon, wild wasabi; Paper: watercolour, groovy guava, sparkley red, brilliant blue, teal, wild wasabi, soft sky; Other: cuttlebug postage set, Tombow markers, paper piercer.

It's a dinosaur pop-up party!

Here's my unsuccessful entry to the monthly demonstrator stamping contest at Stampin' Up. This was entered in the 3D project category. There were a couple of months where nobody won due to nobody entering, so I thought I should give it a whirl just in case I could win by acclamation. (The prize is 3 free stamp sets!)

This card was fairly easy to make, just time-consuming. The little scene is actually a square, scored in the middle in both directions, and cut on one score-line to the centre point. You then adhere two of the quadrants together to form the "ground". (I got the idea from this VSN challenge from March 2007 that challenged people to make a 3D room card.

Unlike the VSN challenge scene, I added another score line on the diagonal to allow this to fold flat to fit in an envelope. The dinos are popped up in traditional fashion using wild wasabi paper strips to camouflage in with the background. I'll try to put together a tutorial to explain how to do this. It's not tricky and it's so cute how they pop up!

This little scene needed something in the foreground so I made a pond with some greenery that's actually the the treetops cut out. The t-rex is holding a birthday flag for the birthday dino (the one in the hat). I was quite pleased with this effort, and it was quite cute IRL.

Thanks for looking! Let me know if you try a scene like this too. There are so many possibilities!

All supplies Stampin' Up: Stamps: Prehistoric Pals, Amazing to Zany; Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Bravo Burgundy, Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi, Handsome Hunter, Chocolate Chip; Paper: Whisper White, Soft Sky, textured Wild Wasabi, Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun; Other: 1/2" circle punch, Stampin' Snips.

Quick collage

Sorry I've been incommunicado lately but it's been really crazy around here. I keep reading other blogs by ladies manage to juggle fantastically busy lives and still find time to make the most amazing creations. I, on the other hand, am dropping balls all over the place and am finding no time to stamp anything. This is my first week back to work and it's quite an adjustment. I tell you, a full-time job really cuts into the day.

This card was in my stash and it was actually quite quick to make. The collage is all one stamp, with the butterfly stamped in violet chalk ink on lighter paper, popped up on dimensionals and highlighted with my glitter pen. I used chalk ink and a foam tip on my stylus to make the background for the stamped image. The main card is stamped with a favourite background stamp. It's an old-fashioned handwritten letter, over-written at right angles to get the most mileage from precious paper. There's a bit of vellum there too, torn diagonally, and the focal image is double mounted on some purple patterned paper (from stash) and some perfect plum. More bits and bobs from my stash in the form of sheer ribbon and a flower charm.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps: Collage stamp - Hero Arts, letter stamp - Stampers Anonymous; Ink: black palette, various chalk inks, cool Caribbean; Paper: whisper white, purple pattern, perfect plum, cool Caribbean, vellum; Other: purple sheer ribbon, rose charm, Sakura glitter pen.

Baptism card

My friend's baby daughter will be baptized on Sunday so I wanted to make her a special card for the occasion. I cracked open my new Papertrey Ink set called Everyday Blessings as well as another new (to me) Easter polymer set. I had a bit of free time this afternoon (well, not really, but I took it anyway) so I let myself play with my inks and stamps. This card is the last of several iterations and my recycle bin is looking fairly colourful at the moment :-)

I did the background with my stylus, foam tips and chalk inks, and just stamped the small filigree circle image here and there in a couple of shades. The cross is stamped in Blue Iris on some orchid lava paper (from Heather's Stamping Haven) and cut out. I mounted it on a panel of soft sky on which I stamped The Lord's Prayer from my Easter set. It's a bit cobbled because the original cruciform stamp was smaller than my panel, but I just wanted the effect anyway. "Blessings" is also from the Easter set and I only inked that portion of the "Easter Blessings" stamp (sneaky!).

And, yes, I know the brads are off centre, but this was the fourth time I dismantled the card front and I wasn't going to do it again. The ribbon was tinted with Lime Pastel ink to match and heat set with my iron. The card itself is one of my Memory Box duplex sheets that my aunt brought me from Seattle. Now I only have half a sheet left (sniff, sniff). I'm not sure what colour it is, possibly chartreuse or similar.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps: Everyday Blessings - Papertrey Ink, Easter Sentiments - My Sentiments Exactly; Paper: soft sky, blue bayou, orchid lava paper, chartreuse Memory Box duplex cardstock; Ink: chalk ink (Colorbox and Versamagic in shades too numerous to remember but lime pastel, spring pansy, Aegean blue, warm violet, ice blue, and blue iris come to mind); Other: sheer ribbon, square brads, colorbox stylus and foam tips.