Sympathy cards

Hi! A friend of mine unfortunately needed some sympathy cards made, so that's what I've been stamping the last couple of days, even though I was going to try for a more upbeat post after the last one :-)

These were fun cards to make - I really like that set but it doesn't get pulled out that often. It's so pretty though, and I will make an effort to use it more often. It seemed to go with the hues in the Periphery paper pack, so I used a few sheets of that for these cards. For the berry card, I accented the berries with my aquapainter and added a cuttlebugged panel behind. (This was the third or fourth piece I tried. This layout wasn't very cooperative.) The Soft Sky panel is stamped with a Sunshine Designs berry-and-leaf stamp, but is very subtle. DH doesn't like the vertical word positioning, but I do, so too bad, so sad! It just goes better with the layout. On the inside is a good, old-fashioned horizontal sentiment. I love the velvet ribbon on here - it suits. I think it's only the second time I've used the velvet ribbon (tsk tsk).

The twiggy card needed to be flatter to go in the mail, so no embellies here, just lots of texture from stamps and paper. I added some framing lines with my choc chip marker (deliberately crooked, since there was no vertical message to annoy DH - hehehe).

Tonight's stamping therapy will be one more sympathy card for her and hopefully a chance to play with some borrowed stamps from Heather's to work up a class sample. I got some Versamark dazzle too to play with and some fantasy film. Now that will be a cheerier card! Anything called "dazzle" and "fantasy film" must be cheery! We have a great Family Fun Friday planned for tomorrow - over to friends' for pizza and skating in their backyard. Can't wait!

My demo group had a shoebox swap this week, and was that ever fun. It was Sale-a-bration sets (coming 1 Feb!!!) and new sets from the Spring/Summer IBC. It was a blast and so good to see old friends. I hope to post some of the things I made that night, but I will have to finish them first. I'm really bad for not finishing make-and-takes because I want to add something from home, or fix something, or leave the cutting, etc. This wouldn't be so bad except I am really bad at finishing them once I get home. They tend to never get finished... This time will be different

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Stamps: So Lovely (SU), berry-leaf (Sunshine Designs), with sympathy (Anna Griffin); Ink: Basic Brown, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Always Artichoke; Paper: mellow moss, blue bayou, soft sky, Periphery (BasicGrey); Other: River Rock velvet (SU ribbon originals), oval punch (SU), choc chip marker, espresso acrylic paint, cuttlebug embossing folder

Thank you card for Marilyn Manson

Well, dear readers, this card is no Amy Westerman or Jenn Balcer ray of sunshine! But for all of you who were wondering what kind of thank you card you could make for the goths that are near and dear to you, this is it!

I started with the retired set, Fruit Stand, which I want to get some mileage out of before my retired stamp sale. I stamped with Encore gold and heat set with a hot, dry iron. I had also embossed it with antique gold, and that looked good, but I liked it better with the crisp lines of plain ink. Heat setting worked a treat, for any of you who are tired of Encore ink rubbing off and smudging.

The image is matted on brushed gold cardstock, and mounted on a background of basic gray cardstock, which I ran through the 'Bug and smudged with London Fog ink. The whole thing is on some nice woodgrain paper from the Granola paper pack (edged in black ink). It needed a little something, so I added a punched tab with "Merci" on it, from Carte Postale. This card is a little bit of a retired stamp party! (Could be the only festive thing about it...) The card base is basic black.

Anyone know of a goth in need of thanking? Better yet, a francophone goth? If you are one, leave me a comment and this card is yours. (I have no idea what my reader demographic is - relatives (all non-goth) aside - so this shameless trolling for comments is likely to fail, unless I have a secret readership of goths in need of thanking, which seems unlikely. Still, you never know when you post on the Interweb who yer gonna get...)

Thanks for stopping by!

PS Can you tell I had a really bad day? So bad that even stamping couldn't cheer me up and I wound up with a card I can only give to Marilyn Manson?

Supplies: Stamps: Fruit Stand and Carte Postale (Stampin' Up); Ink: Encore gold, Palette Noir Black, London Fog Memento; Paper: basic black, basic gray, brushed gold (Stampin' Up), Granola - BasicGrey; Other: round tab punch (Stampin' Up), cuttlebug and script folder.

Stamp classes coming up

A quick post tonight as I have to be up and on the go early tomorrow since the transit strike is still on and traffic is the pits.

If you're in the Ottawa area and interested in my next stamp classes at Heather's, I have two coming up this Saturday. You'll find the samples and the deets here. If you'd like to register, give Heather a call. Hope to see you there!

Christmas ornaments

Here's another Christmas card. I made several versions of this, using all four of the ornaments on the ornament cube (Sunshine Designs). I embossed it in gold twice, cut one out, and popped it up. The image is coloured with Tombow markers using the colour chart that came with the stamp set. It looks more blended in real life. Man, that scanner shows everything, kind of like a magnification mirror and fluorescent lights. You really don't want to see that level of detail do you! I really must get in the habit of photographing cards instead of scanning. It's that extra few steps that always deter me and I take the quick way out with the scanner.

Anyway, I had all these lovely images coloured up and I was stuck for a layout and I needed something quick. I thought, why not to go the Master! I've taken several classes from Krista Schneider, the illustrator behind Sunshine Designs stamps, and the creator of the watercolouring with Tombow technique. She is also a layout living legend in my books. I love her layouts, so I thought I would case one from a recent class (see below). When you take her class, you get a worksheet with directions for all the parts, so I just followed that, changing it up for colours and papers, etc. to suit my card. I stuck pretty close to her design, but I used a different cuttlebug folder (ornament) and inked the embossed image to highlight the texture since my image wasn't as detailed as hers, the card needed the extra oomph. I also didn't stamp the red panel, it's a gold polka dot on red handmade-style paper that I got for Christmas last year. (After aging it in my craft room for a year, I felt it was time to use it. My craft room is completely wood-panelled so it's even almost like I barrel-aged it too! But I digress...again....)

All stamps are Sunshine Designs (The Stamp Barn: ornament cube, holly & berry cube, dots cube), the paper is watercolour, vanilla, chocolate chip, kiwi kiss, and red and gold polka dot. The image is accented with stickles (xmas red, crystal, cinnamon), as is the bottom panel. Inks were encore gold, versacolor vanilla, memories artprint brown, and memento rich chocolate.

Krista's version (I watercoloured it in the class but she does all the other elements):

Agapanthus sympathy card

I needed a sympathy card, and this agapanthus panel seemed like a good choice. Its soft, muted colours suited the tone. I had done it up for something else, but it didn't suit that application so it has been waiting on my desk to be used. I really like this image - it's fresh and modern, but is still quite botanical. I also like the positive and negative images built into the same stamp.

I inked the agapanthus stamp (Stampendous) with a pale blue chalk ink and stamped on dove grey paper that has a shimmery fleck in it. I stamped the image again in brown pigment ink and embossed it with Espresso embossing powder. The edges of the panel are inked with that same pale blue. It was either Aspen Mist (Versamagic chalk ink) or Ice Blue (Colorbox) - I don't remember which. I added a border with a grey Tombow marker (N79) to frame the image. The panel is mounted on Close to Cocoa (Stampin' Up), finished off with a knot of Periphery ribbon (BasicGrey) and pewter brads. The whole thing is mounted on a very pale blue Memory Box duplex card. There is a sympathy sentiment inside (Heather's Stamping Haven).

Thanks for looking!

Festive Snowman

Here's another Christmas card from my efforts this year. I had stamped off a bunch of these images (Sunshine Designs) on watercolour paper and embossed them in black. I coloured them in with a combination of inkpad lid ink (Stampin' Up) and Tombow markers. This one is accented with stickles on the star, ornaments and nose, and Crystal Effects on the buttons. The silver background was Cuttlebugged and the whole thing is on Baja Breeze textured cardstock. I think the snowman is mounted on Blue Bayou, but it might be Buckaroo Blue. The three dots are cranberry acrylic paint by Ranger. I just love that snowman image. He's a fun one to colour, and because he's all white, it's pretty quick.

Thanks for looking!

PS If you want to track down this stamp, it's Sunshine Designs, through the Stamp Barn.

Mellow Mistletoe

Happy new year! I've been enjoying some time off with my family and friends and haven't really been on the computer much. I don't know how other bloggers manage to keep up with posting! It's been really busy over the holidays and I haven't had much time for stamping.

This was a card I made for my dad, and I liked it so much, I used the design for a big batch of cards. The card base is PTI vanilla cream (very smooth and sturdy for a base). I used the retired set Peaceful Wishes (I love that set - Stampin' Up) stamped in warm green chalk ink on mellow moss (SU). I tore a strip off my Handsome Husband, I mean Handsome Hunter (SU), and used that for the base. Merry Christmas (Stampin Up) is stamped in warm green (colorbox chalk) also (crooked stamping optional) and the mistletoe berries are accented in Platinum Liquid Pearls (Ranger). (I hadn't put away my white liquid pearls and couldn't find them. They later reappeared on the dryer and I remembered I had left them there the last time I had a big batch of "pearled" cards to dry and the dryer was the nearest empty flat surface to my stamping area in the pre-Christmas flurry.) Anyway the platinum colour looked good too.

I have some other Christmas cards to post, and true to my time-delay trend preferences, I will be posting them after Christmas. For those of you who are super keen to get going on next year's cards, this will be ideal timing. However, it's not really all that late as we are still in the season of Christmas, it being the 9th day of Christmas today. Happy 9th day of Christmas, may it be filled with ladies dancing. (Is it just me or does that conjure up politically incorrect mental images???? I'd better sign off before my blog is shut down for inappropriate content!)

Happy 2009 - hope it's filled with stamping :-)