My Stampin' Up! Kit has Arrived!

Yesterday was the day! The Demo Starter Kit arrived and was perfect timing as I have a stand at the local Playgroup's Craft and Pamper evening on Friday! Am organising what to put on my display boards (which I got today) and then I put together a few sample cards, albeit rather hastily - and printed off my flyers!

The stamp sets are lovely - have a look:

Images © 1990–2007 Stampin’ Up!

And as for the Jumbo wheel - wow! I have had stamping wheels before but they have always been a bit cheep and nasty looking and not given good results either. Having seen the results of their use of various SU blogs, I know I am going to get on with this one!

Images © 1990–2007 Stampin’ Up!

And if you want to know why I did not drop anything to just get and stamp as soon as they arrived - I couldn't! DH had taken the day off work and we were decluttering the house to get it straight for my mother-in-law who is coming for the weekend. Yes, we worked none-stop!


Hopefully later I shall Post my sample cards for you to look at. Till later then....

Card Layout

Yesterday I was looking to make a lilac card with layers and finally came up with the following card, which once thought out, took no time at all. Do you find that 3/4 of your time is taken up with thinking about what design of card to use and then finding all the right materials, stamps, etc? I certainly do! I keep telling myself when I hit on a good one, I should make up a batch of at least 5, to make good use of all that thinking and prep.time.

Anyway, here is the card and I like it so much, I will make more - when I have time - and I also plan to use the same design using different stamps and colour cardstock to see how many different looks I can come up with! I've done a plan of the card layout, so I - and you can reproduce it - what do you think?

Lilac piece of card with torn edge - stamped with Rubber Stampede Daisy blossom flower and Artifacts small flowers stamps - in Brilliance Pearlescent Lavender, then matted onto Navy card piece with torn edge - all edges inked. Lavender organza ribbon wrapped around the finished matt, then piece stuck to Lavender base card. Just Thinking of You (Rubber Stampede again) stamped onto piece of lilac, matted onto Navy and then this finally matted onto card to. Finished off with some irridescent glitter in the flower centres.

Realistically, I probably won't be able to do any more of these this week! But check me out this time next week - and let me know if the layout helps you too!

Cuttlebug & Sizzix

I do think that the Cuttlebug embossing folders make a perfect partner for my Sizzix diecuts - perfect for quick and easy cards - as this card shows:

I used to have a pink die cutting (similar to red sizzix) machine but could not get on with it. Then the Ellison Big Shot came along and what a breeze it is! I especially like the fact that it fits an A5 sheet of card on the cutting plate.
And then came along cuttlebug with its embossing folders - now me and my friends do think these are the next best thing to sliced bread (is that a good thing?) No brass, just a plastic folder in which you put your piece of card or die cut shape. Their range is fab and ever expanding - good job they are very reasonably priced!

Used: Ellison Thick Cuts Flower Daisy#2 (Sizzix Bigz Die - Flower, Daisy #3), checked pink ribbon, sticky crystals , Cuttlebug Happy Birthday embossing folder.

Splitcoast Stampers is the perfect place to go browsing for more cards like this - or to showcase your own. Another favourite site of mine is Heart Prints Cuttlebug Gallery at http://www.heartprints.net/gallery/cuttlebug/page/1/.

Decorative Stamping

I've never really paid much attention to decorative stamping, or really any decorative papercrafting - it's all been about cardmaking for me. A die-hard cardmaker! So, I've always flicked straight past the likes of decorative stamping in magazines and books with a shudder....

But on holiday in France this year, my friend took an interest in those small balsa wood boxes in the craft section of a supermarket (how I just love those French Supermarkets - Auchan, LeClerk, HyperU - the food, the chocolates, the stuff......) as it was just the right size for one of her treasures. So I said something along the lines of I could decorate it if she wanted, even do it and give it to her as a birthday present - think I may have even said something along the lines of, 'these boxes are always being decorated - it will be pretty easy with all the stamps and stuff I have.....'

Well, that landed me right in it - especially when the day of her birthday arrived as the box remained undecorated as I didn't have a clue how to go about it! So to work, without any planning or research (all those wasted crafting and stamping magazine articles....) I stippled all over the outside of the box with Pearlescent Coral Brilliance ink (using a stencil/stipple brush) until the wood had a nice pink-coral sheen to it. The using a Versafine Vintage Sepia inkpad (black would have given too harsh an image) I stamped various images and words over the box - my acrylic stamps (by inkadinkado) came in very handy as I could see where I was placing them on the small box. I then heat set the whole thing (I had coral hands by then!) over a toaster (couldn't find my heat gun LOL!) And would you believe - it really looked pretty good - especially as it was my first attempt, only having the one box. I wrapped a gift voucher in tissue paper and placed in the box. Hey presto - a brilliant and pretty gift - take a look yourselves:


Box Top/Front of Box


Inside Box/Side View


Back of Box/Underneath-Bottom of Box


Well - I think it looked nicer in the flesh than these photos! But it has opened up the possibilities of decorative stamping for me and no doubt when I am next in France (which is pretty soon - Calais for Christmas shopping) I'll see if I can cut back on the hoards of Rochers (french chocolate 'bombs' - completely different to the gold wrapped chocolates we get in the UK) I shall be throwing into my trolley and make a bit of room for a balsa wood box or two.

I have seen those Rochers on eBay - someone actually ships them over to the US. It's a strange thing that they are not even sold here in the UK. I always get lots of strange looks from both French and British people as they notice me put three-hundred-weight of the things into my trolley whenever we go (well I do have to stock up!) I'll post a couple of photos of them sometime, so you know what I mean. Pity Google haven't come up with a click and sniff invention for the Internet yet!

Competitions

Crafting competitions abound on the Internet - some of them worth doing, others not. So when I see a good one, I'll let you know! TrimCraft have one just now, to publicise their upcoming new website. The first prize is a £250 store voucher. They just want your email address - http://www.trimcraft.co.uk/competition.php. Their website has some pretty good project pages on it too - I like looking at card galleries and project pages to see different layouts and then use my existing crafting stock and stamps to create a similar format card. I suppose I should get organised and try some of the card challenges out there!

Here is another card I have made with Perfect Pearls powder. I used a Rubber Stampede Gerbera stamp with versamark ink and then brushed on the powders. I layered the stamped card bit onto torn mulberry paper and stuck it onto the folded card. Added ribbon and a smaller sunflower embellishment - I made the embellishment with a Krafty Lady Art Mould from the Stamp Bug (http://www.thestampbug.co.uk/) and paperclay. Coloured the dry sunflower (its actually called Daisy 1) with pearlescent inks and stuck it onto the card. Finished off with a die cut MUM using some alphabet punches. Jane from the Stamp Bug does some great art mould workshops - well worth a visit.

Stampin' Up! UK Has Landed!

Yes that's right - Stampin' Up! UK has finally launched! I've been accepted as a demonstrator, which is great as I have waiting and waiting to get my hands on those gorgeous stamp sets. My Starter Kit along with the UK's first ever Stampin' Up! Ideas Book/Catalogues should arrive this week and then I can get stampin' and creating! Can't wait to put in my first proper order and also maybe get hold of Mr Crabby Pants. And if you you haven't heard of Stampin' Up! you are in for a treat! Take a look at Dawn's website on the right - she and her fellow SU bloggers make such fabulous cards, they are a real inspiration!

Until I get some SU stamps I am having to make do with my usual stash - here's a card stamped using a Versamark Inkpad and some clear acrylic leaf stamps and a happy birthday stamp. I've then brushed over the images with Perfect Pearls for a lovely autumnal look. I use cheap hairspray to 'fix' the powder, same as when using chalks. Have to say that I don't get my Perfect Pearls powders out much - but they are really great and so easy to use when I do. And if you want a taster - try out this link: http://www.stampinup.com/Web2001/ViewProducts.asp?showideacenter=false&image=saround_large.jpg

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! I've had to move over all my stuff to a new blog, so there will be a few posts on each day as I get it all sorted. I hope you will enjoy reading my blog and enjoy the cards I post here, hopefully along with tutorials & projects, templates, best buys and my favourite place links.

I recently made a few cards using the lovely Footprints (in the Sand) stamp, by Inkadinkado. Used a Brilliance Pearlescent Ice Blue inkpad - on dark blue grained cardstock (this colour always looks so fab inked on dark cardstock.) Then used a ruler to tear around the sides and stuck it down onto mottled white cardstock which I had first run through my Big Shot using the D'Vine Swirls cuttlebug embossing folder (if you haven't tried the cuttlebug embossing folders yet - do, they a wonderful - I will blog about them later - for card inspiration try http://sentimentsbydenise.typepad.com/!) Some silver organza ribbon highlighted each corner - then stuck whole thing onto dark blue A6 folded card using double-sided 3D foam tape. For writing on the inside, I used a silver gel pen, which worked really well.

Here is another variation on this card - without the ribbon and instead roughly tearing around the stamped image.

Tell me - which version do you prefer?

My last card here was made for my husband's Gran - she's 92, so I wanted something a little traditional (a flower!) but was also vibrant, 3D and that she would enjoy looking at. Used the huge Ellison Thick Cuts Flower Daisy#2 (which is the same as the new Sizzix Bigz Die - Flower, Daisy #3) with some fabulous bright pink grained paper (unbranded) to cut out 4 flowers - stuck down with double-sided tape and curled the ends of the petals. Several leaves cut with a Sizzix Medium Leaves die and letters from the Sizzix Sizzlits Girls Are Weird alphabet set - both in pale green cardstock. Finished off with a few pink flower brads in the middle and some thin pink organza ribbon. All mounted on a white square card, trimmed to a deckle edge using the Edgemaster/Carl Rotary Trimmer. Pink and pretty!