Christmas Wreath
Posted: December 30, 2009 Filed under: Christmas Music, Christmas Wreath 2 Comments
When I first saw the wreath stamp from Flourishes, expertly coloured by Leslie Miller, I was inspired. The stamp lay unused for weeks after I got it waiting for me to have some spare time to play. Finally I unpacked the set and began making some Christmas themed thank you cards for the teachers at the violin school my daughters attend. After colouring for 20 minutes or so I realised that I would not be doing the same cards for all the teachers so made something different. Unfortunately those cards didn’t get photographed but my first effort with the wreath did.
Before I started colouring I had no idea how many different types of foliage were in this wreath! I tried sticking with one green per type of leaf but lost track with some of the leaves. I used a blender pen dipped into the ink residue on the lids of the SU classic pads and added a few highlights with SU markers. The background is the Christmas Music stamp also from Flourishes.
That is the last of my Christmas cards (as you would expect!) I hope to be back with some thankyous over the next few days. I hope you are having a relaxing break.
Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Wreath, Christmas Music (Flourishes)
Inks: Real Red, Handsome Hunter, Basic Black, Garden Green, Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, Bravo Burgandy
Cardstock: Real Red, Handsome Hunter, Garden Green, Confetti Cream, Very Vanilla
CAS Christmas Set
Posted: December 5, 2009 Filed under: All That Glitters 4 Comments
I finally stamped last weekend. I had a deadline to meet: a set of cards for a silent auction at my daughters’ violin ensemble fundraiser. It took me a while to get going, as I seem to be out of practice! I pulled out my new Flourishes set “All that Glitters” and made one card using gold embossing powder before deciding that I needed to move faster so embossing and cutting around the Christmas ornaments wasn’t a good idea.
After making one card with a single framed ornament and sentiment the next four designs fell into place easily. I made two of each card, stamped matching envelopes and made a matching box using Stampin Up’s Merry Moments designer paper. All the cards were made with ivory cardstock teamed up with a different feature colour. I took my photos with the featured colour as backdrop as I’ve seen Susan Raihala do so effectively. Sadly my photos are nowhere near as clear as hers. I had trouble photographing these cards; it is not obvious that they are all ivory with an accent colour, not white.
Supplies:
Stamps: All that Glitters, Many Merry Messages, Home for Christmas,Hugs and Wishes, Best Yet, Snow Swirled
Inks: Real Red, Handsome Hunter, Night of Navy, Not quite Navy, Bravo Burgandy
Cardstock: Real Red, Handsome Hunter, Night of Navy, Not quite Navy, Bravo Burgandy, Flourishes Classic Ivory cardstock
Red and white Christmas
Posted: November 14, 2009 Filed under: Holiday Sampler 6 Comments
This is a nice quick card using stamps that I usually pull out for tags. The set is an old SU set which has been used and used by my family and at Christmas workshops every year since I bought it. I stamped the three images, added a bow to the ornament and punched them out with a 1¼” square punch. I popped them up on stampin’ dimensionals then lined them up on the Merry Moments designer paper. It was tricky to get that sentiment positioned correctly so I pulled out the stamp-a-ma-jig.
Even though I did this a while ago I noticed it fits the CAS challenge on Splitcoast this week which is to use one colour with white. Well technically it doesn’t fit, because I used vanilla not white! Anyway there are some great cards in the CAS40 gallery this week that don’t bend the rules.
Supplies:
Stamps: Holiday Sampler, Fundamental Phrases
Inks: Real Red
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Merry Moments Designer paper, Real Red
Also: Stampin’ Dimensionals
The Pine line
Posted: November 7, 2009 Filed under: Best Yet, Gifts of Christmas, Patterned Pines 4 Comments
This is the third card out of the four I designed for the workshop. For some reason, rather than just stamping the three tree stamp in the centre of the white panel, I felt the need to run the image off both the sides of the panel so I stamped half the stamp on one side and then re-inked and stamped again on the other side. My friend who was demonstrating this one for me at the next table always started her demonstration by telling the ladies they could do it my way or the simpler way! I don’t blame her, it also looked just fine stamped in the centre!
Not much more to say really, I’m looking forward to doing a bit more with this set, maybe cutting out the trees, stamping them in different colours and spreading them around a bit.
Supplies:
Stamps: Patterned Pines, Best Yet
Inks: Real Red, Handsome Hunter
Cardstock: Real Red, Handsome Hunter, Whisper White
The fourth card is a little different again. I wasn’t sure I liked it at first, but several friends assured me that it appealed to them so I went ahead.
I cut along the stripes of the Dejardin designer paper for my decorative strip and then just matted my image once and stuck a knotted piece of ribbon on with a glue dot. All the cards for the workshop were fairly simple but that meant that four cards were easily completed by the women and girls who came, some of whom are not stampers. And there was plenty of time for chatting too. I really enjoyed the night as I have done for the last few years. I hope to do another similar night at the church in the new year making a selection of cards.
Thanks so much for dropping in.
Supplies:
Stamps: Gifts of Christmas
Inks: Always Artichoke
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Le Jardin Designer paper, Almost Artichoke, River Rock
Also: Artichoke grosgrain ribbon
Framed Trees
Posted: October 31, 2009 Filed under: CAS, Lovely as a Tree 1 Comment
This is another of the cards I designed for the Christmas Card Workshop at my church last weekend. This one was my favourite because I was really pleased with the way the sponged background worked out. I positioned post-it notes around the edges of the white piece of cardstock and sponged in Bashful Blue before stamping the trees in Not Quite Navy. I purposely made the “window’ a little smaller than the size of the tree stamp so the image would go the edges. I’m not sure why, but it was what I wanted! I then embossed the sentiment in white e.p.
I liked the framed area idea so much I tried it with the lone pine from Lovely as a Tree as well. This time I sponged in Mellow Moss and stamped in Always Artichoke.
It needed a white insert so I used the complete sentiment from All Year Cheer with a bit of tree on the side.
By the way if you are ever searching for cards using a particular stamp set, my categories are pretty much all stamp sets with a few exceptions and are listed in the drop down menu on the right hand side labeled Categories. Thanks for dropping in, there are a couple more from the workshop which I hope to post soon.
Supplies:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Best Yet, All Year Cheer
Inks: Versamark, Not quite Navy, Bashful Blue, Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss
Cardstock: Not quite Navy, Always Artichoke, Whisper White
Also: White e.p.
CAS Three Square
Posted: October 27, 2009 Filed under: CAS, Designer Paper, Uncategorized 2 Comments
When I saw this card on Susan’s blog I knew it would be perfect for the Christmas Card workshop I did for the ladies at my church on Saturday night. There is plenty of room for creativity with three pretty squares and “merry & bright”. Some women are happy to create the cards exactly as I designed them. Others like to change it up a little.
Susan was inspired by this card by Donelda and when I went over and looked at her blog Wiggy’s World I found inspiration all over the place.
There isn’t really much to say about making my card other than go and try it, you’ll like it.
Supplies:
Stamps: All Year Cheer
Inks: Real Red
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Garden Green
Also: Merry Moments D.P.
Stamped Brindabellas
Posted: October 17, 2009 Filed under: Branch Out, Lovely as a Tree, Stamped Landscapes 9 Comments
Hi again, it has been a while between cards hasn’t it? Life has been very busy here with one thing and another. Sadly there has been no time for stamping and no time even for posting cards already completed.
I made this one quite a few weeks ago. The inspiration was a card from my parents which was sitting on the cabinet next to my stamping table. It sits there because it has such a beautiful moonrise on it. The photo was taken by my father and made into a card for me. When my dad saw it there he suggested I try creating a similar stamped image. This is my attempt at stamping a scene from the Brindabellas, an Australian mountain range.
It has been so long since I stamped it I hope I can remember the process I used. I know I threw away the first attempt. To begin I stamped the moon, a little circle stamp from a flower set and then embossed it in clear. Then I worked on the coloured sky. I sponged in Bordering Blue, Going Grey, Apricot Appeal, Pretty in Pink, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Almost Amethyst to create the sunset. The silhouette of the hill was sponged in over a torn paper masking sheet. The trees are from Branch Out and Lovely as a Tree. I inked parts of the Branch Out tree so I could create a little variety on the horizon and mimic the trees in the original photo somewhat. The moon was meant to be in the space between two trees but I missed so I reheated the moon slightly to heat set the black branch on the embossed moon.
The original photo taken by my dad is below. The trees are blackened and bare because of horrendous bushfires which destroyed forest in the area.
Thanks for dropping in, it shouldn’t be so long between posts next time as I have a Christmas card workshop next weekend so some stamping must happen this weekend! I hope to have designed four cards by tomorrow evening.
Supplies:
Stamps: Branch Out, Lovely as a Tree
Inks: Basic Black, Bordering Blue, Going Grey, Apricot Appeal, Pretty in Pink, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Almost Amethyst
Cardstock: Whisper white, Basic Black, Buckaroo Blue
Blue Birthday
Posted: September 19, 2009 Filed under: Baroque Motifs 3 Comments
This is the birthday card I made my 15year old for her birthday back in August. I was not late in giving it to her, just late in posting it for you!
I chose these colours because she wears them and looks great in them. I also chose lots of white space because she is my “less is more” girl. I inked the flourish in versamark and then Turquoise before stamping and embossing in clear. The fine shadow details on parts of the flourish were added with the Brilliant Blue stampin’ marker. The flowers were stamped in Brilliant Blue also. The matted panel is popped up on stampin’ dimensionals.
Thanks so much for dropping in, I hope to be posting with a little more regularity soon.
Supplies:
Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Fundamental Phrases
Inks: Tempting Turquoise, Brilliant Blue
Cardstock: Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White
Also: Turquoise grosgrain ribbon, Turquoise brads
Gum blossoms blue
Posted: September 1, 2009 Filed under: Bloom Away 4 Comments
When I received my new Bloom Away set from the Australian catalog, I stamped each image in black and then looked up the colours of the flowers to try watercolouring them as realistically as possible. This is the first image I did after searching online for my colours and finding this painting. I should have looked even closer to home as there was a beautiful picture that my dad had taken and included in a calendar he made and sent us last year.
After I had finished the colouring I wasn’t sure what I wanted in the background and tried several arrangements of blue blossoms before deciding to fill in the entire background. On one hand it seems a bit busy, on the other I feel like I just made my own patterned paper.
Supplies:
Stamps: Bloom Away
Inks: Basic Black, Not quite Navy
Cardstock: Not quite Navy, Whisper White
Also: Faber-Castell watercolour pencils
1 set, 1 colour scheme: 2 ways
Posted: August 23, 2009 Filed under: CAS, Of the Earth 9 Comments
I played with the new hostess set, Of the Earth, the other day. It has three pretty picture stamps and a quote. I decided against the quote and chose “thinking of you” sentiments instead. The colour scheme I used is a calm one so I wanted the words to be restful as well.
I used Rose Red, Mellow Moss and Bashful Blue on both cards. The little bird stamp is easy to punch out with the 1¼” square punch, but the rectangular pieces I cut before stamping to make sure they were identical. All the images are popped up on stampin’ dimensionals.
Thanks for dropping in today.
Supplies:
Stamps: Of the Earth, Thoughts and Prayers, All Year Cheer
Inks: Mellow Moss, Rose Red, Bashful Blue
Cardstock: Whisper White
Also: Stampin’ dimensionals, square punch
Heather Telford 
