Snow laden branches
Posted: January 7, 2010 Filed under: All That Glitters, Thoughts and Prayers 12 Comments
I continued on the same theme as the other day with masked boxes and sponged backgrounds. ( Thank you for all the nice comments left here, I was thrilled to read them.) Sorry there is no tutorial yet but I did read the requests and would love to do one if I can find some time soon. I used exactly the same technique to do these cards as I did the snowscape cards last week. First I masked the image area with post it notes. I then inked the branch in versamark and handsome hunter and stamped it several times before embossing in clear. To create the snow on the branches I used an embossing pen and to cover the areas where I wanted the snowy look. I covered this with white embossing powder and a few sprinkles of iridescent ice powder as well. Unfortunately as I embossed a second time the cardstock buckled a bit, I’m not sure how to avoid this. To complete the image I sponged the sky in Bashful Blue. The lower one has a masked snow hill done with a torn post-it note.
In the card above I wrote my own sentiment again in order to have a small delicate one. The card below suffered some smudging and denting during the embossing and sponging process so it had to go under the cutter in order to be fit to used. I matted it in Handsome Hunter and stamped the sentiment from Thoughts & Prayers. The branches of the pine tree outside my front door look ver like these ones.
Supplies:
Stamps: All that Glitters, Thoughts and Prayers
Inks: Handsome Hunter, Bashful Blue, Versamark
Cardstock: Handsome Hunter, Flourishes Classic white cardstock
Also: Clear, white & iridescent ice embossing powder
Snowscape thank you cards
Posted: January 2, 2010 Filed under: Branch Out, CAS, Lovely as a Tree, Stamped Landscapes 15 Comments
It isn’t a new year resolution but I have been thinking for a while that this cardmaker should send a few more cards! Last night I sat down and chose a few thank you cards out of my stash to write to the very kind and hospitable friends whose homes we were welcomed into over Christmas.
During the day I had been sorting through drawers and shelves of school and craft supplies trying to make some room. I found some old Christmas cards which inspired me straight away to get creating again. I would like to give credit to the artist who inspired the card above but the Hallmark card doesn’t give any information.
To make both cards I masked off the picture area with post it notes and then inked up my tree with versamark and added a bit of black to the base of the tree. After placing another mask where the base of the tree would be I stamped the main tree and the smaller trees, then embossed in clear. To create the sky I positioned a hill mask and sponged in the blues and red (listed below). Creating the shadows was trial and error. For the top card I sponged the shadow between two ripped pieces of post it note. For the shadow below I drew it with marker for the large tree and stamped it for the small trees. I also used a marker to add more black to the tree below. Finally I removed the hill mask and did a little sponging to give the snow definition.
The sentiment is written in my own handwriting because I wanted something small and delicate but didn’t have a ‘thank you” in that style. I particularly wanted to make these one layer cards so was pleased that I managed to get to the end without smudging any of the white area. The photo once again is not great, I’m not quite sure what the problem is, probably the photographer not the camera!
Supplies:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Branch Out, two little tree stamps I was given
Inks: Versamark, Basic Black, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue, Rose Red
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White
Also: Clear e.p.
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
Heather Telford 