Amethyst thoughts
Posted: March 28, 2009 Filed under: Thoughts and Prayers 4 Comments
If you frequent the talented Julie Koerber’s blog you would know that she and her equally talented friend Laura are celebrating milestones on their blogs. Even before I read about the celebrations and blog candy I knew I wanted to CASE this card on Laura’s blog. Everything about her card appealed to me.
The paper on my card has been sitting in my stash for several years. It is from Close to my Heart but co-ordinates beautifully with SU Almost Amethyst. To make the centre panel I inked the floral stamp with Almost Amethyst and then coloured the stems and flower centres over the top with Always Artichoke and Elegant Eggplant markers. Behind the centre panel I have attached a piece of narrow amethyst satin ribbon and then a bow of blue organza ribbon.
Now I’m off to choose a card to CASE on Julie’s wonderful blog.
Supplies:
Stamps: Thoughts and Prayers
Inks: Almost Amethyst, Always Artichoke amd Elegant Eggplant Markers
Cardstock: Whisper White, Almost Amethyst, Always Artichoke, Victorian B & T Lilac Mist (CTMH)
Also: Amethyst satin ribbon, Blue Organza ribbon
A little help from my friend
Posted: March 24, 2009 Filed under: Designer Paper, Thoughts and Prayers, Uncategorized 5 Comments
While stamping one night last week my inspiration left me and I fiddled around with designer paper for a while without getting anywhere. The answer to my problem was of course, to scan through Sharon’s archives at No Time to Stamp. There are loads of simple but impressive cards over there. This is the one I chose to CASE
Isn’t this such a cool card and so straight forward to make. I used my 1¼” punch and my 1 3/8″ punch to make the button and the cropodile for the holes. I tied the ribbon through, popped the buttons up on a few Stampin’ dimensionals and that’s it. Thank you Sharon for your never ending supply of inspiration.
Supplies:
Stamps: Thoughts and Prayers
Inks:Riding Hood Red, Certainly Celery
Cardstock: Whisper white, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Delicate dots d.p., Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Bella Rose d.p.
Also: circle punches, cropodile, olive grosgrain ribbon, celery twill ribbon
Add a ribbon tab
Posted: March 21, 2009 Filed under: Pocket Silhouettes, Thoughts and Prayers 7 Comments
Over at No Time to Stamp this week Sharon’s Stamp Simply challenge is to use a ribbon tab. Rather that a knot or a bow, which is the way I usually add ribbon, I had to add a folded tab of ribbon instead. Although the colours on this photo are not quite true I love the way the camera picked up the sheen on my navy satin ribbon tab.
I started this card with five strips of Very vanilla cardstock, just left overs out of the scrap drawer. I used the brayer to roll Mellow Moss onto a couple of pieces, Always Artichoke onto another, Not quite Navy on a fourth and then a combination of those colours on the fifth. I then used the same colours to stamp the leafy stamp from Pocket Silhouettes onto the strips. When I had finished them I stuck them on a piece of Night of Navy cardstock with the spaces in between. At this stage the piece was quite big and I decided that some stitching would add to the design so I threaded up my machine with a co-ordinating thread and began to sew around the outside of the rectangle. My machine did not like it at all. I cut off the edges I had sewn and did some more trials, on a scrap of cardstock this time, but no luck. I decided to check whether the machine was working with fabric, which it was but not with cardstock, so I gave the stitching idea.
My central image of a tree was stamped with versamark and Night of Navy then embossed with clear before I sponged Mellow Moss and Not quite Navy diagonally across the piece and then added the sentiment. After cutting the unsuccessful sewing off my background piece it was the right width but not longer the right height so I added a strip at the bottom sponged with Mellow Moss and Not quite Navy again and stamped with the tree leaves. I’d still like to master sewing on my cards but not at the risk of damaging my sewing machine, so I’ll be doing a little research. If you have any tips let me know.
Supplies:
Stamps: Thoughts and Prayers, Pocket Silhouettes
Inks: Versamark, Mellow Moss, Not quite Navy, Always Artichoke,Night of Navy
Cardstock: Very Vanilla,Night of Navy
Also: Clear e.p. Navy satin ribbon
Poppy Patch
Posted: March 19, 2009 Filed under: Poppy Patch, Thoughts and Prayers 4 Comments
I love these poppies!
This is my first stamp set from Flourishes, a birthday gift from my daughter. I haven’t quite worked out an efficient way to clean the clear stamps so if you have any hints for me please leave a comment. I realized when I was colouring these poppies that I haven’t used outline stamps in a long while, so I haven’t used my watercolour pencils in a while either. You would know, if you visit here regularly that I have been stamping a lot of silhouettes. Well, that might change, with these poppies and the new Sweet Peas from Flourishes also, when I get hold of them!
I began by stamping the poppies in Basic Black and colouring with watercolour pencils and a blender pen. I then sponged a Bashful Blue background around the poppies. I stamped one poppy and cut it out ready to overlap some of the others and decided to let it overlap a little of the oval where I stamped the sentiment. I chose gingham ribbon because poppies seem to be carefree and casual flowers to me. Not like the formal roses who might demand satin or velvet ribbon, the poppies are happy with gingham! There is a challenge on the Flourishes blog this week to use ribbon on your card, so this is my entry, not a very adventurous use or ribbon, I know but ribbon all the same.
Supplies:
Stamps: Poppy Patch (Flourishes), Thoughts and Prayers
Inks: Basic Black, Bashful Blue,
Cardstock: Whisper white, Bashful Blue, Always Artichoke
Also: Red gingham ribbon, Creative memories oval cutters, Faber-Castell Watercolour pencils, blender pen
Branch Out – Summer
Posted: March 18, 2009 Filed under: Branch Out, Pocket Silhouettes 3 Comments
I am making a set of cards for a friend, which I will first show at a workshop, using the designer paper from the Sale-a-bration catalog. This blue paper is so bright and pretty, like a summer sky, that I decided to make it the background for this summertime scene. I didn’t emboss this time just started with a chocolate chip tree, added lots of celery leaves, a swing and a few butterflies.
To make the little friend to friend tab I stamped the sentiment and then punched it out with one side of a square punch (and the matte with a larger sqaure punch), which was much easier than trying to cut it evenly with my big cutter.
This is such a cute stamp set, but I need to play around a bit so I can come up with some different layouts and ways of using the tree.
Supplies:
Stamps: Branch Out, Pocket Silhouettes
Inks: Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, Basic Black
Cardstock: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Delicate Dots d.p.
Blossom tree
Posted: March 17, 2009 Filed under: Branch Out 7 Comments
Here is my first effort with the Branch Out set. Although our trees are nowhere near looking like this and our grass is just beginning to appear from under the ice and snow, I hold out hope that I will see blossoms blowing off trees in the not too distant future.
The first thing I did was stamp the tree in Close to Cocoa Craft ink, then embossed with clear e.p. To make the blossoms I used versamark and Pretty in Pink so I could emboss them in clear also. I then ripped a piece of paper to make the hill shape and kept both pieces so I could mask the hill area while I sponged the sky with Bahsful Blue and Ballet Blue, then vice versa for the grass, which is sponged in Garden Green.
Thanks for dropping by, I hope you are enjoying some spring where you are.
Supplies:
Stamps: Branch Out
Inks: Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Garden Green, Close to Cocoa Craft, Pretty in Pink, Versamark
Cardstock: Whisper White, Pirouette Pink, Garden Green
Also: clear e.p.
Simply White
Posted: March 15, 2009 Filed under: Designer Paper, Garden Whimsy, Stamp Simply challenges 2 Comments
Sharon’s Stamp Simply challenge this week is to use a white mat in your card. I was surprised how hard it was. I usually pick a colour from the stamped image for my mats so I ended up stamping in versamark and embossing a white image on designer paper then matting each square in white. Sharon’s design team made some beautiful cards, several using white on white which was lovely, but I couldn’t seem to get that to work for me today.
I gave my white base rectangle a little bit of texture with the Large Dots Texturz plate (which I just noticed you cannot see at all!) and added a strip of Sahara Sand behind my little square images. I used the bug, butterfly and snail from Garden Whimsy and Delicate Dots d.p. as they were in keeping with my dotty theme. The ribbon is narrow white satin from my ribbon basket.
Supplies:
Stamps: Garden Whimsy
Inks: Versamark
Cardstock: Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Delicate Dots d.p.
Also: White e.p., white satin ribbon
Pink Posies
Posted: March 12, 2009 Filed under: Itty Bitty Buds 4 Comments
Just a quick post tonight with my take on CPS sketch 106. I really like the simpicity of the sketch and may try it again with a square card. I have used the flowers, flourishes and leaves from Itty Bitty Buds, some stamped directly on the white base and some cut out and raised with stampin’ dimensionals. The sentiment needed to have a little swirl to it so this one from Best Yet worked well. I know I left plenty of white space, but I like the clean look.
I hope to be back tomorrow to play in Sharon’s Stamp Simply challenge.
Supplies:
Stamps: Itty Bitty Buds, Best Yet
Inks: Pink Passion, Green Galore
Cardstock: Whisper White, Pink Passion, Green Galore
Also: Stampin’ dimensionals
Add a doodle
Posted: March 11, 2009 Filed under: Itty Bitty Buds 4 Comments
I pulled out the black fneliner again to doodle for the challenge at Our Creative Corner. This time I used a new set; the flowers from hostess set Itty Bitty Buds are perfect for doodling stems and leaves. Rather than add bling with rhinestones like I did here, I decided to add a colour on a few flowers. I chose Cameo Coral, and just happened to find some matching satin ribbon in my ribbon box which I folded into tabs on one side of the oval sentiment.
The card is black so I needed a little more doodling inside on the white panel.
Supplies:
Stamps: Itty Bitty Buds, Hugs & Wishes
Inks: Basic Black, Cameo Coral
Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Cameo Coral
Also: Pilot fineliner, Coral satin ribbon, Creative Memories oval cutters
Getting Sentimental
Posted: March 9, 2009 Filed under: Cuttlebug, Itty Bitty Buds, Texturz plates 2 Comments
Flourishes is releasing three new stamp sets at the end of this week and to celebrate they have posted a challenge where the sentiment is to be the main event on the card. My first Flourishes set is enroute as I write this, a birthday present from my daughter.
As I have some new texturz embossing plates from SU I thought I would use the Flourish plate to provide the background for my sentiment. I put it through the cuttlebug and then wiped the Bashful Blue stamp pad back and forth across it to highlight the swirls. I had to try a couple of times before I found the right “sandwich” but it worked with “A” plate, silicone rubber, cardstock, texturz plate, cardstock+paper(as shim) and finally Texturz impressions pad. I split my background piece in two and then put lace and ribbon either side of the white strip, then added a bow. I decided to triple matte the sentiment and add one little flower and sparkle using stamps from the hostess set Itty Bitty Buds.
Thanks so much for dropping in and for leaving such encouraging comments.
Supplies:
Inks: Bashful Blue
Cardstock: Whisper White, Bashful Blue
Stamps: Itty Bitty Buds, All Year Cheer
Also: Rhinestone, Flourish Texturz plate, Bashful Blue taffeta ribbon, cotton lace from my lace basket
Heather Telford 