‘A’ card and gift bag
Posted: November 10, 2008 Filed under: Designer Paper, Gifts 1 Comment
On the weekend we helped a very sweet little girl celebrate her 1st birthday. Inside this bag was a dress from my favourite clothing store, La Cache, which is closing down. I took the colours for the bag and card from the dress which is green, yellow and burgandy. I don’t own any nifty Nestabilities or circle cutters so don’t look too closely at the circle traced from a cd! The golden colour is Marigold Morning and the green, Garden Green. Both patterned papers are from a slab bought long ago at Michaels. The ‘A’ on the bag is stamped with the large monogram ‘A’ from Stampin’ Up. I inked the edges of the stamp in green and then stamped it on the floral paper to get a outline to cut out. The ‘A’ on the card was hand drawn. The little flowers are punched out with the Boho Blossoms punch.
Supplies:
Stamps: A Monogram stamp
Inks: Garden Green
Cardstock: Marigold Morning, Garden Green, Papers from a Michaels Slab
Also: Mustard grosgrain ribbon, Boho Blossoms punch, mustard eyelets
Gold on gold
Posted: November 9, 2008 Filed under: Ageless Adornment Leave a comment
So much for the challenge I gave myself. I did make two fast and simple cards, this is the second. I also made two time consuming ones! The second night I sat down to make a quick card while my daughter was trying to finish an assignment so I just kept on stamping and giving her feedback when she asked for it. It took her quite a while to finish her work so I finished the both the quick and the slow cards. I am happy that I did fit in the card making during the week as I have had very little time this weekend.
Back to the gold on gold. After making the silver on silver card I decided to try gold on gold. It is pretty but not quite as eye-catching as the silver. I used a Handsome hunter marker and a red marker to colour over the embossing and then matted in Artichoke and Burgandy because that is what the markers looked like on the brushed gold cardstock. To tie the card closed I attached ribbon behind the top of the burgandy matte and brought it around the card to tie with the ribbon attached at the bottom of the burgandy matte.
Supplies:
Stamps: Ageless Adornment
Inks: Versamark
Cardstock: Baroque Burgandy, Always Artichoke, Brushed Gold
Also: Gold organza ribbon, gold e.p., Real Red marker, Handsome Hunter marker
Sunrise or Sunset?
Posted: November 7, 2008 Filed under: Lovely as a Tree, Stamped Landscapes 3 Comments
Remember I set my self a “keep it simple, cards in less than half an hour challenge”? Well I did make a card in less than half an hour and then sat for quite a bit longer making this one. I am not entirely happy with it but I learnt a few things as I was making it, which should help make my next attempt better. There is more definition in the trees in the left and right hand corners in real life, but I didn’t capture it with the camera. That is one area where I should be able to improve the sponging by taking it a bit slower and building it up only to the point where you can still see the tree outlines. It looks brown in the picture but it is actually black. But that is enough excuses!
It was really a trial and error process creating this scene, I stamped the trees in yellow first and then versamark/black a little offset. This was an attempt to get the look of light coming through the trees. It looked odd so I decided to brayer it instead. I started with Summer Sun , then Apricot Appeal and finally Pumpkin Pie at the top. The only other time I had tried using my brayer on a card I had ended up with lines and patches, but I have been reading Michelle Zindorf“s tutorials ( can you tell!?!) and she said plenty of ink, over and over. I used a piece of paper to mask the lake area and a punched out circle for the sun. Originally the sun was pale yellow and looked almost white. Even though this is often what the sun looks like when it is rising it didn’t look right so I masked the sky and sea and sponged the sun in orange, the colour I’ve occasionally seen at sunset. The lake is sponged in Turquoise and Not quite Navy.
Supplies:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree
Inks: Summer Sun, Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie, Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise, Not quite Navy, Versamark.
Cardstock: Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Basic black
Also: Circle Punch, Brayer
Keeping it simple
Posted: November 5, 2008 Filed under: Best Yet, Snowflakes 1 Comment
Last time I posted I mentioned that I had a little challenge for myself. As I homeschool my three children I rarely find time for anything but lessons, preparation and marking during the week. Add to that the meals, washing etc and you have an idea of my schedule. I decided that this week I would try to make a simple card each night, one that was finished in less than 30 minutes. Well, I didn’t get to it Monday, but Tuesday night I did, and it was completed in a fairly short time.
I will probably use this one for a Christmas card making night I am organizing for ladies at my church. I began by embossing a few snowflakes in clear e.p. Then I sponged over them with Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue and Almost Amethyst. Lastly I stamped some more snowflakes using the same inks. The ribbon is blue organza.
Supplies:
Stamps: Snowflakes, Best Yet
Inks: Versamark, Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Almost Amethyst
Cardstock: Whisper white, Ballet Blue
Also: Clear e.p., Blue organza ribbon
Christmas gifts (3)
Posted: November 3, 2008 Filed under: Designer Paper, Garden silhouettes, Pocket Silhouettes, Upsy Daisy 1 Comment
This is my last boxed set of cards for now. I made these to co-ordinate with the card from my Stamp Simply Challenge a few weeks ago. I will be posting this set off to Australia soon.
Thanks for dropping in, I’m planning on giving myself a bit of a challenge this week, hopefully I’ll be back with more about it later.
Supplies:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Pocket Silhouettes, Garden Silhouettes, Infinitie Goodness
Inks: Versamark, certainly Celery
Cardstock: Whisper white, Certainly Celery, Certainly Celery Designer papers
Also: White e.p. white eyelet, White grosgrain ribbon
Stationery gift basket
Posted: November 2, 2008 Filed under: Baroque Motifs, Designer Paper, Gifts, Paint Prints 8 Comments
This basket was the reason things were a little quiet on the blog earlier this week. A friend asked me if I would make a gift basket for a bridal shower and this is what I came up with. I had two evenings to get it done and really needed to work with what I had on hand. Other than the candles it is filled with stationery. It contains five greeting cards (mainly thankyous, as brides usually have many people to thank), a notebook, bookmark, place cards, two candles and a calendar. It was the first time I had done a calendar, so it was a little bit of trial and error working out how and what I would decorate. I ended up decorating the inside cover, so that when it is hung up the decorated page is showing. I perforated the top edge of all the months so they can be torn off leaving the decorated page showing all year.
The candles are done with tissue paper and wax paper as explained in my tutorial here. All the paper items are made using Brocade Background designer paper, River Rock, Confetti Cream or Vanilla cardstock. I had some lace in my lace basket which co-ordinated perfectly so that is featured on a couple of cards as well as the notebook.
Thanks for dropping in.
Supplies:
Stamps:With Gratitude, Baroque motifs, Paint Prints
Inks: River Rock, versmark, Always Artichoke
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, River Rock, Confetti Cream, Brocade Backgrounds designer paper
Also: Cuttlebug formal squares embossing folder, Lace, Olive Organza ribbon, Embroidery thread, notebook from Staples, basket from Bulk Barn, candles from Ikea, Cherished Memories and Chateau Bella rub-ons
Snow swirled greetings
Posted: November 1, 2008 Filed under: Snow Swirled Leave a comment
Here is another take on sponging the Snow Swirled set. When I did this one, there was no sign of snow, but now we have piles in our yard, melting after a 15cm snowfall earlier in the week. Hopefully it will all disappear this week as we have a large amount of leaves to rake up.
To make this one I stamped the tree and the snowflakes in versamark and then embossed in clear e.p. I then outlined some of the flourishes on the tree with an eggplant marker and sponged with pale plum. The sky is sponged with pale plum, perfect plum, eggplant and a bit of black. The effect reminded a little of the northern lights that I am yet to see. The sentiment is just one line from a Merry Messages gretting
Supplies:
Stamps: Snow Swirled, Many Merry messages
Inks: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Eggplant, Basic Black, versamark
Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White
Also: Clear embossing powder
Cards for my birthday boy
Posted: October 29, 2008 Filed under: By Land, My Kid's cards, Season of Friendship 2 Comments
You would think that, as a card maker I would always have cards ready for my own children’s birthdays! But again and again I get to the night before and think, “Oh no, I don’t have a card ready!” For the girls there are always some pretty cards in the stash that I could use, but they have usually seen and maybe critiqued them for me, so what I really want is one designed especially for them. For my boy I don’t even have any in the stash, as I don’t own many boy stamps, only one set actually, By Land.
So this year, true to form the night before the birthday arrives, I am about to go to bed and I realise, no card! I cannot use By Land again, and besides one of my daughters used it for her card. (below) My solution was to make a scruffy skate theme card for my skateboarding eight year old. It came together surprisingly quickly and I popped it in with the gift. The next day he started opening his presents, reading every card before opening and examining every gift. It was only when he came to the one from my husband and I that I realised that the card was there, but I hadn’t written a word in it…
A little flatter
Posted: October 26, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized 2 Comments
Sharon’s stamp simply challenge this week was to make a flat card. That doesn’t mean no layers but rather that the card would sit very flat in the envelope, with no lumps and bumps. Even before I saw the challenge I was trying to design a simple card for a workshop on Friday night. I wanted to show off Snow Swirled but didn’t want to emboss or sponge this time. This is what I came up with. I did incorporate the ribbon, but as there are no bows or knots it still meets the “flat” requirements. The snowflakes in the background are stamped multiple times without reinking to give the different tones of artichoke.
Supplies:
Stamps: Snow Swirled
Inks: Always Artichoke, Real Red
Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Whisper White
Also: Red gingham ribbon
Two favourites
Posted: October 25, 2008 Filed under: Designer Paper, Lovely as a Tree 1 Comment
I pulled out two old favourites for this card and combined them with a new favourite of mine, Riding Hood Red. Lovely as a Tree is definitely a favourite set of mine. I’m not sure where I read it but I believe it is the most popular set Stampin’ Up has ever had. I admit I don’t usually stamp it in red, but I wanted to use some of another old favourite, the Cerise designer paper from a year or so back. The patterns in this set of paper were perfect for making Christmas cards, the designs reminded me of Scandinavian embroidery.
Other than layering the designer paper strip with red and vanilla cardstock all I did was make a tag to be tied on with red hemp twine and also drag the edge of the vanilla rectangle on the Riding Hood Red stamp pad. I have one more gift set of cards which I will post soon, then I will be moving onto to other gift ideas.
Supplies:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Fundamental Phrases
Inks: Riding Hood Red
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla, Cerise d.p.
Also: Red Hemp twine
Heather Telford 
