my addINKtion

Retired List Update

2009-03-04T10:36:00.000+09:00

Having some trouble with trying to download onto Blogger the ever growing status list of retired products, but I am printing them daily, so if there is anything on the list that you have been considering I suggest you contact me ASAP to check availability to avoid disappointment.

Stampin' UP! Retired List Promotion

2009-03-02T22:59:00.000+09:00

A quick post to let those interested know that the 2008-2009 Idea Book & Catalogue Retired List of stamps and accessories is now out - and products are disappearing from the list as we speak (or read)!

I'll be trying my best to keep this list up to date for you, but my best advice is to give me a call if there's anything you can't live without before you order so I can check product availablity.

So far, this is what's already sold out...

107565 Flip Flops UNAVAILABLE
109020 Wild Wasabi classic ink refill UNAVAILABLE
109015 Soft Sky classic ink refill UNAVAILABLE
109016 River Rock classic ink refill UNAVAILABLE
109017 Purely Pomegranate classic ink refill UNAVAILABLE
109019 Groovy Guava classic ink refill UNAVAILABLE
100381 Earth Elements eyelets UNAVAILABLE
100378 Soft Subtles eyelets UNAVAILABLE
108748 Best Friend Numbers UNAVAILABLE
107212 Matey's Map UNAVAILABLE
105320 Basic eyelets UNAVAILABLE
103195 Gifts Galore UNAVAILABLE
107561 Garden Annuals UNAVAILABLE
109610 Confetti Simply Scrappin' UNAVAILABLE
104279 Leaf Prints UNAVAILABLE

And once it's gone...it's gone!

Embrace the Faux

2009-01-31T22:31:00.048+09:00

I recently hosted a workshop where I showcased the Ginger Blossom designer series paper and the coordinating stamp set 'Embrace Life'.

As the ladies who attended are all seasoned stampers, I felt I should show them a technique they may not have been familiar with yet - Faux Silk.

With the addition of regular gift wrapping tissue paper, you're able to add a little texture and dimension to what might otherwise be a simply stamped image.

Instead of stamping onto white cardstock, I stamped and coloured my image on the tissue paper cut to slightly larger than my white base, wadded it into a tight ball to achieve the creases, unravelled it and then adhered it onto the white card using glue stick. The more creases you can retain, the more texture the finished piece will have.

Rather than trimming the tissue piece to size, I folded it and adhered it to the back of the white card just to keep the tissue from lifting and keeping the edges clean and neat.

It's supposed to resemble crushed silk - what do you think? I'm not so sure, but I'm pretty happy with the end result anyway.

Stamps: Embrace Life (Summer08-09 mini), Linen (coral b/ground)

Ink: Jet Black Stazon, Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, River Rock

Cardstock / DSP: Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Ginger Blossom DSP, white tissue paper

Accessories: blender pen, foam dimensionals, Anywhere Gluestick, sponge daubers

More cake, anyone?

2009-01-13T11:08:00.001+09:00

Another birthday party - another cupcake.

I actually stamped, crimped and glittered this cake at the same time as Tuesday's card, and just held the pieces in the stamp box until I was ready to construct the card. I knew I wanted to do a completely different layout, and change the colour combination, and needed a couple of days to get my head into a different space.

This was for Isabella's 6th birthday, and I didn't want to over crowd the cake with candles, so just went with one for impact. When I decorated the envelope though, I made sure I stamped 6 little cupcakes to represent her age.

I was annoyed that the little pink sprinkles were flying off every time I touched the card, so I covered them with dimensional adhesive this time - those little suckers aren't going anywhere now!

A bit of tone on tone stamping on the top of the card, some funky glittery paper on the bottom, a little punch out window for the sentiment and we were good to go.

Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
Card / paper: Orchid Opulence, Regal Rose Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, DCWV Glitter Stack
Ink: Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip, Orchid Opulence, Tempting Turquoise & Yoyo Yellow markers (candle)
Accessories: Regal Rose wide grosgrain, Light Pink Chunky Sprinkles, Crystal Effects, Word Window punch & Marvy Uchida Giga & Mega scallop circle punches, foam dimensionals

Still Celebrating

2009-01-13T10:14:00.003+09:00

Christmas festivities have finally died down, but we still have good reason to celebrate.

The daughter of very dear friends of ours celebrates her birthday on January 1. Lucky thing will always get a holiday for her party!

I only just recently bought this set during a Stampin' Up! birthday promotion, and until I saw Sam's card, where she crimped the cupcake, I wasn't that inspired.

I've used the same basic layout and ribbon idea, but blinged up the frosting with some chunky glitter. Both the white panel, the cupcake & frosting are built up on dimensionals, so the card is a bit 'front' heavy - but without it, I don't think it would pack as much punch.

I've another card to share using the same set that I'll share tomorrow.

Stamps: Big Bold Birthday

Cardstock / paper: Regal Rose, Whisper White, Loves Me DSP (retired)

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, So Saffron & Regal Rose markers (for the candles)

Accessories: Light Pink Chunky Sprinkles, Flirty ribbon (retired)

Still pretending

2009-01-05T22:59:00.001+09:00

A couple more samples of the faux silk technique presented in the last post.

This card uses exactly the same layout, but I've selected a different design from the same pack of designer paper and changed the colour scheme accordingly. Substituted a different image from the same stamp set, and changed the background stamp as well - totally different feel to the card.

Stamps: Embrace Life, Sanded (b/ground)

Ink: Jet Black Stazon, River Rock

Cardstock / DSP: River Rock, Groovy Guava textured 12x12, Whisper White, white tissue paper

Accessories: foam dimensionals, Anywhere Gluestick, blender pen, sponge dauber

And for something completely different...this image flower was masked and stamped multiple times, and coloured with markers. I don't know why, but this stamp set always says "bold brights colour range" which would probably be my least favourite colour family to use. I really struggle to pull these colours together so generally over look them and consequently I also struggle to use this stamp set. Gotta push those boundaries, I guess.

Stamps: Tiem Well Spent, Polka Dot (b/ground). Basic Phrases

Ink: Jet Black Stazon, Orchid Opulence CIP, markers - Orchid Opulence, Lovely Lilac, Almost Amethyst, Only Orange, Real Red, Yoyo Yellow, Gable Green & Green Galore

Cardstock: Orchid Opulence, Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange, Whisper White, white tissue paper

Accessories: Anywhere Gluestcik, foam dimensionals

O Christmas Tree

2008-12-02T00:01:00.000+09:00

Preparations are in full swing for the upcoming Craft Thyme Xmas Gift & Craft Fair at the Cannington Exhibition Centre (for local Perth readers) this Saturday, 6th December '08.

Chantell, Jasmine, Sarah & myself will be there demonstrating various techniques, co-ordinating make & take sessions and there will be lots of gorgeous cards and other goodies for sale. So drop by to say hello if you have the chance. We'd love to see you. This is our first attempt at a craft fair, so any constuctive feedback is appreciated.

This is one of the cards I will have for sale. It's one I used for a workshop a couple of weeks ago using the recently finished Spring '08 mini catalogue. Fingers crossed that this stamp set will make it into the new annual catalogue (April '09) as it has become one of my most used sets, despite taking a while to grow on me.

The trees have been heat embossed, cut out and raised on foam dimensionals before adhering to the card over luxurious satin ribbon. Quite easy for mass production but still a classy looking card. TIP: Reinforce the light weight designer paper with some scrap cardstock before wrapping the ribbon to prevent the edges pulling up.

Stamp sets: Season Of Joy, En Francias b/ground

Ink: Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate, VersaMark

Cardstock / DSP: Purely Pomegranate, River Rock, Always Artichoke, Holiday Harmony Designer Series Paper

Accessories: clear and gold embossing powders, Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon, sponge daubers, foam dimensionals

Petal PINK

2008-11-23T13:04:00.001+09:00

This is the final completed card in my current PINK series.

I often forget that I don't have to stamp everything on white cardstock. Sometimes stamping your main image on a coloured background has it's own magic.

I found this card on ....Splitcoast Stampers (big surprise). Because of the overall size of the completed flower, I haven't tried to contain it within the frame. I find it kind of appealing to have it fall off the edge of the page, kind of like taking a close-up photo of an interesting detail in a subject.

I deviated from the original by changing the colour scheme and the sentiment and ended up with something that fit within the PINK parameters. Job Done!

Tx

Stamps: So Many Sayings, Pick A Petal
Ink: Whisper White craft, Rose Red
Cardstock: Kraft, Rose Red, Regal Rose
Accessories: Kraft Taffeta ribbon, corner rounder punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, foam dimensionals

PINK wishes

2008-11-13T12:41:00.000+09:00

I don't know what I'd do without all the talented stampers out there. Another card CASEd from Splitcoast Stampers.

I really liked the look of the wide grosgrain ribbon, so the closest option I had was using the Regal Rose in the current catalogue. This in turn dictated the combination of Regal Rose with Very Vanilla as I wanted to keep it muted and classy.

The perfect excuse too, to use my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder which doesn't get nearly the attention it deserves.

Stamps: Define Your Life

Ink: Regal Rose

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Regal Rose

Accessories: Regal Rose 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder.

ThINKing PINK

2008-11-10T00:01:00.000+09:00

I've been busy preparing some cards for sale at a fundraiser for breast cancer research and this is my favourite of the bunch. I kept with the 'pink' theme for all the cards (stay tuned for the others in upcoming posts), but tried to keep the sentiments reasonably occassion neutral.

I stamped the cute heart image onto watercolour paper and coloured using markers and an aquapainter. TIP: begin with the lightest colour and allow to dry completely before moving onto the next (darker) colour. Otherwise you'll find the darker ink will bleed into the lighter area, following the moisture already in the card.

The heart was then cut out and layered onto the white punched square, then pink punched scallop.

To mimic the polka dots in the heart, I used a background stamp for the next pink layer, wrapped a band of white ribbon then layered onto the pink card base. I've used the same 2 shades of pink in both cardstock and ink and accented in white to keep the spectrum clean and cohesive.

Here's the finished card with co-ordinating envelope.

Stamps: Celebrate Everyday, Polka Dot background

Ink: Jet Black Stazon, Pretty In Pink, Pixie Pink

Cardstock: watercolour paper, Whisper White, Pretty In Pink, Pixie Pink

Accessories: aquapainter, 1 3/8" Square punch, Marvy Uchida Mega Scallop Square punch, Word Window punch, Whisper White taffeta ribbon, foam dimensionals

Celebrate PINK

2008-11-09T13:00:00.003+09:00

Since I was on a mass production mission, I tried to keep each design as simple as possible but with enough detail that it didn't look too 'flat'.

I did an extensive search on Splitcoast Stampers and found this card to CASE.

This card has only two layers, but some dimension was achieved with the flower by using two shades of pink.

The stamp was inked entirely in Pretty In Pink with the Pink Passion added to the centre and the very edges of the petals using a sponge dauber before stamping. I found this added a more subtle variation in colour than rocking and rolling the stamp on the darker colour as well as allowing colour to be applied to the centre, which you can't do with the rock-and-roll technique.

I quickly abandoned the idea of heat embossing the sentiment over the top. Trying to keep the white card nice and crisp was just too hard with all that black embossing powder flying around. So I added some glitter using a 2way glue pen instead, for an additional layer of fuss free dimension.

Couldn't come up with any other bright ideas, so I stopped there.

Stamps: Looks Like Spring, Wonderful Words

Ink: Pretty In Pink, Pink Passion, Jet Black Stazon

Cardstock: Pink Passion, Whisper White

Accessories: 2way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, foam dimensionals

Polished Pastels

2008-11-09T00:01:00.000+09:00

Another quick test card for my Crystal Effects experiment.

This time I stamped the heart image on plain white cardstock using VersaMark ink and then applied pastel chalks with a cotton bud (popping pastels technique). I tried to wipe away as much of the loose residual chalk with a tissue so that the chalk didn't lift off on my fingers everytime I touched it. I would normally have used a Pledge Grab-It or Swiffer cloth (far superior to a tissue for this use IMO) but had run out so had to improvise.

I then applied a thin layer of Crystal Effects with a sponge tip brush and set aside to dry. The CE did smudge the pastels a little, so probably not ideal for this medium unless that's the look you're going for. I also found that the sponge still left brush marks, so will just use my finger to spread the CE in future. I find that gives a nice even, glossy finish.

So why not just stamp on glossy card in the first place? Well believe it or not, the colour from a dye ink seem to appear more vibrant on the plain white card compared to glossy white. I did test this theory too, but don't have any photographic evidence at this stage (i.e. haven't made up the finished cards yet - will follow up in a later post).

The three little 'dew drops' under the sentiment are CE applied direct to the card as a afterthought, and left to dry clear. I had another little side experiment in trying to create these on wax wrap (for ease of removal) and dying them with re-inkers, but not happy with those results yet either. Will keep trying though, and let you know in due course.

Apart from that - a bit of an ordinary looking card, but again just trying to showcase the CE.

Stamps: Always

Ink: VersaMark, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White craft

Cardstock: Kraft, Lovely Lilac, Whisper White

Accessories: Stampin' Pastels & cotton buds, Crystal Effects, sponge daubers, 3/16" corner rounder (guard removed to create scalloped edge), Horizontal Slot punch, Elegant Eggplant grosgrain ribbon, foam dimensionals

Stained Crystal

2008-11-03T00:01:00.001+09:00

Here's another Crystal Effects test card.

You can stain the glue on a pallette using ink refills then paint it onto your surface. I used 1-2 drops of colour in each 5cent piece sized 'glob'. It works beautifully on acetate, as used here, glass or any other transparent non-porous surface.

As you can probably tell, I really didn't put any thought at all into the design of this card - I've left nowhere to write my message without it showing thru the acetate window. I'd suggest a tri-fold would work better for this technique or at least better placement of the aperture. I would also normally pretty up the card base with a background stamp or wheel, but my main objective was to demo and feature the 'stained glass'.

Stamps: Bud Basics, Think Happy Thoughts

Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi & Groovy Guava ink refills, Jet Black Stazon

Cardstock: Wild Wasabi, Whisper White

Accessories: Crystal Effects, acetate, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, dimensionals

A Klass Act team swap

2008-11-02T00:01:00.001+09:00

I've been trying to channel Pinefeather here. I've always admired Heather's relaxed and rustic style. She favours the use of Kraft coloured card and white pigment ink on almost all of her lovely creations and I really love this combination for a Christmas card.

I was asked to present at our recent team stamp day, and I chose to research some different uses for Crystal Effects, Stampin' Up!'s dimensional clear adhesive.

On this card I stamped the feature poinsettia then 'coloured' over it with the liquid adhesive straight from the application tip of the bottle. It's quite viscous, so pretty much stays where you apply it without running off the image. Once dried (I left this about an hour before the urge to check it was too powerful), it leaves a raised, glossy coat that just begs to be touched. Similar, I guess, to a heat embossed effect, but much more raised (depending on how much was applied).

Here's a closer view.

I tested 3 or 4 other applications for it and will feature those in upcoming posts. I like it. Will definately be making more use of it in the future.

Stamps: Season Of Joy, Snow Burst

Ink: Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate, Whisper White craft

Cardstock: Kraft, Always Artichoke

Accessories: Crystal Effects, Purely Pomegranate dbl stitched ribbon, Scallop circle punch, sponge daubers, dimensionals

All Partied Out!

2008-10-26T16:17:00.004+09:00

OK...home again after another marathon party effort. Finley celebrated this morning, and Genevieve celebrated this afternoon. And after all the 'bouncy-castling', 'treasure hunting' and 'jungle gyming' (party-speak), not to mention all the cake & sugar, the girls are now veging out on the coach in front of a DVD. Hopefully, they'll nod off to sleep and give me some much craved for blurfing time.

Anyway, ladies first, here's Genevieve's card. This layout kind of evolved as I kept on stuffing up the dimensions of each layer and added elements until it finally looked finished. The glitter glue made the sentiment smear, and I ended up with my own inky fingerprints on the envelope after decorating it to co-ordinate with the card. Just wasn't happening for me today. Teach me to leave 'til the last minute.

All this was overlooked by a very gracious 5yo in the end so I guess not too shabby after all.

I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to construct girlie, and coloured using ink pads and a blender pen. Her tutu, bow, and party hat have been highlighted with sparkly glitter glue. Ready to party.

Finley got a modified version of this gel card. With the commencement of daylight savings overnight, and so much fussing with Genevieve's card first, I totally lost track of time and ended up with only 10 minutes to prepare his, so had to grab one from my stash. I mounted this one onto an additional layer of turquoise, and changed the sentiment to read 'happy birthday'. I didn't even have time to photograph it, so this picture shows only the original version. And now a close-up of the gel-ly fish (ha ha....)

Genevieve's card

Stamps: All in the Family, Family Phrases, Family Favourites, Gifts Galore (wheel)

Ink: Jet Black Stazon, Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou

Cardstock: Soft Sky (texured & smooth), Groovy Guava, Whisper White

Accessories: Marvy Uchida Giga & Mega scallop punches, Word Window punch, Soft Sky dbl stitched ribbon, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, Chyrstalline Kindy Glitz, dimensionals.

Finley's card (as shown)

Stamps: Fishy Friends, Seeing Spots, So Many Sayings

Ink: Jet Black Stazon, Brilliant Blue, Tempting Turquoise, image coloured with Yoyo Yellow, Glorious Green and Tempting Turquoise markers + aqua painter.

Cardstock / paper: Briliant Blue, Tempting Turquoise, watercolour paper

Accessories: Word Window, and 1 3/8" square punches, dimensionals, hair gel / zip lock bag

Free Dreaming

2008-10-18T20:43:00.001+08:00

Here's the result of my first play around with 'Live Your Dream', received as part of our Regional training.

I also recently took part in a ribbon share with a couple of friends, and I wanted to make use of this Bravo Burgundy wide grosgrain.

The main image was inked up using markers and the background was stamped tone-on-tone win the same colour as the cardstock.

Tx

Stamps: Live Your Dream
Ink: Brocade Blue, Bravo Burgundy, Rose Red and Always Artichoke markers
Cardstock: Brocade Blue, Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White
Accessories: Bravo Burgundy 5/8" grosgrain, dimensionals

Bag-a-lope

2008-10-18T20:40:00.005+08:00

Another project from a while ago. A very simple bag-a-lope...a little gift bag fashioned from a standard C6 envelope.

The envelope was decorated before scoring and folding into the bag shape, and the topper was stamped, then I ceated the grid pattern on my paper trimmer using the scoring blade. A couple of small punch holes to thread the ribbon thru to secure the bag closed. The original ribbon bow was looking pretty spiffy (if I do say so myself), until DD(?) decided she needed to take a look inside. As you can see, not so successful the second tying!

I've also done this same bag using a larger C5 envelope with equally pretty results using the popping pastels technique to decorate.

Tx

Bag-a-lope 1
Stamps: Carte Postale, Leaves a la Carte (jumbo wheel)
Ink: Certainly Celery
Card/paper: Whisper White C6 envelope, Certainly Celery
Accessories: small corner rounder, Crop-o-dile, Celery grosgrain ribbon, Fiskars paper trimmer / scoring blade

Bag-a-lope 2
Stamps: Looks Like Spring
Ink: Versamark
Card/paper: Officeworks C5 envelope, Pretty In Pink
Accessories: Stampin' Pastels / cotton ball, large corner rounder (retired), Silver cord & white organdy ribbon (retired), Crop-o-dile

More Birthdays

2008-10-18T20:35:00.006+08:00

DD6 is currently enjoying the social life of a pre-schooler attending all her classmates birthday parties. Busy calender today - Caleb is celebrating this morning (on one side of town) and Chadd is celebrating this afternoon (locally thank goodness). We spent yesterday afternoon gift buying (including another 2 gifts for next week's social engagements) and card making and this is what resulted.

I've used a layout I originally saw on Michelle Force's blog, but Super Sarah has her version too that always looks fab.

Perhaps I should have gone for an orange base on the spaceship card, still co-ordinating with the patterned paper, but not so baby-blueish for a 6yo. You live and learn.

Trying to get a decent photo was hard though. There was just no way I could figure out how to set it up without a shadow. Here is a closer view to try and illustrate the circle feature. Images were coloured using Prismacolor pencils blended with baby oil, and the olive medallion was made with the scallop circle punch offset for the second punching.

Tx

Spaceship card
Stamps: Toy Box (retired), Family Phrases, Text Boxed (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Jet Black Stazon
Card/paper: Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Whisper White, DCWV Glitter Stack
Accessories: scallop circle and 1 3/8" circle punches, Prismacolor pencils, baby oil & blending stumps, sponge daubers, dimensionals

Sailboat card
Stamps: Toy Box (retired), Family Phrases, Sanded b/ground
Ink: Buckaroo Blue (retired In Colour '07), Basic Grey, Jet Black Stazon
Card/paper: Buckaroo Blue (retired In Colour '07), Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Wishes (Sweetwater Scrapbook)

Hello Garden

2008-10-18T20:07:00.000+08:00

This card was started at a workshop sometime ago, to demonstrate how to colour using the classic ink pad lids as palettes and applying the colour with a blender pen. I hadn't had time to complete a finished sample earlier, and felt the guests didn't need to watch me complete the whole panel, so I just showed them how to colour the large flower and then assembled the card so there would be a sample to follow.

Last night I took my time and finally finished my 'garden'. I randomly chose from the Soft Subtles colour family to keep it soft and pretty. The only thing I would change next time would be to raise the celery layer up on dimensionals to allow a bit of space under the brads. But not too bad for a last minute effort.

Stamps: A Little Bit Of Happiness, Polka Dot b/ground

Ink: Jet Black Stazon, Regal Rose, Blush Blossom, Apricot Appeal, Bashful Blue, Pretty In Pink, Pale Plum, Lavender Lace, Almost Amethyst, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Going Gray (does that spelling bother you too?)

Cardstock: Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

Acessories: small corner rounder, Bashful Blue brads, blender pen

Emma's Two!

2008-10-16T20:36:00.002+08:00

The daughter of dear family friends had her 2nd birthday last weekend, and our girls are always up for a bit of party action, so gifts were duly bought and cards duly made.

Emma has an older (3 1/2) sister, who is equally as dear, so she was in on the spoiling too.

The card was CASEd from a recent one the Super Sarah (my Hero) whipped up, though I did choose a slightly different colour combination. Co-ordinating gift tags that can be re-purposed as bookmarks, dressed up the plain paper bags and I called it done.

Here's a closer view of the card on it's own.

My own DD6 has two more birthday party invitations for this weekend - now I'm off to search for inspiration for 2 boy cards.

Stamps: Jumbo Outline Alphabet. Family Phrases, Straight Up Alphabet (retired)

Ink: Cameo Coral, Rose Red, Barely Banana

Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, Confetti Cream, Rose Red, Cameo Coral, Celery Palette-O-Prints

Accessories: Word Window, Scallop circle, 1 3/8" circle, 1 1/4" circle and corner rounder punches, crimper, Celery grosgrain ribbon.

Fall Flowers gift box

2008-10-13T03:00:00.000+08:00

This cute little box takes only 1/2 of a 12"x12" piece of designer paper. Super quick and super easy to make.

I purchased a comprehensive tutorial from Stampin' Mama, so as a matter of courtesy, I won't repeat her instructions in this post, but encourage you to either visit her site yourself, or I'd be happy to demonstrate one as a project at your own Stampin' Up! workshop if you're interested in booking one.

They make great little treat boxes for assorted chocs or small gifts, and take very little effort to mass produce for party favours.

Tx

Stamps: Spring Solitude
Ink: Old Olive
Accessories: Fall Flowers DS paper, scallop circle, 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" circle punches, Soft Sky double stitched ribbon

Spring Mini swap card

2008-10-09T10:50:00.001+08:00

Way back when the Spring Mini catalogue was still new, I pre-ordered this stamp set and went about creating for a team swap.

This took a while to come together as to complete 10 cards with all the colouring and cutting of the main floral elements was quite a bit more labour intensive than I had first thought.

The flowers were stamped in white pigment ink and I then coloured over the ink with my Prismacolor pencils. You could use your stock standard colour pencils, but I had treated myself to a set of 24 Prismacolors after all the raving in blogland about them. I kept to similar colours to the cardstock used in the card (with pink as an accent) and rotated the 3 colours so each flower was slightly different.

The base card and the olive layer were both stamped with the Linen background (hard to see in the photo) and edges sponged with matching colour inks.

The flowers were then layered, with first adhered flat to the card, 2nd using a foam dimensional and the 3rd onto 2 dimensionals stuck together so it would sit highest on the card.

A very simple layout, with dimension added using shading and height to make it a bit more interesting. I love the colour combination too - another from my colour coach.

Stamp sets: One Of A Kind, Linen (background)

Cardstock: Lavender Lace, Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive

Ink: Whisper White, Lavender Lace, Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive

Accessories: dimensionals, Prismacolor pencils, white gel pen, sponges, corner rounder

Petals for Lyn

2008-10-07T17:36:00.001+08:00

Finally, I have something new to share. A very special "Hi" to Lyn who's been checking here for updates (I'm deliberately showcasing a set I know you have!).

I demonstrated this at a workshop this past weekend, along with 2 other projects, one which was quite involved, so I needed something quick and simple to finish off with. (Didn't want to scare off the new stampers among the guests.)

You can't get much simpler than straight forward stamping on an envelope.

I used my recently aquired 'Pick A Petal' (why did I wait so long to order this FANTASTIC set!!?) and referred to my colour coach for an earthy-toned combination. I find I generally favour the Rich Regal colour family and really wanted to push myself to use something different for a change. It also helps in workshops to feature a greater range for the benefit of those who might not be as keen on my preferences.

To start, you seal your envelope, then trim about 3cm from one of the short sides. Decorate as desired (I opted to keep the 'lid' plain) then crimp the larger of the two pieces. The crimping results in marginally narrowing the finished piece, then your 'lid' will slip neatly over the top to enclose your message / gift card / cash or whatever it is you intend for the inside of your pouch. I'm really happy with the way this turned out.

Stamp set: Pick A Petal, Short and Sweet, Sanded background

Cardstock: Very Vanilla C6 envelope

Ink: Creamy Caramel, Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: paper trimmer, Fiskars crimper

Spring '08 Mini

2008-08-01T10:09:00.000+08:00

It's here! You can now order from the latest Spring mini catalogue from 01 August thru 30 November 2008!

If you have booked an upcoming workshop you and your guests will be receiving one of these complimentary catalogues in your guest packets. You can also view it online here, or if you woiuld like your own personal copy just email me and I'll get one out in the mail to you ASAP.

I'm working on a couple of posts featuring cards using some new products available in the mini catalogue, but in the meantime you can check some gorgeous samples at the Splitcoast Stampers gallery. Just 'search' for the stamp set or product by name, sit back with a coffee and prepare to be amazed.

Something new

2008-07-30T21:45:00.000+08:00

Here's a card I made for the lovely Teacher's Assistant at DD2's kindy. Lorna was married last month just during the school holidays, and after quizzing her on the colour scheme she had chosen for her special day, I came home to whip this up so I could give it to her at home time that day.

I love this background stamp. It was not one that appealed to me straight away, but the more I saw it used the more i "needed" it for my own.

The image was stamped with VersaMark and clear embossed, layered onto black (theme being pink & black), wrapped with ribbon and mounted on the pink card base with dimensional dots. The sentiment tag was also embossed and cut out using my new Nestabilities dies in my Cuttlebug. As a matter of fact, I'd only just received them in the mail and was dying for a chance to try them out. Not the most ambitious project for them - but their debut none-the-less.

Apparently the colour was a perfect match - I hope she liked it as much as I do.

BTW - what do you think of my new blog header? My wonderful friend Super Sarah whipped it up for me. Isn't it darling?! Thank you Sair - you are so sweet to be spending your stamping time on techno-dill me. Mwah! Mwah! Mwah!

Stamp sets: Floral back ground, Papertrey Ink Mixed Messages

Card stock: Pretty In Pink, Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: VersaMark, Colorbox Black pigment ink

Accessories: clear embossing powder, black grosgrain, Flirty ribbon originals (retired), silver cord (retired)