Friday, July 10, 2009

Tutorial for White Stazon water colour resist.

What you need:
  • White Stazon opaque Ink pad
  • Glossy white paper
  • Stamp set: Fifth avenue floral
  • Re inker or classic ink pads - Rose red, Tangerine Tango and kiwi kiss
  • Aquapainter or water colour brush
  • spray bottle
  • Perfect plum and whisper white cardstock
  • Wide oval punch.
  • Sharp scissors.

    Step 1. Stamp the Fifth avenue flower onto glossy white cardstock with the white stazon ink. Spray with water. You can just see how the ink resists the water on the paper.

Step 2. Add a drop of rose red ink onto a plastic lid and use your aquapainter or water colour brush to colour the flowers. I did some in rose red and a few I touched the centres with tangerine tango ink for some variation in colour.Step 3. The paper is quite wet and the water runs everywhere so you can tip the paper to one side or blot it with paper towell, or do both, then set it aside to dry. You could speed it up with the heat gun I suppose.Step 4. Next we cut out the individual flower images with sharp scissors. Remember, for a clean neat cut, turn the paper not the scissors.Step 5. Cut half an A4 page of cardstock on the diagonal - I measured 80mm on one short edge of the A4 and 155cm on the other and drew a line between them. Cutting it will give you two cards from the same piece of cardstock. Score and Fold one of the pieces into 3rds - 9.8 and 19.6cm to make up your zig zag card. Step 6. Adhere your flowers to the card. I've used seven flowers. Some are up on dimensionals.Step 7. Stamp some stems for the flowers and the sentiment from fifth avenue floral onto whisper white cardstock and then layer it onto a wide oval punched piece of rose red cardstock.
Here it is showing the zig zag fold of the card.
And open to see where you can write your message ... the only other thing I might add is a ribbon to hold it closed if you have used dimensionals.
Enjoy!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

A sneak New Product peek - shhh!

White stazon ink? I didn't know Stazon came in anything other than black ... shows how much I know. Stampin' Up are going to be selling it in the next new mini catalogue and I just had to try it out to see what you can do with white permanent ink. The instructions say it is designed for use on plastic, metal, glass ceramic, and glossy cardstock. Appropriate for all surfaces. But use on porous surfaces such as leather, wood and fabric may not result in fully opaque impressions.
Warnings over, play begins: Starting with stamping on a cellophane bag - cool! It seems to work OK on cardstock, perhaps not as opaque as white craft ink ...
And it is especially effective on gloss white cardstock ... when sponged with Rose Red Classic ink.
It works beautifully for watercolouring - stazon resist with reinker watercolouring -Verdict: A versatile and fun new product ... you will see it on many of my new projects I think.

Might even hazard another tutorial on watercolouring - what do you think?

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Urban Oasis in black and sahara sand

I have made these little gift and Thank you cards to go in this cute little bag. The bag is made from a single sheet of 12x12 Double sided paper. The folded bag has a pocket on both sides and is made with the bella bleu DS Paper - the colours are vanilla and kraft....
I have edged all the sides of the paper with the eyelet border punch and added a black circle scallop with a circle of paper stamped with the flowers from pocket silhouettes in neutral colours.
The three cards to go in it are very simple:
Starting with a Sahara sand card stock base. A mount of basic black cardstock and a square of DSP.
This time I have used the Urban oasis DS paper. I love the black, grey and kraft colours together in silhouettes.
Then I simply stamped the greeting: Thank you (from the fresh cuts stampset) onto some sahara sand cardstock, cut it out with the large oval punch and wrapped the black grosgrain ribbon around it before adhereing it all to the card.
These "Thank you" and "for you" cards are kind of All occasion cards - you could have a little card wallet with these in it and just give them to people who do kind things for you - child carers, teachers, volunteers ... with a chocolate for a friend.
You can make three of these cards from a single page of sahara sand cardstock and half a sheet of black and less than half a sheet of the DSP.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Stampin' up Catalogues: Did you know?

It's True - the current Idea Book & Catalogue will be live until 1 September 2010.
This means we have an extra five months to enjoy this catalogues in-colours: Baja breeze, Pacific point, Kiwi kiss, Riding hood red, Tangerine tango and Pink pirouette.

There will be three mini catalogues this year!
1. The first will be the Spring mini - From 1 August -30 November 2009
2. Summer 2009 Mini Catalogue - From 1 December, 2009-31 March 2010
3. Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue - From 1 April-31 July 2010
And then...
The 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalogue - 1 September, 2010-31 August, 2011

Have you planned your next stampin' Up party yet?

Sweet always paper... and glossy white

When it first came out in the mini, I loved this stampset ... and now I have the paper to match! Yesterday, I didnt have time to explain the techniques I used on the little bird and heart. It is difficult to see in the picture. But the bird, flower, sentiment and heart are all stamped on gloss white paper. It gives the card a lovely glossy dimension (just like a bought one!) ...
This little bird is stamped in regal rose, only.
And this one is in regal rose and rose red.
The Always flower is stamped in regal rose and punched out with the 1 1/4" circle punch and attached with the gorgous flower brads. (Rumour is we are expecting coloured flower brads in the Spring Mini - launched in August).
Any way I digress, the cardstock I used for the card base is Perfect plum and the papers used are from the Sweet always packet of Double sided DS paper. Here is a sample of all the patterns and colours you get (12 sheets - 2 of each design):
And finally, the always heart was coloured using stampin' up markers. You can buy them individually now. The markers I used were pretty in pink, regal rose, rose red, always artichoke and perfect plum. And the greeting is from the hostess set: Best yet.

Can you see this in other colours and stampsets? so many ideas so little time. Enjoy!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Always zig zag card.

I was browsing through an old craft magezine while watching TV and saw a dog eared page, that I had meant to come back to one day. It is a four fold card (as opposed to a tri-fold or bi-fold).
Not sure what you call this kind of card but my version is a quatro-fold or zig zag card.
You get 4 faces to decorate and embellish.
On this one I have used the Sweet Always double sided DS paper. That goes perfectly with the Always stampset.
Mondays are busy at our place. I will show you more tomorrow perhaps.
We are off to afternoon swimming lessons.
Enjoy!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

June-July Hostess special continues...

Click on this link to see the current special offer - ends 31 July.
http://stampinup.com/au/documents/Hostess_Promotion_AUNZ_0609FINAL.pdf

Have some fun during June and July by hosting a workshop—and Stampin’ Up!® will give you even more hostess awards!

When your workshop totals $600 AU, you’ll receive an additional $40 AU in hostess awards. That means $110 worth of FREE product and a free Level 1 or 2 hostess gift with your order.
Contact information:
IF YOU’RE READY TO HAVE FUN, CONTACT ME TODAY TO SCHEDULE A WORKSHOP.
© 2009 STAMPIN’ UP!

By the way, I have seen the current mini catalogue on-line and it is filled with gorgous new stampsets, accessories, a new punch, ribbon, rub ons and papers - the wishlist has just blown out again ... demonstrators can order from 1 July, and customers from 1 August, so look out for a mini catalogue launch party in early August!!!
I did make a card on Friday afternoon, and I have photographed it, you will just have to wait for the post sometime this week.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Daisies in dew - Inspired by nature.

Inspired by Nature? definitely... This was a quickly made at night time card. Only two layers of cardstock.
(I was going to put in another layer of perhaps rose red, but decided: this time I like the simplicity of white on green).
I first stamped the grass stamp in kiwi kiss classic ink onto the white cardstock.
Then using my stampin' up markers inked the rubber on the daisy stamp with the Rose Red, close to Cocoa and Old Olive markers. And, Stamped that over the top.
Wrapped the riding hood red ribbon around the white layer and adhered it to the kiwi kiss card.
Now comes the fun part!
I applied little droplets of crystal effects onto the blades of grass to look like dew. ( I saw this done at Convention this year).
Then spread crystal effects over the red of the daisy petals with the nozzle of the crystal effects bottle. It takes about an hour or more to dry, so leave it overnight before anyone touches it.
Can you see how I have placed some droplets onto the close to cocoa flower centres?
Hint: Beware of air bubbles - they can splash and burst onto your paper unexpectedly, if you're lucky they will look like more dew, if not your petal might be a bit less defined ... it's ART! It's unpredictable - thats why we like it... isn't it?
The tag is attached with embroidery thread. The tag Cardstock is Riding hood red and the sentiment: Thanks so much is from Trendy trees stamps set. Enjoy!

The 3D scene Pop up card.

Don't you just love pop up books? How about a card with a pop up scene inside ?
This is how it looks on the outside ...

Pretty isn't it? When you open it up - out pops a scene of stamped images. You can have words and birds, flowers and hearts or anything attached to the walls of your scene. This one reminds me of a little girls pink wall papered bedroom.I have used the Always Designer series paper to line the card and the matching Always stampset and Enjoy stampset too.
I enjoyed adding accessories such as brads, dazzling diamonds glitter and crystal effects to the items in the scene. I've used the colours: tangerine tango, rose red and perfect plum with lots of rocking and rolling of the stamps in the different ink colours. The Always flower is topped with a punched out circle which has been covered in crystal effects and sprinkled heavily with dazzling diamonds for the added bling. I am thinking of making one of these for a special christmas card with Christmas trees and snow ...

This card closes with the Rose red stitched wide grosgrain ribbon. I have added two wide oval circles to strenghthen the edges as a little clasp. The hole where the ribbon threads through is punched with the Horizontal slot punch. Enjoy!