Masculine cards

What makes a good male card?

Its all about the colours you use - contrasty neutrals,  or dark blues, red and white.  

The textures - rough and edgy, not too many layers.

The style of stamping - crisp, detailed, yet distressed and a little bit dirty.

 For this card I chose "The Open Sea" stampset because its new and its in the Summer mini catalogue.

And, it has detailed stamp images of an anchor, world map, compass, ship's log, and a ship. 

 The colours are Black, Vanilla and River Rock (you could use sahara sand).

Giving lots of contrast and and character.

The four squares are punched out with the postage stamp punch.

Rough textures with clean stamping.
Distressing the edges of the world map circle and also the black layer of cardstock.
I have used a splatter stamp (from the French Folliage stampset) for some dirty, seasalt-spray on the black background and used the ship's log stamped in white frost shimmer ink.

 Finally the words: happy day to you are not too over the top or embarrassing!
Basic Black ink on vanilla cardstock punched with the modern label punch.

Here it is in the Red, white and blue version:

The pointer hand is from the Bring on the Cake stampset and spins on a brad attached to the cuff.

The Open Sea ...

 An excursion out on Sydney harbour with lots of photos from the ferry, stopping at Shark Island for a run around and learning all about early settlement of Sydney and basically what all the landmarks are and making sure not too many hats get blown into the briny blue water.

 The "Open Sea" stampset is a brilliant set for this scrap book page. I teamed it up with Baker's twine (available in the Summer mini) this one is wound with cherry cobbler and white cotton and goes with the reds and blues and razzleberry I have chosen. My title is created with the Timeless type big shot alphabet and attached with two way glue pen.

 What is a page about the water and ships with out a swathe of deep blue ocean made with crumpled Night of Navy cardstock and sprayed with Frost white shimmer paint spray.
Distressing is a great stress release .... give it to the kids to squish and destroy, they will love crushing up mum's special paper!

 Instead of fussy cutting out all the boats I found that the shifp fits beautifully into the 6cm circle punch and so does the world map stamp too.

If you want a smaller circle you can squeeze it onto a 1 3/4" circle, with out losing too much of the ship.
I just love what you can do with the detailed anchor stamp and the compass ... layering and ageing it with inks. The distressing kit comes in handy for roughing, sanding and distressing the edges.

January Scrapbook page

 A simple scrapbook page for the beginning of the year - using stamps, my bigshot alphabet and some First Edition designer series paper.

The typewriter image from Established Elegance is great for an education themed page.

For me it is a traditional element that says writing, working and playing with words.

My dad had an enormous remington typewriter in his office (downstairs beside the garage) I remember being able to play on it and dreaming of working in an office when I grew up ....

It is said be careful what you wish for, you just might get it !

...and I spent 26 years working in an office using a computer keyboard for most of it.

Early thoughts lead us to where we are now.

Here is Jess on her first day of school this year.
 I have also used the Elementary Elegance stampset framing the 4 with butterflies, keys and crowns.

 The typewriter spits out my journalling on a small Curly label punched piece of cardstock.

  I have repeated the same images (making my own background paper) on to the First Edition printed paper. Adding two pieces of punched ribbon border to the sides.
The colours I have used are Rose Red, Soft Suede and Early Espresso.

Enjoy!!!

More "Letters to santa" Quick accents

 Have you ever read that book:

 "Where is the Green sheep"?

Well we played - where is Santa - this year.

We visited the shopping centres of course, but it was a case of:

we just weren't dressed for photos with Santa, we just didn't have enough time, we will do it another day.

And then it happened - Santa had gone.

He'd caught the last reindeer train back to Finland and the Northern hemisphere.

There was only his empty chair...

what's a mum to do?

Take a photo anyway - so its not in the spirit of Santa but it was funny...

And just to save us from the Is santa real questions...

Santa had hitched a lift with the fire brigade to help with their fundraising and he came to us for a photo instead.

All the decorations on these pages are from the Quick accents "Letters to Santa" pack.

What can you do with shimmer paint?

It comes in Frost white, champagne and Platinum.

Its being sprayed, daubed, sponged and stamped.

 Here's a few quick tutorials on how to use your shimmer paint from Stampin' UP!

SHIMMER SPRAY

You will need:

1. about 3-5 drops of Shimmer paint, 

Rubbing alcohol

a small spray bottle.

 2. 3/4 fill a small spray bottle with Rubbing alcohol

(ask for Isocol at a chemist or pharmacy)

Open your container of Shimmer paint and dip the spray bottle's tube into the paint.

You can do this 3-5 times to add the paint to the isocol in your spray bottle.

You can add more or less depending on how shimmery you want to spray.

 3. Put the spray bottle lid back on and Shake your spray bottle.

4. Spray on your cardstock and leave to dry for a few moments.

Drying time depends on how much you spray the paper.

When you use frost white it looks a bit like sea spray.

Champagne looks like little specks of gold glitter.

Tip: spray the cardstock with shimmer mist BEFORE you stamp, otherwise the ink will run or spread.

 On this sample I have sprayed the Blue cardstock, crumpled and distressed the paper, unfurled it and sprayed again. In the light it is like the deep ocean sparkling with sea spray.

And the sample above shows I have sponge-daubered the edges with  shimmer paint too.

 A REALLY WOW effect on invitations.

*  *  *  *  *

  Shimmer paint stamping!

 What you need:

1. Shimmer paint

a sponge dauber

 a rubber stamp.

 2. Use a sponge dauber to pick up shimmer paint from inside the lid of the shimmer paint bottle.

 3. Then, daub the paint onto the rubber stamp.

Keep dipping the sponge dauber into the lid of the paint and onto the rubber until the stamp is inked.

Tip: You can even mix a few drops of re-inker with the shimmer paint (add the shimmer paint and ink together on a flat plastic lid so that you don't contaminate the bottle).

 4. Lastly, stamp the shimmer daubed rubber stamp onto your dark coloured cardstock.

The Frost white and Platinum are both opaque and look best when you tilt them sideways in thelight.

This effect looks great with snow flakes, ocean, beach and water themed stamps, as well as boats and background stamps.

The card above is stamped with Frost white shimmer paint on the background layer (with the writing from the Open Sea stampset)

 with some sea salt splashes added to the blue layer. (Stamped using the French Folliage splatter stamp).

Congratulations on making a new home...

Ok, so I borrowed this stampset too!
The grass is always greener on the other side of the table ...
Or is it that I buy the stampsets that seem to suit my style and then I want to experiment with other people's style and that means borrowing their stuff!

I really liked how these colours go together:
Lucky Limeade, Concord Crush and Very Vanilla.
The background is stamped with Lucky Limeade ink using a Sale-a-bration stampset called "Fresh Vintage".
And you saw the Lace Ribbon border punch on my previous post...
The only thing new here is the NEW hostess stampset called "up in the Air" it has 3 images of flowers, butterlies, words,  and birds making nests in tree branches .. perfect for new homes, new neighbours, new baby, engagement, and easy watercolouring.
You can see it in the Summer mini catalogue on page 5.

Watercoloured Butterfly

I have to show you a card I made

 at a friend's house (Hey Linda!) ... was it a week ago, now?

Warning - Don't borrow this lace border punch UNLESS you intend to own it.

After making this card with the lace ribbon punch I have put it on my next order wish list.

It is so easy to punch a border and you can thread it with ribbon or lace.

I will be using it on scrapbook pages, wrapping around gifts, cutting it up for individual flowers and as a belly band around boxes.

Doesn't it dress up this very plain one layer card?

 The butterfly is punched out of First Edition Designer series paper with the 6.4cm circle punch.

 I have simply watercoloured it with my aquapainter brush using Pool party and Lucky Limeade Ink.

The card is sprayed or is it Spritzed with some Soft Suede ink

 (looks like aged fly dirt) there's a tool for this.

And the Musical notes are "wheeled" on to the paper also in Soft Suede ink.

To finish it off the Victorian Crochet ribbon is tied loosely around a few holes in the

Lace Ribbon Border Punch.

Quick accent scrapbooking

It is February so,

 time to finish up the Christmas scrapbooking

 ... date, journal and file it in the scrapbook for prosperity.

As you can see, these pages are very simple and quick to make.

Three or more photos for each page (printed with borders to reduce the need to matt).

A title that I have die cut with my Timeless type alphabet in colours from the photos:

Real Red, Marina Mist and white.

The rest is put together with accent stickers from the Christmas sticker kit

 called "Letters to santa" (page 131 of the Idea book and catalogue).

My main accent is the two tag die with a ribbon bow and sticker hung over the title bar.
There is a silver embossed wreath behind the words: Merry Christmas.

The second page of this double spread is even simpler:

Scrapbooking in a square with 4 strips of patterned paper for a frame
 is a quick way to get lots of photos on a page and keep an organised balanced feel to the page.
The only accents are the centre sticker of Santa and some punched Marina mist Blossoms on dimensionals.
I have used a grey textured cardstock to let the reds and blues have centre stage.

Simply Adorned! simply Beautiful!

 Every girl likes a bit of bling!
I am just a little bit obsessed with the new simply adorned set of jewellery.
Ive added a bright crystal bauble, a small glass locket and dangling key charms to my stainless steel chain and it goes with all my casual outfits.

 So then I had to have the Simply adorned bracelet ... with a pearl bauble and some crown trinkets.

The small square charm fits a small photo, a piece of miniature artwork or square of designer fabric.

Established Elegance ...

I do like new stampsets ...
very very much, and new tools to play with!

I have CASE'd (copy and share everything) this card, almost exactly, from the Stampin' Up! idea book  on page 83, because I just love the antique elements and details.

From the First edition newsprint on the circle scallop die to the embossed framed image and distressed paper ... the antique tag and crumpled lace, antique brad, pearls and crumpled ribbon.

 The stampset is called Established Elegance: it has a very vintage, very french antique style... which considering my advancing age is very me at the moment... and its very fashionable to be antique right now.

So that's what made me happy this week: a new stampset and an antique card to share.

Elegance

 

A very close friend of mine phoned today to say she found a new job, so I have made her a special card to celebrate...

I have used my fabulously new:

" Established Elegance"

stampset that perfectly suits the occasion.

I wonder who gets the most pleasure out of this card?

It was definitely fun to make!

Card Recipe:

Stamp sets: Established Elegance (p97 IB&C) $42.95 Clear

Friendly Phrases (p106) $27.95 Clear

Cardstock: Wisteria Wonder, whisper white, Very vanilla, Rich Razzleberry

Designer series papers: First edition, Pocketful of Posies

Ink: Rich razzleberry, Concord Crush, Wisteria wonder

Tools: Scallop circle punch, Boho blossom punch

Paper snips

Victoria crochet lace/ribbon, Antique brads, 

Basic Jewel - Pearls

Champagne shimmer paint (in isocol spray).

A free stampset - Elementary Elegance

This is a really fun card fold called a

"Double gated" card.

And when you slide off the ribbon it opens up like this- 

These colours are so pretty together: Pool Party and Island Indigo.

The Stampset is a free Sale-a-bration gift when you spend $100 with stampin up.

The Elementary Elegance stamp

is beautifully coordinated to go with the Curly label punch

 and the new Everyday Enchantment designer series papers.

 Card Recipe:

Stampset: Elementary Elegance

Cardstock: Pool party

Ink: Island Indigo.

Paper: Everyday Enchantment Designer series paper

Curly Label punch, Large oval punch, eyelet border punch and dotted scallop ribbon punch.

Pool Party ruffled ribbon.

Tools: Big shot, Designer Frames Embossing folder

Pearl Basic jewels.

Its all about the elegance of coordinated ... colour, ink, stamps and paper.