Thursday, February 27, 2014

French postage - Merci beaucoup!

Another card I made today for a friend of ours who gave Jess a present, recently.
My friend used to be a French teacher at High school so I thought she'd appreciate this stampset and tri-coloures: Real red, pacific point and white.
We even stamped the inside with various french and floral inspired stamps.
Card recipe:
Cardstock: naturals white, Real Red and whisper white.
Featured Stamp sets: Banner blast, Postage Due, Blooming with Kindness.
Inks: Real Red, Pacific Point, Crumb cake.
Tools: Banner punch, postage punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, label love punch.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Easterwishes

I am sharing this second card that we made on Friday, it is a little early for Easter. But it will not be long until April, I assure you! The chocolate eggs are already in the shops along with the hotcross buns.
The card is a Case of a card on page 15 in the stampin up Occasions catalogue. The little rabbit with two hopping jumps is so cute I just had to try to replicate it.
We paper pierced the hopping action with a pointy sharp paper piercer ($6.95) and the essentials paper piercing pack ($13.95) there's a whole lot of hole piercing stress relief right there for not a lot of money!
I just can't avoid using my new Scalloped tag topper punch on almost everything! It makes such a lovely embellishment on a card. If I changed the Happy Easter sentiment to congratulations it would make a cute baby card.
We had a go at watercolouring the bunny with some Crisp Cantaloupe ink and added matching stretch frilly ribbon, by the way I have a ribbon share going on at the moment.
For $16.50 you get 9.1 metres of ribbon. 
Divided into 5 colours that means you get 1.8 metres of each of these in-colour ribbons.
Send me a message if you'd like to share some ribbon at nerida_carter@hotmail.com

Friday, February 21, 2014

Ex Liberis birthday

Ex libris - meaning " from the books of" or "from the library of" .
This stamp has such a beautiful vintage style. It's a background stamp that looks like an old bound book and would look so nice on a notebook cover or ..as a birthday card.
The colour of this card is Rich Razzleberry, here it is in different light, better?
We made one like this at our Friday Card class. With a touch of watercolour painting over the night of Navy ink and a few dimensionals it has a very rich and elegant look.
And here is the Card Recipe:
Stamp sets: Ex Liberis background stamp,
Flower shop, Petite Pansy, hostess Simply Sketched.
Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry, whisper White.
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Night of Navy.
Tools: Decorative label punch, Pansy Punch
Petite Petal Punch.
Rhinestone jewels, aqua painter.
And then for a deeper darker look I stamped directly onto the Razzleberry card base, added some night of navy and silver decorative labels... A different look completely.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Birthday gifts ...

Birthdays! I love other people's birthdays - making a card,  a gift and knowing that I can make someone's day... When it comes to my turn I'd prefer not to mention another year has passed.
This beautiful card, using one of my all time favourite sets is from Felicity Hawkins.
Felicity has created a beautiful gift box with the plastic stamp case and filled it full of lovely thoughtful things. I particularly love the wallet filled with stamped images and kind thoughtful sayings.
And I'm very partial to an envelope of chocolate and coffee....

A French Floral Friday card class

For the start of a new week I thought I'd begin by sharing what we made at our Friday morning card session. Any questions or if you'd like to place an order just send me an email  at nerida_carter@hotmail.com
Everyone enjoyed making this French styled card with the "Postage Due" stamp set on crumb cake with Early Espresso ink. Using the postage stamp punch and 1" square as a layered embellishment.
Our second card uses a simple technique of punching and stamping to show the gorgeous patterned paper beneath. With a popped up flower or two for added dimension and rhinestones for bling.
The paper we used came from the Fresh Prints patterned paper stack on page 33 of the Seasonal catalogue. (48 card sized sheets $11.95).
On the same page is the matching "Petite Petals" stamp set and punch.
Don't forget to Bundle and save when you purchase this one. A 15% saving makes the clear mounted bundle only $34.75,  or the wood mounted bundle $39.75.
At home I made up another one using the Venetion Romanc Designer series paper and stamping with Elegant eggplant with Coastal cabana I think it has a fresh clean look for a late summer birthday card.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Ways to wrap chocolate.

It's Valentines tomorrow, so who needs another excuse to buy and Wrap chocolate in a new and interesting way?
This is the simplest chocolate wrapping idea!
All you need is some patterned paper ( I am using DSP that came free with my latest Saleabration order).
 The Scalloped tag topper punch, and a piece of ribbon.
The measurements of the patterned wrapper are 5.1 cm wide by 15cm long.
The measurement for the black card stock wrapper is 5.1cm x 21cm long. 
Punch both ends with the tag topper punch, fold it in half and wrap around a bar of chocolate and tie with a piece of ribbon.
A piece of two sided tape or snail adhesive will hold your chocolate bar in place until you unwrap it...
The black gift wrapped  chocolate covers a Caramelo koala. I originally cut out twelve but several koalas seemed to go missing.
I embellished with the label love stamp and the Word Bubble Framelits and a red glimmer paper heart.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

More Postage due

 
Version two of the Postage due card using watercolour wonder designer series paper. This patterned paper is so bright and happy.
Version 3 of Postage due shows off the new Fresh prints paper stack and i have added a bit of texture with the arrows embossing folder on pool party.
These are fun and easy to make with the 1" circle punch for the wheels and the postage stamp punch as a fun french embellishment.
Contact me if you'd like to come to my next class on Friday 14th Feb at 10.15am on 0468877125 for the details.


Saturday, February 08, 2014

Strawberry Postage Due

I still remember when Shelli first revealed this gorgeous stamp set at stampin' Up! Convention a few years ago. In her signature vintage style she punched the wheel circles from patterned paper.
So Shelli - circa 2012 - in her simple vintage style.
I have been meaning to make a card like hers for a while... When a friend asked could we do a French styled card in pretty vintage colours I thought of this card from a few years ago. I have updated the colours and added an extra layer, combining Strawberry Slush with Early Espresso ink and the new watercolour wonder DSP (Designer series paper).
Card Recipe:
Stamp set: Postage Due, hostess Simply Sketched.
Cardstock: Strawberry slush, Crumb cake, watercolour Wonder DSP
Ink: early espresso.
Tools: 1" circle punch, postage stamp punch, 1" square punch.

Friday, February 07, 2014

Masculine Birthdays

We held our second class for the new year on Friday!
At this time of year everyone is hoping to restock up on their birthday card stash.
So let's not forget to prepare for the men in our life who are having birthdays...
Most of us find creating male cards a bit of a challenge.
How to make a card without flowers, butterflies, ribbon and bows?
Knowing what he likes can help... Cars, bikes, boats, road trips, fishing?
And rough textures, distressed edges, natural fibre, anything wood, metallic,  flags or tool related.
We enjoyed a cup of tea while stamping with some cool new backgrounds stamps.
On the first card we used the new Hardwood background in Basic gray ink on slate grey cardstock. 
An ocean scene is easily created with "The Open Sea" stamps in pool party and Bermuda Bay ink.
For texture and contrast we added some free Saleabration twine and looped it around. A few glue dots and two way glue pen and its all held together. No triangles in sight!
The second background stamped card featured the World map stamp.
 This has to be one of my favourites. A great stamp to celebrate farewells, retirement, travel, holidays.
 We sponge daubered in Coastal Cabana, Pistacio Pudding and Crisp Canteloupe inks.
The Happy Birthday stamp is from the Label Love set with its matching punch.
This card had a few more techniques such as markers to rubber and embossing on silver foil paper with the arrow embossing folder.
How's your stash of male cards going - Sons, brothers, nephews, uncles, fathers, grandads sorted?
Next Friday we are back to the normal girly cards right?





Secret Garden background

What do you do when you don't have just the right patterned paper for the card you're making?
Easy, stamp your own!
Why not choose some of your favourite colours : Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango, Coastal Cabana, Wisteria Wonder, Island Indigo And stamp random flowers over apiece of cardstock?
A bright and busy card like this needs little decoration.
Enter the tag topper punch and Label Love stamp!
Add some gold bakers twine, a Rhinestone jewel and dimensionals.
Recipe
Stamp sets: Secret Garden, p.94 AC. Label Love p.33 AC.
Ink: Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango, Coastal Cabana, Wisteria Wonder, Island Indigo.
Cardstock: whisper white, pool party, Coastal cabana
Tools: Scallop tag topper punch (Seasonal catalogue page 35) $39.95
Artisan label punch (Annual catalogue page 181) $27.95
Gold Baker's twine, sponge dauber, rhinestone jewels an dimensional adhesive.






Saturday, February 01, 2014

First class for 2014

On Friday we started our stampin up card classes again for the year. I just love getting together with friends to make cards, over a cup of tea or coffee.
The first card we made uses a whole bunch of new seasonal catalogue products: Gold washi tapes, gold baker's twine, Fresh prints patterned paper stack and the tag topper punch.
We've used three of the FREE products from the Sale-a-bration catalogue: the banner punch, Seeya later alligator stamp set and the spotted embossing folder.
This is the second card we made using the Free Saleabration card kit "Good as Gold".
The set is designed to make 8 note cards and 8 foil lined envelopes.
In the kit there are 4 printed "thank you" tags and 4 "For You" tags. These tags also come in two other languages. You could turn the tags over and stamp them with a different sentiment, or as we did here we used all three tags on the one card.
This kit is so gorgeous and so many variations with the gold foil liners. 
We punched out a few butterflies and a scalloped circle in the gold foil and used a slice of it to edge the patterned card.
It occurred to me that we could make 16 cards from one kit if we cut the cards in half and added them to a piece of Coastal cabana cardstock. 
Hmm, it won't now fit inside the lovely note-card-sized envelope. But it will fit perfectly into a standard C6 envelope.
Finally, as we were launching the Seasonal catalogue we made a third card.
This is from the "Happenings" card kit.
I am loving these card kits with everything you need provided.
All I needed for these cards were a stamp, ink pad and I couldn't help but add a scalloped circle under the silver button to match the ink colour. 
The kit includes: 15 silver metal buttons, die cut strips of silver glimmer paper, die cut flags, circles and hearts in patterned paper, silver baker's twine, patterned paper (in very trendy grey and white spots, dots and stripes) and15 white notecards.
If you wish to order any of these products, host a stampin' up! party or come to a class just contact Nerida on  0468  877 125.