Interactive view card - wild about you!

After making two mini view cards I have graduated to the full circle size.

The appropriate stampset seemed to be wild about you!

I finally figured out an easier way to determine the position of the stamps on the circle ... I matted them on the card and sponged the circles in almost amethyst to show where to place my stamps then removed the disc from the card to stamp ...

The rest of the card is decorated with purely pomegranate scallop punched circles to make the flower heads. I cut out two scallops then cut an inner circle out of the viewer and then created the bud by feeding the scallop back into the punch, the scrap piece I inked the edges of and placed it over the base. Looks like a little cup shaped bud, I havent seen that done before.

The stems are "Stem sayings" (which I have been wanting to use for ages) and bodacious bouquet was used for the leaves in Always artichoke ink.

And the ribbon is in matching regal rose wide grosgrain ...

Inks used for the animal images: elegant eggplant, taken with teal,

Ballet blue, Bravo burgundy and Pumpkin pie.

Princess interactive view card

The princess waves her wand and a birthday cupcake appears, she waves her hand stars move into view and then a heart, flower, another flower and cupcake reappears. Magic!!!

On this card I got to combine the watercoloured princess stamp, my fave colours: lavender, lilac and eggplant with the linen stamp, scallops punch, slit punch and short and sweet stampset.

Interactive View card tutorial

I was looking for something for a child's birthday card, something ...

interactive and fun. I came across this little idea and thought I'd share it with you. I made two in similar designs.

You will need:

Stampsets: short and sweet, linen background.
Scallop punch, Large oval punch, mat pack, brad, square punch, slit punch (for scalloped edging), distressing tool and white grosgrain ribbon.

Elegant eggplant ink and rich regal markers, or you can use stamping spots.

Cardstock: Lavender lace, whisper white, elegant eggplant and lovely lilac, amethyst patterned paper.

Step 1.
To make your turning disc, Punch out a white scallop circle.

Find its centre and pierce a hole, I have used the mat pack but, you can make a template by folding a scallop into quarters (where the folds meet is

the centre).

Step 2. Next punch a 1.3cm circle out of the piece of lovely lilac Cardstock - see the photo to estimate the position of your view finder.

Attach your scallop circle behind the circle you have made with a small brad keep it loose so that it spins.

Step 3.

To stamp the images inside the hole either use very small stamps such as the "short and sweet" images or use a piece of scrap paper to mask the hole. Turn the wheel around a quarter turn and stamp a second, third, fourth image into the hole. You can colour the images with your markers.

Step 4. Turn your wheel and cardstock over and punch an oval to stamp your greeting .

Step 5.

I have roughened up the edges of the lovely lilac layer with the stampin' up distressing tool.

Step 6. Add a strip of eggplant that you have scalloped. Then attach the whole piece to your lavender cardfront with dimensionals. I have used atleast 6 to help keep the wheel clear and spinning freely.

Step 7. To make the gift box I punched a square of almost amethyst patterned paper and a small rectangle for the lid. Wrapped them both with white grosgrain ribbon and tied a bow.

Stamping Bookmarks

On Tuesday night I had an evening in with some girlfriends ... several cups of tea, chocolate biscuits ... I got home a bit late and am still suffering the effects of sleep deprivation.
The other ladies made multiple christmas cards - hmmm I just made one.
Oh, and this very handy bookmark in black and white.
Now I know I picked this idea up from several websites - the bookmark and tab on a string. There are many different varieties out there. So, If it's yours please just leave me a comment and I will give credit where credit's due.

I think the bookmarks make excellent small gifts that you could put in with your christmas cards ... then there is that wonderful perforated card with the detachable bookmark that I will be experimenting with very soon! Not to mention a triangular corner page bookmark.
As you may have guessed I read a lot (on the train to work) and so bookmarks are an essential accessory for me, mostly I have used tickets and receipts and scraps of paper to mark my place, so this will be so much nicer ... to have a decorative and stamped bit of cardstock within the pages of your book.

Stampset: Be Happy. Ink: White craft. Cardstock: Black

This is the christmas card I made. Season of joy christmas tree and Holiday Harmony DS paper. I used my brand new tab punch to cut out the tabs on the right side and the large oval punch for the Very merry greeting with a silver brad and a wrap of organza ribbon on the left (for balance).

It is quite simple,very little stamping although perhaps it needs a swirl on the confetti white cardstock ... oh and the cardstock used is always artichoke - the new green in cardmaking especially since the old olive is on back order this month!!!

Always on my mind, forever in my heart...

This stampset, can you tell is another of my favourites from the Spring mini catalogue.

This card is a CASE (copy and share everything) of Beate Johns.

Her version is in going grey and bravo burgundy... but as I didn't have these colours to hand the one above is in Basic grey Cardstock and purely pomegranate ink on whisper white cardstock with Berry bliss DS paper.

The measurements I converted to centimetres: (As you do).

28 cm X 12.5cm piece of Basic grey cardstock, folded into valley folds, Scored at:

3.5cm, 7cm, 11.5cm, 16cm, 22.5cm and trimmed at 28cm.

I adhered the paper rectangles with snail adhesive, goes on much faster than tape, but its a little bit more permanent, if you make a mistake you have to remove it fast.

I stamped the heart, words and flowers in purely pomegranate and then cut out a pomegranate mat to attach to the back of the heart. Adhered it to the front panel.

The "Always on my mind" words I punched out with the large oval, and stuck it onto a circle of purely pomegranate cardstock, sticking it to the second panel. Added white grosgrain ribbon to the front panel and then stamped the always circle and small flowers on white cardstock and cut them out with the 1.3cm round punch.

I am thinking of doing this in a christmas version with trees and baubles ... to make it my own.

Lavender Princess

Playing with water colouring this week, I painted several fairies, using stampin' up ink pads, markers and the aqua painter. Starting with a stazon inked fairy ... I love how you squeeze the ink pad, open it up and there is a small amount of ink to pick up and paint with. Only I learnt not to use too much water, the point of watercolour paper is to absorb and blend the colours, when stamping you need to have a just wet brush, not to such an extent as a wash, that is another technique for another day.

My fairy princess (she is 5) insisted I get this set. And my inner princess agreed.

It is perfect for water colouring with pinks and purples, and a touch of turquoise. I used -

Cardstock: lavender lace, almost amethyst, tempting turquoise, watercolour paper.

Inks: Black stazon, lavender lace, almost amethyst,

Markers: tempting turquoise, yoyo yellow, pixie pink, Pink passion, green galore, going grey.

Accessories: white gel pen, aqua painter, corner rounder, tab punch, cropadile, small soft subtle eyelets, orchid ribbon.

Because I was enjoying this stampset I opened the card and put the princess wording stamp inside with the fairy wand beside it. To colour the separate layers I used the stamping spots in rich regals.

Merci, Carte postale !!!

I made this card because I love the the elegant look you can get with the carte postale set.

I just love all the different stamps in this set. Swirly patterns, flowers, and it so suits the chocolate chip and old olive colour combination.

It mostly suits a tailored look with matting and cutting to bring the flowers out.

I must play with this set a bit more and try it out with different colour combinations.

Old olive is just so rich and the look of it can be changed with just a touch of white gel pen added to the pattern.

Always pomegranate and a partridge in a pear tree

I decided that I wanted to make a simple card using the always bird and some double sided paper, completed it in 20 minutes (included thinking time) and with only 2 stamps!

The bird (from the always stampset - spring mini) and very merry from Short and sweet.

Using black stazon I stamped directly on to the Holiday Harmony DS paper.

A purely pomegranate ribbon to wrap and tie around.

Too easy really!

I know it's not very cristmassy but I like it!

You could of course use it for another occasion ...

For my second version, I added some styled silver hodgpodge to frame the "verymerry" on white cardstock and wrapped the ribbon vertically, now because this piece of DS paper didnt have much going on with it I thought to match the silver frame, why not some silver embossing.

this one took a while longer and tying the ribbon longer than you would think.

Came up nicely though I feel. I love that Silver...

Could be made in large quantities with the right ingredients.

Scrapbooking in perfect plum textured cardstock

My family comes home tomorrow, so I felt it was best i did some housework. You know the basics: washing clothes, clean kitchen, do the groceries, put away stamping equipment ... wait a moment - I still have hours left before they come home!

So, after lunch I turned on the background music and I scrapbooked instead of cardmaking today. I have photos of the school fete that need to be scrapped (photos of daughter on camel not to be missed)!

The layout above is one that was inspired from Claire Daly. at: http://clairedaly.typepad.com

I added my own elements and changed the colours and well, generally made it my own.

This was a day we visited the blue mountains early in the morning as the mist cleared my daughter says: "But there's four sisters not three!" You can not argue with a 5 year old, she is right of course, 3 sisters and a baby one...

The stampsets are: finest flourishes, bud basics

Stamped in: white craft ink.

On: perfect plum and Pale plum in textured cardstock.

I love the rounded corners.

The best part about the stamping community is the Copy and Share Everything (CASE) principle there are so many wonderfully talented people out there with ideas to share.

Warmest wishes

After lunch today, it was a bit wet outside, so what does a person do, when family is away?

Hmm, why get out my embossing powder and heat gun again!

This is far simpler than the morning session, I promise.

Silver embossed the "Holiday wishes" tree on old olive green cardstock, cut out the tree and glued it to olive green card... dont know why I ended up doing that I had an idea of a white layer, that didn't work out, but I think single layers, can work just as well.

Cutting out the star, pressies and heart are fairly quick yet once I'd finished, several hours had passed since I made a cup of tea and went looking for ribbons again.

Found my silver cord and white organser ribbon, tied bows. I think I like it.

Well that was it for the day! Then the photo session and uploading to computer ... read a few emails and checked a few of my favourite blogs and it was dinner time.

I promise next post will not be christmas stamps ... there is a whole mini catalogue out there and other colours to enjoy!They look kind of productive when you line them up together.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think?

All day card making ...

Very occasionally, you just have to have a day to yourself!

For me that meant cardmaking and playing with a couple of stamp sets to put to paper some ideas I have had in my sketch book for a while.

As the season of Joy looks so good embossed I started with that on close to cocoa cardstock.

I matted it on confetti white on dimensionals and again on brushed silver metalic paper.

I stamped the background with the swirls and flowers in creamy caramel and close to cocoa.

Ribbons are choc chip grosgrain and tied with kraft and chocolate tafetta ribbon pieces.

The embossed silver snowflake was punched out with a 1" circle punch and mounted on confetti white (stamped with caramel ink), and again mounted on a 2" circle of choc chip cardstock.

I really must start using the metric equivalents instead.

What next you say?

Emboss resist of course! because i just cant resist!

Starting with white embossing powder, I stamped the "holiday wishes tree" on to white cardstock, then sponged with a tissue the old olive ink all around it. Tore the bottom edge and attached it to the old olive base.

Added the white embossed warmest wishes ( I masked off the holiday word because lets face it who says "Happy holiday wishes" in Australia? - Can someone tell the americans that!).

A little more embossing of the present and star elements popped them up on dimensionals and I liked it. The clean green and white mono chomatic look speaks to me.

In contrast to the next one.



I have done a little coloured embossing trick this time.

Ink your "tree" stamp up in versamark, then tap it onto the old olive ink pad before stamping onto the white confetti paper. Heat emboss the image and you have a glossy green tree just waiting to be enhanced with bright coloured markers ... like yellow, red and orange ... green galore and turquoise .
The spots on the chrissy presents and the loops on the warmest wishes down the bottom are coloured to make it look uniform.
The top was probably unecessary, but i had the crop a dile on the table and the small eyelets and I hadn't used them yet, and you know that I have to put a piece of ribbon on everything - almost! The rest is history.
The base cardstock is Basic grey and the eyelets are pumpkin pie (ok, if I'd had silver Iwould have used them, but I didnt!) but hold on there's more.

Happy 20th birthday Stampin' up!!!

Hip, hip, Hooray! It's Stampin' up's birthday, and we're throwing a party!
What: Stampin' Up!'s 20th Birthday

Spend $20 on regular catalogue merchandise and get 20% off these select birthday stamp sets:

Page - Description - Price - with 20% Off

37 Big Bold Birthday $53.95 $43.16
38 Pretty Princess $45.95 $36.76
51 Birthday Best $25.95 $20.76
55 Crab & Company $52.95 $42.36
118 Short & Sweet $29.95 $23.96

When: from the 1 - 31st October 2008

I have just purchased the short and sweet set, so watch out for it on many of my cards, you get 12 stamps for $23.96 Thats less than $2 per stamp!

My most recent card I made with it was a christmas card and the cute little snow flake made the background really quick and simple - I will be making a few more of those.

Now I am eyeing off that pretty princess set .... it looks perfect for a bit of watercolouring.

Lovely as a tree with joy

I do love stampsets you can use for a number of occasions and lend themselves to different styles. Lovely as a tree is just one set.

I have seen it brayered into sunsets, sunrises, snow covered landscapes ...

in blue and green, grey and black, well here it is in rose red and dazzling diamonds glitter to make it sparkle perhaps it is dew on the pine needles, I am thinking of a hot sauna, with cold winter chills outside, difficult in our spring weather ...I know.

So the cardstock is rose red and wild wasabi and confetti white.

The back ground is stamped using (you guessed it) the "season of joy" snowflakes.

Be merry is from the "warm words" stampset and punched out with the large oval punch.

Ribbon is real red grosgrain and wild wasabi striped grosgrain.

The ribbon glide is from the styled silver hodgepodge and I have put 2 way glue and dazzling diamonds in the groove ... it doesn't quite look like a star ... but it could be.

Snow storm of Joy!

Pomegranate meets wasabi and basic grey in a snow storm ...

Even though I forgot to use my embossing buddy to chalk away the static ... I love how white embossing powder stands out so well on darker cardstock ...

The snow flakes (embossed) are from the "season of Joy" stampset, I am just trying to see how many different looks I can get from this one set of stamps and combined with "Little pieces" (how cute are they?) it looks like a snow storm of joy!!!

I think the purely pomegranate and wasabi cardstock get me past the traditional colours and the pink passion lifts it to another level.

The dots around the snow flakes kind of match the dots on the merry christmas and also the stitching on the pomegranate ribbon dont you think? Design is all about repetition, direction and a focus point.

embossing by night ... short and sweet

It is school holidays here and so I am enjoying the day light savings extra hour of daylight ...

Though it fades really fast, if I need to take a photo of a card it is a race against the light, so it is embossing by night and photograph the next day here at the moment.

I received my "short and sweet" stamp set on Tuesday night, cut it out at lunch time on Wednesday, and have been just holding out to try embossing the little snow flakes and the very merry on a card ...

This card features the holiday wishes tree

in silver embossing and I've used dazzling diamonds glitter in the hearts and baubles on the tree.

Cardstock: whisper white, old olive and brushed silver metalic.

Ribbon: Tafetta in mellow moss.

Adhesives: snail, dimensionals and 2-way pen.

Hello Friend...

This card is simple in layout and best cut out while watching TV or a DVD ... if cutting out letters is therapy for you then give the "big deal' alphabet a go.

It is one alphabet I have used the most for cards and scrapbook titles.

Our favourite colours as you can see are pinky pinky purple, so my daughter calls it

or

stamps rock and rolled in pixie pink and lavender lace ink.

Cardstock is elegant eggplant and lovely lilac.

Happy birthday Olive.

These are two colours that most people like they're rich and they just make you want to eat italian or greek ... eggplant and olives? no

I made this one a little while ago using the big deal alphabet and bud basics. I used the two step stamping method and cut the flowers out.

The inks are: old olive and certainly celery.

Its making me hungry now...For greek salad.

Holiday wishes... 'tis the season of joy!

I have spent two out of four days of my long weekend making christmas cards, yes.

With two of my favourite friends.

I have taken two photos of this embossed card to try to show you the gold embossing and dazzling diamonds matted on gold metalic paper ... the light is low and its after 7pm not the best hour of the day to pick up the true colours and so I turned the dining room lights on and tilted it toward the suns slanting rays ...

This card is made with two stampsets:

• Holiday wishes and Season of Joy!

The cardstock is whisper white, rose red and Stampin' up metalic gold paper.

Accessories: the ribbon is craft taffeta (it has a caramel tone to it) and the large eyelet is pewter punched with the crop a dile. Words are cut out with the large oval punch. The tree and star are gold embossing powder and dazzling diamond glitter, 2-way glue pen, snail adhesive and dimensionals for popping up the Merry Christmas.

Inks: versamark and pink passion.

To soften the pink passion hearts I used an aqua painter pen to make them a little less passionate.

'Tis the Season of Joy!

As a break from the greens and reds for christmas I have played with the season of joy word stamp using bold bright markers on the rubber before stamping just a portion and cutting and adhering elements to highlight the "joy!"

Cardstock: Lavender lace, whisper white and wild wasabi.

The Double sided paper is celery and the wide grosgrain ribbon is also celery folded and the snowflake adhered in the centre with a star brad from the styled silver hodgepodge set.

You make me happy...background joy

While I am on a scrapbooking theme, here is a background stamping experiment I played with recently.

The colours were inspired by two SU paper packs.. and a card from stampin'withAlex.blogspot.com and a pair of my daughters denim jeans.

The Double sided paper is "Berry bliss" (below the blue grosgrain and white organza ribbon).

The middle pattern is stamped with "Floral background" stamp in close to cocoa on whisper white cardstock.

The top layer is Baroque motif stamped in close to cocoa onto whisper white and then a choc chip flower from the same stampset.

The pockets are a retired stampin' up set that I have stamped on bordering blue, with the fine lace background stamp, cut out and matted with lovely lilac cardstock and then stamped with the floral background stamp with elegant eggplant ink. Then to go with the denim jeans theme I added the silver brads on the corners of the pockets.

The sepia printed photo is matted with close to cocoa and elegant eggplant.

A pair of blue eyes - the heart of stamping joy!

Her eyes can make the hardest commuter smile ...

or the tiredest mother's heart melt.

Tonight my husband dropped our daughter to me at work and she and i caught the train from chatswood to Gosford home together.

We sat on a wide seat that held 4 adults comfortably - there were 4 adults seated and my daughter squeezed in beside me and the look she received from a tired commuting woman was withering to say the least. I asked my daughter to sit on my lap and the woman squeezed into the spot she had just vacated, seconds later a man stood up and offered her his seat. My daughter smiled at the man and the woman equally and both smiled back. It's the innocense in their hearts that finds joy in ours.

This scrap book page begun with a photo and a piece of scrap watercolour paper. I stamped the petal print flower on the water colour paper in stazon and pushed some ink around the petals in lavender lace ink and orchid opulence ink. Less is more in watercolouring i believe.

Then matted it on egglplant and ballet blue. (Next to purple this is one of my favourite colours) I think it looks purple in some light conditions.

The rest of the elements arose from boho backgrounds and big deal alphabet using every blue in the rich regals colour range. I used the ink spots ( a great idea if you cant decide which colour inks you want to buy ...) to stamp the "blue eyes" of the heading and the " a pair of " is embossed with white ink and white embossing powder it really stands out on a textured cardstock scrap book page.

And the background is stamped with the baroque motif large stamp in ballet blue.

The bow is made from taffeta ribbon.