Kissing technique cards

 I made two cards using the images I stamped with the kissing technique. For two different occasions with only a slightly different look. The first is to celebrate the birth of my cousin's baby ... a little girl.

 I have used flowers and the grass images from Inspired by Nature. All babies are inspired by nature so a good choice I thought. Both stamps have been "kissed" with the All a flutter butterfly stamp.

 I've added two of the stamped butterflies and adhered them lightly to look as if they are just settling on the page. Love these colours together too: Pale Plum and Rich Razzleberry - delicious! And the word Baby is cut out using my Timeless type die on the big shot machine.

The second card is a Happy "Bird"- day card - the sentiment is from a stampin' up hostess set (which you get for free) when you hostess a workshop or make a purchase of $300 from Stampin up.  It has other cute little sayings like "A star is born", A perfect pair, A note of appreciation ...

 The colours are strengthened with a layer of Chocolate chip textured cardstock behind the white cardstock. And a piece of Rich Razzle berry spotted ribbon tied on for added texture. My butterfly this time is rock and rolled in the pale plum ink and Razzleberry to give his wings some depth.

I think making two cards using the same stamps and colours is a pretty efficient way of creating cards for different occasions. Would you like to make these at your place? Contact me by email: nerida_carter@hotmail.com.

The kissing technique - April tutorial

This is a fun technique everyone needs in their crafting toolbox ... 
The kissing technique is the Stamping Joy technique for April.
Here's my card and the stamps I've used:

And here is what you need to practice your kissing technique:
A solid rubber stamp (I've used the daisy from Inspired by nature $41.95).
Smaller patterned stamp (I've used All a flutter $12.95 from the Autumn Winter mini)
Pale Plum Classic ink pad $11.95
Rich Razzle berry classic ink pad $11.95
Whisper white cardstock (40 sheets $13.50)

Step 1. Ink up your solid rubber stamp image with the lighter of the two stamp colours (in the sample I am using Pale Plum).

Step 2. Ink up your detail stamp in the darker of the two colours.
(The All a flutter butterfly is going to be inked in the rich razzleberry).

Step 3. Stamp the dark inked stamp onto the light inked rubber stamp.
This is the kissing bit ... you only need to lightly "kiss" the butterfly stamp onto the solid stamp.
That is: press your Rich razzleberry "butterfly" onto the rubber of your Pale Plum inked daisy.
You can see the butterfly image that I have stamped on the rubber stamp below.

Here is another photo showing how I have lightly kissed the stamp with the other stamp.

Step 4. Now, Stamp the daisy image on to your whisper white cardstock and Ta da! you have the daisy image "kissed" with the darker butterfly image on paper ready to make up your card.

I will show you some cards tomorrow that I have made with this technique. Enjoy!!!

Easel card Inspired by Nature

I am sharing a card I made at the end of last month, that I couldn't show you before because it was for  a friend's birthday ... Anyway, this is the Easel card I made.

It uses the gorgous butterfly punch, Inspired by Nature stampset, glitter and Designer series Paper: Urban garden.

The butterfly down the bottom is enjoying the sunshine with a layer of glitter underneath the wings.

The stampsets used are: Inspired by Nature (both the grass and the flower stamps laid over one another)
and the words are from Butterfly prints.

I have inked up the daisy with Pacific point, rubbed off the flower centre  and added some lavender lace marker to the rubber before stamping on the cardstock.

Then for texture I have covered the petals in crystal effects.

You can see how I have dotted the centres with the crystal effects. They're supposed to look like dew drops in the sunshine.
The ribbon and button hold the easel in place.

There is even a place (under the folded easel bit) for some extra stamping and wishes.

If you would like to make this card send me an e-mail 
and I can come and make it at your place.
Too far away? You can order supplies from me and stampin' up will deliver them direct to your door.
Here is what you need:

Butterfly Punch ($30.95 value)
1 Pack Assorted Cardstock ($14.50 value)
Urban Garden Designer Series Paper ($16.95 value)
Old Olive Grosgain ribbon ($14.95 value)
Inspired by Nature ($41.95 value)
PLUS
Until the 31st of March a free Sale-A-Bration Set of your choice!
Total cost: $124.95 (includes shipping of $5.95)
For the month of March you get all this -
A Stamping Joy exclusive: for just $112.
(including shipping straight to your door)*
Option: Add Crystal effects to your order for an extra $11.
* Australian residents only.

A dozen things to put in your Sweet treat Cups...

The sweet treat cups from Stampin up are really special - they come in a box of 12 for $6.50 and when you place them on your card with the circle of adhesive that comes with them you get a really great place to put all different things.

1. A punched butterly complete with clear rhinestone body.

2. Buttons and Brads for a friend who likes to craft, quilt or sew.

3. A gold embossed dragon fly with gold punched hearts.

4. Mint lollies: such as Tic Tacs, Mentos, Lifesavers... for a sweet little baby (from the Sweet Somethings stampset) They mints are for mum when she needs a sugar hit, not for the baby... it rattles well though. 

5. All manner of sweet things: Jelly beans, M&Ms, Smarties, chocolate wrapped hearts... no photo of these ones, they mysteriously disappeared.

6. Dice and game board counters (for a child's birthday)...

7. Poker chips (the plastic ones) for a man who likes to play cards.

8. Sunflower seeds (for a yellow sunflower card)

9. Bird seed for a gardener (with instructions for planting)

10. Punched butterflies (a favourite of mine) and rolled DS paper.

11. A stamped image with glitter and sprinkles.
My happy moments bird ... again.

12. Punched hearts for anyone you love.

Inspiration - another challenge inspired by nature

Each month Linda's team has a challenge and this one was all about something that inspires you. It had a slow start we all sat back to think and then I remembered the painting my sister gave me that hangs in my daughter's room. It is a simple picture with very little in it, one for contemplation: just water, grass and some birds in the air.This painting has always made me think of playing with my brother and sister in the sand hills at the beach where we lived when I was 8 to about 12. We were very happy just chasing the dog and each other through the planted grasses, sliding down the sand hills on cardboard and exploring the waters edge for hours and getting into very little trouble considering.
My card is kind of symbolic of all those things - the sahara sand (for the beach), white (for the white hot summer sun), the insects (in this case butterflies) flitting over the grass (for innocence) and the passion of childhood dreams.
Materials I used to make this card:

Stampset: Inspired by Nature, Great Friend

Cardstock: Velum, Sahara sand, whisper white, chocolate chip and Kiwi kiss.

Ink: Kiwi kiss, chocolate chip, sahara sand.

Accessories: Silver brads, wide oval, punch, distressing tool.

Great friend, sketch challenge card for you

I made this card up for the August Elite challenge http://elitechallenges.wordpress.com/
The Sketch challenge SC24 was to use the layout design from page 22 of the Spring mini catalogue. And the stampset challenge was: Great friend.
I do like to kill a couple of birds with one stone... an attempt at being economical with time and effort.
I just adore this little butterfly ... so pretty and not the usual biology specimen image.
I have used basic black cardstock for the base, used a strip of kiwi kiss (paper pierced using my matt pack and sharp scary tailor's awl). Then stamped the Inspired by Nature grass. On a separate sheet of whisper white I rock and rolled the butterflies in pink pirouette, then rose red inks, cut them out and stuck them on with double sided tape in such a way that I could fold the wings upwards so that they look like they are lifting from the page.
The gorgous regal rose flower brad is from the new spring mini (they come in a mixed box of choc chip, pumpkin pie and so saffron too). I've stamped the for you sentiment in black and put all the layers up on dimensionals. Quite a quick simple card for an evenings work.

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!

Enjoy always!

This card was inspired by a sketch challenge over on the Elite challengers blog site.
And the fact that I haven't been using these two stampsets nearly enough, in my opinion. So the technique I have used is:
Brayering!
The "enjoy" was stamped on gloss paper in versamark ink, then embossed with clear embossing powder.
The brayer was inked up in lavender lace ink and then elegant eggplant ink. Afterwards I polished off the excess ink to reveal the embossed enjoy word.
The always bird was embossed onto a scrap piece of gloss cardstock ( which already had some brayered ink on it ), and brayered again with the elegant eggplant ink. I cut the bird out so that he could perch on the edge of the word.
The background is stamped with the "inspird by nature" stampset. The grass was stamped in versamark and clear embossed, then stamped over with white craft ink.
I added some white cardstock which was edged with the eyelet border punch, as well as the edge of the card. The ribbon is elegant eggplant grosgrain.

Inspired by nature CASE !

This is my version of a Convention swap that I showed you in an earlier post, I have been wanting to copy it almost exactly ... I just love these colours together: Baja breeze, not quite Navy and vanilla. On the left is the original card by Lorinda Brooks and on the right is mine with added embellishments.The background is stamped with versamark ink and clear embossing powder using the Dreams du Jour butterfly stamp.My inspired by nature flower stem is stamped in Not Quite navy ink on vanilla cardstock. To adhere the glitter I have used the 2 way glue pen and then sprinkled it with dazzling diamonds. What I liked about the original card is the use of the "punches three" stamp and the words put up on dimensionals. The sentiment is True Blue friend - kind of fits with the colours ...Then all that was left to do was the Ribbon which is fastened behind the card and a filigree brad attached on top .

It's a girl - emboss resist inspired by nature.

Today's card is in pink pirouette because Production run - baby number 6 is a girl ... I haven't seen her yet, no I lie, I have seen her photo - so gorgous, so new, so perfect and with dark hair.

I have kept this card very white and light in tone ... I was tempted to put a cocoa or black layer in there to contrast, but remembered it is a baby girl - she is supposed to be light and white and pure...

I think I am done with this combination ... but then there are more pregnant bellies out there...

Little Bundle of Joy - Baby card

It's a boy!!!

I am enjoying making baby cards at the moment ... a few of my friends are doing the 2nd, 5th or 6th baby production run at the moment. I was done after one, I am so glad other mothers can have babies for me to cuddle and welcome to the world ... I am loving this baja blue colour with Pacific point for boy cards ....

I would have no excuse to normally, indulge in backgronds that say - Adore, love, family, Together, cherish, hope, heartfelt... but for little babies.

This technique is called embossing resist - You stamp the background stamp on white cardstock.

You stamp a large stamp such as the grass from "Inspired by Nature" in VersaMark ink, sprinkle it with clear embossing powder, heat it ... then sponge the baja blue ink over the image.

The embossed image resists the ink and shows white, with the darker background stamp beneath. Just love the textured look and feel of this technique.

the little bundle of joy stamp is embossed in clear on white cardstock too. Then sponged to reveal the image ... A piece of Pacific point ribbon and its done. Now for the pink one ....