I call this Bag Mambo with bling

My friend Sophie came to visit last Friday and we made another of these handbag cards. This one is quite striking in Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberrry, white and green galore.

The bag is made from a Top note die that I cut out with my Big shot machine.

I love how it has the stitching around the edges.

The white layer is textured using the polka dot embossing folder.

The bag handle is a piece of Melon Mambo polka dot ribbon.

And, the clasp is made from two of the Boho Blossom punch flowers with a square fire brad in the centre for just a bit of bling.

We stamped the Vintage vogue flower randomly over the top note  in Rich razzleberry ink.

The sentiment says "Wish Big" and is from the short and sweet stampset.

Enjoy!!!

Nature's Nest - Turtle card

You may have seen this card layout before. It is a direct CASE (copy and share everything) from the one on page 17 of the Stampin' Up Summer mini. It  is a card with a conga line of turtles with layers of torn cardstock and the middle turtle is water coloured. As I have explained watercolouring can be dead easy if you emboss the image first. This one is embossed in gold. I have watercoloured with an aquapainter pen and outlined the image in sahara sand marker for shadow.

You just pick up the classic ink from inside of the lid of your ink pad and start at a point where you want the colour to be darkest. The longer you paint, the lighter the ink colour on your brush.
I have used both Old olive and kiwi kiss inks and some close to cocoa on his face and body.

For the background I just stamped the progression of turtles on whisper white cardstock. You can see what a crisp clean stamp impression you get using just old olive classic ink on the whisper white.
I have used a piece of tafetta ribbon in the gorgous chocolate chip and played with a couple of different button combinations before deciding on the single Old Olive button attached with a mini glue dot.

What you need to make this card:

Stampsets: Nature's Nest $39.95 Summer mini, Short and Sweet $29.95.

Cardstock: Whisper white, Chocolate chip, Kiwi Kiss.

Ink: Kiwi kiss, Old olive, Choc chip, close to Cocoa.

Other: Tafetta ribbon - Choc chip, Designer Buttons Bouquet, embossing powder - gold, heat tool, mini glue dots, Sahara sand Stampin' write marker.

Techniques used: heat embossing, water colouring, tearing.

Enjoy!!!

Twinkle, twinkle, little star...Do you know how loved you are?

This idea sketch (layout) is from the Elite Challenges Sketch challenge 19.

I made it with lots of purples: almost amethyst, lavender lace, elegant eggplant

and a small scrap of white cardstock to stamp the baby star image on.

I made it last night at the Tuesday night get together (Hi !).

This is a very easy sketch to use. Only 3 layers (you have to love that).

A circle punch to punch out the Twinkle Twinkle sentiment, a stampset, plus ribbon and buttons. Materials:

Stampset: In the stars. (the baby safety pin is from the short and sweet stampset), I weakened, I wanted it to look a bit more baby-boyish ;)

Cardstock: Elegant eggplant, lavender lace, almost amethyst, whisper white.

Ink: Elegant eggplant, almost amethyst.

Assorted rich regal, soft subtle buttons.

Elegant eggplant ribbon, Dimensional adhesive.

Earth Elements Scrapbooking

Here is a little 6"x6" scrapbooking page I made for a stamping workshop recently.
The photo is of my daughter and I (captioned "love you").
What makes this page so easy to make is there is very little stamping. The designer Series paper is from Ginger Blossom which uses ruby red, cameo coral, groovy guava and River rock colours. The textured cardstock picks up the Ruby red and the square scallop punch used for the photo corners is in Cameo coral cardstock. Which all blends together beautifully because they are from the same colour family: Earth elements.
The ribbon used is from the current Summer mini catalogue in chocolate chip grosgrain.
I just love this lush quality ribbon ... I think I am going to get another roll it seems to go with everything.
There are a couple of punches used: Large Oval, square scallop, scallop edge, circle.
The butterfly used is from the Level 2 Hostess stamp set: Cause for Celebration.
The other two stampsets are: short and sweet, and Think happy thoughts.
I have mounted the photo on very vanilla cardstock.

Dazzling bud basics.

Bud basics is a Two-step stamping set which means you stamp it once and then you overstamp with an outline stamp to get your finished image.

Of course you don't have to use them that way ...

I have stamped the pumpkin pie, creamy caramel and close to cocoa inks in the solid stamp then slightly overlapped the outline stamp in close to cocoa ... but the special part is the flower centres.

Simply a dimensional adhesive spot with dazzling diamonds glitter on top.

It is then wrapped and tied with some certainly celery wide grosgrain ribbon around the card and stamped with the thankyou greeting from short and sweet on the front.

I love how simple but special this card looks. I have given it to a bride and for a birthday and to say thanks for being kind to me ... changing the colours and ribbon to suit the occasion.

Embrace a Bali breeze Life ...

My stampin' up upline: Linda Higgins posed a challenge last week on her forum.

The challenge was to make a card inspired by a photo of a teenage bedroom with a close to cocoa wall, teal coloured bedspread with pink phone and throw cushion and a white bed head with lots of round circle patterns. I made this several days ago ... but with one thing and another didn't have a chance to photograph and upload it so, I am sharing with you now.

Materials:

Cardstock: Whisper white, Close to cocoa, Turquoise and Regal Rose. DS paper: Bali breeze, Scallop circle punch, scallop edge punch, circle punches, large oval. Ribbon: Regal rose wide grosgrain. Stampsets: Embrace life and Short and sweet. Ink: regal rose, Turquoise and close to cocoa. Other: Mat pack and scissors.

Welcome baby card.

This is a very quick card I have made for a new baby (my cousins first grandchild). You will have seen card designs similar to this all over the web.

I made this with an off cut of "Berry Bliss" DS double sided paper. I folded it in half, the inside is that soft pretty in pink that goes so nicely with close to cocoa and pomegranate.

To make the "dress" I cut a hole in the top of the card for the "neck" of the dress with the 1 1/4" circle punch. Then cut out two pink scallop circles.

I cut a hole in the first one and fitted that as a frill around the neck.

The second scallop I cut into the flower shape and stamped welcome baby on it.

Next, I cut out the two triangular side shapes to form the sleeves and skirt, then

Used the scallop-edge punch to shape the bottom of the dress.

Added a ribbon around the waist ... done.

You could do a few of these and always have one on stand by for those surprise births, christenings and even first birthday invitations that creep up on us all too often.

Elegant Season of Joy!

We only have one week left of the Spring Mini Catalogue, and thirty two days until Christmas, and 20 school days before the holidays , so I am posting a few of my favourite cards that you can make quickly and easily for Christmas.

I love elegant eggplant and silver, this one isn't even embossed, just flat silver ink using the Baroque motif swirl.

The Christmas tree and swirly dots are from Season of Joy stampset .... and it has the "hand stamped" star on the back (that you can't see).

The very merry sentiment is from short and sweet. The ribbon is SU elegant eggplant grosgrain and the edges of the confetti white cardstock are distressed and matted onto always artichoke.

This would look very nice with Old olive cardstock too ;) .

Gold Season of Joy!

Its bold, its shiny, its embossed and I haven't posted this card yet, so here it is!

As the Old olive cardstock is available again, I can safely say give this card a go.

The background snowflake is from the "short and sweet" stampset and is stamped in old olive ink. The Christmas tree is inked with versamark and embossed with gold embossing powder on cream cardstock and the same with the "Season of Joy" swirls on the strip at the bottom.

The edges of the cream have been swiped across the old olive inkpad to give a smudged green edge.

The tree is matted with Pomegranate cardstock and the ribbon is pomegranate stitched ribbon.

At the top I have punched the slit punch to hold a gold brad (and later I also added a piece of gold cord as a bow). But I added that after the photos were taken so you will just have to imagine just how good it looked.

Lovely as a tree with a fold out insert

In case you haven't noticed, I really like the Lovely as a tree set. At this time of year it says Christmas and other times it says Autumn, or spring ...

This card is an almost direct CASE (copy and share everything) from Felicity H. I have only changed her colours and added and subtracted the type of matting to the front. But as it is a fold out card, I love surprises ... I had to try it for myself. This is the front cover.

Difficult to show you the whole card in its entirety. So I will show it as a series of pictures. I have used Wild wasabi, Purely pomegranate and confetti white cardstock. I have stamped the background trees in mellow moss and the foreground tree in Always artichoke. The 2-way glue pen was used to hold the dazzling diamond glitter on the leaves.

This is how it looks when its opened out flat.

The centre panel is very vanilla cardstock with the Lovely as a tree stampset: using the rock and roll technique in mellow moss and always artichoke ink.

Here it is standing up (on an odd angle but that's the wide angle lens on my camera) not my photography, really!

That's it for today's post ...

Very Merry masked bauble gift card holder.

A Bit of an odd title but that is the readers digest description for this card.

I haven't made a christmas bauble card yet so this is my attempt.

Cardstock used is: Always artichoke and Very vanilla.

Ink: Almost amethyst, Elegant eggplant, Perfect plum, Rose Red (inside).

Ribbon: Elegant eggplant

When closed the ribbon bow keeps the card shut by overlapping the scalloped edge (which I have made with the corner rounder with the guard removed). The bauble was masked by punching out a 2" (that's 5 cm) circle from a piece of scrap paper. Then sponged with almost amethyst ink, then perfect plum and with the mask still in place the swirls from "Season of Joy" stampset were placed over the sponging. I swiped my amethyst ink pad around the vanilla cardstock to soften the edges.

This piece of cardstock is adhered to the front panel of the artichoke and folded back in, out of sight. When you open the card you can see the stamped greeting Merry Christmas (this is where you could write your own message) and ...

when you open it up further you can see the gift card envelope stamped with the "short and sweet" very merry stamp and Merry christmas on the folded envelope (I have used the love notes envelope).

You could use it to hold a gift card, or cash, or voucher, or tickets.

I have a little thing for flippy flap fold out type cards at the moment. I will show you another one later.

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 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.

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.

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.