Quick Christmas tag

 Needing a quick christmas tag to hang off a gift I came up with this one.

1. Fold a piec of cardstock in half

2. Put the folded edge inside the two tags die and run it through your Big shot machine.

3. Voila! you have a tag card that opens and you can tie a piece of ribbon through the top to attach to a present.

This two tag set just amazes me with it's versatility.

I have decorated my tag with a punched circle of Not Quite Navy cardstock which I have embossed with the wreath from "Welcome Christmas" stampset.

Then, I stamped Merry Christmas from the Contempo stampset on to the Lots of  Tags die with some real red sponging. Just a little bit too easy I think! 

Glimmering Christmas ornaments

 Let me show you a new product fresh out of the Summer mini catalogue.
It is called Glimmer paper (it comes in silver and Red) but don't despair you can colour the silver glimmer any Stampin' up ink colour that you like....
Can you imagine that with a sponge, a dauber, or an aquapainter, an inkpad or a reinker bottle any of these will create glittery paper in any of the colours of your dreams.

 The photo above shows the original silver glimmer paper and the one below is sponged with Melon Mambo ink. Isn't it just gorgeous?

Hint: the more ink you apply the deeper the colour, and if you make it very inky - you can always dry it off with your heat gun.

 On this card I have sponged one of the ornaments with Concord crush ink and attached them both with dimensionals.

 I have tilted the card to the side so you can see this lovely glitter in the light - it's quite amazing!

For the rest of the card I have used my big shot for texture, the petals-a-plenty embossing folder, and a piece of square lattice embossed cardstock too.

The tag is from Lots of tags, some sponging, twine, and ruffled ribbon to complete.

Enjoy!!!

Every Moment gift box - water colour crayons and stazon ink

Ever have a project that is half done but just takes for ever to finish...

This little box is part of a project from the Regional training I went to last year. I finally watercoloured the little bird and made a tag for my gift box. 

 I have watercoloured this little bird using my water colour crayons.
The colours are soft suede, old olive, marina mist and Pacific point. I may have dabbed some Baja Breeze crayon in there too.
Water colouring with your aquapainter and water colour crayons is just the quickest way to colour in one of these line art images. No mess, no water dishes, no mixing paint or plastic pallettes.
I simply held the crayon in one hand and wiped my aquapainter brush tip over the crayon (to pick up the colour) and placed it on the paper, within the lines...
In watercolouring you can use layers of watercolour to build up several tones to the depth of colour you want.

 The tag is simply a rectangle of baja breeze cardstock with three corners rounded off with the "corner rounder" punch. Then I've placed a "lots of tags" shape in soft suede cardstock behind it.
The sentiment is from the Every moment stampset and i have stamped off the butterfly once to give a soft texture behind the black stazon words.

Notice that spattering of soft suede?

 It is meant to be there!

I learned a new trick the other day - you can get this effect with a spritzer tool,  

Or, you can hold your aqua painter a few centimetres away from the paper and flick ink ... I tapped the pen on my finger and let it splatter on the cardstock...

...just use a large piece of paper beneath you to catch any stray splatters.

Project Recipe:
Big shot, Fancy favour die, lots of tags sizzlit die.
Stampset: Every Moment $25.95 Clear. $31.95 wood. p72.
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Baja breeze, Soft Suede.
Ink: Stazon black, baja breeze.
Watercolour Wonder crayons: Brights (10) and
Neutrals (10) $37.95 p.142 (IB&C2011)
Ribbon: Old Olive grossgrain, Crop-a-dile (to punch holes), aquapainter pen (2 for $19.95), twine.

My little Lamb Scrapbook page

 I have been working on scrapbooking pages using products from the Summer mini catalogue and I showed you a sneak peek of this page in the middle of last month.
If you're new to scrapbooking and even if you're not, this presto paper makes scrapbooking fun and creative.
A scrap book page is usually made up with some standard elements:
A Title: It can be big. It can be small.
It can be stamped, hand written, printed, a sticker or (my personal favourite) die cut.
 Actually "My little Lamb" is both die cut and stamped.

My and Lamb are die cut using the Timeless type alphabet run through the Big shot machine.

And "little" is a word stamp from a sentiment that says something little ...

 Of course, a scrapbook page needs a background. Usually I use plain or textured cardstock but as I have been saying the "presto" paper is brilliant for sponging, spraying, brayering, painting, spattering, or spritzing ... all ways of adding ink and revealling the pattern beneath. There are 6 different patterns in a pack of 12 pages.

 As you can see I have high-lighted the leaves, buds and swirls with my aquapainter pen. You can do this with a water colour paint brush or blender pen. I've just picked up some Concord crush classic ink from the lid of the ink pad and painted it on the tips of the leaves letting it get lighter as the ink ran out. I kept painting and it picked up the already sponged Razzleberry and made it darker.
Cool: two - toning ink!

 Next, a scrapbook page needs some kind of embellishment.
Remember, MORE is LESS!  Sometimes I forget this.
I have used the Beautiful wings Embosslit die for these gorgeous butterflies.
The Big shot dry embosses the texture and die cuts the shape at the same time - seriously !
In the centre of the butterfly body is a half pearl - adding glamour and soft shine.

 Then, every page usually has some kind of journalling.
The most basic (which I like to employ) can be somebody else's words which fit the ocassion such as this stamp from "Always". When you have a lot to say you can use your own handrwriting (pesonal and individualised) or printed computer fonts for that neat typographical look.
My daughter says this to me ocasionally:
Mum, there is nothing more important than you and me and how we love each other. She warms my heart, she says it mostly when I am busy and it is her little reminder, telling me to slow down and enjoy the present moment.

The other type of journalling involves dates and names, the who, what, why and when, maybe how - usually covers it... how this came about, how you felt, how come you took this photo...

In order to keep the writing subdued I have stamped and hand-written the details on a die cut "lots of tags", sponged the edges of the white cardstock then overlayed a piece of velum cut in the same shape.

My journalling was handwritten with the concord crush classic ink marker.

A sneak peek "Presto-Paper"!

It is getting terribly close to December!
I bet you hate it when I say that.
But I 'm not talking about the 25th, no something much closer: because on the 1st of December
the new SUMMER mini catalogue is launched !!!!

Today I just want to share with you a really amazing new product that will be in the Summer mini.
If you scrapbook, or even if you don't you will want to try this...

 This paper comes white on white. No colour just a shiny image on top of a white background.
It is similar to clear embossing on white paper, so when you sponge, brayer, paint, spatter or spray ink onto the paper it takes the ink and hey "presto" the image is revealed.

 Because this image has lovely swirls and leaves I have been able to go back over it with my aquapainter (that's a fancy type of water colour brush) and pick out the details in Concord Crush and Rich Razzleberry.

Here is my scrapbook page that I made from it. The concord crush brings out the purple clothes my daughter was wearing when we visited a farm animal display at our local shops last July.

Wanted: Small comfortable venue to launch a Mini catalogue at.

Requirements: Home with single or multiple Flat surfaces (preferably Table with chairs around it) and 5-10 people who are willing to try new things and take home their creations.

A Hostess Gift from "Stamping Joy" guaranteed. Make it as big or small event as you like.

Every one goes in the draw to win a Lucky door prize.



In Sydney for a couple of days of relaxation and adventuring...

Long name for a scrapbook page ... .

 I still haven't quite worked out the difference between a photo album and a scrapbook yet,

but that's fine... I just have to learn to take less photos or take a less photogenic sweet child next time I go on holidays... 

The first Page shows gorgeous Jess getting aquainted with our hotel room at the Old Sydney Holiday Inn. It is an old converted wharehouse with heaps of character and lots of natural light in all the rooms and the huge atrium inside.

On the Roof top of the hotel is the swimming pool, spa and sauna... Jess took teddy with her for a bit of R&R while we checked out the city views. That's the harbour bridge and the Opera house to the right.

That sunshine in the middle of winter was beautiful, we could have hung around all day.

But, the city shops and sights were beckoning...

and we had to go adventuring:

Can you remember when you were a kid and found a sign with your name on it?

It didn't ever happen for me until I went to Nerida street, Chatswood.

But Jessie has a garden named after her!

We discovered the Jessie street garden in the city and she was over the moon.

Ok, the stamping is minimal on these pages... I have used the big shot Timeless type alphabet to do my titling (the set contains both upper and lower case alphabets) and the Lots of Tags die for the "a few days of relaxation..." The hearts are punched with my small heart punch - it makes a cute border with great contrast against the Pacific Point textured cardstock.

I think what I like about this alphabet is that it makes me think of a magezine font ... now all I have to do is come up with some better titles for my scrapbook pages.

Stampset: Frames with a flourish

Cardstock: Textured 12x12 Pacific Point and Kiwi kiss, whisper white smooth.

Ink: Basic Black Stazon and marker pen.

Another Stem silhouette card ... dressing it up and dressing it down.

I made a stepped up version of our stem silhouettes card ... that I showed you on Tuesday this week.

I've used the same stampset, Stem silhouettes with similar colours (including Melon Mambo) on a Going Grey cardstock base.

I extended the polka dot background down a bit further so I had room to tie my kiwi kiss silk ribbon bow and added the happy birthday on a Lots of tags sponged frame.

This 'tag' is made using a die cut from the BIG SHOT machine.

  ...  and here is a stepped - down version of the same card.

Which means I simply turned it into an almost one layer card (OK it's a two... maybe 3 layer card) but who's counting? It has less layers right?

Just to show what a variety of cards you can get from the same layout, stampset and colours.

I have to give credit for the layout of this card to Elizabeth B a fellow demonstrator who makes some lovely cards. Isn't it just the most simple gorgous card? and you could make it with other stampsets so easily too.