Merry Owl

I saw this cute sketch over at retro sketches this week and decided it would work wonderfully for using up all those little scraps of Christmas paper I have stashed away.



I broke out my trusty owl punch again to make a cute Christmas card. This is another card for my Christmas card making day with friends this weekend :)




Ingredients :
Stamps : Occasional greetings, Tags til Christmas
Card : vanilla, espresso, lime aid, peach, crumb cake, naturals ivory, SU dsp
Ink : espresso, cherry
Other : owl punch, pearls, big shot, woodgrain ef


Kathy

Pumpkin Romance

 

There is a gorgeous colour combo at ColourQ this week and I thought I would use it to make a Mother’s Day card.

This is one of those occasions where the card looks much nicer in person (you’ll have to trust me)!  I used shimmery white, which looks very pretty in real life and the pumpkin flowers look prettier too but I couldn’t quite capture the colours well enough.

 

 

All the stamps on this card are retiring, which is very sad.  I didn’t buy the Bordering on Romance set straight away, but I love it now.  It is lots of fun to colour and it always looks pretty.  I have only just bought Distressed Dots and if you follow my blog you may have noticed that I’ve used it on the last 3 cards I’ve made.  I wish I’d bought it sooner!  I especially love it on the crumbcake. And the sentiment is from a set that has been retired for a few years now I think.  But it’s kind of current again because you can get it in MDS.  That’s one of the great things about that program, because there are some great older sets (as well as new ones) that you can buy now and just print them out and use them on a card.

Ingredients :

Stamps : Bordering on romance, distressed dots, occasional greetings

Card : shimmery white, crumb cake, watercolour paper

Ink : stazon, crumb cake, markers (pumpkin, melon mambo, lucky limeade)

Other : blender pen, vintage faceted button, linen thread, pearls

 

I coloured the pumpkin flowers by using markers and a blender pen on watercolour paper.  I then cut them out and used dimensionals to give them some height.  The rest are stamped and coloured on shimmery white.

 

Kathy

Poinsettia Peace

 

At Just Add Ink this week we have a different kind of challenge.

It is to CASE a member of the JAI team.  For this month it’s Tania Gould we’re casing, but I think we’ll all get a go at being cased eventually.

I had a lot of fun looking through Tania’s blog.  I saw this pretty card and really liked the layout of it so I decided to CASE it.

I’d say you could try to copy a persons “stamping style” or perhaps their favourite colours or embellishments when casing someone.

But I decided to use the same layout as this card. I also used the pearls and ribbon in the same way and used a flower in the same way too, yet I have created something with a very different look.

I have changed Tania’s pretty pink flower card into a “vintagey” Christmas card.

 

 

I still have a lot more Christmas cards to make (even though we are into December now) and I had seen a beautiful card with a poinsettia made like this one here and so this was a great opportunity to try it out.  I have changed mine a little because I stamped it using frost white shimmer paint instead of ink. 

The flower is made by stamping and cutting a leaf from French Foliage and then using mini glue dots and dimensionals to construct it.

The embossed piece is river rock with soft suede brayered on to the folder before running it through the big shot.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : French foliage, occasional greetings

Card : suede, river rock, vanilla, cherry cobbler

Ink : suede, crumb cake, frost white shimmer paint, versamark

Other : vintage wallpaper ef, big shot, pearls, lace, vanilla taffeta, clear ep.

 

I hope you’ll give this challenge a try too.  I’m sure you’ll enjoy looking through Tania’s blog to find something you’d like to case!

 

Kathy

Lovely wisteria trees

 

This is another one of the cards we made at the Christmas stamp-a-stack I held.

 

It is using my new Lovely as a Tree set again and this tree is gorgeous too.

This is not an original idea.  I always have a look at the stampin up galleries on splitcoaststampers when I buy a new set to get some inspiration and to see different ways people have used it. Well this general idea has been done by a lot of people so I’m not sure who originally thought of it to give them credit but I’m pretty sure I’m the only person to have made this card in wisteria wonder at least!

Ingredients :

Stamps : lovely as a tree, occasional greetings

Card : black, white, wisteria wonder

Ink : wisteria, stazon

Other : wisteria ribbon, wide oval punch, big shot, lots of tags

 

This card is very easy to make but still looks beautiful.  The ladies at the stamp-a-stack really liked this one and they liked the colour a lot too.

 

Kathy

Reindeer Tag

This week at Just Add Ink we have a wonderful photo to inspire us.


I took inspiration from the gorgeous colours and the trees to create this Christmas card.



For the tag, I brayered on more mustard and then cherry cobbler at the top and baja at the bottom. 
I then used Not Quite Navy to sponge around the edges.
The deer is stamped in stazon and I white embossed the snowflakes from the Confetti set.
The ribbon for the tag is Cherry cobbler seam binding which has been frayed a bit at the top.  It looks gorgeous, I think that is my favourite of all my ribbons at the moment (Oh and I have a lot to choose from! :)  The bow for the button is linen thread which I have coloured with NQN ink.
Can you believe this is my first card using Lovely as a Tree?  I got it for my birthday and now that I’ve used it I don’t know why I didn’t buy it years ago. It is a really beautiful set!

Ingredients :
Stamps : Lovely as a Tree, Winter Post, Occasional Greetings, Confetti
Card : white, NQN, black
Ink : stazon, versamark, baja, NQN, mustard, cherry
Other : big shot, wallpaper ef, subtles button, linen thread, white embossing powder, cherry seam binding

The design team have created some really gorgeous cards this week.  Please take a look and let this photo inspire you to make a beautiful card too.

Kathy

Peaceful Star

This is another card made for the Splitcoast Stampers Creative Crew challenge.
 CCREW0711DF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM -- DSP/Color Focus: Show us what you can do with the In Colors! You can use other colors, but In Colors should be the main focus of your project.

I decided to use Pear Pizzazz and Poppy Parade and see if I could come up with an interesting Christmas card.


This is called a  Star Card.  Delys made a lovely one for the JAI Fancy Folds blog hop and she has instructions on her blog if you’d like to try to make one.

I also used the cropadile to punch a little hole in the top and I used a button and linen thread to make a little loop so that the star could be hung somewhere.

Ingredients:
Stamps : Occasional greetings
Card : sahara sand, white, pear pizzazz, poppy parade, in colour dsp stack
Ink : stazon, cherry cobbler, old olive
Other : gold brads, 5 petal punch, nesties, button, linen thread

This is how the card looks when you open it up.


I just left the centre triangle plain to write a message.  I thought I might give it to one of the girls teachers for Christmas. My youngest has a male teacher this year and I think the fold would appeal to him although perhaps the poinsettia on it is a bit too “girly”?

Kathy

Fancy Folds Blog Hop JAI 74

 

MULTI-FLAP CARD WITH POCKET

Wow!  My first ever blog hop! How exciting!  I hope you enjoyed seeing Jo’s Tri-fold (Z-shape) card and are keen to see another fancy fold.  I decided to try something new, it’s called a Multi-flap card with pocket and I LOVE IT!

I think the only problem with it is that it’s a bit hard to photograph.  But anyway this is the front of the card.

 

Then when you undo the beautiful satin bow and open the front flaps, this is what you see.

Then it opens upwards to reveal this.

Close-up of top panel.

 

I saw a tutorial for this fold here and I loved the look of it and wanted to give it a try.  I made a card (which I will show you later on this week) following these directions but I found that it used 12”x12”cardstock and it was too big to fit in the Stampin Up square envelopes.  So I changed it a little to make this one slightly smaller.

Here are my new dimensions:

Cut card 25 x 20 cm.

Score at 12.5 cm on both the short and long sides.

Cut 26.5cm x 7 cm card.

Score at 4, 4.5, 17 and 17.5 cm

I cut the dsp at these sizes:

26.5 x 6.5 cm

(3x) 12 x 12 cm

6.5 x 8.75 cm.

6.5 x 3.5 cm

12 x 7 cm

All other instructions are the same as given by Maria in the tutorial.

 

Inside the little pocket is a plain card to write your message.  I also put a dot of tombow mono multi on the back of a gift card, let it dry and then stuck it onto the back of this plain card.  A great way to send a gift card to someone special.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Occasional greetings, because I care, vintage vogue

Card : neutrals dsp stack, vanilla,espresso, crumbcake

Ink : espresso, crumbcake

Other : big shot, beautiful wings, scallop square, antique brad, neutral brad, pearls, vanilla satin ribbon, sticky strip

 

Thanks for looking at my card and I hope you’ll give the multi-flap card with pocket a try. 

Please click on the link to go to the next blog in our hop where you’ll see Patrice’s gorgeous fancy fold card.

Kathy

Peaceful mistake

Wow!  I just won another challenge, can you believe it?  It was from SU-Only Challenges for my Joy card.  I feel so honoured to have been chosen in their Top 3.  I’m lucky they don’t give awards for how many cards you make, just whether they’re nice or not!
This is another super quick and easy card I made using the Petals a plenty embossing folder.


I’d say it’s the ribbon that kind of “makes” this card. The stripy ribbon looks very nice “ruffled”.  All you have to do to get this ribbon effect is to put sticky strip on your card and then kind of make little mountains with the ribbon and push the ribbon down onto the tape to make the valleys. I hope that description made sense.
Ingredients :
Stamps : Occasional greetings
Card : whisper white, shimmer white, real red, old olive
Ink : stazon
Other : big shot, petals a plenty embossing folder, real red ribbon, dimensionals, clear embossing powder, sticky strip

The poinsettia background has the slightest hint of pink on it. It was from playing with my brayer on the last poinsettia card, I tried it again (so a third time with cherry cobbler) but I thought it was too pale. So I left it but didn’t throw it out because it did still look pretty and I used it to make this card.
So this one is a “making something good from a mistake” card.  It’s great when that happens.    
Kathy                

Dreaming of a white Christmas

I must really be dreaming of a white Christmas with all these skaters and snow flakes on my cards this year.  It has snowed in Hobart on Christmas day a couple of times but just on Mount Wellington I think, not actually in Hobart exactly. So it is extremely unlikely.  Even that is amazing though, when most of Australia would be in the 30 – 40C. range on Christmas day.  Someone in our local government even suggested Hobart build an outdoor skating rink, how fantastic would that be!!! (Not that I’ve ever skated in my life and probably never will, but my kids would love it).
I think snow would just add even more to the “magic” of Christmas.  Although I remember my Dad saying that I only wanted it to snow because I’d never had it, that it’s just dirty and cold and you have to shovel it off the path all the time. He grew up in Ireland and obviously didn’t appreciate snow and instead really enjoyed our hot Christmas in Australia.  I’d like to keep imagining that it is beautiful and magical though, so I will. 
Anyway back to Christmas card making……… this one uses another wonderful sketch from Stamping 411. It is this weeks challenge and there are a lot of beautiful samples to admire.



Ingredients :
Stamps : Occasional greetings, winter post
Card : black, confetti white, white, baja breeze, retired dsp
Ink : stazon, frost white shimmer paint
Other : pearls, hodgepodge hardware, photo corner punch, mat pack, piercer, whit pen, scallop trim border punch, organza ribbon, clear embossing powder

I managed to capture the shimmer paint a bit better with this photo.  You can see at the top of the main image how its shimmery and shiny, or looks darker (like the bottom of the piece) depending on how the light hits it.  I used stazon for the words but also clear embossed it, so it really stands out.
Wishing you a magical Christmas, no matter the weather.
Kathy

2nd challenge card

I got some great news about my metal petal card last week. It was one of the top picks at Stamping 411!  I was so excited!!!!  So now I have 2 little awards for my cards in the side bar.  Woo hoo!
Okay, back to business!  I have already entered the challenge at Just Add Ink this week but I have been trying to come up with some more Christmas card ideas and I decided to use their sketch again, because it’s a great one.
I have used something from the new summer mini catalogue (starts Dec. 1) on this card.  It’s a new embossing folder called Square Lattice and I really like it. Perhaps because I used crumb cake, it looks a lot like I have hessian or something behind the images.  I think I will be using this folder a lot.
This card is very Clean and Simple and has no ribbon or bling (can you believe it!) So it would be a great one for posting.



Ingredients : 
Stamps :  Winter Post, Occasional Greetings, Sanded
Card :  not quite navy, very vanilla, crumb cake, naturals ivory
Ink :  not quite navy, crumb cake
Other : big shot, square lattice embossing folder, square punch

Make sure you check back here December 1 for a link to the new mini catalogue and there is also a great December sale that I’ll let you know about.  Perhaps you could buy yourself a Christmas present!
Kathy

Metal Petals

I decided to try the faux tin metal ceiling technique again to make another Christmas card.  I used the Petals a plenty embossing folder this time, which gives it a very different look.
I used another great sketch challenge from Stamping 411 for this card.  Their design team have made some beautiful cards using this sketch, follow the link and be inspired.  I have actually “flipped” the sketch for mine, because with the elements I wanted to use it just worked better that way.



I used my poinsettia flower again, but this time I used rhinestones in the centre rather than the brads and I put a lot more shimmer paint on it.  The whole card looks so silvery and shiny; it’s pretty.
Well I think I’m up to 6 Christmas cards now (ha, ha) ……. slow aren’t I!
Kathy

Ingredients :
Stamps :  Occasional greetings
Card : black, white, confetti white, old olive, cherry cobbler
Ink  :  stazon, versamark
Other : silver embossing powder, petals a plenty embossing folder, big shot, 5 petal punch, rhinestones, heat gun, bone folder, mistletoe ribbon, scallop trim border punch, frost white shimmer paint, square punch

Another Dasher card

I have been looking at a few sites to challenge myself to make more Christmas cards.
It has been working!  I have about 4 now (ha ha).  I think I’d better hurry up and start mass producing a few!
I got the sketch for this card from Stamping 411.  It is another great, simple design, you should check out their site for challenges and helpful tutorials.
I was also inspired by a new site Inkspirations challenges.  Their challenge was a colour challenge, to use Real red, Old olive, kraft (crumb cake) and white.  Their design team are SO talented, you should check out their work!
I decided to combine both these challenges to make my Dasher card.



Ingredients :
Stamps : confetti, occasional greetings, dasher, winter post
Card : kraft (crumb cake), real red, old olive, whisper white
Ink :  crumb cake, versamark
Other : white embossing powder, clear embossing powder, old olive dsp (retired), ribbon (misteltoe), build a brad, circle punch

I clear embossed the little “snowflake” stamp from the confetti set on the real red (it hasn’t shown well in the photo but looks very pretty) and clear embossed dasher too. I embossed the saying in white.
Hope you’ve managed to make a few more Christmas card than me!
Kathy

Christmas present

This is another one of the pull-up cards I’ve made, this time it’s a Christmas one.
I changed this one a little so that I could include a gift card with it.
I have a lot of nieces and nephews who live interstate and a gift card at Christmas time is the way to go.


When you pull the top:


The back of the “pull-up” bit:


Ingredients:
Stamps: winter post, occasional greetings
Card : retired dsp, real red, white
Ink : real red
Other : cropadile, ribbon, designer label punch

Black magic challenge

 

 

The challenge at Just Add Ink this week is a colour challenge.

You needed to use bashful blue, sahara sand, blushing bride and pear pizzazz.

These colours do look very pretty together and it’s great to be challenged to use different colour combinations.

Watercolour pencils are not exact Stampin’ Up colours but the green I used for the swirly leaves is extremely close to the pear pizzazz colour.

There was also a great sketch challenge at Stamping411 this week and I decided to combine the two. So it is a double challenge with a black magic twist.

I still didn’t challenge myself to do the black magic technique on something other than a flower BUT I thought I had enough challenges for one day!

 

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Elements of Style, All a flutter, Occasional greetings

Card : Bashful blue, sahara sand, black, white, blushing bride, vellum cardstock

Ink : stazon, white craft, bashful blue and choc chip marker for butterfly

Other : big shot, finial press folder, white pen, bashful blue taffeta ribbon, hodgepodge hardware, watercolour pencils,

one sheet wonder

I had a look at the challenge on Just Add Ink this week and it was a great sketch challenge. I decided to make a one sheet wonder using one of my new sets Awash with Flowers and use that on my challenge card.

Instead of ribbon, as in the sketch, I used my scallop edge punch to create a “ribbon-like” accent and used the new Stampin’ Up! pearls on the scallops and also on the flower centres. They really added that “special something” to the card.
I also tried out the new blue, Marina Mist, and it is a really lovely colour.
I am going to make a series of cards using the rest of the one sheet wonder to give to my daughter’s violin teacher and accompanist. The Clarence Eisteddfod is on very soon and I always like to give them a little present for their help when music exams and eisteddfods are on.  Hopefully they will like them. I will show you the other cards I come up with during the week.
Ingredients :
Stamps : Awash with flowers, Occasional greetings
Ink : Early espresso, Marina mist, regal rose, pip, bashful blue, wasabi
Card : early espresso, whisper white
Other : Scallop edge border punch, pearls

Father’s Day card

I have used the Just Add Ink sketch challenge for some Father’s Day card making inspiration.
I do have trouble making cards for men (probably most of us do) but I am happy with how this one turned out.
I have had the background piece ready to be used for something for a while now.  It was a technique I saw on Jan Tink’s blog once, but I can’t remember what it’s called unfortunately. I can’t find it again on her site but if you haven’t ever visited Jan’s blog before, you absolutely must.  It’s one of my most favourite blogs, she is very creative, talented AND funny.
Anyway, what you do is get some dsp (I hope I’ve educated you enough to know what that is now) that has a diagonal stripe. You then cut strips of it 3/4 “ wide and alternate them, so that you get the zigzag pattern.  It looks very cool I think.

Ingredients:
Stamps : Occasional Greetings
Card : Kraft (crumb cake), always artichoke, vanilla, retired dsp
Ink : Always artichoke
Other : Linen thread

Just a reminder too that the new Stampin’ Up! catalogue is out now.
I’m still waiting on my HUGE order to be delivered and then I’ll have some new stuff to show you.
There’s a link to the online catalogue on the right-hand side of my blog.  If you don’t have a catalogue yet, take a look, there’s some beautiful new stuff inside!
Hope you have a great weekend.

First ever blog post!

Hi,

I have decided to start a blog, where I can show you some of my cards and let you know what’s going on in the world of Stampin’ Up!

I might talk about what is happening in the rest of my world too, but primarily this is my Stampin’ Up! sharing place.

I would love to get feedback on my cards, so please leave me a message if you like them.
Also if you need any card making advice just ask.  I’d love to help if I can.

I will try to post a new blog entry every few days, but I’m sure you understand that “other stuff” gets in the way of creativity sometimes. Anyway that’s my aim.



This card is one that I’ve made for my Mum for her birthday.  I am actually making her a stack of different, but similar cards and putting them in a box for her to keep them in and use all year round.

It is called a Quilt card and it is a great way to use up your scraps of patterned paper, or dsp as us Stampin’ Up demos call it (designer series paper). I have made about 6 so far, some are bright and some more subtle.  I have enjoyed putting my scraps to good use though, (I’ve been hoarding them for a while).  It’s fun trying to get all the little squares in a pattern or colourway that you’re happy with, probably just like quilting but a lot less time consuming!  Anyway I’m happy with how they turned out plus my Mum is a quilter so I’m really hoping they will appeal to her. I am giving her a gift card to spend at a quilting shop to go along with them. I might show you a couple more later this week.

It’s been great having so many beautiful Stampin’ Up! sentiment stamps to use because I’ve been able to make her cards for lots of different occasions.  The design is the same for all of them, I just had to change the colours and sentiments.

I got the colours for this card from this weeks colour challenge on Just Add Ink.  You had to use Chocolate Chip, Kraft (aka Crumb Cake) and Real Red. I don’t think I’ve used these 3 colours together before and I thought I could give them a try on one of Mum’s cards.  I was happy with how it turned out.

If you look really hard at this card you may notice something new that Stampin’ Up! will be selling in the new catalogue (starting Sept. 1).  It’s the red backing piece, so you can’t see that much of it but it’s a new embossing folder for the Big Shot called Vintage Wallpaper. It’s absolutely stunning and you kind of feel bad covering it up at all really. (It looks even better in real life of course because you can really see the dimension it gives to the card).

I have just received copies of the new catalogue and there are so many beautiful things in it.  If you’re in one of my clubs you will get your free copy very soon.  If not, why not host a party and receive a free copy, plus all the other hostess benefits? Contact me if you’d like to find out more.

I hope you get some time to do some stamping this week too!

Kathy

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Occasional Greetings
Ink: Real Red, Choc Chip markers. (Choc chip pad and daubers for sponging).
Paper: Real Red, Choc Chip, Very Vanilla, Bella Bleu (for Kraft element of challenge)and retired choc chip xmas  dsp.
Big Shot Top Note die and vintage wallpaper e.f., large square punch, Red button, mat pack.