Autumn moves into winter

Autumn Days is also perfect for Winter Days – ie, Christmas. The lovely pinecone image was inked here with markers (Chocolate Chip and Always Artichoke) and stamped on a piece of Very Vanilla. Then I stamped Merry Christmas in Ruby Red and sponged around the edges of the cardstock with chalks. The rest is made from scraps – hence the rather excessive use of the Scallop Edge Punch!

Stamps: Autumn Days, Season of Joy
Cardstock: Ruby Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Ink: Ruby Red
Accessories: Chocolate Chip and Always Artichoke markers, Scallop Edge Punch, Stampin’ Pastels, sponge daubers

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Chalked oak tree

Here’s another card from the Masculine Cards Workshop. Lovely as a Tree – as well as being a beautiful stamp set – is perfect for masculine cards. Here we stamped it in Versamark® and then used the Poppin’ Pastels technique to colour the image with chalks. Very easy and very effective.

The Designer Series Paper is from the Ski Slope collection, which is actually a Christmas collection but I thought the tiny leaves on this piece were perfect for the theme.

I love this colour scheme – I first saw it in a very old Stampin’ Up! catalogue from Canada and fell in love with it. I keep forgetting to use it but remembered just in time.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Basic Phrases
Cardstock: Ruby Red, Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Paper: Ski Slope
Ink: Versamark, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Vintage brads, Stampin’ Pastels, sponge daubers

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Yummy cakes

This card is a blatant CASE of a card from another Stampin’ Up! demonstrator called Melanie. She took part in a swap I held earlier this year and made the cute cake stand card in this photo. I love the Z fold and have never thought to do one before. I love the way Melanie cut out a separate cake and popped it up on a Circle of Friendship but I was concerned about time restraints (this was the third card at my Monthly Monday Workshop) so swapped that element for a felt flower and some ribbon.

This was from the blender pens workshop and we coloured this image using blender pens and Stampin’ Pastels. The cardstock is So Saffron but I discovered that the So Saffron chalk didn’t work so well on the cake icing, so used Barely Banana instead. One of the ladies gave her cakes pale pink icing, too, which looked fab – wish I’d thought of that!

The Z fold is really easy – just fold your piece of A5 cardstock as normal, then score the front vertically at the halfway point and fold it back on itself. The cake image is stuck on the front (folded back) piece which really makes it stand out when the card is standing up.

Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes
Cardstock: So Saffron, Rose Red, Whisper White
Paper: Patterns Designer Series Paper - Bashful Blue
Ink: Basic Gray
Accessories: Blender pens, Stampin’ Pastels, Flower Fusion felt flowers, silver brads, pale blue gingham ribbon

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Oh Christmas Tree...

Ooh, I’d better cram in some Christmas projects before it’s too late! Here’s a variation on this year’s favourite; the Lovely as a Tree moon card. This time I used Ruby Red as the base and stamped the background stamp En Francais on top. I stamped it in Real Red but only because it was already out and I was too lazy to dig out the Ruby Red.

I masked the moon with a circle of Post-it note and chalked the background, before stamping on top with Night of Navy and adding glitter, which you probably can’t see.

The edge is made with the very wonderful Scallop Edge Punch.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, En Francais
Cardstock: Ruby Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Ink: Night of Navy, Real Red
Accessories: Stampin’ Glitter, Stampin’ Pastels®, Scallop Edge Punch, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon – Night of Navy

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

First taste of chocolate

Last night’s Chocolate Night was a great success – although the lady who came to lock up the hall would probably disagree as we over-ran by an hour. Oops.

We made four projects; two cards and two 3D items. Everything was made in Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel and Very Vanilla – the most delicious of all the Stampin’ Up!® colours!

This is the card that inspired my little pink notebook of the other day. It’s actually quite a time-consuming card to make, as we soon discovered!

Just to recap, we stamped the image twice – once on Very Vanilla, and once on Designer Series Paper. On my sample you can see the retired Prints Designer Series Papers in Close to Cocoa. On the night we used a similar spotted design from the new Patterns Designer Series Papers in Chocolate Chip.

We coloured the icing using my brand new Watercolour Wonder™ crayons. I love these and they were first on my list when I earned £100 of Stampin’ Up! freebies recently. I’ll show you more of my new goodies over the coming weeks.

To colour the icing, we just “scribbled” a little with the crayons, around the edges of the image, then blended the colour using a blender pen.

We decided the finishing touch was probably a Malteser – created using a ½” circle punch, with a swish of the white gel pen to create some reflection.

Finally, we added glitter on the sprinkles – just to “girly it up” a bit!

Oh, and the Vanilla cardstock is dirtied around the edges with Stampin’ Pastels, using sponge daubers.

Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes
Cardstock: Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Paper: Prints Designer Series Papers – Close to Cocoa
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: ½” circle punch, Stampin’ Glitter, Stampin’ Pastels, sponge daubers

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Christmassy tree

I’m loving the masked moon behind this gorgeous tree. I got the idea from one of my downlines, Tracey, at the Papercraft Show in Derby and I’m afraid I’ve been exploiting it ever since!

What's so great about the Lovely as a Tree stamp set is that it's so versatile. You can use it all year round for birthdays, thank yous, etc - even those difficult cards for men! - and then wheel it out again in December for elegant Christmas cards. 

This is a really simple card which I demoed at a workshop earlier this week. Again, it uses the masking technique.

To create the moon, use any reasonably large (1” or more) circle punch to punch out a sticky note, then stick it to your cardstock. Using sponge daubers, chalk around the circle to create a night sky. You only need to chalk halfway down your piece of cardstock.

Then remove your circular mask to reveal the moon. Stamp your tree on top using Night of Navy ink and you’re almost done.

To make it more Christmassy, use a glue pen at various points on the branches and add some glitter.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree
Cardstock: Real Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Ink: Night of Navy
Accessories: Stampin’ Pastels®, Sponge Daubers, 1 ¼” circle punch, Stampin’ Glitter

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Little Snowy Christmas

I have a workshop tonight where several of the guests will be non-stampers, so I have the challenge of keeping the projects simple enough not to overwhelm the newbies, with some techniques thrown in to keep the seasoned stampers interested. Hmmm….

This will be one of my demonstrations. I want to show the newbies that you can make cute Christmas cards for very little outlay – just by stamping in black, using a very small stamp set and colouring in the image.

You can step it up some more, like I did here, with a simple masking technique.

Stamp your image on cardstock as normal. Then stamp it again (you don’t even need to reink) on to some scrap paper and cut it out to create a mask. If you’re planning to make a lot of these, I’d sacrifice some cardstock to make a sturdier mask.

Use some temporary adhesive to attach your mask to your image stamped on cardstock, then chalk around it to create a blue sky.

Remove the mask and colour in the scarf and buttons with a red marker. Then, if you like, you can add a snow line with a black marker.

For extra detail, I punched out the image using the new Scallop Square Punch and mounted it on a square of Night of Navy.

Hmmm… but I’m thinking this would look nice stamped straight on to a white card blank, to keep it really simple. Will probably have a go at that one day…

Stamps: Happy Winter, Basic Phrases
Cardstock: Real Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Stampin’ Pastels®, Sponge Daubers, Stampin’ Writer markers (Basic Black and Real Red)

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Trees by moonlight

This is a variation on a card my downline, Tracey, was demoing at the Papercraft Show. It’s such a cool idea. She punched a circle from a sticky note then attached it to a piece of cardstock. Next you chalk the top half of the background using Stampin’ Pastels and sponge daubers. Remove the sticky note circle to reveal a spooky moon.

Finally, stamp on top to create an atmospheric silhouette effect.

Tracey made a lovely Christmas card using Night of Navy and glitter – but I didn’t have the right ink pads so improvised with this birthday card. I love it (I really should stop saying that about my own cards!) and plan to demo it at this month’s workshops.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Daily Flexible Phrases
Cardstock: Bordering Blue, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Paper: Brocade Background
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Stampin’ Pastels, Sponge Daubers, Round Tab Punch, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Chocolate Chip

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

On the second day of Christmas...

This is the second of the Christmas cards we made on Saturday. We made this by stamping the image in Basic Black then, allowing it to dry (ahem, learned that one the hard way!), sponging chalk over the background. The details were added with a marker.

The card base is Ballet Blue although, on the day, we used Brocade Blue which I preferred as it was gentler. The top half of the card and the greeting were stamped using The Snowflake Spot and Versamark.

There’s a secret hole in the Night of Navy layer behind the Real Red layer – this makes the ribbon possible.

Then it was just a simple case of layering.

Stamps: A Tree for All Seasons (p44), The Snowflake Spot (p30)
Cardstock: Ballet Blue, Real Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, Versamark®
Accessories: Stampin’ Pastels (p82), Red Gingham ribbon (p86)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Pastel oak

It’s not a brilliant photo but I don’t have time to take another, I’m afraid. As you can see, I’m still playing with my Crop-A-Dile™, which makes setting eyelets so easy, even these jumbo ones.

The image is coloured using Stampin’ Pastels® on top of Versamark® - the poppin’ pastels technique, which you can read about here. It’s an easy way of getting more than one colour onto an image. The background is stamped with Versamark®, there’s a little bit of direct-to-paper around the edges of the Very Vanilla layer and sparing use of my new Linen Thread, too.

Stamps: Lovely As a Tree (p37)
Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla
Ink: Versamark®, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Jumbo eyelets (p85), sponge daubers (p81), Stampin’ Pastels® (p82), Linen Thread (p87)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Elephants never forget

They say elephants never forget but I do and I completely forgot where I put this card after making it last weekend. I looked everywhere but it’s so tiny I couldn’t find it. Finally it turned up!

The elephant is stamped in Versamark® and chalked. The flower is stamped conventionally, using Old Olive ink and the Stamp-a-ma-jig® for positioning (click here for tutorial).

To make the scalloped edge, I very carefully removed the black plastic guard from my corner rounder and then punched slowly along the edge of the Designer Paper. I won’t claim that it was easy but perhaps it gets easier with practice!

Stamps: Wild About You (p32)
Cardstock: Brocade Blue, Whisper White
Ink: Versamark®, Old Olive
Accessories: Home Again Simply Scrappin’® kit (p16), Stampin’ Pastels® (p82), Stamp-a-ma-jig® (p81)

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...and here's the other one

I couldn't get Blogger to load this yesterday so you've had to wait, I'm afraid. As you can see, the card uses exactly the same pieces of cardstock and ribbon as yesterday's giraffe sample; I've just switched them around a bit. 

Stamps: Polka Dots & Paisley (p51) 
Cardstock: Old Olive, More Mustard, Ruby Red, Very Vanilla
Ink: Versamark®
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon – Always Artichoke (p86), Round Tab Punch (p80), Circle Rhinestone brads – Fire (p85), Stampin’ Pastels® (p82), sponge daubers (p81), 1/16” hand-held circle punch (p80)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

I'm back!

Sorry about the gap. A combination of work, Stampin' Up! workshop and visitors meant that blogging was simply not possible.

Anyway, this was the Make and Take at Friday’s workshop. The hostess wanted to see the Popping Pastels technique (click here for details) and, as it’s really fun to do, I was more than happy to oblige.

I demonstrated the Wild About You stamp set as all of the guests had children. But, just in case they didn’t want to make a children’s card, I showed them how exactly the same pack of prepared cardstock and accessories could be used to make a different card, using the Polka Dots & Paisley stamp set. Unfortunately, Blogger won't load this card at the moment - I will try again later. 

Stamps: Wild About You (p32) 
Cardstock: Old Olive, More Mustard, Ruby Red, Very Vanilla
Ink: Versamark®
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon – Always Artichoke (p86), Round Tab Punch (p80), Circle Rhinestone brads – Fire (p85), Stampin’ Pastels® (p82), sponge daubers (p81), 1/16” hand-held circle punch (p80)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Little birds

Look! No Home Again Simply Scrappin’® kit! But I have stuck to the same colour scheme.

For this card I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig® to line up the little birds from the Wild About You stamp set. As I was using the pastels technique, I stamped each one in Versamark® and then chalked it up before proceeding to the next one. Click here for details of the popping pastels technique

I pierced the bottom strip of the Old Olive cardstock using the piercing mat which comes with the Crafters’ Tool Kit.

The three flowers are stamped at the bottom of the card using Versamark®.

Stamps: Wild About You (p32)
Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Ink: Versamark®
Accessories: Stampin’ Pastels® (p82), sponge daubers (p81), Crafters’ Tool Kit (p85)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Jolly giraffe

I told you I’d still keep playing with my Home Again Simply Scrappin’® kit – it’s just too gorgeous to leave alone.

Here’s a little giraffe card (9cm square) made using the kit plus my new Wild About You stamp set.

I stamped the image in Versamark® and then used the popping pastels technique – click here for full details. The edges are distressed and then coloured with Old Olive ink, using the direct to paper technique. I added some more chalk around the edges using sponge daubers to add depth.

The border is one of the self-adhesive die cuts from the Home Again kit, layered on to a strip of Chocolate Chip cardstock.

Here’s a confession: the kit comes with eight sheets of 12x12 textured cardstock but I STILL can’t bring myself to cut any of them up. It will backfire on me, I know, as I will end up with just the cardstock left over.

Stamps: Wild About You (p32)
Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Ink: Versamark®
Accessories: Home Again Simply Scrappin’® kit (p16), Stampin’ Pastels® (p82), sponge daubers (p81)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Never one to miss a crafting opportunity...

I was in a bookshop last week and was given my purchases in this lovely brown paper bag. Well, a crafter can’t overlook an opportunity like that, can she?

So I decorated it.

I took a strip of background paper from the Petals & Paisleys collection and layered it on to some Old Olive, which I distressed and pierced.

The giraffe is from the Wild About You stamp set, stamped in Old Olive on to Whisper White, then inked around the edges using Old Olive, and smudged with some Old Olive chalk.

I wanted to shred some tissue paper to put in the top but couldn’t find any of a suitable colour without leaving the house, so I sealed the top instead using staples and piece of Old Olive cardstock punched out using the Round Tab Punch.

Stamps: Wild About You (p32)
Cardstock: Old Olive, Whisper White
Paper: Petals & Paisleys (p73)
Ink: Old Olive
Accessories: Stampin’ Pastels® (p82), sponge daubers (p81), Crafters’ Tool Kit (p85)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Trees again?

Hmmm…. trees again? Well I do love these trees! I’m very fond of greens, too, as you’ve probably noticed.

I realised the other day that I’ve barely used my En Francais background, which is a crime as it’s so beautiful. So here it is – stamped on the top section of the base layer of this card and again on the image layer.

If you click on the picture to enlarge it you’ll see that the En Francais background appears just around the edges of the layer. Here’s how I did this:

1. First I stamped the tree image on the cardstock and trimmed to size.
2. Then I stamped the image on some scrap paper (I didn’t bother to re-ink the stamp) and cut the image out roughly to make a mask.
3. I attached the mask to the “real” image using temporary adhesive (alternatively, you could make your mask from sticky notes).
4. Next I inked up my background stamp and laid it, rubber side up, on one side of a sheet of A4 scrap paper.
5. I laid the tree image layer face down on the stamp, then folded over the other side of the scrap paper.
6. If I'd been inking the whole piece of cardstock I would have rubbed gently all over the scrap paper but, as I just wanted the French words around the edges, I only rubbed where I wanted them to appear. The mask was just a precaution to stop me getting unwanted ink on the tree.
7. To make the tree stand out more, I then chalked around the edges of the cardstock which had the side effect of making the French words more pronounced.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree (p45), En Francais (p58)
Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy, Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla
Ink: Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy, Certainly Celery
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon – Always Artichoke, 3/8” Grosgrain Ribbon – Certainly Celery, Stampin’ Pastels® (p82), sponge daubers (p81), household staples

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Dusty summer flowers

It’s beautifully sunny outside and a bumble bee has just flown past the window… albeit rather fast due to the howling gale. There was snow earlier, too but it didn’t settle. A pot pourri of weather conditions then, which means that spring is here at last!

Never one to be bound by convention, I made some cards last night which I think are quite summery. The flowers could be agapanthus (“Bag of panthers?” – said my daughter) and I think using chalks on them makes them look soft and dusty. Details of this technique can be found here.

The stamp set is Heartfelt, which is absolutely gorgeous. It’s a hostess set and it’s well worth gathering all your friends and relations – and your friends’ and relations’ friends and relations – together for a Stampin’ Up! workshop so that you can earn this set for free!

The greeting on the landscape card is from Little Hellos, partially inked with a marker. I stamped it first and then made the little cloud shape using the Scallop Circle Punch – I punched it once, then attached the scallop temporarily to a piece of scrap paper then fed it through the punch again. You can make a larger “cloud” this way, too.

Stamps: Heartfelt (p9), Little Hellos (p18)
Cardstock: Sage Shadow, Ballet Blue, Basic Black, Very Vanilla
Ink: Versamark®
Accessories: Stampin’ Pastels (p82), twill tape (p87), Scallop Circle Punch (p80)



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Another tree card

I love this tree stamp - this is the first time I've used it with the Poppin' Pastels technique - full details here.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree (p45)
Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Paper: Brocade Background (p72)
Ink: Versamark®
Accessories: Stampin' Pastels® (p82), Sponge Daubers (p81)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

More Popping Pastels

Here’s another Popping Pastels card – made using this fun technique. You can see that you don’t get as sharp an image as you do with coloured ink, and the chalk is “shmooshed” around the cardstock somewhat. This is all part of the effect – it works particularly well with the shabby chic look but I quite like it on this card, too.

I scrounged the white grosgrain ribbon from Alison. It comes with the demonstrator Starter Kit but I, in my wisdom, decided to substitute it for something "more interesting". How many times have I kicked myself about that decision? White, of course, goes with nearly everything and, what’s more, you can colour it yourself with inks or markers to match your project.

Guess what’s on my list to order next time?

Stamps: Polka Dots & Paisley (p51)

Cardstock: Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

Paper: Cutie Pie (p73)

Ink: Versamark®

Accessories: Stampin’ Pastels, sponge daubers, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Whisper White

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the link on the right to view it online.