Painted Poppies Week: Monochromatic Poppies

It’s the last day of Painted Poppies Week here at All Things Stampy but I’m sure this won’t be the last you see of this lovely stamp set!

These four fun cards were quick and easy to make – and I love how you can tailor the design to almost any of our lovely colours.

I borrowed the idea from Lynn Dunn, but simplified her design slightly to use Label Me Bold instead of embossing – I really have to be in the mood for embossing!

My colours are Crushed Curry, Gorgeous Grape (but with Highland Heather stamping), Flirty Flamingo and Coastal Cabana. Which one is your favourite?

Some colours will swamp your poppy heads, which is why I used Highland Heather instead of Gorgeous Grape. If you don't have a paler ink, you can stamp off onto scrap paper first, then this will give you a lighter shade.

Clear Tiny Treat Box gifts

I used the lovely and soon-to-be-retired Painted Seasons bundle to create some cute little welcome gifts for the ladies who attended my event on Saturday. Inside the clear tiny treat boxes are a chocolate chick and some mini eggs.

The Bitty Blooms Punch Pack fits perfectly on the Painted Seasons Designer Series Paper to make these striped punched flowers, too!

Stamparatus Skills Workshop projects

Saturday was my much-anticipated Stamparatus Skills Workshop. I have been waiting for Sale-a-Bration to offer this class so that everyone could use the same stamp set. Guests each received a Stamparatus and the Hello Cupcake set in their kit and we made these two cards, using seven amazing Stamparatus techniques.

If you’d like the tutorials for these two projects, detailing all the Stamparatus techniques, simply order a Stamparatus and the Hello Cupcake stamp set from me before the end of February and I'll send them to you.

You can order by emailing me or shop at my online store using the host code VSQ3YGCB

A celebration in Bermuda Bay

This card was heavily inspired by Yana Smakula and I just knew the Bermuda Bay would be perfect for my friend and downline Kelly.

I brayered the whole piece from top to bottom using Coastal Cabana and Bermuda Bay (Kelly’s favourite SU colour), then embossed in copper using the spots from Dragonfly Dreams. I couldn’t find any word stamps in my collection which were big enough to stand out in the centre of the project, so die-cut the “celebrate” from copper foil instead. 

Some of the leaves are cut from the Delightfully Detailed laser-cut DSP, while others are die-cut using the Tropical Thinlits.  Hope she liked it!

Out of this world X-Files card

A fun project for you today. My illustrator daughter, a big X Files fan, put me up to this X-Files card and we had fun brayering over some die-cut clouds from the Up & Away Thinlits set. The trees were easy – they come from the must-have Waterfront stamp set – and the words are stamped using the Labeler Alphabet. 

But how to make a UFO? That happened purely by chance, using the Pretty Label punch. Take a look...

Tropical Chic with a brayered background

I thought it was high time I tried the sponge brayers so gave them a whirl for this card. I’ve always loved playing with background techniques and enjoyed creating this graduated look with Pool Party, Bermuda Bay and Pacific Point.

It’s a six-colour combo, but I think it works... and sometimes you need two or three shades to really make the most of a brayered background. 

I topped it off with some Tropical Chic flowers and some beautiful leaves from the Delightfully Detailed Laser-cut Designer Series Paper, which is a total must-have as it will add a real “wow” to your projects. This special paper is Very Vanilla on one side and Whisper White on the other, which is perfect for sponging as I’ve done here with Soft Sea Foam and a hint of Old Olive. 

Heat embossing with the Stamparatus

Thanks to Aussie demo Carolyn Bennie for the tutorial for this lovely card using the All the Good Things stamp set from the new Distinktive range. These are highly detailed stamps which give you an incredible depth of colour from just one impression. 

To make them stand out even more, the fish are embossed... which also makes it possible to watercolour in the background without muddying the colours. 

How do you emboss the fish? It’s so simple with the Stamparatus. Just ink up the stamp in Pumpkin Pie and stamp onto your cardstock. Then clean off the stamp, ink it again in Versamark and stamp on top so you can apply embossing powder and heat set. 

What would have been extremely challenging, even with the Stamp-a-ma-jig, is now REALLY easy... thanks to the Stamparatus. Yeah, I’ve done a U-turn. You can’t say you didn’t see it coming. Please don’t gloat. 

Love What You Do, Lovely Lipstick... and lovely weather

Flower cards are difficult for me for some reason; I’ve always struggled. But this card came pretty easily to me. Perhaps I was inspired by the gorgeous new Love What You Do stamp set ... or maybe I took my inspiration from by the weather, because it really was a Beautiful Day when I made this project, and I took advantage by sitting crafting on the patio in the sunshine.

As you can see, I had to spread my supplies onto a chair (I can’t be the only one who does that!) because I was sharing the table with my daughter, who was working on her university project. If you like mid-century retro, bold colours and space themes, you can check her out on Instagram here.

This colour combination uses the new In Color™ Lovely Lipstick, as well as returning Coastal Cabana (the hottest spot north of Havana). If you’re looking for LOTS of colour combinations, please do keep an eye on this blog as I am squirrelling away behind the scenes to bring you some fantastic combos for ALL the new and returning colours. As you can imagine, this is a considerably bigger job than usual due to the upcoming Colour Revamp. Not complaining – I LOVE colour combos!

Masking Tape technique

Just back from the cat shelter, delayed by the many, many adorable kittens currently in residence! As well as Betty, Martin, Alan and Billybob, and then Domino, and the litter of Eddie, Sarah, Monty and Bob, we now have Doris and Noris, too! So tiny, so cute!

But anyway, back to papercrafts… on Friday it was my monthly Crafty Friday class. We were a very small group this time but we made up for our lack of numbers by having lots of fun, playing around with different background techniques. 

This one is the masking tape technique, for which you use… oh right, you’re ahead of me. It’s so simple that you don’t need a tutorial: simply tear a strip of masking tape, press it into your ink pad, then press it onto your paper. 

Hubby was complaining that this cheap masking tape from the pound shop (four reels in a pack!) is very poor quality and doesn’t stick properly, but that makes it perfect for this technique, as it won’t damage your paper. 

For this card I used three strips of masking tape, pressing each one into a different ink pad to avoid cross-contamination. I used Coastal Cabana, Summer Starfruit (going soon - hurry!) and Pistachio Pudding. It’s a lovely effect and works brilliantly with Summer Silhouettes, one of my favourite sets of the moment and one which, thankfully, is sticking around for another year. 

Some reminders:

Christmas in June workshop, 28th June, Horsley Woodhouse: ONE place left, but could stretch to two if you’re quick!).  Please click HERE. 

Catalogue Launch Party registration is open until the end of the month so that I can order the goodies as soon as the catty goes live. For details and registration, click HERE. 

Virtual Hostess Club begins again in August and I have a few places left! This is a great way to spread out your spending, while guaranteeing yourself a minimum of £25 of hostess freebies at some point during the 10 months. Email me for more details!

Pennant Parade - Clear-Mount Stamp [122742]	Summer Silhouettes Clear-Mount Stamp Set [126447]	Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad [131175]	Jet Black StazOn Pad [101406]
Pistachio Pudding Classic Stampin' Pad [131177]	Summer Starfruit Classic Stampin' Pad [126991]	Basic Black A4 Card Stock [121688]	Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana [131302]
Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549]	Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents [119246]

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com