Bird’s Eye View card idea

It’s time for another Stampin’ Up!® project based on a mood board, this time using the Bird’s Eye View stamp set.

I love a Mood Board challenge as it gives you SO much room for manoeuvre. For instance, taking inspiration from this July mood board you could create a project on the theme of travel, birds, butterflies, seashells and much more. 

You could use it as a colour challenge and create a project using any or all of the Stampin’ Up!® colours Melon Mambo, Azure Afternoon, Pumpkin Pie, Parakeet Party and Lemon Lime Twist.

Four ideas for In the Moment stamp set

As soon as I saw the gorgeous In the Moment stamp set, I knew I wanted to run a class with it. In fact, I am running not one but three different classes with it, as I transition into my new system of showcasing a stamp set each month.

My first event was a fun evening on Zoom combining this fab set with the technique of paper piecing and beautiful Expressions in Ink Designer Series Paper (which is retiring and I believe has now sold out).

We made four beautiful cards, some of which were inspired by my talented friend Julie at The Paper Haven.

Retiring product focus: Marquee Messages and Tutti Frutti Designer Series Paper

All good things come to an end, even catalogues and favourite stamp sets such as Marquee Messages.

But we all have to move forward at some point, so this is my last look back... from now on I will be looking forward all the way! I couldn’t leave the old catalogue behind without one last play with the beautiful Tutti Frutti DSP and this really fun stamp set. Love it!

My favourite way to use this main image is paper piecing, and the chalk marker makes the letters and lights stand out. I have seen the arrow embellished with tiny pearls on each circle, which looks fabulous, but you know me... I couldn’t bring myself to be THAT extravagant!

This is a great set to use for teenagers, so if you have any of those in your life I suggest you invest in this stamp set before it leaves us forever. And perhaps pour yourself a glass of something strengthening, as those teenage years can be challenging, to say the least. It does get better, I promise!

Marquee Messages - It's Your Birthday

I had chance to play with the rather wonderful Marquee Messages at the weekend. I love the retro styling of this stamp set but wasn’t sure I’d make full use of all the words so have resisted getting it so far. Not sure I’ll be able to resist much longer as it’s a really fun set although, as I found, it does lean towards paper piecing… and I’m not a fan of fussy cutting. 

As my starting point, I Googled ‘retro Americana sign’ and came up with a fantastic array of signs which gave me the inspiration for the colour combination. Next I checked out what other people have been making with this stamp set and then CASEd the idea of the distressed brick wall from US demonstrator Amy Koenders.  To create this look, I inked up the raised sections of the embossing folder before adding the cardstock and running it through the Big Shot. This inked up the cracks in the wall (as well as a bit extra, giving it a nicely distressed look).

I coloured the lights and greeting using my chalk marker, added a little distressing using a Crumb Cake ink pad and then popped it all up on the wall. I do love it – and I kind of want to emboss the whole thing so it looks like metal. Maybe the next one…

Marquee Messages Photopolymer Stamp Set [141727] £19.00	Brick Wall Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [138288] £7.75	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] £5.50	Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock [121681] £7.25	Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock [138344] £7.25
Delightful Dijon A4 Cardstock [138345] £7.25	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549] £8.25	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock [140490] £6.50	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [126975] £6.00	White Stampin Chalk Marker [132133] £3.25

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Mix It Up Monday: Giddy goat

This project started out as a tasteful leaf card but quickly evolved into a silly goat. I was playing with watercolour background using the the block technique but it just wasn’t going my way. 

The technique I was trying to use involves scribbling on your clear block with markers, then spritzing it with water before pressing onto Whisper White cardstock. I think I was spritzing too much because the Pool Party and Mint Macaron just disappeared into each other, so I tried again without the water and got this textural effect instead.  

I decided this looked a little like a grassy hill, which was the perfect spot for my paper-pieced goat. The goat looks happy about it anyway. 

I was going to keep the card really simple with just one or two layers, but decided I’ve done a bit too much of that lately, so added some of our lovely new corrugated cardstock to add more texture. And the jute ribbon is quite fun on this project; having removed all but two strands from a strip, I was left with some pretty – and very subtle – fringing, which glistens in certain lights. 

My colour combo, in the end, was Mint Macaron, Pool Party, Soft Sky and Tip Top Taupe… so qualifies for Mix It Up Monday, as this is a combination from my In Color Charts. 

Building update: The builders plan to knock through from the new extension this week, so we’ve moved out of our kitchen and are making do with a kettle and a microwave for a while. It’ll be fine, apparently. And people keep telling me it will be worth it, so I hope they’re right!

Barnyard Babies Clear-Mount Stamp Set [139328]	Kraft And White Corrugated Paper [138317]	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549]	Tip Top Taupe A4 Cardstock [138343]
Card Stock A4 Soft Sky [131292]	Tip Top Taupe Classic Stampin' Pad [138325]	Clear Block D [118485]	Pool Party Stampin' Write Marker [131904]
2014-2016 In Color Stampin' Write Markers [133654]	Blender Pens [102845]	White 1-1/4" (3.2 Cm) Jute Ribbon [137904]

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Homemade Holiday Christmas

This was one of the contenders for my Christmas workshop but, while I do love it (especially the colours!), I decided it was just too high-maintenance for a stamp-a-stack situation. Not to mention that I didn’t have enough of the same DSP to go round!

I created this card before I bought the Crumb Cake and Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities, so coloured the house with Blender Pens and ink pads. As you can see, it’s a softer effect and more prone to blotching (less prone in more skilled hands, I’m sure!)  I stamped the trees onto different designs of DSP and then cut them out.

Finally, just a quick reminder that today is the last day to take advantage of the Stamp, Stock & Save promotion. Selected essentials are 15% off, while selected stamp sets are 20% off, so don’t miss out, click here for more details!

135095	135857	135821	121685	121681
133674	106549	101406	101731	102845
106584	126975	126966	122941	131174

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Perfect Blend of stamps and paper

Two very slightly different versions of the same card today. 

The first is made with Epic Day DSP, while the second uses the new Retro Fresh DSP. As much as I love the new Retro Fresh suite, I have to say that I think the Epic Day paper works best with this card as it even has the coffee rings on it. Not that you couldn’t make those using a circular Framelits die as a stamp!

The Perfect Blend stamp set and Gorgeous Grunge are just made for each other. I had fun adding lots of coffee splatters! The coffee cup lends itself well to the paper piecing technique; I simply stamped it on Very Vanilla cardstock, then again on the DSP and again on Baked Brown Sugar cardstock, cut the latter two out and stuck on top. The sketched nature of the image means you don’t have to worry too much about being precise, which is ideal for me!

The top card has a matching envelope, made with the marvellous Envelope Punch Board. Do you have this amazing tool yet?

Stamps: Perfect Blend, Gorgeous Grunge

Cardstock: Baked Brown Sugar, Very Vanilla

Paper: Epic Day (top), Retro Fresh (bottom) 

Ink: Early Espresso, Crisp Cantaloupe, Crumb Cake

Accessories: Ruffled Ribbon - Baked Brown Sugar, Word Bubbles Framelits, Corner Rounder

In the pink

I made this a while ago to celebrate the birth of baby Heidi, daughter of Rachel who many of you will know as Tattered Rose. Rachel was one of my very first customers and locals will have seen her exhibiting her amazing jewellery and all-round craftiness at the Fabulous Places fairs that I’ve attended.

The card looks simple but there’s actually a bit of fiddliness in there, in the form of paper piecing. So I stamped the duck on the large piece of Whisper White and then again on several sheets of my Brights Patterns Stack – Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Regal Rose and Tangerine Tango. I cut out the coloured pieces and stuck them on the top – fiddly but cute!

Stamps: Easy Events, Curly Cute

Cardstock: Regal Rose, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White

Paper: Patterns Paper Stack – Brights

Ink: Regal Rose, Basic Black

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Distressed at sea

Another distressed seascape from my experiments with the water spritzing technique. This time I used blue ink and highlighted the tops of the “waves” with dots of the white gel pen. Again, I got a bit carried away with the distressing – must learn to stop!

Stamps: Sail Away

Cardstock: Basic Gray, Night of Navy, Real Red, Whisper White

Paper: Play Date

Ink: Night of Navy

Accessories: Distressing Essentials Kit, Neutrals Buttons, Satin Ribbon – Night of Navy, White Gel Pen

All products by Stampin' Up!®

Floral bunting

Springtime Vintage papers are so gorgeous, I’m surprised I haven’t been taking orders for them from everyone! They feature pretty florals reminiscent of old-fashioned wallpaper, little girls’ dress prints or patchwork fabrics.

Here I’ve used them to create bunting, which is perfect for a little girl’s birthday. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have bunting like this at your birthday party?

To make it easy for myself (because I seem to be running around like the proverbial fly at the moment), I stamped the bunting repeatedly on Very Vanilla cardstock. I dusted off the old Stamp-a-ma-jig® for this one as my Party This Way set is wood-mounted, received at Stampin’ Up!® Convention last year.  I’ve become such a convert to clear-mount stamps that I’d almost forgotten how to use the Stamp-a-ma-jig®!

I then stamped the bunting again directly onto the Designer Series Paper. In the corner, obviously, so as not to “spoil” the whole sheet! I cut out just the triangle (ie, the easy bit) and stuck it onto the stamped Vanilla cardstock. It’s the paper-piecing technique, if you want to give it a fancy name.

The Happy Birthday greeting comes from Something to Celebrate, a Level 2 hostess set from the current Mini catalogue. It’s a really useful set and I find myself using it all the time.  If you’d like to get your hands on this set, why not drop me a line to book a party and we’ll do our best to get you to a Level 2 (£300 workshop total).

Stamps: Party This Way, Something to Celebrate

Cardstock: Rose Red, Always, Very Vanilla

Paper: Springtime Vintage

Ink: Rose Red, Always Artichoke

Accessories:  Scallop Edge Punch

All products by Stampin' Up!®

Nautical news

Sorry for the lack of blog posts, I’m having a really busy week, trying to prepare for the big Fabulous Places event at the Roundhouse in Derby at the weekend, while also getting ready for Christmas in July the weekend after. Please bear with me over the next few days as I won’t be around much to post to my blog.

But, to keep you going for a while, here’s an idea which I saw on the great Shelli Gardner’s blog. Shelli, as many of you know, is the co-founder and CEO of Stampin’ Up!® If Shelli and her sister hadn’t had the idea to set up a rubber stamping home party business from their living room 20-odd years ago, you wouldn’t be reading this blog today! Here’s a link to Shelli’s blog post which inspired today’s card. I just love the idea of using Newsprint (one of my favourite Designer Series Papers) for sails.

All you do is stamp once on Very Vanilla cardstock and then again on the Newsprint. Cut out the sails and stick them on top. It’s called “paper piecing” – and if you ever wondered if that was a complicated technique, now you know it’s not!

I kept the colours simple – just Sahara Sand (love that colour!) with Basic Black and a bit of linen thread and a button.

Stamps: Sail Away

Cardstock: Basic Black, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla

Paper: Newsprint

Ink: Basic Black

Accessories: Linen Thread, Neutrals Buttons

All products by Stampin’ Up!®