Garden Goodness with two-tone tomatoes

I’m really not into Valentine’s Day projects. Hearts, flowers, soppy sayings and all that pink and red just turn me off. If you’re like me and want something a little quirky, how about sending a card made with Garden Goodness?

Why? Because tomatoes are also known as “love apples”, thanks to the French seeing their heart-like shape and assuming this must mean they have aphrodisiac qualities! They called them “pommes d’amour”! 🍅❤️

What do you think? Do tomatoes put you in the mood for luuurrrve?

To get the two-tone toms, first ink up with an orange ink (Pumpkin Pie used here), then sponge on top with a red ink (I used Merry Merlot because this was one of my Stampy Buffet projects and my other red inks were busy elsewhere). 

Seaside Notions with deckchair stripes

August to me means beach-themed projects - even though I don't have any seaside plans at the moment.

I've revamped an earlier project to make it more suitable for my class of WI ladies and added lots of zingy colours, inspired by this strip of Bird Ballad Designer Series Paper - I think the stripes are reminiscent of a traditional deckchair.

This Seaside Notions stamp set should definitely be on your wishlist if you love seaside projects as much as I do!

I stamped the seahorse using the Stamparatus but this tip works just as well for traditional stamping, too. I inked up the seahorse using Calypso Coral then used a sponge dauber to add some shading in Soft Suede. It gives the image depth and interest. Just remember to start with the paler colour, so you can add a darker colour on top. 
 

Bird Ballad wine bottle tags

Packaging a bottle to give as a gift couldn't be easier with one of these tags. It's so simple I won't insult you with measurements - just wing it, as I did.

The bird is cut out from the Bird Ballad Designer Series Paper; only the leaves, floral background and greeting are stamped. 

I rattled out half a dozen of these for my husband's classroom helpers, to mark the end of term. Easy to make, easy to transport on a bike, and hopefully much appreciated.

To make a bottle tag, you don't need a tutorial, just a strip of cardstock with a hole punched in it (I used the Pretty Label Punch), and a couple of score lines to help it sit nicely around the neck. Then decorate as you wish. 
 

Simple, Casual, Avid... a Beautiful Friendship card for every type of crafter

One design, three stages of crafting. A single-layer card for the time-strapped crafter, a casual crafter project with the addition of a punch and some embellishments, and one for the avid crafter who is definitely not short of supplies! Which one are you?

The same basic design can be adapted to suit your supplies. If you're just starting out, the #simplestamping project just needs a pack of Note Cards & Envelopes, one stamp set and some ink pads. But #simplestamping projects are just as useful for crafters in a hurry. If you need a big batch of these, you can stamp them using the Stamparatus and get them done in a fraction of the time it would take to stamp them by hand.  
 

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

Simple Stamping with Love What You Do

I have started new Cuppa & Card sessions at Bugs Tucker Cafe in Borrowash, near Derby. These are the cards we made at our first session. They use a lovely, spring-like colour palette, with blender pens to colour in the images.

Keeping it simple with Winter Woods

At first glance, is this really #simplestamping? I think it is... as it uses one stamp set, one punch and three ink pads (Old Olive, Soft Suede and Crumb Cake), although you could get away with stamping off with the Soft Suede to created the pine cone background.

You get lots of different shades of green (in this case, Old Olive) by stamping the image repeatedly without reinking. That’s how I built up the forest of pine trees.

The punched image is given a background layer simply by offsetting a piece of Real Red cardstock behind it. I fussy cut the pine cones - no dies used here... I’m #simplestamping, remember!

Peaceful Noel split-top box ... but NOT Christmas

Welcome back to part two of my look back at Saturday’s projects from my All-Day Craftathon.

This was our second workshop of the day, a split-top box containing three notecards. It shows how you can use the Peaceful Noel stamp set (which everyone received in their kit) to create non-Christmas projects.

This is how the box opens; fun, eh? I’ll post the tutorial on my Facebook page tomorrow.

Inside are three very simple cards, stamped exactly how everyone wanted to (although some chose to copy exactly!) To steer away from Christmas, we used the greetings from Botanical Tags.

I love this colour combination - Blueberry Bushel goes SO well with Mint Macaron, it’s really lovely.

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...

Sharing Sweet Thoughts - Crafternoon Cream Tea projects

For my Crafternoon Cream Tea, the projects had a strawberry theme... to go with the homemade scones (not by me, by Mum), strawberry jam and clotted cream. We warmed up with a simple card and tag...

Then finished off with this fab (but oh so easy) pop-up card, which uses just one piece of paper cut with the Wood Crate Builder die. Love it!

And every time you purchase this stamp set, Stampin’ Up!® will donate £2 to the Ronald MacDonald House Charities, to help families of children receiving hospital treatment away from home.

Label Me Pretty simple Fresh Florals DSP card

Another CASEd project (what? I'm a busy person!) - this time from Stampin’ Success, which is the quarterly magazine sent out to demonstrators. I used the Fresh Florals DSP (but changed the colour and design) and some of the gorgeous new Powder Pink Shimmer Ribbon, topped with an image from the new Label Me Pretty stamp set, which has a new co-ordinating punch. I coloured it in with my lovely new In Color markers.

What do you think of this new colour, Berry Burst? It’s proving extremely popular!

Mix It Up Monday: Reverse stamp technique with Vintage Leaves

I never thought I’d be so excited about such a bright colour combo, especially one featuring Bermuda Bay! Maybe the advent of Lemon Lime Twist has turned my head?

For this Mix It Up Monday project, I used an exciting technique discovered by accident by my friend Kelly’s mum. One day, she accidentally mounted a stamp onto the block upside down, stamped it and produced a rough shape of the image. This got Kelly thinking, and she came up with this idea… stamp once with the stamp upside down, then repeat with it the right way round in a darker colour on top. 

It only works with photopolymer stamps and they need to be roughly symmetrical, as you will be stamping the first image in reverse. After examining my stamp collection, I was surprised at how few sets I have which are suitable, but settled on an old favourite, Vintage Leaves.

I stamped the reversed images in my four happy colours, then stamped on top with Basic Black, for a fun 50s feel, which I really love. 

And for a bonus tip… I cut a piece of Whisper White to the width of the new Pretty Label punch and slid it in carefully to punch the shape at both ends, creating this unique banner. 

Take a look at the rest of the colour combinations from my latest set of In Color charts, then why not join the challenge yourself?

When you’ve created a Stampin’ Up!® project using either this colour combination, or last week’s combo, there are several ways you can share it:

1. Upload an image of your creation to your own blog, Pinterest board or Facebook page or Twitter, then post a link to your project in the comments section of the relevant post on this blog.
2. Upload an image to the comments in the relevant post on my Facebook page. 

Whichever way you choose, please use the hashtag #mixitupmonday