Blog Hop: Celebrating my corner of the world for World Card Making Day

Happy World Card Making Day! 

Today I’m excited to be taking part in another international blog hop. This time we are celebrating World Card Making Day by showcasing projects which represent our corner of the world. I can’t wait to see what demonstrators from all our different global markets have made.

I live in Derbyshire, a beautiful county in the middle of England. We have rolling hills, lots of lovely green spaces and, in the north of the county, the Peak District National Park. 

Here’s a pic I took on a walk recently, with a dry stone wall in the foreground and view of Crich Stand, a war memorial, in the distance. From the top of the stand you can see eight counties, and in turn you can see this famous landmark from miles around, triggering a popular saying “you can see Crich Stand from here”. 

A more common saying is “Ey up!” and it is this I have chosen for my card. It’s a common greeting in Derbyshire, in common with many counties in the Midlands and north. It can be extended to “ey up mi duck” (hello my duck, ie friend) and you can also use it as an expression of surprise, as in “ey up, who’s eaten all the cobs?” Cobs: that’s what we call bread rolls. You can find many more expressions and dialect words in this excellent book, Ey Up Mi Duck.

I created the words in Misty Moonlight cardstock using the Playful Alphabet Dies. Seriously, if you only invest in one product used on this card, make it these dies. You will NOT regret it. 

But make sure you order the Foam Adhesive Sheets at the same time as they are a real game-changer. They mean your letters come out of the die-cutting machine ready backed in foam adhesive, so no fiddly trimming of Stampin’ Dimensionals. 

For my background, I’ve used the Stacked Stone stamp to represent the dry stone walls which are common in Derbyshire. I stamped it in Misty Moonlight onto Seaside Spray cardstock.

 

A sheep from the Yuletide Pasture stamp set – we have a lots of sheep in Derbyshire – stands on a hill (Waterfront stamp set) to represent the rolling hills of Amber Valley where I live, as well as the Derbyshire Dales and the Peak District National Park. I stamped this in Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured it using Stampin’ Blends.

 

The sheep’s feet were floating around a little so I covered them up with some flowers from the Friendly Silhouettes Dies. As the card progressed, I began to wish I’d used some pine sprigs instead because, unfortunately, this sheep is dressed for Christmas.

Rather belatedly, I decided to shoehorn in a festive theme (you think my projects are planned? You must be thinking of somebody else). I didn’t have a small “Christmas” stamp because I foolishly didn’t order Itty Bitty Christmas in the sale last week, so scoured the sentiment sheet from Trimming the Town Designer Series Paper until I found suitable words to cut out.

And there we have it; a Derbyshire-themed Christmas card. Now please make your way around the rest of the blog hop... and the world!

Trimming the Town for Christmas

All it took to attract me to the Trimming the Town Suite was one sheet of Designer Series Paper. Yes, this one with the mountains and the ice rink. 

I soon realised that the rest of the Trimming the Town Designer Series Paper pack was equally gorgeous... and then of course the Coming Home bundle started speaking to me, too... not least because we used to own a Volkswagen Beetle when I was a child. It was Pool Party, although I strongly suspect that wasn't the colour listed on the V5.

What’s special about the Coming Home stamp set is that £2.50 from every sale goes to Fertility Network UK. In every market, this set will be supporting charities devoted to adoption, foster care and infertility, issues which affect many, many families around the world.

For my World Card Making Day event on 3rd October, I wanted to use this suite so people can make a start on their Christmas cards. It’s ideal for a remote class as all these projects can be made with just the Designer Series Paper, although guests have the option to add the Coming Home stamp set and Home Together Dies if they wish.

It was UK demonstrator Amanda Bates who gave me the idea for these little cards. I never occurred to me to cut out the tiny houses until I saw her clean and simple projects here.

 

 

I’ve since added ribbon but think I actually prefer them without.

I haven’t done the maths but Amanda reckons from two full 12x12 sheets of this design, you could make 120 cards! My guests only get two 6x6 pieces in their kits so presumably can make 30 cards, which should be enough fussy-cutting for anyone!

 

If fussy-cutting isn’t your bag (and it definitely isn’t mine!), then you’ll be delighted to know that the Home Together Dies fit the larger houses in the DSP perfectly, just as you’d expect from Stampin’ Up!® and its commitment to co-ordination.

 

Yes, even these trees have dies to fit. This, you won’t be surprised to hear, is one of my favourite designs in the DSP pack; as you probably know if you’re a regular reader, I do love trees.

There’s even a die to create this lovely swooping hill. There's a plain one, as used here, and one with little pine trees attached, too. 

 

For an extra touch, I’ve stamped snowflakes and some tiny chimney smoke to come out of the house on this card, using the Coming Home stamp set. I’ve also created a fun, colourful greeting by carefully slicing up one of the Designer Series Paper sheets. This one has greetings in French, English German and Dutch, and I particularly like “Kling Klokje Klingelingeling” in the pack, which Google tells me is a Dutch children’s Christmas song. Elsewhere I’ve used greetings from In The Pines and Yuletide Pasture.

I hope you enjoy these projects and that my class guests do, too. They've seen a sneak peek and booked up in a matter of days which is a promising sign. I have to take bookings a lot earlier these days, now that I have to prepare kits and get them in the post, so please follow my Facebook page for the latest events, so you don’t miss out. 

And please come back Thursday for a Gilded Autumn-themed blog hop!

Trimming the Town... not just for Christmas!

I never like to be restricted by the theme of a stamp set or Designer Series Paper. The Coming Home stamps are suitable for many occasions, as is the Trimming the Town DSP, which has some festive designs and some patterns which work all year round.  

All week I’ve been working on non-Christmas projects using the Trimming the Town Suite ready for this blog post... and all week I’ve been seeing social media and blog posts from the Great and the Good working on the same theme! Great minds clearly do think alike.

It began with a request from my husband for two New Home cards and the houses from this Suite are perfect for this. I did stamp some using the Coming Home stamp set and colour them in, but they ended up looking a little too Christmassy, so I turned to the Trimming the Town Designer Series Paper and die-cut the houses from there instead, using the Home Together Dies. The Pool Party and Poppy Parade colour combination is one of my favourite retro looks for Christmas, but it works all year round, too. 

To be honest, the hardest part was finding a suitable greeting. Time to Celebrate from Itty Bitty Birthdays was ideal for one of them, but as the second recipient was bereaved at the same time as moving house, this felt a little bit tactless. Instead, I chose “Rest and Relax, you deserve it” from the Timeless Tropical stamp set.

 

For the car-themed cards, I did use the stamps, colouring them in using my Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers. 

For the Happy Birthday card, (again, using a greeting from Itty Bitty Birthdays, I lined up the images using the Stamparatus. The dotted lines, reminiscent of a road, come from the Box of Sunshine Paper Pumpkin Kit.

This card would be ideal for someone passing their driving test – although, the last I heard, if you weren’t already booked in before lockdown, you don’t stand much chance of getting a test until December!

I stamped the images freehand, but they’re easy to line up as the stamp is photopolymer. I stamped and die-cut an extra car, coloured it using Poppy Parade Stampin’ Blends and popped it up. “Way to Go” comes from the Simply Citrus All-Inclusive Card Kit. 

Finally, this house in a very built-up area was inspired by Martin Stone. When I CASE a card, I often like to do it without having the original in front of me, which ensures I make it different. This is why Martin’s version is classier and less busy. I got a bit carried away with the little houses at the back but it was fun to create, using a series of post-it note masks.

When colouring these images, keep it simple. Just a swipe of the dark marker in one corner, then blend it out using the light version of the same colour. Don’t go overboard, or the ink can bleed out beyond the lines. Keep it simple and you’ll get great results every time.

My first Christmas card of the year, using Yuletide Pasture

I’ll be honest, I’m not really ready for Christmas cards... although you may have gathered that from the sentiment on this card...

But it was a fun opportunity to use three new Stampin’ Up!® products; the fabulous Yuletide Pasture stamp set and some lovely polka dot paper from the Trimming The Town Suite from the new August-December Mini Catalogue and, from the still newish Annual Catalogue, the must-have Playful Alphabet Dies.

I began by stamping the Yuletide Pasture sheep in Gray Granite, then gently colouring her in using Stampin' Blends alcohol markers. It can be challenging to achieve subtle colours using Stampin’ Blends so I did this by using Smoky Slate Light with Ivory on top, then toned it down with the Colour Lifter.

Just so you know, you can’t really use the Colour Lifter as a blender pen because it simply doesn’t work that way. It’s a bit of a misnomer actually because the Colour Lifter doesn’t lift; rather it pushes some of the ink through to the back of the cardstock.

Image coloured, cut out using Stitched Rectangle Dies and mounted on some Old Olive cardstock, it was time to create my sentiment – and this was something I’d had in mind from the moment I saw this stamp set.

Out came the Playful Alphabet Dies and a brand new adhesive to go with them. I have only just purchased the Foam Adhesive Sheets but they really are a game-changer. Stick your cardstock to a sheet (or piece of sheet) and die-cut it all together. It’s an absolute boon with small dies such as these as you get a perfectly cut Dimensional to make it really easy to stick your letters down.

So there we have it. I bought the Yuletide Pasture stamp set with this card in mind and now just need to come up with some other ideas for the rest of the images. Actually, I already have done ... and you can see the Highland Cow in action on Thursday when I take part in another blog hop. Please come back to see the cow like you’ve never seen it before – and are never likely to see again!

Designer Series Paper only ‘almost’ perfect for your project? This is the issue I had here. I loved the polka dot paper from the Trimming the Town Designer Series Paper pack but I found the white letters didn’t stand out quite as clearly as I’d like against the white. To keep the pattern without the contrast, I simply brayered over the top using Poppy Parade ink.

No brayer? No problem, just use a sponge instead. No sponge either? Try the direct-to-paper technique, swiping your ink pad over the paper... just be aware that this will give you a much more intense effect, as long as your ink pad is well inked.