Yet another simple tree card!

Sorry about the lack of posts - I tried and tried to get this picture to upload and had to give up due to lack of time. Oddly, it posted immediately this morning!

I found this card – I’d forgotten I’d made it. It’s really simply (hmmm, most of my cards are, aren’t they?) and suitable for a man. Looking at it, it’s probably the card that gave me the idea for a chocolate-themed cardmaking event. I’m going to get cracking over the summer and book some halls for more events, so watch this space.

Stamps: Lovely As a Tree (p45), Carte Postale (p57)
Cardstock: Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla
Ink: Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Linen Thread (p87), 3/8” Grosgrain Ribbon - Chocolate Chip, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon – Very Vanilla

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.

Twenty tiny fingers...

In a break from the Three For You samples, here’s a congratulations card I made for friend who had twins – a boy and a girl. It took me ages to decide what to do and, in the end, I put the Stamp-a-ma-jig® to good use by stamping a very long line of giraffes. The stamp has a greeting at the bottom and, to save me masking this off each time I inked it, I used temporary adhesive to attach a strip of paper to the bottom of the white cardstock.

Although I have the Bashful Blue and Pretty in Pink ink pads, to match the cardstock perfectly, I stamped the giraffes a little darker so that they’d stand out a little more.

I stamped the middle two giraffes in StazOn® then watercoloured them using paintbrush, water and ink pads. I squeezed the closed ink pad then opened it to access the pool of ink on the inside of the lid. Remember never to apply water directly to your ink pad. As a finishing touch, I added dots to the giraffes using a white gel pen.

For the congratulations “medallion”, I used almost every circle punch I own and Circle of Friendship. This stamp set is currently on special offer as part of the eScape bundle. Click here for details.

Stamps: Little Hellos (p18), Circle of Friendship (p62)
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Ink: Rose Red, Brocade Blue, StazOn® (p82)
Accessories: 1 3/8” circle punch, 1 ¼” circle punch, 1” circle punch, ½” circle punch (all p80), ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon – Whisper White (p86), uni-ball® Signo gel pen (p82)

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.

For a wonky friend

Another little square (9cm x 9xm) card using the Three For You punch kit. I'm loving this kit - and I'd never have bought it if it hadn't been for the special offer, so I'm really glad I did. 

I'd like to say that the photo has distorted the card and it's not really wonky but I'd be lying. Must remember not to send this one to a perfectionist. 

You probably can't see from the picture but I stamped the red cardstock with the three little outline flowers before punching them out. I highlighted the centres with white gel pen. 

Stamps: Three For You (part of kit on p80)
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Ink: Real Red, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Three For You punch kit (p80), ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon – Real Red (p86), white gel pen (p82)

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.

Flurry of flowers

It’s not a great picture because it’s so sunny here today but this is one of the cards I made with the Three For You punch box last night. You can’t see from the poor photo but I stamped the three little flowers on to the cardstock first, then punched it out so that the flower image was roughly in the middle of the punched flower.

I placed each flower on the little spongy pad in my mat pack (you could use the reverse of a spongy mousemat) and pressed them down with the rounded end of a pencil so that they formed little “cup” shapes. I stuck them down with Glue Dots®, which were perfect for the job!

If you're a fan of Prima flowers, or similar flower embellishments, this punch is perfect for you because you can use it to make flowers in any colour you like, to co-ordinate with your projects. 

Don’t forget that this punch kit is currently on special offer. Throughout June you can buy it at the discounted price of £29 (normally £41.95). It features a set of nine stamps, three small ink pads and a large punch, packaged in a lovely keepsake tin. Oh, and the stamps are die-cut, so all you have to do is stick them on the blocks!

Stamps: Three For You (p80), Polka Dots & Paisley (p51)
Cardstock: Bordering Blue, Whisper White
Ink: Real Red, Brocade Blue
Accessories: Three For You punch (p80), red gingham ribbon (p86), Glue Dots® (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.

Coming soon to a screen near you

Sorry there's been no post today but this evening I have been playing with my new Three For You punch box (which is FANTASTIC) and will have some cards to show you tomorrow. The three-flower punch is great! 

Simple square sketch

This is the third card I made with my watercoloured images from Doodle That – and the one that most closely fits the sketch challenge on In Love With Stamping.

It’s very simple but I do like simple cards, especially when they’re small as too much detail can be overwhelming (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!).

Stamps: Doodle That
Cardstock: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Bordering Blue, Elegant Eggplant
Ink: StazOn® (p82)
Accessories: Watercolour Wonder™ crayons – Rich Regals (p82), ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Elegant Eggplant (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.

Message for subscribers

Sorry about that - didn't meant to click "publish" just yet! I hadn't even added the picture!

First, a rather complicated message to my subscribers. (I really never thought I’d get any subscribers, so it’s quite exciting typing those words – thank you all!)

I was told by one of my subscribers that my Monday post – the one about the self-promoting comments – had been filtered out by her mail programme due to the use of a certain word which can also mean “spiced ham”. She was clever enough to retrieve it but now reckons – and who am I to argue – that there is a risk of future notifications from my blog also being sent to the same folder as her mail programme will have noted the address and deemed it suspect. Are you following me?

So, if you’re a subscriber, please check that you’re still getting notifications and, if not, you’ll know where to look. I’ll try not to use banned words like that again but, as you can probably guess, my dander was up!

Now on to the card. This is one of the cards I made for that sketch challenge, although it still doesn’t quite follow the sketch. After putting all the effort into the watercolouring, I kept the card itself quite simple.

Stamps: Doodle That
Cardstock: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Bordering Blue
Ink: StazOn® (p82), Rose Red
Accessories: Brads – Rich Regals®, Watercolour Wonder™ crayons – Rich Regals (p82).

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.

Watercolour Crayons

I made this little card for a sketch challenge over on In Love With Stamping… but then realised it was absolutely nothing like the sketch! I must have got side-tracked along the way.

I was playing with my Watercolour Wonder™ crayons, which really are lovely. You can use them in several ways, including:

1. Colour your image then blend with blender pens
   
2. Colour your image then blend with a wet paint brush or Aqua Painter™
   
3. Use your paint brush or Aqua Painter™ to take colour directly from the crayon
   
4. Use them dry, simply as crayons
   
5. Apply directly to your stamp, then mist the stamp with water before stamping – this creates a watercolour effect
   

For this card I used method no. 1 – blending the colour with blender pens. It took a bit of getting used to as the pigment sits on top of the paper, so moves around quite a lot but it was very easy to control the colour and didn’t wrinkle the paper at all. It’s best to experiment with different methods until you find the one that suits you best.

I coloured around the whole image with Bordering Blue to create a shadowy effect. This is one of those techniques which I always think looks fabulous when other people do it… but looks a bit dodgy when I do it.

To make the scalloped edge, I cheated: I punched out a load of ½” circles and stuck them behind the layer.

Stamps: Doodle That
Cardstock: Rose Red, Always Artichoke, Bordering Blue, Whisper White
Ink: StazOn® (p82)
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Always Artichoke (p86), ½” circle punch (p80), Watercolour Wonder™ crayons – Rich Regals (p82)

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.

Spam

Just an FYI: anyone who visits my blog purely to post spam, or promote their own website, will have their posts deleted, so you're wasting your time and mine. You know who you are! 

I’ve been crafting all afternoon and come up with these tags*, which I may or may not add to cards in the future. I was HUGELY inspired by an old Canadian Stampin’ Up!® catalogue; in fact, I started off by trying to copy them exactly but ended up changing them around a bit. I love this colour combination – it’s so rich and earthy.

I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig® to position the stamps on top of each other but the stamp set is designed for rough stamping – I was just feeling picky!

To make the hole reinforcements, I used the ½” circle punch to punch the small circle, stuck it down on to the tag and then punched out the middle using my wonderful new Crop-A-Dile™.

To make the round-ended strip on the leaf tag, I poked one end of a strip of cardstock into the ½”-inch circle punch. It’s a very nifty trick!

*No, that is not ALL I did this afternoon, although they did take me quite a while. I made some cards, too - but you'll just have to wait for them. 

Stamps: Shapes & Shadows (p54), En Francais (p58), Happy Everything (p65), The Snowflake Spot (p30)
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Sage Shadow, Rose Red, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Sage Shadow, Rose Red, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Sage Shadow Stampin’ Write® marker (p71), Round Tab Punch (p80), ½” circle punch (p80), Crop-A-Dile™ (p85), Linen Thread (p87), Twill Tape (p87), Gingham Ribbon – Caramel (p86), coloured buttons - Earth Elements® (p87), ordinary office 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.