Wetlands - faux watercolour note card

How can anyone fail to love Wetlands? Barring Christmas, I think I could manage with this set all year round… just don’t tell anyone I said that or they’ll wonder why I have quite so many stamp sets in my possession!

We made this at one of my Crafty Fridays, where I host a small group of stampers and we keep things simple. I hold these events on the second Friday of every month and the cost – if you’d like more info, please email me.

We used one of the new Note Cards and Envelopes from page 162. They are the same as the old Note Cards but made from heavier cardstock, which is fabulous. If you’d like Stampin’ Up!® to introduce some A4 cardstock in this heavier weight, don't tell me, tell them! You'll find their contact details on the SU website relevant for your location. 

We had great fun playing around with the faux watercolour technique – inking up our clear blocks with markers and pressing onto the Whisper White cardstock. 

Stamps: Wetlands

Cardstock: Whisper White

Ink: Basic Gray, So Saffron, Summer Starfruit, Pool Party

Accessories: Note Cards and Envelopes

Christmas crafting... messy desk

Managed to craft myself into a tiny corner of the kitchen table yesterday. But it was all in a good cause - I was making the samples for next weekend's Christmas is Coming Stamp-a-Stack, where we'll be making two each of five easy-to-reproduce designs. You would not believe how much Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler cardstock I managed to get through! Well, perhaps you would, as you know how much  I like the traditional look for Christmas.

And if you're looking for clues on the desk, concentrate on the products not on the cards you can see!

Caturday: Twinks

Meet Twinks. She looks a little startled, don't you think? That could be because she's come all the way from Greece, where it was lovely and warm, to live in England, where it's gone decidedly autumnal recently. More likely it's because she was enjoying a nap in a cosy igloo bed and some nutter started poking a camera in her face. She's very sweet though.

Wetlands with faux watercolour technique

I’ve made this card at two classes recently – after carefully checking that nobody was attending both. But I LOVE this stamp set (as you know) and really love this card, too. It’s loosely based on this card by Vicky Hayes, a very talented demonstrator who really rocks the Clean and Simple style. I stepped up her design as I wanted to incorporate the technique of the moment, faux watercolour backgrounds.

We began with this technique, using clear blocks, ink and a spritz of water. While this was drying, we created the rest of the card, colouring the goose with blender pens and ink pads and cutting him out.

I think the ruffled ribbon looks gorgeous on this card!

Stamps: Wetlands

Cardstock: Pool Party, Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White

Ink: Pool Party, Coastal Cabana, Pistachio Pudding, Baked Brown Sugar

Accessories: 2 ½” circle punch, Ruffle Stretch Ribbon – Baked Brown Sugar, Blender Pen

Too Kind card

Apologies for the earlier hitch! Don’t know what I’m talking about? Ah, well, nothing to worry about and you can continue under the misapprehension that I'm efficient. But if you subscribe to the blog or visited in a certain five minutes earlier on, you’d have seen a repeat post pop up. So I deleted it quickly and have since been scrabbling around to tidy up my folders so that it doesn’t happen again.

Now I’m back with something I’m pretty sure you haven’t seen before!

When my friend Kelly is in the room, everyone makes fabulous cards. She’s a very creative influence!

This is simple but I do love it. It uses Kelly’s stamp set, Too Kind. It’s not the sort of set I’d normally look twice at but I really enjoyed using it and it’s so easy to layer up. I stamped the larger images in Crisp Canteloupe then overstamped with the co-ordinating smaller images in Calypso Coral. The stems and words are Baked Brown Sugar. Gorgeous!

Stamps: Too Kind

Cardstock: Crisp Canteloupe, Whisper White

Ink: Crisp Canteloupe, Calypso Coral, Baked Brown Sugar

Masculine card and gift box with Chalk Talk

Masculine projects are difficult, I think we all agree – and teenage boys are the hardest of all. And, let’s face it, you’re probably not going to want to spend a lot of time creating something that will likely get thrown away instead of nurtured, cherished and stored away in a keepsake box between layers of tissue paper; the fate we like to imagine for all of the cards we make and send!

But in the new Autumn/Winter catalogue there is a pack of washi tape that will solve your problems. It’s meant for Halloween, but skulls are for life, not just for Halloween, right? So I made another one of these little boxes (click here for Brenda Quintana’s great tutorial) to house a gift card, and a co-ordinating card using some of the same projects. Actually, now that I see them side by side, I could have made more effort with the co-ordination. But then, as I say, it will only get thrown away.

I followed Brenda’s instructions exactly this time but, when I came to placing the pack of Rolos in the box, they didn’t fit. Turns out American Rolos are in shorter packs. So off I went to the local shop with my completed box! I discovered that you can fit in a Twix or a Daim bar in there.

 

Another stamp which proves so useful in masculine circumstances is the little hand from Morning Post Alphabet. I’ve used the hands far more than the letters so far – must rectify that.

Stamps: Chalk Talk, Morning Post Alphabet

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Smoky Slate, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Whisper White

Paper: Modern Medley

Ink: Black Stazon

Accessories: Chalk Talk Framelits, Linen Thread, Naturals Tape, Witches’ Brew Designer Washi Tape, ¾” circle punch

Chalk Talk and Flower Shop: gift card holder

I thought I’d better push the boat out for this card, which is for a valued customer who celebrated a milestone birthday recently. One of her friends contacted me to request a gift voucher and I was more than happy to oblige. The voucher is inside, so I hope the recipient was pleasantly surprised when she opened it.

The project was inspired by UK demonstrator Laura Mackie, whose version you can see here. I found a random envelope in my stash which suited the gift voucher shape, so started from there, with a three-panel card. There’s a bit of everything on here – but if you’ve got it, use it!

I liked it a lot when I’d finished – so much that when it came to my downline/friend/stamping inspiration Kelly’s birthday, I made a similar one for her, too.

Stamps: Chalk Talk, Flower shop, Summer Silhouettes

Cardstock: Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, Whisper White

Ink: Black Stazon, Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush

Accessories: Paper Doilies, Chalk Talk Framelits, Eyelet Border Punch, Bird Punch, Pansy Punch, Ruffled Ribbon – Pistachio Pudding

Caturday: Pasca

It's Caturday and here's is lovely Pasca, all the way from Greece. She's not a fan of other cats, but she's very pretty an affectionate. Want?

Calm Christmas card

What a glorious morning it is! I have pegged the washing out and it's actually steaming in the sunshine. But there's a real 'end of summer' feel to the weather now; everyone (in this house at least) is back at school today and you can tell we're heading for autumn. 

Autumn naturally gets us crafters thinking about Christmas projects and I have a handful made that I can show you... all using brand new products from the Autumn/Winter catalogue. Have you had a look yet? I’d love to hear what you think!

But most of my Christmas projects will be top secret until after my Christmas is Coming Stamp-a-Stack. Talking of which, this event is now completely full! Sorry if you’ve missed the boat; my Christmas events are always really popular but I just don’t have room in the hall for any more people.

The next Christmas event will focus on packaging, décor and gifts and will take place on the afternoon of Saturday, 14^th December – registration is not yet open. But you CAN register for my Epic Day of Crafting, on Saturday, 19^th October. This will be an all-day event with three fab workshops. You can secure your place now with a £5 deposit. Click here for details.

Meanwhile, here’s another stamp set that I love from the new Autumn/Winter catalogue. It’s called Calm Christmas and features this beautiful dove, along with two greetings stamps.

Here I’ve used that same direct-to-paper technique that I used on this Wetlands card. I simply swiped the Soft Sky ink pad across the paper to create a sky, then stamped the dove on top in Midnight Muse.

An image from Mosaic Madness in Smoky Slate completes the effect and keeps things quite serene, I think.

Stamps: Calm Christmas, Mosaic Madness

Cardstock: Soft Sky, Whisper White

Ink: Midnight Muse, Soft Sky, Smoky Slate

My Digital Studio, markers and online ordering!

Oh wow, lots of announcements this morning!

New colour markers
Individual markers are now available in some of the new colours, so that you can fill any gaps in your collection.

Stampin' Write Marker New Colour Kit - 130034 - £23.95
Comprises Bermuda Bay, Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Island Indigo, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Smoky Slate, Soft Sky, Wisteria Wonder

Bermuda Bay marker - 131899 - £2.95

Crushed Curry marker - 131901 - £2.95

Soft Sky marker - 131900 - £2.95

My Digital Studio
This is now available to customers. Demonstrators have had a chance to play with it for a while and it's great fun. Best of all, if you're not sure, you can try it FREE for 30 days, using this code: 130910. If you enjoy it, you can then purchase the software for just £13.95 and, if required, download additions to the initial package. Both are available at my online store. See below.

Shop online
You can now shop with me online at my Stampin' Up!® website. I can set up hostess codes for you to use if you want to host a virtual party, but I need to set aside time to find out more about this before trying it.

Ok, I have to go to work but feel free to try My Digital Studio or the online shopping - just bear in mind that I won't be around to troubleshoot until this evening.