Christmas again!

Well, I think I must be on a roll cause here I go again, this time with two Christmas cards! The first one is using the Christmas Pines set again and I was inspired by a card made by Shelly Godby, I followed her design but used copper paper to mold one of my pine cones. The card base is Garden Green, I coupled that with Mint Macaroon (the ferns, the DSP and the ribbon, which, by the way, is soft linen, so manageable and easy to make a bow). I first stamped the ferns on the card base and then kind of followed them on by two-tone stamping them on to the mat of Whisper White. I then die cut some more ferns and put them on top of the stamped images to give it more depth and dimension. The cones are both stamped, but the top piece of the larger one to the left is die cut with copper. As I have said before, Christmas Pines is a beautiful set and the possibilities for use are endless!

Now, on to my second card! This is using a new stamp set, Jar of Cheer, once again a beautiful Christmas set that you can find on page 25 of the new Holiday catalog! It coordinates with the Everyday Jar Framelits from the main catalog on page 192. It's a sliding pop-up card, when it's open it stands on it's own! For paper, I used Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla and DSP from the 'This Christmas' stack. I made a shaker with the jar, cutting all the pieces using the framelits, stamping the candle, coloring the image with my markers (So Saffron, Garden Green with a little Pumpkin Pie in the flame) and filling it with snowflakes. These snowflakes I have had for some time, I got them in a kit from Gina K. Designs last year I think. Making a shaker is now so easy as Stampin Up has come out with foam adhesive strips (page 182 of the main catalog) that you can actually stretch around your image, whatever shape it is! Awesome! Behind the jar is a tree from the stamp set Lovely as a Tree, one of the oldest stamp sets Stampin Up has, thank goodness, it's my favorite - LOL! I used the 'thumping' method to color the tree (thumping is using markers, minimum of 2, to color the tree then 'huff' and stamp). Behind the tree, so to speak, I stamped snowflakes, using Soft Sky, stamping off first, just to give a little added interest. I added Dazzling Diamonds to the tree (unfortunately retired from Stampin Up, but you could use Wink of Stella) to make a beautiful sparkle in the background. When it's 'popped-up' the sentiment shows at the bottom. Again, a wonderful stamp set that I can see myself using a lot this Christmas!  

I hope you like my two Christmas Cards, if you need any of the supplies used to make them there is a link at the top right of this post that will take you directly to my on-line store. I would really appreciate your business! Also, as an aside, I have instructions for making the pop-up card if you would like them, my email is on my on-line website, just shoot me a line and I'll be glad to send them to you.

Christmas Pines

Well, I finally jumped on the 'Christmas in July' bandwagon, except that mine is in August! I just received my shipment of goodies from the new Holiday Catalog and the first set I wanted to play with was Christmas Pines along with the coordinating thinlets, Pretty Pines! This is a gorgeous set and you too will be able to order it in 10 days! If you have a catalog, it's on page 19 and if you don't, please let me know and I will be glad to send you one! It has 22 photopolymer stamps and 13 dies in the bundle and, I can tell you, I love it! I know I always say that, but it's true, and truly Stampin' Up outdoes themselves every time! So, on to my card. I used a sketch from a blog I follow, CARDTV  Mary doesn't stamp much, she uses her Cricut machine, but just recently she provided us, her followers, 14 sketches which I thought were awesome! I started with a card base of Very Vanilla, a mat of Cherry Cobbler (another No.1 color in my opinion!) and a top layer of This Christmas DSP. The three squares are cut in Very Vanilla with the Layering Squares Framelits. The two cones in the middle have a top layer (cut with the dies) of the new Copper paper - love it! The cones either side are embossed with the, also new, copper embossing powder. I colored two of the pearl basic jewels with a copper Sharpie pen and placed them at the top of the cones. The foliage beneath and around the cones I filled with cuts from the Pretty Pines thinlets, covering the 'mistletoe' also with pearls and wound around that is some of the (here we go again!) new copper metallic thread - awesomeness! The sentiment is also from the same stamp set.I hope you like it, I think I'm going to be using this set much more in the not too distant future!

Washi Tape!

Today I have a thank you card I made for a friend who very kindly make me some of her famous Zucchini Bread! I'm usually the one who bakes around here, so I was very pleasantly surprised to say the least! It was so good, very moist, I definitely couldn't have made it better! So, on with my card! It's taken me a while to 'latch on' to Washi Tape, but I'm so glad I got a pack of the new Floral Boutique Designer Washi Tape, it's awesome! Because I wanted to use all three of the Washi Tapes, I decided to make a monchromatic card, I've never done one before and I must say I'm very pleased with this one.  I used the Touches of Texture stamp set (page 141 of the new yearly catalog), it consists of 15 stamps in all, I love this set! I also used Vertical Greetings (page 109 of the catalog), this is a set of 9 stamps and a first for Stampin' Up in the vertical greetings category - love it! So my 'mono' color is Night of Navy, another of my very favorite colors from Stampin' Up. What's also great is the fact that there is a whole suite of products that match exactly to Night of Navy! You just can't go wrong. So to match my Night of Navy Card base I used ink, stamp and write marker, and Bakers Twine all in Night of Navy! I actually stamped, tone on tone, on the card base with another of the stamps from Touches of Texture, not sure if you can see that or not. To color the flower I used my marker to put some ink around the center and then used the Wink of Stella pen to blend it to the outer petals and I did this on the dragonfly as well. I'm not sure if you can see the beautiful shimmer it gives in the picture, but it's gorgeous in person, so to speak! To give the card a nice finishing touch I put a metal rimmed pearl in the center of the flower. I hope you like this card - and I hope my friend does too!

Heritage Day!

So today is Heritage Day at our local Gym! My daughter, Kara, attends a Zumba class about 4-5 times per week and all the Zumbarites (I made up that word!) were asked to wear something that denotes their heritage.  So, of course, Kara asked if I would make her a tee-shirt with both the flag of the UK and of the USA, (I am from the UK and my Husband is from the US). My Cricut Explore has been a little rusty lately as I have been concentrating on my rubber stamping world! So, out it came and I cut out the vinyl pieces necessary for this shirt. The red and white are glitter vinyl (not sure if that shows up in the pictures) and the blue is regular iron on vinyl, the blue is a little dark (navy), but we couldn't find any royal blue which, of course, would have been perfect! I think the navy looks good though! Here are pictures of my daughter displaying her shirt, which she loved! I really enjoyed making it and using my Cricut again!

(Please excuse my fridge in the background, as my Mother used to say, "You could have picked a better place to take the picture! The heart under my daughter's right arm my Jaden made for me on Valentines Day this year - oh I love him so much!) 

Wedding!

Nan to the rescue!  My eldest grandson, Bryan, and his girlfriend Kristy are going to Bryan's old boss Bobby's wedding this weekend and of course, they needed a card! Who am I to complain, it's not as if I don't really like making cards! LOL! So I just received one of my new Stampin' Up stamp sets, Floral Phrases and it also has dies to go with it, how fantastic! The first picture is the front of the card, the two pieces on the left and right are the Floral Phrases thinlets (dies) cut out using Dazzling Diamond glitter paper.  I tucked them and the ribbon around a whisper white mat that I attached to the card base. On this mat I stamped 'Congratulations' and embossed it in silver, unfortunately it's beneath the ribbon and you can't see it in this picture (just pretend, get a visual!) The inside mat is also embossed in silver with a stamp from the Floral Phrases set. Beneath the pictures are the products I used which are all Stampin' Up.

Stamp Sets:  Floral Phrases, First Sight (tiny branch on the inside mat)

Paper:  Whisper White, Dazzling Diamond glitter paper, Silver Foil

Accessories:   5/8" Organza Ribbon, Basic Rhinestones, Versamark, Silver embossing powder, Tombow glue, Skor tape

If you would like to purchase any of these items, please go to my website Here. I would really appreciate your business, thank you! That's it for today!

Baby Bear Pop-Up Card

Well the inspiration for this card came from a Stampin' Up demonstrator from the UK, Linda Parker who has recorded a You Tube video on how to make this really super sweet card, go here to Linda's video if you would like to see it.  I have changed the sizes of the paper for my card to US as Linda made her card using UK sizes. Don't you think it would make it a whole lot easier if the world had the same size paper! I'm sure Stampin' Up would be delighted! Anyway, the moment I saw this card, I knew I had to make it!  Of course I had to wait for the stamp set to be delivered, but finally it was here! Behind the baby bear is a Chest of Drawers, but in this picture you aren't able to tell that as the legs are hidden by the baby bear.  I hand stamped the chest with the little flowers and leaves from the Jar of Love stamp set and put the new enamel silver hearts on the 'drawers' to represent the knobs. The baby bear is a 3 set stamp to give that wonderful 'furry' effect, stamped in the three different colors of brown. I fussy cut her as this particular stamp set does not have dies, but she was easy to cut. Her bow has also been touched up with the Wink of Stella pen, it's very pretty and shiny in real life I promise! When you pull the card open, the baby bear is free standing with the Chest of Drawers behind her - really cool if I do say so myself, and of course my thanks to Linda Parker for doing her video!

Here is a complete list of the products I used, all Stampin' Up:

Stamp Sets: Baby Bear, Jar of Love

Paper: Blushing Bride for the card base, Whisper White for the mat and Chest of Drawers, DSP from the Subtles Designer Series paper stack and from the now retired Love Blossoms DSP

Ink: Blushing Bride, Sahara Sand, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede 

Accessories: 1" circle punch, Modern Label punch (retired sadly) Skor Tape, Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue (my absolute favorite!), Silver enamel hearts, Wink of Stella

Customer Appreciation!

I don't have too many customers yet, it does take a little while to get going! One of my customers is my dear friend and I appreciate her business tremendously! So below are two boxes that hold gifts for her and a card to go with.  I got the inspiration for the rainbow look from Crafty Caroline who made something similar.  The main color is Melon Mambo (for the bottom of both boxes and the card base) and to go with that are the new Peekaboo Peach, Daffodil Delight, Cucumber Crush and Pacific Point.  I used two (well actually 3) stamp sets, Gorgeous Grunge, Papillion Potpourri and Mixed Borders for the sentiment. I also used the DSP that goes with the Melon Mambo as a mat for my card. I'm very thankful for my friend who was actually the one that got me started stamping.  That alone deserves my undying thanks!

If you would like to order any of the stamp sets or paper that I have used, you can do so by visiting my site
HERE I would really really appreciate your business!