Pocket Silhouettes

Hi Everyone, it's Friday and the first week back at school is over.  Next week all the activities start up again so I've been writting up my calendar with times etc.  Just need to remember to look at the calendar! Lol!

My card today is for the Simply Stampin' Challenge and for this week it is to use the colours - Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Early Espresso and Pacific Point.

For my panels I've used Pocket Silhouettes and repeated the image.  I tried the baby wipe technique for stamping the flowers, however I don't have any re inkers.  So instead I picked up colour on my wipe from the lid of my ink pads, after giving them a good squish.  I think it would be stronger colours if you used the re inkers.  I used both the Pacific Point and the Pretty in Pink, although you mostly just see the Pacific Point.  I stamped directly onto the wipe then onto the Whisper White panels.  I then tore the top edges and sponged Pretty in Pink along the edges adding extra to the bottoms to ground the image.  The panels were mounted onto Pacific Point and attached to the base card.  I made a label using the Decorative Label Punch, the 1" Circle Punch and the 1 1/4" Circle Punch.  The sentiment was made up from the two sentiment stamps that are included in this set.  A little bit of Early Espresso ribbon finishes off the label.

Thanks for taking the time to visit. x

If you would like any of the supplies then you can contact me on ails300@btinternet.com

Supply List
All Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated

Card: Pretty in Pink, Pacific Point, Whisper White,
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Pacific Point, Early Espresso
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Punches: Decorative Label, 1" Circle, 1 1/4" Circle
Other: Early Espresso 1/4" Grosgrain

Butterflies and Bling

Almost missed this weeks Friday Mashup.  Forgot card was still sitting waiting to be finished!  Where has the week gone?

This week, it's butterflies and bling and to mash it up use colours Perfect Plum, Marina Mist plus one added colour and a neutral.  I've added Melon Mambo and Whisper White is my neutral.

I've started off by sponging a Whisper White square with my colours Perfect Plum, Marina Mist and Melon Mambo.  Then added a butterfly from Butterfly Prints and punched out with my Butterfly Punch.  Some Basic Rhinestones add the bling.  The square is mounted onto Marina Mist card.  I attached a punched lace frill by using the Eyelet Border Punch.  I've sponged this also with my three colours.  Before attaching to the Perfect Plum card base I've further stamped the butterfly in the same ink.

Thanks for looking and hope you've had a great week. x

Here's my supply list which you can order from myself by e mailing me at ails300@btinternet.com

Supplies Used

Card: Perfect Plum, Whisper white, Marina Mist
Ink: Perfect Plum, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Marina Mist
Stamps: Butterfly Prints
Punch: Butterfly Punch, Eyelet Border Punch
Other: Basic Rhinestones

Lovely as a Tree Thinking of You

Here's my card for CASual Fridays challenge which has joined with Clean and Simple Stamping.  Two challenges in one! This is the sketch we were given to follow - 

For my card I've gone with a Crumb Cake card base and teamed it with some Perfect Plum and attached a Whisper White panel.  The tree is from Lovely as a Tree and is stamped in Elegant Eggplant.  I sponged some Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant across the bottom and carried it over the card base.  The sentiment "Thinking of You" is from another stamp set Silhouette Sentiments.  I punched it out with the Word Window Punch then re inserted one end back into the punch to make it shorter.  This is layered onto Perfect Plum punched out with the Modern Label Extra-Large Punch. 

I had a lovely fun day with some close friends who are truly bitten by the crafting bug.  We are all learning together and passing on skills to each other whilst having a laugh.  It also kept me occupied so I was not thinking of my (or rather worrying about) my eldest who started secondary school today!  

If you would like any of the supplies featured in the above card then you can contact me on ails300@btinternet.com.

Thanks for looking. x 

Supplies Used

All Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated

Card:  Crumb Cake, Perfect Plum, Whisper White

Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Silhouette Sentiments

Punches: Modern Label Extra Large, Word Window

Other: Sponge Daubers

Medallion Strength

Something a little different today.  I wanted to have a play at layering images and really had no plan in mind so just went for it.

I stamped the large Medallion in Old Olive (I used my Brayer to apply the ink directly onto the stamp) and stamped off the edge of some Whisper White.  Then cut a rough mask to cover it.  Then I stamped the words from Strength & Hope in Pear Pizzazz, sometimes stamping off the page first.  I decided to use the Rock and Roll technique on the butterfly.  It was stamped in Pretty in Pink then rolled in Night of Navy.  The scroll, in Pear Pizzazz, was used to fill in the rest.  I then lightly sponged in some of the areas with Pear Pizzazz and Pretty in Pink using my Sponge Daubers.   The center panel was mounted onto Night of Navy before attaching to a rectangle of Old Olive which in turn was attached to the Pear Pizzazz card base.

Finally I stamped the H in Old Olive and punched out using the 1 1/4" circle punch and matted it onto Night of Navy punched using the 1 3/8" circle punch.

It's fun just to have a play sometimes and see where it leads you.  Have a go!

Supplies required
All Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated

Card:  Old Olive, Pear Pizzazz, Night of Navy
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Night of Navy, Old Olive, Pear Pizzazz
Stamps: Medallion, Strength & Hope
Punches: 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch
Other: Sponge Daubers

If you'd like to purchase any of these supplies then please e mail me on ails300@btinternet.com, I'd be happy to help.

Eastern skies

Here's card two from my card class last week.

This time we used the Brayer like a roller to make this eastern sky background and stamped an image from Pocket Silhouettes in Soft Suede.  The colours for the sky are Not Quite Navy, Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry.  The sentiment is from the same stamp set and punched out using Word Window Punch then mounted onto a Melon Mambo Modern Label punch out.  The main image is mounted onto Rich Razzleberry and the card base is Not Quite Navy.

Once again thanks for looking.  I really enjoyed making this card so I'm sure you'll see more of this style. x

Sail Away Choppy Seas

Good Afternoon Everybody.  Almost the weekend!  

My card today was one that we made at my card class last night.  I'm so excited to show you this because we used the Brayer.  I had so much fun preparing for the class and experimenting different techniques with the Brayer.  So here's how we made it -

First of all we distressed a piece of Night of Navy card stock by using the edge of a nail file top and bottom and then tearing the edges.  This is so much fun and allows a lot of freedom to just,  well, get messy with it.  

The Sailing ship was stamped onto a post it note and the sails cut out.  Then stamped again onto Whisper White card in Night of Navy.  The sails were masked with the cut out sails.

Then we all had a practice with the Brayer.  The idea for this card was to chop the colour into the white piece using random small movements.  It didn't matter if there were lines etc. as it was supposed to quite random, hence the choppy feel.  We used Bashful Blue and then added a little Baja Breeze.

Some twine was attached with a tag stamped from the Tiny Tags set and punched out with the Jewellery Tag punch. 

Finally the card was assembled onto a Crumb Cake card stock.

Thanks for having a look and I'll share our other Brayer card soon. 

Supplies required 

All Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated

Card:  Crumb Cake, Night of Navy, Whisper White

Ink:  Night of Navy, Bashfull Blue, Baja Breeze

Stamps: Sail Away, Tiny Tags

Punch: Jewellery Tag Punch

Other: Linen Thread

Manhattan in the pink

Today I'm sharing one of the cards that I made for my card class last week. 

I started of with a Crumb Cake base then layered it with some Blushing Bride card stock after rounding the corners with the 3/16" corner small punch.  I used the Top Note Bigz Die to cut some Very Vanilla which was then placed into the Manhattan Flower Embossing Folder.  The edges were sponged with Crumb Cake and a little Old Olive.  The embossed lines and the center of the roses were sponged with Real Red working from the centers out to the edges.  The sentiment "Birthday Wishes" from Sincere Salutations was stamped in Blushing Bride on Very Vanilla and punched out using the Decorative Label Punch.  I'm loving this punch and use it a lot.  Again the edges were sponged with Crumb Cake and Old Olive using my Sponge Daubers another must have tool.  The label was popped up on a couple of dimensionals.  

You could really go to town with this adding ribbon, frills, gems etc.

Thanks for looking.  If you live in the area and fancy coming along to one of my classes then drop me an e mail or if you just wish to purchase some of the supplies for the above card then I'd be happy to help. 

ails300@btinternet.com 

What a pair!

A pair of very different cards for the FEELING FRUITY challenge at Less is More where your card is to involve fruit or fruit colours.  Gosh this made my tummy sink as I don't own any obvious fruit stamps.  Mmmm will need to think out of the box.  After a rummage I came up with 2 ideas,  yes I know 2, I'm amazed as well! 

The pears were punched in Pear Pizzazz (I mean what else!) using the 2 Step Owl Punch.  Yep you heard right.  With a little trimming of the owls ears and feet you end up with a pear shape.  Sorry Mr Owl.  

I gave the pears a little sponging using Old Olive and Real Red with my Sponge Daubers.  I added a little stalk to each by sponging some Whisper White with Early Espresso and free cutting the stem. 

The little tag was stamped with "friends" from Tiny Tags and punched out with the Jewellery Tag Punch.  It was attached with some Linen Thread.

I scored some embossing lines on my Whisper White card blank to add a little extra interest and to ground my pears.  I'm happy with the result and as it's a friends card I think my middle will say something like "What a Pair?!". 

This is my second card.  Would you believe my only stamp with some fruit is the little cherry from On a Pedestal.  So on this card I've given it center stage.  Did you spot the bowl?  It's the icing top from one of the cakes.  I coloured it directly on the stamp using my Old Olive Stampin' Write Marker.  I've added some Crystal Effects to each of the cherries as they always seem to be so shiny.  My sentiment was computer generated.  I'm rather pleased with the result on this one too as I wouldn't have thought to go down this route so thanks to Chrissie and Mandi for making us think out of the box once more. 

Materials used

All Stampin' Up! supplies

Card: 

Card 1: Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, 

Card 2: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink: 

Card 1: Old Olive, Real Red, Early Espresso

Card 2: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive 

Stamps:

Card 1: Tiny Tags

Card 2: On a Pedestal

Punches:

Card 1: 2 Step Owl Punch

Card 2: Scallop Edge Border Punch, Modern Label Extra- Large

Other:

Card 1: Embossed lines using Scoring Blade in paper cutter, Linen Thread

Card 2: Crystal Effects, Paper Piercing Tool to add some detail to scallop edge border, Old Olive Stampin' Write Marker

Catalogue of Errors......

................with a happy ending!

To say this card evolved is an understatement!  

I started with my flower.  I love gerberas and the Daisies Bigz Die makes super large flowers.   I used a piece of Cherry Cobbler and Real Red card and layered up the petals so you could see both colours.  The center is the punched out circle from the Cherry Cobbler middle layer, covered it with Crystal Effects with a pinch of Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.  

So far so good but I'm a bit impatient and this is where the errors started. 

1. Dropped the center face down onto the flower.  

2. Rescued center but splodge of glitter on petal.

3. Decided to cover up said petal with half a Top Note in Real Red found in my scrap folder.  

4. Decided to decorate Top Note with Play Date Designer Series Paper.

5. Being frugal only cut enough to cover half of Top Note Bigz Die.

6. Realised I'd covered wrong half and ended up with a piece too small! Doh

7. Repeated step 5 but made sure it was length ways this time, trimmed just inside stitched       design to fit mount.

8. Decided to make it a pocket and leave top open for flower. 

9. Tried sentiment out on Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, finally settled on Real Red. 

10. Used "Just For You" stamp from Afterthoughts for sentiment. 

11. Inked "Just " using Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker and stamped.  

12. Inked "for you" same way and used Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up.

13. Rounded corners on one end using 3/16" Corner Small punch.

14. Created tail effect by lining up tag in one corner of 1 3/8" Square Extra-Large punch.

15. Mounted tag with dimensionals.

16. Camera out of battery looked for old camera, took lots of photos showing flower in and out.

17.  Noticed paper is upside down on Top Note flower container!! Grrrrr

18.  Start over, repeated step 5 and step 7 and pieced on top.

19.  Added a scallop trim using Scallop Edge Border punch to finish off top edge.

20.  Finally finished re took photos, light not so good battery ran out.  

After all that glad to say I have a card to show. Here's photos showing the flower in and out of the holder and I thought you could put a gift card behind the flower perhaps even attach it to the gift card as decoration. 

I'm entering my card into Casual Fridays Challenge Blog which is to make a CAS card 4" by 9" size.  Also, Friday Mashup, this week is to make a card using the colours Turquoise, Red  and Black and/or to use a handmade flower.  My turquoise is in the designer paper. 

Thanks for bearing with me if you've reached the bottom of this post.  A big Hi goes out to Jewel thanks for deciding to follow me, hope you pop by often. x 

In the pink with Circle Circus

Today's card was inspired by some of the entries over at Less is More where the recipe this week is buttons and/or ribbon.  After seeing some of the black and white entries I fancied making a card in this style.  However I've added pink to the mix.

Firstly I started with a rectangle of Whisper White.  I stamped the flower circle from Circle Circus in a random pattern in Basic Black.  Before allowing the ink to dry I covered it with clear embossing powder and heat set.  I then cut the top at an angle and attached to a Blushing Bride mount.  I coloured some of the flowers with my Blushing Bride Stampin' Write Marker.  I then added some Basic Black 5/8" Satin Ribbon following the angle.  Birthday Wishes from Occasional Quotes was stamped in Basic Black after firstly stamping off on some scrap.  I then punched this out with the Decorative Label Punch and attached it as a tab to the side of my panel. 

I like the way my card has evolved and I think I'll enter it as a second card to less is more although I'm not sure if it is CAS enough. 

We had a fun day today.  My son went swimming with his friend at the Beach Leisure Centre.  Another first leaving them to go in themselves, they had a great time.  My friend and I took our younger ones to the carnivals.  They had super fun running between the different rides.  Glad they are big enough to go on themselves, it was making me dizzy just watching them!! 

Thanks for visiting. x

Heart Pendant Just for You

It's Saturday and that means a new challenge from Less is More and this week it's a recipe to use buttons and ribbons.  I decided to create a pendant effect.

I started by making my heart pendant first.  The hearts stamped in Marina Mist are from the I {heart} Hearts stamp set.  I embossed some Whisper White card stock with the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing folder then used the Full Heart Extra-Large Punch to punch out one large heart.  The teeny tiny white heart was one I already had from the two step owl punch.   I attached a small red button with sticky strip from the Brights Collection with a little silver thread through it.  I then added some Marina Mist 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon.  I attached my pendant to a strip of Crumb Cake before attaching to my base card of Marina Mist.

The sentiment is from the Hostess set - Afterthoughts and is stamped in Marina Mist directly onto the card base using my Stamp-a-ma-jig.

A big welcome to Jenni - thanks for choosing to follow me, it's appreciated.  Hope you visit often and see some inspiration.

Woohoo to everyone at Simply Stampin' Challenge Blog for selecting my card All sorts of flowers for their top 3 in last weeks challenge.  I'm so pleased!

Looking forward to seeing all the brill entries over at Less is more. x

It's an Elegant Soiree sort of day!

I feel very indulgent today.  I decided to reach for my Designer Series Papers and Elegant Soiree caught my eye.  These are a lovely set of papers in soft colours.  

I started off with a Basic Grey textured card in 6" by 6".  I then cut two panels from one of the sheets of paper.  I mounted them on Baja Breeze card showing the opposite patterns.  Then I chose one of the other patterns so cut a 3" by 3" square and again mounted it on Baja Breeze and off set this over the patterned panels.  

The final element is the sentiment.  I used Sincere Salutations Best Wishes and stamped it in Baja Breeze on Whisper White.  I then punched it out with 1 3/4" Oval Large.  I used this punch to punch out a second oval in Crumb Cake.  This oval was cut in half and attached to the sentiment to give a border.  I then attached this to a frame from the Four Frames set.  The frame was stamped in Baja Breeze on Baja Breeze card then punched out with the Decorative Label Punch. 

So this is my indulgent card which I've enjoyed making today with very little stamping involved.  

You can make this card using the above supplies which can be ordered through myself by contacting me on ails300@btinternet.com.  I'd be happy to help with your crafting needs. 

Well the end of my day wasn't very elegant nor a soiree.  I was standing at the bottom of a ladder holding it whilst my hubby attempted to clean out our gutters raining dirt, moss etc over me!  Neither of us are very keen on heights so glad it's done and we are no longer growing bushes on the roof. 

So I'll sign off by wishing you a happy weekend and thanks for visiting. x 

Spring has sprung at Less Is More

Another Saturday, another challenge from Less is More.  This weeks challenge has the theme of Spring but still in a Clean and Simple style.  

I'm really enjoying the challenges and having a look round blogland at everyone's entries.  There is a lot of serious talent out there and I can only hope to learn and continually improve.  It definitely makes me want to stretch myself. 

And this week was a definite stretch as I don't own any traditional stamps that would say Spring to you.  So after a rummage I came up with one of the stamps out of the Punch Potpourri Hostess Set because they reminded me of new buds.  I then decided to stamp them in bashful blue and night of navy to represent bluebells.  Tenuous maybe but that was my thought process. 

 

I stamped the bashful blue on the whisper white, then stamped with night of navy on bashful blue before using the boho blossoms punch to punch them out.  A little pearl in the centre finishes them off.  The "Just for you" is from the hostess set Afterthoughts but with "so you don't have to share" masked off with a post it. 

I made the above card this morning whilst it rained and then snowed outside.  Although some of the bulbs I planted last year are valiantly trying to come through, it couldn't have looked less spring like.  So it came to me that perhaps the next card more represents Spring here.  I thought it would be funny to use snowflakes and then I saw the little tortoise and it fell into place from there.  

I tried out the tutorial of printing straight onto the card.  I haven't managed quite an elaborate text style as was shown.  I think I need to add some more fonts to my computer.  Also I wasn't brave enough to just go for it so to speak so did a practice run on printer paper then cut to the same size and stamped it all out first.  I'm glad I did because I did a little tweaking before using my whisper white card stock.  The inks I've used are night of navy, bashful blue, and crumb cake.  I added a tiny amount of dazzling diamonds glitter on the butterfly's wings.  The stamps are from Serene Snowflakes, Fox and Friends, and So happy for you provided the little butterfly. 

Thanks for having a look and thank you to everyone who has been kind enough to post comments.  I'm off to see what everyone else has posted. x

How to turn a Delightful Decoration into a Vase!! and get your mojo back.

First of all I decided that I didn't want to pack up my christmas stamps and punches quite yet.  So what to do with them?  Well after having a search on the internet, I came across a few ideas and thought I'd try one of them out.

This card uses the Delightful Decorations stamp set and Ornament Punch but the bauble turns into a vase.  Neat huh!!  You can now use this stamp and punch set all year round.  

Secondly, what to do to spark up your mojo again after all those christmas cards and gift projects?  Think about colour, it worked for me.  I reached for my colour coach and started looking at the recommended colour combinations.  This one is rich razzleberry, pretty in pink and chocolate chip.  Should have been early espresso but I don't have that ink pad, so I substituted it.  However the main thing is to have fun with colour and you might just surprise yourself with what you come up with.  

Happy Stamping. x 

  

Carol Singer

I found a You Tube video on how to make an elf using the ornament punch by Andrea Walford.  You can see her video here.  I decided to have a go and changed it from an elf to a carol singer using the curly label punch for his book and the 1/2" circle for his mouth.  The body was the left over part from the hat. I stamped the small snowflakes using versamark on perfect plum card stock.  The greeting was stamped with concord crush ink.  I masked the stamp Peace Love Joy from Occasional Greetings so that only Joy was stamped.

I'm really pleased how he turned out and love finding alternative ways to use punches.  I'll definately be making more of him! 

Happy Anniversary!

We celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary on 11th October by visiting Edinburgh Zoo!

Our two monkeys enjoyed their day visiting their monkeys, the sun bears, lions, zebras etc.  The big hit was the capuchin monkeys catching and eating bugs!

And of course no visit to the Zoo could be without seeing the penguin parade.

The smaller penguins (forget their names) fairly flew round (pardon the pun!).

But the King penguins came round at a much more leisurely pace, investigating as they went.  Great for taking photos.


We were very lucky with the weather and had a sunny autumn day for our visit.  Not unlike the day of our wedding 13 years before.  Guests were a bit different though!





I couldn't finish off the post without showing you the card I made for Shaun.  A very simple card but it conveys the message without any words required.  I've used the 2 step bird extra large punch to make the birds and branches and the eyelet border punch for the frill.

Boo

I've never sent a Halloween card but wouldn't it be so much fun to.  Think how creative you could be!

Here I have made a set of little treat bags.  Something a little different to hand out to trick or treaters at the door.

The pumpkins, ghosts and bat have all been made by using Stampin' Up! punches.  I think I will use  some of these elements on my Halloween scrapbook pages this year.