Stamping Elegance

Butterfly Prettiness

Hi There!

I haven’t shared in a while so thought I’d stop by and post a few cards that I’ve made recently using the Stampinup Saleabration Designer Series Paper “Best Year Ever”. The buttons and ribbons are also freebies as part of the promotion.

I’ve been finding it very hard to find time for crafting of late, now working 5 days a week and trying to keep up with the house work and family committments etc, so I started by grabbing one of my favourite tools, the fiskars butterfly shape cutters, and just cut out a bunch of butterfly elements and started layering them up. The colour palette of this paper made it easy to put the card together.

I love using a tonne of layers, and a little bling never goes astray!

This card features the really large butterfly and I love how it fills the square cardfront. I chose not to add a sentiment to this one – It kind of speaks volumes without it! i can always stamp one inside when it’s time to gift it.

And a close up of the lovely layers and texture…

For this traditional C6 sized card, I went for a less layered look allowing the background DSP to speak for itself. I’ve used Copic Markers to colour in the gradient on the Happy Birthday stamp, after stamping it in Baked Brown Sugar.

I like to use kindy glitz or dazzling details to attach my sequins, this way if some pokes through the middle of the sequin it adds to the effect. I can then add a little dab on top too.

By sitting down and making these cards all together, I could utilise the same colour palette and supplies and have three cards relatively quickly with as little mess as possible.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by – I hope you find time to create in your space soon!

I’m only a Phone Call away!

I love this sentiment – it’s just a cute way of saying “I’m here for you” isn’t it? For today’s card I chose to colour Telephone Marci and actually used both of the sentiments that come with the Lalaland stamp.

My colour Palette consists of Smokey Slate, Whisper White, Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay and a little Island Indigo for extra punch. Some of these papers were actually Christmas themed papers but I think they work well here. I had fun colouring her “white” shirt by adding subtle warm grey detailing.

Did you spot my Bermuda Bay rhinestones? I coloured directly on to the Stampin’ Up! clear rhinestones with my alcohol markers. So easy!

I made sure to line the inside of my card with DSP as well – look at all the lovely layers!!!

I am a fan of lovely large bows but sometimes I just can’t get the tails to sit neatly. My solution here was to tuck them underneath and secure them with some tape – it created a puffy double bow effect.

Hope you enjoyed my project – thanks for stopping by!

Window to the Heart

Hi there,

I’d like to share this project with you today – it’s one of those cards that came to me in a vision – I knew exactly what I wanted to create in terms of colour and layout and felt incredibly satisfied when it looked exactly as I had envisioned it!

My splatters are stamped in Versamark with the Gorgeous Grunge Stamp Set and embossed with Pool Party Embossing Powder – fabulous!

Look at that gold twine! My main flower stamp is from Button Buddies and the small ones are a long gone hostess set (the name escapes me but I love how it matches the punch).

Gold Sequins add a finishing touch with Gold Stickles on top.

And inside is really effective too. The colours I have used are Soft Sky, Pool Party, Coastal Cabana and Bermuda bay on a neutral background of White and Kraft.

Thanks for stopping by, hope I’ve inspired you to handcraft today!

Still Colouring!

Wow it’s been a long time since I have created a card in Stampin’ Up’s Pacific Point! This DSP patterned paper was in my first order when I joined as a demonstrator in November 99 (OMG has it been that long?) And it is still lovely!

This gorgeous character image is from LaLa Land Crafts and is called “Quill Pen Marci” – I just love her pony tail plaits! I’m still learning to colour with Copic Markers but I was pretty happy with the way her hair turned out. I find the curved sections like the headband the easiest to shade effectively.

My sentiment is from the SAB set from Stampin’ Up! So Happy For You. I like the layered flag look for the sentiment – and can’t resist adding a little rhinestone on either side.

Thanks for stopping by.

My First Copic Excursion with Travel Marci

Well I’ve done it! I’ve recently fallen in love with “character stamps” which of course has led me to invest in a few Copic (alcohol based)Markers to colour them in. I am hugely anticipating Stampin’ Up!’s Blendabilities range of alcohol markers due to be released in July with the new Catalogue and will definitely be adding those to my colour range as soon as possible!

There are countless tutorials and videos online to help you learn how to blend well when colouring with these markers but the most imporant thing to remember is that you need to purchase 2 or 3 in each colour range e.g. a light pink, medium pink and darker pink to enable a good “blend” effect. I’ve coloured in the Travel Marci design by Laland Crafts – isn’t she adorable?

Travel Marci 1 — Copic Blends As Follows Hat: W0 W3 W5 Bow and Skirt B12 B23 Tshirt and Leggins Rv21 RV23 RV29 Luggage and Passport E53 E57

I’ve delved into my patterned papers to find colours that would suit and most of these come from the retired DSP “Travel Journal” from Stampin’ Up!. The ribbon is Sahara Sand Taffeta Ribbon also from Stampin’ Up!

Do you see my little coloured clay flowers? I made these by dying clay with my reinkers and using little molds to create the roses (also from SU). These were so much fun to make!

I’m so happy to share this project with you – I will most likely be posting quite a few Copic Colouring Cards in the month’s to come as I explore this new style of craft.

Stylin’ Girl With Sequins

Have you ever noticed that the kids that surround us in life just keep growing? Funny that! I recently realised that the little girls having birthdays among friends and families were a little old for my current stamp designs (and another butterfly card just wasn’t going to cut it!). Enter one of my new favourite stamp sets, Stylin’ Girl from Stampin’ Up! This set comes with two images you see featured on cards below. I’ve coloured direct with my Stampin’ Write markers again after water colouring the skin tone areas (see my previous post for more details about this method).

Can you see the washi tape used in this first card? This is the water colour wonder washi from the recent Occasions catalogue and my spies tell me it will probably be available in the new catty come July 1st. The DSP is Sweet Sorbet which was the SAB DSP this year.

I made this ballerina card for my beautiful cousin Rachel and hopefully it has arrived in her hands today in SCOTLAND as it’s her birthday today! Happy Birthday Rachel!

Burlap Happiness

The Occasions catty featured this absolutely divine Burlap “Ribbon” (more like a tape really) and I love the effect when you mix natural with colour like the Coastal Cabana DSP in this card. My DSP is from the Fresh Prints Paper Pack. See my Gold Baker’s Twine on the top right of my card? Love it!

Gold is really trending right now in the craft world so a few gold sequins make this card really contemporary too 🙂 I’ve used the Memorable Moments stamp set for the label die border and the Happy Birthday sentiment – isn’t this stamp set great? I love the font used for the words and numbers 🙂

Here is another design featuring Memorable Moments and Gorgeous Grunge:

Mother’s Day and Stampin’ Write Marker Colouring

Happy Mother’s Day to all the hardworking (office or home) Mum’s out there! I made this card below for my Mum who continues to amaze me with her generosity of spirit and time – she is always there for us when we need support or when I need a good chat 🙂 Love you Mum! This Marci with Rose Lalaland Crafts stamp is actually my dear friend Vanessa’s which I borrowed at a recent stamping get together, on whisper white card stock with stazon ink.

I’ve been experimenting with colouring in with SU Stampin’Write Markers, and though they aren’t designed to blend, I think with a little shading and using similar colours (such as the Peach Parfait and Pumpkin Pie on the dress and shoes here, you can still get a nice result. I started by watercolouring the skin areas with crisp cantaloupe and my aqua painter – I use isocol in my aqua painter so that it dries faster. Once this was totally dry I started laying down colour with my markers. I found it best to wait until and area was dry before going over again for added depth.

I love this retired Spice Cake Paper and enjoyed colouring my image in a coordinating palette.

And for my mother-in-law I coloured this SU image in various brown shades and added some red on the pot to make it pop. I just went over certain areas to make it darker once the first layer of colour had dried.

Why not try colouring direct to paper with your Stampin’ Write Markers? It’s so much fun!

A Sporty Thank You

Hi there,

I’m back after a fairly long hiatus with something a little Sporty for you and very different to the Christmas cards from my previous few posts!

I made 5 of these cards for the coaching team for Laurenz’s State Championship Teeball Team – I printed their names and then stamped the rest. This is a stamp set that I have wanted for such a long time and recently found it on a second hand site and had to have it! It’s called “Just Baseball” from Stampin’ Up!

I have used the Label Thinlet Card Die to create the card and made sure I only rolled it part the way through to get a longer card that is almost square (My starting card is cut at 13.9 x 29 and scored at 10cm from the end to create the right hand fold).

Here it is just open – you can see where the team mates all signed it inside:

And from a slightly different angle – don’t ya just love that cap??? This reveals more stamping inside as well as the printed “thank you” panel on the inside cover.

And on the back, I’ve attached a pocket for a gift voucher from all the parents, with an E for Morley Eagles as a patch on the back:

And of course the card is in Morley Eagles Colours!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing this project.

Clear Cards for Christmas – Stamping on Acetate

I have been wanting to try clear (acetate) cards for such a long time, and when I was recently asked to design a few “Speciality Christmas Cards” I thought this was the perfect opportunity! My first purchase was of course Stazon Ink in Cotton White, out came my acetate sheets and away I went. I cut my sheet to A5 (folded it will be a standard card size of C6) and stamped my snowflakes all over BEFORE scoring my fold line. I set the sheets to dry, cooked my children their dinner and once dishes were done and kids were fed, came back to my Craft Room and prepared to play!

I decided to turn my acetate over so that the stamped images were on the inside allowing for a smooth surface on the outside and a more fuss free handle. I scored my cardstock in half on the non printed side to avoid scratching off my design.

One of the biggest issues for me when creating clear cards is that I can’t stand even one small bit of adhesive to show, so the way around this is to make sure all shapes are mirrored on the reverse side (plain card stock), essentially sandwiching the acetate and hiding my adhesive. This die cuts on this first card are created using the Label Framelits and the inside of the card has a plain white one for writing on (with a mirrored piece on the very back to to hide the adhesive of course).

The writing section of this card is on the very back. I cut a banner to the exact measurements and added it to the back, concealing adhesive and offering a solution for the written message at the same time.

Don’t be afraid to play with clear cards! Just be sure to use Stazon or another permanent ink and allow the ink to dry before finishing your card!