Good Bye "For Father" and "In the Stars" (sniff)

I can't believe that these two sets didn't make it to the new catalogue. I will definitely be keeping them in my retired stamps draw because I love them. Here is a card I made the other day for my Brothers birthday. I first saw the technique faux woodgrain here http://dawnsstampingthoughts.typepad.com/dawns_stamping_thoughts/2008/09/faux-wood-grain.html. I did mine differently though because I scored my lines using my paper trimmer with the scoring blade attachment and I sponged my colours onto the more mustard cardstock instead of dragging the ink pad on the cardstock. What ever way you do it the result is very cool.
Colours used were Not Quite Navy, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Very Vanilla (retired), Black Stazon and Basic Black. I used my Aqua painter and water colour crayons on water colour paper for the tool box. The accessories are stampin sponges, earth element brads, the large star punch, snail adhesive and dimensionals.

Butterfly Card

Here is a card I made for my sister-in-law's 30th birthday. I have used a butterfly stamp (Stampin' Up! of course) that retired a long time ago that I borrowed from a friend of mine. I don't know the name of the set.

I embossed the image and sentiment with black EP. The butterfly is on SU watercolour paper and coloured using an aquapainter, ink, markers and sponges.

Colours - So Saffron, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Cameo Coral, Blush Bloosom, Whisper White

DSP - Le-Jardin and So Saffron prints DSP (retired)

Accessories - Heat tool, Black EP, Water colour paper, circle punches, taffeta ribbon, dimensionals, snail adhesive, Aquapainter, sponge daubers, sponges and markers

Bold Boy Birthday!

I made this card today for a birthday party we were going to. I find it hard to do boy cards but this one came together very quickly. I was going for a fairly clean minimal look and I think it works but I am not really use to doing things like this. If I try it again I may do some sort of background stamp on the base card but then again that may not look right.I have used the By Land stamp set which sadly is retiring this month and the In the Stars stamp set that is in the Summer Mini (Love this set so versitile).

I have embossed the car image on basic grey card stock with versamark and black EP and embossed the happy birthday in white EP on Basic Black cardstock. The star has been stamped using Real Red (the colour is much brighter in real life) and then I punched it out using the large star punch. I have used dimensionals to pop up the car image and the star.

Don't forget to keeping checking the list of stuff that has sold out in my previous post because I will continue to update it as things sell out.

Card Box Set

This is a gift I made for a friend of mine last year for her birthday. I made it in November but never put it up on my blog so I thought I would show you now. Better late than never! It uses a lot of items that are in the Summer Mini Catalogue as well as some of the In Colours that will be retiring soon. I have heard that 4 of the 6 In Colour Ink Refills are on back order so if you need In Colour items you would be better off ordering them before the end of February so they are not already sold out by the time the retire list comes out.The card box contains 4 cards with matching envelopes and 3 gift tags. The designer paper is Afternoon Tea DSP from the Summer mini. The stamps I have used to make this card box and cards are Live Your Dream, Friendly Flowers, Say it with Scallops, Occasional Greetings and Sincere Salutations. The punches are Scallop Edge, corner rounder, the two squares, large and small oval and small star Punches (I used the creative memories tag punch to make the gift tags). The colours I have used are Soft Sky, Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White.

If you are interested in making something similar to this and have a group of about 5-6 people why don't you contact me and book a class.

Sneak Peek Number 4!

Here are a couple more cards that I have made using products from the Spring Mini Catalogue.
This first card uses the new "True Friend" stamp set. I started by randomly stamping the chocolate chip card base in versamark and then I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I then stamped the canvas background stamp on the always artichoke layer with versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder to give it a cool canvas texture.

I next used my markers to colour directly on the flower stamp and the sentiment stamp, huffed on it and then stamped onto whisper white card stock. I used my paper snip to cut them both out and used dimensionals on them and the canvas layer.

Here are the SU products I used:

Markers - Ballet Blue, Night of Navy and Always Artichoke.

CS - Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, Night of Navy and Whisper White.

Ink - Versamark

Ribbon - Navy Grosgrain

Stamps - True Friend, Sincere Salutations and Canvas

Accessories - Heat tool, Clear EP, Embossing Buddy, Paper Snips, dimensionals and snail adhesive.

This card uses Bloomin' with Beauty. I have stamped the image on whisper white cardstock with Basic Brown ink and then coloured it in using a combination of markers and ink with a blender pen. I then cut it out with my paper snips and used dimensionals to pop it up. I used my crimper to crimp the chocolate chip layer and I attached the crimped layer with pop up glue dots. The old olive layer is textured cardstock. The Designer paper is from the new Summer Picnic Designer paper pack, (love it). The ribbon slide I have used is from the new silver hodgepodge hardware.

Here are the SU products I used:
Ink and Markers - Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Old Olive, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel and Basic Brown.
CS - Chocolate Chip, Textured Old Olive and Whisper White.

DSP - Summer Picnic Designer Paper.
Ribbon - White Grosgrain.
Stamps - Bloomin' with Beauty, Occasional Greetings.

Accessories - Brushed Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, White Gel Pen, Blender Pen, Crimper, pop up glue dots, Dimensionals, Snail Adhesive and Paper Snips.

I am off to make some more cards. Remember if you want a copy of the new Spring Mini all you need to do is ask me and I will send one out to you for free.

Sneak Peek Number 3!

This card has been made using three beautiful things from the new Spring Mini. The stamp is from Bloomin' with Beauty (I will have another sample card using one of the other stamps in this set soon). The Patterned paper is from the Holiday Harmony Designer Paper Pack which as you can see can be used for more than just Christmas Cards. Finally I have used the gorgeous wide Purely Pomegranate Satin Ribbon.
For the watercolouring I have stamped the image in Black Stazon Ink on watercolour paper then used the markers and also the pomegranate ink pad with the blender pen to put colour in the shadow parts of the flower. I then used my Aqua painter to blend the colour out. Finally I outlined the whole flower with the Going Grey Marker.

Stamps: Bloomin' with Beauty, Linen, Occasional Greetings
Paper: Holiday Harmony DSP, Water Colour Paper, Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate and Very Vanilla CS
Ink: Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate, Sahara Sand, black Stazon, going grey marker and Basic Black
Accessories: Aqua Painter, Markers, Blender Pen, Urban West Rub-Ons, Rich Regal Brads, Dimensionals, Snail, 1/16 handheld Circle Punch and Pomegranate Satin Ribbon