Papercrafts Festival demonstration cards: day three

(To the tune of the twelfth day in The Twelve Days of Christmas)

On the third of October
more cards were made by me:
with embossing powder,
white Taffeta ribbon,
Baja Breeze cardstock,
an Ice Rhinestone brad,
Stampin' Dimensionals,
Eyelet Border Punch,
Five stamp pads,
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig,
Whisper White,
Tree Trimmings set,
and some Ski Slope DSP.

Stampin' Supplies

Ink:
Chocolate Chip
Baja Breeze
Old Olive
Real Red
Sahara Sand
VersaMark

Stamp sets:
Many Merry Messages
Tree Trimmings
Paper:
Baja Breeze CS
Old Olive CS
Ski Slope DSP
Whisper White CS

Accessories:
Embossing Buddy
Eyelet Border Punch
Heat Tool
Ice Circle Rhinestone Brads
Silver Embossing Powder
Sponge Daubers
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig
Stampin' Dimensionals
White Embossing Powder
White Taffeta Ribbon

Papercrafts Festival demonstration cards: day two

(To the tune of the seventh day in The Twelve Days of Christmas)

On the second of October
a card was made by me:
using oval punches
Large and new Scallop,
Five stamp pads,
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig,
Whisper White,
Tree Trimmings set,
and some Ski Slope DSP.

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Chocolate Chip
Baja Breeze
Old Olive
Real Red
Sahara Sand

Stamp sets:
Best Yet
Tree Trimmings

Paper:
Old Olive CS
Ski Slope DSP
Whisper White CS

Accessories:
Square Scallop Punch
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig
Stampin' Write Marker in Old Olive
Stampin' Write Marker in Real Red

Papercrafts Festival demonstration cards: day one

(To the tune of the fifth day in The Twelve Days of Christmas)

On the first of October
two cards were made by me:
with Whisper White,
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig,
Three stamp pads,
Tree Trimmings set,
and some Ski Slope DSP.

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Old Olive
Real Red
Sahara Sand

Stamp sets:
Occasional Greetings
Punches Three
Tree Trimmings

Paper:
Ski Slope DSP
Whisper White CS

Accessories:
Square Scallop Punch
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig
Stampin' Write Marker in Old Olive
Stampin' Write Marker in Real Red

Pre-Yoga quickie

Just dashing off to yoga - first lesson in ages. But I thought I would post this card made with Certainly Celery Poly Twill Ribbon (that is available for this month only) embossed with a gold Christmas sentiment. I'll be back soon...

ETA: 8:31pm I'm back but it's time for dinner *sigh*

ETA: 9:12pm I've had dinner and except I haven't had dessert. I suppose I shouldn't throw away all the benefits of my yoga session in a fit of sugar consumption.

So, back to this Christmas card with the rather spiffy ribbon. I've always loved gold embossed ribbon and decided that I should try making my own. I initially experimented on the wide double-stitched grosgrain ribbon in Chocolate Chip by doing the responsible thing: which was to tip some embossing powder on the ribbon before using any VersaMark on it. Unfortunately, the fibres of the ribbon held the embossing powder regardless of how I tapped, flicked or hit the ribbon. So I brushed the powder back into its container and gave up on using the wide double-stitched grosgrain ribbon for this purpose.

When I followed the same procedure for testing the new poly twill ribbon, the powder dropped quite effortlessly away from the ribbon. Eureka! and I don't mean the stockade. And the rest is well ... this ribbon!

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Certainly Celery
Encore Gold
Rose Red

Stamp sets:
Many Merry Messages
Tree Trimmings

Cardstock:
Certainly Celery
Kraft
Rose Red
Whisper White

Accessories:
Certainly Celery Poly Twill Ribbon
Eyelet Border Punch
Gold Embossing Powder
Heat Tool
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig

Two Step Stamp-A-Ma-Jigging

I'm sure many of you will already use vellum sheets in place of the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig's reusable imaging sheet. Another advantage of using vellum sheets is that you can create composite images on them ... which is the answer to my Tricksy Trendy Trees troubles.

Stamp all four foliage images on a vellum sheet.

I mark the corners of the vellum sheet with an "L" to mark the short and long sides of my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. This informs users of the sheet as to how to orient my SAMJ in relation to the sheet.

Stamp the corresponding trunk in the desired position onto the vellum sheet using an imaging sheet and Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. I recommend using a lighter ink colour so that you will easily recognise that the vellum guide is for the foliage.

You can now use the vellum guide to stamp some foliage with full knowledge of where their trunks will end up when they are eventually stamped.

So, here are all the trees complete with their trunks evenly spaced and in a straight line. Yay!

Those Tricksy Trendy Trees

I promised my newsletter readers that I would post a tutorial this month...and boy! am I cutting it fine! But here it is.

Stampin' Up! included the very cool Trendy Trees stamp set in our Convention bags this year. Whilst this is a terrific set as it is versatile and sports a couple of great sentiments, it is also really tricky to use. This is especially true if you are a liner-upper even-spacer nut like me.

When I first used Trendy Trees, I had the following experience:
I spaced out my trees using my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig based on the foliage. I lined up the tops of the first two trees and left the rightmost one a little lower as I could play with its trunk height.
Then I added the trunks using my SAMJ and...Wha? The trunks are all over the place instead of being lined up. That just won't do! I'll have to line up the trunks instead!
I drew a line so that there'd be no mistake in the trunks being stamped in a row and used a Stamp-A-Ma-Jig for insurance. Admiring the neatly spaced tree trunks, I felt rather chuffed.
I then stamp the foliage and, to my horror, the foliage overlapped. Nooo you Tricksy Trendy Trees! May it be winter forever so that your branches remain bare and I never have to deal with this ever again! *sob*

Hmmmm... so what to do?

Under wraps

So, here it is...a little wrapped something-or-other. I'm sure that, if you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, you'll know what it could be BUT please don't tell!
I'm making this into a little competition for Australian subscribers of my newsletter. I'd offer it to subscribers everywhere except that I can't give you the planned prize since Stampin' Up! Australia won't deliver overseas.

To win one of these in your June order, you have to guess what it is in May! I want the exact item number from the current Idea Book & Catalogue. No prizes for "something-or-other", "that thingy for doing you know what" or "you know the one" (yes I do, but do you? *raise eyebrow*). I'll detail the competition rules in the May newsletter...and that's a wrap.

Rolling your own

The zippiest way to lay down stamped images is through the use of Stampin' Around Wheels. These come in two widths - standard and jumbo. Of course, since jumbo means jet, it is the faster of the two... Anyway, moving right along... For today's patterned paper, I'm using the Basic Outline jumbo wheel. This is a great wheel when combined with the Bud Basics stamp set since you can add lots of colours with minimal effort. No fussing with markers or painstakingly colouring sections of stamps whilst cursing the clumsiness of having an inkpad as a nib.

1. Run the wheel across the page (in any parallel direction) until the page is covered in impressions. An ink cartridge makes it easy to stamp continuous images from one side of the paper to the other. To break up the continuity of the empty vertical patch on the right side of the page (oops!), I inked a few dots from Itty Bitty Backgrounds and stamped a few times. It should not be so obvious in the next picture.

2. À la two step stampin' technique, use the base large flower stamp from Bud Basics to fill in the outlined large flowers. I've stamped twice with each inking of the stamp - if possible, the first impression on a whole flower so that I don't have a dark patch on the second impression. Leave a couple of the flowers white if you want a bit of lightness in the end product.

3. Stamp with the base leaf stamp from Bud Basics next. The reason I do this before the small flowers is that I'm introducing two greens into the colour mix. The large flowers establish the major part of colour scheme and you are adjusting the color balance by the addition of the leaves (a little more yellow by using Gable Green, a little more blue by using Glorious Green).

4. Stamp with the base small flower from Bud Basics over the small flower outlines. I've stamped three times with each inking of the stamp and left none white. I think the paper could be considered a finished product at this point (especially if you coloured all the flowers) but I'll add a little extra colour.


5. To add colour to the areas around the flowers and leaves, use a sponge dauber dabbed on an ink pad. The first tap on to your paper should be the lightest (imagine being a feather landing on the page). Increase the pressure of the taps as you go. Then, after re-inking, start lightly again. This avoids having really obvious round spots in the colour cloud surrounding the flowers and leaves.

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Basic Black ink cartridge
Gable Green
Glorious Green
Lovely Lilac
Orchid Opulence
Tempting Turquoise

Stamps:
Basic Outline wheel
Bud Basics set

Cardstock:
Ooooh! Non SU! white copy paper...

Accessories:
Jumbo wheel handle
Sponge daubers

It's all wheelie...I mean...really easy, right? I'm off to wrap something with it. I'll post the package tomorrow along with unwrapping the May Stampin' Up! offer.

Update 12:29pm
I've found out that there is another patroness also responsible for pointing visitors my way. Many many thanks Vivian Swain!

Patterned paper week

I love patterned paper and I'm choosing this week to feature it! More specifically, I'll be posting various ways of making your own and then using the paper in a project. That's like creativity squared ... or something. This is also a precursor to an upcoming May Stampin' Up! promotion but I'm going to stay quiet until then. Bribes may be considered, however ...

First up is the patterned paper you can create by stamping freehand. Choose your favourite stamp set and go for it on a blank piece of paper.

Tips
1. Make sure that you stamp over the edges of your paper so that the pattern doesn't look cramped (and the edges bald).
2. If you are stamping twice after inking once, be careful when you stamp off the edge on the first impression. You may find that the second impression has a darker patch of ink where the stamp met the edge of the paper on the first press.
3. Consider using contrived chaos. In other words, don't stamp with complete abandon - just look like you did. Stamp in clusters (such as in threes) and be careful with overlapping images as, while sometimes it can look good, other times it looks messy.

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Old Olive
Ruby Red
Whisper White Craft

Stamps:
Bud Basics set

Cardstock:
Kraft

Accessories:
White Gel Pen


I found that the white craft ink didn't give me the shock of white that I wanted so I traced over the outlines with a white gel pen.

I'll post a project using this patterned cardstock tomorrow. But, in the meanwhile, have a squizz at Kari's bold and beautiful cards and Kylie's gorgeous offering - I reckon my patterned cardstock gives a similar feel to the Designer Series Paper that they used so well. Of course, the DSP is much more refined...

Au lait!

The shackles of being shaped have been lifted! To celebrate, I'm posting a milkshake shape - a tiny milk carton specifically. Made for a team challenge, this is based on a tutorial by Beate Johns. The repeated words on the label took a lot of Stamp-A-Ma-Jigging! As usual, I couldn't resist using a scalloped edge die cut and my trusty Cuttlebug Textile embossing folder for added texture.

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Chocolate Chip
Not Quite Navy
Sage Shadow
Very Vanilla Craft (retired)

Stamps:
Carte Postale set
Leaves à la Carte wheel

Cardstock:
Chocolate Chip
Not Quite Navy
Sage Shadow
Very Vanilla

Accessories:
Chocolate Grosgrain Ribbon
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig

Just in CASE: a CASE in point

Sometimes, when you haven't got much inspiration and you are short of time (birthday party tonight!) and you really want to give a handmade card, you may just have to CASE. There are a few versions of what CASE stands for (mine is Copy And Somewhat Edit) but essentially it means basing the layout of your card on one that you like and changing it to suit your preferences and supplies.

Last night, my upline, Jayne, posted a challenge to CASE from a random page in the new Idea Book & Catalogue. Mine was from page 87 and the result was:

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Orchid Opulence
Tempting Turquoise

Stamps:
Carte Postale set
Seeing Spots set

Cardstock:
Orchid Opulence
Tempting Turquoise
Very Vanilla

Accessories:
Light Orchid Grosgrain Ribbon
Turquoise Grosgrain Ribbon
Mat Pack
Stampin' Dimensionals

As I did not have the new scallop punch, I had to make do with two flowers cut using a Spellbinders Flower Creations Die. Also, a Cuttlebug Circle Die was used in place of the Stampin' Up! 3.2cm circle punch (my defense is a 3.2cm circle is a 3.2cm circle!). I embossed the turquoise flower using a Cuttlebug Textile Embossing Folder just to differentiate the flower a little from the turquoise background.

First past the Publish Post button

Welcome to my Stampin' Up!® blog. It is really exciting to share my passion for cardmaking and papercrafts on the web - of course, exciting for me. My challenge is to make it interesting for you ... lest it be yet another blog in the cacophany of blogs in the World Wide Web clamouring for attention but getting no love. OK OK no promises that I will achieve this so don't hold me to it !

So, to start the whole thing off, I asked my husband which of my handmade cards he liked the most. After going through the whole card collection, his considered choice was the following:

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Bordering Blue
Old Olive

Stamps:
French Flair background (Summer Mini catalogue)
Heartfelt Thanks set
Kanji set (retiring soon)

Cardstock:
Bordering Blue
Night of Navy
Very Vanilla

Accessories:
Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware




YES his favourite colour is blue BUT surprisingly he chose it because of the Very Vanilla matting on Night of Navy cardstock and the Hodgepodge Hardware. Such a thoughtful sweetie is he !

Thank you muchly for visiting.