Hot off the press!

This card is so "fresh" it's still warm! I finished this literally 30 minutes ago, and was just so excited about it I had to post it straight away (well, right after I tidied up and took this photo, that is)!

It's called a "Bib Card" (instructions here), and while the tutorial appears to have been around for a while, it's the first time I'd seen it so it's a "new to me" project.

The colours are totally off, as I had to photograph the card rather than scan it so you can get the 3D effect of the card, and the light in my place at 9:30 at night isn't that great. I have adjusted the levels as much as I could to try to capture the essence of the actual colours (which are Soft Sky and Rose Red).

Isn't it nifty? And not that tricky, although I don't have a Coluzzle so had to faff around with my Fiskars shape templates to get the circle cut in the right place. But once the circle is cut that's basically it for the hard work; the rest is all the fun of embellishing the card.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the result!

PS: See my new favourite thing to do? I have gone eyelet mad since I took delivery of my Cropadile. It's a pretty scary looking tool, but once you get the hang of it you'll wonder why you didn't get one earlier *g*. It can punch through just about anything that will fit, including a 96 page exercise book (but not a 128 page one ... too wide) (yes, the kids and I tried it), as well as tin, leather ... well, you name it - AND it sets your eyelets with ease.

Images © 1990-2008 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used: Soft Sky, Rose Red and Whisper White cardstock, Soft Sky, Rose Red and Close to Cocoa ink, Baroque Motifs stamp set, Scallop, Small Oval and Large Oval punches, Cropadile, eyelet.

Dressing for the occasion!

I forgot to mention, how do you like my new banner? I tried to make it as close to my new fave Stampin' Up! colour (yes, Purely Pomegranate) as possible ... it's not quite right but it's not far off. I'm pretty happy with it.

I should mention that aside from stamping, another thing I do to let off creative steam is mess around with my graphics program, Photoimpact. A lot of people swear by Photoshop Elements, which is a great program, but I stick with my Photoimpact because it was the program I learnt on and so it's the one I'm most comfortable with. It has all the bells and whistles I need, plus tons that I don't, and I'm pretty happy with that!

Another Saturday night ...

... and I have some cards to post.

Okay, first of all I have to admit ... these were not made today. In fact, they were not made in the last week. But they were made (well, one of them) during May so they're sort of current.

The first card was made with a set called "Bundle of Joy", which I won at our Stampin' Up! convention held in Brisbane in mid-April. The convention was really informative (but exhausting), the social aspect was brilliant, and to top it off I actually won something! I am normally the one who can't even win a a chook raffle, so it was incredibly exciting for me.

This is not a set I would have bought. I don't have babies any more (although my nearly 10 year old can sure act like one at times *sigh*), and most of my friends are past that stage as well, while the grandkiddies phase is still waaaay off in the future. But it's fun to make baby cards sometimes, even if it's just to see what you come up with. And this is what I have come up so far with using "Bundle of Joy".

I don't know if it's clear in the scan, but the giraffe is popped up on dimensionals. I cheated and used a circle punch to make the scallops (just 7 little circles glued behind the brown panel). The brown layer is stamped with "Canvas", on of SU's brilliant background stamps. I used SU's Stampin' Write Markers for the colour on the giraffe, and because I had used watercolour paper I could blend the marker colour around with an Aqua Painter. SU's watercolour paper is good and thick and can take a heap of water, unlike some of the cheaper stuff (yup, I tested it out).

And lastly I used the edge distresser from the Cutter Kit to mess up the edges of the brown cardstock a bit (this is an invaluable technique to use when the blade on your cutter is a little blunt and the edges of the cut pieces aren't nice and smooth - instead of trying to fix it, just enhance the effect!).

Images © 1990-2008 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used: So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery and Bordering Blue cardstock, Bordering Blue, So Saffron and Chocolate Chip ink, Bundle of Joy, Canvas and Warm Words stamp sets, Watercolour Paper, 1/2" Circle Punch, Cutter Kit.

My second card is one I made a couple of weeks ago using the new "Garden Whimsy" set. This is such a pretty set, I find myself wanting to use it for everything. And the large butterfly looks pretty impressive stamped with Purely Pomegranate ink, don't you think?

The picture is pretty much self explanatory. The Pretty In Pink layer is stamped with SU's Paisley background stamp (just to add some dimension to it).

I made a cheat's bow on this one, using the double rectangle punch. Have you seen this trick? It's a cinch for those who are bow-challenged (who, me?). Punch the double rectangle out, then take your piece of ribbon. Thread both ends in from the front. Cross them over and thread them back out the opposite sides. Trim the edges and you're done! The double rectangle punch is the exact right size for SU's 1/4" grosgrain ribbon.

Images © 1990-2008 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used: Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate, Pretty In Pink and Whisper White cardstock, Purely Pomegranate and Pretty In Pink ink, Garden Whimsy and Paisley stamp sets, Double Rectangle Punch, Pretty In Pink 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon

When the weather's cold, stamp!

It's been a bit miserable here this weekend ... yesterday was the coldest day of the year so far, and it's only the middle of May! We've had quite a bit of rain, not nearly enough of course but it never is.

Anyway, with the weather so grey I stamped a few thing over this weekend ... here's a couple of cards I made:

Firstly a total CASE from the Stampin' Up! Australia/New Zealand 2008-09 Ideas Book & Catalogue ... I didn't have the stamp set shown, but liked the layout so I improvised. Have a look at the catalogue and see if you can work out which card I CASEd!

I am still loving Baroque Motifs, and the matching Stampin' Around wheel (called Baroque Border) is pretty impressive as well. Here I have inked the wheel on my Basic Black inkpad, as I haven't got around to buying a black ink cartridge for my wheels yet.
Images © 1990-2008 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used: Whisper White, Old Olive, Purely Pomegranate and So Saffron cardstock, Basic Black ink, Baroque Motifs stamp set, Baroque Border wheel, Slit Punch

Secondly something called a "double pocket" card, which I stumbled across while surfing yesterday. It looks a whole bunch trickier than it is, and in fact only takes about two minutes or less to put together.

I used the instructions posted here ... I found that the measurements mean very little, you can use an A4 sheet of cardstock or even a square (I made a little one out of a piece of 6" square scrapbook paper, and it worked just fine).

A quick note ... my scanner is playing silly buggers and the colour on this is all wrong ... the pink of Pink Passion cardstock is much, much more vibrant than shown here, but I couldn't get my graphics program to show it correctly. Well, I probably could but I haven't got the patience to fluff around with it just at the moment

Images © 1990-2008 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used: Whisper White, Basic Black and Pink Passion cardstock, Baroque Motifs stamp set, Scallop Punch.

I haven't forgotten my promise to upload the One Sheet Wonder cards I made a couple of weeks ago - I'm still working on the finishing touches on a couple of them, and will post them all once done.

I'll try not to make a habit of this ...

... posting twice in one night, but I'm pretty darned pleased with myself right now ... I have just worked out how to make links in my posts, as well as a picture link for my sidebar leading to the Stampin' Up! catalogue.

Woo hoo!

I tried to teach myself HTML a few years ago, but it's all pretty much forgotten. Thank goodness for all those helpful sites which have been set up for blogging newbies like myself. If only I could remember which ones I visited I would post links to them. Now that I know how *g*.

Aftermath of a stamping session

Some people are naturally tidy, and can manage to put things away as soon as they're done using them. I don't know how they do it ... I can never make the simplest card without spreading paper, ink, punches and everything else over all available surfaces. This is my kitchen table after a particularly frantic session. I was trying out a One Sheet Wonder template from Splitcoast Stampers, and managed to get myself into a terrible mess. I will post the results of my OSW experiment once I sort out what's cards and what's rubbish from my table.


Luckily I am semi-organised and everything has a place to go back into, it shouldn't take too long to clean up. Till next time, that is *sigh*.

New colour combination

I received a delivery yesterday which included (amongst other things *g*) some of the new Wild Wasabi cardstock (one of the 2008-09 In Colors) and the Photo Corner punch, so I had to try them out!

This card is a variation on one I made for my daughter's 9th birthday last year, but I jazzed it up with bright colours and used my new(ish) alphabet set Jumbo Outline Alphabet. It was a little time consuming lining the alphabet up (yes, a stampamajig is an absolute must for something like this!) but the final product was totally worth it.

And this is why you need to have at least one alphabet set of stamps ... you can use them again and again, and never have to worry about running out of e's or having all those x's left over!

Images © 1990-2008 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used: Bodacious Bouquet and Jumbo Outline Alphabet stamp sets; Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Rose Red and Summer Sun cardstock; Versamark, Wild Wasabi, Rose Red and Summer sun ink; Photo Corners punch, Stampin' Emboss Powder, Stampamajig, Stampin' Dimensionals