Goodbye Post #6

Another farewell to retiring favourites!  It's been fun, but time to move on ... and today's tribute goes to Fifth Avenue Floral - such a beautiful stamp set *sigh*.  Fortunately we can still bask in a little of its glory with the Manhattan Flower Textured Embossing Folder :-)

Here's a few cards I've made in the past with this lovely set ... enjoy!

(and the more I look at my blog, the more stamp sets I see that need to be revisited ... keep an eye out for more Goodbye Posts)

If you click on the pictures you will be taken to the original post which should outline the materials used on each card.  Keep in mind that some of these are several years old and as such, quite a bit of the Stampin' Up! product used has long since retired.

Mmm, roses...

Long time no see! Still too busy to sit down and stamp, although I do need to make some gift card holders for my brother's kids by Christmas day - ah, there's plenty of time, there's still two days to go *g*.

In the meantime, here's a card I made last month and completely forgot to post. My dear friend Pauline was turning *ahem*, so of course I had to use one of her favourite stamp sets to celebrate.

I have also used the Manhattan Flower embossing folder, as it coordinates perfectly with the big rose from Fifth Avenue Floral.

To emphasise the embossed background just a little, I sponged it lightly with some Crumb Cake ink, and also sponged around the edges of the punched-out greeting.

If you look closely, you can see the subtle glitter of Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint spritzed lightly across the central rose.

And as a final touch, I added a self adhesive rhinestone to dot the "I". The rhinestones, along with sticky-backed pearls, are new to the catalogue this year (page 140) - for only $9.50, you get 150 rhinestones or pearls in three sizes (2mm, 3mm and 5mm).

Supplies used:
Stamp/s: Fifth Avenue Floral, Upsy Daisy
Ink: Early Espresso, Versamark, Crumb Cake
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla
Other: Manhattan Flower Embossing Folder, Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder, Basic Rhinestones, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint

Watercolour Rose

As you may know, Stampin' Up! Classic Inks are dye based, which means that they will run when wet. Usually you try to keep your work dry and avoid this, but sometimes it can be exactly what you need for your project.

Here, for example, I have stamped the big rose from Fifth Avenue Floral onto watercolour paper which was sprayed with water beforehand. The Regal Rose ink immediately bled out across the paper. Once the piece was dry, I used my Stamp A Ma Jig to restamp the flower in Regal Rose and create this simple yet effective focal point for my card.

Layer it with a few pieces of coordinating cardstock (in this case, more Regal Rose along with Soft Suede and Very Vanilla) and you have this ... I am very happy with the result!

Supplies used:
Stamp/s: Fifth Avenue Floral, Trendy Trees
Ink: Regal Rose, Soft Suede
Cardstock: Regal Rose, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Watercolour Paper
Other: Word Window Punch, Designer Label Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, Cutter Kit, Stamp A Ma Jig

Simple and Stunning

This card is directly inspired by a swap I received at our Stampin' Up! Convention in Canberra last year. The original was created by Nikki Stalker, and has been sitting at the back of my mind as something I would like to create for all this time.

This is my version, using some updated colours. I love the combination of Rich Razzleberry and Baja Breeze, with a little Daffodil Delight thrown in.

Looking at it now, I see that I could have used Pear Pizzazz instead of Daffodil Delight and kept with the purple/blue/green theme from the other day *g*.

One Sheet variation

My last two posts showed a One Sheet Wonder project which yields 10 cards from 9 sheets of cardstock (plus scraps). Here I have created a much simpler version using a quarter sheet of stamped cardstock per card, and a sheet of A5 cardstock scored and then ripped across the front as the card base. It's quick and simple and quite effective as well.

You don't need any special tools for this style of card, so long as you have a trimmer and perhaps some punches to add a message.





Images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used:

Stamp set/s: Fifth Avenue Floral, Oval All
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze, Elegant Eggplant, Pale Plum
Cardstock: Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze, Elegant Eggplant, Pale Plum, Whisper White
Other: Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, White 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon

A rose for mum

Mothers' Day always manages to sneak up too quickly, which is why I still have this card here instead of it being with my mother in country Victoria ... sorry Mum! It'll be in the mail tomorrow, I promise.

On the plus side, it means I am remembering to photograph and share it, so everyone wins.

Here I have used a white crayon to highlight parts of the rose (stamped in Stazon Black on Glossy White cardstock), then sponged coloured inks over the top. The crayon "resists" the dye inks and shows through, and because I've used very soft coloured inks the effect is very subtle indeed.

I love this rose stamp! And the wide grosgrain ribbon really finishes this card, I think.

Can you see the text image stamped in Whisper White craft ink on the Apricot Appeal layer? The card looked very flat so I added that for a little depth. The Whisper White ink catches the light beautifully on pale cardstock.

Images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used:

Stamp set/s: Fifth Avenue Floral, En Francais, Trendy Trees
Ink: Black Stazon, Apricot Appeal, Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Basic Black, Whisper White Craft
Cardstock: Regal Rose, Apricot Appeal, Pink Pirouette, Glossy White
Other: Large Oval Punch, Word Window Punch, Stampin' Sponges, 5/8" Regal Rose Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

And while I had Fifth Avenue Floral and the Whisper White craft ink out, I whipped this one up - inspired by this card on Splitcoast I saw a while back. This one was a piece of cake, just stamped in white on black cardstock, then embossed in white (white on white seems to give the finished result that little bit of extra brightness).

This was super-quick, and eventually I will decide what to use the card for and add a phrase to the top right corner where it looks a little bare.

Images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used:

Stamp set/s: Ffth Avenue Floral
Ink: Whisper White Craft
Cardstock: Basic Black, Whisper White
Other: White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool

New Rubbah!

With a new catalogue comes new rubber, and that's gotta be good. Except for my bank balance (ouch) but these things happen.

My new stamps turned up this week and while I haven't been sitting down stamping madly non-stop, I have managed to put together a couple of cards I quite liked using one of my new favourite sets, Fifth Avenue Floral. This set contains three flower stamps, a stem (so you0 can build your own garden) and a phrase as shown on this first card.

Hmmm ... I don't remember this photo being quite so blurry - sorry about that *g*. You get the idea.

The rose stamp is pretty big - the image is about 6.5cm x 7cm, and as with the other two flowers is perfect to watercolour - or, as shown here, stamp onto coloured cardstock and cut out.

Loooove the new Wide Oval Punch!

Images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used:

Stamp set/s: Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Real Red
Cardstock: Real Red, Basic Gray, Basic Black, Whisper White
Other: Wide Oval Punch, Scallop Edge Punch

The second card I made with this set was inspired by this one at Splitcoaststampers ... I even accidentally used the same words *g*, trust me, I was looking for something different but the typeface just fit so nicely with the design.

I must have been having a red and black day.

The strange thing about this is, while I love how the card came out, and the warmth and brightness of the colours, I'm not a fan of orange at all. I guess I'm learning to live with it, so long as it's offset by another colour.

The colouring was done partly with a blender pen and inkpad, and party with Stampin' Write markers.

Did you know that the word window fits exactly into the Large Oval Punch? Looks very effective, don't you think?

Images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used:

Stamp set/s: Fifth Avenue Floral, Upsy Daisy
Ink: Stazon Black, Pumpkin Pie
Cardstock: Real Red, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White
Other: Large Oval Punch, Blender Pen, Stampin' Write Markers in Apricot Appeal, So Saffron and Summer Sun