Sponged Postage

A while back, in my pre-Stampin' Up! days, I used to do a lot of sponging onto gloss white cardstock, but somehow that technique seems to have been put aside in the past few years.

I was browsing Pinterest (yes, I know, it's the thing I do when I have a bunch of other stuff to do that I don't feel like doing) and came across a card which reminded me how much fun it is to take a piece of plain white cardstock and turn it into something colourful.

The colours used are Pool Party, Island Indigo and Perfect Plum (a sadly neglected colour in my stash - sometimes I need reminding to revisit old favourites), because I love the blue/green/purple combination, and because I was celebrating the fact that Pool Party and Island Indigo, two of my favourite In Colors, are going to stay around as part of the core colour family in the next catalogue :-)

The "postage stamps" were stamped onto gloss cardstock, sponged and then cut out - using the 1" Square Punch for the 2c and Travel Post stamps and by hand for the Paris one (because it has that little oval that goes outside the square just a little), and then glued onto pieces of gloss cardstock punched out with the Postage Stamp punch.

I need to go back to basics sometimes, to remember why I love this craft so much, and revisit some older techniques/colours/stamps to reinvigorate my "creative juices" (sounds so squishy!).

Images © 1990-2013 Stampin' Up!® Supplies used: Stamps:  Postage Due, Everything Eleanor
Cardstock:  Pool Party, Perfect Plum, Island Indigo, Glossy White
Ink: Black Stazon, Pool Party, Perfect Plum, Island Indigo
Accessories:  1" Square Punch, Postage Stamp Punch, Stampin' Sponges

Happy Birthday John!

Following hot on the heels of my sister in law's birthday each year is my brother's birthday ... so it's easy enough to remember his (and, after all, I have a lifetime of knowing when his birthday is).

I find cards for guys to be ridiculously hard ... when it comes to buying stamps I am drawn to flowers, butterflies and other girly stuff (and a long time follower of my blog will be aware that I'm quite fond of pink as well).  So I had to hit the internet for inspiration, and broke in a new stamp set (Postage Due) I just received last week for the occasion.

I used to do a lot of the "collage" type stamping, back in my pre-Stampin Up days, so it surprised me that it was kind of hard to put this together at first.  Guess I'm out of practice.  Of course, the background here is all one stamp, so that was pretty easy LOL.  I placed the stamps along the right hand side to cover up the flower image (not very masculine).

And here's a closeup of the Bitty Banners framelit with the coordinating stamp from the Itty Bitty Banners set, as well as the large shape from the Apothecary Accents in Summer Starfruit, which I have embellished a little by adding pierced holes using the new Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack.  And look!  Something else from the new catalogue!  I used one of the Delicate Designs embossing folders to fancy up the strip of Midnight Muse cardstock.

Images © 1990-2012 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used:

Stamps: Postage Due, Itty Bitty Banners
Cardstock:  Crumb Cake, Midnight Muse, Summer Starfruit, Very Vanilla
Ink: Crumb Cake, Midnight Muse

Other:Delicate Designs Embossing Folders, Apothecary Accents Framelits, Bitty Banners Framelits, Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer, Postage Stamp Punch