Vintage Friend

Good morning everyone, I hope your week is starting out well! This is a card I made last week, using the new (to NZ!) Cottage Wall paper and Vintage Vogue stamp set.

It's SO nice to have a gorgeous SU! paper featuring purples and I just love the way this set stamps - it's one of those sets that just seems to have a texture to it.

A few details: I stamped and sponged my focal layer. I created the orchid ribbon border by winding ribbon through an apron punched layer. The flower was inked with Orchid Opulence then "rock 'n rolled" on Rich Razzleberry.

I had just as much fun on the inside of this card! I LOVE that border stamp, it's gorgeous. I used the rock 'n roll technique on this flower too before layering it with the smaller flower in the set. Layering is the challenge this week at Stamp Something - this card definitely qualifies!


Stamps: Vintage Vogue
Paper & Card: Rich Razzleberry & Whisper White card
Cottage Wall DP
Ink: Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence
Punches: 1/2" Circle
Other: Grommets, Rich Razzleberry & Orchid Opulence ribbon, Sponge Daubers, Old Olive Button & Brad
E-mail me to purchase.
Punches: Apron Lace Punch
Other: Oval & Rectangle Nestabilities, Jumbo Brads

OCC: Butterflies

Hi everyone - it's time for the OCC challenge for the week! Well, my post is actually a little late, Shan whisked me away on Saturday and it completely slipped my mind. I'll have to schedule my posts in advance to guard against unexpected romantic get-aways!

This week Dana has challenged us to use butterflies on our creations. So break out your butterfly punches, stamps or die cuts and play along!

Friends of ours have just had a baby boy and I wanted to make a clean & simple card to send them. I decided to make one for a baby girl too to keep in my stash.

I've had this three panel design in my sketch book for awhile, it worked great with this monochromatic colour scheme. I've used Pretty in Pink for the girl card and Bashful Blue for the boy.

I've kept the inside super simple too, I just like simple design for baby cards - they end up looking so sweet. Keeping it simple is also the SR#15 challenge this week. Head on over to Our Creative Corner to see the AMAZING design team creations and to link your card featuring butterflies!


Stamps: Butterfly Prints, Little Angel, Cheer & Wishes
Paper & Card: Bashful Blue, Whisper White & Pretty in Pink card.
Summer Picnic & Berry Bliss DP.
Ink: Bashful Blue & Pretty in Pink
Punches: 1/4" Circle, Wide Oval & Butterfly Punches
Big Shot: Lots of Tags Die
E-mail me to purchase.

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge

I've got a special post for you today - the lovely Lori, my OCC team mate has a wonderful inspiration challenge on her blog, and this week I'm playing along with the Divas! This is one talented bunch!

The inspiration piece is the following photo....

of bottles from Sun Sweet Naturals. Aren't they just gorgeous? Packaging like that would totally rope me in! As soon as I saw the photo my eye was drawn to that beautiful red, it's such a gorgeous jewel tone, and of course the botanical theme was perfect too, so here's my card...

What do you think, did I capture that red ok? As many times as I've used Bloomin' with Beauty I don't think I've ever coloured that flower red - I totally love the results. I watercoloured with ink pads - and to get that colour intensity I started with a Melon Mambo base and added in lots of Riding Hood Red and Real Red.

I had to test drive my new Manhattan Flower embossing folder, I love how this looks on white. I can't wait to see more of the SU! embossing folders in NZ, they're great.

For the inside of the card I stamped the Floral background (retired) in Riding Hood Red and cut a writing panel with the Circle Scissor Plus. Circles inside of squares just make me happy!

I hope you'll visit the rest of the design team and see the wonderful creations inspired by the photo! Make sure to link your creation on Lori's blog, and when uploading to other galleries please use the keyword: DDIC26. Have fun!

Lori
Anne
Chris
Donna
Julie
Kerri

Stamps: Bloomin' with Beauty, Short & Sweet, Floral Background
Paper & Card: Riding Hood Red, Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Real Red, Melon Mambo
Punches: Large Oval & Large Corner Rounder Punches
Big Shot: Manhattan Flower Embossing Folder, Lots of Tags Die
Other: Real Red brads, Circle Scissor Plus, Aqua Painter, Dimensionals, Stampin' Write Markers
E-mail me to purchase.

Pendant Park

Hi everyone - I guess I WAS in the mood to whip something up quickly after all! One of my favourite sets in the new Autumn Mini is this simply gorgeous Pendant Park. I knew I'd want it for the park bench image alone - my Dad calls me squirrel, so I couldn't resist! This set is just as much fun to play with as I thought it would be and it makes for a GREAT masculine card!

The colour combo I whipped up for this one is Soft Suede (my first time playing with it and I'm in love already!) Bashful Blue and Old Olive. I've used the SCS SC276 sketch. I found the perfect paper in a REALLY old DP pack - Holiday Thyme. This was the first double sided SU! paper I bought, I still love it. The Old Olive DP is from the new Cottage Garden pack.

I think pleating is the perfect way to add ribbon to a more masculine card - it really finished this one off.

Here's a shot of how I finished that tree panel. I know it looks labor intensive, but when you do as much cutting as I do, you get pretty speedy with the paper snips!

No photo of the inside yet as it's not finished - I was losing the light and had to get this photographed. I hope you love this set as much as I do!


Stamps: Pendant Park
Paper & Card: Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Very Vanilla & Soft Suede card
Holiday Thyme, Cottage Garden DP
Ink: Bashful Blue, Old Olive & Soft Suede
Punches: 1/4" Circle, Wide Oval, Small Corner Rounder punches
Big Shot: Lots of Tags die
Other: Soft Suede Ribbon, Dimensionals, Sponge Daubers, Antique Brass brads
E-mail me to purchase.

Yippee!

Just a quick note - unless I'm a super fast stamper this afternoon (and it doesn't feel like that kind of day!) I don't think I'll have any eye candy today, BUT, it is a good stamping day!

I just got a couple of big boxes delivered (right as I just finished painting my nails - oh the agony of waiting for the polish to dry so I could open them!) so will have lots of new yummy stuff to play with and show you soon....and....

I'm the featured stamper over at Color Throwdown with this card!!! I'm so excited - I love the Throwdown challenges! I just had to share with you all, your comments and friendship keep me creating and updating this site, so thanks!

Project Tuesday: Card Purse

You know what Tuesday means around here - time for some great inspiration at Project Tuesday! This week we're making a card purse - these make a perfect gift, I whipped up this one in an hour.

I modified the dimensions somewhat to fit NZ/AUS card and envelope sizes. To make a purse the same size as mine, start with a 4 5/8" by 11 1/2" piece of card stock. Score at 1/2" - 5 1/2" - 6" & 11" along the length and at 1/2" to create the purse base.

The colour combo for my set is Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze & Tangerine Tango. I used some of this gorgeous Pink Pirouette ribbon for an over sized bow to give a fast and easy "wow" factor to the purse.

The cards inside are super simple but still pretty. I've used a general sentiment that could work for lots of occasions.

Hop on over to Project Tuesday to see the wonderfully varied creations from the design team & to link your own card purse project.


Stamps: Mostly Flowers, Best Yet
Paper & Card: Pink Pirouette, Whisper White & Tangerine Tango Card
Ink: Baja Breeze & Tangerine Tango
Big Shot: Top Note Die
Punches: 1/2" Circle, Lg & Sm Tag Punches
Other: Flower Fusion Too Felt Flowers, Pink Pirouette Grosgrain Ribbon, SAMJ, Dimensionals
E-mail me to purchase.
Paper & Card: Snow Cone - Crate Paper
Punches: Apron Lace
Other: Brads, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Gingham Ribbon

Good Thing

Hi everyone, It's time for another SUO creation - last night I felt like colouring and out came one of my favourite hostess sets of all time, Time Well Spent. After looking at all my paper samples I decided on this Fall Flowers DP, I'd forgotten how cool it is!

The colour combo here is Old Olive, Really Rust, Soft Sky & River Rock.

The sketch for this card comes from Karen, I loved this one - lots of room to highlight that cool paper! I coloured the butterflies with ink pads, then dabbed on my glitter glue paint to create raised, sparkly accents. When I was done with the panel it just needed a little something, so I pleated some Old Olive ribbon behind the panel to finish it off.

Hopefully you can see the glittery detail in this shot. I like making my own glitter glue like this when I want a raised, shiny finish.

I finished the inside of the card with the other great sentiment from this set, another butterfly, more glittery goodness and DP. I hope you like it!


Stamps: Time Well Spent
Paper & Card: Old Olive, Really Rust & Whisper White card
Fall Flowers DP
Ink: Old Olive, Really Rust, Soft Sky & River Rock
Other: Dimensionals, Dazzling Diamonds, Crystal Effects, Blender Pen, Old Olive Grosgrain
E-mail me to purchase.

Soft Moments

Hi everyone, hope your weekend is going well so far. I found some time to stamp this morning, and had a lot of fun messing up my craft room! I plan to tidy up this evening, and make room for some goodies arriving soon.

This card is probably one of the softest I've made as far as colours go - it was the perfect time to try out my new apron lace punch (I'm in craft love!)

I was inspired by a bunch of challenges for this one. The sketch is Mojo 133, Stamp Something had me faux stitching around the sentiment panel, All Sorts focused on 'petals and pearls' and Crafty Creations is all about paper piecing!

In case you can't see it, there's the stitching around that gorgeous Verve sentiment.

I haven't stamped the inside yet - but repeated one of those lovely flowers and some of the Basic Grey paper.


Paper & Card: Certainly Celery, Bordering Blue, Barely Banana
Pale Plum & Very Vanilla Card
Ink: Black
Other: Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon, Piercing Tool, White Gel Pen
E-mail me to purchase.
Stamps: Beautiful You & Abundant Blessings - Verve
Paper & Card: Wisteria - Basic Grey
Punches: Apron Lace Punch
Other: Oval Nestabilities, Adhesive Pearls

OCC: Bows!

Hi everyone, it's time for another great Our Creative Corner challenge. This week the lovely Dana has challenged us to use bows (not knots!) on our creation.

I LOVE ribbon. It's rare that I make a card without it. So this week I made a different kind of bow from the kind I normally tie - anyone can do this, read on to find out just how simple it is!

I made this card for my parents 26th Anniversary last month. I started with the background paper and pulled my colours from there. I used Soft Sky, Always Artichoke, Vanilla and Kraft.

I stamped and sponged the three panels then used circle punches to cut out a space for that little dragonfly.

Here's a close up of my bow. It's really simple - cut five lengths of ribbon, making each length successively shorter by the same amount - for example: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 inches. Your longest length should be double the length you want your finished bow to be.

Glue the ends of each length of ribbon together to create a round. Stack your rounds and tie the shortest length around the middle and secure with glue. I used a liquid glue - but if I wasn't out of Sticky Strip I probably would have used that.

The great thing about this bow is it folds flat for easy mailing!

I repeated the stamped image and sponging on the inside of the card. The sentiment is from Cheer & Wishes. Head on over to OCC to see the wonderful design team creations and link your card featuring a bow!


Stamps: Cheer & Wishes, Organic Grace (hostess)
Paper & Card: Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla & Kraft
Ink: Soft Sky, Mellow Moss & Always Artichoke
Punches: 1 1/4" Circle & 1 3/8" Circle punches
Other: Sponge Daubers
E-mail me to purchase.
Paper & Card: Periphery DP - Basic Grey
Other: Satin Ribbon, Self-adhesive pearls