Birthday CASE

I have been doing a bit of CASEing lately, taking inspiration from other talented stampers. I find when my mojo is a bit low either copying another card completely or changing up some of the details helps me get back on track with my own creating. Sometimes I do this when I am going for a particular look or just simply run out of ideas of my own and need a card!

This card is for my mum for her birthday and was inspired by both the butterflies and the technique showcased by Lynn on her blog LW Designs. I didn't have a water spritzer on my desk so decided to just huff on the clear block after I had coloured it with Markers.  It left an interesting pattern but not what I was really after.  I coloured up the block a second time and this time spritzed it with my Champagne SHimmer Paint/Alcohol mix,  this added a sparkly layer of colour over the top of the first layer and I really like the effect of texture and shimmer.  

I used my new Chalk Talk Framelits to cut out the Perfectly Penned sentiment, and putting it back through the Big Shot a second time to get the decorative pattern on both ends.  This was the first time I used my Magnetic Platform and I have to say I LOVE IT, it hold the Framelits perfectly in place while you run them through the Big Shot, no holding them down with post-it notes or tape, or hoping for the best ... perfect cuts every time, exactly where I want them.

Happy Stamping

Colourful Mashup

I am enjoying my final couple of days of holidays before heading back to work tomorrow and while I haven't been as busy at the craft desk as I was hoping I have achieved a lot around the house and did get chance to join in with the Colour Q and Friday Mashup Challenges.

Colour Q this week was to pick one of the 2012 colour combos that a member of the Design Team had chosen, there are some lovely ones to choose from but the one Yapha used with Rich Razzleberry, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Crumb Cake and White. I love how these colours look together, and I had fun deciding how I would use them on the sketch and incorporate some hearts.  You can see the new Sale-A-Bration Pretty Petites set used again here for the outline on the vertical banner, the hearts in the centre were stamped using the little heart from the Create a Cupcake set stamped and then stamped off for alternate hearts. 

I think this card takes the lead in most number of stamp sets and tools used, see if you can spot them all ...

• Bitty Banners Framelits - on the sentiment
• Fashionable Hearts Embosslits - for the two hearts
• Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslit - I ran the two hearts through this embosslit to get the embossed hearts on them
• 1" Square Punch - for the end of the vertical banner
• Stamp-A-Ma-Jig - for lining up the frames and hearts
• Pearls
• Elegant Butterfly Punch
• Papillon Potpourri
• Creative Elements
• Short and Sweet
• Pretty Petites
• Create a Cupcake

I also used my Paper Trimmer, Snips, SNAIL and Bone Folder, and I think for such a simple layout that isn't bad! I was about to hit the publish button and realised I didn't mention my embossing powder and heat tool!!!

Happy Stamping

Freshly Made Silhouettes - Two Ways

Looking for a sketch to base my next card on I turned to Freshly Made Sketches, I like these as they are nice and clean layouts, without the 'simple' aspect of a lot of Clean and Simple challenges.  

This time around I used my new Serene Silhouettes stamp set, I just love the little birds on the tree and did some fussy cutting after stamping them in Cajun Craze to make them stand out from the branches.  I wanted the card to have a fairly muted look to it so I used my brayer to colour the back ground for the birds and then decided to try and colour the DSP with the brayer also.  I am really happy with how it turned out, achieving the effect I was after.  

Here you can see a picture of the un-brayered DSP beside the piece I coloured with Pool Party.  I think this worked because I was using a fairly pale colour, too dark a colour would just cover the DSP.

Because I brayered a whole 12" strip I had a piece left over so decided to use the same basic sketch but make some changes.  Firstly I made this card landscape instead of portrait. I added some ribbon and a sentiment as well.  The butterflies are stamped with my new Papillon Potpourri stamp set and cut out using the new Elegant Butterfly Punch. If you look closely at the centre butterfly I have stamped on it with the new Illuminate Glimmer Watermark Stampin' Pad - this is a bit like VersaMark but has a distinct glimmer to it, and is so pretty.  It is hard to capture it in the photo.

Happy Stamping

Beautiful Blue Butterflies

I am happy to say I have made my first card with my new toys, it took me a bit to get going as I kept finding new toys on my desk and wanting to play with them all - I felt a bit like a 3 year old!  I decided the thing to do was clear off the desk, put the new toys away and focus on the one at hand, which worked a treat.

This card is made completely with new products (apart from adhesives lol).  The DSP is from Comfort Cafe, which I think is going to become my new favourite DSP, it is so pretty, if you look closely behind the main pattern the paper is printed in such a way it looks like it is fabric, which gives such a lovely feel to the card. The butterfly images are from Papillon Potpourri and are punched out with a matching punch (my new favourite punch), no more fussy cutting of butterflies!  I stamped the butterflies once onto Very Vanilla card stock after cutting it out with the Apothecary Accents Framelits, then again onto Vellum, when adhering the vellum butterflies onto the card I used used a strip of TomBow glue along the body of the butterfly, that way the wings can sit up off the card.  

I used some of the new Dazzling Details on the bodies of the butterflies and on the Happy Birthday banner.  You will notice a very neat row of paper piercing around the main Framelit image, this isn't from a steady hand (I wish) but rather is with a new set of paper piercing tools called the Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack. The pack has three sheets of templates for use with a variety of dies and punches as well as some straight rows.  The best part is that it measures 15.2cm x 15.2cm so there is now no longer a need to re-position the smaller guide that SU used to stock. 

I am loving the new products, and when I have hung out a load of washing I will be back at my desk creating something else to show you.

Happy Stamping