Birthdays ... Take 2

The next project I wanted to share was something I made for my friend Pete.  Pete and I were on the same Orientation training for work 8 years ago, and just seemed to hit it off.  We liked the same types of movies, books, and later discovered a shared love of cooking.  Pete is the only person I will let into my kitchen while I cook, everyone else gets kicked out, I think it's because he doesn't get underfoot.  Anyway I digress, the other thing that Pete and I share is a birthday (not quite the same year lol)!  I wanted to make him something a bit special so did a bit of blog surfing and got my inspiration from a card made by Carie Nixon, I did some changing of colours to be a bit more "manly" but kept the sketch pretty much the same.

I then wanted to make a little card for the bottle of wine I was giving Pete as a birthday gift, and wanted it to match the card as closely as I could, given the smaller space.  I was really happy with the way that it turned out. I just love the 2-Step Owl Punch, he is just so versatile, here I have added some googley eyes, and some pearls as buttons on his vest.  The wine bottle topper was inspired by a creation on my friend Jenny's blog that she had made for Father's Day last year.

The scallop squares were done using the SAB Punch Bunch and you can see here how I highlighted the HB with my version of Kindy Glitz - Crystal Effects mixed with Dazzling Diamonds.  I love my little bottle of this stuff, I can choose how much Dazzling Diamonds to add AND it's not quite as messy as it gets when I sprinkle the DD onto the card after the crystal effects.

Happy Stamping

SUO and 3 Squares

I have been a bit busy lately creating in a different way, I have been making a couple of storage units for my desk.  I have posted an update to the  My Creative Space page with my woodworking creativity. 

Now that my desk is more organised I wanted to jump in and do another challenge.  I love the new challenge site "Less is More" as sometimes I think it's easy to get carried away with trying to put too much on a creation.  This is the first time I have joined in with their "3 Squares" challenge and I have taken it a bit out of the box so to speak.  I have created a cute little box from a video tutorial from Chick n Scratch  the 3 Squares are 1) the 6"x6" square the box is made from, 2) the 1 3/4" square of DSP on the sides, and 3) the scallop square on the front.  I love the new little For You Flower stamp in the Sale-A-Bration Punch Bunch set.  This is usually a round stamp centred in a scallop circle, however I wanted to use just the centre of the stamp and put it in the middle of a scallop square instead - I love, love, love a versatile stamp!  The other reason I wanted to use this stamp was because it fits with the Stampin' Up Only Challenge (SUO) which is to use one of the Sale-A-Bration stamps.   Versatile stamps are great, FREE versatile stamps are even better and that's what Sale-A-Bration is all about, so contact me if you are interested in learning more.

The little box is perfect to hold  a single Ferrero Rocher I took the picture of this little box and then gave it to my daughter who was feeling a bit down. Sadly I didn't check the photo before giving it to her and I realise now you can't see the chocolate.  I would take another picture but the chocolate vanished rather quickly lol.

I used the In-Colours Peach Parfait and Pear Pizzazz and Very Vanilla, and Daffodil Delight in the centre of the flower.

SAB - Punch Bunch Baby

I was having a little play with the lovely Punch Bunch stamp set that you can earn during Sale-A-Bration just by spending $100 on anything from the current catalogues!  I don't have many baby themed stamps so was pleased that there was one in this set.  I wanted to make a girl's card first so chose the bright Melon Mambo as my base, and used 2 of the patterned DSP that Stampin' Up have on offer this year. 

I wanted a second baby stamp on the card so chose the pram from Fun & Fast Notes, it's a very versatile set and it came in my starter kit when I joined as a demonstrator.  I stamped this in Melon Mambo and then to colour it I simply used the Aqua Painter to drag the colour from the stamped image over the parts that I wanted.  The wheels I picked up just a little of the Basic Black ink.

To finish off the pram and the mobile stamp I used some of the self-adhesive pearls, these are amazing, and the little ones are so much smaller than any non-Stampin' Up ones I have seen, so are more versatile for those little places like this stamp.  I used another technique that we were shown at Regional Training Day to scrunch the ribbon for a delicate girly look.

Thanks for stopping by.

My Mojo Is Back

For a while there I had lost my mojo, what with Christmas rush, working full time and life in general I had lost my mojo.  But thankfully it's back, and back with a passion.  I have done a couple of projects in the last couple of days, one I can't share just yet because it's a birthday gift for my fellow demo and blog buddy Steph.  But a couple I can share.

First one is a double challenge entry  Inskpiration Sketch Challenge, and Friday Mash Up Colour Challenge. 

This one I kept very simple, leaving it the same as the sketch rather than branching out.  I also want to try and use more DSP on my cards, I have a tendency to hoard the "pretty paper" and not use it because if I use it I won't have it for another project - how crazy is that!  So you are likely to see more DSP on my cards from here on in ... and if I slip and stop using please remind me!

This one I wanted to use one of the new Sale-A-Bration stamp sets, Punch Bunch.  I love this set of stamps as they all go with a Stampin' Up! punch so no need to cut out.  For this one I have used the stamp that goes with the scallop circle, I have used Stampin' Write Markers to colour the stamp, stamped it on Very Vanilla Cardstock and then punched out with the 1 3/8" Circle Punch.  A neat trick is then to adhere this circle to your cardstock and then punch out using the Scallop Circle - it's far easier to get it centred that way!

Pop back later for my second creation ... a valentine's card with no red or pink!