Back to Kindergarten

Hello! It's me again. Longer between posts than I would have liked, but there you go … I have had the usual combo of work and home life to deal with and my little guy has been sick this week with a nasty infection – so all up, not much time to play!

Anyway, the card for this post is one that I designed for a challenge on Splitcoast Stampers. They have this great forum for SU demos where we can try ideas and techniques and share business info etc. It's a really great resource and subscribed to by demos all over the world so there are lots of ideas out there, as you can imagine. They have a challenge weekly where you are given a particular idea, to design a card that you could demonstrate in a workshop situation.

Last week's challenge was to incorporate paper weaving into your card. I just had to have a go at this one! It took me straight back to kinder, where I remember making, and proudly presenting to Mum and Dad, woven placemats. We used them on the dinner table until they fell apart! (My poor long suffering Mum!)

This card kind of took on a life of its' own and kind of designed itself as I went along! It has ended up being a lot more elaborate than my original concept and is probably now too fiddly to demonstrate in a workshop. But I was pleased with the overall look of it, so thought I would share it with you anyway!

I used Whisper White cardstock for the weaving. I chose to use the Fishy Friends stamp set. Then I embossed my fish with clear embossing powder, having first inked my stamp in both Versa Mark and Tempting Turquoise Inks. The weaving was then sponged with Tempting Turquoise and Green Galore Ink. To make my fish stand out from the sponging a little, I lightly blended the sponged colours with an aquapainter. (Thanks to Lynda – Stampinkins for that tip!) The edges of my weaving were a little (a lot actually lol!) messy so I made a border with strips of Tempting Turquoise cardstock and added Faux stitching with a white gel pen. The seaweed at the bottom of the main card was done using the tentacles of the jellyfish from the same stamp set, using white craft ink. I finished the card with a sentiment from the Warm Words stamped in white craft ink.

Hope you like it. Thanks for dropping in. See you next time.

More cards more techniques …

Well here we are again. Some new cards, experimenting with some more techniques! This first one was made for a friend and former neighbor for her birthday. This friend has recently been creating a black and white scrapbooking album for her daughter. It was a real challenge but the results have been spectacular! Anyway inspired by this thought I checked out the Split Negative Technique on Split Coast Stampers. You can check out the tutorial here. I created this card using black and white cardstock and embossing powder with the Baroque Motifs SU stamp set. I couldn't do just black and white though, so I caved in and added some touches of real red.

Next was another go at Split Negative. This time I used the Voila and Voila ala carte Stamp sets teamed once again with black and white cardstock and embossing powder. Once again I felt compelled to add a touch of real red and the whole thing is matted on some of the gorgeous new basic grey SU textured cardstock. So, I have a chef with a "dark side"… Gordon Ramsay perhaps?! That being said, it begs the question "What is under the lid?!!"

The third card I created for a recent workshop hostess. As I had demonstrated the Spotlighting technique at her workshop, I thought it would be fun to create her card using the Reverse Spotlighting Technique. For this card I used an Almost Amethyst cardstock base, stamped with the little flowers from the Polka Dots and Petals SU stamp set. Then I used the Paisley from Polka Dots and Paisley for the reverse spotlighting stamped on So Saffron and Close to Cocoa. I really like this colour combo. I finished the card by dying a piece of white ribbon with So Saffron ink and stamped my sentiment on a So Saffron scrap in Close to Cocoa ink and punched it out with my oval punch.

Thanks for dropping by!

Another Special Card!

Another special card for a special person. This one is a card I made for my Mum for Mother's Day today. For this card I thought I would have a go at the tiling technique as I have seen some beautiful cards made using this technique lately. I scored the cardstock using an embossing tool and a ruler to make 1 1/2cm squares, you can also use a "score pal" or the scoring tool on your paper trimmer, which would be a lot easier! I then inked up my "From the Garden" background stamp. A level one hostess stamp from Stampin' Up!. I used versa-mark ink, then inked it again in Purely Pomegranate, so that I could then emboss a coloured image with clear embossing powder. I wanted the flower to stand out a little against the leaves, so I very lightly watercoloured it using an Aqua-painter and the Purely Pomegranate ink pad. It was then layered on Purely Pomegranate cardstock, with the main card being Night of Navy cardstock. Mum really loved the colour combo! I finished the card with the sentiment from "Infinte Goodness" and a piece of the (sadly) discontinued navy organza ribbon. Very happy with the overall effect.

Special Cards for Special People!

Well, a busy week or two it has been!! What with a workshop and a Stamp-a-stack, as well as my "normal" job, things have been a little frantic lately! Still there have been a few special people in my life that I have needed to make cards for, so, a good excuse to take some "me" time when the family are asleep and play with some new stamp sets and some new techniques!

This first card was made for my gorgeous girlfriend for her birthday. We all need a friend like this one, you know, the one you call when you need some-one to mind the kids for an hour or two, the one you call for a quick chat and are still on the phone an hour or two later …! The one who knows not to say anything, just to listen when you are being totally irrational!

The idea of combining the polished stone and faux metal techniques came from a UK demonstrator I have had the great fortune to meet and share craft time with – Ann Wills – you can check out her wonderful blog by clicking here .

The colour scheme was dictated, of course, by my girlfriend's favourites, purple and green. As I had a piece of the polished stone cardstock I demoed at a recent stamp camp left over, I used this as a basis for the card and took the other colours from there. I was so sad to see Vintage Violet go from the Stampin' Up! Catalogue, especially as I have now discovered it works so well with Sage Shadow! However, I am quickly falling in love with the new "in colours" particularly Purely Pomegranite and Blue Bayou. The stamp set used was "Infinite Goodness" a level 2 hostess set from the 2008-2009 Stampin' Up! Ideas book and catalogue – for this particular friend it just had to be a dragonfly. So here is the result.