A new obsession!

Hi all! I am here today to share a guilty secret with you - I have a new crafting obsession! No, don't panic, I have not abandoned my Stampin' Up! - I have just discovered a new way to use the supplies I already own. You gotta love that!

My new obsession began out of a Splitcoast Stampers Technique Lovers Challenge, which involved creating buttons out of cardstock and Designer Series Papers. If you would like to know how this is done, visit this thread here It is a fab way to use up your scraps of cardstock and DSP. As a result I have been feverishly punching, layering and Crystal Effecting (I know that's not a real word!!) every spare moment. I now have a great stash of gorgeous buttons - all different shapes and sizes to use on cards and scrapbook pages. For me this is the real beauty of this technique - you can ALWAYS have a button that matches your page!

Here are a couple of cards I have made with my new buttons.

First a Christmas Card

Project Recipe:

Cardstock: Kraft, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Real Red, Old Olive, Ski Slope DSP (retired)

Inks: Old Olive

Stamps: Warm Words

Technique: Faux Buttons

Accessories: Heat and Stick Powder, Green Supernova Glitter. Red Cord (from my stash, for tying on buttons)

All stamped images are copyright Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated

The second card, is a birthday card, again using a star shaped button, the rockets were coloured using an AquaPainter and markers.

Project Recipe:

Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Bashful Blue Pumpkin Pie, Watercolour Paper, Washington Apple DSP

Inks: Stazon Black

Stamps: Pun Fun

Technique: Faux Buttons, Watercolouring

Accessories: White Gel Pen, Earth Elements Brads

All stamped images are copyright Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated

I hope you like my Faux Button cards - why not give them a try yourself, they are so easy and great fun to use on your projects. If you do, leave me a comment with a link to your card - I would love to see what you have created! If not leave a comment anyway - it's always fab to know who has stopped by.

Cheers

Claire

More Good News (and some pics)

Hello again,

Happy Australia Day!

I am just back from a good ole Aussie BBQ with friends to celebrate Australia's nationhood. The stereotypic way to spend a beautiful day here in Tassie.

Actually I have spent most of the day doing the washing after our week long jaunt to Bruny Island - there was masses of it!! Thank you so much to my poor long suffering Mum who let me use her washing machine as mine has decided to give up the ghost after 10 years of hard service.

Whilst waiting for the machine to run its course I decided to make a card (of course! What else do you do when the washing is washing??) A dear friend of mine had a baby boy whilst we were on Bruny, soooo having been craft deprived for a whole week GASP, I made a new baby card for them. Here it is:

The sketch is Splitcoast Stampers Sketch Challenge 212, I also tried a new technique Faux Mosaic, which was the Technique Lovers Challenge on Splitcoast this week. (The Faux Mosaic is the thin panel that the lion is popped up on, you can find a tutorial here). Give it a go, it's fiddly but fun!

Card Recipe: (all products are Stampin' Up!)

Stamps: Wild About You, Warm Words

Cardstock: Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Spring Break DSP

Inks: Versa Mark, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie

Accessories: White EP (embossing powder), Clear EP, Sticky Strip, Lg & Sml Oval Punches, Scallop Punch, Ribbon, Dimensionals

Thanks to Tracey Old (A Stampers Touch) for the idea of layering up the segments of the Lion for a 3d effect. (I embossed him with clear EP to give him a bit of shine and to make him stronger to cut out - his tail is a bit fiddly)

Anyway, as promised here are a few pics from our week on Bruny. For those of you who aren't Tasmanians, a little geography... Hobart, Tassie's capital city is on the River Derwent. Bruny Island is in the mouth of the River Derwent, and can only be reached by Ferry. It is a wonderful place to be because, even though you are only 50 mins away from the city centre (Ferry permitting!) you feel like you are light years away from anything!

This year for the first time my little guy took a friend to Bruny for the first few days. They had a ball, here they are fishing in my Dad's boat. (My little guy is the one on the left, he looks so grown up and moody in this pic lol!).

Here is some of their catch! A beautiful Flathead and a really nice Cod. Thanks for catching dinner fellas!

And here toasting Marshmellows on the rocky beach in front of the shack.

As you can see we had a ball!

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment I love to hear your thoughts. Back to work tomorrow :(

Claire

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.