September Birthday Wishes!

Just a quick update - or at least in an effort to beat the backlog! Further indulgence into my passion for Pink and Turquoise and of course cakes! Birthday Girl Jordan let my girlie tendencies come to the surface ;-) Here I've used Tempting Turquoise card stock and ink, side punched with the eyelet border punch. Stamps were Vintage Vogue flower stamp as a Background and then also for the Regal Rose Ink flowers on the right with Rhinestone brads as centres. The Crazy for Cupcakes stamp is done in silver emboss then water coloured with Aqua painters and decorations coloured with stampin' write markers. Birthday Wishes from Sincere Salutations and then punched with oval and Regal Rose scalloped oval. Her presents were presented in a colour co-ordinating improvised bag - any excuse for the Melon Mambo polka dot bows - more projects to follow soon - honest, keep on crafting, Gen x

New Catalogue Launch!

Hooray! October is here and the NEW catalogue is launched - see the sidebar for details :-) Needless to say I have been seriously tempted and will be posting my newest lovelies here soon! Before all that excitement starts I have a few things to catch up with . . . A BIG thank you to all the lovely ladies at Llandrindod Card Club last September - we had a Christmas theme so that allowed us to do 2 cards and some tags.

First we tackled the Dasher card seen here on the right, this a simple white card with a 5cm Old Olive textured card stock with the scallop edge punch on the right side. I decided to put the fold of the card at the top allowing 5 small 1/2" holes to be punched and allows the red satin ribbon to be threaded in and out of the holes. Then Dasher was stamped in Chocolate Chip ink onto Whisper White card stock, trimmed and then placed onto the Real Red card stock to create a thin border. The Christmas sentiment came from the Season of Joy stamp set done again in Chocolate Chip ink punched out with the oval punch and then mounted onto the scalloped oval Chocolate Chip card stock, and glued into place overlapping the textured card stock.

The second card was an Easel card using the Season of Joy stamp set - using my favorite Old Olive ink for the So Swirly Jumbo wheel that I ran along the top of the 15x15cm Very Vanilla card stock and then the bottom of the inside of the card. I coloured the tree individually with the Stampin write markers to allow a yellow star, green tree and brown trunk. Then I used clear emboss for the red square sentiment and the poinsettia button to keep the easel upright - tah da!

Then we ended the workshop with these simple tags. I used the Sparkling Jumbo wheel on Very Vanilla as the background in a now retired colour. Then I printed the Sparkly & Bright motifs onto Whisper White card stock in Christmas colours - Chocolate Chip for Rudolf and then Garden Green and Real Red with some linen thread for the finishing touch.

The only other indulgence, was as we were doing Christmas themed things I did a little decoration display on white painted birch tigs for the workshop table to get everyone in the mood - let me know what you think ;-) Keep on Crafting Gen x

Card making Competition!

Well working through a whole weekend of card makers block I finally got down to making an entry for the Stampin' Up! section. As with all competitions now I've finished it I'd change the whole thing! As A Rose is a Rose stamp set is retiring and it was the first set that lured me into SU it was the obvious choice for me. Here I've used a 15x15cm square card, stamping off the small rose on the background whisper white card in Pretty in Pink ink so it just gives a very faint back drop. I've used Rich Razzleberry card at the left hand side with the Eyelet punch and matching Polka Dot Grosgrain ribbon from the 11 New Products Promotion. Then I stamped the large rose with Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry Ink on Whisper white card stock, with Garden Green for the leaf lightening the base shade by stamping off the first image. And the close up shot on the right shows that I layered the two flowers with a decoupage approach, as the 3-D nature of the print really lends itself to letting the rose jump out of the card. True to form less is always more with me and I kept the sentiment simple, using scalloped oval punch for the Rich Razzleberry border and stamping onto whisper white card with the Sincere Salutations stamp set.

As it was possible to have multiple entries I added this one for fun as it's my favorite colour combination - Regal Rose and Tempting Turquoise - both in the new Regals Collection. I love the detail of the Fine Flourish stamp, here done as a background on the Turquoise card in Silver Emboss, and also in a Kissing Technique where I used the Flower Accent stamp kissing the Fine Flourish Stamp when inked with Tempting Turquoise ink, onto Regal Rose card and then cut out and lined up with the background stamp, with a central Rhinestone brad for the flower and then placed on a Stampin dimensional to raise it up from the background card. This was then placed onto the Eyelet punched Regal Rose card and a simple strip of 1/4" turquoise ribbon on the right and then a simple greeting punched out with the word window punch. Would love to know what you think - keep on crafting Gen x

Designer Series Paper

Having bought and stashed lots of Designer Series Paper for a winter on Scrap booking, I was chatting with my Godmother about the recipes you pull out of mags and don't really want to write out again, when I thought about this Recipe File. This is just a display file that you can pick up at any stationers and some DSP from last years collection (have to make space for all the gorgeous ones that will be launched in October 2010). I simply cut the paper to size, and stamped the spine to read Recipe File with Express Alphabet set and then the gorgeous flowers from Vintage Vogue all in Ballet Blue ink. I was so pleased with the result after I posted this one to my Godmother I made one for myself - hooray!

All sorts of things happen when you have a week off - especially as I'm a fair weather gardener! My Brother & Sister-in-law wanted to display their Wedding cake decorations and having painted a deep display frame silver I put this wonderfully floaty DSP at the back to compliment the colour scheme et voila! Finally hung on the wall to enjoy forever :-)

Don't forget to check out the retiring list on the side bar and the Mini Catalogue will finish at the end of September so save your pennies then spoil yourself - that's my plan anyway! Keep on Crafting Gen x

August Celebrations!

Here on the left you can see the inspiration for one of my August Birthday cards. Here I've used Touch of Nature Stamp Set, with close to cocoa ink on cream card stock and then soft suede polka dot ribbon at the side and for the Birthday Greeting scallop oval.

Celebrations of love also let me play with the Simply Said set and the heart stamp from the Love You Much Stamp set and the heart punch, using Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry inks. Ribbon here is the 1" Double stitched Grosgrain Ribbon in Rose Red. With of course my favourite motto - less is more!

And finally the card for a fabulous Silver Wedding Anniversary (Congrats Noel & Heather). Here I've used the fabulous Baroque Motif background in Silver Emboss, with the Perfect Plum card punched out with the eyelet border, a couple of the large hearts punches with the matching stamp from the Love You Much Set and the greetings stamp the Cheer & Wishes set, and a silver organza ribbon that I had in my previous stash ;-) Keep on crafting Gen x

Two step stamping!

I have to admit that I have been creating with my Stamp-a-ma-jig (IB p90) quite a while before the August promotion (see right). I really like to be able to line the images up and the wipe clean image sheet and stamp positioner make it so easy. As the twins were two, I thought their Birthday cards had to be Trains - here I've used the Choo Choo stamp set (IB p39) in Real Red, Brilliant Blue and Garden Green Inks, with the Right on Track wheel in Chocolate chip, and the Schoolbook Serif Alphabet set for their names (IB p68). Couldn't resist the scallop oval looking like a cloud with the Birthday Greeting in :-)

And then the inside of the card continues with the letter theme and the reason that it's all such primary in colour is that it matches the play tent that I made them for their Birthday - Hooray!

Continuing the Birthday theme and playing with position, here I've used the Loads of Love (IB p31) and Trendy Trees (IB p39) stamp sets which are both in the promotion! It was quite a squeeze getting the two of us in the window of the truck, but it had to be done! I really love the trendy trees wheel as it creates such an effective backdrop which I have highlighted with a single raised tree in the centre. I have coloured the truck and parcels with the Aqua painters (IB p90), which I have found really useful as you can build up to the level of colour you desire, in my case colour the panels of the truck in different shades :-) Keep on crafting Gen xxx

August Promotion!

Use the side bar to find details of this months Stampin' Up! Two Step Promotion - will be posting my two step creations here soon, but undoubtedly adding to my stamp stash with the 20% enticement :-) Keep on Crafting Gen x