Another female birthday

While I was making my sister's I made this one too for a friend of mine.  I am quite a fan of the 2011-2013 In Colours and will really miss them next year when they are retired off.  They all just go together beautifully.  

Another diagonal pattern with the scoring tool, paper piercing and a spray of shimmer on the centre image this time.  Pretty!  

Wonder if I have pursuaded anyone they need to buy this set yet?

Female Birthday

This is one of my sister's birthday cards.  I actually started  orking on her card ages ago but just couldn't get it "right".  My sister is a very clever and talented patchworker and makes amazing quilts so I wanted to make her a patchwork card.  First I used the square punch and then cut the shapes on the diagonal to make triangles, but my cuts had to be perfect to make it look good, and they weren't perfect and it didn't look good.  This is a photo of the first attempt.  

See, nice from a distance, but up close the spacing isn't that good.  I could and should have not put any space between the squares, but anyway that one was scrapped.  

 

Next I tried using the Petite Pennant punch which obviously is a triangle shape.  I really liked this one, but couldn't find the right image/embellishment to put on the front of the card.  Used a Label Framelits but the triangles and curves didn't look right together.  Tried all five variations of in colours to see if that worked better, but still not right.  Sorry, no photo.

Third attempt and I was running out of time now so this is what I went with.  

Yes it's that set again.  Used the scoring tool again, this time making the lines diagonal and then using the reverse side facing up.  Paper pierced around the centre image, stuck on some ribbon, sentiment and added some bling.  Nice but not great.  And I ended up sending the second card too just to show her.   

Falling leaves

While I had French Foliage out on the desk I had a go at this card.  It is a direct copy of a card I found on the internet somewhere.  Not sure who it belongs to now, but if it's yours, thank you - I liked it so much I copied you.  

 

Now I probably did it the hard way by making up a template with a square cut out of the middle, but I guess you could just mask off the outside areas with post it notes.  You could also just lay the ink pad down in the middle of the cardstock, but this won't give a very thorough coverage (maybe the new ink pads will work better), so I dragged the ink pad along a couple of times, dug it into the corners and then sponged over the lighter parts.  The leaves were stamped on with Black StazOn and the water droplets were inked with Lucky Limeade, the same as the centre colour.  Matted on black and and then onto Limeade cardstock.  I liked it so much I made a few more for the males in my family.

A triangle square

I saw something like this on the internet and it appealed to my sense of squares.  

 

I pulled out French Foliage for this card and randomly stamped (have I mentioned before there is no such thing as randomly stamped images - we always stamp where we think it will look best!) on a square of white cardstock.   As I am not good at cutting straight at the best of times I have used Nestabilities to cut out the squares, and then the white square was cut on the diagonal to make four triangles.  Add some string wrapped around and a sentiment and it's done. 

Happy birthday to my big sister in Queensland.  Hope it's a good day.  

Female birthday card

I find it very hard to make cards for my friends who also stamp as you want to make something different and clever for them.  I spent hours on lots of different ideas, even though it doesn't look like it.  I know it isn't different or clever, but I just ran out of time so had to go with bling to jazz it up.  

I have used Serene Silhouettes again, with a bit of scoring on the sides, ribbon, diamontes and a sparkly ribbon slide that I found in the cupboard. It amazing what you find when you look. 

Happy birthday Kylie. 

Male birthday

Yes, I've used Serene Silhouettes again!  I told you it was one of my current favourites.  

This technique is called masking and there are some really clever women out there in internet world who do this sort of thing with a brayer to make a graduated sky colour, but for those of us without a brayer we have to make do with sponges and daubers.  

I have stamped the tree in black Staz On ink on white cardstock and then using the sticky part of a post it note punched out a circle and stuck it down in a moon-like location.  With a dauber I have tried to gradually build up the colour around the circle.  Once the sticky note is removed you hopefully have a crisp white moon looking back at you.  Just needs a few bats flying across the sky. 

A thank you card

Again, this isn't one of the greatest cards ever made, but I am just playing with ideas at the moment.  I recently saw a Halloween card with what looked like a strip torn out of the centre of the card with the characters from Googly Ghouls in the Holiday Catalogue peeking out, and wanted to try the effect.  Characters or animals would look better peeking through, but this set was on the desk so that's what got used. 

A different Silhouette

Well, I went to the Craft Sale on the weekend organised by a group of Stampin' Up demonstrators (not my group).  Each year they have a big clean out and sell of their retired stamp sets, cardstock, punches and accessories.  There were some great buys and I was able to find the two retired sets I have wanted for a while; Pocket Silhouettes and Fox and Friends as well as a tab punch that I thought would come in handy.  I also managed to pick up a few re-inkers for ink pads and a punch my M-I-L was after, but after I got home I kept on thinking I should have bought this and that. I blame this on my father.  He always taught us to be careful with our money and not waste it, but I really missed out on some good buys like ribbon, cardstock and patterned papers.  So next year my mantra will be, if you can use it, get it.  Sorry Dad.   

Anyway back to stamping.  As I said, I finally have Pocket Silhouettes so had a little play on Sunday.  

Simple things first, like squares.  

Fairly plain and simple and not one of the greatest.  Have used Calypso Coral, Soft Suede and Lucky Limeade on the squares with a bit of the Sale-a-bration ribbon (that I also bought) wrapped around the card.  

While I was playing my daughter decided to clean out the glasses cupboard cause there was something sticky on the bottom, and 6 hours later she had cleaned out a few other cupboards, replaced the paper liner, cleaned the old paper off the top of the cupboards, cleaned off the greasy gunk and replaced the paper, cleaned the glass splashback and also under the cupboards above the bench.  Somehow Greg got involved too (he says he only came to the kitchen to get a glass of water), and now the fridge has been pulled out and cleaned behind and on top.  I was planning on making some banana bread, but couldn't get in the kitchen.  But I am not complaining.  

50th Wedding Anniversary

Imaging being married to the same person for 50 years.  Bit hard to comprehend, isn't it.  But tomorrow is my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary.  Over the years they have accumulated an expanding house, three children, two sons-in-law, one daughter-in-law and 7 grandchildren.  Oh, and 3 dog-in-laws.  Happy anniversary to you both. 

 Another workout for the Simply Scored. 

 

Craft Sale

If you are planning on going to the big craft sale this weekend (Saturday 13th October), don't forget the change of address.  

It will now be held in the Kings Langley Scout Hall on James Cook Drive, Kings Langley, near the shopping centre.  Starts at 9.00 till 12.00.  

This one is worth going to!  See you there.  
 

Sympathy card

Thanks for popping in.  Last week I had to make a sympathy card, fortunately I don't have to do this very often.  You want the card to look simple but like you put a bit of effort into it, and then not too colourful, but nothing dull either.  Hopefully I managed that with this card. 

Seems strange to dissect a sympathy card, but I chose Wisteria Wonder for its soft elegance and then Serene Silhouettes, my current favourite stamp set.  I don't have the diagonal plate for my Simply Scored Scoring Tool, but have worked out a way I can score so it comes out diagonally and have used this on the background white.  I then used the Paper Piercing Pack and cut out the shape by hand (or by cutter) to get the shape for the image in the centre.  The dandelion (?) flowers have then been blinged with KindyGlitz.  I was happy with the finished result. 

 

Simply Scored Scoring Tool

When I first heard about the Simply Scored Scoring Tool I decided that it was one of those things I didn't need to buy.  I had a scoring blade on my cutter and that was all I needed.  But then after trying to make the Double Gate Fold card shown a couple of posts earlier I realised that my folds needed to be 100% perfectly in the right spot for it all to line up.  And I really wanted to demonstrate that card in my Saturday group and for us all to make it.  So it became a necessity.  And I am happy that I bought it.  Apart from the gate fold cards it has been having a work out lately.  

I was just playing around the other day and this card eventuated.  The lines are scored every every half inch in both directions.  Originally I was trying for brick work or wall panels, but just ended up going with squares (and even then I stuffed up - can you see where I went wrong?).  This is another image from Serene Silhouettes just inked in Black Stazon and then the background has been sponged a little.  I then put a black border around it like a window frame to highlight.  

Needs a little blinging up, perhaps a bow or some pearls or diamontes. 

Another silhouette

I really love this set and am so glad I bought it.  The card I have made today is so simple, but pretty.  You could make this card quite quickly too.  

I have stamped this using Regal Rose and Pretty In Pink for the flowers and Lucky Limeade and Old Olive for the stems and then just used a black pen for the outline.  And done.  All in a single layer. 

Bargain priced ribbon

Dates: 1-31 October 2012 

Promotion Details: At Stampin' Up!, it's spool time! For the month of October, get a FREE package of 3/8" (1 cm) Stitched Satin Ribbon-a $15.95 value-for every $60 you spend!
Choose from the following ribbons:

Item	Description	Retail Value
126848	Ribbon Gumball Green 3/8" (1 cm) Stitched Satin	$15.95
126847	Midnight Muse 3/8" (1 cm) Stitched Satin Ribbon	$15.95
126844	Primrose Petals 3/8" (1 cm) Stitched Satin Ribbon	$15.95
126845	Raspberry Ripple 3/8" (1 cm) Stitched Satin Ribbon	$15.95
126846	Summer Starfruit 3/8" (1 cm) Stitched Satin Ribbon	$15.95

This is a good time to grab some of the new satin ribbon in the new in colours.  Please contact me if you are interested.

Papillon Butterfly

And finally this is the last card from our day last Saturday.  We used the new Elegant Butterfly punch and the Papillon Potpourri stamp set.  I had made up the two colour options below but then said they could choose whatever colours I had to make their card.  Some chose to do the same colours, others came up with their own colours and some also decided to leave the sentiment off.  

Mine:

And theirs: