Another sampler frame

Apologies - this was supposed to have shown up last week, but I obviously did something wrong. 

You may have guess by now that I quite enjoy doing sampler frames.  These photos are a combination of two I recently finished as gifts; one for my daughter and the other for a friend who recently had a "big" birthday.  Because I sometimes stress over which colours to use, I decided to stick with a black and white theme for both frames.  I was going to add a pop of colour, but decided not to. 

These frames are 7 x 9 inch (18 x 23 cm) and the photo size 5 x 7 inch (13 x 18 cm).  (I used the inch measurement because I can visualise better in inches - it's an age thing.)  

Stay tuned, cause I still have two more frames to fill.  If you are interested in which stamp sets were used, send me an email for more info. 

A sampler for a friend

Recently I had the honour of being asked by a friend to make another couple of samplers.  This is one for her mother's 80th birthday. 

Very similar to the previous one in colour but with a little more emphasis on the recipient's favourite pasttimes such as gardening and sewing.   Lots of flowers and plants, postage stamps cause that's the generation she came from when people used to send letters, water pump and chook cause she was brought up in the country, sewing machine, manequin and dolls because she loves to sew and used to make beautiful dolls, teddies because she's a grandma, keys because she makes you feel safe and holds lots of secrets,  tea cup and teapot because she will always make you feel welcome when you visit and heart, because she loves you. 

A lot of the stamps are from Stampin' Up but you will probably see a few others as well. 

Another Sampler

As I had so much fun making the sampler for my sister I decided that I would make another.  This one is the final version of one for my recently born great niece.  

I had bought a sheet of 12 x 12 paper with a Holly Hobby design that I was planning to use, but after spending a lot of time cutting it all up I decided I didn't really like the look of it.  So I went back to my stamps and decided to stick with a limited colour scheme.  And I got to use a lot of my before Stampin' Up stamp sets that hadn't been used for a while.  

The big "mistake" that I made was using 4 colours when there are lines of 5 which made the order of things a little difficult.  You can see that the main colour turned out to be pink, but in the end I didn't mind that, although next time I will make sure I have 5 colours to make things easier.  

The hardest part about these frames is trying to get everything even when sticking them down.  

This is the layout without the frame -

And all framed up -

Stay tuned - I have one more to make, this time for myself. 

Sampler

My sisters are very supportive of me and my stamping habit so for big sister's birthday I wanted to make something 3D using my stamps.  During one of my stints on Pinterest I saw something called a Sampler by Diana Gibbs and thought this might be just the thing.  

You can view Diana's version here  and Cecile Ortiz's original inspiration here.

Neither of them give much information about sizes and details, and you may just have to brush up on your French to read Cecile's blog, but sometimes all you need is the idea.  

I used my trusty square dies and a friend's scalloped square dies and then just went through all my stamp sets for appropriate images for each square.  A few are direct copies of Diana and Cecile, lots of stamps are borrowed, a few stamps are mine and most are from Stampin' Up sets. 

 All of the squares are sponged with Crumb Cake on Vanilla cardstock, some with backgrounds and all have parts of the square with something popped up on them.  In the end I had to call in some technical assistance to have the typewriter and sewing machine scanned from the catalogue cause I couldn't find anyone with these sets.  

Once the panels were all made up I stuck them down on a sheet of DSP that had grid lines on it to make it easier to line up.  Then I had the family searching the shops for frames.  We found a few different sorts but I came back to this one.  

Then there was the trouble to post it off.  I went to a local post office and asked for advice on how to send it to Queensland, but the helpful (NOT) assistant informed me that as it was glass she didn't know.  So I asked again the best way to post it and was pointed towards the boxes and padded bags.  Yes I did see them but what would be best to use, that was my question.  In the end I couldn't find a box big enough with packing so it came back home and hubbie found me a courier to deliver it.  Arrived next day with no damage. And my sister loves it.  Phew!

I had so much fun making this that I am working on a couple more for family members, and one for myself too.  I will make sure that I hand deliver these ones.