Excuses, excuses

You would think that with a new catalogue almost out and a few new products to play with that I would have something decent to put on here.  My excuse is that I have had to work 4 days a week lately, and we went away to Canberra last weekend and I'm still catching up on washing, ironing and all the boring household jobs that need doing.  And also I really can't get anything to look any good.  My desk is a jumble of bits and pieces of stamped, punched or almost done things, but I just am lacking inspiration, time and ....?  So for a while I will just stick to 2 posts a week, and see how we go. 

I half made this card weeks ago and then put it aside to work on something else - one of my easy square cards using images from quite a few stamp sets. 

Lots of sponging going on with a shimmery butterfly in the middle. 

Thinking of you card

Had to make a couple of get well cards recently and thought I would try out some of the new in colours.  Coastal Cabana is going to be my new favourite colour I think.  It's a beautiful restful colour and reminds me of summery days, something that's in short supply lately.  Have combined this card with Strawberry Slush and Fabulous Florets stamp set.

Add a couple of pearls, and finished. 

Buttons and Blossoms Moulds

Didn't the weekend go fast, and now it's back to the working week.  I did make some time to play with the Buttons and Blossoms Molds coming out in the new catalogue next month.  I loved playing with Play Doh with the kids when they were little, and these new moulds remind me past times.  The kit comes with 2 separate moulds; one with three different sized buttons and the other three different sized flowers.  They are very easy to use and the hardest part is waiting for them to dry.  I read somewhere that popping the moulds into the freezer with the plaster for about 15 minutes helps set the pieces so they are easier to pop out, and this really does work.  The second time I did it I just left them to dry in the mould overnight and when they came out they were not as smooth as the first lot.  

 

The next lot I make I will ink the plaster to colour before drying and maybe some of these will be painted, but for now I like the crisp white. 

 

 

A few little tags

Our courier delived a large and very heavy parcel here during the week full of lots of goodies including new catalogues and a few pre-order products.  Took me over an hour to go through the new catalogue from start to finish on Tuesday night.  Lots of new stamp sets, papers and accessories.  And we finally have circle framelits.  That will have to be one of my first purchases.  I debated about getting the new in colour ink pads and cardstock, but after seeing them in real life I really like 3 of them, the other 2 not too sure about yet.  But I love the names; Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe and Baked Brown Sugar.  Wonder who comes up with them?

Work has been encroaching on my playing time this week, so I don't have anything worth photographing yet, but this is a picture of a bundle of tags I did recently for one of my sisters.  Guess what her favourite colours are?

 

A few of my favourite things that will be retired off

I supposed you've all had a chance to check out the list of products that won't be returning in the new catalogue.  There are a few things that I will miss seeing again and I thought I would share some with you. 

1. French Foliage stamp set was and is one of my favourites.  It's a great stamp set to use for men, but works well for sympathy cards and the french script, raindrops and postmark work well in vintage type cards too.  Actually I don't think I will ever part with this one.  If you have thought about getting this set but never gotten around to it, it is currently selling off at $20.96 instead of $27.95 until the end of the month or sold out.  
2. I have loved all the 2011-2013 In Colours and am so happy that they will now be incorporated into our new colour families, except for Lucky Limeade.  Limeade is a lovely brighter shade of Old Olive and it always co-ordinates well with other colours, so will miss it not being around.  Will also miss Pretty in Pink and More Mustard, especially as I only recently bought my mustard ink and cardstock. 
3. For some bizarre reason they are also retiring off Shimmer Paint.  I have used my Champagne Mist Shimmer on quite a lot of projects to add that touch of glitter and glamour.  Have stocked up on this one.  
4. Also have had my eye on a Colour Spritzer for a while now.  Wonder what they will bring in to replace this for that splash of colour.  
5. And they are retiring off the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder.  Why?  It's one of my favourites too and hasn't been around that long.  

The only good thing about losing all of these and more is that there are so many great things in the new catalogue to choose from you will have trouble deciding what to get first.  Happy drooling!

SU Promotions

Stampin' Up have a few promotions going at the moment, as well as their list of retiring stock.  Currently they are selling single stamps until 31st August or until sold out after a trial in Northern America proved popular.   The images are a little hard to see in the blurb below but if you click  here  you can see the enlarged version.   Stamps vary from $9.95 to $13.95. 

The other promotion is the "Best of 25 Years" deal where stamps that have been popular in previous years catalogues will be grouped together for sale.  Each month there will be a new set brought out but they will all be available until April 2014 unless sold out.  The theme for the month of June is "Best of Flowers" set and to get an enlarged view of the set you can click here   The images are different sizes to the previously offered stamps.

Swing flip flop card

Apparently that's the correct name for this type of card.  This is the final one of these to share with you.  It also shows one of the latest trends, the Chalkboard Technique.  This is where you ink up your stamp on black cardstock with VersaMark and then emboss using white embossing powder.  After it's been heated and set, you then smudge with  sponge or whatever using a white ink pad to create the chalk like smudges on a blackboard.  Some areas are then sponged over with colour if you like.  Not sure I really like the effect, but you have to try it once. 

You may notice the background has been stamped with some of the images from French Foliage stamp set.  Even though this set will retire soon I have no intention of letting this one go.

Framelits cards

These are 3 of the cards my group did a few weeks ago.  I let them choose whichever design and colour scheme they liked and I love how different the same thing can turn out.  (It made sense in my head)  And did you notice on my card I had cut the wrong way.  No-one has mentioned it yet, but anyway these are cut the right way with the solid panel on the front and the cut panel inside. 

Sadly I forgot to photograph the other cards. 

Don't forget to check out the list of retiring stamps and accessories from Stampin' Up.  Bordering on Romance is one of the retiring sets too, so if you have been thinking that maybe you might like this set after all, you had better do something about it soon while it's still available.  

 

Calypso Coral Cut Outs

This is the final card made last Saturday.  The ladies could choose either design and any colour they liked.  Both cards use the stamp set Bordering on Romance, a set I have always liked and wanted.  My friend lent me her set, but for some reason I found it difficult to colour the images.  This first card was coloured using blender pen and inks, and the second card using coloured pencils, which for me was much easier.  Not sure why. 

If you are interested in Stampin' Up products their new catalogue will be out next month, so their retired product list is now out.  Make sure there is nothing you need to get before they go, and you may also grab a bargain as some products are up to 40% off.  

Butterflies and Doilies

This one is my favourite from Saturday.  It's a very feminine and elegant card using one of the new doilies.  Took me a while to pull this one together, but I think it works.  

Most of the supplies are from the Seasonal Catalogue including embossing folder, doily and flower trim.  The butterflies and hearts are inked with Whisper White and white embossing powder and the tag coordinates with the Pool Party cardstock. 

 

 

Faux Embossing Technique

I can't really remember the correct name for this technique, but I think it's called Faux Embossing.  Now I don't like the layout of the card for this one, but I love the effect with the stamps.  The important bit was the stamping, the rest, nah!

First of all you stamp an image in Whisper White ink and then let it dry.  You can hurry up the process with a heat gun if you like, but it must be dry before the next bit.  Then you use a stamp positioner to stamp again in a different colour ink, in this case Crumb Cake, but instead of stamping directly on the previous image you move it slightly off.  This gives it the shadow effect which really looks good.  

 

I'm back

Sorry for disappearing for a while, but I really didn't have anything much to share with you and was a little busy doing stuff for a recent class. 

One of the cards made on Saturday was a Spinner Card.  You may recall I have done a few of these in the past, but one of the ladies was interested in having a go at making her own so we did.  

My IT people are at work so this will have to be a still photo.  You will just have to imagine the pinwheel spinning up and down the slot on the card. 

These cards are quite easy to make and apart from supplies they cost 10c, cause you need two 5c coins on the back of the object to make it spin.  The slot was punched out with the word window punch - I can see it's a bit crooked.  Oops!

Pardon my absence

Sorry, there's a few things going on around here at the moment and I haven't had time for blogging.  Will be back soon with more to share.

Mother's Day

Hope all you mums had a relaxing day yesterday and your families spoilt you a little with presents and breakfast in bed (if that's your thing).  Personally I like to have my feet on the ground when I eat, but I'm OK with someone making something special for me to eat when I'm up.  I remember when my  kids were young they used to bring me vegemite toast with a cool oversweet cup of tea.  Doesn't happen that often now, which is a shame.  

Anyway, this is the card made for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day.  The flower is made with one of the Fun Flower Die  and then you can't see it in the picture but I have sprayed it with Shimmer Paint so it sparkles all over.  The white background was done using the Diagonal Scoring tool (yes I gave in and bought it) and then a paper doily on top.  I couldn't get it to fit in an envelope so it had to sit on top of the present. 

 

Papillon Potpourri

I have had this card by Heather in my cards to copy file for a while but keep putting off making it because I don't have a variety of heart shapes.  Being a bit short of ideas I thought I would give the card a go using butterflies. 

Now I know my card looks NOTHING at all like Heather's in design or layout, but sometimes that's the way things work out. 

I will have another attempt soon and try to find shapes in various sizes for it to be more like the original.  

Enjoy your weekend.

Petite Purse Die

Have you seen that cute little handbag die in the catalogue?  My friend let me borrow hers for a couple of days to have a play.  It's called a Petite Purse Die, and they sure got that right.  It is so tiny but you can fit about 3-4 wrapped lollies inside, a bundle of ribbon or enough Skittles to keep Kaitlin happy for an hour.  I photographed it with my iPhone for size comparison.

Whoever invented the Big Shot and all the dies that go with it was on to a good thing.  Great invention.  

Pennant Birthday card

I had to pull out my collection of patterned papers the other day and while they were still on the desk I punched out a few flags with the Petite Pennant Builder punch.  Pennants seem to be all the rage at the moment, so here's another one for the collection.  

As with most things, it really looks better in real life.  The background cardstock of Regal Rose has been "stamped" using a piece of glad wrap, a very effective background "stamp", and the flags have had buttons added for effect.  Add a black marker border around the edges and a sentiment to finish it off.   

  

 

Alice in Modern Wonderland

I was asked to make a birthday card for a 17 year old and the theme was "High Tea, Alice in Wonderland".  It covers a large range of things, but nothing I owned seemed to come under the category.  I was offered the use of some non-Stampin' Up stamps and after lots of time spent looking on the internet, wasting lots of cardstock and a few blah ideas this is the card that emerged. 

Front panel - Alice

2nd panel - Rabbit

Inside 3 panels - Tweedle Dum, Tweedle Dee, Mad Hatter and Queen of Hearts

Inside

Mad Hatter

 

Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee

Queen of Hearts

Middle back panel - Cheshire Cat - Greeting

The images have been stamped in Black StazOn and embossed and bits watercoloured just to give it some colour.  Otherwise I wanted to stay with the Black and White style.  All the edges are sponged in black and the background images were taken from the internet and re-sized to suit.  

I'm not sure how well it is going to be received, but I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.  It wasn't really what was in my head, but it's close.  

The stamps are from The Octopode Factory and if you are interested in them I can let you know where you can buy a set.   If this is your style, Graphic 45 also have a paper pack of 20 sheets of 8 x 8 papers call "Halloween in Wonderland" that suit the stamps perfectly.  

One for my Dad

My Dad will be 84 next Sunday and this is the card he is going to get.  I saw one like this on Pinterest with lots of shading and wanted to have a try.  

Lots of shading with post it notes covering "clean" areas.  I like the look of it but my top line dips downwards and the background sea looks more like land in the distance. Will keep working on this one cause I like the effect.  The style is called a one layer card. 

Kaitlin's birthday cards

As I don't have much to show you, I thought you might like to see some of the handmade cards Kaitlin received for her birthday. 

 Lovely paper hearts bursting out of an envelope from Grandma

This one is from Lily, my 6 year old niece who loves to craft.  I had given her a bundle of left over bits and pieces a while ago and this is what she has made.  

 From one of our family friends

 From an aunt

and another aunt. 

What a creative and clever family we have!