Emboss resist technique

It's Saturday again so here is my weekly video! This week I am showing you how to do a technique called Emboss Resist. This means embossing an image and then adding ink on top. A bit like those drawings we all did as children using white crayons and then washing over them with paint to reveal the picture we'd drawn underneath.

 

Here is a visual of the stamp set featured, Summer Silhouettes:

 And here is a picture of the finished card:

Have a great Saturday!!!

Blooms in focus

Hello and Happy Wednesday!

Today's card was made with a sponging technique. The large blooms were stamped with Illuminate ink and embossed with Vanilla embossing powder (pg159). Smells divine!!!

Next, Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry and Rose Red ink were sponged over to give a soft focus look. The illuminate ink makes the image really shimmery. This main panel was layered onto Shimmery White card with a piece of Tangerine Tango cardstock on top.

Do you recognise the sentiment? I was thrilled when I realised that the set You Are Loved had made it into the Main Catalogue (pg 24)!! I love the images and sentiments in the set. The words Sweet Friend were stamped in Rich Razzleberry ink onto a piece of vellum. This was wrapped around the main image and glued on at the back.

To finish, a few pearls and a strip of scallop dots ribbon in Elegant Eggplant added a bit of decoration. This makes a pretty versatile card as you could vary the colours and sentiments really easily to fit most occasions.

How have you been finding the new Main catalogue? I am still learning where everything is as 205 pages is a lot to take in!!! I'm loving the zoomed in photos and gorgeous projects too. My wishlist grows every time I look....

Lovely As A Tree

This is a card CASE'd from a design by Paula Dobson. It uses More Mustard which is not a common colour for me to use, but I'll put that down to feeling pretty Autumnal at the moment.

It started with a piece of Whisper White cardstock and sponging More Mustard ink around the edges, leaving a border at the bottom for a sentiment. Once I was happy with the sponging I got out Lovely As A Tree - one of the longest running stamp sets Stampin' Up! produce.

I stamped the tree image in Chocolate Chip ink and then inked it off to create background images, which gives depth. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and shows up really well on the nice bit of white space at the bottom. To finish a strip of More Mustard spotty grosgrain ribbon and a burnished copper button with linen thread separate the image and sentiment.

Check back tomorrow for another Autumnal creation!

600th Post

Good morning. Hope I am not posting too late for some of my visitors this morning. I've been having great fun using some more new products. The stamp set used is French Foliage. I started by embossing with the dotty folder on the Big Shot and then stamping the large leaves down one side. I used a new Illuminate ink which is shimmery and lovely and then embossed over the top with clear embossing powder.

Once this had cooled off I stamped some leaves, post mark and spots in Chocolate Chip and Crumb Cake ink. The next stage was to sponge over the top with Cajun Craze, Soft Suede and Garden Green ink. Quite a few stages but all of them were really quick. Once all the ink was dried I gently rubbed over the embossed leaves to remove any excess ink and make the leaves stand out more.

Next I got out Four Frames and stamped a frame and punched it out using the Label Punch which matches the stamp set. The sentiment comes from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

A bit of a different card for me with some different techniques but, as you'll see tomorrow I got a taste for sponging!

Tweet Leaves

Half way through the week already! Today's card is made using a really cute individual stamp called Tweet Leaves from the Autumn/Winter catalogue (pg31). I used the rock'n'roll technique with three colours of ink: Poppy Parade, Pumpkin Pie and Soft Suede. I started with Pumpkin Pie as it's the lightest colour, then added a thick roll of Poppy Parade and then a tiny bit of Soft Suede around the very edges.

TIP: So long as you always roll in the lightest colour to the strongest colour you won't ruin your ink pads.

The image was stamped onto white shimmer card. So sweet and quick to stamp! This then had the corners rounded using my trusty corner rounder punch and was layered onto Soft Suede cardstock. The thin border allowed the colour to be seen more strongly at the corners. Scallop borders were then added to each side in Pumpkin Pie and mounted onto a Poppy Parade base. Naturally a few rhinestones are added for some bling and ta-dah! It's finished!!

September Scrap club

Last night was scrapbook club. I LOVE this monthly class. Such interested talented people attend!

This layout was based around the journalling box. We learnt to brayer an ombre background, this one was in Poppy Parade.

The patterned spotty background paper comes from the specialty papers Mocha Morning. LOVE these papers and I'm sad that they are retiring :-( This was paired with Concord Crush and Crumb Cake. The title was stamped using the Broadsheet Alphabet stamp set. It's great as when it's in clear as you can stick all the letters in a row on a long block and stamp the whole word in one go.

If you'd like to join us for scrapclub next month we are meeting on Tuesday 2nd October.

Flutterby sponged butterfly

Hooray hooray for the weekend! Happy birthday wishes to my Aunty Rosemary too!

Here is a card that came about by trial and error. I found a cut out of a butterfly where the butterfly had been removed and then the original piece remained. This was laid over a piece of Whisper White card and then sponged with Peach Parfait and Poppy Parade inks. Once complete the stencil was removed and then cut out carefully with scissors.

This was layered on Peach Parfait cardstock that had been cut out with a framelit on the Big Shot. By the way, the sewing on the framelit was NOT real. I've totally lost my sewing mojo at the moment so I had to draw it on with a Peach Parfait marker.

The Poppy Parade base had a swirl stamped in the same colour from Everything Eleanor - what can I say, the stamp set was on my desk!

I hope you've got nice plans for the weekend. I'm off to a baby shower this afternoon which should be fun!!

Background Resist technique

This card features the technique: Background Resist. The words were from French Foliage in Early Espresso. I then used the solid bloom stamp in Reason To Smile (special offer set this month only!) and used Versamark and Cherry scented embossing powder to create a solid flower image.

A sponge dauber was used to apply Wisteria Wonder ink in a soft layer. This made the flower image come to the foreground and allow the words underneath to be seen too. A quick sentiment from Petite Pairs was added along with a piece of ribbon tied in a bow.

NB. The card was altered from one on Rubber'n'Ink.

Thinking of You.

 Hello again! Another card featuring Everything Eleanor. Can you tell I'm unable to put this set down?!
The flower and stem were stamped in Soft Suede ink and then coloured using a Blender Pen in Pirouette Pink for the flower and Lucky Limeade for the stem to match the card base. The blender pen gives a great watercolour effect with zero mess.

A few more holiday snaps:

Munchkin making demands for food from everyone's plates.

The view we had while eating Al Fresco!

Need a reason to smile?

Need a reason to smile? The weather this summer hasn't been perfect so let me make you smile with the lovely offer this month (August 1-31st 2012):

Place an order for £60 and get this exclusive stamp set FREE!

Here is a card made with the stamp set using the Triple Stamp technique. I hope to create a video to show you this technique soon. It's really simple but gives a great effect.

 The card was made from Riding Hood Red and Newsprint DSP. The sentiment comes from Petite Pairs set. There's a strip of vintage lace and an antique brad plus a tiny heart from Tiny Tags to finish it off.

If you'd like to take advantage of this offer and get yourself this fabulous stamp set, I'd be happy to place an order for you: blueangelcrafts at gmail dot com

Pip's design

At the training last week I was lucky enough to receive this GORGEOUS swap from Queen Pip. She has used the set Mixed Bunch from the Summer Mini catalogue. The super thing about this set is that it co-ordinates with a flower punch. Sections of the flower were cut out after being stamped in Tempting Turquoise ink and coated in Dazzling Diamonds to create the Dragonfly wings.

The background was really clever. Pip stamped all over the Whisper White base with Versamark (I think!) and then smudged ink over the whole base using a sponge dauber. What an effective background!!

Shimmery loveliness

This card is very much CASE'd but I am ashamed to say I cannot remember the original source. I did make a few changes however so I hope I can still call it mine. The base is Sahara Sand which I love as an alternative to Crumb Cake as it's less brown and more a soft grey shade.

The layer on top is Pool Party card that has been run through the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder. To add some shimmer I used Champagne shimmer paint dabbed on using a sponge dauber to the raised sections of the embossing. The picture below was supposed to help you see the shimmer paint effect but it's a rather blurry picture!

I ran some strips of Pool Party and Whisper White through the Big Shot using Adorning Accents edgelits scallop die. To conceal the straight line I added some lovely 5/8" Whisper White Organza ribbon.

The main accent was made using the Labels Collection Framelits and Apothacary Art stamp set. The main image was stamped on Whisper White card using Pool Party ink. The central circle was stamped again and punched out using the 1" circle punch to layer on top. The sparkly frame was made by cutting out Sahara Sand card and covering it with a Big Shot Multipurpose Adhesive sheet glue and then coating it with Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

I was really pleased with the result of this card and can image that Pink Pirouette and So Saffron would also be great focal colours in place of the Pool Party to make a stack of coordinating cards.

Penguin birthday wishes

One of the best things about crafting is the social side. There is nothing more fun than crafting with a pal! Last week I managed to squeeze in a micro crafting session with my crafty hippy friend Lauren.

The is one of the cards I made while hanging out with her. It's a fun fold card with some Everyday Enchantment papers (naturally!). I also used one of my new tools: Adorning Accents Edgelits dies. There are two dies in the pack and they co-ordinate brilliantly with the Bordering on Romance stamp set in the Summer 2012 mini catalogue. I used the scallop edge which is like a double scallop as each large scallop has mini scallops along the edge! (you can zoom in on the picture to see what I mean). The rhinestones added a bit of sparkle to each scallop.

The main image was made using the Owl Punch. Such a fantastically versatile punch. To make the sparkly oval and edging for the sentiment I punched out the shapes and rubbed them onto the Big Shot multipurpose adhesive sheets to make them all sticky. Oddly I used these sticky sheets all the time but rarely with the Big Shot! Anyway, once they were all sticky it was simply a case of dipping the shapes into Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

ANOTHER boat card!

I can't seem to do anything but mask, sponge and layer this boat stamp over the top. Any other ideas???

Still, it looks quite sleek with the golden 75 cut out on the Big Shot so I hope the recipient likes it.

Twitterpated Cushion

Hello and Happy Saturday!

Today I have a project to share with you that I have been meaning to make for a loooong time but have finally done it.

It's a ruffled cushion!

It uses the Twitterpated fabric in the Summer mini catalogue.

It started off as a cheap cushion cover from Primark. I think it was about £3 or less.

 I cut three 3" strips of each fabric and then used my sewing machine to ruffle the fabric. It was surprisingly easy to do. I'd never done it before so I thought I'd look it up. Basically you sew two rows of the longest stitch length next to each other and then gather the ends up.

I'm so lazy I did not even hem the strips. I think next time I might spend the time hemming and ironing everything.

 Once the ruffled pieces were ready I lay them across the cushion cover and then figured out the space needed between the strips. It turned out to be 2" gaps. I used a pencil and ruler to make marks so I could line up the strips.

 Next I sewed the ruffles on and covered up the rough edge at the top with some lovely Blushing Bride pleated satin ribbon. Lush!!!!

 And here it is, a simple ruffled cushion cover made by a non-sewer! Plus it only took an hour or so to do. I'll have to give this sewing lark another go soon, me thinks!

Heartfelt Thanks

Happy Monday!

Yes it's the beginning of a new week and time to kickstart your creative muscles!!

Today's card was inspired by Jenni Pauli. You can see the original card here.

There is a Soft Suede base and then a layer of Timeless Portrait patterned paper and Very Vanilla cardstock. I happened to have Sweetheart stamp set on my table and used the greeting from that set for this card. All the red is Cherry Cobbler. It felt a bit weird using such a Christmas-y colour in June but it does look lush next to the Soft Suede, don't you think?

I did a bit more experimenting today though. I bought white bakers twine and had a go at adding a custom stripe. I did this by wrapping the twine around a ruler and then using a Cherry Cobbler marker to add diagonal stripes. This gave the twine a traditional bakers twine stripe. The tip was given to me by a lovely customer, so thank you Veronica!!

Flutterby

Hello All! Welcome to the weekend! Although it's Fathers' Day tomorrow I thought I'd share a more feminine card with you today.

The card base is Night of Navy (even though it looks purple-ish on the photo). The next layer is a piece of Newsprint DSP. I LOVE this paper. It's really great to tear and crinkle, like I did on this layer. I also sponged the edge with Soft Suede ink using a dauber which is a great way to add a bit more vintage-ness to the already vintage style paper.

The next layer was a bit more complex. I cut 3" x 1/4" strips of Crumb Cake card and then wove them together to make a basket weave look. The ends of the strips were cut randomly to make them look rough and ready.

The butterfly (All A Flutter) is a great versatile stamp in the A La Carte section of the catalogue. It was stamped in Soft Suede ink, and then guess what? Yes, I coloured it! I used my ink pads to pick up: Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Riding Hood Red and Perfect Plum inks. The hardest part was cuttting out those anntenae! To make the butterfly *pop* I used a circle of Very Vanilla behind it.

I made this card for the lady opposite who has recently been unwell but has now returned home from hospital. She has a beautiful garden which is always full of butterflies and other creatures buzzing about!

To celebrate  reaching 500 blog posts this week I am offering a surprise goodie bag of Stampin' Up! goodies and cards I've made if you start following my blog!!


Sign up to follow before 8pm on Sunday 17th June 2012 and I'll choose a winner at random. You'll then have 72hours to claim your prize and send me you details so I can post you a surprise goodie bag!!!!


If you're already a follower you will automatically be entered into the draw.

Sponged boat card

I thought I'd try a different technique than I would usually go for.... and here is the result!

I hope you enjoy it. As soon as I get my computer allowing me to upload photos I'll cut down the number of video posts, I promise!