Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Smile, Laugh, be happy, enjoy!

The technique used on the Be happy flower is called Mirror image.

1. I chose a large bold stamp that could easily be divided in two balanced sections.

2. Selected two coordinating ink colours - that would be Eggplant and Rose red.

3. I stamped the image twice (0nce in each of my colours) on to the amethyst cardstock.

4. Cut both images in half, then lined up the contrasting halves.

To line them up perfectly, I cut them both out at the same time.

Its true, I could have made atleast 5 cards with the elements I put on this one card, but I have saved time by not having to load that many card photos.

Materials used:
  • Cardstock: Whisper white, almost amethyst, elegant eggplant.
  • Ink: Elegant eggplant, Rose red, white craft ink.
  • Ribbon: Elegant eggplant grosgrain. Small eyelets: soft subtles (pink and plum).
  • Stampsets: Linen background, Be happy, Its all good.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Embrace Life and watercolouring.


I cant help myself, on the 1st of December the new catalogue will be launched ...
with this great new stampset called Embrace life!
Here is my first adventure with watercolouring this set ... I was very tentative, a wash of very pale amethyst then lavender lace on the edges. It is more like colouring-in than watercolouring.

I used a bit of white gel pen to hilight and then, decided it was a bit simple, so I have watercoloured a third flower and doubled it up over the centre flower on this one:

Materials:
  • Stampset: Embrace life.
  • Ink: Elegant eggplant, almost amethyst, lavender lace, mellow moss, black stazon.
  • Cardstock: Elegant eggplant, mellow moss,whisper white, watercolour paper.
  • Ribbon: Elegant eggplant
  • Adhesives: Dimensionals and double sided tape.
  • Tools: Sharp scissors and scallop edged punch.

And then I got a little more adventurous and made a ...

Birthday card in eggplant and lavender lace ...

(I remembered to photograph it before I posted it off on Thursday)

so, big hugs to the birthday girl!!!! Hope you enjoyed yourself on Saturday?


Elegant Season of Joy!


We only have one week left of the Spring Mini Catalogue, and thirty two days until Christmas, and 20 school days before the holidays , so I am posting a few of my favourite cards that you can make quickly and easily for Christmas.
I love elegant eggplant and silver, this one isn't even embossed, just flat silver ink using the Baroque motif swirl.
The Christmas tree and swirly dots are from Season of Joy stampset .... and it has the "hand stamped" star on the back (that you can't see).
The very merry sentiment is from short and sweet. The ribbon is SU elegant eggplant grosgrain and the edges of the confetti white cardstock are distressed and matted onto always artichoke.
This would look very nice with Old olive cardstock too ;) .

Pomegranate and artichoke Season

These are the colours of my Christmas ... nice traditional deep artichoke green and rich pomegranate Red, silver and white.

I wanted to use the rich silky pomegranate ribbon in a different way and had the idea of knotting it through a jumbo eyelet ... with silver embossing and swirls. Perhaps its a little more industrial than your usual christmas bauble on a string. Now that I look at it that ribbon looks more like a fish tail caught in a port hole!

The flowers and sentiment are from the "Season of Joy" stampset and the silver embossed swirls from Baroque motifs.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

'Tis the Season to go green gloriously ...

I said I'd do it but I dont like it ...

When the old olive cardstock ran out I decided to experiment with my most unloved green:
Green galore - eek!!
So with a lot of help from my friends I have made A CARD with THAT colour and I probably wont venture there again... Like all extreme activities - one must conquer one's fears by embracing them. But fortunately once you have done it you dont have to keep going back for more.

Stamp set is the not so Christmassy "Scribble This" and "Season of Joy" for the words.
The Ink used is Silver. And a little bit of green gasping galore on the tip of my aquapainter to give the flower some depth. The red cardstock is - u guessed it : Real red!
If you really do like this colour I challenge you to show us some good ones!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Quick and simple personalised bookmark.

"Make me a bookmark mummy, Please!"

- Before school?

"You can do it really quickly, It wont take long....

With pink and yellow stars on it!"

Cardstock - Pink passion.

Ink: Rich Regal Ink spots

Stampset: Wait for the Summer mini catalogue!



Gold Season of Joy!


Its bold, its shiny, its embossed and I haven't posted this card yet, so here it is!
As the Old olive cardstock is available again, I can safely say give this card a go.

The background snowflake is from the "short and sweet" stampset and is stamped in old olive ink. The Christmas tree is inked with versamark and embossed with gold embossing powder on cream cardstock and the same with the "Season of Joy" swirls on the strip at the bottom.
The edges of the cream have been swiped across the old olive inkpad to give a smudged green edge.
The tree is matted with Pomegranate cardstock and the ribbon is pomegranate stitched ribbon.

At the top I have punched the slit punch to hold a gold brad (and later I also added a piece of gold cord as a bow). But I added that after the photos were taken so you will just have to imagine just how good it looked.

Monday, November 17, 2008

One of a kind - Post it note holder and pencil.

What do you do when you have a stamping project disaster?
Put another layer on ... if that doesn't quite work? Then, add an accessory or two...
So, next time you're thinking wow so many layers - just think - mmm, what is hiding behind that ribbon?

That's what happened here. If I am to be honest.
Firstly it is a post it note holder, a little longer than first intended, so I added a pencil holder.
My daughter saw me eyeing off her miniature gel pens and promptly hid them. She knows me too well. So I had to settle for one of her cast off pink pencils.

The metal ring goes through the two layers of cardstock and the post it note. Made with the oh so humble Cropadile tool. That will go through a post it note without so much as a yawn at the many layers. You are only limited by the depth of the paper pad that you can fit between the cropadile's jaws. The hole is reinforced with a large metal "Jumbo" eyelet and held together with a closed ring and silk pomegranate coloured ribbon.

The stampset is from our current spring mini and is called "one of a kind" and the flowers are punched out with the Boho Blossoms flower punch, so easy.

The central flower was matted on pomegranate cardstock punched with the one inch (2.5cm) circle. Then matted again with a scallop punched circle, cut in half and joined to another scallop in contrasting artichoke cardstock.
Don't you just love this shiny pomegranate silk ribbon? This might work as an extra part of a Christmas present don't you think?

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Lovely as a tree with a fold out insert

In case you haven't noticed, I really like the Lovely as a tree set. At this time of year it says Christmas and other times it says Autumn, or spring ...

This card is an almost direct CASE (copy and share everything) from Felicity H. I have only changed her colours and added and subtracted the type of matting to the front. But as it is a fold out card, I love surprises ... I had to try it for myself. This is the front cover.

Difficult to show you the whole card in its entirety. So I will show it as a series of pictures. I have used Wild wasabi, Purely pomegranate and confetti white cardstock. I have stamped the background trees in mellow moss and the foreground tree in Always artichoke. The 2-way glue pen was used to hold the dazzling diamond glitter on the leaves.

This is how it looks when its opened out flat.

The centre panel is very vanilla cardstock with the Lovely as a tree stampset: using the rock and roll technique in mellow moss and always artichoke ink.

Here it is standing up (on an odd angle but that's the wide angle lens on my camera) not my photography, really!


That's it for today's post ...

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Very Merry masked bauble gift card holder.

A Bit of an odd title but that is the readers digest description for this card.


I haven't made a christmas bauble card yet so this is my attempt.

Cardstock used is: Always artichoke and Very vanilla.
Ink: Almost amethyst, Elegant eggplant, Perfect plum, Rose Red (inside).
Ribbon: Elegant eggplant

When closed the ribbon bow keeps the card shut by overlapping the scalloped edge (which I have made with the corner rounder with the guard removed). The bauble was masked by punching out a 2" (that's 5 cm) circle from a piece of scrap paper. Then sponged with almost amethyst ink, then perfect plum and with the mask still in place the swirls from "Season of Joy" stampset were placed over the sponging. I swiped my amethyst ink pad around the vanilla cardstock to soften the edges.

This piece of cardstock is adhered to the front panel of the artichoke and folded back in, out of sight. When you open the card you can see the stamped greeting Merry Christmas (this is where you could write your own message) and ...

when you open it up further you can see the gift card envelope stamped with the "short and sweet" very merry stamp and Merry christmas on the folded envelope (I have used the love notes envelope).

You could use it to hold a gift card, or cash, or voucher, or tickets.

I have a little thing for flippy flap fold out type cards at the moment. I will show you another one later.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Welcome baby card


What do you do when you want to send a pregnant mother a card but you dont know what sex the baby is yet?

Send an elephant card in turquoise, pink, grey and white.

I have hedged my bets with this one.
I know there is a great big pink elephant there, but the ribbon is blue and the safety pins are blue ... If the elephant was purple or yellow I might get away with it.
Hope it's a girl!
Card stock is vanilla, (love notes and envelopes). Inks: Tempting turquoise, sahara sand, pixie pink. Stamps: Wild about you, short and sweet, floral background (kissed on the elephant).
Ribbon is Tempting turquoise grosgrain.

Summer mini catalogue Launch

Several times a year, Stampin' Up release a new mini catalogue with Beautifully designed patterned papers, new stampsets, paper crafting tools, ribbons and accessories.

On Friday, 5th December I am inviting 10 women to come and play with some of the new tools and items in the new mini catalogue together on Launch night!!

When: Friday, 5 December 7.30pm

Where: (in the hall behind) the Baptist Church, 127 Narara Valley Drive, Narara.

Cost: $10 (pre paid to secure your place).

What will we be doing: making 3 papercraft projects from tools and stampsets in the mini summer catalogue. I will provide all the cardstock, accessories and tools that you will need.

Tea, coffee and light supper provided.

Lucky door prizes will be called through out the night.

Email me at: nerida_carter@hotmail.com to secure your spot.

November Special - Single markers!

Single Marker Special Offer : Being Single Never Looked So Good!
From 10-30 November, you can purchase single Stampin' Write markers for only $4.95.

Stampin' Up!'s versatile, dual-tip markers have never been offered singly before, so be sure to take advantage of this special, limited-time offer.

Normally, you can only buy stampin' Up markers in their colour family packs of 12. For this month only you can buy them singly ... from any colour family.

Replace any of your over-used furry markers this month or the neutrals: basic black and sahara sand are available too.

Contact me by email at nerida_carter@hotmail.com if you want to place an order.

Special Special offer - only available through Stamping Joy!
Buy 12 single markers for $59.40 and get a free pack of Designer series Patterned paper excellent for cardmaking, off the page and scrapbooking projects.

Embossing JOY!!!!

This week I have officially given up my day job (for twelve months) to look after my daughter and fullfill all of the more important roles in my life. Like being a volunteer at my daughter's school for reading and in the community as a breastfeeding counsellor ...

And in my spare time I am going to make a few cards and scrapbook and drink cups of tea and coffee with my friends ... sounds like a good deal?
I thought so.

Enough chat! This is a beautiful card I made with a friend on the weekend.
We cased a card but made it in different colours - it was fairly quick and easy as far as embossing cards go and used the "season of joy" stampset. The other stampset is "Scribble this" (for the embossed swirls).

The cardstock is Purely pomegranate, Very Vanilla and Always Artichoke.
Ink: Versamark. With Gold embossing powder for the scribbled swirls.
Love how this gold just makes the card look so rich and warm.


Going on to the next step: same design, same stamps different cardstock combination.
Is Merry Christmas from Season of Joy stamped in purely pomegranate ink on white cardstock. Matted on chocolate chip and purely pomegranate cardstock and, "Scribble this" swirls were stamped and embossed over the 3 layers.

I wouldn't have thought of using pomegranate and chocolate chip together, especially for a christmas card but sometimes the colours just come together of their own accord ... I think our original inspiration was Bravo burgundy ... I think pomegranate is much better.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Emerging Colour or floral riot ...


This technique is called emerging colour ... it is supposed to be a gradual revealing of stamps in different subtle colours, layered under a patterned background stamp.

Well my first attempt, is a little bit busy!

I started with a stampset that will be featuring in the December Summer mini "Live your dream" and added orange flowers and Pink butterfly motifs ... then overstamped with the "Floral" background stamp in versamark and clear embossing powder.

Next step was to sponge the close to cocoa and choc chip ink around the edges of the embossed image ... a softening effect giving texture.

I added perhaps a few too many accents: "Thanks" with butterfly and silver brad, on purely pomegranate silk ribbon.

Purely pomegranate cardstock and scalloped layered circles in whisper white and pumpkin pie. I will do this again but simpler next time.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Swing card in the Season of Joy

Always wanted to make a swing card ? There are lots of templates for it on the net.
Here is the front of the card - half open.
And below is the card fully open - the panel swings open to show a second image on the back. Accurate cutting and scoring are important so I did a sample template first.
I have used: Purely pomegranate and confetti white cardstock.

Ink: Always artichoke, purely pomegranate, and versamark.

I have used a strip of DS Holiday Harmony paper to strengthen the spine of the card and cover up some not so perfect background stamping :) and then embossed Silver powder for the swirls and Merry Christmas stamped over the "Season of Joy" trees. Here is the card layed out flat showing the artichoke christmas tree forest.

I embossed the snow flakes on whisper white cardstock and then sponged them with pomegranate ink. Punched them out with the 1" and 1 1/4" circle punches and raised them up with dimensional adhesives.

One of a kind button Harmony

One afternoon in the backyard my daughter sat for me to take a few photos intersperced with catching the ball as she tried to lose it in the backyard.
Our children are all one of a kind. Unique, Genuine and Original!
Stamped Clear Buttons and Taffetta bows make easy accessories on a simple scrapbooking page.

Stampsets: One of a kind (Spring mini), Genuine articles.
Paper: Holiday Harmony DS (Spring mini), lavender lace cardstock.
Ribbons: Elegant eggplant grosgrain, Tafetta - Mellow moss, craft, choc chip, Bashful blue.
Accessories: Clear buttons, Mat pack, 1 1/4" circle punch, Silver thread.
Ink: Black Stazon, elegant eggplant.




I attached the clear buttons with silver thread to the cardstock and tied it off behind to keep a neat finish. The black stazon ink was used to stamp the image on the front of the clear buttons.