A Card that Makes an Impression!

May 26, 2010 | rubber stamping

 I love this Textured Impressions Embossing Folder!  It's called Stampin Up Elegant Bouquet.  I embossed Whisper White cardstock with the folder in my Big Shot, and then used my Two Way Glue and Dazzling Diamonds glitter to add glitz to the centres of the flowers (unfortunately I don't think it shows up really well in this photo…)  The "Friends" stamp is from the set Vintage Vogue which appeared in the Occasions mini catalogue and is still available for order. The "F" was cut out of a second image and mounted on top of an original image using Stampin' Dimensionals. 

While the Vintage Vogue set is still available for order (117690 wood mount, 118598 clear mount), there are some retiring colour products that are already GONE FOREVER.  Only Orange and Close to Cocoa 8.5" x 11" cardstocks are out of stock, and supplies of Sage Shadow 8.5" x 11" AND 12" x 12" cardstocks are exhausted as well.  Many of the retiring colour products are on backorder, being shipped out as available, but you'd best place your order NOW if there's a retiring colour item you need. 

Similar….but different

May 21, 2010 | rubber stamping

 This card uses the same set as the card I posted a few days ago…Circle Circus (get free designer brads this month when you order this set!).  I liked the colour combination of Bermuda Bay and Soft Suede, so why rethink things too much?  This time, I used just the two colours, and repeated the colours in the backing cardstocks.  The card base is Barely Banana (another retiring colour) which coordinates with the Very Vanilla cardstock that the images and sentiment are stamped on.  The sentiment is from the Sincere Salutations set – one of my "Go To" sets as it has phrases to cover most of my card making needs. 

If you're in Canada, I wish you a happy Victoria Day weekend.  The "24th of May" holiday is actually falling on the 24th this year!  We are off to watch Shrek 4 this evening (and of course we will sit to the very end of the credits so that we can see my brother's name go by on the big screen!!).

Elegant Tree

May 20, 2010 | rubber stamping

I love this card – simple, quick but effective (my favourite kind to make).  The tree is heat embossed with silver embossing powder, and when you do this on a dark cardstock, it really "pops".  The card base is Bordering Blue (one of the retiring colours) and Night of Navy completes the monochromatic look.

This was one of the cards we made for the Tansley Crop Circle / Tansley Cares Network event last Saturday.  It was a lot of fun & fellowship as almost twenty people particpated.  I was honoured to have been a part of this event.  Participants got to keep two cards and donated the other two to the Tansley Cares Network, who in turn send cards and notes to Tansley United Church members who are celebrating significant events or are needing some support.

Just a reminder NOT to wait if you were needing supplies in the retiring colours (like Bordering Blue!) – there's already backorders occuring and it looks like demand could outstrip supply!  The best bet is to place your online order HERE – you can complete it immediately and breathe a sigh of relief LOL. 

Watercolour Rose Card

May 8, 2010 | rubber stamping

I took a watercolour painting class a number of years ago and still love to play with the paints when I get the chance…unfortunately that's not all that often these days.  This rose card, however, gave me the chance to watercolour without hauling out the paints, palette and large board to work on.

I used the rose image from Fifth Avenue Floral and embossed it in gold.  This created a tiny "ledge" to keep the water from running all over the place.  Working in small sections, I flooded an area of the image with water from my aquapainter brush.  I picked up some Regal Rose reinker with the tip of my aquapainter, then touched the watery area of the image to fill the area with colour.  As the colour spreads, there will be gradations in intensity which adds to the artistic nature of the card.  If you add more reinker to the area, it gets darker.  You can also go over areas again later once it's more dry to add more colour with a bit more control…but as my watercolour teacher used to say "Let it go, let it flow".  Using Stampin' Up!'s watercolour paper makes this technique pain free and adds to the artistic nature of the card.  The "tooth" of the watercolour paper means that it also stands up to the amount of water used with this technique.  I used Rose Red designer series paper on the Rose Red card to add another dimension but not detract from the image too much.  Brushed gold metallic cardstock backs the flower image, and I used 1/4" circle punch outs of gold metallic cardstock to add interest but not bulk, so it's easily mailed and not crushed.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!  Not sure that this card will actually get given to my mother…since she was at the class where we did this one…think I should come up with a different design for her!!

Birthday card

Mar 28, 2010 | rubber stamping

My son needed a birthday card for a friend, so I created this fun double slider.  

I used Pink Passion cardstock for the base, with Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Series Paper for accent.  I coloured one of the flowers from the Pretties kit with my Pink Passion stampin' write marker to add a bit more "pop" to the card.

The images are from Party Hearty, stamped in Rich Razzleberry onto Whisper White.

This is what the card looks like when it's open. 

This was fun to create and I hope the party girl had fun opening it as well!!