Challenge Cards
I love the sketch challenge this week at Just Add Ink. When I saw it I knew exactly what I was going to do.
I love the stampset Bugs and Kisses but don’t use it often enough. I stamped four of the images from the set onto Orchid Opulence, Only Orange, Yo Yo Yellow and Gable Green cardstock using versamark ink. Then I embossed them with White embossing powder and punched the images out using the 1 3/8″ square punch. I ran a strip of Real Red Cardstock through my crimper and attached it to my base card of Whisper White. I attached the Gable Green and Yo Yo Yellow squares to the Real Red cardstock using mini glue dots. The Orchid Opulence and Only Orange squares were attached to the Whisper White card using dimensionals. I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp “bugs and kisses” using Brilliant Blue ink. I love these bright colours with this stampset. In fact I loved this card so much I turned the sketch a little and created another card.
This card was made exactly the same way except I used a piece of Brilliant Blue cardstock to run through my crimper. Unfortunately my photography is not what it could be today. I took these photos this morning but by the time I got around to it, most of the sun had gone and the sky was cloudy and gray.
As I have made two cards using the same stampset (and almost the same layout), I can enter then into the Late Night Stampers challenge this week.
Hope you are inspired to try something like this yourself.
Bye for now, Kris.
I’m Back
Ok, so now for an explanation as to why it has been so long. Well…my husband and I took a trip to far north Queensland in our caravan. We had a lovely time visiting new places, brushing up on our history, seeing some spectacular scenery and even some amazing animals.
We were lucky enough to be able to see some Cassowaries, an amethyst python, crocodiles, wild pigs, echidna and of course kangaroos all in their natural environments.
We are so lucky to live in such an amazingly diverse country. You can drive through so many different types of terrain in just the one day. We are definitely going back again just to see what we missed on this trip.
Ok so now I am back home and my mojo is still on holidays. So I found a sketch on the Stamping 411 website and decided to have a go.
I started with Whisper White as my base card and stamped it with En Francais using Elegant Eggplant ink. Next comes a layer of Rose Red card. On top of that is another layer of Whisper White stamped to match the base. I wrapped this with some of the gorgeous Soft Suede Polka Dot Ribbon from the Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue. The next layer of is Soft Suede, and on top of that is a layer of Rose Red. I used my Double Rectangle punch on the bottom of these layers and added some more of the Soft Suede Polka Dot Ribbon. I stamped another layer of Whisper White with the En Francais Background stamp using Elegant Eggplant ink. I stamped the All A Flutter butterfly which is a single stamp available in the Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue using Basic Black ink onto Vellum cardstock and cut it out. I turned the butterfly over and coloured it using my Rose Red and Elegant Eggplant Stampin’ Write Markers. I attached it to the Whisper White card using a Clear Rhinestone Brad. I don’t think I liked this card much when I first made it but it has been sitting on my desk since yesterday and it has grown on me somewhat.
Let me know what you think.
Bye for now, Kris.
It’s been a while
and it will be a bit longer before I can show you any new projects. However, I thought I should let you know about a fantastic special which is running this month. Stampin’ Up! is offering some great two step stampsets at 20% discount. Two of the stampsets on offer will not be in the new catalogue when it is released in September. One is Big Bold Birthday and the other set is one of my all-time favourites A Rose is a Rose. (You can check out some of my cards here, here and here. You can get more information about this fantastic offer on the Stampin’ Up! Website and also my Demonstrator Website.
Time is also running out on the Starter Kit Special. The kit is being offered for the fantastic price of $259.00 instead of the usual price of $324.00. It is great value at the regular price but it is even more fantastic at the reduced price. You would be getting over $560.00 worth of product. You can check out all the details here.
If you need any more information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
I promise I will explain my absence soon.
Bye for now, Kris.
Happy Birthday Emma
Today is my youngest daughter’s birthday and I want to share with you the card that I made for her. The pansies made with the butterfly punch are all over the internet so I thought that I would try and make some. I followed several different tutorials, all you have to do is google “butterfly punch pansies” and you will have your choice of several. I had also seen a card by on Valita’s blog which I thought was just gorgeous so I followed her video tutorial and this is the finished card.
I started with a standard Whisper White card and following Valita’s video made the folds in the front. I added a Mellow Moss piece of card behind it to add definition. I used my Big Shot and Mellow Moss card to cut the leaves using the Little Leaves die. After I attached the leaves I wrapped Mellow Moss ¼” grosgrain ribbon and added a bow. The pansies were made by punching two butterflies for each flower using Whisper White card and the Butterfly Punch. I used my Stampin’ Write Markers in Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Summer Sun to colour the butterflies. They were then spritzed with water and scrunched up. I carefully opened each butterfly and then let them dry. Once they were dry I layered two butterflies together with a Basic Black brad in the centre. I attached the pansies to the card using dimensionals and mini glue dots. The sentiment from Fun and Fast Notes was stamped onto Whisper White card using Mellow Moss ink. I punched the greeting out with the Word Window Punch and then fed it back in so that I didn’t have any space left around the greeting. The frame was made by punching out a Square Scallop from Pale Plum card. I trimmed it on an angle so that only the central three scallops were left and then trimmed off the last scallop on each side to make this little rectangle. I added it to my card using dimensionals.
I was so happy with the pansies that I based my next Technique Class around them. If you would like to know how to make these adorable flowers then join me on the 7th August. More details can be found on the Classes and Workshops page.
I also wanted to add a big “Thank You” to all those talented ladies in blogland who so generously share their knowledge in tutorials for all of us to enjoy and recreate.
Bye for now, Kris.
Something Old….
Something new. This card uses two colours which will be retiring when the new catalogue comes out in September – Pale Plum and Mellow Moss and a stamp set from the current Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue. I made this card for this week’s sketch challenge over at Just Add Ink. I love this sketch because it gave me an opportunity to use my Big Shot and the Scallop Circle Bigz Die.
I started with Pale Plum card and stamped it with En Francais using Pale Plum ink and then sponged the edges with the same ink. The next layer is Perfect Plum and this was also stamped with En Francais using Perfect Plum ink and the edges were also sponged using the same ink. The next layer is a Pale Plum Scallop Circle – cut using the Big Shot and trimmed to fit the Perfect Plum square. I cut a 4″ circle of Whisper White card using my Circle Scissors to layer on top. I wrapped the Perfect Plum/Scallop Circle piece with a piece of 1.9cm wide Twill Tape which I had stamped with the “vine” image from Vintage Vogue using Mellow Moss ink. I stamped the greeting from Sincere Salutations using Perfect Plum ink onto the Whisper White card. I cut a sizzlet Little Leaves from Mellow Moss card using my Big Shot, and attached it to the Whisper White card. Next I stamped the large flower from Vintage Vogue onto Whisper White card using Perfect Plum ink and cut it out. The small flower from Vintage Vogue was stamped onto Whisper White card using Pale Plum ink and cut out. I attached the two flowers together with a 5/16″ Whisper White Jumbo Brad and attached it to the card over the leaves using a dimensional. I think it has turned out rather nicely.
I have also updated my Classes and Workshops so check it out.
Bye for now, Kris.
Thank You
As you know my sister recently celebrated a special birthday and these are the gorgeous “Thank You” cards that she sent out. I love the way she has put this together. She has used a retired Hostess Set, For a Friend and a current Hostess Set, Best Yet, as well as Ocean Commotion (on the background). I think we must have inherited our talent from our mother.
Hope you enjoy this card.
Bye for now, Kris.
A Froggy Birthday
Today is my grandson Ethan’s birthday. He is mad about frogs so I thought that I would create a froggy birthday card for him. It is a CASE of a card I had saved by Jackie Topa using the heart shaped treat cup. Unfortunately we do not have this treat cup in Australia so I adapted her design just slightly.
I stamped the “reeds” from Inspired by Nature using Close to Cocoa ink on Confetti Cream card. I then sponged Garden Green ink lightly across the bottom third of the card and Not Quite Navy ink across the top two-thirds of the card. I cut my stump freehand (not quite as attractively as Jackie) from Close to Cocoa card and stamped it with the Weathered Background using Close to Cocoa ink. I sponged it slightly down the right hand side. The main pieces for the frog were punched from Garden Green card using the Large Oval Punch (face), ¾” circle punch (eyes), Wide Oval Punch (body), Small Oval Punch (legs) and the Boho Blossoms Punch (feet). A Small oval was punched from Confetti Cream card for the “tummy” and two ½” circles from Whisper White card (eyes) and two ¼” circles (retired) from Basic Black. I sponged all of the pieces (except for the Whisper White and Basic Black pieces) using Garden Green ink. I decided to add some butterflies. So I used the butterfly from Dreams Du Jour, which Istamped 3 times using Close to Cocoa ink onto Barely Banana card and cut them out. I attached them around the frog using a piece of dimensional under each wing. I drew the frog’s mouth freehand (not very well) using a Basic Black marker. The base card is Close to Cocoa.
I am pretty happy with the way this has turned out and I hope that Ethan likes it when I give it to him later today.
Bye for now, Kris.
A Punchy Birthday
My grandson Noah celebrated his 3rd birthday recently and I made him a card using some punch art which I found a long time ago on Lynn Pratt’s blog. Noah is mad about cars, trucks, planes, in fact just about anything that moves.
I used Bordering Blue as my base card and Garden Green for the “grass” in the foreground. I made my road using a strip of Basic Grey and then made my lines using Whisper White card and the Horizontal Slot Punch. The trucks are made using assorted punches and Ballet Blue, Basic Grey, Basic Black and a little Bordering Blue cardstock. To create a sky I randomly sponged Bordering Blue ink over the Bordering Blue card. I also sponged some Garden Green on the grass to give some depth.
Lynn had directions for the two trucks and a car so I used the car on the inside of the card. Noah was very happy with his trucks and car and I am very happy with the way they turned out. I recommend that you visit Lynn’s blog, she has some great ideas and does amazing work.
Let me know what you think.
Bye for now, Kris.
PS. Used my new “framing” technique but I think I went overboard with the blue.
Something to Share and….
……some exciting news.
Firstly I wanted to share these two cards with you. I was asked to “do some craft” at a recent Fishing Week event Ron and I attended. Since Ron won’t let me take lots of “craft stuff” with me I had to do a bit of the work at home and keep the cards fairly simple. The card on the left is done with the Top Note Die and the Big Shot. The base card is Close to Cocoa which was cut so that it folds and the then a Top Note layer of Cameo Coral was added. This layer is actually cut down and then run through the Big Shot with the Perfect Dots Embossing Folder and wrapped with Whisper White grosgrain before attaching to the Close to Cocoa layer. An image from Pocket Silhouettes was stampped onto Whisper White card using Cameo Coral ink and punched out with the Scallop Oval Punch. A Close to Cocoa Wide oval was added underneath. A greeting was stamped from Tiny Tags was stamped onto Whisper White card using Cameo Coral ink, punched out with the Medium Jewellery Tag punch and attached to the Scallop Oval using a silver brad. This piece was then attached to the card front using dimensionals. The card on the right has a Whisper White card base. On top of this is a piece of Ruby Red card which has been run through the Big Shot using the Manhatten Embossing Folder, again this is wrapped with some Whisper White grosgrain ribbon. The greeting is some Sincere Salutations and has been stamped onto Whisper White card using Ruby Red ink, punched out with the Small Oval, layered onto a Ruby Red Large Oval and then a Whisper White Scallop Oval.
All of the Big Shot work was done at home and so the ladies only had a small amount of stamping and assembling to do and I only needed to bring one small box of supplies.
Now onto some very exciting news from Stampin’ Up!. From now until the 31st of July you can purchase the Starter Kit for an amazing price of $259.00. Now this is a 20% discount on the current purchase price, but is a truly amazing price when you think you are actually getting $560.00 worth of product virtually half price.
Those of you who know me know that I love being a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator. One of the first benefits is the instant 20% discount on anything that I buy (who doesn’t love a bargain) but equally important are the friends that I have made, not only my fantastic customers, but all the other demonstrators I have had the privilege of getting to know.
If you decide to take advantage of this great offer and discover that being a demonstrator is not for you, then you can leave Stampin’ Up! without any penalty as you have already paid for your kit.
If you would like any more information on this fantastic offer, please contact me and we can discuss all the fabulous advantages of being your own boss.
Bye for now, Kris.
A Glassy Flower
Yesterday I had a Technique Class where we learned to make Cracked Glass and also Paper Buttons. There were 12 ladies and we all had a great time, so I thought I would share the card we made. Since I haven’t completed any challenges for a while I thought I would play along with the Just Add Ink Challenge this week. Just Add Ink has just hosted a blog hop showcasing 9 different techniques and one of these was how to “frame” your photos for uploading by Tania Gould. As my photography is not usually very good I thought I would try this technique.
It took a little playing but I actually like this effect. I created a little light box and used Only Orange cardstock behind and under my card. Then I followed the tutorial and added a blurred white frame. What do you think. I think it looks a whole lot better than some of my previous photos.
Anyway on with the details. The base of the card is Kiwi Kiss and it has been stamped with the “reeds” from the Inspired by Nature Stampset using Kiwi Kiss ink and then the edges were sponged with the same ink. The Only Orange piece has had the edges paper pierced. The main image, also from Inspired by Nature, has been coloured using Summer Sun, Only Orange and Kiwi Kiss markers and then stamped onto Confetti Cream cardstock. Then we created our Cracked Glass over the image by embossing with clear embossing powder and versamark 6 times. Once we “cracked” the glass we sponged on some Kiwi Kiss ink and then rubbed off the excess. The greeting layer was created by running Summer Sun and Kiwi Kiss card through the Big Shot using one of the dies from the Lots of Tags set. The Kiwi Kiss was trimmed down to nest on the Summer Sun tag. The greeting is from Three Little Words and was stamped onto Confetti Cream card using Only Orange ink and punched out with the Large Oval Punch. Lastly we added a Paper Button which we created with the Buttons #5 die, Kiwi Kiss card and Kiwi Kiss Designer Series Paper. The image piece was attached to the card using dimensionals.
What do you think? I think it turned out very nicely and I think the “frame” just adds to the look of the card.
Bye for now, Kris.
Stamping with Kris 