February ribbon challenge at In Love With Stamping - take 2

Thanks for all your congratulations yesterday. I did have a few drinks to celebrate last night and I might just treat myself to a stamp set or two as a reward for passing, lol.

Today's card is back again to the ribbons challenge over at In Love With Stamping. The challenge is to use five ribbons or more and they can be all the same or all different.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Animal Stories, Whimsical Words

Cardstock: Barely Banana, More Mustard, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie

Ink: More Mustard, Summer Sun

Punches: Scallop Oval, Large Oval

Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon: More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie

To get the funky shape I started with a standard A6 card, measured 1" down from the top right and cut from there to the top left fold. I then measured 1" in from the bottom right and cut from there to the new corner created by my last cut, top right. For the mats I cut the same shape and then trimmed excess from the fold line edge and the bottom edge only, to keep the funky angles needed. Hope that all makes sense.

The giraffe was coloured direct to stamp with Summer Sun and then I coloured the mane, tail and around all the spots with More Mustard (again direct to stamp).

Sara xx

I made the ILWS Design Team!! Yip yip yippee!

Boohoo - I went back to work today ... and started my studying again ... but...

Wahay - I made the In Love With Stamping Design Team!!

The forum had a Cup Challenge on Saturday night and the crafting was fun, frantic and fantastic! We worked in teams (great chat and team spirit from everyone - Go Bold Brights!!) and for each challenge we had an hour to complete our card(s), photograph them and upload them to the gallery. There were prizes/kudos for each category winner and for the team with the most entries.

Our first challenge was a sketch:

I decided to start with a very quick card to get something up onto the gallery as soon as I could.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Animal Stories, Fresh Cuts (sentiment)

Cardstock: Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Ruby Red, Very Vanilla

Ink: Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip

Other: Ruby Red Brads

Then I followed up with a more considered one.

Recipe

Stamp sets: In My Garden, Fresh Cuts (sentiment)

Cardstock: Brilliant Blue, Summer Sun, Brocade Blue, Whisper White

DSP: Pink Flamingo

Ink: Black Stazon, Night of Navy, Markers

Other: Brilliant Blue Brads

I'll post recipes for more of my entries over the next few days.

The standard of crafting on the night was amazingly high (I'm gonna have my work cut out as a DT member) and I came nowhere near winning any category. You can see the winners here.

I did win Elaine's blog candy today though and I get the ingredients and instructions for these beautiful creations here. Thanks Elaine!!

Keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have too much of the snow that's been forecast.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

A baby card to welcome a little girl

While I've been away from work for so long, one of my friends has given birth to a baby daughter, Isobel. I can't wait for my friend to bring her in to see us, I don't even seem to make them cry so much these days, lol (the babies that is, rather than the friends, haha). Here's the card I made for her.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Animal Stories, Curvy Verses (Inside)

Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Whisper White

Ink: Pretty in Pink, Rose Red

DSP: Tea & Crumpets

Punches: Eyelet Border, Heart to Heart

Gingham Ribbon: Light Pink

The next view shows a bit better how the card front folds back on itself and the verse inside.

We've got company today, I need to do housework and keep up the revision of the last few days but I'm also hoping to find some time to play along with the Cinderella's Ball challenges over at ILWS. For those of us Cinderella's that couldn't go along to the SU! convention in Germany, they're hosting a series of challenges, together with prizes. They're open to both demos and customers and you don't have to enter every challenge to be in with the chance of winning a prize, so well worth popping along there today.

Have a great weekend.

Sara xx

A blue giraffe for the Stamp With Us challenge and prize reminder

It's Sunday so it must be Stamp With Us challenge day. A rest then from the sneak peek recipes and on with the challenge. This week it's a colour challenge and here's our inspiration:

I tried to use as many of the colours as I could without the card getting too busy. I think I'm almost there. The two flowers don't look quite right to me. I would have preferred to use three but couldn't fit another one on.

Recipe:

Stamp sets: Animal Stories, Oval All

Cardstock: Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Bashful Blue, Taken with Teal, Whisper White, Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery

Ink: Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Bashful Blue, Taken with Teal

Punches: 5-petal flower, 1/2" Circle, Scallop Edge, Scallop Oval, Large Oval

Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon: Chocolate Chip

Other: Brads

For the flowers, the leaves were laid flat and the two layers of petals were curled around the handle of my pricking tool (have you noticed that pricking mats and tool are now available separately in the new catty). The giraffe was coloured direct to stamp and then I coloured his spots in with Teal afterwards.

Hope that you're having a great weekend.

Don't forget that you can still win free entry to the Stamp With Us Winter online class by entering this week's challenge. Best of luck!

Sara xx

Recipe for sneak peek 2 Animal Stories

Hi folks. I'm back in Cardiff again and my brain is stuffed to bursting. I'm sure that other things are falling out of it now that I've got so many facts and acronyms crammed in there. I'll probably have forgotten at least half of them by the time the actual exam rolls around. Heyho, I can only do what I can do.

One of the brand new stamp sets in the lush new catty is the very cute Animal Stories, a set of four stamps.

These are great to use in full or you can think outside the box (or inside it in this case, lol) and zoom in on just a portion of the image.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Animal Stories, Sincere Salutations

Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip (textured)

Ink: Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal, Pretty in Pink

Taffeta Ribbon: Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White

Reinker: Apricot Appeal

Punches: Scallop Square, Scallop Oval, Large Oval

This card was actually harder than it looks because I had to measure and place the stamped images quite precisely to get the right bits to show through the windows, that's where my stamp-a-ma-jig helped. I knew I wanted to use Apricot for the giraffe but then I didn't have a matching ribbon so I used my matching reinker on some Whisper White - hey presto, matching ribbon! Gotta love those reinkers, so many uses in addition to the obvious.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx