Happi(ness) Birthday card for the Stamp With Us challenge

This week's challenge on Stamp With Us is a theme challenge - to create a Birthday card.

Everything used is Stampin' Up! supplies. I decided to do a little colouring for this one. Using the flower strip from the Little Bit of Happiness (a Level 1 hostess gift with four different strips) I stamped with Basic Grey ink (for a softer look) onto Whisper White card and coloured with markers. I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to extend the Happiness strip to the full width of the card. This was matted onto paper from the new Tea Party Designer Series Paper collection and then onto Almost Amethyst card, punched with the scallop edge punch. The Fabulous Friend sentiment from the Oval All set was stamped onto Whisper White card, coloured with markers and punched with the small oval punch. It was then matted onto Almost Amethyst card punched with the scallop oval punch. It was added to the front of the card with dimensionals. Interest was added to the top of the card by adding a couple of silver eyelets, threaded with Moss gingham ribbon.

The inside of the card was stamped with the Birthday Wishes sentiment from the Sincere Salutations set. Using Apricot Appeal ink the flower strip was stamped across the bottom inside of the card. I think of the text, front and inside, as telling a little story.

Hope you're having a good Easter.

Keep Stampin'

Sara xx

A Scandinavian Christmas card on Good Friday

A little late in the week but this is my entry to the Mojo Monday sketch challenge.

I loved this layout - will have to save it for future cards. It was also a great excuse to break in one of my new stamp sets and try one of the new Designer Series Papers (DSP).

This is the sketch to be followed.

I decided to use just three of the colours from the Ski Slope DSP for my colour scheme and started with Chocolate Chip card for my blank. The two different strips of the blue Ski Slope papers were strengthened with some plain card behind them to better support the ribbon and brads. Using Versamark ink and silver embossing powder I stamped the snowflake and tree from the Scandinavian Season set onto Chocolate Chip card. The sentiment is from the Best Yet set (a Level 1 hostess gift). These were all matted onto Real Red card.

Real Red narrow grosgrain ribbon with a faux bow was wrapped around one of the Ski Slope papers and the other had a trio of medium, red, rhinestone brads from the Circle Fire set, added to it. The DSP strips were stuck flat to the card and the embossed elements were all raised on dimensionals.

A good fun challenge and another Christmas card ready to reduce the panic when November rolls around.

Hope you're having a lovely holiday.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

Starting my mini holiday with another pink card

Yippee. A mini holiday. I'm on leave now until Tuesday when I go back to work and then have a stamp class in the evening. We'll be using the Summer by the Sea set (see some previous examples here) and there are still a couple of places left so please contact me if you're in the S36 area and would like to come along.

I thought I'd blog early today as I'm going to meet one of my downlines for a coffee mid-morning and then hubby and I are out for a fancy meal tonight. What a great start to the holiday *beaming smile on face*.

This card is one that I actually started quite a while ago. I asked my blog readers what their favourite colour combos were and said that I'd incorporate them into my cardmaking (- bet they thought I'd completely forgotten). Heather said hers was pink and so I started to put together some pink elements ... then I got side tracked. But I didn't forget and so today I finished off the first one. Heather hun (when you get back online) today's card was made with you in mind.

I started with the main panel on the front of the card and stamped the large flower from the One of a Kind set in Regal Rose ink on Whisper White card. Corners were punched with the corner rounder. After stamping the flower trio from the same set with Pretty in Pink ink on Whisper White card I punched them out with the Boho Blossoms punch and attached just the smallest ones to each corner with a pink brad from the Rich Regals collection. The centre is the dinky flower from the One of a Kind set stamped in Pretty in Pink, punched with the 1/2" circle punch and mounted with a dimensional. The whole was matted onto Rose Red card also corner rounded.

I had also previously prepared the ribbon by stamping the For You sentiment from the One of a Kind set in black Stazon onto Regal Rose, wide grosgrain ribbon.

When I came back to it this morning I decided to switch from a portrait (vertical) to a landscape (hoizontal) style card. Using my scallop edge punch I added a border of Rose Red Designer Paper to the front and to the inside of the card on opposite edges and also punched the opening edge of the card to reveal the paper. I wrapped the stamped ribbon over the front paper border. The main panel was added on dimensionals and then the card was finished by adding the Birthday Wishes sentiment from the Sincere Salutations to the inside.

Hope you like it Heather.

Sara xx

Origami Easter box of chocs using Forest Friends

I've made one of these little chocolate boxes for each set of parents as an Easter gift.

Using Sweet Always Designer Series Paper I made an origami box following the instructions over at Splitcoaststampers, altering the size to fit 2x2 chocs. I covered the backing card from a pack of papers with Chocolate Chip patterned DSP and folded it around the box, securing the box to the base with sticky strip. I added dividers of Chocolate Chip card to keep the chocs in place.

The chocs were made the same way as the Christmas decorations here.  I stamped the bunny from the Forest Friends set with Regal Rose ink onto Whisper White card and matted onto Pretty in Pink card and stamped the Owl with Chocolate Chip ink onto Whisper White card and matted onto Close to Cocoa card. Elizabeth Shaw mints were sandwiched between the scallop circles.

I added jumbo eyelets to the lid and base at centre front and threaded Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon through, to tie the box closed. For the lid I used markers and stamped a little scene using the tree and the deer from Forest Friends. I then added the Easter Wishes sentiment from the Occasional Greetings set in Regal Rose ink. The scene was matted onto Close to Cocoa and then Pretty in Pink card, with all corners punched with the corner rounder.

Not sure what I'm going to do when Easter's come and gone and I don't have an excuse for making these little gifts.

Keep Stampin'

Sara xx

Quick craft tip - rubber stamping tip no. 3

Place your stamping material (card, paper, acetate etc) on a smooth, flat surface. Ink your stamp and press down flat onto the material, applying an even pressure (don't rock the stamp or move it about). Holding the material down, lift the stamp cleanly up from the surface (there can sometimes be a little suction between the stamp and the stamping surface, especially when stamping onto acetate). Stampin' Up! rubber stamps are deeply etched and will not need as much pressure as some shallower etched stamps.

Dinky Easter baskets for the team at work

Yesterday afternoon was a bit of a crafting production line to make 9 little Easter baskets ready for our team meeting today. It was worth it though - how cute are these? And they went down well, it was fun to see who ate their chocs first and who still had them at the end of the meeting to take home.

I made the baskets using this tutorial here over at Jennifer's Sweet Designs but as I was just putting a Cadbury's Creme Egg and some mini eggs in each, I altered the size down to a 4.5" square.  A corner rounder punch was used on all four corners before folding them up to form the basket. I made some of them using So Saffron card, with So Saffron Designer Series Paper to decorate the handles and for the others I used Almost Amethyst card and the new Tea Party DSP (so scrummy). Rather than gluing the basket together as described in the tutorial, I secured the basket sides and handle with a brad through all layers. The side decorations were made by stamping the bunny from Forest Friends or the Easter Wishes sentiment from Occasional Greetings in Always Artichoke ink onto Whisper White card. They were punched with the 1-1/4" circle punch and matted onto Certainly Celery card punched with the scallop circle punch. A sentiment and a bunny were added to either side of the basket with dimensionals. I put some strips of crimped Certainly Celery card "grass" in the bottom of each basket and added the eggs.

Hope you have a cracking good time crafting too. Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

Lovely goodies from the new mini and a birthday card

Look at this lovely stash. Am I a lucky girl or what. I got 6 of the new stamps sets from the mini:

•   Fresh Cuts
  
•   Scandanavian Season
  
•   Golden Oldies
  
•   Soft Summer
  
•   Just Beachy
  
•   Oval All
  

I got both new punches and all the new Designer Series Paper (DSP). I also got a few things from the main catty. I always stock up on sticky strip, snail, Whisper White and Very Vanilla when I order because these are my basics, I use them all the time. I'm also building up my ink pads and thought I'd have a try at the watercolouring crayons. So now you have an idea of what may be coming up over future weeks.

I just have to say how gorgeous the DSPs are. You look at them in the catalogue and they look nice but you can't ever really be sure until you get your mitts on them *rubs hands together*. Well they're in my mitts and I'll be buying more. Tea Party is every bit as pretty as expected, Washington Apple is bold and bright and Ski Slope is subtle enough to be used year round.

For today's card I've held back a little and only used a few of my new goodies (such restraint, heehee) together with some hostess gifts (see here for how you can get these free).

I started with a card blank of Barely Banana. I stamped the cupcake from Cause for Celebration (a level 2 hostess gift) onto Whisper White card and coloured it with markers. The right hand corners were punched with the corner rounder. I matted this onto Regal Rose card, punched and tied with Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon (right hand corners also punched with the corner rounder). This was matted with dimensionals onto a couple of layers of Kraft paper (part of a level 1 hostess gift). The same papers were used to create a ribbon across the bottom of the card. Using Regal Rose I stamped the Just for You sentiment from the Oval All set onto Pretty in Pink card and punched out with the oval punch. This was matted onto Regal Rose card punched with the scallop oval. The whole was added to the paper ribbon with a couple of dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by. Please get in touch at sarastamper123@gmail.com if you want to order your own goodies from the mini.

Sara xx

Stamp With Us challenge card

I get to have a full day crafting today so I thought I'd take part in this challenge over at Stamp With Us. They'll be offering new challenges (usually each Sunday), rotating between Sketch, Theme, Colour and Recipe. As this is the first one they're giving us a bit longer than usual to enter, we have until midnight, Saturday 11th April. They also have a call out for crafters to join their Design Team so why not give it a go. This is the first sketch:

As soon as I saw the sketch I knew I wanted to use my background stamps. I started with a card blank of Certainly Celery. Using Perfect Plum ink I stamped the Friendly background stamp onto Pale Plum card, then matted it onto Perfect Plum card. I stamped the Paisley background stamp in Always Artichoke ink onto Certainly Celery card, then matted it onto Always Artichoke card. Certainly Celery narrow grosgrain ribbon was wrapped around the matted layers. To keep the friendship theme going, I stamped the Thinking of You sentiment from the Circle of Friendship stamp set, using Perfect Plum ink on Whisper White card. I punched this out with the 1" circle punch. This was matted onto Pale Plum card punched with the 1-1/4" circle punch. A dimensional was used to stick it to a scallop circle punched from Perfect Plum card and the whole embellishment was added over the ribbon, raised on more dimensionals.

Right, I'm off now to open my parcel of goodies from the new mini. I had to delay my order until nearer payday because I wanted so much, heehee. I'll show you what I bought tomorrow.

Have a great weekend.

Sara xx

Another Stampette is about to join my little team

Tonight I stopped by for a chat and a stamp with a lovely lady who's about to sign up with me to be a demo (Hi Jan *waves* - I know she's likely to be reading this). She's so excited about it, she can't wait to get her application in the post and get her starter kit. She just needed to look at a few stamps and have some questions answered and now it's all systems go. I know that one of the things that helped her decision, was my offer here, of another free stamp set, in addition to the starter kit. This offer is valid for anyone joining Stampin' Up! through me, before the end of May.

One of the other ways that I like to look after my downline team of Stampettes, is to provide these little card samplers as a business/hobby tool. For each colour family I punch a sample of card and a sample of stamped ink. These are great to be able to take along to workshops to show people the full colour range available. (They're also really handy to take out clothes shopping for colour matching, ha-ha). 

If you'd also like to join my team of Stampettes then please email me at sarastamper123@gmail.com

Sara

April's Fool trick free zone - mini catalogue products now shipping

No - no April Fool's jokes from me today. I'm not that unkind.

Don't forget that that we're now shipping orders from the mini catalogue - no more waiting.

Here are the other cards I promised to show from the training event and they use a stamp set from the mini. Both of these are dinky little things that are also great to accompany a gift  - Easter eggs or a little thank you present, maybe.

The card blanks are both Whisper White. One was stamped in Chocolate Chip ink with the Easter Wishes sentiment from the Occasional Greetings set. "Thumper" from the Forest Friends set was stamped with Chocolate Chip ink onto Whisper White card and punched out with the 1-1/4" circle punch. The scallop circle punch was used on So Saffron card and the edging created with the crop-a-dile. Both circles were mounted with dimensionals. A piece of Old Olive card was torn across and then snipped to create the grass. The new So Saffron striped ribbon was wrapped around and this was added to the front of the card.

For the second card the tree from the Forest Friends set was coloured direct to stamp with markers, huffed on and stamped onto the card blank. The thank you sentiment from the Occasional Greetings set was stamped in Chocolate Chip ink on the front of the card. More Old Olive grass was added, this time cut straight across rather than torn and the card was finished with a piece of Moss gingham ribbon. 

The birthday card in the middle is the one that I gave details for on Monday.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx