More pix from Saturday's technique class

Saturday was our technique class and we were using the faux leather technique and the waterspot stamping technique. My previous post here shows the Father's Day wallet and the notelet card that we made.

And these are the other two cards that we squeezed in. Another male card using strips of faux leather (you can see the effect better in the pic at the top of the post) to frame the main image ...

And a more feminine card using more "shabby chic" butterflies (or are they moths) ...

Actually by the time we did the class I'd swapped out the Marina Mist for More Mustard which gives a much warmer feel to the finished card.

Everyone got great results. The waterspot stamping is never the same twice but we got some stunning butterflies. Just loved how they were all different.

Our next technique class on Saturday 9 July will be using the:

• faux metal technique; and
• the glitter window technique

More information about it soon (or email me if you can't wait).

Now that my exams are over I'm busy with a major overhaul of my blog. You'll see the results in a few weeks time hopefully but for now it's the same old, same old and it'll be back to the full card recipes and instructions for my next post.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

Technique class results for kissing and emerging colour

I promised to share the cards we made last weekend at the technique class and here they are.

Everyone at the class gets their own technique book with a little explanation page of how to recreate the look and space for an example of the technique on the opposite page.

We then put the technique into practice to create full cards and we also stamp card to be able to make co-ordinating 6" x 6" scrapbook pages.

First of all we had a go at kissing (of the stamping kind of course):

And then we had a go at emerging colour:

Want the full recipes? Then please email me to sign up for the next class or you can book a workshop and I'll demonstrate one of these techniques to you and your guests ;-)

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xxx

Waxing lyrical over this month's challenge

As you may have seen earlier in the week, one of our challenges this month over at In Love With Stamping, is to use wax. This time I used the wax as a candle to be decorated (and waxed paper in applying the image).

Recipe

Stamp sets: Just Believe, Flight of the Butterfly

Ink: Rich Razzleberry

6mm Grosgrain Ribbon: Rich Razzleberry

Other: Tissue Paper (backing from Medium Window Sheet)

Non-SU: Candle, Waxed Paper

I stamped the long grasses image (Just Believe) and the small spotted butterfly (Flight of the Butterfly) onto the tissue paper with Rich Razzleberry ink and cut them out close to the design. Working on just a couple of images at a time, I wrapped them in position on the candle with waxed paper and holding the paper taut, heated gently with my heat tool until the image darkened and the tissue paper could no longer be seen. This was repeated around the candle using fresh waxed paper each time (otherwise the tissue paper can stick). Rich Razzleberry ribbon was wrapped around the base of the candle and secured with a glue dot and a bow added, also with a glue dot.

This technique seems a bit scary at first, but as long as you use fresh waxed paper each time and keep the heat tool moving, it works really well and the results are worth it.

Sara xx

A sweet and happy birthday to Jan

Happy Birthday Jan!!!

Today is my fabulous downline, Jan's birthday. I'm not giving her age away but it certainly isn't what her hubby Ian was trying to make it this year! Doesn't he know you always subtract rather than add if you want to stay in our good books? I'm sure that must be in the hubby manual somewhere, lol.

I hope you've had a fantastic day Jan and that you enjoyed your pampering and got to see the lions.

This was the card that I made to celebrate her day. (I got a text from her so I know she's seen it and it's safe to post).

Recipe

Stamp sets: Something Sweet, Flight of the Butterfly, Vintage Labels (sentiment)

Cardstock: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White

Ink: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Lovely Lilac

Punches: Round Tab, 1-3/4" Circle, Eyelet Border

Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon: Pumpkin Pie

Other: Metallic Eyelet, Sweet Treat Cup, Lime and Orange Tic Tacs

Something Sweet is on offer 1-31 August 2010, reduced from £23.95 to £19.16. Email me if you'd like to place an order.

For the flower I stamped the large circle from the Something Sweet set, up near the top of the Whisper White card. This circle gets punched out but it helps to have something to line the petals up to. Using the stamp-a-ma-jig, I then stamped the petals in Pumpkin Pie all around the circle, leaving about a 2mm gap from it. The leaves were stamped in Old Olive, varying the angle to create a "stem". Using the smallest butterfly from the Flight of the Butterfly set, I stamped in Lovely Lilac, one direct to the card front and one on a piece of scrap Whisper White which was then cut out. Again using the stamp-a-ma-jig, I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Vintage Labels set (one of the Sale-a-bration freebies at the beginning of the year), repeatedly in Pumpkin Pie. I then used a craft knife to cut around the tip of each petal and leaf and curled them slightly to create some dimension.

With everything stamped on the card front I then punched out the centre of the flower with the 1-3/4" Circle and used this as a positioning template for punching out the same circle from the Old Olive card blank. The Sweet Treat Cup was adhered in place with glue dots and the adhesive backing left in place (otherwise it will stick to the slider). Narrow strips of Pumpkin Pie card were punched with the Eyelet Border punch and adhered behind the Whisper White card. This provides decoration but also helps to create the ever so slight gap for the slider to move up and down more easily to get at the sweets. Sticky Strip was added to the sides and bottom of the back of this stamped and bordered layer (none in the centre or the top) and it was adhered to the card front, lining up the punched circle and the Sweet Treat Cup.

The slider closure was made using a wide strip of Pumpkin Pie card topped with a punched Round Tab of Old Olive, folded over and held in place with an eyelet and ribbon. Sweets were added to the cup and the slider slid into place between the stamped layer and the card front to hold them there. A strip of Old Olive card was snipped to make grass and adhered to the bottom of the card front. The additional butterfly and the Pumpkin Pie bow were added with glue dots.

For the insert the sentiment (also from the Something Sweet set) was stamped in Pumpkin Pie and a couple more Lovely Lilac butterflies added to the corners.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Sara xx

A Mojo butterfly in Soft Suede and Mustard

I love today's sketch over at Mojo Monday - such a great excuse to cut into my brand new Soft Suede polka dot ribbon!

Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

Recipe

Stamp set: Flight of the Butterfly

Cardstock: Soft Suede, More Mustard, Very Vanilla, Cardstock Vellum

Ink: Versamark

DSP: Bella Bleu

Punch: Butterfly

Polka Dot Ribbon: Soft Suede

Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon: Very Vanilla

Other: Gold EP, Gold brads, Gold Elastic Cord

The base of the butterfly wings was punched from More Mustard. I then stamped the spotted butterfly onto Vellum and heat embossed with Gold EP before punching out for the top wings. These were adhered with a rolled glue dot and tied around with Gold Elastic Cord for the antennae. Using the stamp-a-ma-jig I stamped the sentiment around the corner of the square with a Versamarker and heat embossed with Gold EP. (The embossing is better picked up by the light in the top photo). The ribbons were trimmed and secured at the top with a Gold brad and then secured at the bottom with a glue dot behind the ribbon tail. Everything else is matting and layering.

I'm just loving the new colours. More of them to come over the next few days!

Sara xx

A flight of butterflies for the Stamp With Us colour challenge

Today's challenge at Stamp With Us is a colour one using this image as inspiration:

I had a lot of fun with this piece and decided that as the sand looked like Kraft I'd use that as my main colour in this card:

Recipe

Stamp sets: Flight of the Butterfly, Touch of Nature

Cardstock: Kraft, Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink: Yoyo Yellow, Almost Amethyst, Real Red, Versamark

Other: White EP, Paper Piercing Tool, Mat Pack

The flower was stamped off the corner (using my stamp-a-ma-jig for placement) with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP. I stamped my little butterflies to match the colour of the beach huts, cut them out and attached with glue dots. Then using the mat pack and paper piercing tool I pricked out a little trail for each butterfly from the flower.

I'm off now to have a look at what my fellow DT members have done with this.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I look forward to seeing your own creations.

Sara xx

May technique challenge at In Love With Stamping

We have a technique challenge this month over at In Love With Stamping - to use brayering in your project. After seeing the gorgeous brayered cards made by Jo over at Stampin 'n Stuff I decided to create my own version.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Autumn Days, Flight of the Butterfly, Sincere Salutations (sentiment)

Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Whisper White

Ink: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Bashful Blue, Versamark

Wide Grosgrain Ribbon: Regal Rose

Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon: Whisper White

Punch: 1-1/4" Circle

Other: White EP, Ribbon Slider (Hodgepodge), Brayer

Non-SU: Post-it Notes

Just for a change I started with a DL size card blank in Pretty in Pink.

For the brayering I start with a larger piece of card than needed and trim to the best effect after I've finished. All layers were added using Pretty in Pink ink and for each layer I inked up the brayer and then rolled it off once onto scrap paper before rolling onto the Whisper White card. The first layer was rolled once lightly all over the card. I then punched a Circle from the sticky edge of a Post-it note (fold in half or use two layers together ). The circle was placed for the sun and then I brayered again. Next I tore a wavy edge along a Post-it and used this to mask off the top edge of the card and brayered a couple of times. The Post it was moved down and off-set and brayered another couple of times.

Using Regal Rose I stamped various flowers and leaves, stamping twice without reinking occasionally to get differences in colour density.

The little butterflies were stamped in Bashful Blue on Whisper White, cut out, shaped and adhered with a rolled up glue dot. The sentiment was added in Versamark and heat embossed with White EP.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend.

Sara xx

Some more inspiration from Craft Stamper magazine

On Wednesday I showed you a card I cased from Craft Stamper magazine. Still with mag, I took inspiration from both Lousette Ashton's "Stamp "n' Punch" article and Debbie Dolphin's "Easy Easels" article, to create this easel card:

Recipe

Stamp sets: Flight of the Butterfly, Medallion

Cardstock: Almost Amethyst, Whisper White

Ink: Almost Amethyst, White Stazon, Versamark, Lovely Lilac

Punches: Butterfly, Circle

Other: Dazzling Diamonds, Medium Window Sheet

Non-SU: Die cuts, Die cutting machine

I put the fold of the card just inside my die to get the card blank and then used the next smallest die to cut both the card front and the insert. The card front was stamped with the Medallion in Almost Amethyst, placing the centre in the upper half of my octagon. The centre of the medallion was then punched out using the 1-1/4" Circle. I stamped the base butterfly with Versamark and Lovely Lilac for shading and then punched out with the Butterfly punch. The top wings were made by stamping in White Stazon on Medium Window Sheet and punching out. I then used the White Stazon as a template for where to put my Tombow and Dazzling Diamonds. Once dry the glittered wings were adhered to the base wings using a rolled up glue dot. The whole butterfly was popped up on half a dimensional on either side of the punched circle. A layered and matted sentiment provides the stopper to rest the card front against when open.

It's quite a dinky card, a little less than 4" x 4". Here's the card folded flat:

I'm looking forward to a great long bank holiday weekend of crafting; tomorrow the May challenges will be posted at In Love With Stamping and on Sunday the Stamp With Us Birthday Bash online classes start!

Hubby? What hubby? He may not see very much of me this weekend, lol.

Have a great weekend and bank holiday everyone.

Sara xx

A cased card from Craft Stamper magazine

This card is one that I've cased from this month's (May 2010) Craft Stamper. It's a design by the very talented Lousette Ashton. I just loved this design so much that all I did was swap her pink colour scheme for my favourite purples.

The great thing about this card in real life is how the colours seen to change in the light. You may be able to see from the two pix here, that as you turn it either the Craft white Medallion stands out or the Dazzling Diamonds do.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Medallion, Flight of the Butterfly

Cardstock: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac, Elegant Eggplant

Ink: Craft Whisper White, Versamark, Elegant Eggplant

Other: Dazzling Diamonds, Paper Piercing Tool, Mat Pack

All the instructions are in the mag.

Sara xx

A wheely good make and take card for everyone to try

Last week I gave a workshop to another lovely bunch of ladies. They should have got their goodies by now, so I thought I'd share the make and take card we all made on the night. Our hostess had asked if they could see the Stampin' Around wheels and have a go at heat embossing, so I designed the make and take around those requests.

Recipe

Stamp sets: It's Beautiful, Flight of the Butterfly, Whimsical Words

Cardstock: Tempting Turquoise, Taken With Teal, Basic Black, More Mustard

Ink: Versamark, Not Quite Navy

Punches: Scallop Edge, Butterfly

Other: Silver EP, Silver Elastic Cord

We also stamped an insert using the narrower Baroque Border wheel and added a Curvy Verse.

Fancy hosting your own workshop? You provide the guests and a few refreshments and I do all the work, sound fair? Just email me to book a date.

Have a great weekend.

Sara

A get well card using a Happy Moment

It's about time I stopped complaining about the weather, after all I've got it easy compared with some. The Mum of my crafting pal Heather, is having a tough time at the moment battling one illness after another and is missing being home into the bargain. Heather's asked for some get well cards to cheer her up (details here if you're able to add to them, I'm sure she'll appreciate it). I sent this at the weekend so hopefully she's got it by now and I'm safe to show it on here.

I've made it using the new Happy Moments set but also combined with a few others.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Happy Moments, Flight of the Butterfly, Fun and Fast Notes (sentiment)

Cardstock: Taken With Teal, More Mustard, Whisper White

DSP: Pink Flamingo

Ink: Taken With Teal, Black Stazon, Markers

Punches: Corner Rounder, Scallop Edge, Butterfly

And because I wanted to make the inside pretty to look at too:

Recipe (inside)

Stamp sets: Baroque Border, Flight of the Butterfly, Curvy Verses

Cardstock: Whisper White

Ink: Taken with Teal

Punch: Corner Rounder

Wishing you a speedy recovery Karen.

Sara xx

Colour combo challenge for the ILWS Cup Challenge

Hope that you're safe and warm. We finally ended up with about 9.5" snow yesterday but luckily we've only had a few flurries on top of that today, nothing severe. DH and a group of neighbours had just finished clearing a route through the snow on the road when a snowplough/gritter came through the estate. Now at least we can get to the main road. DH has been out and stocked up on shopping and we've defrosted the freezer ready to fill it up again so we're set in case of any more of this annoying white stuff. (Annoying because my SU order that was due today has been rescheduled for delivery, boohoo).

And on with the crafting. Our third challenge for the In Love With Stamping Cup Challenge was a colour combo. And what a colour combo!

We had to use:

• Regal Rose
• Cameo Coral
• Pretty in Pink
• Apricot Appeal
• Old Olive
• Bashful Blue

We could add any neutral (eg. white, vanilla or kraft), any embellishments and any stamps but we had to use the full colour set (or as near as you could get if you don't have SU colours).

Now I remembered seeing a few cards in the Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalogue that used a lot of colours and when I looked - it was the same colour set. I decided to CASE the butterfly card (page 88 if you have a copy - want a copy? Email me):

Recipe

Stamp set: Flight of the Butterfly

Cardstock: Kraft, Whisper White, Regal Rose, Cameo Coral, Pretty in Pink, Apricot Appeal, Old Olive, Bashful Blue

Ink: Versamark, Chocolate Chip

Punch: Butterfly

Taffeta Ribbon: Pretty in Pink

Other: Silver Elastic Cord, Clips Assortment

The card in the catalogue has each butterfly stitched on but my sewing machine is still in need of repair. Instead of sewing, I tied each butterfly with the silver elastic cord to create antennae and stuck them to the card with snail or glue dots, depending on whether a wing was lying flat or not.

I don't often CASE cards directly like this, I more often use them as inspiration to take a bit of this card and a bit of that card and combine them. It was quite fun though to just copy outright, it gave my brain a bit of a chance to catch up ready for the last challenge ...

... which I'll show you tomorrow.

Bye for now.

Sara xx

Banana and chocolate butterfly for the Stamp With Us challenge

Wayhay, we're back to normal again over at Stamp With Us, so we have a new challenge for you this week. It's a colour theme and this is our colour inspiration.

Crikey, this looked a bit intimidating to start with but on the other hand it pushed me away from Christmas cards which is all I seem to be making at the moment. I decided that the Tea and Crumpets paper would work well for this colour combo and so here's what I came up with.

Recipe

Stamp set: Flight of the Butterfly

Cardstock: Barely Banana, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Card Vellum

DSP: Tea and Crumpets

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red

Punches: Scallop Circle, 1-3/8" Circle, Butterfly

Other: Gold Elastic Cord

The plain butterfly was stamped in Ruby Red and punched with the Circle punch. I then stamped the flower butterfly in the same ink onto the vellum cardstock. This vellum is so lush, it's quite heavy but it's still best to score it with a bone folder rather than the black scoring blade on the Paper Cutter. I cut my first attempt in half, so I hope you gain from my mistake, lol. Gold elastic cord was wrapped around and tied so the ends make the butterfly antenna, which also picks up the gold buckles in the shoes of the colour theme.

Bess has bounced back from her op pretty well, she keeps crying but we're learning that she's just milking the attention because she's suddenly alright again when she gets it. She has more energy than we hoped, we thought the injections on Friday would knock her back for longer than they have. We're not allowed to take her for a walk for 5 days and have to stop her jumping or moving around too much. Hmm, an active 3 year old Staffie ... not moving around or jumping ... not quite sure how that's going to work.

Yesterday's craft fair went very well despite the awful weather later in the afternoon. JJ and I had lots of visitors throughout the day, sold plenty and persuaded a few to come along to our classes. Hi and thanks to everyone who stopped by.

Jan and I also picked up a commission each for more work while we were there. I'm now going to be working on a dozen Christmas boxes to hold handmade chocolates for a lady who actually turned out to be local to me. Yummy.

Back to the revision now since I got a day off yesterday.

Looking forward to seeing your entries to the Stamp With Us challenge this week and please pop along and check out the rest of the Design Team creations.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Sara xx

A fluttery butterfly for the Stamp With Us recipe challenge

And it's Sunday again already - where does the week go, lol. So, today's challenge over at Stamp With Us is a recipe. We can use:

• 3 patterned papers
• 3 brads
• 3 coloured cards
• 3 different stamps

Wow - that's a toughie. Well I decided to use what is sure to become a favourite stamp set of mine - the brand new Flight of the Butterfly:

Isn't this just a gorgeous set? And I got the butterfly punch to match as well.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Flight of the Butterfly, Fresh Cuts

Cardstock: Cameo Coral, Green Galore, Blush Blossom

Ink: Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise

DSP: Kaleidoscope

Brads: Earth Elements

Punches: Butterfly

I just used one of the "Flight" butterfly stamps, one of the sentiments from the same set (minus the "unknown" on the end so that it fits the layout better) and the leaf from Fresh Cuts = 3 different stamps. I cut the flowers from one sheet of Kaleidoscope, punched the butterfly from another sheet (getting the circles centred within the wings) and cut a strip from another sheet as my top border = 3 papers. 3 Earth Elements brads were used to complete the flowers and I used only 3 coloured cards as shown in the recipe. So, nothing more or less than the recipe allows.

Don't forget that today is the first day of the Stamp With Us online class. It's not too late to join if you haven't signed up yet. Classes are great fun and great value, I can't wait to see the projects we get this time.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Sara xx