STB #16: STAMPIN' UP!'S THE OPEN SEA

Thankfully, the challenges at Seize the Birthday have gone to a two-week format, rather than weekly ... for the past week and a half, I've been meaning to play along, and finally have some time free.  I'm enjoying my Mother's Day treat, of time in my craft room!

During the week I had some friends over for a stamping day, and I showed them how to make gorgeous patterns on card, using the shaving foam technique.  Judy chose a colour combo of Night of Navy, Pool Party and Crumb cake.  The end result looked quite 'nautical' to me; it lent itself perfectly to being used on a card with The Open Sea stamp set (a GREAT 'guy' set).

Here's the sketch, to be used to make a birthday card:

 

 

 

Because of the swirly detail on my 'shaving foam' panel, I've left my card rather un-embellished; it was difficult to not add brads or buttons, but I think it works, for a male card!

 

 

Stamps: The Open Sea, Perfectly Penned

Card: Crumb Cake, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Pool Party Core'dinations

Ink: Crumb Cake stampin' pad and re-inker, Night of Navy stampin' pad and re-inker, Pool Party re-inker

Other: 2 1/2" Circle punch, sponge daubers, Argyle embossing folder, Crumb Cake tulle (retired), Blue denim ribbon, flag die (not SU!), shaving foam

 



SC 075/13: STAMPIN' UP!'S STIPPLED BLOSSOMS

I am really thrilled to have a Guest Designer spot at Sunny Challenges & Creations; a great Australian challenge site, that I've been closely involved with since its inception.

The current challenge, starting today (and spanning over two weeks), is to make a Get Well card ... there is no accompanying sketch this time, so let your imagination run free!  This is quite a timely challenge for me; I've scheduled this blog post for when I'll (hopefully) be coming home from hospital, after surgery. 

I am in LOVE with Stampin' Up!'s Stippled Blossoms stamp set - a "two-step" stamp set that gives a "wow" result every time it's inked up.  Once I'd decided I wanted to use Primrose Petals (one of the gorgeous In Colors from Stampin' Up!), I consulted my trusty Color Coach - that suggested Pink Pirouette would pair well with my chosen colour.  It's not a combination I would've thought to use, but I am quite happy with the result.  I've incorporated a couple of Basic Gray accents, as I thought black stamping would be too harsh.

Here's my card for this challenge:

Stamps: Stippled Blossoms, Perfectly Penned

Card: Primrose Petals, Pink Pirouette, Naturals White

DSP: Basic Gray Patterns Designer Series Paper, Twitterpated Designer Series Paper

Ink: Pink Pirouette, Primrose Petals, Basic Gray, Certainly Celery and Wild Wasabi stampin' pads

Other: Labels Collection Framelits, Festive Paper-Piercing Pack, Stampin' Pierce Mat and Paper-Piercing tool, Basic Pearls, sponge dauber, Pink Pirouette taffeta ribbon, paper snips, Simply Scored Borders Scoring Plate, Stamp-a-ma-jig, glue dots

We'd love to have you play along with this challenge.  You can check out the rest of the Design Team's cards, and link up your creation, here.

STAMPIN' UP! FUN FLOWERS ON A PARLOR PRINTS BACKGROUND

I had a little play with my Stampin' Up! Fun Flowers die the other day, cutting some flowers out of Bravo Burgundy cardstock.  I embossed all the pieces with my Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, lightly sponged the edges with Basic Black ink, and spritzed them with Platinum shimmer spray (shimmer paint mixed with alcohol) before scrunching them a little.  A basics Glimmer Brad secured all the pieces together.  Because the flower ended up looking rather 'showy' I decided to use it as the main attraction on the birthday card I had planned for a friend.  I created a background by clear-embossing Parlor Prints on Bravo Burgundy card.

After that rather wordy introduction, here's the card:

Stamps: Parlor Prints, Perfectly Penned

Card: Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White

Ink: Versamark inkpad, Basic Black stampin' pad

Other: Clear embossing powder, basics Glimmer Brad, Basic Black 1/2" Scallop Dots ribbon, mini glue dots, Platinum shimmer paint (mixed with Isocol), Vintage wallpaper embossing folder, Fun Flowers Bigz die

JUST ADD INK #93

This week at Just Add Ink, Kim has presented this gorgeous colour challenge:

I've taken this opportunity to ink up my Triple Treat Flower stamp, from Stampin' Up!  It is a gorgeous stamp, with endless possibilities .... but I think I got so caught up in envisaging those possibilities that I became overwhelmed, and just hadn't used it!  It is a beautiful, crisp image, and I'm really pleased with the simple design of the card I came up with.

Stamps: Triple Treat Flower, Perfectly Penned, Vintage Vogue

Card: Certainly Celery textured, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Pool Party

Ink: Versamark inkpad, Certainly Celery, Pool Party, Melon Mambo and Basic Black stampin' pads

Other: Fancy Flower punch, 5-Petal Flower punch, Decorative Label punch, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch, Lace Ribbon border punch, paper snips, sponge dauber, Designer Printed brad (Pool Party)

My Paper Snips came in very handy on this card.  To create the leaves, I first stamped the Triple Treat Flower (on Whisper White card) in Certainly Celery ink, and punched it out using the 5-Petal Flower punch.  I snipped the petals to make individual leaves, and sponged them fairly heavily with Certainly Celery ink.  The little "half flowers" behind the sentiment were snipped from a Lace Ribbon border punched in Pool Party card.  I have also cut across the top and bottom of the Decorative Label, to create a slightly different shaped label for my sentiment.

I am having a lovely quiet day at home with my youngest boy (the eldest, and hubby, are off at cricket ... their favourite thing to do, but I happily give it a miss!).  We're just enjoying one another's company, and looking forward to meeting friends (and the other half of our family!) for dinner tonight.  I hope you're having a nice Sunday too :)

WELL WORN, PERFECTLY PENNED MALE CARD

A friend of ours, who doesn't visit my blog (as far as I know!), is about to celebrate a birthday.  It's a very special day on our calendar, as our second son was born on the same day (albeit some 34 years after Darren was).

I decided to cut into my brand new pack of Stampin' Up!'s "Well Worn" papers, and put some ink on my new "Perfectly Penned" stamp set.

In hindsight, I should've done a bit more tearing, to reveal larger sections of the bottom layer of paper, but, for a first attempt at playing with these papers, I'm not unhappy with how the card turned out.

Stamps: Extreme Elements, Perfectly Penned, Texture jumbo wheel

Card: Early Espresso, Naturals Ivory

DSP: Well Worn and Cajun Craze Patterns Designer Series Papers

Ink: Early Espresso stampin' pad and marker, Soft Suede and Not Quite Navy stampin' pads

Other: Regals brads, sponge daubers, Mat Pack and Paper Piercing tool, edge distressing tool