Wishing you well meets Buffalo Check.

I have used the "Wishing you well" stamp set to create the focal point on these cards. I love the organza bow in this set

On the top card I have used a piece of DSP  for the background.

On the card below I used the new" Buffalo Check"  background stamp.

 I wouldn't have considered buying this large check stamp a few months ago. Experience has taught me that this type of stamp can lead to some disappointing results.  By this I mean the results are often patchy and there is nothing you can do to correct it. 

However a few months ago I bought the new Stamparatus. It was expensive but it has actually paid for it's self already.  Now I buy Stampin'up s  "clear" stamps  which not clear at all, they are red rubber but without the wooden blocks. 

 This means they are cheaper and  I waste a lot less stamping card  now, as with the Stamparatus,  I can re ink the stamp and  stamp  over the first image perfectly.  I stamped  over the Cherry Cobbler check  below three times to get an even image. If you click on the photo you'll see an enlarged image and you'll see the detail is still crisp despite it being stamped over and over again.

I just wish I could such good results with the Teddy bear stamp set,  but that's another story.

Christmas Card

The embossing folder used for the background is called gently falling from S.U.
The Sentiment is from the set called Carols of Christmas, new this year.

This one was a little out of my comfort zone. I don't usually  work with large sentiment stamps so I had trouble deciding on shape and size of card, then what on earth I was going to put with it.
Some banner strips and some fussy cut holly was all I could come up with.

Christmas parcel card

Hubby said he didn't like this card. so I shared it with a card making group on Facebook with the title Hubby doesn't like this one.

The response it got was amazing.  Every comment was positive and some were hysterical.  I laughed my socks off when I read them.    I even shared them with Hubby.  Luckily he took it all in his stride and laughed along with me.

I used the Sue Wilson Swirly Vine die for the background.

 The parcel stamp is a very old stamp  I have no idea where it came from.
This card would work as a  Birthday or Christmas card  depending on the colour it's made in.

Stippled Blossoms Birthday card.

I wish I could say I enjoyed making this card for my sister in law. But I  had so many mishaps with this one it's unbelievable. The top layer was the main issue .  I think I must have made and re made the top layer half a dozen times before I was happy with it. 

Then just as I thought I had finished it ,,,,,I dropped a black ink pad on it. So had to start again. 

This time I chose to use the Stippled Blossoms stamp set for the flowers rather than the Birthday Blooms stamp set, purely because I was sick of colouring the flowers over and over again. 

 No colouring involved with the Stippled Blossoms set.

The little tag gave me just as much trouble. 

For the lettering I used a spellbinder alphabet set called Indulgence,

The striped paper is from the SU  DSP pack call Birthday Blooms (I think) 

Blushing  Bride card stock. 

Chocolate coloured glitter paper for the lettering.

Black & White Christmas Card

I have to say, this is not the black and white card I had in mind when I started it.

But I made huge mistake and not wanting to scrap the whole card.

  I decided to stamp the greeting in white on black card  and cut it into an oval and stuck it over my huge blunder. 

The little scene at the bottom of the card was created using the Sleigh Ride edgelits from the Stampin' Up winter mini catalogue.

I die cut the village and the sleigh and ran them through my mini  Xyron  (adhesive machine) and then smothered them in white glitter. 

  I stuck them onto a strip of black card, added a narrow ribbon along the top edge and then onto my white base card overlapping the black oval a little. 

The snowy background was created by taking a dull pencil and dabbing the tip onto my white ink pad  and then onto the black card repeatedly until you have the desired effect.

Once the white ink was dry I added a little bow.

One Tip I would like to share when using any Xyron adhesive machine.

The instructions will tell you to rub over the elements hard before peeling off the clear strip. This is to  break the edges of the glue around your elements, giving a cleaner edge to your elements.

Sadly, I find this is still not enough, (as you can see in this photo) there is still a little too much adhesive around the edges, despite my attempts to tidy up the excess glue before applying the glitter. 

As you can see the sides of the houses are not as sharp as they should be due to the excess adhesive at the edges.

 My tip is  not only to rub firmly all over the elements you have glued, but to take a small ball tool or  Biro and draw around the edge of each element firmly, before removing the clear strip. You will get a much cleaner edge by doing this and  it's well worth spending a few seconds doing this rather than trying to clean up the edges after. 

Guest artist Sharon.

This card was sent to me for my birthday last summer.  I am little bit late posting it.
It was made for me by my lovely  friend Sharon.
Sharon used the Wetland Stamp set for this card along with  one ink and white gel pen. Isn't it effective.

Stippled Blossom Cards

You  could say I had a Stippled Blossom day when I made these.
I made the red one because I love  deep red,  then I started to wonder if the same card would work in other colours so I tried purple and then I tried  the dreaded Orange.
I really loathe the colour orange and the fruit as it happens. 






For these 6x6 cards.....
I used the retired DSP from SU . The colours were Cherry cobbler, wonderful wisteria and pumpkin pie. I  also used the same colour inks  plus pretty in pink, concord crush, apricot appeal, for the flowers.
Old olive and lucky limeade for the foliage.
The Stamp Stippled Blossoms from Stampin up. ( still available) This is still my favourite stamp set. It's a two step stamp set.
If you have never come across these sets you won't know how they work.

 Basically they are sets where you have a solid image stamp and a detail stamp to create one image.  You stamp your solid image in a light colour ink. Then ink up the detail stamp with a darker ink and stamp over the solid image. 
In the above card  I stamped the solid image in lilac ink.
 Then I stamped over the solid lilac image with  the detail stamp and dark purple ink. 

As you can see these stamps give a very detailed gorgeous image without having to colour a thing.    My kind of stamps.



The paper lace was punched using two punches from Martha Stewart's range of punches.


White paper lace didn't look quite right  on the orange so I opted to use Black . 

 I don't think I would like to receive this card if I were ill, being orange it would probably make me sicker.                   

Vintage Label sentiment card

Been feeling a lot off colour today and had to go to bed after a walk to the doctors left me feeling absolutely exhausted.
But this evening I managed to rustle up an quick card. I let the patterned paper do most of the work for this card as my heart wasn't really in it. I fell in love with the sentiment stamp in the Vintage labels set as soon as I saw it, but today is the first time it has been out of it's box. I used  the retired concord crush ink  ( from S.U) to stamp this greeting . It is my favourite purple so I was very disappointed when it retired.

Two by Two Baby Card.

 You may remember  a few months ago I did a very similar  card for  a boy.


I rather liked the finished look of that  so when a friends daughter gave birth to a baby girl last I was inspired to make it again in girly colours.
 I have also changed the shape of the topper. 
 Last time, I used the Top Note die , this time I thought I would try the oval and scalloped oval. ( from Spell Binder.)

 The  stamp I used is called Two by Two which is now retired.
I used SU 's markers to colour most of the animals and boat,  but I confess to using my Copic Markers to colour the  elephants.



 I hot foiled the Grandparent Greeting on this card and added  some  Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the waves and the rim of the boat.

The DSP I use was pretty in pink and has unfortunately been retired now.

Sister Card

 I am not sure I should be posting this now as it's my sisters birthday card. Her birthday was last week birthday and I won't see her until  middle of next week. 


She says she never goes on my blog, so I guess I am safe in posting this.


I used the Amazing Family stamp set from Stampin' Up!  (see  below)   along with white craft ink ( also from S.U) to stamp the  greeting and the decorative edge to the black base card.








I used S.U's  designer series paper for the pink spotted background.
Pretty in pink ribbon.



The flowers were punched using the  Boho three flower punch, which I layered up and added just a touch of pink ink to the edges.
I bought this punch some years ago thinking I wouldn't use it that much, But this punch is a little gem and use  more than I ever thought it would be.





The leaves were punched using the three in one bird punch.
The bird punch was an impulse buy because it was cute and new. 
I rarely use  the bird on this punch  but the leafy branch I use a lot.

Hope Mandy likes this one.
Happy Birthday Sis.

Amanda Fowler's Card

The postman brought this card this morning sent to me by Amanda Fowler along with  a  very posh inspiring inkee team badge.

I love the colours  Amanda has used here. They are not colours I have purchased .....yet!  But they could well be on my next order.

 I don't yet own the Floral Flourish stamp set  (from SU) she has used here either. I have been umming and arhing over this stamp set for a long time now. I think this may now be on my  wish list along with the Flower Shop set.

Thank you Amanda for your card and the  posh badge and for making me want to spend even more money. hee hee.

Here is my badge.... the background is silver but it doesn't look it in this photo.

Wetlands Goose Card

I occasionally   Google  Stampin Up cards (images) to gain some inspiration from other demonstrators. I came across  a card very similar to this created by the amazing Michelle Zindorf.

Michelle's cards seem to jump out at you from the  screen.
There is something about Michelle's a cards that put them in a league of their own. 
I have never tried to CASE one of her cards before because I didn't think,  I would be able to do it justice as brayering is not one of my strong points.
But Michelle has very kindly put a tutorial on her blog showing us all how to reproduce this card.
So I thought I would have a go.
I don't have the ink pad colours she used so I used Marina mist and a touch of pacific point to do the brayering.  I don't think this has come out to bad on the whole.
I have also changed the colour the bottom layer to crumb cake and I stamped feathers on it from the fine feathers stamp set before putting it all together.
Another thing I did differently was stamp the goose and masked it off before brayering  to keep the white area s white.  I also used white craft ink and a  small  damp paintbrush to go over the goose's breast as my white gel pen is very scratchy, so I only use it for fine lines not to cover large areas.  I  also used the blender pen to blend in the edged of the white ink into the sahara sands ink.
 I also added a greeting.

 If you want to have a go at this card go to Michelle's blog for the tutorial.  While your there take a good look at her cards they are truly amazing and you'll see what I mean about them jumping out the screen at you.   If She can't inspire you.... Nobody can.

Baby Card Instructions.

Add caption

 Okay, I have been asked for the instructions for this card so many times I thought I would  make it again. This time I would  photograph each step  so that I can share the instructions with you.
 The original card was sent  to  the happy parents before I had even thought of writing down  the instructions.
 This has taken several attempts to get it right and to make sure the instructions are as clear and concise as I can make them.

So here goes....
You 'll need a cutting mat and knife,
Scoreboard  useful
a metal rule, 
a pencil,
adhesive of your choice,
1 sheet of A4 card.

 Score the A4 sheet  exactly in half.   (land scape)

Turn card to portrait  and measure 3 cms from the top of  the card  and mark the 3 cms Do this twice about 7 cms in from the sides,  this will enable you to mark the ends of the cuttings line more accurately.  
Repeat this at the bottom edge of the card.

Join up the markings length ways down the card and cut  the whole length of the lines. 
(See photo 2.)
In photo 4 you will see I have  numbered the strips 1, 2  & 3 
Strip one is left as is... no work required on this yet.

Strip two is the centre panel that folds in on its self.

Working on the centre strip only.
Measure 3 cms  up from the bottom edge of the card score a line between the cutting lines only.
Measure 3 cms up from the last score line or 6 cms up from the bottom edge of the card score another line.



Repeat this process at the top end of the card.
 Both ends should match.
(See photos  3 & 4)








Clicking on any of the photos  should bring up a larger picture, which can also be enlarged if you want to inspect my photos closer.

On Photo 4
Red lines equal score lines.
Green lines equal cutting lines.

On photo 5 

Strip three not terribly difficult to do  but measuring has to be accurate or it can go horribly wrong and it won't fold flat.

Measure 12 cms from the top & the bottom of the card  ( in portrait position) and score a line across  at 12 cm mark on one side  and a cutting line on the other.

 NB. My  template has both lines marked as score lines  But one is a cutting line.

See Photo 6

you can see I have concentrated  purely on this section and have deliberately missed out some of the other score lines so  that they will not confuse.


On photo 6   

From one end of the card  only  measure 13 cms and  mark it at each side join the the markings. 
This is a cutting line.
In my photo this is the broken 
line in dark blue. 
This will be the adhesive tab.

OR you could just  Measure 1cm on  from one of the red score lines in this picture.






Cut away the section marked 
and lightly fold  all the score lines.


Don't crease them in firmly yet
you may need to make minor adjustments which is easier to
 do before using the bone folder.











When you are sure everything  folds flat and lines up add adhesive to the upper surface of the tab  and stick the front & the back of strip 3 together so the tab is inside the card.












Now you can use the bone folder to make all those score lines sharp. 
This is important as it will help the finished card stand up.

The base card is now  ready for you to decorated any way you choose.

If you find this useful  please leave a comment.  
I have spent many hours working this one out and I'd like to know how you get on with it better still I'd love to see what you do with it.
If you need further advice  please contact me through the hotmail address on the side bar.
Thank you

 A couple of additional photos from different angles.

It's nicer if you decorate the inside too.
I suggest you decorate each panel in a different ways .  Trying to  do all the panels in the same paper may result in it looking like you didn't have enough paper or skill to cover it all in one. So vary the papers even if                                                                                     you stick to the same colour paper.  



The unfinished inside of this card 

I stamped greetings and flourishes on to one panel a verse on another,  the baby s birth details on another,  I left one panel  plain for the sender to write his greeting and added  pretty papers to other panels.

To do this one well takes a good deal of time... Don't rush it and
Have fun.

Cheeky Monkey

Here's a cheeky monkey I created from a selection of SU punches.
The boho blossoms punch for the hands and feet the rest were circles and ovals in all sizes.
All the edges were daubed with ink before putting him together. I am afraid I was a bit sloppy with the glue on one leg, hence the fact he hasn't made it to a card front yet.