Mischievous Mice

This is a 6 x 4 inch card rather than my usual 7 x 5 inch cards. I  stamped and coloured the the mouse from the Mischievous Mice hostess set.  It's still available until June... I think. It's in the  back pages of the summer mini catalogue.  

This is an fairly easy card to do.

  I cut a piece of dsp to fit  the front of my card, then die cut a large rectangular aperture in the middle and adhered the DSP over my mouse image and stuck both layers onto the base card.

Golden Egg Card

I 've left making most of my Easter cards to the last minute again.  So I needed to come up with something quick as they need to be in the post tonight. 

As I was searching through my scrap drawer I found a piece of card, out of which I had die cut an egg shape. I started wondering if it would make a good  stencil. So I decided to give it a try.  Sometimes you get a fuzzy edge when using die cuts as stencils.

I taped the negative die cut  on to a card panel and blended ink through the aperture. I then placed a decorative stencil over the top and brushed more ink over the stencil. The  blue and pink versions below were the first attempts. I mounted the blue one onto blue card before adhering it to the base card.

I got a bit more adventurous for the yellow one. After applying the yellow ink and allowing it to dry thoroughly, I used a sponge dauber and dabbed Versamark ink through the decorative stencil and heat embossed in gold. Applying the versamark is more difficult to apply due to the sticky nature of the ink. When dabbing with the dauber and versamark the stencil  tends to lift , so you have to be really careful not to move the stencil.  I would also recommend using a mucky versamark pad as it's easier to see where you have been.

To add the ribbon, I cut a slot along the edges of the egg on both sides. I threaded a piece of ribbon through the slots and secured at the back. I used a length of invisible thread and tied it  tightly around the middle of the ribbon to pinch in the centre. I adhered a double bow over the thread.

 To give the impression of a pink and navy layers,  I dipped the edges of the card panels on the ink pads. I added a few tiny sparkles to the pink one. 

The pink  and blue cards  were  pretty quick to make so you could do a few in next to no time. 

Applying the versamark  through the stencil is more difficult and requires more time and patience.

King for a day

Most days I look at my stamp collection and think, umm over 400 sets ... some of these have to go.  Then I get a day like today where I had made two cards but the sentiments in the sets just didn't work for the cards I had made.  So I spent most of today looking through  all my old sets for a sentiment that will work with this frog image. The frog is from the hostess set Princes and Princesses. To be honest I only bought it because I had run out of things to buy from the current catalogue and I needed to make up my quarterly figures. That's not unusual this time of year as the catalogue is coming to an  end and the new one will be launched in a few weeks.

The sentiment I  chose for this card is from the You Rule set. The DSP is from the Pansy Patch suite.

Tool shed card

 I had no idea how I was going to use this stamp set when I bought it or when I got it out to make this card. It was a  case of Okay,  let's stamp the spade, mask it off and work it out from there.

 Perhaps I should have said at the beginning that  I used vanilla cardstock for both the image panel and the base card.

I stamped the ladder next, (slightly overlapping the spade)  followed by the rake, trowel and shears. I masked off all the tools before starting work on the background. 

I inked up the Hardwood background stamp and stamped off most of the ink onto scrap paper,  before stamping it over the masked off tools. I didn't want a strong woodgrain background that would distract from the tools. Using a blending  brush, I blended Baked Brown sugar and soft suede ink around the edges of the panel. 

Once I'd used up most of the ink in the brush, I began working in the middle of the panel and over the tools using a blending brush with next to no ink on the brush .  

I placed a post it note over the tools and in line with the bottom of the ladder and blended some Crumb cake and Early espresso ink,  starting on the post it note and working  downward to create the floor , applying the ink heavier at the sides.

I stamped the cobwebs with white craft ink, which I then embossed using a white detail embossing powder. Detail embossing powder is finer than the standard powder so you get a finer line.

 I removed the masks and coloured the tools using strong colours of Copic markers to hide any ink that may have strayed on the tools. I also used a  silver polychromos pencil to add highlights to metal parts. (This doesn't show in this photo)  Lastly I added some shadows to one side of the tools with a mid brown marker pen and added the sentiment.

 

Here's a card  I made a while ago and completely forgot about. It's only because I am at home with the dreaded Covid and have been looking through my photos. That's when I realized I hadn't posted it. I can't think how I forgot, I had a lot of fun playing with this technique and made a lot of inky mess trying out different colour combo's.

It's a quick and simple card to make and suitable for a lot of occasions. It doesn't require much in the way of tools or materials either. 

You can make this as a single layer card too, so even less materials needed.

I started by folding a piece of copy paper in half length ways and in half again width ways.

On the  corner where both folds overlap,  measure in, half a centimetre /quarter of an inch and draw a line on both sides. ( I realize it says 1 cm on the photo but when I opened out the paper it gave me a gap 2 cms wide between the panels and I felt that was a  little too wide.)

With the paper still folded, and your punch upside down,  line up the edges of the punch with the two lines you have drawn and punch all four apertures at the same time. I used the rectangular postage stamp punch from  Stampin' up. But you could use any shape punch or die. Think about the size  and shape of your card before deciding on a different shape.

Open and flatten out the copier paper and position it over your card and tape down to prevent any slippage.

Now, I used the pieces of paper I punched out of the apertures to mask of the apertures I wasn't working on, but they did move, resulting in me getting ink where I didn't want, in the end I swapped over to post it notes.

The Post it's, meant I could be as liberal as I wanted with the ink without getting ink where it's not supposed to be.

Here you can see I masked off two of the apertures and applied some lilac ink to the other two apertures with a blending brush. I started by applying the ink in one of the inside corners and gradually blended the ink to the opposite corner to create a graduated  look.

Once I had applied the ink, I stamped the images over the post it and the aperture. It's best not to stamp the whole image in the aperture, unless  it's a sentiment of course.

 

I've add an extra photo here so you can see what I mean .

You can change this up in so many ways. You could do each aperture in a different colour, do the whole card using just one colour in ( see example at the bottom of this post) or use two colours as I have.

You could have the sentiment  running between the panels in  portrait position or turn it around and have the sentiment running through the middle in the landscape  position,  depending on the direction and style of your stamped images.

You could place the sentiment below the panels  This could be a single layer card or one with multiple layers. The choice is yours.  

On the Header card and the one below  I went a step further and used a stencil to add some subtle interest to the background of each panel.

daisy card

 I bought this large stamp without really looking at it properly before buying it. It's part of the Daisy Lane collection. I hadn't noticed all the lines on each petal.  I would have preferred it not to have the lines. To my mind it would have made the stamp more versatile and easier to colour without them. If you own this set you may know what I am talking about. I have tried using this stamp in many ways and all my samples ended up in the bin. I'll keep trying different things and see if I can come up with another technique that I would be happy with.  For this card I  painted over the petals white Posca pens to cover most of the lines and a yellow posca pen for the flower centres.

Butterfly Basics card

Just to get me back into crafting I've re created a card I made a few years ago, using an old S.U butterfly die and the butterfly basic  stamp set. On this card I cut the butterfly out 3 times, once in white and sponged the edges of the wings with pink ink. The second butterfly was cut from pink card, and the last from silver mirror card. I stuck them all together and curved the wings with a bone folder.Then added a strip of bling for the body.

12th S.U. birthday

  

I am sharing a card made by my upline. Amanda sent me this card to mark my 12th Stampin' Up Birthday in January this year. It came along with a pencil case filled with crafting goodies, which will be very useful  indeed. Amanda has used the Celebrate with flowers stamp set to create this card, which can be found in the 2021 -2022 annual catalogue .

Flowers of Friendship

 For this card I used the flowers of Friendship stamp set. I saw Jo Blackman's video on creating this card and decided I wanted to try it.  I've been lacking in inspiration of late and my craft room has been under going some major changes as I bought some new furniture to replace the mismatched furniture that's been annoying me for years. This has meant  I haven't been able to work in there for the last few weeks. Instead I have been sorting through all my stash and disposing of things I no longer want.  After so long out of the craft room I needed some inspiration from  the internet. I came across Jo's card and thought it was lovely.  I then discovered she had a great video on her blog on the making of this card. So I thought I'd try it.  I love the way it turned out.

In brief , you heat emboss the flower stamp in gold, paint the flowers with white craft ink and a little water, when the white ink is dry, paint over the bottom  of each flower with a fairly strong pink ink, It will blend with the white and become paler.   Paint the leaves green,  blend some ink around the edges of the panel. Then splatter some  green and white ink over the whole card front. Add a little bling, a gold bow, a sentiment and mount on to a second layer of card. But If you want  more instructions visit Jo's blog.    Here's the link to this project.      https://www.joblackman.com/2021/05/monday-mashup-39-featuring-flowers-of.html     Jo has some wonderful projects on her blog so it's well worth a visit.

Easter Friends

 

This rabbit is part of a new stamp set is called Easter Friends and it's  available until the end of June from Stampin' Up.  There is a very happy duckling and a chick in the set too.

I had reservations about buying this set as I didn't think my colouring would do it justice.  But I have to say I am quite pleased with the way they have turned out. I used Copic markers (Alcohol pens) to colour these images.

 For Christmas Hubby bought me a stash of Lavinia stamps and stencils, so I just had to try out the Fern    Leaf stencil along with  pear pizzazz ink and a new blending brush  to create this leafy background. 

 I love the stencil but not quite sure it works on this card.  Perhaps I did too much.

If you wish to see more of this stamp set click on the link  for the mini catalogue on the right hand side.

 bar.  or on the link below.

 January-June 2022 Mini Catalogue | EN-UK by Stampin' Up! - Issuu

Awesome Otters

Awesome Otters  is a free stamp set available NOW!.  It's a Sale a bration set, which means you can order this set free of charge with a purchase of £45 or more. If you are not familiar with sale a bration  it's a Stampin' up! promotion held in January every year, where you can choose a free gift from the Sale a bration catalogue, when you place an order for £45 or more. But it doesn't stop there, You can choose a gift for every £45 you spend. So if you spend £90 you can choose two gifts and  so on.  I chose this set  as one of my free gifts this year.

If you already have this set you may notice  there are no black lines in the water. I used a white Posca paint pen to paint over them, Hubby says he prefers the image without the black lines . I am still undecided, and curious to know which you prefer. 

Here's the link to the  Sale a bration Catalogue

Sale-A-Bration Brochure | EN-UK by Stampin' Up! - Issuu

Sewing themed card

For this card I dug out a couple of old  retired stamp sets.  Sew suite and pattern pieces. I had intended to use  the Pattern pieces stamp on the front as a background but it looked way too busy so I used it  inside instead.

I stamped, coloured  and fussy cut all the cotton reels and tape measures before sticking them to the polka dot card. As always I used Copic markers to do the colouring.

  I sewed four small buttons onto the button card and added a sentiment. With hind sight I would have stamped the sentiment directly onto the button card before sewing on the buttons.

 As I had sewn the buttons on, it was awfully difficult to get the stamp between the buttons.

The lace trim  was made with Martha Stewarts Doily punch and edged the lace with ribbon and pearls. 

 

Trin's 30th card

I dug out the old Greenhouse Garden and the Summer Silhouette stamp sets to create a couple of background for a 30th birthday card.

The inks I used were Pale papaya, seaside spray, misty moonlight, peekaboo peach. Lucky limeade and daffodil delight.

I had an idea to combine it with S.U. large happy birthday die . The photo above shows the die as it comes out of the die.  I wanted to add 30th in between the words, so I snipped the connecting h, p  and y to turn it into two separate words. Then I heat embossed the words in copper 3 times for a well rounded liquid look to the lettering.

Another reason for choosing to heat emboss so many times was also to hide the dotty impression the die leaves hide. Stampin' up word dies have an awful lot of release holes which are very prominent on the die cut.  I have tried running the die cut through the big shot after removing it from the die and this does push all the little dots out but it also presses out the bevelled edge, leaving you  with a very flat die cut.

However quite by chance I discovered that you can remove or at least lesson the dotty affect buy running it back through the bigshot carefully without the top plate.

There seems to be just enough pressure to reduce the dots without flattening out the bevelled edge. Of course that might just be my machine , each machine is slightly different so if you try this you may find you need to use a sheet of card as a  shim.

                       

 

Sailing by the moon

 A card suitable for a male today and for any occasion.  To create this image I blended a little blue over the centre of the card, allowed it  to dry then masked off the moon.

 I then set about blending the ink sky and sea.  I used the edge of a dauber and drew in the streaks in the sea  to create the impression of waves / ripples.  I left the area around the bottom of the moon and along the horizon slightly lighter.

 I stamped the sailboat  using black ink, and then coloured in the image with a black marker. I added stars buy dotting a white gel pen over the sky.

Stellar Birthday

I had a play with the "Stellar Birthday" stamp set and the coordinating "Give it a whirl" dies set. I've CASE'd this card from the S.U. catalogue. But I omitted  the gold heat embossing.

When you turn the wheel a different image or sentiment appears in the aperture. One thing I would say is when constructing this card is to put a spacer behind the spinner to make it easier to turn the wheel.

 This was a fun card to make and I am looking forward to playing more with this bundle, when I have a little more time on my hands, it's not  a quick card to make.

When I ordered he dies I didn't really look at the dies in the set so I was rather disappointed to find there are no dies that cut out the characters in the stamp set, so you have to fussy cut the astronauts.

Pansy Petals

 

I held off from buying the Pansy Petals stamps and dies until I had seen what other demo's were doing with them.  I wanted to watch a few videos on using this bundle before purchasing it.  For two reasons, the first being  to see if other people were getting good results and the second to get an idea if I would have the patience to work with them, as there are an awful lot of parts to these flowers. 

 I've watched a few videos, and the way people are working with them is so varied, and the results are so very different. Which left me very confused , so I decided to do my own thing with them.

  So last weekend I spent a lot of time experimenting with  lots of different colour combinations, and using all of the dies, to using just three of them.  I have to say, I haven't liked most of my creations, but I persevered until I had two pansies I would be happy to put on a card. If you are contemplating buying these dies, be prepared to spend a good deal of time experimenting,  and keep playing until you get something you're pleased with. you will get there in the end but they do require some experimenting.

There are six dies that make up this large Pansy, but there are eight pieces to each flower...ten if you include the leaves.  I have only used six of the eight pieces on these cards.

I used a bone folder to curl the petals to give them dimension to make them a little more realistic.

I blended a tiny amount of yellow / purple ink onto white card for the backgrounds.

The  flowers were attached with dimensionals.  I added the bud and the leaves before stamping the sentiment on the backgrounds.

Ellis' card.

Rant time... My craft room has become a dark and dismal place since a couple of guys came out and erected scaffolding across the entire back of the house about two weeks ago. The scaffold boards are above my craft room window and blocking out an awful lot of natural light. I am not keen on working in artificial light, so I have been avoiding my craft room since it went up.  The roofers don't seem to be in a hurry to do the job,  so it's beginning to look like it will be there quite a while. Which I am not happy with at all,  not only because it makes my work room dark, but it also means we can't use the patio, and that has really annoyed hubby. He likes to sit out there and do his sudokus and read the newspapers. The dog is confused as to where she can do her business, as I had to move all the garden furniture down to the next level and the rotary washing line down to it's storage point on the third level.   Which means I can't use it, so  I have had put up a make shift washing line using the scaffolding as supports, but I do need a stepladder to hang the washing out now. 

The scaffold poles turned out to be useful when I decided to wash the lounge rug.  When it's wet it is far too heavy for the washing line so hubby and I hung it from the scaffolding to dry. Three sunny days later it was dry and the scaffold had run out of uses for us and it started to be a nuisance and has been ever since.   Anyway that is the end of my rant and the reason I haven't posted anything for a while. However the day the scaffold went up I was in the middle of making this card for my Step Grandson who turned three recently. I used the "Make a Monster "Stamp set,  it's a retired set from S.U. I don't think I have ever made a card using this set before. This card was a 7x7 card. I used some old olive dsp for the background. The photo below is of the inside panel.

 

No, I have not gone mad and forgotten I have already posted this card.  I am posting it again because I have been asked for directions. So this post is about how I made it. 

The  white base card is a tent fold card 5  7/8ths x 4 1/8 inches.

 I don't recommend a side fold card because the card front is too heavy and tends to fall over easily.

You will also need a piece of white card suitable for stamping and colouring on. the same size as the card base....  5 7/8ths  x 4 1/8th of an inch.

                                          I cut a piece of yellow card 6 1/2 inches x 4 1/8 inches.

                                     

I cut the card in two at around the  2  3/4  of an inches mark.

    With a scalloped edge punch I punched along a short side on each piece.

I scored  four lines across the card pieces. Two on each piece. The first one is at 1/2 an inch in from the scalloped edge on both pieces. I flipped the awning round and scored the third line 3/4 inch in on the straight edge. The fourth score line is 1 inch in from the scalloped edge.

              I punched out 5 white  pieces  using  the word window punch.  Now at this point you have two choices you can trim off one of the rounded ends so that the end fits flush with the top score line of the awning, or you can leave them rounded. Adhere the white strips onto the awning lining the rounded                                                                    edges with the scallops.  

Score the lines on the awning again and fold and burnish with a bone folder. Fold and burnish the score lines on the base to form the shelf.

On the white card lightly draw a line 3/4 of an inch down from the top. 

Above this line will be where you adhere the top of the awning, so don't stamp above this line.

                    Use a stamp positioning tool to get the perfect positioning of the central cake stand.

 stick a post it note across the card at the base of the central stand. Then stamp the cake stands either side but cutting off the base of the stand. So the cake stand now becomes a plate of cakes.

remove the post it and colour the cupcakes.  Adhere the awning and then the shelf base, lining up the fold with the bottom of the plates.

 If you want to add a ribbon around the base, now would be the time to attach it So you can seal the ends of the ribbon between the base card and  panel.  Also add a sentiment.

 

                  Now you can adhere the panel to the base card. You may need to trim a little off                                          the bottom of the yellow shelf panel,  so do check size before adhering it to the base card.

                                                                     

Eight Sympathy cards using one image stamp

More sympathy cards...well kind of.     

For these  eight cards I used one stamp from the retired set 

" Hopeful Thoughts". Now this set is a wood mounted stamp set.  I don't like to butcher stamp sets  but Stamping with this image can be a little hit and miss, so I bit the bullet and popped the stamp in the microwave for ten seconds  to loosen the glue and peeled the stamp with the foam layer off the block. Then I stuck the very sticky stamp on to a piece of cling mount foam So now I can use the stamp in my Stampartus. 

Which means when the stamp misbehaves, I can stamp over the dodgy image to correct it. 

The card above I have CASE'd from another demo, although I have actually changed a couple of things.  I saw her version and thought I'd CASE it. So off I went to the craft room and began to make the card as I remembered it.  When it was finished I compared it to the original and found I had made a few changes without realizing it.

For my second card, I decided to play with the layout a little, I  changed the colours, the DSP , the shape, ribbon and the sentiment, which is pretty much everything. Apart from the image stamp. But even that,  I changed. On the first card I used markers to apply the inks to the stamp. On the second card I stamped the whole image in blue. 

The third version is more of a thank you card. I used the sentiment on this card on a card I sent to the undertakers along with the final payment for my dad's funeral. This time I chose to make it in colour Blackberry Bliss. I omitted the ribbon on this one.

My fourth card I kept very simple and stamped the image in purple, as purple is also a colour of mourning in certain parts of the world. It is also accepted as a colour of mourning for widows.

My fifth card  was stamped using "Marina Mist ink, I combined it with some Marina Mist seam binding ribbon and card layers. I also added a layer of white embossed card stock.

For my sixth card, I used the markers again to apply the ink colours to the stamp.  This time

I've  added a small black bow to the stem of the branch and torn away one corner for a little more interest.  I had intended to distress all the edges of the top panel, but in my eagerness to complete the card ...I forgot.

My seventh card  is a remake of the first, but this time I changed the colour of the ribbon, the DSP and the sentiment.

My eighth card is a 6 x 6 card using the same image inked up with markers. I added a strip of navy card either side of the stamped panel. The Navy looked a little bit too heavy, so I added  two strips of lace, which I punched out using Martha Stewarts doily border punch.

 My ninth and final card uses the second image in the Hopeful Thoughts stamp set. To create the blue panel, I die cut a square aperture in a piece of scrap paper and placed it so that the aperture lay over the centre of my white card. Using a blending brush, I brushed ink over the edges of the aperture. drawing it into the centre of the square.   Once I was happy with the  intensity of the ink I stamped the tree over the blue inked square. Then stamped the sentiment.