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.

Hand penned petals.

 These two cards were made using the  Hand penned petals stamp set. I wasn't sure about this set when I first saw it in the catalogue. I think I purchased it because I was running out of options. I am still not convinced  I did the right thing. I guess once I have played with it a little more, I may grow to love it. You may not notice but the large flowers I heat embossed in gold detail embossing powder. But the less prominent background flowers/ foliage I used various colours of ink to stamp the images.

I coloured the large images with Copic markers rather than use the infill stamps that come in the set. I wanted more accurate colouring than the infill stamps give.

I have to confess that I rather like the orange one....Anyone that knows me well,  knows  that yellow and orange are not colours I like. I will always opt for reds,  pinks, purples and blues.  It's very  rare I would choose orange and yellow...especially yellow. but I think I may have to change my way of thinking now. Especially as I did a version of this card in pinks, purples and blue and I hate it.

Wintery card

I used the Arctic bears stamp set for this card, it's a new set and is available from Stampin'up.
Stamping this card took a little working out. I stamped the large bear first, then masked her off and stamped the small bear, overlapping the masked off bear. 

Then I masked off the small bear and stamped the icy edge three times along the side of the card. With a pen I drew in the horizon.

I added a touch of cool grey ink to the bears and coloured the sea with Copic markers.

I heat embossed some silver snowflakes along the top edge and down the opposite side to the ice flow.

I mounted the scene on marina mist card  and then on to a piece of night of navy card stock , which I had heat embossed more snowflakes in silver.  The snowflakes are from the serene snowflakes set.

LOTV digital stamp sale.

YAY!!  LOTV has had another sale and I couldn't resist purchasing a few more digital stamps. I couldn't wait to get colouring  these three little guys. Then I made three quick cards with the images I  was impatient to colour. I thought the image above would be perfect for an apology card as well as boys birthday card. The sentiment  on the first card is from a Stampin' up set call "Sorry for everything." Which I'm pretty sure has retired.

My brother in law seems to do an awful lot of grass cutting and not just for himself,  so this would make

an excellent thank you card for him as well as a birthday card.  Another member of the family has a job as a groundsman, so cutting the grass is a big part of his job.  Although I'm pretty sure he doesn't use  a mower like this.

 So I have at least two people I could use this image for, and that was all I needed to convince me,

 I needed to buy this image. 

Stampin' up  sell a stamp set with a very similar image in. "It's called  a cut above the rest" and the sentiment I used on this card is from that set, and it's in the current catalogue.

The vegetable plot is a great image for a retirement card or a birthday card for the keen gardener.

Or even a thank you card for a gardener.

I have teamed all of these images with a DSP from Stampin' up.

 The bee paper was given to me.

Sympathy card.

  Sadly I needed another Sympathy card this week. So I used the " Hopeful Thoughts" set for this one.

I used Stamp and write markers to ink up the stamp to get multiple colours  on the stamp. If you are not familiar with this technique, I'll explain.  You will need dye based markers for this technique.  Alcohol markers will not work as they dry too fast and the ink cannot be reactivated with a huff.  

To create this image, I placed the stamp on a flat surface, rubber side up. Using a green dye based marker,  I applied ink to the stem and leaves. 

 With a light blue marker I applied ink to the flowers on the stamp, using a darker blue marker I added just a touch of dark blue to the tips of some of the petals.  Once you have applied ink to all the parts of the stamp  you'll notice the ink you applied first has dried, so you will need to breathe/huff on the stamp to reactivate the ink with the moisture in your breath.  If you're using a large stamp you'll probably need to huff on the stamp a couple of times to make sure you have moistened the whole stamp.  Now you can stamp the image.

I  double mounted the image on this card. I used the perfect layers rules to get the perfect 1/8th of an inch border. Then I added a wider 1/2 inch navy border before mouting the panel onto my white base card.

under my umbrella rainbow card.

The sun came out this morning, after what seems like days of rain and I was thinking of rainbows. Hence this rainbow card. 
In previous post I explained how I created the raindrops with the fine tip glue. Which is exactly what I have done on this one. 
I then brushed over the the dried glue with inks in the colours of the rainbow. I stamped the umbrella using the  "under my umbrella" set from Stampin' up. I used the coordinating punch to cut out the umbrella and the handle.  I embossed the white base card using the fine script embossing folder. Although it doesn't show up in this photograph. There is nothing difficult about this card, the hardest thing is waiting for the glue to dry so you can start inking. You can't use a heat gun to dry the glue as the glue bubbles as it gets hot.

Pampered pets ...the Dog 4

I call this the dog tag card. The tag swings freely on this card and you can flip it over to reveal a second sentiment or a second image. I hadn't decided what to put on the back of this tag until this very minute.

I think I will add the rear view of the dog on the back of the tag  in a few mins.

  The pendant hanger I found in  a box of jewellery findings. I used a single hole punch to make the hole in the middle and the hole in the tag. I tightly  twisted    1/2 inch wide  strand of raffia  until it was so tightly twisted it looked like fine  twine. threaded it through the pendant hanger  and tied a knot,  I then threaded the ends through the hole in the card and taped and glued the ends to the back of the dsp. The  tape on it's own is not enough  to hold the tag in place for long. the raffia will eventually slide out from under the tape. That is why I added some glue to the ends too..... Belt and braces as they say.

Way to GOAT

 I thought I would try a square version of the gift card holder to see if it worked. This card is 4x4 inches , 5x5 would have been a better choice for a square version. The 4x4 will still take a gift card if you apply the glue very close to the edge of the patterned paper. See instructions for Gift card holders a couple of posts below. The card below is  just a card ...no hidden features in this one.  The stamp set  is called Way to Goat and is a available from stampin' up.

 I didn't want to use ribbon on these cards. I wanted something a little more rustic looking.  So I thought I'd try some raffia.  It's  a lot cheaper than ribbon and possibly  more suitable for masculine cards. The fact you can split it  easily means you can vary the width  from 1/8th of an inch to one inch wide.  It can even made to look like twine if it's split to half an inch wide and twisted tightly. 

Cute childs card.

 This  cute stamp set is called Story book friends. There is also a coordinating die set for this stamp set.
I bought this bundle a while ago and it has since retired. I am ashamed to say, this is the first card I have actually completed since I bought it.  I have  started four  different style cards using these `but I wasn't happy with the results so these unfinished cards have sat in a box waiting for me to decide what to do with them. I came across them earlier this week while clearing out my craft room. My half finished attempts inspired me to get the stamps and dies out again, coupled with the fact a certain young man celebrates his 3rd birthday tomorrow.  So I had the perfect excuse to get them out  and start again.

My previous designs had more layers, but I decided to keep this version a bit simpler but keep all the dimension of my previous versions. This card is half an inch thick, but it squishes flat to fit into a 6x6 envelope.

I used sea foam  card stock by Stampin' Up. It's the perfect colour for this card. I love it with the red of the toadstool. I used Copic markers to colour the mice rather than the using the colour layering  stamps that come with the mice outline stamps.

Evie's Birthday Card.

Today's card is for a young lady who will be celebrating her 4th birthday later this week.
I used the now retired "Styling Girl" stamp set  from stampin' up!
 I coloured the image with Copic markers.

I think almost everything I used on this card is retired.

The Polka dot background was created using the retired  S.U Polka dot background stamp along Almost Amethyst ink pad stamped onto whisper white card stock.
All mounted onto Almost Amethyst card stock..also retired.
.
The dies I used to cut out the letters are an early set of alphabet dies that S.U sold sometime ago and are no longer available. 
As a hobby demo I don't tend to sell my retired sets as so many demonstrators do. I bought them because I liked them and every now again I 'll dig out the older stuff and create something new, as I have today. 

Silent Night Card

It has taken a while, but a couple of months ago I managed to find somebody willing to sell her  "Silent Night" set of stamps. It's been retired for some years now.
So I had a little play with it last week.
My first card was stamped on white card using Early Espresso ink then coloured with Copic Markers.
I added glitter  to the roof, trees and snow drifts using a quickie glue pen and  ultra fine white glitter.

Stazon cleaner saves the day

 Apologies for repeating this post.... If you saw it yesterday, you will know I was having a problem with the text on my blog so I am re writing it today, hopefully it will be easier to read now.

I have a TIP  I want to share with you all today. It is something I discovered this morning.

But first I will tell you the event that lead up to this discovery.
Last night I was sat colouring in the Blended bloom image with my Blendies  (Alcohol Pens) while watching the TV.
 As I took the lid off the Rich Razzleberry pen the ink in the lid splattered all over my lovely new Joules top,
I didn't notice this until later. when I dropped the pen and it too  landed on my top. leaving a stain about the size of an old half penny. Then I noticed all the other marks.
So this morning I tried to get the stains out.
 I tried stain removing products with no joy,  then I tried applying a drop of bleach to each mark.
 But the stains didn't budge. So then I tried rubbing alcohol with no affect.
Then I tried nail polish remover as suggested on internet but the stains still remained.

Then I had one of those light bulb moment.....Stazon cleaner,  I had nothing to lose, the top was basically ruined anyway.
 I really didn't expect  a very good result, especially after everything else I had tried had failed, but it worked a treat so I just had to share this little tip.



I placed a small wad of tissue under each stain and began dabbing each mark with the Stazon cleaner.
When each mark was soaked  I rubbed and pressed and pushed the stain with my index finger and this seemed to push the stains through the fabric into the tissue below.

Once the stains had all but vanished and the fabric was looking mucky but with litle or no outline left of the stains,  I applied a little Fairy Liquid to the now  muddy looking mark and rubbed it in well. After a few seconds of rubbing and pressing,  I rinsed the cleaner and the soap out and all the stains were gone.

I do recommend you use a new Stazon cleaner. Mine was very mucky and it left worrying black /grey puddles on the fabric but they did come out  with the Fairy Liquid  (dish washing detergent to those of you in other parts of the world)
I also recommend you test the stazon on a small area of the fabric which won't be seen,before you try this just to be sure your fabric won't be damaged further.  My top was cotton but the swatch below is polyester.

And just to prove this works here are some photos of the process


                            I deliberately stained with  Rich Razzleberry  ink.

                                     
                             Place a small wad of tissue under each stain.

                                         
Stazon cleaner applied directly to the  stain. Rub into the stain with index finger,  pressing hard and pushing the stain through the fabric into the tissue below. Apply more Stazon fluid as necessary, continue to work stain through the fabric by pushing it through into the tissue below.

When Stain is no longer prominent apply a little washing up liquid and rub into the fabric well still pushing and pressing with your finger.

Rinse the treated area well then wash the garment as normal. To get rid of any excess Cleaning fluid.
 As you can see the ink stain has completely gone and the tissue is pretty stained from where it has soaked up the stain.

R.I.P. YOGI

A friend of our sadly had to have his beloved dog Yogi put to sleep a fortnight ago. I have known Yogi since he was a 100 mile an hour puppy along with his brother Buster ( who is still with us and bares more than a passing resemblance to Stars Wars Chewbacca).

Buster and Yogi would tear around in circles on the field and woe betide anyone that got in the way.

It's been a few years  now since they tore round the place like exorset missiles.

Now they are very  laid back and very Gentlemanly .

Around the age of two they actually sat still long enough for me to take a couple of photos of them so last week I decided to give them to Ron  in a Memory Book. Here are a few pages from the book.

 I left a few spaces for Ron to add a few of his own favourite photos too .

I included quotes and poems about dogs

and lots of spaces for Ron to write up his favourite memories about Yogi in the  little books.

All the papers used in the making of this book were from Stampin' up the neutrals DSP collection

 On this page I cut chipboard tags and covered them with card and decorated them.

Rather than sticking them  onto the page or making a pocket for them, I just put them onto the hinged ring as a small page on their own

Below I made a huge pocket to house the larger of the two books I made.

The Friends Embellishment is a crushed bottle top.

 I stamped friends onto some scrap card with Brown stazon ink,  then using the 1" circle punch, I punched out the word  keeping it as central as possible. daubed it with green ink.

When the ink was dry I dabbed it all over with versamark ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder then stuck it into the bottle top with crystal effects. when it had stuck fast, I filled the bottle topup to rim with crystal effect and left it over night to dry on a level surface.

It is important to  heat emboss before you fill the top with crystal effects. If you don't in the morning you will find the ink has run or blurred....even with stazon although it is no where near as bad.

The Book was just one sheet of cream card.  I  stamped the sheet of card  and cut it  in half,   then folded in half and stapled in the fold. I printed off some journaling pages  mounted them onto copper card and stuck them in  the book.

Here I made a corner pocket to hold the smaller of the two books.

There is an awful lot of hot foiling in this book either in copper or gold.

Infact I hot foiled all the text in this memory book.

To make it easier for Ron to cut his photos to the right size for the matts I wrote the measurements for the photos on the matts. I also gave him a few spare  journalling pages  to to practise on. There is nothing worse than writing something and finding you don 't have enough room to get in  everything you need to say.

And  by the way that little corner of paper you see curling up on one page..... I did stick it down properly before I gave  the book to Ron.

Dress Card

 I  woke this morning with a stiff neck and a stinking headache, which was probably the result of spending so much time working on this card. It's for a very special young lady who is my eldest son partners . She does have a passion for fashion  so I hope she likes it.
To make this card, I cut out the dress shape  twice in black card. I then cut about an inch and a half  of the fish tail off  of one of dresses and applied versamark ink  and heat and stick powder all over the top part of the dress. I heated the powder until it began to melt (DO NOT OVER HEAT) then I applied  black glitter and pressed it down into the heat and stick .  You can  used a xyron to apply the glue if you prefer. 
I then added some crystals along the top edge of the dress.

Taking the second dress shape, I cut off the  bottom 2" of the  fish tail and discarded the top part of the dress.
Using some soft, limp lace fabric,  (about 1 1/2" wide and 6 - 8" long )  I ran a line of  small gathering stitches very close to the edge of the fabric and pulled the thread up to gather the lace until it was approximately an inch wider than the card fish tail.
I put a strip of double sided tape across the card fish tail  half an inch down from the top edge to hold the gathered lace edge.
Lining up the bottom edge of the lace with the bottom edge of the card fish tail I pressed the gathered lace edge onto the the double sided tape (arranging the lace as I went along. ) leaving about half an inch of card above the lace.  ( This is to join the two parts of the dress together later.)
 I  folded  the  ends of lace to the back of the fish tail and held them in place with double sided tape.
Apply a little glue  across the width of the card fishtail  ( the bit  that's above your gathered lace)  and place the  glittered  part of the dress on top,  butting up the bottom edge of the dress to the top edge of the lace.
I ran   a very thin line of crystal effects  across the the lace where it meets the glitter and sprinkled with more black glitter. I then layed a kebab stick over the lace gathers and pressed it down to flatten the lace join .
My lace looked a little too matt against the all the sparkle of the glitter so I lightly brushed some crystal effects over the lace with a stiff paint brush and applied  more black glitter.
The last thing was to gather a small length of ribbon to form the flower and stick a diamonte in the centre.

Now you maybe asking why didn't I just use edging lace and and just stick over one  of the dress shapes........ My answer ....edging lace usually has a slightly thicker edges,  which adds bulk and makes it more springy therefore  making it more difficult to stick down.

Joining the two pieces of card at the fish tail created a a slight step in the card which means I have a join between the lace and the card  that is flush and there is no bulk . I have  a stronge dislike for cards with fabric on that look bulky and out of control.

The handbag was made using  a tag punch, 2 circle punches  , and an oval punch from SU.

The crown was created by stamping a crown in versamark ink and heat  embossing in black and apply tiny dots of crystal effects over the embossing and applying black glitter.

Some time ago the ladies who attended my hostess appreciation day asked me to make a certificate for them to say they had done the class. I have finally got round to doing the certificate. I chose the discontinued stamp set " a rose is a rose" for this. I should have used the stamp-a-magig for this but me being me , I chose not to......I don't think it looks any the worse for not using the positioning tool. This was a great choice of stamps as I wanted to cover quite a large area quickly. I printed off the text, which I had put a green border round. I then masked off the area I didn't want to stamp on and began to stamp randomly but making sure I went over the edge of the mask to form the outer frame. Eazy peazy.

Now I could do this over and over again for each lady or I could cheat and photocopy it....... I didn't really say that did I.

baby blossom card

                                                                                                                                                        

This card was made using the Baby Blossom Stamp set from S.U.  Pretty  in pink, and white card stock .I chose pretty in pink, old olive  and rose red ink pads. The lace strip was made using a Martha Stewart edge punch.      The card below is the same, I just changed the colours to pumpkin pie and so saffron.

This Thank You card was made using the pumpkin pie and very vanilla card stock,

 daffodil delight  satin ribbon and the baby blossom stamp set. Which is only available until the end of this month. I used old olive, so saffron and pumpkin pie ink pads.

I used  a Martha Stewart punch for the lace.

Jelly Bean Cone

Here is a little project that made me late for school one day last week.

I woke up with this idea in my head and just had to try it before I forgot it.

I rushed off to my craftroom and began drawing up my cone template. 

Having finished my template and checking it was going work, I realised I had about 2 minutes to get to work. Fortunately I only live a few minutes from where I work so I wasn't that late.

later in the day I cut  loads of cones and began Stampin them with the jelly beans using the jelly bean stamp in the Something Sweet stamp set from S.U.with  Ruby Red, Old Olive,Elegant Eggplant , Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie ink pads.

I started by inking up the stamp in ruby red ink and stamping  the cone three times without

 re inking the stamp, which I think adds more tones and depth to the project.

 I repeated this process with the olive the pumpkin ink.

The yellow I only stamped once as the colour is to pale to  do 2nd generation stamping,  but the purple I stamped  three or four times without re inking and the results were pleasing each time.

Sometimes I stamped onto my work pad  before stamping my project just to get rid of the excess ink from the stamp.

 I glued two layers of tissue paper to the back with a glue stick.

When the glue had dried I applied strong double sided tape along the edge marked score line  matched up the pointed end and stuck the two edges together.

Then trimmed  the tissue paper into shape.

I then made a second white cone , slightly shorter and placed it inside to neaten up the inside.

 I then filled each one with jelly beans, tied each one with a ribbon, labelled them and gave them to the children as an end of year, happy holiday gift.

They loved them.

Magic Sliding Card

I am not sure how I feel about this card, it drove me mad while making it.
The Sliding panel doesn't slide as freely as I would like.


The tortiose was stamped on acetate and again on to a piece of card, which was then coloured in.

I drew in some foliage and rocks, daubed in the background colours then went on to make the card. I am not even going to begin to give you instructions for making this card.It would take me forever to try and put it into words and I didn't really enjoy making this one.Besides there are some good video tutorials on making these magic sliding card on You Tube.

Black and white plane card

A simple black and white card using a strip of S.U.'s designer series paper from the neutrals collection and the plane from the plane and simple stamp set.
This stamp set is is from the mini catalogue that was launched earlier this month. Boy!!!! have I spent a fortune on stuff from the mini.